#but the gimme four bit is very good <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[musingonward]

Mom can we get

No we have Smoke Rings/First Take/FRED at Home. Smoke Rings/First Take/FRED at home:

-> Piano Man - Newfangled Four

Side by side ver.

[felice-jaganshi]

My Fallen Apple

Lucifer X Reader

Chapter 3

It's been a week, and you've been texting Lucifer every day since you left. You sometimes send him selfies with your friends or new places around heaven, and he does the same, sort of introducing you to the seven sins and the other rings through the pictures. It's a great time, really!

But now comes the hard part. You told your friends you had a “secret date” with someone and refused to say who. You also told them not to worry if you didn't answer anything till the next morning, as that just meant the date went really good.  

You made your way to where Adam had shoved you off before. You thankfully had managed to avoid him for the week. He was apparently “very busy” with higher angel stuff, not that you cared.

 

You took a deep breath, making sure your phone and backpack were secure before taking the leap!

You were free falling for a majority of the fall, pulling out your wings only when the castle was in sight. But before you could get too close something like a white missile came zooming up to meet you!

 

“You came! You really came back!” It was Lucifer, he'd come up to meet you halfway. He looked stunning, his wings out and on display. You can't help staring.

 

“wow… I've never seen someone with six wings before! Everyone I know has two or four.” He chuckled and danced around you in the air, showing off.

“Well, I am the strongest angel ever created by the OG big man himself.” You giggle at his antics, he was such a charmer. Suddenly you find yourself scooped into his arms, “come on, I got something really cool to show you!” 

You tuck in your wings and let him carry you around. He opened a portal and flew through. “Now, normally human souls can't go to the other rings, but since I'm literally the king , I can get you special exceptions to go anywhere at all, as long as you're with me.” 

He smiled, it had a smugness to it. Pride. But it was different from when Adam was being prideful and showing off, this time it was endearing and charming. Rather than obnoxious and irritating.

 

Next thing you knew, he was landing in front of a fancy restaurant. “A good friend of mine runs the place. I booked us a reservation.” As you entered there was sensual music playing and demons everywhere. But really, they didn't look that much different from angels. Other than a darker color palette on average.

As you were seated, almost immediately a giant demon made mostly of blue fire rushed over to your table! 

 

“Luci, baby! Oh it's been so long since you dined at my place!” He scooped the king up in his arms and squished him to his chest, rocking back and forth and looking so happy!

 

“Oh come on Ozzy! Has it really been that long?!” He laughed, and hugged back. Ozzy frowned and set him back down.

 

“Yes. Ever since you and She had a fight here, you haven't been back. That was 30 years ago, luci.” You hide behind the menu while this back and forth occurs. Another demon suddenly comes up behind you and grabs your chair, leaning over you and looking upside down! You drop the menu and try not to scream from surprise.

 

“And who's this little cutie? Is she the one who finally got you to leave pride and visit all of us?” His voice was raspy and he looked like a clown. 

 

“Hi… I'm-” before you can say your name, he turns your chair, making you spin round in circles for a bit. 

 

Lucifer smiled, “yeah she is, my new best friend.”

 

Ozzy gasped, “new best friend? Am I being replaced?!”

 

“Hey hey, no! Buddy! You're my brother, all, well, 5 of you are my family! I love you guys! She's just the newest addition to that family. That's all.” He then smiled at you. You were so dizzy you could hardly hold his gaze. “Yo Fizz, I think you overdid it.”

 

Fizzarolli looked you over, “oops. Sorry babe, you alright? No hurling on me now.” He made his way back to Ozzy's shoulders.

 

“I'll… be fine. Just gimme a second.” You take a few seconds to reorient yourself and take a sip of water before smiling at him. “All good.” He smiled back at you.

 

“Good, I hope this isn't too much for you. This is only your second time hanging out with me.”

 

“Hm, only second time and you brought her to my place? Luci, you certainly do move fast! And I thought I was the master of lust~.” He teased Lucifer, then went to your side. “Thanks for getting him out of the house sweetheart, we owe you a big one.” His voice was really sweet and he placed a warm hand in the middle of your shoulders. 

 

“It's been a pleasure to know him. Did you say you're the master of lust? Would that make you…”

 

“Asmodeus, the sin of lust, at your service baby girl.” He winked. “Would you like any recommendations for dinner? I can tell you all of Luci's favorites.”

 

“Oh, sure.” You were a little nervous now. “I'm not used to being anywhere this fancy. I feel like I'm underdressed for this kind of place…” 

 

“Oh honey, don't worry about that. You're literally here with a king. You can get away with anything when you're with him .” 

_______

 

After dinner, Lucifer took you back to his castle and you looked at more duckies together.

When he turned his back, an impulse came to mind. Hide in the pile of ducks. And well, why the hell not?

 

“Oh and this one- Becca? Hello?” He looked around and didn't see you. He then heard a squeak from your pile as you accidentally squish a duck. He grins, his voice going low, “oh my, looks like i got a rogue angel to hunt down.” He then chuckled and you felt butterflies in your gut. Oh no, why was that hot?!

The next thing you know, he's diving into the pile of ducks! He quickly finds you and you're now pinned beneath him, “So, what was the plan from here? Wait for me to leave so you can run around my palace unsupervised?” He smiled like the cat that caught the canary and tilted his head to the side.

 

“Um… there wasn't really a plan. Just sounded like a fun thing to do.” You were blushing and nervous, you placed your hands on his shoulders, not sure if he'd try to make a move or not. Would you even be upset if he did? He seems to suddenly become aware of your positions as you touch him. He pulls back quickly!

 

“Oh, whoops! Sorry Becca, didn't mean to make you uncomfortable.” He adjusted his tie nervously, standing up. You get up as well.

 

“I'm not uncomfortable Luci. But, if you wanted today to be a date, you should have said so. I would have dressed nicer.” He looks shocked by your words, a blush forming on his cheeks.

 

“No no no no!” He waves his hands dramatically before pointing to his ring. “I- I just wanted you to meet my friends! I'm totally married!” He was panicking now.

 

“But your wife has been missing for seven years?” You have to ask, “Did she take your daughter with her?” He sighed and shook his head.

 

“No, Charlie is an adult doing her own thing, that's all. And lilith… She and I… I don't know anymore. She promised me forever, and I want to believe this is just a rough patch and we'll get through it but… she hasn't even spoken to Charlie all this time either…” He looked more upset by that than her leaving him.” 

You give him another hug, “mind if I stayed the night? I brought a change of clothes and a toothbrush. I wanna spend more time with you.” He hugs back.

 

“Yeah, I have a guest room you can stay in.”

[abstractpenny]

here's a very unedited rough draft first chapter of a fic I'm working on

Its Kai centric, post-season 3

Strong TWs for: Rape, Suicidal thoughts/attempt, Depression, Alcoholism, and just General Adult Themes

(hopefully capitalizing it so weirdly will help you notice it)

(also, if you find anything awkward or hard to read, lemme know please please please please please please)

sorry its so cringy for like a good amount of it. I feel like putting OCs in fic is just like that. but the ocs are there to propel kai's suffering so its fine right? right?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After Zane died, Kai tried his best to be there for his family. For his sister. He did, he really did. But when Jay and Cole wouldn't stop bickering, and Nya wouldn't stop yelling, and Lloyd wouldn't stop crying, Kai couldn't do it anymore. Wu definitely wasn't helping either, nor was Garmadon. They just. Locked themselves away.

So Kai got fed up. After a particularly nasty fight with Nya, he packed his bags and left. Left where? He'd find out later, when his feet carried him through Ninjago City as he tried to find an outlet for his emotions. Anything.

When night came, he found himself wandering down an alleyway. At the end of it, he heard people talking and smelled cigarette smoke. Kai kept his guard up as he approached two men, people he would definitely beat up and haul off in cuffs if he were currently a ninja. They turned to glare at him, and he glared back.

"You guys know where a guy could get a few punches in on someone?" He asks through gritted teeth. He really didn't want to beat someone up because he had absolutely zero anger management skills, but here he was.

One of the men laughed, a raspy and mean laugh. "Why ya askin', kid? Those silly lookin' pajama men finally dump you in the guttah?" His face was cruel, even in the darkness.

"Or did ya finally realize how fucked up they was?" The other one piped up. "Throwin' poor guys like usses around while they enjoyed they's glory?"

The first guy got back up in Kai's face, second hand cigarette smoke poofing into the poor boys face as he coughed. "Yur not here on a spy mission, is ya? Cuz we won't tolerates that. Not one bit," he sneered.

Kai rapidly shakes his head. "Nah, man. I swear. Just here to blow off some steam, no ninja shit involved. If they knew I was here, they'd beat my ass and I honestly don't wanna deal with that."

He stood awkwardly as the two men considered him before the first guy relaxed and laid an arm around Kai's shoulders. The fire elemental tried to keep his flinch to a minimum. "Ya not too different from us, y'know? Come on in, boy. Yuh free to do whatevah. 'cept rat us out, 'f course. We'll have eyes on you constantly, don't fuck it up." As he spoke, he walked with Kai to a set of stairs, leading down to a padlocked door with a tough looking man beside it. The second guy followed them as they walked down the stairs. When they got to the door, the man with his sweaty arm around Kai smiled a toothy grin at the bouncer. "He's all good tuh come in, Derry, he's with us."

The bouncer looked Kai up and down for a moment, suitcase and all, before opening the door and moving to let the trio into the loud building. As soon as the door opens, the stench of sweat, cigarettes, blood, and something else hits Kai's nose. It wasn't soon before that something else became very familiar.

The first man led him in and over to the bar. "Ey, Ritchy, gimme a couple shots. Don't care what, just make it light. Kid here ain't have anything much before."

Kai glares over at the man in the seat to the right of his. "How would you know? You don't know if I've drank before." He hasn't, but the guy doesn't need to know that.

He's met with a look, one unamused, from the other man. "It's pretty fuckin' clear, kid. 'sides, it's a compliment I'm yur first." He chuckles raspily. "It's a treat, I promise ya."

Kai continues glaring at the guy before four shot glasses full of a clear-ish liquid are laid out in front of his group. He looks over to his left to find the second guy from earlier is gone, shrugging at the realization. Less stupidity to deal with on his part.

