#cause some folks are putting some kind of weird things in there and I think the wranglers are confused

[fallloverfic]

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Fandom: Twilight of the Gods (Cartoon)

Pairings: Áile the Seid-Kona/Egill One-Hand, Egill One-Hand & Leif, Leif/Sigrid, Sigrid/Thyra

Tags: Established relationship, post-canon, open ending, anxiety, More tags on Ao3

Summary: After Sigrid and the valkyrie vanish into the sky, Egill realizes he's the only one able to bring their party back together to plan their next steps, and gets to it.

Not gone (2,046 words, complete)

[luxaofhesperides]

Can I please have meet cute/weird with mistaken villain! Danny (but really just a engineer and or chem student) and the one being put on investigation cause Danny is a day villain(not really)! Duke

Technically, Danny Fenton is innocent. Technically. 

Duke wants to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially since he’s having so much trouble finding solid evidence that Danny is stealing from a wide variety of people, but he’s been burned before by trying to see people as better than they were. It doesn’t change the fact that Oracle’s cameras keep spotting Danny right before a building on the street is broken into and something stolen. He’s always just walking down the sidewalk; no one has spotted him entering or exiting a building, but he’s around far too often to be unconnected to these burglaries. 

It doesn’t help that strange, petty crimes have been on the rise since Danny first arrived in Gotham. 

So.

Danny Fenton is technically innocent.

Duke is trying to prove that he’s not. 

Maybe I’m looking too closely, he thinks, going over Danny’s sparse file in the Hatch. Maybe Danny’s only one person in a bigger operation.

He could just be the lookout, the runner, the information gatherer who marks which buildings to hit. He may even be the scapegoat, the sacrificial lamb; Danny has no support in Gotham, no family, no job. There would be no one to help him if he got arrested or injured in a fight. He’s a freshman college student from Illinois who should be unprepared for life in Gotham but is somehow managing to survive like a native. 

There’s a lot about Danny that doesn’t add up. 

Duke has seen plenty of different people since he first went out as the Signal. He’s tried to be kind and give people the benefit of the doubt, but it leads to his loved ones being put in danger. Some people are truly evil, some working on a malicious agenda, some are misguided in their beliefs, and some are desperate people who see no other way to move forward.

He’s not sure yet which on Danny is, but he’s hoping Danny is just desperate and needs a little help to get out of a life of crime.

Which leads to the next problem: Duke has no idea what Danny is steal, or why. He hits both rich and poor folks, civilians and members of the mob, and once, notably, stole something right out of Cobblepot’s office. Allegedly, at least, since no one saw him enter or exit the office, not even the security cameras. 

But added to the whispers going around about a new group in Gotham snatching people up from the streets, and some strange green substances found in warehouses often raided by police for the frequent drug labs that pop up in them… 

It doesn’t look good for Danny. Especially when a few of the items he stole were found where people either vanished or where that green substance has been found.

A week of analysis in the Batcave and they still don’t know what it is. 

Both Damian and Jason suspected Lazarus water, but the composition was completely different. By the look of the molecular structure, it shouldn’t have been in a liquid form at all. 

All these findings lead back to one person who may have answers: Danny Fenton.

According to Tim, who’s already broken into Danny’s dorm room and checked over all the labs he has classes in, Danny has some concerning items in his possession. Various inventions and little metal knick-knacks put together by a practiced hand. He was also the one to find all the information that went into Danny’s file when it was first being made: social media posts, school report cards, news articles about his parents… everything. 

And then he had an emergency mission to take with the Titans that swept him out of Gotham leaving Duke to tackle this investigation on his own. 

He doesn’t have Tim’s natural skill in stalking and invading privacy. He hates breaking into people’s spaces and following them around, but needs must and he has to force himself to work through the discomfort. 

It’s a good thing he did, too. Danny’s leaving his dorm after his last afternoon class, hood up to hide his face and something held in the front pocket of his hoodie. He ducks around people on the sidewalk easily, almost as if he’s gliding through the crowd instead of walking. 

Duke follows from above, bending the light around him to hide him from sight. 

He walks for some time, weaving through alleys and streets as if he’s been in Gotham his whole life, leaving behind the university campus to head towards Otisberg. There’s something strange about the way Danny walks, as if he’s moving around people who aren’t there, guided by something Duke can’t hear. Even using his meta abilities doesn’t do much beyond show him where Danny’s going to be in the next few seconds. 

He continues to follow Danny on the rooftops, walking along the edge to keep him in sight. 

Then Danny stops behind an apartment building and tilts his head back to look up at it. He tilts his head to the side, then nods and looks around the empty alley. Duke crouches down, keeping his eyes on Danny in the hopes of catching him in the act—

Danny disappears.

Duke curses under his breath and jumps down from the roof, putting more strength into his abilities as soon as his feet touch the ground. 

The space where Danny was has a faint outline, oddly enough. He’s never seen that before. From it is a semi-transparent trail, smoke-like and a pale green leading into the building. It goes straight into a wall, as if Danny walked through it.

He can’t go in and search the entire apartment, but he can grapple up and take a look into the hallways to see where Danny’s heading. If he was looking up, then that’s where he should be heading. 

It doesn’t take any effort to scale the building. There are ledges and windowsills and plenty of handholds for him to propel himself off of, and paired with his powers, Duke is able to find the correct floor in just under two minutes. 

The green smoke slowly dances through the air of the ninth floor, on the east side of the building. If he’s been counting the rooms correctly, then the target of tonight’s burglary has to be apartment 924. 

The curtains are drawn on the window he makes his way over to, and his abilities don’t show him anything helpful for the immediate future. He hates going in blind, especially to a civilian’s home, but capturing Danny takes priority. Duke picks the lock and slides the window up slowly, making sure it stays quiet, then slips into an empty bedroom. 

He makes his way out into the hallway on silent feet, keeping a wary eye on the thin smoke strands of green, curling along the walls. The rest of the apartment is empty as well, pale sunlight slanting across the floor through the blinds. 

Everything is still and silent. Danny’s nowhere to be found. 

Did he miss Danny leaving, somehow? Was this a misdirect to get him out of the way while Danny stole from another location? Did he know Duke was following him?

But no, his ears pick up on the faint sound of clothes rustling. 

Cautiously, Duke turns towards the front door, where the door to the coat closet is open. He focuses on what’s going to happen in the next twenty seconds and sees Danny panic, then disappear from sight again, but a transparent outline of his body is visible just enough to show him where he runs to. Best not to spook him; Duke pulls at the light around him and bends it to hide him from sight.

Then he moves along the wall, getting around the open door without bumping into anyone or anything. 

A figure in front of the coats, shoving them to the side roughly, flickers in and out of view, almost like a reflection in water, distorted by ripples on the surface. 

Danny pops back into visibility suddenly, scowling at the coats. “Are you sure it’s in here?” he asks the empty air. 

There is no answer, but Danny acts like there is. He rolls his eyes and says, “It’s a favor. That I’m doing for you. I can literally stop right now and you wouldn’t be able to stop me.” He shoves aside another heavy winter coat, then sighs. “Why don’t you look for it, and then tell me where it is.”

He steps back and bumps into Duke.

Danny whirls around, eyes wide, and blast of green light has Duke crashing back into the wall, trying to blink spots out of his eyes. 

“Wait!” he yells, grabbing for Danny before he can run off. “I just wanna talk!”

“Standing right behind me like a serial killer does not make you look like someone who wants to talk!” Danny yells back, slipping through his hands like mist. 

“I just have a few questions!”

“Well, I have a question: why?!”

“Will you hold still, we’re being too loud!”

Danny escapes to the other side of the apartment, next to a window looking fully prepared to fling himself out of it. But he does stop yelling, so Duke is counting it as a success.

“Why is the Signal coming after me?” Danny asks, glaring at him suspiciously.

“Dude,” Duke says, “You’ve been seen outside of every single building that’s had a burglary since you first arrived in Gotham. All the Bats are after you, they just sent me because I’m the only one active during the day.”

“All the Bats?” Danny repeats, losing what little color he had in his face.

He looks legitimately scared, pale enough to be concerning, and Duke drops his guard and tries to relax the tension in the apartment. “I’m not gonna turn you into the cops or anything. I just had questions and you seem like the most likely person to have answers. That’s it.”

Danny still looks wary, ready to run at a moment’s notice, but he doesn’t leave when Duke approached casually, leaning his weight against the couch. 

“So,” he begins, “What’s the deal with all the thievery? It’s rarely something super rare or expensive.”

There’s a long few minutes where Danny doesn’t answer, looking anywhere but at Duke. Then he twitches a bit and glares off to the side, and says, “I taking items that are contaminated with ectoplasm to help ghosts move through the veil and leave Gotham.”

That tells him nothing! That just gives Duke more questions! But at least it’s an answer, the first one any of them have got.

“I think you’re gonna have to explain a little more.”

“Ghosts are real, alright?”

“Yes.”

Danny stops. Squints at him. “What do you mean, ‘yes’?”

“Ghosts are real,” Duke repeats, “There are a few who help heroes or are heroes themselves, but that’s more on the magic side of things so I’m not super familiar with it.”

“Magic,” Danny says slowly. “Sure, alright. Um. Yes, ghosts are real. And there are a ton in Gotham who need help moving on, but they’re too weak to get past the veil. Something about Gotham has made the veil super strong, so they need a little boost to get through. Additional ectoplasm bonded helps with that.”

“And that’s why you’re stealing random things?”

“The ghosts I help can kind of sense ectoplasm-infused things, but they need me to grab them since they can’t hold anything without a physical body.”

Duke nods slowly. “Okay, that’s starting to answer some things. We have found those objects in the last places missing people were seen. Any idea what’s going on with that?”

“Yeah, those people were already dead.”

The way Danny says the most concerning answers as if they’re nothing is really throwing Duke off his game. He was expecting to be calm and serious to keep Danny from freaking out too much and look like a legitimate hero. But as soon as Danny started talking, all his nerves fell away and Duke is left grasping for composure. 

“They were…”

“They were ghosts, yeah. And they needed to get through the veil. But they were also able to possess their own bodies and didn’t realize they were dead until I had to break the news to them, which is why it looks like living people just up and disappeared.”

“Okay… What about the green stuff we’ve been finding?”

“Ectoplasm.” Danny holds up a hand and a neon green light surrounds it. Except it looks more solid than light, as if it can be touched, and it moves on its own like fire around Danny’s fingers. “It’s what ghosts are made of.”

Oh. If Danny has ectoplasm, does that mean…

“Are you dead?” Duke asks, heart dropping. 

Instead of looking upset about the question, or even disturbed by it, Danny just shrugs and waves his hand back and forth. “A little.”

“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Duke says, trying to resist the urge to rub his temples. It’s a habit he didn’t mean to pick up from Batman, and it would just look silly with his helmet in the way. “You’re just doing all this to help ghosts?”

“Yeah. Basically. They asked for help man, of course I was going to help them.”

Danny’s a good person. He’s just a good person to ghosts. But this is good news either way, and he can let the others know that Danny isn’t the next Catwoman and is entirely unconnected from any drug production. Everything that made him look like a criminal is just the fault of ghosts. 

“Speaking of,” Danny continues, “Looks like they found what they need, so I’m going to grab that real quick.” He pushes off of the wall and heads for the closet again, moving past Duke without any fear. Duke follows, keeping a few feet of distance between them so Danny doesn’t feel trapped, and watches as he shoves aside the coats again and pulls a shoebox out of the depths of the closet. From it, he takes a single intricate lace headband and holds it up.

It looks normal, if a little old, but when Danny sends ectoplasm through it, the lace lights up and holds the glow. 

He pulls some strange contraption out of his pocket and holds it up to the headband. It makes a few beeps, then Danny mutters, “7.4 millisieverts. That’s enough to get you through the veil.”

Another concern Duke can let go of: Danny’s not creating weapons like his parents have, he’s just measuring ectoplasm through his own inventions. 

Maybe he could talk to Bruce or Tim about getting Danny an internship at the R&D lab in Wayne Enterprises? That way they could keep a closer eye on him while seeing what he can create in some of the best laboratories in the country.

Well, it might take having them meet Danny before they trust him enough for that, but Duke is sure he can make it happen. 

“I better go see this through, then,” Danny says, shoving the contraption back into his hoodie pocket. He gives Duke a small awkward wave, then pops out of visibility. “I’ll see you around, I guess?” he disembodied voice hedges, and Duke smiles.

“I’m sure I’ll be able to find you again.”

“Cool. I gonna go now!” 

He doesn’t see any sign that Danny’s left, but he gets a feeling that he’s alone now, the apartment suddenly emptier than it was before. 

As strange and concerning as Danny and all his bizarre actions were, Duke is glad he was able to finally talk to him and get some answers. Knowing how Gotham pulls people him in, it’s only a matter of time before the other Bats are exposed to Danny’s kind of strange. He’s already looking forward to it. 

