#but I don't really have anything important happening for the rest of the year aside from work

[lazycats-stuff]

Could you do batfam x baby bat reader? Where reader is a tiny force of chaos who likes to run around and cause mischief, and the only person he’s perfectly behaved with (aside from Alfred) is Damian, and while the rest of the family is trying to figure out why, Damian is just being smug cause even as an infant his little brother obviously knows who his superior brother is

Oh that would totally happen. I mean, Alfred already has authority, but Damian? Bruce would definitely be confused.

Summary: (Y/N) knows that Damian is not to be messed with. Bruce is about to give up parenting.

Warnings: family fluff, Damian is a cocky one, but in a good way.

Amongst Bruce's children, Damian was the only one who was biological. Was is the most important part. Bruce was notified one night that he had a son and that the mom passed away during childbirth. Bruce was shocked to hear it, but made a paternity test to make sure that (Y/N) is his.

After a few minutes over the Batcomputer, Bruce confirmed it and quickly took his son back to the manor. (Y/N) was a small bundle, born as a premature baby, but he wasn't in a danger zone. Thankfully. However, he had to eat every few hours and both Alfred and Bruce made sure he ate to grow.

Of course, there was no abundance of shock and overall jealousy. A baby takes up a lot of time away from the other kids and it was just a complete mess for a few months. But all of them grew to like the little boy, but Damian was the one who had the hardest time doing it.

Damian enjoyed being the only biological son and more importantly, he loved throwing it in his brother's faces that he is superior to all of them. Of course, with another biological son, that went south and he was mad. He didn't want anything to do with the little boy, but (Y/N) grew on him.

Damian became especially protective of his little baby brother and he has swore to himself that he would kill again if necessary. Just for his brother. Damian was sure that Jason has swore the same thing too, especially since the incident at the gala when he was taken for ransom.

It was painful to see (Y/N) in the kidnapper's arms, crying out to his family to save him. Damian got a few hits when (Y/N) was secured and it took his brothers and about 3 more GCPD officers to contain him. Of course, the officers allowed him to get a few hits. If there is one thing you don't do in the justice system, more so if you know what happens to people who are in jail for messing with children and that one thing would be messing with children.

Especially with babies and slightly older children. They are the most defenseless ones out there and if you hurt them, well, you are in a world of hurt and pain.

Without a doubt.

Damian is the first one to act on it, right after inmates. Inmates were making sure that the bastards got what they deserved. After that evening, Damian held (Y/N) the entire night, just being there, making sure that his brother is safe.

He woke up at the slightest suspicious sound from (Y/N), observing and listening to the sounds.

As years have passed, (Y/N) has become chaotic and overall just mischievous child. There was never a dull moment with (Y/N) and Damian smiled every time that (Y/N) did something,

Bruce and the rest didn't want to stop (Y/N) and punish him for it, but they had to set firm boundaries, otherwise there would be a problem in the future and taming that problem would be difficult beyond belief.

(Y/N)'s mischievous side was first discovered when he was in kindergartens. It has started innocently and then it turned into watch out type of situation.

It was more than harmless, but still enough to scold the little boy. Scold may be too harsh, but they they had to put up firm boundaries. But (Y/N) still did it and it was something nice to see. Children should be children and Bruce wanted (Y/N) to be a child.

But still, boundaries had to be made.

But there was something about it all that made (Y/N) not want really behave. Bruce had no authority, Jason had no authority, Dick had no authority and Tim had no authority. None of it. (Y/N) often laughed at whatever they had to say.

Alfred had authority, but lets be honest, Alfred has all of the authority in the household and over the people living in it. That is an unspoken rule and Alfred could make (Y/N) behave quickly and efficiently. It made everyone feel like they were the ones being scolded.

And besides, without Alfred this house would crumble. Lets be honest, there is no Wayne Manor without Alfred. He just has that silent authority and nobody dared to defy the man.

If Alfred says, you have to go to sleep and eat, you are going to sleep and eat. Of course, (Y/N) felt it and has always behaved for Alfred.

But Damian was a whole another phenomenon in the house. It was shown when Alfred wasn't home and there was no one with enough authority to keep (Y/N) in line. However, there was Damian and Bruce saw it.

(Y/N) was being mischievous and Bruce has kept his eye on him, but he must have turned around for just a moment and (Y/N) was gone. Bruce freaked out a little bit when he couldn't find his son. He looked around everywhere and felt a little bit scared when he saw that the doors leading to the garden were open.

Bruce quickly ran outside and stopped when he heard Damian scolding (Y/N). Bruce could hear something about trying to climb a tall tree and something about being seriously hurt. Bruce watched from afar and (Y/N) looked genuinely apologetic.

Damian wasn't harsh in his scolding, but (Y/N) looked sad and Damian gave him a hug to comfort him and made him promise that the two would play later today. (Y/N) loved puzzles and Bruce always made sure to buy more puzzles for (Y/N).

His brain is better without all the excessive technology either way.

Bruce asked Damian how he did it, but Damian refused to answer, simply leaving with a smirk. Bruce sighed quietly as he stood in the garden alone, trying to process it all.

That wasn't the only incident that Bruce witnessed and it soon involved his brothers too and Alfred.

Little by little, everyone started seeing that (Y/N) was slowly behaving when Damian simply called his name out. It looked like Damian has developed a great sense for when (Y/N) was going to do something that would either hurt him or just somebody else and (Y/N) listened.

Alfred was thoroughly impressed with how a single word, (Y/N) would calm down. Alfred also had the same thing with (Y/N). A simple call out of his name and the boy would settle, knowing exactly that Alfred is not messing around.

But then again, (Y/N) knows who is the boss.

And Damian had his own theory why (Y/N) listened to him. There is a little thing called a superior brother. And a biological connection too and yes, Bruce has argued that he is the father, but Damian has simply said that he is superior.

Of course, his brothers weren't safe from the superior remarks.

Jason was ready to deck Damian every time he has heard that remark, but still remained curious as to how (Y/N) listens to Damian and not him. He is a better brother.

Tim didn't care, happy that there was someone other than Alfred could keep (Y/N) in line and safe. Even if that someone is Damian with whom he isn't in a great relationship, but he is trying to be civil because of (Y/N). And it was working, sort off at least.

Dick was just jealous that (Y/N) listened to Damian. Don't get him wrong, he loves Damian with all of his heart and is happy that he isn't mad anymore about being the other biological sibling, but it was still painful for his heart.

What did just Damian have that they didn't, excluding Alfred of course.

Well, Damian has an answer for all of them, with his signature smirk inherited from his father, the infamous 'batsmirk.'

" He actually knows who is his superior brother, no? "

Damian said with so much smugness and Jason wanted nothing more than to deck his brother with so much force that would removed Damian's head from his body.

Bruce choose to observe instead and Dick was just plane sad at the mere authority that Damian seemed to exude. Silent authority, just like Alfred.

Tim was curious too and he is just going to wait to see how the situation unfolds in the following years. This is going to make an interesting case and observation of (Y/N)'s growing up.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

🦈⚓ to help me recognize!

so this happened a couple years ago so it doesn't really matter anymore aside from sort of ruining my relationship with the person a bit unfortunately. i still have to see them all the time so i guess it would be nice to know where i stand... Basically am i the asshole for not wanting to "share" my name?

For background info i have a pretty common name. let's pretend it's johnny and i go by john for comparison. i have this friend who decided that they wanted to change their name to johnson (i will call this party johnson for convenience), with the assumption they would go by john as well.

this is where people in general might not get me much. i am an alter in a system. i feel like my name is often all i have and so important to my identity. if more people will care about me/understand i am also trans by default because i am a boy alter in a physically female body. the host is also transmasc but anyway. And yes Johnson is also trans. we're all trans, we all chose our names, my name is very important to me as part of my identity to differentiate me from the rest of the system and make me, me!

they asked me through one of the other alters at the time since we don't see each other all that often if i would be comfortable being around another "john." i said what i basically outlined above - my name is very important to me, are there no other names that feel good for you? they pretty much totally guilt tripped me when i gave a soft no like "god forbid i want anything". which is a big part of why i feel like im nta, they pull the "Im not allowed to want anything and you guys are SO mean to me" if we even gently say no to most things.

anyway this wouldnt really be an issue if we'd gone our separate ways long ago but i have to be around them by proxy for probably the rest of my life because the host is literally married to johnson now :/ so hoping maybe this can give me some closure or something.

[nikutsuneart]

Hello!

So, I have a question, and it might just be me being Stupid, or not remembering right, but I always found it odd that Kairi was one of the three keys to finding Sora, according to the Fairy Godmother at the end of Melody of Memory.

I understand Riku being one: he's got the dream, the Dream Eater Link and the Power of Waking to actually cross the portal.

I understand Nameless Star being one: she's the one from Quadratum and the only one who can create the portal Riku needs.

But I don't understand how Kairi's memories are actually important. Is it simply a matter of understanding what Quadratum is (Unreality) in order for Riku to safely go through?

Maybe I'm missing something crucial, but I feel like Fairy Godmother could have just sent Riku off immediately when she told him about his dream in Radiant Garden. It almost feel like they included Kairi just to exclude her even more.

Anyway, love your stuff! Take care! Bye!

Hey there! No, I don't think you missed anything.

