#feel free to even be specific with a region and date | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

gloomwitchwrites · 9 months ago

Text

Tattoo Artist Simon "Ghost" Riley x Female Reader

Chapter Specific Warnings (per the warnings MDNI): canon-typical swearing, suggestive themes, jealous / protective / possessive Simon, rough kissing, arguments, angst, TF141 shenanigans

Word Count: 5.3k

A/N: Part Ten of Ink & Needle

Soap, Gaz, and Price come for a visit. At a local pub, Simon notices you are sitting with a stranger. An argument ensues. Things get heated.

Chapter Nine // Chapter Eleven

ao3 // taglist // main masterlist // ink & needle masterlist

Simon leans back in his chair and crosses his arms over his chest, sighing heavily. The rolling chair groans a protest. The thing is so old it’s a miracle that it hasn’t collapsed under Simon’s weight. He’s been meaning to replace it—it’s not like he doesn’t have the money—but there are so many other things going on in Simon’s life that he keeps putting it off.

His work laptop is open on the desk in front of him, the bright glow of the screen showing him the thousands of emails sitting in his inbox. Being on the cover of UK Ink is a tremendous honor, but it’s also becoming its own sort of creeping horror. Figuring out which inquiries are genuine, and which are just people seeking attention, is taking a tremendous toll on his personal time.

Every day, more and more emails clog his inbox. It’s likely that as he starts deleting them, more will suddenly appear, popping forth from the hidden depths of whatever server it’s connected to. Plenty of the emails are straight spam with a few consisting of people sending unsolicited nudes. Those go straight into the trash folder. The only naked body Simon wants to see is yours.

Many of the emails are people seeking to book appointments with him for tattoos and piercings. While a good chunk of the emails come from citizens of England, plenty more are from people all over the world. International inquires are a good thing, but those appointments have to be booked around flights and trips. There is also no guarantee that those people will actually show, which is why Simon has started to double-book in some places, or set forth a non-refundable fee for securing a time and date.

He's only one person, and the pressure of that is starting to creep up on him. Simon is going to have to hire more people. At least one additional person at minimum. Even if all they do is answer emails all day and book appointments, Simon will take it. Sitting on this fucking chair in between clients is exhausting.

Through all of that, there are also publications (both large and small) seeking their own interviews with the masked tattoo artist knows as ‘Ghost.’ Some are local to the region while others are international, reaching an even wider audience. For each inquiry, Simon is grateful. To see his work—his art—be appreciated to such a large degree is a great point of accomplishment for him.

It's not like Simon’s work during his time with the military. That is different. That was work. That was blood and metal and dirt. Tattooing doesn’t feel like work to Simon. It is freeing. It is creative. It is the release of a muscle after a long tension.

Tattooing is a distinctive sort of freedom. A place for Simon to lose himself in, to enjoy life again, to find comfort in a craft that doesn’t involve destruction.

But Simon is also distracted. Not because he’s stressed or anxious or concerned or even from the number of emails piling in. Simon is distracted because you were in his arms last night. You were sitting at his kitchen table. You ate the food he made. He distinctly remembers your soft smile as you gazed at his sketches.

Sure, Simon was making dinner, but he was keeping an eye on you the whole time. He noticed every expression on your face as your gaze admired each sketch. He noticed the way you held every piece of paper with tenderness, as if all of them were sacred and special to you. It was after, when the two of you talked, that Simon sensed hesitation.

He questioned you about Cambridge and Evie. You were not entirely honest, not that Simon believes that you lied, but he knows there is more you haven’t told him. Whether you don’t want to tell him or are hesitant to do so is still uncertain. What Simon wants, more than anything, is for you to feel safe enough with him to tell him everything. Simon desires your sharp edges. He wants to know how he can help smooth them, to ease all the worries in your head, to remove some of those burdens.

Which is why he asked you to come to bed with him. He thought that maybe if he kissed you for a bit, you might soften, and that is all he wanted. But then he had you under him, opening for him, and Simon’s control was close to shattering like thin glass under pressure. Your fingers found him, and Simon would have given anything to stay in that bed and make you understand just how much he desires you.

The glowing screen of the laptop and the sight of you sighing in pleasure beneath him keeps colliding with each other. It keeps melding, melting together only to break apart before meeting again.

The current email opened on the laptop screen is gibberish. No matter how many times Simon attempts to read it, your face appears there instead. Then, Simon’s mind drifts off to dream of your seeking fingers, and how perfectly they wrapped around him.

Simon pinches the bridge of his nose and closes his eyes, inhaling deeply. He needs to fucking focus. He will see you again, and when he does, he is going to fucking enjoy it. The two of you are taking that date. The two of you are going to get away for a while. When that happens, Simon will make you his in all ways.

Exhaling loudly, Simon drops his hand from his face to rub at the back of his neck. He rolls it slightly, popping some of the tension out of the joints. He leans forward a bit and manages to focus on the email.

Spam. Fucking spam.

Simon hits the little rubbish icon and watches the email blink out of existence. His gaze returns to the little blue number next to ‘Inbox’ and immediately shudders.

“Fucking hell,” he mutters, wanting nothing more than to shut the laptop and pretend they don’t exist for a while.

Out of the corner of his eye, Simon spies the front door of the shop opening. He turns his head to the left to see if it’s his final customer. Instead, he’s greeted by an annoyingly overenthusiastic Scotsman.

“Lt!”

“Gotta stop calling me that, Johnny,” sighs Simon loudly, as if getting out of his chair is a major hassle. Simon comes to his full height, hands on his hips as John MacTavish bursts through the door.

On his heels are Captain John Price and Kyle Garrick.

“Simon,” nods Price in greeting.

Kyle gives Simon a little playful salute before immediately heading for Bravo. The German Shepard goes up on his back legs. Kyle seizes the dog’s front paws in his hands, the two of them doing a little dance in the middle of the shop.

The moment Simon steps away from the chair, MacTavish is on him, throwing his massive arms around Simon’s middle in a hug.

“You’re bloody crushing me, Johnny.”

MacTavish squeezes him a bit tighter in response. When he let’s go, he grabs hold of Simon’s shoulders, shaking them slightly. “Fucking look at this place.” MacTavish glances around like he’s never seen it before.

“You’ve been here,” deadpans Simon. “Hasn’t changed.”

“But it has, Lt. You’re on the cover of a magazine.” MacTavish smirks and drops his hands from Simon’s shoulders. He then promptly punches Simon lightly in his upper arm. “We’re in the presence of a celebrity.”

“Hardly,” mutters Simon, but he’s smiling behind the balaclava.

Price presents his hand, and he and Simon grasp forearms. “Good to see you, Simon. Been a while.”

“It has,” replies Simon.

Johnny leans toward Simon and cups the side of his mouth like he’s an old hen about to drop a piece of juicy gossip. When he speaks, it’s just a projected whisper that everyone can hear clearly. “Captain bought up a bunch of magazines and handed them out to everyone on base.”

“Soap,” barks Price.

MacTavish holds up his hands, and then points at Price with one finger, jabbing it in the captain’s direction. “Just proud of you,” whispers MacTavish.

Simon simply nods but he’s grinning like an idiot behind the balaclava. Price glances in Simon’s direction and shrugs apathetically, not denying or confirming.

Glancing over Price’s shoulder, Simon frowns slightly. Bravo has his front paws on Kyle’s shoulders as he aggressively scratches the dog’s sides. Bravo’s tongue sticks out the corner of his mouth, hanging down toward the floor as the dog pants happily.

“Get down, Bravo,” sighs Simon, indicating with a quick nod of his head.

Bravo sucks his tongue back into his mouth, ears drooping slightly with disappointment. Kyle pats Bravo’s side and removes the dog’s massive paws from his shoulders, gently guiding the German Shepard back down to all fours.

On the phone, Johnny said they’d stop by on Saturday. It’s Saturday. Fairly late on a Saturday, with a final customer still expected to walk through the door, but they are here, just as promised.

Kyle strides up and clasps Simon’s shoulder. “Place looks good.”

“Hasn’t changed,” remarks Simon for a second time.

“Saw you on the cover of UK Ink,” continues Kyle. “Didn’t know until this guy started handing them out on base.” He tips his head in Price’s direction.

Price sighs heavily but says nothing.

“Big deal,” finishes Kyle.

“Congrats, Lt.” MacTavish grins and Simon cannot help but feed into their praise.

It is a big deal. This one interview, this one award, is pushing him beyond the scope of his vision. In forced retirement, Simon expected to fly under the radar, to enjoy himself while he created art. He never expected his work to be recognized internationally.

“Sign my copy yet?” asks Johnny.

Simon backtracks to his desk, picking up the copy MacTavish sent him in the post. Lifting it up, Simon brings it over to Soap, smacking him in the chest with it. Johnny whistles and holds it with both hands in reverence.

“She’s a fucking beauty, Simon.” Johnny places one hand over his heart. “You’ve honored me.”

“Piss off,” mutters Simon as Kyle expertly snatches the magazine from Johnny’s hand. He opens it up, flipping through the pages, side-stepping every attempt by Johnny to seize it back.

“Did we come at a good time?” asks Price as he and Simon watch the two idiots playfully bicker over the magazine.

Simon shrugs. “I have one more customer. Free after that.”

Price nods and grips Simon’s shoulder. “We have lots to talk about.”

There is a slight twitch in Price’s clenched jaw that puts Simon on edge. He isn’t sure if he should press Price and try to wrangle an answer out of him, or let it go and see what happens.

“Shit,” says MacTavish, drawing Price and Simon’s attention to him. “Nearly forgot.” He extends an arm to Kyle, making a “give it to me” gesture with his hand. Kyle, with a sly smirk, unzips the front of his windbreaker. Reaching inside, he presents a manila envelope.

Johnny takes it and then offers it to Simon. “Thought I’d give this to you in person. You know, instead of over the phone. Or email.”

Simon takes it, instantly feeling the heft and thickness to it. Opening the tab, Simon slides his hand inside, removing the thick stack of papers.

“It’s everything I could find on her,” continues Johnny. “Where she went to school. Social medias. Every person she’s possibly dated.”

Tucking the manila envelope under his arm, Simon starts sorting through the information. A copy of your birth certificate, school records from elementary to high school, recent phone records. There is even a list of every restaurant or fast-food place you ordered from over the last five years with a credit card.

Simon flips past another page and freezes. His head snaps up, a growl sitting in the back of his throat. “You included her fucking banking information, Johnny.”

MacTavish shrugs dismissively. “I was thorough.”

“Thorough?” mimics Simon. “Fucking hell.” Simon returns everything to the envelope and places it on his desk next to his laptop.

Simon will have to shred it all after he looks through it. But only after he takes a look. He did ask Johnny to find what out what he could. While it is a major invasion of privacy, a more primal part of Simon reassures him that he’s doing the right thing. He needs to be able to protect you, and these are just tools in his arsenal to maintain your safety.

“She’s pretty, Simon,” says Price.

“You told them?” asks Simon, turning his attention to Johnny.

The Scotsman’s cheeks redden slightly. “He bullied the information out of me.”

Kyle leans in and drapes his arm over Soap’s shoulders. “Price told him he’d put him on inventory for a month if he didn’t spill.”

“Wanted to see this beauty for myself,” grumbles Price, glancing at Simon. “Give you a hard time.” He winks. “She yours yet?”

She yours yet?

There is a double-meaning there. While Simon’s instinct is to say “yes,” he also knows that that isn’t entirely true. The two of you haven’t verbally confirmed what this thing is. Simon has only just now asked you on a proper date.

Can Simon call you his?

The possessive, protective part of him shakes its ownership of you in its fist. But Simon isn’t impulsive, at least not all the time. With you, the need to react is strong, but Simon also understands that Price is asking in a more traditional way.

Licking his lips, Simon forms an answer. “She will be.”

Price nods. “Good man.” He glances briefly at Kyle and Johnny before returning his gaze to Simon. “Mind if we stick around?”

Simon shakes his head.

“We’ll help you clean,” adds Johnny.

“Will we?” asks Kyle slowly, eyebrows rising slightly as he turns on Soap.

Johnny blatantly ignores him and keeps his gaze locked on Simon. “You call the shots. Isn’t that right, Lt?”

That’s when Simon’s final client of the evening finally walks through the door. Simon doesn’t have a chance to answer. The customer is a bit bewildered by the small crowd, but the guys know to make themselves scarce. They head over to the couch, lingering in the waiting area with Bravo, chatting quietly as Simon escorts the newcomer into the tattoo chair.

Bravo moves from Johnny to Kyle to Price to Johnny again, seeking attention as Simon sets to work. The tattoo isn’t complicated, and Simon completes in about forty-five minutes. The guy is in and out in an hour.

When the four of them are standing outside in front of the shop, Simon pushes up his balaclava and lights a cigarette. It’s warm for autumn, the leather jacket he wears already making him run a little hot.

“We’ve got an upcoming mission we want your thoughts on,” says Price. “Need somewhere quiet we can go and talk.”

An upcoming mission? That’s not entirely unusual. Price has reached out to Simon on multiple occasions post-retirement to ask him for advice or to dig around in his head. But never—never—has Price and the rest of the team showed up to talk to him a group or in person.

There’s something else going on.

Clutching the cigarette between thumb and forefinger, Simon opens his mouth, exhaling smoke, intending to suggest a few places.

But before anything comes out of his mouth, Price shots him a look. “Not that fucking pub with the old folks.”

“No one will bother us,” replies Simon dryly. It’s true. It’s why he goes to Dancing Faun every Sunday. And Ben will close up for the public but stay open for just the four them. They won’t be bothered, and they will have as much time as they need.

“You might be an old man at heart, Simon, but I’m not getting harassed by older women whose husbands have been dead for years.”

Kyle bursts out laughing before promptly covering his mouth.

“Don’t like the attention, Captain?” teases Johnny.

Price points at each of them individually. “Fuck off. All of you.”

There are only a few places they could go on a Saturday night where they won’t be disturbed. Sighing, Simon rattles off a couple within walking distance. The four of them debate until Price becomes so annoyed with their continuous back-and-forth that he abruptly selects for all of them.

The walk over is quick, and the four of them enter the dimly lit pub. It’s one of only a handful of places that serves food late. It’s also on a side street away from the main road. Traffic is light, and the interior isn’t crowded. Simon is starving, and he’d appreciate a full belly with a whiskey or two before he starts talking about things he’d rather forget.

Finding a dark corner, they settle in at a four top. Kyle and Simon settle in the booth, facing the pub while Price and Johnny take the seats across from them. Simon settles into the cushioned seat, contentment sliding into his bones. He’s at peace, even if the coming conversation might be messy. He’s with people he cares about, and tomorrow, he’s off.

Tomorrow, he can go see you. Maybe. If you’re not busy. The two of you can talk about that date, maybe go for a walk and then lunch? Simon just wants to spend time with you, and tomorrow is the perfect day to do it.

Simon shifts in his seat, leaning his crossed arms on the edge of the table, glancing out across the pub. His gaze travels over every person, his old habits from the military coming to the surface. Recognizing exits and looking for suspicious behavior is as natural as breathing. But everyone around them is minding their own business. They’re either sitting by themselves or with others, not glancing Simon’s way at all.

He does one finally sweep, and that is when his gaze falls upon two people sitting at a high top together near the very back of the pub. Of the two, Simon notices the man first. He has dark hair, possibly brown but it’s difficult to say with the low light. Slightly older than Simon by a few years, and the bloke is wearing an impeccably made suit. It’s odd for a place like this. It stands out.

Simon doesn’t like the man’s demeanor either. It’s…smarmy. Pretentious. Like he not only believes that he’s better than everyone else in this establishment, but that they should all know it. The way he sits in the high-backed stool is off too. It’s relaxed and yet completely on edge.

Simon frowns, gaze panning to the woman the man is talking to.

Everything suddenly goes cold within him. Arctic. The room has become a meat freezer and Simon is just a piece of dangling meat.

Because that is you, and you’re sitting next to a man Simon doesn’t recognize.

You are here, alone with a man Simon doesn’t know.

A bright, blindingly hot sensation roars to life in Simon’s chest. It wraps around and between his ribs, seizing him in a vice-grip. Against this heat, the iciness melts off of him, dripping to the ground to pool under his boots.

“Simon?” asks Soap, the middle of his brow creasing with concern. “What are you—fuck. Is that her?”

