#but it has potential here tbh

[marnerlue]

Mikey: if we weren't monsters that were shunned by society and we could do what we wanted. What would you guys do?

Raph: go to highschool

Leo: maybe... get a girlfriend?

So we've seen in the storyboards that was leaked or released (idk) like weeks to months ago now, how Leo might have a crush on April.

AND NOW when Mikey asks them what they would do if they'd have a normal life he immediately says getting a girlfriend.

My boy be lonely😭

[kakooshi]

My Hero Academia is ending in 5 chapters so that there will be a sequel where Bakudeku are married and they start a hero agency with Shouto as their sexy secretary. And they all fall in love while trying to navigate post-war society and make it a better one for both heroes and villains. It's true, HORI TOLD ME.

[turtleblogatlast]

Do you think the granny disguises Donnie and Leo wear (at Donnie’s insistence) are more of a Them thing or do Mikey and Raph also have their own granny disguises on hand?

If it’s the former then I have to say those two are killing it, I especially love Donnie’s scarf and old fashioned binoculars, and Leo’s eye makeup and pearls.

If it’s the latter though, then we were robbed Mikey and Raph granny designs. 😔

[bixels]

What did/do you like about Pharah?

Uh, gameplay-wise, I really love characters in shooters who rely on three-dimensional movement techs. Chaining together hover and jump to stay in the air for as long as possible and keep momentum is so satisfying, and picking enemies off from the sky made me feel like a bird of prey. I was a good Pharah main.

Story-wise, there unfortunately isn't much to canonically go off because Pharah is so underutilized and neglected. Her personality's pretty boilerplate "heroic hero" (she's literally inspired by Captain America).

But it's the crumbs/bits and pieces that I really latched onto. Pharah's a confirmed lesbian; her short story with Baptiste implies she harbors a crush on Mercy (fucking thank you.). She's biracial Egyptian/First Nations. She has major mommy issues, having grown up both admiring and resenting Ana. She's the bridge between Old Overwatch, inspired by the idealized heroes who surrounded her childhood, and New Overwatch. She's one of the only inter-generational characters in the cast; someone whose experiences span the gap, which is why I seriously believe Pharah would make a great main character.

There isn't much to go off of, though; she's a very uncomplicated character (she's a soldier for a private military corporation, lol.). But that just means she's a blank slate character, so I've seen fanfic writers run wild and create some really interesting takes on her. My favorite interpretation of her's a dense, herbo gym-bro type (a lot of her liens are about work outs, exercising, and playing sports) who's easily excitable under her seemingly self-serious, armored visage. We see how she tends to gloat and hype herself up when she's on a streak too, so Pharah definitely has a competitive and boastful side under her more professional and militant performance.

Now Mercy? Mercy is a real complex character.

[celtrist]

The giving up autonomy during the radioapple bad end makes me wonder what would happen if Alastor's curse got broken AFTER a bad end? Like, baby-trapped Alastor or forcefully transitioned Alastor, both having straight up given up, how would they even deal with recovering from that? In the baby-trapped scenario it's not like Lucifer can stop interacting with Alastor because there's a CHILD involved now, but holy shit.

I imagine there's always the sort of optional end to each bad end route that does lead back to the "good end" where the curse is lifted! But while that was always the thought, I didn't fully think about the implications of what Alastor would have to deal with from each bad end!

While there are things that Alastor and everyone would still have to deal with in the normal good end (like Alastor's paranoia), the bad end to the good end is probably soooo much worse for everyone. The only ones I think wouldn't mind what happened would be the Vees (aside from Velvette being like "ew, I was trying to go for his old ass"), Alastor's owner, and on sooome level Niffty and Husk. Niffty is pretty depraved, but in canon she doesn't seem that interested in doing that sort of stuff with Alastor so I can see her not being 100% good with her actions. Husk on the other hand I can see absolutely loving that he was the one that owned Alastor instead of the other way around, and thrilled he became an overlord again. But I don't think he'd love all the physical abuse and forced dressing that clearly had Alastor uncomfortable. Hell, I think he'd be a bit weirded out by Alastor being obedient and calling Husk "sir" with no bite, but then he'd be actually pleased with that in this AU.