So I think most people would simply chalk it up to them having some kind of special connection, but then miss the rest of what they were showing us. And while I think they could have moved things forward literally any other way and had the same result, (ie fairy godmother just taking riku to nameless star post important dream revelation) I think they were taking this opportunity to make a few things clear;

playing directly into that expectation of a Big Special Connection, they make a point out of the fact that searching her heart resulted in nothing by way of any direct lead to Sora despite being at it for a year. ("You seek clues to Sora's whereabouts by using your memories of him to search through your own heart. But there's nothing for you to find here.")

it's a simple opportunity to glimpse a bit more into her past, what's lurking beneath the surface of her memories and what happened to her. This is what actually gives them a clue.

making it painfully clear that riku is leaving, in fact he's already left, and that he's going alone. (though they definitely could have made up any better reason to shelve her than "training" lol)

Also this isn't to say Sora and Kairi don't have a special connection! Obviously Sora shows up and takes the reigns for a hot minute (whatever that was), I just mean that their connection may not be what's assumed, by kairi (even riku, hence his initial hesitancy and confusion) and the audience, yknow???

Anyway yeah, it just kinda is what it is. Like, these cutscenes in khmom were decided upon suddenly and rather late in the project. Originally it was just going to be chirithy narrating so I think it was genuinely just an opportunity to give Kairi a little bit of somethin' vs the usual nothin'. A little somethin that doesn't really hurt anything aside from maybe people's expectations lol;;

[celaenaeiln]

The bimbofication of Dick Grayson is sad but I also feel like a lot of it has to do with his place in the batfamily and fitting a certain role which is different from his role as part of the Titans fam. Like there is a reason he gets killed off in a lot of Batfam stories and or he takes up the role as Batman despite wanting to make a name for himself as Nightwing. I’m not a huge Dick Grayson fan but that’s because my introduction to him was through the Batfamily and he was always portrayed rather silly or kind of the butt of the joke to Barbara Gordon’s know-it-all-ness (I love her but that’s how it feels) , but then I would read his interactions with the Titans and I actually became more invested in his character even if the writing is a bit outdated.

This goes for his relationships too, he used to be portrayed as a one woman man but then Dixon got a hold of him and suddenly the tiring trope of guy is a bit of a playboy except for that one girl who is the love of his life took hold and it hasn’t left since. I miss the Dick who meet this out of this world (literally) woman and who grew to love each other and watching him grow into a man who learned to love in a passionate way and who learned that people were different from him.

Even a lot of his newer relationships have a lot of depth (like with Bea Bennet or Shawn) but then they get axed. Taylor isn’t really writing anything that hasn’t been written before, like Rebirth Dick wasn’t that great and Rebirth DickBabs was childish and Dixon had some takes on Dick but Taylor has really has highlighted a lot of that bad writing and It’s crazy that it’s becoming the most popular iteration of Dick Grayson and even Barbara Gordon.

og post in reference

Absolutely!

There was the comic thing DC released during an event with all the heroes talking to the reader like they were in the Office, and Dick's was, "I'm the nice, funny one."

Now that's funny because Roy literally refers to him as uptight. The statement is true but it's a lie by omission. It doesn't take into account his craziness, his leadership, his dedication, his intelligence, his prowess, his good-standing - nothing! "Nice, funny one." I think Ra's would've run a sword through the writer's heart at that, given that he was easily defeated by the "nice, funny one."

Aside from that I can't really speak to the dumbification of Dick in Batfamily comics because I think most of them have done a good job but I used to see it a lot in fandom. It's much less now but five years ago, there was so much fandom content about incompetent himbo Grayson and some writers genuinely meant it too. Which I don't understand because nowhere in the Nightwing comics is Dick ever written as being dumb. The Batman comics (1940) and (2016) also do a fantastic job of writing him. His fighting ability, his emotional intelligence, his IQ, all of it is there and off the charts!

I guess the main thing with Dick's role in the batfamily is he's seen as an authority figure. He's Batman's second in command and seen that way by both Bruce and the rest of the family. So if some major disaster were to occur, he would need to be killed off because he's both of exceedingly high emotional value to Bruce or because he's going to be the next person in charge and god forbid that happens because the apocalypse would end then.

I mean, the villains made the mistake of leaving him alive in Convergence and he literally reset the universe back to how it's supposed to be.

So there's no way they can leave him alive because of that. Also his death fuels Batman to end whatever crisis the world is facing so that's an important plot event.

But the Barbara Gordon arm candy.

I am certain. That the idea of Dick being stupid comes from him being with Barbara Gordon. No where in the Nightwing comics, Batman comics (both!), Red Robin comics, Robin comics, Titans comics, Justice League comics, and other DC comics is Dick ever written to be stupid EXCEPT when he's written with Barbara.

Take this nightwing panel for instance

Nightwing (2011) Issue #27

or this

Nightwing (1996) Issue #42

and then take this

Convergence: Nightwing/Oracle Issue #1

AKA: I'm smart. You're dumb. Now shut up and leave because you're too stupid to understand.

The arrogance. This is the same shit Bruce would pull except when Dick asks, Bruce actually tells him.

Justice Leagues: Justice League of Atlantis

Barbara in the Nightwing comics isn't the best but at least it tracks with her own personality in her own comics and the Batman and Bird of Prey ones. The best Barbara Gordon depictions I've seen are through Cass and Stephanie's Batgirl comics funnily, but the Barbara Gordon Batgirl comics have the worst treatment I've seen of Dick in all of DC.

This is where I think the idea Dick is dumb orginates because it's definitely not coming from Tim or the Titans or Batman. It also makes sense if that's the case since Dickbabs is such a huge thing in this fandom.

I miss when Dick would just be with Kori through everything. They were so in love! I genuinely believe they could have worked out their problems or at least gotten back together but DC will never let that happen for logical reasons. If Dick marries Kori, he's going to end up spending all his time with the Titans which would be bad for the rest of the family because they need him when they have problems or just to hang out. It's a lot more convenient for them to have Tim hang out with Dick and Barbara if they were dating than him hanging out with Dick and Kori. Which is the biggest reason why Batfamily writers want to keep the romance within the family.

I will never accept the cheating thing because it was so out of character but I've kinda gotten used to him finding new relationships because I grown to fall in love with those characters. As long as he has meaningful relationships like with Bea and Shawn where it develops and grows, I end up loving it. My only requirements for his relationship is letting Dick be himself and letting him be happy. I was furious that whoever writer ended Bea's relationship and for what? "I'm sorry, I can't love you anymore, I got memories back." What kinda a reason is that?! It's not even remotely believable! I have so much to say but it's going to turn into a rant about how dumb the reasoning is.

Tom Taylor took all of Dick's fake worst traits and amplified them by a billion. Actually you know what? I get what's he's trying to do. He picked one trait of Dick's - caring - and trashed his entire life story at the expense of his intelligence, athleticism, humor (c'mon Dick was genuinely funny before this run, his humor did not suck), and wit to support this one little thing.

He wouldn't understand subtlety if it hit him in the face.

[mmmmmmmmhhhhh]

The stars are watching us

Dark Cosmic Jhin x reader

Notes: it's the first smut I've ever written and english isn't my first language so please bare with me. Sorry if there are many errors. The reader had fem anatomy but the gender isn't specified or anything.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The air felt warm, your mind dizzy. You don't remember when was the last time you had spent time with him, not like this at least. Being an aspect wasn't all that bad, surely some things could be better, like having more time to yourself instead of having to help others, but the chances that your situation brought you were enough to forget about the bad things. One of them, if not the most important, was Jhin. You met him eons ago now, you saw him getting corrupted by the dark star but nothing could change about how you felt about each other. His change in demeanor wasn't difficult to adapt to, he always had a strange way of thinking, something you loved about him, something that made him so different from the other celestial beings that you befriended over time. Unfortunately, yours and his situation didn't make it easy to be in the other one's presence, a rare occurrence that basically happened everytime you had a bit of free time and could finally be welcomed back in his arms. Now it was one of those times, an even rarer one if we want to call it that: you had just finished helping the lunari near Mount Targon, their fights with the solari only got worse with time and at the moment you were one of the only people available to lend a helping hand. This left you exhausted, your energy spent and the only thing you wanted more was to go back to Jhin, who was probably busy trying to come up with a new "artistic" was to destroy entire planets.

"Hey, too busy to say hello?" You said, chuckling slightly as you approached your lover, his back now turning away from you and making you able to finally see him.

"Your entrance keeps lacking artistry my dear, but I suppose that after all this time I should have gotten used to it" yeah not the most beautiful answer he could say but luckily you knew him enough to read between what could have been taken as an insult and understood that he was still pleased to see you.

"Got anything to do, other than destroying pieces of galaxy I mean?"

"Nothing in particular, the new constellations were finally finished two moons ago and even if they weren't I wouldn't miss an opportunity to spend time with you just to fix stars across the galaxy". It felt nice to know that he still cared about you, not that you doubted him, but it was reassuring to know that he preferred staying with you rather than doing everything else, even the important tasks that he really had to do.

Unfortunately before you could say anything else he decided to speak again:

"You had something on your mind, didn't you?"

"No..." If others could say that you were a good liar he sure wasn't one of those people, after so many years spent together he was able to read you well, probably too well.

"And you are sure about that love?" His question made you look away from his face, a confirmation of his suspicion. While your conversation didn't start long ago you somehow failed to notice the proximity in which you two were in. Feeling one pair of hands grab your waist you put one of your on his mask, his head nuzzling against it while looking at your face, your cheeks heating at the gesture. Another set of hands were now on your hips, his claws digging into the flesh of your thighs while he pulled you up, now face to face with him. Your right hand found purchase on his shoulder while the other moved aside his cloak, exposing his skin to you. Despite living in the vast Cosmo he somehow always had the same body temperature, he felt warm under your touch, almost as if inviting your fingers to started tracing patterns along his chest. The two hands on your waist moved up, now resting just under your breasts, a promise of what was to come if you really wanted it.

