#fun fact about Hunt; she hates not knowing what people are saying around her and having to depend on someone for translation

[soraavalon]

DM: So the female dragon in the middle looks at you, Eudora, a little surprised that you are speaking in her tongue. Female dragon: [in Draconic] We are looking for the forked-tongue. Something small and scaled. Tark: "A snake?" Tark asks in Draconic. DM: Her eyes kind of cut to you and she bares her teeth in what you seen Kaltauga do as a smile but it's still unsettling. Tark (OOC): Yeah. FD: [in Dracoinc] A snake, yes. A lying little snake. DM: Inside the carriage, for those who are still inside, you do see that Vanessa is listening to what's going on outside and you see her start to sink down a little bit into the seat. Tark (OOC): Oh ya'll better hide her. Oh, they could probably smell her though. Oh. Okay. Eudora: Hmm. Marigold (OOC): Are they talking in Draconic? Hunt (OOC): Yeah. Marigold (OOC): Or are they talking in something else? DM: Yes. Marigold (OOC): Okay. Tark: [in Draconic] What snake are you looking for? DM: The yellow one chimes in; YD: [in Draconic] The forked tongue the Mother's Chosen called her. We must find her and put her down. Tark: Hmm. Nathaniel: I'm going to look at Vanessa since I'm still inside the carriage.  Hunt: Same. Nathaniel: And I'm gonna ask, "What's going on?" Vanessa: It sounds as though whatever's out there is looking for me. Seeking a snake they claim to be a liar. Tark (OOC): Oh she can speak Draconic? DM: Oh yeah. Eudora: [in Draconic] Oh, I'm afraid that's a vague description. Tark: [in Draconic] Unfortunately there are a lot of snakes. Eudora: [in Draconic] And I assume most of them would have forked tongues. DM: The orange one starts to growl and the one in the lead doesn't look to him. FD: [in Draconic] There is a snake going about and causing problems. We followed her trail and scent here. Eudora: [in Draconic] What kind of problems might I ask? DM: She opens her mouth and the *pings orange dragon* this one is like; OD: [in Draconic] Sister we are wasting time. We know she is in the box, open it and take her. FD: [in Draconic] Patience brother, she'll come out if she knows what's good for her and for those around. Moriarty: Moriarty is going to lean over to Eudora, "How is this conversation going?" Tark: Fantastic. Marigold: Mary shakes his head. Tark: [in Draconic] If you don't mind me asking, what has she been lying about? FD: [in Draconic] About our mother, you could call her. Nathaniel (OOC): Uh-oh. Moriarty (OOC): See Moriarty would relate to this if he understood. DM: Yeah.

[lovers-rck]

little drabble about ellie and reader as the lady and the tramp (we all know who is the tramp)

☆

"c'mon" ellie says, a greasy fry resting between her lips "get the fry"

you frown your eyebrows, but direct your hand towards ellie's lips anyways. she moves before you could grab the fry in her mouth "not like that"

"with your mouth" she continues. you look at her, your hands leaving the keyboard of your computer

"what?"

"get it" ellie moves the fry between her lips, making faces to encourage you to do as she wants "c'mon"

"we aren't in the lady and the tramp ellie" you say, rolling your eyes and turning your attention back to the computer, resuming your task.

the light in your dorm is dim, you can hear people coming and going down the hall, talking about exams and subjects, complaining about teachers and longing for vacations.

"i know" ellie says, swallowing the potato and spinning around in the swivel chair "perhaps, they ate spaghetti, not fryes"

you smile slightly at the clarification. ellie had come to your dorm about 20 minutes ago, complaining about how hard her last assignment was and how her professor hated her, emphasizing the fact that she was sure it was because of that one time she fought with him in the middle of a debate. and with a tapper of fryes under her arm.

"i stole them from the kitchen" she told you when you asked, her lips in a pout and her eyebrows furrowed.

"cmon, get it" she repeated, placing another chip in her mouth "just for fun. i'll give you 20 bucks."

you looked back at her. you considered it for a moment, knowing that ellie wouldn't stop bugging you until you did, and you really needed to finish this assignment in time for your exam.

And something about being so close to her mouth made your stomach tingle.

"okay" you say, giving in to those puppy dog eyes "you are so weird".

she smiles "i know"

"I only do it for that 20 bucks" you reply, pulling your chair closer to ellie. but you knew that ellie didn't have 20 dollars. not even 5.

ellie rolls her eyes and nods, inviting you to proceed.

you try to think about how this is not normal behavior between friends as you move towards her mouth and feel the air from her breath against your face. the fry separates you and her by about 8 centimeters, so there is a bit of space between your faces, though not enough to avoid a nervous twitch in your stomach.

as your lips are about to grab the greasy chip, ellie pulls back, preventing you from catching it "ellie!" you exclaim, watching as ellie laughs uproariously.

"sorry, sorry!" she says, feeling your hand push her and almost knock her off the swivel chair "i had to do it. i'm sorry. now i'm serious."

when ellie gets back into her normal position, you move yourself to get close to her face again, trying to avoid the way ellie's eyes are staring at you with utmost attention, piercing your pores.

as your teeth are about to hunt for the food, ellie is quick and puts the whole chip in her mouth, causing you to stumble and end up with your lips on hers.

you feel ellie's salty lips against yours, greasy and warm. she rushes to rest her hand on your jaw, preventing you from pulling away from her but still giving you the chance to do so if that's what you want.

but you don't.

you reciprocate her kiss, which is not a kiss as such, as your lips only remain against each other for a few seconds, without moving, before they separate.

things are silent for a few seconds. you lick your lips, feeling the taste that ellie left you.

"we could agree that this is the modern version of lady and the tramp" ellie says, a playful tone tinges her voice and you can't help but giggle, feeling a warmth come over your cheeks.

"you idiot" you reply

ellie laughs and places another fry in her mouth "you didn't get it. try again".

you smile and move in again. the game goes on for five more rounds, five rounds where you fail to catch the fry and five rounds where you end up kissing ellie.

[paintbrushnebula]

Ghostflower Headcanons

As romantic gestures, Miles loves setting up these elaborate (if a little overkill) activities for Gwen to do, whether it's a special occasion or just. whenever feels like it. They're always these elaborate treasure hunts that he'll set up for her to complete. Like for Valentine's Day--Gwen never stirs in her sleep, so he'll surround her sleeping form with lilacs and peonies all around on the bed so she can wake up basking in their scent. Then this gesture will be somehow tooled as the first clue in this elaborate scavenger hunt across several dimensions, each stop being a cute little romantic gesture like a lovely written note or souvenirs from their times together. He'll have like, puzzles that require playing music or reading scores to move forward in the hunt. And Gwen LOVES them. She likes adventures and the ones Miles orchestrates for her always involve her having to use her many talents. She kinda sees Miles' games as a sweet, fun way of staying sharp. ^_^

Miles will mindlessly rub his face against Gwen's cheek whenever when he greets her or bids her farewell after a long day. A lot of people find it a little strange lol, but know better than to judge Miles in front of Gwen. 

Ghostflower's petnames....so Miles sucks at pet names. He can't think of any good ones besides whatever he's heard his Mami say to Jeff (so just the usual "mi amor.") Mamita works for her too. But aside from that, all the typical English pet names (so like "honey," "sweetie," etc) just feel weird coming off his tongue, he thinks they're cringe and he hates saying them XD. Besides there's just something about how much he loves saying Gwen's name. He loves her name. It's like music to him. And every new time he says it makes his heart flutter more than the last. Gwen's pet names for Miles on the other hand are very... eherm...varied. Like she does use all the typical English pet names, but she'll also randomly spout some very creative names that have to do with situations they're in or objects she just saw or smth, I hope I'm explaining this right 😭 So for example, "my weighted blanket" (if they were just sleeping), or "cupcake brain," "coffee bean," "my bespeckled cheekster" or some other stupid thing she randomly comes up with on the spot XD. 

Gwen is big spoon but Miles will jump off a bridge if Hobie finds out

Lol in fact, a lot of how Gwen treats Miles (fluffy pet names, cuddling him) is stuff Miles never wants Hobie to see XD. So picture Miles melting into Gwen on the couch while she runs fingers through his hair, then Hobie walks in and Miles flings himself right out of Gwen's arms, sitting up straight and clearing his throat, "aherm, wh-whassup' man." And like, Hobie probably wouldn't even give a dang XD. But Miles feels the need to keep up this... intimidating "not some feeble gumdrop" reputation around certain spiders like Hobie, Miguel, and now Peter B, etc.

Gwen hates the heat, she always has to have the AC on or at least a fan in front of her. Sometimes both. But Miles is very sensitive to the cold. So this becomes a dilemma when they're in the same room. Then it breaks out into a back and forth "no it's okay, I can turn it off/No it's okay! I can just put on a jacket!" Eventually they'll reach a compromise: Gwen can have the AC, but she has to cuddle Miles close so he can keep warm. 

Miles likes to paint or draw on Gwen a LOT. Like it basically becomes the norm Gwen's their friends and family to see her walking around with what appears to be temporary "tattoos." Sometimes there'll be "Miles x Gwen" in graffiti-styled lettering on her shoulder, or little spider-man chibis with little speech bubbles, or a jumble of illustrations of places they've been to, lyrics from songs he likes, and just colorful geometry painted all around her arm like a tattoo sleeve, or sunflowers on her cheeks, or just random lines and shapes here and there on her knuckles, arms or jawline. Miles will paint on her whenever he has the chance, whether she's in conversation with a completely different person, or she's doing work, writing, eating-anything. She always lets him, she loves it. And when they're alone and he's drawing on her, they'll sit in a comfortable silence the whole time, it's very...entrancing for Gwen when they're alone in a quiet room and he's hardly making any noise while she feels markers and paintbrushes dancing across her skin. 

[differentsublimephantom]

Here’s a Beetlejuice Beetlejuice fanfic/chatfic and headcannons I wrote because I was bored and the ghost characters need more recognition (minor spoilers for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice)

BEETLEJUICE CHATFIC AND CHARACTER HEADCANNONS

BeetleJuice BeetleJuice character headcannons! (Also don’t mind all the super smash bros headcannons, I was watching Blake jennings “what your main in smash says about you” while I made these):

Wolf Jackson the movie star:

◦ Has MAJOR former theatre kid vibes, like he totally had a Hamilton phase and watched Cats ATLEAST once just to make fun of it, but he ended up secretly kinda liking the songs from it.

◦ Wont admit to even HAVING a favourite superhero, but it’s totally Spider Noir

◦ Says he mains someone like Snake in smash, but he actually mains Isabelle, jigglepuff, or The duck hunt dog and he somehow wins EVERY TIME HE PLAYS SMASH because he’s good at spam pressing buttons.

◦ Good at claw machines for some reason. A strange hidden talent, but he probs brags about it every chance he gets (which isn’t often but still)

◦ Everyone thinks/assumes he’s straight and probs bangin his secretary/the girl who brings him coffee (idk if she’s actually his secretary) but then he’ll casually insert “my boyfriend” or “this guy I’m seeing” into a conversation and the whole room is shocked.

◦ Knuckle cracker.

◦ When he’s sad infront of other people he hides his emotions and says he’s fine, but when he’s sad at home alone, he curls up with a bunch of blankets and binge watches all the movies he stared in when he was alive. Only his secretary(?) knows this.

◦ Drinks coffee (obviously) but also likes iced teas. Can on rare occasions be seen wandering around with an Arizona Tea can in hand.

◦ Ocean from RTC vibes. Like he doesn’t really mean to be rude, but he also has a habit of thinking he’s better than most people around him.

◦ That same way that I walk into any store and when I wanna get something I tell myself “I can make that at home.” He watches ANY action movie (especially ones with cgi or heavy effects) and says/thinks “I could’ve done that MYSELF, WITHOUT special affects.”

Bob:

◦ Chronically tired

◦ Under-appreciated-employee-core. Wherever he works in the neitherworld would not FUNCTION without him, but no one who works with him would recognize this until he put in his two weeks notice.

◦ A pushover. I hate to say it, but this man DIED (double died ig?) for a ghost who didn’t deserve that amount of loyalty and Bob probably knows it. He knew Beetlejuice wasn’t worth sacrificing that much for but he did it anyways because he is a pushover.

◦ My general headcannon for all the “tiny head” people in the Beetlejuice franchise is that they can speak telepathically to people, but most either choose not to, or don’t know that they can do it. Bob chooses not to because whenever he does (on rare occasions) it freaks out everyone who’s ever known him and he finds it hilarious.

◦ Current theatre kid. Has all of Heathers memorized. Could sing most RTC songs and says “this is all your fault Jafar” and “youre FUCKIN useless Paul” in his head or under his breath EVERY DAY.

◦ Once played Smash with Wolf Jackson and absolutely HATED the fact that Wolf won every time without really trying. But also Bob mains wii fit trainer, toon link or Kirby because I said so.

◦ Coffee drinker, but also gives off “DO NOT FILL UP A “SUPER BIG GULP” CUP WITH 5-HOUR ENERGY AND CHUG THE WHOLE THING” vibes. He is WIRED.

Harry the hunter:

◦ Bobs uncle who died at around the same age as Bob so that’s why they look the same age/look like the same person.

◦ BESTIES with Ms Argentina

◦ Likes Delores because he hates Beetlejuice and wishes she successfully killed him, but also dislikes her because she killed Bob

◦ Bob is chronically tired but gets a good nights sleep most nights. Harry is an insomniac night owl who stays up until 1:00 in the morning rewatching Over the garden wall or Wall E for the 1000th time even though he KNOWS has to get up at 5:00am that morning.

◦ Only drinks tea or water.

