#fun fact trade secret whatever :

[tekatonic]

the end of 2023 is nigh so i guess it's time to post the MS Paint Guy Collections

[philautiathegreat]

something i don't think i appreciate enough is the fact i'm a native portuguese speaker. i'm quite good with languages and learning them, and i think the fact that my native language is portuguese definitely helped!

i'm only fluent in 2 languages at the moment - portuguese and english - but i feel glad that those are specifically the ones i happen to speak just because of how versatile this knowledge seems to me. like, i know one germanic language and one romance language very well, which means i have access to a plethora of different grammar rules as well as vocabulary that's very similar to other languages' vocab !

spanish, for example, is a language that most portuguese speakers understand the gist of. i'm not great at it, but i can read texts for school and completely understand them, which is a very useful skill to have when studying portuguese history - most of our sources are in portuguese, spanish or latin. i'm pretty shit at speaking spanish - i like to try my hand at an ~ acento madrileño ~ bc it's my favourite and happen to find it quite difficult, plus i obviously don't have enough vocab to consider myself fluent - and i always inevitably speak portuñol when attempting spanish. still, it's definitely neat to be able to understand it and to have a whole new world of untranslated media to explore if i want to.

french i'm okay at, and, surprisingly, knowing english helped me with it. not THAT much, but it's helped! there's so many french terms that i know how to use in their appropriate contexts because english borrows them so often, like faux pas or touché. furthermore, unsurprisingly, speaking english was also an immensely useful skill to have when i studied german for 2 years in high school. so many similarities!

even when it comes to languages i don't speak, i love accents and trying to read or sing in other languages just for the kick of it. speaking a language doesn't require a 'perfect' accent, of course, but i love trying to sound like a native speaker. when i try to pronounce greek words, it helps so much to know both english and portuguese - portuguese for the R sounds and other pronunciation similarities, and english for the Th sounds - and i find that ✨ neat ✨

recently, while studying latin, i've also found that german has helped! the 'y' in latin is the same as it is in german, a sort of mixture of 'ü' and 'i' (at least in the way i see it), as opposed to english and portuguese which kind of use it as a different version of an 'i' lol.

language is super cool tbh. and the more you know about other languages, the easier it is to find out even more. it's one of those interests that just gets easier with time, which is insanely refreshing when my other interests get too hard and i get frustrated lol

[theactofknowing]

Can I request headcanons for Astarion, Gale, Wyll, Halsin, Dammon, Rolan, and Zevlor react to shy gn crush confessing to him?

confessions

⋆·˚ ༘ * the BG3 boys/reserved!reader * ༘˚·⋆

MILD game spoilers/references to mid-game story progression. you’ve been warned!!

someone who’s reserved isn’t typically what astarion looks for. he’s reserved in a sense—keeping his secrets: conditions and history, close to his chest; but he holds himself up with self-confidence and independence. your quiet and reserved nature is off putting—until he began, reluctantly, talking to you in the hopes of gaining your protection. as time went on, he found out that you weren’t that horrible—maybe he didn’t mind you too much. when you confess to him, he doesn’t find it surprising—it is him, after all. he’ll lightly make fun of you, but he won’t turn you down.

sweet, sweet gale. if you manage to confess before he does, he’s pleasantly surprised—considering how quickly he gets attached to someone. when you confess to gale and you’re unable to meet his eye, he’s not the type to affectionately tease you—he’s preoccupied by the fact that you are actually interested in him. gale is a confident lover when time passes between you, but he spent ages under mystra’s hand and a year locked in his tower—he’s a little rusty. gale and a reserved partner go hand in hand; gale likes to lead in a conversation and in a relationship, and you’re more than happy to put your trust in him.

wyll is graceful and chivalrous. when you come to him in camp one day, obviously nervous, he softly holds one of your hands and soothingly runs his fingers over your knuckles. if you’re hesitant about love and PDA—don’t worry, wyll is the man for you. wyll likes traditionalism, he likes to take it slow. you’ll have time to ease into the relationship because he’s courteous—chaste kisses, fleeting touches.

halsin is someone easy to chat with. his nature is kind and open, relatable—from one leader to another, and it’s easy to fall into a conversation with him time and time again by the fire. halsin says he can sense the good in you, and it’s only natural to fall by your side. when you do manage to confess to him, it’s no surprise. he was simply waiting for you, and it’s only right to slip into this dynamic with him.

you never quite had the opportunity to confess to dammon when he still occupied the grove, so it’s a welcoming surprise when you find him in the grim scenery of the last light inn. dammon always appreciated that you were kind to him as the tieflings were never looked upon favorably, so he’s just as happy to see you. dammon is sweet and soft spoken, willing to take the initiative when you can’t. when you come to him at the inn, visibly nervous and preoccupied with yourself, he indulges you in small talk about his trade until you’re able to speak whatever it is you’re thinking of. it’s easy for him to reciprocate, and he promises you a private date in the city.

it’s obvious rolan saw you in a less than favorable light at first. to enabling his siblings’ wishes to stay at the grove and failing to save them in the shadowlands, rolan wasn’t pleased with you—no matter how pretty he thought you were at first. to his surprise, you save his siblings, and he maybe starts to feel a bit guilty. rolan reeks of self confidence, but finds himself struggling to apologize to you and admit that maybe you’re not that bad. he later laughs when he realizes that he was just as timid as you were during the whole ordeal, entirely standoffish—it completely eases the worries of your confession.

zevlor isn’t someone who looks for romance. he isn’t a terrible bachelor—not unattractive or generally unlikable—he’s just preoccupied with handling himself and the people he looks after. when you came to the grove, zevlor found that he admired you—one leader to another. you advocated for his people, you made sure they were well, and he liked that you were dependable and trustworthy. when you confess to him that you find him just a bit more than admirable a day before the tieflings are set to leave the grove, he’s shocked. the feelings are easily reciprocated, and he wishes to see you again sometime—maybe in the city.

thank u for the prompt. astarion was the most difficult to write for. feel free to send me requests on my page!

[iheartduckie]

being best friends with oikawa and iwaizumi

reader x oikawa tōru | reader x iwaizumi hajime (PLATONIC)

900+ words | gender neutral

a/n - i just wanna sing barbie things by nikki minaj with oikawa in the car while iwaizumi drives like the smexy person is

warnings: unedited AND from 2021… how could it get any worse

—————————————

- you three (3) have been friends since childhood, often hanging out at oikawa’s

- the days you were together, you spent either playing around the neighborhood, watching the boys play volleyball, catching bugs, watching volleyball games on the tv, playing fun games, etc.

- oikawa’s older sister absolutely adorned adored you, and always joked about trading tōru for you and iwa

- for all of grade school, you, iwa and oikawa were practically attached at the hip

- you often supported them at their games, and with their passion for volleyball. understandably, you and iwaizumi had a secret agreement to watch over oikawa and make sure he wasn’t overworking himself

- when you heard about the incident with kageyama, you made sure that oikawa apologized and scolded him for giving the poor boy a hard time

- you also tried to make it up to kageyama by giving him a little gift basket and greeting him nicely in the halls of kitagawa first

- by the time you all enrolled in aoba johsai, your bond was unbreakable

- despite oikawa’s pleads, you didn’t sign up to be the manager for the volleyball club.. although this didn’t stop you from visiting them during practice, usually with snacks and the occasional gossip

- by your third year, the team and new members were familiar with you and recognized you as the team’s good luck charm

- of course, you couldn’t help but beam whenever you see oikawa perfectly set a ball for iwaizumi to spike

- when attending their games that are hosted at aoba joshai’s gym, they were both sure to designate a spot JUST FOR YOU

- both iwaizumi and oikawa are VERY protective of you, and would literally intimidate any potential suitors who try to approach you

- either oikawa or iwaizumi would leave you with one of their jackets, mainly so that people don’t mess with you

- the 3 of you would often have sleepovers too!! godzilla movies are probably watched (request of iwa), with relaxing face masks and baked goodies to indulge in.. the night often controls what you guys go

one sleepover, when oikawa got dumped earlier that day because of volleyball, you decided to have a self care night while watching the movie titanic.. trying not to laugh at the pictures iwa took of oikawa, you would help them apply face masks to the boys’ skin. oikawa looked silly with the hair clip you gave him to hold his bangs back, and as heartbroken as he was, oikawa was still down to sing “my heart will go on” with you. iwa would occasionally sing some parts with you both, but the fact that you all butchered that beautiful song- it just left you all laughing by the end of it. a video of you and oikawa was recorded by iwa, so it is used as friendly blackmail :D

- whenever you three (3) had outings, iwa always drived NO MATTER WHAT- AND HE LOOKED HOT while oikawa had the passenger seat and aux. you always sat in the back, either sleeping or singing along with whatever nicki minaj bop he chose (FAVORITE GO-TO SONG: BARBIE TINGZ)

- with oikawa’s fan girls, some of them hate you while some of them love you. oikawa constantly voices how they all want them to respect you, and they all understand that.

- if you were to ever go on a small date with some suitor, then i can GUARANTEE that they would follow you with terrible disguises (and positive intentions ofc) all while you try not to laugh at them

- if you were to ever hear about any of their crushes, you’d put in a good word for them.. and depending on how long the relationship lasts, you’d also befriend their s/o

- the gc you have is UTTER CHAOS thanks to whatever memes or funny insults oikawa sends

- facetimes are also a thing, as well as taking really funny and ugly photos of each other

tw: sad things (when they lost)

- whenever they lost the qualifiers against karasuno, you were there to comfort oikawa and iwa, plus assure the team that they were all good players regardless

- you were also the one who paid for the ramen after (make them pockets hurt ig)

- and you sat while they practiced one (1) last time as a team after the ramen, meaning that you were ALSO THERE WHEN OIKAWA THANKED THEM FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS AND UGLY CRIED WITH THEM TOO-

- moving on, graduation was one of the best days of your life. it was bittersweet, of course, but to be spending time with them both was all you wanted.. and even when you were all in different time zones, you all put the effort in staying in touch

- you all supported each other, and often sent them care packages from home while they sent you goods from california and argentina

- when iwaizumi came back to japan, the two of you met up more often, probably calling oikawa and just doing best friend things woo

- during the olympics, you were given special seats to watch the event takes place

- not to be sappy or anything ‼️, but with seeing how far your boys have gotten, YOU WERE ABSOLUTELY BEAMING WITH PRIDE WHEN YOU WATCHED THEM AT THE OLYMPICS

- overall, your friendship with oikawa and iwaizumi allows a very fun and carefree bond shared between the three of you

——————————————

iwaizumi hajime route | oikawa tooru route

reposts/feedback are appreciated!

masterlist

[sweetkpopmusings]

changbin coworker headcanons <3

a/n: i hate that it took me SO. LONG. to upload another coworker headcanons post :-((( i'm currently suffering in the office so thinking about giggly coworker!changbin is my saving grace <3 pics not mine~

content: fluff, nonidol!au | wc: 0.9k | warnings: none really! some mentions of food | pairing: coworker!changbin x gn!reader | requests: open

it’s honestly hard to remember a time at work when you and changbin weren’t friends

changbin was always known for being good-natured, friendly, and an absolute joy to be around, which you were informed of on your first day

needless to say, people were quite jealous when you became the favorite of the most well-liked person in the office

changbin would argue that you’re the most liked though because he likes you so much, with all his heart, forever and ever 

he tells you this like every day :,-( just the cutest

speaking of changbin being cute

he is determined to turn any bad day around asap

like the second he sees the hint of a frown on your face, he is going full y/n-deserves-the-best-day-ever mode

he’ll do anything from impromptu girl group dance performances every time he walks by your desk to reading dozens of dad jokes off a random website to absolutely CHEESIN’ at you until you smile back

also totally is on his rich kid behavior when it comes to buying you snacks, drinks, trinkets, or anything else he thinks you need to get through the workday

any time you offer to pay him back he looks like he’s going to cry because “i just want to treat you!! you are my friend!! i can only survive the hours of the workday because you’re here!! the least i could do is buy you this thing!!”