Kai's hand picks up the shot glass as he brings it up to his nose. The scent is strong and his nose scrunches up. "I'm seriously supposed to drink this shit!?" He says a bit too loud.

The guy next to him cackles. "Why'dya think they come in such small glasses. Easy downing. Alls in one go, like this-" He brings the glass up to his mouth and tilts his head back quickly, pouring the alcohol down his throat. When it's all down, he slams the glass on the bar top as he swings his head back down. "Now you try, kid."

Kai hesitantly looks down at the glasses in front of him. No going back now. He lifts the glass and, before he can smell it, slams it back. The vile liquid fills his throat and he almost gags. But it's down as soon as it started and he slams the shot glass back down on the table as he looks back forward and gasps. "Fuck, that's nasty." He sticks his tongue out before immediately putting it back in his mouth at the idea of all the shit that could be in the air.

The man laughs at him. "Yeah, yeah, you'll learn tuh love it. Now, don't waste my money. Ya still have two more." He gestures towards the last to full shot glasses on the table.

Kai gapes at him. "Aren't you gonna have another one?" He groans as the man shakes his head. "Fuck, fine. At least tell me your name, first. I feel awkward taking shots next to a dude I don't even know."

The guy flashes him that stupid fucking toothy grin. "Nevah ask anyone's name here, kid. But since I like ya, I'll give you one of mine. Rippah."

Kai raises an eyebrow at the cringey name. "Ripper??"

The guy- Ripper- laughs loudly. "No shit kid, that's what I just said." He pushes the two glasses closer to the fire elemental. "Drink up, kid. Didn't buy ya them for no reason."

The alcohol shimmers in the lights of the building. Kai scowls down at the glasses before taking one in his hand and downing it before he can overthink it. His throat burns, but he finds he doesn't mind as much as last time. When he's done, he looks back towards the other man. All Ripper does is look at him expectantly, so Kai grabs the final shot glass and gags before downing it.

When he's done, he feels like vomiting. What the fuck is he doing here, he shouldn't be here. He doesn't know what's in these. He doesn't know how strong they are. He's messed up, he should go.

Go where? It's not like there's a home to go back to.

So, instead, he just looks back over at Ripper, a slight frown on his face. "Is that all you brought me here for? To spoon me alcohol? Because that's kinda fucked up, man. You do know I'm still, like, literally a kid." His fists are clenched on the table and his frown has gotten stronger.

Ripper just shrugs nonchalantly. "No need tuh get ya panties in a bunch, kid. I know how old ya are. 'sides, that's not the only reason I brought ya here. Ya obviously need a place tuh stay and ya said ya needed tuh get some punches in, so heres ya go." He gestures towards a big circle in the middle of the building, surrounded by chairs and people. The floor of the circle is dirt, and there's currently two people in the ring, fighting. One of them hits the other over the head, definitely giving him a concussion, and the crowd cheers.

Kai looks back towards Ripper with an intrigued expression on his face. "What do I need to do to get in?"

The Ripper smiles.

----------

Kai walks into the ring in this stupid fucking embarrassing tight outfit as the announcer shouts his name.

'Vs. The Red Shogun, a first timer. Let's see how long he lasts!" The excited voice yells with a bit of sadism in his tone. When he finishes, a horn goes off, signaling the start of the match.

The guy Kai is fighting is a scarred up Hypnobrai who scowls and hisses at him as they circle each other. Finally, the snake goes in for the first punch and Kai moves out of the way, dodging like second nature. That seems to piss off the snake as she attempts to land a few more punches. Emphasis on the word 'attempts' because she lands a grand total of zero. 

Kai laughs cockily at her, grinning widely. "Are you supposed to be, like, hard to fight or something? I thought they were gonna pair me up against someone actually threatening for my first go ‘round." He shrugs as he lands a sneaky kick on her hip. "Guess not."

She hisses even louder and lunges towards Kai. There's a struggle for a few moments as they wrestle, the snake trying to get in as many punches as possible, but Kai ends on top, pinning her down. He's finally given the freedom he needs to let off some steam.

It starts off with a simple punch across the cheek, but it quickly escalates to the point where he's absolutely beating the shit out of the Hypnobrai. She's hissing and growling, but it's doing her no good. There's blood pooling by the side of her head and she's definitely lost a fang, but Kai keeps punching until the horn rings out.

"And the winner is the Red Shogun, by a wild margin! There you have it folks. Maybe we have a new threat to watch out for!"

Kai punches the Hypnobrai across the face one more time, letting her blood soak his hands as he probably dislocates her jaw with a snap, before he stands up and walks away, leaving whoever to take care of her broken and trembling body.

He's shocked at how little regret he feels. Maybe it's because of the growing warmth in his chest from the alcohol, but a little part in his mind knows it's not. He's a bad person, beating up people. At least they aren't innocents, though. They're as bad as him, if not worse. Does that justify it? He doubts he'll ever know, but he needs this right now, so he doesn't care.

Kai walks back over to the bar and sits next to a grinning Ripper. The bartender offers him a towel to wipe the blood from his hands and drink, larger than the shots and definitely more potent smelling.

"Good job, kid. Knew ya had it in ya," the Ripper says in his snake-like voice.

Kai snorts as he picks up the drink, taking as big a gulp as possible. It's easier, now that the alcohol from earlier is setting in, but he still gags. It's nice knowing it'll add to the foggy feeling he's experiencing the world through, so he swallows most of the nasty drink before speaking. "I thought you said they'd throw one of the highest ranked opponents at me immediately." He gulps down the rest of the drink and savors the burn as it goes down his throat.

Ripper laughs loudly. "Kid, they did. That was one of tha top guys. Ya powerful, ya know. And you was holdin' back, we could all tell." He gestures the bartender to get two more drinks.

Kai smirks, a facial expression he's done a thousand times, but now it just feels wrong. Dirty. "Cool." The drinks are placed on the counter. "Uh, am I fighting anymore tonight? I'd like to head back up to that apartment soon. Didn't really get a good chance to figure my way around, y'know? Besides, I need a shit ton of sleep after the day I've had."

Ripper pushes one of the drinks towards Kai, who graciously accepts it and starts drinking it. "Nah. Ya can head up whenevah, kid." He raises an eyebrow as Kai sips his drink, letting the alcohol sit in his mouth before he swallows. Ripper grins wider at that. "Y'know, kid. Yur a natural at this shit. Have a feelin' you'll be chugging it down in no time."

He's met with a glare from the fire elemental. "Yeah, yeah, no need to make fun of me."

"Kid, I'm not makin' fun of ya. Yur downing that 'lmost as well as ya fight. Almost," Ripper laughs.

Kai considers him for a moment, before shrugging and downing the rest of his drink. "I'mma go back. Thanks for hooking me up. I owe ya big time." He stands up, heading out of the room.

Before he's all the way out, he hears Ripper's voice call out, "Say hi to my buddy for me!" And then the cold air of outside is hitting Kai's, shockingly, flushed face. Maybe that alcohol hit him harder than he thought.

He walks down the alley, stumbling every few steps. Okay, definitely hit him harder than he thought. But soon, he's in the apartment building, up the stairs, and knocking on apartment 212. The door cracks open and an eye looks out to Kai. After a few undoings of locks, the door is open enough for Kai to walk in.

"How'd the suit work, kid?" His new roommate asks.

Kai shrugs and starts stumbling down the hall. "'s good." He yawns. "Fuck, I need sleep."

His roommate laughs, a mean undertone to it. "Get some sleep, sunshine. We'll talk in the morning." And before Kai knows it, he's in his room, the door shutting behind him.

The first thing he does is flop on his bed. The next thing he does is wait for the emotions to hit. But they don't. At least, not as much. The alcohol suppresses them, makes his head drown them out along with every other thought.

Kai might not mind this as much as he thinks.

----------

The first time Kai gets blackout drunk is the first time the Ripper pats him on the back.

It had been a rough day and Kai was just ready for the club to open. When he gets in there, the familiar and comforting stench of cigarettes, alcohol, and blood hits his nose and he smiles. He's in his Red Shogun suit, he always is. It does a shockingly good job at keeping people from knowing his identity. He walks over to the bar and sits in his usual seat, eager for the release the drinks usually give him. He knows it's unhealthy and that he's maybe possibly probably getting a tiny bit addicted, but he can't really care at this point.

He pays for the drinks with the money he's been winning. When the shots get to him, he downs them. They're more bitter, more potent, than the ones on that first night. He feels them setting in quickly. When his name is called for the next fight, he's ready. He stands up and walks over to the ring.

It's a human today. Not that Kai really cares. At least, he doesn't care yet. They circle around each other in the ring when the horn goes off.

The fight goes longer than it should, but the Red Shogun never disappoints. When he gets the chance, he leaps in, slamming his opponent on the ground.

He expects the other man to struggle, especially after his head bounces on the tough dirt below, but... He doesn't. He lays there, unconscious. Kai hesitates for a moment before he hits the man. He's not just here to win, after all. He's here to blow off steam. Hit after hit on the unconscious man, reminiscent of his first day here with the Hypnobrai girl. But, this time, he's more aggressive, pounding in the man's skull, almost literally.

The audience gasps and groans for the man, cheering on every particularly nasty hit. Finally, Kai's hand hits the man hard enough across the temple that something happens he wishes he never saw. An eyeball pops out of its socket and rolls, the stringy bits of it following.

In shock, Kai stares down at the man. It's then he realizes the bloody mash on the floor isn't breathing. He feels like vomiting, so when the horn goes off, he leaves the ring rapidly. Now, a smart idea may have been to walk outside and get fresh air, or to go to the bathroom. But Kai doesn't. Instead, he walks over to the bar, getting a familiar towel handed to him as the bartender, Ritchy, looks him over before handing him a few shots of potent alcohol. 

While Kai wipes off his knuckles, he looks down at the glass. He can almost smell it from here. It's clearly one of the more potent alcohols they have. Once Kai's knuckles are cleaned off, at least to the best of his ability, he grabs the glass and downs it all at once, his throat burning with the awful liquid. He gasps for air when he swallows, the drink much stronger than what he's used to.