◦ Mostly uses ASL or writing on notepads to communicate (same with Bob)

◦ Bob is the type of employee to work more than he should and do extra stuff and overtime etc. because he thinks people will like him more or atleast he’ll get some benefit from it right? Harry is the employee who knows you should just do your job and leave because no one will care if you do more than that so don’t waste your time.

◦ Just like Bob, he is a theatre kid. And he totally got Ms Argentina into musicals too.

◦

Ms Argentina:

◦ a HARDCORE SIMP for Delores. Like “she could suck my soul out of my body and in my last moments I’d THANK HER” kinda simp (same tho)

◦ WILL THROW HER HEELS AT YOU IF YOU PISS HER OFF (Bob, Wolf Jackson, Beetlejuice, AND EVEN Delores ALL learned this the hard way.)

◦ Mains Daisy in smash because they both have Loud-Lesbian energy

◦ Her nickname is Tina and her real name is Valentina, but ONLY Harry and Delores can call her Tina or her real full first name.

◦ SOMEHOW managed to get Delores to go on a date with her, and now they’re dating. Beetlejuice still has no idea how Tina pulled that off.

◦ Tina gives me tea or coffee drinker vibes, but part of me thinks she sometimes puts vodka in her tea and/or coffee

◦ Because Harry got her to like musicals, she totally got her girlfriend into musicals too

I’ll probably make a chatfic based on the musical and cartoon, but this one is based on the movies

Astrid has created a groupchat

Astrid has added: Lydia Deetz, Richard Deetz, Charles Deetz, and Delia Deetz

Astrid has named the groupchat “💜the Deetz family💜”

Astrid: hi! For those who are bad with tech *cough cough, grandpa* this is a groupchat, “gc” for short. It’s like texting but with multiple people in one text conversation.

Charles Deetz: Thanks kiddo, I was confused!

Richard Deetz: hey! This seems fun!

Lydia Deetz: OMG RICHARD?!

Richard Deetz: Hello Lyds!

Delia Deetz: omg Richard! Hi!

Charles Deetz: hello!

Richard Deetz: hi everyone!

~in a different groupchat~

“Work only” groupchat

Richard: my daughter just added me to a family groupchat 🥰

Bob: nice.

Argentina: omg fun!! My family is still alive.

Bob: So is his, Argentina?

Argentina: oh. OH. How the hell does that work?

Richard: I’ve learned not to question things like that a looooooooooooooooooooong time ago.

Argentina: that’s fair.

Wolf: my family has been hiding from me 😅

Harry: why?

Wolf: because ~~🏳️‍🌈~~

Harry: ah. SERIOUSLY?

Wolf: yeah. They only found out last thanksgiving tho. I was at my Mothers house (she is dead, to clarify) and I mentioned I was seeing a guy, and they DID NOT LIKE THAT LET ME TELL YA

Harry: OMFG XD RELATABLE

Harry: Bob is the only family member of mine I know who will talk to me

Bob: to be fair, only about half of our family is actually DEAD?

Harry: yeah. But if Astrid can add her dad to a family gc then don’t you think they might just not be *trying*?

Bob: that’s fair.

Richard: ANYWAYS, I was thinking maybe I should make a gc with you guys AND my family in it so you guys can be introduced to each other!

Argentina: sure!

Wolf: okay.

Bob: 👍

Harry: 👍

Richard: yay! Okay brb

Richard Deetz has made a groupchat

Richard Deetz had added: Astrid Deetz, Lydia Deetz, Charles Deetz, Delia Deetz, Ms Argentina, Wolf Jackson, Bob, and Harry

Richard Deetz has named the groupchat “friends and family”

Harry: I love how apparently me and Bob are just “Harry” and “Bob” and everyone else has some form of last name XD

Bob: omg yeah, I didn’t even notice that! Rude.

Richard: well to be fair, you never told me your last name(s?)

Harry: and I still won’t. It’s still funny tho

Richard: 🙄 alr

Astrid: Dad?! Who are these people?

Richard: my coworkers! Thought I’d introduce you guys

Harry: just “coworkers”? Ouch Rich

Richard: oh hush 😑

Harry: 🤭 k

Astrid: cooooool. Hey.

Bob: hey.

Astrid: OMG @Delia @Lydia @Charles, I forgot to mention I auditioned for my school musical lmao

Lydia: WHAT! And you didn’t tell me? Thats awesome!

Delia: Omg wow!!! You’ll be amazing!

Charles: nice kiddo!

Harry: OMG WHAT MUSICAL IS IT?

Astrid: HAHAHAHA I was NOT expecting that reaction from @Harry

Argentina: he looks very intimidating irl but he’s the biggest FREAKIN NERD YOULL EVER MEET I PROMISE-

Harry: RUDE! But Fr- what musical?

Astrid: Heathers.

Harry: AT A HIGHSCHOOL? Damn

Astrid: THATS WHAT I THOUGHT! But I auditioned anyways for fun.

Harry: so did the cast list come out yet?

Astrid: yeah! I’m gonna be Veronica!!!!!!!

Harry: OMG AWESOME!! I would love to play JD, but I died before even the MOVIE was made, so I’ll never get the chance sadly.

Astrid: DAMN, that’s tough.

Argentina: WOMP WOMP

Astrid: HHAHAHAHAHAHHA WOMP WOMP

Harry: >:O

Lydia: You got a part!!! That’s amazing! When’s opening night???

Richard: yeah! You might not see me in the audience, but I’ll be there!!!

Astrid: it’s in October but rehearsal hasn’t even started yet, I’ll let you know when I know!

Delia: let me know too!

Harry: no offence Delia, but have you SEEN Heathers?? I feel like if ghosts can be unconscious, it would send you into a COMA. With Dead Girl Walking ALONE

Astrid: DEAD GIRL WALKING? She’d be out before Big Fun ends XD

Harry: fair point!

Charles: I know that what you two are typing is technically words, but I understand NONE OF THEM

Harry: that’s also fair XD Poor Charles

Wolf Jackson: I know what the words mean! And your right, Delia would be sent into a coma by that show. Movie OR musical

Argentina: one word: Blue.

Wolf: OMFG I FORGOT ABOUT THAT SONG

Harry: “FORGOT”? I PURPOSEFULLY BLOCK THAT SONG OUT OF MY MEMORY MAN

Richard: oh god what have I started with creating this gc

Lydia: clearly this is a Pandora’s box of chaos you’ve created and opened, Rich

Richard: yeah…….whoops…

~hours later~

Astrid: weird question but raise a digital hand if your 🏳️‍🌈 (no pressure to answer I just want info for a project)

Harry: me!!

Bob: does bi count?

Astrid: yes it does

Bob: cool

Wolf: *slowly raises hand*

Astrid: FR? No offence but I would NOT have guessed that

Wolf: no one ever does 🤫

Argentina: OO OO OO ME!!!

Argentina: wait- can I add my girlfriend to the gc?

Astrid: YESS DO IT

Argentina: okay!!!

Argentina added Delores to the groupchat

Wolf: WAIT YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS DELORES??? THE SOULSUCKER?!

Argentina: yeahhhh 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

Delores: hello…? What’s this?

Astrid: a groupchat!

Delores: I’m not sure what that is, but alright?

Bob: ………. Argentina why would you do this to me.

Argentina: OMFG I FORGOT BOB IM SO SORRY

Astrid: wait what? What happened? And what’s a “soulsucker”?

Delores: basically a ghost that can kill other ghosts. And that’s what I am

Astrid: but wouldn’t that not work because they’re already DEAD?

Delores: nope.

Bob: Astrid, you learn not to question stuff like this after a while of being dead or knowing someone in the neitherworld. Nothing makes sense here. (Also Delores almost killed me)

Argentina: yet another reason to NOT KILL YOURSELF 😃

Astrid: noted! Wasn’t planning on it, but good motivation! 😃😃

Wolf: god you people are insane.

Delia: agreed.

Lydia: you both say “you people” like you aren’t a part of this family/friend group. Bad news: YOU ARE PART OF THE “YOU PEOPLE”

Delores: I think I’ll like you people a lot.

Lydia: you tried to kill 🪲🧃 so I definitely like you girl.

Delores: 🥰omg you you want his moldy ass double dead too?!

Lydia: he tried to marry me AT 16 YEARS OLD so yeah definitely

Delores: I’m from an era where thats pretty normal, but I’m gonna assume that’s not normal and bad in the future??

Lydia: yeah it’s bad and gross. Also the year is currently 2024 btw

Delores: thank you! Damn I was in those boxes for a long time wasn’t I?

Argentina: yes you were

Wolf: and you were TECHNICALLY supposed to STAY THERE

Delores: my girlfriend has advised me to reply to that with “womp womp”? I’m not sure what that mean but I hope it has its intended affect.

Bob: WOLF JUST KICKED HIS TRASHCAN SO HARD IT MADE A DENT IN THE WALL HOLY SHIT

Bob: update: I have just read the previous texts. Yes Delores it DID have its intended affect! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Delores: oh good!!! 😀

Wolf: NO! NOT GOOD. I don’t like you! Mean lesbian!!!!

Astrid: “MEAN LESBIAN” OMG 😆

Richard: what is HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?

Richard: omg I jus read the last few texts, that is pretty funny Wolf

Lydia: 😮 🤭 yeah I’m with Rich on this one, that’s pretty funny honestly

Wolf: I hate you all /ns

[river13245]

Witchcraft and adoration

Navigation / SPN Masterlist

Rowena x Male Reader

"we are going to have to call her Dean" Sam says as he's looking through all the books they currently had to try to help their current situation in any way they could.

Dean glares at him from across the table in the main room and shakes his head. "No absolutely not"

Sam just shakes his head at his brothers stubbornness and goes back to reading the book he was currently on. But even after hours of doing research his own eyes had started to hurt so he decided to take a break. "I'm not getting anything. There's nothing we might have to Dean. I know we don't trust her but its not the worst idea we have ever done"

The oldest brother sighs and stands up grabbing himself a drink. "Damnit. You know she's just going to come here and cause trouble right? Remember what happened last time she was around us?"

Both the brothers recall exactly what had happened last time Rowena was around the four of you. Rowena had been giving you looks from across the room and eventually that turned into you coming over and flirting with her. Having no shame in your game what so ever.

You were one of their best friends growing up as you were also raised in the hunting business. This resulted in you guys being around each other a lot but also away so as the years went on Dean had taught you how to flirt and pick of women or men. While you and Sam had flirted a lot throughout the years he fell in love with Jess and nothing ever happened between the two of you which the both of you were fine with you two were close friends.

However they both had grown protective over you and so seeing you flirting with the enemy was a BIG no for them. "Okay so maybe we just keep them two separate from each other" Dean says and Sam nods.

Its to late though because you had heard the last sentence as you walked downstairs. You were about to pick up some groceries when you overheard them talking. "Who are you keeping separate from each other?"

Dean takes a drink out of his glass leaving it up to his brother to take over. "We are having a few people come by to help us with this case since none of us have been able to figure anything to solve it and two of them don't like each other"

Now did you believe what Sam was saying. No. His voice was coming off very matter of fact and when he is speaking truth he doesn't have to seem so convincing. However you choose to ignore it and just nod. "Okay well you two have fun with these friends of yours. I'm going to the store anything you guys want while I'm there?"

You grab a jacket of yours and put it on since its been cold recently with the Christmas weather around the corner. Before you walk out the door you hear the both of them yell out what they want. "Pie, Fruits and vegetables"

"okay if I'm not back after an hour I'm dead" They both glare at you when you say that causing you to laugh and walk out.

As soon as they hear your car start and pull out the drive way is when Sam pulls out his phone. "I cant believe we are actually asking her for help" Dean grumbles like a child and Sam rolls his eyes as he presses the contact and it rings.

"hello boys" Rowena's voice comes through the speaker. "screw something up already?" She teased but was completely serious. Which resulted in Dean speaking "No we haven't. But Sam here thinks we need your help"

Dean not having much manners doesn't hide the fact he is unhappy with this arrangement. So Sam speaks "Rowena we need your help. Will you help us we cant find anything in the books or we wouldn't have called"

There is silence through the other end for a moment before she speaks. "well I hate to be one of these people but what's in it for me?"

The brothers look at each other for a moment "world peace should be good enough of a reward"

She laughs "oh please where is the fun in that. I guess we will just have to figure something out then hm." There's a pause for a moment "is the pretty boy there?"

They can hear the smile forming on her face and they sigh as Sam speaks "He went out. You might miss him if you don't come over now"

A beep is the only thing they here in response. They think she had chosen not to but when footsteps are heard across the wood floor they see her. Her red hair curled and falling down her shoulders nicely. She had also put on a nice outfit and they knew exactly who she was trying to impress.

Dean walks up to her glaring at her. "listen if you even think about flirting with him or even Looking at him with those eyes of yours ill kill you"

She smirks and places her hand on his shoulder. "oh Dean I'm not intimidated by you. I'm here to help you show me what you need me to do"

Sam brings her to all the things they had been researching and she nods and they get ingredients all out before she begins to slowly use her witchcraft. Making sure to do this correctly.

About an hour goes by and she's still there and you walk in through the door. "okay boys I've got everything for Sam's healthy smoothies cause he's a freak and Deans pie"

You look up and see the both of them looking at you "what?"

"Well took you long enough. I was beginning to think I would have to stall for even longer" You turn your head to look at Rowena and a small smile forms on your lips. "hello gorgeous sorry for keeping you waiting"

Sam grabs the bags from you and puts things away but not before telling the both of you to stop flirting. "well Sam if you and Dean don't want to watch us flirt I suggest you both remove yourselves from the room"

This causes the both of them to roll their eyes and they both leave and go to the kitchen. They knew that you liked her but you also wouldn't let her screw anything up for them. So as soon as they left the room you walk behind Rowena and look at what she's doing. "what are you doing with all these ingredients?"

