#but that requires me to actually write

[hyukaroki]

modern black butler aus where sebastian is ciels older brother/adoptive parent make me gnaw on the bars of my enclosure

[andithewhumper]

Friends?

Masterpost

Content: past torture, addiction

Skye hung back from the group. She liked all of the people in her class, sure, but talking to them came with the annoyance of explaining why she took a year of her undergrad away from campus. Sure, she could lie, but the reminder was there nonetheless. She’d much rather pretend that nothing had ever happened to her. She just took a year off from in-person classes to make some money for tuition.

Mackenzie was always worried about her. Even now as Skye leaned up against the brick wall with a cigarette between her fingers, clearly visible to the group, Mackenzie kept glancing back at her like she was going to disappear any moment. Skye wished she appreciated it. Having someone care about her was so hard, though. It meant that when all she wanted to do was isolate herself Mackenzie would still be there. And Skye hated letting her down by locking herself away.

Skye breathed out smoke and watched as her friend and classmates laughed about the most recent lab accident and asked each other about test results. She put out her cigarette and reached into her pocket for another one. When she pulled out the pack she was faced with a distinct lack of cigarettes. Skye groaned. She had been trying to make her pack last as long as possible. It had been so hard to get in the first place. No one at any gas stations around campus was willing to sell to her for some reason. It was starting to piss her off.

Skye begrudgingly walked over to the group.

“Hey, Skye,” called one of her lab partners, Tom, as she got close to them, “what was the worst part of the accident today? I think it was the staining, but these losers over here are acting like some contamination is the worst thing in the world.” Skye gave a small, unenthusiastic smile in response. She liked Tom fine. He was nice and smart and had a decent sense of humor, but she was pretty sure he had never had a problem in his whole life.

“Both were bad, I guess.” Skye’s voice had little volume, which wasn’t overly uncommon, but she still cringed at it. “The contamination will put us back a few days though,” she said, notably louder.

“What caused the staining?” Mackenzie asked. Being pre law, Mackenzie didn’t actually take the microbiology class that the group had been talking about. No one questioned why she was there, though. Mackenzie was the kind of person who knows everyone and who everyone knows and there is no clear reason how she met all those people.

“Iron getting in places iron shouldn’t be,” Skye supplied.

Tom shook his head in fake exasperation. “Come on Skye! You were supposed to be on my side!” Skye rolled her eyes at his antics.

“Next time be right then, Tom.” Skye’s tone was serious but Tom took it in stride and put his hand to his chest in mock offense. Skye didn’t acknowledge him.

“I gotta go. I’ll see you guys on Wednesday.” A few people in the group said goodbye and waved. Mackenzie also dismissed herself and started walking with Skye.

“I ran out of cigarettes again.”

“Maybe you should consider quitting? Wouldn’t that be easier than bending over backwards to get cigarettes?”

“It’s just so frustrating, Kenzie! I have no idea why no one will sell to me! I never did anything to offend them, hell I hadn’t even met some of them. I don’t know what’s going on!”

Mackenzie did her best not to look worried, but she wasn’t that skilled at hiding her facial expressions.

“I don’t know,” Skye groaned, “I know I should quit for my health and stuff, but quitting now feels like letting her win. I finally got my autonomy back. I just wanna be myself again.”

“Smoking doesn’t have to be the thing that lets you be yourself.”

“What should I do instead? Drink?”

Mackenzie snorted loudly.

“No I meant like finding a different hobby, something you enjoy, and doing that instead."

“Oh.” Skye didn’t really want to think about what she liked to do. Most of it had been ruined because she had done it with Evelyn. Skye looked up at her apartment building as they approached it. “I’ll look into it, I guess.”

“Good.” Mackenzie’s face sobered again. “Call me if you need anything, okay?” Skye nodded and waved back at Mackenzie as she walked into the building.

She might not have any cigarettes, but there was a bottle of vodka calling her name.

[deoidesign]

Thinking about vampires, death, life, and the space they occupy in between

[lovegrowsart]

it's pretty wild to me that people don't see that aang running off to save katara in CoD is his luke in empire strikes back moment, where he runs headlong into his want and attachment and he's narratively punished for doing so and not learning his lesson - aang runs after katara despite guru pathik's warning, like luke runs after leia and han from yoda on dagobah despite yoda's warning; similarly, as a result, things go to hell in ba sing se like they do on bespin - aang enters the avatar state before he's ready and gets killed, and ba sing se falls to the fire nation, luke fights vader before he's ready, loses a hand, and symbolically commits suicide after vader tells him he's luke's father.

the difference between their character arcs is that george lucas and co. actually went thru with luke's hero's journey and understood the fundamental difference between attachment and love, whereas I don't think bryke understood this difference and then dropped this from aang's arc pretty much completely and replaced it with aang digging in his heels into his want and attachment and he gets rewarded with energy bending from a lion turtle, the avatar state from a random pointy rock, and his forever girl from the self-indulgent white men that couldn't bring themselves to give their hero a compelling character arc that meant he might not have gotten everything he wanted at the end.