Ripper comes and sits next to Kai, a proud smile on his face. He pats Kai's shoulder, firm and strong. "Ya did good, kid," is all he says before ordering a few more shots for each of them. "Strongest ya got, Ritchy. On me. Kid deserves it." The shots are quickly served and Ripper downs one of them immediately. Kai looks down at the drinks as Ripper nudges one towards him. "Drink up, kid."

Kai's hand wraps around the small glass as he downs the shot. Then another. Then another. He's quick, just getting it over with. This part is the worst, it's the later he's excited for. When all his feelings get so fucked up and mixed together with the alcohol, he can't think straight anymore.

And that feeling is quick to come, much quicker than with anything else he's drank before. And as the world starts spinning, only a half hour after those first shots, Kai doesn't stop. He keeps drinking, paying the bartender whatever he asks for the drinks. It's late into the night when Ritchy cuts him off. Ripper has already left, and it's just Kai, drinking his last beer in the rowdy fight club. Nothing's really making sense, the room is spinning. But Kai keeps drinking.

When he finds the bottom of his cup, he groans. Maybe it's time to head home. So he stands up and immediately stumbles, almost meeting the ground with his face. He growls and walks drunkenly to the door, leaving the chaotic environment. He finds his way into his apartment building and heads up the stairs, eventually finding the apartment he's been staying in for the past few weeks.

He knocks, the door unlocks, and there stands his roommate. "Ah, welcome home, boy. Good to see you made it back in one piece." He takes in Kai's ragged appearance and frowns dramatically. "You've had quite the night, haven't you. Come on in, I'll take good care of you."

Kai walks into the apartment. He doesn't remember much after that. He knows Ripper was there. He knows he was handed water. He has glimpses of hands roaming his body. But he can't seem to remember the rest of the night.

The morning comes and Kai groans, rolling over. He's shirtless, which isn't too odd, but his pants and boxers are gone. Peculiar. He never sleeps without boxers. He sits up with another groan and a wave of nausea overtakes him. "Holy shit, what happened?" The night is a blur to him. He doesn't remember much past when Ripper bought him those drinks after the fight.

God, that dreaded fight. Kai wishes he forgot that part too. Another wave of nausea hit him, but not from the hangover. The imagery of the man's eyeball rolling on the dirt floor is clear in Kai's muddled mind.

Instead of thinking about it too much, though, Kai ignores it. That's one thing he's gotten good at since Zane's death. Ignore, ignore, ignore. Bottle up your emotions until you can take them out with anger.

Until you can take them out on a guy in a fight club. Until you can kill a man.

Kai shakes his head lightly. No. No thinking about that. He looks around the room and finds a fresh bottle of water. He picks it up and drinks it. It's still a little cold. His roommate must have left it for him before leaving for work.

After taking a while to wake up, sipping on water, and eventually vomiting into the trashcan by his bed, Kai stands up, wobbling as he walks over to get dressed. It's strange that he's naked, but he doesn't put it past himself to strip to his ass while fucked up drunk.

He's quick to throw clothes on and leave his room. The headache is killing him and he feels like throwing up again, but he manages to throw some toast in the toaster. As he nibbles on it, he looks out of the window, to the town below. People are going about their day, families walking happily. None of them know Kai took a life las-

Not thinking about that. With a sigh, Kai finishes off his toast and grabs a beer from the fridge, heading over to the living room and turning on the TV. Not much else to do until the club opens tonight.

----------

Hands grope his body, and Kai's upset this isn't as unfamiliar as it should be. Ripper whispers something in his ear, but Kai can't hear him. He's in another world.

He knows he's not in his right mind, the alcohol overtaking his thoughts, but he doesn't stop them. Maybe he wants this?

It's been a month and half since he first killed a man. He's killed more since. And since that first night, his roommate and Ripper have started touching Kai more and more. It's become almost familiar, part of routine, for Kai to come home and for the two men to immediately jump him.

After he realizes this is going to be a common occurrence, he starts staying at the club later, drinking his sorrows away. Sometimes he'll cry, sometimes he'll fight. But it's always the same when he comes home.

He's pinned to the bed and his roommate takes off his clothes. "Now, boy, you're gonna do something nice for Ripper here. Get on your knees and suck him nice and good."

Kai doesn't want to, but his body moves against his will. He knows how rough they get when he disobeys.

The sex goes on for way longer than Kai even knows. The two men use him, taking turns at some points, sharing at others.

The night ends with Kai riding Ripper. His tongue flops out of his mouth, covered with drool, as he bounces up and down. His roommate makes sure to take a picture of his pretty expression.

When they're finished with him, they leave him laying on the bed, trembling and covered in various fluids.

-----------

Kai misses his family.

He misses his sister’s snark, Wu’s weird and mysterious riddles, his brother's laugh, Cole’s smile. Hell, he even misses Jay and his motormouth.

Most of all, though, he misses Zane.

The last First Master knows how long had made the cavern in his gut grow by ten times the size. Now, staring at the shattered skyline of Ninjago City as it’s rebuilt into New Ninjago City, Kai feels nothing but pain. The alcohol in his blood makes him sway on the side of the building, almost falling, but not quite, only just enough distance between him and the edge to keep him from plummeting.

It’s funny. Kai always imagined that people would do something like this when the sun was setting or rising or even completely out of the sky. He never expected to be in this position, not really, but he especially didn’t expect to be here on such a nice day. It’s one of those days where the wind blows just right, where the temperature is just warm enough, where the sun shines just right. One of those days that remind you of when you’re five years old and free.

Fuck, Kai wishes he could go back. Mom and Dad were still there, still alive. They cared- or at least seemed like they still did. Nya was so giggly, so unserious. She let herself play with pretty pink things sometimes. She didn’t anymore.

A gust of wind blows through Kai’s unmanaged hair. He stopped putting it up a while ago, he doesn’t know exactly when.

The fresh air on his face brings him a breath of clarity. Of peace.

Kai stumbles closer to the edge.

This was his only option, wasn’t it? To fall and fall until the ground caught him and he stopped breathing. If he didn’t, he’d just go back. The club would open and he’d go back and drink and fight and then he’d come home and Ripper would be there and then he’d sleep and rinse and repeat.

His toes are on the edge now. It’s funny. Kai remembers when Mom used to pretend to eat his toes. Oh, how he’d giggle and squeal. The goofy fake eating noise she made when she’d bring his little baby toes up to her face. Fuck.

Oh, his toes are hanging off the edge now, aren’t they. And he’s swaying, isn’t he.

He feels himself going off balance, falling, when rough hands grab his wrist and pull him back. Kai looks back to see Ritchy’s scared eyes looking at him. Why’s the bartender here?

Y’know, the bartender always reminded Kai of Cole. A big buff black dude, quiet but still caring. In Kai’s experience the bartender was sweet on the inside despite his intense job at the violent bar. The fire elemental is pretty sure Ritchy said something about the job paying well, about needing to pay for his daughter's cancer or something, but that definitely could’ve been some alcohol induced dream.

The man’s dark eyes stare into Kai’s and, for just a few brief moments, they’re nothing but two humans, connected beyond words.

Then Ritchy’s letting go of Kai, who found safety near the middle of the roof, and he’s leaving. The air feels warmer now, more safe. Kai stands in it and just breathes.

He’s alive, and that’s more than enough for now.

[femmeleatherface]

i know the accepted origin for monsieur mallah and the brain's epic gay romance is doom patrol V2 #34, and that's certainly the first time it was really explicit for sure, but has anyone else read the V2 swamp thing annual #3?

it was published in 1987, 3 years before #34, as a tribute to all the DC comics gorillas, so mallah gets a lot of attention in it and he is EXTREMELY gay coded. it ends up making his feelings toward the brain get presented in a very un-heterosexual way. and it's all tied in with the themes and structure of the annual's story so closely that it feels very, very deliberate.

[ ID: the cover to the swamp thing volume 2 annual #3. a golden gorilla sits menacingly in the center, looking directly at the reader. a torn white shirt is clutched in its fists and dangling from its fanged mouth. in the leaves and grass in front of it are the remains of the rest of a stereotypical safari outfit, including a rifle that lies propped on the gorilla's right arm. swamp thing's face is in the background, the red eyes glaring at the reader above the gorilla's head. end ID. ]

basically, the plot of the annual is that gorilla grodd has figured out a way to weaken the shackles of his mind prison in gorilla city, and he's using his telepathic powers to summon all the dc comics gorillas to free the rest of him and take down solovar through lightning magic. swamp thing... is also there. he doesn't do much. the annual is more preoccupied with the gorillas than its titular character, who's primarily busy having relationship drama with abby.

this drama is what the annual opens with. in the previous issue swamp thing apparently made a "merely human" comment toward constantine, which hurt abby's feelings since she is also human. this sets up the main ongoing theme of the story, about humans in relationships with non-humans.

this is very closely tied with the portrayal of gorillas in certain medias, particularly from the early the 20th century. the annual explores this very extensively, leaning heavily into the sexual implications...

[ ID: a series of three comic book panels featuring b'wana beast in his alter ego, mike maxwell, with his companion/girlfriend, djuba. maxwell is a blonde white man and djuba is a red-furred female gorilla.

panel 1: smiling, maxwell pushes an extremely phallic sticklike thing into djuba's mouth while she takes off his hat. their arms are around each other and their faces are very close. maxwell says, "don't have to play macho man with you... nooo. gimme a drink. gimme a drink..."

panel 2: maxwell and djuba's faces are touching now, their heads turned so they are cheek-to-cheek. djuba feeds maxwell a red bottle she has around her neck, and he sips from it. maxwell says, "just a tiny bit now... i have to drive our friend back... that's it..."

panel 3: a closeup of maxwell and djuba's mouths, basically touching. djuba's lips are parted and maxwell says, "ohhh yeah... that's it. i can feel it... i can feel it..."

end ID.]

[ID: a single panel of congorilla in his gorilla form. he has golden fur and is looking behind him to some bushes, where the heads of two black-furred gorillas are popping out. congorilla thinks, "i'm picking up the overpowering scent of females in the grove below and my blood's starting to boil. it feels good. too good." end ID.]