She rests against you a little as if her body couldn't help but gravitate towards yours. "well watch and ill teach you a little something" A smile forms on your face as you place your chin on her shoulder lightly. "yes ma'am you have my full attention"

You could have sworn you seen her cheeks turn red but she chose to not draw attention to it. She began to show you slowly how to do simple things. She left out some of the steps because she didn't need you to know everything. If you wanted to learn how to do witchcraft she would teach you simple things first.

As she explained some of the steps to you. You listened to her words and after a while you were wondering why the boys weren't in here yet but you had a good idea of who is stopping them from being able to and she's right here with you.

Even when you knew she was trying to focus on the task at hand you couldn't help but want to get a reaction from her so you began to kiss her shoulder and to her neck and as you did you felt her relax and try to continue to work.

However when you got to her collarbone she leaned back and brought her hand to turn your face to look at her. "As much as this is amazing. I've got to finish this and what if Sam and Dean see you kissing me like this?"

Your response was shrugging your shoulders. "well they wouldn't be able to say anything. If i want you im gonna be with you" This results in her placing a quick kiss to your lips. Then you speak again "plus Sam was into a demon at one point in time and we are all pretty sure Dean had a thing for a vampire named Benny and now hes with an angel so"

She laughs and nods "okay well then you still need to back up so i can focus on this and not you" You nod and back away and go to the kitchen and let the both of them out.

When the three of you walk back to the room Rowena is finished with her work and walks over and hands it to Dean. "here now I believe you said there was something in it for me"

"what do you want and don't say what I think you are" He tries to sound stern but when she looks at you he sighs and Sam crosses his arms. "it might be a little to late for your opinions boys"

They give her a questioning look as she walks over to you and pulls you into a kiss and your hands go to her waist leaning into it and before you could stop her she magically takes her back to her home and then un connects your lips

The night is filled with her teaching you a little about witchcraft then movies and dinner. You knew she would let you leave at any time but tonight it was the last thing you wanted to do.

----

The boys back at the bunker both look at each other and try to grab onto you so you didn't go with her but they were to late. They weren't really worried about her keeping you hostage because even if they hated the fact...they knew she really did like you.

"oh come on!" Dean yells and Sam just laughs a little

"well they never were one to listen to well" Sam says

[t4tozier]

in the hot for teacher verse do you have a desc doc for what you think the rat grinders look all human? :)

i don't have a specific doc for it because the first chapter was truly just vibes and i didn't expect to be writing more about them, but i do have some ideas in mind! the humanoids are pretty generally the same so for fun i'll give you some facts about all of them in the verse as well! putting this under the cut because it got quite long.

oisin: i was originally picturing him as black w locs, skinny teen who beefed up over the previous summer (lowkey wendell from nsbu before wendell existed) but i was mulling it over earlier and i actually really love the idea of samoan oisin?? he comes back from visiting his family over the summer and has gained so much muscle and fat and got some pe'a and everyone thinks he's so cool for it. he's got long hair that is usually up in a bun. probably also shoots up to 6'2, 6'3".

he's into manga. people who don't know him think he's really intimidating but he's the sweetest guy ever. ivy brings out the bitch in him lbr but for the most part he's just a really buff nerd. am i just describing ify nwadiwe. i swear it's not intentional.

ivy: i don't have a specific race for her but described her in got it bad as olive-skinned, brown hair with blonde highlights. i think she gets the chunky bleach highlights that were popular in like 2020-21. oisin is definitely the tallest of all of them, lucy the tallest of the girls, but ivy's probably second/third-tallest at around 5'8, 5'9.

she runs an anonymous aguefort confessions blog and has a viral tiktok account that mainly went viral as a result of the jace (and porter) videos. jace always says she's gotta quit with the gossip but will still ask her about it he's the worst enabler. she does archery and rides horses at aguefort! she transferred in middle school and everyone was very intrigued by her because she's british. they kept asking her if she's met the queen. she just started saying yes eventually.

lucy: since i made porter a white southern guy lucy is also white and southern by default. i think that she doesn't have the accent her uncle has because her dad married a new englander, so instead she's got this southern/new england mix that leaves her pronouncing certain words very oddly. she still has vitiligo--instead of gray hair she's got light brown with patches of white, and maybe a port wine stain on her face. she's about 5'11" - both of her parents are very tall so she inherited her height from them.

she got bullied pretty badly in elementary school and middle school. she is very sensitive and cries with basically every emotion so it can be hard to determine why she's actually crying if it's not obvious. she's not good at standing up for herself but her friends will hunt a bitch down for her. she will cry if you kill a bug instead of letting it outside. grew up knowing porter's best friend jace bc he gets brought to all the family events and was very grateful when he didn't make anyone call him mr stardiamond when they started his class because that would've been a weird switch to make.

mary ann: shortest one of the group at just around 5 feet. black, box braids with little charms on the ends, braces. her favorite outfit is overalls and her pink hoodie that she's been wearing for years on end because it's been washed so many times it's the perfect texture. between her height, her clothes, and being quiet and autistic, she gets infantilized a ton and she hates it so she will sometimes overcompensate by making dirty jokes at inappropriate times.

she's usually of the mindset that if someone isn't speaking directly to her or talking about something she's interested in she probably doesn't really need to join in the conversation. she was one of those toddlers who didn't speak until she could say a full sentence. she's the first girl on the football team--nobody thinks that she's gonna be any good but she's small enough that she just kind of darts between all the players and can hold her own more than people think.

buddy: truly just the same. sorry buddy i have nothing special for you. he's like 5'7". his grandpa runs the town's megachurch and he keeps trying to get everyone to come with him. he sort of latched onto their group but he genuinely is nice he's just also brainwashed so they haven't like actively tried to kick him out. i think that after spending enough time with them all he gets more chill especially because they call him out when he says something outright fucked up and he likes being friends with them so he wants to not offend them--it's just that he genuinely doesn't think he's saying anything wrong.

kipperlilly: also looks relatively the same but slightly taller, probably like 5'3". she and jace bond over having the same clothing organization app. she doesn't wear the prep-school kind of stuff she wears in canon but it's definitely still very clean, she probably irons everything. type a but not as much Like That.

jawbone realizes the conflict of interest when she starts talking about her anger issues and hating the others and actually has a parent teacher conference to recommend external therapy. can often be found with her journal after that. she and riz are in competition to see how many more ap credits they can gain than each other. rarely seen without lucy by her side. they have a homoerotic relationship for years because neither of them realize that they're more than girl best friends (and lucy's uncle porter always has his best friend everywhere, that's how adults are!)

ruben: i'm thinking he's maybe mixed, black and hispanic? he's got frizzy curls because he's much more invested in writing songs on his ukulele than paying attention to the right products for his curl pattern. he also has braces and mourns when his tooth gap closes because he can't whistle as well. 5'4".

he thinks it's the coolest thing to have his uncle work at the school and he and lucy bond over it even though he doesn't actually take his uncle henry's classes. he's part of the school band and plays in the orchestra for the theatre department - in addition to the ukulele he also plays acoustic guitar and piano.

[utilitycaster]

Didn't get a chance to update my progress last night before CR started but. many things have happened:

Did Davrin's companion quest. I must say. Davrin is a fucking INTENSE person. He wants to talk all the time back at the lighthouse. He uses the most wild hunting metaphors. He is single-minded and arrogant. It is a vibe and he is fun to talk to but he is So Much (I say, known Paladin enjoyer). I also need to level him and the other new companions up more (I am NOT playing favorites even though I have them) but the thing is also, I play a warrior so I was doing pretty good with my initial crew of rogues and mages. The quest was great though, Assan is adorable and I did like learning about Davrin's past (which he's really forthcoming about). You get the sense this man hasn't had anyone to talk to in a while but unlike Neve or Lucanis he's like "and I'm going to do so IN ABUNDANCE." (Bellara and Harding and Emmrich seem to have had more people to talk to; Lucanis would have but for the year in the Ossuary; hard to read Taash).

I have picked up Emmrich! there was a weird crossroads thing where I could eavesdrop on the elven gods whose names I can't spell reliably due to the apostrophes. I love the crossroads by the way. I am trying to balance out my impatience with doing quests (including sidequests) and hanging out at the lighthouse watching Lucanis explain cacio e pepe to Bellara (real thing that happens and it's glorious; it's a way for you to also catch that Lucanis is buying nice coffee for when Neve comes back, pardon me while I lie face down on the floor) with the fact that I would LOVE to explore things forever with the fact that I can't read a fucking map apparently. ANYWAY brought Bellara there and she and Emmrich are pen pals, so this was fun. I fucking love the Necropolis, which is good because I do play a Mourn Watcher and it would be weird if I didn't, but I must admit Emmrich's recruitment quest is like "kill six billion demons while I do a ritual for a bell" and it's like professor you must be shitting me. Then again I play a Mourn Watch warrior (I have heard this is weird within canon lore, to which I say fuck you I'm a cavalier, also clearly SOMEONE needs to kill venatori and ferry around wisps and slay demons and these mages sure aren't doing it, AND the reaper specialty fucks hard AND I get to say goth things that Neve and Emmrich like and Myrna needs SOME boots on the ground to boss around, so there) so it would be kind of weird if I hated it. Anyway Emmrich is great.

Harding is like, a sleeper character; I like her a lot but as a person with no emotional attachment to Inquisition I'm more drawn to the other three starter companions, and she's solid in combat but not flashy for the most part. However I perked the fuck up when she said she felt sorry for Solas and thinks he's deeply lonely; that was a banger conversation and I do think loneliness and not knowing where you fit into the world is very much a theme of this story.

Neve sent a letter saying Rana, Elek (Threads paper seller) and Hal (street fish merchant) were alive but she needs to stay there. This is honestly the best news; if Hal had died I would have never forgiven myself.

Went to do one Mourn Watch quest and was immediately given two more Myrna is my boss and she's like I know we sent you away for "going against the nobility" even though it was "baller" but now that you have a reason to be back temporarily, please do 3 quests now. And I did, and it was pretty great, although the wisp-ferrying stresses me the fuck out.

Decided that before I seek out the trillion other sidequests that suddenly popped up I should grab Taash, because i kept getting "Tab" pop-ups because I have my game on "I don't know what the fuck I am doing mode" to light Necropolis braziers and then they were like "haha no one can do this, Rook, you dumb bitch". There's also Gaatlok somewhere in Minrathous that I couldn't do shit with. So I did that. Taash fucking rules. I was expecting to not necessarily like them not because of their vibes, but because in real life when I encounter 23 year olds I'm like you're baby. And they are, sort of, baby, but they're also hilarious and blunt and a lot of fun. The surliness towards their mom is great; the fire breathing rules; I finally understand the Antaam's deal. I will say I need to go back to the Appearance Mirror because I picked up a really sick shield that does NOT go with my aesthetic. I respect you slutty pirates, but I am a goth. This also ngl makes me wonder what I would do on a replay because Lords of Fortune are not my personal vibe, though Isabela seems great. Probably Veil Jumper honestly. or a mage crow, which would also probably not work with the lore? really my issue is I love the shadow dragons and also probably will always save Treviso so I can never play it because I am if nothing else loyal. Point being, Taash is here and I'm excited.

Neve is back and she's colder than ever towards me! I don't care, she's back and I re-statted her, time to take her out into the field and destroy shit. This does mean I will probably need to, for the first time, make Lucanis heal me. I don't usually need much healing because Story Mode but I'm very slowly learning combat and one day perhaps might inch up to a higher combat level and then I will. Also the champion fights and the dragon fights. I'm just really terrible at avoiding AOE. Also maybe I'll finally use her time slow stuff. I haven't been doing much with the buff abilities because I am a melee/tank/shield-throwing beast but Davrin's taunts were actually very useful.

I have so many side quests and also some main quests so I have no idea what to do. Might check out Morrigan in fallen Minrathous; might do the veil jumpers quests though. There's also some quest in Treviso I haven't pursued and something I picked up in Taash's room. Everyone's back so might as well!

I haven't been talking a ton about all the little codex bits but they are great, and specifically it is important you know that the first book club occurs AFTER everyone is recruited, which is to say, Taash, Davrin, and Lucanis do not attend for whatever reason but Neve, who is grieving and angry, does. This is hilarious.

Manfred and I are tied 1-1 on Rock Paper Scissors; I have been petting Assan every time I go check on the unhinged pantry conversations or go talk to Davrin.

[phoenixeclipse-lmkau]

the fact that teenager mk willingly joinged the brotherhood Makes me think that reuniting with His mom is going to look like that: XIAOXIAN : but ma! i don't Wanna go home, please this is life i wanna become a great pirate like u 😭😩

PHOENIX:no!! Pirates are dangerous and selfish bastards Who Do Nothing but harm to other, you are going back wether u like or not young Boy😡😡🔥

WUKONG/MACAQUE WHO HAVE BEEN THERE THE WHOLE TIME: were here too btw😶😑

Okay I love this! Though that's not exactly how I had planned for it to go. Instead the Brotherhood had decided to stop in a town which is how Phoenix is able to catch up to them. Phoenix runs into Xiaotian alone in the market place and Wukong and Macaque arrive halfway through the conversation a little bit shocked.

"Mom!?" Xiaotain was both shocked and excited to see his mother when she arrived.

"Xiaotain! Oh my gosh honey are you okay? I saw the wanted posters, what is going on?" Phoenix had run up to him and gripped his forearms tightly, her son being stronger than her for the last few years meant it didn't hurt at all.

"You saw the wanted posters? Am I that famous!? Awesome!!" He jumped at the news, his eyes sparkling with delight.

"Awesome?" Silence sat between them for a moment, "What do you mean awesome?"

"It means I'm pretty good at this pirate business, obviously," He explained as a matter of factually completely calm about the ordeal.