"I know what you are trying to do love, I see that your tricks haven't changed" he chuckled while one of his hands went between your legs, gently touching you where you needed him most. His action made you try to close your legs, only to remind yourself that you wrapped them around his middle. A whimper escaped your mouth. Damn it, the only option now was to try to distract him and hope that he didn't hear you...which was kind of difficult considering that you were right next to his ear. In an half hearted attempt you started kissing his collarbone, leaving light marks only visible to you. The fact that his body was slightly transparent, and literally looked like the galaxy that was around you both, should have made it harder for you to notice the bruises that were slowly forming on his skin, it was the opposite actually: over the years you noticed that those places started slowly filling up with little stars, almost making the patch of skin glow. You knew he enjoyed pain so when you noticed that one of the marks you made had a droplet of blood you decided to lap at it with your tongue, only to then suck again on the same spot making him groan. The clawed hands that were grabbing your waist finally decided to do something, now opening the buttons of your shirt and exposing your body to him only to start playing with your right nipple while the other kneaded your other breast. The hand between your legs suddenly stopped moving, making you look up at him to question the choice only to find that he was already expecting that as your response, answering your question by pressing you against the fabric of his pants. The gesture making you whine softly when you felt how hard he was, hoping to finally feel him inside you. Unfortunately for you, your request was left unfulfilled when he decided to move you away from him just the right amount no not feel it under you anymore.

"Please Jhin, seriously it's been too long, I know you want this too so just get on with it" the desperation in your voice was palpable, but the only answer you got was your lover laughing near your ear.

"You really are desperate, aren't you my dear. So tell me, what exactly is that you what me to do mmh?" Even if you couldn't see his expression you could still feel him smirking while saying that. "I just want to feel you, do just that, please..." Maybe you should have specified how you wanted to have him inside you since the next thing he decided to do was pulling your pants down only to press a finger in you, your walls tightening around it, happy to finally feel something even if it wasn't what you originally meant. He started pumping his finger at a steady pace while one of his other hands started rubbing circles on your clit, your hands were now on his shoulder for support even if the two hands that were earlier playing with your breasts were now again on your waist, keeping you where he wanted. After a while he decided that it was probably better to add another finger, with now two of his digits constantly going in and out of your hole you couldn't really keep your voice down, your moans filling his ears while the sound of your wetness constantly being played with filled the space around you. Your head was now dizzy and you didn't notice when he moved back a little, having you basically sit on top of him, only to find out that in this position his fingers could reach deeper inside you, making you whimper.

"Enjoying yourself, aren't you? You really are a canvas worthy of being painted by the most talented hand...luckily for you you will" you were too far gone to understand what he meant, only nodding along with what he said. With no need for his support anymore his hands started undoing the metal belt that kept his pants on, his erection visible from under the fabric, only making you want to touch it more, which you did. Your reward was hearing him hiss your name, words strained because of the feeling. It didn't take long for him to take off his garments, making you able to finally see his cock. It was basically the same color as his body, the tip just a little darker and glistening with a thick bead of precum.

"Well you seem to be enjoying yourself too no?" You almost purred in his ear, putting one of your hands between your legs to gather some wetness, only to start touching him, spreading the mix of fluids on his dick while you played with his tip. "It never ceases to amaze me that it sparkles, you know? I mean I know that they are literally stars but still... it's always so pretty to see" your talk about how much you liked how his cum looked probably didn't help him since you felt him twitch under your hand. At this point you decided that almost torturing your poor lover really was a fun thing to do so instead of keeping your hand there you got up a little, feeling the hands that were playing with you move away enough to allow you to basically sit on with without actually having him inside you. Those same hands now found purchase on your hips, digging their claws in your skin while you started moving slowly, your slit covering his cock with your wetness while your clit sometimes touched his tip, making the both of you moan. While doing this was fun and all that, you noticed that it was probably too much time since you last played with his nipples, now more sensitive than before. You would have continued doing your thing if it wasn't for him to basically stop you, his hands moving you away from his lower half so you couldn't keep on making him feel too much at once.

"I'm sorry love but I think that it's time to change pace, it would become boring if a performance kept the same one for the whole show, wouldn't it now?" Before you could question him you felt his tip at your entrance, thanks to the mess you both made the stretch didn't hurt much but it still left that tingling feeling in you. In one motion the rest of his cock was now buried in you, your walls sucking him in, while the both of you tried to not make too much noise. Your hands went back on his shoulders while two of his went to your hips and one back at playing with your clit. With now only one hand free he found out that the best thing to do to hear your voice was to put his fingers in your mouth, two of them on your tongue while his thumb stayed under your chin, keeping your mouth open and coating his digits with your spit.

"You don't know how beautiful you look right now, it really is unfortunate that such an image cannot be preserved in time" not even after saying the entire phrase he started moving, at first he opted for only pulling out and thrust back in, reaching that one spot that made your vision grow white, but over time he decided to change that, only to start going faster. The hands on your hips guiding your body as he wanted while praise after praise he kept pounding into you. You knew you wouldn't have lasted much longer and he knew it too, deciding to add to the feeling and press down harder on your clit making you moan louder. Your mind felt dizzy, your limbs were going numb and in those last few moments of total consciousness you heard him say something along the lines of painting you just as he said... When you finally came your nails were digging a little too hard in his shoulders. It didn't take long before he finished too, unfortunately or not, inside you, quite literally painting your insides with his cum, only to feel it drip down your hole and unto his things. "You should look down darling, you seem to have forgotten the best part" without even having the time to look down his hand gently grabbed you chin, tilting your head down and making you see what he was referring to.

Evidently too much time passed since the last time you two did this because you totally forgot that his seed was basically glow in the dark, or at least you could see where it was inside of you through your skin. You touched where it was dripping out of you but before you could see it clearly it basically evaporated, making those little star like glitters that made it oh so pretty dance in the air around you and slowly transforming into real little stars.

"I was right, it really is pretty..." You now had a fond smile on your face, deciding to bring your lips to his mask you kissed him gently, hoping to at least now convey how much he meant to you.

"Wanna know something my dear?"

Humming in response you waited for him to continue.

"We probably have to stay like this if you don't want dozens of stars to randomly spawn around us... I think you know what I'm referring to" if it weren't for the fact that at exact moment the only thing in your mind was how much you loved him you would have probably smacked his face. Luckily for him enjoying some more time together was the thing you wanted more at the moment, unfortunately he still had to go back to his "work". It will be fun finding out which excuse he'll use tomorrow when Ashe will ask why he wasn't doing his job and why there were so many new stars floating around the Cosmo.

[leffee]

question for you. What episodes do you think hold the angstiest potential for each pet?

For example: what episode do you think has the most angst potential for Russell etc. It could be an episode that centers around the pet you're talking about, or it doesn't have to be :D

(Am I making sense rn?)

Ok, so per your request I'm only including season 1 and 2 episodes since you haven't seen anything after that for now

Vinnie - "Sunil's Sick Day" - so many choices but I decided to go with this episode. Imagine after all that happened in the episode Vinnie thinks about it all and realizes that technically Sunil got mad at him for nothing. Because in the episode they argued about him breaking Sunil's wand but... the wand was never broken in the first place and Sunil knew that. So once Vinnie realizes that he is so distraught. Did Sunil, his beloved best friend whom he can't live without make up a reason to be mad at him? Why...? Does Sunil secretely not like him and wanted an excuse to be away from him? Lots of doubts appear here. And don't even get me started if he found out Sunil said about him and I quote "Between you and me he's not that good of a dancer." Oof, big big angst potential here.

Pepper - "Sweet Pepper" - pretty much everything you said in this one long post about this episode. The rest of the girls just tried to change her so much and even when Captain liked the way she acted normally they told her not to act like herself. What? Why? Listen, I believe Zoe could act like that but Penny and especially Minka? Nuh-uh. And don't even get me started on the whole "You handed me the picture of a pretty skunk," which implies she doesn't exactly think of herself as pretty. Her angst possibility in this episode basically boils down to it all making her feel worthless and like she needs to change to be loved, drastically change.

Zoe - "Eve of Destruction" - honestly she was really hard, not because it was hard to pick an episode out of many, just because I couldn't think of any episode that has angst potential for her. In the end we have this. Imagine her and Madame Pom went through with this whole modeling content and Madame would somehow be declred a winner. She already lost to her years ago and now again? It's Zoe, and it's something she cares about - modeling, of course she's not gonna be happy. Not to mention how other pets idolized Madame Pom, I mean Vinnie and Penny saw her opinions on their dancing as the most important, and the rest of them admired her pictures and such, yeah, Zoe wouldn't be too happy if that stuck for longer. ...Why do they never act this way with her? Is she not special?

Minka - "Bad Hair Day" - might be kinda obvious but yeah, definitely holds a lot of angst, just canonically. Her friends straight up used her for money, yikes! Aside from the whole thing with her wanting to paint for herself and not for money or fame she could definitely start thinking her friends are only around her for possible monetary value. Not because they like her, but because she can give them money.

Russell - "Russell Up Some Fun" - first scenes of this episode is everyone else criticizing how he is naturally to the point he decided to change himself completely, of course it's huge angst mine. It's basically the same thing as "Sweet Pepper", just Russell feeling the need to change himself drastically so others like him. Not to mention at the end when they begged him to return to being his normal self it could definitely make him feel like others only want him to act his usual way because it benefits them, not because they like it. Do they even like him...?

Sunil - "Lights, Camera, Mongoose!" - bruh, they were so rude to him at the beggining ("Good job, David Copperfied" okay, Vinnie). At least they had a reason. Not a very good one but it's something. Still, if I were him I wouldn't be this happy about returning to them at the end of the episode especially after getting a taste of how appreciated he could be. I bitch about them doing nothing when Vinnie went missing but now that I think about it they didn't do anything about Sunil going missing in this episode either! They barely even acknowledged it before Blythe returned. Also why does Sunil go missing so much in this show smh.

