#even if I DID have a better method of saving things all in one place it doesn't help just how much fuckin STUFF I have SAVED !!!

[dan-crimes]

I have too much shit saved that it's almost pointless to save anything !! I just get too many ideas from everything so I just plop it in multiple places for later and lose it in the various places I keep it at

[evilwizard]

The Lich Who Stole Christmas

Every tumblrina in tumblr liked Christmas a lot.

But the lich, who lived just north of Tumblr, did not!

The lich hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season! Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason. It could be his skull wasn’t screwed on quite right. It could be, perhaps, that his skin was too tight.

But I think that the likeliest reason of all… was his heart was encased by a strange lead-lined ball.

“Last year I made something that I thought in would usher

A new age of magic—my prized OrphanCrusher.

But my patents were stolen, and my sweet new invention

Is now being used… with good-ish intentions.

You see, Christmas wishes contain lots of magic;

And my device extracts it through methods so tragic

That I dare not mention them directly here

Though the name might clue in certain readers, I fear.

The Wizard Council, now that they possess this device,

Might use it, this year, to stamp out wizard vice.

Though the process might turn quite a few kids to carrion,

The Wiz Council’s ethics are utilitarian.

So what shall I do? What is to be done?

It seems rather clear that this Christmas can’t come.

But I’ve read a few books, and I know a few tricks

So this year I’ll steal Christmas, while dressed as Saint Nick!”

So the wizard of evil returned to his lair

Stitched a red suit, and did up his hair

Built a sleek sled—and—who among us,

Could hope for a much better Rudolph than Krongus?

They took to the skies, that next Christmas Eve,

And tailgated Santa, whom they hoped to deceive

At every house he left presents, they quickly descended,

And stole the decor and the gifts he’d intended.

And when the dark wizard’s sleigh was full-loaded with gifts,

He tugged at the reigns, and they made for The Rift!

A place where the veil between worlds was thin…

And a brilliant place to dump the gifts in!

“You see,” he told Krongus, as they approached that strange crack,

“Once something goes in, it can never come back!”

“Moreover, it’s perfect,” the wizard did sing,

“For The Rift destroys every part of that thing!”

“Every instance, every atom in all multiverses,

Will be undone as though by my special dark curses.

Not a gram, not a dust speck or mote shall remain,

And no one will even remember their name!”

“But sire,” muttered Krongus, “would it not be more precise,

If you simply put in the OrphanCrusher device?”

The evil wizard thought of this, parking his sleigh in the snow.

He’d made quite a trip, and this seemed quite a blow.

“I do have one here,” he told that weird devil.

“But destroying Christmas seems rather more evil!”

Then, far behind him, and the gifts he had pillaged,

He heard a small noise coming from Tumblr Village.

It was simply a song, of holiday spirit,

But the wizard was utterly shocked just to hear it.

“It came without ribbons! It came without tags!

It came without packages, boxes or bags!”

Then the lich thought of something he hadn’t before.

Could it be Christmas was some kind of contagion or spore?

What happened next? Well, in Tumblr, they say,

The lich’s dead heart exploded that day!

And the combustive force of that villainous blast,

Airlifted the sleigh, and brought it right back,

To the village, where Tumblrinas rejoiced!

Then continued to sing, and lift up their voice.

And back at the rift, the lich, with head in a spin,

At the edge of the rift dropped the OrphanCrusher in.

So Christmas was saved, by accident mostly,

Though performing a good deed turned the bad wizard ghostly.

“Come, Krongus—we must now return to my tower,

While I wait several months to return to full power.”

And at Wizard Council HQ, certain strategist seers,

Saw all this occur through the orbs that they peered.

They smiled, and high-fived, and struck up the band,

Pleased that these events had gone just as planned.

[keferon]

Why’d monster hunter brainstorm timetravel to the specific era the story takes place?

Will the others ever see his alt mode?

The reason is the same as in canon - he wanted to save Quark.

Okay, I'll try and keep this short and sweet.

Brainstorm lives in the far future and is happy with Quark, until one day it turns out that Quark has a fatal spark disease that will kill him if nothing is done about it. They of course go to the hospital, but it turns out that only certain types of the disease are treatable and modern science still can't do anything about it.

Long story short, no one knows how to cure Quark's spark.

Brainstorm, as a true scientist and a good conjunx, naturally begins to research the subject himself and stumbles upon some strange information. All the sources, studies and records on the study of this disease go back a long fucking way. All that modern scientists have been doing for the last million years is just improving and refining the method of treatment, which was invented in absolute antiquity.

Brainstorm investigates further.

He discovers, all the original research records belonged to a mech named Perseptor, who amongst many other things was studying sparks. And it's when Brainstorm manages to get his hands on copies of these very original records that he finally realises why no one has been able to take this research any further. The records are very well structured, detailed and accurate, but half of the information is taken out of nowhere. The Perseptor specifies the types of sparks that certain substances affect in certain ways, but nowhere does he mention where he got this information from. He might, for example, write that certain types of sparks tend to develop internal micro-cracks when exposed to certain factors for long periods of time. And Brainstorm, having read that, can only stare blankly into space, because yes, micro-cracks in sparks is something that exists. But even in his time, there's no equipment that can detect them if they're INSIDE. So how the hell did an ancient mech with his primitive tools figure all this out???

His curiosity isn't satisfied. The research just cuts off in the middle, as if the mech that did it just abandoned it or died suddenly.

Brainstorm, like many scientists before him, tries to start his own research based on the information pointed out by Perseptor, but finds himself at the same dead end as all the medicine of his time. He just doesn't have the same mysterious way of collecting data that this...Perseptor had.

And Quark isn't getting any better

Eventually, Brainstorm comes up with a brilliant idea. What if, instead of trying to find a cure, he just (ha! Just.) went back in time and saved the dude who was definitely going to invent the cure but didn't have time? He decides it's genius and creates a time machine.

He goes back in time to find Perseptor and well, he gets a surprise. Turns out the dude who researched spark disease was a spark eater. And also on the verge of starvation, but Brainstorm finds a way to help him, it's all good:) It turns out that all this time, Perseptor didn't have any mysterious equipment to analyse the sparks, he was the equipment himself. In fact, he didn't specify the sources of his findings for the research, because the phrase ‘I figured it out because it tasted different’ sounds incredibly compromising and would have signed Percy's death warrant if his notes had fallen into the wrong hands.

Next, I'm not sure how it would have developed. I think as the story progresses, Perseptor and Brainstorm work together to invent a cure for Quark. And then, if you like to cry, Brainstorm goes back to the future and cures him, and Perseptor stays in the past.

If you want adventure, Brainstorm could take Percy back to the future with him. Quark would be really fucking scared and confused at first, but they'd figure it out quickly and conjunx Percy into their futuristic fluffy pairing. (Also, I have a lot of fun thinking about Brainstorm and Quark showing Percy the advances of future science, and the future world in general.

Also, I think Brainstorm would do a good job of hiding his alt mode while he was in the past, but a couple of times would use it to escape from someone. One time he'd also give Percy a ride, and I know Percy would be incredibly freaked out by the breakneck speed that jets can achieve ahahaha

——

That…wasn’t as short as I wanted…..my inner fic writer took control

[piracytheorist]

I am once again emotional by the thought that Twilight has been an unsung hero in all his years working as a spy, has accepted that and doesn't expect to get any recognition by it, but that recognition will come in a way he never could have imagined: his daughter's love.

Because Anya loves him and chose to stay with him because he's her hero, the one who fights to create a world where she and other children can be safe and happy.

I feel it's a different dynamic than with Yor because Anya didn't choose her because she thought what Yor did was the right thing; she mostly found her cool and exciting, and it was after Yor showed her protective side that Anya trusted her. With Yor it's more direct, because if anything it's been Yor that has directly saved Anya. Twilight's methods are more secretive and even detached and as far as he knows, Anya doesn't know anything about those.

So while I believe Yor will be touched to realize that Anya trusted her despite her dangerous work, it won't be a grand shock to her because she knows that Anya knows she's been saved by her - and it's how Loid convinced her he values Yor in the family, in the bench scene. It will still be an important moment, which will solidify (either immediately or slowly) in her the thought that she is worthy of love and of her place in the family. Yor has received recognition for her self-sacrifice and protectiveness (especially during the years through Yuri's adoration of her), even though it's for her direct actions and not her assassin work. Her direct actions were still her honest self, so I think post-reveals it will be more reassuring to her that Anya loves her despite her dark secrets. It will be more grounding than ground-breaking. After all, it was the hope of acknowledgement that pushed her through in the last battle in the Cruise Arc.

For Twilight it will be shocking, because as far as he knows, no civilian knows of his achievements. The SSS and other criminal organizations that know of him hate him, and WISE values him only for his "material" use. In his mind, Anya knows nothing of all he's done to protect her, either directly or indirectly. But to learn that Anya loves him for his very core reason to become a spy? To see that not only she knows, not only she values him, but values him for his principles and his character?

Like, I feel that especially because his motivation is to create a world where children don't cry, having a child see that and call him her hero is what will shake his world. He does get recognized. He is valued for who he is and not what he can offer. Those are things he deprived himself of for so long, and he'll receive them from an innocent child who knows him better than anyone ever will.

(anime only fan here, don't spoil me for the manga)

[tinalbion]

'𝐓𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐞' ||

𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: The Ghoul x fem!Reader

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄! Minors, DO NOT interact! Smut with plot, oral (female receiving), vaginal fingering, murder, canon typical language, attempted kidnapping, radiation poisoning

𝐋𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡: 10k

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: The second part (sort of) to Perfectly Misaligned, someone read it and was curious about the radiation poisoning aspect, so I gave it to them! The Ghoul trusts your judgment after being in his company for about a year now, but after your shared night together, you made what you thought was a simple mistake that almost cost your life not once, but twice. Will the Ghoul be able to save you?

© 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 𝐓𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐃𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞, 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲, 𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫.

If he had just gotten out of his own head, then maybe he would have noticed how ill you’d been feeling, and maybe it wouldn’t have progressed the way it did. Or maybe if he would have just minded his own damn business and kept you at arm’s length like he initially wanted to, neither of you would be in this mess in the first place. 

But even in those two hundred years wandering the wastelands, he was bound to make a mistake, even if he didn’t want to acknowledge it was possible. 

He knew you were smart enough when it came to survival, so he never questioned you or your methods or how you handled your personal affairs. So you both trudged on after the rad storm and only mere days later, you two were on your way, scouting small dives and gathering spots for low lives and scum that would do just about anything for some caps or chems. It had been an awkward time for the both of you after the night you shared, and both of you were too apprehensive to speak of the things you’d done in case the other had disapproved of the conversation. And once again, you knew better than to push it, besides, you both came to an agreement that night: a proposal between you both to release some tension when needed. That was it. 

Maybe it was best not to push it too far in case he changed his mind, so you’d give him time, you were patient. But the Ghoul was the complete opposite. He disguised himself to be the type who could wait out anything, but there was always that itch, much like the one in his trigger finger that kept his decisions impulsive and sporadic. 

So you continued, pushing yourself to venture forth, falling back into old habits with your memory of him in such a compromising way tucked in the back of your mind. You did what you did best and sought information, some of the targets easily let their drunken thoughts slip when a pretty girl sat with them and liquored them up, others were more guarded and kept their eye on you, but nothing a little touch to their inner thigh wouldn't fix, all while the Ghoul watched intently from afar. 

He often watched how you slipped into the part so easily, and the part you played depended on the person you needed the information from. It was rare in the beginning for him to see you like this, and hell, he even fancied seeing just how easily people had been sidetracked by your seductions when he first watched you work. But the more he watched, the more he paid attention to the movements of your hands, the way your body tensed whenever they would touch you, and how you fought the urge to recoil but kept your expressions as neutral as possible. Oh, how he found it to be enjoyable! He had a curious thought as he watched you, he wondered if there was something about him that made you come to him with such a personal offer.

The corner of his mouth would pull into a cocky smile whenever he'd watch, his whiskey eyes stared with interest as he would see your face light up as soon as the information left the man's lips, and your head would turn slightly to meet the Ghoul’s gaze across the room. The slight smirk on your face, when you struck gold, was a sight he welcomed, and not just for the payload that it came with.

You'd slip away from the informant as soon as he was stupid enough to look away, easily slipping out of his sight and outside, away from prying eyes. The Ghoul would be right behind you on your heels, walking in sync with your footfalls. 

Most times, he'd tease you about how well you handled the men -and the women- when getting the information you needed, but this time, he was silent as he trailed alongside you. You looked at him from the corner of your eyes and silently regarded him, but you knew he had something to say and refused to say it. 

“You good?” He finally managed to ask, his eyes flickered over your face and then back ahead. 

Your brows furrowed together, confused by his question. “Why wouldn’t I be?” You asked him, your hand holding onto the strap of your bag as you adjusted it. “I got us the information, didn’t I?”

What he didn’t tell you was that your skin was more flushed than usual, and your forehead seemed to shine with the glaze of sweat that constantly coated it lately, but he figured you knew and decided not to comment on it considering you could take care of yourself. “Course you did,” he assured with that typical grin. 

You dropped it after that and continued your travels to the next town, which was a bit further away from your usual haunts, but you both could handle yourselves, yet there was a small nagging feeling in the back of your head. But as much as you tried to ignore it, you couldn't ignore the feeling that was creeping through your body. 

You set up camp near a small lake, or what was left of the pathetic excuse of a puddle that used to be a lake, and you stared out across the hillside while the fire crackled behind you. The Ghoul sat and fried up some of the meat he'd taken from some poor man's hide while you sipped greedily at your canteen, drinking the last few drops of the only water you had. You could boil some of what was left, maybe make it drinkable, but you were tired. Your body had felt as if it had been crushed by a yao guai the past two days, and you just chalked it up to constantly being on the move, you tried to assure yourself that was it. But you knew you were working against time now, and you couldn't bring the Ghoul into your personal fuck ups. The shame you felt for not realizing your stupidity sooner ate away at you. 

“It's like I'm campin’ with a mute nowadays, the hell is goin’ on in that head of yours, Bunny?”

You turned away from the skyline glittered with stars and looked over at him, his intense stare already on you. “What do you mean?” You asked.

“Ever since, well, you know when, you've been actin’ strange, almost distant, even.” He didn't move, his gaze didn't soften, he was more annoyed by your behavior than anything. 

“I've just been tired, feeling real out of it lately, I dunno, just need a good night's sleep I think.” You reached up and rubbed your neck, your eyes drooped slightly. You felt the fatigue hit you like a ton of bricks. “It has nothing to do with that night, I promise.”

This seemed to give the Ghoul something to think about, but he had no reason not to trust you, you hadn't given him a single reason yet. He nodded and leaned back again, resting against a large rock while he enjoyed the warmth of the fire before he headed into the large tent you'd both set up for the evening, but there was still something off about you, he just couldn’t put his finger on it. 

You joined him soon after at the fire and tried your best to keep that usual cheery disposition the Ghoul seemed to enjoy, but you’d fallen asleep sooner than expected as you listened to one of the many stories he liked to tell about his adventures across the wastelands. What you didn’t plan on was the Ghoul carrying you into the tent as you barely stirred, the worry he had was gone when you seemed to sleep comfortably, and he watched as your chest rose and fell as you looked so gentle while you dreamed. 

The days passed and you were feeling worse, your body was trying its best to fight off what you were suffering and it wasn't succeeding, but you kept your spirits high as you continued your journey, but you desperately needed to get your hands on some RadAway as soon as possible. You were mad at your carelessness after the night you and the Ghoul shared, thinking that all would be well if you were to take some of the chem to take care of the exposure you experienced. But after a few run-ins during your travels, you hadn't realized that the last couple of packs you had were used up, you were completely out. 

Your hands dug around frantically in your worn bag as you pushed your items around, looking intently for the familiar IV bag filled with liquid, or maybe one of the needles you got from that last merchant, but there was nothing. Your heart poured hard against your chest as the panic set in, but you couldn't bear to tell the Ghoul of your carelessness, this was no one's fault but your own, and you'd take care of it. If you didn't, what if he refused to touch you again? He wouldn’t find all the trouble you went through worth it, so he’d remain closed off to you once again, and you felt that it was a worse fate than suffering from radiation poisoning. 

Ridiculous, you knew this, but no amount of chems could beat the high you felt when his hands touched you the way they did.  