He gently pried her hands off of his arms to pull her into a big hug, his eyes looked up to scan the area as his ears twitched. He had to make sure no one was watching. He was a famous wanted pirate, he didn't want people hunting down his mother too. He had no idea that his mother had been a pirate once too and had a larger bounty than him right now.

"Don't tell me... you want to be a pirate..." She hoped he would say no, she had tried to raise him so he wouldn't act like her... like at all.

"YES!! IT'S AWESOME! They are teaching me so much like how to properly steer a ship, Captain Wukong is really laid back about it too. He let me steer it! It was so fun! Of course Mac had made sure that nothing was around to crash into first but it's a start!" He grinned happily gently pulling away to jump up and down for a moment.

Phoenix's heart pounded in her chest. Why was her son so much like her younger self? Why did she have the excitement about pirates like his dad, why did he have to get involved with them. As Xiaotain kept rambling on and on she had to stop herself from yelling.

"Enough!" His words stopped as he flinched back from his mother's anger, she never got angry like every. Frustrated? Sure a lot with how rambunctious he and Mei were especially.

"I cannot let you be a pirate, especially not with them," She was barely holding back her anger, not only did they have to haunt her sleep but now they were actively trying to put her son in direct danger.

"W-with them?" Xaiotain asked slowly as he processed her words. What was she talking about, what would she know about the captain and his mate? Was it because they were also really famous?

"Yes with them. They are selfish, arrogant, and highly dangerous bastards. I will not have you associate with them," She crossed her arms over her chest as she started shaking.

At first Xaiotain thought it was from anger making him angry too but then figured out it was something else. Something else entirely, when he looked into her eyes she looked truly terrified. He hated the expression that graced her face.

"Mom- I'm not in danger, I'm really strong remember. Besides they have also been training me other ways too! Mac has been teaching me how to use shadow magic and I can lift the Captain's staff! Still not sure why, but it's awesome! He said I couldn't have it but he'd show me how to use it. I'll be fine," He tried to console her unintentionally causing her more fear and sadness.

"They know...?" Her words were barely a whisper but her son heard none the less. Her incredibly dense son heard with his six beautiful ears that he got from who she had deemed is Baba.

"They know what?" Her whole body froze when she heard the next voice, that was not the voice of her son. Slowly she turned her head as she came face to face with The Six Eared Macaque was had his face mere inches from hers.

She blinked a few times but when she found that it wasn't an illusion she did the only thing she could think of. She clocked him in the face with her fist, his head snapped back more from shock than anything else. Grabbing Xiaotain's hand she didn't have time to run when arms wrapped around her waist.

"What do we have here?" Captain Sun Wukong asked a sigh escaping his lips as he rested his chin on her head. He was using transformation magic to be taller than her. It sent a chill up her spine.

"Hey! Let her go," Xaiotain growled. He liked his Captain he really did, but he didn't trust anyone with his mom. Not a single person. With narrowed eyes he cocked his head to the side when he saw his expression.

"Yeah, I'm not going to do that. It's been 19 years of pure torture without her, I am not letting our love slip away a second time," Sun Wukong said tightening his grip ever so slightly on the woman frozen in fear.

Love? The fuck was he talking about? They had talked about killing her and how she was so weak and pathetic. Why the hell should she trust anything that he said? No she didn't trust what he said, not a single bit.

"Love? What do you mean love? And how do you know my mother?" Xaiotain's eyes flashed with protectiveness, she same protectiveness that was a nightmare for anyone that hated or threatened his mother.

"Mother? She really is your mother?" Macaque asked slowly, shadows covered most of his face as he tried to hide the psychotic smile that graced his face. "I see there is much to talk about between the three of us."

"What is there to talk about?" Xaiotain asked whipping his head looking between the two quickly. He was so confused.

"Of course we know your mother bud~ How else would you exist? Come on you have to had realized it by now," Wukong began with a chuckle nuzzling Phoenix's dark brown hair.

"Don't you dare," Phoenix snapped trying to get out of his grip but his grip didn't budge at all.

"Fine, why don't you tell him? I mean it's kind of hypocritical of you really darling. You were one of the best pirates that there ever was and yet you don't want OUR son to be a pirate? He does such a good job at it though, and we keep him safe. Not that he need it," Macaque said his eyes twinkling as he gently cupped her face in his palms.

She was really here standing in front of him, trapped in his mate's grasp. A single thought passed through both his and Wukong's head in that moment. She wasn't going anywhere. Not this time. His heart swelled with joy, she was resisting but she had sealed her fate way before Xaiotain was even thought of.

"W-What?" Xaiotain's grip on his Captain's arm loosened from his shock. What was he talking about?

"Come on now, you have to have realized by now. You said it yourself you can pick up Wukong's staff, you have his gold vision, you have even transformed like him, you're six ears are a clear indication, you can use shadow portals, and have even summoned a shadow clone. You'll learn even more as we train you but come on you have to have realized by now," Macaque said calmly as he explained, his eyes turning from Xaiotain to Phoenix. Her face was full of fear as she started shaking with tears in her eyes. Something happened, and he would figure out what, but in the meantime.

"You are our son, and that is obvious," Wukong added giving Phoenix an ever so slight tug closer to him, he was careful not to have a painful grip but he wasn't going to let her go at all.

Honestly that should have been the most shocking part of the situation. However Xaiotain's brain locked onto a different piece of information. "YOU USED TO BE A PIRATE!?"

TADA!! This is how the convo kinda goes! Hope you like it! Thank you so much for the ask!!

[thefudge]

i need thoughts on saltburn -- even if you didn't like it!!! <3

sorry for taking so long to answer this, but i only finally watched the movie this week. i kind of wanted the hype and polarization to die down a bit so i could form my own opinion.

so, i enjoyed it! it has issues, but it was a fun and clever romp. any movie that ends with a "murder on the dancefloor" dance sequence will earn a smile from me because that is one of my favorite songs of all time and i don't know how emerald fennell knew that about me, but there were constant little moments in the script that made me go "ahh, we'd be friends in real life". i felt that way about promising young woman too, even if i ultimately disagreed with quite a few of her creative choices there. but her style & humor and the way she frames sexual content is similar to my own palate/writing. i especially appreciate the way she makes arousal and desire interesting, how she explores abjection but also intellectual stimulation. what makes the character of oliver irresistible to the entire household in the film is the way he can tap into people's desires in a very unexpected and creative way. he constantly surprises them by giving them what they didn't know they wanted. it's interesting that, from oliver's skewed perspective, it's felix who is supposed to be the object of desire, the person everyone wants to be around. but we the viewers can see oliver is the true loathsome subject and object of desire for those around him (and for the audience too, as we sort of can't look away from him).

i agree with people who say felix cared more about oliver than the reverse. in fact, the cleverest thing this movie does, imo, is show that oliver could be happy, but actively chooses not to. this isn't to say the posh oxbridge types fennell makes fun of in this movie do not ring true or that the social satire and snobbery isn't accurate. but it's more that oliver doesn't need to fall into their sphere of influence, doesn't need to measure himself using their standards. yes, the environment is classist and unfair, there are big structural issues that oliver cannot control, but oxford doesn't have to be his whole life, it's only a couple of years. the fact that he is there already gives him a leg up in the world. given his smarts and his magnetism, oliver could have done very well for himself after university without needing to latch onto saltburn. the clever twist for me is that oliver is also privileged, and not just because we see he's comfortably middle-class with a supportive family, but because he has options, he has choices, but he actively chooses to be miserable and hateful, because he hates and looks down on the ppl around him. yes, the saltburn entourage is filled with bitter, toxic people, but some of those people would've probably done anything for him, and would have genuinely loved him. but the truth at the core of oliver is that he prefers a room to be empty, he prefers to have saltburn all to himself as this pure luxurious space that is devoid of humanity.

at the end, oliver is both wonderfully effective and deeply unimaginative. don't get me wrong, i really liked his character and the gremlin freak energy he conveyed, i rooted for him along the way, i mean barry keoghan plays it too well not to, but despite his victory dance at the end, it's sort of drab that oliver's greatest achievement is saltburn. despite being the brilliant predator who hunted down all competition, he is not brilliant enough to see his prize is empty. he's not smart enough to see, that at the end of the day, he is just like the cattons. he loves and hates felix because he loves and hates himself. there are many moments in the movie where oliver stares into mirrors or his reflection is doubled in reflective surfaces, and i don't think it's just to signal his duplicity or multiplicity, but rather the fact that....it's all olivers, all the way down. he thinks he's such an outsider, but he is saltburn, he comes to embody it physically in the very last dance. and even his predatory cleverness is overrated; most of the cattons fall easily, they want to go, there's an emptiness at the heart of their lives and at the heart of saltburn that oliver wants to embrace.

and i do think that emerald fennell had some of this in mind; i don't think my interpretation is necessarily the right one, but you can see she's doing more with this than directing a satirical romp. i think we're actively invited to see beyond oliver's seduction and into the emptiness of his dreams. that's why some of the deaths in the end come off as slightly ridiculous and excessive, because it's not about his cleverness anymore, he's just the last person left when the party is over. he's still a character you can root for and have fun with (and be drawn to), but the film encourages you to question his narrative from the start, not just his literal narration to rosamund pike, but the overarching idea he has of himself.

anyway, this is all to say, i rather liked it! i didn't love it, but i appreciate what it was trying to do, and i think it's more clever in that regard than people give it credit for. i do think it's a more mature effort than promising young woman. i am kind of hoping emerald directs a nonconventional romcom next, because i like her approach to certain intimate moments, mixing tenderness with violence. i'd love to see a punch-drunk love-esque love story from her.

(i do also want to give props to barry keoghan again, because i think the movie wouldn't work half as well without him. he elevates a lot of moments and he is so compelling to watch)

[anime-grimmy-art]

(woops forgot to post yesterday)

Day 8 – Comrades

Zet – Zet definitely prefers to hunt alone as it would just give her more factors to keep track of. This mostly stems from the fact that she had always hunted alone, since her quests were always ones nobody should know about. She was, however, pushed into a leader/teacher role later down the line to get hunters new to the New World accustomed to their new surroundings and the new monsters and it turned out she was a hella good teacher if she tried.

Mei – Mei hates being alone a lot, so she is always delighted to have someone accompany her. In most of her travels she had Ena by her side, which made Mei really happy, but having someone fight alongside her made her even giddier. It just felt like a safe blanket to have someone there to support her on a hunt.

Chidori – At first, she kind of preferred hunting alone, just for the fact she didn’t want people to know that she was a terrible hunter, but once Fiorayne had gone on a hunt with her, Chidori noticed how much more fun it was and how much more secure she felt. Chidori is also rather anxious, so she had a hard time getting to know the people of Elgado, but through hunting together she had an easier time growing closer to them. Once her family from Kamura started hunting with her to boot, Chidori developed to hate hunting on her own. Especially hunting with her master, Utsushi, is a blast because it just reminds her so much of her training days and she always eats up his abundance of supportive comments.

Day 9 – Bond

Zet – Don’t ask her how it happened, but yes, emotionally stunted Zet somehow found a soulmate in the FTL. Him and the Handler were the two people in the New World that slowly but surely cracked open Zet’s walls, so when in Seliana it was the FTL that was standing before a lifechanging challenge, she made sure to stand by his side and support him. They kind of morphed into the Commander and his ace, just like the FTL’s grandfather and the huntsman, and through this continuous cooperative work, the two grew closer until something shifted. Ofc it was the FTL that kinda sprang the idea of being “something more” but Zet was surprisingly okay with giving it a try and suffice to say, she rather enjoys the outcome.

Mei – Little does she know it yet, but her deep affection for Kyle might not just be that of a good friend. After they had finally sorted out their differences, Mei did everything to be good in his book, and when he joined her on the last stretch of her journey, Mei was really happy and giddy despite the looming danger. She highly enjoys their (playful) bickering and she loves to make him work himself up. For now, she only knows that she’d jump at any opportunity to spend time with him, be that out on a fun hunt or help him with boring paper work, but in time she’ll realize what those feelings really mean.

Chidori – Once student and master found themselves on even footing, so suddenly grew their relationship uncertain. Once her and Utsushi seemed to see eye to eye, it felt like some invisible barrier had vanished and suddenly there was so much potential floating around the air, it actually made their relationship a bit awkward for a while. But after the whole affair with Ibushi and Narwa, and Utsushi being surprised how much it actually scared him to lose his “favourite pupil”, these two tentatively tip toed closer to each other until the finally took the plunge. They didn’t really broadcast their new relationship to anyone and are not particularly affectionate in the open (they do basically act the same as ever), but really, everyone knows these two are a thing. Even the people of Elgado could tell after only knowing them for a little while, but both Chidori and Utsushi still think no one knows.

[asmallmoon333]

Halloween season! So monster AU Lawlight. What do you think they would be? The rest of the cast?

Fun question!! I'd say in a Haloween setting we'd have:

Light: Demon, particularly one with powers of compulsion, contracts, and death. Makes a contract in exchange for a life, the contractees never get what they think they will and all end up dying of heart attacks. Alias Kira, goal to purify the world. He's a pretty young supernatural, only a year old after dying as a human at 23. Demons are humans or supernaturals that died with unfilfilled desires, but ones so strong they become demons rather than ghosts. Helps if they contracted another demon before dying. They can also very sucessfully pass as the human/super they used to be, making them difficult to find.

L: Vampire, very old and powerful, has spent most of the last few decades napping. May or may not have been due to an epic sugar crash. He heard Demon blood tastes wonderfully sweet from an anonymous source and now wants to confirm >v>. Goal: to have cake and nibble on Kira.

Misa: Witch, she's been working ages to make a love potion that works on a demon. Has been unsuccessful. In the meantime tries her best to kill L with unique spells. Also unsuccessfully. A very powerful witch as she has a demon familiar who shares her powers with Misa.

