#but it just feels like I’m throwing things in the void and not hearing anything back

[science-lings]

I’m just… so tired of begging for people to care when the platform I’m trying to share my art on fails me

[five-and-dimes]

I have no idea where this came from but I’m never going to turn it into a full fic so I’m releasing it into the void.

Dream is some sort of fae creature whose son died, so he sneaks into a mortal village and kidnaps a young boy around the same age his son was.

(Part of his heart hurts because he never took part in the traditional changeling child/fae kidnapping thing because he couldn’t bear to leave his son with some stranger, he loved him too much, and he knows deep down he shouldn’t do this to someone else but he’s desperate for something, anything, to dull the pain of his loss).

When single dad Hob wakes up and finds his son Robyn missing, he’s fully prepared to go scorched earth to find him. When it becomes clear he’s not in the village, he going charging alone into the woods, too impatient to put a party together to help him. (He’s terrified- he’s heard rumors of fae in these parts, but there was no child left behind. What could have taken his little boy?)

After a few days searching, he hears Robyn’s voice up ahead. He’s got a sword at his side, but for now he draws a bow and arrow, moving forward slowly. Eventually he comes to a clearing, peeking forward and preparing to shoot down whatever took his child. But then. He pauses. 

Robyn is smiling, and laughing, and has an abundance of flowers adorning his hair. He is plucking some berries from a bush and popping them into his mouth under the guidance of the most beautiful creature Hob’s ever seen. As he listens, he realizes that Robyn is talking about him, telling stories of how his papa taught him to identify the things that are safe to eat in the forest, and how tall he feels when he sits on his father’s shoulders, and how his papa has a terrible singing voice but sings the loudest anyway and so Robyn loves it. 

“I think papa will like you lots!” Robyn declares, and the creature smiles sadly.

“I… doubt that… but he sounds lovely.”

Hob is so confused by the whole situation that he doesn’t notice he’s taken a step forward until a branch snaps under his foot. Robyn looks over and immediately bursts into a wide smile, even as the creature lets out a panicked series of chirps and bolts in the other direction.

“Papa!!” 

Robyn throws himself into his father’s arms, and Hob drops his weapons to hold him, beyond relieved to have his son safe in his arms, unharmed. He spends a few minutes just peppering his son’s face with kisses and telling him how worried he was before finally looking at the spot where the creature had disappeared into the woods. Robyn follows his gaze, smiling and tugging on Hob’s hand to guide him into the clearing as he calls out.

“It’s okay, Dream! Papa is super nice to everyone, you don’t have to hide!”

Hob’s sees two bright eyes in the shadows before the creature- Dream- hesitantly steps forward. He looks sad and scared and ashamed and Hob is smitten almost immediately.

Robyn explains that when he woke up he had been scared, but Dream had hugged him (almost as good as his papa’s hugs, he claims) and told him he would keep him safe and take care of him. Then Robyn had been sad because he already missed his dad, and when he told Dream about him he had immediately realized the error of what he had done and resolved to return Robyn. It had taken some time because Robyn had insisted he was too big to be carried (it’s one thing if he was sleeping, but he was a big boy he could walk home just fine, really!) so they had traveled together, Dream never feeding him anything that would bind Robyn to him, instead just pointing out food and water for him to gather himself. 

Dream is still standing a bit aways from them both as Robyn tells the tale, looking at the little boy with aching fondness.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly to Hob, “I just... miss my son so much,” he smiles weakly at Robyn, “I believe you and Orpheus would have been great friends.”

And oh, Hob gets it all of a sudden. He had been fully prepared to do all sorts of questionable things to get his son back, he can’t imagine what he might be compelled to do if he actually lost him. And Dream was bringing him back, so he finds it very easy to forgive him.

He finds it even easier to invite Dream to finish the journey back with them, and then invite him to stay, and then invite him to build a home in the woods together, and share kisses and a bed and a life. 

Robyn is very smug.

He told Dream his dad would like him.

[aniihera]

Ok. I’ve been compiling my thoughts on the pathologic 2 endings for a while now, and I’ve finally pinpointed my feelings on them (enough to share at least). I’m desperate to hear what others think about them too.

Lengthy Kin-themed rant oncoming? Perhaps.

More under the cut.

CW: Spoilers for Pathologic 2 (of course).

- - -

To preface: As I am Māori, not Buryat or of the other cultures I have heard the Kin to be based on, my perspective is more from *my* understanding of what it means to be Indigenous than anything else. There are probably many things I’m missing. But I’d like to throw in my two cents, however relevant they are.

Suffice to say, my feelings are complicated. Stylistically and narratively, there was a lot that I enjoyed. From a reconnecting/ mixed Indigenous perspective, however, I still feel unwillingly bisected, torn.

At the culmination of everything, Artemy Burakh and the player are roped into a cruel, two-pronged choice. Destroy the Polyhedron along with the miracles of the Steppe, or let the plague devour the town as you lead the Kin back to its heart. In these scenarios, you either assimilate the Kin into the town, which many of them will despise you for, or push out the nonindigenous townsfolk by force, letting nature run its course. Any third option has already been amputated, beyond your will. You cannot protect the Kin completely either way, some will likely die from the plague in the latter, and the more fantastical will in the first, by being cleaved from the earth’s dying magic.

Diurnal, or Nocturnal. No matter how you look at it, the kin cannot thrive in either. For it to be a choice at all, hurt, to say the least. After playing the bachelor’s route in the first game, I’m sure that was deliberate in an anti-utopian sense, perfection is impossible etc, etc. But the first lens I saw it through, stuck with me.

When I initially read Isidor say this after Artemy’s trial in the abattoir:

“Facing the Future is the way of Love. Facing the Past is the way of Love. But the two are incompatible, and it broke my heart.”

I was devastated. The hopeless dichotomisation of future and past… and I could only construe it as assimilation or death in some manner (but I could not see what role it took yet). That feeling festered for a while, but I wanted to see it from another angle. I think it's natural to be sensitive to the words “progress” (which is usually linked to “civilisation” and colonisation) when anchored against Indigenous culture, but I didn’t want that to blind me completely.

On its own, I do like this line. It’s weighty. And I think it articulates aspects of Indigenous struggle well, to some degree. Going back to the “past” is somewhat impossible for many reasons. Decolonisation is needed but I don’t believe it means restoring the “past” fully by any means. Culture is not stagnant, and neither is the future. To say they are incompatible though pains me. Especially when contextualised inside the divide between the kin and the town. It is an intentionally agonising line, and successfully so. Pitting the themes of Past/Future, against, Kin/Town, is something I find hard to reconcile with. Even just the first part irks me; personally the past walks with me at every step, the future is void and useless without it in full view. But I wouldn’t say a line from Isidor (or Artemy’s subconscious) necessarily defines the game more than it does his perspective. For me, it is the patterns that follow and precede it.

Aspity is a very obvious portrayal of what it looks like to “face the past” completely. Visiting her sanctuary, It becomes very evident that her opinions of the non-Kinfolk sway towards genocidal. They must “flood the town”, as she put it. Considering their treatment on the Bull Project and well… everything else, It’s not unfounded. During the night visits, we develop a growing understanding of what is at stake for the kin. Their language, legends, arts, and traditions, and too many Kin are dying from pest and persecution (Its a familiar story). Herb brides are forced to sell their cultural dance to get by (another familiar story for Māori, kapa haka and tourism, our culture has also become a commodity out of necessity). Legends like the shabnak adyr too are warped by the townsfolk (as it is used as an excuse to target Kin women). Assimilation means these things for them too.

There's also the case of how the Kin are depicted as more animalistic than the “more human” townsfolk. Oyun, Big Vlad, and even Artemy have a long history referring to them as such. To make the Kin less than human is inherently othering (as is any case where the empire views us as inherently more primitive or unevolved). The importance placed on Aurochs and being one with nature in Kin culture paints this in a less hostile light (Big Vlad’s view not so much). But I fear the effect this might have on player perceptions of the Kin will be negative regardless. I’ve seen a few statements about the Kin being a “hivemind”, I can't say I entirely agree. Many are divided on how they view Artemy, as well as what they desire for the future. I’ve also seen this in reference to when a few odonghe gift you organs for your tinctures, but at this point everyone in the town is desperate for a cure no matter the cost. Their more violent practices appear to weaken many fans' empathy for the Kin, painting the Nocturnal ending darker and darker. Getting rid of herb bride “marriages” would be a good thing at least right? Assimilation might be a good thing then? Nothing good comes without cost, and for the Kin this cost is too steep. Survival doesn't have to mean losing yourself piece by piece.

I will say that despite liking the non-Kin townsfolk, I do wish there was a larger Kin presence among the main roles. While we have Nara, Aspity, Oyun, and Taya, I understand how their presence does little to assuage the dread of seeing the rest of the cast wade out into the Steppe. For me, seeing Murky and Sticky in such a lost state during the Nocturnal ending, made me unable to see it as anything but a mistake.

Two other alternating themes are present through the endings. Childhood (miracles and dreams) and adulthood (waking up and walking forward). The dominant presence of children in Nocturnal, and the fact that walking through the near empty town really does feel like a nightmare, showcases this. The impossible has been made possible, the earth sleeps, sated. The endless cycle of responsibility, from father to son, from parent to child... Children rule the future here. In Diurnal, this cycle, at least, has some room to be broken. Responsibilities are weighed more evenly. Letting go of miracles and childhood dreams, that is the only future in this end. I’m not sure If i have to discuss how problematic it might be to place indigenous revival in the realm of childishness, and assimilation in the realm of growing up, but i thought i'd leave the notion there regardless.

Leaving how you view the two ends aside, it's obvious that Nocturnal has a heavier, gloomier tone.

Maybe having a third ending would’ve been reductive, to have one person so easily find a solution to unifying the town. But, it hurts so deeply to have that choice wrenched from your hands. The choice might have been severed by Isidor, but it felt like so much was possible for Artemy. With one foot in both worlds, the potential of true reconnection, i thought we could move past what was possible for his father. It felt like that was the direction Artemy was moving in, seeing the choices before him and bullheadedly trampling through the middle. Just like he did with the cure, finding the impossible connection.

As it stands, the endings are brutal. Survival for the kin is held by a thread, regardless of the direction you look. They either die a physical death, or a cultural and spiritual one (the two could very well be interpreted as present in both depending on how you look at it). By your conversations with Aspity, even if they survive, the Diurnal end is hinted to lead to an essential “dissolution” of the Kin as they know it. Wherein the differences between the Town and Kin will become so negligible that the two are no longer distinct. Which from my perspective is its own, however voiceless tragedy.

Ok, that was a lot of negativity but I’d like to be candid. Even despite all that, Pathologic is still one of my favourite games of all time. I saw someone say on here that Pathologic 2 is most interesting when allowing the player to decide where love takes them (even if they are led to extremes). Love being at the forefront, regardless of the choices you make, no wrong answers, that's what I appreciated most when playing as Artemy. Whether you chose to kill the three odonghe for Rubin, begged him to stay despite everything, killed Oyun, the Oglimskys, or the pest, it was for the love of something. The internal strife of having a mixed identity too, the rejection and affection from both sides, is something I related to even if the circumstances were miles apart from my own. I wish that Nocturnal aligned with that energy, that the nuances there were a little less stark. That opposing assimilation felt like less of a mistake.

There's a lot more I could delve into but this is pretty long already. This post could all read like nonsense/surface level, but I’m curious to see what other people think! Especially other indigenous folk, I’m dying to know how others interpreted the endings regarding the Kin.

[slut4thebroken]

Lima Syndrome

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Pairing | Red Hood × reader

Summary | Red Hood finds you again and you’re eager to have some more fun. Part 2 of The Assignment

Warnings | HARD KINKS sexual content, 18+, gun play (barely), knife play, blood, stockholm syndrome, threats of violence, degradation, objectification, face fucking, breeding, rough sex, choking, fear play, attempted rape (not Jay), use of the word ‘rape’ several times.

Words | 6k

Notes | please please please read the warnings. (Also- this gif isn’t even slightly related to the fic but it makes me feral so I’m using it)

Ao3 link | <3

Masterlist

Part 1

After that night, when you scrambled home on shaky legs with his come dripping down your thighs, you wanted to get yourself off. But part of you felt like he would know and be disappointed. So you didn’t. You laid in bed, aching, unsuccessfully trying to force yourself to sleep. 

The following morning you figured it was probably long enough that his lack of permission would be void of any power to make you feel guilty. So you grabbed your vibrator and thought of the masked man… The man who had kidnapped and raped you. You flinched at the thought. 

And you enjoyed it, disgusting bitch. A voice deeper down pointed out. You ignored it though and came harder than you have by yourself in a long time. 

You went about your schedule mostly the same. The only change was now you were always looking over your shoulder, always paying attention to your surroundings, hoping to see him again. You also left the news on every time you were home, waiting to hear something about a man in a red helmet. But it was like he had completely fallen off the face of the earth. There were a few times when a chill ran through your body and you felt like you were being watched, but you never saw anything. 

You went out again only a week after your encounter with him. All of your friends were worried about what happened to you but you just lied and said you met someone and went to his place. That wasn’t unusual for you, so they bought it. 

They only started to get suspicious when every single time you went out, you’d go home alone. You wouldn’t entertain any of the men offering to buy you a drink or show you a “good time” and they all picked up on the sudden change. 

After another week and two more nights out, your hope started to fade. And after a third week and a fourth night out, any lingering hope left entirely. Now you were just sad and confused and guilty. 

Maybe it was for the best that he hadn’t made another appearance. After all, nothing could come of this except an accidental attachment on your side and then heartbreak. As if that didn’t already happen, you thought with a scoff. 

But although you were doing your best not to think of him all the time, that did not apply to when you masturbated. Obviously. This man was probably going to be masturbation material for the rest of your goddamn life. 

You stared down at your phone as you stumbled along the sidewalk. You normally don’t walk alone at night, especially intoxicated, but you had a fight with your friend and you were crying and didn’t want to interact with anyone. It’s only a few blocks anyway. 

You were a block away from home when someone grabbed you and pulled you into an alley. They slammed your back against the rough brick wall and you groaned as your vision started spinning from the sudden movement. You felt hands on your hips, sliding up and roughly squeezing your breasts. As you were disoriented, you almost thought it was the man who had been plaguing your every thought for the past month. 

“What’s a pretty thing like you doing out here all alone?” 

It was definitely not him. His foul breath fanned your face and you tried not to gag. Although, throwing up on his face would probably be a good way to get him off of you. His hands moved back down your sides and he pushed your body con dress up to your waist. 

“S-stop.” You whimpered, watching your vision go blurry with tears. You always thought you’d fight in a situation like this. You never figured you’d actually freeze. But you stood there, shaking and squeezing your eyes shut as you willed yourself not to cry. That’s all you could do though. You didn’t grab his hands as they started groping your ass, you didn’t push him away, you didn’t do anything. 

All of a sudden he wasn’t touching you anymore. You couldn’t even feel his body heat in front of you. So you opened your eyes and found the man on the floor, his face turning bruised and bloody as your savior beat him. Once the man stopped moving but was still breathing, he stopped punching him and stood up, grabbed a gun from his pants, then shot the nearly unconscious man between his legs. He let out a shrill scream as he cried and you could see the blood soaking his pants and pooling on the floor beneath him. 

You stood in shock, pressing yourself to the wall and staring at the man bleeding out in front of you. Once your vision was blocked by a body, you looked up and swallowed thickly. He looked somehow bigger than you remembered. 

“Thank-“ His hand was on your throat and you took in a sharp breath as he leaned closer. 

“What the fuck were you thinking?” He hissed, his voice distorted by the now repaired helmet. 

“I- I’m sorry.” You whimpered. You weren’t scared- no, your body had long since been conditioned to know that he leads to an orgasm. Instead, your stomach dropped at the realization that he was mad at you. Disappointed in you. He didn’t move, all you could hear were his angry distorted breaths. You wanted to ask why he never came to see you. 

“Were you following me?” Is what you asked instead. You couldn’t think of any other reason that would explain how he knew you were in trouble. 

“No.” He took a step back and released your neck. Finally able to move your limbs now, you pulled your dress back down and stepped off of the wall. 

“Then how’d you know I needed help?” It was a valid question. It’s not like you screamed or anything, so how could he have known? He didn’t speak for a moment, then pulled you into him by your waist and used a grappling hook to move you on top of the building. He landed effortlessly, still holding you against his body. The second your feet touched the ground, you froze, feeling bile rise in your throat. 

“Oh god-“ You muttered, pushing him away, then turning around and throwing up. There wasn’t much because you forgot to eat before going out, but you still wanted to crawl into a hole from the embarrassment. Once the heaving stopped, you groaned and squeezed your eyes shut. 

“Oh my god this is so embarrassing.” You grumbled, wiping your mouth and leaning back up. You reluctantly turned around to face him, but kept your gaze to the side. 

“I would offer to take you to another rooftop, but I’m worried you might throw up again.” He chuckled, making you turn to him with narrowed eyes. 

“Why’d you even bring me up here?” You asked, crossing your arms and shivering from the cold breeze. 

“Well for one to get away from the attempted rapist bleeding out on the floor three feet from us.” 

“Saved from one rapist by another. Lucky me.” You deadpanned. You didn’t mean it. And you knew he knew you didn’t mean it. 

“I prefer my toys to not be so drunk that they won’t be able to suck me off without throwing up. So you’re safe for now.” He teased and you couldn’t help but deflate at his words. 

“Oh.” You said quietly, his rejection making your stomach twist, and not in a good way. 

“Princess… did you miss me?” He asked in faux disbelief. 

“No.” You scoffed, making him chuckle. 

“C'mon. I'm taking you home.” He said, rather than teasing you like you thought he would. 

“Didn’t know you were that kind of vigilante. Thought you were more of the… murder and kidnapping type.” You tried to hide your smile by biting your lip. 

“Only for you, princess.” He purred. Or, you thought he did. The voice modulator made it hard to tell. He grabbed your waist and pulled you into him. “Are you going to throw up again?” You knew he was both teasing you and genuinely asking. 

“No. I hope.” 

He grappled you down to the street, then released you and started walking. You didn’t know how he knew your address but it wasn’t surprising. You stumbled to keep up with his pace in your drunken state and heels. 

There was something almost comical about walking down the street next to a vigilante who you just watched probably kill someone. 

Once you were outside of your apartment complex he stopped and you waited for him to say something. 

“Lock your door when you get inside.” Was all you got before he turned around. 

“Wait!” He froze, then turned to face you. “You said you- I thought…” You had practiced so many versions of this, ranging from begging for a reason to yelling at him to never find you again. But now that he was actually here, your mind was just blank. 

“Why didn’t you come see me again?” You asked, not even bothering to hide the sadness in your words. He sighed and you bit your lips as you waited. 

“I’ve been busy.” He said simply, making your blood boil. You clenched your jaw as you stared at him with narrowed eyes. Instead of giving him a reply, you just scoffed and turned to go into the building. He grabbed your wrist and you froze. 

“Keep your window open tomorrow night. Not the one by the fire escape.” 

“Fine.” You said, despite the fact that your whole body was buzzing. 

The tiny amount of vomit on your shoes and the scrapes on your back were the only evidence that last night wasn’t just a dream. All you felt was excitement, even with the pounding in your head. 

You spent the day cleaning around your apartment, even though he most likely wouldn’t even see it, and getting yourself ready. You showered and shaved, made sure you had some food and water in you, and brushed your teeth again. 