While the Ghoul tracked down which way a bounty could have gone, you ransacked everything you could in the abandoned diner that had a few parked cars still in front of it. You checked inside of those, then dug around the drawers, cabinets, and anything you could find that could have hidden away some treasures—desperation at its finest. The Ghoul just figured you were looking for extra caps or scrap to sell, which you often did in between merchants and settlements, so he left you to it. He walked along the inside as he waited for you, then quizzically pressed a button, which activated a jukebox that still seemed to work. 

“Well, hot damn,” he chuckled as the song started playing, transporting him back to when things didn't seem all that bad before the bombs dropped. If there was a time before he could go back to, it was when life wasn't so complicated, where it wasn't tooth and nail to fight to survive. He could wake up and expect to pour his heart out on the big screen, capturing the characters he so loved to play, but he hadn't thought of that part of him in so long, he was but a distant memory that no longer existed, that man was too weak to survive in the wastelands. 

While he reminisced about a time long past, you continued to dig around the area frantically, but you finally accepted that you wouldn't find anything you were looking for. The heavy sigh that left your lips echoed throughout the room. You'd never been so careless before, but you wouldn't dwell on that now, you had to get going and trudge on to another merchant. 

You stepped out of the back of the dining kitchen and peeked your head around to see where your traveling companion had gotten to, but it was quiet, save for the trickle of music you heard coming from the half-destroyed jukebox. It was a song your parents played for you when you could recall a time in the kitchen, your eyes closed gently and you smiled as you thought back on it. You were so wrapped up in the memory that you didn’t hear the heavy footsteps of the Ghoul step up beside you.

You looked over to see him regarding the jukebox with a sort of fondness in his eyes until he pulled his gaze to you, and then he wore a mischievous grin.  

“What?” You asked him suspiciously.

He hummed and reached over to grab your hand, pulling you into his grasp while his other hand rested gently on your waist. A side of this man you hadn’t known existed had begun to shine through little by little, a rare occasion for you both to witness. 

“What are you doing?” 

“What’s it look like, Bunny?” He asked dryly.

You just scoffed and allowed him to lead you across the floor, the weight of surviving and struggling through another day no longer a main concern, for now, you just enjoyed the moment before it fleeted away from you. You hadn’t danced in, well, you couldn’t recall when you ever did, but there was no time to think about that considering the Ghoul had tapped your boot with his own, getting you to move your foot. He told you to watch how he moved his feet, you had to mimic the direction in which he moved so you could follow along, and the more confident you became, the less stiff your body moved with his. Soon, you were swaying across the broken tiles and old debris, laughing at the way you felt lighthearted and silly, but the privacy of the moment was something you’d want to hold onto forever. 

‘It isn’t your sweet conversation

That brings this sensation

Oh no, it’s just the nearness of you-’

As sick as you were feeling, this dance lesson was something that you were glad you didn’t miss, but your body was fighting against you despite how happy you were feeling. You scolded yourself, hoping you could hang on for a little bit longer, but the Ghoul looked down at you as the gentle piano of the song played in the background, his eyes in those sunken-in sockets seemed troubled.

“You sure you’re good? You seem sicker than a dog lately, you feelin’ alright?”

“I uh, I’ll be fine, promise,” you lied with a small smile. “Just living in the moment, this is nice.”

He chuckled and knew you weren’t being completely honest with him, but if you knew what you were doing, then who was he to say otherwise? “Whatever you say, Bunny. And you ain’t too bad on your feet.” He smirked as he tested the waters and pulled away from you, then gave you a little spin. 

You spun and laughed as you almost tipped over, but he caught you with ease and he pulled you back flat on your feet. He stared down at you and wondered what it was you were thinking about, though he felt he wouldn’t admit to what he was thinking if given the chance. 

You looked up at him with the same look on your face, and your soft smile only grew when he kept staring. If only you could just have a bit of normalcy, you craved having just a slice of it like you once had, but all you could picture was him here with you, sort of in a moment like this one. This could be your new normal, him standing here with you, dancing around the desolate diner with the scratchy music playing. You laughed internally at the thought, but it didn’t hurt to pretend for now, but you’d deal with the ramifications later.

You thought you could feel it; the spark of something in the way he looked at you, and the way his hands held onto you as if you belonged here in his grasp, but you weren’t entirely sure. He didn’t budge, he was as still as a hunter watching its prey from the tall grass, but before you could say a word, the sudden rise of bile stung your throat. You began to cough and violently jerked from his arms and flung yourself away, gagging as you fell to your knees while you released the contents of your stomach onto the floor.

The Ghoul’s face turned to shock as he was beside you in an instant, his hand on your back while he stared down at you in sheer panic. “Bunny, what- are you okay?” He would wait for your answer while he attempted to comfort you, but human ailments hadn’t been a worry for him in so long, he had no idea what would be wrong.

After a moment, your breathing was heavy and you attempted to catch your breath before you responded. “I… I fucked up, cowboy, I’m sorry…” You turned to him, and the tears in your eyes from retching stung your eyes. 

“You didn’t do nothin’ of the sort-”

“I ran out of RadAway, I didn’t take anything after that night… I was careless.” You huffed as you stared up at him, looking and feeling so ashamed of your carelessness. As you were about to speak again, an odd sensation took over your body and you felt a sudden wave of dizziness, your eyes fluttered, and then you felt everything go black. 

The poisoning coursed through you rather quickly without any medicine, but the Ghoul didn’t have a drop on him either, so you were running on borrowed time until your body began to shut down and change drastically. He caught you before you fell unconscious, then slowly got to his feet and hoisted you into his arms, your limp body cradled against his chest as he searched around the diner for a safe place to keep you. He didn’t find much until his head tilted up as he groaned in frustration, his eyes then spotted a latch that led up to an attic or storage space of some kind. 

He gently set you down away from the area and opened the door, then climbed up the wooden ladder that slid down, and he peeked around to check the hidden room. It had been untouched for years up there, things were still neatly placed and packed away, so this would be the safest area to keep you until he could return.

Once you were up in the storage space and laid out on your blanket, he covered you with your jacket and looked around, hoping he could get lucky with a hidden medkit, but he turned up empty-handed.

“Dammit,” he muttered as he looked back at you. He knew you’d be pissed if he left you here, but he hid you away, you’d be safe until he returned. The Ghoul wasn’t sure how far away the next town was from where you were, so maybe he could return to the one previous. He had to do something, anything to get you what you needed before things took a turn for the worst, vomiting was only the beginning. He knelt beside you for a moment and looked down at your features, his eyes scanned your skin, anything that was alarming, but it had only been a few days since you both got close. He had time.

“I ain’t gonna be long, Bunny, I promise,” he muttered low, his gloved hand pulling your jacket up further to keep you covered, resisting the urge to smooth out your hair as a lover would do. “We’re gonna get you better.”

He stood and looked down at you while you slept, afraid to leave but too afraid to stay, he couldn’t just sit idly by and do nothing. So he left you there, locking up the crawl space door to assure your safety while he was away. It was an odd feeling as he traveled alone, not having you with him on an adventure almost felt wrong in a way, but the journey would hopefully be a quick one. 

His feet felt heavier than usual as he walked out of the diner, but he turned to look back at the decaying building and stared up at the walls that held you safely within them, but it was difficult for him to move forward. With a deep sigh and a hardened gaze, he sought after what he needed, and internally, that small little voice in his head had prayed for a miracle that you would be okay. 

You weren’t sure what happened, you were happily dancing one minute with the Ghoul, and the next was a complete blank, you just remember falling and that was it. Your eyes barely opened as you lazily rolled your head to the side, trying to focus your sight. You looked for him in your haze, calling out to him weakly, but no one responded to your calls. The Ghoul was probably just making sure no one approached the vicinity, you knew he would be overprotective in your current state. Another reason you cherished your friendship. 

Friendship, if that's what you want to call it. 

Your head was pounding and your body felt weak, on fire, and had the chills all at once, so you may have rested until he returned to your side. But the pain in your head was too much as it throbbed annoyingly, what else could you do but lay there as you stared at the ceiling filled with small holes? Yet the longer you lay there in silence, the more you realized just how quiet it was, and then you wondered if he was truly still wandering around the vicinity. 

What if he took it upon himself to… no, you had hoped not, that wasn't in your plans. You wanted to take care of it yourself when you were able to sleep it off, and yet there was the possibility that he took it upon himself. You slowly pushed yourself to your feet and almost tumbled into the wall, but you regained your footing well enough as you looked around the room. There was no indication he was here, even when you looked out of the second-story window, there was nothing. 

“Dammit,” you muttered. 

Of course, you caused problems for him, took him away from his work, and foiled it all. He'd never look at you again in such high regard, would he? Not after this. You cursed yourself and stumbled back to your makeshift bed, feeling the roughness of your dry throat that ached for water. As you reached for your pack, you hoped he'd come back and still give you a chance. Sleep was clawing at you again while you wondered if you could force yourself to remain awake, but you hadn't stood a chance. Your eyes closed and you prayed to whoever would listen to have him look at you like he did before. 

While you had slept, the Ghoul made decent progress across the wastelands to acquire what you needed, and he hoped he’d get it in time before your body shut down any further. He kept pushing the negative thoughts from his mind, whistling or humming that tune from the diner, just trying to make it through. Along the way, he took out raiders, random lone gunmen, and anyone else who figured he was easy pickings, patting them down after their bodies fell with a hard thud to the ground. He’d gathered a small collection of RadAway in his bag, but surely not enough to help you get back to yourself, so he promised himself only to find a few more. 

It was after this personal promise that he had stumbled into some hideout he didn’t know existed, yet he still pressed forward as if he had no time to deal with the several men who stepped out and blocked the view of the windows all around the destroyed building, but they insisted he stop to have a chat.

“Ain’t got time for autographs, boys, I got somethin’ important I gotta do,” he said as he brushed them off, walking past them without a second glance.

One of the raiders scoffed and raised his gun, cocking it to catch the Ghoul’s attention. “I ain’t askin’, freak,” the gunner guffawed. “Gimme what’s in your bag, now.”

The Ghoul took this as an insult, so he turned on his heels rather slowly, comically so as he looked at the four men who stood here, holding him up from his mission. “The fuck you just say to me?” He asked with a scoff. His hand had already rested comfortably on the hilt of his hand cannon, watching all the men with interest, mapping out the direction from which they’d all come after him. He was meticulous with his planning, making sure each bullet he shot wouldn’t go to waste. 

“You heard us, ghoul,” another man spat in reply, “give us what you got and you can keep your arms, possibly.”

The Ghoul chuckled to himself and lowered his gaze, his face hidden by the brim of his hat. “Now, I ain’t one to back down from a challenge, but I got someone who needs help. So I’ll cut y’all a deal. You got any RadAway? I’ll happily give you whatever is in this here bag,” he said as he patted the leather saddle bag. 

Whether it was a trick or not, the men figured if all he wanted was RadAway, he was stupid enough to trade it all for that. The one closest to the door walked inside, disappeared for a few moments, and came back with an entire bag filled with RadAway. 

“Figure with all the caps you probably got in there, we could buy more than we got,” the man laughed and tossed the bag onto the ground before him. “Now hand over the bag nice and easy,” he said.

“Well now,” the Ghoul started as he slid the bag from his shoulder and let it drop, “seems there’s been a change of plans, gentlemen.” With a fast hand and an even faster draw, the hand cannon was out and he shot all four men before they had a chance to react. “Been a pleasure doin’ business.” 

He walked up to the discarded bag and grabbed the IV bags, peering inside to ensure they were all accounted for. Most were untouched while others looked a tad worse for wear, but it was enough to be able to help you out and get you back on your feet. Just as he was about to throw his saddleback back over his shoulder, one last man emerged from the broken-down shack and took aim at the Ghoul. 

“You don't deserve to leave after what you did,” the man spat. 

The Ghoul stopped and cocked his head, not even bothering to look back at the man. “None of us deserve shit one way or the other, but my companion don't deserve to die.”

“Companion? You think your companion wants to be around you in the first place? You're a fucking ghoul, a freak. Probably just playin’ sick to get rid of you. But if it's RadAway you need, you're gonna end up killin’ ‘em anyway. Do them the favor and get the hell away from ‘em.” 

The Ghoul had more patience than a saint at that moment, but the part about killing you, it struck a nerve. Without looking back, he put an explosive bullet straight into the man's forehead, his head exploded with a large pop, and his body fell to the ground. 

“Fuck you,” the Ghoul huffed, grabbed his prize, his bag, and hustled back to the abandoned diner. 

If he hurried fast enough without stopping, maybe you had a fighting chance. 

You had thrown up several more times and could barely move from your makeshift bed, your limbs felt sore and your entire body was on fire. It felt uncomfortable just to lay there. How could you be so careless? Even though you were suffering from the effects of radiation poisoning, you knew that you'd never regret the decision you made that night. You’d happily do it again if given the chance. 

As you lay there half dazed, half-conscious, you swore you heard a melody from outside the gas station, you weren’t entirely sure. Poorly sung, the lyrics sounded screechy, it wasn’t exactly pleasant. But the voice wasn’t his, so you pushed yourself up as slowly and quietly as possible as you attempted to make your way over to the window. The sun was setting, the large ball of light almost hidden below the horizon as you peeked through the broken glass, seeing a group of three raiders wandering about as they heard the song playing on the jukebox.

You didn’t even realize it was still playing considering you’d been so out of it, but they figured someone had to have come here. Your plan was to be as quiet as possible, allowing them to think their timing was off, that someone just passed through and paid no mind to stick around. If push came to shove, you’d hole up on the roof and take them out from a higher ground. The Ghoul had taught you some basics since you would have rather run from combat than be a part of it, but he knew it was important to know if a situation ever arose. You’d have to thank him later for those helpful tips if you ended up needing them. 

The adrenaline was pumping through your system as they got closer, carelessly wandering, swinging their weapons into the nearby cars just for the sake of destruction. You wanted them to leave as soon as possible, so you hugged the nearest corner with your gun firmly in your grasp, and you did your best not to pass out at the most inopportune moment while you pressed your back against the wall.

The smaller man who had been looking around the outside of the diner didn’t seem interested in sticking around, but the other two wanted to be thorough in their search for anything worth the caps.

“Davie, c’mon, man, there’s nothing here,” the small man grumbled.

The larger man just laughed. “And what, you some all seeing, all knowing motherfucker now, Francis?” 

“Shut up, dick.” Francis huffed and waited outside, keeping an eye on the skyline in case there would be trouble.

The second man followed Davie inside the diner to scout around for anything, and he started pressing buttons on the jukebox. 

“Quit fuckin’ with that, Daren,” Davie barked as he tossed an empty box at him.

Daren huffed and continued to make his way around the diner, finding nothing of interest, but they made sure not to leave any stone unturned. 

As you sat up in the corner, you figured there was still a small chance they’d come up there, spot you, and do who knows what, but you had no real backup plan in case that were to happen. Maybe cover yourself with the blanket, pretend you were some discarded junk? Would that work? Raiders weren’t exactly the smartest bunch, but they’d smell you a mile away in a ridiculous cover, most likely. 

You calmed your breathing as they continued to ransack the kitchen area, right below where you were resting in the corner, and you couldn’t help but clasp your hand over your mouth just in case. You listened for them, pinpointing where they could be, how far away their voices were, or how close they’d gotten. Maybe they’d overlook the door altogether, they surely weren’t that thorough, right?

“Shit, Davie, there’s a door leading upstairs-” Daren pointed out, and you heard him tug at the small latch connected to it. 

Your heart dropped in the pit of your stomach as your entire body froze, your eyes went wide as you slowly pointed the gun toward the opening in case you needed to use it, but your hands were shaking so badly. Your vision blurred as you tried your best to will yourself still.

‘Don’t you dare pass out now, you idiot, keep still-’ You willed yourself, your hands slowly steadying to the best of your abilities. Your entire body was suddenly taken over with chills, your strength had been sapped from you as you leaned your head back, praying that they’d skip out on searching up there.

The footsteps beneath you got louder and you heard the door being yanked at. “What d’you think is up there?”

“Maybe the owner’s corpse with all his riches,” Daren laughed and pushed the door, but it was slightly stuck, so he slammed into it with his fist. The door was unlatched and splintered, causing it to remain slightly open.