It doesn’t fucking matter who this guy might be or what he might mean to you. Simon is going to crack his fucking skull open.

“That’s her,” murmurs Simon, the low growl previously lodged in his throat coming up suddenly.

Price leans back in his chair, one arm draped over the top, glancing to where everyone else is looking. “Want me to take him out to the alley? Give him some fresh bruises?”

Simon’s hands form into fists. He starts to stand but Kyle and Soap grab onto him, shoving him back down into the booth. “Relax, Lt,” soothes Johnny. “Might be nothing.”

You haven’t noticed Simon yet. You’re too busy looking at this man—this stranger. Turned slightly to the side, your gaze wouldn’t fall across Simon unless you purposefully scanned the room. The worst part is that Simon has no idea if you’re enjoying yourself or not. There is a blankness on your face that Simon loathes.

Do want to be here? Do want to be talking to this man that Simon doesn’t know? And why didn’t you tell him? Why didn’t you say anything? Is there someone else Simon needs to worry about? Does he have competition?

Silently, Simon begs for you to turn in his direction, even if it’s only a bit.

This unknown variable, this stain of a man, reaches out. With red-drenched horror, Simon watches as he places that very hand on the top of your thigh.

All Simon sees is blood.

This bastard is going to lose that fucking hand. And then he’ll lose his goddamn head.

Simon bolts up out of his seat again but Kyle and Johnny are right there, grabbing onto him, wrangling him back down into his seat.

“Let me go,” snarls Simon through clenched teeth.

“You’re gonna cause a fucking scene if we do that,” hisses Kyle, shoving downward on Simon’s shoulders.

Why are you letting him touch you? Why, when just yesterday you were beneath Simon, seeking him with your fingers, begging for him, are you allowing this?

But you’re not allowing it. You didn’t give this man permission.

Within seconds of the man’s hand connecting with your thigh, your gaze turns downward, lips curling back into a disgusted snarl. You twist your body enough for his hand to fall away, and a flare of pride swells in Simon’s chest.

You didn’t want this man’s touch. Which makes Simon momentarily happy before it all comes crashing down. This man touched you. Without your consent. And that makes Simon angrier than if you had wanted it.

Simon craves blood. He needs his knuckles drenched with it. For it to sit between his teeth. To taste it on his tongue.

“Who the fuck is that?” asks Kyle.

“I don’t know,” growls Simon, wanting to take off and punch the guy right out of his fucking chair.

With the removal of his hand, the guy’s smug smile drops. He bares his teeth, starts speaking to you in a way that Simon immediately dislikes. Sure, Simon cannot hear what the man is saying to you, but from the look on his face and body language, it’s nothing nice. He is angry, and you’re clearly upset. Simon wants this to end, to go up to the guy and throttle him, to whisk you off and make you forget all this unpleasantness.

But Kyle and Johnny keep him seated. They won’t let go, which means Simon will have to literally fight them to get to you.

Small pieces of the conversation start to make its way over to the table.

“Archie.”

“Estate.”

Simon frowns, hears something that sounds like “pregnancy” and immediately rethinks everything. Does this have something to do with your friend? The husband is dead, but is this someone the husband knew? Is it a relative?

And does that matter to Simon?

No. He still plans on knocking the man’s teeth out.

Simon only catches a few additional words here and there, but then he hears three that make his blood boil.

“You fucking whore.”

Simon knows that Johnny, Kyle, and Price all hear it too because their gazes move away from Simon and to the man at the table. Soap and Kyle’s hands fall away from Simon’s arms, giving him permission.

Pushing up from his seat, Simon steps around Johnny and strides toward the high-top table. Your back is to Simon from this position, but that doesn’t matter. Simon has his sights set on this wanker who needs to learn some proper fucking manners.

The man notices Simon first, his angered expression turning away from you and switching to Simon. It slips slightly, the faintest bit of fear sliding across the man’s features as he realizes Simon is aiming for him. Simon inhales, falling effortlessly into Ghost, allowing the phantom inside himself to seek out its need for blood.

But with his removed attention comes your own turning. A wanting to know what it is he’s looking at. When your gaze falls upon Simon, Ghost deflates, softens, giving way to confusion. All the emotions passing over your face nearly stop Simon’s forward momentum.

Your own anger gives way to sudden panic, then switches quickly to irritation, further compounded by confusion. It’s likely that you didn’t expect Simon to be at the same place. And while Simon wants to turn to you and give you reassurance, he’s too fucking focused on this asshole you’re sitting with.

Simon decides not to address you. Instead, Simon turns on this thickheaded prat. “What did you fucking call her?”

The man’s lip curls. “Mind your own business.” Immediately, Simon notes the man’s accent. It speaks to social status and aristocracy.

Simon steps closer. “Repeat what you said. Out loud. Want to make sure I heard you right.”

“Simon,” you hiss, desperation leaking into your tone.

Your guest turns on you, anger flaring anew in his gaze. “You know this…man?” He says man like he wants to say animal.

“He’s—” you begin, but Simon interrupts.

“Direct your questions to me,” growls Simon, placing himself between you and this stranger.

“Simon. Please.” You tug on Simon’s leather jacket but he shrugs you off. His attention is completely on this asshole.

“Are you with him?” The man’s gaze flicks from Simon to you.

“Adam—”

“I thought we could have a civil conversation—”

“What’s civil about calling her a whore.” Simon’s voice rises slightly as the raging tide of fury boils within him like a thunderstorm.

Adam’s face grows bright red. He turns on Simon. “Do you know who I am?”

Simon could give a fuck. He could be the fucking King and Simon would still punch the piss out of him for speaking to you that way.

Price shoves himself between Simon and Adam, keeping his back to Simon, creating a barrier. “Let me help you to your car.”

Price isn’t doing this to be nice. He’s doing this so the police aren’t called.

Adam stands but isn’t nearly as tall as Price. “If you put your hands on me—”

“Deal with me or him. Your choice.”

Adam straightens his shoulders and tugs on the front of his suit, smoothing out the wrinkles.

Fucking prick.

He glances over Price’s shoulder at you. “This isn’t over. You’ll hear from the family solicitor.”

“Let’s go,” mutters Soap, caging the guy in, forcing him to move away from Simon. Kyle trails after them.

Price turns around, facing Simon directly. “We’ll stop by another day. You deal with your woman.” He squeezes Simon’s shoulder before following out after them.

Simon watches Price leave, and then he’s seeking you out, expecting you to be thankful.

But you’re not. Your anger is palpable.

Simon needs to fucking fix this. “You’re coming home with me,” is the first thing out of his mouth. It’s a command. Not an ask. And his tone is rough, nearly raspy.

Your eyes widen slightly. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” you whisper.

Simon draws back, startled. “You okay with him speaking to you like that?”

You huff, and get up from your chair, collecting your coat and purse. “You don’t know anything, Simon. You have no idea who that is and why we were even talking in the first place.” Shoving past him, you start for the door.

“Fuck,” mutters Simon, following after you.

His legs are longer, and he catches up to you easily. Before you make it to the pub’s exit, Simon inserts himself in your path, blocking your attempt to flee.

“Move.”

“No.”

“You’re making a scene, Simon.”

He glances up, notices everyone looking on with varying degrees of interest. Some confused. Others concerned. Sighing, Simon reaches back and pushes open the door, stepping aside for you to exit.

Once the two of you are outside on the street, Simom grabs you by the forearm, pulling you in the opposite direction.

“Let me go,” you snap.

“We’re going to talk.”

“Fuck off, Simon.” You yank your arm out of his grip. Something is forming on the tip of your tongue. Simon sees it in the way your lip quivers. But you don’t. Instead, you sigh heavily and wave him off like you’re tired of it all.

Turning, you try to cross the street, but Simon is already snagging your arm again, yanking you away as a car zooms by.

“Get out of my way.”

“No.”

“Then give me some fucking space.”

“No.”

You release an exasperated breath and try to circumvent him. Again, Simon steps into your path. The two of you keep moving like this down the street. Every attempt you make only puts you closer to him.

Simon is herding you on purpose, pushing you closer and closer to his flat. He wants some goddamn answers, no matter how mad you are with him. And he doesn’t understand why you’re upset in the first place.

When the two of you are outside his shop, Simon indicates the exterior door that leads to his flat.

“Get inside,” he demands.

“Don’t order me around.”

“Inside,” repeats Simon, shoving the key into the lock, opening the door, revealing the hallway that connects the shop to his flat.

You stare between him and the open doorway. Your chest is heaving, and fuck—you look so beautiful right now even though Simon can tell you’d really love to hit him.

The tips of his fingers itch to just push you inside and shut the door, but he doesn’t need to. You make the decision for him, heading inside. Simon follows, and as the door shuts, you’re already moving like a bolt of lightning, walking fast enough to create a significant amount of distance.

No. Fuck that.

With a few massive steps, Simon is on you. He grabs the front of your throat, yanks you back against his chest, pushing your face toward his. The balaclava is already up, already in place, and his lips connect with yours.

At first, Simon can sense the tension but then you melt into him as his other hand slides to your front, pressing low on your belly, pushing your ass into his groin. Your own arm slides up, drapes over his neck in such a loving way that Simon momentarily forgets all his anger.

The two of you hang like this, suspending, but you come back to reality, yanking yourself out of his grip, almost violently.

“You can’t distract me with kisses, Simon.”

“Want to test that?” asks Simon, reflexively reaching for your waist.

You allow him to touch you, to draw you back into him, but your arms are crossed over your chest defensively. “You don’t know,” you murmur. “It’s—it’s too much and you don’t know. You don’t understand, Simon.”

“Then help me understand,” he says softly.

You shake your head and there are real tears there in your eyes. Simon hates it. He wants to take them all away.

“You’re not my husband, Simon. You’re not even my boyfriend. I shouldn’t burden you with any of this.”

You will not push him away. Simon won’t allow it. The two of you are in this together, and he needs to know.

“I care about you.” Now Simon is the one shaking his head. “Don’t tell me what I can’t handle.” His hands draw upward, cradling the sides of your face. “We’re going up to my flat. You’re going to talk. I’m going to listen. Okay?”

One tear rolls off the corner of your eye, trailing downward to kiss his palm.

“Okay?” he repeats.

“Okay,” you reply.

taglist:

@glassgulls @km-ffluv @glitterypirateduck @tiredmetalenthusiast @spicyspicyliving @childofyuggoth @lialacleaf @theshrikeandcanary @coffeecaketornado @wren5650 @aykxz98 @kayden666 @36namey @creamwhxre @pearljamislife @wrathofcats @keiva1000 @cherryofdeath @pertinentpostmortem @enfppixie @cinnabeanz @berarenado @rogerrhqpsody @c0pernicus @josephquinnschesthair @corvusmorte @saoirse06 @therealbloom @ninman82 @no-oneelsebutnsu @marispunk @thewulf @knight4xmas @jupiternighties @darling006 @hayleybarnesx @lxblm @ferns-fics @ooldcardigan @carma-fanficaddict @enarien @xxkay15xx @sw33tsnow @kessi-21 @makayla-666 @lifes-project

343 notes · View notes

daemon-in-my-head · 4 months ago

Text

Good timezone fellow Durges, Durge Owners and Durgetash enjoyers. I hereby declare; yeah @aleksxo and I are actually gonna do that Bhaalspawn Championship bit, let's go

So, a bit of organisational stuff first:

THIS IS A 18+ EVENT. The game is officially 18+, and so is the community event for it. And well, considering we're throwing a bunch of cannibals into one tiny arena... Do be aware there's gonna be some 'spicy' topics (but no making out on the battlefield, that's what the lockers are for!)

Date: The event will start from August 5th onwards (so, a week after the Gortash week), the Discord Server and the Sign up however will open as soon as this post is published and will end on before then. That way we can set up matches and schedules in time.

Rules: The rulework used will be 5e and for the sake of fun and fair competition, some spells will be banned.

Place: The event will be hosted on a specifically created Discord Community Server and the matches themselves will take place in a VC, meaning; all Participants must be ready to use their voice aka talk while others may listen. Ofc, just spectators are welcome too. Otherwise what's the point of those pretty stages?

OCs: Custom Durges mandatory. No default Durges cuz it's hella immersion breaking. Please give him a moustache and a name if you want to play our fav white dragonboy.

Matchmaking: We aim to keep the Matchmaking as balanced and comfortable as possible, meaning participants of the same region and similar classes will be matched against each other where possible and all OCs will compete with lvl 20 stats, spells, spellslots, feats, yada yada. Depending on the amount of participants we may expand or decrease group sizes (we're literally gonna use Soccer championship rules for ranking).

Inexperienced TTRPG Players: will recieve support! We'll help ya figure stuff out and get ur character to work how u want.

Prizes: OC Art and an OC Oneshot provided to u by your hosts! (Unless...?)

Now for the work part of this thing: we're still headhunting! Specifically people that would like to assist us who are US based (Mods and DMs, cuz we're European and we like sleep actually). If there's any Europeans out here who wanna help tho... We're also looking for support there!

And last but not least, here's the Server link, the specific rules and announcements/orga updates will be posted there (here occasionally if its big stuff) and ofc the form to sign up is live there too!

As per usual, reblog, spread the word, the more the merrier and do feel free to drag ur friends along! If ya like, they'll even get to cheer you on as you fight for Daddy's attention!

Also here's the twitter version of the post if you'd like to spread the word... Cuz neither of the hosts has any presence there. A flaw in our brilliant plans I agree.

#yes im obnoxious with the tags again ur welcome #also ik the banner #im no graphic designer aight #its a miracle that there even is one #bg3 #bg3 durge #durge #dark urge #durgetash #i wanted to havs this post up about 2h ago #but #then i realised i need to post on twitter #so i procrastinated #i dont like twitter #apparently im scared of it

94 notes · View notes

ineffable-opinions · 4 months ago

Text

MAME & BL Literacies (Part 4)

Other parts: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Contents:

MAME’s queer characters and their lives

Fetishization of queer men and profiting off LGBT community

Why other queer genres like gei comi struggle to get live action adaptation?

(bonus) What Did You Eat Yesterday sexy times

BL and rape culture

Everyday ethnocentrism & BL

This is the last part of this essay series. In this part, I want to discuss the response this review of TharnType by @waitmyturtles generated. As always, corrections and criticisms are welcome.

Here are the points @solitaryandwandering raised:

1. fans will get SO rabid for MAME’s stuff yet resist tuning in for more queer-friendly Taiwanese BL or lower heat fare

I think that the BL MAME creates is "queer-friendly". Moreover, her BL focuses on the intersection of queerness with local forms of gender, patriarchy & heterosexism, class, race, skin color, age, employment, location & regionalism, abilities and disabilities, education, health conditions and access to medical care, urban-rural divide, migrant status, culture, etc.

MAME's BL have aspects of Thai queer culture and praxis that are otherwise overlooked. Here's an example.

Through Techno’s interaction with Tharn in episode 1 of TharnType, MAME highlights an important issue: invisibility of androphilic “man”. Techno comments that Tharn is the first masculine presenting androphilic male he has met, even though he has several queer friends.

This is in part due to skewed presence of androphilic male characters in mainstream media. In Thai soap operas and movies, androphilic men are 'presented as effeminate, overreactive, with a passionate but unrequited interest in men'.

Countering this perception is the hegemony of masculine aesthetics in urban Thailand’s queer culture. 'The English word “man” has been borrowed into Thai gay-speak to denote acting in a masculine way. Man describes a masculine presentation of either gay-identified or heterosexual males and contrasts with the Thai term phu-chai, which also translates as “man” but is used in the specific sense of denoting the gender role of a heterosexually identified male.

'Many Thai gays believe that effeminate gay men, or gay sao, will experience discrimination and prejudice because of their feminine characteristics and behaviours. Thai gays also think that performing gender-normative forms of manhood are useful in establishing sexual and romantic relations with other gays. These expectations are associated with the culture of images, known in Thai as phap-phot, by which many homosexual men feel compelled to act in accord with normative male gender roles.'

This is in contrast to Techno’s queer friends who blur the lines between the masculine and feminine domains. His use of the word kathoey is case in point.