You weren’t sure what to wear. You didn’t want it to seem like you were trying too hard but also you wanted to put some effort into your appearance. You decided on red lacy panties and a matching bralette with a robe covering you. It was a little on the nose to be honest but you thought he’d like it. 

Sitting on your bed, you waited anxiously. You tried to relax, read a book, go on your phone, anything but just sitting here consumed in your thoughts. All were unsuccessful. 

It was a little after 1 am when you heard a soft noise from your living room. You perked up, placing your book on the nightstand and staring at the doorway of your bedroom. He walked in slowly, looking around the room before settling his gaze on you. 

“You cleaned.” You stared at the whites of his helmet in confusion. 

“Um…” How does he know? Has he been in here before?  “Yeah?” He chuckled as he took off the helmet. 

“That was very thoughtful, princess, but I don’t think I’ll be seeing much of your apartment tonight.” You practically melted at the sound of his voice. After the past month, you started to forget what he sounds like. 

“Well, it-“ You cut yourself off as you watched him place his helmet of the nightstand. “It needed to be cleaned anyway, so…” Your voice was already embarrassingly breathless. 

“Did you miss me?” He asked again as he towered over you from his position next to the bed. You nodded and swallowed thickly. “Did you miss me… or my cock?” He smirked, taking a step closer to the bed. Your eyes flicked down to his pants and you licked your lips as you thought about him being in your mouth soon. 

“Both.” You whispered through a breath, making him chuckle. 

“Have you ever thought of trying a shrink? I’m sure they could help you with your Stockholm Syndrome problem.” He teased and you furrowed your brows. 

“I don’t have Stockholm Syndrome.” 

“No?” You shook your head. “Tell me princess, have you heard about what I do and how I do it?” You just nodded in response. “Tell me what you’ve heard.”

“That you go after criminals and you’re like Batman, only you kill them.” You thought you saw the slightest change in his expression when you mentioned the masked vigilante but it was gone before you could even tell what it was. 

“And what do you think of that?” 

“You’re making Gotham safer.” You shrugged and he chuckled again. “What?” You asked, looking at him with furrowed brows. 

“Sympathizing with your captor’s beliefs and behaviors is also a symptom.” That made you frown. 

“Did you come here to psychoanalyze me or are you going to fuck me?” You snapped. 

“Oh I have every intention of fucking you, princess. Stand up.” He took a step back and you stood between him and the bed. “Take off the robe.” He said lowly. You obeyed, slowly pulling the tie loose and letting it fall open. You slipped it off your shoulders and it fell to the floor. 

“Fuck- look at you, baby. You wear this for me?” He purred. You nodded and bit your lip, watching his gaze trail over your body. 

“God- get on your knees.” He groaned and you instantly dropped to the ground. “Take it out.” You eagerly reached for his pants and freed his length, then looked up at him through your lashes to find him already watching you. 

“You know what to do.” That was all you needed to wrap your lips around his length and swallow him down as far as your throat would allow. He placed a hand on the back of your head, but didn’t take control just yet. As you bobbed up and down his cock with your hand on the space your lips couldn’t reach, you looked up at him and he let out a low moan. 

You pulled off with a trail of saliva connecting your lips to his length and started stroking him. As your chest heaved and you glanced back down to his cock, you wondered how much he’d let you tease him before losing control. 

You wrapped your lips around the tip and sucked, not going down farther and continuing to stroke him. When you swirled your tongue around it, his hips bucked into your mouth. Pulling off again, you stared at him with a grin, not even trying to act innocent. 

“You think you’re being cute teasing me like this?” He rasped, threading his fingers through your hair, but not moving you yet. 

“Maybe a little.” You replied coyly. His eyes roamed your face and he looked like he was deep in thought. 

“I think you’ve forgotten your place, princess. Just a reminder,” He unholstered his gun and held it to your temple, “I don’t need you alive for this so I suggest you work hard and convince me not to kill you.” He smirked. 

Your eyes fluttered as you swallowed thickly. Stupidly, you weren’t scared. You were pretty sure he wouldn’t kill you, it was just to add to the moment… Probably. You glanced between him and his cock, still feeling the cold barrel pressed to the side of your head. 

“I think you’re bluffing.” You stated boldly, making his eyebrows shoot up. “I doubt you even turned the safety off.” Your smug expression dropped as he pointed the gun at the wall behind you and pulled the trigger. The safety was indeed off… Your point still stands though. 

“Well I still don’t think you’ll kill me.” You shrugged, watching him point it at you again but not press the now hot barrel against your skin. 

“Alright, princess. You did call my bluff. I may not want you dead but that doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy hurting you. Now you either stop teasing, or I make this significantly less fun for you.” You stared at him, the eye contact serving as a silent battle for dominance. After only a few seconds, you huffed and turned your attention back to his cock. You continued your original rhythm of bobbing up and down his length, your hand covering the part you couldn’t reach. He let you do that for a while, then stopped you. 

“No hands.” He gruffed. You reluctantly pulled your hand away and continued. Then, after another moment, “I didn’t come all this way for a shitty blow job. Do better.” The criticism twisted your stomach and not in a good way. You tried forcing yourself deeper on his length, taking deep breaths through your nose and focusing on relaxing your throat, but you were still an inch or two away from the base. 

Pulling off of him, you panted for a moment then tried again. Once you were almost to the base, he bucked his hips and held your head still, making you gag from the suddenness. He let you pull off him again, waiting as you coughed and sputtered. You looked up at him, feeling your eyes start to water and he let out a low groan, then forced you back on his cock. 

He held your head still and fucked your mouth, paying no mind to your gagging and choking. You watched him holster the gun, then his hand was joining the other on your head. He started moving you, meeting his thrusts half way, and your hands clawed at his thighs as you felt yourself getting light headed from the lack of oxygen. You let out a whimper that turned into a gag when his length hit your throat before he finally released you. Taking in a huge breath, you coughed violently. 

“Get on the bed. I need my cock in you right fucking now.” He all but growled, using his grip on your hair to pull you to your feet before you scrambled onto the bed, him kneeling between your legs. You let out a low moan when he ripped your underwear, the lace tearing easily, and tossed them to the floor. 

Leaning over you, he put his hand on your neck and dragged his cock through your folds, making your hips buck and your breath hitch. He didn’t make you wait long though before pushing in slowly, not stopping until his hips were pressed to yours. You let out a quiet whimper from the somewhat painful stretch and he put his head into the crook of your neck as he breathed heavily. 

“How are you still so fucking tight?” He said through a moan, starting to slowly grind his hips. Your hands clawed at his back as you gasped out, struggling to adjust to the intrusion. 

“I-“ You cut yourself off with another whimper and he pulled back to look at you. 

“You what?” Despite the softness in his voice, it was clear that this was a demand, not a request. 

“I haven’t… um- since last time I haven’t-“ You averted your gaze and his hand tightened on your neck in a warning. “I haven’t been with anyone else since before.” You rushed out, looking away from him as your cheeks grew warm. The motions of his hips slowed to a stop and you whined as you moved your hips, trying to get the friction back. His low chuckle made you look back at him as you stilled. 

“What?” You asked with a frown after he was silent for a few seconds. 

“You haven’t fucked anyone for almost a month?” The amusement in his expression and tone made your frown deepen. 

“Well I didn’t think you were gonna take a whole fucking month before seeing me again.” You snapped, then quickly bit your lip to silence yourself. You weren’t worried about him getting mad from you talking like this, you were worried this would be another thing he’d tease you about. His smirk made you realize that that was exactly what he was going to do. 

“You poor thing,” He cooed, slowly moving his hips again, and you held your breath as you anxiously waited for the rest, “you get raped one time and now you’re ruined for any other man? I’m not sure whether I should feel proud or guilty.” He smirked and you swallowed hard, throat bobbing against his hand. 

“You don’t have to keep saying that.” You said quietly, making him tilt his head questioningly as his smirk remained. 

“Why not? It’s what happened.” Before you could speak he continued, “And if you say it’s not, I hate to break it to you, princess, but you definitely should see a shrink.” 

“I don’t fucking have Stockholm syndrome.” You spat, way too defensive to seem like what you said was true. 

“Right… You were just kidnapped and raped and you wanted to see me again because…?” You looked away from him with a scowl. 

You wanted to see him again because, as much as you hate to admit it, he was the best fuck of your life. He truly did ruin you for anyone else. You wanted to see him again because despite his hard exterior, he was still somewhat gentle with you. You wanted to see him again because you were curious about the man under the mask. And while you knew that would almost definitely never happen… you couldn’t stop yourself from thinking about it. You have a pretty good picture of his face and cock, but you want to see the rest of him- all of him. You want to know what he’s like when he’s not wearing the mask. Would he still be mean and rough? Or would he be kind and gentle. Maybe he would only be like that with you. That was a thought that made you blush every time. 

In the fantasy that you’ve made up in your mind, he would do anything to protect you, he would kill for you, and you craved being the one thing in this world that he doesn’t hate. 

You turned your head to meet his eyes again, this time with a fire in your own. 

“I wanted to see you again because despite the fact that you’re a grade A asshole, you’re a somewhat decent fuck.” This is your first time ever really being bratty with him. And while you’re scared of the outcome, you’re also really fucking excited. “And if that’s really all you did, then why did you want to see me again?” You raised your brows and he stared at you with a mixture of disbelief, amusement, and what you were praying was fondness. But you probably just made that up. 

“Maybe I’m a repeat offender.” He shrugged and you narrowed your eyes at him. 

“No.”

“No?” He challenged, but you were more than ready to meet him. 

“No. It’s actually called Lima syndrome. Do you know what that is?” You asked, patronizing him. When his gaze hardened and his jaw clenched, you continued. “It’s when an abductor develops sympathy for their captive. Now I’m no expert on sympathy but I’d say not wanting to kill them and saving them while you were stalking them are pretty good examples.” You smirked. He stared at you for a beat as his thrusts slowed to a stop again and you did your best to resist shrinking under his gaze. 

“I don’t want to kill you because one, I prefer my fuck toys warm and two, I’m not a necrophiliac.” He said lowly, his words slowly making their way to the knot of arousal building in your stomach. 

“And why did you save me?” You asked through a breath. You were both scared and excited for his answer. You didn’t want to give yourself false hope, but you were pretty sure you’re right about this. His gaze flicked between your eyes as you waited anxiously. 

“Contrary to popular belief, sweetheart, I don’t just murder people.” You raised your brows and his expression remained hard. “You seem to be under the impression that I care about your well being. Just because you’re more useful to me alive than dead, doesn’t mean-“

“Doesn’t mean what? You won’t hurt me?” You scoffed. “Like you said before, I’m sure there isn’t anything you’ll do to me that I won’t beg you for first.” You said smugly. He stared at you for a moment, then his lips curled up into a smirk. 

“Let’s find out then.” 

Despite the fact that you stiffened when he grabbed a knife from his pants, you still clenched around him, making his breath hitch. He immediately brought the knife down, trailing the tip over your stomach and up to your chest then back down to do it all over again. 

“What should I carve into your pretty skin, baby?” You let out a shaky breath as you embarrassingly clenched around him, again. “Slut? Whore? Princess?” You just stared at him with wide eyes, feeling yourself start to tremble. 

“Maybe I’ll carve my name, keep adding letters until you finally guess correctly.” Your brows furrowed as your chest started heaving. “Which one?” He asked, adding a little more pressure on the knife so that it was leaving a trail of pink behind it. 

“If you can’t choose, I’ll do all of them.” He smirked and you panicked and blurted, “Your name!” You don’t even know how many letters it is... You could’ve easily picked “slut” but subconsciously you wanted to know more about him. He chuckled lowly, making you blush. 

What if he was bluffing? Or worse, what if he lies? After all, his secret identity is secret for a reason. He has no reason to trust you. 

“Alright, princess. Five letters. Let’s hope you’re smart enough to figure it out early.” He smirked, then moved his gaze to your stomach. Even though this felt like some kind of foreplay, he was still inside of you. Not moving, just sitting there. But to be honest you were happy about that because the thought of being empty right now feels excruciating. “Ready?” He glanced at you and you nodded nervously. You’ve dabbled in this kink before, but only once has your partner ever actually drawn blood. And even then, it was just a heart, not an entire name. 

The stinging in your stomach pulled you out of your thoughts with a wince. You didn’t want to look… but you couldn’t help it. Letting out a shaky breath, you watched as he gently moved the blade down, then up, making an uneven V. 

“J.” You said through a breath as he placed a horizontal line over the top. “Jordan?” He brought his attention back to your stomach and you let out a small whimper. You watched as he drew a vertical line down, and then another, making an inverted V. When you squirmed under him, his free hand grabbed your hip and pushed you into the bed, making you release a low moan. It hurt, obviously, but kind of in the same way that it hurt when he stretched you open- it stings and burns but still somehow feels so fucking good. 

“If you keep squeezing my cock like that I’m gonna mess up.” He gruffed and your eyes snapped up to his. He was still looking at the task at hand, but you kept staring at him. His face is so… complex. It’s sharp and masculine, but also somehow still pretty. Looking at his eyes again, you blushed when you saw he was already staring at you. 

“Sorry.” You said with a sheepish smile, then looked down at your stomach. The upside down V turned out to be an A. “Jackson?” Right? He seems like he could be a Jackson… maybe. You groaned when he moved to continue. You watched this time, hoping to get more time to come up with names after guessing the letter. 

“Almost halfway done, princess.” He said, making a small inverted V followed by a long diagonal- S. While you were doing your best to think as hard as possible, the knife and his cock, and just everything about this situation, were making it so hard for you to concentrate. 

As he finished, you breathed out the word “Jasper” and whined when he immediately continued. You did your best to ignore the pain in your stomach and the ache in your cunt and watched as he carved a jagged O. 

“Jason! It’s Jason!” Despite the fact that this was a statement, it still sounded like a question when you said it. You stared up at him with wide eyes, anxiously awaiting his response. When his lips curled up into a small smirk you breathed out a sigh of relief. 

“Good job, princess. But we can’t leave it incomplete… it won’t look right.” The way he said it was as if he truly had no choice in whether or not he continued, and even though you knew that wasn’t the case, the manipulative tone was not completely registering in your already floaty brain. 

“Okay.” You said, waiting for him to carve the last letter into your burning skin. You didn’t agree because it would be incomplete, but rather because even though the cuts weren’t deep enough to scar, you couldn’t help but want his name on your body- his whole name. So you watched him drag the knife over your skin- up, down, up. He brought the knife up to his mouth and licked the small amount of blood off with an exaggerated moan. He picked up a drop of blood falling down your side and brought that up to his mouth too. 

“You look so fucking pretty, makes me want to keep marking you.” Even though the moan in his voice as well as his words made you want that too… you wanted him to fuck you more. 

“…Later?” 

“Oh? Did you have something in mind for right now?” He smirked and you nodded. “What’s that?”

“Fuck me? Please?” You whined, getting embarrassed. 

“I tell you my name and that’s all I get?” He scoffed and you deflated at his disdain. 

“Please fuck me, Jason.” You said through a whimper, canting your hips up to emphasize your words. He cursed under his breath and put the knife away. Grabbing your hips, he sat up on his knees, pulling your lower body up with him. You winced at the skin of your stomach stretching and moving but that was quickly replaced with a lewd moan when he started pounding your hole. He didn’t give you any time to adjust, just started fucking you with almost feral thrusts. 

“Fuck- Jason!” You cried out, scrambling for purchase on the sheets below you. 

“Don’t stop saying my name, princess.” He said breathlessly, never wavering in his pace. If anything, he sped up and fucked your harder. 

With your lower body raised like this, you can see his name perfectly. As a drop of blood started rolling up your stomach, you stopped it with your finger then sucked it into your mouth, looking up at him through your lashes. He cursed quietly, then smiled and shook his head in what seemed like amused admiration. 

“You know, princess… when this heals, it’s not going to leave a scar.” You frowned at the reminder, even though your future self that wouldn’t have a cock inside her would scold you for letting him do that in the first place. “But that’s okay, it means I can just keep making you bleed everytime my cock is in this tight little cunt.” You let out a choked sob, feeling said cunt aching more and more. 

“Fuck, Jason, can I please touch myself?” You whimpered, grabbing the sheets so hard you thought they might rip, just to hold yourself back from touching without his permission. “Please?” 

“Go ahead, baby. Make yourself clench down on my cock.” Your hand immediately moved down to start rubbing fast circles on your clit. “Fuck- just like that.” He groaned, closing his eyes and tilting his head back. 

“A-are you going to let me come this time?” You stammered. Each time his hips smacked yours, it punched a breath out of you, making it hard to speak coherently. 

“I dunno… you think you deserve it?” 

“Please, I- I want to make you feel good.” 

“Oh? And how’s you coming gonna make me feel good?” You had no idea how he was able to speak so well even with his heavy breathing. Maybe that’s just a side effect of being a vigilante. 

“When I come, I-“ You cut off with a choked gasp at a particularly deep thrust but forced yourself to continue, “it gets really tight.” You said through a breath, trying to force your eyes open to keep looking at him. 

“Is that so?” He asked, amused, but you answered with a nod anyway. “Alright, princess, you can come when I say. But if you’re lying, you’re not coming again anytime I fuck you, do you understand?” Despite the fact that you know your body, you couldn’t help but feel your confidence waver. 

“I understand.” You whispered, rubbing your clit faster. He focused all of his energy into fucking you now. The punishing pace, his bruising grip on your hips, the fading sting on your stomach, the pressure on your clit- all of it was barreling you toward your orgasm.

“God- I don’t know where I want to come more, in your cunt or on my name.” He said, through a near pornographic moan. You mewled and removed your hand from your clit, feeling too close to the edge without knowing when he’ll give you permission. 

“Jason.” You whimpered, rubbing fast circles again, edging yourself. 

“Go ahead, princess. Come on my cock, make me feel good.” He rasped and you all but sobbed in relief. 

Now focusing on your impending orgasm, you moved your gaze from his name, to his cock, that was covered in your arousal, pushing in and out of you, to his face. His brows were furrowed, mouth open in a silent moan, and pupils blown so wide, there was barely any color visible. You squeezed your eyes shut and cried out his name as your orgasm washed over you. It felt awkward, not being able to arch your back or buck your hips like you normally would, but you quickly forgot about that as he kept pounding you. Distantly, you heard his low moans as his thrusts grew more erratic. 

When your orgasm faded, his thrusts quickly grew painful as you became overstimulated. You whined and tried to push away from his but his grip on your hips got impossibly tighter as he started pulling your body to meet his thrusts. 

“Don’t fucking try to pull away. You wanted this so fucking take it.” He growled and you let out a choked sob, this time because his words were starting a new knot of arousal in your stomach. He roughly fucked into you until finally he pulled your hips flush with his, letting out a low groan. He was so fucking deep- deeper than you’ve ever felt him and while it kind of hurt, the feeling of hot come filling you up made it fell better. You watched as he closed his eyes and tilted his head back, still bucking into your warmth, trying to get even deeper. As his orgasm faded, he slowly tilted his head back down, eyes half lidded and lips slightly parted as his chest heaved. 

He sat back of his heels, keeping his cock inside of you as he gently laid you back down. You winced again as your stomach moved, but this time it hurt a lot more without something to distract from it. He stared down at it, brushing his thumb below the jagged letters. 

“Is your name actually Jason?” You asked quietly, growing more and more tired. His eyes moved to yours and he stared at your for a moment before looking back down at his name. 

“Yeah.” 