For now, though, he has a file to update in the Hatch; POTENTIAL THREAT will be removed and replaced with GHOST HELPER. 

If anyone goes snooping into his files and gets confused, then that’s their problem. Duke’s explained enough. And Danny can take care of the rest, once they go through the effort of tracking him down. Duke's done his part, he's ready for the rest of them to step up to his level.

He can’t wait to see what other kind of trouble Danny can get it into.

[nothorses]

I hope this is okay to ask but I’m pretty desperate and googling stuff has failed me, so do you or one of your followers have recommendations on how to deal with the BO that comes with taking testosterone? I never had BO that couldn’t just be managed by showering enough and putting on just any deodorant but now that I’m taking T I sweat a lot and I smell bad and I nothing I do seems to fix it. My boss has politely mentioned it several times now despite all my effort and it’s so mortifying and embarrassing.

Things I’ve tried and am currently doing include so many different deodorants which I bring to work and reapply, putting baking powder in my shoes, on top of general basic hygiene. But none of it seems to make a dent and it doesn’t help that I can’t really change clothes or shoes throughout the day. I have to wear closed toed shoes and a lab coat and my job is pretty active, plus it’s 10 minutes walk from the parking lot and it’s over 100F or 40 C right now so when I arrive at work I’m already pouring sweat. I also have a large chest so it all gets under my bra and soaks into it and by the end of the day the bottom part of my bra reeks.

I know some ocasional BO on a busy day can’t be helped but none of the other people at work including other male coworkers seem to have the same issue at all, so there’s got to be a solution but I haven’t found it. Im thinking of trying antiperspirants but I also know I need to sweat and I would rather not put my health at risk. So if anyone has something that works for them please let me know bc im really desperate here.

First I want to say: you're not doing anything wrong. You probably just sweat more than some other folks, and that's not your fault, and you shouldn't feel bad about it. I'm gonna give you some ideas to try if you haven't yet, but I don't know how much you've already tried, and it sounds like you've been through a lot already.

I also have always had terrible BO, and the only thing that helped at all pre-T was "prescription strength" deodorant. I honestly have had less of an issue since starting T, weirdly enough, but part of that is also that I physically cannot stand to shower any less frequently than every single morning (not necessarily a good thing lol), and I also started using antibacterial products on my armpits when I shower.

Currently I use benzoyl peroxide body wash on my armpits, which can be drying, but it hasn't caused me issues so far (just look for Panoxyl, other brands have caused irritation for me and my partner both). I used Betadine surgical scrub before that for a bit (you collect weird shit when you work with horses 🤷‍♂️) and that worked well, too- plus it's less likely to irritate skin.

I also find that certain shirts cause me to sweat there more, and those also tend to be the more form-fitting shirts that get up into my armpits. That skin def needs to breathe.

My partner has had trouble with feet/shoes in the past, and he's used cedar shoeforms to mitigate that (cedar is also antibacterial!). He also makes sure any shoes he gets are breathable (not leather), and if they are leather, he gives them at least a day or two between wears. Probably good practice if you notice any kind of smell on any of your shoes.

You mention baking powder, and I'm not sure if you meant baking soda and just mixed them up (which I do all the time lmao) but just in case: if you are using baking powder, the one you want is baking soda.

I don't have much advice for chest sweat, except that you may want to consider bringing an extra bra (and maybe an extra pair of socks if you're noticing it before the end of the day) to change into midway through the day. You can also look for more breathable fabrics in general, especially athletic-wear, which is already designed to help wick sweat and mitigate those issues.

Lastly, I want to stress again that you're not doing anything wrong. Some people have more trouble with this than others, and if you're really struggling in a way nobody around you is, it may be that you've got something going on in your body that they don't have to deal with. This could be a medical thing as well (like acne!!), and there's no shame in seeking medical solutions for it. Talk to your doctor if you can; it sounds like it's causing you distress, and you deserve to be comfortable.

[generalpenguinangel]

Thoughts inspired by @saulbetter's recent posts.

This show is kind of sold or discussed as "spies! but they suck at being spies!" But the thing that all the slow horses actually have in common isn't that they're bad spies, it's that they're people without social capital. They actually range from competent to excellent at the technical aspects of their work (Ho, Catherine, Marcus, Shirley, Coe, and even River are all good at the hard skills of their jobs. We are told Louisa screwed up but in both show and books she is shown to be one of the most reliable performers on the team). But they don't have friends or patrons to protect them when things go sideways.

The reason they're the rejects is because they're loners who struggle to connect with other people for all their various reasons (childhood trauma, job-related PTSD, addiction, personality disorder, inherent temperament). So they're playing checkers when their internal opponents at Regent's Park are playing chess. To the extent that they even realize that the social/political game exists (Ho and Catherine mostly don’t), they're bad at it (Coe, Lech) and/or think they shouldn't have to play it (Marcus, Shirley). River impressively manages to be deficient in all three aspects: totally naive to the politics of advancement within the Park, bad with people, and so committed to his own view of himself as a Boy Scout that he thinks he shouldn't have to sully his hands with any of it.

This is why the show is such a brilliant office drama. This one is for all the folks who are good on paper but bomb in interviews, for all the people who are promoted based on their technical mastery and then shit the bed as managers because they're illiterate at reading people. This is why it's such a stroke of genius that River's ascendant career is cut off at the knees by tailing Taverner. He's so full of himself and such a try hard that he mistakenly thinks doing an unrequested extra credit assignment about his boss makes him clever instead of creepy, annoying, and red flagged as a potential troublemaker.

Unfortunately, because Mick Herron is unable to let the story or the characters grow, this excellent premise results in some deep weirdness later in the book series. (Weirder than the deadbeat dad child soldier sex cult plotline, you say? Idk, you be the judge.)

Book spoilers under the cut.

First, let’s talk about Lech Wicinski. (I know, no one wants to talk about Lech Wicinski, but he is the curly-haired insomniac introvert of my heart so I’m going to talk about him.) I love Lech but parts of his origin story are so stupid. He’s just a normal guy who is comfortable in his niche and relatively unambitious and gets screwed by ambitious people’s big ego shenanigans, which he falls into by accident when he unthinkingly steps outside his work comfort zone for a minute. So far, so good. But then, while he’s desperately trying to save his job and reputation, he’s also… not? Like, why would this sort of overly serious but otherwise very normal young-ish middle class man immediately and inexplicably decide not to seek medical treatment for a profoundly disfiguring injury? Why does he never even actually try to show to his fiancee that the revelation that causes the breakdown of their relationship was completely fictitious? It makes no sense! Except, the author is lazily destroying Lech’s social capital to make it make sense that he’s now a slow horse for life. 

Similarly, River can’t have Sid in S1 because she is a bright and well-rounded person while he is cute but also an idiot nepo baby manchild. So do the books resolve this imbalance by allowing River to grow - or even just change - in response to various challenges like dashed career aspirations, finally meeting his psychopath biodad, the steep mental decline of his beloved father figure, etc? No. Instead of letting River at least attempt to grow up, the books put River and Sid on a level by cutting Sid down instead - putting her in protection (ie. cutting all her social ties) and giving her a traumatic brain injury that hollows out her previously bright personality. Heaven knows we’re all miserable now. Sure do hope they fix that plotline for the show! I love them as endgame and I honestly think the show could do something so satisfying and poignant with them finally finding their missed connection but the books make the way they finally get together so creepy and sad.

[fangirl-docintraining]

this might be a weird question so feel free to ignore I’m just genuinely curious. I know a lot of this fandom is in the queer community and puts a lot of that into fics and stuff and I was wondering if you’d ever had the thought of adding some queer themes or character headcanons to the SGUN timeline? This is not like a demand or some shit LMAO I’m just genuinely curious cause I find it’s a common theme in the fics

This is a super good question! And TY for asking it so respectfully!! Buckle up folks. Also this is just my own little take on the characters and how they fit in my story and me as a writer, I def read ships other people write for the fandom 😂

Tbh I’ve waffled back and forth on it because I feel like some of the ships a lot. Ones that I sorta could see in my mind for my fics specially are Steve and Soda, also maybe Ponyboy and Johnny. I have eaten up fics about these pairs tbh 😂

however I waffle personally BECAUSE

1. (Less important) I feel like a really impactful point of the outsiders is like male friendships and that level of vulnerability is so rare and I really like the way that it sorta focuses on boys being able to have those deep emotional and physical connections without it immediately equating to a romantic relationship. Like part of the beauty of Steve and Soda’s friendship to me is that they can be vulnerable with each other and rely on each other for emotional support as friends which was like not a big thing especially in the canon time period. However, they also would work well romantically imo. I need the angst of them being in Oklahoma in the 60’s, so as I said I waffle 😂 also there were thoughts of sprinkling Steve and Soda in the background of SGUN, I also thought about having a little Parry reference there too (Darry out here having Bi energy to me, but that’s a whole other story lol).

2. (Importanter point 😂) I’m a cis straight (as far as I know lol, haven’t really dated anyone ever so 🤷🏼‍♀️) white woman, so I do want to really ensure that I have been respectful of the queer community (and other minorities) when I’m writing. I know there’s a lot of instances where one could argue straight women fetishize mlm relationships etc, so I also think that plays a role in me wanting to be mindful of making sure to not elevate my voice above queer community authors or not representing that community accurately if that makes sense? Idk like also I just don’t ever want to feel like I’m speaking about something I’ve never experienced and it coming off as disingenuous or disrespectful as many people have actual personal experiences with the topics I would be writing about. All this to say partially I’ve just been more neutral to be cautious because in a lot of ways I come from a place of privilege and I take that very seriously and try to constantly be aware the implications of that, both in my personal writing and also as a healthcare provider. Basically, I kinda worried myself into a little corner and was like it’s not my place to write those kinds of ships for this fandom 😂

All of this to say, I am not opposed to writing the aforementioned ships because I do feel like the shifting dynamics would be fun to explore, but I think I’ve just been cautious because I’m a nervous Nelly and want everyone to feel respected ❤️

Sorry this got long, I’d love to hear y’all’s thoughts, but let’s keep it respectful tumblr 😂 (I have a crippling fear of internet discourse so bad pls be nice)

[rorywritesjunk]

Suppose I never ever let you Kiss me so sweet

Your healing powers are limited to one person a day but that doesn't keep Buggy from demanding you heal him. Rating: PG-13ish. They kiss. It's kinda fluffy as well. Warning: Broken ankle, bratty Buggy, Reader teases and mocks Buggy (playfully). Established relationship. I think they're married? Kissing. Suggested themes near the end. Devil Fruit powers causing discomfort (Not sure if that's really a thing but I've seen folks talk about it lately and decided to run with it). A/N: Request from @chochotorianime10 "hey Love your buggy stories. I was hoping I could request a buggy and s/o that has healing powers like Karin from Naruto thank you!!!(sorry if I spelled anything wrong.)" This was fun to write. Thank you for the request! I hope you enjoy it. Title comes from "Fidelity" by Regina Spektor.

“Listen, Cabaji, just bite my arm and you'll heal, okay?”

The acrobat could only stare at you in mild horror, eyes darting between you, your arm, and the captain that was hovering over the two of you, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched how this would play out.

It was just a broken ankle, that much you were able to tell when he fell off the unicycle with his foot catching in the spoke and pulling it down on top of him. While it had been hilarious to watch, almost happening in slow motion, you were at his side immediately, untangling him from the small wreckage before looking for injuries. 

“I-I 'm just fine. I don't need to… bite you.” 

“Oh, so you don't want to walk properly again?” You shrugged as you started to stand up. “Okay, then that's fine with me. I can't force you to do anything.

“Cabaji, stop being an ass.” Buggy said. “Bite her damn arm.”

He knew what your abilities were capable of. While Buggy found it a little harder to get hurt with his Devil Fruit powers, he wasn't invincible. He sometimes needed healing and while the first time you told him to bite you, he thought it was some weird kind of foreplay, but now he was used to it. 

Cabaji really really didn't want to do this but you knelt back down, holding your left arm out to him. He saw blue marks along your arm before he bit into your skin carefully. You didn't move, keeping your eyes on him as a warm aura surrounded him, the pained look in his eyes fading as he started to relax from the pain relief. He pulled back and looked at you with fascination as you stood up, holding your hand out to him. He took it and allowed you to pull himself up, stumbling for a moment but you caught him, steadying him on his feet while he hesitantly put weight on what was his injured ankle.

“How did you-”

“Good, you can walk.” You pulled back from him. “Get your shit out of the way and fix your damn unicycle.” You glanced over at Buggy. “You done with me now, Captain?”

“For now, but don’t go too far.” He told you. You put your hands on your hips and looked at him, giving him a look that said You’re an idiot. It took him a moment to realize why you were looking at him before it dawned on him. “Go get something to eat then, don’t crowd the place! Geez, Doc. Go away, we don’t need you now.”