“this thing” is like a five course meal on a wednesday but whatever you say changbin <33

even though he feels it’s his daily responsibility to make sure you’re working in a stress-free environment, good luck doing anything in peace

his voice is on max volume 97% of the time

and the other 3% his voice is on bass boosted whisper

if you sit next to him in a meeting, he WILL get you in trouble for disrupting the presentation

if you’re not talking to him, he’d whisper “y/n!!! why are you ignoring me???” and then your boss would call you both out for being disruptive and you’re sitting there like ???? i’ve been completely silent 

before you can say anything to defend yourself, changbin is apologizing and saying “we’ll never do it again” which is a total lie lmao

he doesn't care though. he sits next to you every time and will throw a fit if you run away

you’re his buddy so it's mandatory in his mind to sit with each other at all times

changbin also gets jealous of other coworkers hanging out with you

like someone asks you how your weekend went and he is in a tiff because "i can't believe you're replacing me with them!!!!!!” and you  barely remember their name but you spend 30 minutes cheering changbin up so he stops pouting and does his work

somehow you’ve become a changbin babysitter because really he’s just a goofy little kid

sometimes coworkers will ask you for tips on working with changbin

whenever he’s collaborating with others, he ends up (unintentionally) derailing brainstorms or group meetings by telling a story or making jokes that are the slightest bit related to the conversation at hand

and people love his charm but they also need to do their work

which is why, after you pass one one successful trick, people come to you ALL the time for advice

you’re now known as the changbin expert

changbin finds this out at a company party and while he confronts you for “exposing seo changbin trade secrets” he actually is SO endeared by the fact you’re known for knowing him so well

he shares this with all of his friends because he wants to brag yet again about how you’re the coolest person ever and therefore he is the luckiest person ever

while a lot of the time with changbin is all fun and games, he knows when to take a step back and bring you calm energy or serious moral support

it may not be his default state to refrain from giggling and dancing, changbin cares deeply about your wellbeing and will switch up his vibe according to your mood/needs

absolutely the BEST listener whenever you need to rant

like he books out a (soundproof) conference room so you can talk trash about a project or a person

and the whole time he is agreeing with you wholeheartedly 

if you ask, he’ll offer you solutions, but he’s also willing to simply be a shoulder to cry on or someone to listen to whatever’s weighing on your mind

obviously, you thank him for it every time, and he reassures you that it’s just him doing his job

when you remind him of what his actual job is, he says he got promoted to “y/n’s emotional support coworker”

you laugh so hard at this that it becomes an inside joke between the two of you

for his birthday, you get him a nameplate for his desk with that job title, and he loves it so much he nearly cries :-( he shows it off to everyone for weeks and places it prominently on his desk to remind everyone who your #1 fan is :’-)

no one tells you this, but the truth is that, before you started working there, changbin never had the zoomies as often as he does now

for as much as he is known to be your support system, meeting you reinvigorated his presence in the workplace, and seeing you in the morning is enough to turn his mood completely around

that’s why, even on his worst days, changbin wants nothing more than to make you smile even if it means he has to scramble at the end of the day to finish the report that was due the next morning lol because you, without having to try, are changbin’s sunshine <3

[theunderweald]

*spawns*

I offer everyone a gem of their liking.

How would everyone react meeting the original squad that they’re from? Like the gang and star sanses.

Well, it would definetly be a major mindfuck for all of them considering 1. the massive height differences and 2. the differences in time periods, but aside from that...

Nightmare would most likely take things the easiest when meeting the original Nightmare, more on the side of staying back and watching over the situation to gauge him before talking to him. Would most definitely try and figure out some sort of way to get information out of the original, whether it be where they came from or why they are there. If not that, they would both watch over their subordinates with a keen eye, just in case something were to go wrong.

Killer would team up with OG Killer almost instantly, both of them would be a complete force of sheer annoyance and energy, though Killer would be a little bit of a pushy little shit about OG Killer being a “puppet” for OG Nightmare instead of being one of his wardogs.

Cross would be very wary and cautious about OG Cross, probably wouldnt talk to him aside from short answers to whatever OG Cross had to ask him. But, in short, they would both be like two cats just meeting each other, just sort of bristly and not going close unless absolutely nessicary.

Horror meeting the OG, 100% asks about his brother. Is he safe, is one of the top questions. And also, trading recipes from the different worlds!! Horror could try out a hot dog, or a nice burger, and OG Horror could try out some Nochturne delicacies in turn!! Maybe they could even pull their respective Cross’s in so they wouldn’t be such awkwardly hostile wallflowers. Kind of like two bears holding their respective dogs like “Okay, it’s get along time now.”

Dust isnt even going to try and talk to the OG Dust, if they came in contact with each other the claws would fly. He doesnt like how Dust is a mirror of his own past, and for that he would decide that either he goes or the OG goes, and this town aint big enough for the two of em.

Dream is confused, but not hostile. Mainly because both him and OG Dream would have just about the same ideals, they just go about things in different ways! They could have a nice and civil conversation, though Dream would be very surprised with OG’s attitude towards things, considering that OG will typically try to help people, and he will use other methods to keep his kingdom safe. It’s no matter for UW!Dream, though, it keeps his subjects safe and happy.

Swap has mixed feelings. On one hand, it’s another version of himself! The possibilities of a sort of multiversal friendship could be fun, especially since it's literally himself but in a different way! But when he'd learn about some of the other types of him, it'd end up a veritable mess of emotions. Most likely would think about the fact that some people see him as some sort of small child, and ruminate on it, maybe sulk if only slightly.

Ink and OG Ink would get along instantly, trading secrets of artistry, UW!Ink showing off his very well done taxidermy and painting skills for a look at Broomie, and talking about the many different universes that OG Ink has been to, the different amounts of creativity that he would see on the daily. Maybe if OG Ink were to come back, UW!Ink would give him a decorated scarf to add to his outfit, or piece of art as a small gift to remember him by.

[mitz-prompts]

prompt: crossover, abigail is a magical girl

this idea is NOT fully formed, it's soft like raw dough

but

crossover with Madoka universe, this is a world in which abigail hobbs felt ignored and abandoned by her parents, particularly her father, from a young age. when given the opportunity to trade her soul for a wish, she wished for her father to love her.

but he loved her too much. and then the canon events of hannibal take place.

what's really interesting to me is like. picture hannibal and will being their canon selves, weirdly possessive and protective of abigail, "we are her fathers now", manipulating her, etc etc… and then being blindsided by the fact that Abigail is a Main Character and has Magical Powers

like

how disorienting would that be for hannbial and will 😂 she gets her neck sliced open but she's Fine. Nick Boyle attacks her but she disarms and incapacitates him without hurting him. She keeps disappearing at random times but she insists she's not a murderer and Will's empathy brain tells him to believe her, even though he KNOWS she's keeping a secret.

she has a weird cat friend that follows her around and she talks to it but she doesn't have any cat care materials or food or anything.

fun convo opportunities between abigail and kyubey:

abigail: "hey kyubey, now that my dad is dead, was my wish transferred onto hannibal and will? is that why they're trying to be my new dads?" kyubey: "no, your wish has already played out. i don't know what's wrong with these two men, but it has nothing to do with me :3c"

or even:

kyubey: (insistently telling abigail that hannibal is a serial killer) abigail: "are you just trying to sabotage my life again?" kyubey: "you don't have to believe me! i was just trying to be helpful!"

also what if like. hannibal trying to provide therapy (aka poke at abigail's brain) regarding her feelings about the other girl victims or feelings about her father or whatever, and abigail's like "actually i'm fine about all that. instead can we talk about the trauma that comes from signing shitty contracts?"

"abigail, are you in some kind of debt?" "you could say that" "i could help you settle your finances" "i don't think you can help me with the thing i'm on the hook for" "what are you 'on the hook' for?" "a human soul." "ah. well. nevertheless--"

[anotherdayforchaosfay]

Meet Anabel “Rook” Laidir!

Age: 20, nearly 21

Parents: Alistair Theirin and Jasmine Amell, raised by Leliana "Auntie Ana" Divine Victoria and Uncle Zev from the age of five years. It was for her own protection. Leliana could claim her as her own child due to the red hair and similar eye color.

Height and Build: 5 feet, takes after her mother in that regard, and a member of the Itty Bitty Titty Committee. If she didn't get as much exercise as she does, she would have an hourglass figure.

Class: Mage with heavy rogue training

Faction: Lords of Fortune since age 18.

She looks very much like her father, but with her mother's eyes and mouth.

I'm working on her page right now.

Some fun facts:

She's demiromantic and pansexual, but not entirely inexperienced. At least as far as romance goes. If her true parentage and history became known, she could end up on a ahit list for existing. She would love some romance though.

Masculinity, regardless of gender, is what she's most attracted to. Body hair is a major bonus, and deep voices damn near make her vibrate with arousal. Seeing Lucanis for the first time made her gasp. Hearing him...hehehe.

When not actively treasure hunting, she makes her money as a bard. Anabel can play the lute, tin whistle, and fiddle, snd favors the fiddle. Unfortunately, carrying that around can cause issues, so she has her tin whistle with her. She can also sing, but nothing grand.

She excels at acrobatics.

