#finally putting my ability to make polls to use

[potionpeddlerpatchy]

word count: 10.2K

paring: Sero x fReader

warning(s): dirty talking, fingering(f! receiving), premature ejaculation, messy sex, semi-public sex (if ya squint) - you know the works here, pretty standard smut, nothing too crazy.

authors note: Happy Belated Birthday to me! Not only did the amazing Onyx give me this idea MONTHS ago about the dynamic between Sero and I, but this won the poll for what I was going to work on next - and though I went with Bakugou's story first (cause it was fresher in my mind) I have finally finished this! AND OH BOY, how self-indulgent I was with this one - I am not known for my dialog but couldn't help but put lots in here! That being said, I did try and keep this as generic as I could, just may not be AS generic, ya know? Anyway, I hope you all love this glorified tape dispenser as much as I do~🔮

Sero had always loved to draw, even when he was a little kid. What started as scribbles covering the walls of his home turned into small doodles - those that filled his notebooks more than his writing and school work turned into piles and piles of sketchbooks that were filled with intricate drawings and were stacked high within the confines of his room. 

He remembered being little, using washable markers to doodle fun patterns and designs on his arms and the arms of his friends, remembering how most recess breaks were filled with doing a doodle request for several fellow classmates. To being older, and having those same classmates come up to him to see if they could utilize his skills to make projects look nicer; to make epic banners for school events, or to make posters pop in his signature way. Even while he was in college, next to a prestigious art school that only accepted a handful of creatives a year, he had people beg him to create designs for tattoos they were wanting to get; willing to pay lots of money so they could forever have a drawing of his on their skin.

And that sparked something inside him. A passion to turn a hobby into a career.

It took years and years of effort, of schooling, of practicing, of littering his skin with designs both good and bad - and subsequently spending more time fixing his faults - and then shadowing those more experienced, to be taken into their shops and under their wings, so he may draw on the bodies of those that were hoping to decorate their skin. Not all patrons were ideal; some were not hygienic, and others moved too much and then complained of sloppy work, demanding a refund. And not all shop owners were pleasant to work for; many accepted clients even when they shouldn't, often dismissing those beneath them out of pride and a superiority complex, and always taking the side of those patrons trying to scam him and his time. But there were a few people that made it all worth it in the end, a few colleagues turned friends that made ‘sticking it out’ much more bearable.

And without all the bumps and hurdles, Sero would not have become as confident in his abilities and his worth, and he would not have had the chance to meet so many amazing people and artists - some of which had the same goal and ideas in mind as he did; who would follow him wherever he went. Before he even knew it, Hanta Sero finally achieved his goal, of making his childhood dream and hobby into a reality. He finally owned his tattoo parlor. 

He found a little shop within the city, perfect enough for him and a few friends to call their own, to create their own brand, and to make their own living; to finally call the shots and have complete creative control. The building itself was a little run down - something to be expected with the small price tag attached - but it was the ideal size for all of them and in the perfect location. So no one cared that it needed a few months of intense TLC to get the building up to code, it was more than worth the effort. And before anyone knew it the inspector came to claim the building was up to standards, giving the business license and the all-clear to start accepting patrons; it only took a few days before people heard the news.

When word got around that Sero and his business partners had finally opened their shop, to start accepting clients and creating art on their skin that they would enjoy for a lifetime, so many jumped on the chance to get an appointment with them - Sero especially. Some were people he had known for years, eagerly awaiting another drawing of ink, and some were those that saw his work on the many social pages advertising the business that wanted to add another to their growing collections. Whatever the case was, once he turned on the neon ‘open’ sign on the day of opening, he and his friends were booked for months in advance.

And the cherry on top of all of this? Another wonderful addition to the streams of success he was facing, was the bookstore that sat just across the street from him. 

Not because he was into books, though he did read from time to time and enjoyed it when he did, but because of the owner that bookshop had. At first, he couldn’t be sure you were the owner, but day in and day out he watched you show up at opening and leave at closing, and unless you were an incredibly dedicated employee, it was an easy assumption to make. And Sero couldn’t deny that he thought you were pretty when he first caught sight of you through his window after closing on his first day; and he couldn’t deny that he would wait with anticipation when you closed your shop and would begin making your way home, just so he could get a glimpse of your cute face.

He wished he had the free time to go and speak to you, to see you up close and hear your voice (which he could just tell was adorable and sweet), but his clientele made it nearly impossible for him to get the chance. By the time the last client would leave, your shop would already be closed, and for some time, with you nowhere in sight. There were just simply not enough hours in the day for him to spare to meet you; as well he was terrified of canceling an appointment or rejecting a client so early on in all of this, afraid that one bad comment could ruin the shop and cause it to sink.

But Sero always made the best of any situation, that was part of his charm. He figured that if he didn’t have the time to go in and speak to you, to properly act on his little crush, he would let you know who he was and his existence through different means. 

Romantic gestures that could be seen as small and friendly - those that wouldn’t scare you off or have you become afraid. He started by sending you flowers; a small bouquet to help liven your shop if you wanted; which you did if the vase by your check-out counter was any indication. Next were chocolates, all bundled in pretty wrapping paper for you to carefully tear away. Then balloons, attached to a small gift basket with quality skincare items that could be found at his shop with his business card nustled amongst the jars and tins to ensure that you knew who sent them and that it was from the new neighbor across the street - not some strange admirer. 

He could tell that you liked them, given the delight that bloomed on your face whenever you received them - the bright smile as you brought those flowers to your nose to inhale their earthy scent, or when you eagerly started to open up some of the chocolates to enjoy, or when you carefully inspected each tin of cream; placing a small dollop on the back of your hand before putting them aside and back to your work. Sero especially knew you liked them when, a week later, you sent a gift basket back to him filled with artisan treats from the local farmers market; with a card welcoming the new store to the neighborhood.

After a while of staring hopelessly at you, to the point where all his friends were relentlessly teasing him, Sero finally made the decision to meet you properly; to make his way over to your shop to say hello. 

“And it has nothing to do with Kaminari!” he exclaimed at Kirishima and Mina, ensuring they could hear him over the snickering, as he grabbed his jacket to sling over his shoulders.

“Sure, whatever you say, big guy~” Mina sang as waved goodbye with a wink, clearly not buying it - especially as Kaminari just got back from your shop, book in hand that you recommended.

Sero shook his head, out of frustration at Mina’s words knowing that she called his bluff, as he slammed the door shut behind him and briskly walked across the street; breathing a sigh of relief, one that made the tension in his shoulder slack, when he stepped foot into your shop. It was everything he thought a bookstore should be; it was cozy and warm, the kind that would make anyone instantly at ease and would spend hours just curled up to read; which he assumed the patron he walk passed had been doing all day.

“Welcome! Can I help you?” A voice sang through the air, causing his head to turn to face a young woman - sadly not you - wearing an apron with the store's logo on it.

“Uh, not sure.” Sero smiled, nodding his head in acknowledgment, and as a polite hello, before gazing around.

“First time here?” She inquired, moving behind a nearby counter to grab a stack of books.

“Yeah, pretty obvious huh?”

“A little, many have the look on their face when they first come in. It’s a little overwhelming at times, the place is a bit bigger than they assume.”

“You could say that again…” Sero could hear her airy giggle, watching in the corner of her eye as she began to sort through the titles.

“I can give you the run down if you like?”

“Please, if you don’t mind.”

“Not a problem at all, sir.” She smiled, pausing her task to free her hands for gesturing with her explanation  “This place is a lot like a library, people can come and go as they please, staying all day if they want to, without the pressure of needing to buy something. They can also borrow books for a small fee if they want, to ensure they don’t waste their money on a bad book, or they can obviously purchase them if they want.”

“A safe haven for those that love books, huh?” Sero chimed with a smile, taking another glance at all the sitting areas close to him - the plush pillows and fireplace inviting for those that would want to curl up.

“Pretty much, that was the idea” The employee agreed, already starting to sort again “Have a look and take all the time you need.”

Sero left her with a ‘thank you’ and another nod before venturing further into the store - taking stock of what sections of books there were and all the small cozy nooks for people to curl up in; taking his time to explore the entirety of the shop before leaving. “For research purposes, in case I wanna go back” he would mumble to himself, ready to defend his actions from his teasing friends upon his return. It was for those reasons, and those alone, not at all because he was trying to find you.

He finally did come across you, after what seemed like hours of searching, hidden away within the Historical Fiction sections tucked near the back walls, shelving some books that were stacked within your arms and reorganizing the ones that had been misplaced. To say Sero was smitten with you would have been an understatement before, but now? Seeing you so close? Smitten would not even begin to compare to how love-struck he was; one so strong it struck him dumb and left him unable to do anything but look at you.

“Sir?” 

Sero couldn’t tell if he was lucky or not to have your voice call out to him; luck that it broke him out of the stupor he was in, unlucky that he was unable to say or do anything more than gaze up at you with his mouth agape.

“Do… do you need help with anything?” Your sweet voice called out to him again, though clearly confused, and it made Sero look away to try and gain his thoughts once more.

“A-art book.” He cleared his throat, cheeks turning hot and red as his eyes did their best to look anywhere but you “Looking for one of those.”

“Well, which one?” You smiled, biting your lip to hide it as you gently placed the books you were holding down.

“Art, The Definitive Visual Guide” Sero blurted, voice sounding rushed as he named the first art book he bought when in college; watching as your brows furrowed as you took a moment to process what he said.

“By Dixon?” 

“Y-yes!” Sero exclaimed, eyes brightening and heart swelling with pride when you giggled over his excitement.

“Well, that would be in our art section, which would be…” You began to lean forward, carefully perching yourself on your ladder to see past the bookshelf currently in your way “Ah! Just over there!”

“O-over there?” Sero nodded, trying his best to not be affected by the smell of your shampoo as it lingered in the air as you moved to stand upright again “T-that’s perfect thank you!”

“Oh, no worries at all! You just let me know if you can’t find it okay?” You smiled, already picking your books back up.

Sero smiled back, giving a wave goodbye, before almost scurrying away; head hanging in defeat once he knew you were out of sight. A small part of him hoped he couldn’t find the book so he could talk to you again, but he knew that would be a mistake - especially as the spine of the book stared right back at him when he first began looking in the section you sent him to. Begrudgingly he accepted his fate, bringing the book up to the front cash and paying the borrowing fee to the employee he met earlier.

He came back to the parlor feeling like a complete idiot over messing up his first proper encounter with you, not doing at all what he planned to do - not being the effortlessly charming and fun guy he knew he was. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t keep stopping by. 

After all, he had to return the book he borrowed.

~

Sero waited a week, in his mind if he went back the next day it would cause him more harm than good; would lead to you asking him way more questions than he would want about the book itself - and well, he already made a fool of himself once. Besides, the week-long buffer would allow him the chance to clear his head and come up with a game plan, so he could be properly prepared himself to see you again.

Because this time he wanted to start an actual conversation with you, one where he could learn about who you were, why you opened this store and everything in between that led to this moment in time. He wanted to know if his crush on you was justified, or if he should just cut his losses now before he was in too deep. But to be fair, based on what all his friends have said, he already was; even so, he couldn’t hold onto that book forever.

Regardless of what the outcome may be, he had to see you again; even if it meant rescheduling a client for a Sunday to make up the lost time, he just had to get to you and your store before closing.

And it was the perfect time to go he found. The store was almost completely empty, with seemingly no one else in the building but you as you began your usual routine for closing - so dutifully organizing stacks of papers and placing books that needed to be returned into a neat little pile; he almost felt bad for clearing his throat and breaking you out of your stride.

“H-hi!” You exclaimed, your body jolting in surprise when you regarded him, clearly not used to anyone being here so late “I’m sorry I didn’t notice you sooner, I hope you weren’t waiting long!”

“No you’re fine, I just walked in,” Sero reassured, taking a step closer to your counter.

“Oh, are you here to return that art book? The one by Dixon?” You asked, back straightening as you smiled up at him. “I hope you liked it!”

“I did, it was a great read.” Sero mirrored your smile as he handed the book back over to you, enjoying the way your smaller hand brushed against his briefly “Though I was wondering if you could me find a similar book?”

“Sure, of course! Do you want a recommendation or are you looking for a specific title?”

“Uh, Creatives on Creativity is what I am looking for,” Sero said, breathing a mental sigh of relief over remembering the title - one he only heard of a day prior when searching for art books to ask you about.

“Creatives on Creativity…” You mumbled, turning to your computer to check if you had the title in stock - the sound of a keyboard clacking could be heard, filling the silent space briefly “By Steve Brouwers?”

“Yup! That’s the one” Sero confirmed with a nod, perfectly hiding the fact he was completely unsure as he watched you round the counter of the counter with a wave.

“Yeah, we should have a few in stock if you would follow me!”

You took him back to the Art Section, your stride confident as you weaved your way through bookcases and magazine towers, as you began locating the book in question; trying to remember where exactly you cataloged it - whether it was with the Art Help books or the Art Education ones.

Sero followed behind you, keeping his stride to a more casual pace to avoid possibly stepping on your heels, as he regarded your profile; enjoying the concentrated gazes, those mixed with slight perplexity, as you looked from shelf to shelf trying to help him out. Never before was he grateful, and possibly will never be again, about having trouble trying to find a book.

“Can I ask you something?” He finally spoke, watching as you began to stand on a small stool to look at a higher shelf, figuring his time was running out.

“Uh, sure?” You muttered, voice soft as you continued on your hunt. “Go ahead”

“I’m sure you get asked this all the time, but I’m curious as to what a bookshop owner's favourite book is?” 

“Oh! Wow, that’s a great question!” You said, finally sparing him a brief glance with a smile “And one that’s kinda tough to answer. I love books from all genres for different reasons, so to compare one that’s horror to one that’s fantasy is a little difficult to do.”

“Well, what are you enjoying right now?” Sero asked, body leaning against the bookshelf so he could continue gazing up at you.

“Uhh, wow what am I reading right now?” You chuckled nervously as your mind began to race, feeling your cheeks heat up as you heard him do so as well “Let's see… probably The Historian, it’s a thriller mystery kinda deal - involves vampires and stuff - it’s proving to be quite fun” 

“Vampires?”

“Yeah… it’s historical fiction. It blurs the lines of what happened with whatever our imaginations can think of with the folklore of Vlad Țepeș and Dracula. Partly why I like it I guess…”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Sero hummed, watching as you scanned the titles before you, almost as if you were counting each one for inventory later “Take it that’s why you opened this place? Fell in love with reading books from far and wide?”

“Something like that” You agreed with a shrug of your shoulders “Wanted to be a librarian, always thought they had a great gig going on, and one thing led to another and, well, here we are.”

As you spoke your deft fingers delicately pulled the book you both were looking for from its place in the self, where it was hiding. Once you secured it in your grip, you slowly descended from your stool handing the book out to him once your feet were securely on the ground.

“And here you are.” You smiled, watching as he stood upright and uncrossed his arms.

“Thanks, for finding this for me” He gingerly took the book from you and tucked it under his arm, smiling wider at your cheery response back; following you obediently back up to the cash to once again pay the borrowing fee.

“Hey, if you don’t mind…” Sero began, fingers tapping nervously against the wood of the countertop “I have one more question to ask ya.”

“Sure, go ahead!” You giggled, amused by his polite curiosity as you began the transaction of payment.

“Would you want to go for some coffee sometime?”

His question made your fingers fumble on the touchpad, causing an error screen to pop up and for you to almost frantically try to fix, and you nervously cleared your throat; face going hot in surprise and embarrassment over your stumbled, and failed, answer back.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you or make you uncomfortable” Sero tried to soothe, hands raising up and away from the bubble around you to prove he meant no harm “Just think you’re cute and would like to treat you to some coffee, that’s all.”

“W-well, that’s um, very sweet of you, I just um…” You floundered, doing your best to finish quickly so you could hide away from him - to shield him from witnessing your embarrassment further “Just don’t think that would be a good idea?”

“You don’t? Why not?”

“Y-you know, we’re strangers! We only met a few days ago and all….”

“Actually we’re neighbors, good ones at that if our gift exchange was anything to go by.” Sero clarified, watching as the realization of who he was crossed your face, his hands lowered to shove themselves in his jacket pockets before shrugging his shoulders “But hey, not gonna pressure you or anything. If you don’t want to that’s cool, I won’t pressure you!”

“I’m flattered, believe me, just….” You countered a sheepish look on your face as you passed the book back his way for him to take “Maybe some other time.”

“Sure thing, thank you again,” Sero said, giving you one last small smile before taking his book and leaving; wishing you a good night as he walked past the threshold of your store with a wave.

A few things were certain that night; the first being that you were worth having a crush on, and he would love the chance to treat you right. And second, you were not used to the straightforward approach, and if he didn’t want to screw anything up, he would have to be patient and go about things slowly.

But Sero Hanta was up for any challenge, and you were more than worth the wait.

~

After that night, Sero found himself stopping by your shop a few times a week; to return a new book he borrowed (and spent the night before diligently reading), and to further chat with you. The conversations were always led by a question or two before it sparked into something beautiful - he loved the way you would ramble, talking with your hands, as you explained something, how passionate you got over the things you loved, and how blessed he found himself when you tried to tell a story from when you were younger but couldn’t over your laughter of remembering it all.

And after each night, when the conversation had reached its end and the book he had paid for was tucked snugly under his arm, he would, without fail, ask you out on a date as he was leaving your shop; in love with the smile and the amused shake of your head when you bid him a simple goodnight, to - “try again some other time” - before shutting the door behind him and switching you sign to closed.

Slowly but surely you were coming out of your shell, becoming more than eager to spend the last hour in his company; you didn’t realize it right away, but soon you found yourself noticing how excited you got when you would greet him. Or how you would try and keep the conversation going just a little bit longer as you walked to the cash, not wanting the night to end so soon. And how you would linger close to him before closing the door and saying good night. He was fun company, some of the best you ever had, and you couldn’t deny that you were starting to catch feelings for him too; to slowly become as enamored as he was.

Sero noticed this little factor as well, after a couple of months of visiting, when it was you who ask him a question; as you gingerly took hold of his arm to get a better look at the intricate tattoo that was perfectly placed on his forearm after handing him his recently purchased item.

“Did you do this yourself?” You whispered, almost in awe, as your fingertips barely brushed over the details of the design.

“Yeah,” Sero breathed out, quite taken aback by your bold action - though nowhere near complaining. “Took a while, but I think it turned out great.”

“Did you design it too?”

“Mm-hmm, designed all the tattoos on my body.” His eyes shifted their gaze from his arm to your face, “Wanted to work on my skin first before anyone else’s, just in case I wasn’t good at it.”