I think each bad end does have something pretty bad to linger on after, though some less than others. Like all in all, the best bad ends to go to the good end with would probably be radiobelle or radiodust. While there'd definitely be aftereffects, those two endings honestly don't have anything too egregious happening like Vaggie's or Lucifer's ending (if you'd wanna go the baby-trapping route with that ending).

Vaggie would probably be WAAAYY more avoidant of Alastor post her bad end turned good end. Because I can't imagine her being able to live with the fact of knowing she's fucked over someone's life and their comfortability with their body. Potentially I could see Vaggie self-exiling herself from the Hotel and going missing just because of that. I could also see her trying to help by finding things for Alastor (de-transitioning places, therapy, and so on), but never bringing it to Alastor himself and asking others to instead. I imagine in whoever's bad end he ends up in that turns into a "good end" that Alastor would become waaaayy more paranoid and potentially skittish of that person. So he'd probably always get very quiet and fall into the "Allison" persona Vaggie gave whenever she was around. A persona that I think he'd struggle getting rid of in general because he'd been conditioned and mutilated so badly (both physically and mentally) to fit that persona.

Lucifer, if we go with the baby-trapping idea in his ending, would also be quite difficult. Because it would already be difficult with it just between Alastor and Lucifer (Lucifer's easy answer would be to just fuck off from the hotel and never step foot 100 yards from Alastor), but adding a baby to the mix would muddle things a lot! Lucifer definitely reads as the type to not care by the means of where his baby might come from. If it's his, it's his. And he'd want to have this kid TRY to have some semblance of a good life because they didn't ask to be a part of one of Lucifer's most regrettable moments of his life. I think for both Lucifer and Alastor, it would be hard to look at the kid. Because I mean, they'd be a stark reminder of what Lucifer did to Alastor and that terrible curse Alastor has had to live with for the majority of his afterlife. I'm inclined to say Alastor wouldn't like the kid, but I'm genuinely not entirely sure. My gut feeling would be that he'd absolutely hate them and want nothing to do with them when the bad end turns good. By the same token, I can see Alastor having latched onto the kid. Not as "the one good thing in his life" necessarily as much as he would be able to so much more easily pretend someone wasn't obsessed with him. As a baby, they're just a baby. As a kid, he could brush off the marriage comments as a strange kid thing (like just those kiddish proclamations where a kid will say "I'm gonna marry mom someday" but it's genuinely just from a place of innocence. I think that's more of an anime thing, but it would work in this au). At the very least, Alastor would have heavy mixed feelings about the kid if he doesn't downright hate them.

If they were a baby by the time radioapple's bad end turned into a good end, I could see Lucifer leaving WITH the child and taking care of them on their own. Especially if we do go with the idea that Alastor would want nothing to do with the kid after everything. Lucifer would probably hide their origins from them: Both on the basis of "how do you tell a person that they're a product of something so bad" and so they don't go trying to look for Alastor (potential story angst to be sure). But I think Lucifer would try to give them as normal of a life as possible. He honestly, if able to, might have them live in a completely different ring from Alastor. Maybe give them to Asmodeous and Fizz. And in the case scenario where Alastor wants to be the one to keep the child, Lucifer would back off and leave. It'd hurt not being able to see his own child, but he's not exactly gonna argue with Alastor. And I think Alastor himself would make sure his kid wouldn't go meeting Lucifer. I don't think they'd hide their origins from them when they're old enough to properly process it. It's in the scenario where the kid is already out of baby-or even toddler age there would be some issues. Because then they're put into a bind of completely ruining this one kid's life. I don't think Alastor would honestly tolerate the idea of suffering the same living space as Lucifer and still want him to leave. So even when they're older it'd still pretty much end the same: the kid either stays with Alastor or leaves with Lucifer. Except this time, I don't think Lucifer would give up the kid to Asmodeous and Fizz and instead keep raising them on his own (maybe with Lilith if that would be within reason, but that depends on where canon goes quite honestly). And if the kid is an adult, pretty easy for Lucifer to just leave then. Alastor might disown the kid as well in this instance, but that again depends on if you'd think he'd actively dislike them or does care about them.

[lichanicksstuff]

I had a dream a while ago where there was this one song that doesn't exist. I can't recall all of it but I do remember one line: I carry you around, next to scenario of my heart.

Scenario of a heart means one's destiny, fate, the life that they will have. It's engraved in the person's heart. This verse refers to love so strong it changes it - love so intense it makes them fight their destiny.