You wanted to tell him that only an abductor who sympathized with their captor, would tell them their name. But you didn’t want to start anything. This moment right now felt calm, peaceful… safe. Despite the fact that he carved his name into your stomach, you’ve never felt safer than you do right now. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Jason.” You said softly and he looked up at you again, his face unreadable. You gave him a small smile and to your suprise, he returned it. 

[evilgaygothgf]

I Know What I Said

Quackity x reader (any pronouns)

Please send in requests!! I’m aching in my bones for things to write please please please

“I’m not looking for anything right now.”

The words repeated in your mind day and night, gripping and tugging at your heart. You’ve wanted to admit your feeling to Alex for the past few months after coming to terms that they wouldn’t just go away on their own. You’ve know him for over a year now, and the feelings only keep growing stronger. “The worst he can say is no,” is what your friends kept telling you, but he’s already said the worst thing in your opinion.

“I’m not looking for anything right now.”

You thought you’d bring up the topic of dating in general to him and try to gauge his feelings before admitting your own first. Kind of just beat around the bush. You thought maybe he’d just come out and admit he had a crush on you and then you could easily slip in how you felt about him too. Or maybe he’d pull the old “well my friend has a crush on their close friend they’ve known for a while but he just doesn’t know how to confess without ruining their friendship” and you could respond with “well he’ll never know unless he confesses, right?” and then he’d confess his feelings and turn out to be the “friend” who wanted to confess the whole time. Just like in movies and fanfics, right? Right? Wrong.

When you brought up the topic he went into a full rundown of how he just doesn’t see himself dating anyone anytime soon because he’s just so busy with his career right now and blah blah blah. As soon as he started talking you had just tuned it all out. His voice was drowned out by the voice in your head telling you to pull it together and choke down the icky feeling in your chest. The unrequited feeling. The only part of his entire response you heard loud and clear was the part you keep hearing play over and over in your head.

“I’m not looking for anything right now.”

Well shit. What do you do now? Respond with a chuckle and a “haha yeah me either”? Cut him off and tell him that he’s wrong and that you’re what he should be looking for? Admit your feeling regardless? Your thoughts were cut off by him asking you the question right back. “Sorry I feel like I really went on for a while. I didn’t mean to unload all that on you. Anyway, what’s your opinion on dating stuff?”

He asked the question so simply like he had no idea why you had asked him in the first place. “Umm,” you started, “well I mean yeah I guess I can see where you’re coming from. I guess I’d feel the same way if I was in your shoes. I don’t know. I guess for me dating is just like something I’m ready for now in my life. Im kind of tired of being single honestly, but hey, you know at least I’ve got you around, right?”

Alex grinned at the end of your last sentence. “Yeah, of course! I’ll always be here as your best friend so you don’t have to feel like a loner,” he chuckled. “But hey, you know if you’re trying to look for someone I’ll be the best wingman to ever walk this earth. And if anyone starts giving you shit or mistreating you, send em to me.” He turned from you and started throwing punches at the air and you couldn’t help but throw your head back in laughter. Alex was such an amazing friend to you and you started to wonder if wanting him as more than a friend was too much to ask in the first place. You were already lucky enough to have him care for you on a friendship level. The words still plagued your mind regardless.

“I’m not looking for anything right now.”

It’s been over a month since that happened and you continued to hang out with Alex like normal. You tried so hard to push your feelings for him down and appreciate the friend you had in him. The two of you had been hanging out all day and at the end of the night, he offered to drive you back home. The car ride to your place was more quiet than usual; void of loud music and laughter. It had been a long and eventful day and you were both exhausted from all you had done that day.

Alex pulled the car up to the front of your place and you reached to the floorboard of the car to grab your things and tell him goodnight before getting out. Before you could unbuckle your seatbelt, Alex’s voice broke the silence.

“Hey. I just…can I tell you something?”

“Uh yeah sure,” you responded as you placed your hands back in your lap and turned your body to better face him in the car.

He looked down from your face to his cup from the fast food restaurant you both ate at earlier as he played with the straw. “I lied. I lied to you and I’m sorry.”

You were too confused to respond as your mind raked through all of the things he could’ve possibly lied to you about.

He started up again, “I know I..well when we talked before…fuck like I didn’t mean to really say-“

“Alex spit it out. You’re making me nervous,” you said in a half speaking and half laughing voice trying to cover up the waver in your voice. Your fingers were already toying with each other as you tried to ease your nerves for whatever was to come.

“y/n I know this is gonna be awkward and I’m so sorry but I should’ve said it then and I’ve been making myself sick trying to think of a time to tell you this.” He brushed the pieces of hair back that were falling over his eyes as he finally looked back up to you. “I know I told you before that I wasn’t really looking for anything but the truth is that I’ve actually been falling for you. So hard. And before you interrupt and ask me why I said what I did, shit, I don’t know. I just..I just freaked out because I wasn’t expecting you to just ask me that out of nowhere.”

“Alex, Im sorry I didn’t mean to-“

“No please don’t apologize I should’ve just owned up to it and told you then because I really and I mean really wish I had. It’s been gnawing at me so bad that I didn’t take the opportunity to tell you. You honestly make me kinda nervous ever since I realized I wanted something more than friends with you.” His eyes dropped from yours again and went back to playing with the plastic straw.

“I make you nervous?” You could help but grin as you said it. You couldn’t believe he actually admitted to being nervous around you.

“Yeah yeah yeah go ahead and make fun of me, whatever, I knew I should’ve left that part out,” he scoffed as he rolled his eyes and sat back into his seat.

“No I’m glad you told me. I think it’s cute.”

“Oh so you think I’m cute?” He sat up straighter in his chair and smirked. “So you like me?”

You rolled your eyes at his sudden comeback in confidence after all the nervous toying with his straw he was just doing moments ago. He always ate up any little compliment you’d given him and you hated to admit you loved it.

“Yeah honestly I’ve had feelings for you for a while, and if you must know, I was actually trying to confess to you back when I asked your opinions on dating but wouldn’t you know, someone cough cough shut me down before I could. Mr. I’m not looking for anything right now.” You said the last part with finger quotes as you playfully rubbed what he said into his face.

He reached up and lightly smacked your finger quotes out of the air while trying to make an obviously forced angry face. “You should’ve just said it anyway. We could’ve been going on a date today and not just hanging out as friends. And then I could’ve kissed you goodnight when I dropped you off,” he wiggled his eyebrows as he said the last sentence.

Your face already started heating up. You knew exactly how a lot of your days spent together could’ve gone if you two had already been dating by this point. You practically thought about it every time you hung out together and every time you laid your head down on your pillow at night.

This time, you were the one to break the silence. “I mean, we still could,” you said quietly in the darkness of his car. “Only if you want to I mean I know we both just now told each other how we feel but I’m okay with-“

Your rambling was cut off with his lips shutting you up. It was just a peck, but as he pulled his head away you instinctively reached up to pull him back in. It was just a series of small closed-mouth kisses, but it was more than you could’ve imagined receiving from him just 15 minutes ago.

You pulled away from the kiss but kept your face close to his as your eyes scanned his. “I can’t believe you lied to me,” you whispered through a smile in the darkness.

“I’ll make it up to you, baby, don’t worry,” he whispered back as he closed the distance between the two of you again.

[artfreaksmeout]

Less toxic and less family problems KP universe VegasPete Au

This goes along with the art I did for Inktober day 10. Just what I think the story may go.

Kinn and Vegas still don’t get along but it’s in a more competitive way and clash a lot but they don’t wanna kill each other and would protect the other in a life or death situation.

The first time Vegas and Pete meet is when Pete gets recruited. Vegas thinks “talented but not much else” Pete thinks “hot”

Vegas sees more of Pete since he gets assigned to missions with Kinn or on missions to help the minor family and he’s impressed with how well Pete works and carries out missions. His interest in Pete starts to grow. He’s kinda hot when he’s fighting and shooting people but he’s too nice for Vegas’ taste. Always so polite and bland.

One day Vegas says something a little condescending and Pete replies with something sarcastic (while rolling his eyes)

And Oh, This is the first time Vegas has ever seen Pete not be a perfect little guard. He usually awkwardly laughs and just smiles politely but this? The slight attitude? That’s new.

Suddenly he starts paying attention to Pete in order to see these little slip ups. These little moments of Pete being bratty and sarcastic. He starts to notice the little snide comments, the slight eye rolls.

He also starts to notice the interest in Pete’s eyes when he’s over looking an interrogation especially when it’s Vegas himself carrying out the questions and the torture. Now Vegas is even more interested.

He starts flirting with Pete. Making suggestive comments here and there, watching Pete get red and flustered. He loves it.

Pete has enough of it one day and he snaps. Grabs Vegas by his damn silky shirt and kisses him like he’s a starving man.

And that’s the start of this thing between them. Vegas pushes, teases and flirts until Pete gives in and suddenly they’re going at it in different parts of the Major Family home. And it’s not just fucking, they talk afterwards sometimes. Cuddle other times.

Then one day, Vegas is having a shit day. Everything is going wrong. He’s on edge and now he’s in a meeting with Kinn and Kinn is yelling and frustrated. Vegas can’t take it. He’s suddenly thinking of how his dad was. Always criticizing. Always yelling. Always finding fault in him. He gets up and leaves. Kinn ends the meeting and Pete goes after Vegas discreetly.

He catches up to Vegas and pulls him into an empty room. He tries to approach Vegas calmly. He gets it, he has experienced similar things. His dads abuse and how sometimes you can’t get away from the scars they leave you with. He tries to calm Vegas down, talk to him about his dad and how he’s not in the wrong. Vegas listens but then, he laughs. Void of any feelings.

“You think just cause I’m fucking you, you get to tell me anything?” And Pete freezes because yea, he didn't think Vegas was in love with him or anything foolish like that. But he at least thought they had something. Some kind of understanding. Hell, friendship even. He was too dumb to realize Vegas didn’t even see him as anything more than just some guy he puts his dick in. He leaves and Vegas realizes he fucked up big time the moment he hears the door close.

Vegas tries to approach Pete the next time he sees him. Hopes that Pete may pretend that the whole interaction never happened but the minute Pete sees him coming, He leaves. Doesn’t stop or look back even when Vegas calls out his name. Vegas feels like shit everytime Pete ignores him, because he likes pete. Goddamn it he Loves him. But he’s an asshole who doesn’t know how to control his feelings and anger and he fucks shit up by saying dumb hurtful things he doesnt mean.

So he tries what he knows best and starts throwing money at the problem. His past “lovers” always seemed to cheer up when he got them the newest tech or the fanciest clothes. So he starts sending Pete anything and everything he can think of and yet… that seems to piss Pete off even more. He even stopped ignoring Vegas just to throw the new fancy watch he gifted Pete at Vegas and said “I’m not some cheap whore you can buy your way into sleeping with” he walks away before Vegas can say anything.

Vegas is suffering because he has no idea what to do. He just wants to go back to how things were. No. He wants more. He wants to go on dates with Pete. He wants to spend as much time as possible as he can with him. Share special moments with him but now he’s fucked it all up with one single sentence.

He’s back at the Major family compound again when Porsche pulls him aside and calls him an idiot. Porsche has had enough of seeing Pete go from being sad to being angry at the mention of Vegas’s name. He had to do something so he tells Vegas to pull his shit together and just fucking talk to pete like a normal person and apologize from the heart. If Pete still didn’t forgive him he would have to suck it up and leave Pete alone.

He goes to find Pete. He finds him on his way to the kitchen. The minute Pete sees him he turns to walk away but this time Vegas is faster, he grabs Pete's arm and drags him to the nearest room. He begs Pete to listen to him. He apologizes and tells Pete that he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to him and that he’s a giant idiot for ruining that . Pete stays silent and Vegas thinks “He’s never going to forgive me”

Pete punches him. And then drags him into a kiss. And oh god, it’s the best feeling in the world after Pete ignoring him for weeks. Pete pulls away and tells Vegas “if you ever say anything like that to me ever again, I won’t forgive you”

They keep making out for a bit longer until they get caught by Kinn and three other bodyguards. Turns out the room they had walked into was one of the meeting rooms Kinn uses. Pete Is dying of embarrassment and Vegas just smirks at Kinn’s disgusted face. Ha, as if he isn’t sleeping with a bodyguard also.

I won’t be writing this into a fic but I couldn’t get the idea out of my head so this is just parts of the story I thought up lol.

[callme-aprilroseisha04]

I so badly wanna know what's going on with Sonic in your Voices AU!!! (This is an invitation for you to info dump if you so desire)

OK so originally I had this MONSTER essay on what this was about but im really really bad at explaining things and I don’t want to leave you hanging forever so instead I’ll just give you a basic rundown of the concept and all the plot points. Also, important thing to mention, I HAVEN’T FINISHED SEASON 2 YET. Y’know, where the majority of my AU takes place. Haven’t finished that. Haven’t even seen Chaos Metal Sonic. Sorry, sorry, I know, I’m a fake fan but in my defense every time I turn on the show I want to bang my head against a wall, tear all my skin of, and run in circles at the speed of light (in a good way) (but also in a bad way) (a good bad way). Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I need to quickly explain the concept behind this. In the first episode of Season 2, Avoid the Void, Sonic doesn’t realize that he can run out of the Ghost World. He’s stuck there. This also means that he can’t save shadow from falling into the void (this is why shadow doesn’t have his arm or his leg in my au illustrations, he wakes up before he can be fully disintegrated, but he did lose some limbs.) Back to Sonic, since he has nothing better to do, he tries to take a nap at the beach where his friends are at and starts “taking” to Tail’s projection. Then, the voice comes. I don’t really know how to describe this. There is a voice, like the name says, but it’s also a lot more complicated than that. When “it” comes, Sonic can’t hear anything; or, well actually he can hear things (sometimes the noise feels oppressively loud) but he doesn’t know what people are saying, so to him it just sounds like gibberish. Also, this isn’t always true, (it just depends) but his eyes won’t focus properly and they get really blurry, like can’t see what’s in-front of you blurry. Also, headaches! Because apparently we needed to make this even worse for him for some reason!!!!! It’s not at its worst here, but as you can expect, he is pretty disoriented after it’s done. Shadow comes back to the ghost world, Sonic is understandably surprised by HIS LACK OF TWO LIMBS, he gets the tech and bounces, yadayadayada, all the stuff. More importantly, now we get Nine back! Chapter two; Sonic goes to Boscage Maze, they’re ripping the place up, Sonic goes to help Thorn, mini “voice” episode (as an appetizer), he gets a tech upgrade from Nine, he goes to fight, gets the main course “voice” episode, Nine gets in trouble cause emo tween egg boy caught him talking to Sonic trying to figure out what’s wrong with him and why he’s talking to himself, Sonic gets the shard from Thorn, he runs of with it, emo eggboy sends a message that they’re gonna kill Nine unless Sonic gives them the shard, Nine tells him not to, he goes anyway and THROWS THE SHARD INTO THE OTHER SHARDS THE EGGMEN HAD COLLECTED SO HE CAN SAVE NINE, (he tries to get the shards back but they got swarmed by robots) and finally they get out and go to the ghost world. Shadow is really, REALLY mad at him for trading a SHARD just to save his little kit boy and ALSO mad because Sonic wants to keep Nine there, to keep him safe. Eventually, Shadow gives in after Nine mentions that he could build Shadow a prosthetic, but he adds the clause that the moment Nine finishes the prosthetic, he leaves. After that, Sonic goes to get the rest of the shards back while Nine makes Shadow’s prosthetic at Tail’s workshop. For the next few chapters, Sonic get into some sort of a routine; Try to get the shards, come back to the ghost world to rest, squabble with Shadow, chat with Nine for a little, and repeat. Some important things to mention from this period are: 

Nine is intentionally taking his time making Shadows prosthetic (Sonic’s idea) as well as making it break really easily & adding a secret “feature” that allows him to $&@!?ING electrocute him from afar using a remote implanted in his mechanical tails (both and especially the last one NOT Sonic’s idea); 

Sonic doesn’t actually sleep during this time, he just takes 3 hour naps so he can get back home quicker, which only worsens the voice thing; 

Shadow, (who doesn’t understand anything about what’s going on with Sonic other than the vague sense that something’s wrong with him, unlike Nine who got a basic lil explanation from Sonic after asking wtf happened at boscage maze) is getting increasingly frustrated with Sonic because of how long it’s taking for him to get all the shards, as well as his continual trusting of Nine.

This continues for a while, those “episodes” get worse and worse, Sonic grows closer to Nine and tension keeps building between Sonic & Shadow until <drumroll………>

THE EGG COUNCIL COMES!!!!! Again, since I still haven’t seen season two of Sonic Prime, I don’t really know how this is gonna happen, but I do know it’s gonna happen. (btw Nine finishes Shadow’s prosthetic & leaves like a day before the egg council comes.) This is a massive battle and I have like a whole thing on how it’s gonna play out but the important things to note for the story are: Shadow finally sees Sonic’s “episodes” play out in front of him and he is understandably confused and concerned, but their in a battle right now so he can’t really do anything about it and <another drum roll please…..>

SONIC TRIES TO CHOP OFF HIS F$!?KING ARM! Ok, I definitely need to explain this a little more. During the first occurrence of the “voice,” it mentions something about them and Sonic being the same person, & basically says “I am a part of you, Sonic. The only way to get rid of me is to get rid of you.”  Edgy stuff like that, y’know? Well, during this one, it repeats that phrase again and in true Sonic fashion, he decides to do something incredibly stupid, risky, and drastic based on even dumberreasoning. You see, the voice said it was a part of him, not all of him. It also said that in order to get the voice out, he’d have to “get rid” of himself too. So, using this logic, if he only gets rid of a part of him, then he gets to keep living without the voice constantly haunting his every move! This is admittedly pretty silly logic, but he was in the middle of what is essentially a scaled up panic attack, so cut him some slack, OK? He tried to use a piece of scrap metal that fell off the robot to remove it, which unsurprisingly doesn’t work very well. It only ends up cutting halfway, but Sonic can’t really tell that it’s still attached since he’s so tired, & “it” did shut up after he stabbed his arm open soooooooo¯\_(ツ)_/¯. He manages to drive the egg council off to their own dimension before passing out from blood loss, leaving Shadow to rush him to Tail’s workshop so he can get bandaged up, made harder with Shadz’s new leg getting absolutely trashed. When Sonic finally wakes up, Shadow is confused, deeply concerned, and angry with him for almost killing himself for seemingly no reason. Sonic, however, is incredibly calm about the whole thing and nonchalantly explains why he cut off his arm during the battle, until he realizes his arm is still attached to him 

Here’s a comic page of the next scene:

He leaves to go get more shards and get Nine back to fix Shadows leg, which Shadow predictively grumbles about. This is a pretty light chapter, besides the ending:

Nine and Sonic are hanging out, having fun, the usual. Nine points out how cheery Sonic is right now, and Sonic starts to explain why he’s in such a good mood while Nine passes a small knife for him to hold while he does other things. Sonic, in the middle of his explanation, is cut off by…… “it” and proceeds to frantically rip off his bandages and try to cut the remainder of his arm off with the knife Nine gave him. Nine, who has no idea what’s going on, tries to wrangle back the knife from Sonic. In the struggle, Sonic ends up permanently scaring Nine on one of his eyes. It was an accident of course, but Nine bolts out of the workshop and zaps the door so Sonic can’t chase after him all the same. Sonic breaks down. 

After a bit, (about 30 minutes or so,) and after seeing and briefly meeting with Nine to ask where Sonic has been since he should be with him at the workshop; Nine responded with a suggestion to check for himself, Shadow decides to take Nine’s advice and go. Here’s the scene I wrote for this, as well as the comic I made (they have some dialogue differences, but the general idea is the same.)

