#but then the gangs still like IF HE REALLY IS ONE?? so that option falls flat immediately too

[nilesmoon]

read your post abt akutsu & soma and GOD. YEAH. i love red knife i wish they were actually explored more in lost judgement

HARD AGREE. I may be in the minority for saying this but I'm not a fan of lost judgments plot and I think it would've been an absolute banger if we focused on RK & the public security stuff instead of. What they were trying to do with Kuwana?? Like all that stuff could've been So Good but it ended up being so inconsequential to the plot???

And I'll never stop mad about Akutsu's death being forgotten so quickly. The guy almost kills Yagami, is obviously smarter than he lets on, is an extremely powerful enemy that you face and he just, dies. Literally gets put down like a dog in front of you and it's only brought up again ONCE.

I am personally fine with his death BUT seeing how his death didn't change shit makes me So Mad. In a game where partnerships are So Important, they never hold Soma accountable for killing his partner, you never see if his death changed anything in RK (and let's be honest, no way in fucking hell shit didn't change drastically in RK after his death). Each character's death impacts the story except if you're Daimu Akutsu and the game doesn't care about RK as a whole

[ashtxrie]

submitted 11:59 pm

— alternatively, enhypen maknaes as your typical high school crush!

PAIR. high school! enhypen maknaes x gn!reader (rest under cut) GENRE. fluff, high school au, bullet points WORD COUNT. 1.8k total HYUNG LINE VER.

김선우 — kim sunoo

candy hearts, spotify playlists, good morning texts, easy laughter, crescent smiles

in high school, sunoo's known as being super friendly and sociable

and because of that, he has a ton of friends

like he basically knows everyone

you and sunoo have definitely talked before, and you may have had a teensy tiny crush on him from your... downward of five interactions

he's kind of like your hallway crush!

however, you DON'T know that he has had a crush on you for FOREVER

like a MASSIVE one! SINCE MIDDLE SCHOOL

and his friends are SICK AND TIRED of hearing about it

man's dedicated because he really saw you in every single one of your phases and STILL decides to like you. he's a real one

he's so whipped like he's hitting up the group chat (named "en- gang" by riki btw) at 1 in the morning being like

"GUESS WHAT?!!! she smiled at me today ☺️ i forgot to tell you all"

everyone is so done

"did you talk to her though"

"NO. i'm getting there"

"all you did was make eye contact for the past month be srs rn"

so one day jay and jungwon (your mutual friends), who were in the same english class as you both, were feeling DEVIOUS

it was the fall semester final project, and it was supposed to be worked on in teams of 2 to 3

"bro you are NOT working on it with us the love of your life is literally RIGHT there"

jay and jungwon took matters into their own hands and forcefully excluded sunoo ("you guys are so fake")

so now, with no other option, he had to approach you!

"do you have a group already? if not, we could work together?"

wait wtf he didn't say that

hey....

it was YOU???

you approached him first??? he was SHOCKED

tried to play it cool but his smile gave away how happy he was

"yes!!!! let's work together!!!!! :)"

the project actually went so well he has literally never been happier typing away on that document every night

updates the group chat periodically too

"when we were working on the google doc at 2 am in the morning our cursors went over each other’s & it was like we were holding hands :>>"

"how do i unsubscribe"

"you're just mad because you've never been in love <333"

secretly sunoo's thanking his friends though because now you guys are basically close friends!

while doing the project together you started talking about school, friends, life, and everything in between

talking with you just seemed so natural, and sunoo wonders why he was so afraid of it before

i'd like to think that with you, sunoo doesn't feel the need to always put on the bubbly and outgoing side of him

sometimes, he can just be quiet and calm sunoo with you, and the silence feels so comfortable and safe

you start hanging out more and more, and soon you've met so many people through sunoo that they think of you whenever they think of him too

it's like a package deal!

throughout this time he's still madly in love with you btw

he just wants to take things slow! he didn't want to scare you away or anything

and yes, the gc is STILL getting their daily sunooyn Down Bad News Network

"today during lunch she gave me a yakult bottle, i think she’s starting to like me back! :D"

he does Not know you've liked him all this time

the mutual pining is crazy

he (finally) confesses after a whole YEAR

he's super nervous about it, has possible plan b's scripted and sat through 30 minutes of youtube subliminal audios the day before for extra good luck

after he says his whole heartfelt confession, he gives you this handwritten letter with all of his favorite moments with you in the past year, complete with spotify codes next to each one that links to a specific song he thought of at the time

you teared up a bit because oh my gosh it was so cute he was so cute and your heart just melted

you told him you've liked him since forever too and he was FLABBERGASTED

you both also reveal that you've BOTH had hidden spotify playlists dedicated for each other???

let's just say that even years later, the 'en- gang' group chat would NEVER let sunoo live down his digital footprint

양정원 — yang jungwon

strawberries, honors classes, coming of age, familiarity, inside jokes, paper rings

your childhood best friend

who just so happens to also be mr student council president, king of extracurriculars, resident academic powerhouse

and also a LITTLE SHIT about it

since elementary school, you've got some friendly (and not-so-friendly) rivalry going on

"we both know who’s going to get the higher score for this chem final” 

“yeah, and it’s going to be me”

“NAH” 

but the drive you get from the competition is really what brought you guys together

it's what keeps you motivated, it's what keeps you going

and he's funny! (though you'd never admit it)

because yes, you're both trying to beat each other for the top spot in class rank

but you also get each other

you've been study buddies since the beginning of time, and he keeps the two of you accountable

sometimes he's TOO responsible

"jungwon don't let the pomodoro timer dictate you life can we PLEASE take a snack break right nowww"

"we literally did that FIVE MINUTES AGO"

outside of studying he's really chill though

one summer he started to get really into alchemy of souls and you binged the series twice together, effectively destroying both of your sleep schedules right before school started

he just loves existing in the same space as you tbh

definitely loves calling you for hours during the school year, whether to review for an upcoming exam or to just have the two of you do your own things while connected on the phone

it's pretty common for the two of you to fall asleep while on call with one another

late night yapping sessions (hello??? his weverse addiction??)

he feels like he can just let his responsibilities go and you're the only person who really understands him and everything he does and why he does it

lowkey.... he also just wants to make you proud :(

he was so happy that one time you offhandedly mentioned how you've seen and appreciated all the hard work he was putting in for one of the school events

when he eventually confessed to you, everything just made sense

like the way your eyes always lingered on his bright smile when he showed up on your doorstep at the crack of dawn

and how even when you tease each other, you never miss how he would reach for your hand with his own before retracting it hurriedly as if changing his mind

now, oh he just makes you feel so loved

texts you at random times of the day just because, sending you the most random images and captioning them with "us"

he's still got the silliness in him though!

"i want to try every strawberry with chocolate combination with you <333"

西村力 — nishimura riki

neon lights, school dances, sunglasses, finger guns, playful banter, shared hoodies

honestly he's just at school for the vibes

however, he DID take homecoming very seriously

with one goal in mind: to DOMINATE the dance floor

and dominate he did.

he partied in the USA so hard that by the end of the night, everyone was talking about that freshman who left everyone speechless at a HIGH SCHOOL DANCE

among those witnesses of how riki out-danced the entire school population, were you

and you thought he was literally the coolest person ever

fast forward two years, and you're a junior now

it's all good! you've definitely outgrown your month-long admiration of the Guy From Hoco

but yo what guess who sits right next to your seat in class???

it's the Guy From Hoco himself

honestly, you're a pretty chill person so you turned to him and were like "hey aren't you that guy that got famous back during hoco freshman year?"

but now? he’s EMBARRASSED to admit it

"oh uhhh that wasn't me haha"

boy bffr you would know his face anywhere

you kind of gave him a questioning look and shrugged

"oh well, i thought it was really cool though"

he instantly backtracks, because you thought it was cool and NOT an aura loss????

"wait i think i remember now haha that WAS me!!!"

you guys match energy so well tbh

he started to catch feelings for you because of how funny you were and how you two just clicked, but he was stuck in denial FOREVER

"I DON'T CHASE I ATTRACT" (desperate)

heeseung also tried to give him "rizz counseling" but that just ended up with them both saying "mb gang" at everything

which was..... not very rizzy!

you had convinced him to audition for the competition dance team at your school, which he obviously made

he texted you the day he got in too, typing in all caps in everything which he NEVER does

"why would you scream about things in caps lock when you can be cool and nonchalant" YEAH SURE RIKI

updated all his social media bios to @[school]varsitydanceteam the moment he got the acceptance notif

“[name] is my instagram bio tuff”

“WHY ARE U ALR PUTTING IT IN YOUR BIO"

"because i’m committed and it lets them know i’m part of a professional community"

(heeseung told him that it would show his commitment to the sport and thus his potential to commit to you.)

at this point, riki was ready to fire heeseung and switch to jake as his ghostwriter 💀

but little did he know, you started liking him too once you saw how genuinely hardworking he was when he has a goal

like those hours he spent on call with you asking if you thought this one move was clean enough?? he really put in his all (he also wanted to impress you)

you kind of had the idea that he liked you back, because let's be honest he was being a bit obvious about it

the way he almost choked when you hugged him congratulations??? he looked DAZED for a whole hour

you had to confess to riki because his heejake rizz courses consisted mainly of heeseung and jake arguing about whose approach was better

even when you two became a couple, you still had teasing as a love language LMAO

"HAHA 🫵🫵 YOU'RE SO SHORT i still love you though <3"

it's just how he shows his love, but he also loves draping his arm across your shoulders when walking around

made sure to emphasize to heeseung and jake that this was all his doing and they did not help him at ALL

but let's be real, YOU were the rizziest of them all

and riki agrees <3

TAGLIST : @star-sim @boyfiejay @jlheon @jwsdoll @dimplewonie @suneng @en-gelic @mygnolia @asteria-wood

[pearikp]

It's said that the only way to access Mhin's red choice is by choosing the Alchemist background, and that fact alone has me thinking about how the origin stories will actually impact the course of the game at full release. I wouldn't assume that you have to choose a certain origin to get a "good" or "bad" ending for a specific character, but (as stated by RSS directly) different origin stories will allow the main character to connect differently with each of the main five love interests.

Obviously, this isn't revolutionary, but I wanted to touch on which origins I think will be best suited for each route, based solely on scraps from the demo lol

For Kuras, I think the Alchemist and the Unnamed suit him the best. The former really comes from the fact that Ais' relationship chart suggests Kuras likes to ramble about alchemy, and because it has a lot to do with his role as a doctor, I would assume it opens up a lot of opportunities for him to connect with the Alchemist MC. I am more convinced of the latter based on the actual content of the demo. If you played the Unnamed origin, you may remember when the MC states that something about Kuras "nags" at them, "like a half-formed memory". This small line can obviously allude to Kuras not being human (and the Unnamed MC can pick up on it because of their sensitivity to the supernatural), or it could also imply that maybe this background gives the MC and Kuras a deeper sort of association with one another. I also encourage you to consider the dynamic of an excommunicated oracle in love with an excommunicated divine eldritch being.

It shocks no one that the Alchemist is probably the best route for Leander, and I maybe want to say the Hound could possibly be a good option in the future. The Alchemist can pinpoint exactly what about Leander's magic abilities makes him powerful, and obviously, this mutual connection will probably allow for plenty of unique interactions in his route. Sit on the fact that the MC had been mentored (manipulated) by an ex-Senobium mage, only to fall right back into the hands of another (pseudo-Senobium-affiliated) mage with sketchy intentions and big secrets... hmmm interestinggg... As for the Hound, I realize (admittedly upon limited playthroughs with this origin), that the dialogue never really changes for Leander's scenes. However, he is still an enigmatic socialite running a cult-gang, so surely the Hound will have some unique thoughts on Leander in his route and may eventually be able to see through this "nice guy" facade that Vere is so insistent he's parading around with? Just a thought.

As for my thoughts on Vere, I somehow have many and none at the same time. The one I'm pretty certain about is the Alchemist because they have unique dialogue acknowledging that Vere's collar is enchanted. I think the Hound may also work with his route, but I'm only basing that on the unique dialogue after the first encounter with Vere, wondering how he managed to pickpocket them without a sign, tell, or slip-up. The Hound has good social intuition, which is at least somewhat useful in dealing with Vere and his contradictory personality.

Ais comes naturally to the Unnamed, having an abundance of unique lines towards him more than the other characters. Not only does the Unnamed MC feel uneasy and hear unnatural sounds leading up to the Seaspring, but they also are the only one out of the three origins who has a distinct connection to "groupminds". The main character also notes that his tattoo (relating to Ocudeus) almost looks like it's moving. Similarly to Kuras, I like to think of the dynamic between a runaway ex-oracle crossing paths with a demonic being with cult-like worshipers... I predict the Hound will also suit Ais' route, based on how extensive their unique dialogue of Ais' natural leadership skills is. This origin is also the only one that actually details why his "gang leader" status contradicting the lack of an actual gang is so strange. The Hound comes from a more directly rugged life, and Ais takes an interest in the MC being feisty and defiant, so I'd guess that'll come into play somehow.

Back to square one on this whole overexplained talking point, Mhin obviously has some special connection to the Alchemist (or vice versa), if it wasn't obvious by the fact that Mhin's only red choice in the demo so far is only available with the Alchemist background. I think the Alchemist's unique connection to the Senobium through their mentor may come up, as Mhin's bio page says that they like the Senobium. The bio page also says they enjoy conducting alchemical experiments, which will connect the two even more. Once again, I think the Hound will also suit Mhin's route, based on little evidence and mostly just because Mhin and the Hound have similar vibes.

All of that said, I want to reiterate that I'm not under the impression that one origin will give you better or worse endings than the others, but rather unique choices and extra details based on their strengths. Regardless of how well one origin pairs with a LI, I will still probably be playing through each route with my own biased favorite (the Unnamed, if you were curious (I know you were not)). At the end of the day, it allows us to replay the game over and over to see what special changes and choices are available, so that will be very exciting.

[wolfiesmoon]

Making exceptions

Baji x fem!reader

yikes i need copium AND LOTS OF IT (reminds me of a certain long-haired cult leader, or something)

Here's to a good tokyo rev fic debut🙇‍♀️🥂

Warnings: delinquent style™ hurt/comfort to fluff and lots of swearing (but that's on brand for tr anyways)

"Where the hell were you?! I was-" Baji practically broke down the rooftop door, pausing when he noticed your red, cried out face.

You quickly looked away even though you knew he already saw your tears. You've been avoiding him all day, knowing that he'll realise something is up with you straight away if you talked to him.

You thought you finally got him off your trail by sneaking onto the rooftop to cry it out but somehow he saw you leaving.

"Who do I need to kill?" The ominous tone of that question both completely surprised you yet felt completely on-brand for him.

"Don't... go beating up people... please..." you forced out, trying to overpower your hiccups.

"That's not what I was asking. Who the fuck do I need to kill?"

You flinched a little. "I know *hic* you wouldn't..." you knew the basic gist of Toman. That isn't what they do. You wiped your tear-stained cheeks, finally looking up at him. He looked livid, or atleast it looked like an angry face with your blurred vision.

He sighed. "Just tell me."