Rem: Demon familair, Misa's in particular. Her original form was something aquatic, deep sea horror-type supernatural. She bound herself to Misa willingly out of love and gave Misa full access to her powers. That's why Misa is a very powerful witch despite still being human, and why Light keeps her around.

Ryuk: Also a demon, but uncontracted. Was a tengu before dying. He was the one that made a deal with Light was the latter was human, and the reason Light was reborn as a demon after dying. Is having the time of his life.

Mello: Vamp, sired by L so he took some of his traits. Mello was dying one night from a gang fight and L saved him and then just vanished. Mello wants to meet L to ask him why he turned him. He's competitive against Near. Doesn't try to control his bloodlust at all, and becomes the head of the mafia that killed him in a very brutal takeover.

Near: Also a Vamp sired by L, doesn't care as much as Mello does, but is still curious to meet him. Was half-fae on his mother's side but no one knew it since he was an orphan, the fact that he managed to turn successfully into a Vamp shocked a lot of people. Is under constant watch by the US government. He can control his bloodlust very well and has muted emotions. He's ambivalent to Mello.

Matt: Sylph, electric specifically. Likes to static shock people for fun. Was Mello's friend when he'd been human but didn't tell him about the supernatural community. He and Mello are sometimes at odds because of it since Mello thought they'd told each other everything, considering they grew up together.

Watari: Mad Scientist/Professor Fankenstein type. Can bring inanimate objects to life. He woke L from a very long sleep and now works with him to police the unruly supernatural community in exchange for the blood of criminals L catches. His main goal is to stop Kira.

Kiyomi: Siren, her voice and words can compel people to believe her. Acts as Kira's public voice. She thinks her voice works on Light; it does not.

Mikami: Werewolf or werecat. Hates it. His main goal in life is to be able to suppress his animalistic transformation completely. Hates both humans and the supernatural community, loves Kira for culling them.

Matsuda: Wizard. Very bad at it lmao, but born into a powerful family so he has access to a lot of good tools and relics for hunting demons.

Soichiro, Sayu, Sachiko: All human, Light's family whom he still protects. Light pretends to be human still and lives close to them. Soichiro knows about supernaturals since he works in the government, and has his suspicions of Light.

Rest of the cast: a menagerie of humans and otherwise, but my brain is tired. In general, the governments of every country know about this but keep it quiet for public panic reasons.

So, yeah, thanks for the fun question!! It ended up turning into a whole AU with background involved lmao.

[writteninlunarlight-years]

Hey I saw you were doing matchups and I've never done one so I was curious :) plus you seem nice

This is mainly for bg3 but I'm super into Hazbin as well if you feel like doing both 🫶

Gender- woman

Pronouns- she/her

Sexuality- pansexual

Appearance

Basically the best I could get without just putting a picture of myself. Keep my hair short, I love dyeing it, I've had it tons of colors but pink is my favorite. (having it up in two buns is my favorite style) I'm 5'2, curvy, my eyes are kinda downturned and brown. I have a freckle (mole? Kinda? Beauty mark?) above my lips on the left.

Mbti- INTJ

Personality- So I'm autistic, have trouble with certain social queues and expressing emotions. It actually caused a lot of problems growing up but I've gotten better about it now. I'm still really blunt at times and have been told my resting face looks really sad/upset 😅. I'm an optimistic realist, and generally difficult to upset. I cry when I get mad because I never learned to express being angry in a healthy way. I try to be sweet with people I'm familiar with, like making jokes and complimenting people, but I can be pretty mean/cold to people I don't like. I'm a writer, and an auditory learner, so I've always been told I'm an amazing listener. Which I do love listening to people, but I hate interrupting so I usually go entire conversations without saying much even if I have something to say- because I won't interject and by the time I get a word in the subject has changed. I'm a fast learner academically and like to think I'm open minded. Arguments annoy me, but I'm not above admitting I'm wrong. I am very passionate about the things I like, as well as morality based subjects. I also go somewhat nonverbal when I get overstimulated which happens mostly when I'm around a lot of people.

Likes:

-Storms are my favorite weather

-Rabbits are my favorite animals, I grew up with a bunch of them they're super misunderstood from what I know and make amazing pets

-Word association games for some reason? Also puzzles. They're just fun

Dislikes:

-Meat. I have trouble eating certain foods and most meat is in that. I'm not vegetarian but anything with bones or skin or chewy bits I just can't do 🥲

-Yelling. It just makes me upset even if it's not directed at me.

-When people don't think animals have feelings or make jokes about killing pets cause they think it's funny :(

Fun fact: I have photic sneeze reflex which means when my pupils dilate really fast due to a light change (usually going from inside to outside) it makes me sneeze!

Race: I'm a human obviously but I think I'd be a half elf (maybe a drow half elf even, just cause I don't prefer sunshine) in faerun just cause my ears are kinda pointy. I have connected earlobes so it makes them look somewhat more elfy.

Class: Probably an abjuration or conjuration wizard. Sorcerer would be cool but they're charisma based and I'm not very charismatic

Alignment: Lawful good? Or maybe just chaotic good I'm not sure, cause the law isn't always right funnily enough

Thanks, even if you don't get to this. I started posting on Tumblr recently and I know how difficult it is to get to a bunch of asks so no worries if you can't get to it.

You are so sweet, I am sorry it took so long to get to your request, but it is finally time to get your match out!

~~~~~ MATCHUPS ~~~~~

BG3

Halsin

~~~~~ HEADCANONS ~~~~~

Halsin is one with nature, so he enjoys all animals and people no matter what.

He finds your reserved nature interesting. As you are the leader of your misfits, your timidity doesn't quite match your fearless leadership of lives.

He realizes how sweet you are once he joins you in the hunt for the ones behind the illithids.

He struggled to determine if you were sad or if your face was just reading sad.

Halsin is just as awkward himself. Though he has lived for hundreds of years, it is hard to keep up with all the changes that come with that.

When he started developing feelings for you, he was very timid about expressing them. Though love is natural and part of nature, he didn't want to frighten you.

When he found you crying one day because a villager upset you, he was as wild as a bear at that moment.

He stayed back to comfort you but gave a piece of his mind to spare you the argument when you were elsewhere.

Halsin tries hard to help keep the peace among the others, especially after seeing you get overwhelmed by a fight that broke out between La'zel and Shadowheart.

When he confesses to you, he rambles. Because you don't say anything, he thinks you now hate him, so he rambles more. Once he lets you get a say-in and you confess back, he's the happiest ever.

~~~~~ BLURB ~~~~~

You had been tending to the animals near the camp. Though you were soon to leave this area and venture further through Faerun, you wanted to make sure the little friends you made would be okay. You heard giant footsteps approaching behind you as you doled out nuts, berries, and some dried meats for the creatures. Turning gently so as not to frighten away the creatures, you find Halsin also helping tend to the animals.

His love and care for the world around him was so sweet to you. He was a fantastic man who flawlessly met your and the group's needs. Sometimes, you wondered about letting him lead as the new group's leader. Halsin had already turned that notion down since you were more than capable in his eyes.

Once the creatures were tended, Halsin walked up to you. He gently placed some fallen hair back in its intended spot before gently cupping your face. He was always so warm and protective, which helped put you at ease through this whole ordeal with the mind flayers. Nuzzling into his hand and smiling up at him, Halsin gently placed a kiss on your forehead. You two embraced this soft moment before the next battle took place.

~~~~~ EXTRA ~~~~~

(You had just finished a battle; only Gale came out scathed because he didn't listen to a call out from you or Shadowheart.)

Halsin: My Gale, how did you get so beat up?

Shadowheart: Maybe because he's a lunatic who doesn't listen to instructions.

Gale: Hold on, I don't know how this is my fault when you could have simply healed me on the field.

Shadowheart: Why would I heal you when you blatantly didn't listen?

Halsin: Everyone, you don't need to worry about fighting. It's okay. I will tend to the wounds.

Y/N: I also called out to him to move from the spot where he got shot.

Halsin: Never mind, Gale, figure it out on your own.

HAZBIN HOTEL

Charlie Morningstar

~~~~~ HEADCANONS ~~~~~

Charlie is the embodiment of chaotic goodness. She just wants to help everyone and make the world a better place.

She loves animals, people, and really everything. If she could express her happiness and love any better, she would.

She was taken aback by how reserved you were when you came to the hotel. Usually, people in hell were brazen.

As she got to know you, she enjoyed the wisdom you offered.

She did everything to put a smile on your face, mostly because she enjoyed your happiness and because she couldn't tell when you were sad or just thinking.

She goes full momma demon mode when someone upsets you, with no hesitation the claws are barred.

She tries really hard to be a listener for you instead of you listening to her. Though Charlie tends to ramble, especially about her ideas, she always wants to hear your input.

When there is violence or issues in the hotel, she makes sure you are first safe and far away. Once things have calmed down, she will come and get you.

She didn't really confess to you. One day, you two were friends, and the next, she was talking to you about being in a relationship.

~~~~~ BLURB ~~~~~

Charlie had been diligently working at her desk on her next big plan to rehabilitate sinners. While she was working away, you had taken refuge on her bed, writing in your journal. You enjoyed the monotony of your growing relationship, where even if you two weren't actively doing the same thing, you still chose each other. As you got to the climax of your story, a frustrated groan was heard next to you.

Turning your attention to the princess, you noticed she had scrapped another idea of hers. Sitting up, you slowly made your way over to her to see what seemed to be causing the hiccup in her mental process. Charlie was full of amazing ideas; just some were far harder to attain than others, and you both knew that. So sometimes, just offering your own insights helped her reimagine an idea she was having.

