#feeling like being saved by dark yet gentle songs is actually something i relate to as an angsty kinda depressed teen growing up

[erregiulydraws]

niigo

[theteddylupinexperience]

The Concert | Dio Morrissey x f!reader

AN: not a lot to say about this one, aside from the fact that I’m actually really happy with how it turned out. I always love the “best friend’s younger sister” trope, and who better to do it with than our goth king himself. Thanks as always to @pascalpanic for hyping me up and listening to me rant about mosh pits. Enjoy!

Warnings: swearing, kissing, super mild punk show related violence, brief anxiety mention, Dio is a little cringey but you like it

“Kiddo, you’re not even gonna have fun,” your brother swears, “this band is harsh no doubt, I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“As sweet as your over protection is, you’re not ditching me tonight,” you roll your eyes. Your brother is sitting on your bathroom counter watching you get ready for the concert he promised a month ago he’d take you to. You know his concern comes from a genuine place, you’d only gotten into the goth scene fairly recently, and long time fans can be really intense with “virgins.”

“Hey, uh, is Shane gonna be there?” you ask, casually as you can manage. You attempt to continue with your black eyeshadow to avoid eye contact with your brother, but he sees right through you anyways.

“First of all, you have to call him Dio while we’re in public. You are not killing the vibe on your induction night. Second of all, gross. I’m sitting right here. Drool over my best friend on your own time.” Your brother pokes your forehead with one of your makeup brushes in a scolding manor.

“Okay well first of all,” you start, “this is my time because this is my bathroom. And second of all… do YOU have any weird nickname I should be aware of before I, and I quote, kill the vibe?”

Your brother flushes slightly, looking at the ground before answering, “Uh, it’s Ghost, actually.”

You narrow your eyes at him, biting back a laugh at how ridiculous he looks, bright red ears contrasting the Doc Martens currently kicking against the floor.

“Dio and… Ghost?” He just nods, looking up at you finally.

“Well alright, my knights in dirty ass Tripp pants.” The comment earns you a laugh, and you feel a small swell of pride rise in your chest. For as insufferable as you found each other a lot of the time, your older brother really was like your best friend. His group of friends had stuck together since middle school, and had absolutely taken you under their wing when you’d let yourself really fall into your darker side. Tonight was your first real night out with everyone, and you couldn’t pretend to be more nervous. You had known your brother’s best friend Shane, Dio, since you were in third grade and had always found him fascinating. You can’t deny that he’s gorgeous, tall and lean, always wearing a leather trench coat that accentuates those features. Full, plush lips, and deep brown eyes that you want to get lost in. Just as you find yourself actually getting lost in the thought of Dio, you’re startled back to reality when your brother turns your hair dryer on and blows it in your face.

“Yo, kid, did I lose you? We gotta go,” in your trance he’s managed to get his hair done and a subtly cool amount of eyeliner. You can only hope not to look like a child, or god forbid a drone, next to him and his friends. “Don’t be nervous, just get your shoes on.”

When you get your boots laced up, you give yourself one last glance in the mirror, fluffing your hair to make it look less obviously styled, and run out the door.

When you arrive at the venue, if you could call it that, it looks more like a rundown warehouse, the music is already in full swing. “The openers always fuckin’ suck, kid,” your brother had told you, “we always show up at least an hour late.”

You’re rocking nervously on your heels, stuck to the ground where your brother had told you to wait while he found the group and brought them over to you. You smile widely when you see them approaching you, but are quick to cover it with what you hope is a cool smirk. Out of place doesn’t even begin to describe how you feel, it would be more accurate to say you’re on a different plane of existence. You’ve managed to transcend discomfort and now have settled into a calmer state.

“Well, well, if it isn’t Wednesday Addams herself,” a deep voice calls out from the head of the pack.

“Hey Sh- uh, Dio,” you stammer as the king himself puts his hands on your shoulders to inspect your outfit. Your stomach drops when he brushes some hair from your face. “You look good. Like you put some thought into how you look, unlike the rest of these drones.” Your face lights up at his praise, and flushes quickly when he winks at you.

Your group makes their way towards the front of the stage when you hear the headlining band announced. The first few songs go off without a hitch, the crowd moves in a seething, pulsing way to the music, and you find yourself moving along with them. You catch Dio’s eyes a couple times to find him already looking at you, his expression relaxed and amused, but his eyes dark as he takes in everything around him. You’re about to walk over and ask him to dance with you when you hear from the stage, “Alright everybody, let’s open this fucking pit!”

Your eyes widen briefly, but you try your best to stay cool in front of your brother and his friends. You can only imagine how lame Dio would find you if you lost your cool because of some moshing. Unfortunately, in your attempt to save face, you’ve distracted yourself to the people around you and find yourself getting shoved, almost to the ground. Your brother hurries over and helps you up, and you assure him you’re fine. It’s nothing you can’t handle. He keeps his grip on you a moment longer, and ruffles your hair before jumping into the circle pit himself. You do your best to keep dancing around, staying away from everyone jumping and shoving each other as much as you can, and for a few minutes you’re surprisingly successful.

The next song that plays is even more intense than the last, and you find yourself crowded against the stage trying to stay away from everything. Your heart rate quickens, and you can feel an anxiety attack trying to creep its way up your spine. You look around desperately, searching for your brother so you can beg him to take you home, when a hand on your shoulder startles you.

Warm brown eyes search your own, “Didn’t mean to scare you, darling, but do you want to get out of here?”

You nod up at Dio, and he takes your hand, guiding you in front of him towards a side door. One of his hands rests protectively against the small of your back, and you shudder at the warmth. You’re outside, the air is cool against the sweat on your skin, and yet Dio’s hand never leaves yours.

“D’you wanna sit?” He gestures to a bench resting against the side of the building.

“I-” your voice cracks, and you clear your throat to find some volume, “Sure, that sounds nice.”

The pair of you sit in silence for a moment while you catch your breath, you can feel Dio’s eyes boring into you, but can’t bear to look at him. “God, I’m so sorry, Shane,” you whisper, “Er, Dio, fuck, sorry again.”

“Don’t apologize, darling, it’s just you and me out here.” You finally dare to look up, and he’s smiling gently at you, holding both of your hands in one of his, and rubbing the other soothingly up your back. “I know the first time can be intense, to say the least. It’s a madhouse in there, and those fucking drones don’t know any better than to push everyone around. It should be a crime to scare or shove anyone as perfect as you.”

You huff out a strangled laugh at his words, and move your hands to fiddle with the rings on his fingers. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

“Because you’re my best friend’s little sister,” he starts, and his grip on your back tightens when disappointment crosses your features, “and because you are the most beautiful creature I have ever laid eyes on. If someone as ethereal as you will even allow me in your presence, I have done something right.”

You turn your body towards him completely, searching his face. The strong, confident, devil may care Dio from inside is nothing compared to the patient, sweet, borderline insecure Shane you’re talking to out here. You reach your hand up to caress his face, smoothing down his dyed black curls, tracing your thumb against his full bottom lip. Shane melts into your touch, a content sigh leaving his lips at the contact, the heat of your skin against his feels more powerful than the sun at this moment. When you run your thumb nail against the sensitive skin behind his ear, his eyes snap open.

“Can I- would you… would you be mad if I kissed you?” He asks, his voice shy, but his eyes full of want.

‘I’ll be mad if you don’t,” you laugh incredulously. Shane places one hand against your jaw, and the other one slides up your back to rest in your hair. The cool metal of his rings feels electric, but nothing could compare to the jolt you feel when his lips meet yours. He’s soft, so much gentler than you imagined he’d be, and he takes his time losing himself in the feeling of your lips moving against his. He pulls away too soon, and you grab the front of his jacket to pull him back to you.

This kiss is not as gentle, but it is equally as sweet and intoxicating. His hand tightens on your scalp, and his tongue presses against the seam of your lips. You gasp, and he takes the opportunity to slip his tongue against yours. He tastes like clove cigarettes and Jaeger, and it’s fucking incredible. He’s more perfect than your wildest dreams of him, and the low moan he lets out when you scratch your nails up his back makes you reconsider everything you’ve ever thought about heaven.

Eventually you have to breathe, so you pull back just a bit and rest your forehead against his. “Wow,” you manage to get out. Shane laughs, the sound is more musical than anything you’ve heard tonight.

“Wow is correct, my darling, you are truly more ethereal than I could have fathomed.” He kisses you again, softly on the lips, and then places another on your cheek. “Do you think I could take you out for real sometime soon?”

You bite your lip to prevent a giddy smile from breaking across your face, and nod quickly. “I actually found this record store with its own coffee shop a couple towns over, we could check that out, maybe? I mean, I’ve liked you since freshman year, so anything you want to do would be perfect. You’re perfect, Dio.”

His ears flush an adorable pink, and he smiles almost shyly up at you. “Shane,” he says, “Call me Shane.”

You beam up at him, “Shane.”

He stands up, takes your hand, and leads you back into the concert venue. Walking arm in arm with the king, you feel like you could jump right in the middle of that mosh pit and come out on top. Shane guides you back to your friends, and you try not to get overwhelmed by the stares and whispers when people see you together. Your brother catches a glimpse of you, his eyes drop down to where your hand is connected with Shane’s, and you brace yourself for an obnoxious or over protective comment.

“It’s about goddamn time.”

[playing--koi]

Creatures Alike

Pairing: Geralt of Rivia x Reader

Rating: 18+

Warning(s): SMUT, brief mentions of violence and torture, brief mentions of blood and injury, swearing, unprotected sex (y’all this is a mythical world, but stds are very real here so keep that shit locked up)

Summary: A mysterious Witcher saves you from criminal sacrifice and quite a grim background of servitude and torture. Since he’s decided to nurse you back to health and treat you with compassion, you’ve felt something awaken inside of you for the first time in your bleak life.  

Word Count: 5.7k

MASTERLIST

The coarse bark of the tree trunk pressed painfully into the skin of your back. You weren’t sure if the liquid you felt soaking through your rags was that of sweat or blood. The hot, sticky air of the forest was palpable and, if you weren’t otherwise occupied with being tied to a tree, no doubt the heat would’ve instead been the subject of your complaints.

So how had you ended up tied to a tree? Simple. You were a criminal, ostracized and locked away; a long life of torture awaiting you for the murder of your village’s king. However, you didn’t regret it. Hell, you’d practically give anything to go back in time and do it all over again, savoring the vision of that vile man’s blood that glistened upon your dagger.

He got exactly what he’d deserved and you’d sworn to every high priestess sent to talk to the “daughter of Lilit” that you’d never repent. As far as you knew, you had no relation to the demon goddess of the night, intent on exterminating the human race; though you decided you’d lean into it. It was easier to claim Lilit’s likeness than to relive the horrors that you’d experienced at the hands of that man.

You were an orphan that’d been left on the doorstep of the king one night. It quickly became the subject of town gossip because your ears showed that of elven heritage. Not fully, but certainly enough to be recognized. Against all suggestion from his council, he decided to take you in to one day become a servant girl. The village ate that garbage up from the palm of his unscathed, perfectly manicured hands; woes of his “kind, gentle spirit” and “innate care for all creatures, no matter how disgusting”.

It made you sick. He made you sick. With his creative list of unthinkable punishments that he saved for only you. The halfblooded elf who was used as an outlet for his rage. His council knew, his family knew, neighboring royals knew. And no one batted an eye. If it kept their king happy, drain the elf’s blood.

So it shouldn’t have been a surprise when you killed him. But evidently it was. There was talks of hanging you, burning you at the stake, stoning you to death; frankly, you’d lost track of the plethora of capital suggestions. Everyone cried of how ungrateful you were. That he’d accept one of your kind just to be murdered for his generosity. It almost made you laugh that these people were so busy sneering at you over a man that they only pretended to know the first thing about. In their minds, the honorable king would never lay a finger on an innocent creature, but oh, how wrong they were.

And now here you were. In the stead of public execution, you were now being offered as a sacrifice to the griffin that had been terrorizing the village. You’re pretty sure that everyone knew one lousy meal wouldn’t do anything to quench the abomination’s blood-thirst, but everyone was excited by the idea of a painful, terrifying, and gruesome death for a criminal such as yourself. Well, fuck them too.

You weren’t quite sure why they’d tied you up in the forest, considering griffins mostly traveled by flight, making it nearly impossible to see you hidden within the tree tops and thick foliage. Either you’d die by some miracle of the griffin finding you or perhaps another horrid creature, starvation, dehydration, or bandits. So many options, lucky you.

Lightheaded due to exhaustion and overheating, you couldn’t tell if you were imagining the noises that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. After years of mental torture and loneliness, you were more than aware of your mind’s ability to hallucinate quite grand things. Like that one time you’d managed to have an entire argument with your dinner rations. And you weren’t even sure if you’d won.

However you couldn’t imagine that your own mind would be able to conjure up the noise that you’d just heard. A growl so menacing and threatening, you were sure this was your end. And you hadn’t even seen the beast yet. You’d been through a lot, so you were not usually convinced that you wouldn’t survive something because, after so many days spent begging not to, you still prevailed. But this might actually be it.

And then you saw it. After many tales of such a beast; paintings, sonnets, songs, epic novels: a griffin. It was huge, grotesque, and sinister. Its face looked permanently smug as it traipsed in and out of your vision through openings. And it was on foot; how peculiar. But the closer you looked, the easier it was to see that it was injured. With a trail of blood closely following it, you concluded that it must’ve been its wings because, had it been another extremity, it probably wouldn’t have been walking as easily as it was.

But what creature would attack something so massive and menacing?

You kept your breaths as silent as possible, remaining as still as you could. You weren’t sure how good its hearing was. You didn’t really know much about griffins. You didn’t really know much about anything, to be honest. Spending most of your life hidden from the world certainly did an excellent job of also hiding the world from you. Whenever you could sneak a book from the king’s library, you would, but any of his more riveting, knowledgable ones were kept very far from your reach.

It was now far darker than it had been just a few minutes before, so you prayed to the gods that it wouldn’t see you. Seeming to be wandering aimlessly, the creature’s steps were slow and heavy before it made a sort of bedding with the surrounding leaves and curled up—as much as such a large body could “curl”—and began to snore.

Great, I pray to the gods for safety and instead they send a griffin to my exact location where it falls asleep, no doubt ready to maul me the moment I make an inkling of a sound. What a fucking joke.

Before you can agonize for too much longer, you see a flash of white in your peripheral vision and you whip your neck to face it. You see a man. A very large, very intimidating man with long white hair and dressed head to toe in black. He had weapons sheathed on his back and moved with a swiftness of someone who really knew how to use them. And he appeared to be purposely moving closer to the griffin. Oh no. He was going to wake it up and you were both going to die.

Well, he was just speeding up the inevitable. So you decided to watch. At least enjoy some entertainment in your last moments.

You couldn’t help but notice his pure beauty and the rugged nature of it. He was a daunting presence, one of indisputable importance and humble pride. He moved like both the lion and the gazelle; he was a contradiction, both gentle and dangerous. Reckless yet careful. Gods, he was approaching a griffin, yet it seemed to be just a daily occurrence for him. Maybe you both were going to live if his stature was anything to go by.

He was then standing over the sleeping body of the griffin, unsheathing his sword with delicacy so as not to awaken the beast. And without a sliver of hesitation, he chopped the overgrown bird’s head cleanly off its shoulders.  

You gasped without a thought and he quickly searched the darkness for the source of the noise and you could feel the blood drain from your face. Sure, he’d saved you from the imminent danger, but what if he was the new imminent danger? A man that confident and sly couldn’t be underestimated by a prisoner tied to a tree.

In the dark of the night, you could make out his eyes just as they found you. His brows furrowed, no doubt confused by your predicament. You couldn’t imagine it was a common occurrence to find a woman tied to a tree in the middle of a forest right after killing a griffin. He slowly began to inch closer to you before he was only a few footsteps away.

You could now make out the rich amber of his eyes as they scanned your…dilemma. His face was nothing short of perfect— sculpted by the delicate fingers of the gods—and mauled ever since by the cruelty he’d clearly faced on the continent. His face was dirty and battered, like he’d picked a pub brawl with the wrong gang of thugs. But after seeing the cool and collected way he slayed that animal, you couldn’t imagine him losing any fight.

And then he spoke. A deep rumble that sounded harsh to unprepared ears. His voice was that of smoke; thick and mysterious—throaty and coarse. It awoke something primal in you that’d been stifled perhaps your entire life. So much so that you’d forgotten to listen to what he’d actually said.

“Ma’am?” He inquired, clearly trying to get your attention. Little did he know he had it undivided.

Your curiosity got the better of you and you couldn’t resist.

“Who are you?” You wondered aloud, your voice remaining constant in such a threatening situation. Due to the trials of your life, it’d been a long time since you feared death.

“Geralt,” he grumbled. Well, it didn’t exactly cover the complexities of your question, but it was a start.

“Are you going to kill me, Geralt?”

He grunted in response, but you could swear you saw a hint of amusement in his eyes. He pulled the sword from its place hilted on his shoulder and you closed your eyes to brace for impact, but instead of an untimely demise, you simply felt your balance slipping as the rope was no longer holding you up straight.

Before you could land face-first on the forest floor, you could feel a forearm reach out and catch you around the waist. Upon opening your eyes, you could see that you were angled toward the ground and, had this peculiar man not reached his hand out and almost effortlessly stopped your downfall, you’d have had a mouthful of twigs.

He pulled you back up straight and, after no longer feeling your need for his support, he left you to stand on your own—though he watched you like a mare would her foal. Making sure you didn’t immediately go topsy-turvy. The absence of his warmth around your belly was somehow even more uncomfortable than the sweltering heat. You couldn’t even begin to think how sweaty he was under all of that black leather. What you’d give to get him out of it.

You tried to physically shake the thoughts from your head.

“May I ask why you were tied to a tree?” He questioned, sizing you up, almost as if he was guessing what the reason could be himself.

“My village is convinced that I’m the daughter of Lilit, so they left me as a human sacrifice for that griffin,” you pointed to the recently-slain beast.

He raised his eyebrows at your confession. “So you’re the servant girl who murdered the king,” his eyes narrowed as he continued, “I’ve heard talk of you. You’re not exactly spoken about favorably, considering you killed one of the continent’s most well-regarded rulers,”.

You felt a pang in your chest. You were so sick of the assumptions that everyone made about you. How you were a no-good, selfish, bloodthirsty elf. Always defending yourself from people who would never know the truth. Well, if that’s what they all thought, there was no use trying to change their minds.

“That would be me.” You sneered, “Probably should’ve just left me to die, huh?” You pushed past him, stomping away from your beautiful savior. Even a mysteriously handsome man saving your life couldn’t be a source of happiness.

However you didn’t exactly have time to dwell on it too much before your vision blurred and you could feel your body giving out. You were dehydrated, overheated, starved, and possibly bleeding. When was luck ever on your side?

You crumpled to the ground, a deafening ring reverberating through your head. Your body ached as your mind blanked. You didn’t even notice that you were now being moved. Your eyes grew heavier, heavier, heavier.

~

There you were, back in the basement of the castle. Drenched in your own blood, the color a more muted red as it mixed with that of your sweat. Your ankle was raw from where the shackle was tightly bound to it, dirt and grime seeping within the cut.

You couldn’t possibly be back here, you’d killed him. He was supposed to be gone. But the sounds of his boots thundering down the stairs alerted you that it was far from over.

You startled awake, gasping for air. In a fit of panic, you jumped up from the makeshift bed you’d been asleep on, frantically searching the room for an explanation. You quickly came to the conclusion that you’d found yourself within an abandoned cottage of sorts. And you were not alone.

Geralt studied you with a confused intensity. His brows were furrowed as he sat in a chair that was situated next to the bed you’d been asleep in. An opened book was settled on his lap.

Your eyes drifted from him and instead looked down at your own body and saw that several areas had been bandaged, including places that you hadn’t even known to be injured.

“Clearly they’re not too kind to prisoners in your village,” He stated after seeing that you’d been studying your own wounds.  

“Why did you help me?” You questioned.

He cocked his head to the side, confused by your response. He probably expected some sort of gratitude in your words instead of the cautious interrogation that he was now being met with.

“You said it yourself, I’m a murderer,” you pushed further, “so why did you help me?” You gritted your teeth, the pain throbbing in your head did nothing to assuage the rage you felt at his dismissal of you upon your first meeting.

He inhaled deeply before answering your question. “I was originally going to take you back to your village along with the griffin’s head in hopes of some sort of…compensation,” you rolled your eyes at his honesty, “but when I examined your wounds further, I didn’t think you would live through the journey without some proper treatment.” He answered frankly.

“So your plan is to heal me and then turn me in?” You scoffed.

“Originally, yes. However, the more I’ve studied you, the more curious I’ve become.” He set the book on the ground and crossed his legs, leaning further back in the chair. Even from across the room, you could feel that the probing was about to begin. “Their stories don’t really align with what I’ve seen from you. What do you have to fear? Your village speaks as if they’re terrified of you. All anyone seems to call you is the daughter of Lilit, the elf with no soul—so what would you have to be afraid of?”

You sputtered out a laugh at the sheer irony of it all. What did you have to be afraid of? What a laughable question. What didn’t you have to be afraid of?

He stood from his seat and started to walk around the bed toward you and your body reacted before your mind even had time to register. You flinched, moving to protect all vital organs from the beating you felt to be inevitable. Your eyes were squeezed shut so tightly, spots were collecting within your darkened vision. Time stood still as you waited for the assault, but you couldn’t even hear his footsteps getting closer.

You slowly opened your eyes and moved your face from where it was tucked into your elbow. You saw Geralt standing there, his hands up in surrender as he looked at you with the mildest bit of sorrow.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he conceded, speaking in a way one might to a frightened animal, “It was unfair of me to pass judgment on you after our first meeting. Humans do it to my kind all the time and I know better than anyone how frustrating it can be,”.

“Your kind?” Your brows furrowed.

“I’m a Witcher,”.

Your eyes widened, remembering the stories you’d snuck from the library stacks about Witchers and their superhuman amounts of power used to defeat monsters across the continent. “You’re a Witcher?” You whispered, curiosity dripping from your voice. You were desperate to hear the tales of someone so well-traveled and brave.

“That’s enough about me, little elf.” He took a step closer to you. You narrowed your eyes at the nickname, but let it go quickly; it sounded more like a term of endearment than anything else. “Now sit back down on the bed, so I can redress your wounds. All of this excitement seems to have reopened a few cuts,” You obeyed, no longer preoccupied enough to ignore the pain.