“I think it’s safe to say that you are, it’s beautiful work.”

“Do you have one?” 

“N-no…” You broke your gaze away, taking a step back from him - completely aware of how close and possibly inappropriate you were behaving.

“You want one?” Sero inquired with a clear of his throat; wanting nothing more than to move closer to you again, to gain that moment of intimacy once more, but knew he couldn’t

“Well yeah,” You shrugged, looking anywhere but at him, “But I just never really know what to get, and I don’t wanna regret getting something cause it’ll be on my skin forever, you know?”

“I can design something for you if you want?” 

“You would?”

“Obviously, wouldn’t offer if I didn’t want to!” He smiled, grabbing a piece of scrap paper and a marker from your countertop “Just tell me some things that you like, and I’ll come up with something! See, I already know you like owls, and foxes, and of course historical fiction and fantasy books…”

“Sero, listen this is really sweet! I am honored you would do this for me and all but….” You began, cutting him off from his parade of knowledge of all things you loved - heart swelling almost uncomfortably with the attention - “But really, you don't have to do this for me.”

“You kidding, I would love to! If I didn’t I wouldn’t have done this for a living; hard to make a career out of something you hate!”

“Yeah, clearly, I obviously get it. But even so, you’re booked for months! You got plenty of other clients that need your attention and designs a lot more than I do.”

“Oh ho~ How do you know I’m booked for months?” Sero teased, enjoying how you looked away in fake annoyance as your shoulders raised in embarrassment “Even if I was, which you’re so cutely right that I am, I would reserve a spot for you regardless.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it can be after hours too, if you wanted.” Sero offered, with a shrug “Ya know if that would help put your nerves at ease; less people and all that stuff. And it could help make you feel better about accepting my offer~ I wouldn’t have to cancel on a client if you did.”

You sighed, shoulder slumping as you weighed his very tempting offer. You had been wanting a tattoo, ever since the new parlor opened across the street; and especially so every time you looked in Sero’s direction - the ink that was littered across his skin was beautiful - now here was the most perfect opportunity to finally get one and to get some more alone time with the artist himself; you knew you would regret it every day if you said no; despite your nerves telling you otherwise.

Squaring your shoulders you finally looked back at him, giving him a nod of approval over his proposition.

“Yes!” His fists thumped the counter as he proclaimed his excitement over your acceptance “I promise you won’t regret it! I’ll start working on the designs tonight and will have them done A-S-A-P!”

“Okay, okay!” You laughed, playfully rolling your eyes at his childish behavior “Sounds good to me.”

“Oh! One more thing!” He passed the marker over to you, his palm slayed out as if acting as a canvas “I’ll need your number so I can both let you know when the design is done and so I can book you in for your appointment.”

“Okay, well then hand me the paper you were just scribbling on” You pointed and the scrap paper, brows furrowing when you watched him shake his head ‘no”. 

“No can do babe, it’s covered with stuff already. Just write it on my hand”

“Sero, this is a permanent marker, I’m not going to do that!”

“I think I’m more than comfortable with permanent ink on my skin,” Sero winked, moving his palm closer to you “It’ll come off in a few days, but hey, if you don’t want me to leave you could just say so~”

You couldn’t help rolling your eyes again, hating that he was right and you were wasting time yet again to have him stay longer. You acquiesced, taking hold of his hand to keep it steady as you carefully wrote your number, being sure it was as clear as possible to avoid any confusion or mishaps that could be caused if you didn’t.

You watched as Sero left, head held high and chest filled with puffed-up pride as he sauntered back to the parlor; clearly happy with himself at winning you over and gaining your number.

~

It only took four days before you got the message from Sero; stating, with plenty of exclamation marks, about how your design was done and to stop by at any time to come and review the sketches - he was more than happy to squeeze you in at a time that worked best for you; whether that be between a client or after-hours.

And well, the thought of coming after hours was tempting, your confidence in quelling those nerves that swam in your stomach wasn’t strong enough yet; you were already pushing your limits when it came to the tattoo appointment. But the thought of you extending your lunch break by a few minutes seemed like a good idea.

The sign said ‘Closed for Lunch’ when you finally made your way across the street, and though Sero was insistent that you could come in regardless, you were still a little hesitant; standing by the door debating whether to knock or just walk in.

The decision was made for you when a woman with beautiful soft pink hair opened the door, startling you out of your thoughts as she asked if she could help you with anything.

“I-i’m just here to review some sketches…” You mumbled, hands playing nervously with your phone that still had the messages from Sero open “But I can come back if you’re closed!”

“It’s with Sero right?” She inquired, golden eyes squinting at you as they scanned you from head to toe; 

“Yeah..” You nodded your head, trying your best not to shift your body in reaction to her gaze.

“Oh my gosh! So it’s you! The librarian across the street!” She squealed, wasting no time in taking your arm and pulling you into the shop  “I’ve heard so much about you! Just been dying to meet you! I’m Mina, one of the artists here.”

“Bookstore owner….” You mumbled, casting a shy smile her way as you gave her your name “Heard about you as well, it’s really nice to meet you too”

“Right, bookstore owner, sorry about that!” Mina waved in apology, taking a step back to appraise you once more “and I gotta say, super jealous of Sero that he snagged you as his client; you’re a total babe! Like, that outfit is to die for! Where’s you get it?”

You could feel the blood rush to your face at her statement, her brazen compliment both flattered and embarrassed you as you mumbled out a ‘thank you’ as you gazed down at what you were wearing.

“And oh my god, your nails!” She exclaimed again, taking hold of your hand to inspect closely inspect your delicately painted fingernails “These are so pretty! Where’d you get them done?”

“Uh, the spa a few blocks down the road” You answered with a breathless laugh at her enthusiasm “They always do a good job.”

“I can tell! I’ve always wanted to check them out, but was a little unsure, but now I’m definitely gonna go as soon as I can!” She squealed, squeezing your hand in delight “Oh, but you’re not here for me, which is a total bummer. Sero’s station is just back here, I’ll let him know you’re here!”

You gave her your thanks, appreciating her help and unknowingly helping you become more at ease, as she led you to Sero’s area; leaving you with a wave and a promise he’ll join you in a few minutes. 

His area was quite spacious, possibly the largest out of the others you passed, and the furthest from the front door. His chair and equipment sat near the center of it all, just slightly off to the left for others to pass by, and looked clean and organized as you peered around the room. He had a work table as well, pressed up against the wall, with a book of design and sketches.

If you were braver you would have opened it and gone through the slightly worn pages to see what they contained. But instead, you opted to scan the wall before you, taking in the fun, wild, and beautiful designs that were taped to them; staring in awe at just how beautiful they all were. Masterpieces in black and coloured ink, ones you were sure some lucky people got to wear proudly on their skin.

Or perhaps they were littered on his…

Sadly, you couldn’t allow your mind the chance to wander to such thoughts, to wonder just how much of his body was covered in ink and how low some tattoos would travel, before you hear his footsteps approaching.

“Hey! Admiring the wall?” He greeted, his smile as bright and friendly as always when he greeted you

“Yeah, the designs are beautiful” You glanced back at him with a smile “But I think you already knew that.”

“What can I say, just like hearing people sing my praises!” He joked with an exaggerated shrug of his shoulders before walking up to you “But we’re not here to talk about these, eh?”

You watched as he gently, smoothly, pulled open a large drawer at the table you were currently standing at, one you didn’t realize was there given the sleek design. Carefully he pulled out a tiny stack of papers, laying them out before you to inspect and admire, as his arm kept him leaning over the table, and more importantly, you.

You tried your best not to be affected by his voice, how his breath tickled your ear, as he spoke about the direction he went with the designs. Some larger, more detailed as they encompassed all the things you loved - like the barn owl sounded by flora and books before a full moon - and some that were smaller, simply beholden of a single item you loved, like a sitting fox amongst fall leaves; and where on your body each tattoo would be placed.

He left a pause when he was done speaking, allowing you the chance to mill over what he said; to further inspect his designs, and to take your time in picking out what you wanted most; unable to help himself from staring at you, eyes half-lidded, as you bit your lip in concentration.

“I like the fox,” you finally whispered, pulling the sketch closer to you to admire it further, already imagining where it will sit on your arm.

“Yeah?” was all Sero could breathe out as he leaned in closer to you

“Mm-hmm” You nodded, finally turning your head to face him; watching as his eyes gazed at your lips, causing you to do the same “...h-how much will it be?”

You could feel your breath catching in your throat as Sero ignored your question, instead taking the opportunity to lean his face closer to yours; feeling his breath gently fan against your lips as you shut your eyes in anticipation; wanting nothing more than to feel what his kiss would be like.

“Sero, delivery is here!”

A gruff voice is what made you turn your head away; face scrunching in frustration over the unwanted interruption. You heard him sigh; feeling cold and a little disappointed when you felt his warmth pull away from you.

“Yeah… I’ll be right there Bakugou…” Sero spoke firmly, trying his best to keep his voice from sounding frustrated and annoyed as he looked back at his friend “Just finishing up here.”

Sero took another deep breath, one that turned into a loud sigh, over the now-ruined moment as he pulled the fox design from the pile of paper; taking a step away from you with a shake of his head.

“Don’t worry about paying, it’s on the house.” He gave a pained smile, slowly backing his way towards the backrooms, to where Bakugou was waiting “Just pick a day with Mina and we’ll go from there, ‘kay?”

You simply nodded your head, giving him a small smile and wave as you watched him disappear; taking the time to finally release the air you were holding as you clenched your fist in anger over your ruined kiss; at how perfect Bakugou’s timing was in all of it.

But after a moment, you couldn’t help but laugh; shaking your head in amusement as slowly made your way back to the front desk to book your appointment; knowing you had to get back to work soon and relieve your assistant.

~

It wasn’t long before the day of your tattoo arrived; the Saturday you booked it for came faster than anticipated, though the entire day felt like a year as you kept glancing at the clock to see how much time has passed, only to groan to yourself when it showed a mere 10-minutes.

Cataloging books did help with your dilemma, taking your mind off the many hours between you and seeing Sero again, as you continuously went up and down your little ladder to put the many returned books away. And before long, it was 9:00 pm, and you could flip your sign to ‘Closed’ and make your way across the street. 

You were surprised, given that the parlor was supposedly closed - or at the very least seeing their last clients at that point of the night - to see all the artists by the front desk chatting away; almost as if they were waiting for you to arrive.

“There you are!” Mina exclaimed, making her way from behind the desk over to where you stood, taking your jacket, and hanging it up for you “Thought you got cold feet on us!”

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that” You smiled, allowing her to complete her courteous gesture “And if I did cancel I would make sure you knew.”

“Are you excited!? First tattoos are always the most fun!”

“I am! Been looking forward to this all week!” 

“Oh, I’m sure you have~” Mina winked, “Now, let me introduce you to the other artist! Well, we’re all friends here but ya know.” She guided you over to where the three men stood, pointing first to a blonde with an unamused expression “You already met Bakugou last time you were here, I think you met Kaminari when he was at your store a few weeks back. And that giant redhead is Kirishima - he looks more scary than he is!”

 “It’s really nice to meet you!” Kirishima smiled, nudging Bakugou to acknowledge your presence - which he did in the form of a nod - before extending his hand out to you to shake “Heard a lot about you, been meaning to stop by your store for a while now. Apparently, you give good recommendations!”

“Oh, I do?” You asked, gingerly shaking his hand with a confused expression

“Of course you do, babe! Why else would Sero keep bugging you~” Kaminari jumped in, winking as he took your hand in his own and squeezed it “Nice to see you in our neck of the woods finally.”

“Okay okay! That’s enough, you guys!” Sero finally emerged, walking his way in between the group to disperse them; pulling Kaminari away from you to force him to let go of your hand “You should all be getting ready to leave, as you said you would!”

“Oh come on man! We just wanted to say hi to her!” Kaminari whined as he, and the rest of the group, were huddled towards to back of the place while you stood in place, fighting off a wave of giggles that were threatening to overcome you over the whole scene.

After a moment Sero returned, smoothing out his shirt as he tries his best to act as nonchalantly as possible; an act you could see right through given the blush that was dusting his cheeks but decided not to comment on.

“Sorry about all that, you ready to get started?” He asked, hand running through his hair nervously.

You hum in agreement, head nodding as you let him guide you back to his station; once there he motioned for you to get comfortable on the plush leather chair as he got his equipment ready.

 “Your friends are really nice,” You commented, tugging up the sleeve of your shirt for ease of access.

“Yeah, they are” Sero admitted, chuckling to himself “Pains in the ass half the time, but they mean well”

“Well, that’s how you know they love you” You chimed, sitting more upright as you watched him press an alcohol swab against your skin for a moment

“Guess you’re right.” He shrugged, holding up the stencil of your tattoo next to your arm “You want the tattoo here or a little lower?”

“No, there looks good! After all, you are the expert” You smiled, allowing him to press the paper against your skin; feeling him pressing down on it, before removing it to showcase the temporary art that was to forever be marked on your skin.

“Yeah that looks good,” He murmured, taking his tattoo machine in hand and dipping it in ink “Now, you let me know if this hurts, or becomes too unbearable okay?”

“Okay..” You bit your lip and nodded your head as you stared at the machine.

“Don’t worry, on arms you normally can’t feel anything” Sero reassured “ and I’ve got a steady hand which helps. All this just looks more scary than it is.”

“Like Kirishima”

“Yeah!” He laughed, shaking his head at your silly, but accurate, comment “Just like Kiri. Now, take a deep breath for me, kay?”

You nodded and did as you were told, taking a deep breath as his machine whirled to life; you watched with bated breath as it approached your skin, letting out a large sigh of relief when it finally touched you and no pain could be felt.

“See? Not so bad, yeah?” Sero smiled, slowly beginning to outline his design.

“Yeah…”

You didn’t converse much after that, not because you didn’t want to, but rather because you were blown away by Sero’s skills and concentration. You had never seen this side of him before. Normally he was goofy, animated, and fun, which you thought was endearing and cute; gave him his boyish charm. But now? As you watched his brows furrow and eyes look at you with such steely focus, you couldn’t help but find him extremely attractive. Choosing not to break the silence in fear of breaking his concentration, and thus this newfound allure, or embarrassing yourself.

Though he did make it difficult.

Throughout the entire session, every time he needed to shade something or thicken a line, he would always praise you after; claiming you were doing ‘such a good job’ for pushing through it; or for being called a ‘good girl’ when you took a needed deep breath at the right moment in time.

He said it so often that you can’t tell if he’s being reassuring or doing it to get a rise out of you; to tease you to see you get all hot and bothered.

Whatever the case was, it was affecting you way more than it should have; lighting a small fire deep within your core as you tried to rub your thighs together without him noticing to relieve some of the newfound pressure, as you suppressed all the small squeaks your wanted body wanted to let out every time another praise left his mouth.

It was agonizing torture in the best possible way; and when the session was finally done, when he was gently placing cellophane wrap over your fresh tattoo, you weren’t sure whether you were relieved or disappointed that it was all over.

“How much…” You gently cleared your throat, voice a little raspy over underuse “How much do I owe you again?”

“I already told you, babe,” Sero chuckled, carefully putting away his equipment “It’s on the house, my treat for you allowing me to borrow all those books.”

“You paid for those, Sero” You shot back, legs moving over the side of the chair as you leaned closer to him; showcasing your cleavage further from the lowcut hem of your shirt “I can’t just let you give me something like this for free - it’s not fair.”

“I told you, I like doing this.” He shrugged, ignoring you and your subsequent subtle attempts of seduction “More than happy to do this for you, think of it as a first-timer bonus!”

“There must be some way I can pay you back”

It was your tone that made Sero’s back straighten, clearing his throat he carefully placed what was in his hand down to turn and face you - breathing ceasing when he saw you sitting so pretty for him; the dark look in your eye making this cock twitch to life in his pants.

Sero couldn’t help it when his tongue poked out to lick his lips, unable to stop his eyes from trailing over your figure sitting before him; his own legs spreading further apart as he shifted a little closer to you; making you bite your lip. 

“How about finally going on that date with me?” He offered, hands twitching in his lap as he tried his best to restrain himself from touching you without permission.

“Payments happen immediately after a service…it wouldn’t be right paying you back days later, especially after you did such an amazing job” You reasoned, your voice barely above a whisper as you tilted your head up; brushing your nose against his “I prefer to pay you back now, kay?”

“Kay…” Sero barely even had the chance to whisper the word out before your lips pressed firmly into his; hands fisting into his shirt to keep him from pulling away.

As if Sero even wanted to move away, his own hands reaching out to pull you closer to him; closing any inch of space between him and your soft body. His hand cupped your face to deepen the long-awaited kiss that he dreamed about for weeks, as he slotted between your legs, groping and pinching the meat of your thigh as he hiked your leg up to wrap around his waist as he placed more of his weight onto you; groaning into your open when your clothed cunt brushed against his hardening length.

Your sweet, breathless, mewls were addicting and it made his mind dizzy with lust as his lips descended down your jaw and onto your neck; licking and sucking on the sensitive skin you so graciously barred to him, biting down on your pulse to hear you cry out his name into the heated air as he continued to grind his hips against yours.

His kisses continued downwards to your chest, pulling your shirt down - not bothering or wanting to take a mere moment to part from you to properly rid yourself of the article of clothing - before his lips began to suckle at the plump flesh his found; moaning into the heated flesh as he relished the way your hand began to tangle and tug at his hair.

It was all so much, and yet not enough for you; the fire that slowly emerged in your core was raging for me, not being fully satisfied with his sweet kisses or the grind of his hips. You needed more, been craving for more for hours, and you were starting to get a little impatient as you guided the hand pinching and stroking your thigh up to your core.

“Sero, please, touch me more,” You sighed out, legs widening to give him better access as held his hand against the damp cotton of your panties

“Hanta,” He corrected you, wringing his hand from your grasp to slowly stroke his knuckle up and down your slit “call me that, and I’ll do what you want, you needly little thing.”

“Hanta, please? Want you…” You whined, arching your back in an attempt to get more friction; unable to keep the smile off your face when you heard him groaning; clearly loving the way his name sounded off your needy tongue.

“That’s a good girl, hips up” He gently coaxed your lower half off the chair to pull your panties down your leg; pocketing them for later, before slowly guiding your legs to spead even wider for him “Already so wet after a few kisses, hm?” 

You looked away, face buried into his neck, the heat burning your cheeks in embarrassment over his teasing, as you nodded your head - unable to muster the courage to say the truth - as your heart fluttered over his rumbling chuckle.