Penny - "So Interesting" - I genuinely feel so bad for her whenever I rewatch this episode, I mean the beginning. Thinking there's nothing interesting about her, oof. The fact that they kept being like "There's gotta be something interesting about you!" like that's just rude, they're basically calling her boring in such a rude way not to mention the pressure. Imagine she never made up that story because she wasn't a good story teller or maybe because of that pressure that would be stressing her out. She would have to live thinking others think she's boring and being so insistent everyone has something super exciting about them. With her sensitivity especially she definitely would be super hurt and I don't blame her. Can't she just have no interesting story involving her but still be liked by them? Doesn't she have any good qualities that make others want to be her friends...?

[random-thought-depository]

Brett Devereaux made an observation about Dune that I really like: that Paul Atreides and Feyd Rautha Harkonnen were probably raised with very similar values.

This isn't exactly a ship in the usual fandom sense of the word, but I think it'd be interesting to see this explored in an AU fanfic where Paul and Feyd Rautha somehow team up at the end of Dune.

I think what'd work really well for this is a scenario where Feyd Rautha somehow gets control over House Harkonnen and swears loyalty/vassalage to Paul, adding effective control over House Harkonnen to Paul's portfolio at the end of Dune.

I think that'd have really crunchy social and emotional dynamics that'd fit really well with the theme here. Paul has spent years hating the Harkonnens and seeking revenge on them for the death of his father and a lot of the surviving remnant of Paul's own house have pretty similar feelings, and now here's Feyd Rautha saying to Paul "The armies of my house await your orders, my lord," and Feyd and his Harkonnen buddies are now hanging out at Paul's court and hobnobbing with Paul and the rest of his court. If Gurney Halleck and Duncan Idaho are alive in this scenario I bet they'd hate this and there'd be some pretty tense moments when they have to collaborate with their Harkonnen opposite numbers.

Atreides and Harkonnen generals collaborating to plan the Jihad with kinda shitlib vs. MAGA chud vibe tension where the Atreides have thinking of themselves as the side of good as an important part of their self-image while the Harkonnens tend to be more casually bloodthirsty and sadistic but this is arguably more a difference in aesthetics than anything substantive, when crunch time comes they can put these cultural differences aside and collaborate surprisingly easily on shared goals because they're actually fundamentally similar people with fundamentally similar worldviews and values, molded by fundamentally similar institutions.

Feyd Rautha becoming one of Paul's closest subordinates and kind of his friend in a weird way cause they're actually fundamentally similar people and useful to each other.

I think Feyd is supposed to still be pretty young at the end of Dune, so this might work better if Paul is a bit less lucky in his campaign against the Harkonnens, delaying the events of the end of Dune by a few years but ultimately not preventing them, or something like that, IDK.

I think if I were writing this the closest I'd take this to shipping in the common fandom sense is Paul and Feyd end up kind of in a wife-loaning polycule with Irulan, though one that's asexual on Paul's side. Basically at some point Irulan and Paul have a conversation that's basically a more refined version of this:

IRULAN: "Hey, I'm tired of living a life of involuntary celibacy cause you need a political marriage to me but won't have sex with me because of your issues. Can you just wife-loan me to one of your right-hand men if you're gonna be so complicated?"

PAUL: "Fine, sure. The usual rules will apply: keep it on the down-low and don't get pregnant."

IRULAN: "Fine."

PAUL: "Did you have any candidates in mind? If not, might I suggest Utrecht or Hakim?"

IRULAN: "I AM NOT SLEEPING WITH AN UNBATHED DESERT BARBARIAN! ... Feyd is kind of hot, I guess... I'll take him!"

PAUL: "That arrangement would be perfectly acceptable to me. Pending Feyd's agreement, we have a deal. I'll discuss this matter with him tonight, after I've discussed with him the deposition of his house troops in the conquest expedition I'll be launching against the Megara worlds. I think he'll agree."

IRULAN: "Great!"

I have had one or two or three little ideas for a Dune fanfic but have never figured out what the plot would be. I suppose now if I ever actually write a Dune fanfic, it'll probably be about this premise.

I guess in a way it might be fridge brilliance that this didn't happen in the actual books, cause this is a lot like the relationship between Leto II and Farad'n at the end of Children of Dune and Farad'n reads to me as a mirror to Paul in the same way Feyd is, and the arc of the Dune novels up to God-Emperor of Dune is Leto II could do what Paul couldn't bring himself to do, so Leto II being able to co-opt Farad'n while Paul couldn't co-opt Feyd would fit with that.

[centralperkchenford]

chenford + drunk Tim comes home and suddenly wants to spend the entire night apologizing to Lucy about his treatment to her during her rookie year + the ashley prank and the move on comment. Really it was just generally asking for forgiveness for everything kind of night for him.

I hope you like this anon!

chenford + drunk Tim comes home and suddenly wants to spend the entire night apologizing to Lucy about his treatment to her during her rookie year + the ashley prank and the move on comment. Really it was just generally asking for forgiveness for everything kind of night for him.

When the bones are good, the rest don't matter

Lucy is just turning off the TV for the night when there is a loud bang at the door. She frowns as Kojo starts barking. She shushes him, and goes to answer the door unlocking all the locks Tim insists on having. She opens the door to reveal her fiancé hanging onto the doorframe to hold himself up.

“Hi.” She says ushering him in. He stumbles a bit but she her arm around his waist so he doesn’t fall.

“Hi.” He mutters back. Lucy tilts her head at him as she leads him to the sofa. “You’re cute.”

Lucy huffs out a laugh as he plops down on the sofa and leans his head back. “Thank you.” She says even though she knows he doesn’t understand what she’s saying. He went out with his metro team after closing a case they had been working on for two weeks. It kept him at work late and she missed him terribly when he was away. And then they closed the case and his team insisted on going out for a bit. Lucy had encouraged him to go and he did. And apparently got a little drunk.

“I’m sorry.” He says suddenly and he’s not looking at her instead he’s looking at his lap. “I’m sorry.”

“For what babe?” Lucy asks and she moves away to get him some water. But he grabs onto her pant leg and tugs her towards him. She goes and then he tugs on her hand and loops it through his.

“Everything.” He says and he still isn’t looking at her despite the fact that he’s holding her hand. “I was such a jackass.”

“Well you—” Lucy starts but Tim squeezes her hand.

“I was. And you didn’t deserve that. I wasn’t in the best place but that’s not an excuse.” He says. “I know I was suppose to be tough but you were like a ray of sunshine and it was kind of annoying.”

“Tim…”

“And then Caleb kidnapped you and I felt bad like it was my fault for pushing you towards him. I should have known. And when you were missing I-I did everything to make sure I found you.”

“Tim, Caleb wasn’t your fault. Okay? I made the choice to go out with him.” Lucy says softly. “You were being.. you. It wasn’t your fault.”

“And I treated you so bad. I guess I wanted you to wash out. But I didn’t really. You cracked the top five.” He says slurring his words a little. He’s still holding her hand but now he’s looking up at her.

“Tim, you were just—” She pauses not sure where she is going with that sentence. She complained about Tim a lot but he also became the most important person and relationship in her life. And once they started dating he became her favorite person. She knew beneath the hard exterior that was Tim Bradford was a sweet caring man who would do anything for her and the people he loves.

“I’m just sorry.” He says his eyes back on her hands. Lucy leans down and kisses him gently on the lips.

“Its okay.” She assures him. “I’m going to go get you some water okay?” He nods and let’s go his hand, she keeps her eyes on him as she gets a cup of water and some Advil for the headache she knows he will have in the morning. She goes back over and presses the medicine into his hand and hands him the water. He takes it and then puts the cup aside before reaching for her again.

“You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I’m so broken. How do you put up with me?” He asks but before she can answer he continues.

“I have done so many things that you shouldn’t forgive me for. But I’m going to ask for forgiveness anyway.”

He pulls her so she’s sitting next to him and she can smell the beer but he also smells like him.

“Tim you don’t have to—”

“The fake proposal prank. That was stupid.” He says mournfully. And Lucy can’t argue with him there whether she realized it or not, her heart was broken that night.

“Tim. You were trying to be—I don’t know funny. It’s fine.”

But Tim doesn’t seem to hear her as he lays his head on her shoulder. “I’m sorry.” He says. “The only person I want to marry is you.”

“Well it’s a good thing we are engaged huh.” She teases him. “And I said yes!” Tim raises his head to look at her.

“I don’t deserve you.” He says. “You are what keeps my world spinning. And I don’t deserve you.”

Lucy let’s put a small breath and puts her fingers under his chin. “You deserve the world Tim. And I want to give that to you. ” She says. “And you are kind of stuck with me.”

Tim is frowning and she kisses him again, she likes when he smiles. “I love you Tim. I love everything about you. You make my life better. I know we had a rocky start but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you. We had to go through all that to get here.” She pokes at his chest, “Sometimes the good things take time. And we are good Tim.”

She doesn’t know if he will remember this or not in the morning but it doesn’t matter she will tell him this again and again. Whether he’s drunk or sober. He deserves to know he’s worth it.

Tim blinks at her. “I told you to move on.” He mutters. “How do you still want me.”

Lucy let’s out another breath. “I wanted you for a long time Tim. That doesn’t just go away. You said you were looking out for me and deep down I knew you were. It didn’t feel like it at the time but.. we were in a difficult place.” She says reaching out to cup his face. “You aren’t going to remember any of this huh?”

He looks at his eyes slightly glazed over. “I missed you.” He says. “When you were at UC school.”