He crouched down in front of where you were seated and moved to lift up one of your pant legs in order to check on the dressings. He continued this on your arms and legs for quite a while, very meticulous in his work to insure you didn’t walk away with any infections. It was then time to look at your back, the part you’d been dreading.

Sure, you knew he’d already seen it, but your back was covered fully in scars from your years of servitude. It was unsightly and you hated the reminders.

You faced the other direction, so you were now looking away from him. You carefully removed your old, tethered shirt. You used the raggedy material to shield any sight of your breasts, although you knew he couldn’t see them from his place behind you. He began to untie the cloth and remove the bandaging, goosebumps arising wherever you felt the ghost of his touch. Grabbing a damp rag, he started to clean the gashes that littered your back. You attempted not to hiss in pain, but it failed fairly quickly.

He slathered ointment onto your burning skin, lightly massaging it into the wounds of your back, making sure to take extra care of the areas that were especially banged up. This was all so foreign to you; these hands that held you with a gentle touch. Someone alleviating your pain instead of adding to it. You sighed in contentment at the sheer pleasure of another’s hands, especially those belonging to such a beautiful specimen, however pointedly you tried ignoring that fact.

Far too soon, the caress was replaced with more bandages and gauze. You were left internally whining at the loss of Geralt’s closeness. Before you went to put your same shirt back on, he tossed you one in far better condition that he must’ve found in the cottage.

You were fighting sleep, eager to spend more time in his presence. It was so soothing to you in a way that nothing else had ever been. He took one look at you, no doubt seeing your internal fight to stay awake. “Rest up, little elf,” he insisted, “I’ll still be here when you wake up,”.

And with that, you gave yourself permission to sleep.

~

You’d been trapped in the cottage with Geralt for roughly three days at this point, practically vibrating out of your own skin at the temptations you’d had to sit through. With Geralt constantly tending to you, the little amount of privacy the cottage offered, and having to bear witness to his perfectly crafted body, freshly soaked from his baths; a new side of you had suddenly awakened.

He captivated you. Your eyes followed him every moment you could get away with it. You certainly weren’t covert about it either. The feelings were just so new and profound that you were honestly just excited to be feeling them at all. Any common activity could become entertaining so long as Geralt was the one performing it.

You were entranced by his unexpected tenderness. He would sometimes sneak out at night to check on Roach when he thought you were asleep, making sure that nothing in the surrounding wood had agitated the horse. While his skills helped you to feel protected, his morality was what made you really trust him. He could’ve easily brought you back to your village, gotten a hefty sum, and been on his way. Hell, it wasn’t like you’d claimed innocence in the first place.

But no, instead he’d decided to offer you medical care using his own supplies, give you most of his hunting rations, find you shelter, and be the first person to ever treat you with true respect. So, what were you meant to do? Not develop any sort of feelings for him? That level of self control seemed utterly ridiculous.

Although it’d only been a short period of time, you felt so safe with him. He asked you questions and showed true interest in your answers. He comforted you after a few jarring nightmares. He asked your opinions on things and never made you feel ashamed if you didn’t know something. He told you some quite riveting stories of his travels and woes; of monsters and magic and all sorts of things.

You could feel a considerable predicament arising.

~

Before he’d left to go hunting, Geralt had been kind enough to prepare a bath for you. Your complaints of muck had probably started to annoy him at this point, so he pulled out all of the bells and whistles. Flowers, herbs, oils, scents, milks, powders; you didn’t even know what kind of concoction this was, but it felt fancy. So you were going to enjoy it.

You scrubbed your body until your skin was practically raw, not allowing even one granule of dirt to be left behind. Frankly, you’d needed the distraction that concentration brought. Anything was better than the devilish thoughts of Geralt that replayed in your mind at every moment since you’d met him.

And since it was your first time being truly alone in the cottage, maybe it was time to do something about it.

You couldn’t help yourself. It was the perfect storm of desire. The heat of the bath, the filth polluting your mind, the views you’d had the honor of seeing throughout the past few days; he was irresistible. And if the only relief you could offer yourself was within the confines of your own fantasy, then so be it.

The herbs and flowers floated around the surface of the bath as the milk and oil clouded the water, obscuring the view of your hand as it lowered down the skin of your stomach. You’d never felt such strong urges in your entire life.

It was your first time trying anything like this, but you’d had the pleasure of indulging in a few erotic novels throughout your time at the castle. Your fingers lightly caressed the flesh of your opening, teasing the sensitive area and imagining the droplets of water cascading down Geralt’s back earlier that day. How it’d feel to run your tongue across each rippling muscle, collecting the liquid in your mouth.

You sunk your middle finger into your core, feeling the wetness pooling inside of you. This man had you wound so tightly around his finger; you were practically bursting at the seams. Once you’d collected some of your slick on the tip of your finger, you pulled back and circled around your tiny bud of nerves. When you’d finally made contact, your body reacted in a way it never had before. Your legs twitched, causing some of the bathwater to splash from the tub, but you couldn’t find one care in the world, not even slowing at the sound.

A desperate whine left your mouth unexpectedly before you bit down on your lower lip, silencing yourself. The hand that wasn’t busy with your throbbing nether regions gripped the edge of the tub, almost numb at this point. You knew that if Geralt was the one doing this to you, that hand would be wrapped up in his bright silver strands. The thought of him doing anything to make you feel this immodest nearly had you drooling. His dexterous, strong hands taking ownership of your pussy, showing you just how accommodating he could be.

His name left your lips in a desperate plea as you finally found a rhythm that suited you. You felt as if your body was no longer your own as you continued your descent in the search of pleasure. You slowly worked yourself, wanting to savor this feeling. Your breaths were loud and labored as you arched your back slightly, searching for a path closer to release. Your mind replaying every word Geralt had uttered to you since you’d first met, clawing for any semblance of relief.  

Your movements came to a screeching halt upon hearing the deep voice you’d come to know so well—now outside of your thoughts. You snapped your eyes open quickly, seeing his smug face staring back at you as you jumped to cover yourself as much as you could.

“Am I interrupting something?” He cocked an eyebrow.

You gasped, hot shame bubbling in your chest as you fumbled through any words you could get out. “Geralt—I’m s-so sorry, I really—”.

He slowly started to untuck and unbutton his black shirt. Your mouth went dry as more of his skin was exposed, effectively silencing your babble. The raised markings of his scars were covered in a light sheen of sweat that looked absolutely delectable. You could feel your pupils dilating, your mouth opening slightly without your control.

He smirked at the look on your face, tossing his shirt to the side. “Would you like some help?” He gave you an appreciative once-over to emphasize his proposition.

Your eyes widened as you prayed to every god that this wasn’t some twisted trickery. You nodded, fearing that your voice would betray you.

He stripped himself of his boots and the rest of his clothing. He worked quickly and gracefully, tossing the garments without a care as he walked closer to the tub. While you were obviously curious, you avoided any glances south of his abdomen, feeling too bashful to even look. Moving to get in the bath, he sat down in front of you. Now face to face, you were curious as to where he was going with this—before he hauled you up to sit on the rim of the bathtub completely emerged from the water, now completely at the mercy of his gaze. You were completely unveiled to him and you couldn’t cease the nerves that flared up in response.

He kneeled back down in the water and you quickly moved to cover you breasts. But before you could successfully shield them from his view, he moved one of your hands to grip the tub and the other to grasp onto his hair. He maneuvered your legs to rest over his shoulders, putting you on full display to his hungry eyes as his huge hands held you steady by your thighs. His dominant movements, situating you how he’d like caused a heavy pulsing feeling to arise in your already glistening cherry.

He kissed each of your thighs passionately, sucking marks into the skin with lips ghosting over each valley of skin—just shy of where you needed him most. The outline of your pubic bone, your navel; using his tongue to explore the plains and ridges of your body.

“Gods, I’ve been waiting to eat this sweet cunt since the moment I cut you from that tree,” His voice somehow got rougher in this moment, soaked in the intoxication of lust, and you could swear you almost fainted. But before you had time to burn out, you were lit afire once again as his tongue licked a long stripe up your aching center, wrapping his lips around your clit as he reached the bundle.

Your grip on his hair tightened as you let out such a guttural sound, urging him on as he made work of your sensitivity. You were covered in the wetness from your bath and, now that you were out of the water, your body felt slightly chilled which was a delicious contrast from the aching heat of your core as he devoured you. Not missing one morsel.

He pleasured you with such eagerness and paid close attention to each of your sounds, repeating movements that granted the noisiest and most reactionary ones. The obscene musing of slurps, licks, and Geralt’s moans had you seeing stars. Each time your body would pull away from him in shock, he’d simply pull you closer by your thighs, grinding you onto his face.

“You taste like heaven. How does that feel, little elf?” He questioned, golden eyes staring into your own. “Hmm?”

He was so smug, but you didn’t have it in you to be even the least bit annoyed. Because with his skillful tongue, he deserved to be smug.

You whined at the separation, desperate for the release you’ve been denied your whole life. You could barely handle another second without it. “Please, Geralt—” you nearly sobbed, panting in between words, “I’ve never felt this way before. Please let me finish on your tongue. I want it so bad,”.

��Fuck,” he whispered, eyes glazing over in desperation at the utterly wrecked look on your face. “Anything you want, little elf” his warm breath ghosted over your dripping cunt as he spoke, “I’ll give you anything,”.

He pulled you impossibly closer and licked into your center, using his nose to nudge and stimulate your bundle. His groans as he devoured you reverberated through your center, overtaking all of your senses as you neared the edge.

Geralt enclosed his lips around your clit, sucking it feverishly with his tongue—and your vision went white. You let out the most broken sound as your insides bursted. You tugged relentlessly on the hair that you assumed he regretted offering up to you, but his groans of pleasure actually made you question that hypothesis.

Your breaths were deep and long as you looked down at him. He was still staring up at you with a look of pride—not cockiness—like he was excited to be able to share that impure moment with you. You moved your thighs from his shoulders and lowered yourself back into the tub, pulling him in for a kiss.

Your first kiss. And it was perfect. Although the order of events seemed a bit backwards, you couldn’t have hoped for anything better.

You could taste yourself on his tongue as he pulled you closer to sit on his lap in the water. His hardened member pressed against your stomach, so you decided it was his turn. You wrapped your fingers around his thick cock, all shyness from earlier dissipating, as you paid close attention to the tip. You pumped him slowly, slowly adding more pressure as you continued.

He inhaled a deep breath, almost as if he was holding himself back. “I’m going to take you to bed now, little elf” he enunciated his statement with a quick peck, “only if you’ll have me, that is—”.

You rolled your eyes at his chivalry. “Take me to bed then, Witcher,”.

You squealed in joyful shock at his show of strength as he quickly lifted you both up from the tub, water now cascading from your bodies and onto the surrounding floor. But you couldn’t bring yourself to care as you simply giggled.

You both fell onto the bed with water still dripping from your bodies, soaking through the sheets. You were a quilt of limbs, wrapped up in one another as your mouths communicated longing with deep, passionate kisses. While he was your only kiss, you could somehow tell that he tasted better than any others.

He worshipped your body with his hands, offering you the loving touch that you’d never felt. Whispering praise of how good you were doing and how lovely you were and how much he’d wanted you.

When he first entered you, he kept it jarringly slow—wanting to avoid any pain—but after he’d opened you up so well, there was only mild discomfort at first. Giving into your begs, he fucked you into the sheets with your prayers of more. You clawed at his back and he wished you would dig harder, so the memory of your first time together could scar and overwrite the brutalities that currently littered his spine.

You squeezed him so perfectly and brought him such euphoria. He never wanted to leave the warmth of your divine center, each thrust bringing you both closer to your end.  

“C’mon, little elf. Come for your Witcher,”. Your Witcher was what did you in. You climaxed around his thick cock, the pulsing of your orgasm sending him over the hill right along with you. Both of you unleashing the most primal noises into the skin of the other; a shared moment of vulnerability between two creatures alike. This moment in which both of your worlds tilted in the most complementary way; a change that could be felt in the atmosphere.

He wrapped his arms around you tightly as you came down, grounding yourself in his slow breathing.

~

Once you’d both gotten cleaned up, you curled up in bed with Geralt as you laid your head on his naked pectoral. You studied him for quite a while as he played with the damp strands of your hair, battling sleep yet again, trying your best to lengthen this moment as much as you could.

But, of course, being the observant man he is, he quickly noticed your eyelids growing heavier.

“Rest up, little elf,” the smallest simper graced his eyes as he repeated his words from the first day in the cottage, “I’ll still be here when you wake up,”.

You closed your eyes with a ghost of a smile.

fin

A/N: Here’s my first crack at a fic for the Witcher (first of many, I’m hoping)!! I really hope you guys like it!! I’m not actually finished the series yet, so sorry if I get anything terribly wrong (I’m just trying so hard to savor it since it’s not back until 2021). I’m brushing back up on fanfic etiquette and writing style since I’m just getting back into the swing of things, so any feedback would be treasured!!! Let me know what you think, babies! 

I used to have a tag list, but since it’s been so long since I was posting consistently, I’ve decided to abandon it--so if you wanna be tagged in my stuff, just drop by my ask box. I’d love to have you and I sincerely hope you didn’t hate this, ha! x g

[nalgenewhore]

masterlist - ao3 - day five - day seven

<3<3<3

Elide stands in the doorway of her loft apartment, empty save for the cheap furniture that was already here when she moved in.

Her slender, sloped eyes fill with tears and she folds her arms across her body, her hands gripping the opposite sweater sleeve. She doesn’t hear or sense the person walking down the hall until they’ve wrapped their arms around her shoulders and kiss the top of her head, “You good?” 

Tilting her head up, she looks into Lorcan’s dark, depthless eyes. “Kind of.” Elide leans into her fiancée and sighs shakily, her vision blurring. “I’m going to miss this place.” 

“Me too,” Lorcan says, resting her chin on top of Elide’s head. “We had our first kiss here.” 

Elide grins, “Yeah… we said our first ‘I love you’ here, too.” They’re silent for a long moment, thinking and reminiscing. Elide is the first to move. She turns in Lorcan’s arms and smiles up at her, “I think I’m ready to go now.” 

Her fiancée drops her hand to Elide’s lower back. “Ok. We have time, you know. You don’t have to rush this. I know you loved your apartment. It was your home.” 

Elide lifts onto the tips of her toes and kisses Lorcan gently, her hands looping around Lorcan’s neck. “I know.” She bumps her nose into Lorcan’s and pulls back slightly, so that they still share a breath. “But I’m ready to go. To our home.” 

A happy grin steals across Lorcan’s face and she presses her lips to Elide’s. Elide melts against her, one hand sliding to Lorcan’s cheek. Lorcan’s teeth graze over her bottom lip and she sucks Elide’s lip into her mouth, licking her tongue over the small hurt. The motion pulls a moan from Elide’s throat. 

When they pull apart, their chests rise and fall faster than usual. Elide sweetly pushes Lorcan’s hair back and steps away, bending down to pick up the last box. It has her most valued possessions, like movie ticket stubs from dates, a rock from the lake near her childhood home, a strip of photos from a photobooth. “It’s time.” 

Lorcan nods and Elide slips the key off of her keychain. She leaves it on the counter and takes Lorcan’s hand, squeezing twice. Lorcan smiles and they walk down to her truck. Elide fits the last one in the truck bed next to the others. She walks around to the passenger seat and climbs in, grinning at her fiancée. 

The dark woman’s eyes sparkle and she starts the engine, reaching over to turn Elide’s face, “I love you, Lee.” 

Elide smiles and bites her lip, “I love you too, L.” She kisses Lorcan’s palm and pulls the hand on her face down to her lap. As Lorcan begins to drive, Elide opens her window and leans towards it, letting the golden, brilliant sun shine across her face. 

The air is warm and sunshiney, coaxing a wide grin across her face. Lorcan glances over and smiles at the sight of her girl so happy. She lifts Elide’s hand and kisses her knuckles, resting their joined hands on the centre console. 

Their new bungalow is only fifteen minutes away. Lorcan parks in front of the front gate and they step out, meeting by the tailgate. 

For the next hour, they move all the boxes into the living room. Elide divides different sections that relate to the different rooms and stacks the boxes that Lorcan carries in in neat piles. When Lorcan tries to put a heavy box, labelled BEDROOM, down, Elide stops her, gasping like she’s committed some crime against humanity. “Oh my gods, Lorcan, were you even listening?! That’s the kitchen pile, bedroom stuff goes over there.” 

Lorcan arches her brow and slowly puts the box down in its correct spot. “Lee��”

Elide looks at her and sighs, “Yeah. I’m just- I want it to be perfect.” 

Lorcan snorts and slides behind Elide, sweeping her up in a tight hug. She nips at the skin beneath Elide’s ear and whispers, “It’s us, when are things ever perfect?” 

“Put me down, you big bully!” 

“Oh, now, no need to be rude,” Lorcan says, finally letting Elide free. She pivots sharply and frowns up at Lorcan, her arms angrily crossed. Lorcan steps forward and cups Elide’s face, lifting it up. She strokes her thumbs over Elide’s strong jaw, “Sweetheart.” 

“Lorcan.” 

“I think you should step back for a couple minutes, maybe eat something, drink some water.” 

“Stop trying to baby me.” 

Lorcan clicks her tongue, “I am not babying you, I’m taking care of the woman I’m marrying in three months.” She bends her head to press a series of soft kisses across Elide’s face. “I got this. Go for a drive, or something. Just get out of here.”

Elide is still frowning as she begrudgingly agrees, “Fine. You’re probably right.” She closes her eyes and sighs through her nose. When she opens her eyes, she looks up at Lorcan and nods, offering her an apologetic grin. “Thank you. For taking care of me.” Elide stands on her tiptoes and kisses the sensitive spot beneath Lorcan’s jaw. 

Lorcan rubs Elide’s back, “You’re very welcome.” For a moment, they remain frozen in their gentle moment. Elide rests her face in the hollow of Lorcan’s neck, breathing in that cedar perfume that is so familiar to her. Lorcan’s arms loosen, and Elide calmly steps back, the frown melted from her face. 

She takes Lorcan hands and presses her lips to Lorcan’s knuckles, “I’m going. I’ll get us food.” 

Lorcan grins and kisses Elide’s forehead, “Will you get me a coffee?”

“I will,” Elide promises, walking backwards towards the door after she takes the keys out of Lorcan’s pocket. Once she reaches the door, she turns and flashes Lorcan a wide grin, the freckles on her cheeks shifting, “Be back soon, babe.” 

“Yeah, not too soon,” Lorcan warns, slowly making her way to the open door. “Love you, sweetheart.” 

“Love you too, hon.” Elide blows her a kiss and waves her fingers. Lorcan smiles and closes the door, breathing out a sigh of relief. With Elide gone, she can actually get things done. 

She pulls her phone out of her pocket and opens the calling app. Lorcan calls the person she always calls. 

It rings for a while and Lorcan waits patiently, knowing exactly what the golden nightmare is doing. 

“Salvaterre,” Aelin purrs, “how can I help you today?” 

“Feel like distracting Lee?” 

Aelin laughs, “She still freaking out about the move?” 

“Mmm-hmm,” Lorcan leans to the side, glancing out of the living room window. She sees the truck becoming smaller and smaller. “I made her leave for food so that gives us, like… half an hour at most.” 

On the other end of the line, Aelin hums in contemplation. “Ok… I’ll see where she’s at and intercept and I’ll send the cavalry to you.” 

Lorcan watches the truck disappear around the corner. “‘t’s nice to know that you can be helpful once in a while.” 

Aelin sniffs, “I like being unpredictable. Anyhoozles,” Lorcan hates that word, “I’m off. I’ll bring her back in, what, six hours?” 

“Yep. See you then, Ash.” 

Aelin says good-bye and they both hang up. Lorcan opens Spotify and scrolls through her playlists, smiling when she sees the new one Elide has to have made. It’s title simply with the date it was created. She presses shuffle play and puts it down on the fireplace mantel. 

The first song that plays is upbeat and fast. Lorcan recognises it almost immediately and a smile pulls at her full lips. 

I can’t remember when we met because she didn’t have a top on… top on… 

I improvised a ‘lil bit - she said my references were spot on… spot on… 

Softly, Lorcan starts to sing along, “‘Can I take you for a drink?’ She said, ‘Oh god, I’ll have to think, ‘cause we’re mates it doesn’t feel right?’” 

And I said “It’s cool” and “I was messing”... 

But it’s true, yeah it’s you

You’re the one that makes me feel right…

By the time she’s listened through seven more songs, Lorcan has unpacked the kitchen boxes. She lifts her head when she hears three obnoxious voices and frowns out the window, watching her brothers walk up to the front door. 

She loves them, and they’re the closest thing to family that she has, but… they're just so irritating. 

“Ay, yo, Salvaterre! Where you at?” 

Lorcan pauses her music and walks into the living room, clicking her tongue, “Take your shoes off, you animals.” 

They all dutifully take their shoes off and stack them to the side. Fenrys bounds over, his afro bouncing. “Hey, man, how are you?” 

“I’m good,” Lorcan says, accepting the obligatory hug Fenrys traps her in. A reluctant smile appears on her face and she hugs him back, “How are you?” 

“Same old, same old,” Fenrys replies, bouncing back and looking around. “So, where do you need us, boss?” 

“Uh…” Lorcan thinks as she daps Rowan up. “I don’t know yet. The kitchen is done, so… any place, I guess.” Fenrys nods and sets off determinedly to the boxes taking up most of the living room space. 

Connall claps Lorcan’s back as he passes, “I’ll supervise.” 

“And I’ll super-supervise,” Rowan says, grinning widely when Connall and Fenrys squawk in offence. 

“Oh, I see you just let anyone in your house, huh?” 

Lorcan turns when she hears her cousin’s voice, sharing the same dry grin, “Yeah, you know Lee would kick my ass if I turned the strays away.” 

Vaughan slings his arm around her shoulders and rests his head against hers. “How’d you convince her to leave?”

“Reason. And I sent G to stall her,” Lorcan says. 

He snorts and soon they’re all unpacking boxes. Lorcan tells them to leave the bedroom and office boxes alone. The latter are Elide’s, and Lorcan knows that she’ll want to fix it just so. As for their bedroom, Lorcan wants to put it together with the woman she shares it with. 

The sun has just begun to dip beneath the horizon when they’re finally finishing up. Lorcan stares at a picture of her and Elide, wondering if she should move it elsewhere. 