You can't possibly do that, because the person who made you cry is him. You see, you are hopelessly in love with Baji Keisuke. But the only thing he seems even remotely interested in is his gang. Which is fine, but it really does get to you sometimes.

You've tried everything to stop crushing on him but unfortunately for you, your stubborn heart refuses to let up.

"It's me..." you lied, making up some excuse of failing a test you studied really hard for.

"Did you really think I'd fall for that, idiot?"

You figured. He's too smart for his own good sometimes. It always takes you by surprise, considering his abysmal grades. Definitely not book smart. Or maybe his gang activities just keep him too busy to consider picking up a book.

You looked away again and heard the sound of him sitting down next to you.

"You seriously piss me off when you don't tell me what's wrong. You're lucky you're a girl, or I would beat your ass when you do that."

You laughed somewhat dryly, wiping away the tears on your cheeks. "Lucky me..."

A short silence followed, only interrupted by your ocassinal hiccups and sniffles.

"Are you gonna tell me or do I have to break my 'no-hitting-women' rule?" You could feel his eyes on you. You don't want an innocent person to recieve a beating and saying it's your own problem clearly didn't work, so your only option is....

"Listen... this isn't the best situation to say I'm about to say, but hear me out." You looked up, staring at the bright blue sky. Your vision was starting to clear up.

You didn't see it, but he raised an eyebrow in question.

"I like you. No, I'm in love with you." It simultaneously felt like there was a weight lifted off your shoulders and that ten more were placed on top. You're just desperate to ruin your friendship with him, aren't you?

"I knew that! Why the fuck are you crying over me...?" His words brought your still slightly red, glassy eyes to his, and a sentence jumbled in your throat, coming out as a strange groan.

"You k-knew?! This whole time?!" You tried again, clenching your shirt in your hand.

"You were making it pretty fucking obvious. Even Chifuyu noticed you acting weird." Baji still looked angry, this time at you, but you had a feeling he was very relieved deep down.

"Then... why didn't you say anything?" You held your hand against your forehead in embarrasment. Were you really being that obvious?

"I was waiting for you to confess, did you expect me to casually say 'it's real obvious you're crushing on me' one day?" He raised a brow, moving a part of his hair away from his eyes.

"Fair enough..." the fact he waited for you to confess on your own accord sparked a certain feeling in your chest. Speaking of confessions...

"So, uhh, what's your answer...?" you're not sure why you're even asking. He's made it clear multiple times he isn't interested in girls and relationships.

It is the entire reason you've been on the verge of tears all day.

"Why the hell not. I've been looking for new thrills lately anyways." Your eyes widened, taking a few seconds to properly process his words. You must have looked spaced out of your mind at that moment.

He said it non-chalantly, like he couldn't care less if it was you or another girl but somehow you knew that wasn't the case. You knew he was glad that it's you.

"Well, I'll be damned." You were honestly in too much shock to properly react to the fact he just agreed to be your boyfriend.

He smiled at you widely, showcasing his sharp teeth. "What's up with that reaction? You want me to beat your ass?"

"I'm happy! Trust me, I'm happy!" You yelled out as if you were scared but you knew he didn't mean it.

Does this mean you'll be the primary target if Baji gets into trouble with another gang and they decide to take revenge? How will your life change now? Will your parents approve of a boyfriend like him? Somehow, you never really thought about things like that until that moment.

...Hmmm, maybe the danger is worth it.

[novelcain]

Heyo, I have a bit of a prompt for ya. So I’ve seen the “Demon that wants to abduct and forcibly marry Reader,” post(s) and raise a “The local regent/king finds Reader attractive (in a way that he views her almost like a novelty than as a whole person) and offers her a position as a concubine/ ‘palace lady.’” This is a different kind of scenario because straight up murdering the king of the area is not exactly the option that’d let the journey continue smoothly and refusal could also be construed as an offense to the king, but Reader does not want to and needs to continue with them on the journey. All of the other disciples know this, and maybe can tell she’s uncomfortable (even if it’s before Wukong has really fallen for Reader, she is still someone he would consider to be his friend at the very least). How are they going to get out of this one? (Slightly inspired by the time Tripitaka was propositioned in the Kingdom of Women by the Empress.)

Ps: sorry if this is dumb, regardless, I hope you have a good day - 🌺 anon

King: So what do you say, girl? Will you become my concubine? I see no possible reason for you to say no! I can give you all you could ever ask for in exchange for serving my every whim! That seems like a wonderful deal for a woman like you that clearly comes from nothing.

Reader:

Wukong:

Sandy:

Pigsy:

Ao Lie:

Reader: Wha-What?

Tripitaka: N-Now wait just a minute, your Majesty. You c-can't simply expect her to drop everything and stay here-

King: Well of course I can! I am the king of these lands! In fact! I insist upon it! Woman, you shall stay here and serve your new king immediately as soon as you are cleaned.

Reader: *feeling a panic attack approaching as the room starts to spin*

Wukong: *holding back the urge to commit violent murder*

Sandy: *rethinking this whole "pacifism" thing*

Pigsy: *looking disgusted at the king*

Ao Lie: *wondering if anyone would notice if he turned back into a dragon and ate the king*

Tripitaka: *trying so hard to think of a peaceful solution while also trying not to cry over how much the king is objectifying Reader* Y-You can't just h-have her! She's a necessary part of our pilgrimage!

King: By the Heavens! She's just one woman how valuable could she be!? After all, she is just your maidservant is she not!?

Tripitaka: *remembering that is the disguise they came up with for her* Yes, b-but! Why must you have her, great King!?

King: Because I have never seen a woman like her before! She is a beautiful foreign flower that I simply must have for myself! Here! I shall be merciful and send you off with another servant!

King: *gestures to his guards to find a servant*

Wukong: *reaches toward his ear for his staff*

Sandy: *reaches for his spade*

Pigsy: *reaches for his rake*

Ao Lie: *gets ready to turn into a dragon*

Tripitaka: *frozen in shock*

Reader: *sees the carnage about to begin*

Reader: I HAVE A DISEASE!

Everyone: *stops and turns to face her* HUH?!

Reader: I... have a disease.

King: *narrows eyes in suspension* And what is the name of this disease?

Reader: *sweats nervously as all knowledge of every disease she knows of decides to take a vacation from her brain at the one moment she needs it most*

Reader: In... junct... co... itis.... Injunctcoitis.

Everyone:

King: I have never heard of this Injunctcoitis. *turns to the court physician*

Court physician: Neither have I, your Majesty.

Reader: It's a northern disease! From the north! Where I'm from!

King: *looks at court physician*

Court physician: It is possible, your Majesty. *approaches Reader starts inspecting her* And what are the symptoms?

Reader: Oh, w-women don't have any symptoms. *takes a deep breath and composes herself* But for men it makes their dick fall off.

Everyone: IT WHAT!?!?!?!

Reader: Yep! After two months, yo dick just gonna... fall off. And it's a sexually transmitted disease.

King: I can't take any risk of that being true! Get them out of here before this disease spreads to the kingdom!

The Pilgrim Gang: *gets escorted out of the kingdom*

Everyone:

Reader: *sniffles*

The boys: *hugs Reader*

P.S. this so wasn't dumb I had fun writing this 🤭

[thankssteveditko]

Sony's PlayStation 5 Presents Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (the third game in the series)

I beat the main story and have enjoyed my time with the game overall! I want to talk about spoilers and things that I liked and disliked in the story, so here's a post with some scattered thoughts.

(Hello! I haven't forgotten that this blog exists! Like I said, no update schedule, I will read more of the Lee/Ditko comics whenever I make time for it. I've actually been sitting on a mostly-complete version of this post since I beat the game in October, thinking that I'd finish the rest of the side quests so I could throw in thoughts on those. But... eh, I'll do that whenever the inevitable DLC rolls around. I just wanna get these thoughts posted.)

Spider-Cop No More

First off: they downplayed the cop shit!!! This was the first thing that really struck me about the game, and I'm stunned that they actually listened to criticism on this. I thought we'd just be stuck with it forever.

It'll never be completely gone, of course. Spider-Man is always going to leave criminals webbed up for the police to take to prison, hoping that they'll do their time and come out the other side as Productive Members of Society. That's just a thing I begrudgingly accept as part of the genre that will probably never go away. But Spider-Man is no longer repairing police surveillance networks. You're no longer beating the shit out of random drug dealers. Gangs of escaped convicts still wearing their orange jumpsuits are no longer terrorizing the streets of New York.

Instead, Peter and Miles are played more as firefighters. Sometimes very literally! They work with firefighters, they rescue people from collapsing buildings, they rush injured people to the hospital. In general there's a huge increase in the number of random onlookers present during the big action setpieces, and the Spider-Men frequently have to save them from harm. One of the major side quest lines is even literally about a cult of arsonists, and you'll routinely find burning fuel tanker trucks you have to extinguish with your webs. It's great! Love this for them.

I also generally liked the side missions in this. There's a lot of good stuff with the Spider-Men being neighborhood heroes willing to help out anyone in need, no matter the problem. Some of them can get corny, sure, but that street level stuff has always been the real heart of Spider-Man to me.

Gameplay

The gameplay's as fun as ever. That probably goes without saying. I will not be spending a thousand words explaining that swinging is fun.

In particular, I really liked the changes to the Focus mechanic. I never loved the way Miles' game made you choose between healing and doing your special attacks, but here your four specials have their own cooldowns, and the Focus meter is spent on either healing or finishers. It still offers that risk/reward element, but those vicious cycles where you can't do any real damage because you keep needing to heal aren't nearly as bad as they were before.

Personally I didn't turn off the swing assist or turn on fall damage, because the streamlined swinging never bothered me in these games, but I'm glad the options are there for people who want them.

Kraven

I liked Kraven in this! I liked the way they leaned into his Hunters being this weird death cult, and him wanting to go down in a blaze of glory against a worthy foe, to the point that he's actually disappointed anytime a foe can't kill him. It riffs on things people liked in Kraven's Last Hunt without being the exact same story. I like that Kraven's gang is renting out this manor or whatever and just being a complete terror to the wait staff. I liked the way Kraven hunting Peter's rogues' gallery clashed with Peter's belief in giving his villains second chances. I liked that they were willing to have Kraven kill off a couple of the minor villains from the first game to sell how dangerous he is. (I know some people hated this, but like, come on. We already fought the Sinister Six. They don't need to do that again.) I like the way Kraven pushed Peter to the absolute brink, turning him more and more aggressive with the Black Suit. Good stuff all around, even if the Hunter enemy types did wear out their welcome a little bit by the end.

The Black Suit arc

I think I liked the way Insomniac handled Peter's Black Suit arc overall, but there's a tradeoff here.

They REALLY lean into the body horror tentacle stuff, with Black Suit Peter basically just being a skinny Venom by the end. The sequence where you play as Mary Jane while the symbiote puppets an unconscious Peter's body around and goes on a rampage against the Hunters was REALLY great at selling how scary Peter is becoming, and it made me completely change my tune on the inclusion of the MJ stealth missions in the sequel. Having to beat an out-of-control Peter as Miles immediately after Peter beats Kraven was also really good. This is all cool!

BUT, the thing is... with the symbiote powers being so freaky from the start, it really pushes my suspension of disbelief when Peter and co. take so long to become wary of it. I guess when you've been bitten by a radioactive spider and given superpowers, and when you live in the same universe as the Avengers and the X-Men, your perception of what's "normal" is going to be pretty warped. But they buy the whole "organic exosuit created to treat Harry's illness" story WAY too easily lmao. How do the self-aware slime tentacles help with his illness, exactly?

And I'm not sure how I feel about giving Peter Anti-Venom powers in the last act. It feels like it's primarily a concession so that they can give players that branch of their skill tree back, but honestly, the designer in me thinks it would be really cool (if risky) to just permanently lock players out of Peter's most powerful skills past a certain point. Yeah, it'd definitely piss people off, but it drives home the idea that Peter's given up greater power because it's the right thing to do. It'd put you in his shoes! Instead he just gets the symbiote powers back, but it's fine because the Venom voice in his head is gone and also the slime tendrils that explode out of his body are white now, which means they're good.

I have to say it. I'm sorry. The glistening white goo... they turned Peter into the Amazing Cum-Man. I changed back to the Classic Suit after rolling the credits and forgot I still had the Anti-Venom skills equipped, so I just saw regular old Spider-Man exploding his white goo everywhere. Terrible.

Assuming Peter is just stepping into more of a supporting role to Miles and not fully retiring after the events of this game, I really hope the Anti-Venom stuff is gone. I get that he needed it to counter Venom, but that's not what I want for Peter Parker.

Miles

Miles is good in this, and I really like his arc where he struggles with whether or not he should avenge his dad by killing Martin Li. I like how all that plays out. Unfortunately, they don't quite stick the landing when it comes to making him and Peter feel like equals in terms of narrative focus. His arc is definitely the B-plot to Peter's for the middle chunk of the story, which I guess was kind of inevitable since they decided to do the Black Suit arc. But Miles does at least get a lot of moments to shine, and by the end he's very much taking the lead as the main Spider-Man.

Becoming the main Spider-Man also gets Miles a new, wholly original suit that ended up being super controversial, and honestly... I kinda like it? Or at least I like what it's going for, even if the actual design could still use some work. It's something totally unique for Miles, and I like spandex/streetwear combo suits like what the Spider-Verse movies have popularized. But showing his hair is really pushing the limits of his secret identity. He hangs around Brooklyn Visions WAY too much for his classmates to not recognize his voice and haircut. And I understand why people would be wary about it becoming his "canon" look moving forward. But I think it's got potential.

On the subject of Miles, though, I will say that while I liked Miles' side missions, it feels like he's often saddled with the game's broad, kinda touristy, kinda token attempts at Showcasing The Diversity Of New York, in a way that Peter isn't.

I like that Miles has a deaf graffiti artist girlfriend that he and Ganke sign with, and I like that there's a series of side missions that explore some local jazz history, and I like that there's a mission where Miles helps a gay classmate ask his crush to prom. I like all these things! I like Spider-Man being involved with his community, and that said community includes such a wide variety of people! I like that this game slows down to savor these types of moments instead of just being all action all the time! But when I step back, I notice some patterns.

Hailey doesn't have a big role in the main plot, especially when compared to MJ, but Miles gets a side mission where you briefly play as her with muffled audio to teach you what being deaf is like. There are no major queer characters in the story - unless you count Felicia showing up for exactly one mission to mention she has an unseen, unnamed girlfriend in Paris now - but you get a side mission where Miles helps out a gay couple at his school, who then never come up again. To put it very uncharitably, they can feel like Very Special Episode missions. It's like the devs going: we're going to give Miles a Gay Mission, and an Impaired Hearing Mission, and a Cultural History Mission, so that we can say we touched on these things, but we're gonna make them all optional and keep them far away from the full-blown Superhero Stuff like fighting costumed villains. Those flavors cannot mix. Meanwhile, Peter gets to have a whole elaborate subplot about teaming up with Wraith to track down fucking Cletus Kasady. There's an imbalance here, and I think it's part of the reason why Peter still feels like the "main" Spider-Man for so much of the story.