Anabel also knows how to sew and mend her own clothes, and enjoys embroidery. She has handsewn gems to her clothes, as well as glass beads, into elaborate patterns. One particular outfit has silver and gold threads made from real silver and gold.

She keeps a ring on every finger, bracelets on both wrists, and several necklaces at all time. One is a locket that won't open with her breath, and contains a small painting of her parents. It's also enchanted to be waterproof and whatever chain or cord she uses for it will never break.

Yes, she is a devout Andrastian. Her faith cannot be shaken.

She loves studying history. It's one of her favorite topics, and one of the reasons she joined LoF.

Leliana and Zev insisted she experience the world, and provided her with a surname she could safely use. She's been on her own since 16.

In her bedroom at home, she has a collection of music boxes her mother sent to her every year until she was 10 years old. Then they suddenly stopped. Her father sent her random trinkets and baubles until she was around seven. Then they stopped.

Anabel does not resent her parents. In fact, she misses them and would give damn near anything to see them again. Leliana told her she sees them anytime Anabel laughs because it's her mother's laugh, smiles because she has her father's smile, her kindness because it echoes that of both her parents, her temper because it was her mother's, her magic because also her mother, her humor because of her father, and her grace in a fight because of her father. Anabel takes comfort in that.

She lives the Antivan accent, and not just because of her Uncle Zev. She's well versed in the language amd how the Crows operate because of him. He made sure she built up a tolerance to various poisons, could throw a knife accurately with little effort. Leliana taught her to pick locks, as well as spy without looking like it.

Her accent is mostly Fereldan. She remained there until she was 10, kept secret and protected. Rather rural too. Plus some extra training with Avvar, namely magic.

She speaks fluent Orlesian, Antivan, Trade (common tongue in Thedas), Dalish, Avvar, and Fereldan. She knows some Qunari as Avvar. She can read all the above plus a few others. All of this has helped tremendously with her work.

She has freckles, but update how they look on the screen. For some reason, they made her look twice jer age. Pretend she has almost as many as Harding.

Lots of tattoos!!!

The scar on her neck was from someone who thought they could kill her in her sleep and steal everything she has. That someone is now very dead. The blade was laced with poison, had her sick for several days, and scarred her something nasty. She now sets up wards before going to sleep.

Varric is completely unaware of her parentage.

I need to update the page I'm making for her.

[etes-secrecy-post]

Hi, before I explain my post, I want to say something important.

• What you see my blog has become a major overhaul. And despite the changes, I decided that my 2nd account will be now my artwork blog with a secret twist.

⚠️NEW RULE! (W/ BIGGER TEXT!)⚠️

⚠️ SO PLEASE DO NOT SHARE MY 2nd ACCOUNT TO EVERYONE! THIS SECRECY BLOG OF MINE IS FOR CLOSES FRIENDS ONLY!⚠️

• AND FOR MY CLOSES FRIENDS, DON’T REBLOG IT. INSTEAD, JUST COPY MY LINK AND PASTE IT ON YOUR TUMBLR POST! JUST BE SURE THE IMAGE WILL BE REMOVED AND THE ONLY LEFT WAS THE TEXT.

⚠️ SHARING LINKS, LIKE POSTS, REBLOG POSTS, STEALING MY SNAPSHOT PHOTOS/RECORDED VIDEOS/ARTWORKS (a.k.a. ART THIEVES) OR PLAGIARIZING FROM UNKNOWN TUMBLR STRANGERS WILL IMMEDIATELY BE BLOCKED, RIGHT AWAY!⚠️

😡 WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT EVER LIKED & REBLOG MY SECRET POST! THIS IS FOR MY SECRET FRIENDS ONLY, NOT YOU! 😡

Okay? Capiche? Make sense? Good, now back to the post…↓

Title: Happy 28th Birthday Bryan360

Hello, September! 🍂🍁 I had no plans on sharing my throwback artworks (a.k.a. #OnThisDay post) because it is time for another celebrating a birthday! Its my A-Pal's 28th birthday! 🎂🎁🥳

IMPORTANT NOTE #1: No Art Trade this month, with my A-Pal. 😊 So, you know, give him a chance to relax while he's celebrating like my previous Bday? Yeah. ☺

• "First" off, I want to apologize for missing out on the respective anniversaries of Bryan360's three main OCs; Maxwell 🐰🖌️, May 💥👊🐰, and Sam ⚽🦊. That's because, I was dealing with my emotions on my mistakes and mishaps, not to mention I missed using my PC desktop since June 2024. I'm still using my mom's laptop... *sigh* 😔Furthermore, when I try to apply for a job on my current social media, I've sort of made a mistake but I dodge the bullet from a job scam. Thanks, Mom for reminding me from 2019. I'm still a helper at my parents' small rug business without pay.😥 So much for getting the opportunity for a real-life job and purchasing whatever I want (including my dream plush I like is that legit "DogDay" plushie doll 🐶☀️🥺🤗)

• And "Second", my OCs never get a chance to see me wearing PJs, including the ones that were gifted by Bryan360's OCs. So, I thought to myself "Why not I combine his upcoming birthday & my OCs wearing PJs into one celebratorily artwork package?" 🤔 And thus, an ultimate yet unique birthday slumber for his 28th-year birthday! 😁🥳🎊🌙🌃 After all, night day is ALWAYS a perfect way to celebrate any occasion! And the cherry on top of his birthday cake is adding pillow mattresses with their clothes gifted by the Rabbit-Fox family! What's not to love? 👕👖🥰🤗

Spot 🐶🏎️ [wearing his owned PJs from Maxwell]: Yeah! Nice idea, creator! 😁 I bet, he'll likes your gift art just like he did to you! 😊 Right now, we could stay up night for a nice midnight Birthday Slumber Party! 🛏️🌙🥳🎂

Riya 🐰🏎️ [wearing her owned PJs from May]: Yes, sir! A unique kind of birthday celebration is something interesting than a regular celebration! 😁 *hugging, rubbing, and squeezing on her pillow mattress* 👕👖🥰🤗

Cude 🐰🤖 [wearing his owned PJs from Sam]: I could agree your statements, twins! On behalf on our creator and their family, have a wonderful birthday to you, Mr. Bryan! 😊

IMPORTANT NOTE #2: His gift art → [CLICK ME!] from my 31st birthday's cake supposedly be written as "Maligayang Kaarawan" 🎂🇵🇭, instead he wrote it in a Spanish words. I would say, that this a error in mistranslation of sorts. So, I have to do something the same thing as he did to me for a fair mistake. 😅

Fun Fact ☝️😮: The Philippines in their ancient times used to have an official "Spanish" language owing to the historic colonization. 🇪🇸🇵🇭 However, by the time when the WWII ended, the Philippines already gained their independence from the United States, and the official "Spanish" language for the Philippines was removed. 🇵🇭📖 Nevertheless...

Well, that's all for now! And once again, Happy Birthday, A-Pal! 🇺🇸🇵🇷🤗🥳🎁🎂🎊

Cude (HTF OC) and the Speedster Twins (Spot & Riya; Chowder OCs) - created by ME! Maxwell, May, and Sam (Rabbits and Fox OCs) - owned by @bryan360

[illarian-rambling]

📙 and 🍋 for the Jumbo Ask Game?

📙 What kind of subjects (of conversation, of discussion, in school or whatever) does your OC find interesting or engaging or that they can talk for hours about? What kind of stuff do they just find fun?

God, I could talk about Twenari or Astra here, but I'll go with Twenari. Her darling in life, her purpose, is magic. She loves sorcery and knows just about everything there is to know about it, even at her young age. She's intensely curious about book magic - runes and potions and stuff - and wants to go to school for it, even though a sorcerer of her talent would usually never stoop to study the 'material magics.' The things she's most interested in, though, is the Araunian desert.

To start, the Araunian desert is weird and there's never an explanation for why it is the way it is. It's a blasted desert on top of the ruins of an ancient empire of the same name, and it's utterly saturated with rotting magic. Rotting magic is the runoff energy from spells that slowly decays into reality in the form of radiation. There's a massive pool of it across the Araunian desert, which means anyone who enters better be wearing protective runes or they're getting magic cancer.

The other weird thing about the desert is that the rotting magic, sometimes just called the corpse, might be sentient. Twenari has drawn on its decaying power twice in her life. Once, it tried to influence her into using it all up, which would've killed her. The second time, it tried the same thing, which prompted Sepo to come up with audio runes, an entirely novel form of magic. There's also the fact that only in Araun do automatons spontaneously become sentient.

Twenari is utterly fascinated by all of this and eventually dedicates her life to discovering the desert's secrets. She can talk for hours about Araunian ruins, runoff signatures, and robot sentience. Often, she seeks to study it even in her free time by reading all that's been written on it and parsing through any legends that have survived from the old empire.

🍋 Does your OC act petty and jealous easily? What sort of things make them feel like this and do they experience guilt for getting so worked up? How do they deal with these emotions when they get them? If your OC doesn’t feel like this often, why not?

Let's go with Sepo, since he's the king of petty. He's the type of guy to tailgate someone with his brights on after they cut him off in traffic. He's the type to spit in a customer's food if they were rude. He can hold a grudge into literal eternity - he practically collects the things. So yes, very petty.

Another very petty character of mine is Djek. He's more cheerful than Sepo, so his ability to hold a grudge tends to get looked over, but he's holding them just the same. When he loses his temper, he tends to lash out with insults. He usually feels guilty about this, with one exception.

Sepo and Djek have a sort of grumpy older brother/annoying younger brother dynamic. Djek takes genuine joy in irritating the siren, and though he'd never admit it, Sepo wouldn't know how to live if he didn't have someone to complain about. They're constantly trading jabs as payback for some comment or another, constantly playing small pranks, constantly taking innocuous remarks as insults.

But honestly? They both have fun. The insults are petty and the pranks are many, but they both know where the other's buttons are and avoid pressing them. Djek knows not to joke about Sepo's brother, and Sepo knows not to joke about Djek’s parents. So yeah, they're two very petty, irritating men who use each other as a sort of social isolation chamber so their mean streaks don't spill out on other people as much.

Thanks for the ask!

