#broad city fanart

[gh0stsh4rk]

Abbi and Ilana :)—recently finished a rewatch of Broad City and it still holds up pretty well !!

[sceebybeeby]

the exterminators won't remove these things from my home

[sickgraymeat]

marceline accidentally jumpscares her gf by wanting to eat mars

(prompt from @opalescent-sun for "stargazing with a telescope" thank you!!!!)

[yuujispinkhair]

Alpha!Yuuji headcanons

A sweet anon sent me an ask wanting to know my thoughts about Alpha!Yuuji and my brain went grrr. Thank you!! I finally had an excuse to write about this strong and sexy Alpha with the sunshine smile and the knot so thick that it makes us sob ;) As you can see, I wrote this very shamelessly with my omega pussy lol but I hope my fellow Yuuji lovers can enjoy this self-indulgent piece too ;)

Pairing: Alpha!Yuuji x Omega!Reader (female) Genre: smut + fluff, Omegaverse AU Word Count: 3k Warnings: 18+, omegaverse, smut, breeding, knotting, creampie, pregnancy, biting, a bit of rough sex when Yuuji is in a rut, slight lactation kink, praise, mentions of blood and scars. Yuuji has to kill to protect his pack. All characters are of age. This story is 18+. Minors don't interact. Thank you for the star divider @/benkeibear. There is now fanart for this AU!! Thank you so much to @sandiaarts !!

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who is the strongest Alpha in the city but never planned to become a leader. Until the former boss-Alpha dies and is succeeded by his cruel son, who puts the whole city under his reign of terror. That's when Yuuji's heroic instincts are triggered, and he decides to step up and claim the position as the ruling Alpha.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who you see for the first time during his fight for dominance in a back alley behind a nightclub where the packs are gathered to watch the fight that will decide who becomes their new leader. You get one look at this gorgeous pink-haired Alpha and already know he will win. Tall and buff, with firm muscles and a feral conviction in his golden eyes. A true Alpha!

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who wins the fight after just a few minutes. He lifts his face while pinning his opponent down, one hand on the man's head and one foot on his back. His golden eyes find you in the crowd, and you feel a shudder run through you, your Omega cunt slicking up just at the sight of this strong and brave Alpha. Your new leader, who you will submit to all too happily.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who is so attractive with his boyish good looks and that muscular, powerful build. He has such a pretty sunshine smile but also such a broad, tall body packed with buff muscles. His skin is littered with scars that show the feral fighter he is, making him look so sexy and strong that it causes the most primal needs to awaken in you. You want to offer yourself to him, offer your slicked-up Omega cunt to him so he can breed you full of his strong pups.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who finds you later on in the nightclub, where you celebrate his victory. Who smiles sweetly when you congratulate him on his win. Who is so kind and easy to get along with despite how powerful he is. Who tells you he hates fighting, but since he is unfortunately very good at it, he thinks it's his duty to use his fists to protect the ones who are weaker than him.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who makes your Omega cunt throb with his words. All your primal instincts scream that you need this big, strong Alpha who is so brave and kind. You feel dizzy when you smell his enticing scent, filling your nostrils with its sexy, musky smell of wood and sunlight and the deep, rich aroma of ripe cherries. You gulp nervously as you tilt your head to look up at Yuuji's gorgeous face and see the same craving you feel mirrored in his golden eyes.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who mounts you only a few minutes later. Bending you over a table in the backroom of the nightclub, his pants and boxer briefs hastily pushed down while he ruts feverishly into you from behind. Riled up from the fight and exhilarated from the victory, needing to sink his Alpha cock into a willing slicked-up Omega cunt to come down again.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who fucks you like the leader that he is now. Who leans down to cage you between his big buff body and the table, interlacing his large fingers with your smaller ones while he fucks into you, making you cream again and again on his fat Alpha cock. His canines graze your skin as if he can hardly restrain himself from marking you as his mate right then and there.

+ Alpha Yuuji, who presses his nose against your neck and sniffs you, inhaling your scent hungrily and moaning against your neck, "Fuck. Fuck. You smell so good, baby." His big, heavy body shudders behind you while you feel him pulse his hot seed into you. And you know at that moment that you want to be his. That you want him to be your Alpha and your mate. You hope he will claim you one day!

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who doesn't pull out and leave after your needy fuck, like most new pack leaders would. Many of them would go from unmated Omega to unmated Omega to show them that the new Alpha has a right to take them now. But Yuuji stays with you. His big, broad body slumps against you, his muscular arms wrap around you, hugging you while he kisses your neck, sweet and caring. His seed and your slick run down your thighs in hot sticky rivulets, and your pussy twitches around his gorgeous thick cock, instinctively asking him for more, as if your Omega cunt is begging her Alpha to mate her and claim her for life.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who tells you that he needs to see you again when he finally pulls out of you. He turns you around, a large calloused hand cupping your chin tenderly, and he captures your lips in a sweet kiss before he lifts you up and places you on the table so he can clean your pussy with his loving mouth, taking proper care of you, moaning against your wet cunt how sweet of an Omega you are.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who keeps you close after that first night and makes an effort to get to know you. He buys you flowers and chocolates and asks you on dates, making sure to appreciate you and not just see you as a willing and breedable Omega but as a woman he cherishes and adores.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who is such a good pack leader, kind and protective. He is so sweet to the little ones, playing with them and teaching them how to box so they can learn how to protect themselves. He also cares about the older members of the pack, telling them he looked after his sick grandpa for many years and, therefore, understands the struggles of the elderly and that they can always come to him and ask for help. He is a natural leader. A real Alpha. It makes him even more attractive in your eyes, and you catch yourself getting nice and slick for him anytime he is in the same room.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who makes your scent glands throb hotly anytime he fucks you, your body trying to lure him in, wordlessly signaling to him how bad you want to be his. How bad you want him to mate you. He growls brokenly anytime it happens and licks hungrily over your scent glands, making you cum instantly around his powerful Alpha cock.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who is so sweet and caring that he tries to hold back as long as possible before he claims you. Who fucks his balls empty into your sweet Omega cunt and grunts and growls as he tries his best to stop himself from forcefully claiming you as his mate.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who kisses you in front of the nightclub that belongs to him now, smiling against your lips while his strong arms hold you so tightly, pulling you against his tall, buff body, offering you a feeling of safety you have never known before. He tells you he loves you while he holds you in his strong arms, and you almost cry from the happiness you feel.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who reaches his breaking point that night after you both confessed your love to each other and pushes his cock extra deep into you, letting you get a little taste of his knot, making you sob in need while he groans in your ear: "I want to mate you so bad, cutie. Want to make you my Omega. I can't hold back much longer, sweetie. Want to mate you and breed you and cherish you and give you my pups. Fuck... please let me mate you! Please be my Omega and my mate!"

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who waits for your consent even while his muscular body is shaking from the effort it takes to hold back before he sinks his teeth into your neck and bites you with a mating bite that hurts and arouses you at the same time.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who mounts you again to seal your bond with another load of his Alpha seed. He fucks you deep and feral, claiming his mate thoroughly, making sure you know how much he loves you and that he is yours now and you are his. He moans and growls and tells you he will give you his knot, will give you his everything for the rest of his life, while mounting you so hard and good that you see stars.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, whose knot is so big that you are worried you won't be able to take him when you feel the first swelling at his thick base. But Yuuji is such a caring Alpha and such a sweet mate. He soothes you with his low, sexy voice, whispering the sweetest praise to you while he prepares you thoroughly for his knot. He will give you his all, even if it takes hours to prepare you for his knot. He kisses you and rubs slow, tender circles around your swollen clit, loosening your cunt with several orgasms on his cock before he allows his knot to grow and plug you up.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who makes you mewl and orgasm instantly when you finally feel his fat knot plugging you up, claiming you as his alone while he moans I love you's in your ear. His calloused fingers rub your puffy clit, making you squirt over and over again on his fat knot while he pulses his hot seed into you, sealing your mating ritual with both of your cum.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who kisses you deeply and tells you how sweet and beautiful you are while he slowly slips out of you after a night spent mating you. You sigh happily, so content and happy that you found such a strong Alpha and such a caring mate. Yuuji stays with you for hours afterward, refusing to leave your side after such an intimate experience. He holds you tightly, lets you rest and sleep in his strong arms, safe and warm in your mate's embrace, knowing he will take care of you for the rest of his life.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who is loved by his whole pack for his kindness and strength. A caring and protective Alpha. His large, calloused hands touch you with so much love and tenderness, but they can also deal the hardest punches against the ones who dare attack his pack. And if anyone tries to hurt his mate, Yuuji will see red and become a feral predator so powerful that his enemies will grovel before him and beg for mercy.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who won't start a fight without a reason. But he hunts down the ones who break the rules of peace and are cruel and dangerous to others. He kills if he has to, but it bothers him greatly to take a life, and he always seeks comfort and reassurance in your arms after every kill.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who comes back home to you after a deadly fight with bloody scratches all over his body, which will heal into a few more sexy scars that show his dominance and strength. There's a feral glint in his golden eyes, making them glow like two full moons, angry and unrelenting. The eyes of a powerful predator who was forced to unleash his fury against his enemies. A gaze that makes you moan and grab the bed sheets tightly, your legs instinctively falling open to present your panty-clad slick cunt to this strong Alpha in front of you.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who craves you badly after every kill. Who rips off his shirt and lets it fall to the ground, looking at you with that feral, primal need in his eyes while he opens his belt with one large hand, so riled up from the fight and ready to fuck his anger into the comforting wet heat of your sweet Omega cunt.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, whose buff body is bloody and sweaty from the fight. Veins standing out on his taut, flexed muscles. His fight triggered a rut, making his thick fat Alpha cock slap heavily against his firm abs when he frees himself from his trousers. The irresistible primal scent of his pheromones fills the whole room, making the slick run down your thighs even before Yuuji has laid a single finger on you.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who tears your soaked panties down, presses his face against your slick cunt, and growls wildly when he inhales your scent and licks up your sweet slick. He needs to fuck all his worries and anger into you. Needs you so bad to make things ok again. He growls a thank you after you tell him to let it all out on you, to fuck you as hard as he needs. "Don't hold back, Yuuji. I can take it. Fuck me as hard as you need, Alpha."