You grinned cheekily at him before heading off to get a snack. Cabaji couldn’t help but watch you leave before Buggy turned on him. “What are you staring at?! Get back to practicing! Did you hit your head? You should know what to do by now for this shit, Cabaji!”

The acrobat did as he was told, not wanting to face the wrath of his captain.

~

You grabbed yourself a snack before retreating to the bedroom to read a book you found in one of the towns you recently stopped in. You managed to get some supplies you needed before Buggy launched some of the Buggy Balls at it, one of the items being a book to read while you rested. Being able to only heal one person a day was frustrating at times, you wanted to be able to help more people and you had to make the decision on what injury was a priority. Cabaji breaking his ankle was a priority, and you hoped no one else needed help until tomorrow. 

So to keep yourself from overdoing it, you made sure to rest, snack, and do something to pass the time until Buggy finished up for the day, demanding your attention for the evening which you were more than happy to shower him with. 

You were an hour into reading, eating some crackers and cheese when Buggy showed up, looking grumpy as he tossed his coat and kicked his boots off. He was making a fuss about something but you were tuning him out for now, knowing he needed to get that excess bit of energy out before he would relax for the evening. It often meant him pacing around the room, kicking things away if they got into his path, maybe punching a wall before he would settle onto the bed beside you.

Today, however, he paced a few times before stopping at the end of the bed with his arms crossed as he faced you. He cleared his throat a few times, trying to get you to look at him, and finally a hand came and pulled your book out of your hands and tossed it aside. 

“Rough day?” You asked, annoyed that you lost your place in the book. “Y’know, you could have just said something.”

“I shouldn’t have to say something!” He insisted, stomping his foot before he dramatically threw himself down onto the bed beside you, voice now muffled with a pillow when he spoke. “My body hurts and you can’t help me now because you helped Cabaji instead.”

You rolled your eyes and reached over him to grab your book to set it on the nightstand. “You wanted me to. He was a priority, Buggy.”

“Yea, but so am I.” He whined, raising his head just enough to look at you. You patted him on the head and he frowned. “Don’t mock me and my discomfort.”

“Well, Buggy, I’m tapped out for the day.” You reminded him as you leaned down to kiss him on the top of his head. “How about I kiss your boo-boos and make you feel better?”

“Are you making fun of me?”

“No, of course not!” You insisted as you took his bandana off and tossed it aside, running your fingers through his hair. “Well, okay, actually, maybe a little, but mostly because you know Cabaji needed my help more.”

He rolled onto his back and huffed, looking up at you with a frown. “Maybe, but I still deserve your attention.”

“Well, obviously.” You said, rolling your eyes. “How can I forget to shower the Great Captain Buggy, the Genius Jester, with the attention he deserves?”

“Now I know you’re mocking me.”

“Never!” You feigned innocence, both hands on your cheeks as you stared at him, aghast he would accuse you of such a thing. “I love you too much to ever mock you.”

Buggy glared at you before rolling onto his side, his back now to you as he crossed his arms to sulk. You stared at him, the fearsome Captain Buggy acting like a petulant child in that moment. Honestly, you loved him but sometimes you couldn’t help but tease him just a little. Still, you felt just a bit bad, wondering if maybe you went a bit too far, so you leaned over him, your hand on his shoulder as you kissed him on the cheek.

“I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings, Buggy.” You murmured softly. He huffed, refusing to look at you. “I can’t heal you but I’ll kiss your booboos to make them feel better, how about that, love?”

“Hmph. You don’t deserve to.” He mumbled back, refusing to look at you. You managed not to roll your eyes, pressing your lips to his cheek, trailing kisses down to his jaw while your hand moved beside his face to turn his head to look at you. Thankfully he toned down the brattiness because he didn’t pop his head off to get away from you. He definitely wanted your attention. 

You pecked him on the lips, grinning down at him as he moved onto his back once more, arms crossed as he glared up at you. “Tell me where it hurts, Buggy, and I’ll kiss it to make it feel better.”

“Everywhere.” He sighed in frustration. 

Buggy had told you how his body sometimes ached from his Devil Fruit powers, the constant popping of his limbs off his body causing some discomfort if he did it too often in a day. He wasn’t in need of healing most of the time, he just wanted your attention which you were fine to give him. 

“Okay, so here?” You asked before kissing him once more on the lips as you moved to straddle him carefully, being mindful in case he was having more discomfort than usual. He uncrossed his arms, resting his hands on the top of his thighs as he relaxed underneath you. When you pulled back, looking down at him, he looked just a bit calmer than when he first came into the bedroom. “Where else, my love? I need you to tell me.”

“Here?” He pointed to the nape of his neck and you wasted no time in leaning down to kiss the spot where he was pointing, nibbling gently at his skin before sitting back up to look down at him. Buggy looked back up at you, obviously trying to think of where else on his body he needed some ‘healing’. You didn’t wait for him to tell you before taking both of his hands in yours, softly kissing his knuckles one by one, the backs of his hands and finally his palms, each brush of your lips over his skin lasting just a few seconds before you moved on to the next one.

“Where else, Buggy?” You asked as you lowered his hands back down. He didn’t respond so you leaned back down to kiss him on the forehead, holding his head carefully in your hands before you began to list off some options for him. “Shoulders? Elbows? Tell me, love.”

“Everywhere.” He mumbled, his eyes wide as he watched you unbutton his shirt, pushing it open before you kissed the base of his throat. He let out a soft moan, his hand back on the top of your thighs as you lingered there, sucking on his skin softly. “Y-Yea, there too, babe. The neck really aches.”

“I know, Buggy.” You chuckled as you pulled back. “Y’know, if your body hurts this much, I may need you to remove the rest of your clothes so I can give you a proper look over.”

He perked up a bit, a mischievous grin appearing on his face. “Is that what the Doctor orders? Get me naked so you can examine me?”

“Afraid so, Buggy.” You told him, shaking your head. “That’s the only way I’ll be able to treat you is if you’re completely naked.”

“You should have said something earlier then!” He sat up abruptly as he started to remove the rest of his clothes. “What else do you recommend, Doc?”

“I recommend staying in bed for the rest of the night.” You said as he tried to remove your pants while you were still on his lap. You put your hands on his to halt his actions for just a moment. “No strenuous exercises, rest, and to let me take care of you.”

Buggy looked up at you, head tilted to the side as he smiled softly at you. His eyes were almost sparkling, full of love now and trust for you, knowing you would always be there to take care of him. “That all, Doc?”

“That’s what the doctor orders, Buggy.” You told him as you gave him a kiss. “Just let me care for you, okay?”

“Okay.” He nodded, leaning into your kiss. “Whatever you want.”

[charmwasjess]

I'm absolutely dying over you folks who keep subscribing to Canned like it's not a non-fix-it one shot. Y'all know me too well. No, no 12 chapter follow-up this time!!! No happy ending! Canon! Terrible canon!

.....butifIdidit *steepling fingers*

we pick up at the Temple at the end of the actual fic

Rael gets that drink with Lene Kostana

maybe invites Sifo too, why not

spills the beans about Dooku dabbling in dark shit two sips in

“he said WHAT”

Lene grabs Rael and Sifo-Dyas by the scruff of their necks, drags them to Actual Truthseeker II

Nothing Bad Ever Happens to the Gang on Serenno™️!! Part 4: This Time to Confront Dooku

Dooku mistakes "being the target of an armed intervention" as attention, something he is desperately starved for

Dooku thinking “huh, Sifo-Dyas looks fantastic.” (he absolutely does NOT)

(Sifo just probably trying to hold in a panic attack given how last time he was on Serenno half his brain fell out and shattered on the floor and there was a dragon)

Rael gets fed up about all their loaded glances

traps Sifo-Dyas and Dooku both in Dooku’s office by piling a huge amount of expensive family marble up against the door

Rael has only been at Castle Serenno for like 6 hours but is already a couple hundred thousand credits of damages in :3

and hasn’t even found the cellar full of booze yet !! :D

Dooku and Sifo are both space wizards

they can easily escape this trap but are soooo confused

they end up staying up all night talking (actually Talking)

watch the sun come up together

the gang decides to stay a while to figure shit out

the fic develops a weird, tonally inconsistent B plot of Rael being cartoonishly overwhelmed by the simultaneous sexiness of two MILFs present:

Lene Kostana Big Naturals

and Jenza Serenno, who is taller than Dooku

(they’re both actually lesbians but you know he’s gonna try to shoot his shot)

missed calls from increasingly irate Sheev

meanwhile Sifo-Dyas is starting to relax

he had a bubble bath in the guest wing's gigantic tub (bath mines monday challenge checkmark)

and slept for 12 hours

feels 30 years younger

he's been running on fumes and self-isolating the last couple years and it's taken a toll

totally touched starved too oh gosh ohhhh no

so when Dooku invites just him to a nice meal? why not? he could eat some gnocchi

better than having dinner with B Plot where Rael is simultaneously on a date with both Jenza and Lene

(Jenza and Lene letting this play out because Jenza is kind and Lene just thinks it's funny)

no Jenza and Lene aren't a thing - Lene has too much sense to put her dick in anything with the Serenno last name plus Jenza has long term partner

but! speaking of who DOESN'T have the sense to not put their dick in House Serenno!!!

dinner going VERY well

Dooku courting Sifo-Dyas very gallantly and gently, pulling out his chair for him and stuff

oh noo nooo their hands are brushing together reaching for the bread so awkward and yet??? familiar.

"could I see you again tomorrow" deploying "come drown in me" levels of brown eyes

"yes :3"

tomorrow: B plot beach volleyball match between Lene and Jenza!!!!

ATLA beach episode vibes

where’d they even get a beach?!

meanwhile Dooku and Sifo-Dyas head off on a picnic

B Plot gang back at Castle Serenno when Sheev calls again

Lene picks up, says that Dooku can’t come to the comm

cause he’s off doing the meadow scene from AotC with Sifo-Dyas 

Sheev so shocked that the meddling Jedi he's been unsuccessfully trying to kill for decades just picked up Dooku's comm

to tell him Dooku is off flirting with the other Jedi he was trying to kill

that he steps off the curb wrong and is struck by a speeder

Lene has unwittingly defeated the Sith

cut back to meadow scene

Sifo-Dyas coming up on top in their rolling around, laughing, tucking flower behind Dooku's ear

"you're beautiful" - a joke, or??!?! BROWN EYES BROWN EYES

"do you want to get out of here."

graphic sex scene back at Castle Serenno

so pornographic jess has to change the fic rating from T to E

oh such a dicking was had

sifo-dyas: *smoking post-coital cigarette in Dooku's giant rumpled bed* "you know. the council fired me. it'd be actually nice to retire"

dooku: *just got the dark side fucked out of him* "I know a place you could live forever"

????

12 years later, Rael brings Padawan Scout to come meet her married grandmasters at their beach home on Serenno

she's learning Makashi but Rael's curbstomp suckerpunch method

Dooku is appalled

Sifo-Dyas very happy

voilà! happy ending!!!

[formosusiniquis]

A Steddie / Buckingham comedy of errors of sorts. It goes like this.

Robin thinks Chrissy Cunningham might be her non platonic soulmate. She's smart, a little goofy, observant, seems like a great listener, and after what the rumor mill is saying was a pretty intense summer has really come into her own. It's a shame she went straight from dating Jason to Eddie Munson.

"She said she's working on herself," Steve claims, more in tune with the gossip than she is, "pretty hypocritical of you to say guys and girls can't be friends."

Which is pretty hypocritical of him when she knows he only cares cause he's already planning his wedding to Chrissy's new boyfriend; he needs Eddie to be single otherwise he's pining away for his perfect co-babysitter for nothing.

But it doesn't matter if they are dating or if they aren't or if Chrissy Cunningham with her perfect strawberry blonde ponytail is her soulmate, because her parents keep trying to set her up with some friend of a friend. She needs to do something quick before disaster strikes.

Melissa and Richard Buckley still know how to tie one on, when the occasion strikes. They're parents now, they've settled down some. Given in to the picket fence life, keep their yard mowed so Gayle Collins down the way stops glaring. They haven't done anything really crazy since that weekend they left Robin with Minerva and went to see what that whole Woodstock thing was about. Now they mostly just stick to getting as high as they can and stargazing on the weekends that Robin is off with Steve, a sweet boy kind of a square but the brownie recipe he gave them makes the best edibles.

Melissa can tell her daughter is lonely, she notices a lot of things about Robin that she won't tell them. Richard has noticed that their dealer Eddie has started bringing a friend along with him. Eddie is a sweet boy too, raised well respects his elders something they care about now that they've become them, he is also obviously and fantastically gay. Like all the parents in Hawkins, Richard and Melissa have heard how Wayne Munson has taken in that Cunningham girl after she came back from her trip out of state. Melissa remembers being a vaguely out of control youth and knows that a trip out of state is code for one of two things, and Chrissy doesn't look like she's ever been pregnant. Chrissy seems like a girl who might like their daughter.