[crossdressingdeath]

See, now I'm thinking about desire demons again, and like... aside from the fact that yeah the desire demon design just in general isn't all that sexy (please... more creative fanservice than just shoving naked boobs at the camera...), there's no actual reason for them to look like that? And it actually weakens their overall effect as creatures that manipulate humans using their desires. I'm bored so I'm actually going to go down the list of notable desire demons as listed on the wiki to see what they actually offer, and spoiler alert: most of them... aren't actually offering sex, or if they are it's as one part or one option of what they're offering, not the whole thing. So, starting from the top (and leaving out Yevena and Vereveel from Broken Circle, Xebenkeck from Forbidden Knowledge, Hanker from Kind of Want and the unnamed desire demon from Malcolm's Will since none of those offer anything in particular other than a fight):

The desire demon in Arl of Redcliffe offered Connor the power to save his father, and if the Warden negotiates with her she offers the secrets of blood magic, the love of those around them (mechanically is a +20 approval boost for one companion, which seems like a waste given how easy it is to gain approval in DAO but whatever), something to increase their talents (mechanically a tome that gives an additional talent/spell), or sex. So sex isn't off the table, but since it's the only option on the list with no actual benefit to the player I imagine most people don't go for that one, except maybe for roleplay reasons (I'm sure some people's Wardens—and I say this with zero judgement, if someone wants to play a total asshole then I just hope they have fun with it—are the sort that would absolutely choose to bang a desire demon in exchange for a small child's freedom). ...Actually I might make a poll about that, I'm kind of curious what options people go for now.

The desire demon in Broken Circle who ensorcelled that Templar offered him a family life and happiness, although it's unclear if she asked him or just did it for her own reasons. It's a little hard to judge the exact details of the arrangement since he's completely under her control, but it seems like a safe bet that if sex is involved in the deal it's as a part of the "happy family life" illusion, not as the main draw.

It's a little unclear what Kitty offered Amalia, but it seems to have been friendship of some sort? Although it's also possible that there was no actual bargain involved and Kitty was just being nice so that Amalia would come back often enough to give Kitty the chance to get free and then possess her, which is her ultimate goal. When dealing with the Warden Kitty offers a nice staff in exchange for letting her take Amalia (side note, did not know you can get a staff out of Kitty (hehehehehehehe- sorry, I'm very mature I promise) by trading Amalia for it). So overall no offers of sex in this one.

Moving on to DA2, Allure from the Exiled Prince DLC offered Lady Harimann power in exchange for feeding on her husband, son and daughter and offers the same to Hawke and co if they let her go, and while there is some element of sex in the feeding (Lord Harimann, anyone?), Flora just gets drunk in the cellar and yells at thin air and Brett starts trying to turn people into statues by covering them in molten gold, so again it's not an automatically sexual thing.

Caress in Night Terrors does offer Aveline an illusion of Wesley, but that's more about her failed desire to save and protect him than any physical desire for him and (based on the wiki, I've never brought Aveline on this quest myself) Caress's aim in using him seems to be more getting Aveline to turn on Hawke by blaming them and their family for his death. Meanwhile she offers Isabela a ship and crew, feeding off her desire to be a proper captain again, which is a decidedly non-sexual deal to offer a character who the game sexualizes as constantly as it does Isabela. So again, no sexual offers in sight here.

And of course Imshael, the only male desire demon we see (other than Herren if we count him) and for what I'm sure are totally unrelated reasons the only one wearing actual clothes. Very slick, Bioware. Not. In TME he offers to let Michel influence the dreams of men in exchange for him sacrificing someone as a host for Imshael, and in DAI he offers the Inquisitor riches, power or virgins in exchange for his life and freedom, but if you ask for virgins he... doesn't have any (or if Cole is in the party he could find one but admits you probably wouldn't like the result) and gives you a rune instead. So much like in Arl of Redcliffe sex is presented as an option he's willing to make a deal for (and I'm sure the fact that he's offering to find people for you to have sex with instead of offering to have sex with you himself has nothing to do with him being the only male desire demon, see previous point re Bioware's slickness or lack thereof), but it's not the only choice on the list.

So out of the eleven major desire demons we've had run-ins with, five don't offer any deals that we know of (Xebenkeck at least probably did based on her age and power but we have no real details on what they were so she doesn't count), three offer deals with no sexual component, one offers a deal that ends with a sexual component for the demon's sake that does not involve the deal-maker (since Lord Harimann doesn't seem to have made any deal with Allure, she's just feeding on him, whatever that entails), and two offer sex in exchange for getting their way but also offer other options in case the protagonist would prefer something a little more useful than getting laid. So that's 3/11—27.27%—that offer deals involving sex in some way, or a little over a quarter. So if most of the deals we see desire demons make don't involve sex, why is their design so obviously supposed to be seen as sexy? It would actually make more sense for them to try to look like normal people, because the name of the game for a desire demon is manipulation. If you see a purple topless demon lady with nipple piercings, you are immediately going to be on your guard! That's suspicious! Why are you going to willingly make a deal with this thing! Bioware got so fixated on the idea of sexy demon ladies that they missed the bit where their desire demons don't work in a way where that design makes sense for them! Not only are the desire demons blatantly designed the way they are because Bioware wanted to shake some boobs at the camera, it actually weakens them as enemies because creatures that work largely through manipulation would not want to immediately look suspicious.

[c3rnunnos]

some portraits of morrigan and nemo. some info on them under the cut

Morrigan Ite Cohen is my Choir scholar oc. they’re... something. i usually refer to them as pathetic, slimy, generally unpleasant, and they can usually be found doing really neat stuff like munching on pieces of ebrietas, delving deep into nightmares and dreams in the hopes of talking (read: eating) whatever great one hides in there, and their goal in life is to consume and ascend. they think of themselves as a chrysalis, and they want to bloom into something beautiful like the god of the sea they saw so long ago. they are... awfully close to their goal too. they are someone that had no setbacks in life ever (aside from maybe being distant from their family on an emotional level), and proceeded to make everything worse for the people around them. from taking parasites from the hunter’s nightmare and using corpses, living patients and even themselves as a breeding ground for the horrid vermin, to eating the corpses of hunters who stopped dreaming, they truly aimed for the stars and became unbearable to their coworkers. fun fact: the scars on their face are not scars. they can open up and show the eyes on the inside. they tend to bleed the black substance that now makes up a majority of morrigan’s insides. fun fact 2: their hair is a mess of tangles cause they tend to braid sections of it when thinking. the only way to salvage it would be to cut it real short. fun fact 3: they used to be the shortest of my ocs. now theyre in the medium section exclusively cause a tall lanky bastard fit the vibe more than a littol creacher. as i made them worse and more evil, they got taller.

Nemo Heliwr is my White Church Hunter/Good Hunter oc. they were a church foundling, even if they were older than usual when the church finally managed to get them. they underwent a childhood as the object of admiration of a cult, and were made so that one day they may birth the child of a great one; their own mother didnt give them a name, for they were but a passing conduit. they instead told them to hold onto a name, so that they may give it to their child. eventually, as the cult started to get hunted down for their heretical actions, their mother abandoned them with nothing but the clothes on their back, a lifetime of terror regarding the church and the hunters, and a promise to fulfill their purpose. unfortunately for those lunatics, they spent a childhood and adolescence braving the streets of yharnam and scrapping with dogs, beasts and huntsmen, up until they got picked up by a rather concerned Holy Blade. after that, after being offered kindness for the first time in many years, after being offered a place to sleep and good food to eat, education, and a good way to get those violent urges of theirs out... they did their best to keep Yharnam clean. then, everything went to hell, and they traded that secret old name for oblivion; they were awoken on the night of the hunt, the city in a frenzy and beasts running free, old friends dead and gone, and they got to work. Nemo cannot escape their past - they cannot escape the dream, the hunt, and what they were made to do. they may not have conceived the child of a great one, but in the end they did ascend and take that old name for themselves. fun fact: Heliwr is simply welsh for hunter, and Nemo means no one. since they had no name or surname, they were given something rather ironic by ludwig. fun fact 2: the scars on their face are nothing compared to the scars hidden by their bandana and hood. they were mauled by a dog when they were a child, and survived by miracle. fun fact 3: their eyes are just like that. kinda weird to look at.

i like drawing them together cause they are kind of opposites in my mind, ya know? morrigan, so openly pathetic and disgusting, with no regard for their appearance or the feelings of others as they desperately try to become something more VS nemo, always guarded and hiding their fear and anger under a facade of coldness, unblinking and violent, trying desperately to avoid the destiny lain before them. i have a small confrontation between them written down, and it’s always a pleasure to break down nemo in front of that depravity. plus, since they knew each other (morrigan taught them how to read and write and anything required for them to be a functional member of society)... ah, pain.

[thedo0zyslider]

Explosions Across Lifetimes - Chapter Three: Unlikely Alliances (7k words)

I have confidence to paste everything but the making out chapters, apparently

A03 Link

The next few weeks were a little….rocky, to say the least. There were some points where Jimmy didn’t know if this new relationship, whatever it was, could last. The thought sent him into a panic most nights, because he did want it to last. The Codfather didn’t know what he would do if they went back to their song and dance after everything the past two weeks had brought. For one it would be awkward, and it would hurt, a lot. 

The first thing he and Fwhip and discussed was how public they wanted to be with their affections. Both of them did want to be openly affectionate to some degree, but to everyone else it would be a rather unexpected turn of events. There was also a political side to their relationship as well, their interactions having always been closely monitored, people looking for any shift in the dynamic, any signs of a war or a fight. Fwhip didn’t have a council, but Jimmy did. The Cod Council was sure to give him hell if he started publicly kissing his sworn enemy. Well everyone but Caleb, which is part of the reason the young cod was there, but the rest of the Council were old and argumentative. They never had faith in Jimmy, or what he was doing, so his newfound relations would cause quite the disruption. Besides, his people still had a healthy fear of Grimlands people, and codfolk’s safety and happiness was always Jimmy’s number one priority. 

In the end they’d decide to not go public, if only to save Jimmy some headaches. It also gave them more time to work out kinks in the relationship privately, which god knows they needed. The two continued to meet at each other’s places under the guise of the Codfather’s original trade proposal. It was working pretty well, surprisingly, as long as they didn’t make googly eyes at each other in front of anyone. Except for Clara, that is. The brunette had become sort of their woman on the inside since she already knew, keeping them up to date with the public’s opinion of their meetings. Fwhip was really worried about that part, something about how judgemental his people could be, even to their own Count. And Jimmy could believe it, he had been on the receiving end of some vicious Cod bigotry too many times to count. 

Fwhip had also informed his staff member that they were not in fact dating, and that he’d panicked and said something. It made Jimmy feel less awkward around her, because he frankly didn’t know how to act like someone's boyfriend. Clara had also warmed up to him, seemingly no longer scared by the ruler and very openly making fun of Fwhip in his presence, which Jimmy was always happy to join in with. The three had ended up forming a small trio, one just as secret as the two emperors' relationship. It made the whole thing being a secret a little more bearable. 