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who always fucks you harder after a kill. Using his strength on you and manhandling you with rough, calloused hands. He growls when he has you on all fours for him, with your cute ass in the air and legs spread, presenting him your pretty Omega cunt to claim and fuck. He groans behind you, low and feral, in full Alpha mode, giving your ass a hard slap as he splits you open around his fat cockhead.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who mounts you wild and hard, slapping your ass and fucking you with rough hard thrusts that go so deep that you howl with the most primal need and lust every time he ruts into you. He takes you in such a primal way, like an animal, hard and deep, while biting your neck and drooling all over your skin. He is so loud and feral, not holding back at all, fucking you unrelentingly from one orgasm to the next.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who only pulls out after he has exhausted himself completely, taking all his anger and pain out on your sweet, willing Omega cunt. You know that on those kinds of nights, he needs you to give him comfort, and so you pull him in your arms, hug him and cuddle him, and stroke his pretty pink hair, telling him he did the right thing and that you are so proud of him for protecting his pack. "You are such a good Alpha. And such a good man."

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who not only wants you as his mate, but also as his wife, giving you a double promise of always protecting and loving you. Now you wear his teeth imprint on your neck and a beautiful golden wedding band on your ring finger.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, whose need to breed is so strong that he practically begs you to please let him fuck his pups into you anytime he smells your heat approaching. Your fertile pussy always drives him insane, making him lick up your slick needily while shooting his first load all over the bedsheets and himself, unable to hold back with your sweet taste filling his mouth and nose.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who is the happiest man ever, when you tell him you stopped taking your birth control. "I want your babies, Yuuji. Want to give you so many cute and strong pups, just like their daddy." And your man instantly has you under him, pinning you to the bed with his heavy, muscular body, snapping his hips furiously, shooting load after load into you while thanking you. "Thank you, baby, oh fuck, thank you so much! I will give you so many cute pups, my angel! Will fuck so many into you!"

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who always breeds you anytime he claims you, now that he knows you want his pups. He fucks to breed. He wants a whole litter of cute little pups with you. He moans and growls ferally into your ear while he mounts you from behind and fucks you with such savage, needy, and deep thrusts that he almost breaks the bed.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who loves to put you in a mating press with you all needy under his heavy buff body, your knees pressed to your tits while he bucks his hips ferally against you, going wild at the thought of his fat cock so deep in you.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who wants to knock you up so bad that he is in a permanent rut now, triggering your heat over and over again, making you so wet and horny for him that you can barely walk anymore.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who has so much stamina that when he knots you, his knot stays inside you all night. Slow rolls of his hips while he is in you balls-deep, shooting thick load after load of his hot fertile seed into you, his balls so big and heavy that they slap loudly against your slicked-up swollen clit, making you cum over and over again until you are delirious from it, babbling how much you need him, "Please, Yuu, please make me a mommy. Please gimme your pups, baby."

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who hugs you in his strong, buff arms and kisses your neck and lips lovingly while his knot is throbbing in you and plugging you up to keep his hot, fertile seed deep in you, breeding his sweet wife so thoroughly while praising you the whole time. "Look at you taking my knot so well. Fuck, I love you so much, cutie. I can't wait to see your belly so big and swollen with our pups. You'll be such a beautiful mommy."

+ Alpha!Yuuji, whose seed is strong and fertile and takes immediately. He smiles brightly at you and hugs you tightly when you tell him you are pregnant. He goes out to buy materials to build a cradle immediately, so eager and excited to start his family with you. And then repeats the same thing a few weeks later when you find out he fucked twins into you on the first try.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who is always very protective but gets even worse when you carry his pups in you. Who growls at everyone who comes too close to you, always ensuring his mate and pups are safe. Who leaves his scent all over you to keep potential threats away.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who goes feral when your belly grows. He loves you so much, and it drives him crazy with lust and love to see that he successfully bred you, making you round and big with his pups, with his strong and chubby babies. It makes Yuuji so hard to see you like that. He has to take you every night while he caresses your belly and kneads your swollen tits, already milking a bit of milk out of them that he hungrily licks up.

+ Alpha! Yuuji, who pulls out of your cunt and cums all over your swollen belly because the sight turns him on so much.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who kisses and licks you clean afterward before he rests his head on your belly and talks to his little ones, telling them how much their mommy and daddy love them. And he looks up at you with those gleaming golden eyes full of love and tells you, "And I also love you so much, baby. Thank you for being my mate and my wife. I am so lucky!"

+ Alpha!Yuuji, whose genes are very dominant, so all your pups will have his pink hair. But you definitely don't mind because it looks so cute when your twins are born with a soft tuft of pink hair on their little heads! Your pups are two big, strong boys with chubby thighs and cheeks and loud voices. Strong, just like their daddy.

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who is such a proud mate and daddy. He never gets tired of spending time with his wife and his little ones. He gets up in the middle of the night to feed and cuddle his little boys so his sweet wife can rest. He carries the twins around in his strong arms, showing them off all proudly with a big happy smile on his face, cooing at them, playing with them, and petting their pink hair. And you watch him with happy tears in your eyes, so happy that you found such a good Alpha and loving husband!

+ Alpha!Yuuji, who beams at you and pulls you against his buff, tall body to kiss you thoroughly. Who doesn't let you go again because his heart feels so full and his cock is already swelling again, knowing that you are such a good mommy and such a sweet mate. He needs to bend you over the nearest surface and mount you again until your cute Omega cunt is stuffed with his fertile seed again, making more cute little pink-haired pups with the love of his life.

FUCKKKKK HE MAKES ME FERAL!! I don't know why, but there is something about Yuuji that fits Omegaverse so well, in my opinion. My head is spinning!!! Thank you so much, dear anon, for sending me this ask! When I wrote my Sukuna Omegaverse story, I already low-key wanted to write for Yuuji (and Megumi) too, and you motivated me to do so!

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you liked Alpha!Yuuji and enjoyed this sexy little story!

Comments and reblogs would be very sweet!

[liliannadelaphinehartifelt]

Alastor - [ DEVOTION… PT.1 ]

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[ NSFW ] + [ MDNI ] + [ SLIGHT AGE GAP ] + [ ARRANGED MARRIAGE ] + [ BREEDING KINK ] - ( there’s a lot to unpack in this one, I know, but you’ll enjoy it.. also pls kindly lmk the artist for the fanart I used so I can tag them thx! )

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Alastor Hartifelt was a fantastic husband.

No one could deny that.

Especially not his darling wife of one year and counting.

You, his sole companion during childhood, dawning from a rich family that occupied an estate near his family’s plot of farming land, and exceptionally infatuated with him early into your friendship.

From the very first time you met him out in the sprawling green meadows of Louisiana’s swamped countryside you found comfort in each other even amidst being ignored or teased by other children.

Their shared hatred and resentment towards you and the older boy cultivated an odd but strong bond between you two, and soon your strife to fit in seemed less appealing than being his truest friend.

Alastor immediately became protective of you, finding your shy nature welcoming like his own mothers, but also irritated by those who wished you harm for the simple fact that your family was better off than their own.

If anyone dared to pick a fight, tease, or berate you Alastor was right there to come to your aid. You’d tell him time and time again that fighting for you wasn’t worth it, that seeing him hurt wounded you more than their words, but for some baffling reason he’d never head your pleas.

Why?…

In retrospect Alastor wasn’t sure of the reason himself but he was certain it had something to do with the way you returned the favor by protecting him in your own subtle ways.

Your arms remained wide open when he needed an embrace, voice full of tender understanding when the two of you held quiet conversations late into the evening, and generally being his safe place when the rest of the world refused to be.

You were his darling from the very beginning…

His everything…

Yet, Alastor wouldn’t dare say it aloud..,

The two of you couldn’t be more different to those who observed your relationship from the outside. Alastor held an air of confidence wherever he went, suave, and well mannered. He could be cunning when provoked, dangerously charming to get his way, and refreshingly decisive under any amount of pressure.

A man every woman in New Orleans wanted, craved even, but it was well known the famous radio host had you at his side.

You, the city’s undisputed princess, daughter of a wealthy businessman, but regarded as the furthest thing from a ‘spoiled brat’. It was expected for those in higher circles to have sour and condescending attitudes but you proved to be different. Soft spoken, interested in the arts more than being out on the town, and some might’ve considered you ‘sheltered’ in terms of upbringing.

The contrast between Alastor and yourself brought about many whispered rumors and questions.

“How’d a sweet little thing like her end up with him?”

“Doesn’t he want someone better suited? Whats so special about her?”

“I hear, he married her for the fathers money. Don’t blame him for it either…she’s a real peach…”

“A little young for him don’t you think? She’s a lovely broad though…”

You’d heard it all. Every sort of rumor or piece of gossip people had to offer you’d picked up on rather quickly and at first it bothered you, but overtime seeing Alastor act indifferent to the scandalous comments made you less weary of them.

He’d never entertain the scrutiny, choosing to remind you his decision to marry wasn’t fueled by any ill will and as his wife you’d never need to worry about him caring for you.

Alastor’s always had, even when he’d left New Orleans to build his career he still thought of you from time to time, but that’s all he’d ever done.

Cared for you…

Love seemed to allude his spectrum of emotions and vocabulary. Yes, he shows you affection, buying expensive gifts, making sure you never lifted a finger for anything other than cleaning or cooking when needed, and proudly showing you off on his arm at parties and social events he attended.

Yes, he strived to hide his murderous tendencies, taking extra lengths to shield you from his ‘hunting’ escapades by planning them weeks before, and then going as far as discreetly cleaning his bloody clothes and weapons the night he returns while you slept soundly in your shared bed.

Alastor took great care in showing you he cared but defining his love for you was never addressed.

Not even on your wedding day.

It was as if he’d scripted his vows to say nothing of the emotion and even avoided saying “I love you” back when you’d accidentally let it slip out during your own speech for him.

You hadn’t pressed the issue at all, knowing Alastor struggled with concepts of intimacy and devotion since childhood, but the lmawing teeth of doubt pricked your skin harder with each passing day of your marriage.

Had you made a mistake agreeing to marry him?

Was he seeing someone else?

Someone knowledgeable of the world, maybe more experienced in life than you were, or more attentive?

Was she prettier?

Were you not his kind of woman?

Where did he go so late at night, at random times of the month, with a leather bag in his hand and a wide smile on his face?…

Had Alastor been seeing another woman for a whole year and you were just too oblivious or infatuated to notice?