Your body was shaking as you cowered deep into the corner, hoping they’d just gloss over you, but as soon as Daren stuck his head up through the opening, his eyes landed on you. You shook your head, hoping he wouldn’t say a word, your hand was hiding the gun beside you as you crouched down, but you couldn’t see well with the sweat beading onto your forehead dripping down your face.

“Well, well, we don’t have a corpse with riches, but we have a payload,” the man chuckled and pressed his way upward.

“What’cha got, Daren?” Davie asked as he remained downstairs.

“Please-” you begged him, “I have nothing, just take whatever’s in my bag, I’m sick…” You whispered, hoping he’d have a change of heart. 

He ignored everything you said and yanked at your wrist, causing you to yell out and quickly shoot a bullet into his arm. The raider released you and that’s when you scrambled toward the broken window, and despite your body screaming at you to not overexert yourself, you pushed through it and rolled onto the crackled shingles.

“The fuck happened?!” Davie barked as he climbed up the small ladder. 

“There’s a girl, we can use her for parts!” Daren called back, and Davie was immediately crawling up to assess the damage. “She fuckin’ shot me,” he growled as he ripped off a piece of his shirt, wrapping it around the wound. “Fuckin’ SHOT ME.”

You were too busy trying to figure out how badly it would hurt to drop down from this height, but you had either two large men manhandling you to deal with, or the smaller raider to grab you as soon as you hit the ground. You could probably take him, so you opted for the latter. As you timed it, you jumped and tried your best to land where you could shoot up right away and run, but Francis was too fast. He’d been assessing the entire thing from the outside, his weapon drawn, but once he caught sight of you, he yanked out the rope he had wrapped around his belt. 

“Where you goin’, sweetheart?”

“Fuck you,” you spat as you aimed and shot toward him, but you missed by just a few inches. “Fuck-”

Francis bolted toward you, his weapon drawn in one hand while the other gripped at the rope. He had a baseball bat primed and ready to incapacitate you if need be, swinging it mostly at your legs to bring you down, but you aimed your gun again and this time hit him in the shoulder. He let out an annoyed yell, then dug through his pocket, sucked in some sort of chemical, and you watched in horror as his expression transformed. 

His eyes bulged out, growing wide as the chem worked its way through his body, and the bullet wound was just a passing memory. He grew sporadic and violent with his swings, not calculating exactly where to hit, but blindly swinging so he’d at least hit something. You did your best to dodge and roll out of the way as he would hit, barely take a breath, and swing again, the speed in which he worked was insane. 

“Just leave me alone! I just wanna be left alone!” You screamed at the man, but if he could hear you, he showed no signs of listening. 

Davie and Daren popped out to see the smaller man going straight for you, so they decided to get around you and cut you off before you could run anywhere else. “Goin’ somewhere, sweetheart?” Daren yelled out a string of profanities and launched toward you, grabbed you by your arm, and yanked it hard, causing you to drop your only weapon.

Davie went around and grabbed your other arm, both of them lifting you from the ground as you dangled in between their grasp helplessly.

“Let me go!” You screamed again. 

“You shot me you fuckin’ whore, I ain’t letting you go after that. You’re going to the harvesters.”

“No, please, please! I’m sick!” You thrashed in their grasp, kicking your feet as they held onto you with a firm grip. With as much force as you could, you lunged at one of their arms and bit down. 

Daren shouted again and reeled his arm back, slapping you hard. You let out a cry and kicked even more, but Francis grabbed at your legs, tying them up before you could do any real damage before his chem ran out. Then the two larger men dropped you, taking that opportunity to tie you up completely, sure that you couldn’t escape your bonds now. 

“You wanna do the honors and carry her?” Davie asked.

“Fuck that, she shot and bit me,” Daren scoffed, kicking you in the ribs. 

Your body folded as you let out a cry, but Davie housed you up and tossed you over his shoulder. “Fine, fuckin’ whiney ass-”

“‘Scuse the hell out of you but where the fuck you  think you’re goin’ with my girl, there?” A voice called to them from behind. 

The three men all turned to look toward the Ghoul that stood there, his eyes glued to the figures that held onto his lucky rabbit's foot, and they sized him up without much worry. Daren’s annoyance grew with hearing your yells and seeing yet another obstacle in their way. 

“We found her first, ghoul, you can get your own smoothie somewhere else, yeah? She seems in top-notch condition and I ain’t one for sharin’.”

The Ghoul looked straight at you, taking notice in the smile you shot him as if to say thank goodness you’re here, he knew there’d be no way you’d want to escape him, right? “That there rabbit’s foot is mine, I don’t feel like partin’ with her just yet. So I’ll give you to the count of three to release her, or I’ll make you.”

The three men laughed hysterically and had no intentions of letting you go, and the smaller one -Francis- stepped forward. “Not sure if you heard us considerin’ your ears are kinda… gone? But She’s ours, finders keepers.”

“And I said, no.” The Ghoul said sternly, taking a single step forward, the familiar jingle of his boot spur seemed to cause you some comfort. “One.” The Ghoul held up his hand canon, took aim at the man on your right, Davie, and continued to glare. 

“You really got a problem here?”

Francis quickly took aim with the hidden .223 pistol he had stashed on his person and let out a bullet, hitting the Ghoul in his left shoulder. His body jerked slightly but he didn’t allow the force of the bullets to deter him much.  

“Two.”

Francis let off several more rounds into the Ghoul’s chest while Davie took out his 14mm pistol and landed a couple of rounds in him as well, but the Ghoul didn’t fall, nor did he back down. He smiled wickedly as he aimed his hand cannon, shooting each bullet off in succession. 

“Three.”

Daren’s left arm blasted off, and the splatter of blood covered your face as you ducked and yanked yourself from their grip, then Davie’s throat had been shot clean through, causing him to drop instantly. Francis was left alive, but barely, as he was attempting to crawl off with one missing leg. He was still riding the effects of the chem he inhaled, but they’d die off quickly with all the blood loss.

The Ghoul was one to play with his prey, so he slowly sauntered up to the raider and chuckled at the pathetic attempt of his escape. “Well damn,” he said as he squatted down closer and dug his finger into the gaping wound of his leg, causing him to scream.”If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that hurts.”

“Pl-please, stop, don’t h-hurt me, okay, man?! We just needed caps!”

“Ah well, I just needed to bring her some medicine to help her get better, and here you thought you could just up and take her?” He asked as he stood up, tilting his head down at the man with a mischievous smirk. He placed his boot onto the end of Francis’s leg and applied a gentle amount of pressure to keep him from crawling off too far.

You watched all of this, not feeling much remorse for him or the others after what they planned on doing to you, but you had no idea what you could have done if he hadn’t shown up when he did. You felt useless as you stood up shakily, your body swayed slightly as you tried to steady yourself, still feeling the poisoning coursing through you. The cold feeling took over and you felt your entire body drain of color as you fell to the ground again, but despite feeling faint again, you felt safe knowing he was here to help you.

The Ghoul’s eyes widened as you fell, so he removed his foot from the raider’s injury and aimed without a second thought at his head, blowing him away and taking care of the last issue that remained. He eagerly scooped you into his arms and knelt down beside you, digging through his pack to fish out the IV bag you needed. Wordlessly, he stared down at you as he opened your mouth, tipping the liquid inside as he watched you swallow it. When it went down smoothly, he let out a sigh of relief and let his head fall back, staring up at the sky as he thanked whatever was watching over you.

He sat there with you in his arms, his eyes directed toward the sky, and he laughed. “Fuckin’ lucky rabbit’s foot,” he mumbled as he slid the bag back onto his shoulder and hoisted you into his arms, taking you back to your bed in the attic of the diner. 

You awoke with a fierce headache, but your body overall didn’t feel like your blood was on fire, which was oddly suspicious. You recalled almost being kidnapped and taken, but then he appeared like some sort of twisted guardian angel, saving you at the last minute. The sun wasn’t up any longer, it was pitch black outside as you opened your eyes, the weariness of sleep slowly lifting like a veil being pulled up from your view. You turned to see him there, right next to you as he leaned his back against the wall, his hat tipped slightly low to cover his eyes as he tried to rest. There was no way to tell what he’d been through while he was gone, but he seemed pretty exhausted when he returned, or maybe you were delirious, but you were thankful he was here now. 

The urge to wake him was strong, wanting to just thank him profusely for what he’d done for you, it was more than anyone had done for you in your entire life. Without much debate, you sat up slowly and crawled over toward him, allowing your head to gently rest against his lap. He hadn’t stirred much, probably too worn from his travels to get that life-saving RadAway for you. You weren’t sure how you could ever repay him, but you’d figure it out. 

When morning came, you found yourself back in your makeshift bed, tucked in and comfortable with the Ghoul somehow laying next to you, his jacket draped over you for extra warmth, his hand abandoned to the side as he slept. But your slight movements woke him, and his deep still-human eyes met yours, sending your nerves on end. 

“Well, good morning, Bunny, you feelin’ any better?”

You nodded and stared into his eyes, unsure what to say or how to say it. “You got all that for me?” You asked, your voice soft and gentle as I looked over at the opened bag, the large handful of IV bags resting comfortably inside.

The Ghoul peeked over to the bag and back at you with a small smile. “Possibly,” he replied coolly. “Had to make sure you didn’t go and die on me,” he chuckled. “I ain’t done with you yet.”

You figured that was the sweetest confession you’d get from a man like this, so you took it and smiled wide while you scooted your body closer to his, gripping onto the remnants of his tattered shirt. “Thank you, cowboy, wouldn’t know what to do without you. And I’m sorry… I shouldn’t been so stupid-”

“You ain’t stupid, you should always tell me shit like this though, I could’a got some for you sooner,” he chastised. “Don’t hide shit like that, okay?” He seemed annoyed, but not by you, by the fact he could have lost you.

There wasn’t a way you could pinpoint what he was feeling, this man was a complicated creature, so you just stared across at the wall as you thought about your next words. “I just… didn’t want to trouble you. You think I’m this capable person who can help you when I’m not, I can’t even help myself. And I didn’t want you to… well…” You paused, unsure of how to word this next.

He didn’t rush you when you sought the words, he continued to lay there, offering you some form of comfort in the only way he knew how. The tension between the two of you was palpable as the time passed, and you could tell there was something on his mind. 

“I didn’t want you to be disappointed in me, and I didn’t want you to pull away… I don’t regret that night, I’d do it again with the same consequences,” you said firmly. 

He looked down at you, his eyes bore into yours as you spoke, telling him you would rather go through all of this pain and suffering again just to relive that night. This was stupidity, he thought, someone like you wanting to lower yourself to chase a night with him. He started to chuckle and shook his head as he looked at you.

“I could never quite get a read from you, you know that?” He said with a playful tone in his voice. “Can’t put my finger on it.”

Your hand gripped his shirt a little tighter, trying to fight that feeling that coiled in the depths of your belly, wanting to keep this moment pure and unsoiled due to how much of this hidden side the Ghoul was showing you right now, but you had a hunger for him like no other. “Is that such a bad thing?” You asked him.

This made him laugh again, his voice drawn out as there was a deep tone, almost like a mix between a hum and a growl. “Well I guess not,” he replied gently, trying to read this moment, but still being so caught off guard by your companionship, he wasn’t about to overstep. This side of him was uncharted for over two hundred years, he wasn’t sure if he was even capable of having this side of him anymore. His hand reached out and lingered over the one that gripped at his shirt, but he wasn’t sure if he should close that space.

Your head lifted to properly meet his gaze, staring into those eyes that seemed to reach the depths of your soul. “Can I do something?” You asked, your voice quiet, nervous. He nodded, allowing you to do whatever it was you wanted. With a soft push, you rolled to your knees, crawled over toward him, and gently placed your hand on his face, bringing yours closer. “You won’t be mad?”

He scoffed in response and continued to stare into your eyes, already seeing the life spring back into them, the color seeming even more bright than they were before. It was him who closed the gap between the two of you, his mouth hungrily capturing yours while he remained hands-off, allowing you to do as you please. He was just there to learn what he could, you’d show him what to do or how to go about it, he trusted you. And that was an unspoken bond if he ever had one. 

Your hand that was gently placed on his face stroked his textured skin softly with the pad of your thumb, while the other hand reached forward and slowly began to undo the tattered buttons on the shirt he wore. You took comfort in knowing he would tell you if he didn’t want you to continue, so you waited for any sign of that, but you were met with none. Your mouth continued to hungrily meld with his, your tongue darting out to swipe across his bottom lip, coaxing him to open further. He tried hard not to show you were getting to him, but the breathy sigh he made when your hand made contact with the bare upper half of his chest was one he couldn’t hold back. 

The smile on your face grew as you pushed the shirt from his form, both hands sliding off each side down his arms, the chill of his warm skin on yours was a feeling you sought after. He sat up and captured you in his arms, grabbing you rougher than intended, but he’d never hear you complain, and he moved your body effortlessly as he placed you down on your back, wanting to take control as he learned to explore you once again. 

He wasn’t feeling cocky or sure of himself this time, nor was he hiding behind the false boastfulness of his persona that he built for himself, but for the first time in so long, that deeply buried side of his former self slowly ate through. That ancient relic of a man he once was, the one that loved deeply. 

His hands began to work at your clothing, slowly removing your jacket, then your tank top and his fingers stopped at your undergarments, unsure if he should cross that line. You nodded as your hands reached behind you and removed it yourself, sliding the straps down your arms and revealing your bare skin to him. In this lighting, it was almost angelic as the sun kissed your skin through the broken window, his eyes drank in the sight of you while your hands went to remove the rest of what you wore. The Ghoul clenched his jaw when you were just about stripped, and his hands met yours at the hem of your underwear, asking to remove them himself without asking a thing. His hands skated down your outer thighs as you arched, allowing him to remove them completely.

No matter the lighting, the time of day, or whatever it was, he was very entranced by your body. How could something as soft looking as you survive in this harsh and blood-thirsty world? The dips, the curves, even the small knicks and markings you gained while being in the wastelands were like foreign land as his fingers explored you. You couldn’t handle how incredibly intimate this all felt, the Ghoul who was typically thirsty for blood and violence now examining your body as if it was his only salvation.

His head lowered to your breasts, kissing your skin softly as he left a soft, wet trail of kisses from your collarbone to your abdomen, wanting to see if he could try his luck. “I’m gonna try somethin’, tell me if you like it,” he said, breaking that silence to convey how new this was for him to get acquainted to.

You nodded. “Yeah, go ahead…” 

The Ghoul’s lips continued to trail down your waist, slowly tracing along your skin with his fingers until he stopped just above your core. His fingers gently slid between the folds, testing just how excited you’d been, and he was not disappointed. You had been one to grow exceedingly excited just from his touch alone. He pulled his fingers away from you and placed several firm kisses against you, gauging those pretty little sounds you had spilled from your mouth. His hot breath tickled against your skin before his tongue slowly slid against you teasingly, then he did it again and again as your body convulsed, your muscles tensing whenever his tongue delved slightly deeper. 

He’d remembered from your last encounter what really pushed you over the edge and brought his thumb against you, rubbing teasing circles against your clit while he continued to use his mouth. The sounds and cries he pulled from you were only causing him to grow hungrier, your broken sentences strung together into gibberish, only able to whine from the growing build up in your lower belly that coiled tightly. 

His tongue slid further into you and your body jolted slightly, your thighs almost tightened around him, so he made himself comfortable and gripped your thighs firmly, holding them in place while he continued to assault you with his tongue.

“Fuck, cowboy,” you groaned out, your thighs shaking as he pulled away, leaving hard bites around your inner thighs and your waist, marking you to make sure you remembered who made you feel this way. 

“This feelin’ good, Bunny? Am I gettin’ this right?”

“You’re driving me insane, yes, yes-” You cried out while he licked through your folds once as you spoke, the devilish smile on his face only growing wider. Your nails dug into the sleeping bag beneath you, but your hands grabbed at his shoulders and dug in slightly to his textured skin, causing the Ghoul to bury his mouth even further against you. The moans you released were almost melodious, angelic in a way. 

The Ghoul now sucked at your sensitive flesh, making sure not to inflict too much pain unless you instructed him to, and one of his hands left your thigh so he could push two of his fingers deep inside of your warm sex. He was gentle at first in his movements, but the man was starved, needing to go faster with his mouth and his fingers. 

“You feelin’ okay?” He asked, checking on you as your body continued to spasm beneath his grip. 

All you could do was nod frantically. “I’m so close, cowboy,” you warned, your voice cracking as your entire body ignited in chills. 