[roseetube]

Been playing around with some aus!!! Magical girl aus are good for the soul!!! ALSO! ALSO!! IM ATTENDING NY COMIC CON ON SATURDAY!!! I swear if the 7 train isn't running, im gonna spontaneously combust!!!!!! And now it's time my mandated 100 tags (well 30, actually)

[magictavern]

going to pound my head against a desk repeatedly

[bibibbon]

I've seen a take where you say that Hawks thinks he didn't have a choice and HAD to kill Twice, and you mention in ( ) that he actually DID have a choice and that confuses me.

Hawks gave Twice TWO chances to change and go with Hawks and leave the LOV behind him and change his way of life and when he refused BOTH chances, he posed as a potential (MASSIVE) threat to the hero's, so Hawks had to kill him so he wouldn't risk others lives.

So, with my maybe-not-very-analysed take, why do you think this? Have I missed a crucial part of his character? Did he actually have any other options? And how different would they be then what he ended up doing?

I am assuming you're talking about this paragraph from one of my posts about Hawks👇

Now it is true that Hawk's did indeed give Twice two (possibly 3) chances to back down and surrender. The first time it happens is when Hawk's corners twice, with all the feathers pointing at twice, ready to strike him, saying that he shouldn't resist and come calmly. The second time is when Hawk's explains his reasoning for offering twice this chance, and the 3rd is after Hawk's killed the first set of twice clones and reaches out saying that there's a way forward if he comes calmly and that he would personally help twice start over after he gets punished for his crimes.

However, I still think there's an interesting way in how Hawk's approaches Twice. He doesn't choose to position his feathers far away, but he quite literally corners him, almost trapping Twice in one place and offering him one option which is to surrender himself and come quietly or else. Now, while from an incredibly detached prespective this may seem as a mercy option that Twice should be grateful for I think that there needs to be acknowledgement as to how Hawk's own hpsc teachings and hero experiences have shaped him in approaching a situation like this and before Hawk's offers anything to Twice he feels and acts on the urge to be in control to be above Twice in this conversation to make sure that he has more power. All of this is summed up to Hawk's experiences, and we see how this is a flaw because in reality Hawk's is an incredibly fast man he did not need to corner Twice in such a way and essentially give him one option he could have approached the situation differently (yes it doesn't mean that he would have succeeded but there's still a point to be made in the way Hawk's approached the situation from the beginning)

When horikoshi first introduces Hawk's to us in the series, he makes it a very clear point that Hawk's is fast and that he is a powerful hero.

Hawk's is fast in every sense of the word,he is shown to quickly climb up the ranks at an incredible speed becoming the number 3 hero, he is fast enough to stop a criminal without batting an eye, he is fast enough to evacuate everyone from a falling building and to try and stabilise the building. Hawk's is also quick in being able to mentally recognise what's going on and quickly act on it. With the series reinforcing this message consistently it seems weird for Hawk's to not be fast enough to knock twice out instead going for the kill.

Now you can chalk this up to a writing mistake or an ooc moment, but I personally think there is symbolism in it. Hawk's failure concerning the MVA was foreshadowed the moment he came into play and said "I am too late" this to me shows the small downward spiral that Hawk's is then sent to by the narrative. It's essentially tragic that the fastest hero or man was too late or too slow to stop tragedy from occurring. In other words, Hawk's heavily reminds me of minato namikaze from Naruto.

@doodlegirl1998 even points this out

So, how does this link into Hawk's killing twice, you might ask?

Horikoshi establishing that Hawk's main trait is his speed and agility highlights (to me) the ability that Hawk's had to simply knock Twice out and get him out of the area.

Again, this didn't occur due to the tragedy and reoccurring theme of the fastest hero being too late. Hawk's was too late to apprehend Twice, he was too late in escaping from Dabi's flames. He was too late in many things, and it resulted in horrible consequences.

However, while this string of events is played for the tragic irony, it also highlights just how corrupted Hawk's has become by the hpsc teachings and how he at the end of the day is still a bird trapped in a cage both mentally and physically. This is because you can clearly tell throughout that scene that Hawk's doesn't really want to kill twice. He keeps on bringing the fact that Twice is a good man at heart and that he believes that Twice can be redeemed, but after Twice's rejection, he believes that he must kill him saying that he didn't come this far for mere sentiment to trip him up.