He was proud of the progress they’d managed to make despite all the privacy issues, even if it did include some people getting suspicious, but that was a problem for later. Caleb had grown a little suspicious, as he accompanied Jimmy on some trips to the Grimlands. But the Codfather trusted the other cod the most out of his council members, and Caleb knew how to keep his mouth shut. Jimmy didn’t really see a problem if he guessed what was going on, if anything it made lying to the rest of the council easier. The blonde was never a practically good liar to begin with. 

He felt bad when either Clara or Caleb had to witness a rough patch though, their arguments were still just as nasty as before. But the problems had to be sorted out if they wanted this newfound thing to function properly, so the hurt was necessary. If anything, Fwhip’s fuming, Caleb sometimes worriedly at his side, probably helped hide what was really going on, maybe giving them just a little more time before the secret caught up to them. 

Every argument tended to come from old wounds, old feuds they had to discuss. Everything that had happened in the past few years had been laid out in the open, leaving both of them vulnerable and defenseless. They’d discussed and argued over everything . How Fwhip had helped Sausage steal his music disc, how Jimmy had attacked him back, how both of them didn’t know when enough was enough, when to stop with all the pranks and harsh words. How Fwhip had stolen his head, and led him on a quest that was the whole reason Xornorth was even free at that very moment. 

No matter how vicious the fights got they tried not to hurl actual insults at each other, not anymore. They’d get nowhere if they still kept those old insults and nicknames around, ones that still cut deep and brought back unpleasant thoughts. And Jimmy sometimes thought one bad argument was going to be the end of everything, that he’d wake up the next morning and Fwhip would be stealing the codfathers head for a second time. It scared him, it truly did, scared him right down to his core. 

But the end never came, and any harsh words were accompanied by sincere apologies. And Jimmy would know the difference, Fwhip had given him enough fake apologies over the years. His own were genuine as well, letting the half dragon cradle him gently when he was too upset. Everything with them always seemed to end in cuddles, fight or no fight. Now one of Jimmy’s most precious memories was waking up next to Fwhip, his arms wrapped around the others and Fwhip’s head buried into his chest. He always enjoyed how soft and gentle these moments were, and he was pretty sure his partner did as well, if the way he always melted against the Codfather said anything. 

It was nice to know how to function outside of the romantic aspects of their relationship as well. They could pass as good friends if they really wanted to, now cracking inside jokes with each other often, bantering like they’d known each other since they were little and naturally bouncing off each other. It was kinda surreal, Jimmy never thought he’d have inside jokes with Fwhip . Life’s funny like that, he supposed. 

The whole Xornorth situation was becoming another bump in the road that was their relationship. Arguments over that were less nasty and tended to just be arguments over the corruption currently spreading across the empires. This wasn’t a specifically Fwhip and Jimmy thing though, as every other ruler had their fair share of harsh words exchanged about it. The couple specifically shared a fair bit of guilt about it, they were the whole reason the demon was free in the first place. Both of them had quite a few conversations that were just them arguing over whose fault it really was, even though everyone else would argue the war and subsequent events were a failure on every single emperor's part. 

Another topic brought up frequently with Xornorth was Sausage, and by extension Joey’s, concerning behavior about that demon. Neither of them saw much of Joey, but they were still worried for their friend, even if he could be a prick sometimes. Okay, he was a prick most of the time, but that didn’t mean no one cared about him. Shrub especially was worrying up a storm last time the Codfather saw her, the lost emperor being almost all she talked about. He felt bad for the little gnome, and could empathize with her. Fwhip was similarly worried about Sausage, and it was leaking onto Jimmy a bit. 

Jimmy and Sausage weren’t on the best of terms, their kingdoms were still official enemies after all and Sausage was never doing anything to help that. But again, he still cared about the guy. They’d been friends at one point, even if it was brief. Sausage was basically Fwhip’s brother, and if something was important to Jimmy’s partner it was equally as important to him. 

The half dragon was often pacing around his study, going over any recent events with Sausage in his mind. The ginger was trying to figure out if it was a case of normal demon possession, or something else, because they sure as hell weren't getting answers out of either Sausage or Joey. None of them had seen, heard of, or read about anything like it before, not even Shrub who watched the demon slaughter her homelands. Scott seemed familiar with it, and deeply terrified by it, but wasn’t sure exactly how to deal with the problem. He wouldn't answer anyone's questions either, saying he read about something similar in Rivendell’s vast library when anyone questioned him. Jimmy had been in that library countless times, and he was almost positive nothing like that was in any of those books. But if Scott wouldn’t explain himself they couldn’t force him too, so the issue was left to be handled later. It was one of the many issues that had been left for later over the past month, and the corruption was basically being left to prosper, as far as Jimmy was concerned. Twelve rulers and you think they;d be better at handling life threatening issues. 

If Fwhip wasn’t pacing and thinking about Sausage he was working on something to try and stop the red tentacled corruption from spreading. It was impressive, the amount of ideas Fwhip had come up with and just how many brilliant ones had failed. Jimmy had come up with some whenever he visited, the ginger saying he’d rather listen to the codfather’s voice then the silence of the study and his own thoughts. He’d ran out of ideas long ago, as inventing was not his domain, but he’d given Fwhip enough motivation to keep going. And Jimmy was sure when he wasn’t rambling to his partner about it Gem was getting an earful of his ideas as well, including tired rants of how Sausage was getting worse and nothing was working . 

The next monthly meeting was where all the Xornorth issues were going to come to a head, the Codfather being certain the infighting between rulers was going to be a topic. Everyone had noticed it, and they knew infighting tended to sink them deeper into their own graves. It saw the whole reason this situation was even happening in the first place. He and Fwhip were also going to have an announcement at the meeting, one they would wanted to happen first. All of them were notified when a shift in alliances happened, one of the two rulers usually mentioning it whenever their next meeting was. Fwhip was going to deliver this one, as Jimmy didn’t think he had the confidence too. They were going to announce a sort of truce between their two kingdoms, spurred on by a trade deal they both needed. Which wasn’t really a lie , this whole thing had started because of a trade proposition. If asked further they would chalk it up to the demon being more important than any petty rivalry, and hopefully drawing the attention away from their personal matters and towards a more pressing one. 

The Codfather wanted the whole thing to go smoothly, but he had a feeling it wouldn’t. Nothing ever went well when you wanted it too. 

________________________________

Jimmy arrived at the meeting quite early for his standards, landing in House Blossom before any of his allies did. Meetings were held in Katherine’s empire because it was allied with everyone. A foolish idea that backfired most of the time, except for once a month. It kept people from getting tempted and destroying part of an enemy's kingdom during a diplomatic meeting, which had happened before they had a solid meeting area. 

He walked through House Blossom’s castle, waving at a few servants he’d grown familiar with over the months. The route to the monthly meeting room was as familiar to him as parts of the codlands, and he made the small trip with no problem, gently opening one of the two great wooden doors to the room once he reached it.  

When he entered the room Katherine was sitting in her usual seat in the middle of the table in a conversation with Shrub. The gnome was sitting on the table itself, a habit she developed so she could make eye contact with the rest of them easier. The strategy worked quite well, surprisingly. 

Shrub was the first to notice him, ears twitching when he shut the door behind him. “Hi Jimmy!” She greeted, turning her body to face him. Katherine looked away from the gnome, greeting their friend with a friendly smile. “Hi Shrub! Hi Katherine!” He said, a happy clicking sound escaping Jimmy’s throat as he took a temporary seat next to them. His usual assigned seat was on the other side of the table, but he was planning to mingle more before the meeting started. 

“You’re never here this early.” Katherine said, raising an eyebrow at the Codfather. “Something wrong?” 

“Nah, just got tired of my council bugging me.” He said, which was true. Jimmy’s council was notoriously annoying. They always nagged him for hours before every monthly meeting, and it was one of the few reasons he dreaded these days. He’d also been excited to see Fwhip, wanting to discuss their plan before the meeting formally started. A few extra minutes with his friends certainly wouldn’t hurt either. 

“Mmm, I get that.” Katherine said, gaze suddenly full of sympathy. “My advisors get on my nerves at least once a week.” The sheep hybrid glanced around after saying that, making sure one of them hadn’t lingered in the room. It was a little too late for that, but thankfully none were in there at the moment. 

“Well I’m annoyance free!” Shrub said teasingly, smirking at them. Jimmy looked up at her, the gnome now almost eye level with him due to her seat on the table. She usually didn’t even reach his shoulder when standing, and Jimmy was slumped a bit in his chair at the moment. He was either freakishly tall, or she was very short. It was probably the latter, since he was only a few inches taller than an average human male. He wouldn’t say that out loud though, Shrub could and would lightheartedly kick his ass for it. 

“Mhmm, okay sure. I’m sure the forest wisps never get on your nerves ever.” Kathrine said, giving the gnome a lighthearted glare. Jimmy snickered beside her, shrub letting out a sound of indigent defeat. He listened to the two women chat and tease each other, joining in occasionally with chirps and clicks of laughter, but he was mostly watching the other emperors fill into the room slowly. 

Pix was the next to arrive, taking his usual seat at the head of the table. The man took a similar role to Jimmy, watching the conversation unfold in front of them with amusement. He was distracted by Joey when he arrived, unsettling everyone with his arrival. Joey looked more…primal, like there was some sort of bloodthirsty aura around him. He also sat on Katherine’s table like he owned it, earning a scoff from the sheep as he plopped himself next to Shrub. The gnome looked as if she was going to talk to him, a familiar worriedness in her eyes, but Pix quickly pulled Joey into a conversation about their totem business. Katherine quickly drew Shrub back into their original conversation, her and Pix’s attempts to hold off the tension working for now. Jimmy just sat there awkwardly, waiting for a sixth person to show up. 

A sixth ruler did show up not long after, excitement, and apprehension, running through the Codfather’s veins when he saw who it was. Wizard Gem was walking into the room, greeting them all with a kind smile and enthusiastic greetings. Her twin was soon to follow her into the room, as he always did at these meetings. 

And follow her in he did, the Count of the Grimlands walking it just a few paces behind his sister. Jimmy stiffened upon seeing him, Katherine giving a glance. He hoped she took that as uneasiness at Fwhip, instead of whatever mix of emotions was swimming in his head at the moment. 

The ginger seemed to be looking for him, glancing between their friends until his eyes landed on the blonde, still slumped in his seat in front of Shrub, who had remained on the table all this time. He failed to keep his face from lighting up at the sight of Jimmy though, causing Gem to give him a weird side glance before he fully left her side. Fwhip gave his usual greetings, except for a nasty glare at Joey, trying to make his approach on Jimmy seem normal and casual. He stopped right beside Jimmy’s chair, giving Shrub a friendly, yet toothy, grin and arms moving behind his back 

“Codboy.” Fwhip greeted him stiffly, a tense smile on his face. Jimmy knew it was all for show, but part of him still internally wilted a bit at the condescending tone of the nickname.

