#but now people prefer long term likely because everyone is older

[philsmeatylegss]

I’m so fucking happy dnp have finally realized long run time is in

[spinji]

It's weird to me seeing so many people surprised over Billdip shippers that liked/made young twink Bill art are now the same ones shipping Billford and liking and making art of Bill as an old man. Literally the definition of "growing up with your tastes".

Billford is everything i wanted from Billdip but more canonized (and old), basically. I still have a lot of fondness from that time.

I do agree with the people that consider shipping Billdip in the early days as self indulgent and self insertive. I was also one of those people that was first exposed to the series around Dipper's age and I would be lying if my affinity for the pairing didn't have some element of self shipping with Bill. This is why a lot of people made this jump to a pairing that better reflects their maturity level while maintaining that enjoyment of Bill. I think that's part of the secret sauce that makes the new Billford content to compelling to long-term fans; on top of it being chillingly well written.

Where I chafe against this discussion is how dismissive the tone tends to be when bringing this up. People say they used to ship Billdip as if they're talking to a pastor about their sins in order to cover their ass and sound more desirable to the greater internet.

To me Billdip and Billford have very similar but distinct energies, one holding a lot more weight and tragedy while the other is chaotic and tense. There might be a lot in common with your new best worst thing and your old toxic ex but they're still different experiences and they're facinating dynamics in both cases.

My whole point in comparing the two is that you don't have to be scared of what you did in fandom a decade ago. If your tastes have changed, that's fine, and very normal, but a quick turn that anyone still drawn to Billdip is a disgusting predator is just cowardice. As if the crazy people will care if it's older because it's still an unhealthy and unbalanced dynamic with an immortal, immoral monster.

Do I prefer Billford to Billdip now? Yes! But I shipped them both back then and I ship them both now.

Do I prefer the Billford fandom to the Billdip fandom? Hell no. Because some of you really can't pull the stick out of your ass and realize that you are living proof that fiction doesn't directly mirror your personality. You shipped Billdip and you're fine, so quit lying and saying everyone else is a monster for doing the same.

[eliza-and-her-monsters]

The Gods of Guilt

Julien Baker x Reader

Description: Vampire sources tend to live very privileged lives despite their essential role as a food bank for vampires to use whenever they wish. There tends to only be one rule though. Don’t fall in love with one.

Contains: Julien x high femme reader, vampire Julien, taller Julien, slight gore and discussions and depictions of blood. Supernatural au. Vampire x human trope. Slight insinuations of dom x sub aspects. Angst angst ANGST.

WC: About 2.9k

A/N: I know supernatural au’s are not for everyone but the moment vampire Julien was brought to my attention I KNEW I needed to do something about it because no offense, this fic community is seriously lacking in such. If this isn’t your thing and you think it’s cringey, I respect your opinion and you may scroll on! If you ARE into this however, I invite you into this self indulgent mess with me 😌

From the outside it appeared to be nothing more than your average gothic mansion tourists either stopped to gawk at or ran from… either way. The inside wasn’t much better, from gaudy reds and blacks to stained glass windows. Some of the older ones preferred it that way though, and overall they had the highest authority. So the reason why I was currently being sent to test the new prospect was news to me.

I wasn’t against it, she was pretty enough, one of those high femmes with the doe eyes. One of those ‘deer in headlights’ looks. I’d have barely noticed her during her first tour if it weren’t for those eyes.

“Congratulations.” I muttered the moment I swung the door open, the reflection of her image in the mirror pushed in the corner jumping in response. “You made it back.”

“I’m not sure whether to be flattered or afraid.” She muttered in a small voice as she slowly spun to face me. My eyes raking over her body, a black dress accentuating her curves, long hair flowing down past her shoulders causing my eyebrows to furrow together as I took a step towards her flinching body.

“I prefer most of my girls afraid.” I whispered, her scent wafting into me the moment I breathed in. She was definitely afraid. “Are you here willingly?” It was always the first question I asked during interviews for any new prospects whether they’d be a short term vessel or a long term one. Already at at the sight of her I knew she was going to be a favorite amongst a lot of us. We never touched them until we got an explicit yes though.

Why anyone would want to be a source for those like us would probably be the first thing you’d ask. For a while after I was turned I wondered the same thing until I saw the benefits the sources were granted. We’ve paid off countless debts, medical, school, even fuck up debts. They had comfortable shelter, three meals a day, no rent or fees owed to us. They were free to stay or go at will. Nevertheless you still had people who wanted to take advantage of that though. Get all the perks of being a source without actually being one.

“I don’t really have any other options.” She answered, nervously fidgeting with her hands as she kept her eyes glued to the floor. “My family’s debts need to be paid off and I-”

“You do… have other options.” I interrupted, already seeing her eyebrows twist together in aggravation.

“Here maybe, not with them.” She replied, and I watched her wince even as I simply released a sharp breath.

“You know, rules tell me I’m supposed to leave now.” I began, clasping my hands behind my back as I carefully trailed towards her just in time to catch her stepping forward with a pleading expression etching in between her brows.

“Please.”

“I didn’t say I was going to.” I huffed, slowly raveling the sleeves of my black button-up upwards to the elbows. “Tell me, y/n… what exactly do you get out of this?”

“I, uhhh…” she seemed flustered, cheeks going red as her eyes scanned the inked skin of my arms as I watched the grip of her hands tightening around each other. “Shelter… away from my family.”

“You don’t want to be around them?” I wondered with a tilted head, watching her grow impatient with every question. I couldn’t help it though. I wanted to be thorough. I wouldn’t sink my fangs into someone until I knew I could help them in return. Some of the others thought I was too strict with that sort of thing. I didn’t care. Sometimes I thought they weren’t strict enough. “Then why do you want to help them?”

“Some people you have to love from a distance. They’ll destroy you otherwise.” She muttered, and I couldn’t help but hum in agreement.

“Good answer.” I began, crossing my arms as I slowly allowed myself to get closer. God, her scent was overwhelming. Citrusy raspberry and amber, playful with a touch of innocence. A curious type of innocence though. An openness. “What else?” I answered, trying to distract myself before I could get lost in it again, fall right into her open neck and sink my teeth into her soft skin.

“I- I don’t know what else. Secret mansion hidden in the woods doesn’t seem too unappealing-”

“You’re running from something.” I voiced, finally catching the real reason of the desperation. She tensed, though it was hard to keep a secret from someone of my sort I could tell it wasn’t going to stop her from playing her cards close to her chest.

“Is this an interrogation?” She stammered, taking a step back the moment I drew closer causing me to halt in my tracks. I still needed to maintain boundaries, some semblance of control even though the vein in her neck was starting to pulse louder.

“So I can determine if you need to stay here or if it’s best if we part ways now. So you can choose not to tell me… or you can, I’ll pull it out of you either way.” I murmured, finally letting myself retreat backwards as I pulled out a chair to take a seat.

“Seems a bit more invasive than the biting.” She admitted underneath her breath and I couldn’t help but to chuckle a bit to myself.

“Baby girl, you have no idea.” Her cheeks went red as I sat backwards, sitting like a typical man as I peered upwards at her. “So, would you like to try that answer again?”

I watched her throat bob with a gulp, could practically taste her sweetness on my tongue all the while. “It’s stupid, a lover scorned is all.” she murmured with a shake of her head.

“Can’t have been too stupid if you’re running from them.” I brushed off, watching her sigh in defeat as she shook her head, small arms wrapping almost anxiously around herself. “You’re safe here.” I whispered, probably one of the first genuine things I had said as I lifted myself back onto my feet.

“But you don’t even know me… or the story or-”

“Shhhh.” I hushed, watching her visibly relax at the command, slowly lifting a hand upwards to brush underneath her chin. Ever so slightly tilting her head backwards until I could peer into those piercing eyes. “You’re in my care now… and that’s enough for me.”

I usually felt guilty manipulating emotions, it was an ability I seldom used. However if there was ever a way I needed to it was now… not even just for my sake. “Come with me.” I whispered, sliding an arm around her shoulders that she surprisingly allowed.

“Does this mean I passed?” She wondered, a slight hint of confusion creeping into her expression as she peered up at me. “I can stay?”

“Yes, I think that would be best.” I sighed, almost partially in defeat as I pulled her towards the door. “Let me show you to your room. Then you’re free to leave and get the rest of your things and come back… but first, you need to be marked.”

“Marked?” She wondered, that same tenseness creeping back into her shoulders as I lead her down the long and twisting hallways. I felt a shiver sweep over her as I trailed my fingers down her spine.

“So the house recognizes you of one of ours, and you can come and go as you please.” I paused outside of a door before pushing it open to reveal one of the empty bedrooms. The source’s rooms were modest, dark crimsom velvet sheets covering the beds with room on the walls for them to hang up various claims if they wished, bookshelves, a desk, space for clothes, etc… we tried to keep them as comfortable as possible without taking up too much room but still enough to where they didn’t feel the need to leave if they didn’t want to. It still maintained its gothic flair with its stained glass windows… but thanks to my doing it still maintained its modernity as well. Something most of the older vampires despised.

“How do we do that?” She questioned, eyes lingering on the doorknob as I slid the door shut. And I watched her eyes widen knowingly the moment I glanced downwards at her slender neck. “I- already?”

The shake creeped back into her hands, watching her stumble a step backwards as if I was going to fling myself at her any moment. I at least knew restraint though. “If you’re not ready… you can always stay, or leave and come back.”

The girl seemed so hesitant, catching a pale bottom lip in between her teeth. I could tell her first instinct was to run, everyone’s first instinct was to after all. But nevertheless she stayed put, feet locked in the ground as if they had taken roots there. Now, as I was instructed, was the time to put my charm on. A vampire and its source had a very distinct intimate relationship. Sometimes they took it farther, I had always tried not to because I know what happened to sources whenever a bond took over. Too many times they drove themselves mad trying to be everything for their vampire. Too many times vampires didn’t care about their sources, never to that extent. And whenever they did it was seldom pretty. Nevertheless even whenever you didn’t care, you were always told to act like it.

“It doesn’t always hurt.” I spoke, fully knowing it probably wouldn’t sound right coming from me. Clearly I had to have had experience though, there was only one way you could be turned after all. And that, I could attest to, was definitely much more painful. Her brows furrowed, head tilting as if in confusion but she didn’t protest any farther. And I took her silence as encouragement to go on. “I can make you relax again, put you in a state to where you’re nearly asleep. In might sting, you’ll feel a bit of pressure… but it won’t hurt.”

I cautiously let myself draw closer towards her, picking up every hint of her scent… practically tasting her sweetness on my tongue. God, it nearly made me salivate at the thought. “For some though, it’s almost pleasurable.”

Her chin tilted upwards to meet my gaze, and I could practically feel her shiver as her eyes flickered from the teeth behind my lips back to my eyes. “This could be a terrible idea.” She voiced, and I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit to myself as my own eyes flickered to the vein in her neck that seemed to be calling me, beckoning me in closer.

“You haven’t run out screaming yet.” I added, cautious hands reaching for her waist all the while I waited for her protest, for her to jerk back, a jump in her pulse or any indication that she was absolutely not okay with what was happening right now. But she never did. In fact all I could feel was her own small hands trailing up my arms to slide around my biceps. Her warmth a stark difference to my cold. “I won’t touch you until I get your permission, but you’re getting a lot harder to resist.”

For a moment I nearly thought she was going to attack my lips and I would’ve allowed it even though I ultimately shouldn’t have. It was far too intimate far too quickly and for someone like me it could’ve been dangerous.

My breath hitched in a way it hadn’t before the moment I saw her brush her hair from her neck, “Be gentle, please.” She whispered, my hands balling into the fabric of her dress as I breathed in a whiff of her scent.

“Don’t let go of me.” I ordered, feeling the sharpness of my fangs poking through my lips.