Did he even like you anymore? Could he ever love you…?

Were you not enough for him?

Thoughts plagued your mind constantly, causing you to be quieter than usual, and less receptive to Alsstors lingering presence.

Your back was to him, giving a good veiw of your small frame as you cooked in the large kitchen. The familiar sight brought a smile to Alastor’s face. You were so focused, hair tied back by a white silk bow, and a sheer floor length robe to match.

He’d bough both for you only a week prior, claiming he couldn’t just let the items sit in the display window when you’d been staring at with such bright stars in your eyes, but in truth Alastor had imagined you wearing it just as you were now and couldn’t resist buying it on the spot.

Your husband remained silent as he watched you waltz around the kitchen, chocolate brown eyes peering over the top of his glasses as he did, but his smile faltering seeing the distress in your delicate features.

You weren’t the type to frown often, always emitting warmth and sweetness, so the rare appearance of anguish in your expression perplexed Alastor.

What had upset his darling wife?

Who would he have to kill?….

Asking what was troubling you would surely give him answers to both questions.

He stepped forward, coming from round the corner to enter the kitchen fully before striding over to stand by your side as you began to mix what he assumed was dessert in a bowl.

Albeit, he was probably right knowing you had a vicious sweet tooth.

“Strawberry cake I presume?” Alastor finally speaks, making his presence known with a cheeky remark, and you nearly jump out of your skin hearing his silky voice resonate around the room.

Your head snaps up to look at him, eyes wide with slight surprise, but they quickly soften as he smiles. A blush creeps onto your cheeks as he steps closer, initiating his usual habit of brushing a stray strand of hair from your face before kissing your temple gently, and only pulling away when you squeak out a greeting back to him.

“H-hi Al…you’re home a bit earlier than I expected…” you swallow thickly, staring at him adoringly for a moment before lowering your gaze as tinges of guilt build in you. “I’m sorry dinner isn’t quite ready yet…” you whisper, feeling shameful, and more agitated with yourself than before. Alastor had and would never berate you, unlike most men of the time he saw no benefit in treating his wife like a slave, and made an effort to remind you not everything had to be perfect.

“It’ s alright, darling. You needn’t rush yourself,” his voice is low, simmering with reassurance as he lifts your chin with his thumb and pointer finger. You smile nervously as your eyes meet his again, his touch firm and electrifying all at once, and your tummy doing several flips when he smiles back at you.

Alastor studies your face, attempting to pinpoint the source of your masked sadness, “You seem…troubled, sweetheart. Is there something wrong?” His genuine question brings a shock to your heart, tongue going numb as you race to think of a believable reason for your dampened mood, “I…I just had a little mishap with this cake batter is all!..”

You step away from him, turning to face the semi clean counter with a false air of cheeriness surrounding you. The fear of sounding needy and demanding while telling Alastor the truth keeps you from being honest with him outright.

Fake it.

I shouldn’t worry him with my insecurities or doubts…

It might push him further away…

The whisk in your hand spins in tight circles as you focus on mixing the overdone batter, beginning to thicken itself more than necessary as you kept going, using the task as a distraction from Alastor’s keen observance.

Something was wrong.

He was sure of it now.

His eyes narrowed behind the circular glasses, hands finding your waist as he came to stand behind you, allowing his chest to press against your back, and his head lowering to tuck into the crook of your neck.

A shiver racked your body as he exhaled a long, steady breath onto your skin. Your hands faltered, flurried movements becoming lax as you froze in his embrace, “When’d you start lying to me, ma chère…” Alastor mumbled into your ear. Every nerve in your body was on alert, shocked that he’d went much further than his usual bounds of physical affection, but pleasantly delighted he’d given it to you.

“M’ not lying,..”you try to uphold your lie through rising pants, tempted to moan quietly feeling his lips graze behind your ear, neck, and bare shoulder while your robe shifted lower. You weren’t certain if Alastor was inching it down by his own accord or your subtle squirming against him was to blame.

The ending result was the same either way. Your upper body gradually becoming exposed to his leering gaze and the cool air. Alastor hummed, the sound rumbling deep in his chest and flooding your mind repeatedly as he placed chaste kisses on your neck.

“I wish I could believe you, darling…” he chuckled lowly, hands inching towards the lace ribbon keeping your gown tied shut, and with one gentle tug he rendered the fabric useless. “Al..” you whined in slight surprise as he snatched the ribbon off, letting it unravel into a small pile on the tile floor before sliding his cold hands up the expanse of your heated torso.

Nothing.

You were wearing absolutely nothing underneath the thin robe and Alastor audibly groaned when he realized it.

Had you planned on this?

Were you just waiting for him to venture further with you?

All this time he’d watched you frolic and pace around your shared home, wondering what was hidden under you seemingly modest clothing….just to find you wore nothing at all…

Oh, what a rare occurrence it was for him to be such a blind fool.

Your hands flew to grasp Alastor’s wrists as he held you tighter, kneading your soft flesh lovingly, and taking his time to admire every dip and curve you had to offer him.

“Al…please..” you begged, visibly shuddering as he nipped at your neck and played with your breasts. “I won’t go any further until I hear the truth from that pretty mouth of yours, sweetheart…”

Damn it….you cursed yourself, slowly losing the will to think as his lips found the most sensitive area on your neck, bruising it with his tongue teeth until you whimpered and rushed out a jumbled explanation for your heavy mood.

“I…Imscaredyoudomtlovseme…th-that you d-don’t want me- Ahm…” you soft voice reached a new octave as your husband slid his free hand between your thighs to cup your mound, gingerly kicking your legs apart with a nudge of his foot against your own, and you tensed all over as he did so.

Fuck, he could definitely feel how desperate you were now, essentially a mess already without Alastor doing much of anything, and embarrassingly unable to control your arousal.

“Love, hm? That’s what’s troubling your precious mind?…” Alastor mulls over your confession, able to maintain his composure despite heat rushing straight through him to the head of his cock as he slid two fingers into your dripping cunt. You jolted from the sudden intrusion, head lulling back to rest on his shoulder as he pumped them in and out of you at a leisurely pace, curling his deft digits fowvard every so often to make you shiver.

His thumb found your clit, pressing defined circles into it as he began to ease your worries, “Love, ma chère, isn’t what I feel for you..” Alastor lets out a soft laugh, trying to calm his own mind before clarifying his vague statement all while pushing you near the edge of your first high.

“No….I feel much more than love for you, my dear. Devotion is a better term…obsession at times…” he admits the darker side of his affection through heavy breaths, cock twitching in his dress pants when you mewl in understanding. Your warm cunt suffocates his fingers for a moment, walls fluttering as the knot in your core threatens to undo itself, causing Alastor to sharply exhale from the inviting fluctuations.

Your lips parted to warm him of your impending orgasm but only a strained moan tumbled off your tongue. Alastor needed no other sign to tell if you were close, inwardly prideful he could make you come with ease.

“Go on, come undone for me , darling,” he insists in a hushed groan, his fingers stretching your walls in a fluid rhythm to drag your climax out, and you could’ve tumbled to the floor from the sheer intensity of the knot inside you snapping on his command.

Thankfully his taller frame kept you securely trapped between him and the counter that you soon found yourself sitting on the edge of after Alastor slipped his hand away from your throbbing cunt.

You watched with a dazed eyes as the older man licked a stripe of your cum off his fingers, brown eyes sliding shut as he let out a satisfied grunt before staring at your willing form perched on the counters edge.

The sight drew a his hidden hunger closer to the surface, toying with his self control as he took it in, and urging him to act on a primal instinct he’d only ever describe as “intense affection”.

Was that a flash of red in his eyes just now?

No , it couldn’t be…

You weren’t left much time to decipher the hungry glint in his eyes before Alastor reclaimed his position near you. His slender waist slotted perfectly between your thighs, the robe now draped off your back, and your hair gradually falling loose from its simple updo as his hands traced your sides.

“Love, sweet girl, is for lonesome fools…” Alastor pressed his forehead to yours, letting you chase his lips for one heated kiss after the next, and only denying you another to whisper against your soft and slightly swollen lips.

“Neither of us are alone or fools, correct?” He huffs as you nod slowly, bringing your hands up to undo his tie, and then proceeding to expertly unbutton his vest and dress shirt.

The general charm that Alastor maintained completely dissolved into pining under your gentle fingertips, an almost desperate shot of adrenaline consuming him as you peppered kisses along his jaw and neck.

If what he said was truly how he felt about you…it was enough to stamp out your doubts, allowing the adoring side of you he’d grown familiar with to resurface, “No…we aren’t,” you respond with a small smile.

He tips your chin up, placing a deep kiss on your lips as he shrugs his shirt and vest off, setting his glasses to the side as well before reaching for the leather belt on his waist.

You paid his actions no mind, busy with fighting his tongue for dominance, but admitted defeat quite fast as his wandered your mouth in expert fashion.

Your soft hands passed over his chest, moving up to tangle in his soft curls, gently tugging the strands to earn a groan from him. Alastor pulled back, a single line of spit connecting you two as he did so, and his hair falling in front of his eyes as he stared down into your tear glossed gaze, “You’re mine, ma chère. Til death and beyond…”

You nod, halfway coherent, but mustering the will to answer him with a content smile.

“Til death…” you repeat the phrase, mind reeling further from logical thinking as Alastor hummed hearing your dazed response, head nestled in your neck once more before he trailed open mouthed kisses down the expanse of your trembling frame. He brought himself as close as possible to you, smiling on your skin as you gasp quietly feeling his clothed erection press flush against your bare stomach, leaning further back in his hold embrace him better. You feared making a mess of the counter but as Alastor trailed his lips down your body and kneeled between your legs he gave one swift snap of his fingers to eliminate the obstacle entirely.

What?….How in the world did he do that?…

Your curiosity would’ve prompted you to ask him about the absurd occurrence if it weren’t for the anticipation rushing your blood as he came face to face with your cunt. “Alastor?…” you squeaked his name softly, attempting to close your legs when he sighed out a warm breath on your glistening folds, but he held them open using one hand with ease. The other resting steady on your waist, guiding you to lay back onto the cold marble countertop, and lingering there as you obeyed his wordless command.

“Good girl…” he praised, tone deepening as you whined quietly, the sound morphing into a loud moan as he lazily flicked his tongue over your slit once…twice…and a third time.