“Aw, are we shy now?” He teased even more, deft fingers spreading your lower lips apart to gently stroke at your hardened clit “You weren’t shy a second ago when you asked me to play with this pretty pussy, want me to stop?”

He felt you shake your head, a sweet little whine accompanying the motion, as you continued to cling to him; your warm breath, coming out in pants, next to his ear made him slow his pace to one that could barely be considered movement.

“I dunno, it sure seems like you do” 

“N-no!” You mumbled, gripping his shirt tighter; biting your lip to suppress another whine threatening to escape. “Please don’t stop..”

“Then let me see that pretty face, hm,” He asked, tone still mirthful as he watched you slowly come out of your hiding spot “There you are, look at you, huh? All cute and flustered, you like what I’m doing that much?”

You nodded your head, once more, voice squeaking out a ‘yes’ as you felt his fingers resume a faster pace - swirling your bundle of nerves before slipping into your wet heat; your own hand coming down to grasp his forearm over the sudden intensity.

“That feels good, baby? You like my fingers?” Sero hummed, lips grazing your ear as he leaned closer to you, gazing down to watch his fingers go in and out of your drenched hole.

“God yes, Hanta!” You couldn’t help but cry out, throwing your head back, as you felt his fingers curl; stroking that sweet spot within your gummy walls that you made you see stars.

“Yeah you do,” He groaned, feeling your slick drip down his wrist as he repeated the motion “you wanted this, didn’t you? That’s why you wore that cute little skirt, huh?”

Sero watched you nod your head, though the blissed-out look on your face made him question if you even heard what he said as your hips began to wiggle, legs shaking as you neared your release.

“Can feel you twitching around my fingers, pretty girl, you gonna cum for me?” He asked, as his free hand pushed down your squirming hips “Hey, hey, don’t whine! I’ll give you what you want, promise”

His swollen lips brushed against your collarbone, a subtle gesture to prove he meant what he said - that he wasn’t going to tease you or stop you from going over the edge; his thumb twisting up to rub at your clit to help ease you over the edge you were climbing.

“That’s it, cum for me, god you sound so pretty, keep twitching for me.” He groaned, fingers working frantically as your cries grew higher in pitch.

Everything went white for a moment, an end to the mounting pleasure he was giving you, the world was forgotten for a brief moment as you succumbed to the pleasure; your back arched almost painfully as your legs clamped around his wrist; your entire form shaking from the intensity as eyes rolled back into your skull. The only thing that kept you in the realm was his deep voice cooing down at you as you felt your juices run down your thighs and stick to the surface of his leather chair.

“There she is…” He mumbled, lips kissing all over your face and chest to slowly help ease you back down “Slowly, that’s it, you did so good for me…”

“Hanta, s’too much!” You whined, bucking your hips away from his still-moving fingers; ones that were still slowly stroking your soaking cunt; hissing when he finally took them out.

“Sorry, sorry,” He chuckled, hands returning to stroke your thighs and hips as he gazed down at you “You certainly know how to stroke a man’s ego, huh? Never had a girl do that from my touch.”

You groaned one that turned into a giggle, as your hands came up to your face to hide from another wave of heated embarrassment “Well, to be fair, never had a guy touch me like that. Can’t blame a girl for enjoying it!”

“No I can’t, glad you liked it so much, baby” He murmured, pulling your hands from your face to kiss you once more, murmuring sweet nothing to you between each small kiss as his hands wandered again, up and down your body, smiling into the kiss when he felt your hands do the same.

“A-ah!” Sero moaned, unable to stop his hips from bucking to your small hand that started to stroke at the large bulge in his pants; another one choking out, ending in a whimper, when you applied more pressure.

“Can I return the favour?” You asked, voice sounding so saccharine and confident that it made his head spin at the total 180 you just pulled with your demeanor.

“N-no,” He whimpered out, hand grasping at your wrist - just as yours did before - to stop you from continuing your sinful motions.

“Why not?” You whined, the pout you gave almost made him regret his choice, “Wanna make you feel good…”

“I know you do, but I won’t be able to last long if you keep that up” He reasoned, clasping your hands in his to bring them away from his twitching, aching cock.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“God, you’re too much…” He mumbled, head shaking in amusement as he cleared his throat, trying his best not to let you get the best of him as he watched you squirm.

Your pout was still prevalent on your swollen lips as you gazed up at him, calling out to him once more in that saccharine sweet voice “But I wanna make you cum.”

Sero couldn’t help but groan again, head turning away from you as he thought of anything else at that moment - things that made him cringe in his past - to try and stop himself from creaming in his pants like a teenager. With his voice strained, hoarse with effort, as he instructed you to lay back.

You do as you are told, heat in your belly igniting once more when you hear the clinking of his belt unbuckling; bending your legs up, to get betting frictions on your tingling nub, as you waited as patiently as you could for his return.

The chair groaned, squeaking slightly, at the added weight Sero provided, as he situated himself between your legs once more. You gasped, one that turned into a moan, when you felt his cock head tap at your entrance; his hard length sliding up and down your slit - teasing you as he coats himself in your juices.

“Hanta…!” You groan out, hips bucking to try and slip him inside; groaning once more in frustration when you feel his hands pin your hips down once more “Hurry up!”

“So impatient, naughty, naughty, naughty ” He clicks his tongue at you, chuckling at the frustrated glance you cast his way “Just give me a second, don’t wanna hurt you after all”

You huff, brows furrowing further as acquiesced; knowing thing it was for the better to have him take things slow - but the burning in your core was making it difficult for you to have a clear and level head; wanting nothing more to feel him fill you up.

After another agonizing minute, you slowly feel him sink into your heat; feeling his fat cock stretch you out so agonizingly slow that it makes you throw your head back and moan; mouth agape as you feel every inch bury itself deeper into your core.

“God, you’re tight!” Sero hisses, body taut as he holds himself above you as he continued pushing into you “Already milking me, baby, damn!”

You both groan when he finally bottoms out, breathing labored as they mingle together in-between tiny kisses as you both try to adjust; legs wrapping around his hips, pulling him down to you, as he begins his slowly thrusting into you.

His thrusts were almost teasing with how slowly he was moving, dragging his cock out languidly from your gummy walls before slowly returning back into your warmth - but they were precise, with each thrust hitting every sweet spot you had; making your eyes cross as you fell into the throws of pleasure over his slow lovemaking.

Over time though, Sero could not keep up the unhurried pace; what was once a tactic to ensure that he didn’t cum too early, to properly worship you and your perfect body, was now not enough - his body needed more. His lips attached to yours, kisses muffling the sweet moans that you were making as he slowly picks up his pace; thrusts turning sloppy and hurried, a fair cry from before, as Sero now becomes unable to hold off his own pleasure; frantically trying to chase his release.

The sloppy, wet, noises of your pussy could be heard over your constant moans, over the  sound of his skin slapping against yours, and it was becoming overwhelming - his thumb joining his frenzied hips as he rubbed at your clit; trying desperately to get you up and over that edge before him, to feel your walls flutter and clasp his weeping cock as it did his fingers before he spilled into you.

But he failed, your wanton moans as they called out his name, and the sharp sting of your nails and they dug into his back pushed him too far; quickly pulling out with a choked wail he came; spilling his hot seed all over your thighs and stomach.

“I-I’m sorry” he gasped, trying to regain his breath - body, and cock, still twitching over the intensity of his organism; leaving you for a brief moment to get a clean rag from his equipment table to clean you up.

“Why are you sorry?” You asked, voice still raspy and sore, as you watched him methodically clean you up.

“Well, you know, about getting you all messy. And…. yeah…” He mumbled, shrugging his shoulders, too embarrassed to look at you or saw the real reason he apologized.

It made you smile, though you did your best to contain the giggles that threaten to pass your lips as you watched him. Sitting up, you pushed the hand that was cleaning you away, pulling him back down into you for a kiss.

“It’s okay, I don’t mind getting messy. Part of the fun, right?” You giggled, nudging your nose with his trying to lighten the mood; effectively making a small smile tug at his lips as he returned your kiss.

“Besides…” you whispered, hands coming down to teasingly stroke his chest “My place isn’t too far from here. If you wanted, you could spend all night making it up to me”

“Aren’t you a naughty girl,” Sero smirked, hands grabbing the meat under your thighs as he picked you up from his chair; moving your legs to wrap around his hips to keep you upright and in place “But, I think my place is closer.”

[skele-bunny]

NOO THE POLL IS WRONG PLEASE POST THE ZEPHRIT PLEASEE :((!!!! PLEASE PLEASE

OH MY GOSH OKAY 😭 THERES LIKE.. SO MANY OF YOU IN MY INBOX RN. AND MY DMS. AND WKKWKSJ???!!! (Small tag for @sister-nyx , @everybodyshusband , @hypnoneghoul , and @artificialmoth I know y'all were also interested) is this impractical? Ye. But it's fun to me

College AU — Zephrit

Warning: It's professor/student in this but everyone is consenting adults

Cw: Internalized Homophobia, Pet Play, Master/Pet dynamic, Power Imbalance

Ifrit at college on a sports scholarship, but he's recommended to have extra credits to keep his GPA up, so he takes a German language class. Mr. Zephyr Luft, this cold, no nonsense professor who has a reputation for kicking people out even for little things. So take Ifrit who's now suddenly the bane of their existence.

Snarky comments, not doing any work always with the excuse of "This is only extra. I don't need this course." And he's gotten so many academic write ups, even to the point of Mr. Luft talking to the sports director. Nothing. So, they take it into their own hands. Requesting Ifrit to stay after class one day, and he obviously automatically assumes he'll be getting "the talk" of why it's important to do work and that he'll be getting another deduction.

Zephyr waits until the final student closes their door before beckoning Ifrit near, getting up and walking around with their cane as they do, indeed, babble about how Ifrit will be getting a deduction. But also...

"I can tell you were never properly raised, Gör. Such a nasty tongue you own."

"Whatever you say, old man."

There's a sigh before Ifrit can only gasp as a hard wack goes to his ass, turning around and seeing Zeph slowly put their cane back and stare.

"Did you just—?!"

"Well, obviously. Do you feel like speaking with manners yet?"

Ifrit just scoffs, "I'll have your job you fucking pervert."

A simple shrug. "Then I guess I need to make my worthwhile."

Now, Ifrit's strong. Works out a lot. He's taller than them! So he doesn't understand how this older, shorter person that relies on mobility aids had the ability to slam him back over the desk and keep him pinned while caning his ass more and more.

Finally had enough and letting Ifrit drop, face a dark red, fists clenched. Zephyr is just as calm as ever, not even paying attention to Ifrit anymore as they return to their desk and mumble that administration is in a different building upstairs. Ifrit sniffles a bit before quickly getting up, grabbing his bag, and high tailing it out of there.

He's so fucking humiliated! He's a grown ass man who could've overpowered them! His own damn professor!! Who do they think they are?! Slams out of the building and to his car, wincing as he sits down and stares at the admin building Zephyr mentioned. He has all reason to go there. To report what was done to him... But... That would mean they'd have to see. They'd have to know that Ifrit was too weak and too much of a pussy to defend himself from some old guy. Swallows his shame and instead, just goes home early. Looking at his bruised ass in the mirror, cane welts very obvious.

It's in the shower where he massages the pain, his dick slowly getting hard and he just chalks it up to the water. Nothing else. Nothing else is in his mind as he released down the shower drain. Don't realize the pattern as every time he has Mr. Luft's class the rest of the week how he'll massage and jerk off again. And again. The memories of being bent over and used and... And... And that cold stare that he starts imagining watching him, demanding perfect satisfaction as Ifrit masturbates in front of them. Then slowly changing to that cane dragging between his thighs and making him rut against it.

He feels sick the first time he imagines one of his one-night stands as that same old asshole.

Staring at himself in the mirror, turmoil bubbling. He's not gay. He's never been gay. He loves women and pussy and tits, and so much. This must be his nerves, is all. Some kinda trauma thing maybe? But even still, he notices how his attraction has slowly shifted. They must be the exception. Attracted to a single amab body, that's it. That's all it is. But he craves it. Wants to feel that helpless again. Wants to feel his body pinned down and where he's not the one in control...

And Mr. Luft can do that.

Packs so slowly one day after class, waits until it's just them when he approaches their desk. Zephyr humming and asking if Ifrit's reported them yet.

"No... I just, uh," There's shame and embarrassment Zephyr instantly picks up on. "Would you... Would you do that again? To me?"

"Spank you?"

"Yeah..."

They stare at each other before Zephyr just laughs a bit, worsening Ifrit's shame. But, "You poor thing. Just a stray dog looking for warmth, aren't you?"

He just nods, keeping his eyes down but can see Zephyr lean back in their chair. "No need to whine, hund. I can take you home with me if you'd like. Give you what you want."

Ifrit nods, and the rest is history.

Given directions to Zephyr's home after classes are finished, Ifrit knocking with hesitation. Brought in and led to the bathroom, listening to Zephyr make demands of how Ifrit is to shower, to attempt to finger himself for the first time, and lay on Zeph's bed nude. He does as he's told, albeit questioning himself more and more. This is some freaky shit he's getting into, isn't it?

But oh... Oh it's worth it. Explained how it's not Mr. Luft in the bedroom, only Zephyr or even Master. That he must say thank you to everything given to him, even punishments. He didn't realize how much he missed that cane against his ass now with hands as well once they start. Who gets his ass eaten for the first time and cums from it. Sucks cock and fingers Zeph for them to ride him. The degradation and that sharpness on their tongue like always. Sometimes speaking it in German, Ifrit can't understand, but he can feel the tone and just whines from it.

He stays over, tucked into Zephyr's arm as they come down from their bliss. More internalized hatred bubbling in his mind but it always seems to mute when he focuses on Zephyr's heartbeat. How he hates having to leave, but Zeph assures that all Ifrit has to do is ask and their home is open to stray dogs.

Ifrit takes that offer.

Finding himself on his knees just about every other day for them, listening to commands and being dominated. Taking on his role of a dog, desperate for that love and care in the form of heavy hands and instructions. Finally, a simple collar around his neck. So many new things he's exposed to and he loves each and every one of them. How German lessons follow into the home, Ifrit bent over and spanked with either a ruler or their cane for every thing he mispronounces.

Finds himself with no interest in the opposite gender as he's come to terms of what he's attracted to, just how much Zephyr has opened his mind and what he enjoys. Learning so much about himself in the process. Not only does his grade drastically improve, but so does his mental health. Finds more confidence, a new release as he doesn't have to think with Zephyr. Just has to be a good dog and listen to what he's told to do. What's he's trained to do.

Always lingering in their classroom, spending lunches with them and his free time. Their relationship developing so much they officially start dating privately, and to the point Ifrit moves in with them out of his dingy apartment. They keep everything quiet, out of respect for each other and also Zephyr's job. Everyone thinks they finally had a meet God moment, as they've become different people basically. Even Zeph watching some of Ifrit's games and practices, that cold stare no longer being of distain but craving.

Just a loyal dog as ever.

[utilitycaster]

How would the wizards win, they are knocked out easily and fragile as fuck???

Hi anon,

In the interest of verisimilitude I am running this combat play by play. Assumptions include:

Equipment is that of their last appearance (Echoes of the Solstice for the PCs but before Caleb gives his stone to Luc, and 2x141 for Essek) with the notable exception that no one has any potions

All magical items with charges are fully charged

The wizards have all necessary components for their spells

Caleb’s philosopher’s stone is on him and is set to constitution save proficiency, which is how Caleb usually has it set.

Caleb will not access spells that we have not seen him use previously

Essek gets the high level dunamancy spells though bc we left with him not accessing 9th levels and it seems reasonable he’d have these learned.

Characters are all level 20

The poll this is based on does not explicitly say to the death, so I am counting “at least one of the wizards survives and put Yasha somewhere she is not going to bother them” as a win condition for them.

For the purposes of this exercise I am going to make Essek a chronurgist but swap out the level 2 abilities (Chronal Shift and Temporal Awareness) for Adjust Density since we know he has the latter but “time is his speciality” as I don’t have his actual stat block.

Essek’s CON, WIS, CHA, and STR are unknown as are his HP. I have rolled for them, added his CHA bonus as a drow, and taken an ASI to one other stat. I have also just used the wizard default of 4 HP per level + con bonuses. I rolled (4d6 drop lowest): 16, 8, 14, and 11, which seems like a reasonable spread. I’m giving him 16 CHA (14+2 racial bonus), 16 CON, 8 STR, and 13 (11+2) WIS, which seems reasonable to me. His HP is therefore 6+4*19+3*20=142.

They all start at the corners of a square with sides 30 feet, as there is no 2D configuration of four equidistant points. Same teams are at diagonals from each other (ie, going clockwise, it goes Beau, Caleb, Yasha, Essek.)

In order to stave off any whining: if both wizards roll higher on the dice for initiative than both sentinel babes I will reroll. After that the dice shall tell their story.

Caleb is not allowed to cast Wish to simply win the fight even though that is the obvious answer and not prohibited per the rules of the poll because while that proves my point, actually running through the combat and demonstrating the general case of “wizards beat melee at L20 as a rule” is more fun for me.

Final and most important rule: I am a human person running through combat for four people. Will this be perfectly optimal in every way? No. If there is something egregiously wrong then mention it but if you simply had a different strategy then well, write it out yourself.

Combat below the jump:

Initiative: Caleb rolled 7 (modified to 9), Essek rolled 16 (modified to 19), Yasha rolled 15 (modified to 18), Beau rolled 3 on the d20 and 6 on the d8 from her boots of the vigilant (total of 14).

Round 1

Essek casts Hold Person on Yasha since he cannot cast it on both at once as they are 42.4 feet from each other. She fails with a natural 1. [L2 spell used - Essek]

Yasha rolls again at the end of her turn, and gets a 12, failing.

Beau runs to Essek and attacks him twice, using a ki point to stunning strike him on her first hit and attempting for all hits after until it succeeds. She rolls an 11 and a 14 to hit on the dice, which will hit. Essek rolls a natural 18 on his first con save, succeeding, but a 9 on his second, which fails, dropping his hold on Yasha. Beau just takes flurry of blows for her bonus action, with advantage, rolling a 17 and a 12 respectively at advantage. Total damage to Essek is 14+11+7+7=39 damage. (2 ki used) She can also extract aspects; he is a normal guy.

Caleb shapechanges into an ancient white dragon. He picks up Essek in a talon (object interaction) and flies 35 feet into the air.[L9 spell used - Caleb; concentration]

Round 2

Essek is stunned

Yasha summons her wings. She makes her Frightful Presence save with a natural 18 and flies almost into melee with Dragon!Caleb but that is her action. She rages as a bonus action.