I heard her cry out the moment I sunk them into her skin, a sound of pain or pleasure I wasn’t quite sure. Her arms tossed around my shoulders as I bent myself over to reach her neck. And the taste of her was more delicious than I could’ve ever imagined. Sweet but tangy all the same much like her personality, as if I had just bit into the juiciest fruit I had ever seen. I couldn’t get enough. None of my other sources had compared, could ever compare to her. And I didn’t know how to pull myself off.

I heard her whimper from below me, her body weakening against me as I lapped up every bit of her I could like a starving dog. ‘Julien… wait… what the hell are you doing?’

Finally the control kicked in, pulling my fangs from her bloody neck with a gasp as I watched her sway on her feet. Noticeably more pale I felt a hint of fear striking me as I held her up as much as I could. “Why did you stop?” She spoke, allowing me to slowly lower her quivering body towards the bed.

“I-I could’ve drained you!” I stammered, for the first time in forever finally understanding the anxiety of what it meant to lose control. The pure guilt.

“I wouldn’t have minded.” She winced just before I cupped my hand around her bloodied neck and brushed a thumb over it, watching the wounds stitch themselves together carefully.

“No, no absolutely not, we don’t drain our sources… we may push them but- do you understand what could’ve happened to you if you had someone that had even just a smidge less control than me!” She winced at my raised voice, immediately feeling that same pang of guilt in my chest as I peered down at her. “I’m sorry I- this is completely my fault and I shouldn’t be yelling. I understand if you want to leave. Th-This won’t happen again.”

I felt like I needed to drop my knees and grovel at her feet. My heart didn’t beat any longer but I swear I could feel it aching, clenching as if it had been revived. At least for now.

“I’m not leaving… so you can stop trying to get me to.” She spoke, watching her sleepily try and roll over onto her side.

“I still feel guilty-“

“I promise whatever you do to me isn’t going to be any worse than what they would out there.” She spoke, gesturing towards the window as if speaking about the outside world.

There it was again, that same tug on my heart that made me feel as if someone was trying to kickstart it again. Watching her as she held her neck as if in pain, trying to roll an ache out. “Here, let me help.” I gulped an anxious lump down, hating how afraid I was to lose control as I approached her again.

She shivered as soon as I placed my hand against her skin, watching her peer up at me through thick lashes as I sent a surge through her. Aching muscles and irritated nerves unraveling, layers of skin I had pierced through. But luckily vampires could heal just as much as they could destroy. It was just seldom that they chose to. “Better?”

She sighed, letting her neck roll once more before nodding. “Much.”

I nodded once myself, backing up as if I was the one in danger from her. Something kept pulling me towards her though, a magnetic tug that hadn’t been there before. Something I had been and always would be terrified of. “Nobody else gets to touch you from here on out.” I ordered, watching her eyebrows in confusion.

“But…”

“I don’t trust them. If I lost control then they sure as shit will and I- nothing’s going to happen to you. Not anymore.”

“Are- Are you allowed to do that?” She wondered, watching me back up towards the door, her eyes going wide with each one. “Wait, wait… don’t leave, please.”

“Why? I told you I’d protect you, I’m keeping you away from the other vampires. I can’t stay-”

“Why can’t you?” She darted up to her feet that I watched her sway on, immediately darting after her and catching her weightless body in my arms. My breath hitched in my throat as soon as I felt her head lolling on my chest, a quivering hand reaching upwards to grip my shoulder as if to better support herself.

“Bad idea.” I seethed to myself as I tried to right her back on the bed once more. And I didn’t know if I was talking about her standing up on my own or me staying. Probably both. But upon trying to pull away I only felt her hand tangling upwards into my shirt as she lifted her weak head to meet my eyes. “You shouldn’t get close to me… believe me. I- I’m not good for you.”

“I know.” She admitted, and just as I thought she was going to pull away I could only feel her grip on me tightening. “But please just… please don’t make me spend my first night here alone.”

I released a long sigh through breathless lungs. I knew this could’ve happened and I was terrified of it. A source’s first connection to a vampire could grow so intense so quickly and coupled with the fears that usually arouse with any of their first nights here. And that face, that pull, the guilt of earlier weighing on me so heavily… how could I say no? “Okay.”

[reachartwork]

[private please, if thats alright] i used to follow you for your ai stuff back in 2021/22 when things were first kicking off (actually i thought you'd quit because of all the scandal lol) and the models and output were a lot 'sloppier' and kinda illegible but as far as i can see the stuff you're working on now is clearer looking and more coherent, so i was wondering - do you have any thoughts on the 'aesthetics' of AI and what specifically brings it unique merits and strengths as an art tool? for example i personally find a lot of modern ai art to be boring and soulless looking because it has neither stylistic interest (compared to the blatant 'inhumanity' of older models) nor a human person making base-to-base decisions about what it looks like, but i also havent been really paying too much attention to the AI scene except when it comes up in images searches. also, sorry if its not a question you want to answer, but do you do any more traditional styles of art as well? i find my art sensibilities are really effected by the mediums i work with so i would love to know if you have any similar experiences wrt ai and non ai works. thank you!

this is a side account so i can't answer privately, but, that being said;

i actually agree! for general purpose arting i preferred the secret horses style of total illegibility, and my main goal in my secret projects is to be able to reorganize around that style but with sharper, crisper lines and higher resolutions. part of why the whole "secret horses" style of ai medium fell through the cracks was because a: diffusion models were significantly faster and b: diffusion models scale upwards significantly better - they can produce higher resolutions and perform upscaling, which CLIP + VQGAN (the old method that made all the jank we all used to love) can't really do.

i think people whose sole interest in ai is making shitty advertisement images, or giant anime boobs, or some other lowest common denomenator slop, like... okay. you do you, the saying is "90% of everything is shit" for a reason, but obviously i think that's incredibly boring. i think the reason we see a lot of it is because a: the Good Artists who use AI are still effectively social pariahs, particularly on twitter and tumblr, just via dint of their medium, and b: ai puts art making in the hands of EVERYONE and it turns out not everyone has good taste (see: 90% of everything is shit), so you just see a lot more shit by volume.

anyway in terms of "traditional art" i am an author (READ CHUM) and a bassist, although i haven't been in a band in many years as my arthritis prevents me from playing for very long or very well anymore. if you mean traditional art as in like... paint and easel, or pen and paper, the answer is no. i've never had the ability to comfortably grasp anything with my hands even before the arthritis happened and now i lack not only the fine motor skills for it but also the pain threshold. i do like legos though, and i'd love to start making lego dioramas.

thanks for asking :)

[romanoffsbish]

Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve

WandaNat x Fem!Reader

A Torn up Masterpiece

Warnings: Age Gap (R’s 19/21 in flashbacks/26 now), Manipulation, Gaslighting | 4,272 Words

18+ | Minors DNI | No Smut, but alluded to.

—•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•—

“If I was some paint, did it splatter, on a promising grown man? And if I was a child, did it matter? If you got to wash your hands?"

—•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•—

The director was a man of few words, and with even fewer fucks to give, which is why you're here against all your many protests. He had a knack for living up to his name, because as you saunter into this meeting room full of people—them—you can't be bothered to stand you feel the fury coursing through your entire body.

"Welcome to the end of the world as we know it everyone.," the Director's hologram gravely greets, prompting an eye roll from you because of course you have to be here but he doesn't.

———

"Well, the end of the world for all of you.," you instantly correct the man who glares at you in an instant., "What a pleasure to hear from you Agent Y/L/N—the upcoming star of the show should always make herself known.," you smirk as the rest of your old team look back at you, their expressions all varying from pensive to amused, and for a very select two—regretful.

Wanda and Natasha hadn't seen you in five years—you grew up, and not for the better.

Once upon a time, not too long ago you'd be sat in one of their laps in this room, giggling and possessing a hope for the prospective future. They'd made promises of a forever love to you, sharing in the sweetest of moments with you, but it was all a ruse. It took you a lot of time to see their murky intentions, and you now know they never intended to keep their false words.

Oh to be young and in love right? Wrong!

What a clueless little girl you were to ever believe they'd love you without limitations. It was so obvious to anyone paying attention that the couple had simply grown bored alone and found your youthful energy worth exploiting. They surrounded you with their tantalizing auras within only a month of your arrival, edging straight into your heart with soft smiles and sweet phrases that miraculously shielded the sickening lies of a promising love beneath.

Most of your intimate moments happened in their bedroom, and for as long as you could reside between their bodies it felt like enough. They'd been adamant on their privacy from the start, but naive as you were, the publicly shared intimacies between the long term lovers told you that you were really just a preferred secret.

Still, you held onto your naïveté, and the older woman ate every bit of your innocence up like a couple of succubus's until you were hollowed.

When the older of the two proposed marriage you were shocked. Stood off to the side you watched the women embrace, tears of joy fell from the witches eyes, while ones of betrayal fell from your very own. Not even ten hours prior were you bringing the both of them to the edge of bliss and now you're being tossed aside.

Natasha didn't even warn you of this proposal. The team saw you broken, some even spared you a solemn glance, but they said not a word of comfort to you as they rushed instead to congratulate the blushing brides to be. It's funny really, at the ripe age of twenty one you had finally lost your rose colored glasses—almost like a cryptic right of passage as you officially entered this new age of adulthood.

These people were no family to you, all you ever were to them was the kid with desirable powers, and a bleeding heart worth tearing to shreds. They didn't even notice you leaving the room, and they were all a bit stunned to hear you were permanently gone the next day, but not too shockingly their lives moved right on.

To the couple you were only ever meant to be a short weekend expenditure. They'd tell you that they had fun, but that it couldn't go on. But then they had you, the pitiful whimpers and your eagerness to please was addicting. The longer it went on the harder it was to let you go, so they trapped you with empty words, and shallow gestures of love to keep you tame.

Breaking you entirely wasn't the intention, but it was likely always going to be the end result as they selfishly misused your blind trust.

Now though, as they stare at you pleadingly, hoping to catch your eye they burn with regret. There used to be a permanent smile on your face that always matched your bright eyes, it always warmed the both of their hearts. They didn't love you as they should've, but they did really love you at the end of the day. You were a bright light, but it's obvious that's long gone, you're a dimmed lantern at best now and that's on them. They crushed your heart and you became a pessimist with nothing left to give.

"Alright team, now that we've got strategy out of the way I'm going to wish you all the best.," Fury concludes., "And Y/L/N—do behave.," you flipped the man off., "Bite me Nicholas.," then you harshly brushed right passed the women trying to lure you into their pitiful trap of a closure that would only remedy their guilt.

You wouldn't give them such satisfaction...

—•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•—

If you never touched me, I would've gone along with the righteous. If I never blushed, then they could've never whispered about this.

—•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•—

"So, you're the infamous Y/N Y/L/N then?," you hear a gruff, yet feminine voice coming from behind you, and for some odd reason you actually stop to indulge them., "It depends on why you'd be interested in my existence on if the answer to that question is a yes or no."

The smile you gave the curious blonde was polite, but it was clear as day you weren't. Something in your eyes told her this wasn't a friendly encounter, and deep down she knew once you placed her lineage that it would be even further away from one., "You're the one my older sister broke right, like your heart?"

Bold—that's the only word that came to your mind as this short blonde woman spoke to you. Incredibly out of pocket as well mind you, she's only just meeting you and she acts as if she has the right to ask you such a personal question.

"Yelena?," she nods with a mischievous smirk., "I remember hearing about you, it appears she has a record for breaking hearts I'm afraid. Starting with you, and likely not ending with me.," her face instantly falls as you mockingly pout in her direction., "How incredibly tragic."

Yelena stood there incredibly dumbfounded, her mouth agape, and her feet glued to the floor as you continued onto the readied jet for your forced collective travels.

—•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•—

"God rest my soul, I miss who I used to be.