“More…” you pant in the midst of moaning, head craning to the side while your back arched and the urge to scream built in your chest as Alastor obliged your request with vigorous intent. He hummed melodically as your taste seeped onto his tongue, walls ever so sensitive as he explored them tirelessly, and a smirk playing on his lips as you writhed in pleasure.

Your face was soon flushed completely, eyes watering as they rolled slightly with each pass of his tongue over your cunt, and your small hands returning to tug at his soft brown hair. Another coil spiraled in your stomach hearing him groan in response, seeming to enjoy how roughly you pulled his hair, and his gaze drifting up for a split second to get a good view of your satiated state.

Seven hells….she looks even lovelier like this…

Alastor unconsciously drags you closer to his face, not caring at all when you lock your legs around his head and cry out from the borderline bruising hold he has on you now. “Oh god!…” you yelp, throwing him a bewildered glance before tossing your head back as he lapped at your clit like he’d starve to death without it, and the relentless attention to your bundle of nerves was the last thing you could comprehend before the knot unwinded itself.

Your vision blurred over, everything starting to spin as your cum gushed into his mouth, and the tears you were fighting to hide slid freely down your face as he downed every single drop your body offered.

It was all too much, the hunger in his eyes, his hold on you, and your high that never seemed to subside even as he broke away from your cunt with a satisfied smile on his face.

It was all too much at once….

Your head buzzed with euphoric afterthoughts, incoherency daring to cloud your senses entirely, but the sound of Alastor’s voice near your ear successfully halted the sensations long enough for you to comprehend what he was saying.

“You taste divine, ma chère…” his musing flusters you, a light shade of pink coating your cheeks as he dips his head to steal a kiss from you, “Al…” you sigh into his mouth, biting back a keen smile, and wrapping your arms around his neck to keep him near.

He chuckles hearing the unsteady tremor in your tone, adding onto his compliment after capturing your parted lips in another deep kiss, “I presume you’ll feel just as wonderful with me inside you, sweetheart…”

His assumption proved true. So much so that the moment his cock passed through your slippery folds a heavy groan of your name was the first and only thing he could manage to say. “Y/n….mon amor…” Alastor held you underneath him, not daring to move without completely relishing in the way your cunt wrapped around him first, and your broken moans dizzying the last bit of self control he was clinging onto.

You tried not to seem overwhelmed, with your legs wrapped around his waist, and your hands cupping his face to keep him as close as possible while your body adjusted to his size. With furrowed brows and a soft smile you praised your husbands well endowed length as he finally drew his hips back, leaving nothing but the head his cock resting in you.

“You…feel…s’good….” You whisper, breathless as he slams back in, swallowing your pleased cries with one tender kiss after the next. He tasted like you, hints of bourbon lingering on his tongue from the drink he’d poured himself before leaving the station, but your essence more prominent than ever.

All that he was, all that he did, and would ever do revolved around you.

His darling wife…

His one and only….

It showed through the sweet phrases he muttered against your lips as he took his time to please you, pace slow and deliberate, but the execution precise and cutthroat.

You weren’t sure when you’d raised your voice, crying out louder as he abused your sweetest spot continuously, and only going silent when a inaudible scream begged to leap from your chest while his cock bullied into cervix. Stars collected in your vision, hands clawing at Alastor’s back as you tried to hang onto reality for dear life, but failing miserably when he sped up his thrusts.

A subtle laugh passed his lips, eyes glinting with greedy lust as your head flew back, exposing all the love bites he’d left on your delicate skin, and the sight caused his cock to twitch inside you.

“F-fuck….Al!” Your eyes watered once more, sliding shut as a familiar pressure built in your core, rapidly gaining density the longer Alastor fucked into you.

He groaned at the sound of you shouting his name in such a twisted mix of ecstasy and anguish. Your soft voice becoming tainted with an edge he’d never imagined it could have. “Close already, my dear?..” he teased you, smile as smug as ever as he stood up straight, hands gripping either side of your hips, and his gaze lowering to where you two connected.

“Look…at…that…” he mused, suddenly slowing his thrusts to a painfully harsh pace, fixated on the way your cunt continuously creamed on his length. Alastor bit his tongue to keep from growling at the view, barely registering your whines and pleads for him to go faster.

“Al…Alastor…please..m’ begging you…please…” you felt your thighs shake as he continued his lazy strokes, clearly wanting to drag the ordeal out for his personal entertainment, and his lack of sympathy for your plight in that moment edged you even closer to cumming.

He knew it too…

That infamous grin on his face as he watched you resort to quiet sobs and desperate moans was a sure sign of the fact…

Alastor knew you needed him, loved him, lived for him..

“Please what, mon chere?” He bit his lip, unhooking your legs from around his waist to push them to your chest, giving his cock a new angle to stretch your cunt with.

You felt like passing out then, all strength evaporating from your body as he reached places inside you that surely didn’t exist before. His taunting didn’t make your dazed state any better, “Please, ruin you? Please, love you?… Let me hear you loud and clear, darling..”

Before you could register the words they flew from you mouth in a hushed flurry of need.

“Please…love me…fuck me like you love me…use me…I don’t care anymore…”

Alastor immediately rewarded your answer, wasting no time as his hips snapped into yours feverishly, flooding the kitchen with the sound of skin against skin.

“Lovely…” he cooed, voice thick with tension as he stared down at your overstimulated form, and within seconds of the praise slipping off his tongue you came undone. He followed shortly after, not caring to ask where you wanted his release, and you made no protest as the warm white liquid spilled inside you.

All you could do was stare, mouth falling open as he fucked his cum deeper, “It’s high time you became a mother, mon chere. You’d like that wouldn’t you?..” Alastor rambled, hardly coherent as his high coursed through him, but his statement crystal clear to you.

“Yes…” you whimper in response, walls clenching his cock as the thought of carrying his child sprung into your mind. “I’d love it…Al.”

His heart nearly stops as a genuine closed eye smile graces your face, a light blush painting your cheeks as he kisses them gently while gingerly slipping his softened cock out of your leaking heat. Alastor then lets your legs fall, lifting you to sit up straight on the counter again before wrapping his arms around your waist.

You hang onto him for balance, feeling entirely small in his grasp, and finding comfort in the embrace as exhaustion trickles in.

Alastor breathed in your sweet scent, beginning to pull your robe back on your tired form before reaching for his dress shirt. He was careful not to stir you away from his chest as he shrugged the clothing back on

“I’d love you and our child more than anything…” he nonchalantly mumbles, kissing the top of your head, and chuckling when your tied eyes go wide with undeniable hope.

“More than anything?…”

“Anything, my dear…” he repeats himself with a soft smile, bringing a hand up to push fallen strands of hair from your face.

That was when it occurred to you…

Alastor Hartiflet could love…

He’d always been able to….

And he loved you enough to share it with another…

How surreal….

xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxx xxx

This entire 1st part was brought to you by the Great Gatsby movie soundtrack…❤️ you’re welcome… ;)

[ BONUS CONTENT + ]

Actually it MIGHT BE 12 inches if we are being honest… ❤️ credits to creator.

[withthewindinherfootsteps]

Welcome to my blog!

I'm Skye (she/her), and I primarily write metas/analyses about MDZS, though other things do get reblogged occasionally. I love analysing characters and waxing about the structure of MDZS, though there may be periods of inactivity. Regardless, I hope you enjoy the time spent on this blog, and that it may lead you down the rabbit hole of other people's metas as well – I've linked some of my favourite analyses down below, as well as a few of my own that I'm proud of.

Info

I'm about to start a reread of MDZS, and will post about thoughts I have/details I notice under the tag #skye rereads mdzs. For the posts that get longer and more analytical, I'll tag them under relevant #meta tags as well. I will be using online screenshots, but I do own all the books, if that's a concern!

Important tags (be warned tumblr does mix them up a bit when you search...):

#my meta for my analyses

#important for important real-world things, like donation links etc (because though this is a fandom blog, it's also the biggest platform I have, and the more people these posts can reach, the better – people can decide what to do with them after they've been seen)

#[mdzs/svsss/tgcf] meta for any analyses, mine or someone else's

#translation for analyses focusing on comparing translations

#[mdzs/svsss/tgcf] fanart for fanart i've reblogged

#fav tag for others' analyses or fanworks I particularly enjoy

#not mxtx is self explanatory

#asks is self-explanatory, too!

Metas

Metas I'm proud of:

My 'WWX is not a self-sacrificial idiot' series: 1, 2 (my favourite one), 3. Also compiled into one essay on AO3, with clearer definitions and an added introduction!

NHS and the morality of revenge

Trope subversions in MDZS and SVSSS

How might NHS have found out about NMJ's death?

Yi City + 3zun parallels

JYL is a well-written character, actually (second is unfinished)

How the way the world views LWJ reflects his character arc

On LWJ remaining in the Lan sect after WWX's death

The Morally Grey Debate^TM from a different angle

On the nice, broad road metaphor and how LWJ ties into it

Any meta around or over 3k words which I'm sufficiently proud of will also be crossposted onto my AO3 account!

My favourite metas to read:

LWJ and JC being foils/the theme of "love is an action word" by @/rynne (there are two parts, they're not dealing with two different subjects)

The theme of resentment in MDZS also by @/rynne

WWX, making miracles, and what defines him by @/righteousinadversity

The development of WWX's attitude towards LWJ in his first life by @/wutheringskies

NHS, WWX and masks by @/morethanwonderful

There are many more, and this list will definitely expand as I track down them and their links. But I love all the metas I've reblogged, so feel free to scroll through the #[fandom] meta tag to see more recommendations!

With all that said, have a great day!

[sforzesco]

Hi ! Sorry to bother you, I followed you for Late Roman Republic fanart but stayed for your Renaissance art, and for your really great art style overall. Now i'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to Renaissance era history, so do you have any book recs to get started with studying it ? I started the Borgias show, but I dont have the best attention span for that :) thanks in advance for your answer !! ^^

italian renaissance era history is Very Broad and also includes france, I'd actually recommend picking someone who sounds interesting and starting with them!

some fun guys (gender neutral): machiavelli, any of the borgias, caterina sforza

alternatively, pick a city that sounds intriguing and begin with their history: if you enjoy a lot of art history, florence. religious political nightmares? rome. spycraft, statecraft, ciphers: venice all the way, baby. if you like the last generation of the roman republic-early empire narratives, milan's got fucked up family drama and a fall from glory (but also some really interesting history on plague control protocols, they did contact tracing!) (every city has conspiracies, since this is also the age of conspiracies) (I'll rec some city-state focused books later when I get home, but I probably have some city centric texts in my renaissance tag)

finally, Machiavelli's Prince or Florentine Histories. I used to read through those and branch off whenever I found something interesting (like the Pazzi conspiracy)

[insanepoll]

Lmao, you summoned the blaseballers. Our goal is not merely to win, but to recruit more fans to our queer horror baseball simulator where we make little guys that are so fucked up.

