#betting her on a card game like an object

[bumpkling]

consider me a house fandom Australian Cultural Liason: here’s some chase family christmas headcanons!

rowan and his mum definitely drag chase and retcon sister along to midnight mass on christmas day. it, as the name suggests, starts at midnight (imagine sitting awake in lousy wooden chairs on CHRISTMAS EVE/DAY as like. an eight year old. catholicism is stupid) and includes receiving communion (the little wafer, and the wine if you’re old enough). there’s a roman catholic communion chant specific to midnight mass for all you latin enjoyers (me): in splendoribus sanctorum, ex utero, ante luciferum, genui te (in the brightness of the saints, from the womb, before the day star, i begot you)

it’s hot and dry this time of year in australia, so spending the whole of christmas day or boxing day at the beach or the pool is common. i imagine chase and his sister competing in made-up competitions — “i bet i can make the water splash taller with a cannonball!” — with their mum as a judge

“classic catches” is a common one: basically, one person throws the cricket ball out across the pool, and the other takes the most spectacular jump/dive they can to try and catch it before landing in the water (there’s a bluey episode about it). we see chase catch pens/case files/miscellaneous objects a few times throughout the show, so i think he’s honed the skill through games like this lol

bundaberg ginger beer is a classic aussie drink for the summer. it’s not alcoholic, and kind of a stronger ginger ale, made in queensland. virtually synonymous with summer. chase feels like an adult holding the heavy glass bottle, sipping it by the pool, trying not to screw up his face at the strong taste

his family have a christmas day lunch with. yes: prawns on the barbecue. but if i catch any of you calling them shrimp i will have harsh words. you’ve been warned

i have no idea whether other places do this, but christmas meals in australia usually feature ‘christmas crackers’ or ‘bonbons’ (there is a bluey episode about these too). they’re paper and kind of shaped like wrapped tootsie rolls, with trinkets, paper crowns, and little joke cards inside the middle. they’re called crackers because you open them by pulling on either side with someone else, tug-of-war style, and when one side breaks, a little fire cracker lights and makes a small explosion with a crack sound. i think chase looooooves the stupid little crowns and wore them all day as a kid.

on boxing day every year, australia hosts a match of test cricket against another international cricket team. cricket is a slow sport (the boxing day test is like five days long), but visit any aussie household with an adult man present, and the boxing day test is absolutely on the tv. it’s one of those things that make most australians patriotic, even if for the rest of the year they couldn’t care less. i don’t think chase was a cricket kid, but he liked watching craig mcdermott’s fast-bowling against india in ‘85. gave him something to talk about with his mates when school started again.

that said, rowan absolutely had tickets to the big game almost every year, either as work gifts or consolation for his wife and kids when he couldn’t (read: didn’t want to) be there during the holiday celebrations. since it’s held at the melbourne cricket ground, chase probably attended a few. they’re gruelling all-day matches, and not exactly entertaining for young kids, but chase probably looks back at the memories fondly: his mum slathering him with zinc and bug spray, constantly yelling at him to keep his hat on, promising to buy him an icecream at half-time

chase seemed pretty aware of his surroundings as a kid, at least in his home. he never failed to catch his mum’s solemn expressions while cleaning up wrapping paper and preparing platters of fruit and cold cuts, while retcon sister played happily with her presents. rowan never labelled his gifts “from Santa”, not even when retcon sister was young enough not to know: their mum always did.

every year, chase was jealous of retcon sister about something. did she get a larger slice of panettone? did she get one more gift from rowan? did she get to be blissfully ignorant on christmas day, swimming and snacking and not having to worry about how many times mum had topped up her white wine, or how heavy her sighs became as the day got hotter? their competition wasn’t always friendly — sometimes he got pissy, and spat cruel insults at her until she ran off to cry in private. neither of them ever told their mother

[pantoranqira]

"Anakin/Obi Wan/Yoda/Padmé/Shmi is the most tragic character in Star Wars" you are WRONG actually. L3-37 HOWEVER.....

[house-of-lovin]

safety net

Tara Carpenter x F!Reader

masterlist | over (1) | love language (2)

Summary: Tara Carpenter loved playing games with you. (inspired by safety net by ariana grande ft. ty dolla sign)

Warnings/Tags: toxic!tara, clueless!tara, mature language, implied sexual themes, mentions of violence and trauma.

Note: as promised THE LAST PART (woohoo😮‍💨) this was seriously a lot of fun and became a bit of a writing exercise using songs as prompts and trying to piece them together into a storyline. Thanks for all the comments, reblogs and feedback. They are so appreciated! Let me know what you guys think! <3

Word Count: 3.4k+

“You’re staring, again.”

Tara snaps her gaze back to the book on the table, ignoring her friends’ smug smiles. “Why don’t you just go up to her and apologize?”

“She doesn’t want to talk to me, trust me, I’ve tried.” Tara rolls her eyes. 

It’s been two weeks since that night at the party and you have been ignoring Tara. You spent the rest of spring break working at your uncle’s shop, avoiding the friend group, sans Mindy because you couldn’t exactly avoid someone you lived with. Tara attempted to give you space the following days and then reached out to you in hopes that you could talk and sort out the situation. Tara doesn’t want to lose you as a friend. 

“I’m not gonna apologize for something that wasn’t my fault, Mindy. Just because she caught feelings doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. But now she’s ignoring me?” Tara scoffs, “Well, some friend she is.” 

“God Chad’s right. You two are clueless.” Mindy’s nose wrinkled.

“She knows where to find me when she’s done being stubborn.” Crossing her arms, she glances back at you. You were sitting across the quad, on a bench surrounded by your other friends; laughing and talking, unfazed by Tara’s brazen staring. 

How were you not seeing her shameless looks?

She swallowed the pitiful lump in her throat as she continues to observe your carefree nature. 

“Weren’t you begging me to tell her to call you back like a week ago?” Mindy objected causing Anika and Quinn to snicker as they listen in, not bothering to pretend like they weren’t eavesdropping.

“Begging is a stretch,” She mutters weakly, picking at the corner of her book.

“Tara, why can’t you just admit that you want to be with her?” Quinn ponders, genuinely confused as to why you two are playing hopscotch around one another. Everyone could see how madly in love you two are.

It genuinely puzzled the friend group as to why it’s taking this long to get you guys to stop playing games.

They just wanted to see their friends together and happy, definitely not because of the growing bet pool. And not because it was getting increasingly expensive to wager in the bet the longer it ran because you two refused to acknowledge the clear feelings you have for each other. (It was starting to burn a sizeable hole in their wallets)

The brunette shakes her head defiantly, “We’re just hooking up.”

“You’re not acting like you guys are just hooking up.” Anika counters, “actually, you guys act more like a couple than me and Mindy sometimes.”

“No. We don’t,” She frowns.

“Yes you do and it’s gross,” The aforementioned girl interjects. “No one should be cuter than me and my girl.” She wraps an arm around Anika, leaning in to lovingly peck the girl’s cheek. 

“Y/N’s always bringing you coffee when you study with us at the library, even though her class is on the other side of campus.” Anika comments.

“She always loses on purpose when we play card games just so you can win,” Quinn adds.

“She laughs at all your lame jokes and obscure movie references – there’s no way you enjoy Suspiria as much as you say you do,” Mindy stated.

“Hey!” 

“Dude, she has a Spotify playlist titled with your name and heart beside it.” Mindy throws her hands up, feeling a bit fed up.

“Doesn’t mean anything, we share music all the time!”

“Tara, Y/N literally takes care of your plants when you complain about forgetting,” Quinn objects.

Tara’s still feeling persistent. “That’s not true.” 

Her dying plants have been on the mend these last few weeks and it’s definitely because she’s been paying more attention to them; placing the potted plants in a better area for sunlight and watering them more.

Quinn shoots her roommate a pointed look, “You were over-watering them, Tara. Y/N had to come over and change the soil. Did you even notice?”

No, Tara didn’t even notice. She was shocked at how much went over her head as her friends continue to list all the little things you do that, apparently, she’s been too blind to see. She glances back at you as you’re talking to a girl; smiling, unbothered. She recognizes her from her creative writing class – Tara didn’t know you two were close. Close enough for the girl to wrap a hand around your arm and lean into your ear something that the Carpenter can’t make out from the vast distance.

Tara’s eyes slither into tight fissures as she watches the random girl continue to make herself comfortable on you. Eventually, whatever she felt she had to whisper so close was over, but not before the girl planted a kiss on your cheek unsuspectingly. The Carpenter watches as you slightly jump from the contact, then eventually grant her a shy smile – the same smile you reserved for her. 

Tara feels an unpleasant drop in her chest because, for the first time since moving to New York, she allowed herself to finally feel everything she’s been burying.

It was suffocating, making her want to claw at her throat to get rid of the nasty sensation. Regardless of how much she swallowed in an attempt to get rid of the feeling, it only grew larger as it ached; begging to be acknowledged. Hastily, Tara stands up, gathering her things.

“Where are you going?” Her friends' questions were left unacknowledged as she footed it, not really sure where she was going; all Tara knows is that she had to get away before her friends see her break down. 

In her haste, Tara misses your concerned eyes tracking her disappearing figure.

●●●

Tara is choosing to ignore the world and her problems.

After that conversation with her friends, she ran home, plopped into her bed and hid under the covers for the remainder of the afternoon. She put on her favourite horror movies, hoping it would distract her from her thoughts of you. But her efforts proved to be fruitless. You tormented her thoughts regardless of how desperately she tried to drown them out. 

So, she sat there until bright blue skies turned navy and drove herself mad thinking about you.

Trust came sparsely for someone who was violently attacked by a deranged murderer. As much as Tara tried to push through the past and live as if nothing happened, it plagued her in her daily life. It revealed itself when a phone rang too loudly, near kitchen knives, or in dark areas – there were just certain experiences that were tainted by the memory of Ghostface. 

But then you showed up. She remembers opening the door to her apartment and there you were, standing behind Mindy with a $15 bottle of champagne and a poorly-wrapped throw blanket for the old couch to celebrate the Carpenter’s housewarming party (an attempt at some normalcy) with a shy smile and Tara was hooked. 

No matter how much she tried to distance herself, echoing sentiments that it’s a bad idea to get involved with someone so soon.

You lured her in, anyway.

It was in your tenderness that you had Tara wrapped around your finger.

Normally, the Carpenter would be annoyed with someone treating her like she was made of glass, but when it came to you; she knew it wasn’t out of pity. Your gentleness was welcomed with open arms because for once in her life, Tara finally felt like she didn’t have to be so brave all the time, at least, not when she was around you. 

She didn’t have to pretend her life was as put-together as she made it out to be. 

Because for once, someone had finally made her feel like she is worthy enough to stay for, to care for, and maybe to love. And that was terrifying because all anyone in her life had ever done is let her down and leave – Sam, her mom, her dad, Amber. So she kept you on a tight leash; taking control and leading. Never letting you close enough to see how she really feels about you. But there are cracks in the unsturdy walls she tries to put up, she’s not perfect. How can she resist you when you still willingly chased after her regardless of what she’s put you through – and how even through her harshness, you never lose your gentleness with her.

You create real balance and peace within her (not the fake one, she’s desperately fronting) and to someone who’s only known chaos and instability – that’s terrifying. So sue her, for being a little scared.