I think this was all written with admirable intentions, but as others have pointed out, you can kinda tell that this game was mainly written by some white guys based in California. These attempts at depicting various marginalized groups can feel kind of detached in the same way that Insomniac's map of New York doesn't quite line up with the real thing. But I dunno. I'm not really the one to dig deep into some of this stuff as a white woman from Florida. I would be curious to read others' takes on this.

Maybe I'm just being overly cynical about the writers' well-meaning but corny and kinda out of touch liberal politics because of the podcasts.

The podcasters

I wish Jameson was in this more! They psyched us out by giving him a full character model for, like, two scenes. I like him being MJ's boss, but I wish we saw inside the Daily Bugle offices to get more Jameson.

At least his podcasts are better than the ones in the Miles game, though. Him completely trusting in Roxxon was just too much for me. Here he condemns Oscorp for the symbiote shit, and he also gets some moments where he takes the ongoing crises seriously and isn't just ranting about the Spider-Men. He isn't just a conspiracy theorist crackpot here. Shit like his "fuck Spider-Man, we have a justice system for a reason" speech makes him feel more like a human being with a point of view, rather than just a caricature. Definitely an improvement.

Unfortunately, I still find The Danikast grating. I'm sorry, Ashly Burch. It's not your fault. The quirky heckin' wholesome millennial podcaster lady who catches you up on current events and then reminds you to drink 64 ounces of water a day in the same breath is just too much for me. At least she doesn't have any lines as bad as her throwing in a "damn" and then going (direct quote here) "That's right - no censoring! That's how REAL I'm being right now!" like in Miles' game. Instead they give her this, like, almost psychic insight into the main plot to try and make her the angel on Peter's shoulder. The second Peter gets the symbiote she's like "Wow, y'all. Have you seen Spider-Man's new black suit? Something's different about him. He's been giving me such bad vibes lately. #NotMySpiderMan" Also she's supposed to be this, like, underdog independent podcaster who started her show on a whim and has become the voice of the people... but she's got billboards plastered all over the fucking city. Which makes her feel like an industry plant lmao

Again, there's a detachment with the writing. This is, like, some middle aged white liberal game dev guys' idea of what a modern leftist teenager would think is a Cool Activism Podcast. Unfortunately, because Insomniac thinks Danika's a hero, Mary Jane's triumphant ending is that she quits her job at the Bugle to become a podcaster, too, delivering a thinly veiled monologue about the pandemic to kick off her new podcast literally titled "The New Normal." She's going to save the world with podcasting, because that's the highest form of activism, I guess.

Venom

So! Venom! Venom was... okay.

Surprising no one, Harry Osborn is Venom. Harry's okay both as himself and as Venom, but I'm not sure his arc is a smooth one. He starts out as Peter's comically perfect best friend who returns to reminisce about the good ol' days and hand him his dream job on a silver platter, and then later he becomes a little ball of rage over the fact that Peter gets his symbiote and can't/won't give it back. I'm not sure that pivot is handled the most convincingly. You kind of have to write it off as the symbiote messing with their heads, I guess.

When he actually becomes Venom, I'm... mixed on the execution. On the one hand, the cool factor is absolutely there. He's a very cool big monster, and Tony Todd is great in the role. But he also wants to take over the world and make everyone a symbiote, and aside from any lingering resentment towards Peter, that's really all there is to him. It makes for a good video game to have a bunch of symbiote enemies and creepy symbiote nests and symbiote tentacles climbing up the sides of buildings in the last act... but is that really what I want out of Venom? Probably not. But he sure does look cool as a big monster guy to fight, and I was happy he was briefly playable.

Suits

Part of me feels like there's something lacking about the suit selection here, but almost every suit I liked in the previous games is back, and also I'm the type of person to give Peter the Classic Suit the second I unlock it and use that for most of the game. So does it really matter for me?

Peter's selection feels dominated by the various live action movie suits, but I get that those are going to be some of the suits people want to wear the most. I wish he had the Peter B. Parker skin to go with Miles' Spider-Verse alts, though. No idea why it's missing. Really I think I mainly just want more of the Spider-Verse designs.

Also I've complained about how most of the original suits designed for these games make Peter and Miles look like they were bitten by radioactive Alienware products, but I can just, you know. Wear other suits.

Misc thoughts

Everyone's already made this joke, but it's extremely funny that the Avengers didn't help with the symbiote invasion. Took one look at that and decided it wasn't their problem

On the subject of other superheroes, I do wish these games would acknowledge the Fantastic Four more. Peter's close relationship with that team feels woefully underutilized in his various adaptations

I like the trope of a boss fight that's a heightened version of a personal conflict between two people who are close, where throughout the fight the boss is airing out their grievances while the hero tries to get through to them emotionally. That especially works for Spider-Man! But WOW has Insomniac played that card a lot of times by the end of Spider-Man 2 lol

They're teasing the addition of Silk, I guess? I'm gonna be honest, I don't know shit about Silk, but I guess it was inevitable that they'd give us some form of Spider-Woman at some point. Gotta work all those costumes in somehow, and they're not brave enough to let one of the boys cosplay as Spider-Gwen.

They WERE, however, brave enough to let Harry say he loves Peter. I liked that little moment. They presumably meant it platonically, but clearly ol' Yaoi Lowenthal knows what's up

Post-leak addendum

So, obviously, by the time I got around to finishing this post the big Insomniac leak happened. I wish the game industry wasn't so secretive that it took a massive, dangerous data breach just to get our hands on some very basic info that would be public knowledge if Insomniac was a film studio, but here we are.

We now know that Insomniac spent somewhere around $315 million making Spider-Man 2 - triple what the first Spider-Man game cost to make. A quote about this from a leaked presentation has been stuck in my head ever since I first saw it on Twitter. “Is 3x the investment in [Spider-Man 2] evident to anyone who plays the game?”

To be honest, I'm not sure it is.

I liked Spider-Man 2, but I'd probably say that overall I liked it about as much as the first game. It's certainly a somewhat bigger game, with marginally more realistic looking graphics thanks to the power of the PS5. But I think I could do without ray tracing and more realistic hair rendering and whatnot if it meant that these games didn't take like five years and hundreds of millions of dollars to make. I could not give less of a shit if the swinging animations were recycled between games. I'd be fine with them being shorter, too.

I like these games, but as we look at that leaked project lineup and realize that Insomniac is turning into The Marvel Game Studio, I think about how many smaller, more original games that those resources could go towards if they scaled back the Marvel stuff just a bit. How many Ape Escapes or Patapons or Gravity Rushes could get made for the budget of just one of these massive AAA tentpole games of Sony's, which are apparently barely even breaking even? How many could be made for the budget of the "smaller, cheaper" Miles Morales game, which somehow cost $156 million to make despite using an updated version of the same Manhattan map from the first game? Hell, how many smaller games could have been made with the $39 million that went into remastering the first Spider-Man game for PS5 a mere two years after launch? How many people will lose their jobs if any one of Insomniac's upcoming Marvel games underperforms - which, in this case, could mean selling "only" 5 million copies? And would hardcore PlayStation fans even accept those smaller games at this point, now that they've been trained to only appreciate mega-budget Prestige Games with cutting edge graphics and treat everything else with disdain? How much worse will this get as the graphical arms race continues?

I think I just miss Japan Studio. Fuck Sony. Uhh but anyway the Spider-Man game this post was supposed to be about was good, some writing complaints aside. 8/10

[say-hwaet]

The Dynamic Between Arthur and the Marstons (long post )

I guess I should say there are spoilers, just in case…

After playing the story through several times, I have to say, that Arthur Morgan is one of the best characters ever written. Aside from his development, there is so much depth to him, and regardless of his honor, there is so much to unravel.

I’ve been thinking about the relationship that he has between the Marstons, meaning John, Abigail, and Jack, and it really makes sense as to how Arthur acts the way he does around them in the beginning and all the way to the end.

A lot of his behavior, I think, stems from the loss of Eliza and Isaac. It is my opinion that he himself was torn between living a full life with them and remaining loyal to his gang, and before or by the time he had made a choice, it was too late, as they were killed in a robbery. This had haunted him since and it made him extremely bitter. Later in the game, he tells Rains Fall that he realized that he didn’t get to live a bad life and have good things happen to him. I also think that he was with Eliza after Mary had broken their engagement. I can get into my support for this later, but that isn’t what this post is about.

I think that Arthur was angry with John out of jealousy. He is the “golden boy” and clearly was Dutch’s favorite at one point. Not only that but after Arthur loses his own son and lover, John and Abigail get pregnant and he takes off for a year. He abandons his family, which Arthur takes personally. Arthur had tried to do right by Eliza and Isaac and still failed. So when John has Jack and is within the circle of the gang to help and support him, he takes off. Arthur gives up a potential life with Eliza and Isaac for Loyalty to the gang and John throws it all away. When John comes back, Dutch welcomes him with open arms, and Arthur believes that he would have been held to a different standard if he had come back after being with Eliza and Isaac for a long time. And it doesn’t help that John treats Jack like crap in the beginning of RDR2.

Arthur, imo, was a good father to Isaac when he was present. We can see this in how he treats Jack. In Arthur’s journal, he writes how he should have married Abigail, but due to his feelings for Mary, he didn’t. I’m not sure why after years of not hearing from Mary he would say this, but meh. Perhaps, the hope of starting over, or that she did pop in again at some point (which is how Abigail might have met her?). Anyways. I think he says he should have married her so that she would have someone to rely on and that he could be the father Jack needed. He cares about Abigail, but I don’t think it is anything beyond that. Arthur seemed to me not to be one to be with a woman without some sort of relationship, based upon how he treats women and the prostitutes in Valentine, so I don’t think he was ever with Abigail. Even so, Abigail relies on Arthur, and while he puts up a front, he gives her money for clothing and spends time with Jack. Heck, he even tells John to step up and be a dad. In some of Arthur’s conversations with John, he tells him that he can’t be two people at once. He’s speaking from experience. I think he’s subtly telling John he needs to make a choice as to what life he’s going to live. Hosea and Arthur both tell Abigail and John to leave at parts of the game.

When Jack is kidnapped, and eventually rescued, I think it is one of the most heart-wrenching missions and scenes. I can see it in Arthur’s body language that he longs for the family that he once had. He’s alone in his pain and when everyone is celebrating, Arthur doesn’t sing with the gang; there isn’t even the option to do it like it does other times. Even in my first playthrough, it seemed so sad to me. Everyone was drinking and singing, but Arthur just looked so sad.

So, it is at this point that John starts to step up, and Arthur starts to show symptoms of his illness. When he learns of his diagnosis, Arthur’s eyes open to the reality of the gang’s downfall, and he acknowledges the doubts/reservations he has about Dutch’s plans and schemes. He isn’t blindly loyal anymore. He tries to get John, Abigail, and Jack out, so that they can have the life that he had lost due to loyalty to the gang. He continually tells John to get out and that it would mean a lot to him. In his journal, after rescuing John from prison, he writes in his journal “…We’ve argued over the years, but I’ve grown to care a little for [John]. He’s less of a fool than he was, and maybe he can have the luck that has eluded me. Jack is an innocent little boy. In him, I see what I missed [meaning Isaac]. We did it.” This speaks volumes to me about how he feels about them in the end. He sacrifices himself to let John live. And though it isn’t forever, Arthur dies believing that he made it, and that matters. And hopefully, he could finally be at peace and see Eliza and Isaac again.

I could keep going, but I think I am too long-winded. I guess that helps when writing fleshed-out fanfiction stories, but not for posts. LOL

Would love to hear other thoughts or opinions, I’m always keen for a discussion.

[synergysilhouette]

Ranking the male romances in BG3

I've personally only dated the men, so here's my ranking, from least-favorite to favorite.

4. Halsin--Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Halsin, especially since he subverts expectations. He's a wise and sage man, but has sexual desire and romantic urges instead of being flustered by it or being a thirst trap. I feel like he was done very well, but his romance was not. Due to being a conditional recruit (you have to side with the tieflings in Act 1) and his arc revolving around fixing the shadow curse, he joins you in Act 1, but isn't playable until the middle of Act 2. As such, he doesn't become a romantic option until roughly around the middle of Act 3, and he doesn't' have an ongoing arc after the Shadow Curse, no extra scenes with him aside from the initial sex scene. On top of this, the nature of your relationship is confusing; Halsin finds the word distasteful, and if you engage in a poly relationship, it's noted, at least by Astarion, that your other love interest(s) are under the impression that you're just sleeping with Halsin rather than it being romantic. In fact, Astarion seems a bit insecure about you sleeping with Halsin at first, questioning if it's because he hasn't slept with you for a while. This kinda implies that you actually falling for another person wouldn't be well-received by him.

3. Astarion--I know he's a fan-favorite, but I was never crazy about sassy, cutthroat characters. While his backstory was done so well (him being a magistrate is so interesting to me) and his growth is commendable, he just seemed a bit too jagged for me, personally. Loved the softer moments, though!

2. Wyll--SUCH an underrated love interest! It's so rare to find a pure and kind love interest in a game like this (not that Wyll doesn't have a high body count, but it wasn't done out of cruelty or malice). I feel like he doesn't get enough appreciation because he's nice and doesn't really have edges like the other characters, though a demon on his shoulders sucks. His thirst for justice and kindness is so princely, Astarion's observation of him being out of a fairy tale is very apt. And this is just a detail, but I love the fact that Wyll doesn't sleep with you until you accept his marriage proposal--or does he still do it if you reject him?

Gale--The master of the weave himself! I adore his mix of innocence and maturity, as well as being like a parent to the gang with his intelligence (and I think he does most of the cooking; all this stuff makes me surprised he doesn't see himself as parent material, but at least he's self-aware). He's nerdy and sexy and powerful, though I was concerned that turning him away from his ambitions would end the romance. Seeing that it didn't made him my favorite.

And side note: I wonder why British accents were prioritized for the companions. I'd enjoy more high fantasy games with American ones.

[xoxodropletsneedsmorefanfics]

Hey! Read this rant/OLNF-XOXOD theory I wrote instead of writing the essay for my finals

It’s 3am, I rambled a bit, but it’s still interesting to me. #BaePyounforOLNFStep2

Alright, this has been keeping me up at night and I need to share this theory with the XOXOD/OLNF community.

Who's gonna be the other member of the jerk squad that shows up in OLNF?

Based on my sources (aka, random sneak peeks l've seen after obsessively going through old posts), I know my husband Pran shows up in Step 1 in OLNF, just like how Shiloh showed up in Step 1 of OLBA.

In OLBA, we met Shiloh in Step 1 as a 7 year old, met Jeremy in Step 2 as a 12 year old, and saw the both of them again in Step 3 as 17 year olds (and Nate briefly showed up too, but only by text box).

So that opens the question: is another jerk gonna show up with Pran in OLNF?

Answer: I dunno, maybe. I wish. I hope.

A better question, the one l've mainly been cracking down on is...who's it gonna be.

JB is probably never going to show up, she'll probably only be mentioned again.

(Can't wait for the randomized moment where I get to ask Pran how things are with her...if he even talks to us)

We've already had Jeremy and Snake Boy in OLBA, so they're out.