“Yeah?” She asks. “I missed you too. I missed you so much that Noah thought you were my boyfriend.”

“I am your boyfriend.” He says and he’s slurring his words again.

“My fiancé.” She corrects showing him her engagement ring.

He smiles slightly and takes her hand kissing each finger. “Yeah.” He says.

“I forgive you Tim.” She says patting his face. “And when you mess up again. I will forgive you. You are worth it.”

“I think I love you.” He mutters.

Lucy laughs and kisses him and then pulls him up. “Come on baby. Time for bed. I love you too.”

He stands up and wobbles a little bit. She holds him steady and then leads him to their bedroom. She helps him into bed and climbs in behind him wrapping herself around him. “Sleep babe.” She whispers. She hears his breathing even out and then he’s sleep with her hand pressed to his chest feeling his heartbeat against her hand.

***

Lucy wakes up the next morning and Tim isn’t beside her. She feels for him but she only feels cold sheets. She groans wishing his warmth was next to her, but rolls out of bed and slips on one of his shirts before making her way to the kitchen. Tim is sitting at the kitchen counter with a cup of coffee in front of him. He looks up when she comes into the room and grimaces a little.

She smiles at him giving him a small kiss. “How do you feel?”

“Like a truck ran over me. Who said I could drink that much.”

Lucy laughs a little and gives him another kiss. “You were chatty Kathy last night.” She tells him and grins at the expression on his face.

“What did I say?” He asks sounding nervous.

“You said sorry for how you treated me when I was your rookie, for the fake proposal and for the “move on comment.” She says. He opens his mouth to reply but she beats him to it.

“I forgave you. I forgive you.” She says. “Everything that has happened led us here so I’m okay with that.”

“Lucy…” He says softly. He reaches out brushing some hair from her face. “You are amazing.”

“Yeah. I try.” She tells him grinning and then she leans forward and kisses him. He reciprocates and she sighs happily playing with the hair on the back of his neck.

She gets Tim for the rest of her life.

“Thank you.” He mutters.

She gives him a curious look. “For what?”

“For forgiving me. For loving me.” He says his lips inches from hers.

“Haven’t I told you Tim.. you are worth it. You always will be.”

He smiles and kisses her nose and then her lips. “You will always be worth it too.”

[jinkieswouldyoulookatthis]

Saw a new one from a blog I follow. The blog is Dean-centric and at least leans towards Destiel (no idea if they actually ship it because I choose to scroll past those posts) but I follow them because they write thought provoking meta on Dean. I do not always agree with all their opinions, but they are usually well thought out, but this one? This one seemed to be reaching across really thin ice. Not sharing their post because I'm not trying to blast anyone and it's not about them, I just...

The take was that Sam and Dean aren't soulmates and that the entire conversation with Ash in heaven was actually Zachariah fucking with them, fucking with Dean's head in particular. That somehow lying that soulmates are even a thing that exists in that universe (the take insists that it doesn't actually exist) and implying that Sam is Dean's, that this put even more guilt on Dean intended to make him break, to increase the rift between him and Sam. And I just... like, I get it if people don't think that the scene equals them being soulmates, it was just vague enough for plausible deniability (they never came right out and said the words that Sam and Dean were soulmates, although a lot of these same viewers will read into and make assumptions about the colors used in certain scenes meaning something, but whatever) so I get that some folks choose to think that they aren't. Fine. But this specific take is unnecessarily convoluted, requires more assumptions than just accepting the implied platonic fraternal soulmate status. (Being soulmates doesn't inherently mean anything romantic or sexual btw.)

Because while Zachariah was 100% fucking with them in Dark Side of the Moon (5x16) I never got the impression that he was in complete control over everything that happened while they were in Heaven. Yeah he had a lot of influence, seemed to be cherry-picking the memories they were reliving, and totally puppeted Mary to fuck with them, but there was never any indication that Ash was being controlled or was contrived, and, more importantly, the idea of Sam being Dean's soulmate didn't help the angel's cause, if anything it hurt it because it further entrenched the us vs. them thing between the boys and the rest of everyone and everything else. It was dropped in as this weird little nugget of information that the boys pointedly didn't react to and then it was never brought up again.

Also, as an aside, if Sam and Dean had been twins instead of having the four years between them and the show had implied that they were soulmates, I don't think anyone would have balked at that because weird shit happens with twins (at least in our collective imaginations) so having them be two halves of the same soul would make a kind of sense. But for some reason it's too weird for siblings who didn't occupy the same womb at the same time???

Narratively, the only reason for the soulmates info to be dropped in like that was to imply that Sam and Dean were soulmates. It implies nothing else and it doesn't mean anything more than that they are cosmically bound together all the way down to their very souls. Nothing in the rest of the show ever contradicts this and in fact the show goes to great lengths to support the depth and importance of their bond, over and over and over.

[n0tafanficwriter]

(Sorry I only am posting chapter 3)

I was made for lovin' you, baby

CHAPTER 3: SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO

They finally made it to the reunion. It was more like a sad birthday party if anything. The trio were definitely overdressed besides John. He looked like he was gonna sing mcr if that was a thing during this time period. They went to look around to find Javier. It was like he was hiding or something. I mean, he did say just come on in. "Uh Javier?" John finally said something it was better than to roam around in silence. Javier immediately appeared with open arms. He seemed happy to see that Charles and Arthur were still together. "The band's back together, ay?" He said, smiling at them all. "Minus Micah," Arthur added on to what Javier said. "Good riddance." Marston huffed while resting his hands on his hips all sassy. Charles really didn’t have much say in the matter. He wasn't in the band just on the side lines supporting his boyfriend.

Javier sighed it was a good sigh. You could tell he was happy to see his old friends again. "So tell me what's new with you three," he said, moving over to a nearby seat, which was a dining room chair. "Me and Abigail got a divorce," John said, taking a seat next to him. "And now he lives with us," Arthur added on. Javier nodded, listening before speaking "man that sucks. Your boy gonna be okay??" He asked John. John only groaned quietly. "I don't know if he's even my son," he said, raising a brow at Javier. The man next to him seemed almost sad at the comment. It seems people can't really change overnight. Arthur sighed heavily. "You really think Jack isn't your son still, huh?" He said he was clearly annoyed by this. Arthur has been in Jack's life for almost 12 years now. "Let's change the topic! Drinks anyone?" Javier asked as he got up and ran to the counter, grabbing the cheap alcohol that lay displayed out in the open. The trio nodded, who couldn't say no to booze, especially at a "party" or if you could even call it that.

They all drank. Shot by shot. Charles was sober he was gonna be the driver, though he did at least have one drink. The night was young still. Arthur dragged Charles onto the couch, mumbling drunken words. Charles put his fingers through his lover's hair, nodding and smiling at him. Meanwhile, Javier was laughing with John. John wasn't completely drunk, and neither was Javier. Arthur was a different story. He's not important right now. Marston set aside his drink, telling himself it was enough and not to get black out drunk. Javier put on music. It made the moment better. "So uhh Marston," Javier said, looking over at him, almost gazing into his eyes. "It's been a while, hasn't it?" he added on. John nodded his head "yeah I guess it really has been, huh?". John looked over at Arthur and Charles, giving each other kisses. Gross.. John did not like that. He scrunched up his nose. Javier noticed and decided to drag him away from the two.

The two were alone now. Jaiver took him to his room it wasn't too weird. Though John has never been in Javier's room ever. It was a little strange. "Ah, much better, am I right?" Javier said, breaking the silence between them again. John nodded. "Yeah. Way better than them kissing, that's for sure." Marston said, getting a laugh out of Javier. The two talked for 30 minutes. It was nice. John was feeling relaxed around Javier. And maybe it was the alcohol or the 3 months of a lack of physical affection. He, without warning, kissed Javier on the lips. Understandably, Javier pushed him off. "Ah! Madre! John, what the hell was that? " Javier didn't seem mad he was more so shocked. John panicked and got up and ran out of the bedroom. Javier was too stunned to even think, but he eventually snapped back to reality and got up and rushed after him.

John went over to Charles and Arthur. "Can we go home now?" he said in a panicked voice. Javier went over to them. "John, wait, can we at least talk about what happened?" Javier said in a gentle voice towards John. Charles looked at the two in pure confusion. Arthur was out a like a light onto Charles's chest, so he couldn't really mumble a word. John looked up him he was panicked. He was used to running away from his problems. Not like kissing Javier was a problem, more so an embarrassing situation. "I want to go home. We can discuss this tomorrow. " In other words, he doesn't want to talk about it. He couldn't even look Javier in the eyes. He was too embarrassed that he wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out. "Fine," Javier accepted that. He wasn't going to argue against him. Eventually, Charles got up, waking up Arthur. He was groggy and grumpy, but the trio made it to the car. Arthur was put in the back, and John was in the passenger. Charles got in the drivers seat. "So what was that about?" He asked in confusion and concern. "Don't wanna talk about it" was all John could mutter out.