“Lor? You ok?” 

She snaps her head to the side. She forgot she was alone for a moment. “Yeah, I’m ok.” Lorcan looks around, her brows raising. Everything is unpacked. It looks like their home now. She smiles a rare smile, the one where both her dimples show. “It looks… incredible, guys. Thank you, this… it meant a lot, or whatever.” Her shoulders start to bunch up, tense. Lorcan has never been comfortable with praise or affection, but she tries. Elide makes it easier. 

The boys mumble ‘You’re welcome’s, equally unused to it as she.  

Rowan’s phone dings, so he pulls it out. When he sees the text Aelin sent him, he chuckles, “Apparently Aelin cannot stall Elide any longer. They’re on their way here, be here in… ten minutes.” 

“Right, well, that’s our cue,” Connall says, shoving his hands into his pockets. “We’ll let you surprise your girl and stuff.” 

Unwillingly, Lorcan feels her cheeks heat. As Fenrys walks out, he catches her blush and laughs, “Aww, she’s blushing. Who knew that Hellas’ heir had feelings?” 

She reaches out and slaps him upside the head, “Yeah, keep pointing it out, Fen. We’ll see if I don’t beat your dumb ass.” 

“Easy, easy,” Vaughan says, stepping between them and gesturing for Fenrys to leave as fast as he could. “Cool it, killer. We’re just saying that it’s, you know, it’s nice to see you like this.” 

Lorcan steps back, her spitfire anger calmed. She lets a small smile show, “Thanks. It’s… it’s Elide.” Her smile grows softer and the boys laugh as they file out to their cars. Lorcan leans against the porch column, joking with them as they leave. “I’ll see you guys later.” 

She waves and walks back inside, anxiously pacing in front of the door. Her phone rings and she snatches it out of her pocket, accepting the call before she sees who it is. “Hello?”

“Hi, honey,” Elide says. “I’m almost home. I’m so sorry you had to do everything alone, I saw Aelin and she needed to do a bunch of things.” 

“Don’t worry about it. You had a good day, right?”

Elide sighs, “Yeah. Honestly, I’ve just been so caught up with the move and the wedding. It was nice to not think about any of it today.” 

“I’m glad,” Lorcan says. “Are you going to be home soon? I miss you.”

Her fiancée laughs, “Needy, needy. I’ll be there soon. Love you, L.”

“Love you too, princess.” Lorcan pulls the phone away from her ear and ends the call. She sits down on one of the armchairs to wait and idly takes a book off of the nearest shelf. Flipping past the first few pages, Lorcan settles in and rests her chin on her fist. 

Headlights shine through the front window and they’re nothing but a nuisance to her until she realises who it is. Lorcan puts the book back and stands, crossing to the front door. She opens the door as Elide climbs out of the truck, a bag of takeaway in her hand. She lofts it, smiling ruefully, “Will you forgive me for abandoning you today? I got you your favourite.” 

Lorcan grins as Elide walks up the stone pathway. “I might.” 

Elide steps onto the porch, “We can eat and then start unpacking the rest?” She doesn’t wait for Lorcan’s response before she walks past her and pushes the door open. “I– it’s all done. How is it all done?” 

Lorcan follows her in and looks around proudly. “I might’ve asked Aelin to stall you. And I called in the cavalry.” She tucks Elide into her side, “They really are helpful when you tell them exactly what to do.” 

Her fiancée laughs tearfully and puts their food down so she can walk around, her eyes bright. “This… this is exactly what I wanted.”

Elide spends the next half hour looking around and getting used to their new home. She pokes around the living room and the kitchen too, fawning over the seemingly thousands of potted plants they have. 

Lorcan watches with an adoring expression, completely entranced by everything Elide does. 

Spinning, Elide holds her hands out to Lorcan. “Come.” 

As always, Lorcan does as Elide tells her and stands up from the table chair she was sitting on. Lorcan takes Elide’s hands and looks down at her, one brow arched, “What is it, Lee?” Without a word, Elide starts to swing and sway. Lorcan follows warily, still unsure what Elide is trying to do. “Princess…” 

“Just dance with me, love,” Elide says.

Lorcan hums in understanding and lifts Elide’s hands to her shoulders. Hers loosely rest on Elide’s waist and Lorcan begins to dance, leading Elide around their cosy kitchen. Elide beams and presses herself forwards, her head tipped against Lorcan’s chest. Lorcan’s heart trips over itself and she bends her head to hide her smile in Elide’s dark hair. The bergamot shampoo she uses clings to the thick, rich tresses. 

The only music is their soft feet padding and sliding across the colourfully tiled floor. Elide grins wildly when Lorcan spins her out. Her head tips back and the silver light of the moon washes over her ethereal face. 

Lorcan’s breath catches in her throat. She wants to be consumed by Elide. In near reverence, Lorcan cups Elide’s face. She tilts it back, slowly marking every feature. “You…”

“What,” Elide laughs, her hands squeezing Lorcan’s waist. 

“The moon looks just right right now,” Lorcan murmurs, delicately tracing the way the light slides over Elide. 

Elide’s smile turns tender and loving. She takes Lorcan’s hand and silently leads them into the backyard. They sit on the cool grass, Elide leaned against Lorcan’s chest, sitting between her legs. 

“So,” Lorcan begins, her lips brushing against the shell of Elide’s ear, “is it everything you’ve ever wanted?” 

Elide shakes her head, “No. I’ve only ever wanted one thing. And I've already got it.” 

“Oh, really? Care to tell me what it is?” 

“You,” Elide says, simply. “A life with you, a home…”

“And now we have a home.” 

“No,” she shakes her head and turns, kneeling between Lorcan’s spread legs. “Don’t you get it?” 

“Get what?” 

“That you are my home.” Elide holds Lorcan’s face in her hands like the most rare of presents, “And you always have been.”

<3<3<3

an: all i want in life. is domestic elorcan. 

@ladyverena @ladywitchling @mythicaitt @sassyhobbits @darklesmylove @julemmaes @letstakethedawn @cicada-bones @highladyofthegentry @darlinminds @nahthanks @sjmships @eyllweambassador @flamingveritas @adelzd-bookblr @somewhatdynamite @woollycat22 @firestarsandseneschals @the-regal-warrior​ @empress-ofbloodshed​

[shinidamachu]

Tale As Old As Time

Summary: InuYasha, Kagome, movie night trope and my Disney obsession walk into a bar... Pre-canon fluff. Word Count: 2.159 Genre: fluff Fandom: InuYasha Pairing: Inukag Format: oneshot AO3 Link: 🌹 Fanfic.Net Link: 🌹

“Time to go to bed, birthday boy.” Mrs. Higurashi planted a kiss to Sota’s forehead and the sleepy child grunted softly.

“I’m not tired.” He protested, immediately yawning and contradicting his already fragile point.

“Yes, you are. Come on, now. It’s late. Grandpa is sleeping and I’d like to rest too.”

InuYasha observed the two of them interacting, as he often did. There was a feeling that always came along with it. He couldn’t quite put a nail on the head of it. Something between the most harmless kind of envy and the saddest type of longing. The sensation of a beautiful dream that escaped him by morning, forever out of reach, no matter how hard he tried to make the pieces of it to rise up again in the horizon of his mind.

He remembered his mother to be just as tender.

But did she ever kiss his forehead that way? Did they ever argue over sleeping time, InuYasha and his boyish stubbornness, she and her heavenly patience? How much of her was truly a memory and how much was his wishful imagination? The longer the years went, the thinner the line separating illusion from reality got. InuYasha feared the day would come, when he couldn’t tell the difference at all.

“Fine.” The boy gave in, fatigue stronger then his will and eyes barely open as he stood up and made his way upstairs. “Good night, everybody!”

“Sleep well!” Kagome replied.

“G’night, kid.” 

“InuYasha,” Called Mrs. Higurashi, “I take you’re spending the night?”

“Y-yeah. If that’s alright, I mean.”

“Of course it’s alright, dear! We don’t have a spare room, but we do have extra pillows. Kagome can get you one or two. Do you mind sleeping on the couch?”

InuYasha turned to Kagome, who promptly took his questioning look for what it was. Smiling, she tapped the comfortable surface of the furniture they were currently sitting on, mouthing ‘couch’ to translate her mother’s intentions.

It still caught him off guard, the extent of caring that lady nurtured for his well being. She had absolutely no obligation to. No motivation, other than the pure compassion of her heart. The same compassion he saw in her daughter.

“Oh! No, I don’t mind at all. Thank you.”

When it came to Kagome’s mom, he couldn’t help to be overly-polite. Even if by other people’s standards, that equaled to merely being polite. For reasons he couldn’t comprehend, but that went beyond returning her gentle favors, it was crucial to be in the woman’s good graces. Maybe a small part of him wanted to be reminded how did it feel, getting used to motherly kindness.

“You’re welcome. Now, don’t you two stay up too late. I won’t let you go off to fight demons in the feudal era without a proper breakfast.”

“We won’t.” Kagome assured her. And that appeared to be enough. 

Following after her son, Mrs. Higurashi wished them sweet dreams and before he knew it, he was alone with Kagome.

It was Sota’s birthday, which, InuYasha learned, meant that a decade ago, on this exact day, the little guy was born. To celebrate the occasion, his family reserved the whole day so they could share delicious meals and bask on each other’s company. And to InuYasha’s surprise, his presence was requested there as well.

It wouldn’t be the first time he stayed over, but it was the first time her mom was aware of it. More than aware, encouraged him to do it. Even if InuYasha was fluent in the language of affection, even if he found the perfect words to explain it, he doubted one day she’d understand how much he valued her trust and acceptance.

Kagome cuddled up to InuYasha under the blanket they shared, tangling their arms and allowing her head to fall on his shoulder. His entire body stiffened in response. Was she really that oblivious to the effect she had on him or did she know just what she was doing? He was never able to figure it out. Regardless, resisting the sense of serenity that came with every aftershock was an impossible thing to do. As usual, InuYasha quickly surrendered. And as long as white flags consisted on leaning towards her touch, he was no opposed to it.

“She stayed.” and mesmerised, InuYasha stared at the magical box in front of them — a television, Kagome had told him. In her world, it seemed, there was something new to learn whenever he thought he had everything figured out. For the past four or so hours, they had been watching story after story unfold inside the strange device and Kagome had taken advantage of her brother’s crescent exhaustion to play some of her favorites.

“She couldn’t leave him there to die! He just saved her life.”

“Isn’t he a demon of sorts?”

“A beast.”

“Then it would have been fine, either way. He’s clearly stronger than humans.”

“Maybe. But she needed to see it for herself.”

“Why?”

Kagome sighed. 

“Because she’s already falling in love with him.”

Frowning, he mentally replayed the scenes, searching his brain for the signals he had so obviously missed.

The beast character was in love. InuYasha had no doubt about it. The girl had his heart the instant she volunteered to take her father’s place as his prisoner. He longed for her presence — despite her refusal to indulge him — and put effort into treating her nicely — despite not extending the same courtesy to anyone else. Everything she said, everything she did, had the power to drag him down or sweep him off his feet. He struggled with expressing the sentiment, his pride and bad temper getting in the way. But it was there. The situation was all too relatable for InuYasha not to recognize it.

The girl, though? The idea of her falling in love with the likes of him was absurd. Why would she? It was to be expected that someone graced with such intelligence and beauty would have known her own value better than to fall for a monster.

And yet, Kagome was right.

The tale went on and the girl took the beast to safety. A life for a life. They were even. She was free to go.

Still, she stayed by his side until he healed and every day after that. Because she could see right through his tough facade and was never being afraid of giving him a piece of her mind. And he saw her in return, welcoming the habits her own village judged her for maintaining. Against all odds, they understood each other like the last two native speakers of a tongue long claimed by oblivion.

Of their own accord, InuYasha’s eyes fell into Kagome.

“The best part is coming up.” She announced, thankfully snapping him out of his treacherous thoughts.

Song started playing, a sweet melody filling the air. All of the sudden, Kagome was moving the furniture around.

“Watcha doin’?”

Rather than responding, the priestess took him by the hand and guided him to the center of the room. Dumbfound, InuYasha watched as she silently raised his arm at shoulders height, placing his free palm firmly on her back right after.

By the time InuYasha picked up her intentions, they were already spinning around, dancing barefoot under the television light.

InuYasha had never learned how to dance. Between a battle for his life and the next, the opportunity didn’t present itself and, to be honest, the notion he was missing out on something hadn’t occurred to him. The whole thing seemed so out of his brutal reality, it was almost futile.

And despite finding himself wishing he had the necessary skills to better follow her movements, InuYasha discovered dancing with Kagome to be a surprisingly easy task. There was something peculiarly natural about the way she rested her head over his chest as they slowly swayed to the rhythm. He wondered if she noticed the inflation of it as he breathed her in, the scent he had grown to love so much overflowed his senses with a hint of corn and butter.

Kagome pulled away from him on cue with the song, using the hand holding hers to whirl away from him without ever breaking contact, only to swirl back to his embrace. The more they repeated the steps, the more his confidence grew and, passed the awkward phase, InuYasha was actually enjoying himself.

Too soon, the tune came to an end.

InuYasha stood there, unsure of what to do. Self awareness manifested itself hot pink on his cheeks. He had just danced with Kagome. And he had liked it. And he wanted to keep going.

She stared at him, a big smile on her face as if he was the one to give her a present and not the other way around.

“I always wanted to do that,” she confessed in a nervous laugh. Her gaze avoided his but her body remained in place, pleasantly close. “Anyway… Thanks for coming today. It meant a lot to Sota.”

“Y-yeah, no problem.”

Belle… Are you… Happy here with me?

Yes!

The distant voices brought the half demon down to Earth. For a second there, he had forgotten all about everything that wasn’t her. Their words sank in and InuYasha felt his curiosity blossom. He had to ask, even if the answer scared the shit out of him.

“Are you?”

“Huh?”

“Happy there with me... Are you?”

“Of course!” Guaranteed Kagome. “Why would you ever doubt that?”

There was an unspoken rule to never talk about it. The subject was too delicate, too painful to discuss. Kagome being Kikyo’s reincarnation and falling down that well was not an unpretentious whim of fate. It carried purpose, and once that purpose was fulfilled… Well, he’d rather fight Naraku over and over than having to face the dreading thought of an after.

Miroku and Sango had their future set. Defeating Naraku meant getting rid of the Wind Tunnel and setting Kohaku free, one way or the other. They could finally get married, start a family. Even Shippo had plans to keep doing those fox demon exams in order to improve his powers. InuYasha seemed to be the only one in the dark. His goal was to become a full demon, but that was then. What he wanted now and who he wanted with, had changed into something way more uncertain.

When they defeat Naraku, Kagome won’t hang out in his era as often. Without any further obligations there, she could dispense as many time she judged appropriate for her school thing and they would only see each other sporadically.

There was also the real possibility the Honekui no Ido would close forever. With their mission done, so was the need to allow their temporal trips, and that meant separation. As far as logic goes, he didn’t belong in her world and she didn’t belong in his. 

Yet, she fitted  into his life so well.

The prospect of Kagome choosing to live in the past with him was his favorite ‘what if’. But he had no right to ask her such thing of her, nor was he selfish to the point of actually doing it. She was his friend and even if they were something more, it was crazy to think she would drop her friends, family and everything she knows just for him. How could he ever compete with that?

“I dunno, you do run off here a lot. I guess I just thought you didn’t like there as much.”

“I’m sorry I made you feel this way, InuYasha. But it’s not the case at all. It’s just… I have a life here too, you know?”

“Keh. ‘Course I do.”

She smiled fondly

“Aren’t I lucky to have two places to call home?”

Something inside him melted into a smile of his own.

Their tomorrow was a cloudy day. Changeable and blurry. All he could do was hoping it would clear up.

Of one thing, though, InuYasha was certain: if she so wanted, he could leave everything behind and stay in her side of the well as it closes. The place was loud, too crowded for his taste and the smells were overwhelming, but they would be together and for him that was home.

“I suppose.”

“Come on, let’s watch the rest of the movie. It has the perfect ending.”

Doing as he was told, InuYasha walked to the couch, where Kagome nestled against him again.

Maybe it was foolish not telling her how he felt, how he have been feeling for a while now. It sounded insane to ignore the fear of losing her, of losing his home, always there lurking in the shadows. Maybe he was a mad man for keeping all of the things he desperately needed reassurance of at bay in exchange of enjoying that moment with her.

But right then, the hope of another dance was enough.

A/N: THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE 1K OR LESS, THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE 1K OR LESS, THIS WAS S-

Thank you all for reading. Maybe you've noticed I'm writing fluff stories a little more. I feel like it's not my best suit so I'm trying to give it practice. Still have a lot to improve and this wasn't edited, so be nice.

Anyway... Here is something sweet for @sophtin​ (and my self indulgent ass). Hope you rot your teeth, baby.

[lux-talks-a-lot]

New Episode Reactions!!! Pt 1

AHHH, I have so many feelings ya'll!! This episode was so awesome and the art was absoulty suberp! Thomas and the whole crew worked so hard to get this out and it really paid off! I just wanted to run through all the amazing things in this ep now that I've watched it once!

I'm warning you now this is mostly just me gushing about amazing and great everything is because it's very amazing and great! Strap in for spoiler central!!!

First of all the thumbnail is just amazing

Starting off with Thomas being incredibly relatble and awkward, we love to see it!

ROMAN!!!!

VIRGIL!!!!!

I love that this confirms that the sides just pop up in Thomas's day to day life and bully him, it's great

Side notw: I love how the artists drew Thomas in this, he looks adorable

OMG prinxiety poping out the godamn clothing hanging thing to call thomas old makes me very happy

I love that this whole episode is Virgil and Roman bonding, it is fabulos.

"DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT I LOVE YOU MEANS TO THEM?"

"You told me to say it!"

"STOP PLAYING YOU PEOPLE'S HEARTS THOMAS"

I love this so much

There is a whole lot of lying here but I have yet to spot a single snake boi :(

I know Jan had a whole thing last episode but like... I miss him :(((

HEART EYES ROMAN!!!!! BEING SO GODAMN DRAMATIC!!!! I LOVE HIM SO MUCH

"*long poetic description of feelings*"

"What?"

"*SIGH* Cutie at twelve-o-clock."

Prinxeity's dual calling of bullshit when Thomas says he's not interested

WHY IS ROMAN ME WHEN I SEE A CUTE GIRL IN PUBLIC

Virgil pulling fucking boniculars just out of nowhere

"He's got some stickers on his laptop."

"Pretty gay~" *finger gun*

Virgil laying down introvert laws on stickers is great and very true (in unrelated news, I need to buy more stickers for my laptop)

Nico's a disney fan too!!!!

I kind of love that it was the Nightmare Before Chrismas sticker that sealed the deal for them because it's something that's very Roman and also very Virgil

Also how can you not take that sticker as clear sign from the universe that this will end in roman and happily ever afters, I'm with Roman here (when am I not tho?)

"You can live like Jack and Sally..."

I don't why Virgil calling Roman doofus is so funny and dorky to me but it is and I love it. I want them to get along but I want to keep the banter and little insults that don't mean much

"Why forget your spectacles at the retirment home?"

"Those jokes are getting old..."

"You would know..."

I love the gentle bullying

YOU SEE SOME BUTTONS; YOU BUTTON IT!!!!!

PINTERVERTS!!!!

THIS IS WHY I LOVE SEEING THESE INTERACTING!!!!

Seeing Roman and Virgil with the head sets and mics really makes me want to like make a rodio hosts AU, they'd defintly be interesting pair to listen to. Oh! or like a podcast thing or something! I'd listen to it!

Also the backseat driving from prinxiety is great

"I'M NOT MAX! I'M PRINCE ROMAN -"

Also that godamn, you got five seconds thing gave ME anxciety

"great."

"great indeed."

"GREAT INDEED!"

boiled. mayo. carrots. what the heck thomas.

"The only logical next step. Go home and regret everything." Virge, buddy, pal, chill for like five seconds.

"No man!"

"Uh, it's RO-man. With an R? You're really struggling today."

Ro, buddy, pal, princey, never change.

"When it comes to anti-social etiquette, I'm a triple expert. An ex-ex-expert!"

"Easy tiger" This is flirting right? This is defintly flirting. They are flirting!

GAY EYES!!!!

Roman doing the gay eyes and the little noises AHHHH, I'm dying, i'm deceased, my ghost is writing this

Side note: I'm really tempted to become a patron just to see the live action version of this scene alone, imagine my friends, imagine

Gay eyes have never worked for me either

DISASTOR!

"No DO look at youself Thomas. Because that was a test and you failed!"

"You were testing me!?!?!"

"Oh no, I was just panicking."

I love them

I also love all of Virgil's instenseness in this episode because honestly very relatable to my own anxiety but also the art was just really great

 “If you don’t have anything nice to say... you’re a dirty lier.”

God the whole pretend you’re leaving was so funny and gave me such secondhand embrassement, it was so good

“I hate to rain on your black parade, Gerard Gay -”

I missed him and his nicknames SO MUCH

Virgil and Roman literally pulling Thomas around and making him sit and stand is just so funny to me. it’s like Roman and Logan fighting over control of Thomas’s arms

“You’re making a mistake!”

“If I am I’ll add it to the list!”

Oh. My heart. Roman, darling, no -

Again with the pushing, guys

This poor random passerby who got accosted by Thomas’s awkwardness. I hope they had a good day at the mall at least

THE TRASH CAN!!!!

I love that it’s not just Thomas in the trash can but all three of them

This is another scene I would LOVE to see live action

“You were being a baby about the buttons and the pins had you panicking.”

It’s nice to see Roman helping Thomas get clean in the bathroom

“He’s got birds on the brain! You don’t wanna wing it, Virge? Alright let’s drum up a plan!”

I love the puns but I love Roman trying to help Virge feel better about this more even tho they didn’t end up going with this

“It’s like cyber-stalking but real life”

“So... stalking”

“... OH YOU’RE RIGHT!”

Virgil, sweetie, you’re doing amazing

“Speaking from the heart” Patton, buddy, is that you?

THE MONOLOGUE!!!!

“The mall is where you go when you don’t know what you want because the mall has everything...”

Roman’s face at that line really killed me fam. He is going through some stuff, huh

Actually Roman’ and Virgil’s faces during the whole speech really killed me

OMG THE DUDE IN THE BATHROOM!!!!