Beau has no abilities nor items that extend more than 30 feet away. She may as well use Empty Body to become invisible and resistant to all damage though! (6 ki used total, 4 this round). She makes her frightful presence save with a 15 on the dice. Essek is no longer stunned.

Dragon!Caleb can get both Yasha and Beau in a cone of cold, DC 22. Yasha saves with a 17 on the dice and total of 27,  Beau rolls a 3 and uses a ki point to reroll, getting a 9+10 which fails. This is a con save, so no evasion. I rolled extremely well (thanks google dice roller thing) and Beau takes 96 cold damage, halved to 48 from Empty Body. Yasha takes 48 cold damage as well, halved due to her saving throw. Caleb rolls a 6 on the d6; this ability recharges. He then flies 80 feet away from Yasha.

Round 3

Essek casts Ravenous Void 30 feet behind Yasha such that he and Caleb are outside of the spell’s 100 foot range. Beau is however also in range, though neither she nor Yasha are within range of the sphere, merely the 100 foot event horizon. [L9 spell used, Essek; concentration].

Yasha must make a strength save, which she makes with a 14 on the die, against Essek’s DC of 20. She moves 25 feet towards Caleb and Essek as she is in difficult terrain (yes, even in the air.) She uses her battle cry ability as a bonus action, granting Beau advantage on attacks and saves.

Beau makes a strength save as well, and makes it with a natural 18. She can activate her maelstrom gloves at this point I suppose, as her action. She also runs from the sphere, along the ground, at half speed (35 feet); she will use step of the wind to dash as a bonus action (70 feet). She is still within the range of the spell this turn.

Caleb can hit Yasha with the cold damage again. She makes her save with a 15 on the dice. I rolled much more poorly this time; she takes 32 damage. His breath weapon does NOT recharge this round as I rolled a 4.

At the end of round 3: Caleb has 333 HP as a dragon and has used one 9th level spell on which he is concentrating. Essek has 103 HP as himself and has used one 2nd level spell and one 9th level spell, the latter on which he is concentrating. Beau has 144 HP and is invisible; she has used 8 of her 20 ki points. Yasha has 148 HP and is currently raging.

Round 4

Essek casts lightning bolt on Yasha at 5th level. She fails her dex save (16+3 = 19, his DC is 20), taking 10d6 lightning damage, or 26 points per my roll. (Yasha is at 122 HP).

Yasha makes a strength save at advantage against Ravenous Void, just making it with a 10, but Essek uses Convergent future to make her fail. Yasha is pulled into the Ravenous Void; Essek takes one level of exhaustion. Yasha takes 5d10 force damage (another 26 points) and is restrained. (Yasha is at 94 HP).

Beau rolls a 15, succeeding with a 21. She successfully runs out of the range of ravening void and stays there. HOWEVER she is now within Dragon!Caleb’s blindsight radius.

Caleb gets directly above Beau and attacks her with his multiattack. He rolls a 9, 17, and 15 on the dice and gets +14 on all three attacks, dealing 2d10+8, 2d8, 2d8+8, and 2d6+8 damage total, all of which will be halved. That added up was a 72 total, halved to 36 for Beau who is now at 108 HP. He rolls a 5 on the d6, recharging his breath weapon. All attacks are made at minimum 10 foot reach, putting him outside the range of Sentinel; he returns to 40 feet above Beau.

Round 5

Yasha is out of range, so, upon realizing what’s going on, Essek casts See Invisibility on himself and can now see Beau, but that is his action.

Yasha takes another 34 damage from the Ravenous Void and makes a strength save at advantage; she makes it and is no longer restrained. She can get 15 feet out of the sphere. (Yasha is at 60 HP)

Beau can I guess run 70 feet away from the wizards.

Caleb uses his breath weapon again on Beau. She rolls a 5 on the dice, which is a failure on the con save. She takes 39 (79 halved) damage. Beau is now at 69 HP (nice). The breath weapon does not recharge this round.

Round 6

Essek casts Gravity Sinkhole where Beau is. She rolls a 4 on the dice and fails her Con save, taking the full 5d10 force damage (27) which isn’t halved by Empty Body. Beau is now at 42 HP.

Yasha succeeds on her saving throw and is now 40 feet out of the sphere, 50 from the center. She needs to make her next two rounds of saves to get out of the range of the spell, but takes no damage this round. She heals herself up 20 points, to 80, as her action.

Beau runs another 70 feet away.

Caleb goes after Beau, who I assume is running at a tangent to the radius of Ravenous Void, and dashes, catching up but is not able to attack.

Round 7

Essek uses momentary stasis on Beau. She rolls a 9 on her Con save, failing with a total of 19; she is incapacitated and has a speed of zero.

Yasha rolls a 3 and a 4 on her next saving throw, failing her strength save, and is pulled back into the center of the sphere, taking 5d10 (33) damage. Yasha is at 47 HP.

Beau is incapacitated.

Caleb makes his multiattack, dealing 57 total, halved to 28. Beau is now at 14 HP.  Caleb’s breath weapon does not return.

Round 8

Essek casts gravity sinkhole again at Beau. She rolls a 19, making her con save, but still takes 5d10 halved. I rolled a 28, halved to 14, precisely knocking her unconscious.

Yasha takes 25 force damage from the center of the sphere and makes her save, moving out from the center of the sphere. Yasha is at 22 HP.

Beau rolls a 2 on her first death save. This however does not matter, because...

Caleb lands and attacks Beau, taking her death saves and killing her. His breath weapon does not return.

Round 9

Essek hangs out in Caleb’s talons, chilling.

Yasha makes her strength save and moves out from the center of the sphere. She is again 50 feet from the center.

Caleb flies to the edge of the radius of Essek’s spell and lands.

Round 10

Essek gets out of Caleb’s talons and stands but is otherwise still chilling.

Yasha makes her strength save and dashes, reaching the wizards but is not able to attack them. She is no longer raging, having taken no damage nor attacked in a round, so she rages again.

Caleb drops Shapechange and casts Disintegrate. Yasha rolls an 11, for a dex save of 14, failing. She is reduced to 0 HP by Disintegrate, which turns her into dust and kills her because she is still dust even though she is raging.

Conclusion: I did to be fair roll like absolute shit for Beau but it was ultimately a game of dragon-and-monk anyway; once they're in the air and she's not and Yasha's unable to come to her aid, she's fucked. The second Beau fails to stunning strike one of the wizards, and Caleb gets a +9 assuming he has all his favorite magic rocks around him against Beau's 18 DC, so this is not out of the question, they can and will either turn into a dragon with a +14 to con saves and also who can fly, or cast "gravity hates you personally" at 9th level.

I would also note that Yasha's 101 damage in one hit in Echoes of the Solstice relies on several buffs from - you guessed it - magic users, as well as a crit. (fun fact! I rolled zero nat 20s during this, which is kind of weird although also I was mostly only rolling saves). Neither she nor Beau can one-shot one of the wizards on their own - even if they're teaming up only on one of them it's going to take 2-3 rounds, and meanwhile the other has, again, cast "fuck you" at 9th level in the meantime.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

Form Results

Hello! This is the Secretary. Tragically, it is tax season, and I must make people pay their taxes. However, I still have time to crack this one out for youuuuuuu.

Let's look at the results of the form!

First and foremost:

172 results! That's a lot more we thought we would get! Thank you so much for everybody who sent us responses!

The height is divided equally, with Very Tall being the one with the most amount of votes. Fun fact: Tall used to dominate this by 60% until I posted it on the forum ;)

As expected, Wielding my powers was the biggest section of the pie, followed by Adaptability. Hand2Hand combat is a rather straightforward option - and a rather realistic one - which makes sense a lot of people might be interested into crushing enemies with tendrils.

Again, we figured that one out before it was posted. We included nodes and carapace to make sure someone who is less comfortable with body horror is still able to enjoy (and angst) over this story. But that doesn't mean they get exclusive choices and special ways to resolve (and cause) conflicts.

A lot of you went with Reserved, which, well... makes sense.... a lot of you are nerds, after all...

Methodical nerds! I think this was to be expected, we kinda figured out you guys might be more interested in a quiet and methodical approach to conflict. Kinda makes sense with the storyline too!

A fairly even split with Brown and Blue being the biggest one with then Green, Grey and then finally Hazel.

This is why we included a variety of skin tones in the desing choices because even if the racialized skin tone options may not be the most popular, the readers who are racialized should be able to put themselves (or create a character that looks like themselves) in the game.

This one is to be expected: people loves making themselves pretty lol

This split is absolutely not even! If this is unclear: Black is the largest portion with the three browns following it, then blonde, dirty blonde, auburn and then red. I wonder if we combined the brown together in the voting if they would have beat out the black hair...

Tying back to the skin color: this validates the choice we made to make the game inclusive where racialized (and here specifically black people with the ability to pick natural and textured hair). Again someone is allowed to create themselves or someone that looks like them, and it should be a thing that is possible in every game.

For hair, it's a split between ear length and very long, with the other ones getting smaller. Cropped and Very Short are the smallest option, which I personally expected.

So, again, this is tying back to the inclusivity. We inserted the cis options (cis man and cis woman, which are expectedly the biggest choice), however every options has been picked, including [Input my own gender] which means, maybe someone made themselves in the game!

To be expected, but it gets funny in the next slide...

What's your guys' beef with Guts LOL

Funnily enough, a lot of people really love Grant and Shauna, but only one of them is able to survive the prologue. I wonder how many of them made the other one survive while their girl/boyfriend died. Prii being your best friend less than your datefriend is also quite funny to me, to be honest. Also Beth is just trying her best, but I think she's going to up in the polls!

Again, tying back to the inclusivity thingy from above. You are able to have romantic relationships when you are asexual, and sexual relationships when you are romantic in the game, and they will not be locked out because of it. Just so people can actually play the game!

Even-ish, but you guys love being bishonen.

As expected.

Finally...

Oh dear, a lot of you are holding out, uh? We didn't expect that! Then it's Wil (which we kinda figured would be on top), then Mal (understandable) then Kay, CG and Alistair are all even. Finally, Teddie. The curse of being genderlocked... And then, none. Had to include it, cuz, you know. Inclusivity and all!

Anyways, thank you everybody for reading this installment of Polls by Drink your Villain Juice. Please remember to leave the theater quickly before the next screening start!

[youstopmyheartfrom50feets]

Violets for Roses (Part 2)

Part 1:- The Other Woman

Paring:- Remus Lupin x reader, James Potter x reader (formerly).

Trigger warnings:- Cheating/Infidelity, Divorce, kind of villianising Jilly but I love them with all my heart.

Angst/Fluff (Kinda). 5194 words. Longest piece I have ever written. Idk how to feel about this one. Let me know your feedback in the comments. They are really motivating.

Also, if you have any fic ideas, please let me know. I would love to give your ideas a proper shape.

A/N:- Sorry for the delay, I planned on posting part 2 right after the poll ended but I got busy with my college work (I'm starting my 3rd year in law school so my schedule is packed). Anyways, now that I have finally posted, I hope you enjoy this one-shot.<3

Play the above song for better reading experience<3

3rd Person POV

"No! I chose him before." She shouted at her twin, clutching the stuffed bunny tighter in her embrace.

"But I want it!" Lily whined throwing a tantrum.

"No! I won't give it, you didn't want it a minute ago." She protested.

"But I want it now!"

A bitter smile formed on her lips when the memory of their 10th birthday danced in her mind.

Her parents had brought them two stuffed bunnies, one pink and the other one yellow.

Lily had chosen the pink one and Y/N was happy with the yellow one but after a few days when Lily was bored of her toy, she wanted the other bunny, which Y/N had grown fond of. Despite her protests Lily had taken away the bunny that belonged to her.

A simple and silly memory but it held so much significance over the situation both the sisters were in again.

She was still laying on bed, facing the wall without a wink of sleep in her eyes.

All the tears she had formed and preserved in her eyes for the past 5 years of being with James, flowed freely tonight.

Now, she neither had any tears or any energy to spare.

She could see the light of the dawn seeping through the window. She got up from the bed. Her head was pounding and her eyes felt like fire so she decided to get a relaxing shower and headed straight to the bathroom.

When she looked into the mirror, she could barely recognise herself, she saw an exhausted and frail woman with dark circles and chapped lips.

She felt a ball of pain in her throat but her eyes were bone-dry. She had seemed to lose the ability to cry.

She tried to ignore the figure staring back at her from the mirror and started tending herself.

First she took a nice hot shower to fend off the exhaustion from her body. Then she put several potions and creams to make herself look presentable. She applied a potion to give her face a natural glow, a cream that instantly vanishes dark circles and so many more.

After half an hour, she was once again in her old, perfect form. Fiery, red curls complimented her face-cut, her cheeks looked like plump strawberries and lips appeared like soft rose petals, body clad in a beautiful white cardigan and pair of na y blue jeans but there was something off about her appearance. Her emerald eyes lacked the shine they once had. It seemed as if the rivers of sorrow that flowed through them last night took the bright sunshine from them, leaving a gloomy shadow over them.

She climbed down the stairs and glanced at the grandfather clock in the living room. It was 6 in the morning. It was Sunday so James wouldn't wake up before 9 or 10 so she decided to delay the breakfast and go look after her floral garden.

Flowers have always been her favourite creation by mother nature. They were sweet and beautiful, they were like her. She had what many of her friends called a green hand. Whichever plant she potted would grow up to be lush and healthy. She had used this talent to grow a beautiful garden in the backyard of the Potter Manor.

Her garden was now beaming with different colours of roses. But she didn't like roses, they were overly sweet smelling for her. She prepared different colours of bright violets. They were her favourite flowers but James insisted upon planting roses and she did what he asked her to without any questions. It didn't even click her back then, that roses were Lily's favourite.

Shaking her head, she got busy with her gardening but her mind kept on running a series of thoughts. She couldn't decide if she should confront James or if she should act like living in her bubble.

She started contemplating the possible outcomes from both the situations.

If she confronted James, there were two possible outcomes she could expect. First, James would feel guilty and decide to get separated from each other. Second, he would get defensive, and somehow manage to make her believe that she is the one wrong in the situation.

They had been in a similar situation when she has asked him about his past feelings for Lily in their seventh year.

They were in the Gryffindor common room, cuddling by the fireplace. The question had been bugging her for months and she knew she had to ask him or else it'll eat her form inside. It was simple question really,

"Do you still have feelings for Lily?"

To which he had replied in a very aggrevated tone,

"No! Whatever gave you that idea? I did fancy her at one point but now it's only you, y/n/n. No one take your place, it actually hurts me that you still don't trust me."

The next half an hour she had spent trying to convince him that she loved him and trusted him more than herself.

She knew she couldn't confront him. The thought of separating from James made her feel weird and sick in her stomach.

She knew it would be liberating, getting free from a bond that just takes from her and gives her nothing back but she didn't want liberation, she wanted to be imprisoned in his love, she wanted to be her Jamie's prisoner.

But she knew if she kept her feelings within her and act as if nothing's wrong, those jarred emotions will slowly kill her. They will suffocate her until she forgets how to breath.

She knew that if she chose to act as if nothing happened, life would become a living hell where she will degrade herself and stay with the rotting corpse of her dignity but she would get to keep James, even if she wouldn't have him all but at the end of the day, she will be associated with him as his wife and she will carry his name with her in the society.

She had to make a choice. A choice between suffocation and liberation. She was in a dilema but deep within she knew she would choose suffocation.

She was pulled back from her thoughts when she heard the loud crack of apparating that came from the front yard.

Upon reaching the front door, she saw the bright smiling face of her husband's bestfriend, Sirius Black.

"Hey Y/n/n. Sorry for not wishing you yesterday but I gave my wishes to James and told him to give them to you." Sirius explained whilst hugging her.

She had always been fond of Sirius, he was a living ray of sunshine, always bringing happiness with him. He always managed to make her laugh or atleast bring a smile on face. Today was no different. Even in a gloomy state of mind, he managed to make her smile a little.

"So what's in the menu?" Sirius asked plopping down on the couch.

It had become a tradition now. Sirius, James and her always had breakfast together every Sunday. She liked it, she liked to see her husband carefree and cheerful, joking around with his bestfriend. She always prepared a large buffet of breakfast for the three but with all that happened last night, she had forgotten about today.

"You tell me, I haven't started cooking yet." I respond from the kitchen.

"Hey, you know, let's just stall it for now, let James wake up and let him decide, yeah. Now come here and talk to me." Sirius suggested.

She knew he had noticed that something was wrong. Sirius never really asked her to sit down with him and have a talk. Their relationship was casual, she wasn't really a friend to him, she was his bestfriend's wife. Their relationship dynamics was as it was supposed to be so  his suggestion took her by suprise.

"What do you wanna talk about?" She questioned him, eyeing his demeanor.

"Well, I don't know, how was last night, how did you guys celebrate." He asked her carefully.

"There wasn't much left to celebrate as he was he was already drunk when he came home, stop pretending as if you know nothing about it." She let out a bit of her anger and frustration.

"I wasn't with him yesterday, I was with Moony....." Sirius seemed a bit surprised at first but then trailed off mid-sentence.

She would be lying if she said that she wasn't shocked to know that James wasn't with Sirius but then the realisation dawned upon her. He was with Lily last night, the night of their wedding anniversary.

There was a moment of deafening silence when she finally spoke.

"You know about her, don't you?"

Sirius gulped and replied,

"Who are you talking about?"

"Stop pretending Sirius, I know he's having an affair with Lily. He...... He took he-her name in bed last night." She croaked with a heavy voice, tears threatening spill.

Sirius was flabbergasted. He couldn't understand how to reply to that. He just sat there, his head hung low, unable to look into her eyes.

"Back in 6th year, when you made him ask me out, you knew he hadn't moved on from her." She questioned Sirius.

He didn't say anything and just shook his head in yes.

"And yet you let him be in another relationship. Why did you do that Sirius?"

Sirius lifted up his head and she could clearly see the guilt and regret in his eyes.

"I'll not hide anything from you and be honest. Y/N, we thought that you'll be a nice distraction for him and also serve as a jealousy-inducing factor for Lily." Sirius explained.

"But then, when she stood her stance, James thought you'll be the best replacement, so he proposed you." He continued with a quivering voice.