Anyways, if any of you reading wanna get into it, we're on development break, so there's time to immerse yourself!

-Check out the blaseball maincord (and various team sidecords/resources),

-The blaseball wiki (independent, not run by FANDOM wiki),

-Blaseball Cares for fanmade merch, zines, posters, etc (all proceeds go to charity),

-You can get a link to the SIBR discord from fans on maincord if you wanna get into the stats, analytics, and programming aspects, or check out sibr.dev to see the tools they've made!

-As mentioned above, SIBR makes tools to help us better understand blaseball. One of these is Before.sibr.dev, where people can pick a season and day and re-watch past games! Helps fill in the knowledge gaps and boredom over development breaks.

-Whenever something exciting (or terrifying) happens, there's always someone asking, "Where is BNN?!" That's because Blaseball News Network is where us blaseball fans go for live coverage, team rankings, and more articles about current blaseball events!

-for a look at fanart and writing collaboration from a bunch our fanwork guys, check out itch.io for the blaseball zine jam works, as well as a variety of blaseball themed ttrpgs and games!

-the Garages on Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube, and Bandcamp for an expansive range of music, and ParkPark Rangers for some folksy stuff on Bandcamp,

our collection of podcasts:

Yell Parks Pod- run by members of the Magic, this is less blaseball related and more a general show about national parks!

Infinite Cities Blaseball- definitely the widest range of topics, but definitely blaseball related commentary. They're running a 24 hour charity stream event for cinco de mayo on twitch and maincord (starting @ 6:30pm EST) to raise money for the Southern California Immigration Project.

Blittle League Blaseball (run by The Splorts Hub)- Story driven, based on Blaseball itself

Blaseball Analysis Co.- Stats with the stat guys!

Archives Unlimited- mainly lore talk and team culture!

And our beloved youtube creators:

Blaseball -Round-ups for broad story beats/anchor suffering/comedy, live stream uploads from the devs answering questions and updates

Blaseball Blexplained- Explaining statistics, game mechanics, plot in much further detail than the roundups, and weather forecasts for active games.

Blaseball fan culture is very much about Making and Doing. Part of why I love it so much.

!!! Y'all heard anon!!

[irregularjohnnywiggins]

Really funny how More Fun Comics #73 introduced two of DC's most popular superheroes, both of whom had wildly different Golden Age origins than any other origin since, and yet both origins are on completely different axis of 'would be cool if they were an Elseworld story someday'.

To whit, Aquaman's Golden Age origin sees his father as an undersea explorer who discovers the ruin of Atlantis, and uses their advanced technology to grant his infant son the ability to breathe underwater and communicate with sea-life. I'd be really interested in a modern take on this idea - I did see a fanart a few years back that reimagined Golden Age Aquaman as a tech hero, old-school divers suit and all, and hell it would even be cool to have an Aquaman story not focused on Atlantis, but instead on Aquaman as Protector of the Seas.

On the other hand, Golden Age Oliver Queen is a white guy who has... ahem, ""gathered"" a huge collection of Native American* artifacts and cultural relics, which he keeps for himself and used to train himself in archery and the like, before all of the artifacts are destroyed when criminals burn his house down. Oliver seeks out a secret, long-lost Native American* city and runs into Roy Harper when his plane crashes. Roy has been on the island the city is buried under for years, with his only companion being Quoag, his Native American* ""manservant"" who talks like every racist Asian caricature from the Golden Age because I guess the writers were too used to writing WWII propaganda to be creative in their racism. Anyway, thieves show up, Quoag dies and is immediately forgotten, they force in some really painful references to Green Arrow and Speedy (like, if you thought the reasoning for Speedy's name in Arrow being 'Oliver's sister does drugs' was painfully forced...) and eventually Oliver and Roy find the Native American* city, which is made out of solid gold because... reasons. Rather than tell anyone about it, Oliver and Roy decide to dismantle the city, sell it brick by brick, and use the money to become wealthy, and also fund their superhero exploits because apparently they decided that was a good idea.

If DC ever brings back Golden Age Oliver Queen under any circumstances and the story doesn't end with Modern Ollie and Roy teaming up to shank him and redistribute his wealth, I'm going to kill someone.

*I say 'Native American' knowing that it's incredibly broad, but the comic doesn't offer a specific group. It also... doesn't call them Native Americans, which I'm pretty sure you can guess.

[zixzs-ajk]

THE INEVITABLE OPINIONATED SUSELLE RANT PIECE NO ONE ASKED FOR

hey you wanna see me speedrun losing all my followers I'm putting this here as a long-ass 1,600-word examination for why I don't ship Suselle, 'cause that's bound to go over great, lol. But yeah! Now whenever people react to me being critical of the gay doe, I can point them towards this. AHEM.

Foreword: This is the in-depth openly opinionated analysis that I often want to avoid with shipping, but for the sake of discussion and transparency, I’ve tried specifying why Suselle as a ship is not appealing to me personally. The following is not made to shame anyone for liking Suselle, or to apply broad labels, or to shill my own ship preferences or anything like that; it is a look at why Suselle is not interesting and a low-point of Toby Fox’s writing in my eyes. I do not care what other people ship one way or the other and will perpetually advocate for any constructive and creative expression that people have fun making, whether it’s fanart or fanfiction or what have you. These are the words of some random cis bi guy on the internet who’s WAY too invested in a fictional video game involving a gay anthropomorphic doe and her crush on discount bootleg Rule63!Barney, so don’t take it as a personal attack or anything like that. Okay? Okay.  

I find Suselle to be poorly written and executed, with the chief offending reason being that it is excessive and too characterizing without enough build-up. Noelle obviously does not know Susie well enough to warrant such an extreme crush on her (she asks what Susie is like and about her interests, which most people I know would cite as the prerequisites for developing attraction towards someone). When we get into the game, we’re not given any first-hand chemistry or idea of how they interact with each other prior to Susie’s arc in Chapter 1, leaving the majority of any established canon off-screen and less tangible as a result; it’s akin to being told “these two characters have good chemistry” rather than being shown that directly in any exposition or first-hand encounters. It also makes their subsequent shows of chemistry (i.e. the Ferris Wheel ride) feel a little forced; it’s cute, sure, but it doesn’t really feel earned given how little else Susie and Noelle have interacted up to that point compared to how intimate they behave during the actual sequence itself. There’s a dissonance between Noelle’s grounded behavior with Kris compared to how head-over-heels she acts around Susie, and it doesn’t mesh with her personality in a way that feels convincing. 

I define Noelle’s crush as “unhealthy” for a number of reasons; the most egregious example she's known for is for ignoring Susie tormenting Kris as seen in the Sweepstakes, but events like her falsely saying she should be behind Susie to look at her "tail" or generally fetishizing Susie's bullying come to mind as being other offenders. It’s established she doesn’t quite know a whole lot about Susie, relying on this idea of her as a “tormentor” or bully for her most memorable bits of dialogue despite Susie contradicting that idea well after (and even sometimes during) Chapter 1. Noelle’s characterization feels stunted when such a significant part of it is dedicated towards her crush on Susie, and it detracts from the depth of her that we get to see when exploring the City with just her and Kris or the mystery of her mother and Dess. I feel when you have a character who’s most remembered for fantasizing about Susie pushing her over and laughing at her, at a point in the story when it’s already established that isn’t even what Susie’s actual personality is, then it makes it hard to just see it as a “harmless teenage crush.” 

To the people saying “that’s just how teenager crushes are,” A) that’s anecdotal at best and a deflection from the fact of B) It being a “stereotypical teenager crush” does not defend it from being poor writing and actively detracting from Noelle’s depth. Explaining why a character acts the way that they do does not change how that character acts, and Toby just as easily could have given her a more nuanced and distant crush with proper development instead of the immediate fixation Noelle currently has. Her crush isn’t treated as some character flaw and is often portrayed sincerely, giving the effect that we’re narratively expected to go along with her antics and be endeared by how prominently Noelle talks about Susie. I personally don’t find this satisfying, and I would prefer the idea of Noelle learning that Susie isn’t the kind of person Noelle thinks she is and going from there (a confrontation of “why do you want me to bully you?” or an actual natural interaction where their two personalities can play off of each other would do WONDERS in this department). It is entirely possible to portray a teenage crush in a satisfying way while still making it realistic in terms of how they’re inexperienced with love; look at Lumity from The Owl House for the most immediate example. 

To the people saying her crush is a form of escapism given Noelle’s familial circumstances (Rudy in the hospital, Dess being absent, Mayor Holiday likely being neglectful), I agree that’s a good potential point, but that isn’t a theme Toby actually explores in the game despite how much I’d like it to be. There’s plenty of potential and I could see that route being explored in future chapters, but with what we have, there isn’t any tangible theme of Noelle wanting a point of stability among her personal life. Most of her crush is framed as Noelle simply adoring Susie and attempting to get closer to her without having much emotional investment or details to get invested in ourselves, and while I’m all for cute antics, the frequency of how often we’re reminded about “HEY NOELLE REALLY LIKES SUSIE AND HAS A CRUSH ON HER” makes those bits of dialogue seem more obsessive than endearing. Some dialogue from Rudy frames Kris as being the one to “look out for her,” if anything. 

This is the part that’s more difficult to navigate and has attracted the most hostile ire. I hate that I feel the need to clarify this, but obviously, I am in no way homophobic or otherwise against queer relationship representation in media. I mean, hell, She-Ra, Owl House, and Steven Universe have some of my favorite ships of all time, and they don’t get much gayer than that. I myself have been bi and out about it for the better part of my online presence, and I’m eternally grateful that I live in a space conducive to being able to express my orientation. However, I’ve seen time and again instances of people having knee-jerk reactions to accuse others of homophobia just for criticizing any part of the media that even tangentially connects to the LGBTQA+ community, and Noelle’s crush is no exception. I have stated “Noelle being male would alter people’s perceptions of her behavior towards Susie,” and more than a few reactions were quick to assume bigotry at play or it being an “attack on sapphics.” I’d be lying if I said I didn’t expect something like that; based largely on what I’ve personally seen and experienced myself, it seems to be a go-to for internet communities, and doubly so for fandoms with prominent LGBTQA+ presences. 