Steve would die before he denies Robin just about anything. She is the platonic love of his life, they nearly died together, they've come out together. He's pretty sure as long as he has Robin and his kids he'd be content for the rest of his life, romance be damned.

A sentiment Robin seems to agree with since she wants him to fake being her boyfriend. Obviously, he says yes. Steve is a good boyfriend, he's always been a good boyfriend. He's attentive, great with parents, knows when to keep the pda to a minimum but also knows when to put on a show. He used to be pretty sure that Mr. and Mrs. Buckley liked him. So he's not really sure why they pulled him aside before movie night.

"Your parents hate me."

"There isn't a parent in Hawkins who hates you."

"You mom just asked me if I didn't think it might be better if I found someone more suited to me."

"What does that even mean?"

"It's basically mom code for I think your the worst person my daughter could have brought home. If I had the choice I'd kill you so why don't you do us both a favor and fuck off."

"I don't think that's right."

"Rob, I love you but conversational nuance isn't exactly your thing."

Eddie likes his job. Sure it's technically not honest work, but who knows maybe down the line they'll legalize it. He's getting in on the ground floor, an entrepreneur. Hawkins is surprisingly pro-weed and Eddie is just fine sticking to that after this summer. His favorite customers are the old folks. Like Miss Brenda at the library or the Buckleys. He always brings Chrissy along when he goes out these days, she feels weird staying in the trailer by herself and he likes having her nearby. She puts people at ease.

Except the Buckleys, who seem strangely obsessed with her. They ask her pointed questions about Dorothy, and surely they mean an actual Dorothy, surely the nice middle aged couple aren't trying to figure out if Chrissy is queer. Sure he got some vibes off of Buckley the younger, but that was before she started dating the love of his life. Now he's starting to think his whole gaydar has gone to shit.

Chrissy, a baby gay who has just broken free of the nastiest case of comp het Eddie has ever seen, answer honestly. She doesn't know a Dorothy, is that one of Robin's band friends? How is Robin, she is so sweet. Chrissy just wishes she had more time in the day so they could see each other more. She's dating Steve right, they make just the cutest couple, don't they think?

Eddie can tell Melissa doesn't. A surprise when even Wayne likes Steve Harrington, thinks he's the bees knees. Loaned him a screwdriver or some shit when the guy was over fixing something at the Mayfield place. She smiles though and agrees that Steve is quite sweet, in a tone that Eddie is far more used to hearing used when people are talking about him than about Steve Harrington. He blinks and the next thing he knows Chrissy is agreeing for them both that dinner on Friday sounds lovely; she'll bring a dessert.

Like she's ever baked in her life.

Chrissy Cunningham has had a rough couple of months, but she's settled now. Sure, she had a breakdown so bad in Eddie's trailer that she ended up having to get professional help; but she got that help and a new support system for herself. Really, the only way life could be much better is if she were dating Robin Buckley.

Eddie likes to tease her, calls her a baby gay like she's a wobbly legged deer still figuring things out. She's had eyes on Robin since the fifth grade, when she got her hair cut short to her shoulders the first time and her teeth still had a gap before her braces went on. Steve is a great guy, she's seen him with the group of freshmen that follow him around like ducklings; she's also watching him now and he's spent most of dinner making moon eyes at Eddie instead of his girlfriend.

She doesn't understand how, Robin is a vision. Full of spit and vinegar, she is firecracker mad glaring at her parents across the table. "You really brought him here? I'm dating Steve, can you not accept that?"

A lot happens at once, Chrissy isn't entirely sure what is going on but it feels a lot like a pot boiling over, something left too long unattended.

"We aren't trying to set you up with our dealer," Mr. Buckley said. "You're not exactly his type."

"Chrissy is such a nice girl." Mrs. Buckley tries.

"You said you stopped that," Steve to Eddie, a lethal pout on his lips and downturned eyes.

"Well, I stopped with the kids," Eddie tries, "I gotta pay the bills somehow, sweetheart."

"Chrissy?" If Robin was a vision in her sharp eyed rage, she's radiant in her pink cheeked surprise.

Once the shock, surprise, and comedy wear off Chrissy thinks there will be tears. Robin's parents seem nice. They seem like the kind of parents you confide in and who hold you tight. She thinks about her mom doing something thoughtful, thinks of her quietly accepting who she is and who she loves; and when she can't do that she thinks of Wayne and Eddie and knows she'd cry once they were alone and the theater of it all was over. So she thinks she might need to make the most of her moment while it's there. "I don't want to be a homewrecker," she jokes, something she's picked up from Eddie, "but I think your boyfriend has his eyes other places."

"Boyfriend, what boyfriend?"

"They're showing Clue at The Hawk this weekend, if you want to go with me?"

Robin can't nod her head fast enough.

"Stevie, I noticed you find yourself newly single," Eddie says, sorrow so fake he should rethink his decision to go within 10 feet of the drama department. "If you could bear it, would you want to crash their date make it a double?"

Steve agrees so fast a bit of hair escapes his coif, it falls in a curl at his forehead.

Robin's parents both seem pleased, pleasant smiles that chrissy is becoming more accustomed to seeing on adults now that she resides in the Munson place. "They'll be smug about this forever," Robin confides. Her smile betrays her lack of real dismay.

Chrissy got her girl and her best friend got his boy, so she thinks it's all's well that ends well.

[saltedpeppermintmocha]

MONSTERS DON'T DO BACKGROUND CHECKS - 1/?

-UFSans x Reader

Summary: Moving across the country and starting your life anew on the basis of a rumour may not be the smartest thing you've ever done...but, well, you're here.

If only you could stop running into that asshole skeleton, life would be pretty good.

Tags: underfell au, bara Sans, afab reader, enemies to lovers, fluff, eventual romance, eventual smut, slow burn, swearing, alcohol, smoking, past abuse, plot

Notes: I figured I might as well play around with sharing this one on tumblr too! Don't know if it'll get any interest here (I've never posted a fic on tumblr) but thats okay either way. This is currently on Ao3 with 10 chapters and 75k words, so its a long one folks.

Chapter 1: Monster Don't Do Background Checks

The building looms above you, and you wonder (not for the first time) if you are making a mistake. 

Okay. You take in a deep breath and count to ten. One shot at this. I got this.

Fake it till you make it, right?

Pushing open the surprisingly heavy glass door, you walk in. It takes you a few moments to adjust to the sudden LED-lighted lobby. The first thing that catches your eye -and how could it not - is the giant fountain in the middle of the room. It’s huge, with water spraying out in all directions. A robotic statue stands tall in the middle, water spraying from each of its four arms. An attention-grabber, for sure.

Despite its opulence, the lobby itself is quiet. A few monsters litter about, and it takes you a concentrated effort not to stare. Shit. They are huge . Instead, you focus your eyes on the reception desk in the far left corner and start towards it, ignoring the feeling of multiple pairs of eyes watching your every moment. 

There is nobody behind the desk, which feels a bit odd. You check your phone, confirming the time. It’s correct. Maybe you’re a little early, but that's a good thing…right? Shit. Maybe it’s not for monsters. Who knows. Standing on your tiptoes, you lean slightly against the counter in an attempt to see around it. Nothing. Huh. 

For a moment you can’t help but flounder, feeling awkward as more monsters in the lobby turn to face you. Then your eyes catch on something shiny further down the counter. A reception bell. Oh. Do you need to ring it? 

You slam your hand down on it, only after the chime starts considering that maybe you should have paused a second before just going forward. In some places, ringing the bell could be considered rude, right? Definitely not the impression you’re trying to give. But just waiting here seems dumb too. You’d risk losing your nerve.

And well, that’s just not an option. This is your option. This is your fresh start. 

“Welcome to MTT Resort! Ebott’s biggest apartment-building-turned hotel!” 

Fuck! You startle harshly at the voice, turning on your heel to find the speaker. It comes in the form of a short…almost star-shaped monster suddenly appearing beside you. Where the hell did you come from?! The monster is red and blue colour-blocked, and has a diamond shaped head. You don’t really know what to think of it, though…you’re pretty sure that each point on its body is sharp enough to cause real damage. It puts you on edge, despite its smiling face. 

“Oh. A human guest…” Its head spins completely around. Woah. Weird. “Nice! MTT resort prides itself on catering to all kinds of guests!” 

“Oh, uh, thanks.” You smile awkwardly. “I’m not a guest though. I’m here for the…interview?”

The monster’s head spins around again. “Oh! Well, isn’t that unexpected!” A pause. “But MTT resort prides itself on its ability to handle the unexpected!”

Uh… Unsure as to how to respond to that, you just smile. 

The star-shaped monster points its arm(?) at a door not far from the reception desk. “Go through that door! The supervisor will see you in her office.”

“Thanks!” Your smile becomes a bit more sincere. The monster cartwheels away, starting up a conversation with a new monster walking into the lobby. It’s the same spiel it started with you. You only pay the amusing scene a moment of attention, before turning away and heading towards the door. 

The door opens directly to an office. A high-pitched voice rings out immediately. “What do you want?”

Oh. That’s…that’s a hand. An actual hand. Giant and blue, with very sharp red nails. The monster currently sits behind a large desk, the giant fingers folded into a fist. 

“H-hi!” You stammer. Shit. Pull yourself together. You plaster on a smile and introduce yourself. “I’m here for the job interview.” 

The giant hand moves into a ‘three’ position. “Oh. You’re a human.” How is it even speaking? There’s no mouth??

Once its words register over your internal dialogue, a feeling of dread starts to bubble in your stomach. “Is that…a problem?”

The hand moves to a ‘one’ position. For a long moment, there is no response. You feel your nerves and stress grow, clawing up your throat. Your chest feels weird, a tugging motion you can’t fully place. 

Then, an answer. “No. Just unexpected. We don’t get many humans here.” A pause. “You can call me Chandace.” 

Oh. Alright then. You expected that. “It’s nice to meet you, Chandace.” 

A snort (how?!) “Well, you’re already more polite than the shit employeesI have already. Sit down. Let's get this going.”

With that, the interview starts immediately. It’s short, with mostly questions you had expected and prepared to be asked. A few are…oddly specific, but nothing you can’t handle. You can tell that Chandace is near the end of the questions -and are feeling confident- when she hits you with the big one.

“Do you have any experience working with monsters?”

“No.” You admit. “I just moved here, but I’m very open-minded and ready to learn!”

“Well, you’re definitely crazy enough to even try.” Chandace hums, moving again into a ‘three’ position.“We require all staff to live on-site. Is that a problem?”

“Live…on site?”

“Yes, at the resort.” She says, words slow. “Part of your pay will go directly towards your room, of course. But employees get a discount.” 

That seems…highly problematic. Definitely something that wouldn’t fly outside of Ebott. Red flags pop up in your mind from all directions. But…well…that does actually solve your other big problem of living out of your car. 

“That works for me.” You say. “I do have a car. Do you have parking?”

“Yes.“ Chandace says. “Most monsters don't have cars, so I can sell you a spot. Full-price.” Fucking hell. How much of your pay is going to go towards just living at the resort?! It's frustrating in principle, but not like you have many other options. 

Wait. Most monsters don't have cars? But…

“What about those cars in the parking lot?” You can’t help but ask. The parking lot outside the resort was practically full. 

“Mettatons, mostly.” She says. “Status symbols.” 

Huh? You think back on the cars you walked by. Sure, they were pretty nice…but not exactly something you’d consider a ‘status symbol’. Still, you nod. “Okay.” 

A long silence, then. “I’ll get started on the paperwork.” 

You straighten up, eyes widening. “Does that mean…I got the job?!”

“Don’t be stupid.” Chandace stands up. “Arrive on time, do your job, don’t pull any human shit, and we’ll have no problem.” She starts towards the door. “I’ll be back with the forms.”

The door closes behind you as Chandace walks out. Alone in the office, it takes you a moment for your mind to truly click. 

…I got the job.

…

I did it…holy shit. I actually did it! A triumphant grin forms on your face, and you lean back into the chair. Relief quickly overwhelms any sense of victory you feel. You have a job, and -surprisingly- a place to sleep.

So, that’s how you became the first human employee at a monster-owned business.

Fucking cool. 

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

The elevator makes a freaky sound as you go up, enough to make you question if it might be best to take the stares from now on. At least you’re only on the third floor, so the ride isn’t too long. 

The doors open to a rather lackluster hallway. Sure, there may be nothing overtly wrong with the hallway, but it looks like any other hotel hallway you’ve ever been in. It contrasts so heavily with the glitz and glam of the outside of the building and the lobby that it gives you pause. 

Walking down the hall, you quickly find your room. Sliding the keycard into the slot, the door unlocks. You push it open with your hip, pulling your suitcase behind you. Once inside, you lock the door and turn on the lights. 