[ID: two comic book panels in gorilla city.

panel 1: sam simeon, a more anthropomorphized gorilla with human-style white skin, black hair, and visible chest hair, speaks to solovar, a non-anthropomorphized gorilla with blue fur.

sam says: "lemme tell ya... here i could do my best work! y'know, get into a little self-publishing, maybe put on a comic convention or two every year... i bet we could get thousands of atilla gorilla fans!"

solovar says: "umm, yes, of course. i see that your human friend is enjoying her stay here, too..."

panel 2: angel o'day, a thin white human woman in a strapless black bikini with her white hair pulled up, smiles at a crowd of four gorillas clustered around her. they all smile back at her, enamoured. one gorilla holds her hand and another writes something in a small notebook. solovar and sam watch on in the background. sam looks confused, maybe even hurt. he says, "angel...?"

end ID.]

this is primarily where the humor of the comic is supposed to come from. it's honestly a bit uncomfortable because most gorilla media--particularly ones with this sexual element--draws upon a lot of extremely racist and eugenist ideas when utilizing these tropes.

the annual mostly ignores this; except for a white savior-y joke with b'wana beast's introduction early on, race never really comes up and it's primarily just wacky horny shenanigans with white people and gorillas with zero interrogation or even acknowledgement of where those tropes come from and why they exist. since the comic isn't all that interested in acknowledging the questionable racial elements at play, i'll just leave the discussion at that so we can get moving along to the fun part of how mallah and the brain fit into all this, but i did want to point it out because uh. yikes.

anyway. moving on!

mallah and the brain are the first non-grodd gorilla-related team introduced, right after the relationship drama is set up with swamp thing and abby. while they are on their way to commit international terrorism and kidnappng, a lackey harasses mallah by asking him if he wants to have sex with lois lane. mallah spends the entire conversation looking completely dead inside.

[ID: a single comic book panel. roland, a white human man with orange hair holds a newspaper. he leers at monsieur mallah, an auburn-furred gorilla. mallah stares back at him blankly while smoking a cigarette. roland says, "whaddya say, mallah? how'd you like to get between the sheets with superman's girlfriend? y'think you're more her type? you got animal magnetism, don'tcha?" a speech bubble from the brain off-screen shoots back: "enough, roland!" end ID.]

so our entire introduction to mallah as a character is dependent upon him experiencing a microaggression deeply rooted in heteronormativity, and he is very clearly having none of it. interesting!

at this point, grodd's mind control beam reaches mallah. he kills all the lackeys who were picking on him, which the brain is really only mildly annoyed by, something that, sidebar, is absolutely hilarious. he could be more supportive of the whole microaggression thing, but ultimately he's just like: "why did you do it NOW? you should have waited until later!"

[ID: a single comic panel. cigarette still in his mouth, monsieur mallah kneels on the ground, holding the lifeless arm of a dead white man. the leg of another dead white man lies on the ground in front of him, and there are puddles of blood everywhere. standing in the corner and covered in blood, the brain says: "sacre bleu! mallah, what has come over you? why have you slaughtered them? couldn't you have waited until they had outlived their usefulness?" end ID.]

at this point, though, mallah turns on the brain and breaks his life support chamber. the brain is fine, but feels betrayed, and in his first line mallah explains his behavior simply by saying "c'est la vie!"

[ID: two comic book panels.

panel 1: the brain and monsieur mallah inside a tank. monsieur mallah sits at the controls with his cigarette, still a bit blank-faced but looking more relaxed. the brain stands in the corner, his dome broken and a burst of elecrosparks. he says, "y-you betray me, monsieur... crackle pop... i... i who created you... fitzz fitzzz. why, monsieur... cracklcrackpop... tell me, why??"

panel 2: an exterior shot of the tank zooming off through the desert, treads and billowing dust behind it. a speach bubble coming from the tank reads: "c'est la vie!

end ID.]

this ends up being a running gag in the annual, where the brain tries reaching out to mallah but the mind control is so strong that mallah just continues torturing him. it's poetic justice, since the brain's entire plan before the mind control happened was to kidnap a child and torture them, but it's also buildup to something at the end. we'll get to that.

first though, they pick up sam simeon and angel o'day from the angel and the ape comics. throughout the annual angel has been used as the designated "white woman all the male gorillas go bananas for," but i want to note that we never see mallah as one of those gorillas. we never see him interact with angel at all, in fact, except arguably once, where even under gorilla grodd mind control he is more polite than angel's friend sam:

[ID: a single comic panel of monsieur mallah, the brain, sam simeon, and angel o'day inside the tank. monsieur mallah is at the open tank hatch, lowering himself inside. next to him, the brain pops out of his life support chamber as a mess of wires and cerebral matter. sam simeon is at the tank controls, angrily clutching the wheel in one hand. angel grabs sam's shoulder, looking worried.

mallah says: "look! it is ze sign we have been waiting for! attack, mes amis!"

angel says: "sam?"

sam says: "shaddup!"

the brain says: "fzzt."

end ID.]

it's like the cracks the lackey made about mallah and lois lane earlier and how apathetic he was to the conversation. this mallah is shown to just be SO disinterested in human women compared to most of his male gorilla counterparts. he also doesn't show any interest in b'wana beast's gorilla companion/girlfriend, djuba, when she shows up, which one might expect considering the raging gorilla horniness and grodd's own brief flirty remark to her. but why? why is mallah so disinterested in all these women?

obviously it's because he's gay as fuck, but is that what the comic is actually trying to imply? i'd say yes! that is where the ending comes into play, and why i feel the gay coding in this comic is intentional.

after grodd is defeated by frying his own brain, we get one last scene between mallah and the brain. it's only a page, so i'm just going to paste it here, because all of it is... amazing...

[ID: a full comic page layout.

panel 1: a closeup of the brain lying in the grass. he is little more than a mess of cables and metal being stepped on by monsieur mallah's bare foot. a sound effect reads, "plltch!" the brain cries: "aakk!"

panel 2: monsieur mallah and the brain in the jungle at night. mallah picks the brain up from under his foot.

mallah says: "monsieur brain! what luck zat i have found you! come, we must move quickly! ze coup has failed and ze soldiers of solovar are after us. apparently he did not take kindly to my little uzi love taps."

the brain says: "m-mallah? ooooh-nooo..."

panel 3: monsieur mallah cradles the brain to his chest and runs through the foliage.

the brain says: "n-non! please, monsieur... leave me be... or better yet, kill me now! i can't take zis torture any longer!"

mallah says: "kill you? monsieur, you offend me! mallah owes you his own life, many times over! one of our old hideouts is nearby. i'll have you safe and snug in one of your spare life support modules very soon, wait and see!"

panel 4: monsieur mallah huddles under a large leafy plant, hidden by that and the grasses with the brain close to his chest. mallah looks out cautiously, watching as three shadowy gorillas walk by with flashlights and metal helmets. the outlines of mallah and the brain's dialogue boxes are dashed to indicate they're whispering.

the brain says: "y-you will? but i thought... i thought you wanted to destroy me?"

mallah says: "nuzzing could be furzer from the truth, monsieur. i am here to help you and care for you, to protect you and serve you in any way i can!"

panel 5: mallah races through the foliage, holding the brain tight. the gorilla soldiers are walking away behind them.

the brain says: "b-but... why?"

mallah says: "c'est l'amour!"

panel 6: abby arcane, a young white woman with white hair that has black streaks in it, lies on the ground. she is in a fetal position, her eyes shut. behind her, a lake stretches out in the great yellow moonlight, the great trees of the swamp further beyond that.

end ID.]

JUST. SO MUCH EVERYTHING GOING ON HERE.

the mind control is gone at this point, so this is the only point in the comic where we get to see monsieur mallah fully as himself and how this version of him would normally interact with the brain. and it's so... passionate and sweet? he just basically says that he's going to be always there for the brain because... because of love? whAt???? did he just straight up tell the brain that he loves him??????? oh my god.

and just... the way the comic has spent so much time sexualizing the relationships between humans and gorillas, and how the ending scene with abby and swamp thing after this is also so freaking horny, and here we get a human/non-human relationship where one of the parties doesn't have a body and they cannot be physical, and for them in this comic at least... it doesn't matter. because love. the way this explores and subverts the horny gorilla tropes in such a unique way. oh my god.

and it's treated as a joke, for sure. the entire punchline for the running gag of mallah treating the brain like shit for the entire story is "he loved him all along!" which. uh. questionable in so many ways. but the entire origin of the brain and monsieur mallah as a gay couple came from a joke in a one-off doom patrol comic, so really this is all in the exact same "mallah and the brain as a big gay joke" vein. it honestly makes me wonder if grant morrison read this annual and that's where it gave them the idea for #34. but idk.

ALSO. that closing panel with abby waiting for swamp thing? yes, that's setting up a transition to a new scene, but it's also a reminder of abby's previous scene. swamp thing temporarily got hit with the grodd mind control beam and actually went to go impact the plot of his own annual, and she had her own big speech about her feelings:

[ID: a full comic page layout.

panel 1: abby stops at the edge of a lake, looking down at it. she is in a swamp with tall trees and a ramshackle cabin behind her. she says: "i don't understand, alec... i just don't get it at all. something's wrong with you... something's terribly wrong."

panel 2: a closeup of abby's hand touching the surface of the lake. she says: "one minute you're perfectly fine, the next you're unraveling. it's almost as if your personality were coming apart piece by piece... you don't have alzheimer's disease, do you? no, i don't think a plant can get that..."

panel 3: abby sits sadly huddled on the ground. her knees are pressed to her chest and she's stacked her fists on them to support her chin. she says: "it was probably what i said, wasn't it? i shouldn't have acted like that towards you, i know... sometimes i'm such a spoiled brat."

panel 4: a closeup of abby looking sadly at the water. she says: "i just wanted you to know that my feelings were hurt, and that we should work on what we have, alec... but i'm a stranger to you now, and that hurts worse than all the stupid remarks either of us could ever make."

panel 5: a distant shot of abby sitting and holding her knees while she continues to look at the water. she says: "i don't pretend to understand it... but i--i know where i belong... right here, waiting for you to come back. even if it takes forever. you are coming back, aren't you, alec? i mean... what would i ever do without you?"

panel 6: swamp thing under the water. moodily, he sits squatting with his arms crossed over his knees. a tire is half-buried in the sand next to him.

end ID.]