The tomb won't close, stained glass windows in my mind; I regret you all the time."

—•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•—

A heavy sigh leaves your lips as you sip on the gin and tonic you commandeered for yourself. Wakanda was a nice place, you almost felt bad stealing their booze, but you were certain they would understand the pressure placed on you. Honestly, you felt worse for the battle being brought here, to a hidden away place full of advancements. It was meant to be a place of peace, but you knew they were ready for war.

"Y/N, are you sure you should be drinking?," you took an even larger sip before turning to face the man of your nightmares., "You aren't my captain anymore Steve—kindly fuck off."

Misplaced anger really, but when you get to the nitty gritty of the situation you'll find it wasn't all that misplaced actually. Steve, along with everyone else on that godforsaken team knew you were only ever a plaything to the couple. Silently they watched as you were torn to shreds by the very women you trusted most. Never did any of them think to save you, to be the voice of reason, to save your fragile heart...

They were never anything more than pawns in a game of needless war anyways. Constantly fighting battles that were never their own, and in many ways making everything much worse.

They ruined you—that's for fucking sure.

"It's just, tomorrow's really important.," he continued on, his self righteous tone irking you to no end, and for a second you miss when a moment like this would end in pleasantries.

When you would stutter an apology, and bend to his very whim, because it was always easier to please than it was to fight. It's not that you  miss being the pushover, because you don't. It's just that you miss the carefree feeling of it all—this all consuming bitterness is lonely., "For you it is, for me it sounds like freedom."

Once again you left someone behind in a state of shock, too bad the you of today didn't care.

—•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•—

Living for the thrill of hitting you where it hurts. Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first, and I damn sure never would've danced with the devil—at nineteen. And the God's honest truth is that the pain was heaven.

—•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•—

As you'd expected, the land was a wasteland. Bodies from all sides were piling up in heaps, an expected sight to see when cowards send their brainwashed soldiers into the battlefield. Thanos—the purple tyrant you'd heard all about had yet to show himself, likely lying in wait for the perfect moment to strike. His minions in his ear while you are sat in a tree, because you were the secret weapon today.

Once Vision's metal clanked against the ground you smirked inappropriately; it was showtime.

Watching from the tree you honestly wished you had some popcorn to enjoy this show, and with the wave of your hand you suddenly did. Everyone who'd ever wronged you was having their asses handed to them; as they deserved, and it pleased you to allow it to happen for the short period of time before you joined them.

Thanos stopped in his tracks when you were now standing before him, he blinked a few times, then to everyone's shock he kneeled before you., "Y/N Y/L/N, what an honor it is to meet the woman who can bend reality to her whim.," he rose again and looked to you with a smug smile., "Pity that you'd fight on the losing side here though, why not join me instead?"

"Go on.," you humored the freakish alien in a tone that offered interest, a twinge of pride hitting you when your old team collectively gasped at your potential betrayal., "We'd be twice as powerful together and could lay waste to this populous of weaklings. Start anew even. Live in a world where those who've wronged us along the way could be put in their place."

Wanda and Natasha shared a worried glance from across the field when you said nothing. You simply stood there with a pensive stare, as if you were genuinely considering his offers. There was no reason for them to expect your loyalties anymore after they fabricated theirs. Still, a part of them believed you'd deny him, more so though they'd hoped you still cared.

"Tempting...," you mused., "Sadly not enough though, don't take it too personally, but I've learned that I'm better off working alone.," and with the simple flick of your wrist the titan was kneeling before you., "That's right Thanos, bow before me like the trash that you are, only a coward uses their powers so wickedly.," you chuckled when the man tried to get back up, but your pure power overruled his stones.

"Real revenge comes in showing the people who'd wronged you that they no longer have a place in your world, that they don't matter, and quite frankly that they never fucking did.," you spat so venomously in the titans face you'd think it was him who broke you, but you knew you were loud enough that they all heard you.

"Sounds a bit personal child, all the more of a reason for you to join me on my conquests!"

"You don't get it.," you laughed exhaustedly., "Suffering doesn't end with your plans of a more controlled version of genocide Thanos. It'll only breed a new kind, and I have no intention of letting you take away what I have found for myself out there in this cold world."

"I have more power in my finger than you do with that gauntlet.," you clarified., "Yet I have enough self control to know that the workings of the world aren't mine to control.," you then chuckle., "Well, in a technical sense I guess they are, but I don't interfere with the plights of men anymore—they're on their damn own."

Thanos looked to you tiredly., "They're all too stupid to understand that this is the way to go! Seems you are just as dumb Y/N—what a pity. The world requires order, and I'll restore it!"

"No, you actually won't.," the gauntlet that once contained his bulky hand crumbled before his very eyes., "You're going to pay for this!"

"Yeah?," you snort., "How do you reckon that?"

He said nothing but you tracked his eyes, the army of his wasn't anywhere close to dead, but he gasped when with just the wave of your hands they began to dematerialize into dust., "Well, no matter—I don't break my promises, trust me child, you will be made to pay! I swear to it.," you quirked a brow., "Do enlighten me."

Before the egotistical maniac could tell you his newly made plans for vengeance you were being splattered in his alien blood., "That was for the people of Asgard, and for Heimdall and Loki!," you momentarily froze in your place, but after a second you snapped yourself clean of the remnants then quietly vacated the field.

—•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•—

Now that I'm grown, I'm scared of ghosts; Memories feel like weapons, and now that I know, I wish you'd left me wondering....

—•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•—

No one even thanked you as you passed them by, they were too busy rejoicing in the win that they hardly brought to fruition. Well that, but mostly they were also too afraid to face you or the wrath they were rightfully owed by you. Natasha and Wanda let you pass them, but they remained somewhat hot on your trails.

The moment you stepped into the elevator, you leaned your head on the cold wall and sighed. Preparing yourself mentally for their arrival, you truly didn't have enough fight in you to continue running. Especially not when you feared they'd find a way to follow you home. Natasha is a super spy—she'd find you, and Wanda a witch who's unaware of her power, so if there's any will to, you know there's a way that she'd find you. Plus, closure is cool...

"Make it quick.," you greet them with your eyes closed, a shiver running up both of their spines at the chilling acknowledgment., "I'm late."

"Y/N.," Wanda says your name so brokenly, it almost makes you feel bad for the little witch., "We're so sorry, we never meant to hurt you.," welp, there went all of the potential sympathy.

"Oh?," your eyes suddenly pop open, a dark red now encasing them and masking your natural eye color that they once found comforting., "But you see, I actually think you did Wanda."

"No, we didn't Y/N.," Natasha adds in a much harsher tone, potentially regretfully too as you slam the both of them into the metal walls right after. Neither of them even try to fight your hold, they remember from training you that it was no use back then, so to struggle now would just be wasting their energy., “Yes you did.”

“You got off on it, looking back now I can see it clearly.,” you chuckle humorlessly., “Those glances you two would share after a good fucking done by yours truly, they spoke of love, but when you would shift to look at me, they would darken, I mistook the predatory lust in your hypnotizing eyes for love; how naive.”

Not that they really had much to say in their defense—that you’d believe, to negate your claims, but even if they did wish to defend themselves they couldn’t speak passed the zippers that had materialized on their lips.

“I see the way you two looked at me all day, your fucking traitorous eyes trailing over my ass.,” you slammed your fist into the metal besides Nat’s face., “The way Nat here couldn’t stop staring at my tits like she had any right!,” you seethed., “You two are fucking disgusting.”

“But I get it.,” you smirked, then traced over the features of Wanda’s face., “Must be so exhausting with little old pillow princess Nat.”

The glare the blonde sent your way only made your body shake with laughter, it was anything other than funny really—but it is what it is., “Don’t try to ignore the truth Natalia, the only time you did shit was when Wanda gave you a magical dick to fuck me with, you’d go feral.”

“Fucking your babies into me as you’d both say. Fantasies of impregnating me really had you two on one, I’d cry out for reprieve but it never mattered what I wanted.,” you gripped them both by their chins., “Did it?,” you dug your nails into their skin., “Did you care at all?”

Both of their eyes brimmed with tears, your sudden drop into vulnerability cracking their guilty hearts right open., “It hurt to be used like that, then left to waddle back to my room shortly after.,” you sniffed., “That’s the night I realized that I meant nothing to you both, and three days later you solidified it with rocks.”

Natasha began to thrash against your hold, it was clear your words angered her, and you saw how Wanda’s hands trembled as she sobbed. With the wave of your hands their ability to speak was restored., “How can you say that?,” the blonde cried out., “We loved you Y/N!”

“Impossible.,” you refused to believe the lies.

“No, we really did Y/N/N,” Wanda whimpered, and you only rolled your eyes at the woman., “True love doesn’t exist to break a person.,” you shook your head, then you raised it again to look between the both of them., “That’s all you two ever did to me—you’d built me up, made me promises you never intended to keep. Then you broke me into a million little pieces.”

“You didn’t even give us a chance to talk, you just fucking left!,” Natasha shouted at you., “Oh, you’re telling me the witch and the spy couldn’t find an aimless twenty one year old?,” the both of them clamped their mouths shut as soon as you challenged them with such an honest observation—they had the upper-hand.

“I stayed in a hotel the first few nights, hoping you two would show up to clear up my mind., you pathetically confessed your bitter truth., “But you never showed, I instead saw you two giggling like little school girls as you traipsed around New York with your hands linked, and not a care in the world as my heart shattered.”

The couple shared a deep look of regret that you refused to catch. They remember that day, Wanda even felt you nearby, but they honestly thought you wouldn’t want anything to do with them so they left you in your perceived peace. Now though they see they only caused you more damage flaunting their happiness.

“It was a harsh lesson learned.,” you whisper., “To love without a safety net? Well it’s childish. To trust someone else with your heart? Idiotic. Loving the two of you was my greatest mistake, and in a way almost my smartest decision. Now I know that solitude is safest, so thank you.”

Anything else would be like beating a dead horse, you said all you cared to, and even though you were all crying it went very well. Seeing them at least a bit torn up melted away the last of your resentments for them, but not nearly enough to make any real sort of amends.

“Take care.,” you waved your hand, then before either of them could reach for you, you were gone. Dematerialized right before their eyes, and Natasha was left to catch the love of her life as she stumbled forward in a fit of sobs., “W-we broke that poor girl Nat, sh-she didn’t deserve that.,” the redhead said nothing back, she simply rocked her wife and hummed softly to soothe her very own breaking heart.

The ding of the elevator startled them apart, their limbs were heavy as they went to leave, but just before they reached the door the redhead noticed a white rectangle of sorts on the floor of the lift. Natasha picked up the mysterious photo off the ground as the elevator doors shut again, her mouth instantly agape as she turns to her wife to show her what you mistakenly dropped, and the two of them feel waves of nausea roll through them.

They had to find you...

—•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•—

You're a crisis of my faith

Would've, could've, should've

If I'd only played it safe

—•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•~~~~~~•—

"Hey Y/N/N.," you smiled at the woman, and instantly accepted her warm hug., "Hey 'Ria."

"How were they?," she stared back at you with a teasing smile., "Total menaces.," you matched her knowing smirk when you heard soft gasps followed by the softest pattering of tiny feet., "Nuh-uh! Mama we were good!," Tommy shrieks., "The actual best!," Lilith adds while running into your tired body after her brother.

You hummed in contemplation, settling soft kisses to their sweet faces as you snuggled them even closer., "If you were the best, then can you tell me why you're both still awake?," you stood up, placing each of your four year olds on a hip as you did while waiting for someone to give you a plausible explanation.

"Because...," you watched as your daughters green eyes tracked between you and Maria., "Auntie 'Ria gave us ice cream before bed.," You gasped in a playful show of shock at your daughter's not so quiet whispers., "Traitor!," Maria suddenly boomed, then she launched forward to remove the squirming girl from your grasp so she could attack her with tickles.