Taking your spot next to her, you noticed that instead of working on sinners like you thought, she was working on your next birthday. You laughed gently at her, causing her to snap to her senses and look over at you. Knowing she had been caught, she gave up and let you look at what she had been working on. You smiled and gently took Charleis's hand in yours, "You know I would be happy with just spending the day lounging around with you, right?" This was enough to spread a giant smile across the princess of Hell's face.

~~~~~ EXTRA ~~~~~

(The new hotel had been built, and Charlie was eager to welcome new sinners. However, no one showed up the first day, making her sad.)

Y/N: Charlie, it's okay. I am sure there will be some tomorrow or the next day.

Charlie: But how will we beat heaven if no one gets rehabilitated.

Y/N: We can't force people to stay; we need them to come on their own.

Charlie: but I made cupcakes.

Y/N: How about I eat one with you?

Charlie: ( sniffles ) Okay.

[saintsenara]

for the crackship game:

lucius/molly (i heard a headcanon about a decade ago that the reason lucius is so ott with hating the weasleys is because he had a crush on molly in school and I am still not over it in the year 2024)

arthur/narcissa (the other half of this terrible pureblood spouse swap, with a side of black family tomfoolery since arthur's mum was one of them too!)

kingsley/bellatrix (the whole unstoppable force vs. immovable object of it all!)

kingsley/sirius (they'd make a genuinely fun pair but also like, "he's definitely been sighted in tibet," says kingsley on a floo call with his boss while the escaped convict he's supposed to be hunting is lounging on his bed behind him)

lucius/corban yaxley (the fact that yaxley feels compelled to take a moment to bitch about the peacocks sends me each time, and so help me i have based ships on less)

thank you very much for the ask, anon! delicious choices, congrats.

lucius malfoy/molly weasley narcissa malfoy/arthur weasley

i absolutely back this toxic wife-swap, because i - quite correctly - back literally any configuration of malfoy/weasley pairing, since the two families are narrative mirrors, and mirror-pairings are always hot.

which is to say, while narcissa clearly doesn't have a clue what a saucepan is, and arthur's not getting his eight fried eggs every morning while she's staying at the burrow [which, tbh, might be good for his heart...], she would actually drop into the narrative role molly fulfils [more conventional than, and therefore slightly isolated from, the rest of the family] fairly well.

is she going to enjoy herself? well, i suppose it depends on which imperious frenchwoman we imagine she'd take as her inspiration. is she going the marie antoinette route and enjoying getting a taste of the simple life pottering around the garden? or is she going the fleur delacour route and being constantly ready to start beef over the fact there's nothing to do at the burrow except "cooking and chickens"?

[iconically rude, i love her.]

molly, in contrast, is having a great time because we know from canon that she'd love having house elves and a garden without gnomes in it.

and both of them are having a great time when the sun goes down... since if there's one thing lucius and arthur have in common it's that they both clearly fuck.

bellatrix lestrange/kingsley shacklebolt sirius black/kingsley shacklebolt

answered here - one of them is flopping, one's hot. i think we can all guess which one is the hot one...

[not least because the "kingsley takes a floo call about sirius' whereabouts" premise is something i need a fic for.]

lucius malfoy/corban yaxley

you are completely right that yaxley being a little bitch about the peacocks is incredibly funny - as is, to be fair, everything he does in the dark lord ascending [him seething because voldemort literally doesn't give a shit about him putting pius thicknesse under the imperius curse because he's too busy flirting with snape always sends me].

so yes, go on, i'll back it. i think lucius decided to slum it in his youth - à la common people - and yaxley was his bit of rough. it was fine for about three days, but it flopped the second lucius revealed that the each of the peacocks cost as much as yaxley's monthly food budget.

[dc-said-bi-robin-rights]

Joey’s never liked the cabin.

He doesn’t hate it, not like Rose does, but he’s never liked it. Never. No matter how much Slade and Grant called him a wuss for it, Joey never quite warmed up to the concept of living in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, isolated and with no one around for miles, for large periods of time with only his fucked-up family for company. And if he didn’t like the idea of it, he disliked the execution even more—disliked the animal heads Slade mounts on the walls, disliked the deerskin rugs that decorate the floors, disliked the pretentious mythological artwork hung up in the bedrooms (Slade liked Achilles, even though he didn’t understand him), and specially disliked the way it felt like his Pop’s domain, like the rest of them were just guests in someone else’s house despite the fact he had supposedly built the cabin for them.

The things he disliked most about the cabin, however, were also the things that had brought him the most joy as a child: the statuettes.

Slade had never liked art, and he had called Joey a garden variety of words that would now be considered slurs for not being made of the same stuff as him and Grant more that once, but he had never begrudged his son his love for art or his gentle nature. Rather, he had prized it, encouraged it even, holding it up for anyone who would listen as irrefutable proof of the fact that he was capable of making something good, that Slade Joseph Wilson’s only legacy wouldn’t be violence and death and broken things. The statuettes had been part of that.

It had been Joey idea, of course. Slade had no mind for painting, but his hands were steady and his fingers precise—too precise, far too precise, even hiding it, specially hiding it—and he had taken to woodcarving like he had been born to it. The two of them had developed a system, eventually: every time Slade went on one of his “safari trips”, he would carve a statuette of the biggest animal he had managed to hunt on that trip and bring it back with him when he returned home so Joey could hee and haw over it for a little while before moving on to something else. Sometimes the statuettes were normal things, like deer (antelope, his father would correct him sometimes, or moose, or gazelle, but to Joey they were all deer), but other times they were stranger animals, fiercer animals, things people weren’t supposed to hunt in the way Joey understood the word, like sharks or elephants or even bears. He would ask his mom about it often, while his father was gone, but Adeline would only laugh and say Slade made those hunts up so he wouldn’t get bored of the statuettes… if she was feeling particularly kind that day. Otherwise, she would scoff and reply that Slade “had an active imagination” for achievements he felt he was owed regardless of whether he had earned them or not. Joey had always gotten the feeling she wasn’t talking about the statuettes anymore when she would say that and would quickly extricate himself from the conversation as soon as he could, leaving his mother to her mutterings, which would often continue long after he had left the kitchen.

Joey hadn’t believed the statuettes were fake valor then and he still doesn’t believe it now, even knowing what he now knows about his father’s “safari trips”. The stuffed shark head that once sat in the closet but now hangs above the fireplace is proof enough that not all of his father’s hunting trips were invented, if indeed any of them ever were. More likely he took the opportunity to indulge in both his hobby and his actual occupation while he was away from home, leaving his wife and two kids alone in a world in which he had painted a target on their backs. It would certainly fit with his actions up until that point.

One day, Joey had gotten the bright idea to try and replicate his father’s work while the man himself was away, just for the fun of it, and that had been incorporated into the system as well when he came back: Joey’s replica would stay in the family home in Vermont from now, and Slade’s original would have a place of honor on the mantelpiece of the cabin. It was a perfect arrangement, and it suited the imperfect father just as perfectly, so much so that Slade had once joked that he would have to go on safari trips more often, so eager was he to witness his son’s often superior replicas of his work. They had all laughed, then. Now, just the thought of that makes Joey feel likes he’s going to be violently sick.

Had he—had his innocent wish to impress his father by creating better replicas of whatever he had carved on his trips—been responsible for someone’s death? How many people had Joey indirectly killed by giving Slade Wilson a reason to hurry home every time he left? One? None? Many?

Joey doesn’t know, and it makes him want to take a knife to his own arm whenever he thinks about it, so he pushes the rogue thought aside and concentrates on navigating his vehicle through the trees ahead of him. He’s wearing long sleeves, as always, but Rose isn’t stupid: if his knife is even a centimeter off and his cut begins to bleed, she will notice, and there is no way in hell he can play off preferring to keep his sleeves rolled down when there’s an open cut on his arm. Joey has kept his cutting a secret from the rest of his family for a good decade, he isn’t about to be discovered on the one day that should only be about her little sister and her mental health.

Speaking of his little sister…

Rose is leaning against the cabin wall with her arms crossed, clad hair to toe in motorcycle leathers next to the sleek shape of her Harley. She looks up as his beat-up van struggles into the clearing, and Joey exhales in disappointment when he sees the cigarette wedged between her bottom and top lip trailing smoke into the air. He really did think she’d quit for good this time when he’d suggested she keep an unlit cigarette in her mouth whenever she felt stressed just to ward off the temptation. He had read about it in a book somewhere, how it apparently helped smokers in the process of quitting feel at ease without giving them the temptation to actually smoke. Evidently, he needed to read better books.

Shaking his head, he shifts the stick into its ‘park’ setting and climbs out of the van, nodding at Rose when she flicks her gaze over to him and raising his hands to sign. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Rose mutters, taking one final puff of her cigarette and leaning her head back against the wooden wall of the cabin with a sigh, closing her one eye a moment after as if in indifference.

Joey knows better, though, is maybe the only person in the whole wide world who knows better, so he simply waits until Rose is done gathering herself before speaking again, his lips curling into a smile. He knows Rose is wearing her motorcycle leathers instead of the sweater and beanie combo she would usually wear to an excursion such as this one because they feel more familiar on her skin than the alternative, but he can’t resist to urge to tease his sister a little over it. “Nice outfit.”

“Shut up,” she retorts, opening her eye and letting the cigarette drop onto the porch, stomping on it a moment after to ensure she doesn’t accidentally ruin their plans for the day. She pushes away from the wooden wall and walks up to the back of the van, quirking an eyebrow at him when he walks around to stand beside her. “Slade?”

Joey raises his hands to sign… before lowering them when he remembers that full conversations are still past his sister’s understanding of ASL and turning on his subvocal transmitter on instead. He doesn’t like using it much on account of the excessively robotic tone it assigns his voice, but… well, this is a special occasion, after all.

“He thinks we’re gonna have a picnic.” Joey dips his hand into his pocket and pulls out a keyring, twirling it around his finger with a smug smile. He doesn’t hate the cabin, but he does hate Pops a little, and that’s reason enough for him to smile about what’s about to happen. “Even gave me the emergency keys so we wouldn’t have to bother him about setting up the new biometrics.”

“Of course he did,” Rose snorts, shaking her head at their father’s complete lack of awareness regarding his children before looking back at Joey and putting a hand on her hip. “You got the stuff?”

Joey rolls his eyes at the dramatic, tv-like phrasing and walks forward, unlatching the van’s safety mechanisms and pulling open the door to reveal several gasoline containers in sizes that have been illegal since the 60’s. Joey still thinks it’s overkill, but if Rose wants this place gone from the map, who is he to object? “Yep. You owe me, like, half a grand, by the way.”

The gasoline had actually been nearly three and a half grand, but Joey is the Vice President of a large company and Rose hasn’t actually charged her clients anything for her “mercenary work”—which, these days, just seems like normal vigilante work with extra steps—in months, so he doesn’t mind footing the bill a bit just this once, even though his sister would probably find his little white lie condescending in the extreme.

“Ask Slade to cover it,” Rose replies flatly as she walks forward and grabs up a container one-handed, pulling it out of the vehicle like it weighed nothing and bringing her knee up momentarily so she can hold it against something as she unscrews the cap. “It’s his fault we’re doing this in the first place.”

Joey can’t argue with that. “Fair enough.”

Rose holds the gasoline up to her nose and takes a sniff, grimacing when it does, in fact, turn out to be gasoline—way to trust a guy, little sis!—before looking up at him with a frown. “You sure you don’t want in on the action? D-Slade messed with you even more than he messed with me.”

Joey shakes his head and leans forward to grab a thick plastic bag from the van, noting Rose’s slip-up somewhere in the back of his mind. “I don’t think competing with each other about who Pops hurt the worst this time is something we should be doing in the first place, for the record, but no thanks. You have fun, though.”

“Oh, I will,” Rose says, eyeing the gasoline container with something like hunger in her eyes. Joey briefly wonders if he made a mistake by agreeing to this before dismissing the thought as too self-righteous by half and giving her a competitive check on the shoulder as he walks past her and climbs up the stairs to the porch, laughing when Rose scoffs in amusement and follows after him, tilting the containers so that she leaves a trail of gasoline in her wake.

As he and Rose walk up to the front door, a panel on either side of it retracts, revealing a square hole with a brand-new biometrics scanner inside of it on the lefthand side of the door and a hollow cylinder on the right. Joey grins and tosses the keyring into the air, catching it by the single jagged, cone-shaped key it contains when it comes down and inserting the key into the cylinder. There’s a buzz, and Joey moves the key around in the cylinder before two sharp beeps ring out and the door unlocks. He turns to look at Rose and grins, making a show of pulling the door open for her with a stiff sweep of his hand reminiscent of Wintergreen’s excessively British mannerisms. Rose rolls her eyes at the bad impression and walks forward, pausing only to stand on her tiptoes and kiss his cheek before walking inside the cabin.

“Come on!” Joey calls after her, his grin widening. “Not even a snort?”

There’s no answer, so Joey sighs and follows after her, stumbling halfway through the doorway when the living room rises up to meet his eyes like a fuzzy, half-remembered memory. It’s a simple space, made entirely of wood, with six windows, a table for four, and a small fireplace above which hang the heads of half a dozen different animals with plaques underneath detailing the exact time and means of their deaths. Everything looks exactly as it should.

Shaking off his sudden disorientation, Joey turns to look at Rose and finds her gaze lingering on the far corner a beat longer than is necessary before looking away. He resolves not to ask, though he has a feeling he knows what happened there.

“Well,” Rose says eventually, giving him a glance out of the corner of her one eye. “What are we waiting for?”

Joey doesn’t need to be told twice.

They go room to room, Joey grabbing anything that stands out to him and stuffing it in the bag while Rose drenches every last inch of the floor in gasoline, making several trips on account of how overboard she’s going. There is a tightness to her face, a viciousness, a kind of hunger in her eyes that she’s doing a bad job of suppressing. She knows exactly how much this place means to their father, knows it is the one place he still considers his beyond its usefulness as a safe house, and not only does she not care, the thought excites her. Look at me, Slade Wilson, Joey can’t help but think she’s saying in her head. Look at me as I take something from you for a change.

Joey doesn’t hate the cabin, but he doesn’t love it either, so all he does is shoot her a thumbs-up and a smile when she turns to look at him. It doesn’t make her laugh, doesn’t even make her smile, though her lips do quirk up slightly when she responds by sending him an eyeroll and walking out of the room, and maybe that’s enough of a victory to still count under the circumstances.

~~

“Hey, Joey!” he heard Rose’s voice call out from outside the cabin. “You coming or what?”

Joey doesn’t answer, focused as he is on the statuettes on the mantelpiece. Should he save them, the way he saved the few family pictures that hadn’t been looted by either Slade or Adeline in the years following Grant’s death? Should he leave them to burn in the coming inferno?

What do they mean to him, really? Does he—