“Sonic,”

He didn’t even look up. He was completely unfazed, almost expecting it.

“Sonic!”

Finally realizing who it was, he made a soft gasp, which, however small, was enough for Shadow to know he was listening.

“Do you know how big of a mess you’ve just made?”

They both stayed silent.

“Let me get this straight: That, … thing came back,”

The blue hedgehog sitting on the floor appeared perfectly still in the darkness of Tail’s old workshop.

“So you decided that it would be a good idea to try to cut your arm off again, even though it clearly didn’t work the first time, and I explicitly said not to, because we didn’t have the medical supplies to patch you up after,”

This time, he made a slight nod downwards.

“And when the fox tried to stop you, you hit him in his FUCKING eye? Is that all? Does it get any worse than that?”

The hedgehog didn’t respond. He was focused on something else.

“Are you even listening?”

Complete. Silence.

“Of course not. Of course you’re not listening. You never have, so why start now, huh?”

Shadow broke into a grin.

“You can’t listen to anyone, can you? Not your friends, not your allies, not even your own family! You’re Sonic the Hedgehog. The arrogant, narcissistic, naive, idiot hero who destroyed his own world because he couldn’t slow down. That’s all you are.”

Still nothing. He got angrier.

“I’m TIRED of your NONSENSE! I’m TIRED of you just sitting around having a PITY PARTY over something YOU CAUSED YOURSELF!”

Shadow grew quiet.

“I’m tired of your games, Sonic.”

A cold, hard, stare crossed the black and red hedgehog’s face.

“SO GET UP ALREADY!”

He forcefully pulled him off the ground, and for the first time during this whole conversation, Sonic spoke. He… screamed, a scream so loud you could hear it from a mile away. 

Shadow let go. 

Then, he slowly lowered his hand to his face, and …. No. The hedgehog gazed into the person standing before him, looking for something, anything, any semblance of the hedgehog he knew, but all that met him was an empty husk that he could barely even recognize.

“I-”

Sonic ran past him. He was gone. And Shadow didn’t know if he would ever come back.

“I’m sorry.”

———————————————————————

Sonic runs into the New Yoke rebel base and patches himself up. He’s able to get two shards from the egg council, but the rebel base is found in the process. There’s only one left, besides the Grim shard. Before Sonic leaves, Shadow tries to talk to him for a moment, but once he got a hold of him, he doesn’t know what to say. Does he apologize? Would that make things worse? Is he just supposed to wait it out and hope Sonic’s friends will help him? Sonic is still able to collect the shards, so they’re still getting back home, but what will happen after that? As much as Shadow hated to admit it, Sonic and his friends were just about the only force that could stop The Doctor from completing whatever world ending scheme he cooked up that week, other than himself. If he …. If something bad happened to Sonic after this, and he couldn’t get back up from it, and if he couldn’t pick up the slack, then….

He didn’t know what would happen. 

Shadow is barely able to get a word in before Sonic leaves to get the last shard. There’s nothing left to do.

Before we move on to the next plot point in the story, i want to talk about Nine for a second, since we haven’t really gotten the chance to explore him at all yet. A quick little thing I want to note is that Nine knows what the plan is in the AU. Get the shards, put them together, and save this world. He is planningto betray Sonic in this. At the same time, he’s also a lot closer to him. They hang out more, they chat more, and both of them feel the other is the only one on their side right now. Nine reasons that he can just convince Sonic to come with him, since they’re friends after all. He doesn’t really pay Shadow any mind, just thinking of him as an antagonistic coworker, not a real threat. The zapper he put in his leg was just a backup plan, incase he couldn’t fight him himself for one reason or another. Sonic and Nine were a team. They wouldn’t hurt each other. Until they did. Until Sonic did. After the incident, all of the trust between the two is gone. Nine doesn’t blame Sonic per say, he knows that Sonic was just desperate for it to stop, but he’s still angry. He’s angry at himself for trusting him. For trusting that he wouldn’t get hurt. From this point onwards, neither of them try to talk to each other. Nines plan only changes slightly.  He won’t try to convince Sonic to come with him. He won’t make that mistake again. 

Sonic’s feelings are a bit more complicated than Nine’s. He wants to fix everything, but he can’t. He wants everything to go back to normal, but too much has happened for that to even be a possibility. He wants everything to just stop for a minute, to just let him rest, but no matter what, it won’t. He just has to keep going. He just has to keep moving forwards. 

Sonic gets the last shard (Sonic and Shadow have to fight off the egg council again; it’s pretty awkward), and Nine finally puts his plan into motion. Using a machine he built while Sonic wasn’t around, he creates a portal to the Grim, his new home. Sonic begs Nine not to do this, that they’re friends, but that only makes Nine angrier. If they were friends, then Sonic would want to help him, if they were friends, then Sonic would’ve listened to him, and if they were actually, really friends then Sonic WOULDN’TV’E DONE THIS TO HIM.

Shadow had been outside the whole time listening to this, and he has heard enough of Nine’s ramblings. He lunged straight at Nine, but just as he’s about to reach him…. ZAP.  They both stare down at Shadow’s limp, burned body. Sonic’s head started spinning rapidly. He couldn’t tell who was in front of him, he couldn’t tell what was going on, he couldn’t tell where he was or who he was or why he was doing any of this at all. All he knew was that Shadow. Was. Dead. Because of him. Because hedecided to trust him. He spin-dashed straight into the kit’s chest, pressing him deeper and deeper into the rough, ragged cavern floor. One of his mechanical tails snapped from the shear force the spin dash on his body. Sonic slowly picked the broken hunk of metal, held it above the little fox’s body, and …

He ran as far as he can go. He ran and ran until he just couldn’t anymore and broke down in the middle of f@!king boscage maze. They’re dead. Both of them are dead. And it’s his fault isn’t it? If he had listened to Shadow about Nine then he wouldn’t had gotten electrocuted. If he had listened to Nine then Nine wouldn’t have betrayed them. If he had listened to his friends then none of this would’ve happened in the first place. But he didn’t. And now they’re all dead. So why even try? Why even try to help people if you only end up hurting them? What’s the point? What’s the point of anything anymore? Sonic’s grip on sanity finally snaps, when someone finally finds him….

It’s Thorn. She’s been watching Sonic this whole time and is understandably disturbed by the whole, watching someone have a meltdown thing. Seeing that Sonic has seemingly calmed down, she reaches to ask what happened to him, why he was so scared, but it was too late. Sonic grabbed Thorn by the neck, just before Mangey, Prim, and Gnarly came looking for her. Meanwhile:

Shadow tackles Nine, shoving him into the portal and just barely managing to close it before he got back. But now, both Shadow and Nine are both stranded. Without the shards, Nine can’t create a portal to escape the Grim. Shadow can’t enter any of the shatter spaces, so even if he could leave the ghost world, he’d still be trapped. They’re both stuck. 

Back with Sonic, the boscage maze crew are still trying to snap him out of it as he attacks them and their home. Prim keeps arguing this is pointless, that they should just beat him up until he leaves, but Thorn won’t let that happen. Sonic’s still in there. He has to be. This gamble fails, the forest is mostly destroyed and Mangey is injured. (btw the boscage maze stuff I just talked about isn’t very plot relevant, just wanted to mention it cause I could.) When Sonic finally leaves boscage, he plans to go to the other realities as well, destroying them one by one. But, for some reason, he decides to go to the Grim instead. He’s not quite sure why, but goes anyway. Why not, after all? 

Nine has been on edge the entire time he’s been in the Grim. It made sense, after all. Sonic was still alive, and presumably, still looking for the last shard. His best bet was to try to find it before he found him. Nine had been searching for about a day and a half, getting increasingly desperate by the hour. He wished he had stolen the tech he gave to Sonic, or made another one that could help him track where the shard was. Suddenly, Sonic arrives. And Nine’s not exactly happy to see him again. Sonic immediately starts attacking, Nine trying as hard as he can to get a hit in. As they’re fighting, Nine has a realization. He can use this to his advantage. All he has to do is keep Sonic chasing him and his shoes will tell him where the last shard is. Then, try to trigger the “voice” so he can get the shard. Finally, finish. the. job. Unfortunately, the second step doesn’t go to plan. He’s able to get the shard but…….

Sonic gets to him before Nine could run off with it.

And when he watched him bleed out, when he watched the blood pour out of his chest, when he realized that he was dead, that there was no way he could come back from this, no way he could still miraculously be alive, no chance that he could ever fix what he had done, Sonic fully accepted what he had become. A mindless, murderous, monster.

Shadow has been waiting this whole time; waiting for Sonic, waiting for the last shard, and waiting for a chance to actually apologize for what happened at the workshop. But that chance had already passed, it seemed. Sonic slowly walked into the cave, where everything started, Grim shard and metal tail both in hand. The two hedgehogs met eyes. Sonic stood in shock for a minute, then smiled. One last person to kill.  He hopped down from the cave’s mouth, tossed the shard to the side, and gripped the bloody scrap metal harder. Then, he lunged. They start battling it out as Shadow tries to put the pieces together on what happened. Sonic keeps teasing and joking with Shadz while they’re battling it out. Eventually it just devolve into rants about how stupid everything is, and how stupid he was for ever thinking he was a good person. When Shadow finally gets a good look at how deteriorated Sonic’s mind has become, he can’t help but wonder what he could’ve done to stop this. But it’s too late for that now. He was too slow. Shadow eventually gets the upper hand and corners Sonic, toppling him over. Here’s the passage I wrote for the next scene: 

——————————————————————

Shadow grasped the jagged piece of metal and held it just above the blue hedgehog’s skull, shaking with what he couldn’t tell was rage or fear. Sonic’s eyes stared up at him, his maniacal grin completely wiped. Instead, a blank expression crossed his face. It wasn’t exactly fear, it wasn’t exactly shock, it wasn’t exactly sadness and it wasn’t exactly relief. It was…. everything, all mashed into one giant, unreadable expression. For once, Shadow felt he genuinely understood Sonic. For once, he knew exactly what he was feeling. Shadow dropped the blade. He hugged him.

“Wh-?”

“Because you need it.”

Sonic couldn’t hold back any longer. The tears that he had been repressing for so long now streamed down his cheeks like waterfalls as he leaned further and further into Shadow’s embrace. All the words he had wanted to say for so long spilled out of his mouth in a giant river, jumbled and broken and completely incoherent as he tried to explain it all, as he tried and tried and tried to apologize for everything he had done. 

“I-I didn’t-”

“Shhh”

“I j-just-”

“Shhh”

“I c-couldn’t”

“It’s OK. Sonic, look at me.”

He lifted up Sonic’s tear stricken face with his hand, staring into his eyes, tinted with pain.

“It’s all gonna be OK.”

the end.

———————————————————————

And that’s it! This took a while to write, so thanks for sticking around through it all, that was really cool of you. A few little notes about the epilogue & after story.

Epilogue:

I need to clear something up before I can start discussing what happens in the epilogue. You may have noticed some of the Sonic art I’ve posted (mostly the ones with Sonic using a prosthetic arm) mentioned something about an epilogue. This is a mistake. What past me was trying to say was that this was from the after story. I just forgot the word for it, sorry! With that out of the way, let’s begin. After Sonic’s finally cried it all out, they both get up and he thanks Shadow for the hug. Shadow accepts, and there’s a cute lil scene where the two of them are just… talking, while they go to grab the last shard from the top of the mountain to put it back in its place. After they’re done, Sonic hesitates for a moment. Should he go back to them? After everything, he doesn’t really believe that they would want to see him, not after what he’d done. But Shadow reassures him that if HE could forgive Sonic, then his friends probably would too. They both go their separate ways, and Sonic finally gets to see his friends again. He (tries) to explain what happened, why he’s missing an arm and covered in blood, all that stuff, and they are understandably horrified at…. EVERYTHING he’s saying but ultimately forgive him. They all leave to get chili dogs, and we end with the whole gang minus Shadow having a picnic and Sonic FINALLY taking a nap on Tail’s tails.

After Story: 

I don’t have much of this part planned out outside from a prosthetic design for Sonic and the BAREST of story outlines so I’m just gonna make a bullet point list.

Eggman steals the paradox prism

Everyone (including Shadow) gets together to make a plan to steal it back

Sonic messes up the plan somehow and starts freaking out

Shadow yells at him, making it worse

Sonic runs away and has a panic attack 

After he calms down a little, Shadow goes to apologize 

They go back and come up with a new plan

It works & they all go get some food (including Shadow, after a lot of convincing)

———————————————————————

Final, FINAL Notes: OH MY GOD THIS TOOK SO LONG TO WRITE THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DONE IN ONE WEEK OH MY GOD. thank you again so much for reading all of this this is so long oh my freaking god why’d I make this so long? uh, this mostly serves as a reference sheet so you know what scene im drawing so I can stop getting questions on what is going on. speaking of questions, if you have any, ask! im bad at explaining stuff, so im sure there’s PLENTY. just to make sure im not getting anyone’s hopes up btw, i dont know if I’ll actually end up making this a full fic, mostly cause ive never made one before & i dont know how to use ao3 yet :( feel free to use any and all ideas mentioned within this mega-essay with or without credit, i support you! with this last, last, LAST note, I think I will leave you be.

(also sorry that this took so long to write, it got deleted 3 separate times so I had to start over haha :))))))))))

[howlsofbloodhounds]

Well, dear mutual, I'm curious to what you think Ink's and Killer's dynamic would be? I always like hearing other peoples opinions on these things since there's things I may miss (even if they differ from my own)! Especially considering they fought once, I wonder how that would influence things...

Here's a kitty for your time! ❤️💕

Ooohh cute kitty!! (The petting motions r doing something nice for my brain.)

Also I mentioned briefly in asks about Error & Killer where I figured that Ink would find Killer hilarious and cool & thats the exact reason why he’s tryna convince error not to kill Killer.

So yeah I basically envision this thing where Error & Ink are basically lonely asf and also Error wants to piss off Nightmare so he snatches up Killer whenever the fuck he wants to.

And Killer’s like, “this is a fever dream. Might as well happen,” whenever Ink questions him about why he seems so okay with it. (And also Killer wants to spite NM too lmao.)

So like, I imagine that Error, Ink, and Killer just chill in the Anti-Void and this is basically what Killer’s enforced breaks look like. Error’s ranting and raving, either about his tv show or ink or nightmare or what have you. Ink’s sitting on the floor and drawing to his non existence heart’s content.

And Killer’s just staring off into the distance, dissociated as hell, petting his cats in an effort to stay grounded. Error was surprisingly nice enough to let him have the bean bag.

And I can see like a little moment where ink gets too excited, throws up in killer’s lap, and also makes a wide gesture too close to killer that has him instinctively lashing out and stabbing ink.

And killer freezes for a moment, wondering what’s about to happen—almost excited even—only for error to start bitching at ink for throwing up on his beanbag chair & ink’s is laughing it off while removing the knife from their arm.

Says something like he’s gonna keep it, only killer immediately reaches out and snatches his knife back, snapping that it’s his, not Ink’s. Keep your hands off his shit unless you wanna lose them.

And Ink just laughs, not bothered by it, comments that this is the most reaction they’ve gotten out of him in weeks. From what Ink knows of Killer, he was expecting him to be more talkative. To which Killer probably says something like, “find me on a work day then.”

And then what Ink said catches up to him, and suddenly Killer asks, “what do you know about me.”

And maybe that prompts a discussion about Players and Creators and AUs and the like. And Killer realizes that Ink knows more about him than he knows about himself. Such as what is and isn’t real.

Maybe Ink can offer him some clarity, somehow. Maybe through their drawings and art and the like.

As for the fact that they have fought before. Id imagine that killer would be more on edge at first, even if it may not seem that way. Watching Ink, observing him—trying to see if they have any hang ups about it. If Ink is going to be a problem for him. He’d love to hash it out. (Violently. With knives.)

But Killer doesn’t really wanna go back to Nightmare and he doubts Error is gonna take him back until he wants to, so instead Killer just doesn’t react in one way or another. Not wanting to express anything about himself until he knows what he’s dealing with.

And I’m sure ink knows something is up, but I doubt they’d place that much care into the fighting—especially if he already has forgotten them by this point. I mean, he’s chilling with Error. I doubt hed have a problem with any squabbles between themself and Killer.

I think they’d develop this chaotic friendship where they just kinda get eachother, you know. Ink understands Killer’s emotionlessness, Killer understands Ink’s memory issues. I’d highly doubt they’d have any issues with eachother that most tend to have with them—such as the typical interpretation of Ink being “too much” or “too hyper,” and I feel like Killer would just play into ink’s energy.

And I feel like Killer wouldn’t really feel any need to mask his apathy or sense of emotionlessness around ink, mostly because ink doesn’t really seem to mind when killer is quiet or unresponsive and not actively pretending to be someone he’s not—ink is willing to do whatever talking needed. And even if killer has a hard time paying attention or remembering what ink is talking about, he never tells ink to shut up either.

The two of them having meta awareness may also affect things.

Also, I’m pretty sure the both of them struggle with empathy—and killer at least is known for pushing boundaries, wanting to test and poke and prod to understand things—and yet very protective of his own “red lines”. So I’m sure this may show up as a rocky point in their relationship at some point, just like with error and killer, but I’m not quite sure how.

Ink may find themself often being stabbed, simply because Killer’s body often tends to react on instinct. So I’m sure they’ll eventually learn to keep some distance between themselves.

Ink may consider Killer a friend, Killer at most would probably say he finds Ink interesting. (They’re besties I swear. Killer just doesn’t understand friendship 😔 )

Anyway. More knowledgeable Ink fans are always free to comment on or expand/change wherever you think is needed.

( @toffeebrew ).

[thatoneguydownthestreet]

I have no clue if your taking requests so ignore this if you not

But if you are... hear me out housewardens (manly leona) try and get apocalypse y/n into a bath

I say this because in your hc ut says leona throws up when they first met. So yeah

Ao3 is down and i’m pissed. also here's some music

FEM ALIGNED PLEASE DNI

Dorms make you take a damn bath.

Riddle Rosehearts: 

you were, for some ungodly reason, confused on why his face looks like someone force fed him sixteen lemons in a row whenever your around

well, my stupid student, that’s because you, yes you, smell like dog shit

old, cold, fermented dog shit that was left out in the rain

in other words: you stink

and riddle is loosing his damn mind over it

how does one go about telling this to their friend?

in a polite manner?

because he caN’t jUsT teLl yoU

so he tries to drop little hints

Tries

just small things at first

Just a little air freshener tree that you get at the carwash here and there

you find a mysterious perfume bottle on your night stand after Duece spent the night at Ramshackle

look! it smells like cherries!

too bad you didn’t trust it at all!

oh and look at this, an expensive cologne bottle that smells like sandelwood? isn’t that just plesent? Isn't it nice?

welp, it’s not yours! better put it back where you found it, someone's probably losing their shit looking for it

Riddle is now getting a bit desperate here

just a tad

Just a tad bit desperate

...anything can help right?

he makes Cater drop off a change of clothes for you. just some of the spare clothes that weren’t exactly his dorm uniform, that for some reason, he found laying around. 

he’d have to have a little “chat” about that later with his dorm

He also kindly requested that Cater steal some of your clothes so he could wash them for once

(he was being quite literal on the “for once” part. those things smelled like they’ve never touched an ounce of detergent since you got them from crowly) 

unfortuanatly, you are way too observant for your own good, and catch onto shit way too fast for his liking (or anyones liking) and quickly became suspicious about your missing clothes that miraculous reappeared in your drawers smelling...different

Riddle started feeling a little guilty for this after you locked yourself in your room for three days, and then came back out looking absolutely exhausted, checking over your shoulder like you had when you first got here

(Cater could have sworn he saw lilia looking at him with a dead stare out of the corner of his eye every time he went to club. Kalim said he was probably imagining it.)