THE PARALLELS. the being hurt and hurting someone you care about but being determined to stay by their side because you love them. what. the fuck. what the fuck. this has got to be intentional and more mallah/brain fans need to be aware of this comic and add it to their lexicon because what! GAY!!!!

[tj-dragonblade]

oooh Star Trek AU and cruise verse part 3 for the wip game! xo @hardly-an-escape

Hello hello! Yes! The Star Trek 'AU' was more idea than WIP until this-here round of WIP-ask gaming. Now it's got a bunch of drily-expository introduction to the scene, which is progress I'm delighted to have made. The first bit can be found here; this snippet follows on directly from that:

They meet yearly at the least, now, every 7th of June by Earth calendar reckoning, and Dream often drops by once or twice in between as well. It's been a wonderful change the last four centuries from the six that came before; their friendship is genuine, solid, lasting. Hob makes the journey back to earth every year that ends in 89, always returns to the cradle of London and the New Inn, still standing all these centuries later, to mark the turning of another century in their relationship. But in between the centennial tradition, Dream will meet him where he happens to roam, and the age of space travel means he can roam farther than he'd ever imagined. Currently he's been crewing cargo freighters out in the wormhole sector, where new and exciting things have been happening for the last few years. He's been to the Gamma Quadrant a couple of times, the entire other side of the galaxy! Sometimes he still can't quite believe it but it's absolutely brilliant; he loves just mucking around out here, experiencing things that his peasant brain could never have fathomed in his natural mortal lifetime. Then the last freighter he'd signed onto had started smuggling for the Maquis, and when her captain inevitably went to Federation prison for it, he'd cut loose from the rest of the crew and drifted back to Deep Space 9. He'll find his next berth soon, he's in no hurry, and in the meantime. Dream is here for their annual visit. "My dear friend," he greets, standing as Dream reaches the table. "It is good to see you." He clasps Dream's hand, settles a firm grip to his shoulder with the other, the sorts of physical greeting he never would have dared a few centuries back. But Dream has grown, their friendship has grown, and pulling him into a light one-armed embrace is now not only allowable, but reciprocated. "Hello, Hob," Dream murmurs, as they draw apart, and the warmth in his crystal blue eyes is unmistakable.

Cruise-verse Part 3 is not officially committed to wip status, but the unavoidable reality is that I keep scribbling down bits of conversations they could have if I decide I'm going to go ahead and write the third installment. Of this series, I suppose I should specify. Here's a bit of one of those conversations, which you'll see is still in the almost-entirely-dialogue stage:

"Holy shit…you're Morpheus Ateleíotes, head of the Oneiros branch of InfinityCorp??" "I would much prefer you continue to call me Dream; indeed, to think of me as your 'just Dream' from the cruise." "Alright alright, I can wrap my head around that. Just Dream it is, between you and me. Just. Gimme a minute to process." "That you have fucked a high-society recluse?" "I mean you were in the priciest suite on that ship; obviously you were loaded but I never—oh, hold on a tick, didn't I just see something in the newsfeed about a divorce being finalized?" "Yes, that is one of the things I wished to talk about with you today." "So you were still married when we hooked up at sea?" "…Yes. Technically." "Oh my god, I'm an adulterer??" The glittering of his eyes seems more amused than affronted. Dream tilts an eyebrow. "You were not married, so strictly speaking—" "I am party to adultery, gorgeous, don't argue semantics." "I apologize for not being forthcoming about my marital status on the cruise." "Mmyeah, might've been nice to know?" The warmth of his smile keeps the words light, free of any real sting of recrimination. "Would it have made any difference?" Hob looks him up and down, gaze sweeping over him, appraisal with a backing of very fond heat. "Absolutely not. Still would've fucked you senseless for the asking. And I do get why you wouldn't want to haul your messy baggage into your fun tropical fling." "Truly, you are the most beautiful and understanding party to adultery I could have hoped to find."

I've also posted a bit of later (and more fleshed out) conversation on a last-line-tag-meme previously.

(@hardly-an-escape just in case your tag in the original ask doesn't ping you)

[kourabiedes]

I would love to hear more about Robin, specifically :3 Gimme deets, please!

Oh yeah I guess I should do that

In an out of universe sense, Robin is my particular brand of Juliana. I designed her to fit the experience I had with Scarlet... which basically involved me poking my nose into every. single. corner. of Paldea. She's a hiker, backpacker, and budding photographer, because all those things are what I spent the entirety of my playthrough doing. I think I got like forty hours in before I finally was convinced to stop fucking around and go for the non-Path of Legends badges. A lot of the DLC I did as wing-sister to @the-starkindler, who was playing Violet, and we developed a lengthy headcanon winding the two versions together using our respective characters -- you know, like an Emerald version. This bit is key because it means there are two bike-dragons running around Paldea and the Academy, instead of being represented by one fruit, is more of a basket of them. (Insert jokes here.)

I'm going to put a cut here, because I have a lot to say about my silly girl. Beware all who enter here, for there are OC headcanons afoot.

In-universe, Robin is an established student at the Naruva academy, in her second year, arriving sometime after the Team Star dust-up. She is Kalosian, from somewhere in the vague area of Anistar City (if you don't remember your Kalos locations, that's the place with the big red sundial). She's an introvert who grew up in a family of extroverts, and, as you can imagine, that need for a moment of peace fueled her early interest in backpacking. This got markedly worse when the little sisters started arriving. She has five younger sisters, all between the ages of eight and four at the time of her second year. For context, she's going on sixteen at that point.

(I love my little sister dearly, but she alone was almost enough to send me howling into the wilderness. Five of those? Yeah, Robin's a backpacking pro for a reason.)

At ten (because that's such a sane age to do this), Robin's mom nudged her out the door to do the traditional Kalos Gym circuit. Robin came home from that with a level 100 Espurr, several memory cards' worth of pictures of Kalos, and like, two badges. Her mom wasn't overly surprised.

This is kinda how Robin is. She doesn't want to be a powerful Trainer for the sake of being powerful. She makes herself strong so that she can easily do whatever it is she actually wants to do, which is See All The Things. She's not real worried about whether those Things are supposed to be Off-Limits or not, either. So, as you can imagine, she's fascinated by the stories of the mysterious and/or off-limits places of the world. Cerulean Cave. Mount Silver. Mirage Island. The Great Crater of Paldea.

So when her mom suggests Naruva Academy for her, well, she leaps at the chance. Mom figures hey, her kid may be a little odd, but she clearly has a way with Pokemon, and she's sharp, so send the kid to a good school and see what develops. Robin, on the other hand, is plotting her first Great Crater expedition within seconds of the conversation.

Does this mean she's in and out of the Great Crater a lot? Well, not really, though it's not for lack of trying. The Great Crater really is hard to get into without a flying Pokemon at the very least, and the strength of the wild Pokemon there is considerable. She never gets very far in before having to turn back for simple survival. Nevertheless, she's determined to see the bottom of it someday. (Also she does have to attend classes, which cuts into her exploring time severely. Gotta keep dem grades up or mom might pull her home! The grades net her a Tera Orb though, so hell yeah.)

One question that could be asked is, did she know the Paldea Pals before, since she's an established student? Well, yes and no. She knows of Arven, because the poor guy is utterly overshadowed at this point by his shitlord parents. She knows of Nemona -- there probably isn't anyone in the school who doesn't, to be utterly fair. She doesn't really have any opinion on either. They run in different circles, and the most she's interacted with either is whenever Nemona pounced on her looking for a battle. (Yes, she accepted. No, she never won!)

So how does she get pulled into the Scarlet story? Well, one weekend, while she was out chilling with her Pokemon in the wilds of Paldea, there was a really loud sonicboom overhead, and a few minutes later, a tired-looking red lizard Pokemon walked into her campsite. Like most people, she assumed he was a rare breed of Cyclizar at first, because who expects an ancient legendary Pokemon to just waltz into your life and ask for a sandwich? He's injured, but not badly, and she has the brilliant idea to take him back to the Academy with her and see if the teachers can help. She cuts her picnic short and does just that. No problem, right? Nothing life changing about that.

As you have no doubt guessed, the sonicboom was Miraidon fleeing the crater after being attacked by his nasty counterpart. Koraidon, in this melded universe, was brought over as well before <redacted>, and he and the Miraidon actually bonded and are buddies. When Mirai ran for his life, Kori tried to follow, but he's not as fast and had to land. (Miraidon has that jet butt, after all.)

From here, she gets enmeshed in the Scarlet and Violet storylines -- or, well, some of them anyway. The storylines are divided between her and Mirai's rider Alanna. They sort of swap between player one and player two frequently. Robin was involved the most with the DLC stories and Starfall Street. She was the one Ogerpon chose as a partner (maybe it was all that little sister experience!), and she ended up with Chien-Pao out of the four Treasures. (This is not quite as cool as it sounds. Pao just wants to PLAY. All the fuckin time.)

Let's see, what else. Oh, she has a massive crush on Perrin (unrequited), and though she starts out wanting to shove Carmine into the river, they bond over time and Robin kiiiinda thinks she's cute. (Does this count as Carmine x Juliana shipping? Probably not lmao)

Tl;dr, my Scarlet character is pretty fun.

[nevoadecaipora]

Hiiii tagged by @xielianss (thank you darling! <3)

list 13 songs you’ve been listening to lately

Francesca by Hozier this song took me completely when i first heard it, i love the lyrics and the emotions Hozier puts in every verse. i keep singing it non-stop

Enamorado Tuyo by El Cuarteto De Nos that i've first heard in a sasunaru edit tiktok. i have no regrets since i always discover great songs by sns AMVs and they always manage to pull real human emotions from me when i'm feeling disconnected

Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones there's something about this song that sounds so crispy and good to me but like texture wise?? idk how to explain it but it sounds so so good to me

Maar Daala from the movie Devdas so Devdas is one of my favorite movies ever, is so dramatic and the visuals are beautiful, but this song in specific is the reason why i went after the movie to watch and it was super worthy, and this song is so good and the scene is amazing. seriously Devdas is a gorgeous movie and the songs are great, but this one is *chef's kiss*

...IN HEAVEN... by BUCK-TICK i just love the vibe of the song, and BUCK-TICK in general. as jade said, their vocalist passed away, sadly, but the great songs remain with his beautiful voice. since it came out i've also been liten to Mugen Loop a lot too since it came out

Identity by Sakanaction this song is soooo good. Sakanaction in general is a band that i've discovered a few years back and i love their songs and videos, but mostly i loooooove the baseline.