She couldn't do anything but take a long, shuddering breath. She waited for him to continue. To defend himself but as if reading her mind, he said,

"Y/N, I won't defend myself or justify my actions. I won't say that we weren't in our right minds because we knew what we were doing, I knew what I was doing. I could've stopped it, I could've stopped it all. I could've stopped him right there when he suggested you as a rebound, I could've stopped him from proposing you, I could've stopped him from marrying you and ruining your life but I didn't. A part of me thinks because I feel indebted to James. If it weren't for him and his parents, I don't even know if I would be alive, I owe him my life Y/N. But now, I realise that as a friend, I should've stopped him from doing such a big mistake." Sirius poured his heart out, his voice and eyes wet with tears.

There was a heavy silence between them. She didn't know what say. All of this was becoming hard for her to process. She felt the weight of the universe on her chest. Suddenly, Sirius broke the silence.

"I did stop him once, I asked him not to get with Lily behind your back once I got to know about it. He had told me about it after he had spent  a night with her. When he insisted that he was still in love with Lily but couldn't just leave you now that both of your families were involved, so he had decided to go behind your back. Trust me Y/N, I wanted to slap some sense into him but then that feeling of indebtedness came upon me and I did what I had done since I was 11, I agreed with him and supported him."

"Y/N, I won't ask for your forgiveness because I don't deserve it but I want you to know that I feel guilty and I know that I am your criminal and I will forever be sorry to you." Sirius apologized.

"James tells you everything, doesn't he?" She questioned and he nodded his head.

"When and how did all of this start?"

Sirius just stared at her for a moment but then looked away from her and started speaking.

"When the two of you got married, Lily understood that she wanted James. So, she confessed to him about her feelings but James denied her because he really wanted to give you a chance. But now Lily was adamant, so she would try and woe James, using his past feelings against him. She would make suggestive comments, pay extra attention to him during family gatherings, visit him in the ministry and what not. James tried to avoid her until one day he caved in and the both slept together for the first time."

She felt like the world around her was collapsing and she couldn't help but sit in the middle of the apocalypse and watch.

After a few minutes Sirius got up and gathered his jacket, ready to leave.

"Sirius please, at least have breakfast." She pleaded.

"It's ok Y/N. I don't think I can eat or look James or you in the eyes." Sirius reasoned.

"Can I trust you that you won't mention this conversation to James." She inquired.

Sirius smiled a little and said,

"Yes you can, I'm a trustworthy dog."

This made her smile too. She went up to the door to see him off. Before leaving he turned around and said something that would keep her awake for several coming nights.

"I'm sorry Y/N. I should've just let Moony ask you out."

"What do you mean?" She asked with furrowed brows.

"Remus, he liked you, he was too shy to say it out loud, I almost convinced him to ask you out but then you started dating James so he kept quite." Sirius revealed the truth to her.

Those words wreaked havoc inside her. Weirdly enough, It made her stomach flutter. Why did she feel heat on the back of her neck?

"So you helped James to ask me out but also almost convinced Remus to ask me out. What was going in your head Sirius?" She questioned him, frustration laced in her voice.

"I helped James because I felt obliged to do so as a best friend, but I genuinely wanted Remus to date you because I knew he would have really kept you happy." Sirius explained.

"James and him had a huge fight before your wedding. Moony accused him of using you as a replacement and James asked him not to come to the wedding if it bothered him so much." He continued.

"Y/n/n, let go of James. I know it will be difficult for you but staying with James will slowly but surely kill you. Give Moony a chance, he'll show you what real happiness is." Sirius said in a serious voice.

"What if he has moved on?" She voiced her concern.

"He hasn't Y/n/n, I know he hasn't.

With that Sirius apparated with a flick of his wand.

There once again was a storm brewing in her but this time the storm promised to bring enough rain to quench the parched land suffering from drought.

Did Remus really like her? Did the guy who she had a crush on since 3rd year really liked her back.

It was true. She had always been fond of Remus. She even tried dropping hints at him for three consecutive years but when he didn't respond to any, she moved on. But there still was a fragment of her huge crush, hidden in deep, dark corners of her heart.

It seemed like today Sirius had illuminated that corner.

"Who was it?" James' groggy voice brought her back to reality.

"Sirius, he remembered some work so hel left." She lied to James avoiding eye contact.

"Huh, that's unusual but then again it's Padfoot so nothing's really unusual." James chucked.

It pinched her how James is just acting as if nothing drastic happened last night. He probably doesn't even remember what happened last night.

His presence, his voice, his existence was making it difficult to forget about last night.

All she could remember was how he moaned her name. She also remembered how he let her touch him last night. Only that the gesture wasn't meant for her, it was meant for Lily. It crushed her soul knowing that her husband forbade her from touching him while intercourse but let her sister touch him, provide her with the intimacy which belonged to her.

However, she decided to go with the flow as she was unable to fanthom the gravity of the situation she was thrown into overnight.

This haze went on for two weeks. Their anniversary was on 12th of January, today was 28th.

These two weeks were life-changing for her. She slowly kept loosing all the affection she held for James.

They say that it's easy fall in love but difficult to get out of it but she didn't feel the same.

Yes she fell for James easily but getting out of it didn't seem difficult. It hurt no doubt but slowly she had almost lost all the love and adoration she had for James. Now, she had nothing for him. She didn't hate him or dispise him but she didn't love him either. She had become numb towards him.

She shared her feelings with Sirius, who almost regularly visited her. They had grown quite close and she cherished this new-found friendship.

When she told him about her indifference towards James, he had remained quiet for a while and then asked her a question.

"What made you fall for him?"

She was taken by surprise because she didn't' know what made her fall for her husband.

After thinking about it the whole night she had come to the conclusion that she fell for James because of the extravagant efforts he would put into pleasing Lily and show his love for her. That's when she noticed him, and unbeknownst to her, she fell in love with the man who would go to any extent to show his love for his women. She craved that kind of love and when James asked her out, she saw a little ray of hope that she might get her portion of unconditional love from James.

When she didn't get that kind of affection from James, her mind created a bubble of false comfort that James loved her just like she wanted him to as a coping mechanism. This bubble was the reason she showered him with wholehearted affection and zeal because she thought he did so as well.

But since her bubble had burst, she knew James didn't really love her, so automatically her love for him diminished too.

Ever since she had accepted the fact that she was out of love with James, the world around her changed. She changed. The colours become brighter and she became more beautiful. She started caring for herself, cooking dishes that she liked and not just what James did. She started getting ready and dressed up, not for impressing James but because she wanted to.

It was as if she the moment she fell out of love with him, she fell back in love with herself.

She suddenly didn't feel like suffocating in her big house, she felt that there was a crack in her cage, letting in some fresh air. She would imagine her self roaming the streets of Hogsmeade, people around her happy and satisfied with their lives, a never-ending spring that brings nothing but joy.

Though, often while thinking of the outside world, she would see a man peering at her from the corners of the streets. A tall man with tawny hair and scarred face.

He had constantly been in her thoughts ever since Sirius told her about his liking for her. She had let go of any feelings she had for Remus back in Hogwarts, and now, somewhere it felt illegal to think about him. Whatever the situation is, that doesn't change the fact that he was still her husband's very close friend, though their contacts were limited.

But whenever she would allow herself to sway a little, she would remember the times they spent hours in the library, studying, chatting and giggling, how Remus would sneak her out of the castle to go to the Honeydukes sweet shop.

These memories would make her open to a possibility where they could do all of this again but with a little more intimacy.

There still were a million thoughts in her head but they didn't weigh her down.

She was lost in her thoughts, doing some household chores when the doorbell rang. She wasn't expecting anyone, 10 o'clock on a Monday morning.

When she opened the door, her eyes met with a pair of amber ones. Those eyes held a large amount of hope in them.

"Remus?" That was all she could whispered with a hollow voice.

"Hey dove, can I come in?" Remus greeted her with his usual charming smile.

Dove. That was the nickname Remus used for her all the time. Early on it use to be endearing but today, it made her stomach flutter, the same way it would when James called her 'love'.

"Yeah sure, come in." She let him in the house, taking him to the living room.

"What will you have, tea or coffee?" She asked him politely.

"You know neither right, I always prefer hot chocolate over the two." He smiled at her.

A big smile took its place on her lips too. He hadn't changed one bit.

She prepared two hot cups of cocoa and sit sat on the sofa chair in front of him.

"So, what took you two years to come visit me?" She taunted him slightly.

"I had my reasons and I guess you know them." Remus answered looking in her eyes.

"I'll cut to the chase y/n/n, Sirius told me about your unhappy marriage and I know what I am about to do is wrong and as a friend to James I shouldn't do it but as your bestfriend I have to. Dove, leave him." Remus said all of this in one single breath.

She kept quite as she knew he wasn't quite done yet.

"Y/n, I have...... I have loved you for years. Dove I wanted to ask you-."

"I know Rem, I know everything." She smiled at him softly.

"You do?" Remus was taken aback. He never told about his feelings to anyone except......

"Sirius played matchmaker again but this time with the right person." She explained.

She was in a constant war with herself on Remus's topic for the past two weeks but seeing him today ended the war in the favour of eternity with Remus.

"Rem, I think I wanna breath again, I wanna be free. I wanna be yours. I wanna be with you." She confessed.

She could see the happiness flooding his eyes and before she knew it, she was in his tight embrace. His hug felt like fire on a cold winter evening. She wanted to melt into him and be their forever.

"Wait a second." She went upstairs to get something.

She came back with a big envelope in her hand. Remus could see the shiny ministry logo on it. It was a legal document. He had his guesses as to what it could be.

"This is my gift for Lily. It's our birthday in a few days and I'm gonna gift her my husband." She stated.

"Dove, do you mind me asking what lead you to realise he was the wrong person for you. I mean, didn't you guys celebrate your wedding anniversary a few days ago." Remus asked.

"Yeah we did. That very night, he said her name when he was in bed with me."

Her words weren't explicit but Remus understood what she meant.

"Dove...." Remus whispered sympaticaly.

"Don't be sympathetic Rem, I'm actually glad this happened early on in our marriage and not late into it. James and I never belonged together, he belongs with Lily and I am the only obstacle in between them. Soon, I'll clear their path." She had confidence in her voice.

"Remus, I want you there, during my birthday." She insisted.

"Ofcourse." He replied sincerely.

After a few minutes of chatting, Remus left with a sweet kiss on her forehead.

She could still feel his lips lingering on her. It felt good.

The rest two days, she spent organising a small party with only their close friends.

The day before her birthday, James had an 'important work' out of town and had to stay there overnight. She knew what important work he had. He wanted to be there with Lily at the midnight to be the first one to wish her.

She didn't mind though because of her numbness toward James. She didn't even insist him to stay.

As promised, James had returned in the evening for her party. He entered with Lily by her side.

"Look who I brought." He had said enthusiastically.

The party wasn't a wild one but everyone who came enjoyed.

She had only invited close friends, whom she imagined knew about James and Lily. There were the Marauders, Frank and Alice, Marlene, Dorcas and Mary.

The party went on for a long time and after cutting the cake, everyone started giving out presents. At the last, only the birthday girls had to give each other their presents.

Lily had bought her a beautiful heart shaped locket which smelled like her favourite colone.

It was now her turn to give Lily her gift.

So y/n/n what did you get me?" Lily asked her.

She looked at Lily, then James and then towards Remus. He smiled at her and gave her a nod.

"Just a second." She replied and went upstairs in her bedroom.

When she returned, she had a big envelope in her hamds. With thudding heartbeats, she approached her twin. She handed over the envelope to Lily and whispered,

"Happy Birthday Lils."

Lily smiled at her and started opening her gift.

She held her breath with anticipation and waited for Lily to read the papers.

When Lily looked up, she had tears in her eyes.

"Y/n/n, why would you do this." She whispered with a teary voice.

Maybe it's the twin thing or maybe it's her old habit of crying if a person in front of her cries but she could feel tears prick in her eyes.

She took a long breath and spoke,

"It's for the best Lily, I wanna be free, I want to be able to breathe again." She explained.

The atmosphere of the room had suddenly changed, James had gotten worried seeing both sisters cry.

"What is it Lily, what are the papers about?"

James enquired.

"They're our divorce papers James. I'm leaving you so that you both don't have to sneak behind my back anymore. You two can now be together without me coming in between." She said, trying to control her crying voice.

"WHAT?! Have you lost your mind Y/n, what are you talking about, who provoked you? James yelled, side-eyeing Remus.

"Nobody provoked me James, it's just something that happened that cleared my doubts." She explained in a calm tone.

"What happened?" James demanded.

"You wouldn't want me to say this in front of your friends."

No I want you to tell me the reason, I don't care if it's in front of my friends, you've already created a scene, what's the worst that could happen."

"Fine, you want the reason, so here's the reason. On the night of our anniversary, you moaned my sister's name in my ear while making love to me." She stated sternly.

James didn't say anything and just hung his head low. He doesn't remember anything of such sort but he knows that he must've done it.

"James, I don't hate you for this, I could never hate you, it's just that I don't love you anymore. So staying with you will be a waste of time and energy for both of us. Lily, I don't have any hard feelings for both of you either. You'll always remain my favourite sister and that's why I want to see you happy. I know you'll be happy with James."

"What about mom and dad and what about Fleamont and Euphemia, they'll be heartbroken." Lily sniffled.

"Should've thought about that before cheating on your sister Lily." She sighed.

"Tell them it was my fault, that I didn't want to stay with you anymore. I've signed the papers and given my testimony to the ministry officer. You'll have to do the same and the procedure will be over." She addressed James.

"Can't we work this out?" He asked her sincerely, not meeting her eyes.

"We don't need to James, I'm not mad at you. James, we both are two different people. I didn't realise this earlier because I didn't wanted to. I really wanted you to love me the same way you love her. But you traded my violets for her roses. You wanted y/n to be Lily. The things that you love are the things I hate. It's simple James, I'm choosing this life. I'm choosing myself."

With that being said, she got up, went upstairs to get her already packed suitcase and left the Potter Manor once and for all. She apparated straight to Remus's house.

Remus followed her shortly but before leaving he had to say what he wanted to say for the past five years. Remus looked into James' eyes and said,

"I can keep her happier than you ever did and I will. No hard feelings mate."

With that he apparated back to his house as well.

When they finnally sat down on Remus's couch, she looked at him.

He had nothing but pure adoration for her in his eyes.

"Can I kiss you dove?" He whispered quietly.

She didn't say anything but leaned into him. Their lips fit each other like puzzle pieces and the bliss she experienced was like never before.

At that moment, Remus did make her happier than James ever did.

One Year Later

There's something in the air of Hogsmeade. It felt fresh and sweet. Maybe it's the first summer breeze. Summer was her favourite season.

She didn't want this sweetness to change, she wanted it be real, she wanted it to be beginning of something happening.

"You ready dove?" Remus's sweet voice came from behind her.

"Yes" She replied taking in a deep breath.

They both held eachother's hands and apparated to the same barn where she married James.

The wheat field shone like gold under the sunlight.

"The camera's all set, let's do it." She excitedly.

They both sat down on the ground, the sun shining over them and looked deep into each other eyes.

Y/n then thought to herself that she won't be all alone, she'll always have her Rem by her side.

--------x----------x---------x------

[loving-n0t-heyting]

Hi! So, seeing you in my notes reminded me that I meant to ask you about that Instrumentality poll. Being as I am tumblr user 人類補完計画, I have, asyoumightimagine, a lot of interest in the topic, and I'd be very curious to hear *your* thoughts on Shinji's choice - in part because you mentioned in the tags that you were wondering whether your take aligned with the consensus view, but also because I feel like you're among the most distinctive & intellectually honest philosophical voices I've encountered on here, and I do wonder how your faith, along with your overall view on things, influences your take(s) re:EoE.

I was going to wait until the poll finally closed but i think its been plateauing for a couple of days now anyway so i might as well. This is all going to be pretty vague and mysticism-y ofc, especially given the vagueness and mysticism of the source material itself, and im going off of memory on top of that (i am not putting myself thru the emotional hurdle of rewatching EoE just for a post, sorry)

So, first off, my interpretation of shinjis ultimate choice is to reject instrumentality for all of humanity, to retain our ATFs and our individuality. And i lean towards thinking this was a mistake, on his part. I sometimes see ppl suggest that he offered everyone a choice to either join or refuse instrumentality, but i tend to think this is just projection; idr anything in the text to clearly support this

Im not really sure how to go about arguing for this position directly, beyond rebutting objections. To the extent we are given a clear explanation of what an ATF is, it is smth like the secrecy of our own thoughts and desires and personality; ie, others ignorance of those things. Ignorance is a terrible thing, just generally, in itself! Like impotence. Its terrible in proportion to the importance/value of the things one is ignorant of, and ppl are about the most valuable things there are. Thats much of whats so bad about death, which is why it makes perfect sense the dead get to join in HI as well. So, putting it all together, the presence of ATFs is a terrible imposition, and their removal thru HI is a great blessing, maybe even the greatest possible blessing. And this shows itself in the end of strife and discord and the beginning of real unity of spirit and will, but its already present in the mere dissolution of interpersonal ignorance

The narrative itself frames this as an erasure of individuality, but im not sure how to understand this. Is the idea supposed to be that we would not survive the loss of our ATFs? Im not sure thats even intelligible: the loss of our ATFs is just the lifting of certain kinds of ignorance or, in other words, the instilling of certain kinds of knowledge. Knowledge in whom? In those undergoing human instrumentality. So clearly we survive HI, if it involves us coming into knowledge, and thus being around to know these things. Is this supposed to mean our distinctive contributions to the diversity of human experience etc would all be destroyed in favour of some uniform replacement? I dont see why that would be necessary; we can certainly imagine ways ppls varying idiosyncratic quirks can all "make it into" some sufficiently rich collaborative work. Why should HI not be the same? I suppose the fact it involves everyones bodies into a homogeneous sea of yellow goop speaks against this, but my inclination is to read this as a sort of pupal stage from which a mature instrumentalised humanity can emerge. Tho thats admittedly a bit of a reach

Theres yet another negative interpretation of the "destruction of individuality" i sometimes hear: that it would somehow rob us each of our agency and ability to shape the world in accord with our desires and beliefs. This goes along with a worry that the inauguration of HI would necessarily be a violation of consent and mental autonomy, which strikes me as misguided for much the same reason. Our ignorance of one another is not an individual condition of oneself in particular one can opt in or out of irrespective of the choices of others; if my not being able to retsin my ATF is a violation of my "autonomy", why is my retaining my ATF not in turn a violation of the autonomy of the others being thereby kept ignorant of my deepest self? Mutual ignorance of one anothers mental states (including that very ignorance) is in no interesting way reducible to the ignorant subjects each having certain "individual" or "intrinsic" or "internal" states that can individually and unilaterally be shifted without affecting those of the others; it is an "external" relation. So thinking about HI in terms of individual, unilaterally revocable consent is confused; the fact it is changing is irreducibly collective, and thus consent to it and only be given or refused collectively if at all. Hopefully thats not too opaque

This reply feeds into my answer to the worry about the dilution of ones agency and control over the world. This objection makes sense against a background view on which, for an agent A to control the answer to a question Q and a distinct agent A* to control the answer to a question Q*, Q and Q* must be modally independent: any answer to the latter must be compossible with any answer to the former. Or that, if this isnt true, this is bc As control over Q or A*s over Q* must be only "limited" or "partial" or w/e. My rejection of this assumption (which is i think what lies behind the last objection about autonomy) is probably my deepest, most abstract anti-liberal commitment. Its a conception of control or freedom that i think ultimately requires a debilitatingly narrow view of what full freedom could look like, or of what facts can amount to states of a person. (For example, i think it prolly requires you to say that knowing that the sun rises, a property entailing the "external" fact that the sun rises, is not actually a state of a person, in some important sense, rather than smth like a conjunction of a state of a person and a state of the horizon/sun.) But going all the way into this would probably take a lengthy book; mb i will try to work it out slightly more precisely at some point tho

You asked how my feeling about EoE connect with my faith, and broader view of the world. This illiberal assumption is close to the heart of it. I am always tempted in this context to quote marxs comments in the 1848 manuscripts about the whole of nature being the "inorganic body of man", and i dont think im alone in seeing connections between those passages and remarks like pauls about the mystical body of the church ("So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another." Now there is smth for mereologists to chew on!!) And this is a trend you see elsewhere in the Christian tradition, like dantes description of the celestial eagle in paradiso xviii-xx. I was surprised, when talking to an atheist friend about my tentative support for HI, that they said my christianity made sense of my disagreement with them about this point; not bc i dont think theres a connection but bc idt of these emphases on the unity of the mystical body as particularly prominent in outsiders impressions of Christian belief

Anyway, hopefully that was at least somewhat illuminating. Thx for the kind words ^^

[tamamatango]

“Keroro Gunsgo To The Polls”: The Possible Behind-the-Scenes of the Ad-nime Short Nobody Expected

A much less existentially depressing display of political campaign buffoonery.