So, yes. 

Right now, Tara is ignoring everything around her because that realization is too big a burden to deal with.

She has her legs pulled up to her chest, the fuzzy blanket you gifted months ago, wrapped around her shoulders as she watches the TV from the couch; not really paying attention to the film. Her eyes begin to burn the longer she stares at the blue-lit screen causing a painful sting to her pupils. 

A terse knock on the front door startles her making her blink at the sound. 

Everyone was out for the night; Sam at therapy, Quinn at a hookup’s house and her other friends, all off doing their own thing. She wasn’t sure who could be at the door at this time. Cautiously, she stands to silently walk to the door – the pads of her naked feet connecting to the wooden floor litter goosebumps on her skin. Standing on the tips of her toes, Tara looks through the peephole.

She sees you shifting on your feet, glancing over your shoulder – looking unsure if you should even be there. 

Tara feels a pit forming in her stomach, but moves swiftly to unlock the door, opening it. 

“Hey.” She says softly, palm wrapped tight on the doorknob in an attempt to ground herself.

“Hi.” You rub a hand on the back of your neck.

“What–what are you doing here?” Tara sees you flinch, mistaking her tone for malice but you’re answering before she can correct herself.

“Mindy said you needed my help.” You drawl as if confused. 

Tara shares your confusion, brows drawing together. “I… don’t need help?”

You shake your head, clenching your jaw tight, “God dammit… I think she set us up.” 

“Oh.”

Rolling your eyes, “Yeah, oh. Look, that’s my bad, I’ll deal with her. You can go back to… doing whatever you were doing.” 

Tara sees you eye her attire glumly; an oversized shirt that covered her bare legs; assuming the worst. Her eyes immediately widened like saucers, grabbing your arm before you could leave. 

“No! That–that’s not–I’m home. Alone.” She clarifies. The word ‘alone’ taking a special raised and rushed tone. 

You scoff, pulling away from her, “good for you.”

“Can we talk?” Tara calls out, she can’t let you leave yet – despite her previous decision to ignore you and ignore her feelings. The longer you stood across from her, the more she realized just how much she’s missed you these last few weeks.

“No.” You continue to walk down the hall.

Tara grows desperate, running after you and grabbing your arm again to stop you from leaving. The concrete floors were rough on the soles of her feet. “Y/N, please.”

You turn, ready to yank your arm away from her grip but her watery eyes halt you; sympathy bubbling lowly in your chest and you curse inwardly at how easy it was for her to lure you back in. 

“Can y’all shut the fuck up? Some people are trying to get some sleep!” A voice interrupted, it was her neighbour, peeking his head a couple of doors down to yell at you two. He pops his whole body out when he sees Tara’s revealing figure, shooting her a lewd smile through his cigarette-tainted teeth,  “Oh hey, there.”

Tara feels you turn in her hold as your face drops – jaw clenching as you glare at her sleazy neighbour (who was at least in his late 40s judging by his greying hair) “Go back inside unless you wanna get fucked up and stop looking at her.” 

He stares back for a few seconds, debating if the challenge was worth his time. You move her behind you with a tug of an arm; blocking his view of her. Tara knows it's the wrong time but she couldn’t help but move closer; inhaling your familiar perfume. “Man, you’re not even worth my time.”

You wait until he shuts the door before facing her again, muttering under your breath. “Creepy motherfucker.” 

“Go back inside before anyone else comes out here begging for a show.” You tell her, lightly pushing her back to her door. But her hold on your arm tightens, “Not until you come inside and talk to me.”

You sigh, looking around the hallway in an attempt to buy yourself some time before you eventually gave in – tugging her inside the apartment.

Only once you were both inside did you pull away from her grip; Tara’s arm falling limply by her side. You look at her expectantly, “Well?”

Tara remains unmoving and silent, She curls into herself, leaning against the back of the couch just staring at you

You grow annoyed at her silence, running a hand on your face, “Tara you begged me to talk…” 

Still nothing from the Carpenter; she isn’t sure why she can’t say anything now that you’re standing in front of her. Maybe it was because she wasn’t ready to confront you and her feelings but as you stood there, about to leave, she knew she couldn’t let that happen. She wasn’t sure when she would see you again, this was the closest you’d been around her in the last few weeks. 

At this point, she was acting on pure impulse and heightened emotions.

“Unbelievable…” You mutter, grabbing the doorknob. She can feel practically feel the sharp snap in your patience as you try to leave, again.

“I don’t get you.” 

That stops you in your tracks, making you turn looking confused. 

“What?”

Tara begins to shake her head.

“I mean, I don’t get you… Like, why are you still here? Jesus, Y/N, you’ve been ignoring me but you still came here cause you thought I needed help. Even after all the petty shit I’ve been doing with those guys to fuck with you and after the party” She grabs at her hair; roughly tugging on it. “And even after all that, you still chase after me. Why!”

“Because I love you.” 

Tara inhales a sharp breath at your admission and how carelessly easily you said those words. Your brows furrowed like you looked genuinely confused by her question, it has Tara scoffing in disbelief. Unsure how you can still give her genuineness even after everything she’s done, she doesn’t deserve it.

“No, you don’t, you can’t. We’re just hooking up, it was just sex.” She denies, but a fog of tears is beginning to cloud her eyes. Even through the haze, she can see you approaching closer, holding a cautious hand out. 

“Maybe I am just a hook-up to you… but I didn’t just catch feelings for you. I’m not just falling in love with you, I already fell Tara. More like, I dove head-first without a life jacket,” You take the moment to chuckle dryly.

“And yeah, that wasn’t part of the plan but I wouldn’t be able to live with myself I didn’t tell you that there’s someone that wants to wake up and fall asleep beside you every day. Someone that wants to show you that maybe this time you don’t have to be so afraid to let someone in.” You shake your head, looking down for a brief moment of insecurity but you regain the passion in your eyes as you connect gazes.

“So, look me in the eyes and tell me that I’m just a hookup, and if you do. I’ll leave you alone – for good.” She desperately blinked away the tears as she attempts to meet your eyes to tell you that you are just a hookup, it is just sex, she doesn’t love you too. But when she meets your eyes, she sees tenderness again and suddenly her knees are buckling under her.

Her body doesn’t meet the ground like she expects it to. Instead, you grabbed her, wrapping a firm arm around her waist as you held her weight up. She can hear distant mutterings of comfort being whispered in her ear but nothing registers as she realizes that she’s starting to sob uncontrollably. 

“Baby…need you to breathe… ‘gonna make yourself sick.” 

She couldn't hear anything around her until her face is being pressed into soft fabric; clawing at it, in a desperate attempt to self-soothe. She’s having a panic attack. 

“Tara… Please, baby, you have to breathe–” You beg but Tara can’t hear you properly.

Nothing works until she feels you wrap her in a firm hug, still leaving her enough space so as to not feel suffocated. One arm around her waist, the other hand wrapped around her neck, as you rub soothing lines on her clammy skin. 

A few moments of silence pass until Tara feel the pressure in her chest ease as the ringing in her ears subsides. She gasps for air against your chest, coughing as a burning ache in her throat develops. The rubbing of lines on her neck turns into firm pats on the back as Tara continues to cough through her tears.

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” You shush her. Eventually, her coughs turn into occasional sniffles and deep breaths as you run fingers back up her hair comfortingly; giving her all patience she required.

“I’m sorry,” Tara says once she pulls her head off your chest, keeping a tight grip on your clothes.

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Your eyes softened as you ran the pads of your thumbs to wipe away at her tear-stained cheeks.

She shakes her head in your grip, “Yes, I do. Even now, you’re still treating me so well. I don’t deserve it.” Her voice turns into a broken whisper as she finally allows herself to be vulnerable.

“Oh Tara,” You said so tenderly, “You deserve the world, baby. You’re amazing.”

“No, I’m not,” She shakes her head, beginning to pull away from you, not wanting to hear your words and how genuinely you believed it. 

You tightened your grip around her waist, preventing her from moving. “Yes, you are, if only you can see yourself the way I see you. Oh, Tara, you don’t even realize it. You amaze me, you make me want to be a better person, that’s what you do to me, that’s what you make me feel. Not the other stuff you’re saying.”

Shaking your head, passion raging in your eyes; eye contact with the smaller girl unwavering, “The way you care for everyone around you, and how you carry yourself despite everything you’ve gone through… Baby, it’s amazing to watch you be yourself. I know, I know… After Amber, it’s hard–” That makes Tara’s eyes widen, unaware you knew about her and her late friend. 

“–to trust people but, if you just gave me a chance and spared me an ounce of trust to let yourself fall… I promise I’ll be under there waiting with a safety net.” 

Tara examines your eyes, there was no ounce of dishonesty in them. But that’s to be expected, you’ve always been genuine with her, always up-front, and calling her out on her shit – with love. It was one of the things that made her fall for you. Where everyone around her treats her like she’s a porcelain doll, letting her get away with whatever she wanted – you stopped her, but always in a way that was more so loving and protective rather than overbearing and smothering.

The thudding in her chest begs for reprieve as her heart craves to be moulded with yours. Her heart wants to know what it was like to beat in tandem with you, to finally allow herself to be caught instead of trying (and failing) to hold herself up all the time. 

As Tara’s body caves in on herself, she pulls you down by the neck, unable to hide the content sigh that leaves her lips when your mouths meet in the middle. The kiss was sweet, passionate and firm; it poured out all love that words could never capture; where the tool of language proved to be invaluable in expressing her feelings. 

“I trust you…” Tara whispers when she pulls away, unable to school the smile breaking across her lips. You giggle, making her smile wider. For once the heaviness in Tara's chest feels bearable with you in her arms. 

No other words were exchanged as you two attempted to meet again for a kiss only to bump noses and miss because you two were beaming so wide.

●●●

happy reading!

:)

[overly-dramatic-artist]

On the Horizon - prologue

Hello friends! As per the voice of the people, the Wild West au is being written into a fic! I’m still building the world and some plot details, but here is a small little appetizer of a prologue! Thank you for all of the love and enthusiasm that you have shared with me about this au!

The memories of this town remain, like the grains of desert sand caught in the folds of leather boots and saddles. Nothing truly leaves this place. The plant may be plucked, but the roots that get ripped by the stubborn ground are trapped, not unlike the years spent in innocence under the scorching sun and surrounded by the unforgiving mountain range.

You pull on the reign, effectively halting the steed hauling your small wagon you sit upon, as you see the more defined structures of Aurora Springs come into view against the glowing sunlight that sinks lower against the purple mountains. There’s an ache in your chest, a tightness in your lungs as you breathe in the dry air, remnants of your past rushing forward like a dust storm, unyielding as the laughter of childhood wonder and honeyed words of your mother embrace your subconscious.

Her final letter sits in the tight space between your chemise and vest, over your heart and folded just as it had remained for the past 6 years.

And on the opposite side against your hip is your father’s holster and pistol, tucked discreetly into a deep pocket of your skirt.

A letter of love. An object of protection.

The only pieces you had left of your parents that had driven you to abandon the notion of mercy.

You had become a product of this desert, unrelenting and unforgiving.

………..