Yes, I’m confident that the general public would be far less endeared by Noelle pretending she should be behind Susie just to look at her “tail” if it was a male doing that in the same space. I have seen people blast Berdly for his sudden and comical attraction towards Susie near the end of Chapter 2, and then see those same people turn around and praise Noelle despite being just as Susie-oriented in largely the same fashion. Often, when a male character is pining for a female character to an extent that is overtly problematic, the male is seen as a creepy individual and rarely succeeds in wooing the female character, as it has the most narrative satisfaction. Gravity Falls and Adventure Time come to mind as media rife with examples. Being a member of the queer community does not magically make Noelle’s behavior endearing, nor does it excuse Toby for writing her like that, and people being so eager to justify her crush as “just being a teenager thing” sometimes feels like a result of “having to defend a queer character.” You don’t have to defend or justify a characters’ actions just because they’re queer, and being critical of the actions of a queer character is not automatically homophobic. Ironically, criticizing and examining the actions of a queer character against generally heteronormative standards is less problematic than giving queer characters separate standards, I find. 

And that sums up my thoughts on the current state of Suselle! It’s worth reiterating that I still lightly enjoy the ship and have seen copious pieces of incredible work created as a result of it; I just don’t personally like it on a narrative, critical level. At the end of the day, I don’t care what people ship, and being the purveyor of Goats and Dragons for 3+ years I care even less about what is or isn’t canon. If you disagree with all of this and think Suselle is the cutest and most well-realized relationship in all of media, cool! I genuinely mean that; whatever makes people happy and produces some of the cutest goddamned fanart I’ve ever seen can’t be objectively bad. But if you’re going to so rigidly be against actually analyzing and being critical of a fictional gay doe, then it can be largely debilitating for actual discussion when the go-to responses are so inflammatory and missing the point of what makes a character generally interesting and well-realized. 

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

4, 13, 20, 22, 29 and 40 for the fic writer asks, if you don't mind answering all those :)

4. Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?

God knows! Coming up with an initial idea is the hardest part for me. As soon as someone gives me a starting point i can do something, but if I'm left completely adrift it's truly just static. That's why I love prompts, but alas, most people like to give really broad prompts and I work best with a really granular, specific thing, the more random, the better. Sometimes a random idea strikes and grows into something, but except for my two big multichapters all my favourite fics started as a prompt from a fic exchange or a prompt list!

13. what’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

If you're stuck, the problem is never with the last sentence. And, when in doubt, less is always more. You can usually afford to lose a sentence or a paragraph or a whole scene more than you need to add another (although that may not work for other writing styles - I find mine works best when it's kind of reduced and destilled).

20. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

I remember running the first half of TWTaS through a linguistic corpus software for funsies once, and the top repeated things as far as i remember were "small smile" and "coffee", which frankly - yeah, muted emotional expression and themes of tiredness and coffee are in there for sure. Loneliness and loss are also pretty common themes as well as trust and, on the brighter side, there's usually at least one very close long-term friendship or sibling relationship in every story of mine. I seem to tend to set things in cities, probably because that lends itself to the themes of loneliness and lacking connection and homesickness, and I LOVE settings that allow for quiet, intimate but nonsexual one-on-one conversations, like late-night phone conversations or long car rides. Also set mostly in the US or UK, I want to say due to the origin of the original material but who knows really, I've got so used to it at this point...

22. Are there certain types of writing you won’t do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc)

There's a lot of things I'd have a hard time with, but might challenge myself to write them precisely because of that; 2nd person narration or a very pronounced omniscient narrator are things that come to mind. Writing genres like straight action or horror would definitely not be my instinct but it could be fun to try! I do have some tropes that I'm iffy on and would probably never write about, like I'm really not about unwanted/unexpected pregnancy stories or really pregnancy stories in general, and I really don't like body swap stories for some reason. I also don't really see myself writing about love triangles, I just don't find them at all interesting.

29. What’s your revision or editing process like?

Honestly, I'll just try to reread after stepping away for at least a day and see if I can reduce or clarify anything or if there are things doubled (there usually are...). I don't really have a process? I probably should, it would probably be a huge step forward. If anyone has tips, I'd love them!

40. If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

This might surprise people, but my dream fanart is for fic I'm definitely not known for - my lighter more comedic pieces! I mean I'm honoured and delighted by any fanart, and people have been so creative and wonderful about TWTaS and Fluent in Silence especially, and I still go back for those pieces a lot. But I'm secretly hoping someone will do another piece for The Running Kind (@doptimous kindly made a manip and i love it a lot). Also ngl, if someone drew Bodhi with Charlie the Lobster from The Gales of November Remembered I would love them forever.

Other scenes I think would make cool fanart and would buy my very biased affection instantly: the first kiss from TWTaS from chapter 15 (that's like the one chapter of that fic where I feel like I got striking visuals); ANY scene from my Food Travel AU entry In den Herzen ist's warm because my thing I wrote + my favourite place in the entire world; and two scenes that don't exist yet: the final scene of TWTaS (which, alas, has been finished for years but I just can't get the scenes before it right) and Jyn at the Leipzig Demonstration on 9th October '89 in Spiel ohne Grenzen (Lord knows if I'll ever get to that point in the fic but that visual would kill me dead if someone made art ngl)

Send a fic writer ask!

[pidayforpi]

Growing up in a very small city, I find it fascinating to see someone coming from the same place as I do.

My hometown (homecity?) is not only (geographically) small, but is also...very boring. Not boring in the sense of there's nothing to do there, not at all. In fact, if you mean modern entertainments, there are lots of them: Theme parks, cinemas, museums, pubs, restaurants...and an excessive amount of shopping malls.

But when it comes to arts and fandoms...I find it severely lacking there.

The only form of media that most of us are interested in is anime (which is why I am also a weeb), and...that's it. And some video games too. But even then there isn't a fandom for those things.

(Like I am sure a lot of us know what Pokémon is, and probably love it too, but you won't see people making fanarts or conventions for it)

So, there's a lot of things I am interested in that others won't know and/or be interested as well. I am sure out of all the fandoms I am in, 50% of the population will have no idea what any of those are (I can bet that 70% of the population have no idea what Darkwing Duck or Tiny Toons are). For very famous productions, they will probably know what those are, but only the broad idea and basic concept (e.g. They will probably know Donald Duck and maybe Scrooge McDuck, but not Ducktales).

And I am sure almost no one is aware there is something called a "furry fandom".

Or, even if they know such a thing exists - or are even interested in it - they won't say or admit it. Actually, I was one of those people, because it's kind of a taboo if you did so (they will either have no idea what you are talking about, or you will be seen as childish and/or weird).

At least, talking from my personal experience.

So that's why, when I first saw a furry artist living in the same place as I was...

Back in my Twitter days, in spring of 2019, I came across them. I forgot what was the first post I saw of them. It was probably a furry artwork that caught my eye, but what led me to stay was the info in the bio.

A flag emoji, and their location.

Among many of their wonderful artworks, I saw photographs. Of places I knew. Of public transport, brands, roads and sceneries...that I knew.

I especially remember them sharing one of their meals eating out, and that was exactly my favourite restaurant chain to dine in during those days.

I remember looking through those photos for an hour, absolutely surprised and astonished. I couldn't believe it, that someone so talented and with the same interest as I did, was living on the same ground as I was. In the same boring city, where I thought I was the only "weird one".

And then I wondered: Would we have possibly met? I probably wouldn't know them in real life, but would we have at least crossed paths? Be in the same place, at the same time? Had they walked on the same road as I did? Had they eaten at the same restaurant as I did? Had we sat on the same seat in a shop, in a park, on a bus or a train?

Having just watched Makoto Shinkai's "Your Name", those thoughts crossed and filled my mind like waves crashing into me.

I never interacted with them other than likes and retweets. They won't know I exist. I just know them as an online fursona and a talented artist, residing somewhere in that crowded city we call home. We will probably never ever meet, never get to know each other. Especially not now.

But if I were to say something to them, I would thank them for existing and sharing their works with the world.

For they have shown me I wasn't alone.

(25-3-2024)

[priestfrommidnightmass]

best uses of social media in film/tv

3. season 5 broad city episode that takes place entirely via instagram stories the characters post

2. american vandal episode where they create a timeline to solve a crime based off of different snapchat and instagram stories and facebook live other students posted

1. reddit posts of amber freeman fanart and richie kirsch flower crown edit in scream 6

[garbagequeer]

Part of the popularity of F/F cartoon ships, I'm sure, is that all of the characters are flat enough to shove into basic fanfic tropes. You can put your ship into any 'Imagine Your OTP' scenario or funny meme because there's not much there beyond Grumpy One dating the Sunny One. In terms of other relationships they're allowed to have, you can give your Mean Lesbian the mandatory Himbo Bestie (who will be 1/2 of the significantly more popular M/M ship) or a younger friend who Grumpy & Sunny will be assigned as the 'Moms' of. Here's a fanart of Sunny kissing Grumpy on the cheek while Grumpy blushes Tsundere-ly. Lather, rinse, repeat.

real and ig it's like because these types of fans are basically everywhere popular enough and this combined with the fact that less people write f/f means they probably are the ones who jump on anything so here we are. but as always why the general lack of interest in f/f and why particularly the lack of interest from the people who can write complex stories out of fucking idk macdennis or something. i mean yeah yeah the general hatred for women and such. but abbi and ilana broad city are bigger than macdennis in the kingdom of heaven. ALSO who the fuck do you have to be to see two women who are together / you think should be together and on the same breath as you go on and on about how they are great rep you also invest time into making them fit the roles of motherly figures and helpers "the one with the braincell" types. like who cares if they're lesbianing together if they have to do it in traditional female roles with no inner life of their own why dont you just write about them cooking and cleaning all day while you're at it. it's bad out here. and vote choni

[onewingedsparrow]

mahonia ⇢ what place, thing, activity inspires you most and how do you express yourself when it does?

edelweiss ⇢ how’d you think of your url/username? what’s it associated with to you?

chamomile ⇢ what kind of things do you like receiving as gifts?

taro ⇢ if someone called you right now to catch up, what’re the things you’d tell them about?