Here’s yet another unplanned post from me. The other long-form ones I was talking about before I keep putting off because of work and also another pretty ambitious project I’m putting together taking my attention—I don’t know how or when to talk about it here juuuuust yet, but it exists in public and some of you already know what it is/have seen it, so stay tuned perhaps.

As you can see from the video link/photo, this post is a writeup about a surprise video apparently commissioned by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government that uses the Keroro characters to encourage young people to go out and vote in the upcoming elections for the Governor of Tokyo. It came out about a week ago, but I initially glossed over it because…well, I thought it wasn’t new. After all, the copyright DOES attribute the copyright to 2014 and it looks very similar to the Flash anime at first glance, so…this must be a reupload from the 2014 Tokyo gubernatorial election or something, right?

Upon looking more deeply into it, no. There’s no record of this ever existing before this week, and it was later confirmed to be new via social media channels. Which means this is technically a brand new piece of animated Keroro content, which I pledged I would report on. So here I am. Whoopee.

This post is going to be about the short from a production standpoint, primarily. I’m not going to spend time on the plot (if you want to call it that lol), as it was already pretty succinctly summarized by this post here by @unfo11owmelol , and I can say it’s more or less accurate, so thank you! I will make a comment in that the Dororo ranting about plastic thing seems to just be a running gag he has now—he was always an environmentalist of course, but his hatred of plastic specifically is kind of new; it was even a major punchline in this month’s manga chapter. In fact, this short has the manga’s quirks written all over it. It’s almost as if Yoshizaki himself was heavily involved in it. Oh wait, he was. But we’ll get to that.

The Context

As previously mentioned, this short was commissioned by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and posted exclusively to their YouTube channel. This is where I was going to have a few sentences about how it was literally exclusively on the YouTube channel because none of the official social media accounts posted about it, but as I was writing the last 40% of the post, Keroro PR and one of the Tokyo government accounts finally mentioned it. So give a pat on the back to ol’ Kirb’s amazing procrastination abilities. Anyways, for the whole week before they finally decided to acknowledge its existence, it literally just dropped on YouTube with no warning and the only reason anybody on social media knew about it is because people whose YT feeds it popped up on were like hey what the fuck is this.

“What the fuck is this” is a pretty good question. While the fact that it’s about the gubernatorial election specifically isn’t directly mentioned in the video, it was pretty obvious given the timing, as it’s set to occur on July 7. I am not the most knowledgeable about Japanese politics as a whole, but this year’s race for governor is apparently particularly competitive, with over 50 candidates running. Here’s a short article giving a rundown of the race so far. The top issue is unsurprisingly the low birthrate, which has been causing panic over the fate of Japan’s economy for a considerably long time now. That’s why the government is very concerned that the voter disparity is incredibly polarizing, with young people voting much less than the elderly.

Well, what better way to fix low youth vote turnout than with anime? After all, the Zillenials want nothing more than to obsess over fictional characters while the world crumbles around them into inevitable disrepair I’m not projecting at all. The irony here is that, when the anime was originally in its prime at least, Keroro’s target audience was elementary schoolers. Indeed, the short definitely has the aura of a PSA they’d show to children, but obviously children are not voting. There’s even a point in the video where Tamama says going to the polling place is an opportunity to visit your childhood school, which is a statement more relatable to young adults. I guess at this point the main audience for Keroro really is considered to be the people who grew up with it in their child/teen years—unless the actual new anime gets a primetime kids’ TV slot, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Considering this is the most viewed PSA about the election on their YouTube channel by far, I guess it worked to an extent? It’s currently hovering just under 20k views, which isn’t really too much in the grand scheme. But now that it’s been officially shared on social media, perhaps that’ll give it a boost. Will most of these viewers actually go out to vote is the question…

Production staff peculiarities

As with any animated Keroro content following the end of the Flash anime—which until the new show airs has basically just been this, the new project announcement trailer, and some anti-piracy ad they were doing in movie theaters that they ironically scrubbed from the internet—BN Pictures is credited as the animation studio (though the studio Sugarless Factory assisted; they pretty much exclusively do production assistance for various projects). This is interesting because it looks completely unlike anything they’ve ever done. Unless I’m missing something, none of the anime they’ve produced before have been done in a similar Flash-like style.

Now, as we Internet addicts all know, Flash has been officially dead for a few years now. However, it might still be used very rarely in lowkey web animations like this, although a friend who knows more about anime production than I do told me even those are more commonly made using Live2D now. The credits for this short are very…short, but the director and a couple of other animators worked on a particular Flash-animated series called Oshiri Kajiri Mushi (“Bottom Biting Bug”) that first aired on the TV channel NHK in 2012. I’m guessing these staff are freelance, as that show was produced by the studio Kinema Citrus (a team founded by ex-members of Production I.G and Bones), and were possibly brought on to this short because they had experience with the software. If it is animated using something like Live2D, the experience still applies, as it’s apparently more similar to Flash than something more commonly used in anime like Clip Studio Paint. The director also has 3D CG credits and there is a credit here for “motion” that includes his name, so maybe a little of that was used as well. (Wouldn’t be able to tell myself—most experience I have with 3D animation is a one semester Maya course I took in high school lol).

Curiously, despite the potentially similar animation software and very similar artstyle + color palette, none of the animation staff, as far as I can tell, worked on the 2014 Flash anime. That is, except for…Mine Yoshizaki.

On all animated Keroro media, Yoshizaki’s primary official credit is “original creator,” of course. As the series creator, he would of course participate to a degree in most things related to the 2004 series, doing stuff like sitting in on some writing and recording sessions, contributing ideas/concept art here and there, and so on. There’s actually a Newtype article from around the announcement of the first movie I dug up that was officially translated into English, in which Yoshizaki talks about the pressure of being in that role. Most mangaka interviews I’ve seen about their involvement in their works’ anime adaptations are pretty overwhelmingly positive, but he was definitely more mixed. This might be a post for another day, since I have some speculations about his relationship to the anime as a whole. Damn, I need to stop coming up with essay ideas that are probably too big for my pea brain.

Anyway, Yoshizaki was quite a bit more involved in the 2014 series. He served as one of two people responsible for series composition (scriptwriting), though that could be because the Flash anime was a much more direct adaptation of the manga than the original anime, which might as well have been an entirely different series. IIRC, some episodes of Flash were literally 1:1 with the manga’s script…so I guess that counts as writing the anime too lol. He also storyboarded a few episodes and wrote the opening theme song’s lyrics. The next Keroro animation after that was the anti-piracy theater ad in 2021, which he storyboarded for. But you’ll notice with all the credits we’ve discussed so far that he was never involved with the animation proper past the storyboarding stage…until now!

Not only was Yoshizaki credited as original creator as usual, he also did directorial supervision, storyboarding, and was a key animator—the only key animator, in fact! I know it’s just a five-minute short, but the Flash series’s episodes were even shorter than that and had multiple key animators per episode, so this is kind of a big deal. It also might explain why the character designs look just a little bit more on-model to the manga designs than Flash’s did, even though they look almost identical at a cursory glance. It’s easiest to tell by looking at the less-rounded head shapes, plus a few minor details like Tamama’s eye highlights and the bridge of Kururu’s glasses. I am very normal, how could you tell?

So yeah, this makes this short the most Yoshizaki has ever been involved with the actual animation process. I can’t say it gives him the most additional credits, as it’s tied with the Flash series for three extra, but it’s something!

Closing out the staff section, some notes about the cast. As you might expect, the usual actors reprise their roles. Most notably, Mamiko Noto is back to play Mois for what I believe (unless I’m missing a random collab or something) is her first time in the role in ten years, and she pretty much didn’t miss a beat! In addition to Fuyuki and Natsumi’s VAs playing them recently at the Keroro expo, that’s three additional voices besides the Keroro Platoon’s that presumably are still going to be able to return for the new anime.

Otherwise, the platoon sounds pretty much like they did in the anniversary trailer and various other small projects like the anti-piracy ad and Tales of the Rays collab from last year (they each had multiple spoken lines there). Keroro sounds a tad deeper; Tamama has some of the Jibanyan nasal now; Giroro didn’t really talk much but sounds mostly the same; Dororo is also a bit deeper and sounds kinda awkward but I think that’s less the voice direction and more Yoshizaki possibly wrote the dialogue and he speaks more assertively in the manga lol; Kururu sounds literally the exact same because Koyasu is a magic man.

Made in [Insert Year]?? (Ft. A lesson in trademarking)

I mentioned this at the beginning of this post, but for a solid few days, I really thought this video was just an ancient (2014 feels ancient now anyway) reupload. After all, the copyright string says 2014, and only media produced during the Flash series era has that copyright year, so I brushed it off. Here, let me show you all the anime copyright strings per the current anime portal:

There’s no 2004 date on the TV series’s copyright, probably because it covers the entire series from 2004–2011, plus now 2024 onward (and possibly the anti-piracy ad from 2021 as well), and also most anime-branded merch and things. But when the show was airing proper, it was attributed to 2004 (you can see this in the opening credits of any season). The 2006–2010 dates are for each individual movie. And there’s the 2014 copyright that’s the exact same as the video’s, though here it is for the Flash anime, as there’s pictures of it on the anime portal site. As an aside, before 2015, Sunrise was listed instead of BNP. At some point all anime rights got retroactively transferred from Sunrise Inc. to BNP—not sure how or when exactly that occurred. For the movies, there were slight shakeups in the production committee as well (you can see my new project trailer analysis for more on that kind of stuff).

As you can see, copyright strings for the series are attributed to the year each individual “product” came out in, for the most part. But now we know that this ad is brand new. So…does this mean this political ad is counted as part of the Flash anime? They obviously didn’t plan to include this specific video ten years ago (unless Kadokawa bought out an oracle or something, wouldn’t surprise me). Maybe they left the door open to more episodes of the Flash anime proper, but that isn’t what this was advertised as.

Well, I have a theory. A theory that might be totally wrong, but a theory nonetheless. Let’s go on a massive tangent about the Japanese trademark system! (Disclaimer: I have no formal training in the legal field. I just have really weird research hobbies.)

I’m going to focus on two basic principles here. First, once trademarks in Japan are officially registered, they are active for ten years before the copyright applicant must reapply to renew ownership of the trademark for another ten years. Second, trademarks have to be filed under certain classifications that basically tell the JPO (Japan Patent Office) what goods and/or services the applicant plans to use the trademark for. This means that sometimes the same trademark will be filed multiple times for different use classes. The classifications are each given a two digit class number, which is further subdivided into five-character group code(s).

You can actually search through all public patents yourself on J-PlatPat, and the site is machine translated into English (though you still have to type the copyright you’re looking for in Japanese). Let’s take a look at the three different filings for ケロロ軍曹 (just the name of the series itself, not the logo).

I’m on my phone so I couldn’t fit the entire window, but the important information is here. Kadokawa Corporation is the filer for all of these, though Yoshizaki’s name is probably also on whatever application documents they sent, which aren’t viewable. The three versions of the trademark were filed on different dates about a year apart. You’ll see that class 16 is there twice. For the first filing, it was class 16 and multiple group codes designating different kinds of goods (class 28 also contains goods-related things); the second filing covers a single group code protecting “printed matter” (presumably this was to cover any physical distributions of the manga).

I’m going to take a closer look at the third filing, which was officially registered in 2004. Class 09 covers a shitload of different goods and services, like way too many to list. What I’m thinking is that the first set of goods trademarks filed in 2001 was just to cover the kind of stuff they’d attach to issues of Shonen Ace and volume releases as giveaways—paper goods, board game-type items, and toys/dolls are all covered under it. Then in 2003, in preparation for the inevitable merchandise and collaboration dump the anime would lead to, they opened the floodgates to literally any Material Thing they could think to cover. Like, I’m pretty sure we never got any Keroro-branded egg candlers, fire alarms, or “cigar lighters for automobiles”, but might as well cover all your bases. Wouldn’t want the local fire department handing out emergency gear with your cartoon frog on it without permission, you know.

Included among these materials are some items that might be a bit more relevant to our case here. There’s a number of clauses related to physical and digital film, photography, and other media: “CD-ROM and DVD and other recording media, electronic publications, downloadable music, downloadable image[s]”. Now, while this doesn’t cover “animation” specifically, it can possibly be stretched to fit that definition. This is especially because, in Japanese, the term the MTL output as “images” is actually eizou, which can refer to both images and video.

So, the version of the trademark registered for the brand in 2004 likely covers certain media-related things. There are other classes that include the word “animation” specifically, but it’s possible that those classes weren’t classified the same way back then as they are now, and maybe anything film-related could’ve been interpreted by the law to include animation. Nowadays, though there are specific classifications for animation, specifically “animation available for download.” This subgroup actually happens to fall under class 09, though other classes contain similar items as well, such as class 41. You can search classes by number or keyword if you’re curious about this.

As I pointed out before I presented this data, all of these particular filings are for specifically ケロロ軍曹, not ケロロ. If ケロロ is to be used in isolation, it would have to be specified as such in the registration data, because what’s actually stopping someone else from coming along and trademarking just ケロロ? Now, remember the name of the Flash anime? That’s right—ケロロ. Just “Keroro”, not “Keroro Gunso.” Incidentally, this video is actually not formally titled under ケロロ軍曹 (despite what the thumbnail says). The only name in the title of the actual video is ケロロ.

So here is my theory. Maybe it’s a hypothetical, but I’m going to treat it like it’s concrete for argument’s sake. In 2014, to prepare for the Flash anime and related branding, Kadokawa filed for the trademark ケロロ—individually, without 軍曹. Because it was the 2010s at that point, it’s possible that downloadable animation was more specifically defined in the group codes filed for, even though the Flash anime did air on TV (again, the strategy to this is about covering as many potential use cases as possible for maximum copyright protection). Maybe it was under class 09, maybe it was another class, or even more than one. For whatever reason, the trademark is not publicly available. But because of what kind of animation/video/whatever that specific trademark covers, this little election video is covered under that 2014 trademark.

You might recall how I said trademarks have to be renewed every ten years. Incidentally, it just so happens that 2014 was ten years ago. Most likely, the (secret?) trademark was recently renewed so that stuff like this would be allowed to be made and can continue to be made in the future, independently from “Keroro Gunso” as defined by the 2004-verse and the manga proper. And because 2014 is the original filing year of that trademark, that is the year that is displayed with this project, even if the trademark was renewed in 2024, or some other recent year. By the way, all the ケロロ軍曹 trademarks I covered were also renewed this decade, so Kadokawa can keep on doing whatever exactly they were doing with those. There’s probably even more hidden-from-public-view trademarks, who knows, there’s a thousand potential asterisks here but you get the picture.

Fascinating, isn’t it? As I said, it’s possible that I’m just talking out of my ass and all of this is either way more simple or way more complicated than I’m making it out to be, in which case I just wasted multiple paragraphs of your time. But hey, at least it was a fun lesson, right? I’m not the only one interested in this, right? RIGHT?!?!?!

Okay, I’m just about done here, but I’m going to tell you something plot twisty. Do you know what actually first clued me in to the fact that this was not made in 2014 before it was confirmed to be the case? Not the upload date. Not the fact that nobody ever talked about it prior to a week ago. Not even all the probably useless copyright shit I just spent a whole other post’s worth of words on.

It was this part of the video:

See, in this screenshot, if you look really closely, you’ll notice that Kururu is using an iPhone parody with three cameras. The first iPhones with three cameras were released in 2019. Therefore, this could not have been made in 2014. This stupid detail is what it took to get me to think about this video for more than thirty seconds.

Thank you, Kururu’s crippling iPhone addiction.

So yeah, go out and vote or whatever, wherever you guys are. Otherwise you’ll have to look Mois in the eyes and tell her no, and that will make her very sad, and she might blow up the planet as consequence. Not that the planet isn’t already being destroyed. Any of my fellow Americans want to join me for a screaming session following the last few days of federal fuckery? I’ll bring chocolate-covered pretzels to snack on and we’ll write the names of corporate lobbyists on them, it’ll be fun.

[snakebites-and-ink]

Whumper-Turned-Caretaker CYOA 10

CW for the series | Masterlist

You chose to chat some more.

You’re gonna try to hopefully get to know them better. For someone you’ve been around so much, you know little about them. You didn’t exactly keep them around to talk with.

What do you want to learn? Hobbies are a good place to start, right? Not overly personal, and maybe something you could use to make them a bit happier. "So, Whumpee, what do you like to do for fun?"

They hesitate, most likely cautious about having their answer used against them.

"There's no trick, I'd just like to know," you reassure.