All those theories about the next ep being Ro & Virge bonding through mutual dislike of Janus were sorta right

Also it’s interesting that Virgil is clearly talking about Janus but is still calling him Deciet

Also generally enjoying the calm Prinxeity team up and discussion for once

“No, he’s better off without me.”

AH no, thomas!

Damn I’m so used to Sides Angst the character thomas angst really hit me by the wayside

GAY PANIC

NICO!!!!!

“HE FEARS THINGS TOO!?”

THE GAY PANIC!!!!

“I THINK I SAW A LOT OF WIDE VOWELS?”

“NEVADA????”

“MORE THAN THAT!”

“ANACONDA?????”

“ANACONDA!!!!! HE’S A NIKKI MINHAJ FAN!!!!”

They are such disaster gays

Mishearing the guy and then instead of asking for a repeat, just going along with it is so terribly terribly relatable but god the second hand embrasment

“another chance at happiness squandered.”

break my heart why doncha ya

 The whole sequence of Virgil noticing Roman being so godamn sad and miserable and watching Nico walk away and his breathing speeding up and the wide eyed panic before he pushes thomas is literally my favorite part of the whole damn video! that wasn’t easy for him to do but he did it. for roman and thomas. so that didn’t squader another chance. he was so brave and i’m so proud of him

I really love Nico! He seems so chill and adorable and he took thomas’s flutered rambling so well! and he’s a writer!!! and he winked at thomas!!!

Mr. Florez!!!!

He’s writing a song!!!!!

The song explanation calling thomas out is kind of adorable

this whole meet cute is kind of adorable

“THAT WAS YOU?” “ARE YOU OKAY?”

brusied ego, aw does that mean Patton’s gonna be taking care of Ro like the last time Thomas got a brusied ego

MY SECOND FAVORITE PART OF THE VIDEO: Ro’s soft little “Shut up, emo” and the little hearts and his hand on Virgil’s shoulder and Virgil’s little smile at him and the whole calling Virge brave!!! It was all so so so good!!!!

End Card Time!!!!!

Thomas calling Roman a punk is adorable

Also Janus’s Corridor Of Stored Rewards!!! Amazing

Everyone coming back all excited and giddy really matched my own excitement and giddiness and I love it

LITERAL SCREAMS OF JOY

Virgil’s purple sparkly eyeshadow because he’s happy is so so pure and amazing and I kind of want to try out that look myself

“Thomas I’m gonna need you to walk around the entire room - yes thank you- that helps somehow”

even more things to project onto Virgil with, thank you

I haven’t seen Virgil smile this much in one episode before and it is really watering my crops, clearing my skin, rasing my grades, saving my whole ass year -

The dark eyeshadow returning at Thomas’s subtweet is great and very relatable

Virgil asking what is things are never the same again but with light eyeshadow and the clearly more hopeful outlook on things makes me so very happy

I love Roman being excited but like we don’t see virgil so giddy nearly as often and it’s just so heartwarming

Roman trying to get them to go to France on V-day and Virge actually going along with the idea!!!

Virgil telling Thomas to do the happy flappies!!!!

Virgil’s face at ‘are u ready for this’ kills me

But the deepening panic voice when the dog barks and his reaction to Ro telling him to relax was great

in summary: I though based on the title this was going to be the other sides flirting with Virgil and honestly I wasn’t that far off

[tinytanpopo]

Now that Gegege no Kitaro 2018 is over, and I remember it's one of your favorite Gegege no Kitaro iteration, what's your overall and concluding thoughts about it? What are your favorite episodes of all 97 (or each season) episodes? The positive and negative? Characterization of Sawashiro Kitaro and the other Kitaro family (including Mana)? I would love to know your opinion of the sixth remake!

This is going to be a long answer. And full of spoilers, for those of you looking at this who haven’t watched the 2018 version of Kitaro. Here goes!

What are your favorite episodes of all 97?

I watched all 97 episodes 3 times over the course of its run. I started out watching on my own, then eventually my friend wanted to watch with me. But the crappy Crunchyroll subs got in the way of his enjoyment, so I polished them for him, and then we started watching together.

So for each episode, I’ve…

1.) Watched for my own enjoyment when the raw came out

2.) Fixed the subs

3.) Watched and enjoyed again with my best friend.

Before my friend and I started watching together, I also did a rewatch of the series up to the middle of the Backbeard arc, so, 3.3 times? And it only made me like each episode more, and notice more tiny fun details about it. Sawashiro actually smiles a lot, u guys

Anyways, here are my stand-out favorites. Titles may be self-translated or shortened, as I’m looking at the Japanese wikipedia entry for the episodes, and my opinions are mostly disorganized gushing:

1: The Day the Youkai Awoke. Kitaro, Eyeball Dad, and Mana are all very cutely introduced, as well as their dynamics with each other. Great action, ends with the apparent death of the hero. (I was new to Kitaro.) Got me to watch the next week, that’s for sure! Also, world full of weird freaky monsters, already suited to my tastes.

3: Tantanbo’s Youkai Castle. The episode that earned Sawashiro Kitaro his “Gorilla” nickname from the fandom. Also Mana asked to be friends and made Kitaro bashful and the whole latter half is so sweet. FRIENDSHIP

6: Sunekosuri. This is the first Kitaro episode that made me cry, like I really wasn’t expecting that kind of emotional impact. Another thing that kept me watching was that, even though Kitaro has its formulas (as does everything), I still didn’t know what to expect.

7: Ghost Train. Ah, my first experience with the Ghost Train story. Y'know this is the only one where the human passenger pair are both already dead? I’ve seen many other renditions of this story, but this one’s the darkest.

11-12: The 808 Tanuki arc. The whole Kitaro Family shows off their skills in a big cool battle, and Mana overcomes an intense struggle to save the day (with some credit to Murder Momen Rollo Cloth). As my friend often says, Mana is too good for this world.

13: Wanyuudo. Got some insight to Kitaro and Ratman’s odd, long-lasting friendship. When I first watched this, I didn’t really understand why they were still friends. But over the next 2 years, I would.

The meta reason? Ratman was Shigeru Mizuki’s favorite out of all his characters.

14: Makura-gaeshi. The second episode that made me cry. (not hard for a show to do that, but still) Also shot my already-present respect for Eyeball Dad through the roof.

I’m pretty sure this is the episode that changed GeGeGe no Kitaro from “one of the shows I watch once a week” to “I must find and learn about the rest of this franchise.” I’d looked up characters and little facts here and there on wikis, and occasionally browsed the Kitaro tag on Pixiv before this point, but this was the tipping point.

The door to the unseen world was open, and I jumped through.

18: Kawauso’s Lie. haha, Mana’s a city girl who’s scared of bugs

22: Gyuuki. Body horror, despair, and a really good Catgirl episode.

27-37: The Backbeard arc, or 6th Kitaro’s version of the “Great Youkai War” story. For a refreshing twist, the designated “Witch” isn’t evil in this retelling. In fact, Agnes quickly became one of my most favorite and relatable characters.

She definitely had a rocky start with the Japanese youkai, and watching her develop friendships with Mana and Kitaro was great to see, and even better on the rewatch. My friend likes Agnes a lot, too. Just assume I cried at the Mana/Agnes friendship stuff, I’m sure it happened on the rewatch, too.

Also Kitaro finally invites Mana into GeGeGe Forest! She fucking earned it!!

38: Kasha. I had already seen Reverse Mochi Murder 3 different times by this point, but it’s best whenever freaky ghost-eyeballs are involved.

Also Mana punched Kasha in the face. Well, Kitaro’s face.

39: bang. I lost it.

40: This is the darkest version of Sara-kozo! And I like it. His song was best put to use in the 4th Kitaro series, and even had a callback in one of my most favorite episodes of that series. The song, of course, is terribly catchy.

42: The Great Youkai Trial. Having seen the other versions of this story, I’m glad the writers made the 6th series version stand on its own, weaving it into the overarching Nanashi plot.

43: Odoro-Odoro. This isn’t the first Odoro-Odoro retelling where Kitaro’s efforts are thankless and reviled, but it is the one that shows it the most intensely.

47-49: Nanashi arc conclusion. Each Kitaro anime has its harsh and intense moments (even the relatively gentle 5th series), but 6th is the one that goes hard most consistently. Not just into darkness, but

50-51: complete and utter sweetness KITTENGIRL dgjklfhjlkHFDGKMBHKjl

54: Dorotabo. Sometimes, there is no “right” choice that can make everyone happy. Being a mediator can be hard, frustrating, and sometimes impossible. But despite all the stress, frustration, and repeating the same tragic scenarios, Kitaro keeps on trying.

Also, Kitaro totally carried that frog up to the roof of his house for company at the end of the episode.

56: Vampire Elite. The most sympathetic retelling of Johnny’s story. And a great Kitaro/Ratman friendship episode.

57: La Seine. He doesn’t have a top hat this time. A great retelling of Hand, and a Kitaro/Mana friendship episode. Two vampire episodes in a row, and it didn’t feel repetitive at all.

58: Kamaboko. 6th Kitaro’s crossdressing episode, with Sawashiro Kitaro at his most vindictive. Fun for all sorts of reasons. :3c

59: Ushiro-gami. Also known as the youkai cactus episode, somewhat of a series staple. This one had great horror vibes, and Mana overcoming her fear and risking her life to help Kitaro save the day. Never gets old! Mana’s the best.

62: Kitaro and Ratman fighting like children. Kitaro’s shocked face when Ratman steals his pork. Kitaro’s admiration for Ratman’s persistence to keep on living, and appreciation for yanking him back to reality during the end of Nanashi.

The Kitaro/Ratman friendship dynamic is eternal.

64: Suiko, the Water Tiger. If you find an old jar in a dirty hole somewhere? Don’t open it, don’t drink it, don’t let anyone force you to drink it. And if the jar starts talking, shove some dirt in it.

That town full of assholes totally deserved what they got, though.

66: The Grim Reaper and the Hidden Village. Well, in this context, “hidden village” is more like “Shangri-La,” which is what I changed it to in the fixed subs. The only other version of this I’ve seen is the one from the 2nd Kitaro anime. It’s a well-known trauma episode in the fandom.

In the 2nd anime, Kitaro got the trauma. In the 6th one, Mana did, and Kitaro already knew it was coming.

68: Hell Exile. Yet another one where I wasn’t sure if it’d end cynical or hopeful. One of the fresher takes on the Hell Exile story, too.

69: Ibukimaru. Nicely advances the Four Treasonous Generals arc, and has some interaction between Rei and Mana. Oh yeah, this arc introduced Rei Isurugi, an intense chuuni with Megaman demon powers. It’s neat to watch how Rei and Sawashiro Kitaro bounce off each other as individual characters.

70: Mysterious Footprints. Calls back to another one of 2nd Kitaro’s infamous trauma episodes, incidentally one of my favorites. This was great, but the 2nd anime had more intense face-melting.

72: Iyami. Mana Is Gay. That is all.

73: Yamata-no-Orochi. A great take on Kitaro’s Orochi story, now with more monkey’s paw shenanigans!

74-75: Conclusion of the Four Generals arc. Mana convinces Kitaro not to resign himself to shouldering the heaviest burden alone, as he so often does. Agnes and Adel make an appearance(yay!), and they team up with Mana and Catgirl to help save the day. Rei finally chills out, and gets a new mentor.

77: Neko-sennin. Nurarihyon startles the holy hell out of Kitaro, and further establishes how he’s going to operate this time around, connecting to his previous actions in episode 76.

Also, cats. Kitty Kitaro. Cats are my second-favorite animal, so I appreciate the many Kitaro stories involving cats.

78: Mouryou. This one gets retold in several of the other Kitaro series, with decent variation. This one has its own 6th Kitaro touch, with that fucked-up photographer, and an ending I was positive would be dark.

80: Onmoraki. I’d also consider this story a Kitaro staple, though Onmoraki was way tougher this time. Must have had something to do with Nobuyuki Hiyama. :B This is always the episode where Kitaro puts on his old painter costume, and proves he can’t think up fake names worth a damn. Gets me every time.

81: Hideri-gami the mangaka. I love comics, I translate comics, GeGeGe no Kitaro originated as a comic. This episode’s just a love letter to the medium. And seeing Kitaro genuinely enjoying Hiderin’s Totally Original Comic Do Not Steal was adorable.

83: Houkou. Some kind of disaster usually happens in this story. In the 4th anime version, Kitaro was burned to ashes. This one hit harder. Nobody won. No one was happy. We’re reminded of Dorotabo, and how Kitaro never “gets over” tragic situations like these, no matter how often they repeat. I think it’d be worse if he was desensitized, and gave up trying to make anything better.

84: Mr. Chin. The Japanese dialogue is full of puns involving the word chin and yeah I lost it. Sunday morning changes with the times, and they still get this guy in.

I died at “three rainbows” ghjghjk

89: Te-no-me’s Curse. Te-no-me is a youkai who either shows up in the youkai trial story, or has an episode for himself. Also, we finally get to see that Kitaro can just pop his hands on and off. Well, maybe not as casually as in the comics…

90: Sazae-oni. Normally you’re not “supposed” to do “it was all a dream” endings, but this is the first time they’ve done that with Sazae-oni, and the dream reveal means we just saw inside Sawashiro Kitaro’s mind. The fancy sushi restaurant exterior, the plain sweets shop, the body pillow how does he know about those?! Does he know why they look like that?!!

Kitaro seemed disappointed that he didn’t get to sing on stage. And Rei was in his dream-audience! An adorable episode.

93: The Phantom Train. Catgirl got Homuhomu’d. But KitaNeko is finally canon. This whole episode left the fandom reeling, as usual for 6th Kitaro. Best retelling of the Phantom Train story yet.

94: Hot Springs Trip. Mana carried Kitaro over 90 episodes ago, and Kitaro doing the same for Mana repays that favor, in a way.

Kitaro also admits he has Terminal Kitaro Face.

95-97: The end. I did not think they would poof Kitaro. That’s the deadest I’ve ever seen him, in any version. And the most broken, worse than a giant hate-baby crushing his dad. Kitaro giving Ratman his chashu pork made my heart explode, Mana’s sacrifice made the heart-pieces explode, and Mana reuniting with Kitaro 10 years later made my heart whole again.

Nurarihyon offing himself made sense, especially with this being his most dignified characterization in any version. Glad they let Shu-no-bon live, even if he was an actual hardass this time. Shu-no-bon’s usually a teddy bear in comparison to dual-wielding gatling guns

I’m sure the prime minister didn’t keep her position for much longer.

Episode 97’s subs left out most of Mana’s text to Catgirl at the end, so here it is:

“Cat-Sis! Here’s the pic Nebutori took for us on our recent trip! Also, I found a sweets shop near my workplace. Let’s ask Kitaro to go there with us!”

A very sweet ending, indeed.

The positive and negative?

I wish we’d gotten to see more of Agnes and Rei outside of their own arcs, and the conclusions of other arcs, though they clearly had their own lives to live and paths to take.

We didn’t get Akamata or Shisa or a bunch of other youkai I was hoping to see in the episodes. We didn’t get stories for Jami or Kamanari, both of who showed up as bit characters at the very end. But I can accept this, too, as writers and staff working within limits, and telling the story they wanted to tell as best as they could.

I’m glad they focused more on new stuff than old, though. Maybe they didn’t want to risk a repeat of 5th Kitaro’s non-ending, but they were ready to end the 6th anime with the Nanashi arc. Even with a 2nd year, though, the writers didn’t lose their focused storytelling, and ended the series in a way that left my heart full.

Characterization of Sawashiro Kitaro and the other Kitaro family (including Mana)?

Sawashiro Kitaro continues to be that weird youkai kid, that boy who lives in the woods. He’s chill and has a bunch of comic book youkai powers, a unique sort of superhero, while also not being a cop, thank goodness. Every Kitaro is a bit of a pessimist (except 3rd anime’s Toda Kitaro, I guess), but Sawashiro is especially so. This made his gradual development  even more fun to watch. The fact that he never could give up on that dream, not completely, made me appreciate that development even more.

Sawashiro cried the least out of all the Kitaros—twice, and it was only onscreen once. He kept everything in so much, it’s no wonder he imploded and went to Ultra Hell when the prime minister pot-shot him.

And, Sawashiro Kitaro is so pure and cares so much it hurts.

Eyeball Dad. Since Isamu Tanonaka passed away in 2010, the legendary Masako Nozawa (the original voice of Kitaro) took on voicing the role. Like Kitaro, Eye Dad’s characterization changes a bit with each anime, though not as much. Nozawa’s performance made Eye Dad feel more laid-back this time, I think, and more patient. In older series, he had more “Showa dad” tendencies. And we got to see him outside of eyeball or mummy form! 6th series spoiled us!

Ratman. He’s usually the same between every adaptation, save for the voice. Sometimes he’s nicer, sometimes he’s more of a bastard. But he’s always Kitaro’s friend. He may nasty, greedy, and cynical, but he’s usually right about how the world works, and his priorities are hard to disagree with entirely. He knows how to survive, even when treated like dirt for centuries. Ratman’s got a particular brand of wisdom, if you look past the ringworm.

Catgirl. In other versions, she looks like she’s in elementary or middle school, and 6th anime is the most mature she’s ever looked. This is also Catgirl at her most tsundere, but with zero “mean girl” tendencies. All it takes is Mana shooting pure admiration at Catgirl for them to become friends, and that’s cute. I always like Catgirl, and the 6th anime is no exception.

The Kitaro Family. Sandy’s mostly unchanged, except now she doesn’t own the Youkai Apartments, and can use modern technology to make a shitload of money. Old Crybaby is 100% the same, down to his old person banter with Sandy.

Rollo Cloth’s minor interest in finding a girlfriend got turned up to 11. He’d get a lecture from every previous Rollo.

Wally Wall has less vocabulary, no wife and kids, and they thankfully didn’t show his mouth this time. Still a good dude.

Mana Inuyama. The 3rd anime had Yumeko, but even if she wasn’t damseled as often as you’d expect from a typical 80s cartoon, it still happened a lot. In the 6th anime, Mana clearly has more agency from the get-go, and refuses to leave herself out of Kitaro’s business. She’s serious about being his friend, and never stops being serious about it, even when things worse than she could ever imagine happened.

All she has are good memories with Kitaro.

Like my friend said, she’s too good for this world.

What’s your overall and concluding thoughts about the 6th Kitaro anime?

What an emotional roller coaster. The writers pulled no punches with this, and very much managed to make “their own Kitaro” while still firmly being “Kitaro.” With the dark and cynical twists it sometimes took, I often didn’t know if there’s be a happy ending to an episode, or a bitter one. It’s a Sunday morning cartoon at its core, but very good at making the audience forget that.

6th Kitaro was my introduction to Kitaro as a whole, and I was hopelessly obsessed by episode 14. Well, because of episode 14, probably. I downloaded all the other Kitaro anime series, got into the comics (official ones by Mizuki, official ones not by Mizuki, and a shit-ton of doujin), and now my brain is just “kitarokitarokitaro” all the time.

I don’t think it’s going to stop anytime soon.

[mykpopconfession]

It's long but hey, thank you so much for allowing me to share my thoughts as kpop is something I do enjoy but I like to look at it from other points of view, how it looks to me from various perspectives, not just as face value kpop fans have tantrums every time something isn't right or whenever idol does something so small and irrelevant it becomes a scandal… shocking but idols are humans and won't always perform to the fans standard.

Fans bitch and whine about how the standard of kpop industry is too harsh yet it's not the industry that is encouraging it, it's the fans themselves, they cant accept minor mistakes and everything gets taken out of context while fans claim they know the idols… ie: Jennie's “lazy” scandal.

Yet they don’t scrutinize the idols whenever they are sexist, colorist, ageist, misogynist, racist, because they can “do no wrong” or their fans, will come to save their asses… even the flipping companies encourage it because they want them to be younger. After all, it's more appealing??? but what 25+-year-old fans are going to be drawn to teens in a group? I don't even find itzy, txt appealing and their whole group’s image is directly for those of teenagers and below, the music/dances, the image, it’s all catered that specifically of a younger audience, shame, I would’ve liked them otherwise.

The younger the idols = the better publicity and the higher chances of gaining popularity by getting into “scandals” for the lack of maturity and social awareness nor are they likely to take accountability and just do whatever they please anyway because they’re idols and their fans will still claim that their age isn’t a problem or because they’re a child/teenager/minor then its okay kpop idols are so out of touch with reality that when they have some form of criticism they start banning and suing left right & center… because they live as though everyone is going to fall head over heels for them and blindly accept everything they do because most kpop fans are already blinded by their idols and cant accept when an idol says or does something disgustingly wrong nor can they accept mild criticism without getting their pitchforks out.. its a cult, no denying it. 

As lovely as the choreography might be I don't want to watch the idols if they are doing any of the above: dancing overly provocatively (especially when they may be on the minor age scale), twerking or grinding the stage or anything overly sexual at that. 

Kpop fans lap it up because its socially acceptable to objectify the idols and make them appealing because of their “dancing/performance” when it is turning them into some trend because they “danced” overly sexy/cute, that's all they amount to is the dancing side of it

TBH I found it intriguing at first but now every kpop group tries to have this “sexy” look and it just doesn't work. it’s like asking a foreigner to be interested in kpop when they act cute except its not normal to appear cute over here, it's only going to appeal to those who maybe find it intriguing or different from their own culture. 

Yet cute/sexy is all kpop idols can amount to even if it looks so uncomfortable and unpleasing to watch. alas they are idols, they’re not humans, they can twerk, dance provocatively and act cute all because the fans will enjoy it no matter what it is or who it is… age isn’t even considered but the younger the better they stand a greater chance. 

Which is like bighit canceling everyone of the older generations who maybe possess the same talent but with a maturer image and behavior… its both ageist and sexist, why is it some huge fetish that just boys in or around 1999 only for their new survival show thing i-land? I find it… odd more than exciting or interesting cause I know its just typical for the members to be more younger but less appealing to older generation cause I have nothing that I’d relate too I don't even relate to the TikTok trend because that's all it is, another trend or bandwagon. yet everyone treats it as being this incredible new thing that suddenly acceptable for young folk even though it brings so much disgusting behavior/drama along with it, its a recycled version of the vine but worse, in the same sense this is what kpop does, recycle groups once they’re less appealing to make way for the same groups but look slightly different. 2ne1/blackpink, BTS/txt yet the fans don't say nothing about how it is encouraging the sexual appeal and almost asking for fans to thirst over them because this is what “dance” supposedly should be. sexy/cute nothing in between, it's saying that idols should portray this image cause it’s more appealing than the music itself. if the male idols show their abs/skin even better, females? wear the most uncomfortable looking clothing and ur good to go. 