It might be possible, but I feel like Nate and Everett are out too. Just because they were both thrown in boarding school super young. And although it'd be fun to 14 year old Nate or Everett, I really don't think it's likely...unless they're on a field trip or something. Which I really don't see happening in the fall, but I could be wrong.

So we're left with the most likely option, Bae. I wish I would stop here, but the main reason this account exists is to write XOXOD scenarios.

When we met Jeremy in OLBA, there was the "Oh, a green haired boy? Sounds like Cove!...Never mind, get this green chihuahua away from sweet baby Cove."

Imagine meeting Bae: Tamarack/Qiu/ Another Character tells the MC "Yeah. There's this new kid visiting. He’s like our age, but acts way older!” And everyone who knows Baxter is just like “????”

I don’t actually know if Baxter’s gonna disappear after Step 1 or not

Reactions to Bae could vary like, Qiu, Baxter (if he’s around) and Ren disliking his sarcasm, maybe Tamarack not even realizing he’s being sarcastic, and MC having the choice to either hate the sarcasm or not understand the sarcasm.

It’d be funny if we had the option to just flat out punch Bae like we could Jeremy.

Plus, it would be a good chance for Bae and Pran’s “relationship” to be developed.

And the parallels of the Shiloh —> Jeremy pipeline with the Pran —> Bae pipeline would be so beautiful.

I know Pran hates everyone (except for Jeremy and the rest of the King, JB if she befriends/romances him, and seemingly Lynn), but I don’t think we’ve seen Pran fully hating Bae. There’s a whole scene in XOXOD where Bae’s just yapping away to Pran about some random thing and Pran actively decides to stay and listen because “he had nothing better to do”

Bae even covered for Pran during the field trip on Pran’s route.

This was supposed to just be me explaining why Bae’s probably also going to be in OLNF, but now after writing all this down at 2am. I REALLY want Bae to show up too. I wanna see baby Bae and baby Pran. And then the two of them interacting one on one as teens through the OLNF gang.

GBPATCH! MAKE THIS A REALITY! AND MY MONEY IS YOURS!

Ok, I’m done now, bye.

[cowboyfromh3ll]

Heyyy there💖 First off i’d just like to say how obsessed i am with your fics🥹 they are perfect and you really nail the characters perfectly so here’s my request if you don’t mind:

Could i request an angsty fic with Arthur where he and the reader used to be together when they were teenagers and they joined the gang together but the reader left after a few years because she has such an innocent personality (kind of like Mary-Beth) and she just didn’t want to live in the gang with criminals so when she leaves she breaks Arthur’s heart. But they stumble into each other in Valentine (where she works as a waitress) when Arthur, Javier, Charles and Bill go to the saloon. At first their interaction goes very good until that fight breaks out where Arthur beats Tommy, after that the reader is in tears because she hates violence so she storms off behind the saloon but Arthur follows her and it’s there where they start arguing and throwing insults where the reader says that she left cause she didn’t wanna be associated with criminals so Arthur calls her naive and is extra mean to her because he can’t hold all his built up anger and judgment towards her decision to leave him anymore. When he returns to camp that night he can’t stop thinking about their heated interaction so he returns to Valentine to find her and apologise for his rough words.

Sorry for this extra long request but i just love how perfect and detailed your fics are so i knew you would be the best to turn to for this request😊🫶🏻

All We Ever Wanted Was Everything

(Arthur Morgan x Ex!Fem!Reader Angst/Fluff)

No smut sorry didn't feel like adding it, also thank u so much ur compliments mean so much to me 😭

Warnings: arguing, depictions of violence, blood

Intimacy is the art of licking wounds. And the way Arthur loved was akin to the way a dog nurses an open wound, laving tongue and bared teeth and all. The truth was, Arthur longed to be loved so much that it made him sick. The smallest gesture of affection would bring a lump to his throat, and when he would inevitably fall into his grave, it would seep with all the longing he’s ever done. But like a dog, he dangles on his leash; and his need grows teeth. There are teeth marks on everything Arthur has ever loved.

Valentine was bleak, but it still maintained that hustle and bustle of a well-oiled machine. The town saw the daily passage of horse drawn carriages and hard working folks. Though everyone seemed to be there unwillingly, as though they had nowhere else to go; as though this was the only option they had. Such was the case for Arthur. He found himself left with no choice but to acquaint himself with the people of Valentine as the gang moved further east. The main road down Valentine had taken on the pungent weight of horse manure and wet earth. Arthur’s heavy leather boots stomped through mud, leaving deep, smeared imprints that proved he had been there. They traced him all the way towards the saloon, where he so ungracefully tracked more mud up the wooden steps and inside the establishment. He heard Javier’s voice call out distantly from inside.

He pushed open the dusty wooden doors of the saloon, the hinges groaning and squeaking as it let in another customer (it seemed even the furniture was equally as weary as the townspeople). The poignant scent of sweat, body odor, and what could otherwise simply be described as testosterone hung lowly amidst herds of inebriated men. The low hum of chatter and the lively playing of piano was nearly drowned out by Javier’s obnoxious hollering. He eyed the ox skull hanging decoratively on the wooden pillar ahead of him, as well as the dull, peeling wallpaper. The place was kempt, but just barely. Similar to the town outside, with folks just as tired and hard working coming through here. He approached Javier and Charles at the bar, who were accompanied by two women. Even with their backs turned to him, Arthur could tell they were escorts. With one of them having an off the shoulder blouse, a beguiling attempt at appearing more enticing; her burnt orange hair tied lowly into a bun that rested just above a black choker. Her counterpart was of a darker complexion, and she sported a floral top with a singular black braid cascading down her right shoulder; they both wore long purple skirts. Arthur sneered. ‘Unbelievable’ he thought to himself.

“Oh, Arthur!” Javier looked surprised to see him, his enthusiasm suggesting ulterior motives. Javier was not yet reeling drunk, but he was working on it (Arthur could tell the moment he saw the group raising shots together when he walked in).

“Arthur, Arthur, come here, come here, come over here” Javier pulled Arthur in by his shoulder, the rest of the group turning to face him. Wordlessly, he looked at Charles and gave him a nod of acknowledgement.

“I want you to meet our new friends.” Javier added.

Arthur looked utterly unimpressed by Charles and Javier’s ‘friends’. Arthur stood to the side, eyeing the women up and down, the ginger one busty, exhibiting her cleavage almost proudly. He could tell the two men were here for a lay. Though perhaps, he supposed they were fulfilling their duty of acquainting themselves with the townspeople after all.

“Pleased to meet you.” Arthur greeted flatly, nodding his head.

“Well ain't you just the tough as teak mountain man.” One of the women teased coyly.

“Oh, you be quiet, Anastasia! Anyone can tell this one is a pussy cat!” The other one added.

Javier seemed to butt in overzealously.

“Exactly, yes he’s a pussy…cat. Ain't that so Arthur?” Javier seemed entranced by these women, his judgement clouded by lust. Arthur thought it only bothersome. Charles said nothing the whole time, but Arthur knew he was just as enraptured as Javier was; spanning one of his hands behind one of the women's backs.

“Whatever you say.” Arthur murmured. “How much you cost anyway?”

The women looked at him scornfully.

“Well ain’t that a nice way to talk to a lady?” One of them said sarcastically. Javier and Charles looked on awkwardly, unsure of how to aid the situation.

“Oh, I didn’t know I was talking to a lady.” Arthur put emphasis on lady, even stepping forward to punctuate his sarcasm. That seemed to be the last straw, as the two women excused themselves and walked elsewhere, their unwillingness to stick around any longer suggesting that years in their business had diminished their tolerance for such derision. Javier and Charles looked on in disappointment, watching as the objects of their desires made themselves scarce.

“Well, I must say, you got a fine way with the women amigo…” Javier sighed in defeat, retreating back to the bar and leaning his elbows on the counter.

“Yeah, a regular and dandy charmer.” Arthur humored. He picked up one of the abandoned shots of whisky on the counter, throwing back the liquid and letting it simmer its way down his gullet. He cleared his throat, not expecting it to be quite so potent. Valentine's saloon didn’t feel quite as dismal as Arthur had expected, despite its appearance. Valentine had its fair share of shady gray alleyways and sordid, dodgy customers ducking in and out of low dark doorways, but the bar seemed lively enough.

“Is there anything else I can get you boys?” A strangely familiar voice called out. It was soft, but very sharp. It cut through Arthur’s tedious judgment like a serrated knife through butter. Pleasantly easy, but jarring. Arthur looked up, blinking away disbelief, as he beheld what he thought might’ve been a mirage in the middle of this stalemate of a town.

Arthur’s eyes squinted as he studied your face, noting with fondness the familiar way your eyes looked at him with a deep seated compassion. Your hair seemed to float around you almost angelically, the wispy ends of your hair illuminated by the gentle lighting coming in from the saloon windows— making it appear as though you were materializing from a dream. But when the hardness of your silhouette came into focus, you proved to be very real. Your hands maintained the same gentleness they had years ago. Your skin had matured wonderfully into a sophisticated womanhood. You had matured wonderfully. Arthur could still see teeth marks all over you.

“(Name)?” Arthur whispered. He watched the way your face hardened with realization before melting into a warm smile.

“Arthur?” You breathed, tightening your fists and digging your nails into your palm as if it would wake you up from this dream-like sequence. Charles and Javier looked at each other knowingly, a silent agreement between the two of them to move away from the obviously intimate scene. Arthur barely took notice of their absence; he was too entranced by the sight before him.

“Oh my god…” Your disbelief turned into happiness, your gasps turning into airy laughs. “How long has it been?” You exclaimed, becoming suddenly very excited. Part of you wanted to jump over the counter and pat Arthur down, unable to fathom that this was really him. Out of some sort of second instinct, you placed your hand over his, as if touching him would ground you in reality. He flinched, but he did not move his hand away, rather, he felt a sprinkling of butterflies in his stomach. Unlike yours, his hands had a new roughness to them, decorated with scars and calluses. These hands held stories; memories.

“How have you been?” You asked, feeling the faint but familiar feeling of tears well up in your eyes. Arthur was bashful, you could tell from the way he was hiding his face with his hat, not quite capable of looking you in the eye again.

“I’ve been just fine.” He smiled politely and nodded, fully taking your hand into his and rubbing his thumb over your knuckles. There was a shakiness in the way he did this; you felt his hands tremble softly. In another act of familiarity, you placed your other hand over his, cupping his own fully. There was a noticeable tension in you as you contemplated your next question.

“You still ride with…uh…” You did not complete your sentence. Both of you knew you didn’t need to. He nodded in response, his smile hardening.

“Yes, still do.”

“Well… it’s good to hear you’re doing good Arthur.” You smiled. The two of you exchanged committal half smiles, not yet letting go of one another’s hands. You seemed to study each other for a moment, and despite customers calling for you, Arthur did not want you to go. And you seemed in no hurry to go either.

You shook your head gently in contemplation.

“Arthur, I… I’ve missed—”

In the not so far off distance, you listened, then watched, as two men bumped into each other. Your stomach dropped in fear as you watched the bigger of the two head-butt the other man, knocking him into a table occupied by patrons. Your hands tightened around Arthur’s as you heard a bottle break, and in a split second, the hammer dropped; the entire bar dissolving into a brawl. All around you, fists began flying and chairs were picked up, as men knocked into eachothers and swung in their clumsy, drunken haze. The testosterone in this saloon alone was nearly tangible. You looked to your left and watched the few women there flee out the back door. With Arthur’s hand still in your own, you began walking towards the back, half expecting him to come along with you.

But to no one’s surprise, and to your disappointment, you watched as he turned his back and threw himself headfirst into the fight. As the only woman there now, you felt safest behind the bar. You feared that if you stepped out, you’d be caught in someone’s flurry of fighting. You backed into the mahogany cases of liquor behind you, feeling the way the bottles vibrated and shook with the far off slamming of bodies against the floor. Your eyes remained fixated on Arthur, and you felt your blood run cold when you saw a man come at him, putting his entire body weight into swinging at him.

His name caught in your throat, but it quickly died down when Arthur dodged the punch, stepping to the side before landing a flurry of punches to the man, kicking him away with his boot. You watched in morbid mesmerization as Arthur continued to fight the man, the fight bordering on unfair as Arthur easily out did the man with skill born of experience. His face was already beginning to bruise a nasty red and deep purple after each punch he took, but Arthur never faltered. Eventually, he knocked the man out cold against a chair, and relentlessly, Arthur moved onto the next. He headed to a group of three men this time, seemingly on his way to help his friend; the same man who started this entire fight.

Arthur’s determination seemed to be helping his friends out of losing fights; it appeared this was something he was used to. Like it was just another daily occurrence for him. But to you, this senseless fighting had no other meaning than to prove who could punch harder.

“What the hell is going on down here?!” Another burling man came stomping down the stairs, his ego just as big as he was, it seemed. Only a man with an inflated sense of self would insert himself into this mess, you thought. You ducked behind the counter, but peered over just enough so that you could see what was going on. You looked to your left, briefly, and saw another one of Arthur’s companions fighting a man. Another man pleaded with this “Tommy” to not involve himself. Your throat became dry as you saw him, with ease, knock back Arthur’s other friend.

Arthur tried to approach Tommy and Javier, but was promptly jumped by another man who wrapped his arm around his neck from behind. Arthur had to continually jab his elbow into the man in order to get him off, the struggle ensuing for excruciatingly long. As soon as Arthur threw him off, he made sure to turn around and land a punch in his jugular, knocking him out. Arthur’s fighting would’ve impressed you, if not for the fact you were terrified.

“Javier could use some help, Morgan!” Bill called out from across the bar.

You watched in terror as Arthur confidently, and calmly, sauntered up behind Tommy, who was ruthlessly slamming Javier into a table over and over, before landing a punch behind Tommy’s head. The impact barely seemed to phase Tommy, before he calmly turned around and punched Arthur across the jaw. The sound of fist meeting flesh made you squirm, especially when it was Arthur’s. You nearly shrieked as you watched Tommy grapple Arthur’s shoulders brutishly before throwing him over the same table. His body tumbled over the surface before landing on the floor with a grunt and a thud. To add insult to injury (and even more injury), Tommy walked around the table and picked Arthur up off the floor once again, before sending his body crashing through the saloon window.

“Oh my god!” You screamed, not caring for your own safety anymore as you followed the scene outside.

Arthur crashed through the glass, gaining new cuts and bruises as he rolled off the wooden porch and onto the mud. He skid across the earth, smothering his jacket and pants with filth. He stood wearily, taking notice of the crowd forming around them. Cold rain poured down on him, only making the surface beneath him even more slippery.

“Come on, pretty boy.” Tommy’s voice was gravelly as he marched down the wooden steps, a parallel to the way Arthur had marched up them earlier.

“Pretty boy? You’re kidding me. Pretty boy?” At this point, Arthur wasn’t sure why he was fighting. To not die, he supposed. He could’ve stepped away at an earlier point, but pride did not allow him to. Now he was stuck in this. The two sized each other up as they got into fighting stances, then Tommy stepped forward and grabbed Arthur’s neck, throwing him to the side.