“I’m freezing out here, Joey!” Rose’s voice, again.

“I’m coming, hold on!” Joey responds, quickly throwing the statuettes into the bag and heaving it over his shoulder as he walks out to find the sun already long gone from the sky and Rose waiting for him with her hands in her pockets next to the very last container, which is open and dripping down gasoline even now. It’s an oddly beautiful sight, all things considered, thanks to the way Rose’s milk white hair is backlit by the moon and the peculiar silvery sheen that comes from the thick, oily gasoline doing its very best to reflect the starlight. It would make a good painting, Joey suddenly thinks, digging his phone out of his pocket and taking a picture before putting it away and walking over to Rose, who eyes him and specially the bag over his shoulder dubiously but says nothing.

She looks so much like their dad even in the dark.

“You wanna do the honors?” she offers, pulling out her lighter and tilting it towards him.

“It’s your day,” Joey says, putting the bag down on the ground. “You do it.”

Rose shrugs, her other hand emerging from her pocket with a cigarette. She sticks it in her mouth, lights it, takes a single puff from it, and then tosses it at the ground.

Flame leaps up in front of them and rushes towards the house, and soon Joey’s vision is entirely consumed by flames. He and Rose just stare for a while, before his gaze slides down to the bag still clutched tightly in his left hand by his feet.

He thinks about a lot of things, in that moment. He thinks about the good times. About Grant. About those few times his Pops came home to a happy house that was as happy to see him as he was to see them.

He also thinks about everything else. The way Grant died. The way his mom and dad hit each other all the time and he just had to listen to it happening. How Slade slept with his fiancée. How Slade turned his boyfriend into a monster. And he makes his decision.

He hands a bemused Rose the bag with a smile that looks just a bit too wide to fool anyone this time. “Ten bucks if you manage to get it unto the terrace before it collapses.”

Rose looks down at the bag, then up at him. “You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

She shrugs and extends her leg, the ghost of a grin coming onto her face at the prospect of some fun to wrap up this depressing, horrible night. “Fine, have it your way. Just don’t come crying back to me when you’re short ten bucks.”

“I didn’t know trash talk improved your performance,” he quips, and there is definitely a glint in Rose’s eye now.

“Oh, you’re on.” Rose tenses her back leg, muscles straining as she rapidly turns and lobs the bag in an arc that goes a good ten meters in the air before ending atop the burning terrace, as Joey knew it would. She grins—actually grins, wide and happy and smug and brilliant, and maybe none of this even matters as long as he can make his sister grin like that. “Ha! In your face, Joey!”

Joey’s smile is soft as he shakes his head. “Don’t get an ego over it, sis.”

She grins wider, more giddy than she’s been in a while. “What? Butthurt I beat your challenge fair and square?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Joey opens his arms, and for once his sister accepts without an eyeroll, squeezing his waist in a quick hug before shifting over to lay her head on his shoulder. He presses a kiss to the top of her head and turns to look at the burning cabin. “It’s kinda pretty, isn’t it? The way the colors…”

“Joey?”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up.”

“Fine.” He lays his head on top of hers and smiles. “Happy birthday, Rose.”

“…Thanks, Joey.”

They stay like that for some time, watching the cabin burn.

[thesweetnessofspring]

do you hate the idea of platonic everthorne or just romantic?

First, romantic Everthorne is really not my thing, but ship and let ship.

So I don't hate the idea of platonic Everthorne, like in fanfic settings and whatnot. In fact, despite what I'm going to say, I'm trying to write one of those right now! I get the appeal of them being platonic besties, but I don't think it's platonic in canon. It's a one-sided workplace romance. I'm putting my reasoning below a cut if you don't feel like reading borderline Gale-slander.

Before people throw quotes in my face, I'm aware Katniss calls Gale her best friend and we see her anger about his whipping and that they work well together as hunters. I'm not denying any of that.

What I think is that Katniss and Gale bonded through their similar trauma which is why they hang around each other and know each other, but they're more like coworkers than friends. Katniss even talks about this when she describes her relationship with him. They "grudgingly" shared knowledge and tools and resources. Their relationship is entirely transactional: they do better for their families when they work together, which is why they even start hanging out. Even promising to take care of each other's families should one of them be reaped is transactional, as they are also ensuring safety for their family by making their promise. In fact, with all of the slips Gale has, he was more likely to need to cash that out! Everything about their relationship reads entirely contractual to me. Very business. When Katniss comes back from the Games having played the romantic angle with Peeta, in CF Gale acts as if she's broken an agreement they made, what with him getting so pissy she wants to save Peeta and Haymitch from torture/death from her running away.

That's not to say they have no positive interactions--they do. But even at their most positive, such as the story of how Katniss got Lady, Gale's just kinda there. Katniss's focus and attention is entirely on making Prim happy, helping their family survive. Or before the reaping, they're already arguing about having kids and it's weird how much they rile each other up over something that's such a personal choice (of course, to Gale at this point it's not so individual as he has feelings for her). Basically, it reminds me of coworkers who get along and help pass the time, even help each other when there's a bad boss or angry customer or whatever. And they clearly know how to hunt together and know one another's thoughts. Then one of them caught feelings due to their consistent proximity to each other and wants it to move in a romantic direction. But at the end of the day they're going to drift apart once those things holding them together is gone--aka, feeding their families, the Capitol, and the war.

It's also hard for me to see platonic connections when Gale has said that dying for Katniss is the only way to "convince" Katniss that you love her. I see everything he does with this lens of convincing Katniss to be with him, to choose him. Anything that might seem platonic has a weird overlay of this motivation of trying to win her over. And since that's not how romantic relationships work, it doesn't work on a romantic or a platonic level. Everything a friendship should be to be a real, genuine friendship isn't there between them.

I don't see Gale as a safe person for Katniss emotionally because he's usually forcing his opinion on her, guilting her, or again, I can't trust he's not trying a new tactic to win her over by appealing to seeing him as a hero (like going to rescue Peeta). I don't see them having fun together--without needing to hunt, really, what would they do together? What would a fun date look like for them? I don't see their principles aligning in Mockingjay and that's a really obvious point Suzanne was trying to make. Basically, I don't see what they're supposed to build a friendship on other than they both lost their dads and have to feed their families.

They're coworkers. They're just coworkers.

[nowoyas]

Edible Arrangements 39

First - Prev - Next - M.list - Read on Ao3

A/N: howdy folks and strokes it took literally all my strength not to post this chapter early yeehaw

if you're interested in a spicy little oneshot, please direct your attention over to Legs Spreadable Arrangements for all your smutty spinoff chapter needs!

please note that this chapter is more than twice the length of recent chapters before settling in to read. please enjoy with responsibility to your sleep schedule! <3

Summary: You're making amazing strides. So is the hunt.

Warnings: oh man haha let's think uhh some talk of death, food mentions including some gross shit, mind fuckery things, implied parental abuse

Word count: 5000+

The students in the day ahead of him are fresh-faced, not yet tainted by the drag of the semester ahead of them. [name] sits at the farthest seat in the back of the room, Ochako sitting with two seats of space between them. Ochako is flashing sweet, pleasant smiles at the other students as they enter. Like this, Izuku almost forgets that Ochako is their aide, here to get them through this class. He wishes he had that privilege. Every time he thinks he can handle this, surreptitiously glancing up from papers to scan the room, he sees their face and feels his heart shatter into powder.

Already his regrets have dragged on for a month. They were, by everyone's judgment, prepared for this, and yet, he doesn't feel like it now. He's not prepared for it, either.

He inhales. Exhales. Checks his watch. Twenty-five students in the course, twenty-one bodies in the room, one of them extra seeing as Ochako isn't technically on the roster. He’d had to remember to add her to the list so no one notices when he calls roll that she's not on it.

Class start time in two minutes. Five no-shows, but they still have time.

He hates this. He hates teaching in-person classes. He hates the moments before the class starts, casing the students out for who he can rely on, who may need to rely on him. Connections to make, or, more likely, to inevitably fall apart as his words tumble, rather than slip, from his mouth.

Class start time in one minute. Two stragglers, running into the room last-minute and skidding into seats at the back, filling the spots between Ochako and [name].

Oh. That won't be good.

They cast a panicked glance Ochako's way, but neither of the two appear to say anything.

Why did they sit apart to begin with? Is [name] less comfortable with being around people now? Is that enough to leave the risk that two stragglers—that he's now growing increasingly angry with—would fill the seats between them?

Class start time is now.

He stands up, clears his throat. Waits for the few surprised looks that are inevitable when he says he's Dr. Midoriya, the professor, and not a TA or a student making a power play.

He's somewhere over fifty years old, thank you very much. How old? Hell if he knows.

So he squares his shoulders, reaches for his list.

"A-alright, I think that's everyone who's showing up, so without waiting any further, hello everyone! I-I'm Dr. Midoriya, I took over this course from Dr. Hakamada in light of his... untimely circumstances." His eyes come to rest on [name], staring blank at their desk. He hesitates. "I know things aren't—things aren't what everyone expected right now, but I expect that all of you will be able to make it through this course if you're willing to keep working and come to me if you have any issues! Before we get into the syllabus for this course, I'm going to give us all a chance to, uh, to break the ice."

Some attentive stares. Some blank. The expected anguished looks from students who don't want to speak up for any reason, let alone to introduce themselves.

"Now, I know some of us are more socially-inclined than others, so I'll let all of you take this at your own pace. Feel free to decide the order you go in, but let's all take a moment to introduce ourselves. How about... name, major, year, and a fun fact about you? I-I'll start!"

Dammit. Stop stuttering.

"My name is Dr. Izuku Midoriya, I teach in several different areas, but specialize in Quirk Theory. A fun fact about me is that, judging by the way most of you assumed I was a TA or another student, I actually have the worst babyface on the planet!"

A few students let out polite laughs. He gives them nods of appreciation in reply.

"Wait, so how old are you?" a girl in the front row asks. She has her chin resting in her hand. "No offense, Professor, but you look younger than nearly everyone in this room."

He laughs at that. It's becoming easier, so long as he doesn't look at [name] in the back. So long as he doesn't acknowledge the heartbreak in the room. "I stopped counting after I hit my fifties."

"Oh, there is no way you're actually in your fifties."

He smiles, nods to her. "Alright then, it sounds like you're volunteering to go next!"

She rolls her eyes with a smile. "I guess I am." She rattles off her introduction—well-practiced, as many are, after several years of several classes all requiring her to rattle off the very same information. Quick, dirty, easy.

He checks off her name and scans the room for the next volunteer.

And his eyes land on [name].

Staring right at him.

With that very same look that tells him they're confused and definitely caught information with their quirk that he didn't think about communicating to them.

He chooses the next lazily raised hand and tries to brush it off as they tap something on their phone—not too discreet, [name], but he'll let it slide—and Ochako reaches for hers moments later.

Oh, to know what information they were exchanging now.

"Good to have you!" he says and checks off the next name to introduce themselves, searches for his next victim. "Next, how about..."

He pauses, tries not to freeze.

"You, in the back."

"[full name]. I'm told I'm in my senior year, and I'm a quirk theory major." A pause. "I like to read, and I don't like to talk."

He laughs softly, more dumbfounded than anything. "Same here. You'll be happy to know that I offer options to turn in papers instead of present in front of the class for every relevant assignment, and that goes for all of you. Now, who's next?"

He eases into it. Tries not to bubble over with relief and maybe excitement at seeing [name] make such a stride in his class. Gets through the icebreakers, goes over the syllabus in detail. He even manages to completely stop stuttering by the end. It's never been about the actually teaching the class, anyway, just the anticipation of where it could go wrong in the moments leading up. And nothing goes wrong!

At least, not until the end of class. He watches his students filter out, watches [name] and Ochako wait. Ochako appears to be chatting with them, ostensibly to make it less obvious that they're waiting to talk to him. He goes through the motions, answers the questions of a stray student, and watches as the pair approach him from the back of the room.

"[name], you did great!" he gushes when he's sure the others have left the room. "I'm glad to see you making an effort to speak up!"

They give a little half-shrug, favoring their unstabbed arm. "I had to ask Ochako what year I was in. I didn't remember."

"Well, that's understandable. I forget my own age, after all!"

Ochako pulls a tight smile. He has the sense that she does a lot of customer-service smiling around him. "[name] had something to ask you?"

They blink in confusion, tilting their head at Ochako. "I thought you did?"

"No, remember? You texted and asked what year you were in, then asked if we could stop after class to ask Dr. Midoriya a question."

She holds up her phone, shows [name] the texts.

"Oh," they say after a moment. "I don't remember, so it probably wasn't important. Sorry."

Oh. He knows what that’s about, doesn’t he?

The look on their face as he joked about his age. The way they can’t process it now.

Another wrench of guilt. He smiles anyway. “Well, if you do remember, you know how to find me! Good work today, both of you.”

A flash of pink at the door. Mina is there, arms crossed, glaring him down while waiting for her friend. When Ochako and [name] leave, Mina lingers a moment longer, just glaring.

He shrugs it off and packs up his things. Class is over. He can handle the rest. Not without issue, of course. The issue was always him.

Besides, soon enough, this will be over. He’s gotten his affairs in order. [name] may never understand it, but they’ll understand the money, the house. They’ll understand Sbeve. If they’re smart—and he knows they are—they can live the rest of their normal life on his dime and never know why. He doesn’t need forgiveness. It won’t do him any good where he’s going.

~

[name] sits on the edge of the couch, listless as the others chat over pizza. In total, there’s five people in the living room, aside from [name]. Whatever they’re talking about, [name] hasn’t been listening, and they’re still not listening when a plate with a slice of pizza is balanced atop their knee.

They eat, mindless.

“[name], honey, are you listening?” Mina elbows their side gently. “Do you remember Tenya? We’re really worried about him right now.”

A flash of recognition. It fades away, slips away from their mind in real time.

“Is Tenya important?”

They don’t miss the looks of pity they receive, though they don’t understand why they receive them. As their attention falls back away, the others turn on to other topics that don’t matter.

None of it does, really.

~

“Thanks for coming on such short notice.”

“You’re sure of it?” Tenya spurns his pleasantries with little more than a look.

He sits across from Izuku, looking entirely out of place sitting peacefully in Izuku’s admittedly drafty living room. He really should get that door fixed before [name] inherits it.

“Yes. The Death Adder has been staying in the area. It has to be because we’re here, though I’m not sure he knows we’re working together or even know each other.”

“After he attacked [name], I admit that he knows you’re here. You were probably his target that night.”

“I know. But, look. I was reading the paper—“

“Really?” He raises an eyebrow. “I didn’t think anyone still got paper copies in this day and age.”

“I’m fifty years old, so sue me. Anyways!” He lays out the classifieds in front of Tenya, tapping a circled paragraph.