However, even with that being said, when fighting Twice Hawk's doesn't aim to kill him. He could have. He had Twice cornered. He could have killed him in one hit but didn't because he couldn't because mere sentiment was indeed tripping him up and he was so clearly trying to justify his actions, trying to be logical but failing. This is further highlighted when Hawk's ends up saving both himself and Twice from Dabi's flames in chapter 266. Hawk's didn't want to kill Twice but after a string of events, he believed that it was the only way to resort to his hpsc teachings.

Personally, I believe the brief fight between them heavily shows Hawk's internal struggle with his own beliefs, his own desires to save as a hero, and actually help all of that clashing with his hpsc teachings and the belief that killing Twice would be easier and safer.

Hawk's ending up killing Twice narratively shows us the failings of the system and could have been great in showing us Hawk's further questioning the system he feels trapped in and straying fat from it as he does end up acknowledging in the final arc that jin was a good man (I think it's symbolic that he calls him by his citizen name and not villain one) and it could build up to him creating a completely different one but alas that fails due to various reasons which are too long for me to list out.

[chibishortdeath]

Ok so yesterday I was looking up Simon (common occurrence) cause I was drawing him (another common occurrence, drawing isn’t finished yet) and a took a little better of a look at his armor plate from Simon’s Quest and the designs on it.

So—

These gold patterns are very swooshy, fluid shapes with some very spikey, hooked sections. They also have gems inlaid in three places on the chest right at the ends and center of the design, with little circles coming off of it dedicated to them specifically. And it sounds weird, but this looks like a floral design to me, or at least some kind of plantlike. Very stylized for sure, but in the way that the fleur de lis is supposed to be a lily and doesn’t look exactly like one.

So at like uh midnight a bit back I looked up some stylized plants in art and whatnot and boy was that a hard search because google doesn’t know what you mean by “floral stylized in a similar way to the fleur de lis” and the amount of AI that comes up under armor designs specifically doesn’t help. Anyway, two things it could be that I ran into—

It could be a very simplified depiction of acanthus leaves, which are sometimes depicted more like actual leaves of a real plant, but sometimes are just swooping curves with some spikiness on them. They often times also have the motif of three points of interest (usually buds or a bloom) that line up fairly well with the three gems and were common for things like metalworking and gilding. It’s a fair match, not super great since it’s not exact, but considering there’s no distinct flowers, a ok-ish bet. My biggest thing with it, even if the symbolism would be so fitting and cool, is that they’re typically depicted way more clustered and there’s usually not very much of an open space, especially on a breastplate like that.

I also ran into other armors from the time period (or at least the websites said they were) with other closer looking floral designs and had to try to find out what these were on my own. This one in particular caught my eye as a little bit closer.

One seems to be a gladiolus, and the symbolism here works out, it’s pretty standard stuff that’d be on armor. However, again, the Simon’s quest armor does not have very distinct blooms, more similar to simplified buds, so it’s hard to tell.

There’s also a possibility this could be roses, since those tends to have thorns as a main focal point and the hooked parts look thorny, or it could be a combination of multiple flowers I’m just not running into. Of course, I know the original artist likely did not mean anything in particular by this design other than “cool old looking armor design”, BUUUUT— I want to know what looks like closest to it to uh take the flower symbolism for myself hehe :3.

If anyone else has more knowledge on ye olden armor and art styles than I do, do pop up and tell me your thoughts on what this pattern looks like to you!!!

[thegreatsaiya-z]

I am gonna get back to fun outfits soon buuut. What if the consequence of taking the Satan's devil/demon theming to the endpoint conclusion (...yes also initially inspired by @smuby giving Hercule fake pointy ears and fangs)

Lore under the cut

Also! I feel like people can be a bit too mean about Hercule sometimes (because okay. the bit about claiming ki techniques as tricks is one thing, and like. I get where people come from in him taking the credit for Cell but also come on. Gohan would not want to be famous pls) AND I feel like the presence of animal people and other weird stuff on earth drops off as the series progresses, which out of universe is because of the change in tone but in universe is like. That has implications.