Moreover, the need for social conformity for Thai gays in terms of their gender performance is an urban phenomenon. Ethnographic study by Wijngaarden traced the rapid adoption of more masculine gender performance by gay men who moved from rural setting to urban for the purpose of education and employment. Ambiguity in gender performance is more accepted in rural setting where there is gender-based understandings of homosexuality. Also, gay dating scene in urban areas seem to assign value to masculine presentation.

source

I don't really know what @solitaryandwandering mean by "queer-friendly" in the context of Taiwanese BL.

Support of fu-people (BL fans) for queer works in Taiwan is well-known. When the play 《愛情生活》 Life of Love by Xu ZhengPing was staged, they had BL version shows too.

The play has a short film adaptation which is available for free on GagaOOLala.

youtube

Fu-people have also shown their support for series like Breakfast by 想再見你.

2. Fetishization of queer men in yaoi

By that standard, is Minamoto Kazuki fetishizing straight women through his works?

source

Minamoto Kazuki is a gay mangaka who creates straight romance and smut.

Arguably, his most famous manga, at least in BL fandom, is Wall Circle’s Doujin Artist Nekoyashiki-Kun’s Desire for Recognition Grows which got live action adaptation: KabeKoji in 2022.

Apart from creating commercial BL and yaoi (self-published BL like the ones in the image given above), he has also authored an autobiographical work titled Shoujo Manga Artist Minamoto-San Comes Out and a manga exploring queer life and homophobia titled The Gay Who Turned Kaiju.

Moreover, many scholars, mangaka, fans, etc. from Asia and elsewhere have already spoken/written plenty about the issue of fetishization. Here's a compilation of resources.

3. zero critical consumption and leveraging of abusive concepts

I wonder why it is assumed that BL is consumed without critical thinking. It is true that BL, especially MAME's BL, are not didactic. TharnType is a BL with odo (royal road) narrative progression. It is not one of the sweet BL that GMMTV produces. Due to a general lack of BL literacies, there are off-the-mark expectations associated with BL, particularly Thai BL. Hence, odo BL seems to violate a lot of these misguided expectations.

TharnType is a well-done odo BL, in my opinion. "Leveraging of abusive concepts" is not a failure but a feature.

When it comes to depiction of abuse, there are those who think that it always gives the wrong message. There are variety in opinions on what is the right way to go about it. BL being an accommodating genre has space for all sorts of treatment. Even in live action, there is good variety in terms of how the theme is treated. But nothing is everyone’s cup of tea. This being the case it is understandable if someone like how MAME handles abuse, just as it is understandable if someone doesn't.

Assuming that fans don't engage critically with the theme and are mindlessly consuming it, have the implication of infantilizing the audience - as though they are without faculties of discretion and are incapable of making judgements. It also has the added implication of demonizing all media concerning queer people that deals with abuse. If MAME’s approach is deemed “unsafe” for queer population, based on that judgement, where does BL and gei comi that offer erotic treatment of abuse fall? What about queer people producing and consuming them?

That brings me to the points @nieves-de-sugui has raised.

4. how much all of these tropes where used (and still are). I believe that when things are made for tv they should take all the things you mentioned into account more than they do.

I believe that makers of live action queer content are very cautious. Thanks to that we are yet to get live action adaptation of any gei comi.

I have seen mainstream media ignore Gengoroh Tagame (probably the most popular gay mangaka creating content aimed at androphilic men) and his works for years in spite of his tangible influence on East Asian queer men. And then suddenly creating a live action adaptation of his all-ages manga My Brother’s Husband.

Who will dare to adapt his works Gunji or Fisherman’s Lodge or Pride? How can we show rape, trauma and taboo involving queer people on screen? What message will it give to the queer population? To the non-queer population?

A scene from Fisherman’s Lodge. Image courtesy of @finalatomicbuster.

If MAME was not involved in producing her BL, it is doubtful if it would have ever happened the way it did. Almost all BL adaptation is a censored adaptation, with notable exceptions like Sei no Gekiyaku. Recently, 25 Ji, Akasaka de (2024) removed complicated sexual content (including a dub-con episode) from the volume 1 of the manga, which was critical to the story and the couple’s development, in adaptation. Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka (2024) went as far as removing the more sexual second couple from the live action adaptation probably because makers thought it was better not to go anywhere near cruelty.

The first ever anime adaptation of a gei comi, Shin Yaranai ka based on Junichi Yamakawa's Kuso Miso Technique, is *sigh* disappointing to say the least.

youtube

I wanted to quickly mention What Did You Eat Yesterday yaoi version since @waitmyturtles mentioned the series.

5. What Did You Eat Yesterday

I want to highlight that What Did You Eat Yesterday was not a BL in publication. It was published in Morning, a conservative magazine for middle-aged men. This is what got a live action adaptation.

Fumi Yoshinaga has created a proper BL doujin series that includes content that couldn't be part of publication in Morning.

Here are some panels from the two latest volumes of the yaoi. I wonder if audience would have had the same impression of the show if they had incorporated the doujin bits too.

6. One piece of the puzzle that's missing here is Thai rape culture that blankets all of their society.

This is an important point @yousaygoodbyeandisay raised and it applies not just to Thailand.

Sexual assault as a theme in BL, handled in a myriad of ways, has been the case since the inception of the genre. I have discussed the history in the context of Japan here.

It was during the publication of JUNE magazine that the importance of depiction of sexual assault in BL became clear to the editor through response letters from readers.

June is a place of therapistic rehabilitation for those women who had experiences of mental and physical abuses as a female. Mr. Sagawa said that he cannot ignore that there are not a few readers who had such experiences during their childhood.

source

MAME studied BL and its production academically (you can find her research output by searching her name: อรวรรณ วิชญวรรณกุล) before she entered live action production. She not only know what she is writing/creating but also is willing to deal with difficult themes without taking sweet, fable-like route.

Now onto the points @mikuni14 raised.

7. my shock seeing so much SA related stuff (the show covered just about every problematic sex thing there is, and finally forgave the heinous criminal instead of putting him in jail. I don't know how MAME can create for example AePete and also somany vile things

For those who don’t know, MAME is a unique Thai BL creator. Thai BL creators on average lack BL literacies for various reasons. MAME is one of the exceptions. This is because:

she is a BL author & hence, one of the creators of BL literacies

she studied BL and its production academically [you can find her research output by searching her name: อรวรรณ วิชญวรรณกุล]

then she started producing live action BL

In an industry which is lacking in BL literacies, what she brings to the table is fu-culture (BL fan culture) in all its glory. Unfortunately, the live action audience who are fans of sweet BL, have a hard time adjusting.

Here are some typical narrative progressions for a (Japanese) BL:

あまあま – sweet

ユニーク – unique

シリアス – serious

邪道 – evil road (jadō)

王道 - royal road (odo)

Any theme/one-line plot can choose to take any of these narrative progressions. Moreover, Thai BL usually originates online which allows for innovation.

MAME employs different narrative progressions for different ships. AePete follows the typical sweet BL progression. KengklaTechno follows jado and TharnType odo.

TarTum is a sweet BL, complicated by them being step-brothers. While their pairing is barely on odo, Tum as a character has a complicated odo progression within their ship.

Since TharnType is an odo BL all wrong-doings are not punished. Take for example KinnPorsche, another odo BL, where the ending can’t be 'organized crime gets the main characters in jail'. In odo BL involving crime, most of the victims are usually cannon fodders. So, characters are not bothered much by the crime. But in MAME's universe, Tum is an important character, someone designed to make audience root for him. Hence the audience can’t dismiss the crimes against him. It is not wrong to want the narrative to have Lhong jailed. If TharnType was a sweet BL, it would have gone there.

8. selective memory

Selective memory is indicative of preferences and it helps to fine tune BL consumption. MAME's storytelling incorporates diverse elements. Those who enjoy her works also might find that there something or the other that isn't to their taste. This is an important part of BL literacies.

I enjoy dangerous characterizations over subdued ones and prefer a meriba more than a happy ending. While there are plenty of BL media with those, they are super rare in live action. So, I appreciate MAME for taking into account fans who want something different from sweet BL.

Here are the points @bengiyo raised:

9. What Did You Eat Yesterday v/s Old Fashion Cupcake

This has nothing to do with MAME but has to do with BL literacies more generally. Old Fashion Cupcake is more appealing to BL fans because it is a BL and hence not sanitized to continue run on a conservative magazine. So, it permeates moe (affect). Moreover, creators of Old Fashion Cupcake are better informed than creators of What Did You Eat Yesterday in terms of BL literacies. So, the direction and acting works better in the former than the latter.

9. The Effect feeling like the first huge volley leveled at BL from within the genre.

I am always amazed at the takes on the Effect. Somehow it is assumed to be a critique of BL genre. That's not the case. The Effect is a proper jado BL.

What audience are picking up on is the 'I can do it better' spirit that motivates a lot of BL creation. It is natural for audience to feel like the depiction of complex themes, such as sexual abuse, bullying, delinquency, identity theft, murder, infidelity, pregnancy, etc. are not dealt with well. Creating BL that fits one's taste better is one way authors and artists go about addressing the issue. That is how we end up with same theme dealt with in numerous ways. When that expands, we end up with sub-genres and BL categories.

Jado BL are rare, particularly in Thai BL.

It is difficult to sell BL with jado and other narrative progressions. It becomes even more difficult to sell branded pairings when the characters they play are not impeccable. It is unlikely that actors playing bad guys can sell products for advertisers. (Imagine the characters from The Effect being in ads together!) It is even more unlikely that fans would go broke behind wicked characters and would want to attend fan-meetings and concerts featuring them in some way.

This is also so as not to trouble the average audience’s worldview (世界観) and is clearly a low effort and low skill (in terms of BL literacies) approach. But since a lot of audience don’t appreciate villain-like characterization, it is clearly low risk, no chance of a backlash from angry audience and the best method for assured money making.

@respectthepetty has also flagged the next issue:

10. History3: Make Our Days Count.

Gays were being buried and put in prison in Taiwanese BLs in the same year it legalized marriage equality.

There is a lot of ethnocentrism in the hate that MODC gets, apart from lack of BL literacies. While I understand where that take is coming from given American media history in the context of Hayes code, AIDS crisis, etc., I wish media from elsewhere would be looked at independently.

Queer narratives everywhere have their own over-used tropes and historical issues. Malayalam media, for example, has the issue of having one of two queer characters having varathan vibe (Rosy in Ponnaranjanam, Kiran in Sancharram, Antony's boyfriend in Mumbai Police, Kiran in My Life Partner, etc.) that makes them look odd in Kerala's rurban landscape. Even Kaathaloram played into this trope. The problem is that it perpetuates the belief that queerness is an import of sorts.

Mindless application of media critique learned from the west leads to the brushing aside of pertinent issues with media of the region in favor of finding legitimacy via commonality with the west. That way we end up with crits accusing Moothon of employing bury the gay trope while ignoring that:

Moothon is a gangster action flick like Kammattippaadam

It is rare for romances irrespective of the gender of the main characters and genre of the movie to have happy ending in Malayalam. In fact, almost all great love stories in Malayalam movies are tragedies. This is unlike in Hollywood where heterosexual romances usually get happy endings.

more importantly, every queer character, including Latheef, is infused with varathan vibe.

Taiwanese BL has issues worth exploring. Issues of their own media - not varathan queer trope from Malayalam media or bury your gay trope from American media.

MODC was an dealing with well-established BL tropes (like any other show in the History franchise). It explored bereavement (a tribute to Lan Yu, first ever danmei live action adaptation) and substitute lover trope.

The series introduced a doppelgänger of Yu XiGu (Xiang HaoTing’s white moonlight), a perfect candidate for substitute lover trope. But instead of pursuing it, they subverted the trope.

History franchise, which was build to grow BL and BL literacy in Taiwan, ended up victim to prejudice since it failed to measure up to foreign standards. MODC offered something rare. The audience didn't appreciate it. They dismissed it for not measuring up to expectations colored by experiences which danmei is not connected with for historical reasons.

By that standard, would tongzhi literature from Taiwan too have to make amends for sins of the west towards its queers? Imagine stripping of death as a theme from tongzhi author Chiang-Sheng Kuo's works! Then there is also difference in how death is perceived in different societies.

Why must BL be arm-twisted to fit into norms from elsewhere and correct the wrongs of someone else?

11. BL profit off LGBT community

This is really interesting. There are many questions that I can think of that is linked to this take:

Is BL really profitable? Short answer is no. Long answer here.

Is it really LGBT community that BL profits off?

Probably not. It is moe that BL sells. That imo, is the main difference between BL and other queer genres.

Anyway, BL predates LGBT acronym. It predates de-pathologization of homosexuality in many BL creating regions. Fu-people were creating BL before mainstream media started representing queer people in media. Fu-people battled state and its censors everywhere along with queer people. Live action BL surely is commercialized. But that is capitalism reaping the dividends of decades of fu-people's labor of love.

@he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle raised the following point.

12. 2019 saw significant increase in quantity and quality of BL. Since then, live actions smoothed out the rougher edges of the source material (like what happened with Kinnporsche and Love in the Air).

While I understand the rational behind toning down dangerous characterization to appeal to the largest audience, I think that kind of censorship for commercialization limits potential of the genre. The impact is most visible in case of GMMTV BL such as Only Friend (where it could neither be sweet BL nor could it embark properly on jado).

Compare it with adaptation of the ero-BL Sei no Gekiyaku. It stayed true to the content and pushed the boundaries enough to bring about convergence between gay pinku cinema and BL. When BL is allowed to explore its potential freely, it not only imparts BL literacies but also makes it possible for other queer genres to gain new audience, which in turn encourages production houses to venture into different queer genres.

jjsanguine raised the following point.

13. I don't even hate toxic characters or plotlines, actually I love them. But like even if the characters don't know they're doing it, the show should. And it really really doesn't. And neither do the fans. Kind of alarming.

This is in relation to Lhong and San.

Lhong is a yandere in a odo BL. (for detailed discussion see Part 3) It is a matter of the world view and less about show's self-awareness (which I believe it has). If TharnType was an jado BL, Tharn could have ended up with Lhong and Type would be the stalking horse.

@jjsanguine later commented about how Lhong felt "goofy" by way of his over-the-top actions which made the show's convictions questionable.

San and Tharn's relationship was, to an extend, the most realistically depicted. I remember starting to learn about Thai queerness and realizing that a lot of elements in their relationship reads like ethnography. Consider for example Tharn being only fourteen at the time of sexual debut and San being older. This is not too different from the average age of sexual debut in Thailand. Despite it being a compoundable offense, average age of sexual debut is declining. Tharn's discovery of what he likes and dislikes and shedding cuteness (which San comments about) and adopting manliness (which Techno comments about) too is in line with what is observed among urban queer youth. Contrast this with Sky in Love in the Air whose sexual debut and exploitation are tied to his migration to urban landscape. Sky's backstory too read like ethnography and his vulnerability a reflection of the many others' in his society.

@absolutebl raised the following points:

14. Rape - as plot device - doesn't make good stories - lazy & bad writing: Feminist critique and modern narrative analysis.

Feminist and queer BL scholars from Akiko Mizoguchi to James Welker have discussed rape as a plot device in BL. Since experts have written plenty, I'll spare my effort discussing this misconception.

15. rape is an act of sexuality (or worse, sexy), it is NOT - it is an act of violence. But that is only the start to the way it’s chronically mishandled, especially in commercial fiction (of which romance makes the largest percentage).

Akiko Mizoguchi's two decade of work have addressed this in relation to Japanese BL which I feel holds true for BL more generally. Moreover, BL is not a romance sub-genre. BL is a genre in itself. A lot of BL is romance. There is enough overlap between those genres to give the impression that BL is a romance sub-genre. But there are plenty of other works too. Like One Room Angel and Social Reform Season. Similarly, BL is not a porn sub-genre. A lot of BL is porn. But come on!

16. [MAME] produces consistent highly-profitable narratives by-and-about queer folks but utterly disingenuous to the queer experience and that defines exploitation in the ET industry... Right, just adding that yes BL does not represent (in any way) the reality of being queer in any of these countries.

I have already discussed how MAME's works are intersectional reflections of queer experience. BL has been reflecting different queer experiences in Japan even before the term boys' love emerged. But narrow, ethnocentric ideas of queerness doesn't lend itself to honest understanding of other forms and representation. Consider characters being addressed as เมีย ‘wife’. It is a Thai queer practice. One can always dismiss that since it sounds heterosexist in the culture one comes from as absolutebl does in this post. That, imo, is 'disingenuous to the queer experience' of Thai people.