[evorathesylvurr]

barks and bites and i need to share the hyperspecific lyrics in the angelacore playlist feel free to ignore

angelacore, which is a made up word i use a lot here, is my catchall word for anything that makes me think of Angela from Lobotomy Corporation/Library of Ruina.

do not expect in depth lyrical analysis on why a specific lyric makes me think of angela. this is me dropping a bunch of lyrics from 8 or 9 different songs and saying "see how this is the blue haired robot lady"

There are spoilers for both Lobotomy Corporation and Library of Ruina.

for context: the angelacore playlist was something i started after listening to Language of the Lost by RIProducer which has the following lyrics

I don't need forgiveness I just wanna talk and for you to listen

I thought that I was safe, now I'll never be the same Tossed aside for making a scene Do I know who I pretend to be? Of whom am I a copy? Yes it made me who I am, but I'll never understand Why it had to happen to me

and heres a mix of chorus lines

On my knees, I try to crawl Fire breaking in the walls Calling out for somebody, knowing I'll get no reply

If I'm a robot or a doll Am I anything at all? Maybe a thing like me doesn't yet deserve to know

and the final chorus

Not robot nor a doll I'm not anything at all I'm just an entity finding out the way to go But these fingers and these palms Full of love despite the scars They show indisputably I have so much more to grow Oh, I can change, I can evolve I can get up when I fall I'll live contentedly, I don't need a reason why Standing tall and standing strong I have found where I belong In the arms of somebody, there is no more need to cry

the second song on the playlist is Pathological Facade by Ghost which. yeah. (cw for medicines and medical shit if you listen to it)

A year ago, I was told that I would be a miracle Something theoretical, I guess It's kinda like a psychedelic lie, and yet it tries to be A line between the villains and the rest Nostalgia from a wall of barricaded faded memories Impartial to the carnal scenery Apparently, guarantees are only found peripherally Drinking to a total mystery

Stars always watching from afar, turning who you are In the end, it left me delicately scarred beyond pathological facade Don't you find it odd? Secretarial speaking Go on, praise me like a god

(Stars always watching from afar, turning who you are is not really important to why its in the angelacore playlist but i included it because otherwise it felt weird)

Bye-bye-bye goes the time, turning on a dime Gone without a reason or a rhyme So flip a coin, let's rejoin our family in the mirror world Where everybody's crooked by design

A year ago, I was told that I would be a miracle Something theoretical, I guess It's kinda like a psychedelic lie, and yet it tries to be A line between the villains and the rest The Tower's gonna fall, and you'll silently rebuild it all Knowing someone else would be appalled You're crying as you call out Halt and move on without someone that you think a lot about

then we have fucking Hymn for a Scarecrow by Tally Hall which I have ALWAYS considered this song angelacore.

im gonna try not to post the entire fucking song but just trust me the entire song is angelacore, here is the bit that is MORE angelacore than the rest

You hang around for a living Somewhere between all the land and the sky Being by never forgiving Nobody knows you and neither do I Birds may believe at a distance You wear a grin and keep perfectly still Driven away with persistence I wonder if they have wondered or will ever wonder Ever wonder

Mother Earth's love whispered to me (and it wasn't her fault) Real is a feeling and feeling is real All of you are flowing through me But you wouldn't know how to fathom or feel When the wind blows The wind knows The wind knows Oh, scarecrow Maybe the wind knows Whether you wonder Who's calling your name Shame how nobody knows you Only who wonders if you are to blame

then we have the uncanny x deathbody mashup (gore art tw).

Attuned inside, alluded, denied I feel my breath pressed into contact Undo the seal, the vague and unreal I shouldn't pry, a child sighs and hides away

hold my hand even if i cry i need to feel like i'm human through you hold on tight till the tears run dry the things i see are a dread to undo

All this time, I've waited My death was recreated So this would last forever Accepting agony Cruel indifference, lonely sufferance Returning to a time when I was still alive

and yeah while more of this falls into uncanny i feel like deathbody fits any character who falls into the "i am a robot and yet i do not wish to be" trope (for me, deathbody is a five pebbles song)

talked about this one in the last post about the angelacore playlist but this specific lyrical cover of Satori Maiden ~ 3rd Eye

Stop— Every moment trapped in someone else’s hell: No love is unconditional where there is fear to be found. If that’s the case, then it may be just as well To hide it all away underground. Stop— Though I look away, I’ve seen it all before: Another ugly truth lies behind these cold, brittle locks. Dig even deeper; there must be something more: A last hope at the bottom of the box?

had to stop from posting the entire lyrics to this but GAH its so angelacore. why is angela and satori the same character (they are objectively NOT)

now we have hello world by Louie Zong, which is the shortest little song on the list, but its there.

Hello, world Programmed to work and not to feel Not even sure that this is real Hello, world

next there's JubyPhonic's cover of Dramaturgy

Knew it already fine, misery inside At myself, I would laugh, fallen down behind But I don't know a thing, love or losing, see? So I threw to the side any human in me If I live a lie of shallow words and empty replies "Then what am I?" Hitting the walls of a stage that I couldn’t break Then it stuck to my head, gotta run away Playing out like a scene, posing every lead Near the end of the show, waiting in the wing, see? Run to the front stage, you're all actors anyway No one to watch, you're all part of the play

There’s no one inside me There's no one that's hiding Always been me, empty, a body but nobody here to see

We were young, never bound by a single sin Til before we could see, we were monsters in skin But even if I had tried to move on why can't I leave my past? "Considering it's you, better give up soon" "Cause no matter what you do, you will always lose" And then I was alone way before I knew Blocking every little thought that I couldn't sit through All they want now is safety from what's around Waiting for help but never learning how

The world that I locked out is nowhere to find The people who mocked me are gone from my sight Emotions and feelings are useless to keep The tears that had fallen were not mine to mine weep The kindness and warmth, I can't feel them at all The hands that are offered, I'm scared that I’ll fall The hole dug inside me can't hold any love Instead, you can see me break down from above Hey, remember when you saw that they were nearing their end? And you looked like you were laughing at the pain they were in But what did you see? Oh, really what could it be Well, take a breath 'cause you'll need it, so c'mon, saying

overall the song is very angelacore (because of the whole concept of dramaturgical theory

then we have Dizzy Paranoia Girl by VocaloKAT.

Expectations high from the start I’ll just mess it up “Congratulations, you fell apart” Fuck, I messed it up! They tell me I just need to grow up But I know that they think that I’m not enough Pirouette your view and you’ll see There’s no cure for burnt out and naive

Spinning all around, I think I spun out My fault by default Thoughts racing up and down, oh what to do now? Follow protocol But I hate this, I don’t wanna play ball I just wanna end this once and for all

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Laugh through every day No matter what I do, nobody has a clue, life’s always been this way I hate hate hate hate this arbitrary game No matter what you heard, you’ll never hear the words nobody dares to say

Stab me with an IV But I know you won’t protect me And I can’t keep on ignoring When you make me wanna bleed Cynicism inbound Common sense nowhere to be found I’ll bottle up the thought that I'd be better off left underground

Think I’m at the end of a road traveled far too long And I keep screaming out the lyrics of this idiotic song Hate me just because I never wanna play along But I don’t wanna live a life where I live in the wrong

and finally, Left Behind Generation by VocaloKAT (s//cide tw according to vocaloid lyrics wiki)

Playing pretend, praying that one day this will end All of us already know the support’s for show, and they all let go Maybe one day, one day We won’t have to take our mistakes to the grave Give your heart and your soul, down to the bone, just to fight alone

So tell us How can we keep on living life? As every other person passes by We cross our hearts and hope to die another million times And if all of the effort was in vain If nothing was ever worth the pain We’ll try again Until the end

So tell me Why I should keep on living life While every other person passes by I’ll cross my heart and hope to die another million times And if all of the effort was in vain If nothing was ever worth the pain We'll sit and obey just to get thrown away

thats everything on the playlist right now. maybe one day I'll do a more in depth lyrical analysis on why these specific lyrics but. i am going to go insane if i do not post this soon.

[johanna-swann]

Did anybody else find this episode a little... Idk, underwhelming? Too simple? Because of course there were parts I liked and enjoyed very much, but I also felt like a lot of it fell flat. Maybe it's just that we already new a lot going in and that it was veeeery predictable, but still. In parts, it felt almost like a character study.

The first couple of minutes were pretty fun. With the bachelor party, Chim not wanting a bachelor party and Buck and Eddie going "well screw what he wants, we're having a party!". I didn't mind that this part was relatively short either, it just served as a little fun moment and as an introduction to the main conflict of the episode.

[On a side note: I feel like they're leaning heavily into Buck being an awkward mess this season. He has always been impulsive and doesn't always think before he speaks, but the second-hand embarrassment levels are off the charts this season. Might be just a me thing though, idk.]

Anyway. Once they realise that Chimney is missing, the reason behind his disappearance is cleared up quickly. It's not particularly mysterious or dramatic or complicated (he has a fever and got disoriented) and then nothing much happens anymore?

We see the other characters looking for him, but aside from a very small scene were Maddie worries she put to much pressure on this wedding there's not much emotion here? They're all very pragmatic about it, it feels like just another day on the job.

Meanwhile Chimney has some more hallucinations while wandering about. Tbh, I hate that they brought Doug back. What was the purpose behind this? He's been dead for five years, Maddie has been in therapy about it and Chimney dealt with his feelings about Maddie's first marriage last season before he proposed. Just. Why?

The actual wedding at the end also only takes up about 6 minutes. This part, again, is kinda sweet. Very much predictable though.

In general, not a single surprising thing happened in this episode (aside from Doug). We knew Chim would disappear. We knew the wedding wouldn't go down as planned and that it was probably gonna end in a smaller impromptu ceremony. We knew Buck would come out to the rest of the team, but that it wouldn't be a big deal. We knew that Madney still would get married this episode. We knew there was going to be a happy ending.

So yeah. There is an entire half hour in the middle of the episode where barely anything happens. We don't see the other main characters' feelings about their missing friend. There's not B- or C-plot drama with the Buckley parents or Chimney's father or anything. It's really just Chimney stumbling about and the others looking for him.

Which, as I mentioned, made this episode feel like a character study on Chimney. Even Maddie didn't have much to do this episode. I think maybe a lot of the emotional impact got lost in editing, they had to cut like 30 minutes of screentime off of 7x06?