Soon enough, operation mystery laundry was void

Meaning, your clothes returned to smelling like shit

And you...well, you never really stopped

.....ok.

Ok. He can work around this.

Hahahaha....Hahaha...ha....fuck

If ace trappola looks at you one day, says he's sorry, and then takes out a can of frebreez air freshener and sprays away, don't question shit, perfect

You brought this on yourself

But you of course, act like a cat being chased with a spray bottle, and run away

It for real takes trey to be the only responsible adult (NRC is an actual college and they're all adults fight me) in the entire goddamn campus to actually walk up to you and tell you you smell like ass

You then have a conversation about the rarity of clean water in you world

That conversation causes trey to come back to heartslabyul, take a metal bucket, fill it with clean, clear water, and then promptly dump it on you

And then he refills it with soapy water

That's right folks!

He's washing you, and your clothes!

Somewhere in the background, an NPC sees this and goes to notify riddle of the weird shit happening in the kitchens

Riddle doesn't know how to feel about this

He's definitely not happy but...he ain't mad about it either

He just makes an unfortunate NPC grab some towels for you

You didn't really know how to use the towels

Is it a blanket? No?

Your supposed to get it wet....

??huh?

Later that night, one Cater Diamond will whip out a PowerPoint presentation has been sitting in his computer for an undisclosed amout if time, explaining what a bath is

Everyone will thank him the next day for it

Ace still has the frebreez bottle btw, it's now used discreetly in alchemy class for whenever he and duece fuck up a potion

Leona Kingscholar:

Oh boy here we go

The cat man has gone from simply laying around in the [thingy] gardens to straight up rolling around in the plants to mask your smell just enough to not hurl on ground the second he sees you

this works 70% of the time

The other 30% is between him, ruggie, and the bathrooms

And once he realizes Jack howl hangs our with you on a regular basis?

Well, let's just say said dog boy is a little confused on why he's suddenly getting so much respect from his dorm members

Anyways, you leona doesn't really do anything about it at first.

You don't come by savanaclaw that much and your paths don't naturally cross too often, so doing something about the absolute toxic waste smell mixed with a half rotting animal carcass doesn't really have much...appeal to it

That was until this moment

Because you, my adorable little shit stain, were now in his PE class

PE class.

The class where everyone gets sweaty and smelly anyway

The only class that happened outside, you know, where his nose is just a little more sensitive because of the wind?

Yeah? That class

....great sevens help him

There are no pleasant smelling flowers in the fliedhouse. There is no access to any type of perfumes in the flied house because there are no pomefiore students out here

Ah shit, look at him, wishing for a pomefiore student

Never thought that one would happen

Anyways, kalim will later question leona about why he's been staying so close to him during PE recently

Because you are constantly bathed in inscents and spices kalim. inscents and spices

You are quickly deemed to jack work

Yeah, no way in hell is he dealing with this by himself, and ruggie isn't either, leona kind of need him alive to do his laundry (and provide the occasional comedic relief for whenever his brain decides it hates him a little more that day)

Now, jack is a lot of things

And he's usually prepared for whatever bullshit his dormmates and friends throw at him

But this...

Um. Perfect. Bro. Can you...can you perhaps not smell yourself?

Because he can

Everyone can. Actually

His approach is thankfully more quick than riddles

But he still tries to do it the polite way first

Leaving some cacti and succulents that had flowered early in your dorm room from time to time

They ultimately did nothing on their own, which is why he made epel politely convinced vil to put a little scenting spell on them

....it kind of works?

Congratulations Y/N. You now smell like shit with flowers on top

Which is arguably worse, but leona and literary EVERYONE ELSE will take what they can get

....

And then there's ruggie

He doesn't know when or why it happened, but he thinks it had something to do with the way you always seemed to marval at the water

He didn't eat in the cafeteria often, usually just eating on the go or whenever he found the time

But he still needed to get in there everyday for a certain spoiled prince

So...he saw you there sometimes

...and he saw your face when you looked at the water everyone else was drinking

You had stopped wearing that weird mask a long time ago (ruggie could vaguely remember leonas shoulders dropping the slightest bit when he told him....he wonders why that was sometimes)

The day you had taken it off was certainly...an event

But it turned out to be a good thing in the end, because seeing your face and what you were feeling was so much easier

And it let him see that painfully familiar face of disbelief and envy so much earlier

He knew those faces for a good reason. They'd been his after all, once upon a time

....he shouldn't do this

...

....he really shouldn't do this

....

When ruggie was nine years old, he saw a dead man just behind the old, half dried up waterhole that his ancestors ancestors used to gather water from

He had died from a disease that had made its way into their water supply

He remembered coming down with a bad fever shortly after and despite the dry heat of the desert, ruggie bucchi had never felt so cold

The old king of sunset savanna, leona kingscholars late father, had sent in doctor's and scientists and a years worth of clean water for his village only a few months later

Too bad they didn't come earlier...

It would've save a couple body bags

He hoped, oh great seven he'd hoped, that no one else dear to him had ever had to live that particular part if his life

...

...too bad nothing ever likes going his way

Your water didn't deserve to be called water, to have the glory and credit of the ever precious resource that allowed life itself

Because your water, wasn't water

It was poison

It's was a sickly brown, sometimes green, sometimes black, poison

And it was everywhere in the tunnels, you had said

"When I was little, I was playing around in an old abandoned army tank-"

("a what?" "Don't worry about it")

"-and...well, I guess we played a little too hard, because I got cut. Just a small scrape on my knee really..."

"But...it was enough for the water to make its way into my blood"

"...one of the medics. A man named Abdul? Yes. Abdul. He was able to bleed me just enough before it made its way in too deep"

"But still...the days after."

"I had never felt so...so.."

"...cold?", his voice came out in a whimper. It was barely a whisper

And he swore he felt his heart break a little when you shook your head with a sad smile

"Freezing"

....

....

A few things changed after that

It turns out, washing wounds with clean water and soap was a good way to treat wounds

Even the small ones!

"And it keeps you healthy! You won't get sick as easily as before!"

Ruggie didn't know exactly how to feel about the way your eyes sparkled at that

Azul Ashengrotto:

You must be out of your God damn mind if you think your even allowed in the lounge

Sorry perfect, but Azul has a business to run and patrons to keep happy, and you, my dear boy, do not currently spark joy

You smell like the trash that would sometimes wind up in the sea, despite it being illegal to dump your shit in the sea but whatever

He didn't like that you smelled so much like home

...but also not like home

The smell of the ocean on you was undeniable, but...you also smelled. Toxic

And he, for the life of him, just couldn't figure out why

He's not totally sure he wanted to figure out why

Something had clicked for jade a while back, that he was atleast semi-certain of

It was hard not to be, really

After all, he had never seen a look of horror that had crossed his vice wardens face quite like that before

He could still catch him looking at you in the halls, looking like he wanted to go right up to you and confirm whatever suspicions he had

But he never did...

Maybe it was because you weren't really close

Or maybe it was because you smelled terrible

Nah but seriously perfect, you act like the perfect gentleman when your not on survival mode, so why can't you just attempt to smell nice?

One shower ☝️ just- just one!

Please!

Here! Hell lend you some of this cologne too! It's expensive and it smells very pleasant if he says so himsel- wait- perfect- where the fuck are you going?

You were later found on the ceiling by lilia

....

How did you even..?

.

Whatever.

He's not wasting his time thinking about this right now

He has a restaurant to open! People to manage! A Floyd leech to control! And a fire cat to-

....

.......

Ya'know what? Jade wanted to talk to you anyways

This is his problem now

Floyd should be enough to keep the costumers and employees in line while he's making contracts in the back right?

Right

So when you open the dorm to Ramshakle and see one jade leech carrying a terrified grim in his arms, you better not complain about a damn thing Y/N

...

Anyways, you and jade are having some tea

You got it from kalim! It's the most expensive thing in the whole dorm!

Jade had a friendly smile on his face while he watched you make it

Why was he so focused on how much sugar you put in though?

..whatever man.

He took his midly sweet with two cubes of sugar and you took a strange satisfaction in watching his face go from friendly to horrified disbelief as he watched you dump about half the damn sugar from the container into yours

You still hadnt said anything

...

It was getting a little awkward. He was watching you drink your tea like a hawk

He lowkey looked concerned for your health

And sanity. Probably. Yeah

"So uh. Perfect?"

Oh?

"Hm?"

"May i ask a question?"

"What type of question?"

"A possibly deeply personal one"

There was a pause.

"...Well you can ask"

"Ah...so. you said you lived next to the ocean?"

You probably shouldn't have brightened at the mention of that...wretched place

....but it was still you home

And people will miss there home like people do

"Yes. Although I could never really go out to the surface by myself, so I never really got to see the sun rise over the horizon..i never got to see the sun at all actually"

He looked...

You couldn't really name how he looked

"Oh."

"..."

"So. This question. Did you...was the water. What was the water like?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, what color was it"

"It water that ran through the tunnels closest to the shore line always looked very...dark I guess? But now because of the lighting, some of the water itself was straight up black"

Jade wasn't smiling anymore.

"The elders had to boil it at least five times over before it was safe to drink"

No. Jade wasn't smiling at all.

"I see."

"So I'm guessing you didn't exactly waste any water to bathe?"

You tilted you head to the side in confusion

"Um. No?"

"...well that explains a couple things"

Two hours later, you were dressed down to your boxers and a T-shirt, and being thrown in a tub full of foamy water

It smelled rather pleasant

The water was warm. Was it freshly boiled?

Yeah. Probably.

...

Thos felt. Nice.

Jade picked up a rectangular shaped bottle and squirted a liquid in his hands. It reminded you if that laundry detergent you saw ruggie using to wash leonas clothes

Oh.

It was soap?

You felt long slender finders work it's way into your hair

Oh

...

"Tilt your head back for me please"

You did as requested

When had you closed your eyes?

The sound of gentle splashing and the feeling of your hair getting wet ... shouldn't have been this relaxing

The texture of the soap felt different somehow. Less liquid and more foam

It was nice.

.

.

.

Jade had excused himself after washing your hair. Explaining what to do with your body and the surrounding soaps and this weird fluffy thing called a luffa

And the next day, you passed a certain azul ashengrotto

Who then took the most violent double take you've ever seen

Also Floyd was staring at you. And then at jade. And then at you.

And then back at jade.

....uh.

Yes.

Azul stared for a few more seconds.

And then he sighed.

Ok. So you smelled uncannily like jade.

He did not want to think about how that happened but ok.

You didn't smell like burning garbage that was then put out in contaminated water

And that was really all he could ask for at this point.

Kalim al-asim and my bbg. Mostly my bbg

Jamil has to wave an incense stick around you before you go into the dorm

Nah but fr bro was fighting for his life in chapter 4

You could almost hear him replaying "I need him for the plan I need him for the plan I need him for the plan" over and over again in his head like a mantra

There was a cry of relief when he flung your ass to to desert

And now kalim has to deal with you

Bro is crying and in desperate need of comfort and he pulls away when you hug him 💀

Floyd will laugh at this

you will be sad and confused

And Floyd will laugh harder

Kalim is fucking struggling not to grimace when you get too close to him and you just don't know why

It's because you smell like shit and Jamil didn't wave around the vanilla lavender smoke stick around you to slightly 🤏 mask that scent

BUT ITS NOT LIKE YOU KNOW THAT LOSER LMAO

There was a random gust of wind in the desert one night and you scent drifted over to Floyd

He doubled over coughing

He did this for a good three minutes

Jade was hovering over his shoulder with water waiting for him to throw up

I hope this puts it into perspective of how foul you will smell after only having a bath about twice a year

Yesh, no wonder all your childhood friends are dead

Kalim is trying his best to make sure you and everyone else are alright without getting too close to you

It's precious really

Nah but he is just so close to using oasis maker on you and you alone

But there ain't really any soap 'round these parts so you will smell worse than a wet dog if he does that

So he doesnt

Begrudgingly

Jade thanks him for this

Jamil nearly cries when you come back

These are not tears of joy

You nearly make him stop the fight to go get you a bath

Help him he's having flashbacks of that awkward time in his life where he had to get kalims baths ready for him every night

And when the battle is over?

Jamil is spending an extra two days in that infirmary

He was already considering it because of kalim but you were just the fucking cherry weren't you?

Meanwhile, the world's perfume companies is a little concerned with how much perfume and scented oils are suddenly going out of stock

And you, you fucking dog, are concerned about the people trying to drag you to scarbia and start spraying you with some weird, good smelling liquid

...

They brought back a memory you didn't want to bring back

Two injured scarabia students and one paranoid Ramshakle perfect later, jamil finally snapped

He kindly let you know you smelled like a human rights violation and told you that you needed a bath more than he needed a will to live

...

Why were you being so quite? Were you feeling shame? If you were feeling shame then it was about dam ti-

"What did they spray me with"

"...I'm guessing a variety of perfume"

"...perfumes.?"

You looked confused

And. A little horrified?

Uh.

"Yes. Perfumes"

Was it just him or was it getting a little hot in here?

In, you know, the desert

"But those werent....is everyone at this school an aristocrat?"

...blink

"No?"

"Then why did those two have perfume?"

Blink. Blink.

"...perfect"

"Perfumes are. Perfectly accessible to the public"

Damn shawty, you're entirely reality really loves crashing down on you huh?

You spaced out almost immediately after that, and Jamil led you to the showers, much more gently than he was planning on before

....

He didn't like how he felt his stomach start to drop when you froze up at the clean, hot water coming out of the shower head

Vil Shoenheit

There really ain't much to say here

Easily the most blunt

Yeah, you're not getting anywhere near him if you smell like that

Sorry not sorry, it's not happening

Gets it done immediately

Has you taken the the bathroom and rook explains what a shower is and how often you have to take one

And that it basically

Man's wasted no time and now you have a thirty step skin care routine. Congratulations.

Idia shroud:

....

We're you expecting this man to be around enough to actually smell you?

Nah

Nah, yall meet online or through his floating tablet and that is it

....and then there's boardgame club

He invited you once

He quickly realized and regretted his mistake the second you walked into the room

Ortho reminds him that he too, smells like shit most of the time

It does little to subdue him

But it does make him have a small pang of guilt and the shame that comes with hypocrisy every time he talks shit in his head

He tells one person about this as a sort of dollar store therapy session

And that person is his gaming partner

And- damn bro, you got one of these foul smelling bitches too?

So this is a common phenomenon?

I guess?

Yeah, don't plan on interacting with him in person until you figure out how to use a damn shower

Your on tablet treatment

But you still need to log into WoW when he and the hot-pink emo need you

You're surprisingly pretty good? Actually?

I mean, you certainly know your survival tactics

Including some shit he's never really bothered to think about

Tf do you mean make a grenade out of a tin can? Wtf is a grenade in the first place?

Anyways, idia has some new weapons in the inventory

But uh...perfect?

Sometimes the shit that you day is....concerning

Especially around water sources

"This is all water?"

"...yes?"

"And it hasn't been drained? It's not that we'll hidden. There's no way that the upper counsle hasn't found it yet"

"..."

"Huh?"

Idia would like to blame the VR for making you forget this is a video game

But yeah he's got some questions

And lucky for him! He is severely sleep deprived and lacking his usual "just apply common sense" mentality!

So again! Questions

First if all, was water rare where....ever your from?

(Water wasn't rare exactly, you guys in the tunnels just...weren't aloud to have it)

Well what the hell were "the tunnles?"

He didn't ask that one though, he was more focused on the water.

Questions for another day

What's the upper counsle?

(you stayed silent for a long minyte after that, only replying in a non-answer that you really hated the upper counsle)

How are you still alive if you don't have water?

"Well...I'm not really alive anymore..."

What?

"But before! Before that I lived in a base that was close to the ocean, and water would sometimes flow in"

I'm sorry, idia feels like you've just brushed over something more important

"So we'd collect as much as we could and boil it! It'd have to be boiled and filtered at least five times before it even go to some semblance of clean... so there really wasn't a whole lot to divide amongst the people down there afterwards"

Oh so we're. We're just gonna move right on past that. Ok then.

"Wait so. Have you ever had a shower?"

"Whenever we have enough water I guess? But those are mainly for the children and the sick ones"

.......ahhhhh

"Ok. Well. I'm gonna tell you what a shower is, and you are going to take one immediately"

"..ok?"

So now he's here, buying more soap than he would need to last a dozen lifetimes

How did his life cough ever come to this?

...and seriously. What the hell did you mean when you basically told him that you were a dead man walking?

Malleus draconia:

Met you in your little gas mask, assassination, survival island phase

And you met some big ass horn man who popped out from a bunch of little....light bugs

And uh...uh.

Let's just say having a dull, poorly made knife thrown straight at you wasn't really the best first impression

Mother fucker was about to smite you down where you stood until you asked who tf he was

Then he paused

...oh damn

This little human boy doesn't know shit huh?

Dam-.....

What smells?

Bro starts sniffing the air like a fuckin dog

Now, malleus could say he had a relatively strong nose

He was a dragon fae who had lived for hundreds of years after all, he could memorize scents and pick things out in them

Like he could pick out the chemicals and pollution and death in yours

He takes two steps back

And then one step forward because he's confused

What.....what the fuck?

Uhhhh....you won't mind if he just...

Over the course of several days, you gradually smell better

Just enough to be bearable

Leona on his knees thanking some ancient God he don't believe in fr

You also get a strong craving for water

Not to drink it necessarily, but to just. Be in it.

You're also finding yourself in the Ramshakle bathrooms more often than not and you can't figure out why

Like now, when you sitting in the bathtub

....

What does this nob do?

Oh shit, you just got water everywhere.

....you just got water.....everywhere

Clean water.

Hot. Water.

....

...you're really in another world aren't you?

____________________

This has been sitting in my drafts for like a week now holy shit💀

Ok. Time to work on some other shit now. I'm like half way done with the first chapter of The Doves Called The Day You Came Home so that's nice ig

[colderdrafts]

13 – A disturbance

Underground visitor, gn reader x monster (male drider). Sfw. TW for gore and violence. First Previous Next

Dimly lit tunnels passes by you in a blur as you walk, unseen forces tugging at you to keep moving. So far, you’ve passed by the path to collect water, the living room, the library, the sleeping quarters - deeper and deeper into the depths of Dren's extensive and confusing home. Eventually, you find yourself at the entrance of tunnels you’ve yet to travel.

You lantern does not do much to illuminate what lies beyond this point. It's like staring into a void. While Dren has vigilantly made sure the tunnels you most frequent remains lit, other tunnels leading to and from those places are not. Still, the agitated anxious energy will not leave you.

I need to move.

You take a few tentative steps forward. The need does not diminish. Is the air colder here? Or are you just nervous?

What a silly thought. There's nothing to be scared of down here.

You press on, and soon, you find yourself accompanied by darkness.

Well, the dark, at least, you correct yourself, throwing an annoyed thought the harpy’s way.

You're not too worried about getting lost, knowing Dren will instinctively know where you are and can come guide you back. Still, there's something eerie about venturing alone into the unfamiliar dark tunnels, with only a lantern to guide you. The deafening silence down here still gets to you at times. It’s just so achingly empty.

Perhaps it's something one can get used to. After all, Dren still lives here, doesn’t he? But even if it is a spider thing, you can't fathom it's very pleasant.