When I'm Alone by Twisted Nerve got addicted to this song since i first heard it in my friend's ig story. really good and idk i really like this texture of old recordings it adds yo the song.

Senhor cidadão by Tom Zé this song is a bit tripy and in general feels like a post-modern play written by liberal theater students and the lyrics are soooo fucking powerful and it never stops com making me feel punched in the chest when they get to "eu quero saber com quantos quilos de medo se faz uma tradição" (i want to know with how many kilos of fear a traditions is made) and after that is just non stop raw feelings

O Mundo É Um Moinho by Cartola i love the guitar of this song it's beautiful, but in genera this song is heartbreakingly beautiful and sad even if it makes me optimistic. i wish i could talk more about it but it's something that you have to listen and read the lyrics and you'll feel

What's Up by 4 Non Blondes i was singing the He-Man meme version of the song one day and then i stopped to pay attention to the lyrics and i thought "oh shit i'm going through this exact same thing right now what the fuck?" so this is the song i'm listening to lately to go through the very difficult days at work

Holy by King Princess i needed to chose a name for one of my fishes and this song was playing and i really liked the melody then i got really addicted to in and listened to it non-stop for four days straight

Baby sung by Gal Costa i love this song so much and i love every single version i've listened to so far, but to me this one is THE ABSOLUTE BEST because the strings and Gal's voice is angelical. and again, old recordings have a specific texture and this one i feel like im in a huge theater as the only person in public listening to them perform. in general is feels very dream like, an absolute fave. and i'm cheating a little bit because i'm always listening to this song not just lately, lmao, but it deserves to be mentioned

Tá Escrito by Grupo Revelação listen, samba and pagode in general are not music genres i'm really into, i have nothing against it, it's just not something that i listen. but one specific hard day i was taking the bus home in a bad mental health day and this song came randomly and saved my day. it's very optimistic and hyper, and now every time i'm needing some hope in my life i listen to it.

So, now that I see it, a lot of them are stuff that i've been listening since teenage years, but i always go back and forth when it comes to songs/artists/genres. this was so much fun!!!

thank you again jade for tagging me!

ill tag: @jcamilov06, @soda-limonada; @happyholand; @adimelo; @zapatism and @corrupted-willy. Feel free to do it if you want, I thought it was really fun!

[minusgangtime]

Concepts based in the visual novel I showed you earlier cause I love these and I wanna RP these as dream scenarios before we get to the real stuff with our digital circus gang :3

Bad ending: don’t worry,it’s not really a bad ending,it still ends ok :3 in this senecio,Shelby and beta end up running into kaufmo again and he pummels Shelby into the ground,worsening her conditioning..beta threw a gloink at him,distracting his ex friend,it chases after him allowing Shelby to escape. When the two meet again beta loses his breath from what he sees,Shelbys entire body is goopy and almost looks like it’s about to abstract..SHES now in OGs ragathas position,in endless pain,unable to move and unable to be touched,as beta tries to his hand begins glitching..Shelbys in so much pain she can hardly speak..beta tells her to hang on,that he’ll get help..while alone,Shelby does have the bad thoughts in the OG bad ending..but she fights against it. Soon,the gang sees Shelbys condition,beta having to regrettably stop everyone else from rushing to her aid..luckily,Caine soon arrives,taking care of kaufmo and Shelby. It ends with Shelby telling the gang her thoughts and them comforting her.

Good ending 1: very easy to explain this one is based on the gangle and kingers path. For this while MB and GF try brainstorming a way to trap kaufmo,pico,blue and beta take Shelby to the hall of doors. She’s getting worse as she’s sweating digital bullets from the pain in her eye..seeing this,pico immediately takes action,without thinking,he takes off his robe and wraps it around Shelby as a makeshift blanket before picking her up,causing beta and blue to enter bisexual panic-Caine soon arrived and fixes Shelby,and so pico let’s her down,as he puts his robe back on,and everything is pretty much the same.

And good ending 2: this one is the jax and zooble route. The four come up with a plan,Shelby,beta and MB will pile blocks around a hole while GF will serve as bait for kaufmo and lead them to them. After some bonding with the birb,Shelby asks MB how abstraction works and so he explains grimly and with so much seriousness it sends shivers down her code..later,when they get kaufmo in the hole,he shortly after climbs out,he almost attacks MB,but Shelby shooves him out of the way,getting hit herself,causing her to glitch out a bit,the three watch in horror,beta crying out for the abstracted kaufmo to spare her..luckily,Caine came back JUST in time and stops kaufmo and cures Shelby,and the story is the same from there :3

That’s all,sorry if I’m being annoying with my rambling ^^

-mod Shelby

(Nah- Gimme more-)

[toaster-77-mtg]

More MH3 Cards! All the lil guy makers!

And by this I mean anything that'ss making me my fav lil colorless 0/1 & 1/1 eldrazi creature tokens with, "tap, sac this creature and add a colorless."

And remember, I'm not a professional in game design, so anything I say about game balance should be taken with a large hunk of salt. I'm not a playtester or designer, afterall.

The Token Art: We don't have any MH3 token art yet!

Cards: OMFG there's FIVE YUSS!

Writhing Chrysalis: LOVE this card. Gimme benefits to sac my lil guys! That and the card does not feel unfair. It's a four cost 2/3, but it's gonna be in a deck with decent potential to ramp early game, so that feels right. Add on top of it the "create tokens on ETB" effect combined with the "whenever you sac put a +1/+1 counter on it", this card has great value (in my opinion. Remember I'm an EDH player, not a modern player). Maybe it should've been uncommon, but I'm not gonna argue with its current rarity, it just means I get more of them! :)

Spawn-Gang Commander: Another great card! Would also combo super well with writhing chrysalis, bcus if you don't need to ramp, you can use the bottom ability to burn. Plus, this thing creates six potential burn on ETB? great card.

Kozilek's Unsealing: I have mixed feelings. I wish that the very bottom text wasn't on there, bcus in my opinion playing a seven cost creature doesn't need more benefits. Mf'er, look at most seven cost things, you don't need more tacked onto that. You don't need to draw three! And also, if the bottom text wasn't there, I think there's a stronger argument for it to be in green rather than blue (but even with the bottom abil there, I still think it should be simic. Its creature benefits). All that being said, I do kinda like the spawner effect. I think create two might be a bit too much, especially considering it triggers on a four cost, which a good deck can get out t2? But who am I to complain. I wanted a consistent generator of Eldrazi tokens, and here it is. I'm still gonna play it, even if I have to splash blue or even go full temur.

Basking Broodscale: Solid common card. I haven't seen too much +1/+1 focus in the set yet, so I don't think its mechanic is gonna be abused using MH3 cards. That being said, it will definitely be abused in EDH or other formats where you have access to more counters stuff. So maybe it should've been a 1/1?

Drowner of Hope: Another fair card! 6 mana 5/5 that makes me two scions, I'm not complaining! That and it's bottom ability only cares about Scions, not spawn or any other eldrazi. And it doesn't even put any stun counters on the creature it taps. So, maybe this shoulda been an uncommon? But who am I to say. Bulk rares do exist.

Overall: Good token cards! Again, I wish they woulda kept the effects in gruul rather than temur, but im still fine with it. If they wanna go for card draw benefits for your spawn, blue makes sense.

I'm much more excited for this set than I thought I would be (although the amount of alt arts and full arts and serialized cards is still ridiculous)!

[pudding-parade]

Music Meme

I was tagged by @celebkiriedhel, sooooo.....

🎶✨ when u get this u have to put 5 songs u actually listen to, and publish. then, send this ask/tag 10 of your favorite followers (non-negotiable, positivity is cool)✨🎶

I've been in a bit of an…eclectic…phase lately, so here's some stuff that's gotten a lot of "airplay" in my house lately. I'm cutting it because I babbled, but before I do that I'll tag: @anamoon63, @enable--llamas, @hazely-sims, @batsheba, @lilleputtu, @echoweaver, @nectar-cellar, @erasabledinosaur, and whoever else might want to do this. Of course, feel free to ignore for any reason. No pressure at all from me!

OK, here we go...

The Gladiator score. The whole thing. I so wish I had played on this one, because it's awesome. Plus, I love Lisa Gerrard. But, on the other hand, I can totally understand why Gustav Holst's estate sued Hans Zimmer's ass because that battle theme sounds an awful lot like Mars, Bringer of War from the Planets Suite. Maybe it was intentional, what with the movie being set in Roman times and Mars being the Roman god of war, but if so you'd think they could have gotten some permission. Apparently not!

Prem Kavita/Wings of the Dawn - Monsoon This is Indipop from the early 80s. No, that isn't indie pop. It's a fusion of Indian music with Western pop. Monsoon sort of pioneered it, and it never really caught on, but as I understand it, it's rising in popularity again. And I love it. Y'all can have your J-pop and K-pop. Gimme all the Indipop. I linked to the Hindi version of the song because I like it better, but there's an English version, too.

Also, I love Sheila Chandra, Monsoon's singer, as a solo artist. It's just a tragedy that she has burning mouth syndrome and is now basically mute. :( Also also, I would love to learn to play the sitar.

Cafe de Anatolia Keeping with a world music theme… This is a 24/7 YouTube stream from a small record label based in Turkey that specializes in a fusion of ethnic music (mostly Middle Eastern and south Asian) with house music, two things that I love. The music is at once meditative and something that you can dance to. I do belly dancing for exercise (it's amazing for your core), and this stream or something else on the same channel is great music for practicing.

Ojos Asi - Shakira Speaking of belly dancing…Ah, Shakira. This is a long remix of my favorite song of hers. Great for belly dancing.

And finally, for something completely different...

One - Apocalyptica Who needs electric guitars to play Metallica songs when you have four Finns from the Sibelius Academy with cellos? I challenge you to tell the difference from about 3:30 to the end. (Also, I have very fond memories of an impromptu jam during a looooooooooooooooong recording session for the first Transformers movie, when we were waiting eternally for Michael Bay reasons, and one of the cellists just started playing the opening pizzicato arpeggios for Apocalyptica's version of "Nothing Else Matters," and the rest of us just started playing the rest. Then the brass players joined in. Good times.)