The kpop sounds now have become about the group's image, level of popularity, as opposed to actual talent, creative freedom and ability to give off a genuine performance that doesn’t include anything generic or robotic image. its got to be loud, bright, vivid because its all for the dance/sexual appeal of both the male and female gender is almost aligned with the concept for it.

The lyrics can be as disgusting as they please because its okay, its only kpop. any lyrics are acceptable, bts got called out for their lyrics in one song yet not in any of the others? same for other groups, so few call out the lyrics because lyrics mean nothing. it's about the visual appeal of the groups and the kind of fame they gather from it alone so you can have the visuals but do the bare minimum and not have much stage presence but be classed as a main singer or dancer, its okay fans will lap it up no matter what it is. also, I’ve noticed the same sound being used across several groups depending on the concept of the song… repetitive much? why does kpop fear change or standing out? why get idols to become something they are not ie: whitening their naturally beautiful dark skin, have idols who don’t need to, lose weight. it's not the company its the idols encouraging it because it's acceptable and normalized to be anything other than thick, natural and healthy. 

Ppl act like trying to shove kpop into the western music genre will make it appeal any better, the fans act like they couldn’t see the racism coming, but that's what happened bts were forced into a culture that had nothing to do with them because in western we generally hop from one bandwagon to the next and just roll with it since it's popular it must be good.

ie: one direction, psy, 5 seconds of summer and now bts… how do so many don't see the pattern nor did they see bts coming? you expect Asian artists to become greatly admired over here too but when you shove it in ppl’s faces and try to get it to become the next big thing, not everyone is gonna see the appeal I honestly feel like it's been forced… not by the companies but by the international fans. now instead of trying to gain popularity in their home country kpop groups try too hard to appeal to the western market… you can’t even deny how vastly generic bts’ music has become SINCE they hit the American music awards or whatever it was. note: they didn’t even win awards for their music, but simply their popularity is what got them there

I loved boyz with fun, despised boy with Luv yet because they’ve been in the American industry’s eyes they put it out what has become popular just using their language… well sometimes, even idol, what could’ve been a great song with a nice meaning missed some marks, as in the overuse of auto-tune has become almost normal for them? vs using natural vocal abilities, I'm no coach but straining one's voice to hit a high note in a slow song doesn’t sound healthy. when all bts have done in the past is upbeat music is why they struggle to maintain high notes in slow songs because they’ve followed the same music style for so long then suddenly changed it so their voices don't match softer songs… which I’d appreciate more of instead of just dark lyrics and over-hyped upbeat poppy music.

ie: I loved the sound for serendipity, but the lyrics weren’t as good and Jimin kinda struggled to sing it well enough both in-studio and live, however its one of my more favorite songs. I’d also appreciate a slower gentle song that isn’t about a relationship too thanks looking @ you euphoria. 

You think it's about the music, lyrical side of it but I disagree, it's merely the concept of yet another boy group that's sadly taken over in the most overbearingly forced way possible and you all act like the racism wasn’t going to occur. nct had an incredibly shit time in America during their tour its because it's not meant for America, its trying force kpop to become something it's not just to fit in with western music taste. I miss when they did full songs in Korean now they do English full versions with hella cringe-worthy lyrics and expect them to blow up or become the next big thing. 

I’ve been walking with the cheese and the queso????? if ur happy and u know it clap ur hands???? theses ones make me laugh more than wanting to listen repeatedly, they throw them in there simply to appeal to western music, no matter if its a bad lyric, doesn't make sense or is cringe-worthy. 

Kpop is built for Korean consumption it's great to see it's expanded however, its in the wrong directions for the wrong appeal. bts did not pave the way when psy also existed the same year they debuted. bts tried to get a following in America but failed because naturally psy was almost made fun of for just being an Asian doing what he does best yet the hype quickly dyed down & everyone moved on until bts came into the scene… so far behind than when they should’ve gone viral years before. not the companies fault but merely the appeal of the image/music wasn’t suited to the western music genre so when they become familiar more with America they switched the songs to sound pop-like… nothing wrong but less appealing than their original image/music, which I prefer, I’d say it started to change with not today era. 

The only reason being bts have stuck around now is because of the boy group concept even if the lyrics aren’t that great when translated into English, they’ve already tried and IMO, failed to push their music into the western music industry and they’ve won awards solely based on the fandom/popularity alone kpop has become less and less about the music, energy of the performances, now it's about if they look right together as a group. how the group as a whole appeal to the fans and what makes the fans blinded by them… which is essentially their sex appeal, whether the idols are grown women or men or even teenagers, who might be uncomfortable with fans lusting after them. whether they’re dancing sexy or acting somewhat cute doesn’t matter because it's become acceptable and a must if you want to be an idol so fans can thirst over them. 

Sorry not sorry but kpop has become much less about the music itself and see what is trendy puts it to music and calls it the next big thing. which is a shame I love the language I love how it sounds in the songs & I also love that it encourages me to learn the language that's more appealing than the group image/songs itself but they’re letting looks matter to the point where groups are mistreated abroad by both media and fans alike all because of this group image concept. nct getting mixed up with bts was pure racist but how can they fail to tell how different they are? wait, no, any Asian boys in a group must be considered to be bts… see its just one hype train after the other, even Astro got mixed and when parasite become popular and rightly won the awards some were racist. Trump's comment was appalling but at least he got the country right, yes, everything that's become popularised in America is from South Korea, gold star for that. 

Its the concept of boy groups. not the music itself. if it were music then day6 would have a similar appeal, gain the same momentum as bts/nct have done, yet because they differ from the typical dance style boy group they won't gain the same effect as their counterparts, bts / nct & whoever else. 

Yet they’re still appealing to the wider international audience and did very well with their tours, same for the rose, they don’t trend in the same way boy groups do but have some form of appeal because it’s a different concept/image style altogether than the way bts / nct, etc are put together but still they don’t have the same effect as some of the more dance-based groups have because its a different genre but still from the same industry…

Different genre means less appealing or less popular but I’d say day6 are doing better, producing a greater amount of pleasing music, with reasonable lyrics but don't receive the same amount of popularity. compare to bts / nct who follow similar styles mixed up of what is trendy and call it a day. whereas kpop dance groups throw anything out there and its okay cause fans will lap it up too.

It's not the song that got blackpink to Coachella, its purely the appeal of yet another young women based group, again solely so they can push the feminism, girl power movement through their “songs” but it's their image of youthful cutely acting girls that gains the attention of western men/women… little mix tried it so why not blackpink, heck even fifth harmony failed to maintain the popularity because the appeal wasn’t there in the songs, but they were females in a group, therefore, they must have some form of appeal to the public / recent trends, bandwagons

[f-117-nighthawk]

More playlist meta bc I don’t wanna do homework and Jimmy kicked me out of the TA room saying I’d been in there for far too long for a Friday (it was four hours! Interspaced between classes! Workshop kit inventory is just an excuse to blast Gloryhammer to me, it’s fun)

Since I was talking about Ten Thousand Against One earlier, I’ve been thinking about the timeline and which event the songs are connected to. Long post under the cut

Turn the Lights Out is... sort of an odd case. It’s not like Remnants of Stars, which is about Galran and my philosophy about how we were created, what happens to us when we die, and the cycles that power the universe. Of course, Remnants of Stars is a little more than just philosophy. It actually describes (in a rather metaphorical way) the actual process of the marthinazik filtering quintesence into new stars, planets, beings, anything you can think of. It also has a very important lyric for much much later like, post Sticky Notes later. Now that I think about it, it actually defines a good chunk of that maybe-sequel-maybe-idea era in conjunction with Soul Extract’s Filaments. 

Anyway, back to Turn the Lights Out. It’s an odd case because it’s sort of like Remnants of Stars in that it’s more about the philosophy, but it’s before Remnants of Stars because it’s also kind of an event. If you read interviews with Delain about Moonbathers, Charlotte states that Turn the Lights Out is about Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics, specifically the character of Death. I confess I haven’t read those comics, but my interpretation fits her rather well I think. To me, Turn the Lights Out is about a gentle god who accepts they will not always be seen as who they are but will give their everything to protect those within their universe. Now, who does that sound like? Which characters have been around since the birth of the universe, under various names, whether they be Ibeshganszá, ‘kibrraldíl, Marduzbazí, or Vôltrôn? 

You can make an argument for Your World Will Fail to be directly after Turn the Lights Out, but I rather like it after Remnants of Stars too. Turn the Lights Out is the beginning of the universe, so naturally, it goes first. Sentient life needs to evolve for Remnants of Stars to truly fit, and even though Your Would Will Fail technically can happen at any point between the first Plank time and the next, it also happens when the comet that becomes Voltron crashes into Daibazaal. The Your World Will Fail/Dark Matter/Eater of Worlds trio is both a general, entire timeline-spanning idea, and a specific event. 

(Your world will fail my love/It's far beyond repair/Your world will fail my love/It is already there)

(Bring me your soul/Bring me your hate/In my name you will create/Bring me your fear/Bring me your pain/You will destroy in my name)

(Can't imagine the violence/The rage and the love in my madness/I am the eater of worlds and I'm looking for someone to feed me)

And then, right after that event, or even during, you have Apocalypse 1992. The death of the dream, the final madness before the triumph of chaos. 

You Keep What You Kill is very much the odd one out out of everything. Helion Prime based it off a book I forget the name of, but here it’s purely about Zarkon’s empire. The “Holy Half-Dead” have lost so much of their culture, of the family bonds that kept them together even when their mistakes threatened the destruction of all, but they still remember the songs of glory. And they do keep what they kill. 

And then there’s a rather large time jump of about five thousand Earth years to The Seven Sisters. This song is pretty well encapsulated in Child From the Stars (Lost in the Dark) (which is a lyric from Closure, but Closure is later for Reasons), but the other half of it is connected to Memories of a Girl I Haven’t Met.

Who Will Save You Now has gone through so many iterations of what it’s connected to I honestly don’t remember what it actually is anymore. Given its placement between The Seven Sisters and Nobody Gets Left Behind, I think it’s related to the SFSS Genesis’s disappearance. But it could also be placed in conjunction with A Simple Plan and be about something slightly different...hm, I’ll think on that. This song has such a Dark Matter vibe to me, but it hasn’t found a home that sticks in my brain yet. 

Nobody Gets Left Behind is really there bc it’s a fun song and when I found 1551 I immediately had to put something in. BUT it is a good song about family dynamics and, well, that’s Voltron in a nutshell right? (and then you get, right there in the first verse, “Don't even try to pretend/That you're rough and just as tough/As when you're missing a friend/Attack and take him back/Cause when the team isn't whole/You've got a hole in your soul/So step up to your fucking role/We might get hurt/We might be taking some hits/But when you're taking our friend/Then that's some personal shit” and you cannot tell me that’s not everybody’s mood post Battle in the Sarnan Nebula) 

A Simple Plan is a new addition in the past few weeks. I rediscovered The Spiritual Machines a few weeks ago and the lyric “How long can we hold off ending/How long can we pretend we're ok” hit me right in the Keith feels. So this one is in conjunction with the first verse of Nobody Gets Left Behind. The entire song actually reminds me of Dark Matter with how it’s centralized at one event but contains hints of other things (The truth arrived too slow).

Memories of a Girl I Haven't Met is maybe one standard year (so six earth months-ish?) after A Simple Plan. 

String Theory is... weird. It’s mostly there for the title, but the lyrics do contain themes found in other parts of the playlist that fit really well but don’t map to the event I associate the song with. It’s honestly about Shiro missing Adam and the rest of the people on Earth. Which, granted, given the point in the timeline the title is associated with makes a certain amount of sense but...idk. And the bit that begins with “You don’t believe in space” is about something entirely different. It’s confusing, but all inexplicably related to the title event.

Interesting fact: My Dark Matter drafts/ideas folder is actually split int pre- and post- String Theory folders. It was originally because String Theory is such a pivotal moment in the Coalition’s efforts, but it also ended up vaguely the middle of the timeline. It’s the point where things absolutely, truly, have no relation to what happens in canon. The butterfly effect stemming from the events of Shatterpoint (and an implied secondary shatterpoint in another fic) have changed things enough that apart from one general event, nothing happens the same way (and that event is for drastically different reasons). All in all, it fits the weird vibe of the song rather well.

Next is Belgrade, the Ultimate Klance Song, about three months later. Fun Shenanigans happen in conjunction with this absolute bop.

Here’s the surprisingly big gap of just over a standard Earth year, in which several important events happen that don’t have songs attached to them (Roentgen, maybe)

Then we get Birthright/Firewall, a set of songs about reclaiming yourself from the depths of hell with just a liiiiiitle bit of help from your family.

(It's time to take ahold of what belongs to me/It's time to walk away with no apologies/Voices in the mirror start quietly/And now they're screaming back at me!)

(This force knows what you can do/And what you can make/With your tattered shell)

Here Comes the Reign technically starts during Birthright/Firewall, but doesn’t come into full effect until a month later, and then even fuller around five months after that. Meanwhile, we have The Day the Earth Collapsed, which is rather self-explanatory.

A few months later there is Darker Matter. The fic connected to this is real weird, but also real important. Suffice to say it’s gonna be confusing, and a universe doesn’t like the Paladins for a while.

And then we have Closure. Child From the Stars (Lost in the Dark) is actually the first of four fics inspired by Closure’s chorus. (I also drew a picture for each fic. They’re combined into my desktop background, and the first one is still my phone background and my pfp) “I am the child from the stars/That got lost in the dark/Between heaven and hell/I am forced to live on/I am the cause when you sin/I am the demon you skin/But there is no more tears to beautify/This is my last goodbye”

Closure is a rather sad song actually, but the way I’ve interpreted it ends on a bright spot of hope. The first related fic I’ve already posted/talked about, the second would be around the time of A Simple Plan. The third is somewhere in the gap between Belgrade and Birthright/Firewall. I’ve placed Closure at the approximate time of the fourth fic. I actually just moved it while writing this, because I realized this makes more sense after Darker Matter and with the Fall of [Redacted]. I’ve chosen to interpret the last line as finally deciding to stay instead of the (probably more likely given the rest of the album) darker interpretations.

After Closure is Ember, which is actually super connected to Darker Matter which is why I originally had them next to each other. The thing is, all three of these songs are connected to very specific events, the latter two of which are in direct response to the first even if there is a month or two between them. Ember is on the playlist for two reasons: the first is the line “dark matter falling from the sky” that basically required me to put it somewhere; the second is the fact that I keep mishearing the lyrics. “chthonic” is not “cuthonic” (which is not a word, but I interpreted as meaning Cthulu-like) and it’s “riches to embers” not “witches to embers.” Make of that what you will.

And finally, after almost seven Earth years, we get to The Reckoning/This is a Call/World on Fire/Louder Than Words. The Reckoning sort-of picks up where The Day the Earth Collapsed left off, spanning at least a year before going full force into the frantic five days of the other three songs.

(In blood and tears/A thousand times/We rise against/We'll always hold the line/Of reckoning)

(This is a call to action/This is a call to arms/All lives for one, together/There are no false alarms)

(World on fire with a smoking sun/Stops everything and everyone/Brace yourself for all will pay/Help is on the way)

(We have the force to fight/We have the blinding light/A war is more than heard/Coming in louder than words)

[swiftpng]

❥ — taylor swift’s fall netflix list // gettin’ deep & personal task.

Taylor’s a sucker for binge-watching a television show and ignoring the fact that she should be replying to emails about work, so what’s a better way to procrastinate than answering a bunch of fall related questions while watching a baking show? (click on the picture for hq!)

what’s your favorite part of fall? Everything. I know, I know… I might’ve said summer was my favorite season, but honestly? I love this time of the year so much. The leaves here are beginning to change colors. Soon they’ll fall to the ground in an array of golden-tones, stripping the trees bare in the process. We’ll all soon follow, wiping ourselves clean of the year’s hard times in anticipation of the better that’s sure to come. Pumpkin flavors can now be requested in coffee shops all over, and in just a couple weeks time, children will line the streets in costumes. There’s something in the breeze that heals. I can’t explain it, but I can feel it. Goosebumps litter my skin and at times I have to question whether I’m cold or whether my body is coming alive for the first time in ten months. Fall has arrived and so has my spirit. 

what about your least favorite? Hm, hard call. Maybe the colder weather? I don’t mind it, but I don’t really enjoy the feeling of my limbs feeling numb from the coldness.

what’s a song that always makes you think of Halloween? Thriller by Michael Jackson! If you don’t do the dance when you hear this song, we can’t be friends.

describe your quintessential fall outfit? Fall fashion is some of my favorite and, in my opinion, often the most creative! Usually, I’m always wearing fall colors with jeans, boots, and a sweater. Scarves, hats, and gloves can be found in my wardrobe during this time of year, too.

have you ever played with a ouija board? No, I wouldn’t do that. I’ve seen one too many horror films to know that it never ends well when you mess with those things.

do you feel that fall makes you happy or sad? Happy, most of the time! Although, it does make me feel slightly nostalgic, so that can always bring up unwanted feelings to the surface.

what’s your favorite Halloween-related movie? I always go for more light-hearted movies rather than all out scary movies, so I would have to say Hocus Pocus. But, I like Practical Magic, too.

now that the weather’s getting colder, what’s a go-to comfort meal for fall? Mac and cheese is my comfort food. It’s homey, warm, and so delicious. 

do you believe in ghosts & spirits? A little bit. I’m the kind of person to hear a mysterious noise and think “ghosts!” because that’s just who I am. I believe there are things we can’t see that exist, but I don’t really believe in the traditional ideas of what “ghosts” are. Maybe I’ll Buzzfeed Unsolved it one of these days and see if they’re truly real for myself.

favorite fall-related scent? Freshly made pumpkin pie from the oven is such a good smell, but I also love the smell of nature after it rains.

are you a generally superstitious person? I’m not overall superstitious, but I believe that there are things we can’t see or fathom. I believe there’s things we can’t explain, yet or ever. I believe that the number thirteen is my lucky number, and whenever it pops up randomly, I always believe it’s good luck for me.

do you rake up the leaves in your yard, or leave them fall where they may? I just leave them on the ground until I know it’s supposed to snow, and then I rake them up for them to burn. Fallen leaves make for a good bonfire.

if you were home alone and heard footsteps in your house, what would you do? I would probably check my security camera footage, and if I felt really spooked out, I’d call a friend to come over and stay the night!

hot apple cider or pumpkin spice coffee? Oooh, don’t do this to me. I love both, but a mug of hot apple cider is amazing when you’re at the window and reading a book.

pick a team of three people to go with you to a haunted house if you wanted to survive? Let me see… I think I’d choose Bill Skarsgård because he’s taller than me and I trust that he could protect the rest of the team; James McAvoy because he’s hilarious and I’m sure he could calm my nerves and lighten the mood; and Delta Goodrem since she’s my soul sister and I would need her for moral support. Bill, James, and Delta – those three would be my team if I had to go into a haunted house to survive.

do you use the pumpkin seeds once you’ve scooped ‘em from the jack-o-lantern? I usually save them! I roast them in the oven and eat them as a snack.

favorite Halloween costume that you’ve ever worn? Getting the chance to wear Ryan’s Deadpool costume was pretty cool. Didn’t think it would fit at first, but I’m glad it did!

what’s your favorite fall time activity? Going out at night and walking against the brisk air, warm coffee in my hand, feeling free and abandoned with my loved ones; sitting outside in the afternoons with a cozy sweater and writing/drawing; watching the darkening of the days, giving way to even brighter sunsets and sunrises.

graveyards at night: yay or nay? Uh, no. I don’t even like going to them in the daytime, so going to one during the night would not be for me.

do you enjoy baking during the fall season? Of course! Imagine if I didn’t bake almost everyday during the fall season? If you can name it, I can bake it. Cookies, pies, cakes, bread – those will fill my kitchen at all times.

are you more into Halloween parties or trick-or-treating? Since I’m older, I would say Halloween parties. Though, now that I’m living in Bayview, I’m hoping to get a chance to pass out candy to kids. Seeing little ones dressed up in their costumes is so cute.

what role do you play in a horror movie: the final girl, first to die, comic relief, the brain, or the murderer? Honestly? Depends on my mood. Kidding. Well, maybe. I feel like most people would assume that I would be the first to die in a horror movie and they might be right, but I feel like I could be the brain to come up with a plan to save us all. I’d be the comic relief if I’m nervous or feeling stressed during it all, the final girl if my plan goes like it should, and the murderer if I saw someone I disliked.

have you ever changed your appearance with the season? like dyeing your hair or doing different makeup? A lot of people dye their hair darker as the seasons change, but I don’t think I can pull off brown hair, so I just stick to blonde. I usually change my makeup to more darker tones.

after a scary movie… lights on or off? On, always. And I have to watch something more light-hearted afterwards otherwise I can’t go to sleep.

what’s your favorite candy that you look forward to getting around Halloween? Definitely Reese’s Pieces or M&M’s. You’ll never see me with candy corn, though. Whoever likes those are wrong. Very, very wrong. They have no taste, they’re boring, and they’re just not a good Halloween candy. Or even candy in general. Honestly, just don’t even talk to me if you like candy corn. Please. Also, if you have any in your presence, you should do yourself a favor and throw them away.

you’re a witch or warlock… what’s your familiar animal? Would it be too predictable to say a cat? It would be cool if they could talk like Salem, too.

it’s an apple, and it’s coated with what: chocolate, candy or caramel? A chocolate M&M covered apple would be my pick. I never eat it from the stick, so I usually cut it with an apple slicer and then have my way with it.

do you believe in any urban legends like moth man or chupacabras? Can’t say I do, only because I’m not really familiar with either of those. I will say that I believe in Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.

are you more into the fall aesthetic, or just in it for Halloween? Both? I love fall because of the crispness of the air against the gentle warmth of sunlight, the reemergence of cozy dark clothing and boots, a fresh brew of coffee as the sun rises and the chill starts to nip at your nose and cheeks, the faint scent of cinnamon, shorter days in exchange for softer evenings and brighter sunrises, greenery turning over to bold reds, oranges, and yellows, a tangible feeling that you can do anything… I could go on forever, I just really, really love autumn, my soul feels so at home when it’s this time of year. But, I do love Halloween and I refuse to believe it begins within the plane of manmade time, and is not an atmospheric state that graces us mere mortals every year without fail, bringing with it an odd chilly peace and natural pleasantries and a sort of magic, all of which is willed by the Gods of Spook. Yes, I know, I’m weird.  

supernatural time: do you wanna be a vampire, werewolf, or zombie? I’ve been a zombie once, and let me tell you, sitting for six hours in a makeup chair is not fun. But in all seriousness, if I had to choose based off of what I’ve seen in TV shows and such, I think I’d go with being a werewolf. I mean, having to turn on a full moon and have every bone in my body break doesn’t sound like too much fun, but it does sound better than having to live off of blood and never actually dying (unless you get stabbed in the heart with a wooden stake). With how much the world is changing, I don’t think I would to live long enough to see how it all ends.