“Don’t hold back, Bunny, tell me how I’m doin’,” he said, leaving no room for questioning as his tongue continued to gently slide across your heated flesh. He continued to curl his fingers in a gentle motion, his eyes peered up at your face as he worked. “How badly you wanna cum?”

“Please, I need to so bad, it feels so good,” you cried out as you tried your best to hang on, wanting him to continue. 

“Let go then,” the Ghoul commanded, his mouth continued to lick and suck at your folds as his fingers picked up their pace, his mouth working fervently as he tried his best to bring you close to the edge. 

Your fingers gripped at the blanket beneath you, your leg still being held firmly in place while your body trembled from the pleasure, keeping you in place as you chased your orgasm. You were seeing white as you squeezed your eyes shut, you moaned out the playful nickname you gave him, not sure what else to call him as the wave of your pleasure carried you to new heights. Your body lay back against the floor as you felt the energy sapped from you, your breathing was ragged and heavy as you peeked up to see the Ghoul lean back on his knees, your release coating his mouth and chin as he quickly wiped it off with his thumb, sucking it off until he was as clean as he could get. 

Words couldn’t describe what you felt with him now, being on the brink of death only to be brought back and then seek out an orgasm that hard was… it was a wave of emotions. You hoped he wouldn’t leave you there like that, but he ended up surprising you and pulling you toward him, sheltering you in his embrace as he found his spot beside you on the floor. 

He couldn’t fathom what he’d say at this moment, what could he say right now? “You know, I was almost convinced you made a mistake,” he said, his voice low. 

You looked up at him with a grimace, trying to understand what he meant. 

“You lowerin’ yourself to get all physical with someone like me,” he clarified. “And if this keeps up, I’m just gonna end up killin’ you anyway.”

“If that was true, it would be my choice,” you said. 

He looked at you curiously. “You’d want that?”

This made you laugh and you shook your head playfully. “If I have RadAway, I should be okay, not a big deal. It’s just… tempting fate I suppose. I’m gonna die at some point, why not go out a way I want to?” You teased him as your hand was placed gently against his chest. 

“You’re insane,” the Ghoul huffed with a few shakes of his head. “But… I won’t lie, I kinda like it,” he hummed and ruffled your hair playfully. 

This just made you laugh and tighten your grip on him, and you felt content despite everything that happened prior to this. “So, you’re not mad?”

“Mad? Well, now I wouldn’t go that far, maybe a little pissed off you didn’t think it was worth mentionin’ to me,” the Ghoul said matter-of-factly. “But I ain’t mad, just happy you’re okay. Don’t do that shit again, though.” “I promise, I won’t,” you said as you made a gesture across your chest. “Guess I’ll just have to grab a bag every time I see one.”

He looked over at you curiously, smiling that typical cocky smile he always wore, but he didn’t take the bait just yet. “Oh? Plannin’ on needin’ a supply of RadAway?” He wondered.

Your face flushed and felt warm as you reached over and stretched your arm out, grabbing one of the half-full IV bags, and then your gaze turned back to his. “If we’re planning on continuing whatever this is, I can’t be caught off guard again.”

The Ghoul’s eyes glimmered with mischievousness, staring at you with surprise. “You wanna continue this?”

This caused you to scoff and you looked up at him with a playful expression. “Of course? Why wouldn’t I? Went through all this trouble and you think I’m just gonna call it off, then you’re-” 

The Ghoul placed his hand on the back of your head, pulled you closer toward him, and silenced you with his lips. It lasted for a brief moment, but it was all he needed to assure you that he was still in this, and he may have threatened you to keep it quiet before, there was almost a silent understanding that hung in the air. You would keep your word though, but for now, it was just the both of you at this moment while you climbed into his lap.

He just scoffed and watched your nude form sit atop him. “Whatcha doin’ there, Bunny?” It was only meant as playful, he would never dream of pushing you away like this, he craved you more than you realized, the taste of you was divine, too. 

Your hands wrapped around his neck, pulling him in closer toward you. “I wanna show you how thankful I am you saved me.”

His eyes softened and allowed his hands to slowly slide down the curves and dips of your hips, smiling wide to himself as he watched you with great interest. “Guess I’ll have to save you more often, then.” 

[spacedace]

Reluctant War AU Part 3

Part 1 Part 2

More of the brain worm that has taken me over, gonna probably post it to Ao3 here before too long. Already got another part started and so many ideas for additional stuff, someone please send help I've been consumed by this thing lol

Sorry if Waller seems out of character, outside of fandom I'm mostly familiar with her through Justice League the animated show & Justice League: Unlimited and her vibe there has always struck me as "deeply incredibly unlikable character that also kind of has a point but also has done so much fucked up shit in the name of her goals that you don't really care about her point anymore." So you know, complicated lol. If she's completely unrecognizable let me know, but I'm hoping she feels at least somewhat like Waller.

Forgot to say this in the last update, but still feel free to use all this as an overly long prompt if yall want. Literally anything I throw out to the void should be treated as a prompt lol If there's anything at all interesting to you in any of this nonsense go for it <3 <3 <3

---

Amanda Waller was someone who did what needed to be done.

Ruthless, heartless, vicious, cruel.

She’d been called it all. Wore the words thrown as insults as a badges of pride and valor. Because at the end of the day, when it came to the problems she was given to face, the issues she was meant to solve, those words meant she’d done what others had been too squeamish or cowardly to do. Life was a never ending slog of trolley problems and she the only one unshakable enough to pull the levers that needed pulling.

It wasn’t so simple as a matter of greater good.

Greater good was what the weak willed muttered to themselves after having feelings over doing the bare minimum. A justification used by people on all sides to do what they wanted with fractured, faulty logic thrown around like truth was a thing immutable. To assuage their guilt when they were forced to make a call they didn’t want to.

It wasn’t a matter of greater good. It was a matter of preservation. Of protection. Of digging through the filth to find the threats skittering beneath and crush them with ruthless abandon. Of facing a god and not blinking because if you did it could cost the world.

Of doing what needed to be done, no matter how underhanded or atrocious it was.

Hands dirty.

Hands red.

Hands wrapped tight around the throat of something that could threaten to destroy it all.

When the Ghost Investigation Ward had been shoved her way with it’s sucking wound of a budget, it’s bloated incompetent staff, its asinine methods she’d seen a rotted limb in need of hacking off. It hadn’t been until she’d been conducting her inspection, digging through the trash for a few pearls of effective agents she could snatch up and put to work elsewhere, that she’d truly seen what they were working on. The potential.

Potential to better arm themselves with in the forms of the strange new weapons being created.

Potential for threats far greater than anything even she had thought possible before.

The GIW as it had been when she’d first come across it was a fetid waste of time and resources. A laughing stock agency only secret because no one took them seriously enough to look. Made stupid and useless with its own conceited delusions of importance it didn’t actually have. Yet.

She went to work on it. Hacking away as she’d originally intended, but this time with a different goal in mind. She ripped out the weeds with bare, calloused hands and planted proficiency and loyalty in their place. She took over as director herself, tossing the self-aggrandizing fool that had been running the place into the ground to the dogs as the culprit for misappropriate spendings, saving the agency by tweaking things until their ballooning budget was pinned neatly onto the former director as an embezzling charge.

Then she got to work.

The Fentons were brilliant, if entirely insane. But Amanda could work with that. She’d reigned Harley Quinn in - more or less - she could do the same to the two deranged scientists that so eagerly wanted to be apart of the fight against the dead. Especially when the benefit came in the form of the inventions they threw together so easily, especially when those inventions were weapons.

It took very little to get them on board with her plans for the GIW. Keeping their focus could be a chore, at times, but she didn’t even have to really do much in the way of pressing to get them back where she wanted them. They craved knowledge and understanding nearly as much as they craved the eradication of the entities themselves. Letting them have the first look at a new subject here, free reign over a vivisection there, it took so little to fuel their fervor and keep them busy working on the projects she set for them.

Things had been going smoothly.

For a time at least.

Until Phantom.

He’d been the main focus of the previous director’s attention, the big fish he’d so desperately wanted to catch and put up on his wall. Amanda wouldn’t lie and say it wasn’t a tempting prospect, but not one she’d put above the other projects she had set in motion since taking over. No, Phantom was powerful, enough to be a real problem one day, but she could the awkward youth in the way he held himself, the inexperience in how he handled situations. She had time to get everything else in order before focusing on getting Amity Park’s would-be hero brought to heel.

And he would be brought to heel. One way or another.

Hands dirty.

Hands red.

Hands wrapped tight around the Core of a fledgling god and bending him to her will.

An artifact, old an powerful, recovered with some effort. A means of controlling specters, of chaining them to the will of the artifact’s wielder. Dangerous in the wrong hands. Dangerous in the right hands.

It was shattered, and even whole and functional Phantom was resistant to its power. But Amanda Waller prided herself in her ability to see the potential in things. It could be repaired, be made better. Even gods could be bound, be made to kneel, with the right pieces, with the right application of force.

It was just a matter of time to gather everything needed.

Phantom didn’t know he could single handedly destroy every last member of the Justice League. The baby fat, the innocent eyes, the split-second hesitations when he fought. He knew enough to be confident in fighting the usual ghosts that haunted Amity Park, but he still very much saw himself as a little fish. Maybe it was the part of him that was still Daniel Fenton, gangly teenager not quite sure what he was truly capable of yet.

She had time before the Fenton’s son truly became an issue. Time to judge if his parents’ obsessiveness would overcome their - rather shoddy, by Amanda’s estimation - parental instincts and continue to hunt him once they knew the truth. Time to get as much out of them as she could before hand, should they falter at the idea of attacking their own son. Time for the staff to be repaired and returned to working order, to get the other items needed for the truly big fish hidden on the other side of the veil between worlds.

She had time.

Until she didn’t.

Pariah Dark had not been something she thought she’d have to account for - not yet, at least.

If he wasn’t already dead, she’d ring the Ghost King’s neck with her bare hands. His arrival had opened Phantom’s eyes to what he was capable of, of just how big of a fish he was. Worse still, Phantom’s defeat of the war mongering King changed the state of play. Phantom was no longer an impressively powerful half dead teenager.

He was King Infinite.

He was an Ancient.

He was getting on her last damn nerves.

Phantom’s rogue gallery were now firmly under the boy’s control. Still distinct nuisances around Amity Park, but no longer considered true concerns. They were loyal to their boy king, delighting in ruffling his feathers but never crossing the line into treason or attempted regicide. Which meant that the GIW was the only thing that held his attention.

Amanda took the time to send a care package to the former GIW director in his tiny, dank prison cell. As thanks for his carelessness in revealing to the entire town - both living and dead - of the agency’s existence and their intentions. Had he stuck to standard protocol, Phantom would have been none the wiser to their presence. Would have scratched his head and shrugged his shoulders at the ghost that went missing upon occasion. Would have been boredly uninterested in the people his parents had begun working with. Would have been taken by surprise when they finally came for him.

But no.

No that self-obsessed, fame chasing imbecile had to go and announce to everyone and their dead mother that the GIW existed and exactly what it was they were in Amity Park to do.

Phantom knew what they were there to do.

They could only count on his naive certainty that he could broker peace with them for so long.

Peace. As if he and his people weren’t the invading force, the monsters slipping in through the cracks between worlds, the latest threat that had to be accounted for. As if he himself hadn’t rent their world asunder himself in another world, another time. No. Peace was not something they could hash out with this baby-faced monarch with his too-big crown. Peace was the assurance of safety, security. Of control of the situation.

There could be no peace.

The higher ups were somehow surprised when Phantom took that to mean there would be war.

Amanda Waller was not.

The Fentons, as suspected, took the right side when all was revealed. Steady hands and flinty eyes as they crafted the weapons that would be needed for the coming fight. Minds even sharper in their maddened grief, hearts set on revenge for the son lost and the entity that stole his face and friends and sister in his garish pretense at humanity. They were blinded to the reality of the situation in its entirety, the potential in what their son truly was, but at the end of the day it didn’t really matter. They did what she needed them to do, they could believe whatever it was they wanted so long as they did.

By the time the boy king and his armies marched upon the Amity park facility, preparations had been put into place. The base in Amity had been stripped back to bare essentials, everything of importance moved to more secured locations.

The weapons labs.

The artifact.

The girl.

All tucked well away from the front lines where Phantom and his motley crew could not reach. Their time to be put in play would come, but not yet. First she needed to gauge what Phantom and his people were capable of, what they were willing to do in the name of what they wanted. Amity Park was a pawn well sacrificed on that front. As were the other facilities she’d left easy to find.

The problem with making children gods, with giving them crowns and calling them King and giving them armies to play with, was that they thought there should be rules. That even in the trenches tearing apart their enemies, there was a certain level of playing fair that everyone was held to. They thought there was a way the world worked, of how things should be that blinded them to more effective options even as time stretched on and desperation set in.

It was the Dead’s problem though, not hers.

She reached out to the Justice League. Sour faced, unhappy, bitterly reluctant to accept that she needed their help. Stone faced and barely containing their rage at what little they knew of the situation, they agreed to a meeting.

She didn’t let herself smile until she was well and truly alone in her office.

Greater good. A lie people told themselves. A fairytale told to children. A means of convincing the weaker willed that they had no choice, that they had a noble duty to bend to. A belief that could be wielded like a weapon if the fantasy of the idea had dug in deep enough. And there were few it had dug into so deep as the members of the Justice League.

Amanda Waller was someone who did what needed to be done.

Hands dirty.

Hands red.

Hands clenched tight on a victory long in the making.

---

Part Four

[codenamesazanka]

thoughts on the chapter

“these differences, both internal and external, allow us to run towards other people and search for a point of intersection” kid out of 8 chapters you spoke like 5 sentences to Shigaraki. What intersection. (I know, I know - the crying child. the only thing Deku can care about.)

Aizawa and Mic visiting Shirakumo's grave

Compress reading Spinner's book with a sad smile...

Did villains just magically stop appearing? because AFO is gone? Because everyone is a bit nicer to each other? Because the rankings got expanded and now everyone wants to get the Eiyuu title?

Shoji says "This award goes to those who rose up 8 years ago." GEE SHOJI. I WONDER WHO IT WAS THAT GOT THEM TO SHOW UP IN THE FIRST PLACE.

I know he's thinking of the heteromorphs that stopped that day. But i just. can't get over the fact that it was Spinner's call to action that inspired them first to even come out.

"peacefully resolving prejudice-based incidents in the rural areas" Peacefully telling a man to put down the rake they're about to hit a heteromorph child with.

I know the intention is de-escalation or something. And that's a good thing! Ideally I don't want the man holding the rake to be smashed into the ground. I don't want the dumbasses spray painting slurs on a wall to be punched around. But the word peaceful here feels like it implies that... it would be victim's fault if they use force to resist violent discrimination. Equal responsibility on all parties and it's up to Shoji, it depends on Shoji to resolve it nonviolently. The originator of the violence doesn't enter the equation.

idk. rubs me the wrong way.

Did Shoji resolve the heteromorph riot peacefully? Not really. He fought Spinner (ah, you might say - well, Spinner was using violence! Shoji has to react to that with punching as well! Yeah. That's what I mean.) Koda had birds shoved someone off a building. What actually stopped everything was one rioter feeling doubts. It's credited to Shoji's words, but Shoji also admits that it's good they showed up and in the chapter here, he calls it an "uprising".

And they showed up because of Spinner.

Well. Maybe Shoji turned to "peaceful resolves" afterwards.

Just to clarify so that no one misunderstands me. Peaceful resolutions are good. I'm glad that's how Shoji is stopping anti-heteromorph incidents. What I dislike is the shallow framing.

"Quirk Counseling Expansion Project" EXPANSION???

Toga became the way she was because she didn't go to Quirk Counseling enough. Needed Expansion. The counselor saying she'll make Toga "nice and normal" didn't go far enough. Needed Expansion.

Again, I get that probably reform is implied in that, or the intent is probably expanding the concept/ideas/tools/methods/scope to include better methods. But wow.

All Might + Crowd of Supporter Statues is the creepiest thing I've ever seen.

Story literally breaking the ending fourth wall to give a happy ending to Deku.

I expect the volume extras to have Shigaraki to come and decay the ending and rescue the league.