Feel free to answer privately instead, if you wish :)

For this ask game

Hi, Nova! 💜 Ooh, these are very fun choices ✨ @novafire-is-thinking This took me a while to answer, but I finally got it done, lol.

mahonia ⇢ what place, thing, activity inspires you most and how do you express yourself when it does? This is way too broad a question 😂 I get inspired all the time from literally...anything. How do I know what inspires me the "most"? I guess I'll just answer for each? Place: Driving!!! I get truckloads of Transformers ideas as I drive. I spot vehicles and envision whose alt mode that is. I eye road signs and think of metaphors for storyboarding. I listen to the symphony of the road and imagine sound design to fit an action movie. I spy the real actual Bumblebee and shoot him a wink because I know it's him. I get so much inspiration from driving. I chose the alt modes for my Shockwave and Soundwave because of real cars I saw beside me on the road :D Thing: Honestly anything in nature. A leaf. A bug. A crack in the sidewalk where plants grow through. The shape of a cloud. Distant birdsong. Sunlight hitting the ground just right. Raindrops. A bunny. A spiderweb. Etc. Activity: Listening to music or going on a walk! (Those are mutually exclusive btw.) How I express myself when I get inspired: anything from writing to daydreaming to dancing to singing to composing to...well. Anything, really.

edelweiss ⇢ how’d you think of your url/username? what’s it associated with to you? It's a long story. <3 Too long to fit into one ask answer 😂 I don't name things lightly. Sometimes, I stumble upon a name very quickly, but more often than not, I will ponder and puzzle and scheme and muse until I find the perfect name...especially when it is meant to be one of my own. That's what happened with my url. To keep it simple though, the short answer is: "One Winged Angel," Robin from Batman, and Owl City. It is so much deeper than what those three ideas convey, but those are the pillars for certain. If you are curious and wish to hear the long story, Nova, I would be happy to DM it. ❤️

chamomile ⇢ what kind of things do you like receiving as gifts? So many things! What matters the most to me is how well the giftee knows me, because their gift will reflect that. Is it Nerdy and / or relevant to my interests? Do the colors catch my eye with their beauty? Will it be useful to my Nerd work? Is it some reference to an inside joke between us? (Shoutout to my brother for the one time he gave me the Christmas gift of a generic blue wooden cube covered with inspirational sayings...simply because it reminded him of an Energon Cube, which was a tribute to our time watching TFP, RiD and Cyberverse together, beginning to end. That Cube sits near my desk, and I deliberately position my Transformers figures beside the sayings "It's gonna BE okay" and "BElieve in yourself" because, you know, 'Bee! ✨It's a gift that no one else would ever give me, especially for that specific reason, and that's why it's one of my most precious belongings. It's also great because no one would ever make the connection between that Cube and Transformers just by looking at it. A sweet inside joke indeed.) But if I have to pick specific items, I like DVD's and CD's and video games, cookies, fantasy books, good-quality electronics (for music and gaming), fanart prints / merch / etc., posters, keychains, Transformers and horse figures...yeah I'm very easy to shop for, lol. What can I say, I like art that brings me joy every time I look at / listen to it :D I also love Nerdy T-shirts but no one can ever get my size right so that one's hit or miss. (EVERYONE thinks I'm so much smaller than I actually am. Smh. I like giant T-shirts anyway but no one remembers that, haha. Once in a blue moon, when someone gets me a Nerdy T-shirt and the color actually works with my skin tone and the size actually fits or is beautifully oversized, it's amazing.)

taro ⇢ if someone called you right now to catch up, what’re the things you’d tell them about? Hmm it would really depend on who was calling. I would shift the conversation topic depending on the person. But if it was one of my amica endurae.... If he called me, I would tell him all about where I've gone in life since we last saw each other, and how pumped I am about Transformers (that's a recent development he never knew about, which is a shame because he is literally the 'Bee to my 'Cee), and about the conventions and concerts I got to go to and the writing I got to put out there...and I'd tell him how much I miss him. <3

[mrssimply]

17th: Sleepless

Filling the prompt list with things from my ideas folder, there was still a blank... So I wrote "Slice of life" and it was a mistake because it's was so broad! I didn't even know what I wanted to do, kept thinking up things, they were all bad and worse. In the end, @m-lter helped me without knowing. We had a talk around this fanart about how the boys would have difficulties with falling asleep, or would fall asleep right away only to be woken up by nightmares. So this is the result, which is why it's gifted to her, even though she didn't prompt it.

I also gift this fic to all of you out there who suffer from insomnia: hope Kerry can help you to find the Sandman ;)

You can find the prompt list here.

Every fic will be posted on my AO3 Account here.

It's t-rated. Literally nothing happens ^^'

They have trouble sleeping, Johnny and V. Kerry already knew that about Johnny from the last time he was alive — and how weird is it that he can say it like that : the last time Johnny Silverhand was alive. Anyway, it seems that dying and coming back to life didn’t cure Johnny of his insomnia. Kerry doesn’t know if he can call it insomnia, because Johnny generally falls asleep just fine: he the first one to snore when the three of them settle to sleep after a good fuck. But he doesn’t sleep long before he’s awakened.

Back when they’d just met and lived in a squat together, it was nightmares about the war. Johnny would jerk awake with a gasp, gripping his chrome shoulder so tightly Kerry half imagined it would dent the metal if it was any tighter. His eyes would be open but unseeing even when Kerry turned on the light. In Johnny’s dark pupils, his friend saw the panic, the confusion, the fear and the sadness all swirling around madly. It was what made him keep being so lenient with Johnny, because he knew what hid under the rage and the anger: a lost boy, running in the dark, calling out for help but never receiving it. Kerry fell in love with that boy and never fell out, even when it turned out to be a curse.

Later in the 20’s, when they toured or Johnny crashed at Kerry’s for a few months, generally after a severe injury on a gig, the nightmares turned to other things. Johnny’s own violence came back to haunt him: he would see himself stand in the middle of a fire, not even trying to move, just waiting for the heat to become unbearable, for the smoke to strangle him, for the flames to burn his skin. He would wake up, panting and trembling, and tell Kerry about it only when he’d taken some Blow. 

By the end, he kept dreaming about a crumbling tower, and when Kerry asked him if he ever made it out alive, Johnny would smile at him and say no. His smile was strange, like he knew this dream was some sort of prophetic vision, but couldn’t really find it in himself to care. By then, Johnny was either be rageful, or totally numb, nothing in between.

So, Kerry isn’t surprised by Johnny having nightmares that wake him up after two or three hours of sleep.

Kerry is more surprised about V’s sleeplessness. Sure, V lived through some traumas, too, but from what Kerry knows, it’s about the average kind when you were born and raised as a streekid in Night City. Kerry has some of them, too, like having to fight for water, being offered shelter in exchange for your dignity, being a victim and an aggressor at the same time… 

But apparently, it’s not that. V turns and tosses in bed for hours, waking Kerry up because he keeps moving, fussing with the pillow, rearranging the covers. He’s too cold, then too hot, can’t seem to find a comfortable position. Sometimes he just gives up and goes to tinker with his pistols, or deals with fixer shit. Since Kerry and Johnny keep odd hours, too, they don’t really find it weird, and Kerry isn’t particularly worried because once V is asleep, he can sleep for nineteen hours in one go and not look like a zombie when he wakes up. 

Tonight is apparently a night where V can't find rest. Kerry fell asleep in his arms with a hand over Johnny’s collar bone, over the place he used to have the scars from the field surgery that had saved his life and granted him The Hand. An abomination Kerry is glad he got rid of during his death. The new arm is much sleeker, a lot more sensitive, and has an incredible bonus in Kerry’s eyes: it doesn’t turn Johnny cyberpsycho. So that’s how Kerry fell asleep, or he thought he did but maybe not because he finds himself with eyes wide open something like an hour later, in that strange state of mind where he isn’t sure he really slept. 

One thing is sure: V isn’t sleeping. He sighs loud and deep, and Kerry knows he’s on the verge of giving up and getting out of bed, deeming this night a bad one. Chasing the remnant of his maybe-not-sleep, Kerry turns between the sheets. He finds his input propped against two pillows, scrolling on his favorite app — which apparently contains mostly cute pictures and funny videos of cats — with a tired expression.

He glances at Kerry when he turns.

“Can’t sleep?” the musician asks and V shrugs before dropping the phone on his chest with another weary sigh. He turns on his belly, shifts and moves his head on the pillow until he’s satisfied… Then move again, once more under Kerry’s growing smile before he settles. 

“What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?” the rocker asks with a gravelly voice, whispering as not to wake Johnny up, too. Let him get a few hours more sleep if he can.

“Nothin’,” V replies, eyes roaming over Kerry’s face and the musician sees his shoulders relax somewhat, as if just looking at Kerry has an appeasing effect on him. The singer just raises an eyebrow and V groans, hiding his face in the pillow.

“It’s silly.”

“Well, you know I love silly stories.”

Another muffled huff, then V’s sparkling eyes reappear.

“You know, that gig I did yesterday?”

���The Romeo and Juliet one?” Kerry asks after a moment of thinking. Not only does V rarely speak about his gigs to him — he does with Johnny, because Johnny generally goes along with him — but the superstar isn’t that interested to know about every detail. It would probably make him lose sleep, too.

Yet the musician seems to recall the target was the heir to a rich and influential family, apparently being held against her will by her own grand-parents because she planned on donating most of her fortune to charity. The charity in question was to help the victims of water poisoning caused by her family's industry. Apparently the heir had fallen in love with one of the activists, who was the one who’d contacted V.

“Yeah. Well, I went with that merc, Helen?”

Kerry nods, he’s been hearing about this rising star for a while now. When Johnny is unavailable, V generally asks Helen along.

“The client knows the flat is under heavy automatic security but couldn’t tell us more. So we went to do recon. We climbed the unfinished building on the other side of the street to get to the right level. We were setting up to watch, when suddenly, we stumbled upon construction workers sleeping on site — I mean, I thought they were squatters at first. It surprised us and vice versa so here we are at a standoff. I don’t wanna harm them but they’re really panicky, don’t speak english and have no translators. I try to understand what’s happening when suddenly a fucking rocket —” V explains, whispering so loudly Kerry puts a finger across his lips to tell him to keep quiet. Kerry can’t help but smile at V’s outraged expression that someone dared launching a rocket at him. 