A smile overtook your face at the sound of your daughters fading giggles as you watched her disappear with Maria down the hallway. Then you shifted to the boy in your arms slightly concerned., "Why so quiet there my lil love?," he sniffled lightly., "My tummy hurts mama."

"No more ice cream for my little man before bed then, hm?," he nodded against you, a yawn shortly following the gesture., "Let's get you some medicine for your tummy and water."

Maria walked by the kitchen with a proud smile., "Lil's in bed all tucked in.," she hugged the two of you quickly before kissing your son's temple in a show of goodbye., "Thanks 'Ria!," she winked from the door., "You saved my life, so I watched your tiny gremlins; we're even."

Tommy winced as the pink liquid offended his tastebuds, but nonetheless he took it like a champ., "Mama's bravest boy.," you coo'd while tilting the glass of water for him as he was a bit too tired to do it himself., "Ready for bed honey?," he nodded then reached for you, and you happily pulled him back onto your hip.

Then just as you went to carry him to bed there was a loud set of knocks on your door., "Shit."

They were recognizable taps to say the least, and absolutely unwarranted to say the truth. You were hoping it was Maria having forgotten something, but that was only wishful thinking.

"We know you're in there.," your son looked at you with furrowed brows and heavy eyes, and if not for his tired concern you'd have groaned., "I know you know I'm in here..."

After taking a few calming breaths, and smiling reassuringly at your son you opened the door.

"Mommy!," your son gasped, and in a split second he was bouncing into Wanda's arms, and you could see the emotions rising up in her at the actual acknowledgment from your son. Mad as you are at the couple you did always feel a bit guilty for keeping them apart from the twins, but it wasn't safe, and you had every right to take your time growing up and healing.

Natasha looked a bit sad when you looked to her, you saw her tightly gripping your polaroid from their second birthday, and that's when you realized exactly how you were found out, and that she was clearly looking for her mini me. Mouthing to her you let her know she was asleep, and to your shock she smiled at you instead of harshly glaring over this 'betrayal.'

"Mama! Look.," you tore your attention from the blonde to meet your son's gaze., "They're here! Does that mean the world is all saved?!," You chuckled lightly., "I think it does Tommy."

"Come on in...," you relented, allowing the couple to enter, and rubbing at your temples., "Make yourself at home, I'll make the coffee..."

—————

[rynbeerose]

Someone probably had made something similar to this before but here we go:

John Price and Simon Riley’s ‘odd’ friendship

John Price knows with the job he has and how it takes most of his time, that he can’t handle a committed relationship with a civilian. He saw how it was for his parents (his dad was also in the military) and how his mum struggled from being a single parent most of the time because his dad wasn’t around much in his childhood so he doesn’t want to be with someone just to put them in his mum’s position.

The thought of having someone is great, most of the men his age in his unit are married or at least in a long term relationship with civilians, some of them even have children.

Some who aren’t in a relationship usually would hang out together after their shift, going to the pub to drink or watch football games. But most of them are in their twenties, and the ones who are his age are divorced. John doesn’t feel like he fits with the younglings, so he usually hangs with people his age listening to their ramblings about their kids or ex wives, or some women they’ve been seeing after their divorce. Not always fun.

That’s why he’s stuck to Simon, the only man around his age who doesn’t seem to ever have any relationship either. The two are close and would go to the pub together after their shift. He enjoys drinking with Simon because he doesn’t talk much, even though they would get stares from the other patrons at the pub for Simon’s habit of wearing his balaclava mask everywhere, it doesn’t bother John.

Simon actually prefers staying in his quarters after his shift, he’s an introvert after all. He doesn’t really like going out to the pub with the other lads because they can get very loud, asking questions, trying to make him talk more, trying to make him break his character, trying to make him open up, it’s annoying. But not with John.

John isn’t an introvert, he’s a very social person. He has always been friendly with everyone around the base, kind of the opposite from Simon. He’s only a few years older than Simon, he was there when Simon first got into the regiment, and he was there when the incident that made him the way he is now happened. The two never had any conversations about emotions or feelings, or those mental issues stuff, but for some reason, they kind of just understand each other. Maybe because no matter how tough and stoic John might look, he’s actually pretty empathetic. And they just bonded, they have high trust for one another.

So, that’s why, even though Simon prefers staying in after his shift, he almost never says no when John invites him for a drink or just to hang out at the pub. John knows that they don’t have to converse, never forcing Simon to talk. He’d start small conversations though, asking how his day went, how stuff has been, but he never forced the conversation to keep going if it stops. John doesn’t find the silence to be awkward, and Simon appreciates that he let it be just like that.

Other people might find them odd, though. They’d sit together and drink, not talking to each other most of the time. Maybe because they’re both big men, one wears a scary mask and the other looks like he’s been through a nonexistent divorce. Even their friends at base find the pair odd. But, that’s just their friendship.

[underdark-dreams]

Hello! I would first like to thank you for getting me into the Rolan boat, this arrogant emotionally-constipated (affectionate) wizard has taken over my mind and he is all I think about now.

That being said, I was wondering if you would be able to do a rolan x tav like a few years or even a decade into their relationship? Does settling into Sorcerous Sundries and becoming a better mage make Rolan softer? How is he connecting with the rest of the magic community (I am personallya Rolan and Gale rare books reading club supporter) What would be some of the major long term disagreements in their relationship and how do you think they would work through it? What would this man's ideal 'happily ever after' look like?

Thank you so much!

This was great food for thought! 🖤 Thank you so much!

I kind of want to work on future Rolan x Tav as its own little standalone fic, because that idea is so sweet—but here are some headcanons on that & all these other what-ifs. Apologies that they're a bit jumbled, I can't concentrate when Rolan

Rolan loves his tower! He definitely feels the weight and responsibility of being the new steward for all this collected research and knowledge. But he also loves that he can go through his books and satisfy his curiosity whenever he wants, after so long yearning for someone to teach him and nurture his magic. He learns to do that for himself

I think the big thing that will soften and kind of humble him over the years will be once he accepts that personal growth will never stop. There is not a mystical point X where he could stand and say, did it, I have reached the pinnacle of archwizardry. He learns how to stop rushing forward and enjoy other things in life, most of all his relationship with Tav.

Once all the Absolute business is finally settled, Rolan will definitely want to lock that down. It doesn't need to be a legal marriage per se, but he is extremely committed to the relationship & wants the same from them. If he had his way Tav would have moved in yesterday. He's ready to wake up next to them for the rest of his life. Buys a house in the city right beside his old place where Lia and Cal still live & can't wait to merge his found family with his new family. His happily ever after is being surrounded by the people he loves and watching them thrive, especially when it's because of him. Having the capacity to care for Tav and Cal and Lia makes him incredibly fulfilled.

Some big potential sources of conflict in his and Tav's relationship:

Jealousy and insecurity. Rolan has some deep abandonment issues from his past, so if he ever felt like Tav was straying emotionally or making him jealous on purpose, that would really hurt his trust. Deep down he needs to know they love him, and hear it once a day preferably

Control issues/willfulness. Older brother mode activated. Rolan likes to do things his way and is very stubborn and proud about conceding to others. He does see Tav more as his equal, unlike his little siblings, but it's hard for him to translate that into actions. There will be a lot of fights over any big decisions where he & Tav disagree. Part of working through it would probably mean Rolan confronting why he needs to control things so badly (growing up without much control over anything in his life maybe? Hmm). He would genuinely benefit from therapy & from learning how to translate all his feelings into constructive words. Being with someone who would stand up to him would really benefit Rolan in the long run, though.

In the magical community: He's got a reputation as a rebel amongst the wizarding community, because 1) he's very much self-taught which is pretty unusual, and 2) not everyone approves of how freely he hands out information about the Weave, casting, etc to the curious younglings who visit his tower. Of course he'd never let anyone get into anything too powerful unsupervised, but after his experience with Lorroakan and realizing that this famed so-called archmage was actually just an idiot who stole everything from more powerful mages, he's like. The strict apprentice system can kinda get fucked honestly. He just doesn't agree that the basics of magic should be kept behind lock and key. Becomes a sort of magical literacy advocate. Let the children read

You might be surprised at how patient this man can be with children by the way! Lots of little magical prodigies hanging around Master Rolan's tower whenever he lets them. He'll kind of scowl to intimidate them into behaving themselves, but inside he loves to see curious minds reading and learning. As a primarily self-taught wizard, he also has an excellent grasp of pedagogy and how to describe concepts in a way a beginner would understand. He puts together his own beginner's magical textbook over the years. Holding the first printed copy in his hands is probably one of the proudest moments of career

To Rolan, Gale's reputation definitely precedes him at first—even before the events at the Grove he knew the name Gale of Waterdeep. Rolan is younger and admires Gale's skill a lot, so in the beginning of their professional relationship he's a bit intimidated. But you know Gale, he is friendly and endearing from the get go. Rolan often thinks if he'd had a teacher like Gale in his youth, he could have nurtured his magical skills much earlier.

Definitely, definitely also subscribe to the Rolan/Gale book club! They become kindred spirits in that regard over the years. Gale makes a visit to Rolan's tower to inform him of this fascinating manuscript that has just surfaced in Evereska, and Rolan is like "Really? I thought the Fae destroyed that centuries ago…" and the two of them just sort of wander off in conversation. Not to reappear for hours. Probably plotting like naughty children over a bottle of wine about how they are going to get their hands on the Ancient Forbidden Book without Tav finding out

[submasbrainrot]

heads up!

(this ended up getting long so here's a summary: i'm taking a break from drawing but will still be posting new stuff daily for at least another week, i'll probably decide next weekend what to do after that.)

---

hi everyone! so i think i'm gonna take a little break. i'm still going to keep drawing! just not every single day. might pick it up the daily thing again later if i'm feeling motivated, but for now i'm not going to draw unless i actually have an idea i want to make.

honestly i'm really sad to break my streak of daily drawing that lasted like seven weeks straight but lately it's kind of felt like i'm picking up my tablet just to keep up that streak and not because i actually feel like drawing, you know?

anyway. there's some good news in that i somehow managed to create a slight backlog (eight drawings of... varying quality) in my drafts so i can keep posting one of those every day and nothing will change in terms of this blog's schedule, at least for another week or so.

...and if i run out completely i might fill in the gaps by reblogging some of my older pieces that i still like? maybe with commentary? haven't really decided yet. might make a poll to see what people would prefer.

have a great day!

[makeastand]

‎‧₊˚✧looking for new long term discord rp partners✧˚₊‧

Hi everyone! I’m not new to roleplaying at all, and am looking for a handful of new writing partners, though I have absolutely no self control and can’t say no to anyone with a good plot. I get too invested in roleplays and can ramble on for days about a rp / character I love.

long ass post alert:

I’m 24 and have been roleplaying for about 10 years now. Please be 21+ before interacting (I will be checking and blocking if not) My time zone is GMT, but I don’t mind where my partners come from. I’ve been having so much inspiration recently and am dying for some new roleplays. I’m a real sucker for writing deep and complex characters, and very much enjoy writing for the plot and character development as opposed to poorly written smut just for the sake of it. If it fits in with the rp I’m happy to write smut, or fade to black, whatever you’re more comfortable with.

I work full time, and stupid hours, so I’m not always about, but I’ll try and let you know what’s going on.

I like writing the male role in MxF, and also love MxM. I love playing multiple characters in a rp, but you’re welcome to play as many or few as you like. The guys I play are pretty well thought out, with lots of depth, background, emotion, and usually a bunch of trauma (so please tell me your limits in advance). All I ask is your character is not dry and impossible to work with. I’m not stupid, and know when I’m being used for my male / dom muses so if you present me with an overly subby character who’s lacking personality, you will be blocked, sorry.