[stedes-black-bonnet]

My Baby Does Me: Chapter 11

POV: John Deacon x reader

Notes: ongoing fic—want on the tag list? Drop me a line. Have any requests? Drop me a line.

Warnings: more smut (sorry not sorry/promise it’s important for character development, for those of you here for that).

Abstract: Roger faces an unexpected, expected dilemma.

Roger Taylor knew where he was going. He always had a plan, even if the plan was to not have a plan. In his mind, it still counted. Holding Lydia’s hand, he navigated the interior of Garden Lodge like he had built it himself, brick by brick. The rooms had emptied quite a bit by this point, which made the journey all the easier.

“Where are you taking me?” Lydia purred.

“I’m taking my favorite person to my favorite place.” He smirked at Lydia, running his free hand through his blond hair.

“It's a surprise.”

“Everything about me is a surprise, love.”

“Ditto,” Lydia challenged, “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

Roger paused in a dark hallway, pushed Lydia up against the wall, and stared at her, a silent challenge, before slowly closing the distance; he was a man on the prowl. He put his hands on the wall, over her head, leaning in to her. Roger kissed her, not caring who passed them by and saw this scene; he didn’t care about such trivial concerns. Just as suddenly as he had kissed her, he stopped, taking her by the hand, and continued to pull her towards his chosen destination. His hands were exceptionally rough. She felt blisters in various stages of healing, and wondered if it was painful, and how she might help him.

Lydia followed with mounting curiosity and flowing desire. He tried very hard, she thought, to seem mysterious; there was little not on the surface regarding Roger Taylor. This wasn’t to say he wasn’t deep; he was quite profound when he wanted to be; he just didn’t see the need to hide his feelings, fears, and predilections. He wasn’t ashamed of going after what he wanted, even if he wasn’t clear on his own motivations, his intentions always were explicit, transparent, and knowable. Sooner than anticipated, Roger led Lydia through a backdoor on the first floor.

The garden was expansive, well-maintained, and like something out of a fairy-tale. Lydia half expected to see a white or black queen walking among the prevalent ferns and countless rose and lilac bushes. A giant weeping willow swayed in the soft night winds. A Japanese-inspired pond rested near the willow with room for lounging. The delphiniums were the prize of the garden, however; towering slightly above the garden walls in the brilliant shades of sunset: pale lapis, darker-than-sin violets, and passionate cobalts. The combined scent was astonishingly delicate.

“It’s glorious, Rog.” Lydia had stopped walking, taking in the hidden paradise; she tugged on Roger’s hand to halt his progress.

“Jim’s doing, all of it.” Roger explained, admiring a wall of ivy, “He has a gift.”

“I’ll say,” Lydia agreed.

“They’d all die without his care. Wither away. I remember when Freddie moved in, there was no garden to speak of, and there wouldn’t be without Jim.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever loved anything as much as Jim loves this garden.” Lydia mused aloud, imagining the years Jim had put into maintaining this luscious oasis.

Roger gazed at her, then. Not only because of her self-aware and bold statements he had come to treasure from her, but because in this setting she was especially exquisite.

In the moonlight, she glowed faintly. Actually glowed with the flickering street lights and over-large moon. He couldn’t imagine anyone more dazzling. He was captivated. Simply speechless in her presence. He had felt desire before. Overwhelming desire, in fact. Given himself over to lust on multiple occasions with joyous abandon. But love? He wasn’t so sure anymore. Looking at Lydia felt like looking at a renaissance painting; far too wise and far too cherished to touch; yet, like all children when told not to touch something so protected and so gorgeous, he felt all the more compelled.

The gentle, goldenrod waves of her hair shifted in the wind, just as on the night he first met her. He put a hand to his lips, the same hand she had licked that same night. The red dress was affecting him profoundly. Well, no, that wasn’t entirely correct; the woman in the red dress was affecting him, but he hadn’t worked out the difference yet. He took his glasses off, like on that night, to see her better; which didn’t help, because he couldn’t see without them. It was a secret desire to see her with no barriers, with his guard down. He wanted to witness her in all her prismatic beauty with as much vulnerable closeness as possible. He didn’t know how to do it, though. Every relationship prior to Lydia had always had some unspoken profound distance between him and his conquest. That’s the problem: they were conquests. Now, he was her conquest, he questioned? Or were they equals? He didn’t know. He couldn’t be certain. Though, maybe, he was imagining this sudden attachment. Maybe he was saying he was imagining it to escape having to explain it.

There was that battle again, between denial and acceptance. It was his common playground by now. A land he had been treading since childhood. There was something desperately dismal about it now, he thought. Some profound sadness about his predicament. Pleasure didn’t always equal happiness, perhaps. Well, not lasting happiness anyway. But how to begin?

He settled for the first thing that came to mind. “I don’t think I’ve ever loved anyone.” Roger said aloud for the first time ever.

Lydia turned and looked at him, struck to the core. Were there tears in his eyes? Behind the umber glasses it was hard to tell. Perhaps it was a trick of the light. Perhaps he was a trick of the light, giving her some line he didn’t need to give her anyway. She was determined this was going to happen. It was happening on her terms with her full acceptance. What hope did she have to think it would last beyond tonight? Roger Taylor was a notorious scoundrel. There’s no way he was being vulnerable with her now. What was he playing at?

“Oh, I doubt the great Roger Taylor has never been in love…” she said playfully, trying desperately to lighten the suddenly stifling atmosphere.

Looking at her, he wasn’t so sure. Maybe he already was and didn’t know it yet. Denial, he thought, the only thing as wicked as he was. “The truth,” he said, “is rarely what we want it to be.”

There it was again, thought Lydia. That piercingly unexpected depth from The Blond God. He looked pensive; a weight of anguish pressed upon his usually sparkling eyes she hadn’t anticipated. It was a vacant sorrow that evaporated everything from view. In that moment, he was blind to everything. Lydia gripped his hand, trying to return him to her.

He smiled lightly, pulling her to his side once more. “Come on, love. I must have you before the sun rises. During, too, for that matter.” He waggled his pale eyebrows at her, thinking of her body glistening in the morning sun, thinking of her hair, her thighs; he happily retreated back into the cozy sanctuary of his denial once more.

They effortlessly exited the garden through a wrought-iron gate. Something about it’s design reminded Lydia of the cover to A Day at the Races, but Roger was on a mission; it was clear he wasn’t interested in pausing to admire any view that wasn’t Lydia. He took her down an alley. It was unmarked, though for a couple of blocks he took them down a true path of his own design. He stopped suddenly, breaking out onto a street lined with townhouses and cars. He headed for a red Alfa Romeo convertible.

It was his life. He took care of it like most people took care of a sickly animal or an aging parent. Every detail he had painstakingly picked and enhanced. If he had to choose between saving himself or his car, he’d choose his car every damn time. Sure, he had written that song about the love of his life, his “car,” and had taken so much shit for it ever since, but it was worth it. Fuck them, he thought, if they didn’t get it.

Roger savored every line of his Alfa Romeo as he savored every line of Lydia’s body. He’d just have to take her right now, and it could only happen in his car. He patted his breast pocket for his keys, and found nothing. He checked his pants next, and that too yielded nothing.

“Those absolute assholes,” Roger said with more affection than he’d like to admit. Thank god he had left the top down.

“Something wrong?” Lydia asked, twirling a strand of her straw-colored hair in her hand, leaning up against his baby like she belonged there. Maybe she did, Roger contemplated.

And there he was unable to remember exactly what the issue had been. She certainly had a way about her, a way with him.

“Absolutely nothing, love.” He said, lifting her up in his arms, and placing her on the passenger’s side seat of the car. He hopped over the door to the driver’s side, and turned to face her, his Goddess in Red.

Exposed or not, there would be action this night.

Roger wasted no time. He didn’t play coy; that wasn’t his style. He put his hand on Lydia’s thigh.

She decided to raise the stakes, however. Risk big to get big was her motto.

Lydia shifted over the gear shaft to straddle Roger. The car was small, so it took great skill on her behalf to accomplish this while still looking fantastically alluring. He smiled at her trying to push all thoughts from his mind. Thoughts relating to soulmates. Thoughts relating to love. He pulled her into a kiss. It could have been a kiss without end. Mouths open, tongues circling, it had a tinge of desperate passion both found intoxicating.  

This wild meeting of skilled lips lasted until Lydia pulled him away from her lips. She pulled him away by clutching strands of his perfect blond hair. Clawing into his hair with both hands, she stared him down, waiting for his response. Waiting to see if they were birds of a feather in all respects.

Roger laughed. It was the laugh commonly used when something is casually called “too good to be true.” Roger, however, wasn’t a doubter; he knew Lydia was true, good, and only mad happenstance could have brought her into his life. He knew she was inclined to certain proclivities like he was; it was time to play.

He attempted to kiss her, trying to charm her with his eyes, and overpower her with his neck muscles. She kept him from it, by pulling him back by his hair again. Was he giving in to her that easily, she wondered?

Roger Meddows Taylor never gave in.

Lydia saw something dark and flinty flash through his light blue eyes; it was the look of a man who didn’t lose, she thought. It was the look of a man who never lost. He took his sunglasses off, tossing them to the floor of the car in one fluid motion. That gesture attempted to say he was in control, he was in charge, that she would listen, obey, and do as she was told. A lot could be communicated with merely the flick of a wrist, Lydia thought.

He reached up, glaring benignly, seductively at Lydia, and wrapped a plentiful length of her hair around his fist.

This was what the kids referred to as an impasse.

A stalemate.

There was nothing stale about this mating, however.

Gripping each other’s hair in their determined hands, they stared at each other, waiting. Breathing as one, posed to strike, they savored the moments before the battle commenced.

Lydia couldn’t get enough of his eyes. That color, she thought. What was it? Cerulean? Cyan? As a painter, she should be able to identify the color of a person’s eyes. His hair was silky to the touch; it was clear he cared a great deal about his appearance. He was too pretty to be allowed. Pretty enough to pass as a women, if he so desired.

And he was so effortlessly desirable.

Lydia bared her teeth are him.

“Just try me,” he dared her. She decided to call his bluff; she went in for the bite, aiming at his neck, just above his clavicle. He stopped her, just before the moment of contact, by pulling her hair. Lydia moaned in frustration. She was not typically in a position like this; she was always the dominant one. What exactly happened when two doms tried to have sex, she questioned? Might as well as ask what was the sound of one hand clapping?

She’d have to up the ante. Lydia reached down with a claw-like hand, grabbed Roger’s cock over his pants, and slowly applied pressure, watching his pupils dilate. Just to show she meant business, Lydia kept her hand there, poised to give him a reminder of her strength as needed.

He smirked at her, knowing instantly he had simultaneously judged her correctly and terribly, if not hilariously, wrongly.

Lydia felt Roger getting hard beneath her hand. He had no intentions of hiding his growing joy at being in such a spot of danger. He couldn’t recall the last time he had been so turned on; every nerve in his body was on edge, drumming up the excitement. He wasn’t always this lucky. Finding someone who enjoyed the same games he did was a rarity.

“If you do that again,” he warned, “I’ll have no choice but to make you regret it, Lydia.”

“Try me, Roger.” Lydia responded chilling ice painted on her voice.

That’s when Roger Taylor bit Lydia’s neck.

She moaned in unexpected pleasure, and surprise. He was fast, viper-quick. Roger was as deadly as he was handsome. He continued biting down her decolletage, until he reached the base of the V-neck of her dress.

“May I rip your dress?” Roger asked.

It wasn’t a submissive ask; it was a genuine question to locate her line that wasn’t to be crossed; negotiation was a necessary part of the etiquette here. Roger was a cad, perhaps, but he was also a superior man of honor.

“This is one of my favorites…” Lydia whispered in mock-uncertainty.

“I’ll buy you a new one.” Roger challenged.

Lydia consented by throwing her neck back dramatically.

Letting go of Lydia’s hair, he took his strong hands, well toned from constant drumming, and carefully sunk his hands into the V of her neckline. He flicked his sky-colored eyes up to Lydia’s face, mostly to check her body language. She was, he could feel, substantially wet. Her breathing was even and she looked radiant, and without fear; she trusted him. He took it as the double confirmation he needed. In one swift movement, he ripped the dress down the center to her navel. The shriek that escaped her body was one of acute ecstasy.

Roger, however, had left himself vulnerable for attack. She leaned into him, as he admired her breasts, and bit his neck as she had originally desired to do.

He moaned, a mix of pain and pleasure. He quickly retook her hair in his hands, and pulled her back. She started unzipping his pants; he leaned up into her to help her pull them off more easily. He reached behind Lydia, and unclasped her bra in a skilled snapping of his fingers.

It seemed to matter very little--if indeed at all--that they were outdoors, visible, and about to have sex in a convertible car with the top down. These details were inconsequential to them; this act, being together in this moment, was all that mattered.

He slipped her useless dress sleeves from her arms, and removed her bra.

She removed the obstacle of his underwear.

Roger reached up under what was left of her dress to slide off her own underwear, and found, to is equal surprise and excitement, she wasn’t wearing any.

Meeting zero resistance, his cock exceptionally stiff, he reached his nimble fingers inside of her vagina, savoring the warmth as much as the small sigh that escaped her lips. He worked his fingers inside her slowly at first. Watching as each movement compelled her to breathe with mounting force. The sight of her joy brought him elation beyond all comparison. She was a sight to behold, rocking in the moonlight. He couldn’t wait any longer to have her completely. Roger slipped his fingers from her folds, and easily slid his cock inside her.

The feeling was thought-dashing. Nothing existed while simultaneously everything that ever would matter existed in this moment, in this touch, in this union. He couldn’t think, his vision was full of her, of her breathing, of her movements, of her glorious breasts. She inspired such rhythms in him, only music could express them adequately.

Lydia wrapped her arms around Roger’s neck, bringing him in for an engrossing kiss, before starting a slow cycle of hip movements in a rhythm he easily duplicated.

He dexterously joined her movements in merry syncopation. Roger wrapped one arm around her waist, and used the other to absentmindedly pinch her firm nipples. He thought mostly of her hair responding lightly to the wind, to their own movements; he’d bring a hand up to grasp sections of it from time to time, too sweet to neglect, too powerful to not eroticize.

She slowly sped up her rhythms, which he deftly matched, never rushing, always on pace.

Quite exposed, neither wanted to prolong the moment. If it was to be, Lydia thought, they’d have the opportunity to try all sorts of compromising positions with each other down the road.

“I am close,” Roger whispered, tugging on her hair.

She was too, and knew what she needed to push her over the edge. “Pull harder--now!” Lydia requested.

Roger happily obliged, pulling on her hair, watching her back arch as she slammed up against her own orgasm.

Never one to be showed up, Roger followed suit, meeting his own orgasm like an old friend.  

They held each other, breathing in their mingled scents, proud of what they had achieved together. He tightly held her up against his body, and knew a true and lasting contentment he had never before experienced. Slowly, their breathing returned to normal.

He pulled away from her, momentarily. Gazing into Lydia’s eyes, Roger asked, “So, who won, do you reckon?” 

Tag List: @phantom-fangirl-stuff @triggeredpossum @obsessedwithrogertaylor @groupiie-love @richiethotzierz @partydulce @sophierobisonartfoundationblr @psychostarkid @teathymewithben @smittyjaws @just-ladyme @botinstqueen @mydogisthebest @little-welsh-wonder @maxjesty

[the-desolated-quill]

Quill’s Swill - The Worst Of 2018

Congratulations dear reader. You survived 2018. And you know what that means. It’s time for another best of/worst of list. Welcome to Quill’s Swill 2018. A giant septic tank for the various shit the entertainment industry produced over the course of the year. The films, games, TV shows and various other media that got on my bad side. As always please bear in mind that this is only my subjective opinion (if you happen to like any of the things on this list, good for you. I’m glad someone did) and that obviously I haven’t seen everything 2018 has to offer for one reason or another. In other words, sorry that Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald isn’t on here. I’m sure it is as terrible as some have been suggesting. I just never got around to watching it.

Okay everyone. Grab your breathing masks and put on your rubber gloves. Let’s dive into this shit pile.

Hold The Sunset

The news that John Cleese would be returning to the world of BBC sitcoms was incredibly exciting, being a massive Fawlty Towers fan and all. Unfortunately Hold The Sunset was not quite what I had in mind. It’s one of those rare breed of situation comedies that chooses to offer no actual comedy. It’s not a sitcom. It’s a sit. Like Scrubs or The Big Bang Theory.

An elderly couple plan to elope abroad only for Alison Steadman’s son to barge in, having left his wife, and forcing them to put their plans on hold. Hence the title ‘Hold The Sunset.’ It’s like a cross between As Time Goes By and Sorry, but if all the humour and relatability were surgically removed by a deadpan mortician. The characters are weak, the plots are thin on the ground and the humour (hat little of it there is) feel incredibly dated. The middle aged mummy’s boy is something that hasn’t been funny since the 90s. It’s an utter waste of great talent and what hurts even more is that this tripe is actually getting a second series. I can only assume the people watching this are comatose. Either that or there’s an epidemic of people in Britain who have lost the remote.

Avengers: Infinity War

Yes this is one of the worst movies of 2018 and no I don’t regret saying that one little bit. Avengers: Infinity War was fucking terrible. Period. There were too many plots and characters going on, which made the film hard to follow (and what staggers me is that the so called ‘professional’ critics have condemned movies for having too many characters and plots before. Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Batman vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice and even Deadpool 2. But because this is an MCU movie, it gets a free pass. Fuck off). The characterisation was weak due to sheer number of characters they try to juggle, resulting in characters coming off as one dimensional caricatures of themselves and scenes where characters such as Iron Man, Doctor Strange and Star-Lord sound completely interchangeable. The villain, Thanos, is a stupidly and poorly written villain, but that’s hardly surprising considering what a shit job Marvel have done building him up over the course of these 20+ movies. And let’s not forget that pisstake ending. A bunch of prominent Marvel characters die and it’s all very, very sad... except all these characters just so happen to have sequels planned, which makes this ending fucking pointless and have less impact than a feather on a bouncy castle.

I don’t know which is more shocking. That Marvel and Disney think their audience are that stupid and gullible, or that their audience are actually validating their view. Fuck you Disney.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

I’ve always wanted a Harry Potter RPG, where you could customise your character, choose your house and actually live a full school life at Hogwarts. This year, Warner Bros and Jam City gave us just that.

That was a mistake.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is the epitome of everything that’s wrong with the mobile gaming market right now. The gameplay is boring and involving where you just tap images on a screen until a progress bar fills up. Wizard duels are little more than rock-paper-scissors challenges that require no kind of skill. Bonding with friends and caring for magical creatures just consist of pathetically simple pop quizzes and yet more boring tapping. Oh and of course you only get a certain amount of energy to complete these tedious tasks. If you run out of energy, you wait for it to fill up... or pay up for the privilege. So determined are they to extract your hard earned cash from your wallet, there’s actually a bit where Devil’s Snare strangles your eleven year old avatar and the game effectively tries to guilt trip you into paying micro-transactions to save them. It’s sleazy, gross and manipulative. Honestly, you’re better off just playing Candy Crush.

Agony

When the developers of this game said they wanted to give the player a trip through Hell, they had no idea how true that statement really was. Agony is dreadful on a number of levels. The design for Hell itself, while visually interesting at times, is often not very practical and gets quite dull and repetitive after a while. The stealth mechanics are a joke and the AI of your demonic enemies are pitiful. All of this alone would have been enough to put this game on the list, but then we also have the casual misogyny. Agony is a gorefest trying desperately to shock the player. We see men and woman get tortured, but it’s the women that often get the extreme end. The violence inflicted on them is often sexual in nature and the game seems to go out of its way to degrade and dehumanise women at every turn. The orgasmic cries of ‘pull it out’ quickly become a staple of the game’s experience as we see naked women raped, tortured and murdered, all for the purposes of ‘entertainment.’

I would call Agony sexist, but honestly that would be giving it too much credit. Agony is like a little child trying desperately to be all dark and edgy in a pathetic attempt to impress everyone around him, and we should treat it as such. Go to your room Agony. No ice cream for you.

Peter Rabbit

If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of Beatrix Potter rotating in her grave.

Yes we have yet another live action/CGI hybrid, but instead of something innocuous like the Smurfs or Alvin and the Chipmunks, Sony instead decides to adapt Peter Rabbit, with James Corden in the title role.

It’s about as bad as you’d expect.

Their attempts to modernise the story are painful to say the least with pop culture references, inappropriate adult humour and twerking rabbits. Plus rather than the gentle, but slightly mischievous character we got in the source material, here Peter is a sociopathic delinquent who seems to revel in making the farmer’s life a living hell. He’s unlikable and unwatchable as far as I’m concerned and the film doesn’t in anyway earn the emotional moments it tries so desperately to sell to the audience. And the worst part is it’s getting a sequel.

Wait. Do you hear that sound? That’s the sound of Beatrix Potter tearing out of the ground, ready to kill whatever idiot came up with this shit.

Fallout 76

I was excited for Fallout 76. A MMORPG where players band together to rebuild society after a nuclear apocalypse. Could have been great. Pity it wasn’t.

Fallout 76 is a dreadful game. Not only is it a buggy, glitchy mess that requires a constant online connection to play, which could result in you losing hours of progress if your WiFi went down, it’s also unbelievably tedious, and that’s because there’s nothing to do in the game. There’s no other characters to interact with, the various robots and computers you come across are really little more than quest givers, there’s no actual plot so to speak, and because of the sheer size of the world and the number of players allowed on a server, the chances of you actually meeting any actual players is remote. And let’s not forget all the behind the scenes drama. Bethesda falsely advertising Fallout themed canvas bags and players getting shitty nylon ones. Bethesda accidentally releasing the account information of various players trying to get a refund for said bag. Bethesda failing to program the year 2019 into the game code, meaning that the game’s nukes don’t work.