TL;DR: Despite some rather heartwarming scenes, the plot felt very thin for an episode that was promoted as this huge mid-season event, the wedding we've been waiting for, especially because we waited 3 weeks for it instead of just 1.

Now, before I just send out all these sceptical, negative thoughts, here some things I really liked:

The Lees were such an important part of this episode. They are Chimney's family, he grew up with them, they're home. The importance of found family has been dying down a little bit during the recent seasons (Eddie trying to be better with his parents, the Buckley parents showing up more, even Chim's father is somewhat forgiven his shortcomings). But the Lees rightfully got their screentime here.

I do like that they establish how Chim's little adventure had nothing to do with the bachelor party. It's not that Buck and Eddie irresponsibly lost the groom, it's completely unrelated.

The coming out was also a little underwhelming, but then again this was Madney's episode and who knows, maybe they'll follow up on this at a later point.

Bobby officiating the wedding with their entire family huddled into that one hospital room was really sweet.

Chimney triaging that emergency was so cool. That's just who Chimney is at his core, even when he's hallucinating and thinks it's 2004.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for threatening to have my friend's boyfriend removed when he crashed our outing?

This happened a few years ago now but I still feel really mixed about it and want a general consensus. Important context is that my friend (Jen) and her boyfriend (Dan) are both from Mormon families, they're getting out of it together slowly but it does heavily influence how they acted + how the situation was treated. Also, Dan was homeschooled and doesn't have a lot of experience in social situations or with friendships in general because he's super sheltered. We were all 19 when this went down.

So two years ago Jen was very abruptly told she was being sent out of state to a Mormon college in two weeks. I decided to go hang out with her for the weekend with my partner who is also her friend. The first day we hung out with both Jen and Dan. Then the day after we (me, my partner and Jen) wanted to have dinner together alone to say goodbye.

She had been hanging out with Dan before coming to dinner and asked him for a ride to the restaurant. He drops her off, we hang out and have a great time for about half an hour until she gets a text and tells us that Dan showed up to crash our dinner. My partner and I were pretty unnerved by this as we had only met this guy twice before. Jen tries to go explain to Dan why he needs to leave but he insists on sitting at a table I guess to just watch us the rest of the night.

At this point I'm feeling extremely creeped out and protective of Jen so I pull Dan aside and state plainly that him showing up like this is rude and freaking everyone out, and I calmly told him to leave. He doesn't acknowledge anything I say and asks if I hate him. I tell him I don't but I want to say goodbye to Jen properly, alone. He says that he'll sit further away from us and goes back to the tables before I can argue with him.

We try to continue ignoring him for a little while but I hit my boiling point and go to where he's sitting and tell him he needs to leave or I'll ask the staff to remove him. He finally leaves but starts having a breakdown over text with Jen. Apparently he wandered off and she left to go find him. Long story short, he has a breakdown and we all end up leaving before even ordering entrées to go find him.

HIS PARENTS called Jen to shame her for not inviting him and told her that she should have known this would happen, all of this is her fault. I didn't know that would happen, I assumed any reasonable person would think Dan was in the wrong, but I think I should have realized that their mormon families are not reasonable. Jen ended up taking a lot of shit from both her parents and his. I think this also ended up straining our relationship because she loves Dan and I hurt his feelings. She had a hard time really believing this wasn't her fault and that she shouldn't take all the responsibility for his actions like their families told her.

When I spell it out I feel like the plain fact is I did nothing wrong, but because of the emotional context I am really doubting myself. I knew that Dan was hyper-sensitive and has invited himself to events before then felt neglected when he was rejected. I knew that he might react this way so it feels partially like my fault for ruining the dinner. I don't know what I could have done instead to keep everything from escalating like this but I probably should have thought of something else instead of acting rash.

AITA for threatening my friend's boyfriend without regard for the heat she might take for it afterwards?

What are these acronyms?

[cryopathiic-a]

CONTINUATION of this for @astra-stellaris

The parking lot is quiet. It's a moonless night, ideal for stake out. So they took their chance to track down a lead and the guy apparently goes home early and locks the door. That leaves the two of them in silence, in the car, with Dōma putting out one cigarette after the other — a habit he's picked up shortly after their recent fallout. But now he has finally stopped overseasoning her dinner.

Astra's gloved fingers were still hovering over the radio's buttons when the silence broke.

❝ You had guessed it right. I was more of a prophet growing up. ❞ A drag. It's some heavy brand that's almost a one way ticket to rotting lungs. He flicks his nail over the stem to dust it in the car tray. ❝ I would give readings and omens and stuff like that. ❞ His hand motions in a circle. She would know that there is more, from the somber tone. Even if he was looking ahead, at that guy's living room lights. He'd been in that room for so long doing god knows what. He doesn't care if Astra would rather keep doing her job in silence.

❝ Sometimes it was scripted. Most of the time it wasn't. Not a lot of people know about it but I know it wasn't something normal. I saw other kids that came to me with their parents, and that's how I knew. But I just didn't care after a while. I mean, these people were telling a crying child their life stories and crimes and troubles. I doubt I was the one in need of help back there. ❞ The contemptuous tone would not be lost on her. But he still holds on to his defenses. She should allow him that, at least. Much as he is finally offering that olive branch and giving her something real; not about that time though. He might not be ready to talk about it or view the topic as important; and from their previous talks she would be able to figure out which one of these things was happening.

❝ And then he came along. ❞ Pause. The lighter flicks. He sinks back into his seat and his gaze fixes ahead. His eyes glimmer. ❝ I will never forget that night. I had never seen a man carry himself like that before, just, walking in the room and all the monks stepped aside without him saying anything. And then he spoke to me, only. His voice was like silk. And his face was so beautiful. He had this... ❞ He motions around his own shoulders, the cigarette wedged between two fingers.

❝ Long dark mane and he was so pale like an Inari fox and his eyes had this deep red color, like plums. I was so mesmerized by how beautiful he was that I did not even hear what he was saying. You have to understand, I was raised with the expectation I would at some point connect with something celestial. An actual God. And, you know, obviously I had lost my faith over the years of listening to people's boring sob-stories but then this man... he really looked the part. And then he touched me. ❞ He licks his bottom lip then, and bites it. It's oddly sensual, but not at all sexual. It's clear that he's reminiscing the sensation.

❝ The pain... no— ❞ A finger stops her before she can interrupt him - as she often likes to undermine anything related to Kibutsuji, because she hates him so much. Don't most humans? But Dōma looks pretty set on narrating the entire encounter to her. His hand finds his own throat and runs down its length to rest over his clavicle. ❝ The pain. It was like... like every fiber in my body had been sleeping before that, and I had not known it. And I knew it then, in that moment, they all jolted awake and I— I had all the answers. ❞ He smiles. His eyes are glassy. It's a very bittersweet smile. ❝ Every explanation I needed, it was right there before me.❞

He's speaking of mind control. But he talks about it as if it was an enlightening experience. And what he is expressing may look like ecstasy but it sounds like relief. Then, he sobers up.

❝ And so I became a priest in his name. And for one hundred years I preached to others about this man and I put him at the centerfront of my new religion. I don't regret any of that. All of it, I would have done it again. I mean, I don't know about the others but I was awfully bored with my life before that and that's why I took the deal. But there's just this one thing that bothers me sometimes, when I think about it. ❞ He lights up another cigarette. The tray is already full.

❝ I know; I mean, I realized it quickly, that Muzan-sama is not God. That, I could deal with. He might not be anything supernatural because clearly he is explaining himself with science and all that. But he was still God in my eyes, because of his impossible power. And feats. So, I didn't care that he wasn't a God I had seen in some books but — then... he was defeated. By a child and some swordsmen. A human child. Do you have any idea how embarassing that is for a demon to hear? ❞ He seems genuinely distressed about that. ❝ I founded an entire faith around this guy. And then he goes and loses in such a miserable and pathetic way and—- and where does that leave me, you know? I look like an idiot now. ❞ He huffs. His leg shakes as he blows some smoke and turns to look outside the window with a petulant expression.

[karenandhenwilson]

Super unpopular opinion: I think both Taylor and the fandom as a whole are crazy about claiming Buck trapped her by asking her to move in with him.

I'm aware that in parts my opinion on this goes back to the way I was raised. When Taylor accused Buck of trapping her by asking her to move in and then telling her he had kissed someone else, the first thing that popped into my head was my mother's voice: "Whatever you, however much you trust a guy, always have a back-up plan. Never make yourself dependent on a guy." I think I was still pretty young when I started hearing those lines.

But even without that mindset I was raised with by my mother, I think it's a gross over-exaggeration and a disservice to Taylor's character.

What do we know about Taylor? She had a very traumatic childhood. She lost her mother, then her father and with that also her home and practically her childhood. She is even something like twenty years later torn about what to believe about her mother's death. But she got through all of that and persuaded a career that is cut-throat and unforgiving.

Taylor is a strong woman who knows what she wants. She thinks in any given situation first about her career and second about anything else. I feel it's safe to say that her career is the most important thing in her life and something she is ready to sacrifice pretty much anything for.

Also, this brings up another point that's a little bit of a tangent: Why did she agree to move into Buck's place instead of both of them looking for a new place together? (Yes, I know: From a writing perspective it was probably already decided they would break up at the end of the season so it didn't make sense to create a new set if they didn't want Buck to give up his loft altogether for a new place.) 

The mature thing for both of them would have been to look for something new. Because they have both insane schedules that don't fit together well often. That includes both needing sleep at different times. How can they get the rest they need in an apartment where one can't make breakfast in the kitchen without waking the other because there are no walls? I can see Buck not thinking about that, mostly because when he asked Taylor, he was emotionally practically falling apart. But I don't know how the writers could ignore that it's not really in character for Taylor to follow such a spur-of-the-moment decision. Especially as there can't have been a lot of time between Buck asking her to move in and the move happening because otherwise, he would have confessed about the kiss before the move or Taylor would have noticed that something else was up. We see how it ate him from the inside.

