#gen??? from me??

[deliciouskeys]

Kink of your choice: people of diametrically opposing ideologies having a tense conversation but not killing each other

#Lockhimup

Warnings: Gen. And just kidding, this isn't really for Kinktober. It's even more self-indulgent than that. Set shortly post S3. It's not a pairing fic. It's Homelander; Billy Butcher. Dedicated to the 1.3 people other than me who might possibly enjoy this. AO3 link.

After the hospital, Butcher's been staying at home to recover from his nausea and illness. His brain might not be getting better, but his body was slowly recovering-- not throwing up nearly as often anymore, and able to get food down and walk around more or less steadily.

But his brain was definitely deteriorating. He was having very vivid dreams, and auditory and visual hallucinations were cropping up more and more often. Maybe this is the reason he didn't rush over to the balcony when he saw Homelander out there. He figured he must be seeing things again until the cunt approached the glass and tapped on it gently before stepping back and putting his arms behind his body, waiting patiently for Butcher to unlatch it.

Butcher sighs heavily and opens the glass door, but doesn't bother to come out or officially beckon him in. He sits down in the chair, just in case he starts feeling sick and woozy again. He's already feeling lightheaded from the unpleasant surprise. Homelander makes his way in, thoughtfully closing the door behind him.

“What brings you here this time. You’ve already got Ryan. Come to finish me off?”

Homelander frowns. “Why are you so obsessed with this idea that I’d come here, uninvited, and kill you in your usual pathetic mudperson state? And sick with some kind of pathetic chronic illness on top of that." Homelander wrinkles his nose. He can probably see the damage through Butcher's skull, or maybe his nose is actually detecting the scent of his illness. "Have you ever seen me stalk and kill someone?”

“I haven’t seen you, but I’m sure you have. You had no problem trying to kill Hughie down in the tunnels.”

“That was–” Homelander rolls his eyes and waves his hand dismissively. “Hugh Campbell’s a non-entity to me. And you were all fugitives from the law at the time. So yes, I have pursued and killed lawbreakers.”

“And I happen not to be one at this moment? Didn’t know you were such a stickler for the law.” Butcher lights a cigarette, hoping it will annoy Homelander. “You still haven’t answered my question. To what do I owe the pleasure of this divine visitation?”

Homelander makes that strange snuffling sound that Butcher recognizes by now as pure unadulterated frustration. He makes a movement to pull out the chair where he sat last time, but Butcher hooks his foot and pulls it in tight against the table.

“Really?” Homelander looks at him impassively. “You let me sit down last time.”

“Last time you were trying to find Ryan. You have him. So I don’t see what you need here if you ain’t gonna blast me in the head.”

“Feels bad, huh? Well now you know how it feels, to have your child out of reach,” Homelander says, and shoves a bunch of Butcher’s kitchen paraphernalia further down the counter and makes room for himself to float up and sit on it, first moving the cape out of the way as always. Butcher hopes his counter is dirty and this cunt gets stains on his ass for doing this. “No, I’m just sick of Vought trying to manage this ‘crisis’ for me.”

“You mean you killing a bloke in plain daylight on camera? That 'crisis'?”

“Yes, if that’s how you want to describe it, yes.”

“That’s what happened, it’s not some subjective description.”

Homelander’s jaw tightens and grinds for a moment before he speaks. “Yeah. I’m alright with that. What I’m not alright with is doing an apology tour and saying it was inadvertent or whatever the fuck Vought wants me to say to “soften the angle”. They’re idiots if they think either side is going to buy that. The people who like me don’t want to hear me tying myself into knots trying to explain away what I did. And the toxic idiots who hate me aren’t going to suddenly change their minds if I say ‘hey I’m so sorry! I totally didn’t mean to kill that child-attacking shitstain! I don’t have any fucking control over my lasers! Please don’t hate me!’ I mean if- if that were the case, then I should be fucking locked up, because I’d be a menace to society. If I have that little control over my powers.”

Homelander pauses in his tirade. It grew louder in volume and faster in delivery as it went. Butcher has to admit it’s fun to see this cunt lose his mind with anger, when he’s always been curated to look forever happy and imperturbable. Although the mask has been slipping more often of late.