The dark stretches before you, and you feel a little better the further you go, trying to keep track of the turns you make.

You come by yet another small stream that floats gently through the tunnel you’re in, carved out so it gently trinkles along the side of the wall. Neatly out of the main path, yet still serving as a guide. Perhaps it’ll lead you somewhere, and it should at least be easy enough to track back. You watch the swirling patterns carved into the wall as you follow the small stream, listening to the calm flow of water that fills the otherwise heavy stillness.

Several indents in the web above you signals there’s tunnels leading up too. Seems Dren has thoroughly connected to this part of the cave as well. You’d probably be able to reach up and climb them if you really wanted to. That is, if the thread he’s spun here isn’t that sticky stuff he uses for traps. You’d not want to be tangled in one of those again.

You gingerly reach out toward the ceiling to test it, when a very, very subtle sound of movement somewhere to your right catches your attention.

Movement? Down here? That can’t be right.

Nothing but you should be alive this far down, should it?

This must be your mind playing tricks. Your brain just wants to fill out the quiet with something. Regardless, goosebumps appear on your skin. With them, comes the continued need to move.

“Fine, I’m going,” you mutter to no one in annoyance. Why are your hands suddenly so clammy? The parasite inside you churns with worry at the thought of hostility, though not in the way of Morgan’s presence bearing down on you. So where is this sudden burst of anxiety coming from?

A muffled sound like rock hitting dirt disturbs your train of thought. It came from the same direction.

You frown. Perhaps you should follow your instinct here. If anything, to prove to yourself everything’s fine.

You quickly pull down the cover of the lantern, leaving you in the complete dark, but with your hand on the wall you feel your way forward towards the sound.

There’s a small indent on the wall, and feeling around it, you find there's a tunnel leading up, thankfully closer to the ground where you can reach it. The sounds might have come from somewhere within.

You quietly lift yourself up. It's not far, and soon you're standing in a slightly smaller tunnel. It goes upwards. From here, you can hear it much better. The movement turns to quiet muttering. Unfamiliar voices. Up ahead, you see the faintest light source.

Your heartbeat quickens. You're definitely not alone.

Your fears confirmed, you sneak forward as quietly as you can, the soft padding of your feet on the dirt below. Something’s wrong. You stare at the swirling patterns there, finding some comfort knowing you're still in touch with a highly efficient defense system. But why hasn't it set of the one who usually monitors it?

You reach the end of the smaller tunnel, the faint lights shining from within illuminating the walls and floor. Interestingly, in this spot, Dren has apparently decided to cover every surface in a soft padding of web. You carefully peek around the corner with bated breath.

Oh.

It would seem you've found out where Dren hides his eggs.

You're looking into a small enclave covered in web from ceiling to ground. In the middle is a small cluster of three orange, oval eggs about the size of soccer-balls, covered in a protective layer of webbing. It takes second for you to register the utter defenselessness of them. How much you've just imposed on the sanctity of their hidden room.

If not for the light piercing the dark you just came from, you'd never have found them. You glance further into the room, and find its source. Your blood runs cold.

Three hooded figures are standing at the opposite end of the alcove, eyeing the eggs and quietly whispering in foreign noises to each other. One of them moves their head, and you catch a glimpse of blueish tinted scales of their skin. You grit your teeth, realizing what's happening.

They're snatchers. There's no doubt about it.

Behind them, there is a small open hole in the wall, barely big enough to fit an adult human through.

So that's how they did it. Your grip on the lantern tightens, wondering if these are the same thieves that made way with the rest of Dren's children. And finding a need to plant a solid fist in each of their faces, as it seems they're about to finish the job. Nasty little things.

What should you do?

If you start yelling for Dren they'll undoubtedly find you, and you can easily picture what could happen: You get attacked, and they haul ass out of there, snatching whatever they can carry quickly and make away.

It risks the arachnid losing the rest of his offspring. You don't want to know how he'd react to that. You can hardly bear leaving him even with his family still alive.

You should at least try to warn him.

Soundlessly, you run your fingers through the soft webs to find the carvings on the wall, finding the strong, silky warning thread within. You shake it vigorously. Some of the webbing breaks off and sticks to your hand, but you don't have time to worry about that right now, picking out another one and shaking that one too for good measure.

Simultaneously, the snatchers start moving.

One of them steps extremely carefully toward the eggs. In the light from their lantern, you spot that it has covered its feet in web, and carefully moves so that no other part of its body touches it.

Huh. Clever.

You shake the web again. If Dren doesn't feel it, he's going to lose them. You bite back a loud protest yell as the thief slowly reaches toward one of the defenseless orbs on the floor.

It would appear you need to make a decision. You need to move.

At this rate, Dren will never make it in time before they're gone. And you're not going to stand idly by and witness a kidnapping without at least trying to intervene. You'll have to buy their parent some time. You brace yourself for potentially one of the most stupidly risky acts you've performed in your life.

"Leave them!" you bellow suddenly, and fling yourself toward the snatcher closest to the eggs.

Element of surprise on your side, a gnarly startled screech escapes the creature, and it immediately stumbles backwards towards its fellows, and out of your way.

You quickly jump forward and stand in front of the eggs protectively, shielding them from the offenders with your arms out in an awkward position.

It's quiet a moment. The snatchers stare at you, and up close now you recognize one of them as the red one who spotted you back at the marketplace. Their yellow eyes once again stare into yours.

They bare their teeth at you and hiss something, guttural words you can’t make sense of.

The other two step out to flank you, and suddenly the sharp ends of a pair of spears are pointed at you.

You ball your fists to keep your hands from shaking.

"I'm not letting you take them," you hiss back, relying on a bubbling protective anger to keep you grounded. "I've already called for the parent. You should get out of here while you still can."

You're bluffing, and frankly you don't even know if these creatures can understand you. But you don't get any option to find out as the red one snarls something else. In a split second, the blue one on their left lunges at you, spear at the ready.

You instinctively throw yourself to the side, narrowly dodging the tip of the wooden weapon. However, you've left the eggs exposed when doing so.

The other two immediately take advantage and close in on them, while the blue one focuses on keeping you occupied.

You grab two handfuls of web from your position close to the wall and pull with all your might. It comes off with a soft ripping noise, and you quickly hurl it at your blue assailant.

The blue one rambles angrily, probably in no kind terms telling you to knock it off, tearing the sticky threads off their body. They hiss, and jab forward, stabbing at you again. You jump sideways, but the creature is quick to reassess their aim. The weapon connects with the tissue in your shoulder and you grunt in pain, feeling warm blood trickle down your arm.

The other two have meanwhile managed to pick up one of the eggs each. You don’t have time to intervene with the blue one still coming at you.

In an act of desperation you swing your lantern at them, hitting them over the head with a loud clonk. The glass shatters, sharp splinters flying across the room. The blue one staggers back, dazed and now bleeding.

You take the opportunity and step forward, shoving your uninjured shoulder into their side. They're smaller than you, and trips and falls, further disturbing the webbing below.

You manage to snatch up their discarded spear, and rush ahead to cut the thieves off, blocking the small hole that makes the exit. You point it at the two fleeing with one egg each.

"Put them down!" you demand.

The two others stop momentarily, hissing at you, but while your focus was on them, the blue one has recovered. You feel a scaled arm locking around you and catching you in a headlock. You're roughly pulled backwards, losing your grip on the spear. The other two waste no time hurrying toward the exit with their prices.

The one furthest behind does not get that far. A flash of black snatches it clean off the ground, squealing.

Their red companion turns in time to watch a pair of long, hairy and pitch black spider’s legs slowly appearing from the opening of the alcove, having grappled their friend uncomfortably tight around the stomach.

Dren fully enters the room, his imposing presence suddenly making the small room feel much smaller. He's holding the snatcher with his front legs, and they're kicking and snarling in his grip, desperately struggling to escape. The egg lands on the soft webbing below with a soft bump, thankfully unharmed, and Dren quickly uses another leg to pull it behind him to safety.

Then he let's out a disgusted huff, and rapidly slams the snatcher into the ground. Following the movement is a loud crunch.

You hear bone snapping with the force of the impact, and the snatcher squeals in agony.

Dren carelessly lifts the screaming creature, and smashes them against the floor again. Their pained cries echoes through the otherwise deadly silence of the cave.

You can do nothing but stare.

Drens lifts the snatcher, and knocks them against the floor again.

And again.

And again.

Three more times, until the squealing snatcher goes silent save for a wet gurgling wheeze, their body reduced to a broken pile of bones and meat.

A cold sweat breaks out as your entire body shudders, distraught from the horrific sight.

How long until he cracks, and simply kills you?

The grip on your head lessens in favor of gripping around your upper body tightly, and you hear a small whine from the blue snatcher holding you captive. It feels like it now focuses more on using you as a meat shield rather than trapping you.

Dren looks up from the ruined carcass below him and his eyes dart between the one holding you, and the one holding his second egg, eerily quiet with and odd stoic expression. Fresh blood drips from his carapace, his mandibles clicking in contemplation, like wondering who he should sink his fangs into next.

No one dares move.

You suddenly understand why an insect freezes in the presence of a predator, fearful of what any slight disturbance in the air would set off. It's like he's an arrow nocked on a bow, ready to release at any moment, and you pray to anyone who might be listening that you're not its target.

You suddenly feel something sharp poking your side and let out a small gasp. Not a millisecond later, you let out a yell as a large spiders body is suddenly towering over you, there in a flash. The blue snatcher’s grip on you vanishes in an instant as it flies upwards, dropping a knife that falls to the webbed ground with a soft thud.

You stumble forward, landing clumsily on your knees and palms in the sticky webbing below. All around you there is movement as Dren paces around, his lower body above you. There's an uncanny wet tearing noise, and you suddenly see droplets of blood falling on the floor as yet another squealing egg-thief is efficiently silenced.

You hear footsteps, as the last of the snatchers, the red one, makes a beeline for the small exit, sprinting across the alcove with one egg in each arm.

Dren's entire body springs to attention as he moves above you, pointing in the direction of the last thief. He dashes toward it, carelessly throwing the now disfigured body he was holding aside. They splatter against the wall with a squelch, leaving blood stains behind as they join their dead comrade.

The last snatcher barely manages to leap through the opening before Dren tramples them flat.

"NO!" Dren roars, and starts pushing his legs into the opening, too big to fit through. "NO!"

His enraged outburst echoes through the cave as he claws at the opening in the wall, trying to make it bigger so he can give chase.

You sit up and stare at him, feeling your heart galloping, a stench of blood and sweat in the air. Your eyes dart to the two mangled corpses carelessly thrown to the ground, and you find it odd. How were these lumps of meat two people just mere seconds ago? The final egg lies motionless on the floor close to them, vulnerable and harmless. The very beginning of this whole conflict.

What will they be capable when they grow up?

You look back to Dren, your answer, your companion and protector, watching him completely loose himself along the safety of his last eggs.

There's an odd sort of clarity in your mind then, watching this unfold. Like being inside the eye of a storm.

Something in the way Dren tears through his home without a care of ruining what he has spend so long building, in between his wheezes and snarling, you're reminded of what he is in this moment. Despite having witnessed him tearing two people apart in seconds flat, despite the bloody scene and ruthless violence - right now, he's just a parent, desperately trying to avoid any harm coming to his children.

You can feel it. You can sense the pain and fear fueling his wrath, and you find it links to something you share with him. Something inside you pops, a sudden burst of anger demands you take action.

Dren won’t fit through that hole. But you will.

Quickly, you find yourself on your feet, picking up the discarded spear and rushing toward the custodian to help.

"Move!" you yell at Dren, and he doesn't hear you at all, still feverishly ripping whole chunks out of the wall. "Out of the way!"

You push past the flurry of movement that is his legs, and shiver when they grace across your back when you interrupt, but thankfully no further - seems he's still coherent enough not to squash you - so you quickly slip inside the opening to chase down the red thief. The arachnid’s distressed shouting and hissing continues behind you, and you hear him call your name.

You see the light-source up ahead and sprint toward the snatcher, even though you're not really sure what you're going to do if you catch it. The tunnel is narrow and you need to duck your head under roots traveling across the ceiling. The snatcher is quick, but you find yourself at an even pace, even catching up. It carrying two eggs might have given you an advantage in movement.

The snatcher stops up ahead close to a small ladder presumably leading outside. Carefully but quickly, the red one puts the eggs into a basket waiting on the ground next to it. You intercept them there, spear at the ready.

"Give them back!" you yell.

The red snatcher stares up at you in surprise, and meets your threat with a hiss. They take a heavy step forward.

You don't let up. You angrily jab the spear at Red again to force them further back, and away from the eggs.

They snarl at you this time, two long fangs glinting in the dim lantern light as their hands open and closes, considering their options. With their hood back, you notice the red scales covering their head are torn in places. Their yellow eyes are blown wide open, and their nostrils are flaring.

They're afraid.

As they should be.

"Run now, and you may get out of here alive," you spit, trying your words while they're still reluctant to fight. "Get the hell out of dodge before the spider figures out the tunnel has another entrance point."

You're still not sure if the thing even understands you. But they look between you and the basket containing their price, and then glances back the way where a certain large predator has his mind currently set to 'brutally murderous'.

The snatcher takes a few steps backwards, watching you. When you make no move, they turn on their heel, and dashes toward the ladder, leaving the eggs and lantern behind. They glance back at you one last time, before rapidly ascending it into the darkness outside, and out of view.

You keep watch for a few seconds, giving the snatcher time to cover some ground before daring to look away from the opening.

Once certain they've gone, you hurriedly open the basket, and look over the eggs.

They're still orange, slightly translucent, and, most importantly, uninjured. On top of the tough membrane, you see what seems to be an outline of legs. You breathe a heavy sigh of relief, carefully putting a hand on one of them. It’s pleasantly warm.

There's a strange sort of intimacy in staring at these fragile little creatures. After all, Dren's trusted no one to see them, not even you.

This is Dren’s children you’re looking at. And you've just saved their lives.

Carefully, your reach down to scoop them up in your arms.

"Holy shit, do not drop them, do not drop them.." you urgently whisper to yourself as you do, anxious you might accidentally do just that.

The warmth emanating from them is familiar, and you hold them close to your chest, carefully making your way back down the tunnel. The weight of them in your arms brings an odd sense of calm to you, despite the haphazard situation.

A brief gust of wind stops you, however, and you glance back at the hole above the ladder.

You almost feel a pull, calling you towards it.

What a bad time to be interrupted. But you could just go and leave everything behind to be somewhere else, couldn't you?

All these emotions, all of this trouble, the blood and violence, everything you'll need to fix when you get back home. You don't have to do any of it.

It's almost tempting to climb up, if just for a few seconds. Just escape to the outside and feel free of it all.

Escape? You stop and ponder on your own train of thought. That would require I'm a captive.

You look down at the two vulnerable orbs nestled safely in your arms.

No. Something else inside you says. These are more important right now.

You trudge back down the tunnel, ignoring the thing inside you squirming in protest.

Dren has meanwhile managed to turn the opening of the snatcher tunnel into mulch. He's still going at it when you return, now completely silent save for the noise of dirt being ripped apart.

The sight reminds you of the potential danger from this whole confrontation. Dren's current state of mind, and the full view of his powerful legs violently reducing the wall to nothing, is not helping matters. Suddenly, you don’t feel much like a savior. You feel more like a rat hiding inside a crack in the wall, while the cat tries to furiously claw its way towards it.

You step in place for a moment, unsure.

"Dren?" you call out eventually, hesitant.

And the movement halts. You can hear him panting from the effort, tense and awaiting your next words with panicked anticipation.

Your throat is dry. "I- I have them. They're okay.”

Dren’s legs slowly retreat and his head and torso appears in the tunnel entrance. He leans down to peer through it at you.

All his pitch black eyes are wide open and his mandibles are flaring, but something in his expression shifts when he spots you holding his eggs close as to not drop them. Fear? Anger? Desperation? You can't read him at all.

You take a wary step back.

“Please,” he rasps quickly when you do so, and very, very slowly reaches his bloodied hands toward you. Inviting you in with open arms. “Please. Come here.”

There's something eerily familiar in the way he says that, his voice gently rolling through your mind, urging, compelling you, in a way he hasn't done before.

The cold sweat prickling your skin at the feeling makes you reluctant to follow the instruction. Yet, another part quite would like to, would like to indeed, you can trust him and get closer, he’s safe, you know he’s safe- You shake it off, unsure if he's of sound mind to not grab and tear you apart the second you're within reach. Just like he did the previous creature who held his eggs.

Dren swallows, obviously struggling to not continue his rampage to just get them back, to just reach you, to take control of what happens to what is his - armed with the patience of an experienced predator he takes a deep breath, grounding himself as to not startle you further, lest you take flight.

"Please," he says softly, normally, waving his hands in a beckoning motion.

You realize the amount of power you hold over him right now. If you wanted, you could turn on your heel and walk away. You could name a price. You could throw the eggs on the ground and trample them flat, and he would be powerless to stop you.

But you don't. These eggs are innocent and vulnerable, and in front of you stands a sure-fire way to ensure that nothing will happen to them.

You still see Dren there despite the terror. You recognize his patience and fiercely protective nature, that’s been there with you every step of the way. Now, once again, working to keep everything he cares about safe.

You slowly make your way toward him. He’s staring at you almost like in a trance.

You had prepared to hand the eggs over once you reached him, but Dren slowly moves back, allowing you to pass through the carnage that used to be an entry point. Just watching with wide eyes. You’re not exactly sure what he expects you to do. But he hasn't stopped you, so you keep going.

You step across the alcove, and carefully place the eggs back to their right place in the middle of the room. Dren comes up next to you, and places the third next to them. In silence, he starts gently wrapping some of the ruined webbing over them again with his front legs. You move back to give him space to fuss over them.

You've barely taken a step before he rapidly turns, and suddenly lunges towards you. With his arms, he snatches you clean off the ground.

You can't hold back a small scream as you're suddenly in the air - this is it, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm so so dead - which Dren completely ignores, as he forcibly squeezes you against his torso in a bone-crushing embrace.

Your face is flattened against his fur-covered shoulder, your arms sprawled to the side in shock, legs dangling uselessly over the ground. You hardly dare breathe, not that the force currently pressuring your ribs allows for much lung expansion anyway.

Dren buries his face in the crook of your neck.

He's shaking.

"Thank you," he breathes, clutching you a bit tighter. "Thank you."

You dangle awkwardly in his arms, trying to calm your racing pulse, taking shuddering breaths. Oh. It would appear this is gratitude.

Gingerly, not really knowing what else to do, you wrap your arms around him in turn, and he shudders when you do so. He shifts then, and you feel yourself being leaned backwards, settled on his pedipalps. Your backside is leaning against the web-covered eggs, and his front legs curl around them, holding both you and them in place.

He holds you like that for a while. You let him cling to you, while he works through whatever it is he needs to work through to calm down after this experience.

You don't dare glance toward the mutilated corpses currently concealed behind the furred shoulder, your face is pressing against. You ignore the stains of crimson littering the space. There's nothing you can really say, so you settle for running your fingers through the hairs on the back of Dren’s neck in a soothing manner. A soft chitter suggests he likes it when you do that, at least.

"It's alright," you mutter softly, testing the waters. "They're safe."

"Safe," he repeats, nodding against your shoulder. “Safe.”

There’s a pause, and then Dren readjusts his hold a bit. You feel him tense, like preparing for an impact. He sucks in a breath before he speaks.

“Give me the winter,” he blurts hurriedly. Like he needed to get it out before it was too late. “Just the winter.”