“A fucking rocket,” the merc repeats more quietly, “comes right at us. Apparently we made so much ruckus it alerted the NCPD drones patrolling down the street, which identified us as a threat and just fired. Helen and I ducked, but the construction workers weren’t all so lucky… One got hit by the rocket square in the chest, another fled right into a hole in the ground and fell four stories high…”

V trails off, looking haunted.

“And then Helen and I were dashing madly down the stairs, firing at the drones and hoping the NCPD won’t just be waiting for us when we get to street level. I swear it was the worst recon I ever did,” he finishes, a note of anger in his otherwise really weary voice.

Kerry stays silent, only strokes V’s cheek tenderly. He can feel his input’s pain at innocent lives being lost. It’s exactly what made Kerry and Johnny fall in love with him: after all he’s been through, V still cares, and he cares so much it’s sometimes difficult to bear.

“I keep seeing him fall,” V confesses as he closes his eyes and shuffles closer to Kerry. “Then I keep thinking about the fact it could have been Helen. Then it makes me think about Jackie when we escaped the Konpeki Plaza… and if not that, then i think that i haven't heard from the Aldecaldos in two months and they should have come back by now, or I think about what Dino said about this mysterious BD circle who’s been releasing really hardcore content and I need to fuckin’ find them before they settle in my fuckin’ city for real but I —”

“Hush,” Kerry interrupts him firmly, still stroking his nape gently, “you’re getting all worked up, no wonder you can’t sleep”.

V lets out a dry chuckle and turns away to face the ceiling. 

“I can’t stop, it’s running in a loop in my head.”

“I know.”

He does, it happens to him too, though a lot more rarely since V is in his life. Kerry just moves so he can rest his head against V’s shoulder and caress his stomach, his chest, tracing over the tattoos on his skin.

V catches his hand after a while and brings it to his lips to kiss his knuckles. He looks calmer.

“I keep thinking about everything I could have done to prevent it,” he admits and Kerry smiles. V is an over planner and a control freak when it comes to his work, even more so now that he’s mostly a fixer. He wants to make sure his clients get what they paid for, and to keep his mercs alive, too. Guilt and "ifs" are what’s keeping him awake, and it’s one of the things that makes Kerry sure V is a good guy.

“That’s because you care.”

“I care too much.”

“No, you care just enough. I think it’s normal to feel guilty because two men died for nothing. But it’s not your fault, the NCPD is just trigger happy, especially in the areas they have sponsors living nearby, and those workers shouldn’t have been there. They should have been home, safe and sound, and not sleeping on the construction site because they can’t afford lodgings.”

“Carefull, you’re starting to sound like Johnny,” V snorts good naturedly.

“You know he’s right on these things.”

“Yeah, don’t tell him.”

“I heard it,” Johnny interrupts, turning to face them. He’s probably trying to sound smug but he’s still blinking sleep away so the effect is just cute.

“We woke you up?” V asks with a frown. 

Johnny shakes his head no.

“Nightmares.”

“We didn’t feel you thrash around,” Kerry replies with a worried expression.

“I think I woke up just when it started… Like my brain said ‘nope, not doing this again’ and woke me up.”

He looks confused about this, troubled by the fact his brain wouldn’t happily subject him to more horrific memories of his past.

“Heh, that’s an improvement,” V comments.

“I’m still awake after…” he checks the hour on his holo, “an hour and a half. So I basically took a nap.”

Both Kerry’s inputs sigh dramatically, prompting a laugh out of him.

“Ok, let’s… Let’s do something else, ok. Watch a movie or something, since we’re all awake?”

“Sure,” they reply with little enthusiasm, but Kerry has some for three. With a grin, he throws the covers back and puts on his gown before going to the lounge room downstairs to set up the home cinema. 

Johnny and V join him as the screen finishes lowering itself over the portrait of his naked ass. Kerry has pulled out the plaids and after telling them to settle, he goes to make pop-corn. 

When he comes back, he sits in the middle, and both men put their head on each of his shoulders.

-

Two hours later, Kerry has finished the bowl of pop-corn and he’s sniffling softly as the credits for A Nomad Story scroll down. He missed it when it came out in theaters, but the critics were unanimous about this being the movie of the decade, with magnificent photography, good old school acting and a heart wrenching universal story about love and loss. 

As he wipes his cheeks with the sleeve of his robe, he glances down to see if his inputs liked it, only to chuckle when he discovers they’re both asleep. Johnny's head is actually resting on Kerry's lap, face buried against his stomach. The musician can’t recall feeling him settle like this so he must have been really engrossed in the movie. V is snoring softly, drooling against Kerry’s neck, mumbling something in his sleep.

Kerry smiles, and tries to move. He really needs to get up because he feels all stiff for one, but also because he needs to pee. He gently pushes V the other way, not worried about waking him up now that he’s asleep. He could sleep through the armageddon. With Johnny he’s more careful, but manages to extract himself. Stretching, he groans when his spin pops and shakes himself before walking to the bathroom.

-

When he comes back, thinking about watching another movie, he finds Johnny seated on the couch, looking at V with a strange look. From the way he is breathing, hard and fast, Kerry can tell this time it’s a nightmare that woke him up.

Johnny jumps and turns swiftly to Kerry when the man comes into his field of vision. His hands spasm over the blanket he’s still holding, and when his eyes meet Kerry’s, they look lost. With a frown, Kerry closes the distance between them in two strides.

“Hey, hey,” he calls gently, “you’re ok, you’re safe.” Johnny looks at his lips like he can’t hear Kerry’s voice, but can read the words on his lips. He relaxes, sighs softly and lets his forehead bumps against his friend’s.

Kerry brings his hand to his nape, stroking it gently. He feels Johnny’s chrome hand slide under his robe to feel his skin, thumb rubbing over the muscle of his thigh.

“What was it, this time?” Kerry asks in a whisper after a moment of silence.

Johnny shakes his head,  and frowns like he can’t really remember.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m back in Mikoshi, or the Black Wall. And I wake up but the sensation follows and I don’t know if it’s real or not.”

Kerry makes a soft sound of commiseration and brushes their mouths together.

“It’s real, you’re here,” he affirms, gently gripping Johnny’s cheeks. “You can feel my hands and the heat of my body. You can hear my voice…” he trails off as the other man tilts his head until their lips press harder together. Kerry welcomes him in, licks inside his mouth, sucks on his tongue briefly before nipping at his bottom lip. Johnny groans, shuffles closer and lets his hand roam higher.

With a last kiss, Kerry draws back to look at him with a worried expression. His skin is cooling down, cold sweat covering it now, but his eyes look clearer. Johnny groans lowly before diving back in for another kiss and Kerry laughs into his mouth.

“Sometimes I don’t feel like it’s real either,” he admits against Johnny’s lips. The man smiles, a wry expression that silently translates his regrets. He nuzzles against Kerry’s cheek, playfully bites his earlobe before looking at V.

“You know, I always felt like we’ve been dealt shitty cards,” Johnny murmurs. “But it’s like… You know — what Misty says about karma.”

Kerry nods, hugging Johnny against him.

“V is an ace.”

The other man nods, huffs against Kerry’s neck.

“Or maybe a wild card,” Johnny adds like an afterthought. 

They stay silent like this for a moment, before the resurrected rocker snorts.

“Look at him sleeping.”

Curious, Kerry disentangles them and looks over his shoulder at his other input. V is deep in slumber now that his brain finally let him fall asleep. He’s sprawled on his back, one hand down his shorts, holding his limp dick and snoring with a happy face. He sleeps like the innocent. Kerry grins; he kinda wants to draw a dick on V’s face. When he looks back at Johnny, he can tell the man feels the same and they laugh maniacally, but discreetly, so it sounds like they’re wheezing like old men.

“Think we can transport him back to bed?” Kerry asks when they are done snickering.

“With all the cyberware, even I can’t, he’s heavier than he looks.”

The singer knows because sometimes after sex V sags over him. Kerry loves it, feels safe under his mass of muscle and chrome so he smiles dopily, which earns him a disgusted expression from Johnny.

“We could get the spare mattress here, though. He can have the couch,” Kerry suggests.

-

So that’s what they do, then they decide to roll a joint, and then to play guitar. They play softly with no amps, even if they both know it wouldn’t bother V. He’s snoring rhythmically, so Johnny and Kerry use his snores as a bass line.

“We should record it,” Johnny says when they stop to listen to him. Kerry hums, feeling sleep calling him once more. They both settle on the mattress next to the couch, having pushed the low table further away.

In the low light, Johnny watches Kerry blink sleepily.

“You happy?” he mouths and the question makes the musician frown then nods softly, a gentle smile blossoming on his lips.

“Never been happier,” he replies, still a bit confused about the sudden inquiry.

“Because of V.”

Kerry looks at him, turning on his side to better observe him.

“Not only,” he replies, reaching out to brush Johnny’s mouth with his thumb. Their gazes meet and Kerry gets lost in his friend’s dark eyes, turned black by the night. He can’t say it out loud yet, but he hopes the message gets through anyway. Johnny doesn’t comment, but some lines around his eyes and mouth relax. It’s strange to think he was… worried, about that. Johnny used to be so good at pretending he didn’t care.

“You?” Kerry asks just as softly. 

Johnny catches his hand, flesh meeting flesh. He holds it as he turns his head until his lips brushes Kerry’s palm. In his chest, the singer’s heart beats faster and he smiles wryly at himself: he’s still such a fool for this man. Johnny stays silent for a good moment, so long Kerry hinks he won’t answer. He closes his eyes, unable to fight sleep any longer. He won’t push tonight, he knows better anyway and he’s too tired now with V’s snores like a comforting lullaby in the background.

Johnny moves to wrap his arm around Kerry, holding him closer and entangling their legs together. The singer makes a happy but sleepy noise and feels himself drift.

“I don’t think I really knew what being happy meant until now. Took me a while to understand what I was feeling,” Johnny finally answers, voice rumbling through his chest like a purr.

Kerry smiles at him and feels a matching expression on Johnny’s lips against his forehead. 

Maybe he’s already dreaming.