“You are a menace to society. But yeah, not so much into locking you up. I’d be much more at peace seeing your head on a pike.”

Homelander chuckles. “And you call me needlessly violent."

"Vought's probably thinking ahead about the lawsuit, and not your popularity. Maybe you should listen to your handlers."

"I don't have handlers, I have idiotic underlings. And you're talking as if popularity with the public has nothing to do with how a lawsuit will pan out. From where I'm standing, it's better to have a group of strong supporters than a mass of people confused by some milquetoast, apologetic statements from me. But you know what? Fine. I’m used to the fickle idiot public, with their fucking short-term memory, not remembering everything I've done for them, and still doing for them. They can hate me, their loss. But you see the shit trending today? It's not just #lockhimup. It's #ASAB and #FuckVought and #CompoundViolent, and even the ever-lovely #KillAllSupes cropping up periodically. That's why Vought wants me to backtrack. As if that will do anything to stop those kinds of hasthtags.”

“Don’t know why you’re whinging to me about it. I’d be retweeting all of that if I had an account.” Butcher gets up off his chair and walks past Homelander to fill his teakettle with water, because this is turning out to be a longer conversation than he expected. He still doesn't turn on the light in the kitchen, only one lone lamp on in his entire apartment in an effort to avoid any migraines. Homelander just swivels himself around to face Butcher in his new spot.

“You know what’s better about you than those mindless parrot drones all over social media? At least you say what you mean to say. You really want to kill us all apparently. That apply to Ryan by the way?”

“He’s a child, so no.”

“But when he turns eighteen? Or whatever the fuck age you British people consider majority? Then he’s fair game?”

Butcher feels his irritation rising. “He’s Becca’s son, so no, I’m not gonna lay a finger on him.”

“Other supes are people’s sons and daughters too, but that doesn’t seem to deter you.”

“Hell no it doesn’t. Sons and daughters of people who doped up their kids with Compound V to try to make a buck or get some glory? Off the parents too, if you ask me.”

“Ah interesting! So you do think the people who made the choices are worse than the people who had none.”

“Every one of you supes has plenty of choices.”

“At what age would you kill someone like me?” 

Butcher sighs. Vogelbaum’s words flash in his memory. He asked about what Homelander was like in childhood because he wanted to know if Ryan was genetically doomed to be an evil cunt. Homelander probably doesn’t realize Butcher knows about his sordid lab-confined childhood. He’s throwing this question out flippantly. Butcher thinks about making some stinging remark to show just how much he knows. But that will only lead to him having to acknowledge that he wouldn't have killed off an innocent baby labrat. Butcher also thinks about not answering at all, but Homelander is sitting there silently, ugly red boots dangling above the floor, raising his eyebrows to show he’s expecting an actual response to his stupid question. 

“At whatever age you were when you decided to rape my Becca.”

“So… this is purely personal then?”

“Of course it’s fucking personal,” Butcher mutters, not liking how much this cunt is forcing him to think this late at night. “What else could it be, at this point?”

“Wanting to kill off a whole big group of people over a personal matter seems kind of petty to me.”

“You’re not people. You don’t treat us like equals, so we don’t need to treat you like equals either.”

“So normal human morality doesn’t apply.” Homelander grins. “That’s what I like about you, William. You stand by your words, no matter how vile they are. When you say ‘supe genocide’, at least you really mean it.”

Homelander peers at him, looking unimpressed. "Your brain looks like Swiss cheese and you still make more sense than everyone else I'm forced to talk to. But I do wonder: you're kind of an honorary supe now. Certainly spent some time in our shoes. Do you deserve death too?"

"I'll take an honorary suicide once you're all gone, if you want me to be consistent."

Homelander smirks. The kettle starts whistling, and Butcher takes the opportunity to avoid saying anything else and focusing on steeping a cup of tea.

“Can I have a cup?”

Butcher seethes inside. Get your ass off my counter, get your shiteating grin out of my house. But he proceeds to just brew another cup, because it’s easier than having this conversation. His degenerating brain can't take much more of this.