The question is what are westerners missing in their own countries' queer media that they feel they must just judge everything with no care for the cultures and people producing content for themselves? Seriously, what have the westernization done to some in the audience that they emerge so desperate for queer content that they watch BL yet remain blind to the cultures (fu-culture in particular) that produce them and splooge vitriolic ethnocentrism?

That concludes this discourse series. I want to sincerely thank everyone who contributed to and inspired this 🙏.

Other parts: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

60 notes · View notes

luceafarul-de-dimineata · 5 months ago

Note

um if this doesn't make you uncomfortable

i saw your hc lucifer as orthodox christian and i have an interest in orthodox so can i request some hcs of lucifer as an orthodox christian (like his daily activities as orthodox christian, etc.)

again, if you are feeling uncomfortable, feel free to ignore this, i know many dont feel comfortable with topic of religion

(if you want age confirmation, im an legal adult)

I'm not uncomfortable with talking about my religion, but there's this itty bitty problem that comes up when you discuss orthodox christian traditions. Every countries orthodox traditions are different because, unlike catholic christianity with the pope, there's no authorithy over the whole religion. (There's patriarchs, but they're authorothy over their respective region, not the whole of orthodoxy. It's complicated and I do not have the full understanding on how the orthodox hierarchy works either.)

That's a long way of saying that I'll be writing Lucifer as specificly a romanian orthodox christian because that's the one I'm familiar with.

Lucifer being orthodox on main

There's a day every year when Lucifer will wash the feet of all his nobles. Since he's at the top of the food chain in his country (and in general), he's the one that has to wash the sins away from all his nobles. He used to do it to the patience as well, but they're too many since the war began.

Paradise Lost is the only country that celebrates Easter, but it's during the correct date and not the catholic date.

Easter Eve night is spent at the church where Lucifer sings a specific prayer before leading the atendees around the church three times. Every atendent has to hold a chicken or rooster as they circle the church and at the end they sacrifice the birds to the lord.

Not an orthodox thing exactly, but Lucifer loves decorating eggs with beads, kind of like this

During Easter everyone in Paradise Lost has to smash an egg with everyone else. (I have no idea how to explain it, just have a video. That's basicly it)

youtube

After Easter he greats all his nobles with "Hristos a înviat" ("Christ has been revived" kinda, I'm not a professional translator) and his nobles have to answer "Adevărat a înviat" ("True, he's been revived."). This goes on for a month

Moving on from Christmas, whenever a patient dies, Lucifer rushes to their room and lights candle.

No noble in Paradise Lost ever dies (thank you, Gamigin) but Lucifer has a whole ass plan prepared for the possibility of them dying. I talking casket measurements, a list of their favorite foods so he may give it out as pomană, the prayer he'll honor them with, everything

Whenever something bizarre or unorthodox (haha) happens, Lucifer will let out a quiet "Doamne fereşte" ("God forbid") and look at an icon (he has those in every room).

He was given a cross necklace when he was younger by God and he never takes it off. Will hiss at anyone that even tries to touch it.

Lucifer only wears red underwear. It's to prevent people from putting envy curses on him. If he's praising someone a lot, at some point he'll do the "pu pu pu să nu te deochi" ("[spitting noise] may I not curse you")

He sometimes calls his brothers by their hebrew names, that's Gavril, Mihail and Rafail. Kind of preferes calling them by those names, but he can go with the latin version as well.

I'mma be honest, these were the hardest headcanons to write for. There's so many romanian words that have no direct translation and all of them are related to religion in some way 😭😭😭 I didn't even bring up the strigoi or jumping over fire. I've been told before that I kind of need to tone down the use of Romanian on my blog since not everyone is from here, so I tried my best with translations.

#whb #what in hell is bad #whb lucifer #whb paradise lost #I hope it makes sense #I really want to talk about my traditions and how I hc other characters from media to have them #but it's difficult when you have to explain what every word means

54 notes · View notes

maplewozapi · 8 months ago

Note

Hey, sorry to ask this of you, but i thought it best to hear what an actual Native American thinks, and not just a bunch of random article writers.

Frustrating story short: Is "American Indians" an okay term, to mean the Indigenous peoples of North America? And is shortening it to "Indians" a bit crude, or also okay?

I was studying Swedish and came upon the word "indianby" (=Indian town), which felt like a really odd term. It doesn't feel right to me to, at least for clarity's sake, use "Indian" out of context like that, since it isn't really clear which "Indians" you mean (country vs. Native Americans)

Of course it would be better to refer to people more specifically than that, like referencing their tribe, and I know that you can't speak for literally all Indigenous people,, but I would still like to hear your views on the umbrella terms that get used, and how they're received on a local level.

Anyways, yeah, sorry to ask this. You are not obligated to answer of course.

A more fun question to end this: What's your favourite Pokémon, and is there a regional type of it that you like best?

ps. i really love all the mlp art you've done, your human Rainbow Dash design is living rent free in my head. just spinning in there like theyre on one of those turntables thats in a microwave.

Oh yeah, so like it’s kinda a grey answer, but for your example yeah I’d say that’s pretty outta date if they’re talking about Native Americans. When it comes to talking about Acts and Laws or names of tribal reservations it is perfectly ok to say Indian as in the “Indian religious rights Act, Indian removal Act, -The Indian Sioux Tribe ie. the name of a reservation- bureau of indian affairs and what not. But most European countries still say Indian or even some slurs (squ*w, red skin,braves) and viewed as ok. It’s not. But this is coming from countries that think it’s fun to larp as plains tribes too. Please use Native American or indigenous people of America if there’s a native person using Indian that’s ok, best case is to just learn the persons tribe and refer to them by their tribe then “Native American.”

Also my favorite Pokémon is celebi and the flabebe line🥰 regional type is definitely alola but Galarian ponyta is so awesome and I love it so much.

#ask

103 notes · View notes

anotherhumaninthisworld · 10 months ago

Note

Can you tell me the story of the relationship between saint-just and desmoulins? . ..

Because I couldn't understand it properly so yeah ...

The first connection between Desmoulins and Saint-Just is from 2 January 1790, when the former publishes an annonce for the latter’s recently published Organt in number 6 of Révolutions de France et de Brabant:

Organt, poem in twenty verses, with this epigraph: Vous, jeune homme, au bon sens avez-vous dit adieu ? And this preface: J’ai vingt ans, j’ai mal fait, he pourrai faire mieux.

A few months later, we find the following letter from Saint-Just to Desmoulins. It is undated, but can be traced to May 1790. The letter makes Desmoulins, alongside Robespierre, who he wrote a letter to the following year, the only revolutionaries Saint-Just is confirmed to have contacted prior to heading to Paris in 1792. Unlike in the case of Robespierre however, the letter to Desmoulins implies a correspondence was actually picked up between the two:

Monsieur, If you were not so busy I would tell you some more details about the Chauni assembly where one can find men of considerable calibre and quality. I was received in spite of my youth. Sieur Gelli, your compatriot from Vermandois had denounced me. He was thrown out bodily. We saw your compatriots, M. Saulce, M. Violette and others, by whom I was received with great courtesy. There is no point telling you (because you are not fond of foolish praise) that your region is proud of you. You will have known before I did that the department is fixed at Laon. Is that good or is that bad for one or other of the towns? It seems to me that it is no more than a point of honour between the two towns and points of honour are of little importance. I took the tribune; I worked with the intention of carrying the day on the question of the chief place but I did not follow on, I left, weighed down with compliments like a donkey burdened with relics, having, however, the assurance that at the next legislature I could be with you in the national assembly. You had promised to write to me, but I see clearly that you will not have the time. I am free as of now. Should I return to you or remain amongst the foolish aristocrats in this part of the world. At the time of my return from Chauni the peasants from my region came to look for me at Manicamp. The Comte de Lauraguais was greatly astonished by this rustic-patriotic ceremony. I led them all to his house for a visit. They said that he was out in the fields, however, like Tarquin, I had a rod with which I cut off the head of a nearby fern beneath the window of the castle and without a word we made a volte face. Farewell my dear Desmoulins. Write to me if you have need of me. Your latest issues are full of excellent things. Apollo and Minerva are still with you and are not displeased. If you have anything to say to your people in Guise I will be seeing them again in eight days’ time from Laon where I will be going on specific business. Goodbye again: glory, peace and patriotic rage. Saint-Just I will read you this evening since I have only spoken to you of your recent issues by saying yes.

Different feelings can however be found a year later, in a letter Saint-Just adressed to Villain Daubigny on July 20 1791 (it is dated 1792 in Oeuvres complètes de Saint-Just, but Saint-Just’s biographer Bernard Vinot points out that this is most likely an error, since all the events it makes allusions to took place the previous year):

…Go and see Desmoulins, embrace him for me, and tell him that he will never see me again, that I esteem his patriotism, but that I despise him, because I have penetrated his soul, and because he fears that I will betray him. Tell him to not abandon the good cause, and recommend it to him, because he does not yet possess the audacity of magnanimous virtue.

What exactly had happened between the two for Saint-Just to write this about Desmoulins is unknown. The same can be said about the question regarding where and when the meeting between them he alludes to here played out, since neither of them is confirmed to have left their respective towns in 1791.

Yet another year later, in September 1792, both Saint-Just and Desmoulins were elected deputies for the National Convention, meaning the former came to settle in Paris on Rue de Gaillon 7, around 2,5 km from the latter’s home on Rue du Théâtre 1 (today Rue de l’Odeon 28). Aside from the fact both were fervent montagnards, I have not been able to find any connection between them until the second half of the following year, with the release of Desmoulins’ Lettre de Camille Desmoulins, député de Paris à la Convention, August général Dillon en prison aux Madelonettes. In it, Saint-Just, who had accused Dillon of having been asked to lead an uprising to put the dauphin on the throne and declare Marie-Antoinette regent on June 2 1793, got described the following way in a footnote:

After Legendre, the member of the Convention who has the highest opinion of himself is Saint-Just. One can see by his gait and bearing that he looks upon his own head as the corner-stone of the Revolution, for he carries it upon his shoulders with as much respect and as if it was the Sacred Host. But what makes his vanity killing is, that some years ago he published an epic poem in twenty-four cantos entitled Argant [sic]. Rivarol and Champcenetz, from whose microscope, used in the interests of the Almanach des grands hommes, not a single verse, not a single hemistich in France has ever escaped, have in vain gone searching for this; they who have hunted up even the least little scrap of literature have not seen Saint-Just’s epic poem in twenty-four cantos. After such a misadventure, how can he show himself?

According to some sources, the ”he carries his head like the Sacret Host” comment was a reply to something Saint-Just had himself said about Desmoulins. Marcellin Matton published in 1834 an anecdote (which it is presumed he obtained from Desmoulins’ mother- or sister-in-law) in which Guillaume Brune has tea with the Desmoulins couple at the time of the numbers of the Vieux Cordelier being released. The following conversation would then have played out:

”…You [Brune said] are also read by Barère who recognizes himself; by Saint-Just, who promised to make you carry your head like Saint Denis.” ”That’s true,” [Desmoulins] replied, ”I remember it: it was a very bad joke, and my answer was much better. Have you seen my letter to Dillon? In the approach and posture of Saint-Just, we see that he regards his head as the cornerstone of the republic, and that he carries it on his shoulders with respect like a holy sacrament. Was I wrong, and do you think that for such a good joke he would want to kill me? I only ask him for one favor, and that is to wait until he has given a valid response.”

In 1851, the historian Nicolas Villiaume similarly claimed to have had the same story told to him multiple times by Desmoulins’ mother-in-law. Interestingly though, the ”I will make him carry his head like Saint Denis” comment already appeared in works dated 1816 and 1825 (in both cases without any source cited). There, it is instead portrayed as a response to Desmoulins having written ”Saint-Just carries his head like the Sacred Host” and not as the cause of it. In light of this, I think the idea of Saint-Just having actually said it is something that must be taken with a big grain of salt.

The things more reliable sources can tell us about Saint-Just’s attitude towards Desmoulins at the time are less overwhelming. He was away from Paris during much of the period where Desmoulins released and got in trouble for the Vieux Cordelier (from October 17 to December 4, December 10 to December 30, and finally January 22 to February 13), and when he was there during said period, I cannot find him recorded to have spoken about Desmoulins or his journal a single time. Saint-Just also went unmentioned in all of the six numbers of the Vieux Cordelier that were released during the time they were both alive.

When the Committee of Public Safety decided to strike down Desmoulins and the other ”dantonists,” it was however Saint-Just who, like in the previous case with the hébertists, got tasked with writing a report against them. Here he obtained the help of Robespierre, who prepared around 65 notes for him to use as material against them. In said notes, Robespierre presented Desmoulins as less guilty than Danton and Fabre, having instead been more of their minion, a version of the story Saint-Just then stuck to when finishing his Rapport sur la conjuration ourdie pour obtenir un changement de dynastie; et contre Fabre d’Églantine, Danton, Philippeaux, Lacroix et Camille Desmoulins:

Bad citizen (speaking of Danton), you have conspired, you said, two days ago, bad things about Desmoulins, an instrument that you have lost, and you attributed to him shameful vices. […] For six months, a plan of palpitation and anxiety has been hatched within the government. Every day we were sent a report on Paris; we were flexibly insinuated, sometimes imprudent advice, sometimes misplaced fears; the tables were calculated on the feelings that it was important to arouse in us, so that the government would move in the direction that suited criminal plots; Danton was praised there, Hébert and Camille Desmoulins were accredited, and all their projects were assumed to be sanctioned by public opinion, to discourage us. […] What shall I say of those who claimed to be exclusively the old Cordeliers? They were precisely Danton, Fabre, Camille Desmoulins, and the ministry, author of the reports on Paris, where Danton, Fabre, Camille and Philippeanx are praised, where everything is directed in their direction and in the direction of Hébert. Danton had directed the last writings of Desmoulins and Philippeaux. […] Camille Desmoulins, who was initially duped and ended up being an accomplice, was, like Philippeaux, an instrument of Fabre and Danton. It was said, as proof of Fabre's good nature, that when he was at Desmoulins' house at the time when he read to someone a writing in which he requested a committee of clemency for the aristocracy and called the Convention the court of Tiberius, Fabre started to cry. The crocodile cries too. As Camille Desmoulins lacked character, his pride was used. As a rhetorician, he attacked the revolutionary government in all its forms; he spoke brazenly in favor of the enemies of the Revolution, proposed a committee of clemency for them; showed himself to be very inclement towards the popular party; attacked, like Hébert and Vincent, the representatives of the people in the armies; like Hébert, Vincent and Buzot, he himself treated them as proconsuls. He had been the defender of the infamous Dillon, with the same audacity that Dillon himself showed, when at Maubeuge he ordered his army to march on Paris, and take an oath of loyalty to the king. He fought the law against the English; he received thanks in England, in the newspapers of that time. Have you noticed that all those who were praised in England have betrayed their fatherland here?

According to an anecdote published in the pamphlet À Maximilien Robespierre aux enfers (1795), released a few months after thermidor by Taschereau de Fargues and Paul-Auguste-Jacques, Saint-Just and Robespierre had wanted to denounce Desmoulins and the other dantonists before arresting them, but been downvoted by their colleagues:

Why should I not say that [the dantonist purge] was a meditated assassination, prepared for a long time, when two days after this session where the crime was taking place, the representative Vadier told me that Saint-Just, through his stubbornness, had almost caused the downfall of the members of the two committees, because he had wanted that the accused to be present when he read the report at the National Convention; and such was his obstinacy that, seeing our formal opposition, he threw his hat into the fire in rage, and left us there. Robespierre was also of this opinion; he believed that by having these deputies arrested beforehand, this approach would sooner or later be reprehensible; but, as fear was an irresistible argument with him, I used this weapon to fight him: You can take the chance of being guillotined, if that is what you want; For my part, I want to avoid this danger by having them arrested immediately, because we must not have any illusions about the course we must take; everything is reduced to these bits: If we do not have them guillotined, we will be that ourselves.

Regardless of whether this be true or not, on March 30, Saint-Just was one of eighteen men to sign the by Amar drafted arrest warrant for Danton, Delacroix, Philippeaux and Desmoulins, who were all arrested in the night. The next day at the Convention, Robespierre shut down Legendre when he suggested the accused be allowed to come and defend themselves before the Convention, after which Saint-Just entered the hall, mounted the rostrum and read out the act of accusation the two of them had worked out.