“Fwhip.” He turned in his chair to face Fwhip. His own greeting was just a terse, and he hoped his voice stayed neutral. He’d rather not blow their cover to their friends, because some of them could not keep their mouths shut. A few pairs of eyes being on both of them didn’t help him stay calm either. It was natural for the others to be curious, Fwhip never approached his enemies like this, and if he did it was usually a bad thing. 

“Can we have a quick discussion about something?’ The half dragon asked. “In private?” He added, casting a few glances around the room. 

“Sure, I don’t see why not.” Jimmy said, Fwhip having begun to walk away as soon as he got a syllable of confirmation from the Codfather. He was glad for this actually, as Jimmy didn't really have an idea of how to discuss the plan before now. He was glad Fwhip did though, he just hoped the half dragon had an explanation prepared for their friends. Because again, Jimmy certainly had no idea for one. 

He felt a concerned look from Katherine boring into his back, and turned to reminder that he wasn’t helpless and that codfolk had sharp teeth for a reason . His friend seemed to accept this with a shrug, watching with the rest of the room as Fwhip lead him out the door. 

They walked side by side, shoulders bumping occasionally as he let Fwhip lead him wherever he deemed private enough. Fwhip moved his hands from behind his pack, one going to flick Jimmy on the forehead lightly, who’s tail had been playfully bumming into his legs for most of their walk. Jimmy giggled quietly, letting Fwhip’s hand slip into his, intertwining their fingers and pulling him along the rest of the way. 

The place his partner deemed private enough was apparently a closet, and Jimmy was half tempted to make a being in the closet joke. It would’ve been funny, but he held back, sensing it wasn’t really the moment for it. The closet itself was surprisingly big, Jimmy making a small noise when both of them could stand comfortably in it, with a few feet to spare. Then again, this was a castle, so maybe unnecessarily big closets were standard. He had no idea if it was, since the codfolk didn’t do castles. Jimmy had learned long ago to just accept things like these in other empires as the standard, it made for a lot less questions. 

“This is about the..trade deal?” Jimmy asked, keeping his voice low. He didn’t think any House Blossom staff would walk by a random closet, they tended to keep to their quarters when the other emperors were here for privacy, but better safe than sorry. 

“Yeah. I assume nothings changed?” Fwhip nodded, watching as Jimmy leaned against a side wall. “Well, other than Gem guessing that I’m seeing someone.” He added, noticing how Jimmy’s eyes widened slightly at the information. “She hasn’t guessed who though! I’m just not subtle about romance stuff, apparently.” He rolled his eyes on the last part, seemingly quoting his sister directly. 

Jimmy nodded, momentary panic calming down as quickly as it had come. “Nah, no changes, just wanted to check in on your side of things.” The panic was now slowly giving way to anxiety over the upcoming announcement. Fwhip’s brows furrowed, watching as Jimmy’s face gained a slight frown, the taller fiddling with his hands slightly. 

The Count shuffled closer to his partner, making the not so small space feel suddenly tiny. “It’ll be okay, everything’s gonna be fine.” Fwhip muttered soothingly, hands going to hold both of the Codfather’s. Jimmy squeezed his eyes shut, resting his head against Fwhip’s for a moment, the half dragon letting out low, soothing purrs from the back of his throat. It worked like it always did, Jimmy’s shoulder unstiffening bit by bit as the noise of each purr washed over him. 

He smiled lightly, feeling Fwhip’s lips press against his own. He kissed the smaller back gently, worries forgotten for a few fleeting moments. The kiss was one of their more chaste ones, ending after only a minute. The cod let Fwhip press more soft kisses to his face, before burying his head into the others shoulder with a soft chirp . He still felt a tad stressed, but this was helping.  

“You feel better now?” The engineer asked, hand gently running through blonde locks. Jimmy’s response was a soft, confirming murmur, sighing further into the other. Fwhip google lightly above him, the other beginning to nuzzle his neck. Jimmy smirked against soft skin, an admittedly bad idea popping into his head 

Jimmy began to softly press his lips against Fwhip's neck, earning a playful yet serious growl from the other. "Don't you dare. We have a meeting to get to.” Fwhip said, no real threat in his voice. Jimmy giggled against his skin, pulling back at the ginger’s words. “Another time, then?’ He said, stepping away and opening the door to the giant closet. He smirked, not even needed to see Fwhip face’s turn red to know he’d flustered the man. They’d both gotten very good at flustering each other over the past month, it seemed. 

The two walked back in silence, practically leaning each other until they reached the meeting room door again. Fwhip gave him one more look, before putting up his mask of disdain again. Jimmy did as well, watching as the wooden door opened in front of him for the second time that day. 

While they were gone the rest of their friends had arrived, presumably being informed of where the Count and Codfather were. Most everyone was still mingling, engrossed in their own conversations, and the two were able to slip back into the room almost unnoticed. Scott gave both of them a look though, watching both of them with an air of suspicion as Fwhip walked away from Jimmy and towards his sister. 

Jimmy knew Scott was good at reading him specifically, so maybe that's why he always prickeld under his ex’s gaze nowadays. Well, they weren’t really exes, per say, but they had been involved romantically at one point recently. It had been a perfectly fine relationship, but a short lived one where the love seemingly came out of nowhere. Yes, they’d loved each other, and Jimmy had gone on one of the cutest dates in his life, but it wasn’t like what he had now with Fwhip in any way. The affection they had held for each other never felt natural, like it was from long ago. Like you’d regained feelings for an old crush based purely on some misguided nostalgia. Not to suggest that Scott had changed or mistreated his partner in any way, the love just never felt natural. It felt like something from a different lifetime, something they could only have once, and had already had before. What he had with Fwhip felt much more natural, much more real, instead of a fleeting feeling of affection from long ago, from a place neither of them remembered. 

The whole demon situation also helped break them apart, Scott doing a complete one eighty because of it. He’d become more reserved, more snappy, and he had begun to drift off from everyone, not just Jimmy, the moment Xornorth made their presence known. It seemed to be the final nail in the coffin of Jimmy and Scott’s already dying affections for each other. Thinking about it with hindsight, Jimmy had probably been unconsciously in love with Fwhip at the time, so he’s glad the relationship had been short lived. 

The Codfather was interrupted from his thoughts as he once again felt eyes watching him, and a moment later he heard footsteps approaching him from the other side of the room. 

“Hey Jim!” Pearl said, walking towards him. She was smiling, it was a perfectly normal smile, but Jimmy felt his heart sink. He knew what this was about, especially since it was Pearl approaching him. It’s not that the two weren't friends, they were, Pearl was a lovely person to be around. They just weren't the closest, and she’d never randomly come up to him before.

Him and Fwhip had tried to be subtle, and they were for the most part! They only got caught once…out of the two times they’d made out. It was harder to hide a handful of bite marks and hickeys than keep one person quiet, which Jimmy had been doing! There were just a lot of them, and he wasn’t the best at makeup, plus the…puncture wound. Fwhip having spent literal hours in Jimmy’s house, only for the Codfather to be seen with even more, hours old, bite marks as he bid the other ruler farewell certainly hadn’t helped either. Gossip did travel fast, especially when its gossip about the emperors themselves. 

“Hi Pearl!” He responded, keeping his tone normal. Pearl glanced around at the other emperors, who were all having their own conversions with each other. The closest group to them was Scott and Katherine, which was unfortunate for what Pearl was probably going to bring up. Scott had crazy good hearing. 

“Do you mind if we talk for a moment?” Pearl asked, motioning to an empty corner of the meeting room. “Uh, okay, sure.” Jimmy said, trying to not be suspicious with his words. The farmer smiled, leading him to where she pointed out. Jimmy followed, letting his expression sour once her back was turned to him. 

“I think you know what this is about.” Pearl said, leaning against the wall. She had a joyful smile on her face, and Jimmy didn’t like it one bit. 

“I’m not sure I do.” He kept his voice steady, narrowing his eyes. “Enlighten me, Pearl.”

“It’s about you and a certain someone…a certain engineer.” 

“I have no idea what you're talking about, actually.”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Jimmy.” Pearl gave him an unimpressed glare. “It’s about you and Fwhip.” 

Jimmy was quite proud of himself, managing to not turn red immediately. “And what about us?” He asked through gritted teeth, voice wavering only a small bit. 

Pearl smirked, knowing she had him. “Well, rumor has it you visited his house unprompted, then left with some…intresting..” Pearl made a gesture with her hand, almost unsure how to word it. “Additions to your appearance.” That was when Jimmy began to flush deeply, still able to feel where the old bite wound used to be if he ghosted his fingers over his neck. 

“And he was in your empire, with you, for a suspiciously long time, apparently.” Pearl’s smirk widened at Jimmy's reaction. “And?” The blonde asked, crossing his arms against his chest.

“What’s going on there, I thought you two hated each other's guts.” Pearl was still smirking, though her gaze held sincerity. She genuinely wanted to know what changed, which was a fair reaction. Him and Fwhip had literally gone from being worst enemies to...something more than friends in the span of a few weeks. Jimmy glanced over his shoulder before speaking, the large room feeling impossibly small at the moment. Everyone else was still wrapped up in their own conversations, but Scott’s pointed ears were pricked in their direction. Shit. 

Well, everyone was going to find out sooner or later, and Scott had most likely heard what Pearl said, so there was no use in lying anymore. He just wished they could’ve announced the truce first.

Jimmy turned to face Pearl, sighing. “I, we’re, it-it’s complicated.” He fumbled over his words, running a hand down his face. Being with Fwhip didn’t feel complicated, it felt like the easiest thing in the world. But if he tried to put that into words it would sound like they were dating, and they weren’t dating. They hadn’t labeled what their relationship was officially yet. And they were still working through all those…old issues. So he’d settled on complicated, which wasn’t exactly a lie. It kind of was complicated, but not really. It would probably sound complicated to anyone but them anyways, so it didn’t matter. His wording was still technically correct. 

Pearl nodded, her curiosity seemingly satisfied. That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to tease Jimmy about it. “So you admit you two made out?” She giggled. 

“Shut up.” He hissed, no real threat behind the noise. Pearl laughed again, waving goodbye to Jimmy as she walked towards Sausage. The farmer was probably about to confirm him and everyone else in the room’s suspicions about the nature of Jimmy and Fwhip’s change in dynamic. 