“I, um, like to read, I guess sir,” they answer timidly.

“Alright, cool. What kinds of things do you like to read?”

"Anything, really, but especially sci-fi."

You make a mental note. Maybe you'll make a library trip later. 

You avoid the deep stuff for now; you don’t want to undermine whatever hesitant trust you’ve managed to build up with them by making them relive their capture or reminding them of the things they’ve missed most because of you. You tell them your favorite color and find out theirs is green, and you get a bit of a better idea what kinds of foods they like.

You stifle a yawn. Probably means it's time to figure out Whumpee's sleeping arrangements.

There’s a spare room they could stay in, but it doesn’t have a proper bed currently. You do have an air mattress you could get out and inflate. You’d really rather not give up your own bed, though maybe you wouldn’t mind sharing.

Taglist: @kabie-whump, @whumpanthems, @whumpsoda, @3-2-whump, @generic-whumperz,

@taterswhump, @alivenova, @whumped-by-glitter, @expressionless-fr, @whumpycries,

@whumpsday, @moons-cozy-corner, @echo-goes-aaa, @whumplr-reader, @starfields08000,

@whump-blog, @ivymyers, @currentlyinthesprial, @lumpofsand, @coffin-hopping,

@sunglasses-in-the-bentley, @catnykit

*Note: This may not be the final version of this chapter. I'm feeling sick right now so I'm doubting my current writing abilities/brainpower and I might come back and revise this once I'm feeling better. The general idea will at least be the same. But I'm putting it out as-is for now so the poll duration constraints don't shift the whole updating schedule to be late because of one bad day*

[oc-poll-tournament]

OC Poll Tournament Round 1 Poll 6

Propaganda below the cut:

Eddie Alfaro (she/her) @calicohyde: Eddie Alfaro, she/her. Eddie is the third person narrator of my horror WIP Curse The Messenger, about her and her sibling Fred using their clairvoyant abilities to solve a paranormal murder. Eddie has premonitions in her sleep, where she dreams from the point of view of someone else as they die. She has severe PTSD and Survivor's Guilt from this! Because of that, and because of her grief for her missing parents, she struggles with alcohol dependence.

Normally, Eddie and Fred only solve the typical kinds of Private Investigator cases - theft, infidelity, etc. They are mistrusted in their community because of their gifts, as other witches tend to think clairvoyants are mentally unstable and dangerous. In the novel, they get their first - and only - murder case when Jessica Hase, a secular (non-magical) femme fatale, brings them the very weird case of her girlfriend's death. Throughout the novel, Eddie falls in love with Jessica, starts attending an alcoholics' support group, learns to use her gift to see the positive aspects of death, and tentatively starts to repair her strained relationship with Fred. And solves the murder, of course.

Eddie is Latina, 24 years old, and a butch lesbian. She likes sporty punk fashion, cuts her own hair, and doesn't shave or wear makeup. Her favorite color is red and her favorite flavor is cinnamon.

Chess (she/her) @concealeddarkness13 (the picture for her is made by the wonderful @drabbleitout, and she is the person on the left with the prosthetics in the picture): Chess is a special character, and I hope to show how special and awesome she is! She’s extremely distrustful, but she’ll trust people who even treat her with an ounce of decency, and she’ll protect the people she cares about with her life. She’s flirty and confident, but underneath, she has an abysmal amount of self esteem and thinks she’s a monster that will never have love or friendships. She is my blorbo who has been rotating in my mind for the past two years, and I hope you can love her as well! Someone described her in one of the AUs I’ve done as oscillating “between being a poor, wet little meow meow and a fierce feral protective lioness being held back by the scruff of her neck because she is still little”. (credits to @ratracechronicler)

She did start out with a loving family, but like all good protagonists, her parents were murdered when she was 10, and she was left alone. Especially because the society she lives in ignores violent crimes and the victims of those crimes, erasing them all from society as if they never existed. So, she technically didn’t exist in society’s eyes, so she couldn’t get a job or own property or anything. The people around her helped her for a few years until she was old enough to take care of herself, and then she learned to steal.

At twenty years old, she was kidnapped and forced into prosthetics experiments that gave her fire magic that hurts her, from her prosthetic right arm and left leg now. She has a magic fire in her lungs that flares up during physical or mental stress and burns her throat and makes her cough up smoke. Aeflin, the person running the experiments, believed her to be very strong (because she snarked at Aeflin so much and didn’t let her see her pain as much as possible), so she decided to make Chess into her weapon.

She changed her name (since Chess’s original name was Ezra) to Chess, and she put her through even worse torture. Finally, Naivi, the other person running the experiments, got Chess her own team and sent her out into the world to do what the experiments were for and to get her away from Aeflin.

Chess tried to escape that, but a random person found her and took away her memories and brought her back into the enclosure, where most humans are trapped. And she realized right away that the humans inside the enclosure found she was from the experiments and hated her and hurt her and called her a monster because God forbid women do anything (just trying to survive). She learned that the only way that she could get a warm place to sleep (not an alley) was to make herself attractive to people and flirt. She liked sleeping with people, but she mostly did it to have a warm and somewhat safer place to sleep. And even then, she’d have to stay alert because her partner could wake up and try to hurt her.

That’s where she is at the start of her story! She will get a found family and someone or someones to love! She’s pansexual and polyamorous and flirty, and she loves physical touch! She just wants people to treat her decently, and if she has to, she’ll fight to protect her boundaries. And she loves punching jerks in the face with her prosthetic! And we love a woman who loves to fight, right? Thanks for reading!

[deconstructthesoup]

All right, okay, poll's done, I've given myself permission to ramble about my ideas for a next-gen season of the Unsleeping City and there is no going back!

So, the story would theoretically take place about fourteen years after the end of UC2 (which would, yes, make it slightly harder to write as it'd be set in the actual future of our world, but I've never once made anything easy on myself), making our cast a combination of teens inspired to take on the world and young adults desperately attempting to keep them under control. I'm not sure who the antagonist would be (though, finding out that there's literally a warlock subclass called "Ghost in the Machine" where your patron is a full-blown rogue AI has definitely given me some ideas), but I do know about the characters:

Langston Brown is now sixteen years old---though, with the combined factors of his parents being in their early seventies and him quite literally being a spirit that's meant to safeguard the past, he's very much an "old soul" kinda guy who doesn't keep up with the trends and marches to the beat of his own drum (I'm imagining Riz meets Gunnie in terms of aesthetics and personality). He is aware of the magic of the Unsleeping City, but he's kind of just accepted it as something that's normal and that he doesn't really need to be that involved in... that is, until his draconic powers start manifesting, and Kingston and Liz finally give him the talk. Langston is, of course, very thrown for a loop about being an incredibly important part of the Unsleeping City, especially since he's fairly introverted and humble, but it soon becomes clear that he's going to have to accept his abilities to save New York. Obviously, Langston's a Draconic Bloodline sorcerer, and though he'd look human most of the time, it'd make sense for him to at least mechanically be a dragonborn.

Alejandra "Al" Matsui has been raised in the Gramercy Occult Society her whole life, but rather than become a wizard like her mom---or a paladin like her dad---she's learned more from J.J. and is incredibly interested in mixing science with magic, becoming an Alchemist artificer. She's inherited her dad's love of helping people, and her primary motivation is to use her knowledge of alchemy to become a magical doctor---kind of in the same vein as Kingston, except she's very much of the mindset that everything can be solved with science, magic, or a combo of the two. Al tends to put herself under a lot of pressure, and the fact that she has big ideas and fully intends to execute them all means that she's more than a little overwhelmed at all times... not that she'd show it.

Catherine "Cat" Lee, on the other hand, is completely carefree, energetic, and an absolute ray of sunshine. Being an indestructible aasimar and the daughter of not one but two First Fists, she knows how to handle herself in a fight, and having La Grande Gata basically be her guardian angel since birth means that she walks around NYC with almost no fear at all. Cat's a cheerleader and a total social butterfly, but her boundless enthusiasm and badassery makes her think that she can automatically handle anything entirely on her own, and she's still learning that being physically indestructible doesn't mean that she doesn't have limits. But she's got her best buds Langston and Al, and she's absolutely positive that together, they can not only take on New York, but the entire world. As for class, I initially had her down as a Sun Soul Monk, but after watching the final UC2 Adventuring Party and hearing Emily say that Cat would probably do something different than her parents, I think she'd absolutely be an Oath of Glory paladin---with a couple levels of Divine Soul sorcerer thrown in there for good measure, of course.

Coming from the exact opposite vibes of Cat, Jessica Lisowski is now twenty-eight, working part-time at the Met and part-time at Gramercy, and is the most tired, burnt-out, and cynical she's ever been. Against Iga's advice, she's been keeping her mundane and magical lives as separate from each other as possible, and the stress of maintaining a strict double life has caused her to lose a lot of the childlike wonder she used to have for magic, now just seeing it as something that helps her get through the day at best and an actual danger at worst. It definitely doesn't help the fact that both her mother and her brother have their whole magic-and-reality thing balanced out pretty well, and the only thing keeping Jessica from cutting herself off from the magic entirely is the lasting friendships she's made at Gramercy---including her friendship with Al, who she's been helping out and mentoring since Al was old enough to cast her first cantrip. And to stay in line with the "closed off from everyone around her" vibes, Jessica is a School of Abjuration wizard. Debated School of Illusion, but I think it fits.

Adding another experienced-adult-type to the party, we've got Matt Kugrich---grandson of Rat Jesus, nephew of Wally Claus, and freelancing vampire hunter. Inspired by his dad's own efforts in taking down the more corrupt vampires running amok in New York, Matt's been giving him a hand... though, he's mostly been working through the Dream Team, and David may or may not exactly know what his son is up to. Since we don't really know a lot about him in canon, I like to think that he's got a little bit of a smartass vibe to him, but he's also very down-to-earth, relaxed, and a go-with-the-energy kinda dude. For class, the idea of Matt being a Swarmkeeper ranger with Urban being his favored terrain, vampires being his favored enemy, and his swarm being entirely composed out of rats in honor of Kugrash came almost immediately---and if we're going with the whole "vampire slayer" thing, I think it'd make sense for him to also be a Soulknife rogue. (As funny as the idea of Murph just playing an older version of Cody for this hypothetical next-gen season is, Kugrash has grandkids, and I think they deserve the spotlight. I'd say that Delia probably has some UC ties, too.)

And rounding out the roster with the only OC in the bunch, we have Riley Conlan-Park---a young faerie who was found wandering around the Fairyland amusement park as a little kid with zero memory of who they were or where they came from, and after several months of trying to figure out who the hell this kid was, they were subsequently adopted by Pete and Maddie. When the story starts, they're fifteen years old---though they've been out of high school for a few years due to skipping several grades---and have decided that their life passion is a solid mixture of DJing for underground parties and digging up dirt on companies like Gladiator through the power of hacking. Riley has a lot of confidence, both earned and unearned, and they prefer to just let loose and be the crazy, irresponsible one rather than stop and actually let themselves think deeper about their past and all their underlying issues that they've worked very hard to keep shoved down---and they're pretty sure they can live like that forever. Of course, all that poking around in the dark web will awaken something in the Unsleeping City, and it doesn't take long before Riley makes a connection with something... other in their trips through the backrooms. Mechanically, they're an Eladrin who relies on the Umbral Arcana to make themselves look human, and class-wise, they're a College of Creation bard and a Ghost in the Machine warlock.

And, uh... that's what I got, now I gotta go to sleep.

[itmeblog]

POLITICS INTO THE VOID TIME

In the event that you've not been pretty obsessed with how American politics have been going since Kamala became the Democratic nominee (there's been good and bad, that I'm aware of) the tone of the campaign has completely changed.

Because Kamala's team has decided that Trump isn't threatening, all powerful, and scary, (though the ads I've seen have sort of been using old language) they have decided that he's weird and he's a creep.

These were made 11 days apart:

As a kid who grew up being called weird (and occasionally a creep) this is hilarious. It's just playground bullying.

Dems really said, we tried being the bigger person, it wasn't working out.

And Trump's policies and desires are actually weird. A proposed porn ban is weird. Trying to put librarians in jail is weird, policing people's bodies is creep behavior.

As a former weird kid, the way to overcome this sort of bullying is not to assert that you aren't weird or god forbid shout "I'm cool" (the more you say it, the less true it is), it's to embrace that you're weird and accept that not everyone is going to like you, and that you'll probably never have a seat at the cool table.

But and I cannot express this enough Trump wants to be cool. His whole thing is, being edgy, and dangerous, and "being brave enough to say what people are afraid to say". And when you get someone who is "being brave enough to say what normal people are afraid to say" and shoot back with "they don't say that because it's fucking weird"... where does he go from there?

It's a depowering move. They are depowering Trump.

When you were a kid talking passionately about something that interested you and someone said "that's weird (derogatory)" it probably made you feel really small. That kid stole the power you were wielding in said conversation.

So the question is, can Trump proudly and convincingly assert "I'm weird. I’m a weirdo. I don't fit in. And I don't want to fit in. Have you ever seen me without this stupid hat on? That's weird." (GOD HIS CHATGPT AND PLAGIARIZED SPEECHES HAVE THE ABILITY TO DO THE FUNNIEST THING IN THE WORLD)

Is he ready to go full edgelord in the public eye?? I'm sure he'll still have followers, edgelords have a weird sort of power in this era of internet, but they are also indisputably cringe.

Like I'm not sure this will achieve anything other than being ridiculously entertaining (and thus catching the eye in headlines and reports). But,my family read one of the new releases and went oh right this whole thing is weird as fuck and it felt nice to get some kind of public acknowledgment that this is not normal.

So far the right has been struggling against couch fucking allegations, them saying that adults without kids should have less of a voice in voting (weird thing to say, but if you're polling badly with youngsters and need to maintain power~~), that Kamala is a crazy childless cat lady (Whoops accidentally alienated some of their base there, some people simply cannot have children, really shouldn't insinuate they are less than because of it. Not to mention that their own policies are making more everyday in mostly red states as complications with getting abortions for non-viable fetuses are leaving many people sterile. I'm not even going to go on with the fact that many people, like myself, simply don't want kids and that's reason enough. Also she does have step children), and the rumor that Trump wasn't really shot (as they finally removed the bandage to reveal... nothing, head wounds heal really fast but going from that giant plaster to nothing is doing a bit of a number in the rumor mill).

Basically they had Joe! THEY SPENT THE WHOLE RNC INSULTING HIM. THAT WAS THEIR WHOLE PLAN!! He was old, he was white. The inherit ableism/ageism of sleepy Joe and old Joe, and infirm Joe, were within "acceptable parameters". It was easy and safe to rib him.

They are struggling to find something on Kamala that doesn't come across as racist or sexist. Because they're polling poorly with Black Americans and they are down in the polls for women. Can't call her sleepy or lazy. Can't call her old (she's younger) can't call her stupid, can't call her infirm. Can't insinuate she's too emotional (have you met Trump??)

They probably could get her on a few policies but the 2025 project is looming large behind them.

I am foaming at the mouth trying to get to the next debate. But Trump is doing his best to weasel out of it. I am heartbroken! I miss the anytime, anywhere promise of yore.

[victorianightlight]

Opinion about Ahsoka and another poll

Now there will be my personal opinion about Ahsoka in her series. It will be very extensive, so be prepared (I just wanted to speak out for a long time).

I also warn you right away that this is just my personal opinion and of course it may differ from yours!

In my personal opinion, Filoni ruined Ahsoka in her series by making her another character who, although she looks similar, has clearly changed her character for the worse.

Firstly, it became clear to us from the series that Ahsoka trained Sabine as her Padawan, but then their paths diverged. At first, I thought that it could be due to the fact that Ahsoka was simply not confident in her abilities as a teacher, but in the finale Huang explained to us that after the death of the Sabine family (R.I.P Wrens😢), Ahsoka thought that the girl herself, having reached her potential, would become dangerous (well apparently, she will go for revenge, which Jedi shouldn't do). So it turns out that Ahsoka, frightened by Sabine’s fall on the vehicle, simply abandoned her when her family died and, naturally, she was in grief. This is also confirmed by the conversation between Ahsoka and Sabine in the first episode:

"I go where I'm needed."

"Not always."

Note that if Ahsoka had supported Sabine at that moment, and it was Sabine who wanted to stop her training, then there wouldn't have been such a gap between them. And so we are clearly given hints that Ahsoka behaved like a coward and simply abandoned the grieving girl on Lothal. Great decision Ahsoka, what can I say 🙄

Plus, it’s worth noting that Ahsoka came to Sabine only for the map, and essentially used Ezra as an excuse to attract the Mandolorian. And I highly doubt that if Ahsoka had unlocked the map by herself, she would have returned to Sabine to become her Master again.

Secondly, Ahsoka in her series has forgotten how to show an important thing that a Jedi and even an ordinary person should show, namely empathy. What Ahsoka does is act cold towards Sabine (even though she should be trying to improve her relationship with her), and when she says that they will have to destroy the map, which means Ezra will never return home, she doesn't show an ounce of sympathy, simply asking Sabine if she can trust her on this. Let's remember, in the same Rebels, when in the World Between Worlds Ezra had to let Kanan go, what did Ahsoka do? She supported him physically, putting her hand on his shoulder, and morally, saying comforting words, thereby, it seems to me, Ezra felt a little better, and Ezra wasn't even her student. What does Ahsoka do with her Padawan? She's just saying that she knows that how much Ezra meens to Sabine, and that we have to do what's right regardless of our feelings (so it's basically like, "I know how important your brother (Yes I love the brother/sister relationship between Ezra and Sabine more) is to you, but the whole galaxy is more important). That's it. No support, just words that were in no way comforting for Sabine.

Moreover, in her conversation with her student, Ahsoka didn’t even say the normal "I’m sorry." Why? Question for Filoni :/

And the last moment that infuriated me the most. When Ahsoka and Huang were in the mouth of Purrgil, Ahsoka began to say that Sabine willingly gave up the map and went with the enemies, and that "she made this choice for herself." Honestly, at that moment my fists clenched with anger. That is, Ahsoka didn’t even think that Sabine HAD to do this. That if she had not done this, she would have been calmly killed. Since the map, apparently, can only be destroyed with a lightsaber, and Sabine only had a blaster in her hand, in this situation, she would not have had time to get the lightsaber. Even if Sabine had let Ezra go and tried to destroy the map, Baylan would have killed her immediately. So in this situation, The Dark Jedi won and everything depended on Sabine, whether she would die or decide to stay alive. But Ahsoka apparently doesn’t care about her Padawan so much that she shifts all responsibility onto the girl and exposes Sabine as a selfish person who thinks only of herself (although she doesn’t act any better), and who would have been better off heroically, but pointlessly, dying. At this point, only Huang showed himself as a human being, and instead of making Sabine look like a bad decision, he sympathized with her, something Ahsoka didn’t do for half the series. This is the very case when a droid has more soul than a living person would seem to have.