Receiving a copy of Saint-Just’s report in his cell at the Luxembourg prison, Desmoulins got around to preparing a defence. In it, he claimed the author of the report had personal reasons for wanting him dead. He also referred to him as ”Monsieur le Chevalier de Saint-Just,” a nicknamed previously used by the girondin Salle:

If I had gotten the chance to print in turn, if one hadn’t put me in isolation, if one had lifted the seals and if I had the paper neccesary to establish my defense, if one gave me only two days to make a number seven, imagine how I would confront M. the chevalier Saint-Just! Imagiene how I would convince him of the most atrocious slander ! But Saint-Just writes leisurely in his bath, in his bathtub, he plots my murder during fifteen days, while I have no place to put my writing desk and only a few hours to defend my life. What is this if not the the duel of the Emperor Commodus, who, armed with an excellent blade, forced his enemy to fight with a simple foil garnished with cork? […] I arrive at the part of the report which concerns me. In living memory, there is no example of such atrocious slander as this piece. And yet there is not a single person in the Convention that doesn’t know that Monsieur the former chevalier Saint-Just holds for me an implacable hatred for a slight joke that I allowed myself five months ago in one of my numbers. Bourdaloue said: Molière puts me in his comedy, I will put him in my sermon. I put Saint-Just in a giggly number, and he puts me in a guillotine report where there isn’t a single true word in my regard. When Saint-Just accuses me of being an accomplice of Orléans and Dumouriez, he shows well that he is a patriot of yesterday. Who denounced Dumouriez first of all, and before Marat and more vigorously than anyone else? Certainly one cannot deny that it was me? My Tribune des Patriotes exists, let Saint-Just read the portrait I there painted of Dumouriez six months before his treason in Belgium, he will see that I have never since added anything to this portrait. And Orléans who he makes me the accomplice of, who doesn’t know that I was the first to denounce him? That the only writings on this faction that the Jacobins have printed and distributed were written by me? Does Saint-Just no longer remember my Histoire des Brissotins? […] There are witnesses to the fact that the great republican Saint-Just, at the beginning of the Convention, said: Oh! They want a republic, she shall cost them dearly! There are witnesses to the fact the ambitious Saint-Just said: I know where I go.

In an unfinished and unsent letter written to Robespierre around the same time, Lucile Desmoulins too held Saint-Just as the main culprit behind her husband’s fate, arguing that he had misled their friend:

…As far from the insensibility of your Saint-Just as from his base jealousies, [Camille] recoiled in front if the idea of accusing a college comrade, a companion in arms. […] Robespierre, can you really complete the fatal projects which the vile souls that surround you no doubt have inspired you to? […] Had I been Saint-Just’s wife I would tell him this: the sake of Camille is yours, it’s the sake of all the friends of Robespierre!

A rumor claiming that Lucile had been sent money from the imprisoned Arthur Dillon conveniently arrived around the same time the trial against the indulgents started getting off the rails. In the afternoon of April 4, after the proceedings had been closed for the day, Saint-Just again mounted the rostrum at the Convention and revealed the discovery of this new conspiracy:

The public prosecutor of the revolutionary tribunal reported that the revolt of the guilty had caused the court proceedings to be suspended until the Convention had taken measures. You have escaped the greatest danger that ever threatened freedom: now all the accomplices are discovered, and the revolt of the criminals at the foot of justice itself. Intimidated by the law, the secret of their conscience; their despair, their fury, everything announces that the good nature they presented was the most hypocritical trap that had been set for the revolution. What innocent person has ever rebelled before the law? There is no need for any other proof of their attacks than their audacity. What! those whom we accused of having been the accomplices of Dumouriez and Orléans, those who only made a revolution in favor of a new dynasty, those who conspired for the misfortune and slavery of the people are at the height of their infamy! If there are men here who are truly friends of liberty, if the energy that suits those who have undertaken to liberate their country is in their hearts, you will see that there are no longer any conspirators on the front line, who, counting on the aristocracy with whom they have marched for several years, call upon the people the vengeance of the crime. No, liberty shall not recoil in front of her enemies; their coalition has been revealed. Dillon, who ordered his army to march upon Paris, has declared that the wife of Desmoulins had received money in order to promote a movement to assassinate the patriots and the Revolutionary Tribunal. We thank you for placing us in the position of honor; like you, we will cover the fatherland with our bodies. Dying is nothing, provided that the revolution triumphs; here is the day of glory; this is the day when the Roman senate fought against Catiline; This is the day to consolidate public liberty forever. Your committees respond to you with heroic surveillance. Who can refuse you his veneration in this terrible moment when you fight for the last time against the faction which was lenient towards your enemies, and which today finds fury to fight liberty?

After having heard Saint-Just’s report, the Convention used this new discovery to order ”that the Revolutionary Tribunal shall proceed with the instruction relating to the conspiracy of Lacroix, Danton, Chabot and others. The President shall make use of every means which the law permits to cause his authority and that of the Revolutionary Tribunal to be respected, and to repress every attempt on the part of the accused to trouble public tranquillity and to hinder the course of justice. It is decreed that all persons accused of conspiracy who shall resist or insult the national justice shall be outlawed and receive judgment on the spot.” This order became essential for getting the dantonists condemned to death the following day.

Saint-Just had however nothing to do with the actual arrest warrant for Lucile, signed the same day by Robespierre, Billaud-Varennes, C-A Prieur, Carnot, Couthon, Barère, Du Barran and Voulland, which would lead to her ending up on the scaffold as well nine days later.

I’m currently blanking when it comes to contemporaries who had anything to say regarding the relationship between Saint-Just and Desmoulins.

#saint-just #desmoulins #camille desmoulins #louis antoine saint just #frev #frev friendships #ask

109 notes · View notes

brodinsons · 9 months ago

Text

(The screencaps have descriptive alt-text embedded.)

OK folks, all of my purchased plans have activated & #esimsforgaza is in critical need of more!

I'm going to provide a step-by-step tutorial for the NOMAD app, specifically. Please download it if you have the ability.

Step 1: sign up (feel free to use the referral code K56437QB)

Step 2: once your account/profile is set up, go to the bottom left hand tab on your screen labeled "DATA" and tab into "REGIONAL PLANS"

Step 3: scroll alllllll the way to the bottom and select "MIDDLE EAST"

Step 4: after selecting "MIDDLE EAST", you will see four (4) different plans (1GB/3GB/5GB/10GB) and you select whichever one you can afford! (there is a one-use NOMADCNG promo code, but it may be expired)

Step 5: purchase the plan and DO NOT INSTALL IT, but wait for the email with the QR code and manual instructions, both of which you will screencap and send to the initiative ([email protected])

Step 6: keep an eye on your plans via the center "MANAGE" tab so you can clock when one is activated! (if ~3-4 weeks go by without any activity, forward your original email and add the plan's expiration date to the subject line)

Step 7: a plan has activated and someone in Gaza is rapidly using data...that means you're going to need to keep topping the plan up for as long as it's in use/as long as you're able!

Step 8: click into the activated plan and hit the giant blue "ADD-ON" button at the bottom of the screen, then choose whichever add-on amount you can afford

Step 9: if a plan expires without use, contact the help center and request a refund (that way, you can use the refund to purchase a new one)

Step 10: spread the word! use the referral codes so you and comrades get the automatic kickback to buy even more eSIMS!

#esims for gaza #free gaza #free palestine #ceasefire now

22 notes · View notes

coldflash-corner · 6 months ago

Text

Worldbuilding/Etc: My Soulmate AU [1]

-My asks are open, so feel free to send asks if you want me to make a post abt something specific in this AU, whether mentioned in this post or otherwise

-In a reincarnation scenario, soulmates can change. In the case of Kendra and Carter, theirs have never changed before, so in most lives they believed that theirs could never actually change. This is wrong. Kendra's soulmate is not Carter Hall

-Connected to above: It is so extremely rare that people don't even think it's possible in some areas, but sometimes someone can have a soulmate but not be their soulmate. Which can be an interesting time for everyone involved, especially if there are romantic feelings in the mix

-Mick Rory does not currently have a soulmate, and has no memories of every having one. He has oft thought fire to be his soulmate, in a way, because watching the flames makes him feel warm, like there are flames under his skin

-^^in a synesthesia way not a horny way. Please do not be weird about the fire, I'm just a little guy (/lh)

-People can sometimes get a new soulmate after theirs died, but it's not overly common in the mortal communities. Much more common in the immortal circles

-Soulmates of time travelers can use heartbeat and what they know of their partner to figure out if they're talking to the version of their partner who is synced with their part of the timeline, or if they're from the past/future

-Having multiple soulmates simultaneously is possible, and can make some things confusing/fun

-Iris and Eddie are soulmates, but they took forever to tell each other their suspicions bc they didn't want to look like they were moving too fast or pressuring the other into anything

-The author of this AU keeps trying to give Barry 2 platonic soulmates on top of his soulmateship with Snart, but is actively choosing not to even when their brain is pouting about it

-Caitlin's soulmate is Ronnie Raymond. She's had... a time.

-Lisa had a soulmate, who she met when she was fifteen and they were dating until she was 16. This was another girl her same age, who lived in her neighborhood. Unfortunately, she died when they were 16, and Lisa took a while to come even close to recovering from that

-Lisa is especially attracted to Cisco because she thinks he also does not have a soulmate. He... technically does... but they aren't together right now and there doesn't seem to be any future plans of them being together, so he has forced the possibility out of his mind and pretends he doesn't have one

-Mark and Clyde Mardon are an example of platonic soulmates who are siblings

-Joe's soulmate was not his wife and he knows who they are, but he firmly Does Not Talk About Them. Iris and Barry both firmly know that topic is Completely Off Limits and never bring it up

-Hartley hasn't knowingly met his soulmate yet. They're still alive! So maybe one day they'll meet

-Fun Fact: Hartley once thought that his soulmate might be Dr. Wells, because the man seemed to have an eerie ability to track his emotions, but eventually realized that was wishful thinking and that this was definitely not the case

-Barry knew he and Snart were soulmates before Snart knew Barry Allen was the Flash. He didn't know how to approach this, so this led to him just turning Golden Retriever energy to 11 and hoping for the best

-Time travel and dramatically changed timelines can alter soulmate connections ^-^

-People are more likely to be soulmates with people in their general region than otherwise, but it is rarely possible to have a soulmate across the world

-There are "Find My Soulmate" apps where people can be like "Hey I had a panic attack at this time and it lasted for x minutes, did anyone feel that?" or "Hi! I play soccer, has anyone had elevated soulmate heart rate consistently on these days and times as if said soulmate is engaging in physical activity?" and other such things

-Sometimes when a person on a sports team meets a person through those apps who almost CERTAINLY is soulmates with a member of their sports team, they all run experiments together to make sure it's the right one

-If a time or dimension traveler without a soulmate time/dimension travels, there is a small chance they can become soulmates with a non-soulmate-haver in the area. Which can make things fun and spicy for everyone involved!

-Eobard Thawne had a soulmate in his future, but he killed them because the bitch got ISSUUEESS

-^^He was always on the lookout for that telltale heartbeat, in case the time travel fuckery gave him a new soulmate. It never did. But there was someone that he had wished, for sometime, that he would be given that connection with. It's so much better for the other person that it never did. (It couldn't have, really, bc their soulmate was still alive technically, but it's Really Good that it didn't nonetheless)

-Joe had really really wanted Iris and Barry to be soulmates, ever since they were little kids. And he didn't completely handle it well when he learned, without a shadow of a doubt, that they were not.

#coldflash-corner's soulmate au #coldflash #leonard snart #barry allen #the flash tv #if anyone guesses the soulmate pairs/eobard's wish soulmate with the non-info i gave i'd be SO shocked and also impressed #worldbuilding

15 notes · View notes

leggerefiore · 2 years ago

Text

🛸Colress Romantic HCs🥼

🧪 He's heavily invested in his research. It takes him all over the place and leads him to meeting many people. The researcher had long since learnt from the errors of his last and his affiliation with Team Plasma and the despicable Ghetsis. Colress found it only natural that a strong trainer such as yourself would capture his attention, both scientifically and romantically. You will always have Colress's support and critique, and he has bountiful knowledge to gather about the bond between you and his pokemon.

🧪 He's admittedly indifferent to PDA, but he certainly is not the type to be all over his partner in public. He doesn't mind a level of closeness physically. You may find he's close at your side even if he's not actually touching you, so long as nothing captures his interest. A rare peck or hug may come from him if he's feeling highly affectionate, but he mostly stays sway from that. You can do whatever to him, admittedly, if he's not in the middle of his research that is. Kissing him, clinging to him, holding his hand, he's fine with it.

🧪 In private, he's pretty similar, but there's a noticeable up tick in his affectionate moves. His arm his often found around your waist or shoulders as he goes on to you about whatever device he's creating or experiment he's doing right then. Even if you don't care, it's nice to share in his excitement. You're still free to do whatever, too. But, he's not the best with cuddling, as he likes to move and keep things going. You'll find the best times are when he's truly ready to doze off to sleep (a rare occurrence) or when he's deep in thought. In those moments, he may find himself entirely reciprocating. He's surprisingly sweet at times.

🧪 He does prioritise his research over his health quite typically, so you may find yourself concerned with his lack of sleep and proper meals. Colress tells you that everything is fine, however, and that he's used to it. Finding him passed out in his lab is always a bit distressing, though. If you bring food into the room and return a few hours later, it's eaten, so there is a way to subtly help him without dragging him away from what is his life's calling.

🧪 Colress finds himself intrigued with the concept of love and being in a relationship. It's a bit unfathomable to him at times that you're able to keep up with him despite his eccentricities. He enjoys the feelings it brings quite a bit. Even to a point where he begins to document little changes between you both as you grow closer. He even expresses that this must be similar to the feelings pokemon hold toward their trainers who let them grow stronger. You ask him politely to stop comparing your feeling to what his Klinklang must feel towards him.

🧪 Specific dates are admittedly rare with him. He's more of an explorer, so you end up travelling with him across the many regions that capture his intrigue. Colress considers the times he pulls away from his research and properly gives his entire attention to you, more of dates than anything. A walk with you through the Kalosian countryside after he stopped investigating those rocks near Geosenge is a date. Him sitting with you on a beach in Alola after he took a break from what the Ultra Recon Squad commissioned his with Necrozma is also a date. He may not be the most romantic, but he does make you feel strangely special.

🧪 Jealousy is simply something he cares little for. He may politely ask someone to stop flirting with you or touching you if he notices it, but he never does anything extreme. The scientist trusts you entirely, after all. Your bond with him is something fascinating that he knows everything about. You may get a bit jealous of all the attention dedicated to his work, but humans rarely cause issues. Most people are thrown off from Colress from his eccentricities, despite how oddly handsome he is.

🧪 Being relevant to his research, you are often challenged to battles with him. He taps away on his tablet as you go against him. Your strategies used and pokemon choices are documented by him, and he actually becomes quite a difficult rival. He enjoys them all endlessly and might even declare you his favourite dataset (an honour, truly). There is likely a conversation about where him viewing as information ends and seeing you as his partner begins. Admittedly, you are seen as both to him in a strange harmony. It's just how he views the world.

🧪 Colress only calls you by your full legal name without hesitation. Joking, of course, but he simply cannot choose pet names. The closest thing you get called to a pet name is what your dataset is titled in his system. You ask him not to call you that, though. He does quite enjoy it if you call him some, actually. It may somehow inspire him to call you something. (He goes with 'dear' because it is simple and to the point.)

🧪 Overall, he is a pretty interesting man to date. His affections are often subtle and he can come across as oddly cold, but he does truly love you. He may tell you in his own way that having you in his life is something that brings him much joy. Especially if he decides to tell you about his past and how he put the fate of the world in jeopardy for his research. Colress trusts and feels comfortable with you, that's what is important to him. Life is certainly a journey with him, but he's an intriguing guy to dedicate yourself to.

#colress x reader #colress/reader #pokemon x reader #pokemon colress x reader #HERE HE IS I DID NOT LET THAT READING GO TO WASTE

82 notes · View notes

crownofconvergencerp · 17 days ago

Text

𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐇 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐕𝐄𝐈𝐋

"death is no impediment to conversation."