It's amazing how the answer to "can someone quirkless be a hero" is a NO. Because Deku's feeling sad and lonely being quirkless and just a teacher and saving a kid from tripping and encouraging a future student. It's not enough. It's not Heroism. So he gets a support item and gets to be a Hero again

And then Shigaraki's Star Wars ghost is just there, not tied into the theme happening on page because Deku failed to saved the fucking guy, but he remembers Shigaraki. for one panel.

Just to repeat this because it's hysterical: This ending is "Can a quirkless person be a hero (and be happy and feel worthy?)" We get a gentle bittersweet but resounding NO. Until All Might comes again to help him out with a 'gift'.

"Remember that day when I used support items to inject acid into an immortal child demon on global TV? The day that you killed a man? Well, data from that day made you this support item. Use it to be a Hero."

Also being a quirkless Hero after all depends on knowing people and having lots of money.

All Might is now about 64 years old.

Shigaraki ghost...........

Something about shigaraki in his original outfit has me all choked up.

That's the appearance he chose to present as in the vestige realm before he disappeared.

The appearance he had in that flashback of him and Spinner bonding over games.

I like how Deku looks back, sees the ghost, but then turns forward and smile. Not even a smile as he's looking at shigaraki. I know this is nitpicky. jfc tho.

"You already destroyed it"/"That depends on what you guys do from now on." I see that there's barely any credit to Shigaraki forcing this amount of change in this chapter. As far as I can see, Deku barely thinks about Shigaraki or even Tenko this chapter. Shigaraki's just a ghost hidden vaguely in all this.

"I'll never forget" lol. The ghost is just like an afterthought from the story to make sure Deku keeps his 'promise'

I don't think a single villain's name is mentioned here. Not a single League member's. Uravity's work towards quirk counseling is not publicly or explicitly credited to her experience with Toga (the vaguest of implication). We don't know Dabi's fate and Shouto is only known as "Endeavor's son" - which might be good? because it's Endeavor's who was the main perpetrator, but still. Spinner lead the uprising but Shoji doesn't mention that. Spinner wrote his book but there's no impact, except for making Compress smile sadly and that's it. Twice has been long forgotten. Deku thinks of Shigaraki's words at the beginning of the chapter, then sees his ghost at the end, but otherwise, nothing.

Truly they've been swept under the rug. A lid put over everything.

Whatever!!!! Shigaraki and the League - the absolute best part of bnha.

[sehodreams]

sex money feelings die - fourth visit

third visit ↬ fourth visit ↬ fifth visit

WC: 4.1k

TW and Tags (permanent for the story): rich client!Anton x stripper!reader, smut, fluff (?), a touch of angst for the moment, inexperienced reader, fingering, kissing, lots of silly conversations.

Summary: Working at a night club was difficult in many aspects, your sleep schedule was messed up for life, your feet were more used to high heels than sneakers and you had to lie about where you went to work those nights. Still, even with all those cons, you didn't hate your job, you had more than enough to pay your bills, feed your brother and save money for his college. However, what happens when your boss makes you do the one thing you asked to never do.

Without noticing you had started to wait for your Mondays and Fridays.

You were glad that you could quickly see Anton when he said goodbye on Fridays, but Mondays felt more difficult even if the difference was only one day.

Your conversations continued like usual but now instead of finishing with Sungchan abruptly opening the door to get you out he’d knock twice before saying his line behind the door, giving you the time to pull yourself together instead of scaring the shit out of you.

You didn’t ask him why he had changed his method, but you could guess it had something to do with Shotaro, and you didn’t mind that he had ordered to give you more privacy, but what did bother you was what he had told Sungchan to convince him, and what he thought you were doing inside that room.

You were no longer just talking on Mondays, the routine had changed to tell him about random stuff until you had no interesting topic and he, seeing that you didn’t feel like talking anymore, covered your mouth with his until the time was up.

Sometimes you forgot what you were planning to say on purpose.

And, even if you hadn’t made further moves apart from kissing, you couldn’t look at Sungchan in the eyes when you gave him his coffee, your mind repeating you that he no longer saw you like the same good girl.

‘’Angel, all good?’’ He said after two weeks of you avoiding his eyes.

You bit your lip and gripped the thermos on your hand. He was giving it back to you like he always did at the end of your shift. You were naked under your robe, and you were no longer wearing makeup so you couldn’t feign the same confidence you had on stage. ‘’Am I still your angel?’’ you asked.

Sungchan grin came back to his face, and he laughed for almost a minute at your flushed cheeks visible without your foundation covering them. He gave you a soft hug from the side, patting your shoulder and meeting your eyes in the mirror, you not avoiding him this time.

‘’Always.’’

None of the girls mentioned the birthday incident, they already got some ideas but didn’t feel like pressing you, you were the young kid always talking nonstop around the local, but since you didn’t say anything about him, they decided to just wait for you to approach them.

You could feel their eyes following you when on Mondays you walked to the VIP room, all of them now noticing how you had a long private show booked at the same time the same day every week, and you thought about breaking your silence and telling them, but it was a obscure path, you didn’t know how would they react, now you obviously did more money than them and you hadn’t show any signs of change in yourself for them to see it, but Shotaro was fixing the place and buying better alcohol that wasn’t as mixed with water, so you didn’t know how long you would be able to maintain your arrangement with Anton a secret and you free of problems.

‘’The stew isn’t orange anymore, it looks like blood’’ your brother got you out of your thoughts.

You turned off the kitchen and saw that, indeed, the stew had changed colors.

You tasted to see what was wrong with it, but you couldn’t even swallow with the bitter and spicy flavor invading your mouth and knocking back your senses.

‘’Shit, sorry, you’ll have to buy dinner today’’ you sighed.

Your brother nodded, he didn’t like how you made that dish anyways, so he gladly accepted the bill with an open hand.

‘’I have to tell you something before I leave’’ he put it in his pocked while you drank a glass of water to erase the taste. ‘’I earned the scholarship.’’

You spat your drink over the sink.

‘’What?’’ your eyes got wet and your heart started to beat loudly against your ribcage, too shocked to even breath properly.

‘’I won, I’m the best of my year.’’

You denied with your head still not believing his words, and after a long minute of your tears falling down your eyes and you trying to breath properly again, you wrapped him in the tightest hug you could give him.

‘’FREE COLLEGE’’ the two of you started to jump while hugging and you stayed like that, from swinging from one side to the other and circling, until you started to get nauseous of how excited you were and he had to leave for his first class.

You couldn’t wait to get to work and tell everyone, except, when you saw that it wasn’t Monday or Friday, a sense of disappointment filled you.

Anton didn’t know you had a brother, you knew a bit about him, like that he enjoyed going out with his mother when he visited her in the States, or that he had a little brother too, but you had never reciprocated the conversation with information about your family, it wasn’t that you were ashamed or anything, but it was a step you didn’t know you were ready to take, so he tried to keep the deep topics aside to not make you uncomfortable, and even if you had liked to know a bit about his home, you didn’t feel it correct if you couldn’t do the same.

You sighed, you couldn’t think of him like someone you could tell good or bad news, you had to maintain him entertained, nothing more.

Telling your close coworkers was enough, they weren’t your friends, but they were the closest thing as friends you had. After school finished everyone went to follow their own path, and when you tried to mix with them again all the conversations were focused on how college was treating them, if they had a campus crush or if they had bombed an exam, but those were things you couldn’t relate to, and soon you lost all contact with them.

When you arrived you jumped to Sungchan’s arms and he spined you until you had to tap his back so he let you down before your lunch betrayed you. You told the news in high voice and everyone around that knew your name, even one new girl that didn’t know you that much, congratulated you.

You were practically floating from one side to another, and not even in stage you could hide how happy you looked.

‘’Good day?’’ one of your regulars, a doctor, asked when you, on your knees, about to unbutton your nurse uniform, were smiling a lot more than normal.

‘’Great day’’ you confessed.

‘’I’m happy for you sweetheart’’ he answered, caressing the side of your cheek and pushing two bills of a hundred into your bra, ‘’I hope you continue having them.’’

You imagined he was Anton until you finished your dance.

Regulars were always a nice thing to have, of course they had to be the correct kind, you had seen how some of them were dangerous or brought problems with their wives screaming to get their money back, but that was none of your business, and since you were more selective with them now, you always did your best to avoid the bad kind.

Sometimes you let them have a little touch, Shotaro had put an advice that clearly said it was prohibited for them to do it unless the girls allowed it, and you had learned who to let have a taste of your skin after many months hearing the girls.

‘’You don’t need to know they’re married, but you need to know they’re not crazy.’’

‘’And how do you find that out?’’.

‘’We still don’t know, but what we have seen is that most of them are rich.’’

Yes, your regulars had to be pretty much rich if they wanted you to spare them some of your time.

You had your methods to discover their careers and marital status, sometimes you just had to act like you were a cop and ask them for their wallets for them to willingly give you their IDs.

Married, single, divorced.

You never accepted married regulars.

To learn what they did you just tried to remember their names, and if they didn’t want to give you their IDs you just had to whisper some pleads about wanting to make their deepest dreams come true for them to say it.

Sometimes it made you sick how much they fantasized with their coworkers, but you preferred to know that they had stable jobs than to be followed by a creep telling you to give them back their money if you wouldn’t accept his love.

There were special cases in which you could just smell it, all the girls developed that ability after some time. You weren’t sure how, but there was something about the texture of their hands or the smell of their aftershaves that helped you to identify them.

You still remember the first time Anton and his friends arrived, they looked like the typical group of college boys that wanted to experiment a crazy night after exam season, but just with one look all you noticed how they weren’t the normal group. Their confidence while steeping in, the dirty look to the menu or the normal seats, even how they asked for different drinks, ‘’just in case, don’t you have Blue Label or at least Chivas Regal?’’

Shotaro had to sell them the precious untouched Blue Label he had in his office for years, more a decoration than anything else, for them to not leave.

However, now that you noticed, you all knew that Anton was rich, but none of you knew what he did to live.

When Friday came, you were decided to discover it.

You were too ashamed to use the cop method, you felt bit embarrassed to show up with that outfit, certain that he’d laugh at it instead of finding it hot.

The whisper was the only option, but that usually required of you taking off your clothes, and even if he had seen you naked before, since starting your conversations you had never flashed the skin under your bra to him again.

It was impossible to even think another method now that you had him on your side.

He was the one who started all the intimacy, so he had gotten closer like he usually did, a hand over the sofa behind your shoulders and pulling you closer, slightly covering you from the neon lights to only look at him and his rosy lips.

He definitely used a better lip balm than you.

‘’What are you thinking about?’’ he asked seeing that something was wondering inside your mind before he closed the distance. You, without noticing, had started to pull his shirt every time you wanted him to kiss you, and you unconsciously had done it the minute you arrived, but he didn’t notice the same desire in your eyes, it was more like you wanted to call his attention even when you always had it.

‘’Nothing, just that it’s sad that sometimes I forget things I want to tell you about’’ you said, making him smile.

‘’Sometimes I forget them too, I wish I could come and see you every day’’ he replied, pushing your hair behind your ears and pressing his thumb over one of the little black dots on your cheek your foundation couldn’t cover. When you were younger your mother said that moles brought bad luck, but you didn’t have the money to remove them, and now that you had it, you didn’t dare to do it because you remembered how your mother would press them every time she gave you a goodbye hug before she left for work in the weekends.

Now Anton was the one pressing them and you remembered two people when you saw your reflection while you washed your face.

‘’Not even I come here every day’’ you laughed.

His eyebrows went up.

‘’Such a shame, there are days in which I really miss your voice asking me if I had dinner or not.’’

‘’Well, you’re the one who started doing that question.’’

‘’I was just afraid you were going to puke over me again.’’

You laughed and pushed his shoulder.

‘’Please forget that already, I didn’t even do it, and it’s been a life.’’

‘’It feels like yesterday to me, I remember our time together frequently, maybe that’s why I miss you more too.’’

‘’Shut up.’’

Your hand found his like instinct, welcoming his touch with ease.

You saw a different bottle behind him and wondered why he hadn’t opened before you arrived, like he usually did.

‘’Why is the bottle still closed?’’

‘’Oh, I just forgot about it, do you want me to open it?’’ he didn’t pull his eyes away from you for even a second, looking down to your lips instead.

‘’I kind of want to try it.’’ Better said, you wanted to celebrate your good news, and you couldn’t tell him, but you could still do something special with him without talking more than necessary.

‘’I thought your boss didn’t let you drink in work hours.’’

‘’Yeah, that was a lie, I was tired of so many men trying to buy me drinks instead of just letting me work.’’

He nodded, ‘’Yeah, I kind of knew it too, all the other girls love to drink with my friends.’’

The bottle made a pop sound when he got the cork out. It was a wine with a name you couldn’t even read, and you didn’t know much about them but the way he was telling you why it was one of his favorites was enough to make you curious of the taste.

There was only one proper cup for it, Anton said, so you’d have to share it with him.

You weren’t sure if that was the true or he just wanted to drink it with you, but since you weren’t the expert, you just accepted it.

‘’Do you see how dense it is?’’ He asked you and you didn’t notice any difference with other wines, but you didn’t want to interrupt his little moment, so you nodded, ‘’it indicates the flavor, I like this kind, rich that leaves a long rest in the palladate, but if you don’t just tell me and I’ll look for one you like, okay?’’

He continued with a whole ritual you had never seen before, your friends were more into beer and tequila, while your coworkers only had mixed drinks with what was left from the shift.

He swirled and made you sniff it before he placed in front of you take a sip from it, and holding the glass, instead of taking it from his hand, you let him pamper you and give it to you like that.

‘’Well done’’ he said after you played with it in your mouth like he had indicated. His fingers nestled in your chin and his eyes inspected your every movement. ‘’Did you like it?’’ he had so many expectations in his eyes that you decided to smile and humor him a little, and after you nodded, you showed him your tongue for him to see how there was not a single drop left.

You expected him to laugh at what you did, not for him to drop his smile, take a big gulp from the same cup, and press his mouth against yours.

‘’My favorite flavor’’ he whispered before the tip of his tongue brushed your lip, asking for permission. When you opened your mouth for him, he quickly pushed his tongue and played with yours while his free hand maintained the back of your head in place for you to not breath or pull away until he allowed you.

The wine wasn’t too sweet, but it tasted like that when the lingering savor of the drink he had found you.

You didn’t think what you did was a big deal, but soon he was pouring another glass and repeating the same sequence, making you sip it first, to then finish the cup and kiss you again and again.

You don’t know when, but his hands had dragged you to his lap, and with strong touches over your waist while still controlling how close your mouth was to his, he made you rut against him.

A whimper escaped your mouth.

It felt good, too good.

The warmness of his hands over your naked skin brought an electric sensation to the room, like little volts everywhere he touched, pulling you apart from the way his mouth was suffocating you, to then come back with the taste of the drink in his mouth.

Your hips moved on its own at some point, and your panties were getting so wet you couldn’t believe how drenched you were.

Your body was getting hot and your mind dizzy with the alcohol, but your hips instead of stopping searched for more, and the only thing that seemed to appease you enough was the mound inside his pants and the sensation of his zipper pressing your clit.

Minutes later it wasn’t enough anymore, and with his mouth still possessing yours, you couldn’t talk at all, only leaving little whimpers while searching for your own pleasure.

‘’You like how my cock feels?’’ he asked while making you, with both hands, sweep even harder over him, hissing with the force he had used.

You nodded while looking at him with tipsy eyes, more intoxicated with how good it felt to press that special place over him than with the alcohol.

‘’But I want more’’ you murmured.

He stopped your hips. He let his forehead fall on your shoulder and denied.

‘’Fuck, you shouldn’t say it like that, you’ll make me give you everything I have’’ he gulped loudly before he kissed you one more time.

Distracting you with his mouth, his hand found the front of your panties, groaning at how wet you were over them, to then push it inside and feel how you were dripping under them.

‘’Shit, so wet.’’

You accepted him, doing the motion over his hands now and biting your lips to not moan too loud.

He saw how you were containing yourself and decided to kiss you, because if you were going to keep quiet, you’d do it with his lips over yours.

Three of his fingers were swiping up and down your clit, smearing your juices until they got all the front of your panties dirty and the sticky feeling made your legs open even more to him, knees sinking on each side of him over the velvet couch.

Your hands didn’t know in what to hold onto. Your mind was scattered all around and his other hand trailed the way from your neck, which he was eagerly holding, until it found the cup of your bra.

His hand was so big it cupped most of your chest and it felt so good you wanted him to give the same attention to your nipple like he did with your clit.