So. Concept of Hercule as yes, a bit (or a lot of) a glory hound and a showboat but also as someone who uses that influence to, like, champion the rights for the various non-human sapient Earthlings particularly as they start to get pushed to the sidelines of urbanization. (And, you know, given I make the Ox King an actual ruler in my au, and I have the Ox Kingdom as one of the larger/more prominent kingdoms with the rare majority of non-human sapients, also potential for earlier interaction between Gohan and Videl <3)

[hood-ex]

@tiffanybluesclues am honestly considering rereading Nightwing #1-117 + Post-Crisis Rose appearances to see what kind of Dick, Rose, and Sophia story my brain will churn out by the end of it all.

[kiwikiswia]

hhhhhi. guess what? feb art dump for this last day of February!! sorry for the long ass inactive hhh could've posted this sooner but I still want to include some sketches as bonus from my inactivity sorry

anyways let's get started (long post aheaaaad since I loath tumblr cropping)

so this feb I was only supposed to only draw this for smth colored but then I got mad w how long I take in just a colored art?? almost 10 hours for this doesn't seem so reasonable for smth like this?? 😭 so I locked tf in and draw more colored stuff to get myself faster at this (kinda failed but hey. it becomes productivity out of rage lmao)

just gotta make it seperate between regalle and not-regalle ones :nom:

whole pag

noooow to sketches (I keep editing this section tbh since when did I make so many sketches)

[coldshrugs]

triple play

pairing: io laithe / estinien varlineau setting: modern au word count: 2.2k [divider credit]

February 7th - Estinien

The first baseball game of the season is fast approaching, and the Knights buzz with a mixture of excitement and anxiety.

The locker room is louder than usual, but Estinien doesn't mind. He likes this part. It's the same every year: the giddy tension, the unconditional camaraderie before the finger-pointing starts, the desire to do well and, maybe, catch an eye or two in the process...

Only a week away now.

What he doesn't like is the feeling of Aymeric's glare boring into the back of his head.

"What?" he asks, trying his best to sound even, unbothered, as he puts away his gear.

Aymeric makes an evasive little sound. "Just thinking. Musing, if you will."

He punctuates this with the sharp sound of his locker closing.

Estinien sighs. This is bait. Somehow, this is bait, and he will take it and most likely regret it. He shuts his own locker with a metallic clang and drops to the bench between them.

"Fine. What's on your mind?"

Aymeric tosses a towel around his shoulders, beaming triumphantly and pausing for what Estinien can only guess is dramatic effect. "Did you ask her?"

If Aymeric's stare needled his skin, that is nothing compared to the itch caused by the sideways glances thrown at him now.

This is the same year after year, too—the whispered locker room gossip, all of them eager for some minor detail about so-and-so's tits or who the hookup of the month is. He's never been one to share that much; besides, there's nothing to tell.

Still… another kind of anticipation swells in his chest, similar to the usual pre-game nervousness, but one he doesn't share with the others. He wishes the 'her' in Ayms' question wasn't so readily implied. Anyone else would've needed a name, but after knowing her only a few months, Io is an assumption.

Most of the others are minding their business again, so he answers:

"Yeah." He keeps his voice low. "I asked her. She's coming." Then he adds, "She's bringing someone."

Aymeric leans against the row of lockers. "And? You brought me to her concert. Don't worry too much about it."

But he's not worried. There's nothing to worry about, is there? It's pretty cut and dry. "I keep telling you... me and Io, we're friends. That's all she wa—"

"Io?"

The voice comes from a few people away. Maybe he wasn't as quiet as he thought.

Haurchefant leans past a set of shoulders before pushing over to them. "You know Io? Laithe?"

"Might just be a common name," Ayms shrugs, but anyone can see he's already enjoying whatever this is.

Estinien shoots him a dark look—great, thanks, this is exactly a conversation I wanted to have—then nods to Haurchefant.

"Not super well or anything."

"Oh, come on." Aymeric laughs. "Hasn't known her long, but definitely knows her well."

Estinien wipes a hand over his face. "Don't say it like that. She's a friend from—" Hm, he doesn't want to put her life story out there to some guy on his baseball team. "—we're in a club, I guess, outside of school."

"Oh," Haurche glances between Estinien and Aymeric, and his tension fades when the latter doesn't react. "Sweet. We, uh, dated for a few months a while back, but I haven't heard from her in over a year. After the—" his voice breaks, and Estinien figures he doesn't want to drag her painful history up either. "Well, anyway... How is she?"

For the briefest moment, their eyes lock, and they have something else in common. Something outside of this team. The warmth he felt at the thought of sharing something more about himself with her, that almost pleasant anxiety, it starts to blister, flashing white-hot across his neck and climbing to his face.