Fwhip gave him a small look from the corner of his eye, curious. Jimmy returned his look with one that side They Know and Help . The half dragon quickly looked away, and even from a distance the Codfather could see the faint blush trying to fight its way onto the other’s skin. 

____________________________

The monthly meeting went smoothly, no mentions of Fwhip and Jimmy’s personal affairs being made other than their own announcement, which made Jimmy feel like he was going to explode, by the way. If one mention had been made Pixl probably would’ve shot it down to keep them from being publicly humiliated, and Jimmy probably would've been pulled to the side afterwards and been embarrassed in private as Pix bombarded him with his own questions about the ordeal. But that didn’t happen, thankfully. 

 He did catch Fwhip looking at him from across the table a few times, and Jimmy was sure he’d been caught doing the same. Some of the others definitely noticed that the looks shared between them had changed, much more fond than they had been at the last meeting and far too gentle to be nothing. Definitely far too affectionate to just be a trade deal. Scott had been side-eyeing both of them at one point, which gave Jimmy a bad feeling for some reason. Joel had also noticed, and if Joel knew Lizzie knew, or would know soon enough. The smaller had kicked his brother-in-law under the table, as if to say stop making googly eyes at another man and pay attention . It had worked, to Joel’s credit. Jimmy had started paying more attention to whoever was speaking, fear of another hard blow to his calves. 

Fwhip was being tormented by the people next to him as well, Gem elbowing him at multiple points, then promptly getting one herself. Sausage was being…himself, giving both Fwhip and Jimmy teasing looks. It was then the Codfather remembered he was neighbors with the man, who had a habit of showing up when he wanted to. Jimmy groaned internally at the realization and ignored Sausage for the rest of the meeting. For his own sanity. 

Jimmy was expecting to just go home after the meeting ended, but the universe had different plans. 

Scott pulled him aside before he could even make it out the door, dragging him to some random hallway in Katherine’s house. Jimmy hoped Fwhip hadn’t seen, because damn did it look suspicious. 

He said nothing, letting himself be dragged down another hallway in Katherine’s house until the elf felt they were alone and at a comfortable distance away from everyone else. “We need to talk.” Scott said once they’d stopped moving, arms crossing against his chest. 

“About what?” Jimmy asked tentatively, eyeing the elven ruler. 

“About…about us.” 

“What about us?” He asked, looking at Scott warily. “I thought we were done.” 

“Yeah we are…just…” Scott trailed off with a frown. He tore his gaze away from the cod’s, eyes moving to study the white floor beneath their feet instead.  

“What is it, Scott?” Jimmy almost snapped. He was growing tired of Scott’s recent aloofness, and the Codfather knew he wasn’t the only one feeling like that. He was certainly not in the mood for him to be vague. Jimmy didn’t want to be an asshole to his ex about the matter, but sometimes Scott did get under his skin a bit, and now was one of those times. 

“I just,.. still feel something for you and it’s weird and confusing.” Scott said, almost too fast to understand. Jimmy softened a bit at that, able to understand where the elf was coming from. He knew he felt something for Scott for a while, even after their short involvement had ended. But it wasn’t real, not for him anyways. 

“It’s probably not real love, Scott.” He said gently, and the other gave him a look of confusion. It made Jimmy ache a bit, how vulnerable Scott looked. Rivendell’s leader usually didn’t like being so open like this, and he knew how hard their weird affection for each had been to feel sometimes. 

“How do you know?” Scott asked, studying him for something, Jimmy didn’t know what though. 

“Because if it was real love I’d still be kissing you, not Fwhip.” The Codfather put it bluntly, watching as Scott’s face twisted from confusion, to realization, to contemplation. It felt strange, yet weirdly freeing to straight up say he’d been kissing Grimlands’s ruler. It didn’t really matter if they hid it now, at least from their friends, since all of them had probably found out today. The public would probably be decently aware within the next week, but that was a problem for future Jimmy. 

“Sorry, but I’ve got an empire to run.” Jimmy muttered his farewell, turning away and heading back down the hallway. He felt bad about leaving Scott like that, dumbfounded in a random hallway of Katherine’s castle, but he had long been done thinking about their relationship. He’d moved on, and really didn’t have the energy to deal with all those emotions today. So he left the elf there, and went to leave the building. Maybe he could spend some time with Joel for a bit, just crash at his brother-in-law's place and avoid his council for a little longer. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea. 

____________________________

Going back home was a bit miserable for Fwhip, if he had to be honest, Gem and Sausage teasing him all the way. He didn’t mind Sausage though, since it made the other feel like his old self once more, and for now that was worth more than anything to the Count, except maybe Jimmy. He didn’t know if anything could be worth more to him than Jimmy, and he didn’t particularly want to find out what could be. 

His sister kept going on about how she was right and that Sausage owed her twenty gold pieces, and Fwhip was very unsuprised they’d been betting on who he was potentially seeing, or that one of them had correctly guessed it was Jimmy. The homoerotic tension was there and was really obvious, according to Sausage. Apparently Mythland’s ruler had betted on Scott, because Gem called dibs on Jimmy before he could. 

Fwhip was silent for most of the walk back home, wondering why he decided to walk instead of fly, because now he had to listen to his two annoying siblings celebrate their victory the whole way there. “You were right about Clara being off about Jimmy’s visit!” His ears swiveled backwards at Sausage words, looking back at his twin with suspicion. Gem had extorted information out of his staff before, and he wouldn’t put it past her to do it again.

He sighed, stopping and turning to face the two behind him. “What did you do?” 

“Nothing!” Gem said, glancing between him and Sausage. “I just stopped that day Jimmy visited and it looked like something happened with her, so i was curious.” 

“Gem, what did you do to Clara?” The engineer repeated his earlier sentence more slowly, tone twisting into something slightly serious. Gem just blinked at him, a little smile of mischief spreading across her features. 

“Oh! I just asked her about what she saw, nothing else!” His sister’s tone was laced with a fake innocence, and Fwhip felt annoyance begin to flare up inside him. 

“You threatened her, didn’t you!?” He exclaimed, ignoring how Sausage giggled evilly beside them. Fwhip had told Gem not to threaten his employees before, but apparently she needed a reminder. 

“She's fine, she's fine! Don’t worry!” Gem reassured, her voice now having a hint of guilt in it instead of fake innocence. She could at least recognize when she’d upset her twin brother. 

“She better be.” Fwhip muttered, giving the woman next to him a glare as she and Sausage came to walk on both sides of him. 

“All I’ve been saying is to save some of him for me.” Sausage laughed, throwing an arm around Fwhip’s shoulder, sudden motion causing both of them to stumble slightly. The Count felt a sudden wave of possessiveness overtake him at the brunette’s words, ears flatting against the side of his head against his will. Sausage giggled at the equally possessive glare he got, a growl nearly escaping Fwhip throat. 

“Did you seriously get possessive because of that!?” Gem exclaimed, her laughing filling the air around the trio. Sausage began laughing along with her, and Fwhip has to stiffen a smile. He was not laughing with them, nope, no he was not. He was frowning and acting exasperated at his family's constant teasing, yep, totally . He was doing that.  

Fwhip sighed fondly, letting the sounds of two familiar laughs drown out his thoughts. He considered flying away for a moment, but decided it would be too much effort. Sausage would go whining about being left when the two inevitably used their own elytra to catch up with him.  

This was going to be a long walk home. 

____________________________

Jimmy's own plan to go home and avoid his council wasn’t going any better than Fwhip’s idea to walk home, but the Codfather didn’t know that, so he hoped his partner was having a better time than him. (He wasn’t) 

Joel was with Lizzie when Jimmy eventually found him, the Mezalean King having been nowhere in his own empire. And Jimmy had looked in all of Joel’s favorite places to go after a meeting. He’d flown over to his sister’s empire next door, and found the couple rather quickly, sitting at the top of one of Lizzie’s many quartz towers. 

The couple had started questioning him as soon as he landed, both of them very eager to know all the details of his new relationship. They had begun asking about everything, why he’d chosen Fwhip, of all people, how it had started, and what had happened with Scott. The last part wasn’t asked about much though, Lizzie sensing he wasn’t up for that particular topic at the moment. 

Lizzie was actually being decent instead of relentlessly teasing him, which the Codfather was grateful for. He didn’t think he could deal with her older sibling bullshit at the moment. Between his earlier anxieties and confrontation with Scott, the cod was emotionally spent. Joel, on the other hand, was never decent. Jimmy loved that man, he really did, but his brother-in-law tended to have no filter on the best of days. The questions the brunette was throwing at him were straight to the point, and Jimmy was struggling to dodge them or lie as a response. Some of them even got a little too personal. 

"So was it like, hate sex, or-" Joel said what both him and Lizzie were wondering rather bluntly, leaving both his wife and brother-in-law gaping at him in shock for a second. 

It took a moment for Jimmy to regain his voice, and when he did he damn near squeaked out a response. "We didn't have sex, Joel!!" He exclaimed, maybe a little too loud. 

Joel raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. "So you just let him make out with you and nothing else?" 

"We were…interrupted." Jimmy was technically lying, their first make out session had been infamously interrupted, and sure, maybe they would’ve fucked if it hadn’t, but they’d also made an agreement to not do anything like that. No one needed to know that information regardless, especially not Joel. 

"He admits it!" Lizzie smirked, and Jimmy flushed a bright red at what he’d just admitted.  

"So if you didn't get caught you would've fucked him? You would've fucked Fwhip ?" Joel’s tone held a note of disbelief, despite it being basically confirmed the two were a couple now. It was clearly going to take a few people time to adjust to the information, which seemed fair. The Codfather and Count had gone from mortal enemies to lovers in just a few weeks, hell Jimmy could barely still believe it sometimes. 

But for now he was yelling Joel’s name, loud enough for Ocean citizens below to hear him. He could ponder how he got to this point in his life later, and for now Lizzie would usher both her boys inside, hoping to spare Jimmy from any more public embarrassment. The cod had certainly had more than enough of that today, but there was still a ways to go with being embarrassed privately. 

Jimmy sunk into the plush chair his sister led him too, face still burning a bright red. He gave Joel a light glare, watching his best friend laugh at him mercilessly. If he had something to throw at Joel’s stupid forehead he would . 

Lizzie practically shoved her husband into another nearby chair, saying something about getting them some food to snack on. Jimmy barely heard her, tiredness catching up to him as he leaned into the softness of the chair. Today had been tiring, much more than he thought. It might have also been the sleep lost to anxiety, but Jimmy didn’t care at the moment. He could figure it out when he woke up.  