I prefer quality over quantity. Like I said, I can get carried away and write pages upon pages, but if you can only manage a couple of good paragraphs, that’s fine with me. I’ll try and match your length in replies as long as they’re not one liners.

In terms of plot, it would be easier to list the things I don’t love. There are a few plots which have been nagging at my brain recently:

zombie apocalypse

horror

tough guy x soft girl / guy

mafia related

I hate everyone but you trope

victorian era (preferably MxM)

noblewoman x poor man

celebrity x celebrity

haunted house

stripper x gang member

friends with benefits

small town / murder mystery

right people wrong time / ex friends or lovers reuniting

criminal x criminal

AI takeover (DBH style)

older, religious, inexperienced man x man whore

high school

fantasy (werewolves / vampires)

I can’t get rid of these two bullet points below and tumblr is making me violent so I’m going to wrap things up here. I’m going to try and get an updated list with my face claims / oc’s on my blog soon, so watch this space. I’m not one to pick your faceclaim, and you don’t have to use one if they’re not your thing. If you’ve read this far, thank you. Sorry this is so long! Please message me with what plot you’re interested in, because I’m trying not to get shadowbanned again.

[vivalgi]

A new record (at least since I've subbed) for how late the Choices Insiders has arrived. All of Europe is long asleep at this time already and even in California it's past normal working hours. I hope it's not a sign that PB is making its people to work overtime.

Since it was a simple free form answer box I doubt PB will do anything useful with the results, but for anyone curious I named my top 10: Aster, Sloane, Shannon, Nia, Quinn, Danni, Eris, Kamilah, Ava (ILITW) and Charlie (DS).

As weird and cheap as the LIs look and as much as they conform to male LI stereotypes, I wish PB gave us GOC MCs in supernatural/fantasy books rather than in simple chick flicks and soap operas. The premise of an evil ghost chasing you and causing havoc wherever you travel, is interesting enough in itself, but PB probably had to add another contrived connection between female family members. Despite giving us more GOC MCs than a year ago, I feel like PB cares about male players even less these days. Either PB has no idea what its male player base is interested in or just wants to get rid of us because the latter is honestly slowly working.

Be ready for a huge shock in chapter 1 and I'm not talking about the weird diamond hairstyles. I'm not interested in the wedding stuff because it's clearly WLM coded and lavish ceremonies are so not the MC's style. It looks though that the wedding will be set aside to focus on the mystery, so the story shouldn't be too bad.

"For y'all" my ass. Last time I checked Bitten and COP3 were early access books.

I've only managed to finish the first 3 chapters of Alpha so far, so I couldn't care less about the sequel for now.

lol, stop asking for 100 diamond ads to return, it's never gonna happen. By PB's own words 100 ads cost it 30% in revenue and the company is already poor af (EDIT: Series Entertainment just got $28M from investors so PB should be safe for a few years).

Too bad my questions weren't answered again. Are queries about GOC MCs and multiple LIs really that rare?

"In Inheritance, family secrets and cutthroat competition threaten to destroy everything as you fight for your rightful place at the top."

So, according to PB, Inheritance is some high-stakes drama, which sounds pretty interesting. Should it be GOC, it might actually be worth my time.

"In Years Apart, a steamy fling with a younger man takes an unexpected turn when your ex's protégé becomes impossible to resist.

Hah, "younger MAN"! Probably another slip-up from PB, showing how much it gives a sh't about those who prefer female LIs. But damn, now forbidden romances mean even our exes get to dictate who we can date. Why the hell should anyone care what their ex thinks about their new partner? With how close Choices is getting to Chapters with its themes, it won't be long until PB introduces step-family smut.

Although, I've been wondering for long when we'd get a younger LI than the MC. So far they've been either older or at most the same age, which seems to be the general taste of the main audience, so Years Apart is a fresh idea for Choices in that regard. However, I'm pretty sure MLW players weren't in PB's mind while writing this story.

Best Served Haute is a new title but it still doesn't sound like a dystopian story, which the ex-CEO promised us this year. It does sound like another culinary book, since 'haute cuisine' is a valid term. Maybe PB somehow repurposed that cancelled A Taste for Royalty book. There's also a chance it's a fashion book, though culinary theme is still my first guess.

This is nothing new and and since the exact release dates have already been published why not announce them in the Insiders as well? For those who don't know yet, Plus One wide release is in 2 weeks, October 18, and the first chapter of Blades 3 will be available for everyone from November 20.

I looked it up and as suspected, these two are also the chat stories some players got to play in the past. Not my thing though.

All in all, practically nothing interesting and important to me personally. I guess Lucky will have to keep me company while I wait for the wide release of Blades threequel.

[angelsmist]

MEETING THE FAMILY

HBCU!SHURI X READER

prompt: fall break is coming up, and you’re dreading getting shamed about your love life once again by your family. but an opportunity soon opens up when shuri offers to be your fake girlfriend for the week.

contains: fluff, cursing

disclaimers - this is not my idea!! all credits to @/ vargskelegore for hbcu shuri. it is an amazing idea. however, the storyline is mine. also, i would prefer if only black people read this story, simply because it is a reader insert specifically for us. thank you <3

was gonna make this one part but it got too long 💔

“I’m racking up a tab here,” You joked, poking Shuri’s shoulder.

Fall break was coming up soon, meaning that you’d be traveling back to Tennessee to visit your family.

Of course, you loved seeing them and telling them all about your experience but there was one thing, just one little thing that could ruin your entire stay.

Your love life.

For some reason, everyone in your family felt the need to push the idea of a relationship down your throat everytime you saw them. Literally everyone.

You didn’t want to rush a relationship. You preferred to wait for one to find you, as corny as it sounds. But that didn’t stop your relatives from nagging you about whether or not you were still single.

It was exhausting and annoying.

Plus, you knew this one was going to be a handful because your sister blabbed that you were friends with the princess of Wakanda. Not only would they bombard you with questions, they’d also beg you to get into a relationship with her for royal purposes.

It’s not that you didn’t wanna date Shuri. Of course you did. You had finally become aware of your feelings with her that week you spent sharing a dorm with her last month. You had grown to like her, a lot. But you didn’t want her to find out your true feelings by the terms of your family.

And somehow while studying with Shuri, you two found a way to get onto that subject. You figured she was going to Wakanda for the break, so her offer to come with you definitely caught you off guard.

“I’ve already made arrangements to spend all of Winter break in Wakanda,” Shuri informed you. “It would be amazing to get to meet your family.”

“Oh, girl. You don’t know my family, they will have you begging to go back within a day,” You replied, dropping your entire body on Shuri’s pillow. “And when I say I have a big family turnout, I mean big. For most of it, everyone’s doing their own thing with their age group, but at some point during the night my mom somehow fits everyone in the living room for the Cupid Shuffle. You don’t wanna see that.”

She mimicked your action, turning to face you on the bed once she did so. “It’s starting to sound like you don’t want me coming.”

You didn’t want to tell her the true reason why you were skeptical about it, scared that you’d make her uncomfortable. “No! It’s not that. I do want you to come. It’s just…my family has no shame. They’ll try and play cupid the whole time you’re there and just push us together. They might even try and make us share a plate. I don’t bring nobody around my family like that, so you know how that’ll end.”

“Then let’s act like we are already together,” She proposed, calmer than one should be when saying that type of thing.

You tilted your head in confusion. “What?”

“Let’s pretend we’re dating for the week. They can’t make us uncomfortable if we say we’re together,” She explained further. “Problem solved. Now you can’t find any other reasons to stop me from coming.”

“You really not gon’ give up, are you?” You questioned, a smile tugging at your lips. When Shuri shook her head, you finally caved in. “Ight, fine. But you better be the best fake girlfriend to ever exist.”

“It would be my honor.”

“Hey, Jada. We’re like three minutes away,” You updated your older sister, entering your neighborhood that was oh-so-familiar. “How big is the turnout so far this year?”

You and Shuri were running about two hours late from when you initially said you were getting there. But, knowing your family, they’d all be late as hell too.

“Almost everyone is here,” She answered, earning a gasp from you.

Shuri looked away from the road momentarily out of curiousness. You didn’t notice.

“Almost everyone? Last thanksgiving it took a whole five hours for at least half of us to be there.”

“Yeah, well, everybody’s eager to see this princess of Wakanda you’re bringing. I still think your ass is playing, but I guess I’ll see in a minute. Wait, do I gotta bow or some shit?”

“No! Don’t do that,” You rushed to answer, still trying to remain vague so Shuri wouldn’t know what you were talking about. “Just be normal.”

“Ohh, got it.” With that, she hung up just as you and Shuri pulled into the driveway of your home. You missed it. As annoying as your family could be, seeing them brought you a tremendous amount of comfort. You turned to Shuri when she finally parked.

“I wanna warn you to be careful. My family is a safety hazard, and I’m being deadass. So, I can’t confirm that you’ll survive an entire week,” You warned, only half-joking.

Shuri let out a laugh that radiated comfort and warmth, which helped you loosen up a little. “I’m sure I can handle what they throw at me.”

By the time you two exited the vehicle, your sister was already waiting outside of the door, looking to see if it truly was princess Shuri that came with you. Once she registered that it was, her jaw dropped. Quickly.

She rushed over to the two of you who were getting your suitcases out of the trunk. Instead of assisting you with yours, like a normal, good sister would do, she helped Shuri, a polite smile on her face.

“It’s so nice to meet you, princess Shuri!” She greeted, a smile on her face you could see right through.

Shuri, however, could not and returned the smile. “Thank you, it’s nice to meet you too, Jada. But please, just call me Shuri.”

“Alright, Shuri. Both of you come on. They’re all inside waiting for you guys.”

Your sister jogged ahead of you and Shuri to lead the way, and the princess used that as the opportunity to turn to you. “I’m beginning to think you were just being a little dramatic when describing your family.”

You held a hand to your heart, fake gasping. “Don’t start. You’ve only met my sister. It gets worse.”

Shuri laughed once again as your sister opened the door to your home. During the long car ride, you taught Shuri the name of as many people as possible that were coming as far as you knew, and supplied her with pictures. You just hoped she had good memory.

Upon entering your home, your little brother and younger cousins swarmed Shuri like moths to a flame. She began to get ambushed with inquiries.

“Is it true you’re dating my sister?”

“If you two get married will that make us royalty?”

“My mama told me I’m supposed to bow to royalty. Is that true?”

“You’re a lot taller than in the pictures.”

“Can you take me back to Wakanda with you?”

You sent Shuri an apologetic look before grabbing her luggage along with yours and making a pathway for the kitchen.

You were greeted with the sight of your mom, two of your aunts, and one of your uncles.

They immediately paused their cooking to embrace you at once, practically strangling you.

“(Name), finally! It feels like years since I’ve last seen you,” Your mom spoke excitedly.

“Ma, it’s literally been, like, two months.”

Your aunt took the suitcases from your hands. “I’ll get these to your room. When I get back, you better introduce me to this princess you’re dating.”

“Speaking of, where is she?” Your other aunt tapped her foot. “Nah, don’t worry, I’ll find her myself. You don’t mind watching the chicken, right?”

Before you could reply, she was already out of the kitchen, along with your mom, leaving you with just your uncle who couldn’t stop laughing.

You walked over to him and noticed he was preparing the mac n cheese. “The hell just happened?”

“You brought royalty inside the house,” He began, pulling you into his side for a hug. Kissing the top of your head, he continued. “What did you expect?”

He was right. You brought a princess from the richest nation in the entire world, so it made sense that they’d be more excited to see her than you. Still kinda stung, though.

“I can watch the food while you say hi to everyone else,” He offered, taking notice of your lowered spirit.

You sent him an incredulous look. “All this food?”

“Don’t make me change my mind.”

Without another word, you made your way out of the kitchen and into the living room where your dad and the rest of your uncles were, as per usual.