I know where you are, my children. I’d like to see you again someday. DA.

“DA for Death Adder. We’d be his children, in a sick way that makes me even more geared up to do this. But that alone isn’t why I asked you to come here.” He spreads out another paper, this one more recently dated, and taps the circled section on this sheet. “I replied.”

DA - You made me into myself, so many years ago. I’d like to return the favor. If you truly want to see me, you know where to find me. If we meet again, I’ll happily pass on the message you taught me. IM

“That was two days ago. Now, I’ve been getting the paper daily. There was nothing yesterday, but in today’s paper, we have this.”

IM - You will see me again, a week from today. DA.

Tenya looks up from the paper with hardened eyes. “So we have a week.”

“Get your affairs in order, just in case. I’ve already established everything to pass on to [name] once I’m gone. I suggest you figure out where all you have will go.”

Tenya nods. “Do you still have our weapon?”

“[name] secured a bottle of holy water for me, before all this happened. We’ll have to be careful with it, obviously.”

“A week to get my affairs in order and take down a serial killer.”

“No going back?”

“No going back.”

~

When they open their eyes, it is morning. Normal morning, not some obscenely late-in-the-day morning like the ones they’ve been waking up in. The clock reads 9:09 AM, and because it is a weekend, their alarm has not gone off. They sit up in a haze.

This is their bedroom, but this is not the apartment.

No, wherever they are, it is so familiar and so unfamiliar but it is theirs.

Their phone buzzes. It is atop their eight-drawer, fine-wooded dresser. The piece of furniture is more expensive than anything in the apartment. The sight of the mirror attached to it fills them with a strange dread, but they must answer the phone. It’s important. It isn’t important. It’s so, so unimportant. It is Nothing.

They slide out of bed.

What doesn’t matter is how large the bed is. What doesn’t matter is how empty it felt to sit alone on its edge. What doesn’t matter is that it is not the bed they fell asleep in. What doesn’t matter is the depression beside them, where someone laid not long ago.

Who decides what is important and what is not, except for them? Who decides for them?

Bare feet sink into a plush rug. The sensation is familiar, soothing. Lazy mornings before the world stopped making sense and began making change.

Bare feet pad across the room, to the dresser. The phone has stopped buzzing, but they still know they must reach it.

Was the mirror covered before? They can’t remember, but the sight soothes them. They can’t see themselves. Not now.

Beside the phone is an arrangement of fruit skewers in a vase. The card attached to the vase with a simple green ribbon is blank. Nothing is written there. The fruit is rotten, and its heady, alcoholic scent draws them in even as the scent warns of danger and disgust forgotten. Somewhere behind them.

Behind them.

behind you

They turn. Nothing is behind them. There is Nothing in the bed.

Nothing behind them. What is behind them in life? There cannot ever be nothing, not really, but the past must not have been important, if they lose hold on it so easily.

The past, too, must be Nothing behind them.

The buzzing of their phone, once again, but once they turn, it falls away to Nothing.

There is Nothing covering the mirror now, the sheet Nowhere to be seen.

There is a skewer of rotten fruit held to their lips. When did they pick one up?

Their phone is at their ear. They don’t remember answering it.

“Hey. What’s wrong?” They do not know this voice.

“What do you mean? Nothing’s wrong.”

“Are you sure? You’re crying.” They know this voice.

What? No. They can’t be. Why would they be crying?

They put down the phone. The fruit in their mouth squelches as they bite into it, the flesh giving beneath their teeth with the faintest pop. Beyond the skin it is liquid. The flavor is sour and burns their nose as they chew, although there’s no need to do so. Their teeth are sharp, their jaw strong, and the flesh sludge. It leaves them drunk as it melds past their teeth. Although their body protests, they swallow it without a thought and take another bite. It leaves a metallic-tasting burn in its wake.

They look in the mirror, now that they know they can. They shouldn’t be crying. Why would they be crying?

It is now that they realize what is wrong.

The thing about Nothing is that it matters. It matters so, so much. When there is Nothing where there should not be, there is a problem.

They look in the mirror to inspect their tears, and Nothing is there.

~

When they open their eyes, it is morning. Normal morning, not some obscenely late-in-the-day morning like the ones they’ve been waking up in. The clock reads 10:08 AM, and because it is a weekend, their alarm has not gone off. They sit up in a haze.

This is their bedroom. This is the apartment.

This is familiar, and it is theirs.

The knowledge feels good, that there is something that is theirs and cannot be taken from them for at least the year. They feel good, that they have slept well and made it through a week of classes and classwork and physical therapy and worked hard at getting better. Their memories aren’t returning, but their soul is, and that, in itself, feels good. They don’t remember when last they were truly in their body.

They dreamed, they’re pretty sure. Of what, they’re not sure, but phantom aches linger about their throat in pinpricks and bruises, and when they check their reflection in their bathroom, they find no source.

They think back to last week. They had been rude, hadn’t they? They’d completely ignored those questions about Tenya. Their friends were worried, they think. Their friends have been so good to them, and they were rude. They need to do better.

They pad out of the room in their pajamas, not bothering to change, and find Mina and Tsuyu commiserating over breakfast, scrolling their phones in silence.

“Mina? Tsuyu?”

The girls look up in tandem. “[name]. Sleep okay?”

“I’m sorry about last week. You guys were talking about Tenya. You were worried. What’s wrong with Tenya? Can I help?”

“It’s… a lot.” The girls share a look before Mina continues. “We can get into it, but it’ll take a lot out of you, and we’ll need to invite the others back over. The guys, at least. Itsuka isn’t really involved.”

“I feel good today. I think there’s a lot of me to take.”

“If you’re sure, there’s no backing out, okay?”

“O…kay?”

Tsuyu nods, adjusting her posture to focus on the phone in her hand. “I’ll call the boys.”

~

Their friends sit around them in a rough imitation of a circle. They are sat in the center, turning their head nervously as the others settle in.

“Tenya can’t come,” Mina sighs, pocketing her phone, “he says he has plans, but at least you guys are here. Neito, did you bring the stuff?”

“Of course I did. We’re really doing this?”

“Look at them. Their eyes are brighter than I’ve seen them in months. I think we can get them.”

“So how are we doing this?”

“We rely on their quirk,” Neito declares. He’s got a box with him. He reaches in, pulls out an old journal that has something scratching on [name]’s memory. “[name]. This belonged to you. Do you remember it?”

They shake their head. “That isn’t mine.”

“Look at it. Tenya was holding onto it for you for all this time. Will you read it?”

“I don’t—I thought this was about Tenya.”

“It is about Tenya,” he says simply, and it isn’t a lie.

They take the journal. They open it to the first page.

In younger, scratchier handwriting than theirs today, the first page details their name, a phone number that was once theirs, and an address they almost remember writing. They trace a fingertip over the letters. They didn’t write them, but it is undeniably their handwriting, so long ago now.

“This isn’t mine.”

“It is.”

“It’s not!”

“[name], listen to me. You used to be in love with Tenya. The two of you dated for years. You lived with him after cutting ties with your parents.”

“No,” you reply firmly. “That didn’t happen. I don’t remember it.”

“You don’t remember anything.”

“You’re just—you’re just saying things, but that didn’t happen. I don’t know Tenya that well.”

“You did. You used to be inseparable. He still hasn’t gotten over what happened to you and your memories.”

“You’re lying.”

“Look at any of us and tell us whether we’re lying.”

You look. You slip away into them again. “Then you’re wrong.”

Tsuyu slides several photos toward them. [name] picks them up blankly.

They were younger, when these photos were taken. They see themselves, leaned against Tenya’s chest, and they don’t remember ever seeing Tenya, but they know it is him, looking at them with soft eyes.

It is you and him.

Your head hurts.

“Can… can we stop this? I don’t wanna help anymore. This doesn’t—this isn’t important.”

“I’m sorry,” Hitoshi says. “We have to keep going.”

“It’s not just that you used to date,” Neito insists. He has produced a folder that they do not recognize, and their head aches sharply. “We want to give you this to read. A few years back, you were attacked just like you were all those weeks ago. Do you remember? Tenya lost his brother, and you changed. Do you recall what happened?”

They don’t open the folder. “Nothing happened. Nothing.”

“You know that isn’t true.”

“If it isn’t, then—“

“It isn’t. Look at them. It’s notes from your therapy sessions with Dr. Fuyumi. Why would you lie to her in therapy, if all of that was untrue?”

They lift their hand, but can’t open the folder. They’re frozen, stuck in the headlights.

“No.”

“No?”

“No!”

The folder is flung, papers fluttering around the room as they bolt for their bedroom. Hitoshi is up and after them, grabbing at them a bit too harshly. “[name]! Didn’t you want to help Tenya?”

“Not anymore!” They bite back. In the next moment, they slip away and stop struggling in his hold.

“Sit back down in the middle of the circle,” he orders, and they obey.

The papers are collected and placed in their lap, roughly back in their same order.

“Speak if you want to. Read the papers you’re holding.”

They tilt their neck downward, eyes roaming over the pages. “These are real?”

“They’re real. We got them from Dr. Fuyumi herself.”

The words ring true. Even without being able to turn to see them, no glow edges at your vision. No evidence of lies.

Your head hurts. Worse and worse it hurts.

The more evidence they pile on, the worse it feels. Unable to look away or run, they whimper out protests. Old texts talking about Tenya. Social media posts long since forgotten, tagging Tenya or talking about a boyfriend or their parents. Another old photo. [name] with a slice of cake, sat next to Tenya.

They—you—keep returning to the notes. “How do you know these notes are real?”

“We stole them from Dr. Fuyumi’s office.”

He isn’t lying.

The words on the page are the truth.

You were attacked by whoever killed Tenya’s brother. Tenya had been acting distant in a way that didn’t seem like grief. You wanted to understand it better and help your boyfriend through a difficult time.

Your boyfriend.

Ex? Boyfriend?

“Hitoshi,” you say, voice hoarse. “Let me go.”

“Are you going to run?”

“No. Let me go.”

He lets you go.

You hunch over, letting the folder and the photos slide off your lap as something strikes. A match against damp sandpaper.

What is he now? Who are you now?

When it comes together at last, the pieces snap into place. You would swear that there was an audible click, or perhaps a cracking like a bone, snapped from crashing your bike into a tree while chasing your dear neighborhood friend.

something is creaking something is bending something is straining under the weight and you cannot understand you will not understand you are not to understand you are to look away you are to forget but you cannot

forget

it is Nothing but the thing about nothing is that Nothing Matters and it is nothing and so it matters

what are you looking away from why are you looking away look at it look at him look at your past look at it look at it LOOK AT IT

~

…are you looking?

~

…are you looking.

~

…do you see it?

they come back to you in fragments. your own wrist, blurry. faint scars there. a soft shade against your skin. a pattern of bite marks.

do you remember who put those there?

it was tenya, wasn’t it? you asked him to. he only fed from you once. something went wrong.

something?

what went wrong?

what’s wrong?

nothing’s wrong.

You’re crying.

The fragments slip from your grasp as you come back into the moment. Mina is holding you as you thrash, holding you as you sob. Your vision is white, and you are screaming, and it is normal, and you are staring at a photo on the floor of you with Tenya and remembering the day it was taken.

He had planned a surprise party for you. It was your first birthday away from your parents. He’d declared it a necessity for a proper birthday party to be held, and so it was, with cake at his parents’ dining room table and all kinds of gifts and an innocuous sheet of paper declaring you officially emancipated from your parents.

The headache is blinding, less so as you latch onto the memory and find more attached.

The fragments come up like a system of roots and fungus, a mycelial network of all the things you’d forgotten you’d forgotten.

Tenya, chasing off bullies for you with nothing but a glare and his size, being an older kid. Tenya, never raising a hand and yet protecting you all the same. Tenya on one side of you, Tensei on the other, explaining in dire words the situation you were in and couldn’t you stay for a while? Tenya’s mother, smiling and nodding and saying she’d speak to their father but they have an extra guest bedroom in the meantime if you’d like to spend the night.

“How long?” You whisper, and it is you, but it is not. All of the things you remember as though they were yesterday, and yet, you cannot find Yesterday among your memories. There is a gap, or more like a ravine, stretching between you. When was Yesterday? Where are You?

“Years.”

“But that isn’t everything, is it? There’s more. More than just that my… boyfriend? Ex? Best friend? Fuck, I don’t know, that he’s a vampire? That vampires exist? The lifetime of tragedy I couldn’t save him from?”

“No. There’s more. It’ll take more pain, but we’ll be there for you every step of the way.”

There isn’t a moment’s hesitation, only a question. “Tenya was never coming for this, was he?”

“No. He doesn’t know we’re doing this, and he’s off doing god knows what.”

“…I don’t know if I want to know what it is I forgot.”

“You do.” Tsuyu’s voice is firm. “You just can’t know you want it.”

“Don’t you want to know why you’ve been so despondent? Don’t you want to remember what you’ve done? The months leading up to your stab wound? Me and Hitoshi?” Neito’s voice is low.

You don’t want to know. You don’t want to know.

You don’t—

“Unlock your phone.”

You listen, though you don’t have to, and wait for further instruction.

“Have you been without your phone at all since you woke up without your memories?”

You shake your head.

“Look back at your old texts. What do you notice?”

You look. There are ones where your eyes glaze over, where you just can’t focus on the words or the photos. They must be talking about other texts, anyways—

“Look at the ones you don’t want to look at. There’s someone you’ve forgotten. Not me or Neito, but someone else. There, stop scrolling.”

You stop on a photo of you. It’s a selfie. Someone is beside you—a man with a cute face and fluffy green hair and freckles. “I know him,” you mumble. There is a flicker of hope as they gather around you. “He’s my professor.”

The hope flickers but does not extinguish.

“He’s more than that. Don’t look away. When did you meet him?”

“Dr. Midoriya and I met a month or two ago, I think. Ochako took me to meet him so I would be able to get ready for the summer semester.”

“No,” Hitoshi starts to say, but Mina cuts him off.

“What do you remember about that meeting?”

“Um… I don’t know. Dr. Midoriya was lying about it being nice to meet me?”

“Why would he lie about that?”

“Because I’m a pain in the ass with a lot of accommodations…?”

Mina coos with pity, then shakes her head. “Remember, there are usually other explanations that don’t involve self-deprecation. Why else might he lie about it being nice to meet you?”

You pause for a long time, staring at the photo even as your headache rears its hideous head once again. “It wasn’t nice.”

“Or…?”

“He wasn’t meeting me?”

“There you go. That wasn’t your first meeting. Look at the date on that photo.”

October 31st, 2050. During the Yesterday you’re missing.

You put down the phone. You look away, rubbing your eyes. Your head is split.

“Come on, [name], don’t look away now. Just a little further and you’ll remember. If you can’t look at the photo, look at me. All you have to do is verify whether or not I’m telling you the truth.”

A whimper. You open one eye to look at Tsuyu as she speaks. “You were in love with Izuku. You lived with him for months. You kissed him on New Year’s and you had a cat together named Sbeve.”

“I’ve met Sbeve,” you manage. “He was sweet. I guessed his name right.”

“You named him. When you stopped living with Izuku, you had been sleeping with him for months.”

They’re telling the truth. Why are they telling the truth? Would it kill them to lie to you? Would it kill them? Won’t this kill them?

the bending the creaking the snapping of the pressure in your head but it isn’t enough it won’t be enough

“Do me a favor and look at this.”

you are looking.

there is a phone in front of you. the camera is on. the screen shows not your face. the screen shows your neck. someone guides your hand to touch the throat. you watch the hand move, reflected in the camera image on the screen. something changes. you must not understand. you are beginning to understand. you cannot look away. something changes.

your neck is littered in bite marks

and

you

snap.

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