[ruvviks]

i can't pick just one of those OCs to ask about... SO! gimme your favourite fact(s) about each of them!

THAMKS AAA ok so a little bit of background info first: darkwater creek is a town that's essentially stuck in some sort of a pocket dimension >:^) you can enter town freely but as soon as you're in there it's very difficult to leave because trying to leave town almost always results into wandering directly into a place called the loop, which is a ring-shaped dimension in this other dimension which is also nearly impossible to escape from <3

if people are interested, here's my pin board for darkwater creek and here's the one for the loop tee hee >:^)

the characters i drew are all from darkwater creek! aside from the town being a setting for an original story i'm also working on making it into a TTRPG >:^) the characters are all from different lineages and archetypes which give the players different features to play with in the game, it's not finished yet in the slightest but it's a start and i am VERY excited about it teehee

so jin and suki are twins. or. well. that's what they tell other people. in reality, jin is suki's clone :) cloning people is a thing that can happen in darkwater creek, they have. pretty fucked up technologies there because of a special energy they get from the loop which kind of serves like magic a little bit but it's Different <3 either way suki's parents cloned her when she was younger and then used the large sum of money they got from it to try and escape town, and they left suki there with her new twin sister. the girls are now obsessed with the loop and try to find a safe way to travel to and from it because they believe their parents are stuck in there and they have. so many questions for them that they want answered. understandably so LMAO

the twins are best friends of armando who is arguably the most normal one of the whole group <3 he's the only one who doesn't have loop energy running through his veins so he's lichrally just some guy but!! he is very friendly and social and knows a lot of people in town, and just in general knows a lot about town and about history :) he's also very interested in the loop and is helping the twins with their research <3

ryder is also part of their friend group, the four of them have been besties since middle school basically <3 the problem is, ryder died in a car accident in their last year of high school :( the crash happened at the edge of town and ryder's body was never found because they ended up in the loop somehow and loop energy turned them into a phantom, meaning they're kind of stuck between dimensions and neither fully dead nor fully alive. the twins can see ryder because of the loop energy but armando can't actually see or hear them which is. a bit difficult sometimes since ryder DOES still hang out with them. but they're making it work <3 LMFAO

it's important to know that they were all besties in high school because they also weren't all that popular there :( bullied even on some occasions, by the popular kids. and gaige was friends with those kids back in school </3 not a bully himself but also did not do anything to stop his friends out of fear of being disliked etc etc and so on, basically a pathetic wet rag of a man but at least his tits looked good while doing it. at some point he stumbled into the loop on accident while piss drunk and he got stuck in that dimension for about a month (which equals to about two loop years so he was in there for a while aha xoxo), to the point it turned him into a necron; still sort of human, but his physical form is always falling apart a little bit </3 when he stumbled out of the loop again he was found by the twins and. well. soon enough everyone in town was scared of him </3 but the twins, armando and ryder aren't so they allow him to stick around and he becomes just some guy and now they're friends <3

that is all i have about the gang right now!! i'm hoping that now that i've actually drawn all of them i'll have motivation to do more with them but we shall see >:^)

[alphamarina7]

Some songs that have inspired my writing

For my first post, I thought I should document a little bit about my inspirations in terms of writing. Music has always been a huge part of my life so I thought this was a good place to start.

1. The Outside - Taylor Swift

In my fanmade sequel to Smile Precure, Smile Precure Fantasy (2022-present), new girl Shido Miyako listens to this song while reflecting about her life going south. This song talks about loneliness and feeling left out, a feeling I am all too familiar with.

2. Gimme More - Britney Spears

In Part 2 my Sailor Moon Crystal AU, Shitennou: Angels and Demons (2022-present), Jadeite is revealed to have a YouTube channel dedicated to singing covers of popular songs. The song he sings at the climax is this one off Britney’s Blackout album from 2007. In case you don’t know, Britney had a very public breakdown that year and the public made her out to be crazy. Things don’t get to that level with Jadeite, but think of it as reclaiming his narrative…

3. Fake Smile - Ariana Grande

In a developing Pokémon fanfic idea (Placeholder title is All She Wanted), Elite Four Rika of the Paldea region struggles to come to terms with her past trauma. There is a high chance she could reach the point of feeling apathetic and drained.

That’s all I will say for now. See ya.

[maxdurden]

gimme uhhhhh fuckin UHHHHHHHHHH 23 (strange habits), 29 (best way to bond), 58 (four talents you're proud of having), 66 (fave flower(s), 88 (greatest wish), and 98 (favorite historical era)!!!! :3

23: i'm so used to my own idiosyncrasies that identifying strange habits is hard lmao. i make a lot of weird noises!! i try to keep it to myself but if i get excited or whatever i'll like,,, make this grinding noise??? and i have a lot of weird little phrases that will get stuck in my head, or that i just physically have to say out loud in certain situations! (honestly face masks have been a life saver as far as this is concerned because now i can just mutter "oh dick" or some random german sentence under my breath after fucking something up and no one has to know!!!!)

29: oooh!! i think i'm exceptionally easy to bond with lmao. just,,, talking about blorbos and stuff (either having someone tell me about theirs or letting me yell about mine for a while), also talking about/sharing music!! and activity-wise i don't think there's anything better for the social animal in me than playing video games with people. whether that's jack box with a big group, or stardew, or just co-gaming and playing separate games while hanging out i think there's nothing better for the soul tbh

58: four??? yeesh uhhh idk if i would call it a talent, but i very much enjoy writing and i think that's neat. oh! i think i'm pretty good at socializing (in that like,, it's a thing that takes a lot of brain power and has been a Journey for me and so i'm always happy when i can manage to have a normal and pleasant conversation with someone lmao. also working in customer service it's just something that's really handy at the moment). i like to think i'm fairly emotionally intelligent lol? idk if that counts as a talent either. boy i sure do like to think i can be funny sometimes so that'll be my fourth one lmao

66: i think my favorite flower is probably lilies of the valley! there was this bush outside of my childhood home inside of which my siblings and i created a little hideout and the path was surrounded on both sides with lilies of the valley. also magnolia flowers! partially because of gang of youths and partially because there have been magnolia trees in a few cool places throughout my life and they've left a good impression

88: greatest wish is intense ough,,, i think just to feel fulfilled and feel supported/surrounded by a good community! i'm at the point in my life where i'm just striving for stability and a lil comfort ig lol

98: this is hard because i don't think i have favorite eras as much as i have favorite little pockets. it could easily be argued that bronze age greece should be up there, for sure, but i think i'm mostly interested in the fantastical/mythological elements of it. i really like pirates! but i'm not necessarily a fan of the early 1700s in general lol. i also saw you said you like the victorian period and i have to agree!! cowboys and gothic vibes in one time period?? impeccable vibes, and spiritualisms popularity during this time period has always been something that's fascinated me! mostly i just like bits of history that remind me that humans have always been the same kinda goofy guys, i think it's neat

[nyda-the-tav]

15 Questions

Thanks for the tag @crystal-overdrive ❤️

1. Are you named after anyone?

Nope. My mom just liked the first letter of my name and chose a popular name with it. I hate how common my name is for my generation 😩

2. When was the last time you cried?

A couple days ago from watching the half hour Bluey special. I'm very soft okay? 

3. Do you have kids?

Yup. 2 of them. One is still very new, hence my sporadic online activity.

4. What sports do you play/have you played?

I'm not very sporty. Played a bit of softball as a kid but never cared for it. I like hiking though.

5. Do you use sarcasm?

Not often. I appreciate the humour of it though.

6. What's the first thing you notice about people?

Their hair 👀. I don't talk to people much so it's mostly going to be something physical I can easily observe without being perceived. 

7. What's your eye colour?

Light brown. Used to be more amber.

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings though when the mood hits, gimme the horror. Tragic love stories are a big pass though. Too sad 💔 I want to feel good after, not worse! 

9. Any talents?

I'm an alright artist.

10. Where were you born?

North America 

11. What are your hobbies?

Drawing, writing, hiking, reading.

12. Do you have any pets?

No. Not yet. I've got plants though!

13. How tall are you?

Average of all averages. Five four.

14. Favourite subject in school? 

High school: English, in uni: probaby English again even though it was just an elective. Speaks volumes about how much I loved my program hahhaha. 

15. Dream job?

Something I could do at home at my own discretion, like digital painting or writing. I'm past the part of my life where I cared for office life 😩.

Tagging anyone who wants to do it ✨ Lemme know if you do so I can see.

[demifly]

Red :)

Extra Credits Youtube Channel

One Year

Chandra's Pyreling

Dark ritual should be red >:(

Most dual lands aren't needed unless 3 colour or more

Witness Protection

Menace

Transmute

Gruul

Jund

Red/Black

Red/Black/White

Blue/Green

Four

Jank red green artifact landfall

Evolving Wilds

Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast

More black good charachters, blacks philosophy is centered from the perspective of the self - self centred doesn't actually inherently mean jackass - and they dont even have to be heroic maybe a nice guy but when the chips are down they fucking get out of their to save their skin? idk

Rohgahh, Kher Keep Overlord

Sarkhan, the Masterless

Totally lost

Chandra or Domri (rip)

No, any suggestions?

I dont have one

Commander though I might try out oathbreaker

Sealed

-̶̰̃-̸̤̣͖͊-̷̪̙̲̈́-̴̰͙̄-̸͈̝̋̔́-̷̱̲̲̚̕͝-̸͚͕̋̂-̷̱̩͑̆͘-̶̡͔͍͊͊-̶̼̎̑-̵̹͌̊-̴̻͂-̸̢̜̖̊-̵̗̜̊-̵̨̬͂̏ͅ-̵̡̧͇̌̈͝-̷̧̮̾̑͐-̶͍͚͑̎̃-̷̨̨̭͋̌̚-̴̖͒̾̉

magar of the magic strings 29. Commander

Homunculus

Dark ritual >:(

Haven't played either but archenemy looks cooler

0.125

Mainly singles or precons

Dragon's Rage Channeler

Young pyromancer

Laelia, the Blade Reforged

Probably any control deck but i respect their niche

Gimme

I like them, they've got a lot of unique design space

It's a bit silly

I dont really find any to be super annoying

New cappena :)

I'm not sure those exist anymore?