You heard a cacophony of horrified screams, disapproving howls, and cheers for either Tommy or Arthur. You saw the rage sizzling in Arthur, and felt a combination of pity, horror, and disappointment. It’d been so many years since you last saw him, so many you had lost count, and this was the first time you had seen him since then. The only thing that had changed was how his eyes and hands had hardened. And suddenly, the calluses and cuts on his knuckles that you had seen earlier seemed to explain themselves.

For a moment, Tommy seemed to have gotten the upper hand on Arthur, and you feared the worst. You weren’t sure how far this would go, but your body flinched with each punch you saw Arthur tank. But against all odds, Arthur clambered on top of Tommy.

A smattering of blood and mud smeared all over Arthur’s face, he grunted with each brutal punch he landed onto Tommy’s head. He felt Tommy claw at the thick leather of his jacket, attempting to shove his face away, but Arthur persisted. Arthur got some sort of wretched exultation out of watching the way Tommy’s face turned into one of helplessness. His body thrashed and his limbs flailed as Arthur continued to strike his head, the skin breaking and bleeding from the repeated impact.

Arthur grit his teeth so hard he swore a tooth nearly cracked. He had tuned out the cheering surrounding him, an uninterrupted ringing replacing any other discernible sounds. The only thing he could focus on was the way he would slam his fist, over and over into Tommy’s head, as if in hypnosis. The man below him was a pitiful, bloody pulp; reaching his arms up as if he were begging for some unlikely act of mercy. But Arthur would punch again, and again, and again…

“Stop! Stop! Please!” You watched as Mr. Downes bravely stepped forward, pleading desperately with Arthur to stop. Arthur raised his fist, but did not connect it, instead looking at Mr. Downes. Arthur and Mr. Downes exchanged a few more words before Arthur pushed past him, covered in mud and all, limping away from the scene and pushing past people.

He caught sight of you looking on tearfully, and the gravity of what he had just done crashed down on him all at once when you turned your back and scurried down the alley besides the saloon. Arthur abandoned any resolve he had and followed you. You heard the rugged breathing and heavy footsteps behind you, which only terrified and spurred you on to run deeper into the alley. You turned the corner, back pressed against the rear wall of the saloon. You held your breath, and for a terrifying few seconds, heard the footsteps approaching. As if it were some sort of deliberate jump scare, you yelped when Arthur turned the corner and faced you. Normally you’d find the mud revolting, but now it served to scare you. It made Arthur seem all the more savage, traces of seething rage still present in his eyes. His hair was wild, face bruised and beaten; his blood mixed with mud and smeared his face in a grim unfamiliarity. He took a step towards you, and you flinched, trying to back away but you could not; you could only shuffle to the side.

At once, Arthur was overcome with an unfathomable sense of self hatred and disgust upon seeing the fear present in your face. He felt sickened with himself, and was given a moment of clarity as he looked down at his dirtied hands, his mud smeared clothes, his bruises and bleeding knuckles. Arthur saw his reflection in the window next to you, the person staring back at him unfamiliar, yet startlingly recognizable all the same.

“(Name)—”

“GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!”

Arthur’s eyes began stinging, a deep pang hitting his chest. His shoulders slumped and his body sagged, contracting your squared and tensed shoulders, your arms lifted and crossed over your chest protectively.

“You… You… I… I thought maybe you might’ve changed! But you proved me wrong.” You were sobbing at this point, and you weren’t sure whether you were trembling from your anger or fear. Probably both. Arthur could not find the words to respond.

“How dare you! Come into our town, into our businesses, and start a fight! And beat on us like you own the place! You beat that man half to death! WHAT FOR?” Your body buzzed in anxiety, unable to hold in any more of your anger as you shook.

“(Name), he was going to kill Javier back there if I didn’t—”

“You’re an animal!”

Arthur seemed to forget himself once more, feeling rage upon being called an animal. But perhaps it was more than just being insulted. Perhaps it was years of hurt and heartbreak behind his words.

“You don’t know what you’re saying. Listen to yourself—.” He spat through grit teeth.

“Oh I know!” You huffed, lowering your arms now. “Which is exactly why I left in the first place. Why I left you.”

You both felt that one, Arthur the most. The sting was reminiscent of being stabbed in the chest. He turned his sadness to anger, fueling the burning flame inside his chest. It kept him going.

“You left what we had, the good thing that we had, so that you could come and work at some dead end town? Is this really the life you want? Is your way of living any better than what we do?”

“I live a good honest life now!”

“You’re just a naive girl who doesn’t know that sometimes, this is all we got. Some of us don’t have the luxury of being able to just turn away and start anew. For some of us, we only have each other!”

You were enraged at this point, enough to let your guard down and walk up directly in front of him, sizing him up almost.

“I’d rather die working than live my life as a despicable criminal living with a lowdown gang constantly on the run. If that’s your idea of a life, then good god Mister Morgan, I pity you.” Your every word dripped with venom. And you made sure Arthur felt every bit of it, even going as far as to jab your finger in his chest.

“You’re a brat.” He growled. “You seem to forget where you come from. You were once a part of the gang, you went through exactly what I went through and you knew what it was like. And now you wanna act like you’re better than me? Like you’re above me?” He looked back down at you with malice, a hidden layer of hurt and sadness just beneath the surface. He looked somewhere between a kicked puppy and a crazed, rabid dog who’d been rolling in mud.

You said nothing in return, instead falling into some sort of stare off. He looked at you expectantly, but did not anticipate an answer. It was as if by looking into your eyes or expression, he could catch a slight change in your expression that indicated, just maybe, that you did not mean what you were saying. That this was all some adrenaline fueled attack on him after having watched him savagely beat a man. But even he could realize the irony in that line of thought.

But not once did your face soften, or look away from him in a show of discomfort or even intimidation. You stood your ground, heels firmly planted on the mud beneath you both.

Wordlessly, but with a grunt, Arthur moved past you, his arm brushing past and saturating some of your skin and clothes with mud. Arthur grumbled lowly to himself as every fiber in his body urged him to turn around and look at you one last time, to throw himself at your feet and ask if you really meant what you said, but his pride did not allow him.

Even as Dutch spoke to him at the front of the shop, his ears ringed and obstructed any other words from entering and being processed (He hadn’t even questioned Dutch’s sudden appearance with Trelawny). Arthur seemed to look past anyone who spoke to him, only nodding in response when they asked “are you listening?”. It was only when he was able to dunk himself in a nearby barrel of water, did the striking coldness snap him back to reality; the gritty veil over his consciousness being washed away.

The ride back towards camp was a gap in Arthur’s memory. He fell back into a pit of thought that tunneled his vision once again. He was all at once, keenly and uncomfortably aware of every sound and movement around him, but he could not be bothered to give it any thought. The shockwave of impact that traveled up through his body as he got off of his horse rather clumsily did not shake him from his pensive state. He wearily returned the greetings that people sent his way, not in the mood to entertain any sort of conversation with anyone. Arthur wanted nothing more now, than to rest his sore and aching muscles. He changed out of his caked, filthy clothes and changed into his union suit, the clean fabric feeling angelic in comparison to the squalid state of his clothes. His joints began to throb suddenly, as if the pain was triggered at once by laying on his cot, which suddenly seemed to sky rocket in comfortability. A deep ache settled into his side; the side he had landed on after being thrown.

His bed echoed his groan as he rested his weight on it, a large sigh leaving him as pain settled into every cell of his body. His exhaustion overtook him as he slid his eyes shut; his head hitting his pillow like there was a weight tied around his neck. Every bit of his being screamed for sleep, but his racing mind would not allow rest. He thought of you: the terrified look in your eyes after he followed you behind the saloon, the way you looked akin to a wild, injured animal backed up into a corner. He was sure he looked the same.

His bodily aches were accompanied by the pang in his chest as he remembered your heavy words. He squeezed his eyes in an attempt to prevent tears from surfacing, but the pressures in his nasal passages proved to be too much. He turned his back away from camp so that no one could see just how pathetic he looked.

The insults on him, his gang, his way of life. They were all too much to bear. He did not anticipate seeing you at all. He looked back regretfully on how the sweet encounter had turned so sour so quickly; part of him blamed Bill. He could at least find solace in the fact that you had missed him after all these years. As he did. Though he had had women since then, he never did quite forget about you. A boy never forgets his first love. And now that he was a man, those feelings amplified, and he knew it had been more than just puppy love. Part of him could not understand your rejection of the lifestyle. When you initially left the gang, and Arthur by proxy, you explained you could not withstand the violence and bloodshed, but that you respected and understood that this was his way of life, the only way of life he had known, even before he met you and joined the gang. But with the way he had heard you speak so lowly of the gang, he could not understand where all your compassion had gone, especially since you had been part of it.

Part of him still held onto a childlike sense of anger, feeling as though you wronged him in leaving him. But he could at least understand why you decided to up and leave. Perhaps his own judgment of your life had been harsh. You weren’t wrong in saying you lived an honest life, objectively it was better than his. You got to live freely without fear of the law, you made honest clean money, and as far as he knew, you only had yourself to support with the money you made. Arthur hadn’t even considered the possibility you were seeing someone, his stomach dropping at the thought. He was guilt ridden and anxious, nauseated by the thoughts. His temporary solution would be falling asleep to quell it.

When Arthur awoke, it was nighttime. The sun had set, the sky tinged with dark purple that faded into night. Most of the activity around camp had calmed, but many people were still awake. Arthur stood at once, bee lining towards his horse. He ignored any gang members that attempted to come forth and ask him if he was okay, where he was going. Wordlessly, he mounted his horse and spurred it on, riding back towards Valentine.

Perhaps it was unwise to go back into town so soon after raising hell there. But Arthur couldn’t care less. His objective at the moment was to see you. And he hoped to god you’d still be at the saloon. His heart thrummed in time with his horses running, and he began to pant as if he was the one doing the physical activity. Perhaps it was the anxiety that made him so short of breath.

He saw the promising glow of Valentine as he approached the small town, pulling on his horse's reins to try and slow down. His horse trotted down the streets of now dried earth, the prints of shoes and wheels having dried up into casts. He cringed internally when he saw the still broken window of the saloon, the glass having been cleaned up long ago. Luckily for him though, the lights of the saloon were on, and he heard the same lively piano from before. From the outside, it was almost as if nothing had ever happened, but he knew that as soon as he stepped inside, all heads would turn in his direction and stare him down. Arthur was used to looks, he would pay it no mind. But it was the thought of you sending him a disgusted look his way that had his head spinning in apprehensiveness.

Arthur was not a man who was scared of confrontation, and when it came to violence, he was best at letting his fists speak for him. But for more emotional matters, he sounded as eloquent as a child learning how to read for the first time. He would get stuck on using the right combination of words, and would opt towards not saying much at all. But this was something he wanted, and he knew that if was going to ask for your forgiveness, he’d have to put effort into sounding decent.

The hinges of the saloon doors creaked, and as Arthur expected, the volume level of the saloon lowered, the lively chatter dissolving into whispers and grumbles of threats. He looked over towards the bar to see if coming here had been worth his time. And there you were, standing in your confused, and frankly appalled, glory. You were wiping down a glass, continuing for a moment too long as you stared at him.

You had not expected to see him back here, grimacing at the tender purple skin of his cheek. Part of you felt pity, but it was replaced by indifference as you remembered he brought the injuries onto himself. As he began walking towards you, you slammed the glass down on the counter with a sigh and rolled your eyes. The sudden slam startling, but not fully waking, the passed out patron slumped against the counter.

“What are you doing here.” You asked, hand on your hip. It came out as less of a question and more as a statement professing your annoyance. Arthur leaned on the counter, moving his head to the side so he could look anywhere but at you as he attempted to find the right words to start off with. He opened and closed his mouth, and you were beginning to get impatient.

“I’m sorry…”

You were about to demand Arthur either leave or speak up, until you heard his meek apology. You felt your facial muscles relax from the scowl you had held for so long.

“What?” You asked in disbelief.

Arthur fidgeted where he stood, occupying himself by drumming his fingers along the counter. You lowered your arms to your side, fidgeting as well.

“I’m sorry too.”

A moment of awkward silence hung over the two of you before you grabbed his hand; bruised and callused, taken into soft and gentle. You pursed your lips in a half hearted smile before nodding your head towards the stairs. Before Arthur could even understand what you were implying, you were leading him past the bar counter and up the stairs towards a private room.

“What do we need this for? I just wanted to apologize…”

“I know. I just didn’t want my patrons hearing, y’know…” You laughed awkwardly. “A little privacy is nice, they don’t exactly keep their noses to themselves.” You fumbled with your keys, a sweat forming on the back of your neck as you struggled to jam the key into the lock before turning it. Arthur found it rather suggestive, but he decided to move along anyway. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t have the hots for you anymore.

The two of you stiffly scooted over towards the bed; first you, then him, the bed dipping significantly from his weight. The sudden dip caused you to bump into his arm, which neither of you wanted to acknowledge outright. Your thighs rubbed against each other, and at last, you were able to see side by side how much Arthur had grown since you last saw him. Seeing the way he dwarfed you tugged at your heart strings.

“Oh, Arthur… How I’ve missed you… I’m so sorry for saying all those nasty things. And I know it’s no excuse but I was scared and… I felt a little betrayed that you had gone off to fight instead of… coming with me.”

Arthur nodded as you spoke, processing each word.

“And I know I shouldn’t have expected that. They’re your gang afterall, they’re your family. And I don’t think you’re all lowdown, or any of those nasty things I said.” You were gripping Arthur’s arm by now, as if holding onto him at that moment might better help him understand and accept your apology.

“I know sweetheart, I know.” He began. “I’m a fool and fighting’s all I know. It’s all I’ve ever known. I ain’t the smartest… but…” Arthur seemed to lose his train of thought, physically pained by his own mental fumbling. “I’m just trying to say that I’m sorry. I especially don’t have any right to judge your lifestyle.”

It was your turn to nod, slowly breaking into a smile.

“I’m glad you came.”

“I wanted to see you.”

The two of you slowly began to intertwine hands, shyly at first, until you fully sent it and gripped his fully. You felt his arm go tense against you as he looked back and forth from where you two conjoined to your face. The tension in the air had a nostalgic feel to it. It brought you back to all those years ago when you and Arthur had first gotten together. You were so young then. Holding hands also allowed you to feel the size difference, causing the both of you to blush.

“You’ve uh… really grown.” You giggled together. “I mean, you always were much larger than me but my my…”

Arthur nodded, looking down at the noticeable differences between you.

“Yeah, I always did love giving you piggy back rides.” He added. The recalling of the juvenile memory had you laughing even more.

“Oh, how I missed those! And you were always so helpful. Could be really helpful to have you around the saloon, can intimidate some guys away like you did for me when we were younger.”

“Gladly will, sweetheart.”

As the laughter died down, you hesitantly leaned upwards, looking for a sign to stop on his face. Though with more hesitation, you abstained from kissing him.

That is, until he went ahead and did it himself. He let go of your hand so he could cup your face, using the other arm to wrap around your waist and hold you close, as though you might disappear if he didn’t. Your lips molded perfectly against one another. It felt like the reunion of lips that should’ve always been together. And even though you had attempted to peel away from Arthur for so long, the meeting was like two sides of a wound finally mending back together.