Although the reunion of Master and Padawan was more or less normal, Filoni could have done it better, where for example both women admitted their mistakes (Sabine would apologize for the map, and Ahsoka would apologize for abandoning her long ago and for being cold towards her). But we have what we have.

I also want to touch on Ahsoka's logic that one life can be sacrificed for the sake of others. I understand that Ahsoka survived two wars, saw many deaths and faced the terrible truth in the face of Darth Vader, and it’s clear that she doesn’t want everything to happen again, but it seems to me that her thought is that one life can be sacrificed for the sake of millions of others, it also sounds selfish. According to this logic, any life is devalued and can be safely sacrificed. And it’s sad that Filoni and his Ahsoka series are trying to make it seem like Sabine is to blame for everything, that "she’s such a fool that she decided to do this." (And which, by the way, worked, since I saw how some people on the network actually said that Sabine is selfish).

Yes, I won’t say that Sabine is an innocent dandelion, but the blame lies not only with her. In my opinion, Thrawn would have returned anyway, he just would have been given a few more years of delay and to say that Sabine decided to sacrifice the galaxy for Ezra was a terrible act, I just want to ask: if you were in Sabine’s place, and in Ezra's place were your children, brothers or sisters, or just someone important to you and you were given the choice to abandon him/her thereby, save the galaxy or try to save him/her? Personally, if I were Sabine, I would do exactly the same.

As a result, I can say that Filoni spoiled his own well-written character, making the wise and brave non-Jedi Ahsoka in a cold and at the same time cowardly woman who had forgotten how to show sympathy for the one who needed it most, namely her apprentice. I don’t know if it was Filoni’s original idea to show Ahsoka in a more negative way (and show that the old ways of the Jedi, which Ahsoka is trying to follow again, will not lead to anything good) or if he thought that this was the same Ahsoka that we fell in love with, and if so, then it’s just a sad spectacle that the man who gave us Clone Wars and Rebels ended up changing his own character for the worse.

(As for the idea that Sabine became a Jedi, I’ll probably tell you my opinion later).

Phew, finally after express all my accumulated thoughts, I created another poll:

[windupaidoneus]

tell me about the bloodsport wlws

the bloodsport wlws. (clasps hands together) let me use my brain oh i need crub to shut the fuck up rq ok there we go

so. philly. carina. the moon & stars. the winnars!!!! 🎉 of that one niche poll tournament thing. carina is a 20something college student who's a prodigy in all things magic but specifically has an affinity for space magic, & her fursona is a purple gryphon also.

^ her fursona (drew this before i saw a post on how to draw beaks. youll have to forgive me)

prone to overworking starself & does it regularly... from a regular human's perspective at least. star is physically disabled but also thanks to stars extremely potent magic star can just do a lot more than the average person, & is in a constant state of levitation to avoid putting strain on stars body. star is always going around helping as much as star can provided star can do it with magic.

this ^ is both a good & bad thing, as she is also, as you may have heard, a bloodsport tournament participant! she kind of. needs her magic for that. & well she keeps jobbing really badly despite being as powerful as she is. because of how much she uses her magic on the regular. the reason it's a good thing is that her magic can overflow & while there hasn't yet been a point where it did it's not fully clear what will happen if it does.

see her hair? it's kind of like a gauge. you can tell how she's doing on magic reserves depending on how "filled up" it is. the more purple, the more powerful! & what happens if her hair is completely purple? philly really wants to know

design note that was Just added too but her eyes change colour depending on her magic reserves as well. this is partly bc i keep fucking up which eye is purple & which eye is yellow so now both can be & they can be both at once even. because i have knowledge of heterochromia <- the central heterochromia haver

all in all she should probably not be doing bloodsport at least at the current moment when the stakes are so facking high in AA. in combat situations she kind of shuts down her ability to emote & speak properly because of how stressed it makes her so she's a bit of a bitch. um. she did cause an existential crisis once & felt really bad about it. sorry lucian. (he got better they're friends now)

all this. is necessary to introduce philly. bc philly is carina's childhood friend & philly was created because @greenshi loved carina so much that he had to give her a gf. you may thank him forever for cosmic yuri

ophelia "philly" delphia (why does she get a full name & carina doesnt have one? um. i didnt actually create carina i just voiced her & then elaborated a fuckton on her character ask @royaltyfreeramblings not me *sexily relinquishes responsibility*) is an epic & awesome werewolf who's constantly in an inbetween state of human & wolf. so a wolf furry yeah. moon goes on road trips with other lesbians* & a wet sack of meat who's having cringefail yaoi with some guy over there. moon is very confident but also happens to be carina's biggest hypeperson, which i find very sweet considering she was conceptualised as a rival & they completely skipped that stage LMAO

green would be a lot better placed to talk about philly. & they unfortunately have not interacted on screen in canon as much as i'd like due to the nature of bloodsport tournaments & also carina's jobbing adventures. but i love them a lot & i hope philly can be the one person to finally convince carina to get a damn wheelchair girl stop using magic for everything constantly you get so fucked up when it's depleted!

oh yeah there's also stuff that i don't know if i can share bc it hasnt been revealed to The Audience yet but they are very dear to each other & like. among other things. both of them have kept pictures of them as kids together even throughout all the time they spent apart. bc they did lose sight of each other for many years before reuniting. & idk i just think they're so cute & sweet. i love it when characters love each other did you know that

[shygirl4991]

Becoming Canon

Summary: After a successful heist in getting the notebook back SMG3 and SMG4 confess their feelings to each other. Tags: Love confessions, enemies to friends to lovers, fluff Next Part Note: i put a poll up to see if peeps want 'The Next Step' on tumblr and forgot to mention the prequel fic becoming canon so here we go!

SMG4 smiles as he watches SMG3 jumping with joy over saving his notebook, he was so thankful that his viewers were on his side to help this happen. After having fun teasing SMG3 he started to feel the fatigue from the whole thing, who knew doing a heist would take so much out of you?

After teasing SMG3 about why he was building a new evil lair right next to his castle he lets out a small yawn “Speaking of cafes…I’m dead tired.” he gives his partner a small smile “Let’s have some coffee.” For the first time since they have known each other things felt peaceful, maybe it was them both being drained from the heist or maybe this heist helped bring the two closer together. He remembers back a few weeks ago how SMG1 and 2 told them they needed to get along and work as a team, of course their plan on gluing their hands together really didn't work on bringing them together. What it did bring was a lot of videos and tweets explaining he wasn't dating SMG3, though thinking about it would the two of them dating be so bad? During the heist he never felt so close to SMG3 before, the way they were in sync scaring Mario. How they had each other back helping each other out of tight spots, they even finally manage to get their fusion ability to work…sorta.

SMG3 perks up hearing his words “Now we’re talkin!” walking together they sit on a pile of wood waiting to become a part of SMG3 cafe, SMG4 smiles looking at the sunset as SMG3 starts doing their coffee. They smile at each other doing a small cheer as they clink their cups together and drink, as SMG4 enjoys the warmth of the coffee he notices SMG3 writing in his notebook with a huge smile “What are you writing?” he knew he wasn't going to get an answer but it wasn't going to hurt him to ask you never know what mood SMG3 is in.

He smirks and turns away “I’ll never tell!” SMG3 makes sure the other cant see the drawing he is doing of them both with cups of coffee.

With a giggle he nods “Don't worry i wont push it,” as he looks back at the sunset his heart starts to beat faster. This would be the perfect moment wouldn't it, he honestly felt this whole day was a sign of some kind. It all started with SMG3 telling him he wrote about their moment in the igloo, then they got stuck doing a game show where they had to watch the video and see the moment they both agreed never to talk about. He had to admit the closer they got the harder it was for him to keep his feelings in check. When he hears the notebook close he decides now is the time with one last gulp of the coffee he turns to SMG3 “You know…this heist got me thinking,”

SMG3 sips his coffee and stares at his partner “What that we should be full time spies, cause i'm not a fan of the idea of your fans telling me how to live my life,” SMG4 shakes his head with a small chuckle “No, nothing like that…just we make a good team don't we?”

He keeps staring at SMG4 feeling confused on what was going on with the man next to him, seeing this SMG4 sighs feeling himself blush. “You know…people ship us together…and uh with all that's happened to us i started to wonder….” he had no idea what he was doing. Every TV show he has seen made confessions look easy, even Axol made it look sweet and easy with the manga he was making before everything.

SMG3's eyes go wide as he also starts to blush “Why are you bringing this up all of a sudden, idiot!!”

SMG4 closes his eyes “WHAT IF WE MAKE IT CANON!?”

Everything was dead silent, he was nervous to open his eyes to see how SMG3 was looking at him. Finally he hears a whisper “you….what?”

Slowly he opened his eyes to see a stun SMG3, his face was as red as his eyes, it almost made SMG4 giggle for how cute it was to see him like that. “I..well i like you, so i was wondering if maybe we can try…the next step?”

SMG4 started to get worried he broke the man for how long it took for him to move again, he watches as SMG3 stares at the floor then his notebook. His heart sank, did he read the signs wrong, did the guardian not feel the same as him?

SMG3 gets up and stands in front of him “Fine, i guess i…i like you too! But don't let it get to your head…Baka!”

SMG4 gives a huge smile before running and hugging his boyfriend, SMG3 gets flustered as he starts to break free from the hug “Oi! I said don't let it get to your head!!”

With a smirk he leans close to SMG3 “Oh? So does that mean you don't want a hug? Maybe it's a kiss you're looking for?”

SMG3 covers his face with his notebook to hide how flustered he was getting. It was always fun teasing the man before but now that they were going to date, teasing has gotten much more fun.

[goldenavenger02]

lies of omission

So when they returned to the Monastery, and Lloyd retreated into the study to make a plan on how to obtain the dragon cores before Imperium could find out about them and the power they held, Sora couldn’t stop herself from grabbing Arin’s wrist and bringing him with her into her own plan.

Find out what else Lloyd was hiding.

This is for all 64 of you who voted on my poll, and the 25% of you who wanted the story about Arin and Sora finding out about Lloyd's heritage. I hope you all enjoy this one :)

“Um, how did you just never mention that you’re the grandson of the guy who created Ninjago?”

“Eh, it never came up.”

Sora didn’t want to be angry; between working with the others to locate the dragon cores, still trying to figure out the depths of his abilities as well as the fact that she knew that she would eventually have to go back to Imperium to stop Beatrix, the last thing she wanted was to be angry with Lloyd.

But, it still simmered inside her like a steady flame catching onto dry timber because he was keeping things from her and yeah, she wasn’t a ninja super fan like Arin, but he still could have told them before it ended up just coming out like that.

With how much had been kept from her all of her life, she wanted to believe that Lloyd would be different, that she could finally trust another adult again, but this just proved to her that she was sorely mistaken.

So when they returned to the Monastery, and Lloyd retreated into the study to make a plan on how to obtain the dragon cores before Imperium could find out about them and the power they held, Sora couldn’t stop herself from grabbing Arin’s wrist and bringing him with her into her own plan.

Find out what else Lloyd was hiding.

“I don’t know, Sora,” Arin admitted as she picked the lock on Lloyd’s bedroom door, twisting the small piece of metal she carried with her for this exact reason carefully, “if he’s locking us out of his room, he probably doesn’t want us to go in there.”

“He’s hiding more than being the First Spinjitzu Master’s grandson, Arin,” Sora shook her head as she felt the lock click into being unlocked, “and I am sick of not being told the truth by others, especially when I’m supposed to trust them.”

“Was it really a lie though?” Arin asked as she twisted the knob, opening the dark room and allowing him to step in before shutting the door and pocketing the hand-crafted metal pick, “it’s not like we ever asked who his grandfather was.”

“It was a lie of omission, purposefully not telling us that,” she insisted as she put her hand on the wall in order to find the light switch, “how can we even be sure that my elemental powers weren’t passed down somehow like the others? Just because Lloyd had never seen it doesn’t mean that no one had ever seen it.”

“I guess you’re right,” Arin shrugged while putting his hand on the light switch and flicking it upwards while speaking, “after all, there was a whole elemental alliance during the Serpentine Wars and-whoa.”

Sora couldn’t even ask because when she turned around from where her eyes had been scanning Lloyd’s extensive bookshelf full of Starfarer comics at the foot of his bed, she laid her eyes on what had cut Arin off.

It wasn’t the vertical, cracked, wooden frame on his bedside table with a photo of an older man putting his hand on the shoulder of a much younger Lloyd or the horizontal frame of their teacher around the same age, but standing next to the much younger ninja and his uncle.

No, it was the haphazardly open scroll lying in front of both of them, displaying a drawing of a golden monster that had four arms, large horns sticking out of its head and glowing purple eyes.

“What the hell is that thing?” Sora demanded as she picked up the scroll, feeling the wear on the edges of it, not surprised that it was in a much older form of Ninjargon with how yellow it was.

“I think it’s an Oni,” Arin supplied as he walked forward to examine the illustration closer, his eyes squinting with concentration, “but the Oni aren’t gold, they’re as black as the deepest darkness you’ve ever seen.”

“Arin, you’re speaking in gibberish,” Sora cut off her friend’s ramblings while pushing the scroll into his hands, “what is an Oni?”

“They’re demons who only want to destroy. They invaded Ninjago when I was a little kid, and turned everybody into stone with their darkness,” Arin insisted as he tried to read the ancient language, “but the ninja vanquished them with the Tornado of Creation. They’re supposed to be gone.”

Sora’s heart dropped as she continued to look at the illustration and her stomach dropped just thinking about fighting that thing…even with help from Riyu, there was no way that she was anywhere near ready to fight a demon who only wanted to destroy, especially not one that was different enough that it worried Arin.

“Can you make out any of the Ninjargon?” Sora questioned, stuffing her hands into her pocket as she leaned over his shoulder even though she was fully aware that it was way out of her league.

“Only one phrase, and I’m not even sure if it’s right,” Arin admitted, his voice shaking as he spoke, “the descendant of light and darkness”,” 

The fear on her best friend’s face was enough to make her worry that he knew exactly what that meant, but she knew that she had to ask regardless, her mouth going dry, “Lloyd is the grandson of the First Spinjitzu Master-”

“-and the son of Lord Garmadon.” Arin confirmed as he put the scroll down, “we need to get out of here, now-”

“What are you two doing in here?”

Lloyd’s voice was stern, quite a few degrees above any of the annoyance that Sora had heard before, only making her fears that he was going to unleash the entirety of whatever the hell she and Arin couldn’t translate on them.

But when the two of them turned around, she was mildly relieved that he looked exactly like himself, albeit pissed off as he continued to speak, “this is an invasion of privacy, you two.”

“We’re leaving now, Lloyd,” Arin insisted, grabbing onto Sora’s wrist and trying to pull her out, but despite her fear, her anger took over and she refused to move despite Arin’s insistence of “Sora, let’s go.”

“Why didn’t you tell us that the First Spinjitzu Master is your grandfather?”

“I already explained this, Sora,” Lloyd sighed as his eyes continued to scan the room, seemingly trying to figure out what they had messed with, “it never came up.”

“It just never came up?” Sora scoffed as she reached for the scroll, making sure that it unrolled itself where Lloyd could see it in all of its horrific glory, “or did you want to keep this from us, like everything else that you haven’t told us?”

Sora expected Lloyd to lash out at her, to tell her to get out of his monastery, even just to scream at her for violating his personal space; so when his muscles tensed and his face froze in a mix of what looked like guilt and fear, she almost felt bad for not leaving when Arin tried to pull her away. Almost.

“Arin, I need to speak to Sora. Alone.” Lloyd finally spoke, his fists still balled up in what looked like stress until Arin left the room, when he only moved to pull the worn scroll out of her hands.

“My parents hid everything from me,” Sora’s anger was bubbling up now, unable to be stopped as she started to shout, “everyone hid everything from me in Imperium and I thought you were different, Lloyd!”

“Sora-” Lloyd started, but her yells cut him off with a violence that scared her in the deepest parts of her beating heart.

“Ever since we met, you’ve been honest with us. You told us everything, and now this!” Tears were starting to prick at her eyes against her will, the signs of where she had grown up starting to push through the exterior that she had built, “I wanted you to be different, Lloyd. I needed you to be different.”

“Do you really want to know everything?” Lloyd’s voice was filled with a comforting tone despite the numbness in between the lines, but when Sora nodded, the last thing she wanted to hear came out, “then you’ll have to wait.”

“But why?” She demanded, starting to feel the fire burn in her chest again, “why don’t you want me to know?”

“It has nothing to do with you, Sora. It has everything to do with me,” and with those words, the fire was instantly extinguished with confusion, but her lack of questioning allowed him to continue, “I’m not ready to talk about it. I don’t fully understand all of it, nor did I ever want it to happen. I can’t stop you from doing your own research, nor would I ever dissuade you with how much your ancient Ninjargon needs work.”

Despite the heavy air around them, she couldn’t help but smile briefly at the mild jab at her awful translation skills before letting out the apology that had built up despite her anger.

“I understand, and I’m really sorry for digging through your stuff, but can I ask you one question? After that, I’m done prying. I swear.”

“You can ask me whatever you need to, Sora,” Lloyd insisted, his gentle, calloused hand resting on her metal shoulder, “whenever you need to, even if I’m unable to answer.”

“Are you an Oni?” She couldn’t hide her voice trembling and given Lloyd’s slight slump of his body, he definitely heard it as well.

“The First Spinjitzu Master was half Oni and half Dragon, so are Garmadon and Master Wu, but my mother is human.”

“So you’re Oni, Dragon and human?” Lloyd’s nod was all the confirmation she received to which she couldn’t but speak while the pieces clicked in her head, “that’s why you’re the conduit, because you’re part dragon.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Lloyd agreed before waving her toward the door, the scroll still in his left hand, “I’ll be out to talk about the plan in a few minutes. You should head downstairs.”

“Okay,” Sora nodded and headed toward the door, only to stop and say, “and Lloyd? I get the whole “shitty parents” thing, so you can talk to me too.”

“Does this mean you still trust me?” Lloyd’s voice was soft as he looked up from the scroll, his green eyes full of genuine questioning.

“Yeah,” Sora agreed, no longer harboring the anger that had built up inside of her once he she had processed his reasoning for his own lies of omission, “yeah, I guess it does.”