He heard Joel scoot his chair closer, the familiar laugh fading away until a comfortable silence filled the room. Jimmy didn’t know how the brunette maneuvered the chairs so he could lean against the other, but it went into things Jimmy could care about when he woke up. For now he let himself fall into a peaceful sleep, the comforting weight of another person against his side, and the smell of something nice being heated up from the room over.

[brooklynislandgirl]

Advent Day XVI ~ All is Calm, All is Bright @whtwclf

Sometimes Beth worries that she asks or maybe expects too much from James. With his hands he built this house back up. It had belonged to his parents, of that she is sure and from his day those decades ago it might likely have belonged to his grandparents, too. in a way it's funny that once more multiple generations are living under the same roof again. He'd tell her if she said so aloud that he enjoys working with his hands. That it gives him a sense of peace using them to create rather than destroy. She notices the more he putters around, sometimes muttering to himself, sometimes making plans with her, the less frequent the nightmares are. She doubts they will ever go away completely but the length of time between them is a hopeful thing. Even the rocking chair that she's in was one he made for her. Without drawing strength from the earth Beth can't really lift or move it on her own, but everything about it describes it's maker. It is white oak, heavy and sturdy and will support her weight for years. It will hold more than that. Much more. It's stained a beautiful deep cherry-wood colour. Hides the occasional smudge of blood, spit-up, chocolate. She had no idea he was going to make it for her but she loves it just as much now as she did when he gave it to her. James goes out Yorktown Heights to cut down their own Douglas or Fraser, and makes sure to wrap the stump carefully. He drives upstate with her to set it free in the wild, and appreciates how she uses her mana to replant the tree to keep it alive. He doesn't make fun of her for preserving nature. He also brings home cider and doughnuts from the fruit and fir farm. She grows the ivy and shapes the pine bough that becomes their door wreath but James isn't one for trying to short out the city power grid by illuminating the entire eastern seaboard with decorations. She loves to listen when he mindlessly croons snippets of carols he recognises. Presents under the tree are always a delight; chemistry and Erector sets to encourage expansion of the mind, art supplies or music to encourage the arts. Whatever little thing that gets ever so sweetly asked for. Never a weapon, never ultra-violent video games. Books and clothes. Not just at home, either. James has been a Secret Santa for local hospitals, shelters. Boxes of food too. Blankets that Beth knits during those long hours of insomnia throughout the year. Scarves and shoes, gloves and hats. No one in the neighbourhood goes without. Wrapping paper and ribbons are saved when they can be for reuse later and he always apologises after the fact. She dotes on him affectionately and reminds him he's being environmentally aware. She rather likes the way he drawls his hatred of single use plastics.

Right now though, making sure the hand-made stocking are not only hung but filled and relying on him to make sure all the presents are wrapped and waiting under the tree. It's amazing how quiet he can be when he needs to sneak around. He knows which boards will creak, and he knows exactly what distance there is between every stick of furniture they have. He doesn't wake Mia who had insisted on waiting up all night for Santa, and who was asleep by nine pm. He tucks her in. Then he makes the trek upstairs. She glances over at him as he takes up the space of the door frame. Their eyes meet in the dim light coming in from the hallway and the little lamp that throws a galaxy of constellations onto the ceiling. "Heya, doll." "Hi-hi." Those two things are the softest of whispers between them, his darker tone wrapping around her like an embrace. He carefully saunters over to her and holds a sprig of mistletoe over her head. She tilts her chin up and offers him the kiss he claims. "Trade you," he says. Beth thinks about it for a moment but then nods. He waits patiently for her to unlatch Andy's mouth. Their infant son wasn't exactly nursing in any serious fashion but hadn't let her go just yet. He tucks the mistletoe behind her ear then scoops the baby from her arms. Once she's sure he's got a good hold, she shakes out her arms and covers herself up with her robe. James carries Andy to his crib ~also hand made first for Mia and now for her brother~ and settles him in it, before tucking him in with the same care and love as he had the boy's sister. Beth comes up beside him and ducks under his arm, the metal cool on her neck, her shoulders. "I know you could stand here all night, Mistah Barnes," she murmurs, watching him in profile. "But Christmas gonna come real early an' dere won' be more sleep until midnight."

[mickmundy]

more vamphunter au ideas? perhaps? if you want to keep em a secret that's fine too I'm just abnormal about em

OMFGGG NONO not at all!! i don't mind sharing about it, i want to write a fic ideally but it'll be really self indulgent and probably wouldn't be for a while. plus answering questions about them helps me flesh them out! :D

so sniper was originally a big-game hunter and helped with things like population control. wrestles crocs in his spare time etc, loves the thrill of the hunt (which medic can see in his eyes... hehe)! eventually discovered the existence of supernatural creatures and realized he could get paid big dough to deal with even scarier things than giant crocs or bears or anything else. money's money, and if the job seems honest enough (he's still got a moral code!), he'll go for it. "ah, why not!"

sniper doesn't hate supernaturals; he'll be cordial and professional to anyone as long as they don't give him a reason not to be. medic is the first vampire sniper has ever had to deal with! but sniper trusts his own instincts and knows that big vampire might seem kind enough, but is capable of way more than what he lets on! when he's hunting medic's wolves (before he knows they belong to medic), medic watches him through the eyes of his hounds and he can see the same love for the hunt in sniper's eyes that he himself has. hmmm, interesting!

medic also does not wish he was human or hate his vampire-ness; he loves every minute of it and wouldn't trade it for the world! he was glad to be made and he doesn't regret it whatsoever! in fact it annoys him when other vampires get "weepy about their humanity" to him... he thinks he's retained the best aspects of being human with all of the fun of being a vampire!

he also doesn't like covens because he's on a lot of vampire shit-lists. treason, human-stealing, vampire-slaying, to name a few! prefers to live on his own with his wolves and only seeks companionship with others when he feels like it. typically that involves people to eat (and fool around with on occasion!), but no human has caught his eye like sniper in... a very long time! at first he intends to keep his relationship with sniper professional until it ceases to benefit him, then he figured he'd eat him and drain him and be done with it. but the more time he spends around sniper.,., he realizes he wants to keep him around....... and doesn't want to harm him......

i think their relationship would start off a bit rocky since sniper doesn’t trust medic whatsoever (understandable) but there’s a certain Something about medic that sniper feels drawn to and medic feels that about sniper, too. usually humans don’t interest medic since they’re such fleeting creatures that serve little purpose other than food or entertainment for him. sniper starts out that way for him too; he’s there to do a job for medic and little else and he knows he’s not likely going to be able to persuade sniper to do anything more or less than what he was hired to do. but……… they both start getting closer..,., and closer….

sniper starts bonding with medic’s wolves… and medic can Feel through his wolves so he can feel every pet or pat that sniper gives them, any rustle of the fur etc… it feels like sniper’s touching Medic too…. it makes the hair on the back of medic’s neck stand on end… and sniper loves how medic smells… his wolves don’t smell like wolves, they smell like medic… some kind of dark scent that sniper can’t place… something that goes Beyond whatever medic uses for cologne and aftershave… it feels….. primal.,., and sniper likes it.,., and medic of course can hear sniper’s heartbeat, can hear his blood rushing… some of it is just Uncontrollable Humanness of course, but other times… he knows when he makes sniper’s heart race and at first he thinks its out of fear, but when they get closer.. it’s when their hands touch or when medic scoots in sniper’s chair in the dining hall, or when medic comes out in the snow to greet him while he’s playing with his wolves… <3 hehehehehee…

i currently have roles for some of the other mercs too....... typically cramming All Other Characters into Romance Fics is like. annoying to me if they're in every chapter SKDFKSDKFSKDF but the way i'd do it i think i COULD pull it off since they wouldn't be in every chapter or even Consistent characters really..... and each character would have a "part" ykwim... i have REALLY good ideas for spy, heavy, scout, scout's mom, and demo. the other mercs i don't have too many ideas for yet so idk if i'll try to go out of my way to include them or if i'll just leave them out entirely... grah!

[writerfae]

Hi! Want some more sad Ákos facts for Aiden to chew on? (I swear to god the kid's fine. He just has his moments XD They can trade books with Henry for fluff)

Ákos has a lot of difficult, complex reactions to what happened to him. They are usually messy, convoluted ever-changing that's why they're hard to talk about all at once. This is on purpose because Ákos is also having a hard time deciphering his feelings.

You already know the going blank thing.

Now get ready for: The misplaced guilt!

Ahh! Aiden, stop shooting me or I'll show you the bad end au, I swear to god!

The other characters know about it, and the will keep telling Ákos it was not his fault until he understands.

He feels guilty for two reasons:

First because kids are just more likely to blame themselves for the things that happen to them.

Secondly, Ákos has been told many times to be careful or his curiosity will get him into trouble. He wanted to listen to these warnings, he tried to be careful, but... can you imagine you want to walk on a frozen lake and at first you're testing out if the ice is thick enough, then you slowly get more confident? That's what Ákos was doing, even if his tests weren't really careful, because he just wanted to get to the good part. And until now whatever interesting thing he found was worth the risk. This time it wasn't. Ákos found a secret drawer with a secret book and he was so excited, then so scared.

And in his head he can't make sense of the fact that:

"You need to be just a little more careful"

Is a statement that coexists with:

"It wasn't your fault"

Because all Ákos can think is, "if hadn't looked into that drawer none of this would have happened" which is true, but it still doesn't mean that it was his fault! I could write an essay on this but I don't think I have to convince you, Aiden or anyone that it wasn't Ákos' fault! Noone thinks that, but him! NOT EVEN ODETTE!

This is made worse by the fact that Odette helped everyone with all sorts of things, but now she can't and they have to get used to it. And every time Ákos sees Endre struggling with his duties (that Odette helped with), or Adél being extra anxious (that she also helped with) all he can think is: if it wasn't for me she could still help them.

ON TOP OF ALL THIS: Before she pushed him off into the swamp, Odett hugged him and said sorry. Can you imagine how confusing that'd be for a kid after the fact?

Ákos: I mean, I'm not really mad at her, because in hindsight it makes sense that she would retaliate when I didn't want to keep her secret. And even if I were mad she said she was sorry, and it all worked out in the end, so I can't be mad at her, right?

Oh, sweet summer child!

Have fun with this, Aiden! Love you!

Aiden can’t answer right now cause he suddenly needed to sharpen his hunting knife for some reason definitely unrelated to this

Honestly though it is so sad that Ákos blames himself.

The worst thing is I do kind of get it, if I was taught that I should be less curious so I won’t get in situations TM and then this exact thing I was warned about happened, I’d blame myself too probably.

What’s even worse I think is that he blames himself but not Odette, the only person who truly was responsible for the situation.

No one thinks it’s your fault you poor child. Let Aiden give you a hug