Some things in life never change. The out of tune piano across the bar. The shattered glass window that has been long since in need of repair. The suede leather chaps Sun had worn for years. The casual look of disdain on his lunar counterpart’s face as patrons yap and jabber. And of course, the unfounded and quite frankly stupid belief of man that this time for sure he will win.

With a round of loud groans and laughs, Sun collects his winnings from the table, much to the anger of the drunk man who had refused to fold before losing everything.

“So sorry, gentlemen, looks like I win again,” the sunny automaton says, the faux-sympathy of his synthetic voice further riling his red-faced opponents.

The man with the heavily oiled mustache and britches two sizes too short frowns, spits at the floor and stands with a screech from his chair.

“You been counting the cards! Ain’t right for a cheater to win.”

“Come now, good sir, I renounce rule-breaking. If you truly thought me a cheat, you shouldn’t have played the game.” Sun tilts his grin towards the man before slowly standing to his impressive height, one hand cradling over the grip of the pistol in his leather holster. “But I suppose we could always settle this like proper men…?”

The glint of the low bar-lighting on the silver gun that hits the angered man’s eye is enough of an answer, and the loser leaves in a huff, stomping away from the table.

Not long after settling all bets and debts, the lunar and solar automatons leave, saddling up their horses roped in the stalls.

”No need wasting a gunshot for the sake of petty cash,” the dark one says, his red eyes reflecting on the black rim of his hat, stomping the last embers of his cigar into the ground.

“You of all should know I don’t take well to being called something so despicable as a cheater,” Sun playfully shoots back. “Besides, I could get a couple rounds more with what I won.”

Moon clicks his teeth at his partner, adjusting the rifle slung over his back before signaling with the reins for Astraea to start moving. The horse brays, leading Calliope to follow.

As usual, the lunar bot remains silent for the ride through town, keeping his gaze forward. Sun was good at filling the silence, or at the very least, making the pair seem slightly less intimidating to onlookers. Their line of work came with that deadly connotation, and they lived up to their titles, but a bit of charm and camaraderie was useful for keeping the townsfolk in good favor. A nod to the miners coming back from the canyons, a wink at the courtesans on the corner.

Passing one of the bulletin boards by town hall, Moon pulls the reins to a halt with a hum. Sun looks where his partner is fixing his eyes, an identical smile pulling his lips. On the rotting wood bulletin is a newly pinned poster. A wanted poster. With an intriguingly high priced bounty wanted alive.

“I was looking forward to a weekend fixing that fence in the east pasture…” Sun says, pulling the poster down, letting his fingers trace over the details of the pretty face printed in ink, “…but I can’t pass up such an offer.”

His lunar lover laughs with a shake of his head.

“Does it say where they last were?”

“Stormridge, headed west.” Sun passes the paper to Moon. “Could already be here in town.”

The red-eyed bot hums, pulling a cigarette from his coat pocket and lighting it with the exposed wire on his wrist with a hiss. He lets his systems take in the smoke, the tarry buildup caressing the roughness within his casing. With an artificial exhale, he looks back at his partner.

“I suppose we should go get those rounds then.”

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

Ahhhhhhhh!!! I hope that is enticing and intriguing for a beginning!

And for anyone who hasn’t seen this au before, here are some of my sketches for it 💖

[kykyonthemoon]

Could I have an Xavier x Reader fluff? Like they make him wear bunny ears and Xavier makes them wear wolf ears? I wanna see smth soft and fluffy for my man…If you can’t totally ok! You’re lovely!

Fluffy Trapped

In this game of two, Xavier is definitely not the rabbit.

Thank you for requesting. 🌻 Xavier x Reader Masterlist

Request something?

“Why do you have that funny headband on your head?” The strange boy asked, one hand pointing at the top of Xavier's head.

He raised his hand and touched the two long, soft rabbit ears attached to his head. He was sitting in a corner of the arcade when this kid came from nowhere and began to laugh at what he was wearing.

“It's a bet.” Xavier replied with a sigh.

“A bet?”

“Yeah. I lost a bet with someone in a claw machine game.”

The child kept giggling while covering his mouth, showing absolutely no manners. Then, to his surprise, a little girl of a similar age called in this way.

“Oh no! That girl has found me!” His face became pale in an instant. He pushed something into Xavier's palm with haste and said, "Keep this. You can make your friend wear it if they lose to you at the kitty cards game. That girl over there made me do that too!”

The boy threw his little friend a glance that left it unclear whether he hated or loved her. He then sprinted in her direction, and the two of them walked away while holding hands. Xavier turned to face the object he was holding. It was a hair piece almost identical to his, but instead of pink and white rabbit ears, it was dark gray wolf ears.

“Kitty cards, hmm…” Xavier whispered to himself. His eyes found you in the crowd, happily ordering drinks for both of you. A very dangerous smile appeared on his lips for a moment, then disappeared when you turned your head to find him. He appeared to be an obedient rabbit waiting for his "master". That made you even less suspicious of the trap he had just set for you.

That afternoon, Xavier invited you to play kitty cards.

“The loser will have to wear bunny ears for another twenty-four hours!” You grinned. Claw machine or kitty cards were both your best games.

Xavier let you go first, and as usual, he lost miserably to you in the first round. He claimed to have picked up a few new skills but was only able to win one round. By the third round, he seemed rather sleepy.

Xavier put one arm on the table to support his head. The heavy eyelids slowly closed. You called softly: “Xavier? Xavier?” But he still did not open his eyes. You glanced at the cats on the table. There were only two more cups left and the game would end. But your cards were not that great. You were about to lose to Xavier!

You looked up at the rabbit ears that Xavier had on his head, bobbing slightly with each nod. Anytime, anywhere, he could fall asleep, even while he was playing cards. You reminisced about the days when you were both on missions and he could fall asleep while still upright! Xavier had dozed off for real. The opportunity had come to you.

This was the decisive round. You could not lose to Xavier, because you still wanted to see him wearing those bunny ears for a long time. Those bunny ears affixed to his head was your trophy. You used to cheat while he fell asleep before, and you knew a trick of swapping cats in the cup so your opponent got points deducted. The important thing was to be skillful and quick. To double verify, you attempted to wave a hand in front of Xavier's face. When you saw that he did not react, you lifted up the red cat in the cup that he had received double points on.

"Good kitty…"

You hushed the cat so it did not cry out loud. Then you picked up the green cat next to it and prepared to drop it into the cup. Little did you know that all your actions were being observed by Xavier with a half-open eye. Immediately, he grabbed your wrist, causing both cats to fall.

“Ughhh!”

You screamed because you were startled. Xavier firmly grasped his hand, preventing you from backing away. The corners of his lips curled up into a perfect and cunning line.

“Got you!”

“Xavier!… You…”

You could not deny it, not when the two cats which you had just dropped were leaping around the table and meowing loudly. More than the fact that you were discovered cheating, the reason your face felt heated was because Xavier's hand was holding your wrist.

“How clumsy you are, Miss Hunter.” He smiled, his eyes filled with mischief, making you feel like you were put in danger. A bewildered and sleepy Xavier in an instant became a trap setter. He had been waiting for this opportunity since the beginning, even pretending to be drowsy to catch you red handed. Was he really asleep the other times or did he do it on purpose so you could win?

It was your turn to feel extremely naive. Kitty cards were originally your game, but with Xavier scheming like that, it was intolerable.

“This round doesn't count. Let's play another one!”

"That's fine. But first,” Xavier replied. He took out the pair of wolf ears he had hidden earlier. “Those who cheat ought to face their punishment.”

His voice was so soft, but you were left with shivers. Your arms and legs became weak, your face was burning again. Xavier loosened his grip but did not let go completely. He stood up to move closer to you.

"Please no! Oh! Where did those wolf ears come from anyway?

“Stay still.”

He said while you kept shaking your head, refusing to cooperate. At last, he had to lean down so close that his breath caught your cheek and you could not avoid his gaze anymore. Then he put the wolf ears on your head.

"Good girl."

He patted your head. His index finger gently pressed the tip of your nose and he smiled with satisfaction. You were not sure who was the rabbit and who was the real wolf anymore.

[thankskenpenders]

So I wrote a whole long thing about Amy's tarot cards, but what about, you know... the rest of the Sonic Frontiers DLC? The new alternate story route, the hours of new gameplay, all that?

Having now played it, I'm not sure Sonic has ever had this specific combination of good ideas that make the future of the series look bright, and execution that I fucking hate.

(Full spoilers ahead.)

The good

There's a lot to like here, conceptually.

First and foremost, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy are finally playable in a new mainline 3D Sonic game for the first time since 2006! Seventeen years! We've been begging for this for so very, very long. Nature is finally truly healing from the fallout of Sonic '06. Early on I hedged my bets and expected them to be locked to Cyber Space or something like that, assuming that there was no way they'd be fully playable in the Open Zone. But sure enough, while they're a bit limited compared to Sonic, they're still all full-blown characters with skill trees to unlock and lots of exploration to do.

We also got a more bombastic alternate final boss fight, after the first take on The End kind of underwhelmed. And it's obvious that Sonic Team has listened to our pleas to focus on the 3D platforming over the forced 2D sections, and to reduce the amount of automation in the level design. This update is chock full of Actual Platforming. Wow! I can only pray this means we never get an area as agonizing to explore as Chaos Island again.

Sure, there's still some jank - especially with Knuckles' movement, which is kinda rough. But if this is the stuff they're trying out so that they can refine it further for the next game, then I'm really excited.

On the other hand, good fucking lord is The Final Horizon tedious. And that tedium sapped most of the fun out of it for me.

The frustrating

The new scenario massively increases the difficulty over the base game, seemingly out of a desire to give the hardcore players who were posting speedrun videos and whatnot more of a challenge. It's the Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels of Sonic. This difficulty comes in many forms throughout your playtime, some worse than others, and continues to ramp up over time.

Rather than giving you a tutorial level, the new scenario dumps you directly into a remixed version of the final island and makes you do some fairly precise platforming with Amy, Knuckles, and Tails - new characters with new movesets that you won't have any experience with. You'll also need to find character-specific Koco that give you free levels, because Sonic's friends all start at level one and certain locked moves in their skill trees will be mandatory to progress. They don't even have Cyloop unlocked at the start. And because they're all low level, that means you'd better steer clear of the beefed-up bosses scattered around the map, which will absolutely annihilate Sonic's friends. (I honestly just avoided them and never bothered beating any of them, not even with my high-level Sonic. I have no idea if they're beatable with the others.)

None of this is explained to you particularly well. I spent my first few minutes with Amy wondering why the attack button did nothing, only to eventually think to check her skill tree and realize that I had to unlock her basic attack. If you don't bother to take the time to read through the skill trees, you'll very quickly find obstacles you have no way of getting past with no clues as to what exactly you're supposed to do.

Adding to this confusion is the fact that objective markers often tell you to go half a kilometer into the sky, and you'll have no idea how to get up there because all of the relevant platforms are out of your draw distance. Many objects seem to only pop in for me when I'm within about 60 meters of them, which isn't a long distance for a high-speed open world platformer like this. I was having this problem running the game with high graphics on PC, so I can only imagine how obnoxious it is on Switch. I'd frequently find myself poking around nearby clusters of platforming objects and praying that they'd lead me to a spring, rail, or cannon that would eventually point me in the direction of the floating objective marker.