Your room itself is much like the hallway, upsettingly normal; though, you are not sure exactly what you expected. Maybe something more ‘monster-like’? Whatever that might mean. Still, the room has pretty much anything you could need: a bed (large), a television (old and boxy), a bathroom (no tub, damn), a table and chair and storage. The only thing missing is a kitchen, but Chandace had already explained earlier that the employees use a full communal kitchen.

It feels sort of like being in a dorm. Hm. Again, you can’t exactly complain. 

After haphazardly putting away your personal items and checking out your view (literally just the side of the building next door), you decide to find this communal kitchen. Double checking that you have your keycard with you, you walk out of your room and down the hall. 

It doesn’t take long to find what you’re sure is it, a large open door at the end of the hall. You turn into the room…

…and immediately crash into someone. 

“Shit!” You grumble, stepping backwards and rubbing your hurt nose. Whatever you walked into was soft, but didn’t move an inch. 

“Watch your fucking step.” A male voice. You look up. Oh. It’s…a cat? Well, a cat monster. Huh. This is actually the first monster that I can somewhat recognize. The cat narrows his eyes at you. “You’re new.” He says, ears folding back onto his head. “Where are you working?”

You introduce yourself, feeling a bit on edge as his stare only grows in intensity. “I’m the new receptionist.”

At your words, his shoulders drop. “Hm. Fine then.” A pause. “Just don’t take from my tips.”

“Uh, of course not?” You respond quickly, confused. “I guess…you work here too, then?”

“Everyone on this floor works at this shithole.” The cat deadpans. You open your mouth to ask another question, but a paw on your shoulder gently pushes you aside. Before you can say anything, the cat monster walks past you. 

Well, fuck me then.

You roll your eyes, and head into the kitchen. It’s empty now, but clean at least. That’s good. There’s also a small seating area with two couches, and a large window. Walking over, you check out the view. It’s a bit better, showing the park across the street.  It’s kind of interesting to people-watch. Uh. Monster-watch?

Bzzt

Your phone vibrates in your pocket. Not a call, a text. Probably Chandace with your schedule. Shit. You can’t believe you are actually going to work at MTT resort! A monster hotel. What the fuck is your life? 

Pulling out your phone, you open the message and read it. Uh. You re-read it. And again. That…can’t be right….right?

[Chandace]: Your first shift is tomorrow. Be downstairs at 4:30 a.m.

Four thirty?! You groan at the text, immediately turning around to head back. If you have to be up that early, you have no choice but to start winding down now. 

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

‘Winding-down’ turns out to be completely impossible. You try, oh how you try, but everything in you thrums in excitement and anticipation. How the hell can you ‘wind down’ when you’re actually here? Living in MTT Resort? When everything you’ve been working towards for the last few months has actually happened…and worked?

I’m here. 

I’m actually here. 

A mantra you don’t think you’ll stop repeating for a while. Grabbing a pillow, you place it over your face to muffle the excited sound that escapes you. It had been a long, terrifying process, but it actually fucking worked! You think of your day, of how terrified and anxious you had been, of how you spent at least an hour in the MTT Resort parking lot before being able to calm yourself enough to walk in. 

A bit ridiculous, sure, but it’s not like you’re normally like this. God, if you were, you don’t think any of this would have been possible. It was pretty much your life on the line after all. You think you can give yourself a bit of a break. 

Monsters don’t do background checks; the rumor that had you uproot your entire life and move to a completely foreign environment. There hadn’t been a way to corroborate the rumor -nothing online about the subject at all- so the risk had been huge. I guess I was just desperate enough to try anything. At least it turned out to be true. You’re not entirely sure what you would have done if things hadn’t panned out. There was no backup plan.

When you first heard the rumor, you had assumed you would have to move to Ebott itself. That…was overwhelming. The thought of that monster metropolis at the foot of the mountain felt so alien to you. Apparently it had been a small farming town before the Emergence, but the humans that previously lived there left quickly after the monsters showed up. Now, ruled by the monster monarchy, it had exploded into the bustling place it is now. 

The main problem with moving to Ebott was the tension between monsters and humans in the area. It’s a bit better now…but not long ago there were many incidents in the news. Humans would go to the city and cause trouble; sometimes smaller things like vandalism or robbery, and other times actively looking to hurt someone. A dumb idea, really. It never really worked out well for the humans that tried. Not only are monsters normally much stronger than us, but they actually are legally allowed a wide-range of self-defense for themselves and their territory. 

The law had to catch up quickly after the Emergence. Many people were not happy at the monster's existence, and would travel to the town to demand them ‘return to the mountain’. The first time a human was seriously hurt, it was huge. The man had gone to Ebott and attacked what they thought was a weak monster, only to get their ass handed to them. It went to court, and the entire world watched as it was self-defense. It was the first time in a while that you actually felt a bit proud of your species. The precedent continues to stand, dissuading many would-be attackers and vandals. Unfortunately, despite the win, things remain tense between the two species, especially in Ebott. 

So, no, the idea of moving there seemed impossible. Not with your limitations. But in your research, you found another possibility. A city, two hours or so away from Ebott, where enough monsters had branched out to that they formed their own area colloquially called ‘Monstertown. Monster owned businesses were popping up quickly, including a new branch of the famous MTT Resort. From what you read, the big migration of monsters had been a joint decision between the government and the monarchy to improve Monster-Human relations. Unfortunately, it had ended up mostly just dividing the city. Like Ebott -now, anyways- there are rarely any incidents, but only a few brave humans ever enter Monstertown. 

Knowing that, the looks you got all day are neither surprising or insulting. Monsters look at you in surprise and confusion more than anything. It’s what you can expect when you move specifically to the monster side of the city. Sure, maybe you’d have an easier time blending in on the human side of town but…well…there’s a reason you applied specifically to a monster-owned business. 

It’s worked out for you though. A place like this, where monsters are separate but still receptive to humans, is perfect for you. 

Your phone vibrates on the bed, pulling you from your thoughts. You pull the pillow from your face and grab your phone. A new text is up on the screen.

[Mark]: Where r u?

Frowning, you swipe to clear your screen and turn it face down. You push away the new thoughts trying to crawl up your mind, anxieties you thought you left miles ago. No, now is not the time to reflect on the past. 

You are here. This is your future. 

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

You don’t get much sleep at all, anticipation for your first day thrumming heavily in your veins. Eventually you do pass out, but it feels like you only sleep for maybe twenty minutes before your alarm starts going off. 

Peeling yourself out of bed, you get ready and head on down to the main floor. Chandace hadn’t mentioned a uniform -luckily- so you were dressed in your best ‘business casual’ type outfit. You take advantage of the large elevator mirror to ensure you look good and put-together from all angles before the doors open to the lobby. 

It’s pretty much empty, which you could expect at this hour. The only two occupants are the hand monster and the star-monster, chatting at the reception desk. 

“Good morning!” You smile, walking over. 

Chandace turns towards you, fingers in a ‘four’ position. “You look presentable. Good.”

“Uh, thanks.” You respond. The silence grows a bit too long. “So…how can I start?”

“I will train you today.” Chandace says. “Tomorrow you will be on your own, so listen well.”

“You will do fine.” The star monster says. “MTT resort prides itself on a robust training program!”

…

…

‘Robust’ my ass.

If there is an actual training program, Chandace doesn’t follow it. All she does is show you the absolute basics of working the reception desk. The customer service part of it comes easily, but the software is almost alien to you. It takes you a bit to understand how to navigate it. Still, you feel like you’re catching on pretty well by the time the first guest arrives. 

You look up, catching eyes with a dog monster. “Good morning!” You give your customer service smile. “Are you checking in?”

The dog looks completely surprised. “You smell like…a human.”

You blink. “Well, good. I am a human.” 

The silence goes long. 

“Can I help you check in?” You repeat. Your voice seems to shake the dog monster out of it. 

“Okay.”

The rest of your interactions go similarly. No matter their size or personality, they all have the same reaction to seeing you: complete shock. It’s kinda funny, but you have a feeling it will get old fast. There’s only so many times you can be told your own species before it gets too repetitive.

Chandace leaves you on your own after the first guest, telling you to only bug her if it's urgent. It feels a bit like a compliment, that she thinks you’re good enough to be left alone. But also…it's kinda worrying to be the only one here on your first day. 

It’s just after noon when your stomach moves from a light rumble to an intense need, and the lack of caffeine -you now know you’ll have to bring your own- and food starts to negatively affect your attitude. When you finally get a chance, you head towards the supervisor's room. 

“Hi Chandace!” You peek in. “I hope I’m not disturbing you.” 

“What do you want?” She responds, fingers in a ‘one’ position. You have a feeling she isn’t actually looking up at you. 

“Just, uh, wondering when I should go on break.” You say. “It’s pretty quiet, I think now might be a good time?”

“A break?” That gets her to look up. “What are you talking about?”

…

“Uh…” You start, not really sure how you’re going to handle this. Why is she confused? “My break. You know…the time I get to myself…that I don’t have to work?”

“You don’t get a ‘break’.” 

That's…not possible. Your shift is over eight hours. Do monsters not get breaks?! For a moment you panic, wondering how you’re going to manage this. Shit, you need this job. But can you work that long without a single break?! “But..I’m legally entitled to it.”

“What?!” Chandace’s fingers go down into a fist. “Is this a human thing??”

“Yeah.” You nod.“It’s thirty minutes for anything over eight hours.” 

“Are you serious?!” She grumbles. “That’s ridiculous! I don’t know how you humans manage to get shit done like this.” A pause. “Anything else you’re ‘entitled’ to?” 

Well, yes, actually. But it doesn’t feel like a good time to bring any of that up. Not on your first day. Not when she already seems so annoyed. “Just a thirty for today.” 

“I’m not paying you to not work.”

You respond quickly. “It’s unpaid!” 

“Hm.” She looks down. “I’m going to look into this. You better not be lying.”

“I’m not!” You insist. 

“Fine. Take it. I’ll do your job too.” Her fingers move dismissively. “Just be back on time.”

“Okay. Uh, thanks.” You leave it there, not wanting to upset her any more, and leave the office. 

After giving the reception and lobby area a quick check -no potential guests- you head out into the lobby with a destination in mind : MTT Burger Emporium. The glittery gold sign has been tantalizing you all morning. You figure that soon, the idea of staying inside the resort for your break and eating resort food will sound awful, but for now it’s all you need. 

You walk into the emporium and look around. It looks just like any other fast-food restaurant, with a bit of extra pizzazz. The walls are decorated with various scenes from Mettaton’s movies and tv shows. Not that you’ve seen more than a few minutes of any. Hm. You look away and make your way to the counter. 

Oh. 

The cat monster from before stands behind the counter. You smile. “Hi again!” Squinting at the small nametag on his apron, you finally have a name to put with the face: BP.

BP’s eyebrows raise. “Quitting already?” He asks.

“What? No.” Your smile fades. “What are you talking about?”

“I thought you were working this morning.” He says. “I saw you on my way in.” 

“I am.” You say, your voice taking on a confused tone as well. “I started at 4:30 this morning.”

That only confuses him more. “So…why are you here if you’re not quitting?”

Suddenly the pieces connect. Ah, I see.  “Oh, I’m on break.”

“On…break?” His head tilts to the side a bit. 

You explain again what a break is, going into a bit more detail this time. The confusion on the monsters face lessens as you talk. When you finish, he chuckles. “Really? Shit. Chandace is probably pissed.”

“Seemed it.” You sigh. “Do you guys really work the entire shift without a break?”

BP shrugs. “Normal to us, I guess.”

“They’re so long though…I don’t know how you do it.” You respond, glancing up towards the clock. Shit. You’re running out of time. “Anyways, what’s good here?”

The break feels too short, and you only finish half of your burger by the time you have to go back to the reception area. A bit early, but it pays off as Chandace comes out at exactly thirty minutes. She’s a bit hard to read…but you think she’s surprised that you are back on time.  

“MTT Resort will comply with your human laws.” She says. “You’ll get a thirty minute break, unpaid.”

“Sounds good to me.” You smile. 

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

2 Weeks Later

Walking out of MTT Resort, you throw your hands in the air for a full-body stretch. Your bones pop, and you let out a relieved sigh. Shit, that feels amazing. The air also feels great after that long-ass shift. You started long before the sun came up, and it’s already sunset. The end of your two weeks of ‘nonstop orientation’ hell is done. Fuck. Finally, tomorrow, you have a day off. You’re completely exhausted and want nothing more than to pass out in bed. But…you have things to do. 

Looking down at your phone, you program the MonsterMart into your GPS and let it lead the way. Walking down the street, you can’t help but feel a bit like an animal in the zoo. Humans don’t normally come to this side of town, so you get a lot of looks. It doesn’t normally bother you much, but today it's getting under your skin quite a bit. 