Across the courts this time of year is known for many holidays, and yet all come down to one consistent experience. Across the continent this time is when the veil between the living and the dead becomes so thin that one may communicate with those long since lost - by their desire or by that of the spirit. For Destarin this is an especially vibrant time of year as each district and each person has their own unique way of celebrating. Many in Rochielles will cover the fronts of their homes in various harvest foods, some in Ashharren will make meals each evening for anyone who may have previously died in their homes, while those in Laras will pour wine on local trees as offerings. However one celebrates it is good to be cautious because though some who have passed are gentle souls, others can be full of vengeance and rage...

OOC Information Below...

MONTH OF THE VEIL EVENT INFO

Due to the hiatuses that have occurred we are postponing the continuation of the council arc until after the holidays.

For this event, and because of the hiatuses, we would suggest players potentially begin to close up older threads and maybe start new ones. This is up to players ultimately but could be good for refreshed energy across the dash.

This was the plot that was voted for by players for Halloween and is not specifically an event but rather a temporary environmental change for the month of October. While not a massive environmental change there will be decorations across the town and your characters are welcome to accidentally or purposefully encounter spirits.

The main holidays celebrated across the courts are as follows:

Withermore celebrates Halhain...similar to Samhain, those in Withermore tend to celebrate with harvest foods and bonfires. Many bonfires will have bones cast into them and outside homes offerings will be left for the dead. Many who are known to have killed will wear cloaks or masks during this time to hide themselves from vengeful spirits who intend to hunt down their killers. Cheridi celebrates Trakshaon...each evening for the month long period those in Cheridi will make a specific dish for those who have died in their homes. It is believed without dinner gifted each evening the spirit will become angry and bring misfortune to those inside, some have claimed to have their homes destroyed when they did not offer a meal to the spirits residing within. Crirtha celebrates Vearlia...Crirthan subjects tend to visit temples and gardens to offer gifts for those of their ancestry or of their belief who have passed. These gifts tends to be precious metals or expensive wines. It is believed without these offerings that the spirits will turn gold to copper, thriving trees to fruitless ones, and will force those who do not gift offerings into revealing hidden truths to 'spoil' their lives.

All traditions will differ based on region, species, age, and whatever other factors that may come to your character, so do not feel obligated to match the traditions listed above exactly or the traditions of other characters.

Event Date: 31st of October until the 30th of November. IC TIME: The month of November. OOC LOCATION: Dash. This event will be done on the dashboard not on discord. IC LOCATION: Across Destarin and the rest of the continent. PLOT IMPORTANCE: Low. This is designed for your characters to just have fun or perhaps further their personal plots.

Is the event mandatory? While the decorative environment change is mandatory, your character does not have to participate in offerings, or see any kind of ghost, or act any differently if they don't desire to.

Can we do anything in the discord for this event? We always have our tavern channel open, however we will not be doing a discord thread until at least half of the group is off semi-hiatus/hiatus.

If you have any other questions feel free to reach out to me!

#death mention tw #ghost mention tw #convergenceevent

3 notes · View notes

enkhanthor · 2 years ago

Text

LEGACY HISTORY CHALLENGE - THE SIMS 4 - PREHISTORIC AGE (PALEOLITHIC, MESOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC)

*Translation Note: English isn't my mother language and I’m not an expert in idiomatic expression. So if you find any errors or something weird, please forgive me and let me know on “ask me” if you want.

LHC Doc - EN/US - Complete Doc with all Ages.

LHC Doc - PT/BR - Doc Completo com todas as Eras.

INTRODUCTION

The prehistory of humanity is a period that ranges from around 35,000 years BC to until the invention of writing around 3,500 BC. It is divided into at least three phases, characterized by the production technique: Paleolithic or Old Stone Age (until approximately 10,000 BC), Mesolithic (13,000 BC - 9,000 BC) and Neolithic or New Stone Age, (10,000 BC - writing/civilization). The Upper Paleolithic corresponds to the glacial period, when men inhabited caves and were hunter-gatherers. The Mesolithic is a transition phase with the end of the last glaciation and the Neolithic, the phase in which agriculture emerged. Characteristics of the Mesolithic and Late Neolithic vary from region to region, so these periods overlap, sometimes in terms of dates.

*I am considering only Cro-Magnons (ancestors of modern humans Homo Sapiens Sapiens), excluding Neanderthals and other more primitive hominid species.

In this new version of the Legacy History Challenge, I divided the Prehistoric Age gameplay into three phases: Paleolithic (Ice Age), Mesolithic (Stone Age) and Neolithic (Agricultural Age). I created general rules that apply to all phases such as Death Rolls, Special Events and specific rules for each phase. The Prehistoric Age begins in the Paleolithic with the Founder Sim as the Legacy Matriarch. After you complete your matriarch's life cycle and other specified requirements, the next heir must be chosen from among the descendants and lead his own clan in the Mesolithic. After this heir completes the life cycle, you will begin the Neolithic Revolution by discovering agriculture. You can also play longer than allotted for each level if you want. The gameplay time and the number of generations at this time when there is no writing is completely free.

GENERAL RULES FOR PREHISTORY

1 - Clans, Loving Relationships, Heirs and Offspring Creation:

1.1 - To start, together with your Founder Sim, create some Sims to populate the world. They can be divided into small groups and will be the other clans. Prehistoric packs were small, 8 to 15 people should suffice. You can let them breed through the MC Command Center or neighborhood stories. I usually create a settlement for each pack and have the Sims in the pack divided into lots in the same neighborhood. (Using the MC CC for pregnancy is a bit annoying because it doesn't limit by neighborhood and sometimes I have to delete babies or unpregnate Sims from different packs. A good tip is to invite the Sim to your lot with MC Cheats and change her pregnancy partner to someone from her pack.)

1.2 - Polygamy prevails (although male Sims can fight each other over female Sims, winning against the strongest). If you have “The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle” expansion pack uses the “Free Love” action plan.

1.3 - No prejudice about homo affective relationships, which must occur naturally..

1.4 - Polemic: Prehistoric sims should not follow the same moral rules as modern societies, so we probably had incestuous relationships, even because this practice existed in ancient societies after the stone age, as we see relationships between brothers and sisters in the pharaonic dynasty and in Sumerian, Biblical-Abrahamic and Greco-Roman myths. As this topic can make people uncomfortable, feel free to ignore this rule.

1.5 - To decide “Try for Baby'' with a Sim, follow the most basic instincts of heteronormativity, prioritize physical strength in men and fertility (curvy body characteristics) and youth in women. If you use Wicked Whims or Wonderful Whims make your sims attracted to these body features.

1.6 - If you use MC Woohoo keep the woohoo risky at 40% for teens, 35% for young adults, 20% for adults and 5% for elders. ( I don't know if the elder option refers to women, but in any case I hope this is the fertility rate of elder men.) IIf you use Wicked Whims, keep your menstrual cycle activated, your fertility rate in “boosted” mode, pregnancy chances in 80% and avoid all contraceptive methods. (It is more difficult to have children with the menstrual cycle than with MC Woohoo.) If not using any mods, Sims can only “Try for Baby”.

1.7 - Panda Sama's Child Birth mod is now allowed for this and all future Ages.

1.8 - All babies must be born at home. Pregnant Sims can’t go to the hospital.

1.9 - Newborn babies and infants should be breastfed. Don’t use bottles.

1.10 - Every Sim born in this Age must have the “Hot-Headed” trait, as they are a Cave Sim. Use common sense for the other traits and avoid those that don't match the Age.

1.11 - You can adopt child Sims that you find around the world, moving to your family/group, but you cannot adopt through the traditional way on the computer. However, the heir to the legacy must be of your blood. Genealogical legacy, remember?

1.12 - A Sim who is born into your pack, even if not of your blood, must be accepted and cared for by everyone. Example: if your male Sim is partnered with a woman who is pregnant by another, even if they are from a rival pack, this baby is your Sim’s child. He is just not eligible as an heir because of rule 1.11. To be clear: you cannot continue the legacy from his children, but your Sim has to accept him as a child. Here you cannot use the excuse of wild basic instinct and male territoriality and abandon this child because motherhood is associated with life. And life meant everything at this stage when the species was struggling to survive. (Don't take it to the modern issue of motherhood related to abortion and social impositions on women. Remember the statues of prehistoric Venus and the hypothesis of their association with fertility by some researchers.)

Prehistoric Venus.

1.13 - In Prehistory, the heir could be male or female. You can choose to make your clan fully matriarchal (historians’ hypothesis) or follow the idea that Cave Sims were brutes who kidnapped women. Or both.

1.14 - In future generations if your Sim is male you must choose your heir by physical characteristics, as there was no DNA test at that time. You know who your children are from the game’s family tree, but the Sims don’t.

1.15 - Men are usually hunters and women gatherers. Men go out hunting and leave women to take care of the offspring, but you can also have female hunters.

1.16 - Children and teenagers cannot go to school. If you have the MC Command Center, disable the schools.

1.17 - Child Sims should help with fishing, collecting plants and digging, for example.

1.18 - Teen Sims are considered young adults and can have children. ( Ignoring EA's life expectancy which will be covered in topic 2 and only taking into account the Sim's appearance, which is almost adult height.)

1.19 - Adult Sims are considered old. Adult women aren’t as eligible to have babies.

1.20 - Elder Sims are considered wise. Few should reach that age.

2 - Birthdays, Deaths and Illnesses:

The Lifespan of Sims in default normal mode is not equivalent to that of a human being since each day of pregnancy represents a trimester and gestation takes 4 days (1 day without pregnancy detection + 3 days of gestation equivalent to the first, second and third trimester), at age 25 your Sim would be an elder person and die around age 33.

Also note that the life stage of the adult Sim is disproportionate to that of the child and baby Sim in EA’s default. However, as life expectancy was low in that Age, it is estimated that at age 30 cavemen were already considered elderly. Add to that the fact that there was no calendar and that part of the challenge covers a period of about 35,000 years or more, you can play in normal mode for now. You can also choose to double the adult life stage if you want, rejuvenating your Sim to an adult when they reach the elderly stage. ( You will have to use cheats or MC Command Center for this.)

2.1 - It is not allowed to grow the Sim before the birthday.

2.2 - Birthday cakes are not allowed. Let the Sim grow up naturally. (You can remove the negative buffs with a cheat or use No Sad Moddlet on Birthday mod. You can also age the Sim manually in "Cheat Sim info" by pressing shift + left mouse button on the Sim.)

2.3 - Roll de dice for deaths. Your Sims are exposed to weather, hunger, disease, and the wild. They are literally struggling to survive and reproduce the species. So deaths are common and only the strongest survive. You must roll the dice at each life stage to see if the Sim survives to the next one. If the Sim gets sick, they must also roll the dice. Come up with a time-appropriate excuse for the deaths.

2.4 - Exception to rule 2.3: If you have any mods that add illnesses to the game, you can choose to only roll the dice when your Sim gets sick, rather than at every age change, in case these mods make your Sim sick all the time.

2.5 - Only the Matriarch is exempt from roll the dice. After all, if she dies you lose the challenge. So she is the only Sim that can die only from “natural” causes (deaths that exist in The Sims 4), without player interference.

Dice roll sugestion:

Observation: You can find another suggestion of dice rolls perhaps more realistic (in prehistory there was no writing, any life expectancy is an assumption on the part of historians) in the Legacy Eras Challenge by Marina Montenegro. Note that, playing The Sims in normal mode and with the Wicked Whims or Wonderful Whims menstrual cycle, even boosted in a short period, the fertility rate is very low. So with such severe rolls it's likely that few Sims will survive. Try to have as many babies as possible.

If your Sim rolls any of the specified dice for each life stage in the table above, it means they must die in that life stage. Death in childbirth, newborn and elderly can occur on the same day you roll the dice, the day the Sim is born or grows up. For the Infant, Toddler, Child, Teen, Young Adult, and Adult stages you must roll the dice again or use the roulette wheel to decide when the Sim should die. That way the unlucky Sims don't all die on their birthday. For example: An infant who rolls 4, 8, 12, 16 or 20 when growing to a toddler will die as a toddler. Toddlers live for 7 days, so the number you roll on a D7 is the number of days your Sim can live before dying. So he doesn't die the same day he grew up. For longer stages you can use D100 and divide by the number of days, roll two dice and add the days, ignoring days more than the life stage or use roulette.

2.6 - At birth, roll a 20-sided dice, D20. If the mother is a teenager or an adult and rolls a 1, 10, or 20, the mother must die in childbirth. If the mother is a young adult, childbirth is considered to be a little easier and she dies if she rolls a 1 or a 20.

2.7 - For twins, triplets, or more babies, the mother must roll a D20 dice for each baby.

2.8 - If the mother dies in childbirth and there is no other Sim who is pregnant or has a child of nursing age to care for the baby (newborn or infant stages), the baby must die. There are no goats or domestic cattle to feed the baby.

2.9 - There is a chance that your pregnant Sim will have a “complicated pregnancy” if she roll a 5. In that case, she won't die during childbirth, but will be very sick. You must roll a D20 for the mother again until the next day. If you roll 1, 10, or 20 for teenagers and adults and 1 or 20 for young adults, the mother must die. If she survives, she will not be able to have any more children. Check the option in the CAS so that she cannot get pregnant again. ( If you use the Child Birth mod, there is already a birth complication option and you can ignore it when you roll a 5, but if you receive a birth complication notification, you must roll the second dice to see if the mother survives.)

2.10 - If for some reason you break rule 2.9 and your Sim gets pregnant again, it's a death sentence. She will not survive this birth.

2.11 - For the newborn, roll a D20 die. If you roll a 1, 5, 7, 10, 15, 17 or 20, the baby must die immediately. (Click with the left button and shift press on the bassinet and choose the option to starve. The baby will be taken away by foster care and Sims will be saddened by his loss.)

2.12 - When growing a newborn to infant, roll a D20 dice. If you roll a 2, 6, 10, 14 or 18, the infant must die. Roll a dice again or the roulette wheel to decide how many days he/she can live in the infant phase.

2.13 - When growing an infant to toddler roll a D20 dice. If you roll a 4, 8, 12, 16 or 20, the toddler must die. Roll a dice again or the roulette wheel to decide how many days the Sim can live in the toddler stage.

2.14 - When growing a toddler to child, roll a D20 dice. If you roll a 2, 6, 12 or 16, the child must die. Roll a dice again or the roulette wheel to decide how many days the Sim can live as a child.

2.15 - When growing the child to teenager, roll a D20 dice. If you roll a 3, 7, 13 or 17, the teenager must die. Roll a dice again or roll the roulette wheel to decide how many days the Sim can live as a teen.

2.16 - When a Sim grows to the age of a teenager you must also roll a 100-sided dice, D100. If the Sim is unlucky and rolls a 1, it means he/she is sterile. Change the option on Cas so he/she can never have children.

2.17 - When growing the teenager to young adult, roll a D20 dice. If you roll an 4, 8, 14 or 18, the young adult must die. Roll a dice again or the roulette wheel to decide how many days he/she can live in the young adult stage. Male Sims must do the rite of passage. See rule 2.3.3. A bad roll could mean he failed during this rite.

2.18 - When growing the young adult to adult, roll a D20 dice. If you roll a 1, 9, 11 or 19, the adult must die. Roll a dice again or roulette to decide how many days he/she can live in the adult stage.

2.19 - If you choose to double the adult life stage, roll a D20 dice. If you roll a 3, 10, 13 or 20 the adult must die. Roll a dice again or a roulette wheel to decide how many days he/she can live as an adult.

2.20 - When growing the adult to an elder, roll a D20 dice. If you roll a 9, 11, 13, 15, 17 or 19, the adult doesn’t grow to an elder and must die. If he rolls another number, roll a dice again or roulette wheel to decide how many days the Sim can live in the elder stage. If you roll a number above the default established by EA for the duration of this life stage, you can let the Sim die “naturally”, without your intervention.

2.21 - When a fight occurs with Sims outside the pack, the Sim who loses must roll the dice corresponding to his life stage. For example, if a Young Adult Sim loses the fight and rolls an 4, 8, 14 or 18 on D20, he must die.

2.22 - If you have “The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle”, use the “Roughhousing Encouraged” action plan to make the game more exciting.