There were always complaints about the art direction in Frontiers and the way it relies on floating rails and prefab platforms that are visually disconnected from the natural scenery of the islands, but it's even more dire here. The new platforming sections are dense and complex, but they seemingly didn't have the budget to change the topography of Ouranos Island at all, so it all takes the form of these prefabs. It very strongly gives the vibe of a Forge creation in Halo 3, back when there were no blank canvas maps and people just had to make "new maps" by jamming a bunch of shipping containers and barricades together in the sky above one of the default arenas.

I was still more or less having fun, though, despite the jank. It's a big creative swing, I told myself! They're trying stuff out! They're experimenting!

And then I hit the towers.

The towers are agonizing because they're SO close to being great. The logical part of my brain understands why some people love them, but god, I just fucking hate them. The platforming there IS cool! These layouts are cool! The individual challenges along the way are a bit tough, but totally doable. You know what's not cool? Making one mistake and slowly falling 800 meters all the way back down to the ground, forcing you to start over. Because none of these towers have checkpoints. For me, this one decision transforms what should have been a fun set of platforming challenges into a massive, unfun difficulty spike.

I enjoy some masocore platformers, but those are typically games with quick deaths and restarts like Celeste, Super Meat Boy, or VVVVVV. Hell, the Mario games tend to get way more difficult than the average Sonic game, and those are obviously all great. Quite frankly, unlike those games, Sonic Frontiers is nowhere near tight or polished enough to make this difficulty feel fair. Bits of jank that I could ignore in the base game due to its lower difficulty are now matters of life or death. Missing a jump because I boosted off an incline in a way the game didn't like for reasons I don't understand is not fun. Falling off a tower because the camera was pointing in the wrong direction while I was in midair and I couldn't see the next thing I was expected to homing attack is not fun.

And it's such a jarring spike when moving from the base game to the DLC that it feels like the game is suddenly quizzing me on skills it never bothered to instill in me. Maybe if you've spent the last year labbing out the movement tech in this game this is all a no brainer, but for the average returning player it's a kick in the dick.

I'm sure I could've beaten these towers normally if I gave them enough tries. They aren't the hardest thing in the world. But I very quickly decided I had better things to do with my life and turned on easy mode, which adds tons of extra springs and homing attack balloons to make all of the platforming piss easy. I wish there was a middle option between Only Up: Sonic Edition and this extreme hand holding, but when given the choice between the two I gladly picked baby mode. I just wanted to see the story.

(The new Cyber Space levels are also long, challenging, and devoid of checkpoints, not unlike the towers. But I only ever found the entrances to two of them. So I only did two. They're theoretically required, because they give you "Lookout Koco" that you need for... some reason? But in a rare act of mercy, Sonic Team put Cyloop treasure spots that give you free Lookout Koco all over the map.)

As I continued, so many little things started adding up to piss me off. Why do you only reveal like five tiny squares of the map at a time? I would've loved to find all the new 1-on-1 dialogue scenes, but not if I had to do dozens of hard mode versions of the stupid little puzzles and challenges to reveal the whole map. Why does every character need their own unique collectibles? What is this, Donkey Kong 64? Why can't I just grab this EXP for Amy when I find it as Tails? Why can I only manually swap characters by talking to an out-of-the-way NPC unlocked right before the final boss? Why is fast travel disabled? Why are the new vocal themes you hear when playing as Amy, Knuckles, and Tails so monotonous, with a single verse repeating over lo-fi beats ad nauseum? Why is the jukebox feature completely disabled throughout the DLC, even after rolling the credits? Why can't Tails homing attack? Why do I have to wrestle with the camera so much while also holding the jump button to fly as Knuckles and Tails? How many right thumbs do they think I have? Why is this animation for picking up animals in the Cyber Space levels so incredibly slow, and why can I still take damage while it's playing? Why does the stupid starfall event have to make it so hard to see what I'm doing when climbing these towers? Why does this shitty combat trial have a popup that makes it seem like I should be using the Cyloop when the actual strategy revolves around repeated parries? And on and on and on...

The story

What about the new story? Well, there sadly isn't much to chew on here. Most of the DLC has the cast running around and finding different macguffins for arbitrary reasons, as part of some sort of plan to divide up the work on the last island so that Sonic can go train with the spirits of the Ancients and harness the power of his cyber corruption. What the fuck is an Impact Form? I don't know, but Knuckles needs something to do, so go find one.

It's a thin excuse plot meant to make you do platforming challenges around Ouranos Island, with little room for Ian to add any real flavor of his own, even though he certainly tries. Having Sonic meet the spirits of the Ancients who controlled the Titans, who are revealed to directly parallel the personalities of him and his friends, is kinda neat, I guess? It's something. The optional conversations seem to have some fun bits, including both conversations between the supporting cast and additional lore. But again, I only found a few of those because of how tedious filling out the map was.

The writing is also let down by the voice acting - or I guess the voice direction, because I know this cast can do better. Roger's voice continues to be weirdly, distractingly deep as Sonic, which was clearly something that was requested of him just for this game. (For a recent example of him going back to his regular Sonic voice, see this LEGO trailer.) The performances of Sonic's friends are also WILDLY mismatched. This is most clear when they start feeling the effects of the cyber corruption. Knuckles seems to be barely affected at all, Tails sounds like he's moderately hurt and low on energy, and Amy starts completely overselling her pain out of nowhere. The extremely strained performance makes it sound like Cindy's literally being tortured in the fucking booth. I have no idea what's going on over there.

The final challenges

People have debated whether or not things like the towers and the new Cyber Space levels are fair challenges. What's not up for debate is the fact that Master King Koco's Trial is complete and utter bullshit, and I can't believe they shipped this.

Before you can fight the new final boss, the game forces you to do a boss rush of the first three Titans - INCLUDING the pre-Super Sonic climbing sections - with a hard limit of 400 rings. For all three lengthy, heavily scripted fights. Back to back. You can't even cheese it with the leveling system, because you're forced to do this at level 1. This all but forces you to look up speedrun strats for the Super Sonic fights so that you don't run out of rings and fail the trial.

And the real kicker? They changed the parry just for this trial! Originally, you could just hold down the bumpers endlessly and Sonic would ready himself to parry the next attack, whenever that may hit. Now it requires you to do a "Perfect Parry" with specific timing. And you HAVE to hit those parries if you wanna clear this trial and get to the new ending. Miss a few and you're probably fucked. You just have to reset. Time to go through all those fights, all those climbing sequences, all those QTEs, and all those unskippable mid-fight cutscenes all over again. This is by far the most egregious example of the DLC deciding to quiz you on new skills that the base game never required of you, and it's one of the most absurdly unfair things I have ever seen in a Sonic game.

Easy mode does make this trial easier by making the timing window for Perfect Parries much more generous, but that's all the help you get. It's still easy to lose time failing to parry Wyvern's hard-to-read animations, or to lose rings by getting hit on the climb sections, or for things to just fuck up because these fights were always kinda jank. I gave it a few shots. I looked up guide videos. I tried the Quick Cyloop and stomp combo strat that seems all but mandatory. But I quickly decided that, again, this wasn't a worthwhile use of my time. It just sucks. And I really, REALLY didn't want to overwrite all my fond memories of these Titan fights, some of my favorite setpiece moments in any Sonic game, with memories of this shit ass boss rush.

So I cheated! And if you're on PC, you should too.

With the worst hurdle out of the way, I turned cheats back off and moved on to the new final boss. It was pretty cool. It's much flashier than the original fight against The End, that's for sure. It's still kinda annoying, and it requires you to do very specific shit without properly telegraphing it, but it's nowhere near as bad as the preceding challenges. I was hoping for one last new metalcore song to go with the new fight, which we sadly didn't get, but at least the new version of I'm Here is good.

The ending is... mostly the same, with a couple altered scenes that don't really change anything in the long run. But overall the new finale was pretty good. I just wish it hadn't been such a slog to get there.

Closing thoughts

Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon wants to be three things:

A patch that adds a new alternate ending that was probably supposed to be in the base game in the first place.

An experimental take on making Tails, Knuckles, and Amy playable again, presumably testing things for the next game. And...

An official Kaizo Sonic Frontiers mod for the sickos.

The thing is, the people showing up for #1 and #2, the main things that Sega hyped up about the update, are not necessarily going to be down for #3. If they had announced some uber-hard new Cyber Space levels for the arcade mode or whatever, I'd be like, neat! And then not play them. I would never touch Master King Koco's Trial if it was an optional challenge. I would leave that for the sickos. But instead, they made the hardest content mandatory for anyone who wants to see the new Good Ending where the final boss gets an actual budget.

I'm mostly left in a state of shock that it shipped like this. I cannot believe they playtested this and decided this was the state The Final Horizon should be released in. That this should be the note Frontiers ends on. That this should be how we remember those Titan fights. That this should be the lingering taste in our mouths as we wait however many years for the next 3D game.

Armchair devs always love to say that things would be "easy to fix," but like... there really would be easy fixes for the insane difficulty and general tedium here! Add a few more tutorial popups explaining what the game expects of you with Sonic's friends. Give the Cyber Space stages and the towers a couple checkpoints. Give the combat trials more generous time limits, especially on the lower difficulties. Remove half of the map puzzles, and make the ones that remain uncover twice as many squares. Skip the startup animation for Knuckles' glide. Let me turn on the goddamn jukebox. Since so much of this update was designed around fan feedback, I can only pray that Sonic Team is still listening, and that they tweak at least a few of these things with a balance patch.

But still, after those many, many paragraphs of complaining... this still somehow makes the future of 3D Sonic seem pretty promising?

Sonic's friends are FINALLY playable again, and the focus is back to proper 3D platforming, rather than railroading players into awkward forced 2D sections in what's otherwise an open world. These are the things that they hopefully want to carry over to the next game. The difficulty? Well, that's just because it's the postgame DLC that's supposed to be the toughest challenge in the game. It's just an unreasonably cruel one of those - an example of how designing and balancing for a vocal minority of your fanbase can really hurt your game. But Sonic Team is onto something here, and I hope that they can learn the right lessons from this expansion and not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[chenoehi]

been thinking thoughts about KH3, MoM theories, etc a lot lately and this is my current brain rot:

All the Org XIII ancient keyblade wielders seem to treat Sora with either derision or kindness.

Eg. Marluxia and Luxord are friendly to Sora when they’re fading away. Marluxia thanks him and Luxord gives him a card to help him. Luxord was arguably never unkind to Sora prior but he was still antagonistic. Larxene isn’t kind per se but she shows a different side briefly and even smiles at him in the end, which for her actually seemed genuine.

Meanwhile you have Xigbar/Luxu and Demyx. Both of which are, frankly, bastards (affectionately! I love them your honor) to Sora in KH2, DDD, and KH3 even when they don’t need to be. Like, just thinking about Xigbar antagonizing the shit out of Sora in KH2/Radiant Garden and like Cardi B I’m wondering what was tf reason.

Based on what we know of him now, we can make educated guesses as to why he acts that way — his character file is illuminating and offers a lot of insight as to why he may feel differently about Sora, in addition to how nosey af we know Luxu is.