Instead of paying attention to the stares and allowing your annoyance to grow, you spend your walk double checking the grocery list on your phone. It’s not long, just a few items so that you’re no longer spending money at the MTT Burger Emporium. As much as you actually enjoy talking to the snarky cat monster there, the food is heavy and your wallet is really starting to hurt. The resort pays weekly, but with a good portion of your paycheck going towards your room and parking…there isn’t much left over. Definitely not enough to be paying for food each day.

So, grocery shopping it is. You had briefly considered going to the human side of town, but your car is low on gas, and really, getting the lay of the land is probably the best bet. It feels like you haven’t left the resort at all in the past month. If you really plan to live here for a while, you’ll need to know more than one building. Sure, maybe it would be better to explore Monstertown in a better mood, but you don’t really have any other options. Your last paycheck is already almost gone, you can’t afford another Burger Emporium meal and groceries. As it is, you can almost feel the exhaustion radiating out from you. You don’t want to do this at all. If you had any choice, you wouldn’t be. 

The MonsterMart turns out to be a small store, with shelves a bit more bare than you would have liked. Still, you manage to find most of what you’re looking for. The last thing you’re having trouble finding is mustard. 

It’s frustrating, you just want to go home. You don’t want to be searching down every fucking isle for condiments. Eventually you do find them, in the back of a seemingly unrelated section. Finally! There’s only one bottle of mustard left, sitting amongst an abundance of other condiments. Weird. 

With a small frown, you grab it. It’s a monster brand, you can tell by the overly simple ‘Mustard’ label that human brands don’t do. Interested, you turn it over to see the ingredients. What kind of mustard is this? You are in the middle of trying to determine what one of the ingredients is when the bottle just disappears from your hand. 

…

What?!

You look around, eyes immediately locking on a very large monster standing only a foot or so away. How you didn’t notice his approach is a terrifying mystery. You should have noticed something that big approach you. The monster himself is…well, also kinda terrifying. A skeleton stands before you, tall and broad. His heavy-set form is covered by a black, fur-lined jacket over a dark red top. 

Yeah, he’s pretty freaky. You should be scared, right? Even if this was a human, it's not a good situation. Cornered at the end of an isle, alone with a being as big, obviously strong and stealthy as this monster is. Every instinct should be screaming. Right? 

But fear never comes. No, as your eyes zero in on the bottle of mustard in those huge hands, it’s not fear that overcomes you, but annoyance. 

“Did you just…?” You ask.

Crimson eye lights turn to look at you. “did I just what?” He says, voice deep and gravelly. 

“You-you took that from me.” You say, surprise making you stammer. “I was literally just holding that!”

He snorts. “ya snooze ya lose.”

…What?

You blink slowly at the rude response, feeling that annoyance quickly escalating in your body to full-on anger. Really? Is this monster really going to try to steal your fucking mustard?! 

Maybe, just maybe, if you hadn't been at the end of a long and stressful two weeks, you’d just let it go. It’s just mustard. Maybe he doesn’t understand basic social etiquette. Maybe he doesn’t realize he’s being rude. Maybe he needs it more than you. 

As it is, none of that matters. You don’t have a bone of patience left in your body. 

“What the fuck?!” You turn to face him fully, holding out a hand. “Give it back!”

The skeleton’s eye sockets widen slightly, before narrowing. He grins, showing off sharp teeth. “or what? ya gonna take it from me?” 

You try. Fuck, do you try. Without thinking, you lunge forward at the monster, hands open and ready to claw the bottle back from him. 

The skeleton lets out a surprised sound, lifts the hand holding the mustard higher, and that’s it. You just can’t reach that. Condiment fully out of reach, you collide painfully with his body. The force is apparently not enough to move him. You practically bounce off hard bones and onto your ass on the tiled ground. 

“Ow, fuck.” You grumble, any physical pain you might have felt being vastly outweighed by the sheer embarrassment that quickly fills your body. What the hell did I just do?! You can already feel the heat growing in your face. It definitely doesn’t help that the monster just stares down at you, a look of pure amusement on his face. Shit. 

As quick as possible, you scramble back into a standing position and try to fix him with the strongest glare you still have in you. Getting knocked down like that definitely puts a hose to your fire, but you can still try to hold onto as much of your dignity as possible. The glare doesn’t seem to do anything but amuse the skeleton further, if the widening grin on his face says anything. 

“yer not gonna win, sweetcheeks.” He says, bringing his arm back down. As you watch, he starts tossing and catching the bottle in his hand. Taunting you. Asshole. 

The demeaning nickname fulfills its purpose of another dagger into your tattered pride. “Fuck you.” You spit out, the only response you can even think of. 

Those red eyes look you up and down, intense in a familiar way that immediately puts you back on guard. You’ve seen that look before. Not on a monster, but still. Suddenly, you have a strong feeling that you know the type of thing he’s going to respond with. You practically handed the opportunity to that smug face monster. As said monster opens his mouth, you brace yourself for whatever rude innuendo he’s about to say. 

Bzzt. Bzzt. 

A phone vibrates, loud enough that you can hear it. The skeleton immediately freezes, free hand going to his pocket. He brings out a phone and holds it to…well…where an ear would be on a human. 

“sup.” He says casually. A loud voice comes through the phone that you can’t understand. 

The skeleton rolls his eyes. “patrollin’”

The voice on the other end gets louder, somehow. The skeleton winces, pulling the phone slightly away from his skull. “fine.”

Those intense eyes don’t leave you as he speaks into the phone. Unfortunate, as you definitely would have taken the opportunity to try for the mustard again if he got distracted. Anything to restore your dignity even a little bit. 

“Didn’t anyone teach you not to steal?” You ask, the moment the skeleton ends his call. 

“didn’t anyone teach ya not to mess with someone stronger than ya?” He responds, but he seems a bit distracted now. “well, this has been fun.” He continues. “but I gotta go.” With that, the skeleton turns and walks away. He casually tosses your mustard in the air a bit higher, definitely taunting you. 

Unable to do anything else, you flip him off behind his back, glaring at him until he’s out of sight. 

Grumbling to yourself, you finally admit defeat. Turning to the other condiments, you try to figure out any sort of substitute for your groceries. It takes you a bit, but you manage to figure it out. The whole skeleton situation puts you in an even worse mood, but the monster cashier doesn’t seem to even notice. The entire interaction is done with as little words as possible, and soon you’re headed back to the resort. 

You keep to yourself, quickly heading towards the elevator and up to your room. You stuff what you can in the minifridge in your room and collapse angrily on your bed. 

“Fucking skeleton asshole.” You whisper into your pillow. 

I hope I never see that fucking smug face again.

[Next Chapter]

[woodsfae]

B5 S04E10 Racing Mars previous episode - table of contents

Got Mars in the title, so maybe there won't be a break till we see Dr Franklin and Marcus again. Or hear about them or something. 

B5's black market is suffering due to the harsh penalties put in place on smugglers from earth. Ivanova says she'll take care of it and kicks Sheridan out of his office for a few days of R&R -- his first time off in over a year. He permits this light insubordination. As a wise man would. 

Flip to Marcus and Stephen! Playing Eye Spye in a cargo hold full of boxes. Dr Franklin is really tired of playing Eye Spy. And Marcus captures a real spy, spying on them. He's apparently the Captain's brother and smuggles in his ship. And although he hangs out on his brother's ship secretly, he calls himself a Captain. 

Stephen is caught by his lure of insta-hot bag meals.

Ah I forgot about Garibaldi's foolish probably brainwashed interview with ISN. And Sheridan is really upset about it. I really think this is the Shadows' brainwashing. Just a part of their plan to disrupt the alliances that they didn't clean up when they left. 

Fight, fight. They've even got an audience. This is gonna be a public incident. Garibaldi's arguments are all fairly reasonable for someone outside the events that happened, even if the public sowing of discontent isn't. If it isn't a brainwashing thing then that's a really fucking unfortunate turn for Garibaldi to take. It's a really hard pivot on his previous opinion of Sheridan and an indictment on his own past actions. Also, would be really weird that he'd turn like that in opinon after they won. That kind of pivot really isn't consistent for him. 

Back with the Mars mission, Captain Jack is apparently their contact. And he brings them their cover documents! They're newlyweds on their honeymoon! Good for them.

Garibaldi has some folks who are eager to connect over their mutual dislike and distrust of Sheridan. Hmm. This does open the possibility that Garibaldi is on a self-assigned mission to  be a disrupter of the local opposition. But I doubt it. I'm going with the brainwashing theory. Is this where Garibaldi's story goes? In a tragedy of walking down a path to destabilize the causes you just fought for with all your heart with no way to go against it or have the capacity to recognize the alienness of your sudden goals?

Only time will tell.

Captain Jack says he hasn't heard about the war and thinks it's all alien stuff that doesn't pertain to humans much. And he also doesn't really believe the things he has heard. Marcus is upset that now that he's a war hero no one's ever heard of it, and that he also has to be married to Stephen as the cherry on top. Captain Jack loves this new relationship dynamic. I haven't decided what I think is going on with Captain Jack. Right now I feel predisposed to assume everything is a spying or counterspying interaction. 

Imagine complaining in a corporate meeting with the second in command of the military space station and seriously complaining about the illegal drug market being depressed. That's genuinely hilarious. And Ivanova threatens to shoot them if they don't work with her to stimulate the economy. Or turn them into EarthGov. That's the good old Ivanova diplomatic method. 

"Work with me? No? Well rethink because you won't like the results if you don't." Fucking get it girl. And the carrot right after. Which is the silk glove on the iron fist tactic that Sheridan's been trying to mentor her into acquiring. It's a thin glove for her very sturdy iron fist to be sure. 

The Mars team plus Captain Jack have a problem. They've been discovered! But they still need to spread the Word of Sheridan. And Jack was with them? Apparently? Well that's a pickle. 

I think this is the first away from B5 view we've had in a long time. Hmmm this seems shady. They're demanding full biometric IDs to prove they're really with the resistance. But it is so risky and not how these kinds of cells really operate. But maybe they do in the B5 universe. In any case, Frankline and Marcus hand over their id that could fully dox them and be used to hand them over to EarthGov. They didn't prove their own allegiances even slightly. 

Sheridan is feeling badly over his argument with Garibaldi. Bummer thing to do on your first day off in a year, for real. He could be flirting with Delenn right now instead of bemoaning Garibaldi's change of pace. 

Delenn promises John there are not very many more rituals before they can be married. Only fifty! But after Delenn says eloping is a great disgrace, Sheridan immediately folds. And Delenn invites him over for the next ritual, Shan'Fall, which is about exploring one another centers of pleasures with great medication and focus. And John, not a foolish man, heads off to see what that's all about in practice. Man hears "tantric sex" in minbari-speak and is all in.

Hmm, turn of events. Not sure why their IDs apparently didn't match their DNA, but it's forgotten now that Captain Jack tried to assassinate the local cell's leader. He had neural net device on him that may have forced him to do it. 

And now Captain Jack is on the loose with not only his laser pistol but also a thermal grenade. I wonder if this is PsiCorps work or another faction. I don't know who has that type of tech. Seems a bit beyond human tech we've seen. Especially with Captain Jack saying the devices grow back if removed. And he also seems to be correct! There's a tentacle. And he goes for it, blows himself up in a transport in a transport tube train thing. This plotline is a bit all over the place. I still want to know why they don't care about the ID mismatch now. 

A woman is kneeling to Sheridan and asking for a blessing. Garibaldi has a fit about it and ends up knocking Sheridan down with a hit. I'm really sticking with my brainwashing theory because I just don't like this character turn otherwise. The question is if it's shadow work, neural net parasite like the Captain Jack, or if the parasites are Shadow work. 

Delenn's ritual include an audience at a distance meditating and to prevent them from "going too far," and John allows himself to be talked into the semi-exhibitionism. Love this plotline of a red blooded Iowa man being seduced into elaborate fetish play. Also that the Minbari are extremely into kink. What a plot twist, lol. 

Lennier, judgementally: "Woo-hoo?" 

You tell him, Lennier. You shame his o-voice. 

Garibaldi is always destined to have a plotline that makes me want to be my head against the wall. Except for when he learned Narnuan to read their scriptures.  

I miss Bester. Bring back the telepathic baddie!

next episode

[ladytauria]

kissing in a stairwell, giving them an artificial height difference with jaydami <33

*puts on clown nose*

reverse robins, anybody? xD

thank sm for the prompt maya <3 i knew p much immediately what i wanted to do with it, but it took a bit for the fic to actually take shape, lol.

i hope you enjoy!

>> AO3 <<

Jason’s life would be so much easier if Damian wasn’t so damn pretty.

Every so often, Bruce is expected to host some of his peers for dinner and drinks—some long-standing tradition that Bruce can get away with skipping out on sometimes, but too much, and people will start to talk. It's stupid, but part of the cover.