The muffled chatter of the downstairs saloon was drowned out by your and his heavy breathing. You pushed your own lips hard against his teeth, gripping the downy tuft of hair at the base of his neck. He was taken aback by your enthusiasm but returned it nonetheless. The men you had had in Arthur’s absence were insipid compared to his passionate kisses. The two of you idly palmed and groped each other, the same tenderness as when you two were younger, but with the renewed passion of lovers long separated, finally reuniting with a more carnal desire.

Memories come in waves, and tonight, you were drowning.

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PHEW this took me days, I can finally work on all my other requests. Thanks for being patient y'all

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All We Ever Wanted Was Everything - Bauhaus

[galaxyshine24-7]

Deuce trying to protect the idea that the NRC is an ideal place for a family- Look, my mother raised me alone in the NRC and I'm fine

Yui- So good that when he was under 18 he already joined a gang and his life expectancy is less than 40 years, as he can be killed in different ways

Exactly, many of the boys not just Deuce try to convince Yuu that NRC isn't that bad. However, they always get shot down with Yuu's logical thinking.

I felt inspired to write a dabble about it. I hope you enjoy.

A Brighter Future

It is a cold day in NRC as snow softly falls along the street. The light from the Silver Bullet creates a warm glow inviting those to come inside and enjoy a hot drink.

Yuu tends the bar as always making a cup of hot chocolate for themselves and their customers who decided to remain rather late after an important meeting. It is an end-of-the-year occasion where the leaders invite any members they deem worthy to tag along.

It has been a chaotic year with many events and secrets being revealed. The one reveal on everyone's minds is the future desires of their usually secretive bartender. It was a big shock to uncover one of their deepest desires, but it also left a worried thought in all the boys heads.

Yuu wants to leave NRC one day to start a family. No one really leaves NRC, but the more the bartender insists the more the boys have to take it seriously. So now comes the challenge to find ways to keep Yuu from leaving.

"You know Yuu," Deuce leans against the counter rubbing the back of his neck. "I grew up here with my mom and it's pretty safe." Deuce tries to bring up the subject gently having practiced ways to convince the bartender that they can feel safe here.

"Deuce your mother did a wonderful job raising you, but you joined a gang at a young age. Not to mention it's encouraged for young people like you to join gangs basically signing your life away, and it's almost impossible to get out of them in one piece." Yuu puts whipped cream on the drinks sprinkling them with chocolate powder before handing one to Deuce.

"Well uh-" Deuce is speechless as he takes the drink.

"Oh come on it's not that serious." Ace chimes in leaning against the counter sucking on a candy can.

"Ace I literally found you in a dumpster beaten up." Ace winces at the memory and so does Riddle who has been listening to the conversation off to the side.

"I get what you guys are trying to do, but I will not be convinced." Yuu starts to hand out the rest of the drinks.

"But to just up and leave." Epel pouts taking a sip of his drink.

"It's not like you'll never hear from me again I'll call, you guys didn't think I'll be a bartender for the rest of my life did you?" Yuu places the rest of the drinks on a tray to hand out to the others. The first years watch Yuu walk away to hand out the drinks around the bar.

"Deuce what was that?! You said you practiced?" Ace exclaims.

"I did, I just didn't expect that response, they are... kind of right." Deuce slumps his shoulders. "My mom wasn't the happiest with me joining the gang."

"Yuu's thinking isn't wrong, this life isn't desirable to most." Jack crosses his arms.

"So do you want them to leave?" Ace snaps.

"No," Jack's tail puffs up as he looks away.

"Ortho can you run statics some sort of statics?" Ace looks at the robot child.

"I have, but no matter how much I manipulate them NRC is not desirable option for people to live." Ortho sighs.

"So then we have nothing?" Ace rest his head on the counter.

"We can still convince them." Deuce tries to remain positive, but the first years have seen how stubborn the bartender can be.

"So I guess it's back to the drawing board as you humans say." Sebek shakes his head sipping his hot chocolate.

Silly first years the leaders and their vice captains have already come up with many plots to keep the bartender right here where they need to be. The young ones just need to leave it too the older folk to set things right.

[wickjump]

Hey. Hey come here.

*gets really close and whispers in your ear*

Nightmare with leg problems/chronic pain in legs that he doesn't want to admit/acknowledge until one day he literally falls down in front of one of his gang members (like Killer for example) and finally needs to acknowledge it and is forced to go to a doctor and finds out he needs to use a cane (or be a part time wheelchair user or something) and he's very upset about this and Dream is confused on why there hasn't been any attacks on AUs recently, meanwhile the gang is helping Night get used to this.

*runs away*

(Sorry if this was inaccurate on chronic pain idk much about it)

OOH OOH ME ME i have chronic pain!!!! granted in my back not legs BUT I HVAE IT!!! aw i love chronic pain headcanons they make me feel happy. it’s good to be in pain when other characters also are so you can write it well (i recently was in the emergency room for it)

i feel like he would find other ways to continue his work even without the use of his legs (ie using tentacles to walk/move around, which we’ve seen him use before, and def have other types of pain—head pain and migraines, for example, because half his head was blown off. he 🤝 horror )the worst migraines ever)

he’s a very work oriented type character, regardless of interpretation he’s often doing work in some shape or form, whether physical or paperwork; i don’t think that would change at all. i love aid users btw, especially hcs too theyre so underrepresented, and i def think that works for other characters, but nightmare,, wouldn’t, the same way i haven’t gotten a cane despite how that would probably make my life easier. I’m a ‘tough through the pain’ kind of person—I’ll feel it regardless, it’s best to chuck pain meds and get on with my day. and nightmare does have options—again, tentacles, the ability to grow said tentacles and generally shift to provide aids on his own.

sans would use a cane/wheelchair 100%, as would most other classic variants or swap papyri. they don’t care nearly enough to make themselves feel pain on the daily for sake of “usefulness” or “appearances”. nightmare, i just don’t think would. he views his cause as too important and neglecting his pain like i or others can do seems more fitting. he’d despise not being able to move as ‘freely’ as he’d like even if it would be better for him. on worse days he sits down the entire time in his office and makes his henchmen do his dirty work. he’d find ways to work with it—he is 500 years old after all.

but holy shit do i LOVE the headcanon where he has chronic pain in his legs!!!!!!!!!! i feel that he uses something that acts like a cane but isn’t sometimes, something like a staff that he subconsciously uses to support himself while still looking ‘prestigious’ or whatever the fuck. but traditional aids? no way. he’d sooner die than go to a doctor, he’s too full of himself and cocky to get help from someone, especially one he doesn’t know. even in a fanon approach where his gang urges him to do something about it, he’d rather make a remedy for worse pain himself.

idk just my thoughts!!!!! also don’t skip out on getting aids or pain meds nightmare is immortal and a fucking stuck up asshole and an idiot. go to a doctor. get checked out. get prescription pain meds and aids if you need them. do all the things, don’t do what i do im just a dick to myself and probably a bit of a masochist given how little i ask for help with these things 😭

ANYWAY YA!!!! love this hc so much thank u anon,,

[inkedroplets]

Supercorptober 2023 Day 19: Hazy

Read on AO3

After nearly a lifetime of being gawked at and whispered about (sometimes in not-so-quiet voices) Lena had gotten very good at knowing when someone was staring at her. 

She noticed Alex casting a furtive glance at her from across the table during a game night that was just beginning to wind down. She initially ignored it, focusing on the game board even though the winner had already been decided. Thanks to a number of very lucky dice rolls  Kara had pulled into an insurmountable lead which left the rest of them to battle it out for second place. Everyone except for Lena. Her ending up in last place seemed preordained and Lena considered her options and realized that she was almost assuredly destined to remain there. She gave the dice in her hand an obligatory shake before letting them fall from her hand. 

“Damn it,” Lena murmured before the dice had even stopped rattling over the top of the board. The roll was bad. She knew that with the kind of certainty that a seasoned pitcher knows when a throw is bad even before it leaves their hand. “Tough luck,” Nia said consolingly, moving Lena’s piece for her a paltry two spaces, seven shy of the space she was aiming for. She gave Lena a comforting pat on the arm but the wide grin that had spread across her face somewhat dulled the sincerity. “You look really torn up about it,” Lena teased as she passed Nia the dice. She smiled when Nia gave her best Who me? expression complete with doe-eyes but couldn’t help but notice that Alex was still looking at her out of the corner of her eye. “I don’t have something in my teeth, do I?” Lena asked looking over at Alex who went slightly pink at being caught. “No,” Alex said hurriedly and looked as if she were debating whether or not to try and shrink behind Kelly. “It’s nothing,” she said in a tone that really meant it was nothing bad. “I’m just still wrapping my head around you...” She made a flourish with her hands and Lena could only stare back bemused for a moment until it clicked. 

Her magic…

“That makes two of us," Lena said, wishing she had simply left it alone instead of letting her curiosity get the better of her.  She still hadn't completely come to terms with the concept of their being such a thing as magic, much less her being able to use it. A part of her wondered if she ever really would. Magic was something that was simply too antithetical to her worldview for her to accept easily. Even in a world with metahumans and aliens, magic seemed a bridge too far. “I shouldn’t have brought it up,” Alex said.

“No,” Lena said reflexively. She mustered a smile that had all the makings of the genuine article and shook her head to hide its imperfections. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet that I can… that I’m…” She copied the gesture that Alex made, finding that easier than actually saying the word ‘magic’. “Of course,” Alex said quickly. “It does make sense though,” Nia said sagely. She exchanged a look with Brainy who had just moments ago been gazing intently at the gameboard. He took a moment to ponder the question, glancing over at Lena for a brief moment before nodding in agreement. “What does?” Kelly asked, wading into the conversation carefully. “Lena not believing in magic,” Nia said. She looked around the table as if to gauge everyone’s response to her theory. When she got back around to Lena she offered her another consoling look, this one far more sincere than her first. “It would be hard for anyone to accept.” “Not Kara,” Alex said, smirking a little. “She’d come around pretty fast." “I would not,” Kara interjected. “I don’t know,” Lena teased and flashed Kara a shy, secretive smile. “Ganging up on me.” Kara shook her head but Lena could see that she was smiling. “Everyone except Kara,” Nia amended. “But Lena would naturally have a harder time than most since it’s so unlike her. Science and magic don’t really mix,” she said. Like oil and water.” “She’s right,” Lena agreed and found that having Nia explain it in her stead made it easier for her to talk about. But it wasn’t just that the two didn’t mix. In her mind, science and magic were diametrically opposed. “Magic, it’s not…” She paused, fishing for the right word. She noticed that everyone was looking at her now, the game all but forgotten. “Not logical,” she finished. 

There was a brief moment of silence followed by a murmur of agreement from around the table. “ Highly illogical,” Nia agreed and held her left hand up in a Vulcan salute which got a small smile out of Kelly. 

"I get that," Alex said, no longer looking like she wanted to crawl under the table out of embarrassment. "That's what's making it so hard for me to believe it too but Lena you can do magic." She stared at her, waiting for what she said to sink in. "You have a spellbook for God's sake," she added. "Doesn't that make it a little easier to accept?" 

"It should," Lena admitted. "But I still don’t quite believe it. Can’t believe it,” she admitted. Even now. With Lex and Nyxly nothing more than a very bad memory, in no small part to the help she was able to provide. Thanks to her magic… Even still, she found it impossible to believe. Lena braced herself for the follow-up questions that were sure to follow, hoping she could discretely steer the conversation elsewhere. Not that she didn’t ever want to talk about it but not tonight. Not just yet… She saw the way that Brainy was looking at her and knew he likely had several questions for her. But before he could open his mouth, Kara cleared her throat. “Who’s roll is it again?” 

In near-perfect unison, everyone around the table stopped looking at Lena and turned to look at each other. 

"I think it's Kelly's turn," Nia said. “It is,” Kelly said a  little sheepishly and leaned over the table to grab the dice. She gave the board a cursory once-over and didn’t seem to like what she saw judging from the way her mouth turned downward. 

“You’d need double sixes to ensure second place,” Brainy said. He didn’t even glance at the board as he said it, which Lena took to mean he had already figured out the exact number of spaces each of them would need to move for the best possible outcome.

"Never going to happen," J'onn murmured. 

Brainy shook his head, looking far more interested in the topic than the game they were playing. "Actually, the probability that Kelly rolls two sixes is—" 

"I don't want to know!" Kelly interjected, waving him off. “It’s bad luck.” “No math at game night,” Nia said darkly but grabbed Brainy by the arm and gave him a quick but fierce hug to show that she was clearly joking. A ripple of laughter echoed around the table and as everyone turned to watch Kelly take her turn, Lena glanced over at Kara who was watching her with a smile on her face.

" Thank you," Lena mouthed. She flashed Kara a small secretive smile and when she felt herself start to blush she turned her attention to the board, pretending to be just as interested in the game as everyone else seemed to be. 

By the time everyone was ready to call it a night, Kara’s apartment looked as if a mini tornado had touched down and cut a path of destruction from her kitchen to her living room. There were empty takeout boxes strewn all over the kitchen counter that was speckled with drips of sauce. A quartet of empty wine bottles were perched on the edge of her kitchen table and in the center of it there was that night’s selection of board games still not in their boxes. 

“Don’t bother cleaning up,” Kara said when Nia began to gather up the wine glasses bunched up together on the coffee table. “I’ll have the place looking spotless in no time flat. It’s late,” she said, taking the glasses from Nia, clutching them delicately by their stems, and ferrying them to the sink. “It’s not that late,” Nia countered but she hid a yawn with the back of her hand as she said it. “Okay maybe it is late but I can stick around long enough to help un-trash your apartment.” Kelly nodded. “It’s no trouble, Kara.” She was still sitting on the end of the couch next to Alex who was already half-dozing, her head resting against Kelly’s shoulder. “Go on,” Kara insisted and pointed at Alex discreetly. “You’re going to have a hard enough time pouring her into a cab,” she teased. Alex stirred against Kelly’s shoulder but didn’t lift her head as she pointed forebodingly at Kara. “I’ll stay,” Lena said and gave Nia a little nudge on the shoulder. “I’m not anywhere close to tired,”  she said and began to gather up some of the dishes on the coffee table. Her sleeping schedule had never been anything other than erratic and after several late nights at the office, 

"If you're sure…" Kara said carefully, watching her from the kitchen. She didn’t seem as eager to talk Lena out the door and looked almost guilty for it. There was a sly smile on her face like the tiny glow from a spark that might grow into something more. 

"Very sure," Lena said and couldn't help but grin when Kara beamed back at her, feeling her heart do a little skip in her chest. 

"Okay then," Nia said softly. She looped her arm with Brainy's and instead of standing her ground tugged him towards the door. "Thanks for tonight,” she called over her shoulder. “My place next week,” she reminded them before turning to Brainy. He was looking at her with a look of polite confusion on his face. One that Nia seemed to expect because she leaned close as she opened the door for the both of them and murmured, “I’ll tell you in the elevator.” “Wait for us,” Kelly called after them as she helped Alex up off the couch. “We can ride down together,” she said 

“Have a good night you two,” J’onn said as he followed along in Kelly’s wake. He lingered in the doorway long enough to wave to the both of them. Lena nodded at him and Kara waved back cheerily before he shut the door behind him. Lena could hear all of them chatting animatedly as they made their way down the hall towards the elevator, their voices slowly growing more muffled. “You didn’t have to stay,” Kara said, drawing Lena’s attention back to her. “But I’m happy you did,” she added quickly.