His eyes narrow. He doesn't want to say anything.

Io trusts easily, even when she's hurting (especially when she's hurting). If she wanted Haurchefant to know how she was doing, she'd have talked to him by now. There must be a reason she hasn't.

His chest tingles again, fluttering with something tiny and warm—he is the person she talks to, confides in. Sure, they both have Haven, but outside of that... Well, maybe Aymeric isn't wrong for assuming.

Estinien stands from the bench and peels off his soiled shirt. Before he heads to the showers, he gives Haurchefant the only answer he thinks is warranted. "Doing better."

February 10th - Haurchefant

He met Io at a Spring Break party in freshman year, where he spent far too much of the night watching her quietly hold up the corners of some upperclassman's rented condo. He felt like he knew everything there was to know about her right away, a symptom of that bright melancholy distinctly found in art school girls, like she was only waiting on fate to catch up to her. Maybe the reality of her was less interesting than his half-baked conclusion, but god, her smile.

He was so nervous to talk to her.

They hit it off, in a careful way. Started dating, started kissing, fooled around a bit. But it was so... polite. Almost obligatory. Maybe they wouldn't have lasted anyway, but then, whether she wanted it or not, fate caught up to her. Her whole family was lost in the crash, and she ghosted him.

A slow fade.

Haurchefant has never had trouble with moving on. He finds the bright side and forgets the rest. No, this is unlike him, still thinking about something long in the past, even with such a hazy ending.

But Varlineau?

Seriously?

Haurchefant always found him tactless and a bit fumbling. And he had no right to pull his smug avoidance thing right after downplaying whatever point Aymeric was trying to make. A "club?"

Estinien Varlineau is not in a fucking club, extracurricular or not.

Whatever.

Haurchefant pulls out his phone and stares at the long-dead conversation thread between him and Io. He was the last to text, of course. Some cliche "I realize this is over, but I wish you the best" thing. He meant it. He still means it.

And that's why his unsure fingers dart across the keyboard now, typing and deleting the words until he has something fairly neutral.

He's surprised when she replies almost immediately.

HG: hey io. haven't heard from u in literally a year. i've been worried. u okay? IL: haurche, wow. it's actually really good to hear from you. IL: i'm not exactly okay, but i'm trying. getting help. HG: glad to hear it. i'm so sorry for ur loss. i don't think i can say it enough. IL: i think i've heard it enough for a lifetime, but thank you ♥ IL: and i'm really sorry for the way things went down. that was unfair. i think i knew that at the time, even in the depths of the pit. we were only together for a few months. it felt like putting too much on your plate HG: so u took away the plate. IL: so i took away the plate. like i said, unfair to you IL: i understand if there are hard feelings, but it means a lot that you're checking in. HG: no hard feelings, no grudges. i wish u would've let me be there for u, but i guess we won't know just how much my plate can handle. HG: unless... u want to grab coffee sometime? IL: lol, i'm deeply flattered you still consider me a viable dating option after witnessing me in a nearly catatonic state. IL: but i think i might be seeing someone? maybe? hard to say tbh. i've got valentine's plans tho, so we'll see. HG: yeah? we've got the same plans. i play baseball too, remember? HG: listen... just don't make too many assumptions with him. given the context, this sounds shitty, but he doesn't seem super into it IL: okay... thanks for your insight. and for the perspective on who you're actually worried about here. later.

His leg shakes hard enough to quake his bed. Fuck. That wasn't how he wanted this to go.

February 14th - Estinien

From his place in the outfield, Estinien can't make out the faces in the stands. It's something he always tries to avoid anyway. Easier to imagine the crowd as one rippling, noisy entity instead of hundreds of people there to watch them perform. Even better if he pretends they're not there at all.

But today he can't keep his eyes from darting around the stadium in his downtime, hoping to catch a flash of deep blue. It's a distracting task, one that oppresses the next crack of the bat and when he sees the ball going long it's almost too late.

Oh, shit.

Shit, fuck, shit.

He tears after it. Faster. Faster than that, until he's feet away from the wall.

One more look up. He dives with an outstretched glove…

He crashes into the padded wall and doesn’t give himself time to react to the sharp little aches burning through his muscles. The weight in his gloved hand is all he considers—it’s an out. He slings the ball to Haurchefant at third and they take a second.