2.23 - If you have a Speellcaster visiting your lot at the time of death, you can ask the Grim Reaper to spare your Sim. Otherwise, you should not interact with the Grim Reaper.

2.24 - If you have the expansion pack “The Sims 4 Life & Death” you can be reborn, but you should not play with Ghost Sims. You must choose a family that already has a baby of newborn age, delete this Sim and replace it with your Sim. (I recommend that you use MC Cas from MC Command Center to copy the appearance of the Sim you replace and paste it onto your Sim. This way, your reincarnated Sim will have the genetic characteristics of the new family.)

2.25 - Don't forget to cover your Sim's tombstone or urn with rocks.

The above rules are for Sims in your family/group and descendants removed from the main lot. As for the other Sims in the world, you can choose to leave the death neighborhood changes settings enabled and use the events in item 3 to cause deaths. You can use the dice rolls suggestion above for all Sims in the world if you want too.

3 - Rite of Passage, Great Hunt, Tribal War, Wild Animal Attacks, Plagues and Natural Disaters:

The rules below correspond to possible historical events designed to decrease the world's population, especially when you reach peaks of 80 Sims or more. You can delete most of the ghosts in the next Age to lighten the game. Only items 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 are mandatory. The use of the other events is optional. However, keep in mind that the more you use it, the harder it will be to survive in the Prehistoric Age.I suggest that at least one of them be created in each Prehistoric Age phase in your gameplay. If your Sim was unlucky on the dice rolls when changing he life stage, you can use hunts or rites of passage as an excuse for his death, in addition to these other events.

3.1 - You must perform a Great Hunt every Sunday. All male Sims in your world (except children and elders) must participate. Young Adult and Adult Sims should go hunting and Teen Sims should go as helpers to observe and learn. Create the “Great Hunt” holiday on Sundays with the “Attend Holiday Ceremony” tradition. Requires “The Sims 4 Seasons” expansion. (You can take the negative buff off women or use the No more No more Awful Holiday Sad Modlet. mod.)

3.2 - Hunts shouldn't be easy. Sometimes when a group got together to hunt a mammoth, some would get hurt. Roll the dice once to see which Sims (young adults and adults) will come back hurt, and roll again to decide who should die or heal.

3.3 - A teen hunter (usually a male Sim) close to young adult age must take a Rite of Passage that will make them a Great Hunter. It must be an event of great danger, such as facing a wild animal alone or getting into a fight with someone stronger. The Sim must be victorious to prove their courage and gain the respect of the pack.

3.4 - Prehistoric packs usually hunted together, but they could also create rivalries and war with each other. Every time a war occurs, roll a dice for each Sim involved. Even number Sim lives, odd number he dies.

3.5 - Generally Sims that war or attack other gangs are male and females should be spared to generate more offspring. Roll the dice from time to time for pregnant women from other packs. Thus, few will survive to the age of old.

3.6 - Wild animals may attack settlements from time to time. Roll the life stage-related dice for all group members.

3.7 - Mountain slides, storms, earthquakes and other natural disasters can also happen, killing your Sims. Roll the dice to decide who survives. These types of events are more likely to occur when there is a blizzard. Requires “The Sims 4 Seasons”.

3.8 - Pests and diseases would not have been uncommon in prehistory. Roll the dice once to decide who gets sick and again to see which sick people die.

Dice roll suggestion for special events to occur:

4 - Create a Sim Items:

4.1 - In the Paleolithic, prioritize features such as dark skin and light eyes for the Cro-Magnons and red hair, light skin, large nose and robust body for the descendants of Neanderthals. Mesolithic Sims must have Eastern Central Asian or African ethnic characteristics.

Cro-Magnon had dark skin and light eyes.

4.2 - If you use personalized content for hair, prioritize those that look natural, tribal, scruffy or without modern hairstyles and cuts.

4.3 - Use beards and prioritize long hair in men, although teenagers can be beardless or have a slight down.

4.4 - Don't forget about body hair on women.

4.5 - Tattoos are allowed as long as modern tattoos are avoided. See my mod for tattoos that match the in-game face paint colors.

4.6 - If possible, use custom content consistent with the Age. Skins for clothes and bones for accessories.

4.7 - Don't use anything metallic or that looks like fabric.

4.8 - Prioritize cold weather clothes in the Paleolithic and cold and hot clothes in the Mesolithic.

4.9 - Polemic: Prehistoric Sims shouldn't have the same pudency as modern Sims, so your Sim might prefer to live more freely in hot climates without being covered in heavy fur. Free, as it came into the world.

Example of prehistoric clothing.

4.10 - Optional: If your Sims reach old age they are around 30 years old. If you double the adult life stage, it's 40 years old. So you don't need to give them gray hair or a very aged look.

5 - Worlds and Lots:

5.1 - You must delete all lots from the world where you live or adapt them for the challenge.

5.2 - Create a secluded lot where you can't see the roads and stay away from them as there were no roads at that time. You can use the T.o.o.l. to cover roads and modern items with stones.

5.3 - Use the “Off the Grid” and “Simple Life” lot challenges. Requires “The Sims 4 Cottage Living” expansion pack.

5.4 - The starting lot can have a settlement with items of your choice, or you can choose to start on empty land.

5.5 - When your sim migrates, they must leave their building items behind. Only inventory items can be taken, as a Sim could theoretically carry them without assistance from wagons or pack animals. You can take the bonfire and the tent, for example.

6 - Money and Bills:

6.1 - There was no currency in Prehistory, only barter, so your Sim doesn't have to worry about money for now. Use the starting money to equip the lot with caves (custom content), rocks, bushes and trees.

6.2 - You can use motherlode or any money cheat.

6.3 - Sims cannot have a job.

6.4 - You can use cheats to pay the bills as there is no tax at this time. If you use the MC Command Center, you can activate the automatic bill pay option.

6.5 - If you win a gift from an NPC, you can keep it if it is consistent with the Age, otherwise delete it and exchange it for another one of your choice and similar value.

7 - Construction Mode Objects and Custom Content Items:

7.1 - You cannot build a house. Just sleep outdoors, have fur shelters, caves or thatched game roofs.

Example of a primitive shelter.

7.2 - Electronics, instruments or items that do not match the Age aren’t allowed. No woodworking table (in the Paleolithic and Mesolithic), flower arranging table, yoga mat, etc…

7.3 - Again, you cannot have a yoga mat, nor meditate. It’s Prehistory, okay? Come back to reality, your Sim is struggling to survive and needs shelter and food, not zen.

7.4 - If you have the “The Sims 4 Laundry Day” stuff, forget that it exists. What? Do you really think they washed those skins?

7.5 - You cannot use electric lighting or candles, only the campfire. Sims must remain in the dark when the campfire lights up. Requires “The Sims 4 Outdoor Retreat” game pack.

7.6 - You can’t have a toilet. However, your Sim is out in the wild, so they might have lots of bushes to use for the bathroom. Feel free to use the T.o.o.l. and spread bushes across the world. Requires “The Sims 4 Get Together” expansion pack.

7.7 - Initially without a grill, stove or fridge. The Sim must eat what they harvest and fish and only use the “Fire Rocks” campfire for cooking (requires “The Sims 4 Outdoor Retreat” game pack). Custom content stove or grill can only be used if the Sim has cooking level 10. (I don't know if EA has already fixed the bug, but the campfire broke after “The Sims 4 Cottage Living” expansion pack and the option to roast fish did not appear. I needed the MAL22_OR_CampfireSimpleLivingFix mod to make it work.)

7.8 - You can’t have a bath or shower. You can wash the babies in the sink.

Note: The exception to Rules 7.6, 7.7 and 7.8 is seasonally custom content. If you use personalized content you have a small advantage. So don't abuse these items, your Sim must go through difficulties and be exposed to nature.

7.9 - You are in the Stone Age, not the Metal Age. Custom content objects must be stone, leather, or roughly carved wood. Objects that have nails or iron parts are not allowed. Example: Chairs, beds, tables, cupboards with nailed connections are not allowed.

7.10 - To have an object you need to spend time and work as if you were making it.

Work suggestion to be able to have an object:

- Campfire "Rocks of Fire" (requires The Sims 4 Outdoor Retreat game pack) - find 5 items by digging or breaking rocks + harvesting or see 5 plants. If you use the cutting down tree mod you can spread trees around the world or put the sticks and trunks in your inventory after observing the plants.

- Sulani Volcanic BBQ Searer (The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle) - dig 10 items + harvesting or see 5 plants.

- Stone Sink - Find 10 items by digging ground or rocks.

- Stone Bathtub - Find 30 items by digging ground or rocks.

- Stone refrigerator - only in the Paleolithic (Ice Age) or winter. Summer and hot days there is no way to preserve food, so let it spoil.

- Stove and grill - find 20 items + have Level 10 cooking. Campfire increases cooking skill. (Some custom content doesn’t work “Off the Grid”, in which case it is allowed to take the lot challenge due to a game logic failure to interpret any stove as electric.)

- Cave shelters are unlocked when your Sim moves to a new lot. The lot must be set up before playing on it, and these items can’t be moved or removed. Once you place the cave in a certain location, it should stay there until the Industrial Age or the invention of demolition machines. If you really need to use this lot, as there are few game packs, you should at least keep the cave in the place it was placed throughout the Prehistoric Age.

- Fur shelters (tents) - 20 hunts. Can be taken in inventory.

- Shelter made of thatched roof from the game - harvest or see 30 weeds. It can’t be taken to another lot when you moving.

- Fur rugs - 1 hunt.

Stone beds:

- Double bed - find 20 items + 8 hunts.

- Single bed - find 10 items + 4 hunts.

- Toddler bed - find 8 items + 2 hunts.

- If a bed is made of wood or material that mimics interwoven vegetable fiber, use the same number of items above, but replace the action “digging stone” with “harvesting” or “see plants”.

7.11 - Avoid the magic hands. Let Sims clean up their own mess.

8 - Skills:

8.1 - Sims can develop cooking, fishing, fitness, charisma, mischief, pet training, singing and dancing skills.

8.2 - If you use custom content appropriate to the time, the Sim may have painting skills. Allowed paintings are only prehistoric. See my mod.

8.3 - If you have a bathtub, sink or custom content suitable for the time, you can replace it if it is broken, avoiding gaining the handiness skill. It doesn’t make much sense for a stone sink to break if it doesn’t have plumbing.

8.4 - The Sim can fish and hunt. Since there is no hunt action in the game, you can send the Sim to run. When performing this action it is allowed to use the option “roast marshmallows” on the fire pretending that it is frozen meat. You can also use the board from the mod Hunting & Foraging or olde cookbook kit v.03 which allows you to hunt. In this case, don’t forget to delete a piece of meat every time you use the “roast marshmallows” option.

8.5 - Roll the dice to decide if the Sim sent to hunt dies or not. You can leave the Sim exposed to the weather and enable temperature kills, as if it were due to unsuccessful hunting. Only the matriarch is exempt from this rule. If you use the mod Hunting & Foraging or olde cookbook kit v.03, roll the dice if the Sim comes back injured, attacked by a bear.

8.6 - Your Sim can only collect items near their current lot. If the hunters are going to travel, they should take a campfire and a tent and stay away for days.

8.7 - Your Sim can’t cook any modern cooking options like hamburgers or hot dogs. Just roast fish and marshmallows (rule 8.5) on the fire. Only recipes consistent with the Age can be cooked on stoves and barbecues. Note that with the “Simple Life” lot challenge your Sim will have a hard time cooking. Prepare to starve.

9 - Animals:

9.1 - If you have “The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs” Expansion Pack, the only animals allowed are wild-looking ones like raccoons, wolves, and foxes.

9.2 - Wild animals (cats and dogs) should have traits that remind them they are wild like "Aggressive", "Independent", "Stubborn", "Aloof", “Frisky”, ”Skittish”, "Free Spirit" and "Territorial".

9.3 - If your pet gets sick, wait a day and roll the d20 dice for it. On a roll of 5 or more, it must survive and acquire resistance to that disease. Watch the symptoms and the next time it has the same illness it won’t need to roll the dice. (Apparently the best way to cure animal sickness is with the wellness treats from the vet machine, which you can find in “Debug.” To kill the animal, grow to old first, as animals only die from old age.)

9.4 - If you have “The Sims 4 Cottage Living” expansion pack, you can’t have cows and llamas. These animals have not been domesticated yet.

9.5 - If you have “The Sims 4 Horse Ranch” expansion pack, you can’t have mini goats, mini sheep and horses. But you can have zebras, moose and other animals that look wild. Just don't ride them. Historically, these animals have not been domesticated. So, don't abuse it, okay? You can try to tame a donkey.

9.6 - Wild animals (horses) must have some trait that reminds you that they are wild. Mandatory traits: "Aggressive" and "Defiant". Third trait: “Independent”, “Energetic”, “Free Spirit” or “Fearful”.

10 - Occults:

10.1 - If you have “The Sims 4 Realm of Magic” game pack, you can create a Spellcaster Sim who will be the shaman and healer of the pack.

10.2 - Spellcasters roll the same dice as common Sims, but can roll twice if they have skill in magic or potions and save their Sim from death if they are on the lot.

10.3 - The religion is based on Mother Earth that provides fruits and hunting and/or on Shamanism and identification of Sims with power animals. The priests and healers were the shamans. Feel free to make constructions and stories accordingly.

PALEOLITHIC (ICE AGE) - SPECIFIC RULES

Your Founder Sim is a nomad with basic instincts. So, she is in search of food, safety and to reproduce.

11 - Founder Sim:

11.1 - Start Legacy with a female teen Sim (if you opted out of playing the previous era). This Sim will be the Matriarch of your legacy. (Let's consider the hypothesis that the culture was matriarchal in prehistory.)

11.2 - Start with the "Loner" and "Hot-Head" traits. “Loner” will make your Sim tense when seeing strangers, after all other Sims can be dangerous. "Hot-head" because she's a Cave Sim.

11.3 - The Matriarch must have the "Big Happy Family" aspiration and the aspiration reward trait "Matriarch" before dying. The first official marriage must be performed when the Matriarch is elderly and presided over by her. This way, your Sim can complete the aspiration. Suggestion: choose to carry out this marriage with someone important from another group, in order to create alliances. (It is allowed to use the “read to baby before bed” action to complete level 2 of the “Big and Happy Family” aspiration. Abstract by pretending that Sim is telling a story, because at that time there was no writing. After completing, delete the book.)

11.4 - The Matriarch must have the "Great Storyteller" reward before dying and must tell stories at a campfire to other Sims during the challenge.

11.5 - The Matriarch must obligatorily produce heirs.

11.6 - Have children with five different Sims.

11.7 - Start in winter in the Ice Age (Paleolithic). Requires “The Sims 4 Seasons”. expansion.

11.8 - The duration of the season must be at least 28 days. Throughout the Paleolithic period it must always have been winter. Whenever the year ends you change the season to winter in the mailbox. (You need MC Command Center installed to have this function or use testingcheats true. Press “shift+ctrl+c" on your keyboard. Type "testingcheats true" and press "Enter". Use the code “seasons.set_season 2” to make the season winter.)

11.9 - If the world doesn’t freeze in winter, then you should use cheats to make it snow and freeze rivers and lakes. Sulani, Tomarang, and Selvadorada are not allowed in Ice Age.

11.10 - In the Paleolithic you could choose to settle in a lot with caves and migrate from time to time due to the hostile climate.

11.11 - In Paleolithic times, Sims can harvest plants, but cannot plant crops.

11.12 - Complete the frog collection.

MESOLITHIC (STONE AGE) - SPECIFIC RULES

After the Matriarch completes the life cycle and dies, choose one of her descendants to be her next heir.

12 - Leader of the Pack:

12.1 - Change the length of seasons to 14 days. Now you can have four seasons and not just winter and experience the Stone Age with storms and scorching heat.

12.2 - The official heir of this phase must have the “Leader of the Pack” aspiration and move other Sims to your family/group, which will be your clan“ (requires “The Sims 4 Get Together” expansion pack). However, the leader should not be confused with a king, the band is a collective community, a big family, where resources and tasks are divided among all. The “Leader of the Pack” is a Sim that all other Sims trust and follow for their strength, skills, and courage.

12.3 - Physical strength predominates, so the “Leader of the Pack” must have a high fitness skill and win all the fights to defend the clan.