Maybe there’s a chance that Bethesda could pull a No Man’s Sky and fix everything over the coming years with various patches and DLCs, but the damage has already been done. It’s incredibly disappointing. The Elder Scrolls 6 is going to have be fucking incredible to win everyone back.

Mama Mia!: Here We Go Again

I can’t stand jukebox musicals anyway, but Mamma Mia was always one of the worst. Its boring, meandering story with its one note, obnoxious cast of characters screeching out ABBA songs like they’re at some drunken karaoke session at some poor sod’s hen party has always grated on my nerves. So imagine my delight when they announced we were getting a sequel. Ever wondered how Meryl Streep met her three lovers and founded her hotel? No? Well tough shit, we’re going to tell you anyway.

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again is basically just Mamma Mia again. The actors still can’t sing, the characters are still annoying and story is still boring and meandering, completely at the mercy of the chosen songs rather than the filmmakers using the songs to compliment the story (you know? Like proper musicals do?).

How can I resist you? Very easily as it turns out. Gimme, gimme, gimme a fucking gun so I can end my misery.

The Cloverfield Paradox

A lot of people were unhappy about the direction Cloverfield was going. They wanted a continuation of the found footage, kaiju movie from 2008, not an anthology series. I was personally all in favour. Partially because I thought the first Cloverfield was a tad overrated, but mostly because I thought it would be a great opportunity for more experimental film projects and could be a great launchpad for new writers and filmmakers. 10 Cloverfield Lane was a great start. Then The Cloverfield Paradox happened.

The Cloverfield Paradox is basically JJ Abrams trying to have his cake and eat it too. Maintaining the anthology format whilst connecting everything together in a ‘shared universe’ (yes, yet another shared universe). The result was a cliched, poorly edited and idiotic mess of a film that actually took away from the previous two films rather than added to them. Everyone hated it and, as a result, 2018′s Overlord, which was totes going to be part of the Cloververse, was made its own standalone film and Abrams double pinky promised to make a true sequel to the original Cloverfield. A complete and total disaster. No wonder it was a straight-to-Netflix film.

The Handmaid’s Tale - Season 2

This is probably going to be the most controversial entry on the list, but please hear me out because I’m not the only one who has a problem with this season.

I was reluctant to watch The Handmaid’s Tale simply because of how gruesome the original book was, but I forced myself to watch the first season and I thought it was pretty good. It remained faithful to the source material for the most part and included some nice additions that helped to expand the story and mythos. If it was just a one off mini-series, everything would have been fine. But then they made the same mistake as The Man In The High Castle and Under The Dome did where they commissioned another season and attempted to tell a story that goes beyond the book.

There’s a reason why the original story ended where it did. The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t meant to be an empowering story about women sticking it to the patriarchy. It’s a cautionary tale about how fragile our civil rights truly are and how easily they can be taken away from us. It’s designed to shock, not to satisfy. So seeing a handmaid blow herself up in a suicide bombing feels very incongruous and just a little bit silly. It would be like doing a TV adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 where the first season followed the source material and then the second season turned Winston Smith into this heroic freedom fighter trying to overthrow Big Brother. It would represent a fundamental misunderstanding of what the book was about in the first place.

And then of course there’s the increased level of violence in Season 2, which many have complained about. In Season 1 and the original source material, the violence was justified. In Season 2, the motivation behind the violence has gone from ‘how can we effectively demonstrate how easily a fascist patriarchy can happen in the West?’ to ‘what brutal act can we inflict upon Ofglen to shock the audience this week?’ It’s purely for shock and nothing more. And with the showrunner (who I feel I should mention is a man) announcing that he has planned ten seasons of this, it seems that The Handmaid’s Tale is going to go even further with this depravity until it effectively becomes the equivalent of a Saw film.

The Handmaid’s Tale exists as a way of shining light on and critiquing misogyny in its most extreme form. Season 2 however demonstrates that there is a serious risk of it becoming the very thing it’s criticising in the first place.

The Predator

I love the Predator franchise, but The Predator is the worst.

People thought that this would be good because director Shane Black had actually starred in the first Predator movie back in 1987. Instead we got this bloated, confusing, obnoxious and insulting mess of a film that seems to go out of its way to ruin everything that makes Predator so good. There’s no tension. No suspense. No intrigue. Just a bunch of gore, explosions and shitty one liners from annoying and lifeless characters. They essentially took this big alien game hunter from outer space and turned him into a generic monster from a bad summer blockbuster. It no longer hunts for sport. It wants to take over the world and splice our DNA with theirs. But don’t worry, a rogue Predator doesn’t want to kill humans (even though he himself kills a bunch of humans), so he gives us a Predator Iron Man suit to set up a sequel that will probably never happen because this movie was a box office bomb and it fucking SUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKKEEEEEDDDD!!!

This film also has a very nasty streak towards those with disabilities. There’s a lot of jokes at the expense of a character with Tourette’s and it has an extremely ignorant and patronising view of autism, portraying the main character’s kid as being a super genius who can decipher the Predator language and even going so far as to say that he represents ‘the next stage of human evolution.’ Presumably the Predators want social communication difficulties because apparently it helps them hunt somehow.

What with Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox, the future of both the Alien and Predator franchises were very much in question. This film needed to be a success in order to make a case for Disney to keep making more of them. It wasn’t. Congratulations Shane Black. You might have just killed off this franchise for good. Thanks arsehole! :D

So those were my least favourite stories from 2018. Join me on Wednesday where we shall discuss something more positive. Yes, it’s awards season. Who shall win the coveted Quill Seal Of Approval? Watch this space...

Or don’t. It’s up to you. I don’t want to force you or anything. It’s a free country.

[zombatty-blog]

So, I'm still not 'over' Chester Bennington's death.

Most people would think 'it's been over a month.  You didn't know him.  Get over it?', am I right?

Trust me when I say, if this were any other 'stranger' on Earth, I wouldn't have been personally effected.  Felt bad for their family, sure.  But not personally effected.

This person was basically my hero for years, for many many reasons.  I was never 'in love' with him, never 'had a crush' on him.  It was never about any of that like so many seem to want to conclude.  It was about a pure, raw and honest respect for someone who wore their heart on their sleeve in order to maybe connect with other people, help other people, reach out to other people and to just... relate.

Now a lot of artists have this as their goal with their fame.  Some don't feel genuine about it, and do it for popularity.  Others are genuine about it, for sure.  But there was something about Chester and his humbleness and gentle nature despite being such a tortured person, that made him feel like a friend.

Years and years ago, I lost someone to suicide.  That story is long, and not for this time.  But this event led to what eventually would be my own personal mental nightmare.  And Chester's voice would be the only voice in the world that would reach me and pull me out of darkness.  I mean that, sincerely.  I'm not sure what I would have done without it, or how far down the rabbit hole I would have gone.

 “I don’t know who to trust, no surprise (Everyone feels so far away from me)

 The suicide of someone close to me happened in a wink of time.  One day he was there, I saw him with my own eyes... and then the next day he was gone.  Forever. Just... gone.  The innocent, happy, bright eyed and full of life and positivity version of myself was gone too.  Just like that.  

The reality of death, something I had never experienced from anyone close to me up to that point, smashed me in the face like a speeding car, and left everything I was before in heaps all over the road with the wreckage.

 “So I, I won’t be the one, be the one to leave this in pieces…”

 Everything dark in life, every shitty dark reality, moved in to my head and evicted anything good and light.

I had zero control over this process.  I had zero warning it was coming.  I went from grieving and being confused to being someone that was not who I was a few days prior.

That's how fast your mind can turn on you.  And it happens so fast that you can't stop it.  How do you stop an intruder when you're sleeping?  

So there I was, trapped in my own mind while what felt like someone else, some stranger I didn't know, was driving my body.  I was locked away while my mind was filled with thoughts that I couldn't control. Horrible thoughts about death. How everyone would die.  How we were all just walking corpses.  TV shows I would watch would just be me looking at it all like it was pointless, like the cast were fake, like the people playing them on tv were all going to actually die.  DEATH DEATH DEATH.  Everyone, everywhere, everything, was about death.  It’s all I could see, could think about, and it was weighing me down.  Every breath was heavy.  And yes, that can easily reference the song ‘Heavy’ because I can relate to that too.  Just one more song in my list of life saving melodies.

 “And with the cataclysm raining down, insides crying “Save me now!”, you were there, impossibly alone”

 Then there were the anxiety attacks that came with this severe depression and outright invasion of my mind.  The first one came in the middle of the night.  I lay there attempting to sleep, looking at the ceiling waiting for my eyes to grow heavy.  And then just like that, ONE SECOND, the ceiling was coming down on me.  I couldn't breathe, my heart literally felt like it was shattering from beating too fast.  I absolutely do not remember the journey, but all of a sudden, I was in the middle of the street outside at four in the morning, in my nightgown, shaking and crying, mouth open screaming but no sound was coming out.

That was my first panic attack EVER.  I was terrified.  None of this made sense.

 “Tell me what the fuck is wrong with me”

 Then another came, and another, and another.  The panic attacks felt like I was actually dying, and my depression revolved around death, so you can imagine the lovely chain reactions that were happening inside me.

Then I started to play music.  Instinctively I picked up a Linkin Park CD.  

 “There's something inside me that pulls beneath the surface

Consuming, confusing

This lack of self control I fear is never ending

Controlling

I can't seem

To find myself again

My walls are closing in”

 These words came out of the speakers and went straight in to my mind, found where *I* was hiding, and held my hand.  The way Chester sang, the passion and pain in every note, every line, every word, found me. It reached me when nothing else and nobody else COULD.  It wasn't their fault, I did an excellent job of hiding how severe this all was for me. I was embarrassed to be so broken, and I was terrified because I didn't know WHAT was broken or how to fix it.

But Chester Bennington knew.  He knew, and he knew just what to say and how to say it, to reach people suffering like I was.

“Remember you’re loved and you always will be. This melody will bring you right back home.”

 He suffered too, and the lyrics were reflections of that, and they were real and tangible and they, at that moment in my life, were all mine.

My suffering lasted a full year.  It felt like ten years, or twenty.  I felt like someone else for so long that on the other side of all of this, I wasn't sure who I was anymore.  But the voice of Chester Bennington kept the real version of me alive long enough to survive the onslaught of illness and invasion that was happening in my mind. Because of him (and Linkin Park in general) I was able to have breaks from it all where I didn't feel isolated and alone. Where I just closed my eyes and listened to a voice that reached me somewhere nothing, or no one, else could. He was my lifeline, and when I say he saved me, I mean that.

In the darkest times of my life, Chester was my best friend.  He was my hero.  So yes, I mourn his death.  I miss him. I always will.

 'Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed..."

 He was my friend, and this IS personal.  He sang for me, for you, for himself, for anyone that suffered or suffers.  He wasn't about fame or greed.  He was so down to Earth and caring.  He was just our friend.  It was a two-way relationship that needed no names, no faces. You just knew he would be there for you when you needed him, and even though he's gone, he's helping us through mourning him with his voice and his kind nature, immortalized in video and sound, and memory.

 'Keep me in your memory, leave out all the rest'

 There are few that leave a mark on your heart in this life, and he was one.  

Without him helping me then, and helping me SO much through the end of my marriage and my divorce, I might not be who I am today.

 "This is the last smile that I'll fake for the sake of being with you"

 I might not have had the strength to get through it all and come out as well as I did.  And I now have a business, a beautiful and doting husband, a loving and beautiful mother that is still with me, and I have my mind back.

So, thank you Chester Bennington, for saving so many of us.  I'm sorry that we all could not save you in return.  That's what is almost the most heart-breaking thing about all of this... We are here, he is gone.  Yet he deserves to still be here.  I’ll never be okay with it.  And I won’t apologize for caring about someone I’ve never met, when most of the people I have met could never do as much for me as this one person has done.

 'And the shadow of the day

Will embrace the world in grey

And the sun will set for you'

 RIP dear friend.

[quinnhayden]

Ok, so I panicked and kissed this human so he wouldn’t drown. And I know you don’t want me to keep him, and we can’t let him leave if he knows about us mere people so what do you want to do? hmm maybe quinn and steve and she saves bucky and they end up wanting to keep him.

IT’S MERMAY BITCHES SO I’M ENDING THIS MONTH WITH A BANG!

Instead of waking up with his mate in his arms, Steve wakes up in their nest with one of her sharks cuddled close–a trouble making Great White by the name of Adaeze. Okay, that’s not fair. It’s not Adaeze’s fault that Steve’s a deep sleeper…and that’s really not even a good excuse for why he didn’t notice when his mate’s body was replaced by something significantly bigger and wider in his sleep. Adaeze bumps the center of Steve’s chest in apology and he smiles at her and gives her a few friendly strokes along her belly to make sure she knows he’s not the least bit upset with her–as if he could be because she’s a gentle giant and he’s always been sweet on her with a scar that runs down the center of her eye that reminds him a little too much of Quinn.

After Adaeze swims off and all the other sharks that have for whatever reason gotten attached to his mate greet Steve and then head off behind Adaeze for a morning feeding frenzy, Steve swims around the little piece of the reef he and Quinn have carved out for themselves. Even if she wasn’t so much bigger than all the other little fish, her particular pattern of orange and turquoise striping isn’t common to this side of the ocean. He looks, even beyond the reef a bit, but she’s nowhere to be found.

So, he digs into their bond and stretches it out as far as he can, letting the Quinn and his concern flood through it. They’re only vacationing here. They don’t know what the humans are like on this side of the world. She could be lost or worse and there’s no response from his end of the bond and he’s really worried now. This is exactly why he told her they should’ve found some other local mer-folk instead of staying in a random patch of the ocean

Suddenly, Quinn’s voice calls out his name: Steve. It would definitely be a welcome relief if it wasn’t accompanied by a surge of panic. He looks all around and, in the distance, can see her speeding toward him–but not nearly as fast as she usually is. I’m not hurt, she reassures him when she feels his panic. He squints and…is she dragging something? Is that what’s slowing her down?

Steve swims toward Quinn to meet her in the middle but comes to a stop when he sees that what she’s lugging behind her is a body. Um, she starts between their bond and smiles meekly. Don’t be mad?

Why would I be mad? Did you kill him? A lot of mer-folk out there–even some in their own pod–have strained and even hostile realtionships with the humans. Quinn and Steve have a more neutral approach to humans. They only resort to killing humans if the human is being the aggressor.

No, she plays around with the seashell necklace he made her and she’s being too aloof for his comfort. Finally, Steve takes a look at the human and the first thing he sees is that his feet have started to slow, painful process of mending together.

Quinn! His attention snaps to her and now she’s definitely not looking him in the eye. What were you thinking? You know we’re supposed to ask the pod before we turn a human and–why did you turn a human?

Technically, I made the pod, so I don’t really actually have to ask for their opinion, she grouses. I was trying to find some shells to make you something for our anniversary and I got caught in a human net but this human saved me but then they started to torture him and they were drowning him and I wanted to save him because he’s important to you–

Steve interrupts her somehow single ranting thought with, I don’t even know this human, Quinn. I don’t know any humans.

Maybe you don’t know any now, but you used to, she points out. She gently places the human in the sand, puts his head in her lap, and pushes the dark hair away from the human’s face. We all used to know humans. Quinn shoves images into their bond–memories, actually. From both her human life and his human life. Look at him and you’ll remember.

Steve stares at the human and the dimple in his chin is what helps the most, he thinks. Or it might be the lack of arm. Steve touches the face and remembers this face being close to his own. A long, long time ago, it feels like. He remembers the searing pain from watching a fall. It was cold then. Almost as cold as the icy waters he was born in.

Bucky, Steve remembers.

Happy anniversary, Quinn proudly announces and reaches out to brush her own fingers across Steve’s cheek.

-

Mer-folk that are made rather than born have a hard time remembering their human lives immediately after the transformation. Some, like Quinn, can remember the events that led up to the change, but only because it was so traumatic. Steve didn’t remember because even if the actual nosedive he took into the ice was traumatic, he actually pretty much fell asleep and woke up changed.

When Bucky wakes up, he doesn’t remember much of anything, it seems. Steve and Quinn are both thankful for that because it makes accepting the change a whole lot easier. Quinn thinks it’s best to explain the ways of the mer-folk to Bucky before bringing up his shared past with Bucky. Still, Steve can’t help but ask Bucky if he remembers anything before the change. All Bucky remembers are seeing Quinn’s colors and feeling thankful…which Steve can relate to. It’s hard to forget Quinn. Maybe that’s the reason he fell in love with her so easily.

Thank you, Bucky tells Quinn. I don’t remember why, but I know you saved me in more ways than you can really know.

-

Once Bucky can swim with his own one tail, Quinn and Steve cut their vacation short and start their trek back to their pod. They can’t keep Bucky hidden away forever. They need to fess up about what’s happened.

You broke the rules for me? Bucky questions.

Quinn shrugs. There’s not some universal law where mer-folk can’t be made. It just…makes things a lot easier if humans don’t know about us, so most mer-folk leave humans alone. Our pod is like our family, so we promised we would discuss making mer-folk before we did it. I just…didn’t have time to do that. He stares at her in awe and she starts squirming around. She’s always that way about praise. Anyway, the pod won’t care. They’re pretty easy going about this kind of thing. I can always pull rank if I need to.

You’re the leader?

She made most of the pod, Steve explains. She saved most of the pod. So, yeah, she’s the leader. He sends her a sharp look when she starts to mentally protest. I think Quinn’s right. The pod really won’t care. They love Quinn too much to tell her no. Everyone loves Quinn, Steve tells Bucky, matter-of-fact. Even sharks.

Adaeze, Quinn croons and throws her arms around the Great White. Steve watches fondly and Quinn’s affection for the shark rolls off her and through their bond in waves. What a sweet girl. Are you gonna come home with us? Hey! Hey, where you going?

Adaeze makes her way over to Bucky and it’s probably because Bucky’s tail has the look of a Great White, too. They can’t feel Bucky’s panic because they’re not bonded with him, but they can see it. Should I…not move?

Humans. They always think the world revolves around them. Just because it has sharp teeth don’t mean it’ll try and kill you. Adaeze won’t hurt you unless you give her a reason to…or if you’re small enough to eat. Which you’re not.

She’ll probably try to marry you, though, Steve teases and bubbles erupt from his and Quinn’s mouths when they laugh at Bucky’s horrified expression.

-

On their way back to the pod, Steve sometimes physically aches with the need to ask Bucky about what happened after he fell. Ask what happened to his arm. Ask exactly how the hell he’s even alive. Before Bucky woke up from the transformation, Quinn told Steve that Bucky actually had a shining arm when the men he worked for fished her out of the water, but when they dropped him back down to start the torture, it was gone. She reasoned they removed it either because metal rusts in water or because it would make it easier for him to defend himself. Whatever happened, Quinn tells Steve he shouldn’t push Bucky too much because Bucky has already dealt with so much—transformation into one of the mer-folk not included. 

So, Quinn and Steve let Bucky ask questions about mer-folk which he has a lot of and that’s to be expected. Most of them are harmless. They’re questions like: Can we talk to fish? (No. We can only talk with other mer-folk.) How can we talk with other mer-folk? (We sing songs, but we can use our minds, too.) Is there a range? (Yes.) How is it possible? (How is it possible fish become one in their big groups? How did the humans first make their languages? It just is.) You can’t really marry fish, can you? (Our bonds only work with other mer-folk, so far as I know. I guess you could? I don’t think the poor fish you want to marry would like it very much…if they even understand what you want to do.) 

- 

One day, Bucky watches Quinn and Steve as they converse with their own personal bond. Brows furrowed, he interrupts them with the question, what do you mean by bond? 

Quinn blinks. To bond is to become one—mind, body, and soul. Steve and I are mated. We can feel what the other does. I die, he dies. He dies, I die. We chose each other. Forever. 

Can you mate with more than one mer-folk? 

Yes, she answers slowly yet truthfully. It is your soul to split, but you should always be cautious before you make that choice. Like I told you, once you bond, it isn’t you and you alone that you risk anymore. 

- 

Another day, when Quinn is out with Adaeze, on the hunt for food, Bucky hesitantly asks, how are the mer-folk made? 

It depends, Steve finally decides on because that’s the truth. Some are born to two mer-folk parents. Most are made by another with a kiss. I don’t know the exact science behind it, but most of us think it happens because the mer-folk shares a breath of life with the human. And then some are born…from violence. 

Bucky stares ahead, in the direction where Steve’s mate vanished with a shark. That’s how Quinn was made, wasn’t it? 

It was only because she loved someone they said she shouldn’t have. They beat her and wrapped her in some old sheets and threw her into the river. She screamed. They knew she wasn’t dead. But…they didn’t care. Steve closes his eyes for a moment. He always feels so much when he thinks about this—fury, sadness, pride. Old mer-folk tell stories about women that men threw overboard—they swallowed the saltwater and learned to love the taste, their throats were bitten and nibbled at by fish until they had gills of their own, their legs tied up melted until it was one fin, and then…they wanted blood. Quinn didn’t end up that way. No, she cried. Cried so much it could become an ocean itself. She watched the family she was forced to leave behind. She couldn’t take it anymore and went north. Then, she found me. 

When’d you realize you loved her? 

I think I’ve loved her since I woke up this way. She’s the one I woke up to in this brand new life. She’s kind of become my world, Steve admits sheepishly. But I didn’t realize it until she actually told me about how she was made. She took me to the river she was born in. She does that sometimes. There she told me. I had to make her leave because I swear I would’ve stalked those waters and search for the bastards that hurt her. Pull them under and make them bleed and tear them to pieces. I felt so much hate—a kind of hate I’ve only felt one other time in my life. She could’ve let that hate take her over, but she didn’t. Born from hate and it only made her love.

Bucky turns to stare at Steve. Sorry to make you feel that way, pal. Steve’s brows furrow and Bucky looks at Steve with this…exhaustion. A tiredness that Steve can’t even begin to understand. The first time you felt that hate–it was when I fell, wasn’t it?

Steve reaches out and grips Bucky’s shoulder, squeezes. Yeah, Buck. It was.

So, how’d you end up in the ocean?

After I lost you…I went after Hydra. Ended up on a plane. Beat Scmidt, but I had to put the plane in the water. Quinn found me before I bit the bullet. She saved me.

You found a helluva gal.

I know I did.