[pokimoko]

The fact that Main-verse Ooo is as good and as kind as it is (relative to the other universes shown so far, at least, it's obviously not perfect) all because of the same character that starts off as the OG series' antagonist, the person we were made to see as the bad guy (albeit an often ineffectual one) for several seasons, is making me lose my mind.

Imagine finding out the guy you spent your childhood beating up and saving princesses from is in fact a driving catalyst behind you being able to exist, and not only exist but also live in a world that knows what kindness is. All because that man, the same man who you've witnessed do terrible things, once met a little girl and taught her how to be good.

Simon's story really shows us that even if you lose your way and forget how it is to be good yourself, the world keeps the memory for you. That act of love Simon showed Marcy by protecting her and seeing her as more than the monster she thought herself to be created ripples upon ripples, small at first but eventually enough to help give their wreckage of a world—a world that easily could have been forsaken, its goodness overlooked because of its inhospitable remains—a chance to grow into something beautiful. Because of those very same ripples Simon created, the people of Ooo grew up in a world where they know enough about kindness that they were able and willing to spare the 'bad guy' some, to see beyond the wreckage and allow him to grow too.

In saving Marceline, Simon helped to not only to save the world, but also himself.

[numbuh424]

shoutout to whatever L and Light had going on in Time Speaks

[politemagic]

ahem. kinda softdom!vessel x gn!reader

thinking abt like. vessel forcing you to look at him while he's on his knees in front of you, wanting you to see how hungry he is for you, forcing you to watch the meticulous movements of his tongue against you, knowing the layout of your body so well he doesn't even need to look anymore, he can feel his way around just fine. whenever you try to close your eyes in pleasure or look away from his intense gaze, he pulls completely away, stopping immediately.

"look at me."

your eyes are screwed shut, needy whimpers escaping your lips, overwhelmed by the sensation nearly to the point of tears, when you hear it.

that agonizing tut coming from his mouth as he clicks his tongue to draw your attention back to him. the sound alone was almost enough to send you over the edge. there was something so condescending about those tongue clicks, the sound reminding you of training a dog.

"I said. look at me."

the man wanted to watch the soul leave your body as you came, knowing he could get you there. your misty eyes told him that you knew he could as well. but only if you behave yourself.

[is-this-even-relatable]

A Rising Phantom

———

Summary: danny died, and no one knows. He is a full ghost, and only thanks to his dual obsessions can he “live” a normal life and pretend that nothing happened.

I aim to make this a multichaptered fic! Hopefully, the first fic I post on AO3!

HEADCANONS/TROPES/TAGS:

no one knows! AU

full ghost! danny

eventual everlasting trio

dual obsessions inspired by this post, which are protection (Phantom) and space (Fenton)

my own headcanon: danny's death is inevitable, a single point in time that cannot be avoided or changed.

———

Danny died on a Saturday.

He was too young to have been left alone; any other house would’ve be fine, but everyone in that town knew, even then, that the Fentons' house was to be avoided by a wide berth.

His parents had rushed out in a frustrated fit, leaving him and Jazz by themselves for the weekend, just like so many before. They were always an afterthought to their parents, long before he was 14.

Danny didn’t intend to go down to the lab that night. But Jazz was out with her friend Kyle, and he was bored. And something down there called to him, though he didn’t know it.

He didn’t know that forces beyond his comprehension were leading to this point, this singularity.

If Danny had known the fate in store for him, he would have begged his parents for them to stay that night, or take him with them. But he didn't know, he couldn't have known... because that's how it was always going to be.

He didn’t know that a man with a clock in his chest, who changed between ages in the blink of an eye, was watching as he walked down those lonely steps.

He didn’t know, as he pulled on a white hazmat suit hand-sewn just for him, far too flimsy for what it was meant to protect him against, that a sentient dimension was pushing against the veil, straining for him.

He didn’t know, as he stepped through the gaping metal maw, that it had already called his name, and death had claimed it.

And afterwards, while he curled up on the cold basement floor, clutching his chest for a pulse, he still did not know that even if he had known... he would have had no choice but to do the same.

Danny died when he turned the portal on, alone in his parents’ lab.