Demyx initially acts friendly but that’s really just him addressing Roxas imo which he makes pretty obvious by speaking directly to Roxas in KH2. And while he was objectively terrible to Roxas in terms of ditching him on missions in Days, he was never actually rude or unkind to him that I remember. For the most part he’s friendly with him both in game and in comics (that I know of). And he seemed alright with Xion.

Sora? Nah. He’s sarcastic as shit and while I love me some barbs, I tend to agree with the opinion that sarcasm is veiled contempt.

In fact contempt is the word I feel fits best for how both Xigbar and Demyx act/feel toward Sora.

But Riku? Demyx calls out to him in Remind and starts talking like they’re besties, he smiles at him softly — which is not at all weird or like his soft smile for Ienzo, no not similar in the slightest — and he gets up in his personal space, which, while not entirely unusual for Demyx, is in contrast to his interactions with Sora. It’s made a little creepy by the odd familiarity with which he’s treating someone he’s supposedly just met — and not even properly. (it’s actually crazy to me but rn I’m realizing the org members almost never introduce themselves to anyone lol Sora has no idea who these people are, like he literally doesn’t know what to call them so he just says “it’s org 13” bc names? what’s a name?)

And this single solitary interaction between Riku-Demyx for me is all just so strange because there’s few people on record in the games that Demyx is actually friendly toward. Xigbar, Ienzo, Roxas, maybe Xion, now Riku. That’s an ..interesting mix. I’m not counting Vexen because dude was finding every excuse to walk away from science boy in RG before getting sucked into the scheme via manipulation (and arguably his own ego, cause you know, he’s the only one who could pull it off bc no one would suspect him). He literally claims himself that he had no real friends outside of Xigbar and we know that association alone is 👀 At one point Axel speaks somewhat kindly of him, but then Demyx was saying how much quieter it was and how he’s glad the loudmouths were unalived in Castle Oblivion. Not very neighborly of him, but then again Axel and Zexion were friendly enough to bet on who’d die next only for Axel to axe (aheh) him so a lot of that backstabbing shit went on. So maybe he was cool with Axel but clearly not enough to be friends with him, even though he apparently wanted friends. (On another note, I still find it super odd Axel chose to defend Demyx to Roxas instead of piling on, we never even saw them interact. It’s weird.)

It’s unfortunate we don’t get to see Xigbar/Luxu interact with Riku on his own but, like with Demyx, I think he would be less bastardly than he is with Sora. Maybe it’s a keyblade master thing, maybe Riku’s just earned more respect, or maybe he just can’t stand that Sora is the ‘hero’ putting others (Riku et al) in danger constantly by needing to be rescued or protected — at least from Xigbar/Luxu’s perspective.

[deskgirl]

Fandom: Our Flag Means Death Rating: General Main Characters: Wee John, Izzy Hands Setting: Post-season 2, "nobody dies/everybody lives" timeline

For the Izzy and Crew Event, a slice of life piece. I'm posting this here for now, but I'll upload to AO3 eventually.

Excerpt:

“What the fuck’s a leisure activity?” the man asked, growing more confused and frustrated.

“Stuff you like doing. Like having fancy drinks and blowing stuff up just for fun and telling people to fuck off when they’re wasting your time.” Wee John paused for emphasis, holding his drink aloft. “So fuck off.”

~

Sharing a Drink

~

A rum bottle flew across the crowded bar and shattered. Someone flung a chair in response. The gift of a thrown chair was clearly not appreciated as it was returned with equal force. A pistol went off, smoke pluming up from a third table totally uninvolved in the dispute but clearly annoyed by the disturbance. Rather than settling things, though, this only encouraged more thrown objects in more directions, a fair number of them sharp and pointy. This was generally ignored by everyone else in the bar as they were too busy getting drunk or cheating at cards.

Standard fare for a “den of iniquity,” as Stede liked to call these pirate-friendly dives. Or was it den of antiquity? Something like that. This particular den of inebriety had become the crew’s new favorite tavern until Jackie could get herself reestablished. In a lot of places, the beer was shit, but the bar here served decent stuff, barely watered down at all. The atmosphere was kind of bougie, but the prices weren’t bad and you hardly ever had to step over a dead body on your way to the outhouse. 

Wee John relaxed on a bench seat tucked against the wall, resting his back as he guarded the drinks the crew had left with him before scattering to the wind. John’s corner table provided a nice vantage point to watch the doors and his friends as they got up to their usual shenanigans. 

Frenchie and the Swede were doing something by the dice tables that would probably get them kicked out before the night was over, Jim was coaching a nervously laughing Oluwande through a game of darts against Archie and Zheng, and he thought he saw Lucius and Black Pete necking in the shadows by the coat rack. Zheng’s scary aunt had been here a minute ago, but John saw her slip out through the kitchen and knew better than to ask questions. 

“Whoa, look at you!” 

Wee John glanced sidelong at the man who’d staggered up to his table. He was about average as far as pirates went: a smattering of piercings, tasteful battle scar here and there, bit of gunpowder under the nails, short beard that needed a proper trim and oil, and a dusty leather jacket over what was probably the only shirt the man had to his name.

The unwanted visitor was also clearly deep in his cups, judging by his gaping expression and faint swaying. 

“Yer a big bastard,” the man continued. 

“That so?” Wee John asked as if it were news to him.

The other man paused, perplexed. “Yeah, mate.”

“You should see my brother. There’s a reason everyone calls me Wee John,” Wee John said, going back to sipping his drink. It was a fancy little thing in a narrow glass, orangey pink with a curl of grapefruit peel on top. He’d been feeling fancy when they all came in here riding high on their last raid, and nothing said fancy like a garnish. 

“I bet,” the other pirate laughed, dropping his hands to the table heavily. The crew’s drinks rattled and sloshed. “Let’s see what you can do, yeah? Arm wrestle, what’cha say?”

“No thanks. It’s my day off.”

“Your what?”

“My day off,” Wee John explained. “It’s like a mini vacation.”

“What’s a vacation?” 

“It’s a day when you don’t work. You’re supposed to do leisure activities.”

“What the fuck’s a leisure activity?” the man asked, growing more confused and frustrated.

“Stuff you like doing. Like having fancy drinks and blowing stuff up just for fun and telling people to fuck off when they’re wasting your time.” Wee John paused for emphasis, holding his drink aloft. “So fuck off.”

“You–!” The other man reared back, teeth bared, then lunged at Wee John. John distantly hoped that he’d come around the table instead of vaulting it. It’d be a real dick move if he knocked over everyone’s drinks. 

Suddenly the man went very still, his body hunched forward, arms out and shoulders stiff, all of his forward momentum halted by the feather-light touch of a blade at his throat. 

“I know you’re not fucking with my crew,” a familiar voice rasped from behind the drunk man. Izzy Hands stepped to the side and tilted his head so the unfortunate bastard could have a better look at who’d gotten the jump on him.

The drunk pirate’s eyes widened comically. “You’re…”

Izzy let the man flounder for a moment, clearly enjoying the recognition. “I am.” He eyed the other man up and down, taking his time, then sucked his teeth as if disappointed. God but he was a dramatic little shit. Wee John found it rather endearing now that it was being directed at someone else. 

“I didn’t know he was with you, Mr. Hands, I swear,” the man said. He still hadn’t moved and neither had Izzy’s knife. 

“That’s unfortunate,” Izzy said with a dash of fake sympathy. There was a long pause where John had the satisfaction of watching a fat drop of sweat roll down the man’s temple and into his beard. Then Izzy sniffed and slowly drew the blade away. “Luckily for you, I’m in an unusually good mood. Now, take my man Mr. Feeney’s advice and fuck off before I change my mind.” When the man continued to stand there, he made a shooing gesture with his knife.

As if an invisible cord had been cut, the man backpedaled wildly, bumped into someone behind him who spilled their beer and started swearing, then spun and ran off.

Izzy held himself tall for a moment longer before slowly deflating, leaning his hip against the table for support. Wee John recognized the signs of fatigue. The little man had pushed himself hard yesterday during the raid. Probably made himself sore the same as Wee John had with his back. 

“Hey,” Wee John called. When Izzy looked over, he patted the spot on the bench to his left.

Izzy hesitated before carefully shifting his weight and coming around the table. He startled when Wee John took hold of his elbow but didn’t protest the help as he eased himself down onto the bench. 

“Drink?” Wee John asked.

“You offering?” 

Wee John waved a hand at the table. “Crew’s offering.”

Izzy snorted softly as he perused the selection of abandoned drinks. After a bit of thought, he went for the half-tankard of ale. 

“Whose is this?” Izzy asked idly. He gave it a sniff before tipping it back to take a drink, not waiting for Wee John’s reply first.

“Archie’s,” Wee John said. “You know, I coulda handled that guy.”

“I know,” Izzy reassured as he wiped at the corners of his mouth with his thumb. “But like you said, it’s your day off. You’re not getting paid to work off the books so don’t bother.”

“That how you’re gonna play it?” Wee John gave his shoulder a squeeze. “You could just admit you like us, you stubborn little fucker.”

“I could also just jump in the bay.” 

Wee John chuckled. 

“Anyways, don’t act like I’ve done you any real favor.” Izzy gestured with his newly acquired tankard. 

When Wee John looked, he could see the drunk bastard who’d run off now sat at a table near the door and speaking heatedly to another man. He looked somewhat better kempt, with a long, red coat and dark hair tied at the nape of his neck. He was flanked by two bruisers who seemed intent on the conversation as well. 

“That’ll be his captain,” Wee John guessed. “They’re gonna jump us when we leave the bar.”

Izzy hummed in agreement.

“Should we tell the others? Leave out the back?”

Izzy eyed what was left in the tankard before throwing it back. He let out a satisfied sigh. “No need to ruin the crew’s fun. What’s a vacation without a bit of bloodshed?” 

“I don’t think you know what a vacation is.”

“Nope,” Izzy agreed. “Now pass me that drink with the lime wedge in it.”

[tvlandofficiall]

curious to know if you have any like, completely meaningless and inconsequential deltarune theories that you believe very very strongly. mine is that rouxls was originally meant to be black & white instead of blue & white and yes i do have evidence for this

i'm not sure how many of these count as inconsequential but i did my best to pick ones that aren't big-picture;

• seam! secret! boss! this is one i'm very certain is going to happen, not only because of in-game evidence and not only because of their status as a foil to both flowey and ralsei but also because seam embodies a very specific video game archetype (other examples include the happy mask salesman, zacharie, sly, volo, ect.) and deltarune's modus operandi is putting the focus on video game archetypes. i wouldn't be surprised if that focus lends seam some more importance than many expect them to have in some way or another.

• save file fuckery will also be more present going forward, again involving seam. i think we're going to see more and more of the part of their personality that's heralded by their flowey signifiers going forward in regards to that too.

• ralsei, susie and kris will remain as the primary party for the entire game. ralsei and susie's dichotomy as characters is super important to both the kris' posession plot and the darkners' fates plot. (noelle and lancer are important – they're the two most important supporting characters! but i don't think they're secretly part of the prophecy or anything like that.)

• that said, i do think that now that we've had a few different lightner guest-stars tagging along (ie; noelle, berdly, toriel) we may get some more darkners guest-starring in a similar fashion. since lancer and rouxls are going to appear in ch3, it seems like the chance of turning to stone won't prevent darkners from going to other worlds, and there's also no rule against a darkner being a party member (ralsei's in the main party, after all) either. i'd love to see more of our already established cast get some additional development.