“The loser should have to stay and help clean up,” Lena joked. She was blushing a little as she said it. Something easy enough to blame on the wine. "I might slow you down," Lena warned. It was all too easy to imagine Kara as a blur zipping to and fro, leaving everything sparkling and immaculately clean in her wake. 

"Nah." Kara shook her head. "You could never do that."She snapped on a pair of kitchen gloves and surveyed the impressive tower of dishes in the sink with one hand on her hip before she got to work. Lena watched her for a moment, marveling at Kara's speed before she got to work herself. 

With both of them working together it took them barely any time at all. Lena was just putting away the board games in the small closet next to the living room when Kara came strolling out of the kitchen, singing softly under her breath. She was carrying what remained of the chiffon cake that Alex had brought for dessert in one hand and two forks in the other. 

“No room in the fridge,” Kara said. “I should really get around to cleaning it,” she said and spared a guilty glance back towards the kitchen. “I think there’s still some old takeout shoved in the crisper… But do you mind helping me out a little more?” she joked. She set the cake on the freshly cleaned coffee table and sat down before scooching over to make room for Lena on one end. “Well,” Lena said, taking one of the forks from her before sitting down herself.  “I suppose I could help out a little more. Not that I think you need it,” she teased. “You know,” Kara said after they had polished off the cake (which like the cleaning went much faster than Lena had expected), “I think it’s neat.” “Neat?” Lena looked at her, grinning a little at the turn of phrase. It was too perfectly Kara. Coming from anyone else it would have sounded the tiniest bit odd. “Yeah,” Kara said a little defensively, sitting up a straighter, grinning back. “Your magic, I mean… I think it’s really neat.” “I guess it is,” Lena said fairly and was more than a little shocked that she agreed, at least in theory. It was neat. “I just wish it was easier for me to accept that part of myself.” She laughed, feeling more than a little foolish that she was still determined to remain obstinate to the very end. “I guess it’s a little easier for you to accept. You being you,” she said fondly and imitated the pose Kara often took when flying, her fist raised up and over her head. “That might be true,” Kara admitted, “But I think it’s just because it doesn’t change anything. You’re still you Lena. Magic or no magic. I know how that must sound,” she said and from her tone maybe expected Lena to call her out on such a simplistic outlook for a problem that had plagued Lena for months now. “But it’s true. I already thought you could do anything you set your mind to. Magic doesn’t change that.” “It sounds like you,” Lena said. “And if you really think that—” “I do,” Kara interjected, nodding so earnestly that Lena had to stifle a laugh with her hand. Too afraid it might become a full-on laughing fit if she didn’t nip it in the bud. “Then I want to say thank you. I think I needed to hear that,” Lena said, feeling as if an invisible weight had been lifted off her shoulders, one she hadn’t even realized she had been carrying. “Anytime,” Kara said modestly. She smiled shyly at Lena before her expression turned uncharacteristically grave. “Your pose is all wrong though.” Kara leaned back, surveying her with a careful eye. She nodded to herself, looking more sure than ever, and leaned forward to push Lena’s fist a touch higher into the air. Looking satisfied she sat back down. “Now you got it,” she teased. 

“I'll keep that in mind for the next time I go for an afternoon fly around the city."

Kara started to laugh but stopped almost as soon as she had started.  “Lena…” She reached over and squeezed her arm like she sometimes did when they were eating lunch together in her office. "You don’t think you could…” Kara began to say before trailing off

“Don’t think what?” Lena said and knew what Kara meant to say when she refused to look at her. "That I could fly? Kara, you can't be serious."

"I don't know,” Kara said a little defensively, looking so thoroughly embarrassed that Lena couldn’t help but laugh. “Is it really that hard to believe?” “No,” Lena admitted. “And that’s why it’s so weird. Oh God, can you imagine if any paparazzi snagged a picture of me flying around on a broom?  The headlines would just write themselves, wouldn’t they? And even if I could fly,” Lena said, knowing that Kara was the only one she would ever humor with such a thought exercise, “you know that I don’t care for it. The only time I feel safe flying is—” She nearly said: when I fly with you and felt her cheeks start to glow. "When I fly in clear weather,” she finished, hoping it didn't sound as lame to Kara as it did to her. 

"Well, if you ever did find out you could fly, I'd be happy to give you lessons. I'd even let you borrow one of my old capes."

Lena smirked. "I'll hold you to that," she said. The mental image of herself standing on top of a tall building with her hands on her hips while a red cape flapped in the wind behind her was almost enough to send her into a fit of laughter. It was simply too weird. 

"Fine with me," Kara said cheerfully. She beamed at Lena and scooted closer so that their knees were touching. "Can I ask you one more thing and then we can turn on a movie until it's too late for you not to stay the night?” “I can always call a car,” Lena reminded her although she already knew that Kara would never actually let her go through with it. They had done the same song and dance many times before and each time they did, Kara always won out in the end.  She’d insist too heartily that Lena stay, making a show of her already prepared guest room that would just go to waste otherwise, insisting that Lena could never be an inconvenience and if Lena still wasn’t convinced, Kara would take her by the hand and tug at it as if trying to coax her to walk with her and that would be that. “Stay,” Kara insisted. “Unless you have an early morning meeting you forgot to tell me about, I’d understand.” “No early meeting,” Lena said. “Ask your question and maybe I’ll stay,” she teased.

“When you were younger did you never imagine what it would be like to be able to do magic?” 

“Ah,” Lena said, realizing that a part of her had instinctually known that was the question Kara wanted to ask her, or at least something along those same lines. “You don’t have to—” “I suppose I did,” Lena said in a careful tone usually reserved for white lies. “I’m almost certain…” She tilted her head at an insouciant angle, trying to remember, to sift through what little remained of her early childhood memories before she became a Luthor. Trying to find a memory she wasn’t sure even existed in the first place. 

"Maybe," Lena amended. Before my mother passed, I remember I loved to play pretend. Surely there was at least one time I pretended to be a witch," she reasoned. "Although I can't remember it. All my memories of her have faded too much to recall much of anything in particular. I was too young,” she said as if she needed to apologize for forgetting, even though she had tried her very best to remember. “And once I was taken in by the Luthors,” she said and shrugged as if to say need I say more? “I don’t think I could have believed in something like magic even if I wanted to.” “I’m sorry…” Kara took her gently by the hand and pulled it into her lap. “I shouldn’t have asked.” “You have no reason to be sorry, Kara. You’re the only person I can talk to about this. Magic,” she said almost conversationally as if they were talking about something mundane like the weather. “It’s a bit too much for one of my tiny boxes,” she joked, although there had been a very real temptation to try and shove it away. The only thing that had stopped her from doing so had been the knowledge that Lillian had tried to do the very same already.

"My magic," Lena said, the word still feeling strange on her tongue, “it’s the one remaining link I have to my mother. And when I think of it like that… It's not so strange." 

"No, it's not," Kara agreed. "Not one bit.” She squeezed Lena’s hand in her own. “It’s just another part of you to… admire.” Her gaze flickered away and back and all at once Lena became very aware of Kara’s nearness. 

“What about you?” Lena asked. “You must have thought once or twice what it would be like to do magic… And what you do with a pen doesn’t count.” Kara smiled sheepishly but her eyebrows shot upward. "You know most people would focus on me being able to fly and bench press a building when they start talking about magic," Kara said, sounding amused. 

"You have a gift," Lena said simply and grinned happily when she saw the joy her response brought about. "Don't try to dodge the question," she joked. 

"I'm not dodging," Kara insisted. "I might have thought about it once or twice… or a few hundred times." Kara looked immensely unapologetic as she said it. "You try watching The Wizard of Oz without it crossing your mind at least once."

"Fair enough," Lena agreed, thinking of how many times they had watched the movie together and how Kara not only never seemed to tire of it but got lost in the movie each and every time. "Imagining yourself flying around in a bubble?" she asked, half-joking. 

"No," Kara said, sounding amused by Lena's joke. "More like imagining…” She trailed off, looking embarrassed. “It’s stupid,” she said dismissively. 

“I’m sure it’s anything but,” Lena assured her. Kara managed an uncharacteristically half-hearted grin but gave Lena’s hand another little squeeze. “Sometimes I have this thought, a wish really, usually when things are especially good… Nights like this with everybody together, lunch dates with you in your office, whenever I see my name on the byline of an article…” Kara grinned proudly and Lena noticed the way she glanced over towards where her Pulitzer was proudly on display. “I wish I could have seen into the future, " Kara said carefully as if still afraid that Lena might change her mind and think it stupid. "So that when I arrived on Earth I would know how good my life would turn out… know that I wouldn’t always feel so alone…” Lena nodded somberly, understanding the appeal perfectly. She saw in her mind’s eye herself as a child in Luthor Manor, sitting in a bedroom that was cold and strange and seemingly hers. A bedroom that was too large a room for such a small girl in too large a house for anyone really. She remembered how afraid she had been. How lonely she felt even though she wasn’t quite old enough to understand the hurt. Only knowing that she didn’t want to be alone and fearing that she would always be so. 

"But then again maybe it would have ruined the surprise," Kara reconsidered, looking at Lena, clearly wanting her opinion on the matter. "Like sneaking a look at your presents before you're allowed to open them." 

"If you saw everything that was going to be, I guess it would kind of take the fun out of it," Lena said fairly, putting much more effort into the thought exercise than she would have for anyone other than Kara.

Right?" Kara nodded to herself. "It would take the fun out of it," she agreed, sounding as if she was trying hard to convince herself it was true. "But one quick peek wouldn’t be so bad,” she reasoned in that familiar, impossible-to-argue-with tone that Lena found herself powerless in the face of. 

“What would you want to see with your one quick peek?” Lena asked. “Just one?” Kara said in a pained tone as if she wasn’t the one to suggest the rules in the first place. She fell silent and stayed that way for nearly two whole minutes, deep in thought. “A night out at Al's or any game night, I think.” She blushed a little as she said it, perhaps because she saw how much her answer had surprised Lena. “I never would have believed in a million years that I could be surrounded by so many people who care about me. That I could feel like I belong here.” She glanced at her kitchen table where they had all been crowded around just hours ago and smiled fondly. “I’m very lucky…” “We’re the lucky ones, Kara” Lena said, surprised when Kara blushed a deep crimson. How could you never realize that? she wondered. “Lena…” “I could blame it on the wine,” Lena said, even though she knew she wasn’t anywhere tipsy enough for that. “But I’m just being honest. We’re very lucky to have you in our lives.” I’m lucky…

“What about you?” Kara asked, still blushing. “What would you want to see with your one quick peek?” “ Mine ?” Lena asked as if she hadn’t already known that Kara would want to ask her that very question. The answer came to her at once. The day she had met Kara. Maybe because meeting her had led to so many wonderful things or simply because it was her. “I’m not sure… Too many good memories to pick just one,” she fibbed. “A game night,” she said. “Preferably one where I didn’t come in last place.” “That’s cheating,” Kara said dismissively. “Game night was my answer,” she teased.

“You should have made that a rule then,” Lena said, pretending to scold her.

“I’ll know for next time,” Kara said. She settled back against the couch looking comfortable for a moment before she turned to Lena again.  “You know… I was going to say the day I met you,” Kara said. “Meeting you put me on the path I always wanted to find. The day I met my best friend,” she said as if that was reason enough. “ But as happy as that would make me, I would hate to ruin the surprise of meeting you.” I would too,” Lena murmured. “You were, are, the best kind of surprise.”  She could feel Kara’s gaze on her, the almost irresistible pull of it, and forced herself to glance away, pretending to look at the clock. "What about now?” Lena asked. “What does Kara Danvers hope is waiting for her in the future? Another Pulitzer?” Kara grinned appreciatively. "I hope so. But besides that… I don't really know what I want." She looked thoughtful for a moment, dazzling Lena with a hesitant smile. "What do you think is waiting for future me?" 

"I have a spell book," Lena said drolly, "not a crystal ball but if you still want my opinion…” 

"You know I do."

"What did those Magic 8-Balls use to say? Future too hazy, try again later?" Lena wondered aloud before actually trying to imagine a potential future for Kara. 

"I most definitely see another Pulitzer. You might want to invest in a nicer shelf," she suggested. "A promotion or two is in the cards, as well. You'll drag me to a thousand more karaoke nights and spend the night dazzling anyone lucky enough to be in the audience."

"I do have impeccable taste in songs," Kara said, nodding along, clearly pleased. “What else?”

"I'm sure you'll save the world a dozen or more times between now and later." Her smile faded a little. "It will be dangerous but you'll come out the other side every time because I'd never let anything happen to you." "Ditto," Kara whispered beside her. "And you'll inspire countless people. With and without an 'S' on your chest. The way you always do. You probably won't even realize it, because that's you," Lena said, wondering how Kara could be so oblivious to the effect Kara had on people before remembering that she herself was guilty of being fooled by a pair of glasses. "You sound so sure," Kara said and there was a note of wonder in her voice. As if she couldn't help but believe every word.

Lena smiled, finally turning to face her. "It could turn out differently. Life is so..." The word messy leaped into her mind and she shoved it away impatiently. "unpredictable," she finished. "Never in a million years could I ever imagine that I would make so many friends or be able to do magic or meet someone like you. But I know you and that's enough to guess. To hope..." "And what do you, Lena? What's in your future? L-Corp growing large enough to absorb Queen Industries and Waynetech in a giant merger?" Kara brought her hands together like springing a trap and grinned. "Oh, I'm sure the FTC would just love that," Lena said, laughing as she tried to imagine the swathes of red tape she would need to hack through for such a deal to even be brought to the table. "In the future, less time in my office would be a plus. Beyond that..." She shrugged. "I have no idea." However, that wasn't quite true. As unpredictable, as messy, and as cruel as life could sometimes be, Lena knew one thing for certain. She hoped that Kara would remain a part of it. "Hopefully I put a little more good into the world. Maybe take a vacation. Or two. Or four. I think I'm due a little downtime. Spend more time with my best friend. Let the rest be a surprise for better or worse." "Definitely for the better," Kara said from beside her, leaning her head against Lena's shoulder as she reached for a blanket to throw over the both of them. 

Lena nodded in agreement, Kara's presence making it that much easier for her to do such a thing. To believe that tomorrow could be good. To hope.

[ryuichirou]

TWST boys first time hcs

We have some asks about a certain theme, so we’ll talk about this one today~

There is also another ask on the similar topic about RookVil specifically, but I’ll reply to it a bit later; sorry for the wait and thank you for your patience.

Anonymous asked:

i’m curious about who you think would take other characters virginity (ex trey taking riddle’s or deuce taking ace’s)

Anonymous asked:

So how Ace's first time having with someone go? This man needs it so badly.

Here is the thing about us and characters’ virginity: it kind of resets all the time lol Because we’re multishippers + also love to play around with different scenarios, there’s rarely one just one headcanon that we keep in mind. For some, like Diasomnia boys for example, it’s generally the same every time, but someone like Idia is cursed to wake up being a virgin every day no matter what happens to him in our stories and posts lol I’ll try to mention different scenarios, but the possibilities are truly endless.