12.4 - The leadership of the “Leader of the Pack” can be questioned by another Sim in the clan. The dispute will be resolved through a fight interaction. You can decide whether the losing Sim should die, be exiled, or remain in the pack (least likely option).

12.5 - Another Sim descendant of the matriarch can enter into a dispute with the heir Sim for the Legacy. A fight must happen. The loser dies or is exiled. The winner must continue the tasks.

12.6 - In the Mesolithic, your Sim must be nomadic and constantly change lots in search of resources. Suggestion: migrate to Oasis Springs or any desert region.

12.7 - In the Mesolithic the Sim can harvest, dig, fish, hunt (run) and plant only one seedling of each species, but can’t have a garden or move the plant. The seedling must be born where it was planted, in a disorganized way. It’s like your Sim dropped the seeds on the ground, but still don’t have farming skills.

12.8 - The Sim cannot pull weeds or apply insecticide, sick plants cannot be cared for and must die.

12.9 - The Sim can have the cow plant.

12.10 - Catch all base game fish (except those from secret lots) and have level 10 in fishing (Mesolithic).

NEOLITHIC (AGRICULTURAL AGE) - SPECIFIC RULES

Choose the next heir after the Stone Age Sim completes the circle of life.

13 - Development of Agriculture

13.1 - Change the length of the seasons to 7 days by completing 1 year Sim, this will allow the development of agriculture and the creation of the Sim calendar in the future.

13.2 - The Sim remains nomadic, but can build simple shelters and spend more time on the same lot than in the Mesolithic. Suggestion: a simple square block with openings instead of doors and windows or just a hole in the floor. These shelters can be seasonal, that is, they can be used in a certain season and abandoned at the end of it until the same time in the next year.

13.3 - The heir can be a man or a woman.

13.4 - Your Heir Sim must have the Freelance Botanist aspiration and the “Super Green Thumb” reward trait to complete the Agricultural Age.

13.5 - Your Heir Sim must reach level 10 in Gardening skill.

13.6 - Complete the “Harvested Interest” achievement.

13.7 - Complete the base game's plant collection by collecting and grafting, except OFNI (Unidentified Fruit Object).

13.8 - Make a plantation with all the collectable plants in your world. It should not be an organized plantation. Just a bunch of plants that grow where you planted and can't be moved in construction mode.

13.9 - The harvest is for your own use. It cannot be sold.

13.10 - Plants with insects cannot be cared for and must die. No pesticides.

13.11 - It isn’t allowed to buy seeds by the Garden Planter Box. No buying on phone and computer too, please.

13.12 - Your Heir Sim must have Handiness Level 10 to purchase the Sales Table in the next Age.

13.13 - If your heir Sim dies without completing a specific task for this Age, the next Sim who takes over the Legacy must continue that task. The previous heir's skill progression does not count. If the heir dies with gardening level 9 and the new one only has 2, you will have all the skill progression effort again.

14 - Requirements to advance to the next Age (Early Simvilization):

14.1 - Complete the aspiration and life cycle of the Matriarch and her Mesolithic and Neolithic heirs.

14.2 - Complete the frog collection (Paleolithic).

14.3 - Catch all base game fish (except those from secret lots) and have level 10 in fishing (Mesolithic).

14.4 - If you have “The Sims 4 Horse Ranch” expansion pack, try taming a donkey.

Rules 14.2, 14.3 and 14.4 are equivalent to taming animals.

14.5 - Base game haverstables collection completed (Neolithic).

14.6 - Have level 10 in Handiness (Neolithic heir Sim only). It is equivalent to the technical skill of building a wheel.

15 - Expansions, Game Packs and Stuff Packs:

15.1 - The Sims 4 Seasons (essential) - Make it snow in the Paleolithic (Ice Age).

15.2 - The Sims 4 Get Together (essential) - Pack Leader Aspiration and bushes.

15.3 - The Sims 4 Cottage Living (optional) - “Simple life” batch challenge.

15.4 - The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle (optional) - Enable the “Roughhousing Encouraged” and “Free Love” Action Plans.

15.5 - The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs (optional) - Have a wolf, fox, raccoon or any animal that looks wild.

15.6 - The Sims 4 Horse Ranch (optional) - Having a wild animal or donkey to tame.

15.7 - The Sims 4 Life & Death (optional) - Reincarnation.

15.8 - The Sims 4 Outdoor Retreat (essential) - “Rocks of Fire” campfire for cooking. 15.9 -The Sims 4 Realm of Magic (optional) - Having a spellcaster be the Shaman.

16 - MCC settings (for those who use it):

16.1 - Automatic bill pay.

16.2 - No weddings.

16.3 - Elder Female Sims are not eligible to have children. Elder Male sims yes.

16.4 - Pregnancy Chances in MC Woohoo: 40% for teenagers, 35% for Young Adults, 20% for Adults and 5% for Elders.

16.5 - Disable schools for children and adolescents.

16.6 - Enable parenting skills for teenagers.

16.7 - Enable children can take care of babies.

16.8 - Continue neighborhood stories.

17 - Recommended mods:

17.1 - MC Command Center by Deaderpoll - Manages various features of the game.

17.2 - T.o.o.l. by Twisted Mexi - Add and edit objects in the world.

17.3 - Assign NPC Jobs (before No Random Townies) by Zero - Allows you to assign roles to NPCs.

17.4 - Nap on the ground by Triplis - Allows Sim to sleep on the floor, anywhere.

17.5 - Invisible Crib (default) by Severinka - hides the cradle.

17.6 - Child Birth by Panda Sama - Makes childbirth realistic.

17.7 - Miscarriage Chance by LittleMsSam’s or Miscarriage & Pregnancy Loss do Pregnancy Overhaul module by Lumpinou - There is a chance the Sim will lose the pregnancy.

17.8 - Children/Toddlers Can Die of Anything by MizoreYukii - For Death Rolls.

17.9 - No Sad Moddlet on Birthday by ClaudiaSharon - Removes forgotten birthday buff.

17.10 - No more Awful Holiday Sad Modlet by Sigma1202 - No sadness at not attending the holiday.

17.11 - Pet Explore Bush Tweaks by Chingyu Vick Sims - Disables the autonomy of dogs and cats to enter the bushes.

17.12 - Cut Down Tree by LiraSims - Cut firewood.

17.13 - MAL22_OR_CampfireSimpleLivingFix - Fix the Campfire.

17.14 - Hunting & Foraging by Littlbowbub - Allows Hunting. Conflict with ye olde cookbook v.0.3.

17.15 - ye olde cookbook v.0.3 de Littlbowbub - Hunting and medieval recipes. Conflicts with Hunting & Foraging.

17.16 - Frog-Breeding Skill by baniduhaine - new skill.

17.17 - Eat Fish by SrslySims - Sims can eat raw fish.

17.18 - Custom content befitting the Age. You can check the list of CCs I found in CC Links - LHC Directory in my homepage (I'm always updating).

18 - Sources (Books, Series and Movies):

18.1 - The Origin of Humankind (Book by Richard Leakey - 1995).

18.2 - Prehistory (Book by Chris Gosden - 2012).

18.3 - The Hunters of Prehistory (Book by André Leroi-Gourhan - 1983).

18.4 - Lady Sapiens (Book by Thomas Cirotteau, Jennifer Kerner and Éric Pincas - 2021).

18.5 - Alpha (Movie directed by Albert Hughes - 2018).

18.6 - Earth's Children (Books Series written by Jean M. Auel 1980-2011).

#thesims4 #the sims 4 #sims 4 #prehistoric sims #ts4 history challenge #ts4 legacy history challenge #ts4 legacy #the sims legacy

69 notes · View notes

somevirtualnolife · 1 year ago

Text

All's Fair in Love and Basketball

Rating: G Series: Tokimeki Memorial: Forever With You Pairing: Yumi Saotome x Protagonist (OC) Summary: Takeru tries to comfort Yumi after a loss in a basketball match, but it's clear that's not the only thing she's upset about. Author’s Note: I just started playing Tokimeki Memorial: Forever With You and watched the OVA and guess what? I really enjoyed it. And unsurprisingly, I was inspired to write a fic about one of my favourite girls, Yumi! Like so many of the TM/TMGS love interests, she is super endearing despite being so silly. And as expected of a TM/TMGS protagonist, my boy is oblivious to girls liking him in any way that could be romantic.

I hope you guys enjoy! I've learned that there are even less TM fics than TMGS ones, so I'm just trying to do my part to feed the fandom (and if you don't like Yumi, well I guess you're getting fed anyway lol).

The gymnasium was buzzing with noise when Takeru Omura entered. It echoed with the sounds of shoes squeaking against the floor, basketballs bouncing, and shouting from both the girls’ basketball team and the attendees watching. It was a junior match between Kirameki and Habataki, one of the last of the season, so needless to say the place was packed. He spotted Yoshio up on the second-floor bleachers overlooking the court, with a big grin on his face as he spotted his friend.

“Heh-heh~ come here to scope out the juniors, eh?” the auburn-haired boy grinned before pulling out his small blue notebook. “They are pretty cute, and according to my intel, you’re pretty popular with them, Mister Basketball Ace of Kirameki.”

Takeru could feel the heat rise in his cheeks. He knew Yoshio meant well, but that notebook caused more trouble than not. Looking at Rei, he always assumed that being popular with girls would be how he wanted to spend his high school life, so having intel on every girl cute seemed useful. In reality, it was a recipe for disaster that provided an onslaught of rumours, hurt feelings and miscommunication that he had to diffuse like it was some kind of explosive device.

Specifically, a bomb.

“It’s not like that,” he finally responded. “The girls usually come out and support us, so we should do the same.”

The ref blew a whistle for a small time-out and the girls relaxed a bit. Below, he spotted a familiar, auburn-haired kohai grabbing her water bottle. Eventually, she spotted Takeru above and grinned widely, waving her free hand enthusiastically. He smiled back and then cupped his hands over his mouth.

“You got this, Yumi-chan!” he yelled.

Her brown eyes seemed to sparkle at his words. It wasn’t before long that the whistle went on again and they were back on the court.

Yoshio looked between his friend and sister as they continued to exchange looks and waves every now as the game went on.

“Oh, not like that, but like that.”

“I- what?” his voice started. “Dude. No. No-no-no.”

“Like I said before, it’s fine if it’s you, but you know-”

The basketball ace lifted his hands in defence. “We just hang out a lot because of shared practice schedules. Plus, you told me to look out for her in case any weirdos came for her.”

Yes, they sometimes hung out on weekends when there was no practice, but it was strictly as friends. Yumi very clearly wanted to experience all that high school had to offer (minus the studying). She clearly wanted to experience club life, friends, and dating. So yeah, Takeru didn’t mind being her practice date now and then. It was safer for her that way.

Right?

“Okay, man. Whatever you say.” Yoshio let out a sigh, which Takeru couldn’t quite figure out the intention behind.

Eventually, the final buzzer went off, showing Habataki taking a lead over Kirameki by 10 points. An unfortunate loss, but it was sort of expected. Their basketball teams often ranked highly in the region. Takeru would chalk it up to it being a private school, but that’s like the pot calling the kettle black.

“Mannnn, that was so close!” Yoshio groaned.

“Yeah, but it is what it is.” Takeru’s green eyes followed Yumi as the girls dispersed after talking with their coach. Her pace was fast, and her shoulders seemed tense at this distance.

“Aw man, I know that walk,” Yoshio quickly got up from the bleachers. “I’ll catch up with you later. I do not need her to come home and suplex me out of frustration.”

Takeru laughed at first but then realized that was a very real possibility. That girl loved her pro wrestling.

“Best of luck, dude. I’ll let you know if I see her. Maybe.” It wasn’t like either of them had a cell phone to contact each other.

As he exited the gymnasium, he shivered slightly as he saw his breath in the cold winter air. With the sun long since set, the streetlights provided a soft orange close in the darkness. The walk home wasn’t too far, but he looked forward to a nice bowl of nabe when he got home. It wasn’t before long on his walk home that he heard someone grumbling and kicking something. Looking to the right he saw the familiar ponytail of a teen girl slamming her foot on the side of one of the plastic slides at the playground.

“Oh, there you are. Yoshio’s looking for you. Or maybe avoiding you,” he joked. It was actually a bit unclear if his friend planned on looking for his sister to calm her down, or to avoid her until the next day. He should’ve asked.

Yumi seemed to freeze at the sound of his voice, her stomping stopping, and her shoulder going up past her ears.

“Go away.”

“You guys can still easily clinch a win against Hibikino. Their team is so bad it’s basically non-existent.”

“I’m serious, I don’t feel like talking right now!”

“Yumi, it’s just one game. No need to have a tantrum over it.”

It was then that she finally turned around, her face fully red, fists clenched.

“Ugh, you’re such a JERK, Takeru!”

Before he knew it, Yumi threw her bag with almost the same speed and force that she would a basketball, which slammed straight into his gut. While it was a bit of surprise was grateful it didn’t go any lower.

“Hey, watch it! Why do you have to be so-” Just as he was about to tell her off, he noticed her eyes were visibly red, watering up to about the halfway point before they started to fall.

Oh.

Oh no. Those were tears. Not like the ones at the amusement park, or whenever she would get mad about her brother changing the channel on her.

“Yumi…”

With one last cry of frustration, Yumi finally sat down on the wooden bench, burying her face into her hands.

“It’s fine. It’s whatever. I… just wanted you to think I was cool,” she mumbled.

Ohhh boy. Takeru wasn’t always the best at saying stuff. He didn’t always think his words threw before saying them, regardless of how they could come across. Sometimes he just felt like he chose whatever was the easiest option. It was probably one of the big reasons so many of the girls were frustrated with him. But seeing Yumi being so sincere, it twisted something in his chest. She wanted him to think she was cool, huh? Sometimes he forgot he was her senior, as they very rarely addressed each other as such. He nervously scratched the back of his neck, before he sat down next to her, carefully patting the top of her head.

“I mean, you did look cool out there, regardless of the loss.”

Yumi stopped for a moment, looking up at him, a slightly confused look on her face.

“R-really?”

Takeru grinned. “Well, yeah! I mean, that 3-pointer you scored? Your form was perfect. Not to mention that you know how to get around the court fast. Besides, you guys really held your own. It was a great match to watch. When there’s no challenge, matches are boring to watch anyway. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

Almost instinctively, he reached over and placed his hand on her cheek, gently wiping away the remainder of her tears. Yumi flinched for a brief moment, but she didn’t pull back.

“You were awesome out there.”

“When you say it like that…”

“Hmm?”

She paused and turned her head for a moment, a bit dumbfounded.

“You, don’t know how you sound right now, do you?”

“Uhh… I hope like a wise and insightful sempai, looking out for his kohai?”

There was another pause before Yumi started to laugh. There were tears, but clearly not of frustration.

“Ahhh, you’re such an idiot.”

“Hey. I just gave you a heartfelt speech and that’s what I get?” Takeru chuckled. He was just happy he was not going to get another hit in the stomach.

Yumi quickly stood up, stretching out her arms before placing them on her hips. “Fiiiine. You’re right. I’m only just finishing up my first year after all. Plenty of time to work hard and show you what I’m really capable of.”

“Right? And come next year, Kirameki is going to squash those Habataki losers. The win will taste all the much sweeter.”

“Uh, yeah! In basketball...”

“Yumi, there you are!” Yoshio ran over to the pair panting. “Jeeze, I thought mom was gonna kill me if I didn’t find you.”

He then looked back and forth between Yumi and Takeru, wheels turning in his head before grinning.

“Oh. Apologies if I was butting in on something~”

“You simply existing is a butt-in on my life,” his little sister stuck her tongue out before turning over to Takeru one last time. “Anyway, thanks for the talk, sempai. I’ll see you Monday for practice.”

Takeru waved as the two siblings walked off, clearly bickering as they did so. He was glad that he managed to turn things around. He’d best get going as well, considering how cold it was outside, but for some reason, that tightness in his chest earlier turned into something warm and calming. Sure, Yumi could be a lot at times, but she was also funny, determined, cute, and sincere. He needed someone like that in his life when he lacked those qualities at times.

And he was glad that he still had one more year with her.

#tokimeki memorial #tokimeki memorial forever with you #yumi saotome #yumi saotome x protagonist #my fics #galge

3 notes · View notes