Now there’s time to feel it. His lungs are on fire. There’s a dull throb in his shoulder that will show as a bruise tomorrow. This game is the same as any other, he reminds himself while he catches his breath, hands on his hips. Doesn’t matter who’s watching.

The next batter is their third out and they’re off to a decent start. They run in, and there she is, grinning brightly as she waves to him.

Io sits next to Thancred, hands cupped around his mouth so his cheers carry farther, and something like relief swells in Estinien’s chest (not that he has any reason to be relieved). Estinien’s met him once, decent guy. One of her close friends.

He smiles back, throws his hand up as he heads into the dugout.

The rest of the game feels too long, but his focus returns. They win by two runs and it feels good to start the season on a high.

Afterwards, Io waits on the other side of the chainlink fence. She’s wearing a red flannel over a black dress and boots up to her knees, her hair falls messily out of its bun. He walks to meet her, lungs burning like he’s running again.

“Hey,” she says with a smile, elbows against the fence as she leans into it. “You were awesome out there.”

Estinien shakes his head. “We did alright.”

“You don’t like compliments.” Not a question. Io pauses, eyes darting around the stadium for a moment before falling back to him. A strand of windblown hair catches between her lips (he doesn’t look at her lips), and she pulls it away. “Thanks for inviting me. This was fun.”

“Yeah, I liked seeing you here. Thanks for coming.” He shifts his weight, leans against the fence next to her. “Where’s Thancred?”

“No idea. Probably saw someone cute with no Valentine’s date and decided to shoot his shot.”

Oh, god. Today is…

Estinien reigns in his expression before glancing over to Io. She doesn’t seem any different than the other times they’ve hung out. Her smile is as soft and warm as ever. As usual, her presence is comfortingly familiar, and just looking at her causes the sudden spike in his anxiety to ebb away.

Then her eyes flit down. 

He doesn’t think about why.

He can’t assume anything. That’s not fair.

He opens his mouth to ask if she wants to get out of here, grab some food, let him show her around his campus—anything—but someone walks by. Too close. Close enough to be on purpose.

“Varlineau,” Haurchefant grunts as he passes, and Estinien ignores a flare of annoyance in favor of a nod. Then Haurchefant's gaze slides to Io and darkens. “Io.”

“Hi Haurche,” she sighs, watching him go. The mood shifts, like all the warmth has been sucked out of the air around them, but he can't figure out why. If personal interactions were as easy to call as baseball, he’d guess she just lost this one.

When Haurchefant is gone, she stands from the fence. “I think I need to get back across town. Just remembered I’ve got a quiz due by midnight.”

“Oh,” he whispers. “Yeah, sure. Don’t drop the GPA on my account. I’ll see you later this week?”

“For sure. And this weekend, too, if you want to catch that movie I told you about.”

“You said I’d hate it,” he laughs. 

Io shrugs, walking backwards. “And don’t you want to prove me wrong?”

He shakes his head again. “No, I know you’re right. But whatever, we can watch it.”

“Nice. I’ll text you.” She beams, and that tightens his chest too. “It’s… not a date, right?”

Estinien watches her go, and maybe the little rush he felt before Haurchefant passed by was a fluke. The adrenaline after his win tangling with the weird sense of contentment that comes from simply being around Io. Those things must conflict somehow.

“Right,” he says to himself, resting his head against the cold metal fence (and there’s no reason to be disappointed).

[blizzardfluffykpop]

alright~ a few updates about everything! so this weekend I'll be seeing changkyun in chicago- so I prolly won't be posting until after I'm alive again from that 😂😅 (I am vv excited about it- I just know I'll be vv tired when I return home). Anyways, I have a few fics in the works~ one of them that is a request 🤭 I'm vv excited to work on them! But I think I'm going to change my masterlist a bit when I come back. I'm going to retire a few groups from the main masterlist and I've been debating for the past year about it... But I think I'm going to add a yearly masterlist- So it would go from most recent to the beginning of this year~

I'm also thinking about changing my pfp- I haven't been really into stray kids for uh... years- But I will be sure to make an update about that if I go thru with that too- (It may be ji changmin next 🫣🤭)

Anyways those are my few updates 🥰💖

[cabezadeperro]

i wonder if i should make another bleak blo*jobs series for dc comics lmao