If you ask Jason, they're worse than galas. He misses the days he could duck out after dinner. He guesses he still could, but— Now that he's older, it's a little more expected for him to actually participate.

Jason would rather not. He knows plenty of Gotham’s upper crust would rather he didn’t, too, no matter how well Jason has managed to assimilate. But… he has plans, and unfortunately, he can acknowledge that they’ll be raised if he’s in somewhat good standing among the folks with the money.

Doesn’t make attending any easier.

At least he only has to worry about attending the ones Bruce hosts. Eventually his peers will start inviting him to theirs, but for now, he’s still being very quietly snubbed. Which—for the moment at least—suits him just fine, plans or no.

Damian showed up this time, an hour before dinner started; wrapped in green and gold and looking like he just stepped off of a magazine cover. Jason barely paid attention at dinner tonight—too busy trying not to blush anytime Damian sent him a sly smile, or covertly rolled his eyes, or signed something discreetly across the table. He knew it was hardly private—Bruce had been there, he’d surely caught every one—but. The attention—

It made him feel… special.

Stupid, of course. Damian hardly sees him that way. He’s… To Damian, he’s family, and that’s all he’ll ever be.

But it’s kind of nice to pretend, when he gets the chance.

Bruce’s final guests are finally on their way out the door. Jason sits, chin in hand, at the top of the stairs, watching as Damian and Alfred see them out. He thinks the whole house breathes a sigh of relief when they finally leave. Alfred excuses himself to the kitchen, likely to oversee the temporary staff Bruce hires for these things. He’ll have them out the door as soon as possible, too, and then Jason will finally be able to sleep.

Damian lingers by the door for a moment. Then, finally, he begins to ascend the stairs. "Jason," he says. It’s a greeting and a question all in one.

Jason stands, smoothing the wrinkles from his slacks. “Can’t sleep until I know everyone’s gone,” he says. He knows they’d never be able to get into the family wing, not with Bruce’s security, but—

Old fears are hard to shake. Jason never sleeps well when there are strangers around, no matter how many locks Bruce gives him for his door.

Damian nods, like this is perfectly reasonable, and not a weird hang-up of Jason’s. ‘Course, considering... Damian probably feels the same way. That— It’s not comforting, ‘cause Jason hates to think of why he might, but… At the same time... it's reassuring to know he’s not alone.

Damian stops a few steps down from him. Like this, they’re almost at eye level; Damian’s eyes just past Jason’s nose.

“Thanks for coming tonight,” Jason says. Mostly just to say something. Keep the conversation going, even if just for a little while. It’s not often anymore that it’s just the two of them. He can’t begrudge Dickie the comfort of Damian’s presence, nor would he ever want to lose his time with Tim, but—

He does miss, sometimes, when it was just Damian and Jason—and sometimes Steph or Cass.

Damian hums. “Father is not as unbearable at these as he is at other functions, but. I’d still be remiss in my obligations if I left you to deal with him alone for too long.”

Jason knows his ‘obligations’ are purely platonic. He knows. His heart flutters, though; the traitorous bastard putting a more romantic lilt on the word. “Well. I appreciate it,” he says, softly. He bites his lip. “I… It’s nice. Having you around.”

Damian smiles. It’s small; mostly in his eyes, the way they upturn at the corners. “It is nice to, ah, ‘be around’,” he says. He reaches up to smooth down the lapel of Jason's blazer. Even through the layers, his touch burns like a brand. “You’ve grown up well, habibi.” His mouth curls up, just a little bit more.

The compliment is unexpected. The smile even more. And the touch—

Jason flushes scarlet. Every blush he’d fought back at dinner hits him now, and he feels a little lightheaded with it.

That, he decides, is the reason he leans down, foolishly, and presses a kiss right against one of those upturned corners. “Thanks,” he breathes—and then, heart threatening to beat right out of his chest, he flees to the safety of his bedroom, leaving Damian alone in the stairwell.

[ 50 Types of Kisses ]

[diamondshapedcat]

Unicorn HRT diary - Month 8

Oh god Comet you are just the best! A real shining star! Every day I see her become more and more a glorious beast of a girl! We've become the best of friends and just last night she dared me to come along to a speed dating event! All kinds of folks were there, both animal and normal? ordinary? What do you call th- HUMAN! HUMAN! How could I forget that?!?! Anyway you would not believe how bad people are at flirting unless you were there! Here are some of my highlights:

Are you a her/she? Cause you're a... mid tier chocolate bar? (Didn't think that one though... I don't even use those anymore)

I see you're a unicorn, I'm also very horny wink wink (BLEGH!!!)

A guy who was so nervous that he didn't blink for 5 minutes (Real 0_0 energy)

Really short guy who spoke with an accent and loved shellfish. Kinda looked like a fuzzy raptor with stick limbs, huge ears and a big pointy tooth. (I think he felt a bit out of place here among taller people)

This kinda charming raccoon who started talking about families until he called me mommy by accident and just felt apart (Kink discovered lol)

Very nerdy dragon who couldn't stop infodumping about robots and cybernetics. (Smart but defo not smoochable)

In the end I didn't find anyone that really sparked anything and Comet didn't either. I don't get it, she's gorgeous and amazing and yet no one else could see it. Like seriously how could anyone pass up the chance with such a beautiful foxgirl like her in need of someone to love? This city doesn't deserve her at all! I swear that if she had put one more point of effort into her outfit people would start melting into pools of slime in her presence! With that emerald dress that perfectly matches her eyes she could take the whole city if she tried! I know that there's someone out there who's just waiting to fall in love with her and it's killing me knowing that's only a matter of time before they meet! Oh it'll be so cute I just know it!!!!!11!!

Comet's story is so cute when she told it to me on the ride back home. I've heard it before but I could listen to it ten times over before getting bored, that's how good she is at telling stories! She best described the process of figuring out she's a fox was a case of 1+1+1+1+1= fucked! How cute is that? All those little hints adding up to a huge problem! Ha ha ha! I'm so proud of how far she's come in just a short time and I wish I could travel back in time and show her who she becomes! With killer looks, a sweet voice and the fluffiest tail ever, I can't stop thinking about who would be perfect for her. Nerdy types? Big strong guys? Maybe she's got a thing for out of town types with a hint of mystery around them.

No matter what I'm going to stand by her and help her as much as I can, Tamara the perky perky pony (That's her nickname for me :3) and Comet the feisty fox tearing apart this city! I wish I was as smart and witty as her with her clever nicknames. (sigh)

Oh wait. Did I really take a month out of my HRT diary just to talk about my best friend ever? Hahaha. Ermmmm right unicorn stuff. Feet are starting to feel hard and my toes are starting to look weird. Think they're starting to turn into hooves which means I'll have to give up my shoes. Wonder if Comet might want them? Just a thought. I should also ask her about what shampoo she uses and her hair care routine. I need to learn her secrets of the mega-floof! Surgery is coming up soon and I'm a little nervous to be honest. I wonder if I could ask Comet to take me in. That would be nice.

Start/Prev/Next

[verosvault]

🚨SPOILERS FOR FANTASY HIGH JUNIOR YEAR EPISODE 8🚨

Dimension20 "Fantasy High Junior Year"

Episode 8 "Fracas at the Frostyfaire Folk Festival"

Timestamp: 39:40

Video Length: 4min. & 23sec.

Research into Cassandra and Ruvina + Learning about Oblivati Mori (Pt.1 | Pt.2 | ‣Pt.3)

Brennan: "But that would mean that if someone was able to write it, they would know it, but they would have to have a way of writing it without breaking Obliviati Mori. There's two pieces of information you guys can glean from that right away, the first of which is that belief and worship and the weird, tenuous alliances between gods where some of them are from the same region but have conflicting domains, and some gods have the same domain as other gods but are still ascendent in different areas or for different kinds of cultures or anything like that, all the gods have this agreement that is basically like, for lack of a better word, we're all playing the game, and if your fucking buddy or your pal or someone you love loses fair and square, you're not allowed to go to your mortal worshipers and say, "Hey, can we peel off a few followers to my buddy who's having a hard time right now?" It's basically like a law of, you are not allowed to root for each other. You are not allowed to pull for each other. You're not allowed to put a thumb on the scale in that way. If your flocks choose to have you work together, you can work together, but when a god dies, that's it. You're not allowed to cheat by reminding mortals that there was this other deity."

Siobhan: "But if we went and asked another deity about this god, would they then be able to tell us? Or would we have to specifically say their name?"

Brennan: "According to Obliviati Mori, they would not be able to tell you. But the law is a law, which immediately to you, Adaine, would tell you, well, any rule has ways of working around it."

Siobhan: "Ok, Great. So it's a law, but laws can be broken."

Brennan: "Yeah. And there might be enormous arcane penalties for so doing, but effectively, you know that there are dead gods. There are rules concerning how the other gods can refer to those dead gods to mortals, if they are even allowed to. And to a certain degree... But again, the second, biggest thing is, of course, this wouldn't be a thing unless gods could always remember dead gods."

Siobhan: "Mhmm."

Zac: "So do we have a sense of, when Lydia and her crew were on this mission, they never knew the name of this god, right? Or did they at one point know it?"

Brennan: "Lydia can confirm for you, she's like,"

Lydia: "We never knew the name of the god. We knew Bakur, the fiend, but-"

Fig: "Even though gods can't say the name, the name could still exist out there in texts."

Lydia: "Exactly, which is why a lot of, you know, if a god is trying to be crushed or scoured, you try to break their idols, erase their texts, burn the holy texts, all that kind of thing. But theoretically, if we had found the name written somewhere on text, that would have done it.

Fabian: "Then it makes sense why Cassandra said that thing about being like, I thought you were dead."

Fig: "I thought you were dead."

*multiple "yeah's" at the table* 😂🤣💀

Fabian: "Mm~."

Riz: "So if you had to get around it, maybe a way to do it would be to possess someone or something. Is it possible that Lucy..."

Fig: "Was possessed?"

Riz: "...was possessed?"

Fig: "All the Rat Grinders are suspiciously qui-. No one's grieving Lucy or anything like that."

Adaine: "Yeah, it's weird, right?"

Fig: "So the Rat Grinders are in on this, in some capacity. And I even think it's possible that, the way that Ivy reacted to me, either she saw through my disguise and so she was being cheeky, or Lucy's around somehow and they've just found another way to proselytize-"

Fabian: "Oh-! Maybe- Yes! 'Cause she did beckon to you, right? To be like-"

Fig: "Yeah, she was like, 'Oh- Okay, we're meeting up.'"

Fabian: "Ooo~ Yes, like a possession thing, where somebody's, the god is Lucy and- and-"

Murph: "What happened to that armor after Gilear had it?"

Emily: "What happened with the armor?"

Brennan: "He'd stolen it from Hell, and he just returned it to you when you guys got back from spring break."

Emily: "Where is it?"

Murph: "So, it just should be in Hell?"

Brennan: "Yeah, the Armor of Pride is back in the Hall of the Armors of Sin."

Murph: "Okay."

Brennan: "So the Armor of Pride is just down in Hell."

Emily: "And all the demons are archfey are fallen deities?"

Brennan: "Unclear. Some great celestials and fiends are created by gods in their status as celestials or fiends. Bakur was created by a god that he could no longer name, right, and so there's certain- But it looks like some divinities, some archfey or some celestials or some things like that, are gods who, their worship is waning and waning and waning or their divinity is waning and waning and waning, and they just make a decision to, rather than face death, become something that relies a little bit less on faith."

[kitramune]

Mistlewoes (rating, G)

A lil InuKag Christmas drabble for you lovely folks. Sorry it's so short, I've been a little dry on the motivation, lately! Thanks to @nukawin for the prompt, here. ~*~*~*~*~

Inuyasha didn't know how this could have happened... Had he not been diligent enough? Had he missed something that only existed in Kagome's time? Something so subtle it had slipped past him? What a conniving and dangerous world she lived in!

All these thoughts and more shot through the hanyou's head as he faced down the giant bear that was currently roaring and standing taller to try and intimidate him away. He already had procured several herbs from Kaede and was working on the meat and organs.

This had all started when he overheard Kagome's family talking. Something about getting a tree for some disease. He forgot the name, but it had to do with toes.

He struck down the bear, harvesting everything he could before he moved on.

Dammit, how could he have let Kagome's toes get sick?! Or was it some kind of possession? Maybe he'd have to fight, after all. Hmmm... Well if this method didn't work, he'd try that. Lugging his haul towards the Well, Inuyasha stewed in his worry.

…

“Inuyasha-kun! My, what's all this?” Mrs. Higurashi looked shocked at his cargo when he made his way into the house.

“I heard Kagome was sick, so I brought some stuff to make her better. Is she in her room?”

“Sick? She never told me anything about that.” The woman looked even more alarmed.