You try to lean back and get a look at him, but his grip won’t let you move an inch away - as if he's afraid to let you go.

“What..?” you try as softly as you can. He’s getting agitated.

“Just until they hatch, until they can fend for themselves,” Dren elaborates, rushed words leaving him like rapid fire. “I’ll help you get back home, I promise, whatever you need, I'll do it. Just – please stay. Act as my sentry. Give me the winter.”

Supposedly it makes sense he would do this now, of all times. It would seem this is what it took to finally break him.

You lean further into him, if anything to silently let him know you're not just going up in thin air, so maybe his death-grip on you lessens a bit.

You sigh. "That's - but Dren, you know I'm not-"

"You're perfect," he states firmly, cutting you off. The tips of his fangs brush over your neck as he speaks. "You kept watch and called for me when it was needed - risked yourself to defend my young, despite them not being your responsibility - you've already done more than I could ever ask. I have no right, I know that, but I can't - If I lose anyone else-" he trails off in his rambling. "Please. Give me the winter."

It's not like you're actually much in a position to say 'no', but you don't really get the feeling Dren is thinking about that right now. Like your refusal means you're going to slip through his fingers, and vanish in an instant. As if he's not the one holding your only known key home. As if he's not perfectly capable of keeping you trapped here, if he so did desire.

But maybe his conviction in this ultimately being your choice means something - maybe that actually means everything.

You sense the remaining vulnerable eggs pressing against your backside, a faint reminder of what you did tonight. It seems it's wasn't really you who needed to move.

You’re already connected to them, aren’t you? How could you possibly leave everything behind? Not now. Not after all of this.

What's a few months of darkness as a price for keeping everyone you care about alive?

"Okay," you whisper, clutching him back. You can feel a pressure growing around you, like you’ve just used your entire body to pick up something heavy. It’s warm. "Okay, you can have my winter."

"I will let you go," Dren assures you firmly, speaking through his teeth. "It will hurt, I know it will, for both of us, but I vow to you, when all this is over, when we're all safe-"

"I know," you placate. "I trust you."

Dren breathes out, and with it leaves the tension in his body. He finally leans back to look at you again, and there are tears in black eyes. Carefully, gently, his hands reaches up to cup your face. You stare at him like you did earlier this very day and, once again, he effortlessly draws you in.

Because looking at him like this is nice. It’s really, really nice. You’re being enveloped in a warm blanket, soothing all worry you’ve ever had. You can feel a pull from him, coaxing you closer, something gently wrapping around you. Of course this will work, of course you’re in good hands here, of course Dren knows what’s best -

A sudden piercing pain shoots through you in retaliation, and you gasp, severing eye contact and instinctively trying to curl up to protect yourself. It's no use. The pain strikes your core, like a gun was fired from within. Something inside you heavily disagrees.

Dren hisses at the interruption and deftly pulls you to him again, like a futile attempt to shield you with his body. You can feel his formerly calm energy clouded in a protective fury, zeroing in on the interloper, surrounding it, grabbing it, strangling it.

You cry out. You can’t help it. The parasite’s pain is as much yours as it is its, and the agony is unbearable. It feels like your chest is being crushed, like your ribs can shatter and destroy your innards at any moment.

“I know, Sweetness, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, shh,” Dren soothes you, holding you against him with a hand over the back of your neck, keeping his grip on the parasite and angrily thwarting it.

It feels like forever you're in this pure world of pain, at some point you may have started begging for it to stop, only wishing dearly for everything to turn quiet, for it to be over. You can faintly hear reassurances and apologies in the foggy cloud of your consciousness, and something, someone, peers into your mind, feeling for a thread intertwining with the very core of your being.

Then, there’s a small release of pressure, like when you’ve finished tying the knot of a shoelace. At the end, you let it go, sitting neat and comfortably tight.

And then the pain is gone.

It’s like the hook trapping the fish suddenly disappearing from the fight. The struggle is over, leaving the fishing line there, suspended in the flowing water. Useless.

Dren’s breath is warm on your neck as he chitters and purrs to calm you, pedipalps and arms around you like both of his halves are checking on you at once. You just hold on to him, feeling an immense relief coursing through your body. The pressure is gone, leaving you sore, and completely exhausted. Vulnerable.

And you can feel him. Really, feel him.

Dren is everywhere around you, inside you, his energy twisting and turning in a strange dance. He’s happy. So, so happy. The overflowing emotion is infectious, and you struggle to hold in an odd strangled laugh full of sobs.

And it dawns on you now what you’ve just agreed to. What you’ve just accepted into your life. And, if what you’ve learned from the harpy is true, you’ve just acquired the qualifications for your new job as a sentry.

[hypnoneghoul]

Things haven't been great and it's only Tuesday lol, I don't want to bother you at all so this ask is free to ignore but, can I have something comforting? Someone helping someone get through shit sort of stuff? Pairing is free ofc but no pressure

i had some thoughts earlier and so I used this to project a little bit onto rain, hope its okay

It just hits him sometimes.

He’s fine, but then he…isn’t. And he never knows how to fix it.

And so, again, Rain wakes up with an overwhelming feeling of dread suffocating him for no reason at all. Nothing happened, nothing that would be able to explain it.

He sighs and burrows himself in the bedding, nowhere near ready to face the day. At least it's Sunday and he doesn’t really have anything to do, he can rot the day away and that’s what he’ll do.

It’s hours before someone knocks on his door.

“Princess?” Swiss. Of course it’s Swiss.

“Yeah, I’m here,” Rain mumbles, just loud enough for the multi ghoul to hear. “You can come in.”

The if you want to remains unspoken. He doesn’t feel like a person nice to deal with at all, especially now.

Swiss does come in, though, because no matter what Rain’s brain is telling him, the multi ghoul would never give up on him. Not until his last breath.

“Hey, Bambi,” he smiles down at Rain and it feels like a wave of heat hitting him. The water ghoul doesn’t feel quite so…dead anymore. “Whatcha up to in here?”

Swiss sits by him and even though Rain has no energy left in him, he lifts the covers for the other to join him and warm him up. Literally and metaphorically. He grins at the invitation and the indication it carries; that Rain isn’t lost, that he hasn't wandered off too far in his head.

The multi ghoul crawls in and rests against the headboard, letting Rain choose what to do with himself, not pressuring him in the slightest. He’ll wait for him. He’ll do whatever he needs him to do.

Rain chooses to lay against Swiss’ chest—ear pressed right over his heart—and he takes it as the biggest compliment and show of trust and love. He throws an arm over his middle and it also has it’s meaning. It means I’ve got you, always and Swiss says as much out loud.

The water ghoul melts into the warmth of his body and the feeling of that thick void that’s been crushing him for the last few hours melts away.

He doesn’t have to say anything, he knows he doesn’t—Swiss understands him, anyway—but the words bead on the very tip of his tongue and he doesn’t have to want to choke on them if he can let them out in the open instead.

“Thank you, beam,” he whispers. “I love you so, so much. Thank you.”

“Nothin’ to thank me for, princess,” the multi ghoul sighs, squeezing his waist. “I’m always here with you, okay? I’m not going anywhere, ever. I love you, too."

“I know,” Rain says as he snuggles further into Swiss’ body and holds onto him a bit tighter. When he closes his eyes the darkness isn’t as scary as it has been earlier.

[ju-nebugg]

absolutely wrecked by hohr episode 46 and i can’t figure out where to put all of my thoughts so i’m gonna yell into the void here

below the cut because spoilers <3

UFCKKKKFUCK FUCK FUCK FUCKK omg my sweet darling lovely boys oh god oh pls be okay pls pls be alright

like legitimately i’m so worried, i know they’ve been on one life beforehand but smth about henley losing that glove feels really precarious and i don’t think dave will actually kill one of them but this is BAD, GUYS

first of all, brilliant episode. wonderful acting, horrible rolls, great all around. fantastic job.

second of all, i’m so angry at them because they are lovely and make me want to CRY.

my god these two love each other so much and it’s been great to watch the evolution of that but oh my GOD this one just really hit home. it might just be the tone of voice or maybe i’m just overthinking it but the tenderness in this episode was so amazing, you could just HEAR the care they have for one another.

and then we get to the fucking torture scenes and oh my goodness. gluebrick saying that the way they should torture henley is with flowers and tickles and “nice, friendly things”. henley saying that the best way to torture gluebrick was to hurt HIM, and then that immediately being proved true when they start beating him up and gluebrick panics. they go to hurt gluebrick and henley says that it won’t bother him, which chris at first took offense to but was actually henley’s attempt to dissuade them because he hoped they’d think it wouldn’t be a successful tactic and they’d leave gluebrick alone. the utter TERROR in chris’s voice when they cut off the glove, and immediately giving up on the plan and offering information (that he didn’t have) so long as they spared him.

also, when gluebrick’s tail gets cut off, he’s immediately sad that they aren’t tail buddies anymore. once he’s reminded that henley still doesn’t have a tail, he quickly shifts and is very excited to be “tail-less buddies.” the whole tail buddy saga throughout the whole series is fucking adorable. anyways.

“you know i believe in you, right? you know i think you can handle anything?” and henley betting his son’s soul on gluebrick winning the fight against tyson because “i believe in you.” just gonna leave that there.

and then henley escapes. very henley moment, we worry if he’s gonna make the selfish choice and break out, but he gets all of their things and starts to head back. while he’s doing so, he’s chanting his little “everything’s fine” mantra, which we know is completely false and is his automatic response to any bad feelings he’s dealing with, so he’s clearly upset. he’s desperately trying to hold it together until he can fix this.

dave gives him the option of completing their mission, of going into that “important room” and finding the documents. henry specifically says that making the decision to go to the room would be for the “greater good”, but he decides against it. gluebrick is more important to him then the resistance and, consequently, the layer as a whole. and it’s phrased almost like a no-brainer. ughgghhfgfhhhhhhh. that whole moment felt very much like the bit from the end of byebarian when we got the 5-seconds-forward thing and gluebrick saw that henley was going to die, and made his decision to sacrifice himself without needing to think. these two are so ready to throw everything away for each other GODDDDDDDDD don’t get me started about that episode i could on for HOURS

and THEN we have our lovely little reunion, the utter joy of “you came back for me” and the straightforward “of course,” henley trying to justify it as him not being able to complete the mission by himself, and gluebrick immediately acknowledging how much they mean to each other. “it’s nice to know that someone loves you as much as you love them.” henley doesn’t refute this. he instead just says “you don’t need to make a whole thing out of it,” and then they do their whole masculine awkward brushing it off thing. gluebrick suggests a high five in place of holding tails, and before they can even do that it’s almost like he can’t STOP HIMSELF from hugging henley (chris??? the line delivery on that bit?? HEARTBREAKING). they’re VERY annoyed when their moment is interrupted, but immediately jump into action to finish the job.

AND THEN WE GET TO THE FINAL SCENE. henley is trying to find the documents, and is failing. gluebrick gets taken down. instead of using his final round of action to potentially save the integrity of the resistance, henley leaps to try and help him. yes, he fails, but the decision was made. and they’re both pinned to the ground, reaching for each other as they get put under once again.

just…..the GROWTH. gluebrick realizing that his purpose in life is to use his strength to protect people and deciding that he’d literally do anything for his friends (“my happy boys are my everything” from ep 41). henley, while he may not be great at saying it outright, has accepted how important the happy boys are to him and would offer himself up for torture in gluebrick’s place. the fact that we went from “we need to have a conversation about gluebrick” to THIS is insane. criminal levels of sweetness. they’re so STUPID and they LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH. it’s sickening. i’m obsessed.

and you just KNOW that whatever happens next it’s gonna hurt even more. we’re gonna have yet another rescue mission, and i’m just hoping that these two idiots can keep each other safe in the meantime.

fucking hell.

anyways. just needed to get that out somewhere. prob gonna add to this later, bc this podcast is all i think about. goodnight all.

[nervoushottee]

Take Care

Steve Harrington x Reader [1k]

Summary: Steve wakes up from a nightmare that scares him a lot more than usual. The two of you frantically decide in the middle of night to get out of Hawkins. Even if it’s just for a little while.

Warnings: Post Season 4, SMALL SPOILERS, nightmares, vecna, fears, a little bit of anxiety.

(HEY…hey….How y’all doing? It’s been a while and I know I have the series but this was sitting in my docs for a while. And I was in the mood for sadness and angst and rainy vibes. So here you go! Hope you enjoy!

……………………

Steve Harrington is wrecked and tired.

The hive had just joined underneath Hawkins and vecna is nowhere to be found. So many were injured and broken. So many feelings of remorse and guilt and Steve couldn’t take it. You couldn’t take it seeing him like this. One night when a nightmare was too real for the both of you, you made a suggestion. A statement.

“Let’s leave for a few days. Let’s get out of here for a minute and maybe just maybe we can feel the quiet.”

If it wasn’t in the middle of the night and if Steve wasn’t so out of mind from the horror he had just seen in his sleep. He would’ve put more effort into saying no. But he didn’t, and the two of you quickly rummaged through Steve’s place throwing things into duffle bags as quickly as you could before any of you changed your mind.

You both felt a force to stay, because Hawkins was a force to be reckoned with, but it was something you needed. So you threw your bags into the back of Steve’s car and headed out in the fogging early morning.

You’d be back, you both just needed a break.

It was foggy when you left. Hawkins was blurry and its horrors were in the midst beneath it all. The sky was dark and the roads were surprisingly clear. After Hawkins cracked open, there wasn’t a moment where you didn’t see a car packed to the brim, getting the hell out of dodge.

The two lovers quiet, your eyes still groggy from the awful sleep and heartbeats in disarray. Steve had another dream, another nightmare that woke the both of you in the middle of the night. It was the worst one he’s had’, you thought to yourself. You rested your arm on the side of the car, rubbing your thumb against your mouth, lost in thought.

The two of you hadn’t said a word. The sound of the tire against the asphalt filling the void of noise. Your head was against the cold window pane, watching the trees pass by.

You were in your head, worried for Steve, worried for Hawkins. What was going to happen next? Would you all ever find peace?

Almost as if Steve could hear the clocks ticking inside your brain ready to explode. He places his left hand from the wheel to your thigh. Giving it a small faint squeeze against his sweats you were wearing. Your head turns towards the affectionate gesture, looking up to meet Steve’s eyes. He looked at you briefly, giving you another squeeze as a “I’m here.”, he focused back on the road.

You could still see the fear in his eyes. The anxieties that crawl against his skin in the depths of the night. And still, despite fighting his own demons that surprise him in his dreams and keep him stuck in his head from time to time. Still he tries to be there for you, to give you some sort of comfort. You couldn’t help your eyes water, the tears almost falling at the realization.

You knew Steve barely put himself first. He didn’t believe he deserved it, assuming he is only good for taking care of other people. It wasn’t until a few months into your relationship, he started to let you take care of him. To take care of himself. It took a lot out of him to persuade his own self to get in the car with you and drive out of here.

If you had asked him to leave, he would’ve done it months ago. Because he’d do anything for you,. take care of you, make sure you’re okay always.

But, when he woke up in agony, in fear, and you asked him that question. To give himself some time away from here, some time with you away. He took a breath and decided that he wanted to put himself first. Not worrying about the world, the kids, the upside down.

None of it. And despite his hesitance with each shirt he stuffed in a bag. Despite his heart beating sporadically as he rummaged for an extra tube of toothpaste in the bathroom. He kept going, kept pushing.

Because he needed this.

It didn’t feel peaceful when he pulled out of his driveway and head for the open road. He felt guilty and afraid. Guilty that he was doing this so secretly. He wondered if Max would be okay. If Robin would have to do his job on top of hers. If he’d still have his job by the time he got back.

If he came back.

And just as he felt your stress, you felt his.

He felt your hand grasp his against your thigh. Holding his hand in both of yours. He felt your thumb rub softly against his skin. He looked at you briefly and you smiled softly, it was you’re turn to say, “I’m here, you don’t have to carry all of it by yourself.”

Oh how he loved you.

The two of you were out of your sleepy haze when you saw the sign.

“Leaving Hawkins, come again soon.”

You were now more alert and heartbeats accelerating in anticipation. And as if the world knew what was happening, how big this decision was for the two of you. The fog moved so they could get a better view of the sign, stamping their departure. Steve pressed on the gas a little more just to give them a better push. And once they passed that sign, the air in their throat felt less thick, and the dark in their hearts lightened minisculely.

You turned to face Steve, who turned to look when he felt eyes on him. Neither said anything, but you had only smiled. Steve smiled back, tight lipped, his eyes hopeful as he drove past the sign.

Hawkins now minutes behind your backs, you gripped Steve’s hands tighter. He tightened his own hand in yours, to give you that assurance. The two of you both scared, nervous of your decision, but you were hopeful to find some peace.

Even if it was just for a few days.

[skyfallscotland]

Hi! I hope you’re feeling better. 💜

When I’ve heard writers talk about their process, some outline a character before they start writing and outline everything- the charcater’s history, personality, etc. While other writers say the character “talks” to them as they write and they don’t plot a lot out before hand. I’m curious- how much of Remi’s personality did you determine before you started writing? For example, did you know she was wonderfully snarky before you started writing? Did you always know she struggled with depression?

I know you’ve written other OC’s too. Has your process changed since writing Tessa and co?

Hi!

I...am incapable of lying lol. I'm not really, but I appreciate the sentiment 💗 Not looking for sympathy, just keeping it real 💀 The depression be doing some depressing. But hey, *sobs as I smash at my keyboard* it makes for great content!

I don’t hear it. I can’t hear anything but the pounding of my own heart and one memory on repeat. You can love someone and hate them a little at the same time. My mind is stuck on that. I know he loves me, but—he hates me, he hates me, he hates me—I fucked things up.

I never outline an entire character before I start writing. I have an idea in my head, but not a whole profile. I don't even name them until I'm part way through a story, they're "Name" usually until like chapter five-ish and then I hate their names until like chapter ten.

The case of Remi is a little different, honestly I've kind of done things backwards. When I created Tessa I had an idea of what her personality would be, based on what she'd been through living in Illyria and there were small parts of myself I incorporated into her, like her struggle with social settings and relationships. With Stella I was more just having fun, but keeping in mind the (broad overview) history I had planned for her. They do kind of just write themselves, if I'm honest. It's why I like to write ahead, because I only ever have a broad plan in mind.

I don't know that I ever really planned to publish BRV outside of like a little wattpad adventure. It was entirely self-indulgent. I tried very hard with Tessa and Stella to have them be...measured? I guess you'd say. To not pour too much of myself into them.

Remi was cathartic. There's so much of me in her. She was my 'whatever, it's not serious' character and story. I just threw whatever I wanted at the page without worrying about whether things were realistic or too self-indulgent and I guess that worked for a lot of people.

I knew she'd be snarky and a realist and that she wouldn't be as settled as Violet with her chronic illness. I knew she'd be depressed and quick to anger because that's me and my experience and it was a therapeutic process pouring all that out onto the page. So I guess I didn't really need to determine anything, I just wrote from the heart. She's almost self-insert. It's made it really comforting that people relate to her so well, because it feels like they relate to me, when no one else does outside of the internet.

It's funny because I'm trying (and never making time) to plot out the original novel I plan on writing and there's this voice in my head like saying I have to be measured and I have to plot out these characters first and their whole histories and personalities because it's a Serious Thing, but then I'm reminded that the character I wrote who resonated the most with people was just me throwing my unhinged feelings into the void, so???