Standing inside, fifty million Watts of electricity coursed from his palm to his heart, searing its path into his skin. It had no exit route. It cooked him from the inside, lighting all of his nerves on fire, and doused him in an infinite realm’s worth of dimensional energy. After what seemed like hours of screaming, panicking, burning- he somehow managed to crawl out of the portal.

He died then, lying flat in front of the machine that ended him, as the intense pain faded into a dull throb that replaced the beating that used to be in his chest.

And as he sat up, feeling both sore and feather-light, he looked down upon his body, and realized that he had died that day, and he was not coming back.

Danny panicked. And he did the only thing he could do. He decided to run away, afraid of what he was, confused and scared and feeling very not himself.

But the main anxiety that drove him to hide his accident was a rather juvenile one.

…He was afraid that his parents would be upset that he had gone into the lab without their permission.

He had messed with their stuff, and turned something on… something he definitely shouldn’t have.

He had just opened a portal to a realm full of the very things that kept him from sleeping at night, of “unfeeling monsters” that his parents had drilled into him about for years.

A portal to ghosts… that were now free to come through.

That thought made something inside him solidify, and a low hum began to emanate from him as he worried about his family. About the ghosts and the portal and how they were going to manage without him…

He couldn’t just leave like this. Not when he was responsible. He couldn’t let a whole realm of monsters hurt his family. At that thought, dread filled him, and that same something inside his chest ached.

But it occurred to him that he still had to leave. Not just at the thought of his parents stumbling in on his body.

No, it was about him. For he was one of them now, wasn’t he? A ghost. And he was a monster now, too. Despite not feeling like one. Despite knowing that there was clearly something wrong with what he had been told and what he knew was intimately true of himself in this new form.

But something inside him whispered at him that he couldn’t take the chance, if he did turn into a monster. He couldn’t let himself hurt his family.

So with fears on his back and a tingle fading from his fingertips, Danny pulled himself up onto unsteady feet. He took his body outside, to the woods where no one would know. And he buried it, alone, surrounded by trees and the sky.

He sat there, at his fresh grave, and cried.

Holding his arms around himself tight, he mourned the loss of warmth, of blood pumping and his heartbeat, so loud in its absence.

Surrounded by nothing but silence, he mourned that he’d never made close friends, nor really had the chance.

Looking up at the stars, he mourned that he could never fulfill his dream of being an astronaut.

He mourned for himself because no one else could.

And as his last cry petered off into the night, the sun broke the horizon.

A different something tugged at his chest, and he let it pull without resistance, worn ragged as he was.

And he was grateful he did. For a soothing light washed over him and transformed him into something similar, but not quite as he was Before.

But he felt warmth, and he felt a pseudo-beat in his chest, sluggish as it was. And suddenly he realized that although he was dead, he was alive in a different way.

He was still there.

He didn’t have to give up on life.

He was not going to be a monster.

Danny walked back home. He washed the dirt away from under his fingernails. He swept the lab until it looked like no one had been there. Minus the massive swirling vortex.

And when Jazz got home from her sleepover, Danny hugged her with a smile.

He was going to be fine.

They would all be fine, he would make sure of it.

[undead-moth]

I know I've been on about this for a while now and I'm being a hater but you're telling me SydCarmy was "always meant to be platonic" even though there are two seasons of writing making use of tried-and-true explicitly romantic tropes, themes and writing signals, and SydLuca is going to be romantic because...he was nice to her on screen for a few minutes?

I don't even care if people ship SydLuca, or if they just prefer it, but you can't honestly tell me that you believe Carmy was always meant to be a friend but Luca is an obvious love interest.

Just because Syd and Carmy haven't kissed or confessed their love to each other doesn't mean that isn't very obviously the direction this show is going. The Bear has already shown you who is endgame. It has shown you every episode of the show so far.

Honestly I really don't think The Bear fanbase understands this show or cares about these characters or the story being told here, which is unfortunate because this show is shockingly well-written in comparison to most shows right now, and we should be so grateful for it but all we're doing is complaining that the writers led us on by not making a ship canon fast enough. It's just. Sad.

[fatedroses]

I know I design him with the intention that he becomes an evasion tank, but there's an irony I find very amusing in making his new magitek armor lighter than his original.