• card! kingdom! two! this is another one i'm absolutely certain on. i don't think ch1 is the last we'll see of card kingdom.

• we will be fighting queen at some point during the weird route.

• i think both lancer and rouxls have a solid shot at getting forbidden knowledge during the course of the game via their proximity to the delta warriors. (noelle already seems on track to do this as well, at least during the snowgrave route.) this may also lead into one or both becoming able to traverse between dark worlds freely like ralsei can, but that depends on if that's a forbidden knowledge capability or not. (my bet here is specifically on lancer.)

• i don't think noelle's gba or the dragon blazers game will be a dark world as is commonly predicted; given that queen (a computer) and swatch (a program on the computer) are darkners, and tenna (a television) and the weather duo (the weather channel on the television) are darkners, i think the gba and the game will be darkners as well if they are to appear.

• other objects i think have a solid chance of being darkners; dess' guitar, the bead toy in the hospital, the cage in kris' bedroom, alphys' symptons tv show.

• i do not think dess is going to come back. i think she left of her own volition and her agency in that decision will be a focal point in connecting her to the game's major themes of agency, choice, and fate. (it also makes for good commentary on the archetypical "save the girl" rpg plot.)

• three lightners know the truth about the objects in their town not being ordinary objects. these lightners are gerson (who died before he could tell anyone his dreams were not just dreams), dess (who left the light world entirely upon finding out and doesn't want to come back), and kris (who sealed a dark world in the bunker as a child and was convinced by the adults around them it was all a dream – until now. ) fate itself seems to have a hand in keeping no one from ever knowing.

• more generally speaking i think there's something up with the light world. details of things like rudy's illness are vague at best and nonexistent at worst, the whole town seems to revolve around asriel, ect. the dark world is often compared to a dream but the light world is the world that operates more on "dream logic".

• lancer and susie will get their monogrammed track jackets.

[gretel-moonlit]

the ADHD Celeste post

I've been thinking about making this post for ages so I thought I'd finally give it to you all

this post is absolutely a disorganized mess but I think that's on theme

once you get her started talking about something, good luck getting her to stop, you will be there for the next hour and a half hearing about whatever she's interested in

plus she has a few interests that she considers "acceptable" to talk about with others that fit her persona, ie. European history, card games, ect. so if any of those things come up in conversation she often ends up accidentally interrupting other people to talk about them

I also think she's very awkward in group conversations especially. In a good few of her V3 bounus mode and DRS events, it seems like she's seen as this weirdo who will come up to you and talk to you about things she's interested in or try to get you to play card games with her. I think she's not very good at group conversations so she tries to interact with people one on one but she's still very awkward about it.

literally in the game, she just stops to fully describe what a zero-sum game is when literally no one asked and no one pays any attention or cares that is peak undiagnosed adhd experience

so much rejection sensitivity good lord, literally you cannot invite her to any kind of game night (I personally think her talent only applies if money or something of value is on the line as a bet) because she will take it way, way, to seriously and if she loses she gets really upset

she also definitely over analyzes every social interaction she has with anyone the moment she's alone and will convince herself that everyone hates her

she stims a lot, she literally has a sprite where she's playing with her hair, bit I think she also likes to play with the frills on her clothes

I know some people think it's just bad writing, but her entire murder plot and trial scream lack of follow through to me

also I think she daydreams a lot, literally if you lose her attention for even a minute she is gone

she absolutely hates that she has no object permanence because she's torn between wanting to remember that things she has exist, and wanting to put everything away so her dorm looks nicer (even though her room is usually a mess anyway, but it's organized chaos, it's a mess, but she can tell you exactly where things are)

she has literally never paid attention in class in her life, she's the kid sitting in the back staring out the window daydreaming the whole time

[the-fiction-witch]

The Magic Of Men

Media The Artful Dodger

Character Jack Dawkins

Couple Jack X Reader

Rating Smut Discussions

Requested: Could you do a Jack Dawkins one where she has no experience and doesn't really know how men work (because it's 1850s and she isn't married lol) but she's curious? Up to you what you do with that :)

I felt insanely awkward about doing this, but... not like I had many other options. I headed up the stairwell of the hospital and up to the little room I knew well. I gave the door a tap, and soon enough his voice answered.

"Come in,"

So I held my breath and headed inside the little room, seeing the usual objects littered about and two figures, Fagin sat in the chair fiddling with something not sure what, and then Jack stood by his wardrobe changing his shirt. Immediately I blushed and looked away, "Hi,"

"Hi Y/n, Just a sec I'll be down." Jack smiled as he got a clean shirt on, "Sorry had to change we had a bloody nightmare of surgery. You ready to go?"

"Actually, I was thinking... Maybe we could stay here tonight?"

"uhhh right, Why?"

"Well given everything with Darius, I figured maybe we could just stay and play cards here tonight. I brought us some cookies to bet with?"

"Aww you're sweet, that's great actually I can't spend any money." He laughed, "Alright piss off Fagin."

"Ohh lovely, I see when I'm not wanted." Fagin complained getting up and shuffling to the door, "Bloody sweet talk to the man who raised you!"

"Out Fagin," he told him again, 

Fagin then left leaving Jack and me alone, 

"You alright?"

"Yeah sorry uhh long day is all..."

"Alright, well get comfy." 

"Thank you," I smiled taking a seat setting my basket down and unpacking it, 

"Ohh did you make pie!?"

"I did,"

"Can I have some?" he asked sheepishly 

"Of course," I smiled cutting him some pie,

"Ummmm! you are an angel you know that." 

I blushed but we started our card game as usual, we played for a good while the whole time I was eager to ask but I didn't want to just jump out the gate with things. But I knew I couldn't wait much longer.

"Jack?" I spoke up breaking the flow of our gentle conversation, 

"Yeah?"

"Can I... Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," he shrugged, 

"Could you tell me, about- Men?"

He froze a moment his eyebrows lowered, his eyes looking at me questionably, "What about men?"

"...Everything,"

"Right..." he began, "why?"

"Well, It's just..." I began, "My mother is getting, insistent on me starting to court, starting to look into me getting married and I know so little about men, how they work, what they like, I have no idea and I'm very confused."

"Men are a mystery" He chuckled, 

"I know, But I just want... some knowledge."

"All right."

"Really?"

"Yeah, can't leave you completely clueless." He smiled, "You're such an innocent little thing, the first man who realizes just how innocent and... naive you are, will take advantage of your lack of information." He explained, 

"They will?"

"Ohh yeah, the first man figures out you don't know what you're doing there's no telling what he'll make you do." He chuckled, "But why are you asking me?"

"Becuase I trust you."

"Do you?" he shot me a look,

"I trust you enough."

"Thanks,"

"Also you know… you're a doctor I imagine you're able to explain it better than the average man”

"Good point, So? You wish to know the magic of men?’

“I do”

“Alright then… Well, how much do you know?"

“Well… I know on the wedding night the lady must lie on her back and open her legs for he husband. And then he will make babies.”

“...that's it?”

"more or less”

“Ohh my god- how does anyone expect you to know what you're doing with that, you sure you aren't told anything else?"

"that if I raise my skirt too high or too low men will be excited”

“...I mean, yeah that kinda is true.” He nodded, "There's more to it but on a basic level I guess... anything else?" 

“Uhhh my mother said if you let a man put his baby goo in your mouth and swallow it you'll have babies growing in your tummy”

"…What!”

“If you let a man-”

“I heard you! I'm just fucking astonished!”

“Is that not true?"

“No! You can't get pregnant like that!”

“Ohh I see… why would my mother like to me?"

"I assume to stop you putting men in your mouth… she tell you anything else?”

“The female orgasm is a myth”

“WHAT! your mother is fucking nuts!" 

"Is that not true?"

"No! I am very VERY sure about that!"

"Ohh..."

"Ohh you poor little thing..." He said, 

"Why?"

"You need an education." He said, "So when a man and a woman love each other very much..."

"Yes?"

"They start to kiss, and cuddle, and tell each other how they feel. And then they may decide to be... Intimate."

"I see," I nodded very eager to learn, 

"And yes when a man sees under a lady's dress he may get... excited." He smirked, "A woman's body is often very exciting for a man to look at, and if he gets excited enough he'll get hard."

"Hard?"

"His... you know."

"His what Jack?"

"you really are innocent aren't you," He chuckled, "Well a man has a cock. most of the time it's just soft and not really anything all that important but when a man gets excited his cock gets hard, It'll stand up and kinda make itself stiff." 

"Ohh... Why?"

"It's all the blood rushing there and causing it to expand and stay stiff, so he can use it for sex."

"Ohh Okay, so it gets hard for sex?"

"Yeah, it gets hard when he's excited and aroused." 

"Okay, then he makes baby goo?"

"Baby goo?"

"Yeah, he gets excited until baby goo comes out."

"... It's called Jizz. or ejaculate. but yeah it makes babies."

"Jizz. makes babies. But not in mouths?"

"No, only in your pussy."

"Pussy?"

"The ... hole between your legs y/n." 

"Ohh my special place." 

"Yeah, you lay on your back, or your side, or you can sit up too there's a lot of options but the main point is he puts his cock inside your pussy, and it feels amazing for both involved and yes you should get an orgasm you both should and when a man orgasms then yes he will Jizz and if it is inside of your pussy there is a RISK not one hundred per cent just a risk that you may get pregnant."

"Hu... Thank you, Jack,"

"You're welcome. See men aren't all that magic and mystical... we are pretty simple, to be honest." 

"What about other than sex?"

"Other than sex? Well yeah if you put a man's cock in your mouth it will also give him an orgasm but you can't get pregnant," 

"Do women get orgasms other than sex?"

"Yeah, they can, a man can use his mouth, or his hands, or even women can do it themselves."

"That's possible?"

"Very possible."

"Can... men do it to themselves?"

"Yes."

"Hu... Then why do you need a wife at all?"

he looked at me and laughed, "Because it's not the same having sex and giving yourself an orgasm isn't the same feeling,"

"Ohhh..." I nodded, "That makes sense,"

"You alright now? Anything else you wanna know?"

"Uhhh... Kinda,"

"Go on then,"

"What does a cock look like?"

"Uhhhh are you serious?"

"I've never seen one before... I'm curious."

"Yeah, I don't exactly have pictures of dicks laying around y/n."

"This is a hospital if anywhere has pictures and diagrams of dicks it's here." 

"No, I don't, sorry Y/n," he chuckled going to lay on his bed for a moment, "I'm rather tired after all that explaining" he yawned, 

"Sorry Jack," I smiled sitting on his bed with him,

"It's fine, I'm happy to explain to you, at least now you're not so naive," 

"I guess now, I'm thankful to be less naive."

"Good, I'm glad I could help." 

For a moment we just sat enjoying one another company as we often did, before I little spark of a whisper popped up in my brain, and I giggled.

"What?"

I smiled and held the skirt of my dress lifting it a little to show my leg all the way up to my knee, Jack's eyes met my skin and a smirk grew across his lips, 

"what are you up to y/n?"

"Just curious."

"Curious?" 