Alright, let’s go.

Riddle would lose his virginity to either Trey or Floyd. Ace is also technically an option, but for some reason I imagine him either entrusting his vulnerable self to Trey or doing something truly reckless with Floyd and maybe regretting it later lol We actually have a post about his first time with Floyd… No matter what happens though, Riddle won’t stay a virgin by the end of his time in NRC, even though he intended not to have sex until he gets married.

Trey’s first would probably be Riddle, but I can also imagine him having sex with some nameless character maaaybe when he was a freshman. He seems more experienced somehow, and also like someone who is much hornier than he looks lol But maybe he just watches too much porn.

Cater doesn’t remember who was his first, or at least he says that he doesn’t. Maybe it was some girl from one of his previous schools… or was it a boy? He didn’t even get to cuddle with them properly, so it’s a bit of a blur. He went through a phase when he tried to score a lot of “firsts” in just one week, I guess.

DEUCE AND ACE!!! There are options lol I know we like to joke about Ace being a forever virgin and Deuce being kind of a hoe, but I actually quite like the idea of these two being each other’s firsts. Because it definitely won’t be as nice as it sounds, and they do look like someone who would want to “explore things” and go too far. The tension these two have is just way too insane.

I also ironically (based on how many replies we have on this topic…) don’t really think that Deuce would sleep around in NRC, even if he tried to make Ace mad. That being said, I do think that it’s quite possible for him not to be a virgin. He used to be quite a bad boy after all, so one of his gang member could have been his first. Or was it that police guy he mentioned at one point? Could’ve been either.

ACE… is way too funny to make fun of because he’s a virgin lol but I’m pretty sure Deuce would be his first. Unless we’re going an AceRiddle route, and that would be absolutely disastrous.

Leona lost his virginity a long time ago and he absolutely won’t tell who the lucky person was. He wouldn’t refuse to reply either, he would just roll over to his other side and yawn, making it seem like he didn’t hear your question. What is he hiding..?

Ruggie actually does remember his first time because it was the moment he realised that he can make a lot of money doing this stuff! It was probably some rich guy whose identity Ruggie won’t reveal for obvious reasons, but Ruggie still remembers him fondly.

Jack is a virgin! >:C He waits until he falls in love with someone special he wants to spend his life with! But he’s still either end up having his virginity taken either by Epel, Deuce or Vil. The first two would be very spontaneous, passionately sloppy and anxious. If it happens with Vil, it’ll look more like Jack being tamed.

Sigh, the Octa trio…..

Azul is absolutely a virgin lol And while I love him with Jamil too and he could easily lose his virginity to him in some scenarios, it’s much easier to picture him doing it with Idia. It’s just way less intimidating to Azul that way, Idia is much easier to handle. This sounds kind of rude to Idia, yikes… but Azul is just as pathetic, so it’s okay lol

Jade is a mysterious man…. Is he a virgin? It’s not like he cares about sex. But one day he would just randomly mentioned that he isn’t a virgin and like?? Since when?? With whom?? Is this a person from NRC or??? Jade won’t give an answer to that :( He’ll say that he is horribly shy to talk about it, but the smile on his face would make it clear that he isn’t shy at all.

Floyd doesn’t remember who was his first, because he is super horny in general and used to be even more horny when he was a freshman. He doesn’t think much about these things, he just craved all the experiences he could get back then. But at the same time, it’s possible to come up with a scenario in which Riddle would be his first… but Floyd being a virgin doesn’t make him even a little bit less of a menace lol

Kalim’s first was Jamil, 100% guaranteed. Even if he is supposed to get married, even if he gets a harem, his first time would still somehow be Jamil. This is just how Kalim is wired…

Jamil is an interesting one, because he is so stressed and married to his job that I feel like he isn’t that into sex. Which means, Kalim would absolutely be his first too. That being said, I can also picture him sleeping with someone out of desperation, frustration or even self-punishment: it could be either a random Scarabia student, Azul or even Floyd.

Vil’s first time happened with Rook <3 Like I already said, we’ll dive deeper into these two in another post, but I’ll say that despite being quite flirty sometimes, Vil is actually sentimental and careful enough not to kiss or have sex with a lot of people that he liked, so him wanting to have sex with Rook was actually a big deal.

Rook’s first could either be Vil (<3) or honestly some other mysterious person whom he met prior to becoming a NRC student. He is surprisingly experienced for someone who is supposed to be a virgin, so it’s not impossible to think that he hides some things about his quite exciting past.

Epel is a virgin that has a lot of potential bachelors around him lol Rook definitely could be preparing him for himself, but the most possible option for Epel could actually be Floyd. This guy is everywhere…!! Jack is also an option of course lol

With Idia it would also heavily depend on which couple is the main one in any given universe. Because we could have a sweet messed up scenario of Idia and Ortho being each other’s firsts and having more secrets that people realise, absorbed in each other and their own world <3

But in any other scenario, he is SUCH a forever-virgin. Azul is a very possible option for him to lose his virginity with, and of course the Tweels could also work, and Sebek… it truly depends on the ship lol

And OF COURSE Lilia is a very possible one! He would get so nervous thinking about how Crimson Muscle is definitely very experienced and mature and has a family and stuff, and he is just a pathetic guy with a crush~

Ortho would probably have his first time with Idia in any possible scenario lol Even if it was just an experiment on his part. He really loves his niisan…

Just like I mentioned, Diasomnia boys are a bit more “concrete” in the way we headcanon their first times. For example, Lilia was the first for both Malleus and Silver; they have this weird love triangle/square that we always keep in mind for some reason. I guess it just works nicely…

With Sebek it’s either Silver (very likely) or Malleus (if Sebek is LUCKY!!), but he is also one of the more passionately uncontrollable hormonal boys, so no one is truly safe around him. It could be Idia or even Epel lol

As for Lilia, well, he either doesn’t remember his first time or wants us to believe that he doesn’t. Maybe it was someone from the battlefield, maybe it was a specific woman from his past, maybe it was just a random guy. I feel like Lilia could even think that it was one way, but totally misremember things lol

As a bonus!

Rollo is a virgin. Duh.

Che’nya is very close to what Floyd has going on, but a bit less active; his first would still be some cute beastboy from his school.

Trein’s first was his beloved wife, but that doesn’t mean that Trein was his wife’s first. Trein used to be quite a shy guy…

And Crewel’s first was some guy from his dorm when he used to be a student. He does remember him, but doesn’t think much of him: Crewel wasn’t the nicest guy back then (and he isn’t really a nice guy now lol).

[moldybonessmell]

Valorant agents age headcanons

There is the list of my headcanons for valo agents' age

Disclaimer: Realistically even 18 yo go to army but in my mind 18 yo are actual babies so in this tier the youngest are 21 yo

21-25

Gekko as the main gen z falls into the youngest tier, followed by Neon and Jett, the choice is pretty obvious ig

This might be controversial but Iso gives just as much of gen z energy as Gekko, the only difference is him adopting Stiles Stilinsky's personality growing up, this is how we end up with the sarcastic deadpan delivery guy (yes this one is relatable to the op aka me)

Deadlock in the group might be controversial but I think it's funny af if the serious suspitious woman ends up dragged into the least serious friend group in existence (I bet she would make friends with Iso lol)

26-30

Everyone thinks Sova is a serious adult-ass man and gets surprised when they realise he's gen z, he just has a scary accent and doesn't smile and people think he's older than he is (the russian unapprouchable and quiet nature doesn't help this either)

Sage struggles from the same desease called looking serious and being a mom friend but she's actually on the younger side of agents

You might argue Phoenix is younger, but he's the texbook example of the 26 yo dude who one day woke up and decided to be a DJ /affectionate No way the dude collecting shoes would have money for all that in his early 20s (even tho it's debatable)

Yoru might be older, but for a dude who spends his free time by fighting gangs he must be under 30. I know difficult personality doesn't necessarily mean he's young but it would make sense

Raze is fun and energetic but more on the party-person side than anything-for-a-trouble side so she's in this tier. She just gives off the energy of someone who was working in customer service for years and finally quit but still has her violent urges /joking

KJ gives off younger energy, but as someone known for her incredible tech abilities and robots she must be closer to 30. You can't tell me this woman didn't work in IT with tech-bros for several years just to realise she wants to kill people /joking unless

31-35

I kinda doubted myself on making Chamber 31 (as he's a famous weapon-maker but let's pretend he got successful pretty early) but he just gives off the energy of the guy who just entered his 30s but acts the same as when he was 20 (immaturity-vise)

Breach kinda falls into same category but for a completely different reason of being in prison (probably for a long time and probably for something he did in his early 20s) so he kinda stopped maturing after this

I can kinda imagine Harbour to experience similar stuff, knowing he used to make money by stealing and selling relics and there's no way he never got caught, right? Harbour and Breach could make good friends me thinks

Skye gives off energy of a woman who was working her entire youth non-stop and them turned her gaze back and she's already in her 30s and realised she doesn't know anything either about herself or what she even wants in life. I imagine this is why she's so concerned for environment. She started to get really into being eco-friendly after going through existential crisis and realising our planet is dying (I can also imagine her using re-usable stuff, wearing tote-bags and making effort to recycle as much as she can).

Astra just gives off energy of this one cool rich aunt who has no children and always brings presents to her nephews when visiting (and to be this aunt you usually need to be 30+ even tho it's optional ahaha)

No one knows Fade's real age and people kinda assume she's younger bc of her style, but she's at the age when she doesn't care what people would think and wears whatever she wants (tho she should take care of herself better, drinking this much coffee can only go without concequences when you're 20, girlie please get proper sleep)

36-40

People like to imagine Reyna as a young woman but in my mind she's on the older side. She just gives off the energy of someone going through hell and back in her life (I know she has a younger sister but siblings can in fact have big age differences) I also may or may not like older women but this one is between me and my ao3 history

Cypher is around 40 I think, simply because he used to have wife and a child and I imagine it's been some time since they passed. Tho probably no more than 10 years, as he still thinks about reviving them (the voiceline about him asking Sage if she can revive anybody), but not to the point of actually following through, as if he mostly healed, but not moved on completely

41-46

Is for Viper and Brim because they are way too tired of others' shit to be younger

If talking seriously, there's no way Brim is not pushing 50s as a literal commander, even tho his problems with electronics might be questionable even for this age group, but I don't see him being older

As for Viper, she as well as Reyna just gives off energy of someone who has seen some shit, also her being a scientist I can imagine it takes many many years to have such recearch it also may be or may not be same situation as with Reyna but this is not a crime

kinda immortal

Tier explains itself, these are agents whose age doesn't affect their mental state/maturity like Kayo and Omen

Even tho Omen used to be one of the agents and is probably in the same age group as them, if I had to guess he might be somewhere in 36-40 tier

Also Kayo is probably not even manufactured yet in this timeline, but I can't make "-25" tier ya know

This is it, thank you for reading, let me now if you have any thoughts about it!

[sadcupcake]

Winchester in Mystic Falls Part 5

So far tailing Elena and her friends has been entertaining to say the least. I've learned that she's still friends with Bonnie and Caroline. Bonnie was never cruel to me, she just ignored me like everyone else in town did. Caroline on the other hand was right there with Elena. They both tortured me my entire childhood. Most of it was emotional, the name calling, making everyone in my life ignore me and pretend that I didn't exist. Sometimes though they would go on some sort of power trip and hurt me. Looking back on that now I remember being so scared of them both, but now they look like weak little dolls in my eyes. What they put me through made me who I am today, it set me down a path to meet my brothers and for that I am grateful to them.

It doesn't surprise me that the three girls are still friends, just like it didn't surprise me when I learned Bonnie was a witch or that Caroline got turned into a vampire. What did surprise me was the fact that Elena is a doppelganger. Apparently it was one of Elena's doppelgangers that turned Caroline. Another interesting thing I learned was that the originals where in town. Sam and Dean learned about how vampires came to be when they captured one and had a little chat. That vamp was about 900 years old so they still knew the stories of the originals, it even claimed to be turned by one. I had yet to see one running around town but from what I've gathered they came here to sacrifice my sister to break a curse. If I had to take an educated guess it would be the curse placed on the hybrid.

If it really is the originals in town then I really need to hit the books to find something to kill them with. All of the lore I've read up to now had never mentioned a way to kill an original. As far as I know they are truly Immortal. Maybe I could just kill all the non original vampires in town and then hightail it out of here before they get wind of a hunter. Lets be honest I'm going to end up dead by the end of all of this.

I haven't talked to Elena since I got interrupted before I was able to have a little chat with her. I assume she's told her little boyfriends about what happened by now, so me getting within 10 feet of her again is out of the question. So making a scene in public is now my only option to find out what she knows. This whole thing is getting tiresome already. If it weren't for the innocent people dying I'd cut my loses by now. But I am a Winchester and Winchesters never back down from anything. Hell not even from the actual devil, and the Mikaelsons are no Lucifer.

getting back to my hotel room I get comfy on the bed with my laptop, if I'm going to find anyway to kill the originals I have to channel my inner Sam. Full on research mode. After hours of sitting and looking at the computer screen I've come up with one possible lead, one impossible lead. White oak. It's almost too good to be true but It's all I got. Some hunter in New Orleans had a story passed down generations in his family. Apparently the only thing that could stop an original was an original themselves, or a weapon one of them possessed. A dagger dipped in White oak ash. If the ash from this tree could put them to sleep imagine what the real thing could do. Unfortunately all records of the white oak tree say that it went extinct centuries ago. Another dead end.

Deciding that I've had enough of the headache that is research I get dressed and head back to the Grill. I'm starving, one of the things Dean and I have in common is our appetite. I think he was secretly happy to have someone around to out vote Sam on where we'd eat. Maybe if I'm lucky I can run into Elena again there, kill two birds with one stone.

When I walk into the Grill I spot them right away. Elena and her little gang looking directly at me. By the look on dumb and dumbers faces she defiently told them what I was going to do to her. I  sit down at a table ignoreing them the best I can until I can at least have somthing to eat. While I'm waiting on my food I notice two guys sitting at the bar again. Talk about deja vu. The vibe coming from these two is defiently dangerous but there's something else I can't quite place, It's like a comfort almost. Just as I'm about to stand up to go to them I get snapped out of my daze by my food arriving.

While I'm enjoying my food I start to notice everyone slowly leave the Grill. EVeryone apart from Elena and her friends, and the two guys at the bar who have now turned around to face us obiously interested in what is happeneing. I look up from my food to see my sister and her friends walking over to my table. Bonnie and Caroline are behing my sister and her two boyfriends are infront of her. Anyone would think shes the president with the way they protect her.

"How can I help you Elena, would you like some of my fries?" I question her, I always have to have the first and last words. Something Sam and Dean both love and hate about me.

"No I don't want you're fries Y/N, I want to know why you're in town and how you know about vampires" Elena says, she looks so serious I burst out laughing.

"Sorry, you acctually think I'll just tell you because you asked. Wow you really have no idea who I am now do you Elena?" I stand up as I ask my question getting ready for a fight. By the way everyone clings to Elena's side I guess they are too.