Your dad momentarily looked away from the sports game he was watching to smile at you. “Hey, babygirl. Come here.”

Your uncles muttered greetings as well, still focused on the game like they always do. You walked over to your dad, smiling widely as he pulled you into his chest. Just like everyone else, though, he had questions.

“So, who’s this princess you brought into my house?” He questioned, furrowing his eyebrows. “I hope she’s treating you right.”

“She is,” You confirmed.

“Good,” He said. “When she comes over here, we’ll have to question her just to make sure.”

“Dad!” You raised your voice an octave. Tilting your head with irritation dripping in your town. With a sigh, you brushed your hands off. “Imma be in my room, kay?”

You hoped your room would be the same as you made your way upstairs. It usually was, but your mom liked to switch up things every once in a while when she felt like it, so you never did know what to expect when you visited your home.

Thankfully, it looked the same when you entered. Before leaving for college, you had given it a makeover so it would be something you liked whenever you visited.

Your walls were a shade of gray that looked purple depending on how close you were to it, and your desk was still a mess, with scattered records that went with your record player.

You had a few posters up that consisted of artists like SZA, H.E.R, Brent Faiyaz, The Weeknd, pretty much all the good stuff.

Above your desk, there were those polaroid things of celebrities, shows, characters, and movies like you liked. You never did figure out what they were actually called, so you stuck to “polaroid things”.

Your LEDs kept attracting bugs for some reason, so you started using fairy lights. They were on when you entered your room, so you figured that your mom turned them on before you arrived.

You took a vinyl from your stack, placing it gingerly onto your record player. It was so loud downstairs, you couldn’t even hear the music they were playing. As soon as you shut your bedroom door, it felt peaceful. The loudness became muffled and soon began to drown out when Brent Faiyaz began to flood your ears.

You closed your eyes as your head dropped onto your pillow. You missed this feeling. Of course, you loved college. But you got homesick every once in a while, and times like these made you miss your high school days.

Then, your mind drifted to Shuri. You felt sort of bad for leaving her by herself with your family, but she was the one who said she could handle it.

God, you were lucky to have her. You hadn’t taken anybody back home with you whenever there were breaks, and Shuri offered to come with you almost immediately when you didn’t even ask her to. Not to mention, she agreed to be your fake girlfriend for the time being. Although, you did hope that eventually you could take her as your real girlfriend.

It was silent for maybe a minute when you heard knocking on your door. You hoped that ignoring it would make whoever it was go away, but they remained persistent.

“Man, what the fuck do you want?” You snapped by the third knock, expecting it to be your brother or sister behind the door. You continued to curse as you made your way to the door. “If I ignore your ass twice after you knock, why the hell do you think it’s smart to knock again? Y’all are-oh!”

You were greeted by a guilty Shuri who sent an awkward smile your way. “Sorry…”

Your eyes went wide. “No, I’m sorry! I thought you were one of my siblings. That’s my bad, come on in.”

With a chuckle, she entered your room and plopped down onto your bed, waiting for you to do the same. Just as expected, you sat next to her.

“So, how were they?” You spoke first.

“Well, they were…interesting. But, they are very entertaining. Especially the teenage ones. They are bold.”

“Did one of them try to flirt with you?” You had expectancy in your eyes. Shuri nodded. “That was probably Serenity. That girl certainly knows what she wants.”

“And the men in your house are…protective. I felt like I was being interrogated,” She explained. “I think I passed their test.”

“That’s good!” You encouraged, another giggle threatening to leak through your words.

“My personal favorite were the ladies. They were funny. They kept trying to get pictures, though.”

You gave Shuri a smile in response. “They like you. That’s a big thing, actually. My family has never really liked any of my exes, so you’re doing real good for a fake girlfriend.”

“That is good to hear.”

You brushed a curl out of your face, placing your hand in your lap. “Thank you for this, by the way. I never really bring anyone with me since my family can be a handful, but the fact that you haven’t ran out of the house hysterically screaming yet definitely makes me feel better.”

Shuri scratched the back of her neck, bringing it back down to your bed. However, you had moved your hand from your lap to your bed as well. When your hands touched, you noticed immediately, but it seemed like Shuri didn’t, so you didn’t move an inch. “Let’s call it even. You know, for all your help with adjusting to college. I don’t thank you enough. It did a lot for me.”

The distance between you two seemed to be getting smaller and smaller, but you were sure it was all in your head. It wasn’t though, and that soon became clear when her eyes flickered down to your lips.

Oh.

“Hey, ma wants us for pict-” Your sister paused when she realized it was both of you in there. The two of you jumped apart as soon “Shit, was y’all about have sex?”

“Gir- no. We was not about to have sex,” You denied. “Go away. We’ll be downstairs in a sec.”

“You sure? You got the lights off and the music playing…is that Brent Faiyaz?”

You chucked a pillow at her head that she dodged with ease. You picked up another. “Get out, or I swear I won’t miss your annoying ass this time.”

Your sister listened this time, exiting the room and closing the door behind her.

You stood up from the bed, turning to Shuri and holding a hand out. “Pictures are the worst part. But all you gotta do is smile and nod, and you’ll be okay.”

Shuri pinched the bridge of her nose before taking your hand. “Bast…”

[rottenbrainstuff]

Don't you guys love it when I unearth the most random unrelated niche bullshit and then ramble about it incoherently for you all to read?

The latest thing giving me the dopamine hit atm is a silly otome game called Love & Deepspace, details of which mercifully hidden for you below the cut:

A friend of a friend recommended this game to me and it's turning out to be surprisingly fun. I'm impressed by how little content is paywalled or monetized. Like, I wouldn't mind dropping a little money on the game cause I'm enjoying it, and I HAVE spent a couple bucks here and there on items, but it doesn't really give you a huge advantage in the long term over someone who is playing it for free and that’s kind of surprising. (My god though this game is fucking chonky. If it keeps needing to download stuff I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to play….)

Unlike some other otome games where you have very clear relationship paths with the focus on one single person, here you develop relationships with everyone sort of all at once. I know some people like that, but I personally don't prefer it - it seems even in video games I am too monogamous to have multiple boyfriends at once. I started out focusing on Zayne, cause the older and more serious kuudere character is the one I tend to like in the silly games like this, but then Sylus popped up and now I have abandoned Zayne, I'm so sorry babe, it’s not you, it’s me.

Sylus is very much giving me vibes that the devs all had a design meeting and said "oh the girlies really fucking like Astarion from BG3 right now, why don't we make a copy of that, we could make him the tsundere criminal antagonist character or something?" One of the audio stories has the MC teasing him about looking/acting like a vampire and that's so funny, the devs absolutely knew what they were doing. Hilariously, one of the Sylus-specific custom titles you can win is a nickname I used to have back in the dinosaur days when I was in college, and I find that endlessly amusing. I like how he complains you're in the way if you get too close to enemies in combat - I will choose to interpret this as protectiveness, and it suits me just fine anyways cause I can't fucking dodge properly, and prefer to shoot shit from a distance.

Sorrrrry but I find the english audio way too cringe (particularly Sylus' VA?... sorry) so I have been playing it with the japanese audio. (because I understand a little japanese, and perhaps because I want to shame myself for not practicing at all in the last couple years) I'm sure the japanese audio is no less cringey to native japanese speakers, but the point is that *I* cannot tell. And you see, it increases my vocabulary of useless words I will never need to use - for instance this week I learned the word for "gun". I also like to note the translation choices where the audio and the subtitles don't match up, I find it interesting, like little easter eggs. In this case my understanding is the game was released in Chinese first, so instead of comparing a translation to an original, I am comparing one translation to another translation, but I still find it amusing. (Pie the fox is called “six dumplings” in Japanese)

I enjoy the little details... Sylus is very good at the card game and I can almost never win, Zayne is ridiculously easy to bully into swapping cards and I almost never lose. Sylus sucks at the crane game to the point where it's ridiculous (or maybe I just have bad luck???) but Zayne cheats and uses ice and wins a lot - myeh I dunno. It's cute, I'm easy to please, it's making my brain happy.

The fine details of the story are a bit incomprehensible and the interface takes a little getting used to. I do appreciate all the moving parts here, the story and the collectible content and the combat and everything, but it's a little bit humorous how all the bits don't overlap tidily, for instance I am getting event-related texts that are giving away spoilers for things I haven't learned in the main story yet. And Sylus' separate chapters popped up I think after I finished the ... second main story chapter? And it begins with mentions of a serious disaster that happens in the main story that I hadn't read about yet. It's funny though, just funny. I just got access to protocores and now everything is a million times more complicated. I have no idea why dumb shit like this releases the dopamine in my brain but whatevs. I dunno. If you found this post through a tag search feel free to jabber at me about this game, these little niche things I find, I have so few people I can talk about them with. Every once in a while I will holler my thoughts out into the void here. Blah blah blah. Etc.

[doueverwonder]

The Visit

Y'all guess who's back to writing (finally); everyone say thank you to @hetagrammy for talking to me about IreNor which made me want to write again and for beta reading; she is a person of many talents.

Welcome back to world building the fics, couple of notes + human names;

Because I can I hc Faroe and Iceland as Norway & Ireland's kids; Alisdair has right to be worried he's not just an asshole.

Alisdair = Scotland Molly (or Máire) = Ireland Sigurd = Norway Ida = Faroe Islands

TW: for references to domestic/sexual abuse (character accusing another of it, nothing is actually happening)

ao3 link here

~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been too long since Alisdair had seen his sister, a couple decades at least. He didn’t even know where she was living, what she was up to, if she were even alive. When you knew as many people as centuries of life could afford you it was easier to find someone though, he assumed she was living in an abbey still; which one he wasn’t sure but that was his first guess to start looking. That was the clue he had given: his sister Máire, she lived in an abbey, made her living writing manuscripts. Even threw in her goldsmithing hobby, and a rough description based off the last time he had seen her. As he was sure there were a thousand Máire’s who helped write manuscripts in Ireland alone.

This wasn’t what he expected, out of all the places in Ireland, Dublin, a viking settlement, was the last place he expected to find her. He had heard of the city, which seemed to be a rather large hub for the Scandinavians now. He couldn’t believe how many boats were in the harbor, they lined up endlessly. He remembered one of the last conversations he had with her, he had half begged her to stay away from the coasts; convinced himself the farther inland she was the safer she would be. As usual anything he, or Dylan, asked of her spurred her to do the absolute opposite. Considering this is where she was living maybe Arthur had asked her to stay away from the coasts as well, she would happily let herself get captured if it meant spiting Arthur. 

He kept his head down, not wanting to draw attention with all of them around here. Reasonably he didn’t trust these people, he had already lost Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, and Sutherland; not to mention the Isle of Mann. Four girls and a boy, all fathered by the Norse personification and promptly left behind. It wasn’t uncommon for nations to leave their children in their own land until they were older; didn’t mean he had to like how recklessly he had them; nor did it mean he couldn’t feel bad for the bairns.

He came to the house he had been told; it took far longer than he expected, and had to go through what seemed half the clergy in the country before someone knew where she was. Only finally finding out from a priest that seemed ten years too old to be alive, but here he was. It was on the outside of the city, a small house looking like it wasn’t made to be a long term shelter, there was a small area of farmland around it. He opened the gate making sure to close it behind him so the chickens that milled about wouldn’t get out. A cat sat on top of an overturned crate, gazing over him lazily. That surprised him, Molly had never been much of a cat person preferring dogs, said they were more useful. 

He dusted himself off as he stood at the door, he didn’t need Molly immediately scolding him over his appearance. He knocked heavily, she tended to daydream and not hear things too lost in whatever she was doing. He didn’t want to just walk in either lest he scare her, or he had the wrong house. The wrong Máire. He hoped not. 