"Umm, I wanna see the magic of men."

"Do you know?"

"Mhm, so? Are you excited?"

"...A little." He smirked, "This what you want?" he asked sitting up and I nodded excitedly, "Alright Y/n, Come on I'll prove to you about the female orgasm" He smirked tugging me into the bed with him, 

[josefavomjaaga]

A Prussian at Napoleon's court

Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Freiherr von Knobelsdorff was a Prussian officer and high-ranking diplomat who had been for some time ambassador in Constantinople. In 1804, he was sent as King Friedrich Wilhelm III’s special envoy from Berlin to Paris for Napoleon’s coronation ceremonies. This is a report he wrote back home, translated from Publicationen aus den k. Preussischen Staatsarchiven, Volume 29. The original is, of course, in French.

Sojourn in Fontainebleau. Knobelsdorff's report. Paris 28 November 1804 I believe it is my duty to report to Your Majesty some details of my stay at Fontainebleau, as the extraordinarily distinguished manner in which I was treated there can only be seen as a public mark that the Emperor of the French wished to bestow on a man who has the honour of being entrusted with a special commission from Your Majesty. On the morning of the 26th I received a letter from Marshal Berthier inviting me, in the name of the Emperor, to go to Fontainebleau the next day to go hunting with the sovereign; I am the only foreigner and member of the diplomatic corps to have received such an invitation.

All the others donated candles in the castle chapel in relief because they did not have to expose themselves to this mortal danger. - Okay, so Knobelsdorff did not write that. But I still bet it’s true.

I arrived at Fontainebleau at eight in the morning on the 27th and was asked to go to the château for breakfast at 9.30. My wife was invited to have breakfast with the Empress. The Grand Marshal showed me the carriage by which I would be taken to the place in the forest where the hunt was to begin, and the Master of the Horse handed me a paper containing the names of five of the Emperor's horses which would be at my disposal.

Caulaincourt also likely warned him that if on Knobelsdorff’s return the slightest harm had come to any of these five horses, Knobelsdorff would regret it for the rest of his life.

My carriage was immediately in front of the Emperor's, and Marshals Soult, Ney and General Duroc were travelling with me.

Ney and Soult together in one carriage, huh?

Knobelsdorff to Duroc: Oh, Your Excellency will also join us in the carriage?

Duroc (patting down both Soult and Ney, confiscating all sharp objects): Yepp. Somebody has to babysit these other two excellencies, you know.

They forced me to take a seat at the back, [...]

Duroc: Sit here. Don’t move. If any of these two as much as twitches, warn me!

[…] while my wife was in the Empress's carriage, who was kind enough to give her a seat between herself and Princess Joseph. On our return from the hunt, Mme de La Rochefoucauld invited us to dine with the Empress; as we sat down for dinner, the Emperor asked me to sit next to the Empress, opposite him. After dinner, two games of whist were arranged; the Emperor, who does not usually play cards, was kind enough to play with my wife, and I had the honour of playing with the Empress.

I hope Josephine was also kind enough to loose to the husband what Napoleon won through cheating from the wife.

After the game, which hardly lasted more than half an hour, the Emperor spoke in a very interesting way about his campaigns in Egypt and spoke more particularly with me about the present situation of the Ottoman Empire; at about ten o'clock in the evening the Emperor and the Empress retired, and I left the same night for Paris...

So, somewhat more seriously: This report was not put in chiffres, so it was part of the official correspondence that could easily be intercepted by the French and read in Lavalette’s Cabinet noir. That alone guaranteed that Knobelsdorff would have nothing but praise for how he was treated by this newly minted emperor and his makeshift court. But it is still interesting how friendly relations between France and Prussia had been ever since Prussia dropped out the coalition against revolutionary France, and how10 years later the Prussians would claim to be France’s arch-nemesis.

But mostly I like to see Soult and Ney in that carriage together, apparently stille quite at ease with each other and maybe even on friendly terms by 1804.

[valentinedaughtler]

Tainted Opal (Part 8)

Kaz Brekker x fem!reader

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

T/Ws: violence, romantic feelings, blood, mild spice scenes sometimes, fem!reader and she/her pronouns, sexual abuse/trauma (not explicit)

Synopsis: You test your skills in an intense game of poker with the Crows. Kaz gets fed up off and you have to cool him off.

REQUESTS: OPEN✅

____________________________________________

8 - No Strip Poker

"This isn't just a game for fun, Jesper," Kaz grumbled as he separated the cards into seven piles. He kept the remaining cards in a stack by his hip. I guess he decided he was going to be the dealer, and no one interjected. "Everyone has a 'tell', you all know that. We're playing this to observe others' reactions and then call them out at the end of the game."

"So we're gonna point out each others' flaws in order to suppress them during a negotiation or a fight?" I asked, my voice dripping with mockery, the idea seemed smart, yet damaging. Kaz nodded to me, he seemed to want to glare at me, but you could say he suppressed it.

"So this is not strip poker?" Jesper asked with a whine. I laughed a bit as almost everyone objected. Nina seemed pretty on board with the idea though. With all the usual shenanigans out of the way, the game began.

Everyone picked up the deck dealed to them, inspecting their hand. I had a pair of sixes, but that most likely wasn't good enough to win. I knew if I lied during the game my lower lip would quiver, giving me away. I have to say nothing if asked, but I need to seem confident to fool.

"Give two cards, darling," I said to Kaz with a smirk. He passed them to me as I discarded my useless three of clubs and ten of hearts. I now held an additional six and a joker. Holy saints, four of a kind and an ace. That ranks me above a full house and under a straight flush. I suppressed my glee and stared down at my cards blankly. I was aware that everyone was darting glances around the room, attempting to spot an awkward movement of someone else.

Matthias huffed and threw his cards onto the table, "I fold," he said with a boiling rage. Nina gave him a soft kiss on the cheek before looking back at her hand. When Kaz nodded, everyone placed down their luck.

Inej had a three of a kind, of kings. Very good.

Jesper had nothing.... What could have been a royal flush was ruined by a single two of clubs.

Wylan had two of a kind, of threes.

Nina had two sets of two of a kinds.

Finally, my gaze fell off Kaz's hand. A straight flush.

I bottled up my frustration as Kaz reshuffled the cards and Jesper complained. I felt my competitive spirit shoot through my veins. Poker was a weekly event back on the ship, it was the only way my father respected me. Now, I felt the need to win every time. But I also wanted to win to beat Kaz Brekker.

I looked up at the pale boy with scarred lips, he ignored my stare- well, my glare. I finally spewed out words driven by a lust for winning, not testimonial thought,

"Let's make bets," I said, with a sweet undertone in my voice. It was like mixing honey into warm tea. Everyone turned to my direction as I broke the tense silence, I guess we all were competitive. "Information is much more valuable than any coin. Whoever wins each round gets to ask a question -that must be answered—, to anyone here." I spoke with enfaces on each word, a smirk dancing on my plush lips. Jesper and Wylan smiled, and Nina let out an approving giggle. Kaz nodded, but did not show a sliver of opinion.

"Well, let's see how confident you are, Y/n," Kaz rasped, but there was a hint of amusement in his gravely voice. I looked at my hand, just a two of a kind, but it was of Queens. I asked for three cards, and others needs followed in suit. My hand now consisted on two queens and two kings. My bite was going to be underwhelming compared to my bark...

Everyone revealed their hand, darting gazes past the other cards laid out in. Nina won with a royal flush, which caused my body to soften on the inside, at least Kaz did not win after the spectacle I made. My competitive nature often got in the way of my judgement. Nina made a humming sound as she leaned against Matthias before looking directly at Inej.

"What's the weirdest thing you've observed while spying..?" She inquired with deep curiosity igniting in her eyes. Inej laughed softly before thinking for a moment.

"One time I saw a woman singing opera to... maybe 12 chickens sitting on her

couch-," the Waith could barely keep a straight face as she spoke, smirking at just the thought of the sight.

"I would pay to see that, the women could get rich of Kruge," I remarked with a giggle. Inej smiled at me with glittering eyes, and the game resumed.

A few rounds past before I won, but no alarming questions had been asked yet. Everyone seemed to just be dipping their toes in the shallow end of a deep pool of secrets. As I looked at my new hand of cards, I had a perfect full house, but everyone would know my deck was perfect if I didn't draw cards for the first time. I have to risk it. My anxiety spiked slightly, but I had to keep my heart rate steady, Nina would know if it sped up. I asked for one card, and luckily it was a joker. I could replace the card I had just discarded.

"I gotta' fold," Jesper whined, his gambling addiction seemed to be having a low this round. The remaining players placed their cards on the table. Everyone's eyes were glued on my hand; my perfect hand; the winning hand. Kaz didn't show signs of frustration, but I knew he was. He was so close to winning, just like I had been the very first round. My competitive advantage bubbled in my throat, my ego boiling over. I smirked and turned to Kaz,

"Why do you were gloves all the time?" I asked with curiosity lined with amusement. Everyone in the room seemed to tense up, we all most likely knew very little, but we had heard the rumors.

Brekker's hands are stained with blood that can't be washed off.

Dirtyhands has sharp fingers like the devil.

Kaz's hands are scarred beyond belief, the fate of his work.

Kaz clutched his cane tightly and stood up, his tall form towering over my hunched body.

"Choose one of the theories of Ketterdam's voices. They're all true enough," he responded. And with that, he began walking outside, opening the cabin's door. He stopped at the doorway, his strong posture framed by the blistering white outside. "I've learned enough from this game, you all need to improve your sloppy skills, especially Y/n. The quivering of your pretty lips will get your teeth knocked out."

As the door slammed shut, we all sat in silence. The tension from the game lingered as the quiet in the room festered. I couldn't help but feel embarrassed, Kaz was cold and bitter, but he was important. I had to value his feelings, or at the very least, his reactions. My cheeks grew red, but I sighed and attempted to keep face. When in doubt, become seductive; desire trumps all.

"Soooo, now that the party pooper is gone, maybe be could play strip poker-,"

"Please play without me, dolls, I'm going to reason with... the party pooper in question," my voice was a soft purr, one that drew in the most modest of people. I lifted myself with grace, sauntering out the door into the cold, but not before slipping on Kaz's jacket.

✵ ♣ ✵

The bitter boy had not made it far in the short time, he was just a hundred or so paces ahead of me, limping his way into the cold. I wasn't sure why, but I assumed it was to clear his troubled mind.

I finally made my way to his side, and without acknowledging me, he continued his brooding trek.

"Did you just come out here to suffer for fun or did you want to escape my question?" I made my tone extra clear, my honeydew voices melting the cold feelings. Kaz said nothing for a while, his jaw clenching slightly.

He halted and cocked an eyebrow. His head turned and his high stature caused him to crane his neck in order to make eye contact with me.

"We cannot escape our pasts, Y/n, all we can do is carefully cultivate a collection of present actions to allow the world to assume our upbringings," he voice sounded choked, strained, but he still held himself with pride. I noticed how he said 'we', including himself in the population of whom made the decision he described.

I sighed softly and narrowed my eyes, peering through my eyelashes at the Kaz. I didn't apologize for my question, I didn't need to, but I gave Kaz a looking of understanding.