[lostburgerprince]

you can't "just add a few codexes". you have to write those codexes. you have to write them in the proper voice and style and so it doesn't just fit ONE specific person's worldstate but anyone who also may have made the same decision as them. (you might even have to write multiple variations of the SAME CODEX to account for gender/race/class/romance) you have to edit them. you have to decide where those codexes are going to appear. you have to put them somewhere where people who want to read them will find them. you have to program them showing up. you have to flag it so it only shows up in sPECIFIC versions of the game. (because god forbid it doesn't and breaks someone else's immersion) you have to bug test that. you have to hope it still works when it ships.

and after all that the people complaining might still pick up said codex and close out the window immediately. or run past it entirely and complain that they made a selection in the worldstate that never paid off.

and then you've just spent all that time fleshing out something that's just a small nod to a very small percentage of players. time you could have spent on the current plot or companions. time you could have spent on making *active* decisions matter. these things can easily take up weeks or months like you wouldn't fucking believe.

[blaithnne]

Fuck it the second I get my iPad back and my period ends I’m just doing my own sketchbook week (it’s the exact same as normal sketchbook week but it’s a week later and the universe stops trying to kill me)

[trensu]

do you think you'll put "Stasis in darkness" on AO3 eventually?

see, when the idea first came to me, I hadn't really planned on doing anything with it because I wasn't sure if I could make it work. there's a level of gravitas in the relationship between a god and their devoted servant that I didn't think would translate well to steddie because, let's be real, those boys are goofy dorks. but the idea wouldn't leave me alone so I typed up the original post in an attempt to work it out of my system and move on.

(the post kind of blew up, which I was not expecting at all!! like, not even a little bit! i post all sorts of rough little ideas for my own amusement and I've been able to do that without drawing much attention until that point.)

Anyway, I wouldn't have done much with it but @acowardinmordor left some comments/tags/what have you that helped me nail down the setting in my head which really opened the door for me to explore how the story could progress. (apologies, strife, I'm not sure I ever properly thanked you for that burst of inspiration, so please accept this shoutout as an expression of gratitude). And the amazing @ent-is-indecisive allowed me to rant about it which really helped flesh out the story. Seriously, there are elements and lore coming up that would not have existed if it weren't for ent. (and thank you once again ent for the ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL fanart you made for the reveal scene, I'm still overcome with joy whenever I think about it!).

Once it got to that point, I knew I wanted it to be a self-contained story and I was afraid that if I did a multi-chapter fic I'd lose the thread and never make it to the ending I want the fic to have. (no, the end scene hasn't been written yet but I KNOW what it's going to be and I hope everyone will love it as much as i do). So I promised myself that I was not going to post it on ao3 until the whole thing was written out completely.

However, I occasionally need a confidence/motivation boost so I've been posting consecutive parts of the rough draft here. you have no idea how much the people who reblogged with tags or left comments have helped me fight off the discouragement my brain likes to bog me down with; off the top of my head, @godsweakestboy , @redfreckledwolf, @fuctacles , @spectrum-spectre , and @lawrencebshoggoth have given me lovely, enthusiastic words of encouragement. and they're only the ones I can think of at this moment. there's so many other people who've done this, so if you've ever left me nice tags or comments, please know that I've read every single one of them repeatedly whenever I need to get over a slump. I'm so grateful for all of you!

Anyway, all this is to say yes! It is going to be posted as a oneshot on ao3 once I've finished writing it. <3

[candyriku]

So I've been thinking way too much about my ice skating Soriku AU....

Pose based on this video, I've been watching ice skating videos every night for the last few weeks because I can't stop thinking about Sora and Riku skating together.

[fallloverfic]

I love singNsong again reminding people in Side Story that Dokja wanted other people to read TWSA (he wrote reviews and comments! It was his first wish), and he only stopped bothering because people harassed him for it. He didn't gate-keep the story. When he's avoiding talking to Sangah about it at the beginning of ORV, it's because he knows what happens when he tells people about the story, not because he's gate-keeping it from her. He notes he's not proud of his hobby (likely because he's been bullied all through his life, including for reading the thing he loves): he finds it embarrassing to talk about, and better respects her studying Spanish in her free time (learning another language is a generally accepted thing in society). He assumes she won't care or will look at him funny (or worse) for when she learns about the novel he's into.

Basically anyone writing "let's gatekeep ORV" posts because of the anime announcement or because they dislike the manhwa or some other weirdness, y'all are the villains in the scenario.

The literal climax of the story is about sharing ORV with as many people as possible. What story were y'all reading?

[saltpepperbeard]

what if we get a scene that parallels the moonlight scene in s1ep5. like, ed and stede are in a similar spot where they’re looking at each other from across the way, longing for each other, yearning for each other’s touch and affection. so they’re once again stuck for a few beats looking like this—

but instead of parting ways again, something in them breaks, and they run back to each other to grab hold of what’s hanging in the air between them. they run back to see through what was started, but never finished.

they run back to deeply kiss each other.