The door opened, he smiled expecting his sister. Expecting for her to throw herself into his arms for a hug, they had never been apart for so long he was so excited to see her. His face fell, instead of his sister stood a man, just barely taller than him, blond with blue eyes, dressed as a northmen. The Northman, Sigurd, the source of all his troubles stood in front of him. Molly must have been here, it was too much of a coincidence there is no way he was here and she was not at some point. 

“Where is she” 

“No hello?” it infuriated him how calm the other was, Sigurd was always infuriatingly calm, even when facing Alisdair. 

“Where is my sister?” Alisdair started again, his voice firm but loud, “Where is Molly? What have you done with her, you heathen?!” he spat the word in his face. 

Sigurd looked upset, but was nowhere near losing his temper as Alisdair was, “She is fine, and I do not–” 

“She can not be fine if you are in her house I–” Alisdair stopped, a small voice, clearly inquisitive, asking something. He looked down, a child no older than four, maybe five clung to Sigurd’s leg. He was going to brush her presence off, Sigurd had plenty of bastards, all of which deserved to hear the truth about their father regardless of age. His gaze lingered on her just long enough for her to look up at him. He froze suddenly, the girl was blonde and blue eyed, just as her father was; but the shape of her face, the way the frizzy curls framed her face… that was Molly. Sigurd must have noted his new interest and he shooed her away. Alisdair’s trance broke as he watched her go. 

“Where is my sister?” he demanded again, this time peering over Sigurd’s shoulder trying to see into the house. He wanted to see the girl again, he wanted to see her closer, that had to be his sister's child. 

“I already told you” He stepped to the side to block Alisdair’s view, “She is fine, why are you looking for her?” 

“I’m not allowed to see her?” 

“I didn’t say that” 

“Then where is-” 

“Sigurd? Who’s at the door?” He froze, moments away from pushing the other man out of the doorway to get into the house. The voice was Molly's. He needed to see her, he needed to know she was okay, he needed her alone, he needed to know she wasn’t being kept with him against her will. 

Sigurd stepped to the side so Alisdair could see in the house, Molly came into view and seeing her face took some of his anxiety away knowing she was okay. Knowing she seemed unhurt. The relief was short-lived, his eyes fell on the small girl he had just seen now rested on her hip, he froze seeing her swollen stomach. 

Molly froze, she just stared at him for a moment, he tried to decide if that was a good thing or not.  “Alisdair!” the hesitation morphed into an almost forced looking smile, there was a panic in her eyes that he knew shouldn’t be there. “I thought I heard your voice, but I didn’t want to hope too much!” 

She moved as quickly as she could over to him, she handed the child to Sigurd and hugged Alisdair tightly, his eyes didn’t move from Sigurd, he put his arm around Molly not in a hug, but as if he were trying to protect her. It was impossible to not assume what he was, the stories he heard, the things he had seen, he wanted him dead. Everything played out in his head, he couldn’t touch him while he was holding her; the girl was at no fault for her fathers actions. 

Molly let go of him, though she stayed close, smiling up at him. “I swear it seems you’ve gotten older since we last saw each other, you have to tell me everything, how are you? How are Arthur and Dylan?” 

He opened his mouth to answer, but every thing that came to mind had to do with what was in front of him. Her smile wavered, she was always good at knowing what he was thinking, “Silly me, you’re probably exhausted, come in, come in, we can talk later” she hugged him again quickly, this time taking the chance to whisper “wait til Ida goes to bed” 

He tensed once she let go, swallowing heavily, he assumed Ida was the girl. He nodded, but put his gaze back on Sigurd. He couldn’t help but take note of how heavily Molly kept her grip on him as she pulled him into the house, how she kept her distance from Sigurd, how she had whispered instead of asking aloud. Every instinct screaming to get Molly and Ida away from him. But he stayed quiet as Molly took her daughter back from Sigurd. 