"These personas we create may be true enough, Kaz, but they're simply an escape from the hell we're stuck in." I stepped closer to him, my stare hardening. "You have your tells too, Kaz Brekker, you may have a perfect front you present to the world, I'm guilty of it as well, but you're still just a scared kid."

Kaz stiffened as I inched closer to his face, taunting him. I stood on the tips of my toes, our noses nearly touching. I didn't have to use my Grisha abilities to sense his heartbeat quickening.

"We met before, didn't we?"

__________________

Word Count: 1606

__________________

I wasn't a fan of this chapter, but it was pretty rushed. Sorry for the awkward start to this.

-Valentine

[bethanydelleman]

It's such a small moment, but the fact that Mrs. Norris tries to get Tom to play cards by suggesting they will up the ante for him, but only against Dr. Grant, is such a complex and horrible thing

“My dear Tom,” cried his aunt soon afterwards, “as you are not dancing, I dare say you will have no objection to join us in a rubber; shall you?” Then leaving her seat, and coming to him to enforce the proposal, added in a whisper, “We want to make a table for Mrs. Rushworth, you know. Your mother is quite anxious about it, but cannot very well spare time to sit down herself, because of her fringe. Now, you and I and Dr. Grant will just do; and though we play but half-crowns, you know, you may bet half-guineas with him.”

Firstly, Mrs. Norris must be aware that Tom has a gambling problem, she was around when Sir Thomas sold the Mansfield living. In order to flatter Mrs. Rushworth with a game, she is tempting Tom with his principle vice. In fact, this even proves she knows because she's using it against him.

Second, she constantly talks about how Sir Thomas is in financial peril, Fanny cannot have a horse! But she sees nothing wrong with Tom gambling a significant amount of money for her own ends, which proves a good deal of her frugality is self-serving or pointedly cruel.

Third, much like she offered Henry's carriage to get scratched up on the way to Sotherton, she offers Dr. Grant's money against Tom's but indicates that she will still play for a lower amount. While she wants to tempt Tom to play, she will not spend her own money.

Fourth (speculation), Mrs. Norris hates Dr. Grant and is probably asking Tom to play so that she has a better chance to beat him. We know Sir Thomas doesn't want his wife as a partner in whist.

Mansfield Park is so amazing because this tiny, seemingly insignificant moments reveal so much about each character!

[hellsbeenbettersincehesplit]

A oneshot character study of Husk based on one line from the pilot, focusing on if he were arospec. Cross-posted on here under the cut!

i lost the ability to love years ago

In life, Husk had only felt anything that could lead to a romance twice.

The first was when he was young and foolish. He’d had a few close friends. It began with lust, attraction, fascination. He caught himself staring, wondering over card games. He began fantasizing about a future the two would spend together. He’d done so many things he hadn’t cared for just to spend more time together. Looking back, he’d sometimes chuckle at how much money he’d lost- he could never keep his poker face.

He’d considered asking his friend out. He’d been ready to make a move, but life got in the way. The two drifted apart. Eventually, Husk’s feelings faded.

For a long time, he thought he’d blown his only chance. Sure, soulmates were a corny thing to believe in- but he hadn’t felt anything like that again for so long after that. What other conclusion was he supposed to draw?

The second time was for the woman he would one day marry. He worked in his family’s casino; she was a showgirl. He’d do magic tricks of one kind and she’d do another, and they’d both get the money off of someone or other. The two would meet up for drinks after their shifts every now and then. It started with physical attraction- she was gorgeous, who wouldn’t admire her? As time went on, and as he got to know her, he admired her sarcastic sense of humor, her jaded attitude, her creativity, her wit, even her ability to match him drink for drink.

He pursued her the conventional way. They’d gotten married in the deserts, because they didn’t want a Vegas wedding- what happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas, and as objectively false as the saying was, the location choice was about the sentiment- he wanted them to be a pair everywhere, forever. He’d briefly tried to become a stage magician, and while the career didn’t pan out, she had a genuine admiration for his skill. He’d eventually settled in Vegas and the two ran the casino together. They had a child, and it dawned on Husk one day that somehow, he’d ended up with a perfectly conventional life despite being a casino owner in Vegas.

Romance always struck Husk as odd. The idea of love at first sight was so popular, but Husk had always understood a difference between lust and romantic potential, and the latter never had anything to do with what he found at first sight. His friends would all laugh and call him a cynical bastard, and eventually, that’s how he saw himself. The same as everyone else, just a bit cynical about the whole romance thing.

She’d died of illness. It was a slow death, and she deserved better. He never remarried. He’d just maintained the casino his family had left him with his child and grew his wealth. He died of liver failure as an old man. It had been a miracle that it hadn’t happened sooner.

When he never found her, he knew in his gut that his wife had gone to Heaven. He was glad. As the years passed, Husk realized that his kid had also gone to heaven, whenever they’d died. Husk himself had gone to Hell. This wasn’t a surprise- he’d spent his life scamming people out of their money to accumulate his own wealth. He missed those two like they were a beating heart that’d been ripped from his chest, but more than that, he was relieved that the two most important people to him hadn’t gone where he did.

He opened up a new casino in Hell. It was scarily successful- so many souls were willing to gamble it all. On some level, he could understand why- they were in Hell. They didn’t exactly have much left to lose. He hadn’t even intended to become an overlord, but people kept betting them when they’d ran low on cash, and it was shockingly easy to just write a few clauses that the souls they gained at the casino would go back to Husk. The more souls he had, the bigger the casino got. The bigger the casino got, the more desperate sinners flooded in, ready and willing to bet even their soul for a chance of winning it big. The more power he amassed, the more he wanted more. The more he wanted, the more risks he’d take to get it. At some point, because he’d been on such a lucky streak, he began to view himself as untouchable.

Every demon knows that there are seven rings in Hell for the seven deadly sins. Pride, wrath, greed, lust, envy, sloth, and gluttony. In the end, it could’ve been greed, gluttony, or pride that was Husk’s downfall.

In the end, it didn’t actually matter which of the three it was.

He’d gambled. He’d lost. He’d bet his souls. He’d lost those too. He ran out of things to bet, and bet his soul. He’d never imagine he’d lose this badly. He should’ve cut his losses early on. He lost his soul and everything he’d built the entire time that he’d been in this pit.

The irony wasn’t lost on him that his downfall was the same way he’d screwed over so many sinners. It wouldn’t surprise him if that’s why the radio demon chose this specific method of taking down another overlord.

He quickly found himself as the radio demon’s favorite pet, as much as Husk despised it when he would use that term. The overlord thought flaunting the fact that he owned husk was fun in some sick kind of way. Husk found himself constantly needing a drink to cope with where his afterlife had gone- a habit that the radio demon picked up on. Suddenly, Husk was always around alcohol, always growing more dependent, always looking for the solutions to his problems at the bottom of a bottle.

He sometimes wondered if losing his soul meant he’d lost his ability to love. Sure, it was always rare. Probably rarer than any of his friends in life had felt such things, but everyone was different. Still, one day it had finally occurred to Husk that he hadn’t felt any kind of romantic attraction in decades. Just one more thing Alastor had taken from him. He chose to ignore that he hadn’t felt anything like that before he lost his soul. Plenty of souls down here were in relationships. Clearly, Husk wouldn’t have lost his capacity for romance when he died, so he must have lost it in that game of poker. Overlords affected the souls they owned in ways that were hard to understand at times, it wasn’t beyond reason to assume this could be a side effect.

Husk’s gambling only got worse after he gambled away his soul. He was the misguided soul with nothing to lose. Being at rock bottom meant he had everything to gain. His skill with poker hadn’t dissipated, and he’d make enough money to buy himself something nice every now and then.

The radio demon hated it when Husk was on a winning streak. Every time he’d start to get back a little bit of what he used to have, it’d all be lost again. The radio demon was always there, ready to remind Husk of his place.

If he ever wrote a memoir, he’d call it Husk: The Modern Sisyphus.

One day, the radio demon just. Disappeared. He stopped calling Husk, stopped having Husk do odd jobs, stopped being in Husk’s life. He could still feel the heavy, cold weight of the green chain around his neck, weighing down his every step. Husk still couldn’t go back to his old power. But the sinner who’d given those orders had vanished. It hadn’t taken him very long to figure out that Alastor had made a deal of some sort, and probably had to stay away for some reason or another.

Husk had started doing his stage magic again- it felt a little ridiculous in a place with actual magic, but his old heart still had a passion for these silly tricks.

Of course, the radio demon didn’t stay gone. Nothing good that happened to Husk could be permanent, not in Hell. In the blink of an eye, after seven years of peace, he was whipped from his latest game of poker and stuck bartending for some failing hotel. That was where he’d met Angel Dust.

Husk was attracted to the man. Of course he was. But Husk had never been one to think with his dick over his brain, and his brain told him that the spider was just a glitter and show with no proof of substance underneath. Husk didn’t let himself get flustered by the flirting. He had a perfect poker face, it was easy for him to identify someone else’s mask.

Husk thought Angel Dust was attractive. More than that, Husk thought Angel Dust was annoying. Until Husk finally got him to open up. Suddenly, it was like Angel was a prism that had just been exposed to sunlight, and Husk was seeing the hidden beauty that’d before been just out of reach.

Husk had thought selling his soul had cost him his ability to love, until a third person finally awoke those dormant romantic feelings in his heart. If he’d known about modern day labels, he likely would’ve identified as somewhere on the aromantic spectrum. Instead, he'd just accepted romantic attraction as something rare, and Husk moved on with his miserable afterlife.

[drunkelreporter]

Roberto would be the first to say he wasn't much of a gambler. He'd also be lying when he said it.

Honestly, he gambled all the damn time: on Vash in the duel he'd shoved the guy into, on Wolfwood when he didn't object more strongly to him joining them, on Meryl when he let her lead them right back to the boys and again when he'd passed the torch to her in the end. Roberto gambled on people all the time.

What he didn't tend to do, despite being very, very good at reading other people, was gamble for money. Sure, he could win a few card games, call some bluffs, nudge people into betting too much too fast, and falling hard when they lost. That was easy.

He just didn't like to deal with the aftermath of having to gamble on who would come after the old man who was a little too good at winning or keep track of the people watching the game and waiting for the winner to walk away, flush with double dollars and ripe for the picking.

Arcanus was a gentler place, but his habits hadn't relaxed quite that much.

That didn't mean he wasn't willing to watch the card game from the sidelines, keeping quiet track of winning hands and losing ones and the people who were probably cheating, counting cards, or just unnaturally good at the game. And the echo he knew for a fact he hadn't met and wasn't on the little list in the notebook he kept in his pocket. He'd begun keeping track of the other echoes and noting the major players among them after Sonare. With a criminal organization out there and a place that could prey so strongly on your weaknesses, it would be good to know who would be the best to run into and the ones he should avoid.

This one he hadn't gotten a read on yet, but there was something hiding in his strange eyes and under all those gaudy and expensive looking clothes. The only people who dressed like that wanted to be seen and weren't afraid of the consequences. Stupid or powerful, it was a toss-up.

Roberto was leaning toward the later, though, of course, the fellow would find himself pretty powerless here.

Quietly, Roberto signaled the bartender and put a drink on his tab, having it delivered to the fellow at the card table while he remained watching from the bar and fading into the background.

@gaiathran