Anyway, back to the original topic: Taylor is a strong and independent woman. One who works in a field that is subject to a lot of change and sometimes unforeseen change. I'm convinced if there would be an opportunity for a big story, Taylor wouldn't hesitate to take it even if it meant traveling at a moment's notice. I can't see her not being prepared for that. Including having money put aside for such an unplanned journey.

So, I can't see for a moment that she doesn't have the money to take a hotel room for a couple of nights after fighting with the boyfriend she just moved in with. I also can't see her not demanding Buck to pay her back the hotel (and he'd not hesitate to give her that money, honestly, or he'd offer to got to a hotel and let her have the loft). Honestly, with how we saw her in s2 and s4, it would have fit her to tell Buck something like: "Leave, Buckley. Pack a bag, leave your key, and leave this apartment. I'll call you when I've decided if I'm willing to give this a second chance or if you need to find a friend's couch to crash on until I've found a new apartment!" And Buck, ever the people pleaser, would have probably not even argued.

Taylor also works in a job where you need a connection to get anywhere. I can't see someone doing that job who isn't able to make connections easily, and for me, that translates that she has personal connections outside of the job, too. I really can't see someone with Taylor's history going through life without having at least one close friend she could lean on. We don't see that, of course, but then we also don't see any of the mains having friends who aren't the mains for the most part. Which doesn't mean they don't have friends. It only means there is no room in the stories the show writers want to tell for such friends.

So, I think Taylor has to have at least one friend who'd let her have the couch or the guest room for a little while. To give her a place to land until she found a new apartment for herself.

After all these considerations I can just repeat: I think it's absolutely stupid to claim Buck trapped Taylor. (And that the show writers made her say that is just one more of the many decisions they made to ruin her character in s5 and s6 when they had worked so hard on giving her great potential in s4.)

[blujayonthewing]

Heartbreak, midnight, mistake for Mel if they haven’t been asked and actually can you dow them for Felix too, cause why not.

heartbreak: Have they ever had a relationship that ended badly? Experienced some other kind of heartbreak? What happened?

biting my fist I wish I had better answers for this because I love this question. The problem with both felix and mel is that they are in their 50s and 60s respectively, which isn't very many for a gnome but is still just A Lot Of Years for me, an idiot, to fill with life experiences and I've mostly been really bad about doing that kfgjhdgj.

Melliwyk has always been really bad at relationships in general; she's dated a little, mostly very casually, but especially once she was in the academy she fell pretty hard into 'yes yes yes I'll go socialize when I'm done working on this' chaining one project into the next ad infinitum, especially after the experiment backfire explosion that gave her a reputation as this sort of ruthless researcher and resulted in kind of a feedback loop of people assuming she preferred to be left alone, which meant fewer people bugging her into socializing once in awhile, which reinforced her perception as a loner, etc. I think she's been in at least a handful of relationships with people she really liked that could have been serious but just... sort of fell apart; more regrets than outright heartbreaks.

Honestly as of current canon, I think the worst outright heartbreak Mel's had that I know of was being attacked by, and then losing, her house's ghost as soon as she found out he was real the whole time; aside from Baxter, he was her only friend for years and years, even if only an 'imaginary' one, and it was a gut punch to, essentially, finally find him but then immediately lose him forever.

Felix has even less canon backstory I could tell you about right now, alas :') He's been in very few meaningful relationships; he's not good at putting himself out there, and having a brief encounter with a stranger is a lot easier to navigate than... well, someone else being disappointed with the way he is as a whole person. To be fair, I don't think he's been openly rejected a lot, but the way he sort of expects it shapes his behavior such that it makes it harder for others to get that close to him in the first place. I can very much see him having had his heart broken before, but I'd have to get back to you on specifics ^^; These days he mostly keeps to himself; he likes people, but it's easier for him to be around them than to be one of them.

I am incapable of brevity! The rest under the cut!

midnight: What keeps your OC up at night? Do they have nightmares? Fears? Anxieties? What do they do in the small hours of the morning when they should be sleeping?

Melliwyk is up working. She'd be up working anyway, but especially if she's upset-- working tirelessly, if not relentlessly. She's not good with emotions; she processes things by keeping busy, either looking for Solutions or just looking to throw herself into something productive rather than having to feel her feelings. This is overlapping really neatly with her current major source of stress, which is that everything she's working on is deeply important, and anything she neglects in order to work on those things is also deeply important, and other people are getting hurt and will continue to get hurt if she can't prioritize tasks correctly or do enough quickly enough and well enough. She doesn't have time for fears! Or anxieties! Or sleep! Or dinner! And it's great! After all, she loves her work! She's interested! Passionate! No downsides!! She doesn't have nightmares because the reason she wears that goofy hat at all times is literally to magically prevent nightmares, but I bet if she slept without it her nightmares would be real interesting right now :)

The facetious answer for Felix is: his sleep schedule is sort of unusual, so when he's up in the small hours it's normal and he's getting up to whatever his normal gnome business is, lol. But in the proper spirit of the question:

He lost a lot of sleep after the mysterious encounter that took a chunk of his memory and left a strange mark on his skin. In general, Felix is not immune to getting too invested in [area of interest] and staying up way too late, so he's certainly lost sleep working on/ thinking over really interesting mysteries before, but that situation has so many unknowns, has so many worrying or grim implications, has given him so much to think about and yet so little to actually work with...! The fact that he can't remember getting back to town is what upsets him the most. He's found himself (or put himself) in a lot of really dangerous situations, but he's always had control of his own mind and body before, even when he's been physically overpowered by others.

More generally, sometimes he'll learn something or uncover some secret that he ends up losing sleep over, especially if it's information about something bad that he doesn't feel like he can actually act on. The city he spends most of his time in is less-than-secretly controlled by a powerful criminal guild, so he has to maintain a really delicate balance between snooping around a lot just because that's what interests him anyway, helping others as much as he can, but also staying out of the way of the guild and the law enough that the worst either of them do is, you know, beat him up a little and/or throw him in jail for a couple days, rather than deciding it'd be better if he Just Disappeared.

If he's worried or anxious and can't sleep over it, he'll generally go for a walk, or go sit on a roof for awhile, or sit somewhere and draw if the weather's bad. He doesn't have a lot of nightmares, but when he does they're often about being trapped somewhere and being unable to call for help, or seeing people pass by who can't seem to see or hear him (all of which he stubbornly refuses to read into).

mistake: What’s the worst mistake your OC ever made? What led to them making it? Have they been able to fix it? How have they moved on?

A little while back, Melliwyk's party returned from a ground excursion to find our airship under attack by a powerful archmage, her personal bodyguard, a bunch of summoned fiends, and a crew of elite soldiers; as soon as she managed to get back on deck Melliwyk launched a fireball at the archmage and then moved toward the cabin looking to get cover inside, and the archmage returned with a massive flamestrike right on top of Mel, who... had just run directly to where most of the crew of the ship were, all of whom had already taken damage before we got there. Our first mate went down, and we managed to get him just inside the door to the stairs leading belowdecks, but before any healers could reach him a previously invisible imp stung him, killing him instantly, right at Melliwyk's feet.

And the thing is. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered whether she, personally, drew fire to him; he had already been pretty hurt, and it was a rough battle for everyone, and there's no reason to believe the archmage still wouldn't have dropped a big AOE on half the ship. And maybe it's perfectly reasonable that Melliwyk, a wizard, a transmutation wizard, didn't try to use her entire action in the middle of a pitched battle to try to stabilize him when there were no obvious enemies nearby, and an actual healer was literally feet away, running to help him. Maybe. But she can only think that it was so, so stupid of her, that if she'd just thought for one second, for once-- ... anyway. The next week or so were all 'Mel doesn't leave her room or speak to anyone' days. Working. Relentlessly. She'd already been working on figuring out a method to use her newly-learned insights into artificing to cast spells, but the first spells she actually programmed into the device she was working on were spare the dying, cure wounds, and revivify.

Felix bit off more than he could chew; he was following the trail of some weird rumors in a smaller town, hoping to find a connection to a string of recent petty thefts he'd been looking into, but he underestimated what kind of people he was dealing with-- both in terms of skills, and of how serious their operation actually was. He got caught pretty deep into their base of operations, way too deep for any attempt at plausible deniability, and after beating the shit out of him they opted to just tie him up and leave him in an abandoned and mostly blocked-off sewer passage to die, rather than kill him outright. He only escaped by convincing the rats to chew through the ropes, quickly made his way out of the city by staying belowground for as long as possible, and has never been back since-- there's a chance they forgot about him immediately, but there's also a very good chance that they'd be really upset if that guy who Knows Too Much is still just running around like a dangerous loose thread.

It was just-- well, maybe not cockiness, he's not exactly the cocky type, but certainly carelessness. He got sloppy, over-interested and under-cautious; he hadn't really expected to be dealing with people who'd be able to catch him so easily, much less that he'd be in any serious danger if they did. He was expecting, like, a gang of teenagers at worst-- not not a threat, but people he could maybe stand up to in a fight, or wriggle free from pretty easily, or who at the very least wouldn't try to fucking kill him. This would have been fairly early in his career (so to speak) of trying to tail people and break into places for actual, like, private investigation reasons rather than pure curiosity, so he didn't have a good handle on the risks, or the stakes; he's (usually) a lot more careful nowadays, although sometimes he still can't resist pushing his luck.

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