‘’Should I take it off?’’ you asked him. Not that there wasn’t much you hid, but even if you were wearing just a set of lingerie you felt you were wearing too much. And you wanted to feel him more too, if just his hand felt that good, you couldn’t imagine how his whole body would.

‘’No, I’m sorry, I won’t be able to hold myself if I see more of you.’’ He begged.

You couldn’t understand him, every man in that place wanted you naked and to touch you just like you were asking him, yet he didn’t want to see you like that.

Anton was so different from all the other guys, none of them would focus on you like he did right there, making you forget your question with how he was pushing his fingers inside you now.

His fingers were reaching a place you never touched with your own, and you had left one guy touch you like that, but he didn’t have as much precision as Anton, not even close. He was pushing your walls and then he would make a curling motion that made you whimper of how stimulating it was, touching a spot that made you feel more than good.

You were clenching not much after and he couldn’t stop his fingers from pushing you. He wanted you to make a mess over his hand, a bigger one, one that would keep him company even after you left him alone there and he had to go home with that painful boner.

Inside his pants he felt his cock twitching and his chest calling for you, you would feel so good, he could easily see it, he could feel it.

You were so tight you’d have a bit of trouble taking him, but it was okay, he’d help you get used to his size, that sweet pussy had to be his and only his.

You were shaking over him, your hips moving to find his contact and your eyes fluttering over him, hypnotized with a drunk look.

‘’It’s okay if you cum and make a mess, don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.’’

You shook your head, ‘’I can’t, the other’s will notice.’’

Your cries were so sweet he tried to care about what you wanted, you didn’t want to make a mess, but just feeling how wet you were he knew it was impossible for you to not make it.

‘’Trust me, I’ll find a solution, you just have to cum, I need you to cum or I won’t be able to sleep in peace the next days, I need to see you cumming over my hand, to know I was the one who made you feel this good, please.’’

One hand pressed your chest to him, and you tried to refuse him, but it was so overwhelming your toes were already curling and your hips couldn’t stop. It seemed like your body listened to him more than to you, and you tried to fight it, but it was impossible to win.

Pinching the material of his jacket with your nails, you nodded, giving in.

A gushing sensation came from your insides, warm with a touch of pain but so liberating that black tears fell down your cheeks, your mascara and eyeshadow running in little grey dots. Anton let you hide your face on his neck to moan as loud as you wanted with his shoulder muffling your voice, and after feeling you had enough, your hips jumping away from him to some point, he stopped his fingers from pushing inside you, leaving a long sigh out.

His head fell back to the head couch and seeing the lights of different colors above you two, he felt the dizziness not letting him think straight. However, with the help of your lips thanking him through kisses over his cheek until you left one over his lips, full of fondness, his mind, now full of praises for you that wanted to leave his mouth, functioned a bit better than before.

‘’I don’t think you’ll like my solution’’ he said after you took your breath over his shoulder.

‘’I just don’t want Sungchan to know what happened here’’ you replied between deep breaths.

‘’I know angel, that’s why I hope you don’t get mad at me.’’

You moved apart. He, after caressing your legs and having recollected himself, made you sit next to him, giving you that playful smile when you looked at him with questioning eyes.

‘’What are you going to do Anton Lee?’’

He poured the rest of the bottle over your lap, leaving you, and the couch, sticky with a three hundred dollar wine.

You complained inside your mind. You would have to change for the rest of the night, and even if you quickly washed yourself, you’d still smell like a drink all the girls would interrogate how was, obviously not referring only to the taste of the wine.

You’d have said something out loud to Anton the next time if it wasn’t that, before you left, he had handed you a card, telling you to call him later about the cleaning fees.

‘’You can call Shotaro’’ you said unconvinced.

‘’To be honest I just want to hear your voice through the phone’’ he smiled.

In the back there was something apart from his phone number. Anton Lee, Lee Compositions, music producer, you saw written in bold letters.

At least you knew what he did now.

third visit ↬ fourth visit ↬ fifth visit

[whetstonefires]

You know what else gets neglected? Wen Xu made Lan Wangji set the library on fire.

Like. Realistically he knew it was going to burn whatever he did, so making a point of defiance that would just get more people killed would have been stupid. (I assume a major reason cql swapped this out for the Headband Cave, besides building up Su She's craven villainy, was that this would have been very expensive to film.) Giving way on this point after getting his leg broken, with his Sect overcome around him and his father mortally wounded, was perfectly reasonable.

But it's also something that was guaranteed to be very traumatic for him. Putting the flame to that building with his own hands.

And then, not knowing the fates of his family and with a broken leg, he got dumped into the Wen indoctrination and wound up in the turtle cave alone with Wei Wuxian, and definitely took his trauma out on him a little bit, though all things considered he handles himself with great restraint.

And then there's the war, and he takes time out of the campaign to try to find a presumed-dead guy whom he almost definitely regrets only being kind to when he wasn't really coherent, and then even though that guy is no longer trying to befriend him gets himself assigned to his theater of war to watch his back.

Lan Xichen is shown in that one tent flashback in the Nie Mingjue empathy section to know full well his brother is in Jiangling because Wei Wuxian is in Jiangling.

During the unclear-but-plural number of years the war went on, Lan Wangji was away from Cloud Recesses more or less all the time. Repairs were, we may assume, made in his absence. The collection was rebuilt as much as was possible, and housed in a replacement building, that may or may not have been complete by the time he went home to stay.

(Presumably one of the irreplaceable texts Xichen smuggled away was a list or index of the more replaceable ones, that got burnt, so they can go around to their contacts in an organized way asking to make copies. They seem to have done so very well at replacing such a large library so quickly that I can only assume they had had a very generous copying policy, and reaped the reward of this after the war.)

So after the war, when Lan Wangji is spending most of his time closed up in his room working on music, his being fixated on saving Wei Wuxian from the spiral of his own cultivation method is the least worrying explanation.

Because the alternate reasons Lan Xichen has to hand for this behavior are 1) Lan Wangji's ptsd is totally crippling and he's potentially going to become a shut-in for life or 2) the trauma he suffered at the start of the war, in the Cloud Recesses, being made to act against the Cloud Recesses, against his own safe place, means that he no longer feels secure or comfortable there, and is shut away obsessively cultivating to avoid their family and home.

And ngl I tend to suspect based on the timing of some beats that Lan Wangji did wind up funneling a lot of the energy from his war trauma into his romantic attachment. Because during that crucial window from 'Wei Wuxian has gone missing' to 'Wei Wuxian is dead' he believed that Wei Wuxian was someone he could help, if he could just figure out how.

And a huge predictor of PTSD, much larger than how 'objectively bad' something was, is how helpless you felt in the face of harm to yourself or others. So channeling his intensity and control issues into the contained and should-still-be-possible issue of Wei Wuxian's well-being would have been....

Not actually the worst coping mechanism, although it sure would have been a better one if Wei Wuxian had in fact been possible to help in some more substantive way than 'watching his back in battle' lmao.

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

Has anyone asked you about erisol?

If no, then what's your opinion on them! :-)

I feel like people will be upset at me for this, but a completely platonic and completely lukewarm mutual dislike... they don't really like each other, but take no great issue with each other either. The boys are not fightingggg

So like. A common thing in fandoms is taking things at face value and not really reading any deeper into them. You see this a shitton with Eridan in general - lots of people take it 100% at face value that he's a casteist genocide liker, when it's pretty clear upon further examination that he's pretty much lying about being casteist and doesn't actually want to murder his friends. So, at face value, Eridan hates Sollux, and either wants to do spadesies with him, or go ashen with him. And so this has become a really popular ship, but the thing is... at basically every turn, the story kind of goes out of its way to point out that there's actually nothing between them. At least romantically.

See, Eridan does not actually hate Sollux, at least not to the level of pitch/ashen. TWICE before Sollux and Feferi start hanging out all the time, we see Eridan commenting on Sollux in a fairly neutral-negative way - the first time calling him "a drama machine" and noting that "it is fuckin pathetic," and the second time as "the dead guy who saved [Feferi]". And let's be clear about the former, Eridan is just kind of Like That, he's rude as fuck even about people he LIKES (calling his BFF Karkat an "assblood" and sarcastically referring to Feferi by her royal titles), so that's actually one of the less nasty things he's said about someone.

Meanwhile, on Sollux's end, he LITERALLY says "not interested" to what he perceives as pitch/ashen advances from Eridan. Like, actually just says those words out loud. Not even in a pesterlog, he actually just says those words with his mouth.

So it seems to me that there's a pretty clear case to be made here that Eridan and Sollux kind of just... don't really give a shit about each other, and probably wouldn't have interacted in any substantial way if not for Feferi's involvement. Especially because Eridan's chosen method of hitting on Sollux is with casteism, something he's already faking in the first place.

If we really want to dig into this, though, it's kind of - in my eyes - a lukewarm case of the hedgehog dilemma. They're a bit too similar, and it winds up causing them both mild pain to get too close.

They're both nihilists that kind of hate themselves. Sollux's mutated brain causes him a not-insignificant amount of discomfort, his visions of the future and of the "imminently doomed" have made him lose a lot of hope, and he blames himself for killing Aradia, something so painful that he didn't tell anyone else she died, to the point where most of the team - including Terezi and Tavros - had to find out after entering the game. Meanwhile, Eridan struggles with the perceived inevitability of a lifestyle that causes him nothing but distress, and his constant, overwhelming anxiety about it leads to constant stressing over whether or not he's "good enough"; whenever he's in severe emotional distress, he starts beating up on himself.

They also both front at being more okay with their problems than they actually are. Sollux has his 1337 hacker, two cool for you persona that he puts on, and Eridan is always trying to be the big bad sea dweller. For example, Sollux goes "I'm not trolling the humans, it's beneath me," but he's in Jade's trollslum, so the implication there is that he totally did try trolling, it went badly for him, and now he's pretending that he was always better than that. And I don't think I need to tell you how hard Eridan works to try and present himself as badass and scary and totally not deep in the throes of emotional anguish at all times.

And these are the similarities that ultimately make Erisolsprite so stable. Erisolsprite speculates that maybe the reason he hasn't exploded yet is that deep down, he loves to suffer. The truth is, there's nothing between the two that's really so objectionable that they would ACTUALLY hate each other; Eridan isn't actually casteist, and Eridan never really hated Sollux in the first place.

Neither would they bring each other any comfort or joy - Eridan doesn't have any sympathy for Sollux's baggage, since, like, what, he only killed ONE person, and was even under mind control, so it's not like it was really his fault. He's a drama machine. And Sollux wouldn't have sympathy for Eridan's problems, partially because they manifest in such cringeworthy, embarrassing ways (and Sollux is highly sensitive to not being cringe, seeing as he's always commenting on other people being embarrassing or overly earnest), and partially because - I mean, fuck it, he's a rich-ass sea dweller who doesn't need to worry about being harvested to be a battery for a living ship. And also he's an idiot.

That's kind of what their relationship is to me, you know? A tepid and lukewarm dislike. They're just similar enough to each other to understand the other, and just different enough to be like "ugh, but that guy suuuuuuuucks". It's very funny, but not really a ship, hahaha.

So what you really get from that is two guys that just kind of dislike each other. Not vehemently or diametrically enough for pitch or ashen, and not a trace of the requisite pity for flushed or pale. When you throw the two together into one sprite, it won't shut up about how much it hates itself, how each part of itself is flabberghasted by the other, and how much practically the only reason it doesn't explode is a resounding "meh."

Eridan likes to validate his despair; ironically, since it's all he's ever known, it's where he feels comfortable - and nobody would provide better doomscrolling material than the doom player. Similarly, Sollux likes to torment himself, suffering his guilt in silence, and Eridan has SO MUCH to feel guilty over. Combine them into one entity, and you have a guy who can reach SUCH levels of revelling in his own misery, you don't even KNOW.

Not that it's healthy or positive for either of them... just that it would be incredibly stable. It's their worst tendencies being satisfied by each other. Maybe that's a form of leprechaun romance, but it's certainly not a quadrant.

[anna-the-undertaker]

Im playing with an incorrect quote generator and I'm sharing them here. They are cracking me tf up.

Belphie: So I can either do something dumb that could very well get me injured or I can listen to MC and not do the thing, Belphie: Well there’s a clear right answer here. Belphie: *proceeds to throw five packs of mentos into a barrel full of diet coke*

Satan: I woke up and chose VIOLENCE. I WILL COMMIT ARSON AND BURN EVERYTHING TO THE GROUND!!! I AM ANGRY- MC: Awwww, you’re so adorable! Give me a hug~ Satan: Wh-What? nO, yOURE SUPPOSED TO BE SCARED OF ME! TREMBLE BEFORE MY WRATH- Lucifer, recording: This is so cute.

Beel: sSSSHIT- I BURNT MY LIP- Belphie: …Why the fuck would you even drink coffee with a METAL STRAW in the FIRST PLACE?? Beel: BECAUSE WE WERE OUT OF THE PLASTIC ONES!

Barbatos: Look, Satan, if you can fit your head down the gun’s barrel, you can assume it doesn’t have a non-lethal setting.

MC: Yes, I'm adopting Satan and you cowards can't tell me no!

Lucifer: *running towards Beel with open arms* Beel: *moves out of the way* Lucifer: Hey, why'd you move?! Beel: I thought you were going to attack me. Lucifer: I was going to hug you! Beel: Why would you hug me? Lucifer: WHY WOULD I ATTACK YOU!?

Levi: The best way to gain someone's undying loyalty is by saving them from a perilous situation. Barbatos: So you're just gonna wait until MC is in danger and save them? Levi: Of course not, I'm going to create a situation that puts them in danger and then save them. Barbatos: … Barbatos: You're insane.

MC: We’re going to defeat you with the power of friendship. Belphie: We’re not friends. MC, holding an axe: We’re going to defeat you with the power of incredible violence.

Lucifer: You’re starting to look like me more and more every day— Satan: *Bursts into tears* Lucifer: Why are you crying? Satan: You’re ugly! I don’t want to look like you! *sobs*

*Satan and Mammon are texting* Satan: Who are you? Someone changed the names in my phone. Mammon: What did they change my name to? Satan: Chosen One. Mammon: Don’t change it back. Satan: BUT WHO ARE YOU?!?! Mammon: I’m the chosen one.

Mammon: "What are you into?" is such a broad question, like do I reply with a TV series or choking?

Belphie: Sorry I can’t be emotionally vulnerable with you it’d ruin the mystery.

Asmo: I don’t think the therapist is supposed to say ‘wow’ that many times during their first session with a client, but here we are.

Mammon: What happened to your nose? Satan: I used it to break some guy's fist.

Mammon: Would it be discrimination to only hire employees at my doughnut shop who have the same name? MC: Legally, I don't believe that breaches any discrimination laws. Morally though… I don't know. Mammon: I believe god is on my side when it comes to Duncans' Doughnuts.

Mammon: Would anyone know any good vendors for professional-quality brass knuckles? Asmo: I know you’re serious, but you say the scariest shit sometimes.

Mammon: look Levi, I'm not slut shaming you but… Mammon: Actually yeah, I'm TOTALLY slut shaming you.

Lucifer: I am the left brain, I am the left brain. "I work really hard until my inevitable death" brain. You've got a job to do, you better do it right and the right way is with the left brain's might. Mammon: I LIKE OREOS AND PUSSY-

Satan: My expectations were low but holy fuck.

MC: *Texts a selfie to the group chat* Hey besties!! Mammon: *Texts a selfie clearly parodying MC's* hey besties !!1! MC: I literally hate you so much.

Satan: What's this? MC, hugging Satan: Affection! Satan: Disgusting. Satan: …Do it again.

Lucifer: I am going to need you to swear- Diavolo: Fuck. Lucifer: Lucifer: …swear as in promise.

Mammon: Pardon me, but it sounds like you’re questioning my authority! Lucifer: Not at all, Mammon. Merely your primitive methods.

MC: *cocks gun* Go to Bed. This is no longer a request, This is now a Threat.

Levi: Wait a minute, how did this happen? We're smarter than this! Beel: Apparently, we're not.

Mammon: *Reading a letter* Satan: Well, what does it say? Mammon: It’s a confession letter. It turns out MC killed my pet rock.

Diavolo: Not to be nsfw but I want someone to hold me while I sleep.