“Mo réaltín,” Molly held the girl up a bit to be closer to eye level with him, “meet your uncle Alisdair.” 

~~~~~~~~~

The sun had set long ago, Alisdair sat watching his sister, Molly looked exhausted, her head rested on Sigurd’s shoulder, his arm around her. It infuriated Alisdair, he hadn’t gotten an answer yet, he hadn’t been given reasons to not kill Sigurd where he stood. If he threw him in the sea, it would take him longer to come back. The only punishment Alisdair could see fit for what he had done to her. 

“She’s long asleep” Alisdair commented, hoping to spur the conversation. He had spent all day with the small girl going on about all the things she liked (playing tag with the children down the road, the pictures in the windows at church, when her father told her stories about the gods); her favorite foods (pickled fish among them); the names of all the chickens (though she noted she preferred the sheep). It was easier to talk to the niece he didn’t know existed, ignore how she had her fathers nose, and her smile was too much like the Danes’. Ignore how she spoke Norse, and stumbled over the bit of Irish she proudly tried to speak to him in. 

Molly sat up a bit, she looked over at Alisdair, “what do we need to talk about?” 

He hesitated, he knew she knew, “can we go somewhere else?” 

“I’ll leave” Sigurd said instead, “I’m not making my pregnant wife go outside at this hour” 

“Wife?” It pissed him off hearing him refer to her that way, he spoke as if Molly weren’t in the room “My sister wouldn’t marry a pagan, much less willingly carry his children.” 

“But she did, and she is, so apparently you don’t know her that well.” Sigurd didn’t move from Molly’s side, he felt he held more power over Alisdair with her in his arms. “And I don’t like what you're implying about me” 

“I’ll say whatever I want about you because I know the truth.” 

“And what is the truth?” 

“I know what you viking are like.” Alisdair stated it plainly, “You show up, and take what you want without asking. That’s what you did with her; you were tired of just trinkets, jealous of your men getting to take whoever they wanted.” 

“Alisdair, sto-” she started but before being able to get anything beyond his name out was cut off. 

“And you knew the best way to make her stay with you was to have something to hang over her head,” he threw one of his hands towards the other half of the house where Ida was asleep, before gesturing to Molly, clearly trying to accentuate her current state. “You would have a dozen children just to keep her with you” 

Sigurd’s face barely changed, but Molly could feel him tense. He sat up straighter, his jaw clenched tight enough she could hear him grinding his teeth to keep himself from saying anything, 

Molly knew Sigurd wouldn’t say anything, he wasn’t a pushover but he wouldn’t want to distress her or wake up Ida either. He would hold his tongue until morning. She stood suddenly, “Alisdair, outside. Now.” She turned to Sigurd, assuring him a small walk wouldn’t kill her. To spite her brother she took his fur with her, pulling the oversized garment over her shoulders as she followed Alisdair outside.

As soon as the door closed behind her she faced him fury in her eyes “What the fuck was that” 

“Molly you don’t have to pretend to—“ 

“I’m not pretending anything!” She huffed loudly, “He is my husband, I love him, he hasn’t done anything I didn’t give him permission to.”

Alisdair was desperate to get her to admit something, anything to prove Sigurd had done something to her, that he wasn’t just being rash. “How do I know you're not saying that because he’s still right there?” 

She huffed stalking off expecting him to follow her, he did right at her heels. Admittedly he was having a hard time keeping up with her, which was embarrassing to admit considering she was at least six months along already. 

They were well out of hearing distance when she started talking again, repeating her earlier statement: “Sigurd is my husband, I love him, he hasn’t done anything without my permission. We didn’t plan Ida, or this baby, but I love being a mother and he’s a wonderful father.” 

A silence fell over them, as they kept walking. Alisdair knew Molly had no reason to lie to him, not when he wasn’t around to hear her. But he couldn’t believe she would fall for him, he couldn’t rationalize with everything that had happened that she would be okay being with him. 

“We can wait a few weeks so he doesn’t suspect, we’ll leave in the middle of the night, I’ll carry Ida so she doesn’t wake up. He won’t know we’re gone until–” he ignored everything she said. He didn’t think she was genuine, something must be wrong. 

“Alisdair.” She stopped suddenly, turning to face him, “I’m in no condition to travel, and even if I was I wouldn’t go with you” 

“I’ll come back for you in a few months then.” 

Molly went quiet looking up at her brother, she didn’t know how to tell him what she needed to. “I’m not going to be here in a few months.” 

“You’re going back to Norway with him?” 

“No. Once summer comes, and once he’s able to go get the rest of his children we’re all leaving for Iceland.” 

“No.” he didn’t even need to think about it, he wasn’t going that far away, he wasn’t letting her go that far from home. He wouldn’t be able to check on her, he wouldn’t be able to come get her if something happened. 

She sighed, “You know that means nothing,” she turned around going back to the house, “I’m going with him, I’m sorry you don’t trust him, but you can’t throw accusations around, especially after he’s been nothing but kind to me” 

“Nothing but kind?” if Alisdair wasn’t so angry he would have laughed. “You call what his people do to you, to me, kindness?” 

Molly stopped, she looked at the ground sighing. She faced him, but didn’t move any closer, “Seventy years ago now there was a raid on the Abbey I was living in. For some reason or another they decided I wasn’t to die with everyone else and brought me here…” 

Alisdair thought he had it, he thought he had his gotcha. That Molly was finally admitting the horrible things he had done to her. 

“Sigurd paid them off and let me go back about my business, not asking anything in return. That is what I call kindness, Alisdair.” Molly sighed, “It’s been too long, because you think I’m stupid now, enough so to let a man manipulate me into things, even if he had forced Ida on me I would have found a way out for both of us. You should know that.” 

Alisdair was taken aback, he hadn’t been trying to imply Molly to not know what she was doing. His assumptions had nothing to do with her, everything to do with him. He just got here, he had only seen her for a day. He thought he would show up and Molly would still be the same as the last time he had seen her, he thought she would still be his little sister and nothing more; he supposes he wasn’t always right though. 

“I know I won’t be able to stop you; but I can’t stay around if you’re going with him.” 

“I can’t say I’m surprised.” They stopped in front of the house, “But I was hoping you would be around when the baby came.” She opened the front gate not looking at him, “you are welcome to stay for a few days, but I expect you to apologize to Sigurd if you do” 

“I’ll find somewhere else then.” 

Molly nodded, “I’ll get your things then, he may not want you in his house if you don’t plan on taking anything back.” 

“Wait.” Molly stopped looking at him, he came here to check on her. She might be insisting she was fine, but he didn’t trust Sigurd, he couldn’t start trusting him just on Molly’s word either. He couldn’t help but feel as though he was admitting defeat, but… “If I apologize you’ll let me stay?” 

“I will,” she shrugged, “But you’ll have to see what he says” 

“I’ll stay, if I’m allowed.”

[more-than-a-princess]

✧ ━━ Romance Headcanons.

Tagged by: Stolen from @electricea! Tagging: Whoever wants to fill this out! Steal it!

Name: Sonia Nevermind

Nickname: Miss Nevermind (Shinobu), Bluebird (Wylan), Dark Queen/Madonna of Darkness/She-Cat (Gundham), Princess (everyone she encounters while not working who wants to get under her skin)

Gender: cis female

Romantic orientation: Sonia is not straight.

That's about as specific as she allows herself to get because regardless of how she identifies, Sonia is not allowed to have a public romantic relationship, much less marry, a woman. While Novoselic does allow gay marriage, adoption for gay couples, and gender-affirming rights and care, the country does not allow for members of the Royal Family to engage in public LGBTQ+ relationships or marriages. The aristocracy tends to follow suit and keeps relationships that aren't heterosexual as affairs, or they marry their partners after the death or divorce of their spouse (preferably after they've produced their offspring).

Additionally, Sonia grew up in a very sheltered lifestyle and wasn't really exposed to people who publicly identified as LGBTQ+ until she was a teenager. As a teen, she still believes she's heterosexual (mostly. Check out her threads with Shinobu to see how that's working out for her) and is an ally to her LGBTQ+ friends. As an adult, she's become more aware that she is indeed Not Straight but struggles with the reality of what being the next monarch entails: she has to produce a biological heir with her spouse in order to keep the monarchy going. So it's hard for her to even consider a relationship with a woman, knowing her responsibilities will eventually hurt her partner.

Her love life and eventual choice of spouse are always so much bigger than her own happiness: it will reflect on her family, the citizens, and the nation, too. It's hard for her to talk about with others, so she mostly copes in private.

Preferred pet names: She's amenable to many of them, as long as they aren't royal or hinting at an aristocratic title: princess, queen, duchess, etc. She will be the first to tell you that having a partner who 'treats you like a princess,' is a Bad Idea, Actually.

Relationship status: Depends on the verse. In all interactions, she's single until a ship is in development. In terms of active ships, I think she's only officially in a romantic relationship with Wylan/ @dcviated right now.

She's in a developing ship with Shinobu/ @quickdeaths, Gundham/ @the-ultimate-muses, Gundham/ @phantasmalnightmare, Ryuji/ @electricea, and I think Lupin/ @scarlxtleaves? All of her other ships haven't had active interactions for quite awhile so I think they're dormant for now.

I do like ships, but I write the most slow-burn of slow-burn romances so I appreciate the muns who enjoy that too! I have romantic ships I'd love to write for her but it's a matter of finding an active writing partner whose style works with mine and is writing a canon or OC muse that I think she'd both be attracted to and would be fun to explore.

Opinion on true love: Sonia wants to believe in it. She's more optimistic about it the younger she is. The older she is and the more romantic attraction and relationships she experiences, the more she's less sure about it. Or at least, less sure about a true love that both satisfies what she's personally looking for in a partner and the responsibility she has as princess to choose a suitable spouse.

Opinion on love at first sight: Sonia was sure this didn't exist. Until the day she met Gundham Tanaka: that was the first and only time she fell for someone at first sight. She can be attracted to someone, yes, but really fall for them? That's a Gundham-exclusive habit.

How ‘romantic’ are they?: Sonia makes an effort to be romantic, because there's so much of her life where she's not allowed to be romantic. Public displays of affection, for one, aren't allowed, especially in her adult years unless it's for a specific purpose (engagement photos, wedding, etc.). Too much affection makes people uncomfortable, or so the Royal Family is raised to believe. So she makes up for it in private: messages to those she loves of encouragement, of admiration, of deep respect and adoration for everything they are. Quality time as soon as she's able to get it. Gifts she hopes they really like. And if they're sharing a bed, she will sleep with her arms and legs wrapped around them. As a child she was always afraid and unhappy when her parents left her behind for business trips or royal appearances that were unfit for children, and so she'd hug her pillow in response for comfort. In relationships, that translates to her partner. Good luck getting up to use the restroom, or use of your arm, once Sonia has locked on.

Ideal physical traits: Chest. Discourse.

Jokes aside, she likes people who are moderately to very physically fit (she wants to snuggle those muscles/chest), more on the taller (or at least above average height) side, and often gravitates towards brunettes or redheads. Also see: pretty goths.

Ideal personality traits: People who are kind to others! Living things of all sorts: are you good with cheering up and/or looking after kids? How about tending to wounded and/or neglected animals? Or volunteering for charities? Yeah, that is very attractive to her.

She also appreciates someone well-read, with a sharp wit, a sense of humor, and often a tender, soft side most people don't usually get to experience and appreciate.

A sense of adventure, an interest in other cultures besides their own, and respects, if not has a personal interest, in her hobbies? Please, leave her your phone number/Instagram/LINE info.

Unattractive physical traits: Sonia isn't usually physically attracted to people shorter and slighter than she is. Same goes for those who are often ill. She just...likes some muscles, ok?

Unattractive personality traits: People who put her on a pedestal/Kazuichi Soda, rude people, bullies, snobs, greed, selfishness, vulgarity, gold diggers, closemindedness, and much of the upper class who embody these traits.

There's a reason why my ideal rivals-to-lovers ship is Sonia/Byakuya Togami.

Ideal date: She's mostly just happy to spend time with the person she loves whenever she gets it!

But Sonia does enjoy: trips to the movies (horror and/or anime, if she's picking the film), visits to the bookstore (will you help her hold her bags because she always buys too much!), exploring a cafe (new or an old favorite. Desserts are a must!), riding every roller coaster and haunted house attraction at an amusement park, basking in the quiet of nature, perusing a city she's either never been before or absolutely loves, investigating haunted locations, and summoning demons.

Do they have a type?: Sonia says she doesn't, I disagree. Her ships tend to fall into one of three categories, and they can be combined:

Witty disasters (if they need to be muzzled because of their teasing or over-the-top flirtation, they belong here)

Muscled himbos/bimbos (applies to all genders. If your muse is sweet and kind but likely isn't going to graduate top of their class but are pretty physically fit, they belong here)

Goths. (This is occupied by Gundham and Shinobu so far)

There certainly have been outliers before, but in general, it's these three categories.

Average relationship length: Barring her first relationship, quite a long time. Sonia usually either marries her partner or they suffer a terribly emotional breakup that she is still, in a way, recovering from. She's not a one-night stand or casual relationships sort of person.

Preferred non-sexual intimacy: Curling up in their lap, sleeping with them, having them curl up in her lap while she strokes their hair, reading to them while interspersing kisses here and there (bonus if the scene is a spicy one), watching a TV show or movie together, eating food her partner has cooked (it is not advisable to do the inverse unless the date is ending at the hospital).

Apparently discussing serial killers in a 50 kilometer radius of their location, seeking out ghosts, and trying to contact demons does not count as non-sexual intimacy but Sonia has yet to accept this.

Opinion of public affection: She wishes she could, she really does! She would love to be able to kiss her partner in public, if just on the cheek, and snuggle in close to their side to keep warm (and feel their arms, let's be real). She would love to pull them close into a hug that lasts just a little too long to be platonic and friendly. She would love to whisper something terribly indecent, only for them to hear and be forced to think about the rest of the day until they are alone.

Instead, there's just a lot of lewd handholding going on. Intertwining fingers, reverent caresses, and maybe a little of looking at her partner's lips and wishing she could taste them right in that moment.

Patience is a virtue.

Past relationships?: You must obtain a certain amount of relationship time and experience with Sonia to unlock this trauma. So far, no one has reached that level (yet).

And in most of her ships, it's presumed she has dated Gundham in the past (except in her ships with Gundham).

Finally, my toxic romantic shipping trait is that our ship will get at least one (1) Taylor Swift song that gives me Their Vibes. This is non-negotiable.

[howl224tgeundying]

Maybe it's just nostalgia, but I miss the GameCube era of gaming. I miss games that came as a whole, no dlc, no extra shit that comes out later, just great games made by people that gave a shit about games for people who gave a shit about them. No lootboxes, no shareholders making the absolute worse decisions for some quick cash but no long term results. Consoles that didn't need internet, didn't need to be "always on", internet gaming lobbies do have their place but I'd prefer it separate from the machine, it's something I'd rather pay, ironically as an addon like DLC for the console, because not everyone wants or needs that.

GameCube holds a special place in my heart more so than the PS2 or the Xbox, it had an amazing roster of games and while some hated on the design, I actually loved it. It was also before Nintendo went for "innovation" which is just shitty mechanics like motion control, you have to dumb down games to make it work because it's just kinda limited.

I feel like if a person or a company ever wanted to make a gaming console that could compete with the big 3 and computers, now would be the time. Return to simpler format, you really don't need a supercomputer to run video games, the PS5 has an insane amount of power to play video games, which again, many older games are ranked in the highest levels of gaming, so just because the hardware is better, does not mean it makes gaming better.

Seriously, I can imagine that you could build a console that sells at 150-200 that can run really good games, pair that with a development team that actually gives a damn about the games and not just the profits, and you have a winning formula because good games will equal profits, something gaming companies seem to have forgotten.

[emoshep]

weird rwby thought that may not make sense but i feel compelled to share.

the conversation surrounding "Monty's vision" and "the way the story was intended to go" has begun to remind me of the conversation surrounding a cancelled Fallout game known today as Van Buren.

explanation after the cut.

for those unaware: Van Buren was the working title for Black Isle's Fallout 3. no, not that Fallout 3, an older one. this Fallout 3 was going to come from the same development house as Fallout 1 and 2, and was going to be more in line with the original isometric Fallout games. long story short: some really shitty Fallout games came out (Brotherhood of Steel being the most egregious offender), Black Isle's parent company went bust, Bethesda at some point gets the property, makes a different Fallout 3 and releases to critical acclaim and shit loads of money. and so, Van Buren was dead and buried.

to quote Noah Gervais, one of the two actually good video game critics on YouTube (obviously just an opinion), "Van Buren haunts the Fallout franchise." now i don't see as much of this nowadays with the passage of time and the interest mostly going to Fallouts 4, 76 and Van Buren's spiritual successor New Vegas. but there was a time when folks would talk about Fallout 3 and there was always that one fucking jackass who just had to butt in and make the conversation about how Fallout 3 isn't "the real Fallout 3." the real Fallout 3 was going to be so much better and more fulfilling than Bethesda's "cheap" action game that "betrayed" the values of the originals.

what really grinds the gears for me is that all the hype people make about Van Buren is just that: hype. the only remnants we have of Van Buren are a tech demo, some documentation, little bits of character lore, and as far as i know, that's it. it was never actually made, and it never will be. would it have been better than Bethesda's Fallout 3? perhaps. or perhaps not. (it is, to quote Noah, "Schrödinger's Fallout.") we ultimately don't know how it would've landed, because that simply didn't happen to begin with.

that's the part that brings me to the conversation of "Monty's vision." i've seen those two words thrown around an absolute shit ton. how rwby would be so much better had it never once deviated from "Monty's vision." the story, the fight scenes, the "style," hell even the shipping wars, would've been so much more fulfilling to watch than whatever the hell Kerry and Miles (aka: Satan, apparently) would eventually cobble together. and perhaps folks are right. maybe we could've had a version of rwby that was so mind-blowingly fucking awesome and (to use Noah's wording) so utterly blinding in its perfection that a single glimpse at a single still frame of it would instantly wipe away any affection one might have for rwby as it currently exists. it totally would've been so!

see how easy it is to just say this?

here's a gut-punch for you: maybe "the real rwby" would've been better than what we got. it could also have amounted a few minutes worth of cool fight scenes that most of us forget about 15 minutes after watching. or it could've been a total flop. kind o like a certain post-apocalyptic rpg that never came out.

that's the funniest part for me. no one will know. because that version of rwby isn't what we got, and if it ever existed at all it likely doesn't now. to reuse a term from earlier, it's Schrödinger's rwby. the lid is forever sealed, the last judgement will never be rendered. and yet everyone loves to pretend that they know what's what. that if they or their preferred individual were in the driver's seat, we'd get that version of rwby that "Monty always intended." well, assuming rwby as it currently exists isn't what Monty intended. i certainly don't know, how the hell can i? i've heard two very different stories from different people who worked with the guy. what the hell do you do with that?

this isn't something authoritative or anything like that, just some thoughts. there is some difference that should be noted: Monty's dead, a lot of the old Black Isle developers are not. Monty also got work done that just wasn't used in the end while Van Buren was killed in its crib. this should not be thought of as a 1:1 kind of situation, but i do see some small parallel between the topics despite being wholly unrelated. 'cause when i see talk about "the real rwby we never got," my mind immediately jumps to "i've seen all this before, and time has not made it any more convincing."

the point: i can't but feel that it's kind of pointless to go back and forth about whether rwby, as it currently exists, is perfectly in line with what was intended at the outset. here's a fun fact for you: a lot of media doesn't do that. so when we try to answer the question of "is rwby any good," it might do to discuss the rwby that actually exists right now rather than leaning on vague hypotheticals about how it "just should've been different."

(you think it should be rewritten? fantastic! what are you waiting for? get busy.)