I was under the impression that it was the first trading card game?

Underwater or action scifi

If you mean auras that buff creatures then not really?

I like it

I dont know

Changes every time I look at a card

I have no ill will to any magic artist i am aware of

Storm the seedcore

Probably some older racist art

Aggro

My red/green landfall equipment commander deck

Arena

ᵍʳᵉᵉⁿ

Red

Dredge

I

Do

Not

Know

Goblins can be my favourite

Lose a close game

Sol ring commander

Lutri, Spellchaser needs a special ruling that it cant be taken as your companion in commander but otherwise be unbanned

Draw commander, otherwise play

Wrenn (also until the MoM stories i thought wrenn didnt have legs and she used her trees as a mobility aid. Havent finished the stories but if she survives i hope that this is now the case since her legs cot broke)

Hexproof

I dont know, most blocks/sets ive seen are very cool

Elves

I'm ok, not extremely good but not terrible either (sorry for the non-answer)

Yeah :D, i just hope we get a copy lifegain trigger commander :Þ

Red black probably

Blue white

White blue black maybe?????

Krenko, Tin street kingpin but with art that looks like the character pictured in Mob Boss

Swords to plowshares

Stoneforge mystic

Promo stamp (i think thats the name for the year stamp??) Elesh Norn (the MoM one)

ʸᵉ

Casual

A cool world

I don't have any yet :P

No, but only since they dont exist anymore

Preordain vibes with me more

None

Maybe

What's that?

Gone the way of the dinosaurs im afraid

Dice

Two days ago i went to my first prerelease :)

Niether

Yeah

This

Emrakul could be in any deck, progenitus only wubrg

No

Spike

Nah, sorry

Magic: The Gathering Ask

[thebirdandthebee]

Easy As

A Carmen Berzatto Universe

Vanessa Monaghan is the breath of fresh air that Carmen had been gasping for.

Page 3: Irish Spring

Carmen looked around, feeling a bit hopeless as he scanned his small, River North apartment. When he moved home, a studio alcove seemed perfect, but now, with Vanessa visiting his place for the first time, he really wished he had sprung for a proper one bedroom.

It wasn’t completely terrible, but it didn’t quite look like someone lived there – rather, someone who visited from time to time. The only thing he had hung up on the walls were a few photos from his film camera in the kitchen and a Chicago skyline print his mom gave him when he moved to New York.

Now, it just seemed silly in his Chicago apartment.

The apartment wasn’t messy, but it was kind of sad. Two stacked boxes as a nightstand with a bottle of Pepto and a bottle of Advil on top. He quickly grabbed both, tossing them into the bathroom medicine cabinet. His bed was neatly made and his clothes were clean and hung up in the appropriate places. Carmen even lint-rolled the rug beneath his bed (seeing as he didn’t own a vacuum).

The couch was ugly but comfortable and if nothing else, he had a TV. He placed two coasters on the wooden coffee table and lit the one candle he’d ever owned to sit in the middle. It was a gift from Sugar three years ago. At least he was really getting her money’s worth.

The intercom buzzed in the entryway, nearly sending him through the roof.

“Who is it?” He asked, holding the reply back.

“Hi, I’m here for the bachelor party?” She teased. He punched the unlock button, letting her into the building. Thankfully the elevator was working that day and she won’t need to climb the four floors of stairs that usually smelled like mildew.

Carm had been to Vanessa’s apartment several times. On their fourth date she invited him over under the guise of helping her hang some frames but also ordered in his favorite Thai takeout and they watched a few episodes of The Great British Bake Off.

While Carmen was mostly a frugal man and he had nothing be ashamed about financially, he knew Vanessa had money. Her high-rise apartment with a doorman and cararra marble bathrooms said a lot. But she wasn’t stuffy, she didn’t flash money and frankly, she didn’t care whether or not Carmen did.

“It’s my Dad’s money,” she insisted one morning as they woke up together at her place. “Sure, it makes me feel safe, but it’s not mine.”

So even though she insisted it was not important to her, he really wished he had spent a little more time making his place a home.

Carmen collected himself as he heard her knuckles rap on his front door. Swinging it open, her presence calmed him as she smiled widely.

“I hope it’s okay I took some liberties with the pizza selection,” she said, holding up two boxes in her hand with a familiar tote draped over her other shoulder. She stepped inside and he was happy to relieve her of her cargo, holding the boxes in front of him as he leaned forward to kiss her over top. “You like pineapple, right?” She asked, laughing earnestly as she watched his expression drop.

“Very funny, very funny,” he shook his head. She followed him into the kitchenette after dropping her back in an unoccupied corner. As Carmen grabbed napkins, she hopped up on the formica countertop.

“I don’t have a table to sit at,” He murmured, coming to stand between her legs as he flipped open the boxes atop the gas range beside her.

“Good, I’ve been sitting at a desk all day,” she said, tipping her face down to kiss him again. “You smell amazing,” she sighed, slanting her mouth over his more deeply. His hands came up to rest on her thighs, sliding around to squeeze the small of her back.

“Are you sure it’s not the pizza?” He mumbled.

“It might be the pizza,” she agreed, laughing as he landed a loud smack against her ass. “Gimme,” she mumbled, reaching down to grab a big piece of thin-crust margherita.  “How was your day?” She asked, tipping her head back and taking as much of the piece into her mouth as possible, groaning at the taste.

“Good,” Carm said, pressing his hips against the counter and grabbing his own slice. “New HVAC is all installed, next week we’ve got the window guy coming in and new furniture should be arriving by Tuesday.”

“That’s exciting!” She grinned, “is the team ready?” She asked.

“The team is excited for the two weeks off ahead of opening,” he laughed. “T’s gonna take her kid down to Florida, Richie’s taking his daughter on a weekend trip,” he rattled off.

“That makes her, what? Your second cousin? First cousin once removed?” She asked, tilting her head.

Carm looked up at Vanessa, unable to stop himself from swiping a small bit of sauce from the corner of her mouth.

“You know Richie and I aren’t actually cousins, right?” He asked, smirking softly.

“What! How would I know that?!” She laughed, “I’ve exclusively heard you two call each other ‘cousin’ for the past five months!”

“I know, I know,” he ducked his head, laughing. “I never explained,” he grinned, rocking to the side as she punched him in the shoulder. “We aren’t related, but he’s family,” was the best explanation he could give. “Shit this is good pizza,” he commented, flipping the lid of the box back down, but only seeing a generic checker print. “Where’s it from?” He asked.

“Secret,” she grinned. “Can’t give all my spots up yet.” Carmen rolled his eyes, taking another big bite.

“So you got a margherita and an all-meat?” He asked, barely swallowing, “covering your bases?”

“I like marg,” she said, taking another bite and pulling a long string of mozzarella away from her face, “and meat for you.”

“What made you pick that?” He asked, very pleased with her selection.

“You’re a meaty boy,” she shrugged, picking up the open glass bottle of Coke next to her.

“I’m a meaty boy?” He asked with a smirk. Vanessa wiped her hands on a paper towel before sliding her hands from the top of his shoulders, squeezing down his biceps and up his chest again.

“Meaty,” she sighed, laughing as he rolled his eyes. “I know you’re watching that protein intake.” She added, making him shake his head. They finished up their slices, and as they agreed to move to the couch, she grabbed her tote again, ready to get out of her work clothes. Carm spread out on the couch after lighting his singular candle, watching her shuffle through her stuff.

“Can I borrow some sweats?” She asked, padding over to his second-hand Ikea dresser.

“What’s mine is yours,” he insisted, watching as she pulled open a drawer, immediately finding a pair of grey Hanes. He watched as she shimmied out of her tailored suit pants, revealing a black thong that instantly made his skin simmer. Tossing the pants on his bed, she double-backed to the dresser, pulling open the top drawer to grab a pair of his tube socks.

“Jackpot,” she grinned, balancing on one foot to pull one sock on after the other. Carmen tracked her movements carefully, eyes trailing up her tan legs to the curve of her ass. Pulling on the sweatpants, she rolled over the waistband a few times and pulled the cord to try and get them to keep from slinking down her frame.

Next, she reached into her bag, pulling out a long-sleeve navy Henley. With her back turned to Carmen, she peeled her work blouse over her head, tossing it on the bed before unhooking her bra and throwing it down as well.

“I think the whole building across the street can see your tits,” Carmen commented.

“Well, lucky them,” she looked at him over her shoulder with a wicked little grin. “They’re nice tits.”

Pulling on her top, she turned back to the living space and dropped her bag down in yet another unoccupied space.

“This too casual?” She asked, shrugging up her shoulders with her hands out by her sides.

“You’re fucking perfect,” Carmen replied earnestly, “get over here.” Vanessa happily sprung over, crawling on top of Carmen and wiggling her body between his legs to rest on his chest. He yelped as she sunk her teeth into his chest.

“Meaty,” she commented. Carmen slid his hand down her back, beneath the waistband of his sweatpants and rest his cold fingers on her warm cheek. “What are you going to do with your two weeks off, huh?” she asked.

“I won’t get as much time as everyone else,” he added, “I’ll take five days.”

“I have a proposition for you,” she smiled.

“Please, proposition me,” he replied.

“I just signed a new client at work  - the Four Seasons downtown,” she said, resting her chin on his chest. “And they gifted me two free nights of my choice – full access to the spa, gym, restaurants – everything for free.” She explained. “Any chance you wanna spend 48 hours in a plush bathrobe with me?” She asked.

“That sounds a lot better than what I was planning,” he said, impressed.

“Mm, two days with you all to myself,” she grinned. “Just think of the trouble we could get up to.” She nuzzled her face into his neck and he gave her a tender squeeze, reaching up to toss a throw blanket over them. “God you smell so good, I’m not kidding.” She sighed, “what soap do you use?” She asked, holding back on her deep desire to sink her teeth right into his neck.

“Really expensive, really exclusive,” he tilted his head back, not minding her assault in the least. “It’s called Irish Spring – it’s not sold everywhere.”

“You’re such a little shit,” she laughed, shaking her head, but pressing herself as close to him as she physically could. “Next time I’m putting pineapple on your pizza.”

“Joke’s on you,” he murmured. “I’ll eat anything.”