MC: Who else is hiding in the laundry room trying to listen to Diavolo and Lucifer's convo? Asmo: Me. I'm in the laundry basket. Belphie: I'm in the washing machine. Barbatos: I'm in the closet. Asmo: We accept you Barbatos. <3 Barbatos: No I'm literally in the closet. Asmo: Love is love. <3

Belphie (brainstorming ideas for pranking Lucifer): How much would a serial killer mask possibly cost? MC: Well it’s hard to find a high-quality one made out of leather or silicone, but if you did find a good one like that it’d be a couple thousands of dollars. I can try to hook you up with one but I don’t know if I’d be very successful. Belphie: Huh, that’s pretty interesting actually- Wait, how the hell do you know that? MC: …I am very passionate about Halloween, Belphie.

Diavolo: I don't know, it's not my cup of tea. Satan: Well then whose is it? Diavolo, staring at a cup of tea: I don't know!

MC: What’s something you guys are better than Lucifer at? Mammon: Mario Kart. Satan: Yeah, video games. Levi: Emotional vulnerability.

Mammon: Can we talk about that mass email you sent? MC: Why? It was important. Mammon: All it says is, "I'm back on my shit". Diavolo, shrugging: The people need to know.

Mammon: Can you pass the salt? Asmo: Can you pass away? Mammon: Too much salt.

*talking on the phone* Mammon: Remember how I said that MC and I were gonna have a calm night out for once? Lucifer: Yeah… Mammon: Well, we’re in jail. Lucifer: *hangs up*

MC: Go to hell! Lucifer: Where do you think I come from?

MC: I see the red flags, I acknowledge that they're there, and then I completely ignore them.

Satan: We need a distraction. Lucifer: Is anyone here good at jumping up and down and making weird noises? Diavolo, whispering: My time has come.

Mammon: I don’t know, this plan seems complicated. Lucifer: You once said that about an orange. Mammon: They don’t make sense. Apples, you eat their clothes but oranges you don’t.

Diavolo: Mammon and I were crossing the street, and this man drove by and honked at us. Asmo: What did you do? Diavolo: They chased him to the next red light, and reached into his window, and- Mammon: *walking in* Who wants a steering wheel?

[anime-simp-0]

when bakugo’s anti-villain s/o and him fight

i got this idea from the opposite version of this i did, bakugo’s anti-hero s/o. it really had me thinking how bakugo would react to someone who fits the anti-villain archtype; someone who has the noble goals but their means of attainment are evil.

well for starters, just like heroes have a ton of different sub-archtypes, so do anti-villains. in the most basic sense, i’m basing mine off of the concept that they have the right end-goal but not the right methods they are going about so i guess you could kinda consider them like mr. ferret boy draco malfoy. he, by nature, is evil. he has toxic traits and is overall a less then decent individual. however, if tiktok has shown anything, it is that people can still obsess over him. (sighs in dracotok)

regardless, in terms of bakubitch’s s/o, i dont think this makes them a bad person. just misguided. stain’s ideology was exposed to them at a vulnerable time and it just stuck and they turned in to a vigilante because no one had validly proven to them a better option. which led to constantly fooling around in the shadows and kicking ass but mainly for the purpose of catching twofaced hero’s that are actually really shady people, so all around a moral goal but not heroic action.

as to how bakugo would react to this, I think that it really depends on what stage Bakugo you are dating. Middle School? High school? Starting Hero? Experienced? And a large part of this differentiation is what he experienced at UA.

In middle school, he thought heroes were the good guys and they always did the right thing and he was going to be the #1. He was gonna be so perfect that they had no choice except to give him the title of perfection.

And then, UA happened. And he experienced the USJ and he saw firsthand what villains are like. Low level thugs, sure. But those villains didn't care if they killed everyone in that building. And then to see a monster so strong it could get hit by All Might at full force and not bat an eye. That's not even mentioning what happened at the summer camp. Not only was he kidnapped but had his life continuously toyed with for hours and the heroes took their sweet ass time to save him. All because they wanted to follow protocol, and he still managed to get away in the end. I don't think the protocol issues get any better with time either.

I think the older he gets, the more they piss him off. Because he's seen more. he's seen the damage wasting time can do. and i guarantee you there was a decision he makes in the future that costs someone their life because he decided to follow protocol and he never lets himself forget it. because that blood isn't on the commission's hands. it's on his. he was the one that made the call to listen to what the high and might's decided.

The experience also changes his definition of right and wrong. He starts to see everything through a different lens when it comes to why villains do what they do. Are they stealing from places because it's fun or the way they survive? Are they selling drugs because it's their hustle or because it's the only way they can provide. He also starts to see heroes in a different light as well. Are they saving people because they want to keep the city safe or because of publicity? Do they actually care about protecting individuals or is it about the money? And then you have the antivillains and antiheroes and all he can think is about the person who lost their life because he decided to follow the rules. But antiheroes and antivillains and vigilantes don't care about that kinda stuff. They don't have to follow the rules that they didn't sign up for. They don't have to go through the chain of command or rules and regulations. They have the freedom to do the right thing with no consequences ( unless they get caught that is ).

Truly though, I don't think you were aware Bakugo was a hero when you first started dating him, just like I don't think he was aware that you were a antivillain/vigilante. but i could totally see you both finding out because you were running from heroes after some shit and he managed to catch you and you both had a moment where you recognized each other and he couldn’t let you get caught so he let you go and stalled to buy you time. which, yea, lead to a pretty interesting fight. but you managed to talk and make it work. he made you promise to stop fucking around as long as he followed up on his end about taking care of the shitty heroes so you didn’t have to. having said that, i think that he also is still very strong in his beliefs that heroes are good. sure not all of them, but enough where being completely against heroes annoys the living shit out of him. so i think that many arguments would stem from you not liking some of the heroes he works with. whether that’s you doing the signature smart ass lines that make them uncomfortable or intentionally making it known you don’t like them.

hence why it was currently 1:32 in the morning and instead of being in bed with the hot headed prick you call your boyfriend, you were on the couch.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

the heated words from earlier still ring in your ears as you lay on the couch, looking out of the window and onto the city that lay below, glistening and active even at this time of night. a thin blanket was wrapped around your legs as bakugos shirt that was a few sizes too big left your legs exposed to the cold air in his apartment. you would have left after everything that was said but he had picked you up from your apartment and brought you to his earlier that day so now you were stranded and far too stubborn to ask for help from your friends, knowing they would want details you weren’t comfortable disclosing yet. instead, you decided to sleep on the couch and calm yourself by staring into the glass pane.

the details of your fight were still cloudy in your mind, but one thing was for sure. you both were not on good terms. after you made a backhanded joke about one of the heroes he had become friendly with, it was all over. it started with just about the one guy, then it became how you never liked anyone from his job, then it turned into you hating everything heroes and then, finally, bakugo said the thing that really set you off. “if you hate heroes so much, then do you even give a shit about me? if all heroes are so damn bad!” the things that came out of your mouth next were a mix of rapid fire insults and gabs at him, turning into a full out war of verbal assaults over something as simple as you not likely one of his work buddies.

it made you so angry, it almost made you cry. not because you cared. what? no! of course not! i mean, why would you, right? it’s not like the most important person in your life insulted you and one of the only things you truly believe in before having the audacity to ask if you even loved him-… oh wait… no. no, yea that is what made you cry. you sighed and rubbed your eyes, wiping away the tears before they had a chance to fall. you were angry at yourself. if only you hadn’t said anything. if only you didn’t snap back at him. if only you never said you didn’t like his new work partner. if only-

the sound of the bedroom door opening cause your attention before a bakugo, and frankly a quite grumpy and agitated bakugo at that, stepped out. but the sour expression faded off his face when he saw the tear that you hadn’t managed to wipe away.

“what do you want” you muttered before turning back towards the window and, as subtly as you could, wiping away the dampness from your cheek.

he went to speak multiple times before pausing with a slight growl and shuffling towards you. his sweats hung low on his waist and his hands were bunched up in his pockets as he flexed them, standing next to you on the couch.

“look…” he sighed. this kinda thing was never easy for him. he spent so much time condensing his feelings, being able to openly talk about them was weird on so many level that even after a year and a half of you two dating it still made him feel weird. “i.. shouldn’t have used your stuff against you… what you believe and support is what you do and… i can’t control that or change it. it’s just… i was pissed and wasn’t thinking straight… and i know that’s not a good enough reason to hurt you, i’m not saying it is i just…” he sighed again before taking a hand out from his pocket and rubbing his face “i know you love me, okay? i know that. you prove it everyday you deal with my hero shit or help with my cuts and scraps after a bad day or even just, fuck, staying. you didn’t leave. and i love you for that, okay? i do. i fucking love you with everything i have.”

your tempted to turn to look at him, to break and let a tear fall while you sit there but you don’t. he groans softly before taking his hand and lightly pressing his fingertips to your chin and turning your face towards him. “i’m sorry baby… i mean it. im sorry” he leans down and softly kisses your head before pulling away.

“don’t fucking do it again” is all you can manage before resting your head against him as his arms wrap around you.

“trust me, i don’t plan on it”

“i mean it katsuki” your voice was cold and sent a chill straight to his spine. “don’t question my love again. and don’t use my opinions against me. i love you enough to be with you even though you’re a hero but i love myself enough to walk away if I need to.” you paused and look up at him “don’t put me in a position where i have to be the bad guy. we both know i play the part too well.”

he nodded solemnly before taking a deep breathe. out of everything you had said to him in the last couple hours, that he knew was true. you were always labeled as a villain. not only by your peers but you family as well. when you manifested your quirk and it was far more powerful then anyone else in your family trees, they immediately wanted you to be a hero. to make money for them and be popular. and the second you said no, they turned on you so fast it gave you whiplash. you were so used to being put in positions where you had no choice but to be the bad guy. to do the non glamorous or even cruel thing to survive. he had become your safe space, but even he wasn’t foolish enough to believe you couldn’t live without him. hell, it was the other way around.

he had been laying in bed since you had had your fight, tossing and turning in the cold sheets and reaching for a body that wasn’t there, searching for warmth that was on a couch instead of wrapped in silk with him. he had tried to fight himself on it for hours now. but as much pride as he had, his ego crumbles before you. you mattered more than that to him. you mattered more then being right or proving a point. he needed you. you had become such an important part of him that the idea of you being gone made his heart stop. he was nauseous at the thought of opening the bedroom door and finding your things missing and shoes no longer by the door.

but right now with you in his arms, all he wanted to do was hold you. not for another minute or another hour. forever. he never wanted to breathe without you in his arms. he didn’t want to know what it felt like for you to exist without him. so he looked down at you slowly, his thumb rubbing back and forth against your skin as he held you against him. “I know…” he rested his head against yours, “i know.”

[linkspooky]

Jujutsu Kaisen, Chapter 230 Thoughts.

I've been skipping my weekly thoughts posts on the last few chapters, because most of the chapters is explaining fight mechanics. However, Megumi showed up again and as someone with a severe case of Megumi-itis let's talk about him, what the possible consequences for taking Unlimited Void could be and where his character might go after this fight.

1. Megumi's Soul

The slow corruption of Megumi's soul has been a running theme ever since Sukuna took his body. The first thing he did after taking that body was descend and soak into a literal bath of evil in order to subemerge Megumi's soul further. Ura-me even describes it as "Being near evil."

Immediately afterwards, Sukuna uses Megumi's body to murder his sister. Making sure to only use Ten Shadows techniques the entire fight, so Megumi will feel that he killed his sister with his own hands. Megumi is someone helpless to watch as he experiences the same thing Sukuna does to Yuji in shibuya, taking his own body from him, using his hands to kill others, and leaving Yuji with the guilt of being a murderer because he was too weak to fight back.

Tsumiki is a character who when she is first mentioned in the manga, drawn with white lilies, the symbol of purity. She is also, in Megumi's eyes a character without flaws, who's only bad trait is worrying about him too much, his example of a good person he wants to save the only person besides that sharing that category being Yuji. (I stole this from @theanimepsychologist)

She's not just associated with purity through those flowers, she's a symbol of purity TO MEGUMI. She is the model example of a good person, Megumi even says his entire goal in life is to make the world more fair so good people such as his sister shouldn't have to suffer.

When Sukuna talks about his desire to destroy Tsumiki, those same white lilies are in the background ripped apart. Not only that, her body is shown to be naked in a compromising position. Gege's not the most subtle person in the world, so it's pretty clear symbolism when a man talks about how he wants to violently destroy a woman and she's drawn naked like this, like I don't think Sukuna intended that but symbolically it's the destruction of her purity.

Megumi doesn't see himself as good, he sees Tsumiki as a good person he wants to protect, and also basically the only family member / support in his life, and Sukuna rips her apart right in front of Megumi's eyes. Megumi's been exposed to evil, and had his closest loved one slaughtered. Not only that, his entire reason for being a sorcerer in the first place. Not to give himself a happy life or because he wanted to do it, but because if he didn't do it Tsumiki had no chance at being happy in the Zen'in Household.

It's not just Tsumiki that's crushed, it's his entire reason for living so far, it's the implied promise of protection that Gojo gave him that if he chose to follow him that Tsumiki would have a better life.

Even if Gojo manages to save Megumi from Sukuna's possession, mentally he's been pushed past the point of no return there's no way he's coming out of this alright.

That is, if Gojo is even making that much of an effort to save him.

Now, it may turn out that Gojo had a method planned of getting Megumi back from Sukuna all along. He does seem to imply he believes that if he does enough damage to Sukuna's body, the same way that Sukuna ripped Yuji's heart out and gained back control he'll force Sukuna to switch control again. But!

Even if that's his intention, I think there's some clear symbolism in how it was Megumi's "Soul" that was targeted by the Unlimited Void.

Forget Gojo's announcing to Sukuna that he has no compunctions about beating up Megumi because he looks like Toji. Forget the casual mention of crushing Megumi's entire body in the process of trying to finish the fight. Barring all of that, there's still a noticable lack of concern for how Megumi as Gojo is completely wrapped up in the fight against Sukuna. Because this is how Gojo's mind works, he is the strongest sorcerer so everything cn be solved with a battle of physical strength. Gojo is opposing Sukuna, and yet his philosophy is pretty much the same as Sukuna's.

Sukuna the person who stole Megumi's body, is fighting against Gojo the person who essentially stole Megumi's childhood, by taking him in to Jujutsu High under the guise of "Helping Him" but giving him little choice of what to do with his life. Either he becomes a sorcerer, or they give him no money and they starve, or they get sent to the Zen'in who will probably abuse Tsumiki.

There's something deeply ironic about Gojo bragging about how his students are watching him so he has to look cool, which shows the smiling faces of several of the Tokyo High kids, contrasted to how he's treated Megumi this entire fight and shown little concern for his well-being.

Megumi the person who he should really feel the most responsible for, because Gojo went out of his way to recruit him to Jujutsu High at like age five.

So, of course Gojo's strongest domain expansion attack hits Megumi instead of Sukuna, because the entire time Gojo's practically had no problem using Megumi as a punching bag, because he has to seize a more important objective which is defeating Sukuna for the safety of the world.

Now here's where the Megumi corruption arc truthers get excited. Do you think Megumi will really emerge from his possession okay after not only losing his body, bathing in evil, killing Tsumiki therefore breaking his promise of protection and Gojo's as well, and then being exposed to the unlimited void by Gojo which fills people's head with so much information it breaks their brain.

Megumi's clearly waking up after being hit with the void, but there's almost no chance of him waking up and going back to normal.

Megumi is a shadow character, much like Geto he's not only been shown on multiple occasions to repress his feelings over the entire course of the manga, (basically a long-form version of Geto's slow decline) he also on multiple ocasions as shown a more violent side.

Geto's arc even revolves around him questioning if weak people are even worth protecting, and then struggling against his inability to protect his fellow sorcerers who are continually sacrificed in protection of those weak people. Geto is overwhelmed by the weight of responsibility that sorcerers carry. Much like Megumi who has stated on multiple occasions, he doesn't want to be a hero, he doesn't feel obligated to save people. The two people he wants to save, Tsumiki and Yuji are however people he's failed to save. Riko is a clear parallel to Tsumiki. Tsumiki is even ripped away from Megumi the moment he thinks that he's saved her from the culling games, the same way that just as Geto promised that him and Gojo would be able to protect her, she's shot in the head by Toji.