-

Before we meet the pod, here’s what you should know. I made Natasha then Clint then Tony then Wanda. Tony made Rhodey and Pepper. Steve made Sam. Sometimes, Tony and me visit Bruce. He’s a human, but he’s on the run from other humans, so he’ll keep our secret safe. Thor is…something else. Human but not human. Kind of like what you and Steve were when you were human, but he’s older. I like it when he visits the surface world and stops by to see us. He’s fun.

Stop swooning over Thor, Steve jokes.

I’ll stop swooning when you stop swooning, too, she throws back at him and smiles smugly. Oh, and Wanda has magic. They did things to her. They thought it didn’t take and tried to get rid of her. She’s almost as new to the pod as you are. I think you two will get along really great.

Helluva gal, Bucky says to Steve but then remembers that Quinn is close enough to hear too.

I know she is! So is Natasha! And Pepper!

Steve looks at Quinn in fond exasperation but decides not to point out that Bucky was talking about her.

-

As it turns out, Natasha and Wanda knew Bucky in his human life, too. Well, Wanda had heard of the infamous Winter Soldier. Natasha had actually met Bucky when she was a little girl. Natasha is wary of Bucky, but she and the whole pod accept him anyway.

-

When Steve’s away, Quinn takes Bucky up to the surface of the water, and then hauls herself to sit on some rocks. Through the water, Bucky can see her pat a spot next to her, so he hauls himself up beside her. The sun’s started to set. After a little bit, Quinn muses, I don’t know if I’m supposed to say I’m happy or I’m sorry you got your memories back.

Both? Bucky shrugs. He doesn’t ask how she knows. She probably knows everything Steve knows and more. I’m happy I remember Steve–wait. Do you…know about…?

You and Steve? Together when you were humans? Yeah.

Hold on. You knew? And you saved me anyway?

Quinn squints at Bucky and cocks her head to the side. I saved you because you saved me. It was the right thing to do. She glances down and swirls her tail around in the water. I love Steve, too. If he wants to be with you over me, I wouldn’t care. As long as he’s happy, I’m happy. Just make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid since, y'know, we share a soul now.

I’m sorry, Quinn, but I don’t think anyone could stop Steve from doing something stupid. He pauses. You…don’t have to leave if you don’t want to. I mean, what if you and me–I like you. A lot.

Quinn audibly sighs. Oh good. I was hoping it wasn’t just me and Steve.

You both like me?

You act like it’s hard for people to fall in love with you!

So do you!

Quinn covers her face with her hands. Can I kiss you?

I don’t know. Can you?

I hate you.

No you don’t.

No. Quinn drops her hands and leans forward so her lips brush across Bucky’s. No, I don’t.

[cherry-valentine]

Spring 2017 Anime Season

Here’s what I’m watching:

Fukumenkei Noise is one of my favorites this season. We need more shoujo romances like this, with cool, stylish art and awesome music and heroines who actually, you know, do stuff besides pine after guys (and to be clear, the heroine here does pine after a guy, but it’s definitely not the only thing she does, and she’s a refreshingly proactive heroine). The love triangle is particularly interesting because both male love interests seem to have an equal shot at ending up with heroine Nino. My favorite is Yuzu, and his attempts to support Nino and her crush on Momo while also being in love with her himself, and his conflicted feelings between wanting her to be happy and wanting her love for Momo to fail, are the highlights of the series. There’s also the “secretly in an alternative rock band” angle, which provides for some great costume changes and even better songs. Overall, it’s one of the better shoujo anime of the past few seasons.

Royal Tutor Haine is a cute and quirky little comedy about a no nonsense tutor called in to teach four difficult princes how to best prepare to be king (in the event their older brother dies or something, I guess). The charm really comes from the tutor himself, Haine. He looks like he’s twelve, but he’s actually a full-grown adult with appropriately adult-like voice and mannerisms. We see this often with female characters (to justify sexualizing characters that look like little girls, usually) but it’s a bit more uncommon to see it like this. His genuine affection for the princes while remaining somewhat stern in his teachings is surprisingly sweet to watch. The princes themselves are a collection of bishounen stereotypes (the tsundere who’s secretly shy and insecure, the formal and stiff one in glasses, the strong, rough one who’s actually a big softie, and the flamboyant one always surrounded by ladies). I wish they had been as interesting as Haine, but they are at least cute and fun, even as they march down very familiar character arcs. The character designs are, of course, very beautiful (even the castle guards are good looking!) and the music is fine (I can take or leave the opening theme, but the ending theme is extremely catchy - especially in the alternate version with the boy band performing the song in full cosplay of the characters).

Kenka Banchou Otome is a cute little otome series with a silly premise that benefits from the short episode runtime (the episodes usually run under eight minutes each). This effectively trims out all the fat and leaves us with a strong focus on what makes the series fun: attractive male characters getting their asses handed to them by a cute, pink haired heroine who happens to be a badass martial artist (and is posing as a guy), and then said male characters falling for her (or him, from their perspective, I guess). The heroine is great because she’s kind and sweet but she will still mess these guys up if they attack or challenge her. I also have a soft spot for the guy she traded places with, who is supposed to be a rough and tough delinquent but is all too happy to put on a skirt and pose as the heroine at her all girls school (and he has a room full of posters of a certain hot male idol...). This series is basically short, quick bursts of fun.

Tsuki ga Kirei is a sweet, subtle romance that, refreshingly. spends equal time from the perspectives of both parties in the romance. I was a little iffy on the show at first, because it was slow-burning and, if I’m being totally honest, a bit boring. Both leads are so shy and quiet that it’s literally frustrating to watch them in the beginning. You’ll find yourself wanting to scream, “Somebody say something for God’s sake!” But their collective insecurities also make them painfully relatable at times. We’ve all had those awkward moments where we have no idea what to say or, worse, say the wrong thing and have no idea how to fix it. As the episodes roll by, you find yourself rooting for this cute young couple. The art has a somewhat subdued style, with lots of natural colors (hilariously, a side character is the only person with strange-colored hair, which is a fun inverse of the usual trope). Speaking of the side characters, they’re fairly interesting and get some much needed development in the brief, after credits skits that are actually really funny (which is odd since the main story has little humor). I was a little put off by the fact that, despite the characters being in middle school, it’s heavily implied that a side couple is sexually active and it’s also implied that their teacher is in love with one of her students. These aspects are mostly left to the aforementioned skits and are used for comedy, but I found them just a little bit disturbing. Overall, the show is worth a watch if you don’t mind a lot of quiet reflection in your gentle romance anime.

Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul is the second season of Rage of Bahamut and it’s one of the shows I’m enjoying most this season. I enjoyed season one quite a lot, but season two has been much better, with an awesome new heroine in Nina, a cute and silly young girl who is super strong, falls in love with every handsome guy who walks into her line of sight, and oh yeah, turns into a giant, fire-breathing dragon. Like in the first season, the show does an excellent job of balancing the humorous nature of its lead characters against the dark and violent world they live in. There are some truly horrific things going on, as the world is wrapped up in a three-way conflict between demons, gods, and the humans who are using a new sort of magic (or technology?) to reign supreme. It’s also interesting that one of the main antagonists from season one (Azazel) is now one of the main protagonists (second only to Nina), and even though I didn’t like him much before (and he’s still not a very nice person at all), the story paints his situation in a such a sympathetic light that I’m rooting for him. The animation, design work, and music are all amazing (go watch the stylish black, white, and red opening theme - you won’t regret it).

Kabukibu is another quirky show, this time about a high schooler starting his own Kabuki club and putting on amateur Kabuki performances. I don’t know anything about Kabuki besides the brief mentions I’ve seen of it in anime, so this was pretty interesting for me. The series follows familiar beats to other “characters trying to start a club so they have to recruit people” stories, complete with characters who continually refuse to join but you know they’re going to end up joining anyway. Despite this, the show is fun and very informative. It makes me want to watch an actual Kabuki play. I also like that the main character isn’t the star of the club. He can’t act to save his life. He plays a behind-the-scenes role (he writes scripts, helps with sound effects and staging, etc.). This was a nice twist on the usual formula. My only real gripe with the show is the fact that a particular female character is consistently referred to as fat or “round” by the other characters as well as herself, yet she looks just as skinny as the rest of the girls in the show. It’s just bizarre, to be honest. Another character does privately think that she’s “not as fat as she thinks”, but that still implies she’s some degree of fat and none of the other characters seem to share this sentiment. It’s basically another example of animators being so adverse to drawing fat girls that they just said “screw it" and drew another thin girl. Still, it’s a rather minor complaint in an otherwise fun show.

Quan Zhi Gao Shou (I hope I spelled that right) is a Chinese series that’s been making waves lately for two primary reasons: It draws a lot of comparisons to Sword Art Online (both feature a player with God-like gaming skills playing an MMO that seems way too important) and secondly, it’s one of the best looking animated tv series I’ve seen from any country, in a very long time. This is significant because pretty much all of the Chinese shows I’ve watched over the past few seasons have had noticeably lower animation quality than your average Japanese anime. Quan Zhi, however, is gorgeous. Everything from the backgrounds to the character models looks fantastic. So what about those SAO comparisons? It’d be easy to write off Quan Zhi as boring, because, at first glance, it’s nowhere near as exciting as SAO. No one is trapped in the game. Whatever happens in the game has no direct physical effect on the players, and even though action scenes in the game are animated as if the players are directly in the game world, it’s made clear that the players are simply sitting at computers and all the dialogue we’re hearing is either voice or text chatting in-game. It’s not even virtual reality! But depending on your age bracket, you might find the first episode of Quan Zhi to be far scarier than the first episode of SAO. This is because there are definitely high stakes for these players, even if their physical bodies are not at risk. What they could very possibly lose are their sponsorship deals and team positions, and losing those means losing their income and livelihood. The first episode is frightening for the adults in the audience, because suddenly losing your only source of income is TERRIFYING. Believe me, I know this very well. The way the series ties itself to themes of job security and economics gives it an air of realism that’s been sorely lacking in gaming-based anime lately. High on my watch list.

Shingeki no Kyojin Season Two has been great. Everyone can say what they want about SnK being “too mainstream” or whatever but the fact is it’s a quality show and it’s brought in a lot of new anime fans. There’s usually a reason a series becomes massively popular, and in this case, it’s beautiful animation, great music, and a tightly plotted story that doesn’t always follow familiar action anime beats. Combine that with a general lack of tired romantic subplots and the fact that the show doesn’t distinguish any difference of strength between genders (if anything, it’s the ladies who are the strongest), and you have a show devoid of most of the stuff people complain about when it comes to anime. The show is not perfect, of course. Some scenes can drag on a little too long and occasionally characters do things in service of the plot that defy logic. But these are rare enough to not be a problem. I was tempted to say I’m enjoying season two more than season one (because I am enjoying it a LOT), but it’s been so long that I honestly can’t remember exactly how I felt while watching the first season. I just know it was one of my favorites in a season full of great shows. If you’re one of those people who are avoiding SnK because it’s “too popular”, you need to reevaluate why you do or do not watch a series.

Boku no Hero Academia Season Two continues to be enjoyable. This is because the series has enough charm to distract me from my issues with it (namely, that it’s faithfully marching down the standard shounen fighting anime path with practically no deviations - the show is basically Naruto with super heroes instead of ninjas and with slightly less angst). The best thing about the show by far is the protagonist Midoriya. He’s just a genuinely nice person that you’ll relate to and root for. Another highlight is his relationship with his mentor, All-Might. It’s just such a sweet, positive relationship, and it’s nice to see that there’s pretty much zero negativity here (I don’t even remembering seeing any good natured ribbing). All-Might takes a very fatherly role here (to the point that another character suspects Midoriya of being All-Might’s secret love child!), which works well for the fatherless Midoriya. In fact, there’s a general sense of positivity permeating the whole show. This is because all of the main characters, regardless of their general attitudes and behaviors, want to be heroes so they can help people. I would also commend the show for it’s variety in character designs, IF that variety extended to its female characters. Seriously, look at all the crazy or weird looking male characters, many of which don’t even look human, then look at the lady characters, all of which, without exception, are human-shaped (and they’re pretty much all the same human shape: large breasts, narrow waist, and curvy thighs). There’s only one that looks the slightest bit strange, and it’s only because of her unique coloring. It’s just a little irritating that even in a show filled with guys with literal crow heads or multiple arms and come in tons of different shapes and sizes, all the ladies are in the default “conventionally attractive” shape. Still yet, the show is a lot of fun and definitely worth watching.

Gin no Guardian is another Chinese series, albeit one that doesn’t look anywhere near as polished as Quan Zhi Gao Shou. The episodes run at around twelve minutes each, which is more common for Chinese shows. Ironically, it actually lends itself much more to SAO comparisons than Quan Zhi does, as it features an online game that characters actually go into and can presumably be hurt or possibly killed in (it’s never specifically said that but it seems to be implied, or at the very least, there are real world consequences for things that happen in the game). The first few episodes were very good, focusing on a couple who come from vastly different backgrounds (a rich heiress and a poor boy doing menial tasks on the school grounds to cover his tuition) playing a game together and connecting in that virtual world in a way they never could in reality. It was actually very well done, and a few scenes tugged on my heartstrings. But then we get a predictable plot twist that effectively shuts down that whole dynamic and turns the show into a more generic action anime with MMO elements. The show is still okay but I have to admit I’ve found myself zoning out while watching the more recent episodes.

Uchouten Kazoku Season Two is, like the first season, a unique and quirky little show full of charm. The show does a great job of developing its own world with its own rules and its own version of reality, to such a degree that even the strangest things seem normal and commonplace here. You won’t question seeing a frog playing shogi, or the most powerful being in the series methodically ironing all his shirts on the roof of a building. And all the strange things aren’t done just for the sake of being strange. There’s nothing pretentious about this show. Everything is presented with an air of gentle amusement. And even though the show has rare moments of violence and death (and they’re also presented in a natural manner - not at all for shock value or to milk some melodrama from the story), the series is overall positive and good natured. It’s helped by the interesting art style, a somewhat cartoonish design combined with rich colors and gorgeous backgrounds. The animation quality isn’t always perfect, but the overall look of the show makes up for any stumbles. And then there’s Benten, hands-down one of the best female characters to come along in years (if a figure of her existed I would buy it in an instant). Beautiful, supremely powerful, and utterly fearless, Benten is a somewhat neutral force in the story (she both helps and hurts the protagonists, at various points), and her only real goal seems to be seeking amusement. This means sometimes she’s flying around the world (literally flying, as she convinced a Tengu to give her his power) and sometimes she’s going down to hell to wrestle Oni for fun. Because why not? I would watch this show for Benten alone, but fortunately, it’s a great series even without her.

Kyoukai no Rinne Season Three is fun and all, because the world of the series and the setup are fun, but so far it seems to be limiting itself to short, one-shot stories (three per episode), which means there’s no overarching plot for this season. One or two episodes like this would have been fine, welcomed even, as they flesh out various characters are are genuinely entertaining for the most part. But several episodes? In a row? And no end in sight? I know the series has a relaxed pace, and I’ve enjoyed that aspect of it, but this is getting a little too relaxed. I really want the series to go back to actual story arcs, or even full-episode stand alone stories, since they at least have a little more development. There’s an important arc that should be coming up soon, as a new character involved in it is seen in the new opening theme, and it’s one I’m looking forward to a lot so it’s a little frustrating every week when I’m met with yet another collection of mini stories. Oh well. Like I said, the show is still fun and entertaining. It could just be a lot better.

[the-jester-who-likes-to-pester]

Ok even though I just got on board with wandering eye, I’m still gonna do this (https://lacertae-dreamscape.tumblr.com/post/157039337687/otp-question-meme) cause it’s fun.

1. Who’s more affectionate? No shit it’s wander. He is the more affectionate of the two, even though peepers can return it a little rougher.

2. Big spoon/little spoon? Peepers is the big spoon, he likes that title. he clings on to wander from the back while they cuddle and he just falls asleep like that. Wander likes it tho

3. What’s the most common argument? Its less arguing and more lovingly nagging at eachother. Mostly about the little things.

4. Favorite non sexual activity? They both enjoy traveling. For different reasons of course but wander can’t help but marvel at everything and wants to make sure the peepers is included.

5. Who’s more likely to carry who? Wander can carry peepers and vice versa. Sometimes wander has to save peepers from being beaten to a fine paste, and he carries peeper’s unconscienced body.

6. What do they admire about eachother? Peepers admires his ability to do about almost anything, he’s good with advice, he (can be) much quieter than lord hater, and wander actually respect peepers like a person instead of treating him like 2nd place. wander loves his determination, charm, and wit. He loves how peepers reacts when he’s affectionate, and he trusts him with lots of personal stuff and he knows if he says “don’t say anything about it,” peepers will remember and keep his mouth shut.

7. What’s the first thing that changes when they first realize their feelings for eachother. Wander is completely confused when he starts to think of peepers differently. He had never been in a romantic relationship let alone ever had any romantic feelings towards anyone. He was alone for most of his life, nobody told him what romantic feelings are and how they work. so at first he had a hard time expressing how he felt about peepers, but he started to get it after Sylvia tried to explain it in a way that he might understand. When peepers finds out he’s super angry at himself. He is mad at his brain for choosing that wandering weirdo out of anyone else. But he starts to accept it and realize slowly that wander shares his feelings. It’s rocky and tense at first but it calms down the more they see and interact with eachother.

8. Nicknames and how did they originate? Wander always calls peepers, peeps, or cp’s. He doesn’t use them often, but especially uses them when the two are nagging eachother. While peepers prefers to use teasing nicknames for wander. Like fuzzball, wandering weirdo, or something related to goofball.

9. who worries the most? It’s actually a mix of both. Peepers is more vocal and obvious while wander can only try to hide it for so long until he has a full blown meltdown.

10. Who remembers what the other orders at restaurants? Again it’s both. Peepers has taught himself to never forget requested items. Even though that forces him to remember moments that he never wants to live through again, it’s not all bad. Wander can remember your favorite food and store it in his mind where he will never forget it.

11.who tops? Peepers, 100%, but the thing is, he doesn’t think wander knows what sex is. Sure, peepers loves to tease wander in sexual manner (it makes wander flustered as hell and is the only thing that can wipe that dopey grin off of his face in a flash). But he doesn’t think he is comfortable with the idea of sex yet. He wants to atleast try to introduce the idea to wander, just so he can try to get a little more used to the idea. Wander is extremely confused about sexual activities but he understands when peepers does something to him that might seem suggestive. He knows what sex is and he’s just scared of it. He’s afraid of accidentally hurting peepers or himself or how it was even going to work or if he would damage something internally and he’s just not interested for now, just gentle suggestive touches are ok.

12. Who initiates a kiss? Wander of course, they always catch peepers by surprise and get him all flustered.

13. Who reaches out for eachothers hand? Peepers would try to make a move but it always makes him nervous to hold wander’s hand. He doesn’t know why but it just gets him so giddy and worried.

14. Who kisses the hardest. Again peepers, wander is very gentle and quick, loving the reaction it gets out peepers and the rush it gives the both of them. But peepers goes for long, hard and meaningful kisses. Leaving wander speechless sometimes immobile for a short period of time because of how overwhelmed he gets from them.

15. Who wakes up first? even though both wake up super early in the morning, wander wakes up a bit earlier than peepers, and he tries to keep him asleep for longer than usual because he knows that peepers gets very little sleep.

16. Who wants to stay in bed longer? Peepers would like to, but he feels like he’s much better prepared if he gets up early in the morning. Though he’s not as grumpy in the morning if he gets a good rest (which wander will do anything to help him sleep better, just so peepers feels better in the morning).

17. Who says I love you first? wander and he is surprisingly a nervous wreck while doing so. He didn’t want to make peepers uncomfortable, or mad or disappointed. He just mentally begged that peepers wouldn’t yell at him for the confession.

18. Who leave little notes in the other ones lunch? Wander (duh lmao) they usually remind him of something or give him advice like “if you bring a treat, Captain tim will less likely love-bite you to death! Xoxxo -wander”

19. Who tells their family/ friends about their relationship first. Wander again because he trusts Sylvia enough that she wouldn’t overreact. But she did knock peepers out cold before wander could tell her anything, and after he tells her the reason why he’s been asking about romantic feelings so much, she’s just like “oh, whoops,”. Peepers cannot let hater find out about that he is in a relationship with hater’s most hated enemy or else he’s be arachnomorph food. He tries to keep quiet about it and has even paid one of the smarter watchdogs to wear a spare commander outfit and take his place, while he ran away for a few days to stay with wander.

20. What does their family/friends think of the relationship? Sylvia is skeptical of peepers and will show no mercy if he does something to wander that looks like it’s gonna hurt him. But he hasn’t hurt wander, not even once. But she’s happy that wander seems to be enjoying his first relationship. Hater is completely oblivious and peepers wants to keep it that way. The watchdogs could care less.

21. Who would start dancing with the other? Wander would start dancing, peepers would try to dance with him but he can’t keep up, he would sit out and let wander spaz out on the dance floor for a while.

22. Who’s better at cooking? They are both very good at cooking in their own ways. Peepers prefers following a recipe step by step while wander enjoys experimenting with what he’s got.

23. Who comes up with the cheesiest pick up lines? Eh, both of them will throw them at eachother, occasionally it’ll get a chuckle out of peepers, but they always get wander, by the time they’re done, he’s catching his breath because of how hard he laughed. But peepers does enjoy watching him laugh.

24. Who whispers inappropriate things in eachother’s ears at inappropriate times? Hands down, wander, he would do anything to lighten up someone in a dark and serious environment.

25. Who needs more assurance? A little bit of both, peepers needs assurance from wander, to make sure he hasn’t lost his head. And wander needs assistance from peepers, to know if he is going too far with obsessing over a minor problem.

26. What would be there theme song? Shit dawg idk.

I’m skipping 27 I’m sorry🥺😳

28. What do they do when they’re away from eachother? They just go on, but peepers is a little sadder without wander because in the skull ship, he’s a target for torment, he is unappreciated, and overworked. While wander, misses him dearly, he misses the affection, the cuddles, even the teasing. He just feels like something is missing when he’s gone.

29. Head cannons about this OTP that breaks your heart. I headcannon two things, 1. Wander was abandoned by his parents and left to die when he was super young, so he has abandonment issues, and 2. I believe he is a chaotic good immortal being so he is going to out-live peepers. (Wander knows this, but he’s not going to let it bother him).

30. One headcannon about this OTP that mends it together. My headcannon about this couple is, wander would not try to convince peepers to become good or vice versa. They’d love eachother without a care on what side they’re on.