Now Inuyasha was really confused. “I heard you and the old man talking about it and you said a tree would help bring it out of her toe? I got more stuff just to help her recover, though.”

Mrs. Higurashi seemed to realize something and lifted a hand to stifle her laughter. “Oh, that's sweet of you, dear. I'm sure Kagome will appreciate it. She'll be down soon, she's in the bath at the moment.”

He nodded. The warm water would probably make her feel better, as well. He moved to deposit his pack of items when something stopped him in his tracks. “Holy hell, is that the tree?!”

“Yes, it's called a Christmas Tree. We get one and decorate it every year around this time.”

Inuyasha gaped. “So this happens a lot? Is it a curse, then?! Is that why you have those weird shiny shimenawa ropes and shikigami all over it?”

Mrs. Higurashi hummed in thought, seeming to debate how to explain something to him. But Kagome chose that moment to come downstairs.

“Inuyasha? Why are you here?”

“Kagome!” he hurried over to her. “You'll feel better soon, I brought some things to help in addition to the tree! How are your toes?”

Kagome only furrowed her brow. “My toes? What are you talking about?”

“I think,” her mother supplied, “that there's been a little mix-up. Inuyasha-kun seems to have overheard me and father discussing our mistletoe.”

Kagome's mouth formed a small 'o' as she took in his worried expression and the pack of ingredients behind him. Luckily she couldn't quite see the viscera from there. She grabbed his hand, confusing him more, and pulled him over to an odd looking plant he'd never seen before. It was hanging near the equally odd tree.

“This is mistletoe, Inuyasha. It's not a sickness, it's for-... Well...”

Her confirmation that she wasn't actually suffering from anything did cause him to relax a bit, but it was quickly replaced by curiosity. She may not be sick, but her cheeks were quickly becoming red. A fever?

“For what?” he asked gently, moving his hand to touch her forehead and check for a temperature, ignoring her embarrassed inhale.

“It's, um... for this.” With that, Kagome stood on her tippy-toes, his hand still on her forehead, and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

It was warm. It was slightly wet. It was soft. It was wonderful. It was... over way too quickly, leaving Inuyasha unable to do anything but stare at her and slowly put his hand back down. She smiled, and even through his shock, he wanted to smile back.

Mrs. Higurashi giggled, the sound breaking both teenagers out of their little trance. Both blushed, but the knowing mother seamlessly moved them on to a new topic. “Would you like to stay for dinner, Inuyasha-kun? After all, you brought such lovely gifts for Kagome and she can explain all about Christmas to you.”

Kagome cleared her throat tactfully. “That sounds... good.”

Inuyasha nodded. “Sure.”

No way in HELL was he leaving until he got to kiss her back! Even if it took all night!

[saltlickmp3]

the lair of the white worm the sequel if i got to make it

three or four slightly odd uni students are hanging out in their flat when one of them mentions the story about the scottish researcher & last of the line of the (now abandoned) manor house who went missing some forty odd years ago

its now supposed to be an urban legend based off the existing folk tale and while they have a good laugh about it they decide to do a bit of research into it cause theyre nerds

at this point the d'ampton worm festival isnt really celebrated as much due to the unfortunate events surrounding one of the last ones, & the lack of any d'ampton heirs to play the role of honour. our protagonists hear a really slow & creepy version of the song somewhere else though cos im a sucker for creepy folk music

all they can find is older people in the town swear up & down that the scottish boy & the youngest lord d'ampton dissapeared at the same time as this rich mysterious woman who used to live just outside of town - it was at her house that the former chief of police (or whatever his job was) died quite gruesomely - and that there have been multiple cases of disappearances in the area

they only people who would possibly know anything are the two trent sisters - one of them died a few years back & the other mostly keeps to herself - running the hostel, being polite but detatched - she is the last known person to have seen any of the above missing people

being 20ish years old our protagonists decide the reasonable thing to do is book a few nights in the hostel & attempt a break in on the old d'ampton manor house, & the marsh manor house too if they can get in

upon mentioning the missing people, eve trent gets a bit upset - one of the more headstrong of the protagonists presses her further & all she can manage to get out before quite forcefully saying goodnight is that whatever happened fourty years ago, she is afraid of 'it' coming back & finding her again

our protagonists think this is ominous but potentially a good sign they are in fact onto something & ignore the warning signs by going poking around in the house - one finds a rather strange elongated skull in a box in an accidentally left unlocked cupboard, and one has very strange dreams that she & the other girl in the group and passionately making out while their legs fuse together in a white snakey manner. yes there is fire. yes the cgi is bad. yes theres some religious symbolism. its probably unnecessarily horny too. the snake priestess from the og movie is there & she's been recast as michelle gomez. you cant stop me

the girls after this point begin giving each other long glances & touching a lot & even though they were doing this before now it looks a wholeeeeee lot gayer. implying that they both had the dream & also that they both have really for real realised theyre into each other

overall thrown by the experience, after doing some poking around to little avail (they notice a picture of eve with her old boyfriend, the missing lord d'ampton, and that a big section of the front yard is sunken a bit) the next day the decide to, once darkness falls, break into the d'ampton house

while the grounds are overgrown & the exterior weathered & overall looking like a haunted house, the inside is in oddly good shape - slightly messy & many of the windows broken but in a generally Fine condition. they think this is odd seeing as a fancy house that has been known to be empty for this long should have had it's fair deal of urban explorers & bored teenagers trashing it such as. themselves lol

the creepiest part is the house in drenched in weird snake symbolism - ancient looking mosaics on the floors, old tapestries - they put this down to wealthy eccentricty & maybe they were just cool people like snakes are kind of awesome & when youre rich you can do whatever you want with your house

the tapestries showing the white worm being slain as was previously in lord d'amptons' bedroom is spookily slashed up. big close up shot on this as they all look at it

being the protagonists in a horror film the decide to explore deeper into the house, eventually coming across the entrance to a deep as hell tunnel. they decide to go through it, taking advantage of a conveniently placed candle stick & matches (they do have flashlights they just think this is cooler & spookier) (remember they are doing this for funsies mostly not as serious investigation)

the tunnel is weirdly. bloodstained. & also very old mosiacs of snakes & shit. some weird christian & pagan symbolism here too probably with a degree of wild innaccuracies because. of course lol. the Nerd One feels the need to point this out. they walk for what feels like a really long time.

at some points while theyre in the house & the tunnel we get a shot of a glint of eyes watching them from the darkness.......... eyes with particularly strong brows....................... <- at this point if youve been paying attention the incredibly obvious plot with be solved for you but we're not in this for the plot we're in this for a camp nightmare

our plucky young protagonists exit the tunnel & end up in another different manor house, exiting via a concealed wooden door under another snake tapestry. they correctly guess this to be the marsh manor

having apparently no sense of self preservation they poke around a bit - one of them reveals yet another secret passage way, this one seeming to go deeper underground.

at this point a protagonist (one of the boys) starts getting too freaked out & wants to go back. the others are vaugley exasperated & say that theyre in this wayyyy to far now to turn around & not find anything out. they all turn their backs on him to walk down the tunnel when theres a piercing scream & he gets snatched out of nowhere. out other male adjacent protagonist calls out his name & runs out of the tunnel to find him, telling the two girls to go on ahead. they do a bit of a 'haha he's probably just messing with us' thing but they all have a really bad feeling about this

the two girls are determined to find out what the hell is happening here. they keep going deeper into the tunnel. eventually an old wooden door leads them to what we recognise as....

THE SNAKE CULT MURDER ROOM !! YIPPEE !!

meanwhile the guy who got snatched (they do have names i just havent thought of any yet) is whimpering & moaning & covered in blood curled up in the corner of the room. he's obviously been attacked by A Something. the other guy bursts in the door way & runs over to him

the door slams ominously revealing... LORD JAMES D'AMPTON !! obviously now much older. honestly i dont care if he's still played by hugh grant or not but in any case, older guy, covered in blood, 80s style rich person clothes, weird cross between vaguely disheveled & having an air of Proper society

they have a 'ahaha you have walked right into my trap and now you will all die very bloodily! you cannot save your little friends now!! no one will even know where you've gone! i shall sacrifice you all to THE WHITE WORM !!' type thing. he then hypnotises not-bleeding boy & knocks him out. bleeding boy keeps bleeding & crying or something. lord d'ampton does some dramatic cape/coat swishing stuff

the two girls are like well. i think this goes a little bit beyond wealthy eccentricity i dont think people generally put a Scary Hole in their underground cave this is actually starting to get really really weird & creepy now

a low (& scottish) voice starts monolouging from out of the darkness telling the story of the white worm - recapping the myth & briefly the events of the first movie, ending with a creepy bit about 'the passing of the mantle' of worm high preistess and how the narrator & lord d'ampton are now bound in unholy matrimony by the power of the white worm or something

he emerges from the darkness & to the surprise of absolutely no one its PETER CAPALDI AS ANGUS FLINT !! CLAPPING & CHEERING !! obviously also older but still with longish curly hair. kilt optional but tartan pants at least. no bagpipes. sorry.

one of the girls shrieks a bit & they hold each other close for comfort

lord d'ampton also emerges from the darkness & both boys are revealed tied up & bleeding in a corner. there's some manical laughter from one or both evil old guys & a homoerotic glance between them

some sort of cut to the girls? about to be sacrificed? or something idk im not good with actually writing action or the plot coming together. call me steven moffat the way i can make the build up last forever.

angus flint does some more monolouging about how the worm was mortally injured in the explosion but they managed to save the skeleton & think that by sacrificing some more young people through death will come life or something. b/c they have possessed by the snake for so long they fully are on board with this like its not the snake bite talking they Are the snake cult leaders now. they will build the cult back up from the ground and our protagonists will be the first members-slash-victims. yippee. one of the girls asks if this is what happened to the other people who have gone missing in the area - most of the also tried to break into the house for a look around but their sacrifices didnt work for reasons

just as they think all hope is lost no one can hear you scream etc etc - EVE TRENT BURSTS IN BRANDISHING A FUCK ASS SWORD !!! she frees the girls about to be cut open over the worm skull in a very cool display of badassery - she kills lord d'ampton saying something along the lines of 'you were always a shitty rich prick i only dated you for your money' or whatever

they probably all chase each other around the cave for a bit. at some point angus does a thing and a whole bunch of snakes emerge from nowhere for dramatic effect. someone gets bitten idk

some dramatic montage. maybe one of the friends gets turned? for dramatic effect. they can save her through the power of lesbianism the other girl can suck the poison out. angus flint gets fangs. maybe the ghost of the snake cult lady marsh (as played in this by michelle gomez) comes back to get mad that they are desecrating her temple so badly or something idk

snake temporarily comes back & they have to kill it again

older angus flint in kilt?

honestly ive run out of ideas now if anyone has suggestions let me know lol

[casdeans-pie]

Hi! First off, love your fics. They brighten my day. and your latte art is cool too.

Secondly, I've seen that you've gone to a few cons and I was curious what tips you'd give a baby con-goer who's going to their first spn con in a month? Also, what should I bring to have signed for an auto?

This might be a weird ask but I don't know who else to ask for con tips lol.

Hi Anon! Thanks so much !! ❤️ happy you're enjoying the stories! I have like a bazillion wips buzzing around my brain at all times so there will be plenty more!

And I genuinely wish I could pass you all supernatural themed coffees through my phone honestly lmaooo

Oooh!! First spn con! That's exciting because my first one wasn't objectively 'the best' but to. this. day it remains my favourite. It's so special to me. It'll be so so good you'll love it. The vibe at these kinds of cons is unmatched because spn fans are literally the friendliest people out there

Nothing quite like the bonds spn fans forge in The Queues. One big tip I'd give is to strike up a conversation with the folks around you - ask what they're getting signed or what poses they're doing - boom! Queue Friends.

Get all of your QR codes or tickets ready in the order you're gonna need them, so there's no panicking when you go for autos or photos. And definitely get a hard folder to put your autographed prints/photo ops in.

Don't forget a bottle of water! And lots of snacks!! And a portable charger/battery pack for your phone!! Mine dies in like a few hours so the extra power is a must.

Enjoy the very special vibe - soak up the atmosphere! There's just, a crazy amount of joy and hype at these things and if I could find a way to bottle it I would

As for stuff to get signed - it depends if you want a print of a character or not, cause usually they have those available at the signing itself on a desk nearby. So you wouldn't have to worry about taking anything. And the character prints always look rad with the signature on. OR you could get a dvd signed? Some artwork? Spn book? Some obscure merch you found? (my favourite kind)

Anyway I've rambled long enough lmao sorry anon you asked me a simple question and I have shot off into the stratosphere of long winded replies

It's not a weird question at all! The funny thing is that when you've done more (because there's always more spn cons) you'll look back on your first like, ah I didn't know what I was letting myself in for..... Addiction is such a negative word, but I'm struggling to think of another.... lmaoooo

Have an amazing time!!!