If you're a Megumi corruption arc truther, than it's been a long time coming. Let's look at the characters he parallels in the manga, Maki (became a mass murderer after her sister died), Geto (also became a mass murderer when he lost faith in the idea that sorcerers are duty bound to protect the weak, which started when he failed to save Riko), Toji (also a mass murderer).

Toji is the biggest example though, because despite Gege continually pushing the idea that Maki is the second coming of Toji (we get it already) Megumi is Toji's direct foil, Megumi's poor lot in life is a result of Toji abandoning him. Toji was rejected and abandoned by his family, and went on to do the same thing with Megumi.

As Megumi has received no support from the adults in his life, there's basically nothing stopping him from continuing that cycle. Megumi looks exactly like Toji, especially when coming out of the Evil Bath of Evil. In his more violent moments he's drawn to look like Toji with several art parallels between Megumi and the Toji in hidden inventory.

Toji's also famous for doing this to Gojo.

He's the first person to defeat the limitless and manage to put a scratch on him. Everyone said that Gojo and Megumi's drawing on the animation booklet is foreshadowing of his fight with Sukuna in Megumi's body, but what if it's not...

What if when Megumi regains control of his body and Sukuna is defeated, everything does not work out like Gojo expects it will with one epic battle. What if having been brought so close to evil, Megumi is finally corrupted all the way through. After all the Unlimited specifically hit Megumi's soul. Megumi's body might be physically saved, but his soul might be lost in the process.

We've seen multiple times that the thing which holds Megumi back from acting on his more violent impulses is the image of Tsumiki, but Tsumiki's not there anymore.

So, this is my wild theory for all the Megumi Corruption Arc conspiracy theorists out there. What if we do see Gojo win this fight against Sukuna, but when Megumi gets his body back he attacks Gojo. His body is saved but not his soul and he's finally been pushed off the edge and become his worst self.

After which, the task of saving Megumi will probably fall from Gojo to Yuji. The only person so far who's expressed any desire to save Megumi (Yuta too I guess, but him and Maki both put emphasis on saving Sukuna).

What if Megumi's line to Yuji, "Start by saving me" is actually the ultimate foreshadowing for one of the biggest fights in the series?

[wolfes]

[Caption: a yellow and green gif of Alina from Shadow and Bone; the first gif of her looking away from Mal fades into her crying over him. End caption.]

TRANSITION TUTORIAL by v @shangs

I got some questions about how I did the glitch effect in this set, and I think because the glitch sets with green and magenta/red and cyan protrusions like this one are more complex that the effect seems like it’s hard, but it’s deceptively simple! I’ll show you how to do transitions like this with an effect buffer in between, whether it’s a glitch effect or a light leak or anything else. 

What you’ll need:

Photoshop with timeline (I use 2022)

A transition video for the effect 

Preferably, a good knowledge of how to use the timeline for gifs

Two or more gifs

Tutorial under the cut!

I start out with my two gifs, sharpened, colored, on separate documents, and in timeline mode. The first thing you’re going to do is convert both of your gifs into Smart Objects, so that we don’t have to worry about all the coloring layers. Just select everything you have in the timeline, right click, and convert to Smart Object. 

Now, right click on one of the gifs, select Duplicate Layer, and transfer it to the other gif’s PSD. Then just click File > Save as Copy, save the new PSD wherever you like, and close the first two PSDS, then open the copy. I recommend not saving your work in the first two PSDS with the single gifs so that if you have something you want to change, your gif isn’t locked into Smart Object Mode and you can go back to edit things.

Now, you have both your gifs on the same canvas in the same PSD. The timeline should look like this:

[Caption: A picture of the Photoshop timeline so the gifs’ boxes are in a stacked line.]

Now, drag the gif you want to go second or to ‘fade in,’ so to speak, onto the row of the first. Your gifs will automatically form a Video Group and the timeline will look like this:

[Caption: A picture of the timeline with the gifs’ boxes side-by-side.]

Now your gifs will play sequentially! I’m lucky and for some reason this almost 80 frame gif didn’t even hit 10mb, but you may need to trim some frames off the ends later if the gif is too big. 

Let’s switch gears and look at this unassuming little box in the corner of the timeline. The box with the white filled in triangle on the bottom holds Photoshop’s premade transition effects. You can do things like fade to black, crossfade, just fade between two gifs, and more. 

[Caption: A photo of the square on the timeline that has Photoshop’s transition effects.]

I like using the Cross Fade effect for my gifs with this method, but it’s entirely up to you what effects you apply! Some transitions may even work better without an effect. Experimentation is key.

[Caption: A photo of the timeline with the triangles denoting the cross fade effect put between the gif boxes.]

I went ahead and applied the cross fade effect to my gif, and this is what it looks like on the timeline.

Now to add the gif effect! Make the gif however you would like. For this one I actually recommend just opening the video with File > Open as long as it’s small enough, and it’ll open as a blue box on the timeline and if you right click it you can change the speed. Regardless, what I do is just make the gif, sharpen and trim to my liking, then duplicate that layer onto my timeline (just make sure that, when you click the three lines on the timeline menu and go to Set Timeline Frame Rate, that the rate of this video is the same as the rate of your two gifs from before, or you might get some choppy frames). I then place the gif around the middle, where the transition happens - you have to scrub around to find the perfect place to put it but I like to have it so that the gif covers both ends of the transition.

To put it visually, here’s the timeline:

[Caption: A photo of the Photoshop timeline with the effect overlay stacked on top of the base gif.]

Your overlay gif should be outside the video group of your base gif.

I set the overlay to Screen and change the opacity. You can also add some color overlays - I actually went in with a gradient on top of the overlay, clipped it to the transition, and set it to Color so it wasn’t too bright of a white on my gif.

Save and export as normal - I like to take it back to frames mode before I save so I can keep the frame rate at 0.05 - and that’s all! A really simple way to get a sophisticated-looking transition.

Happy giffing!

[monellabella]

Being from a place doesn't mean that one group indigenous to that place gets to go and kick everyone else who is also indigenous to that same place. It certainly doesn't mean that one group indigenous to that place gets to bomb innocent civilians because that is not the way to catch terrorists. Even if the terrorists die, so did countless people who weren't terrorists. Being indigenous to a land also doesn't mean that said group should deny humanitarian aid to another group, whether that group is indigenous to that area or not.

First of all, if you really wanna have a conversation about this come off anon- I don’t bite.

Secondly, Palestinians as a national group do not fit the UN* criteria for indigeneity, even if many of them have jewish, druze, or ancestry from other groups indigenous to the levant- because indigeneity is not solely based on DNA and ancestry, it’s about cultural practices that show a clear connection to the physical land (among other things). Of course, I fully support the formation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and this does not mean that they have any less right to live on the land and claim it as their home, considering the very long history Palestinians have in the region. When Jews immigrated en masse to British Mandate Palestine after WWII, they did not kick anyone out- they legally purchased empty land. What happened was the neighboring arab countries felt threatened by the growing Jewish population, and when israel declared itself a state they told arab palestinians to leave their homes so the arab armies could come in, but that it would all be over within two weeks and they could come back. The arab armies lost the war and israel won the territory.

With all this in mind, are you telling me that Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization that abuses its own citizens, has the right to enter a Israel’s internationally recognized sovereign territory, brutally rape and slaughter 1,400 of its people (1,200 of them Israeli), kidnap over 200 of them (130 are still being held in captivity, including the bodies of dead hostages which Hamas refuses to return), including children and the elderly, and yet the Israel has no right to respond militarily? Do you hear how insane that sounds?

Yes, the fact that innocent Gazans are killed as a result of the bombing is undoubtedly a tragedy- but that’s what war is. Over 2 million German civilians were killed in WWII, yet no one would argue that the allies didn’t have a right to attack Germany, nor has anyone ever made the argument (to my knowledge) that the allies had a responsibility to provide German citizens with humanitarian aid. The only responsibility a country responding to an attack on its territory has to the citizens of the opposing country is to take every measure to ensure that as few civilians are killed as possible- which Israel has done. They’ve sent down flyers, made phone calls, sent text messages, and use “door knocker” bombs that shake the building without destroying anything to warn people to evacuate. Strategically, telling civilians exactly when and where they will attack is a horrible idea as it alerts the enemy (Hamas) exactly where Israel will be striking. But i’m not at all opposed to these methods because they save innocent lives. It’s horrible and traumatizing when people’s homes are destroyed and they are only given minutes to evacuate, but is that not a better fate than death? Not only that, but Hamas has built MILES of underground tunnels underneath Gaza using money from aid organizations. With the money they have, they could’ve built bomb shelters, a defense system like the iron dome, but instead the leaders of Hamas are billionaires living in luxury in qatar while their people suffer. Because the truth is, they don’t care about Gazans, they have said themselves they have no interest in running Gaza and their only goal is destroying Israel and the Jewish people.

One could argue that Israel could do a better job of warning civilians, and at this point I (an American Jew) and most Israelis are unsure what further bombing of gaza is even accomplishing and are furious with Netanyahu and his cabinet. With that being said, Israel estimates it has killed somewhere between 9,000-13,000 hamas terrorists, if the death toll of 34,000 provided by the gaza ministry of health (which is controlled by hamas) is to be believed (and I say this bc Hamas has a history of lying about the number of deaths and also does not differentiate between civilian and combatant casualties), that still means that the combatant to civilian death ratio is roughly between 1:3 to 1:1. The average ratio in urban warfare is closer to 1:14. Israel has absolutely zero responsibility to provide humanitarian aid to Gazans, that is the responsibility of Hamas- the de-facto government of Gaza that started this war in the first place. And YET there are more than double the amount of aid trucks entering Gaza than before the war (70/day vs now 300/day). Yet half the population of Gaza is on the brink of starvation- Why? Because Hamas is literally STEALING HUMANITARIAN AID for themselves and selling it back at exorbitant prices.

[gay-dorito-dust]

So can i request wednesday x gn reader who has wanda maximoff powers specifically before wanda had the ability to compelety control reality

Telepathy, telekinesis, energy manipulation/projection, forcefields and nightmare induced illusions. This was you at your most weakest and yet you were still the most feared person within Nevermore after getting some payback on Eugene’s bullies by putting them into a week long nightmare induced illusion. Some were more graphic and horrific then others that Weems had to add additional visitations to Dr Kinbott because of it.

The severity of the nightmares weren’t your doing but the rest however was so you were put into servitude by helping Thronhill with her plants to make up for it. “Your powers will only gradually become stronger with how quickly your progressing.” She once said creepily as you used your telekinesis to hook some of her newer potted plants closer towards the ceiling.

“Excuse me?” You asked her, the magic quickly fades back into the palms of your hands which you then pressed closely against your chest. “I was just merely stating a fact dearie, no need to be so worried.” She tried to pass off her comments but they still felt a weird feeling in your chest and in the back of you mind, something told you not to ever be this alone with someone like her ever again. If you knew what was good for you.

You knew that your magic was comparatively more dangerous and unpredictable then the other witches at Nevermore which was why even they tended to stray away from you in fear of becoming collateral damage when your powers became unstable. They did try to help you but all their methods contradicted each other and it ended up with you setting off a wave of un concentrated energy, injuring the few witches within the room with you at the time with bruises and bone fractures from being propelled into things.

You didn’t blame anyone in staying away from the chaos witch with no control over their own damn powers. You’d stay away from yourself if you could. Besides Eugene, the only people brave enough to be within your presence was Enid and Xavier after you saved Xavier from some normies that destroyed his art and helped Enid when she was in a pinch of getting something off of the top shelf before leaving.

The werewolf was persistent in getting to know you better after that and soon used her gossip blog to clear any misconceptions about you as did Xavier and Eugene. You helped them, so it was only obvious that they help make your stay at Nevermore that little bit better. For that act of kindness, you couldn’t repay them and they don’t expect you to because friendship shouldn’t be consistently give or take.

So when Wednesday came and started taking the cautious eyes that were once burning into your back, you felt as though you could finally breath knowing that you weren’t the one people were forcing themselves to walk on eggshells anymore. Well that wasn’t true, there were still people who feared you and what you were capable of when put/ forced to endure under mass amounts of emotional stress.

Wednesday originally came to you when her visions started to become more and more frequent, come may or may not have contained you in them to some extent. She thought that due to your extent of powers, you may give her some insight in her visions and seeing as out of every incompetent nitwit within the school, you were her best options.

She walked in on you using your powers to put back misplaced books in the library and she had to say that seeing such magic up close was a sight to behold. Though her hands were more preoccupied on how your hands moved in intricate ways or how the veins within your hands were beautifully complemented by the glow of your magic that she also forgot what she came to you for.

“May I help you?” Your voice broke her out of her trance and Wednesday was quick to show you the ripped page she got from Rowan, placing it in front of you. “Do you know anything about this?” She asked blankly as your eyes looked over the images with furrowed brows.

“Hate to break it to you but my powers don’t extend to visions of any kind. All I know about this is what Rowan told me and even then it’s like what Xavier told Me, visions only show what the person wishes to see, they’re not based upon any logic and are always misconstrued by a multitude of people who waste themselves away from trying to decipher them.” You told her as you handed back the page. “But if I were to make an assumption, you either saving the school, or destroying it.” You left Wednesday alone in the library after the encounter as she was stood there, mulling over your words as she looked closer on the page before her eyes flickered to the nightshade marking on the right hand corner of the page.

After having deduced you as unable to helping her, Wednesday thought that would be the least you’d cross paths but it seemed that fate was throwing her surprise after surprise and Wednesday wasn’t fond of surprises. Due to your friendship with Eugene and Enid, you were becoming more and more involved in Wednesday’s little investigation more so then you probably thought.

So much so that you were just as deeply in the crime as everyone else was that you didn’t noticed that it was starting to build up stress within you. So when you, Tyler, Wednesday and Enid went to investigate the abandoned Gates’ house and when the Hyde began to corner your three into a cramped space.

Enid’s panicking wasn’t helping the situation and before you knew it, another wave of energy burst forth from your hands and it sent the metal door off it’s hinges and into the Hyde, sending it back down the stairs where it came up from after supposedly ‘hurting’ Tyler. “I’m sorry.” You told the girls but Enid was more ecstatic then anything as she clung herself to your side.

“Sorry?!” She exclaimed, “you saved us y/n!you really showed that monster who’s boss!” Wednesday was silent as she looked at your hands but it wasn’t in disgust or anger but more so curiousness. After all she had only see your power in small dosages and knew that when you were put under immense pressure, your magic became more unstable for you to control, which leads to unpredicted outputs of strong chaos magic.

You protected her and Enid and it left a weird warm feeling within her chest that she was quite use to yet but would soon get use to when you would once again protect her by conjuring up a forcefield during the final fight with Crackstone.

“Witch!” He’d cried, pointing his cane at you as it beamed a vicious red.

“Yeah that’s right, I’m a witch” you said tiredly as you pointed to yourself before using the last ounces of your energy into a last ditch effort in knocking the cane out of his hand before collapsing to the floor out of exhaustion. You felt yourself becoming a little stronger after the fight but that only made the fear within your grow.

So once it was finally over and everyone was accepting their victory, Thornhill has to remind everyone that she was still very much alive and holding a gun threateningly towards Wednesday and Bianca, thinking that you had exhausted yourself, but luckily you had recovered enough energy from when Bianca and Wednesday were finishing off Crackstone to remove the gun from her hand and make it turn on her just as Eugene came in with the swarm of bees.

“You saved me multiple times when I’ve proven myself a character that you shouldn’t waste your breath on, why?” Wednesday finally mustered up to ask you when you were clearing out your dorm for the remainder of the semester.

“You’re right, you have proven yourself a character I shouldn’t have wasted so much time and effort towards but here’s the thing, butterflies can never truly see how beautiful they are with their own eyes. They have to trust those nearby to believe their are genuine.” You told her as you gave her a soft smile before turning back to your packing before adding, “will you come back next semester?”

“This school have proven it’s intrigue to me, but I’ll only be retuning if you promise to return also.” You laughed as her words before looking at her over your shoulder, “I’ve got nowhere to be other then here.” You told her, surprisingly liking the fact that she was anticipating your return to this weirdly secretive school.

“Put your number in this…thing Xavier bought me.” She tried her best to make her demand sound less of a demand but it failed and you couldn’t help but chuckle again at her attempts of being friendly and put your number into her phone so that she may text you when inconvenienced.

Spoiler: you talked to her pretty much the entire time until you had to go back to Nevermore to solve a stalker problem.