Also, I had intended my first original fantasy novel (featuring a chronically ill fmc and dragons) to have two main characters—Remi and Caden. Then Fourth Wing came out and I screeched in fury. I used the name for BRV anyway, but... 🙃

And the MMC for my sports romance is named Liam and I wanted to give the FMC a nice tough girl name like Sloane 😭 but I guess the universe said fuck you, again, so that's a nope, so if anyone has suggestions here I am.

[tinyinvadr]

So the tadc brain rot is so strong right now, and naturally, I had to bring g/t into it! Not sure how many parts there will be to this, but yeah!

Hide & Shrink

Chapter 1

I couldn’t sleep the first night. It wasn’t like I needed to. All that was once essential for living is now pointless. Trying to retain any sense of normalcy is a waste of time that could be spent trying to find a way out.

The exit door turned out to be a bust, but surely there’s another way to leave. I just have to keep trying, even if it drives me insane, even if I end up in the void again. There’s no way I can stay in a place like this.

But… if I keep this up, and I DO end up driving myself insane, I’ll just end up like Kaufmo and however many others before him who’ve been “abstracted”. Yeah, that’s what they called it. I’m not exactly sure what it means or if there’s a way to undo it, but since Caine has a whole cellar full of abstracted people, I can only assume that it’s irreversible. That, or this is all just a part of his games.

The others seem to trust him to some extent, but I can’t bring myself to. He has to be the one who’s keeping us trapped here, right? He’s insistent that there’s no way out because he doesn’t want us to leave, so that must mean an exit DOES exist, right?

The worst part is that no one else seems as eager to leave as I am. Clearly no one wants to be here, but they still managed to adapt to this world. They accept it, they play along with whatever Caine has to throw at them. It’s… normal to them.

No, I can’t reach that point. None of this is real, and I refuse to let myself believe that it is. I had a life before this. A real life that was taken from me. A face, an identity, a name. I can’t remember the details, but it’s enough to know that I don’t belong in this twisted program and I have to get back to the real world.

The entire night, my mind was racing in this vicious cycle. Do I keep trying? Do I give up? Do I have to just accept this as my new life from here on out?

I was finally snapped out of my spiraling when I heard a knock on the door the next morning.

“Hey, uh, Pomni? You okay in there? I just wanted to check in, make sure you’re still… here.”

Just hearing Ragatha’s voice hit me with an overwhelming sense of guilt. Why was she still bothering to help me? I abandoned her twice when she was hurt, how could she forgive me so easily?

I opened the door for her, and she just stood there, nervously scratching the back of her head. I guess it wasn’t entirely water under the bridge, but she still made the effort to reach out to me.

“Um… Hi, Ragatha. Thanks for checking in on me.”

“Oh, yeah, of course! I’m glad you’re okay. Yesterday was… a lot to deal with all at once for a new person. But I promise, it’s usually not like that here.”

We just stood in awkward silence for a minute. There were so many things I wanted to ask her, but I was worried I would make things worse. I didn’t want her getting hurt again.

“Anyway, the rest of us are having breakfast, so feel free to join us if you want. Don’t feel pressured if you don’t want to, just thought I’d offer, since it can be nice to spend time with other people.”

In all honesty, I really wasn’t up for it, but I knew I couldn’t lie in bed stuck in my own thoughts forever. Maybe leaving my room would help me focus. Or it would make things worse, subjecting myself to all of the chaos of the Digital Circus again.

No, I had to. Attempting to do something was better than not doing anything.

“Yeah… I think I will.”

I followed Ragatha down the long hallway, filled with unease as I remembered our encounter with Kaufmo only a day prior. It was terrifying to think that the huge, glitching monster that attacked us was a person deep down. I didn’t know him, but the others did. I couldn’t imagine how it must have felt for them to lose him in such a horrible way.

And any one of us could be next.

We arrived at the main area of the circus tent where everyone was already seated at the table, feasting on digital, artificial pancakes.

Jax was the first to notice us.

“Oh hey, Pomni. You’re not dead.”

Ragatha sighed as we made our way over to the table, sitting at the two empty seats.

It seemed like everyone had a preferred seat at the table, so I ended up sitting between Gangle and Jax again. This was all part of their routine that they’ve been keeping up for god knows how long.

“Good morning, Pomni! I hope you’re feeling better today.”

I was caught off guard by Gangle’s smiling mask and cheery attitude. She was crying the entire first day.

“I don’t know… but you seem to be in a better mood.”

She chuckled, touching her mask with her ribbon hands. “That’s ‘cause my comedy mask regenerated. It resets every morning.”

I was about to ask her how often her mask breaks, but my question was answered when Bubble suddenly popped up behind Kinger, startling him to the point where he fell back onto Gangle, pushing her over and knocking her mask off.

“Aw… it broke again.” She said with a sniffle as she collected the remains of her mask.

On the other side of me, Jax smirked, crossing his arms behind his head. “Never gets old.”

Man, what a jerk.

Breakfast carried on pretty much the same as dinner the previous night. I was trying not to let my thoughts wander to darker places and focus on trying to connect with the others. It was difficult, though, since everyone already knew each other pretty well and adjusted to the insanity of this world in their own ways, so I was just kind of there. But I knew I needed them. As long as we were all on the same page, maybe I could stop myself from going insane.

Of course, it wasn’t long before HE showed up.

Just as we were finishing breakfast, Caine appeared beside Bubble.

“Rise and shine, my wonderful performers! A new day of exciting adventure awaits!”

Everyone got up and followed Caine to the stage area. I reluctantly joined them, unsure of what would happen if I didn’t.

“The star of today’s adventure will be selected with…”

Suddenly, a huge carnival wheel fell from the ceiling and crashed on the floor next to him.

“The Wheel of Whimsy!”

Each section of the wheel had a picture of one of our faces on it. Mine was already added to it, even though I only just got there.

Zooble rolled their eyes at the sight of the wheel.

“It better not land on me again.”

Caine gave the wheel a strong spin, and I watched in nervous anticipation as it slowed down. I had no idea what kind of adventure he had planned, but I knew for sure that I definitely didn’t want to “star” in it, whatever that meant.

I let out a sigh of relief as it seemed like the wheel would stop just before it landed on me. But, with the last bit of force, the pin crossed over onto my section.

“Well, would you look at that! Our star today is our newest member, Pomni!”

Jax casually strolled up beside Caine, that smug grin never leaving his face.

“Still picking on the newbie, huh Caine? I like it.”

Caine chuckled in response.

“Now, now, you know I don’t pick favorites! The Wheel of Whimsy is completely random, and all of you have an equal chance of being selected! That being said, considering yesterdays events and the fact that Pomni is still fairly new here, I’m going to give her a say in today’s adventure! So, what’ll it be, Pomni?”

I looked around at the others, each with differing expressions. Ragatha looked optimistic, Gangle worried, Zooble annoyed, Jax amused, and Kinger… Kinger. Whatever I decided to do probably wouldn’t please everyone, but I had to accept that and just go with whatever I felt was the best option.

“I dunno, maybe… hide and seek?”

Caine froze in place for a few seconds, as if he was buffering, and then sprang back to life.

“Excellent choice!”

With a snap of his fingers, I was teleported to somewhere I didn’t recognize. I was floating in place in a void of some sort, but not the same void I got stuck in the day before. It was pitch black, and almost felt suffocating. It felt like the space itself was small, but I couldn’t move far enough in any direction to prove it.

Then, even stranger, I could hear Caine’s voice, though it sounded like it was coming from underneath me somehow.

“Alright, everyone! Today’s adventure is… Find Pomni! Your new friend is hidden somewhere in this Amazing Digital Circus, and you’ll have to work together to find her! But it won’t be easy! Make sure you check everywhere, she might be someplace you wouldn’t expect! Now, get to it, superstars!”

After he finished speaking, I was hit with a sudden sensation that felt like I was moving really fast, even though I wasn’t going anywhere. The kind of feeling I got when Caine was giving me a tour. But that didn’t make sense, there was no sign of him anywhere.

“Uh… Caine? What’s going on? Where am I?”

I didn’t get a response. Instead, I felt something grab me and drag me down. The endless darkness was replaced with the bright and cheery colors of the circus all at once, but my eyes immediately went straight to Caine, who was now massive and holding me in his hand.

“Would you look at that! I pulled Pomni out of my hat!”

My first instinct was to panic. Squirming, kicking, screaming, it was all useless, but I was desperate.

There was a combination of confusion and concern in Caine’s eyes as I struggled in his grasp. How did he not expect me to hate this?

“Whoa there, no need to panic! It’s just me, your old pal Caine!”

“I’ve known you for less than 24 hours.”

“Haha, right! But there’s nothing to be afraid of, Pomni. This is all just part of the adventure! You see, the others have played hide and seek before numerous times, and they know all the typical hiding places, so I thought it would make things more challenging if you were smaller and harder to find!”

I kept helplessly struggling, but he made no moves to release me. He just kept watching.

“C-Can you put me down now?”

It finally hit him that I didn’t like being held, and he complied, setting me down on the floor with a pat on the head.

“There ya go! Now, I’ll leave you to go find a place to hide! Good luck!”

He disappeared before I could say anything else, and I was once again alone in this nightmarish circus. Only this time, it was much, much worse.

I could feel my heart racing as I looked at my surroundings. The circus was already huge to begin with, but everything at this perspective looked 10x more threatening. Part of me wanted to be found as soon as possible so I could return to my normal size, but I also didn’t want to think about encountering the others like this.

All I could do was hide.

[marinaiguess]

💜💜💜 “i’m sorry you had to see me like that” sonic + character of your choice 👀

Thank you so much for this prompt, Chaox! I started this today and I'm posting it now, without a second editing round bcuz I need to sleep but I wouldn't be able to sleep if I didn't finish this today :) Hope you like this <3

Sonic Forces inspired. 2k words.

.

He's getting out of control. Fists clenched so tight he's sure, weren't it for the gloves, he would have drawn blood. His mind is hazy, vision gradually blurring as he tries to shift his attention from the echidna in front of him to anything else.

He should do that right now; he should look away.

Albeit, he can't.

"Can you repeat that, Knux?" he says, his voice laced with venom.  

Knuckles takes note of the dangerous undertone—of the warning behind it—but doesn't quite grasp the severity of the situation. He crosses his arms, turning his head away from the other's interrogating gaze. Maybe he can't bear the look on his face, maybe he can't bear the fact that he's wrong. For just this once, he can't deny it, he should have been more careful. Yet another responsibility he had failed to take care of successfully.

"You heard me alright," He spits, anger boiling inside him. "He's not here, Sonic."

Knuckles can feel Sonic's gaze penetrating through his skull. From his peripheral vision, he is able to see the way he's staring at him, the way his jaw tenses and he realizes, it might have been a better idea to break the news in another, more tactful way.

Sonic takes one step forward and suddenly the air is thicker, denser; the room turns tenser.

Amy senses it and opts to act first by putting a hand on his shoulder. "Wait, Sonic, please--"

He yanks her hand away without even bothering to look at her. "Stay out of this, Amy."

"You're kidding," Amy scoffs and she’s not sure if she’s reacting to him ignoring her or to him expecting her to just stand and watch.

This time, he doesn't hesitate to turn his head to glare at her and his emerald eyes have never looked more intimidating before, not to her.

Yet, she doesn't back down. "This is not Knuckles' fault, you know that."

He laughs. There’s nothing funny or humorous about his laugh, but it emits from the depth of his soul, echoing in the room as he turns his attention to Knuckles once more.

"Tell me, commander, whose responsibility was it to look after him while I was gone?"

"Don't give me that shit, Sonic. We couldn't really keep an eye on him--"

Sonic's forearm connects to his neck, pushing Knuckles to the wall behind him. "You couldn't?"

He ignores Amy's pleas, putting more force into his grasp. "Where is he?"

"How should I know?" Knuckles growls. "He's been gone for three months."

Everything goes quiet. Even Amy's voice fades out of existence as Sonic registers Knuckles' words. Without really intending to, he backs down a bit, although he’s still holding Knuckles against the wall.

"What?"

When Knuckles tries to push him away, Sonic doesn’t give him a chance to even touch him and he slams his head on the wall as a warning, his forceful grip returning shortly after, despite hearing Knuckles coughing. Sonic knows he's strong, possibly stronger than him, under normal circumstances, so he understands, even in this state of mind, that Knuckles decides to not fight back.

Good. He doesn’t wanna go all out on him.

"Where is Tails?" he repeats the question.

"I don't know, okay?!"

Knuckles’ scream is the last thing that’s heard in the room, inside the Resistance HQ. Silence fills the void, until Sonic breaks it.

"I trusted you, Knuckles. I trusted you with my little brother's life. And with mine too."

Those words hurt more than Knuckles could have imagined.

But Sonic doesn’t relent, throwing more daggers right at his heart. "Maybe you're just not fit for the job. Or for any job. You shouldn't be taking responsibilities you can't handle."

Knuckles finds himself unable speak, so Sonic does it for him. "I'm gone for six months and you're telling me the war is still going? Great job, commander. On top of that, Tails is gone?"

Knuckles coughs again. "Stop it."

Sonic’s fangs show as a grin carves its way to his face and Knuckles can't tell if it's a sinister act or if it's a coping mechanism to hide his pain. "How does it feel to have failed at everything?"

"Sonic!" Amy intervenes, not courageous enough to properly stand up to him, however.

She's standing still, her hands balled into fists against her chest. It's probably the first time in a long while she's felt this scared. She's never witnessed Sonic lose control like that.

Knuckles meets her gaze and reads her like an open book, agreeing with her thoughts. No matter how well Sonic knows him—well enough to use just the right words to hurt him—in any other case, he wouldn't have gone this far. Something about him is off, his no-die, no-lose attitude is nowhere to be seen, his hopeful, full of excitement for the next adventure eyes are gloomy and dark, his logic is clouded by concern. Even if this is about Tails, this isn't typical of him.

Those six months imprisoned in space did take a toll on him, however much he tried to hide it once they rescued him.

"He's fine," he reassures, getting ahold of Sonic's forearm with both hands, ignoring the way he tenses and hisses. "You trust him, right?"

"Of course, I trust him." he barks, immediately. "But we're in the middle of a war, commander. Eggman might have gotten ahold of--"

"You're--" he scoffs. "You're not thinking straight."

Sonic bares his teeth, his jaw tightening even more. "Are you saying that me being worried is irrational?"

"Yes, it is. The kid can handle himself, Sonic."

"You said it, Knux. Kid. He's just a kid and he's been gone for—for three months?"

"You've left him behind for longer than that before." Knuckles notices out loud.

"It was to protect him!" he spits on his face.

Yet, Knuckles seems unfazed. "What's so different this time around?"

Sonic's mind short-circuits. His eyes widen when he takes in the sight in front of him. He doesn't quite remember how they got here.

"What would he say if he saw you like this?"

The final blow. Sonic had him against the wall but Knuckles had him cornered. He may be right but Sonic would rather not admit that, for the sake of his ego not getting wounded.

He takes a deep breath, letting his arms fall. Knuckles is standing firmly on both his feet now, managing to keep his breathing in check.

Until Sonic approaches him, noses almost touching as he jabs a finger to Knuckles’ chest.

"If there's a possibility, even a slight one, that Tails went through half of the hell I did, I'm blaming you."

Knuckles knows he meant every word, which makes him furious; knowing that he was calm and collected enough to say something like that. Calm enough to walk away after that statement. He can’t just stand there and take it like a champ, resulting in Sonic looking like the bigger guy in this quarrel.

And so, he breaks, guilt washing over him like pouring rain. "You know what, Sonic? You're not the only one who's had it rough. While you were gone, we were fighting our asses to keep the world safe. It wasn't an easy task."

"Yeah? And how did that go?” He turns around to face him. “Ninety-eight percent of the world under Eggman's control and Tails lost,” He huffs a short-lived laugh, bitterness emitting from it. “Excellent work."

Knuckles wants to punch him, he wants to wipe that smug, sarcastic smirk off of his face to knock some sense into him (especially now that he seems he’s pulled himself together, at least a bit) but Amy steps between them, holding her arm out to stop Knuckles on his tracks. He could push her away but she knows he won’t.

"Knuckles is right," She states, locking gazes with Sonic.

For a single moment, she regrets it, upon witnessing the way something passes by Sonic’s eyes, pain written all across his face.

"Knuckles is what? He's right? By saying I didn't have it rough?"

"I didn't—"

Sonic cuts him off, waving his hand as he closes his eyes. "For once in my life I felt truly helpless but I thought you had my back."

Amy and Knuckles can only stare, jaws slack at Sonic’s confession.

"And you just… proved me wrong. I'm—"

His voice breaks, slightly, but of course, it doesn’t go unnoticed.

Knuckles’ face softens and Amy approaches him, just a little bit. "Sonic..."

Sonic ignores her as he sits on the ground, the reality of the situation finally sinking in. "Shit.”

He brings his knees to his chest, almost curling into a ball as he moves his hands closer to his face, inspecting them. Only now he realizes they’re trembling.

He starts rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms, even if he’s using too much pressure it hurts.

Amy takes a few moments before she kneels next to him, a comforting hand making its way to Sonic’s back. He winces when it makes contact with his fur, arching away from the touch but one look around him persuades him he’s safe. With one long inhale, he decides to relax and accept the friendly gesture, despite it not helping that much.

It is sincere. That’s all that matters.

“We can work this out, like we always do,” She speaks after what feels like an eternity. “We will find him.”

It is wishful thinking more than anything, Sonic notes in his mind. If Tails doesn’t want to be followed, he knows how to hide his tracks. Especially with all the commotion thanks to the war happening around them, it would be ten times harder to get ahold of him or even a rough idea of where he might be.

But Amy’s right. They always win at the end of the day. Together.

Knuckles crouches next to him, patting his shoulder since he seems less tense now. “I’m sorry I couldn’t live up to your expectations,” He confesses and Sonic turns his head around so fast he feels dizzy. “You’re right, I wasn’t fit for the job. But it was a real mess, Sonic. We were lost and outnumbered. Tails felt lost as well, helpless.”

At that Sonic tenses but allows Knuckles to continue. “With you around, we might be able to fix things.”

“Yeah, maybe I—”

“Under my command, though,” Knuckles smirks.

“Aye, aye, commander,” Sonic pouts, playfully.

“And,” Knuckles looks at the wall in front of him. “I didn’t mean to make you feel like whatever you had to deal with back there was not rough. With the way you’re acting, I know it was really bad.”

“Meh, whatever,” Sonic waves a hand at him, grinning. “I’ve had it worse.”

Amy snorts and Knuckles’ raises a brow but they both decide to let it slide.

Sonic hugs his knees, his grin falling. “I’m the one who should be apologizing,” He says, taking a deep breath. “I'm sorry you had to see me like that.”

“It’s okay,” Amy reassures without missing a beat. “We know.”

Sonic looks at both of them, their smiles urging his own to appear on his face as well. If he feels his throat tighten, he ignores it. He feels like he’s cried enough the past six months; more than he should have allowed himself to. Good thing no one was around to see the mess the Infinite illusions had made of him.

“Alright,” he gets up, newfound courage flowing through his veins. “Let’s get to it.”

They get up as they nod when a slam of the door catches them off guard.

“Sonic!”

That voice. Sonic’s smile reaches his ears before he finds the source of the voice.

He’s safe. They both are.

He’s real.

“Tails!”

“I was so worried.”

“You worry too much, look! I’m perfectly fine.”

“Who’s gonna tell him he was losing his shit just a few minutes ago?” Knuckles whispers, which earns him a jab on his chest by Amy’s elbow.