They wait for the tea to steep in silence. Welcome as it seemed at first, Butcher finds himself wanting to break the silence because when Homelander’s not talking, and Butcher stares at him in the darkness of the apartment, teeth shinier than the rest of his face, he starts to seem increasingly otherworldly, scarier, like there really is a different species perched on the kitchen counter, and Butcher starts to feel his fight-or-flight response kicking in. “Didn’t take you for a tea drinker,” he says, as he hands him the cup. At least his hands are rock-steady, and his tone sounds nonchalant as ever.

“I’m not. But I wanted to see what all the hype is about, at least in the UK. You guys are obsessed.”

“‘You guys’ were too until you got radicalized and decided you didn’t want to pay taxes on it.”

Homelander’s smile just grows wider. “That’s true.” He sips and makes a face. “Wow, that’s… strong. That’s almost as bad as coffee.”

“You really never had tea before?” Butcher can’t help but ask, incredulous at the reaction.

“I don’t think so. This tastes like bitter puddle water or something.”

“No one’s forcing you to drink it, cunt.”

Homelander takes another sip anyway, making a face again, actually shuddering. “Don’t people add milk to it? And sugar? Am I making that up?”

“You can,” Butcher says, shrugging. Then notices Homelander glancing at his fridge to verify there's milk inside and looking back at him expectantly. “Unbelievable. Alright you little candy-ass, would you like some milk and sugar with your unbearably bitter tea?”

“I would,” Homelander answers, disregarding the insult, holding the cup out in front of him expecting to be served.

Butcher takes it from him, in disbelief at what he’s doing, but again, it feels futile to refuse or argue. He dumps in more milk than he ever would for himself. Maybe this git wants a lukewarm, tasteless cuppa.

When Homelander drinks the modified version, he nods. “Much better, actually. Thanks.”

“Why did you come here, really,” Butcher asks as he finally gets to drink his tea, leaning back against the counter across from the one Homelander is perched on.

“No ulterior motive. Needed to vent. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills when I’m in the Tower and they keep telling me I need to appease the other side. Talking to you cements it for me. People who hate me aren’t going to come around. People who’ve decided to blanket-hate all supes won’t come around.”

“So you done? Feel better now?”

“I do, actually. Thanks for the company.” Homelander smiles, puts down his cup of bastardized tea, not having the courtesy to finish it off, hops down off the counter and walks off towards the balcony to take off with an obnoxious force that Butcher's glad didn't crack the balcony cement at push-off.

He stares at the skyline visible from his apartment. He hates a thought that has been creeping in during the conversation, and now that the supe is gone, he can contemplate it fully. For what it’s worth, he might have done the same exact thing. He knows what having heat lasers is like. How easy it is to power them up. If someone threw something at Becca, or, yes maybe even just Becca’s son, he might have done the same exact stupid thing and sliced the man's head. Why on earth is he thinking about that? Maybe it’s his strange irritation at the public finally, finally after so many fucking years, finally noticing that there is something fucked up about Vought. He should be happy that some people finally see the truth. But it feels like too little too late, and it also feels like they might get distracted off of it. They don't really understand how far it goes. Vought wouldn’t exist without the money these crowds of people have paid them. It’s not funded by the government. It’s not beholden to anyone but American public opinion. The very people tweeting angrily about Homelander’s public murder are still subscribed to Vought+, and still using Vought-owned social media to complain about it. This monstrosity grown in the lab was grown for them. For their protection, at least internationally speaking, and most importantly for their entertainment and cult-seeking mentality. Homelander is the hero they voted for with their dollars, and they’ve maybe only just wised up to the fact that what they’ve been paying for is a mentally unstable killing machine.

[bixels]

As gen-AI becomes more normalized (Chappell Roan encouraging it, grifters on the rise, young artists using it), I wanna express how I will never turn to it because it fundamentally bores me to my core. There is no reason for me to want to use gen-AI because I will never want to give up my autonomy in creating art. I never want to become reliant on an inhuman object for expression, least of all if that object is created and controlled by tech companies. I draw not because I want a drawing but because I love the process of drawing. So even in a future where everyone’s accepted it, I’m never gonna sway on this.

[soapbbox]

I like that Megatron is essentially leading a bunch of senior citizens

[humming-fly]

I love how much funnier the plot holes from sonic gens become when you throw in the shadow gens plotline

[mipexch]

i love animating these little freaks

[winterfoxo]

The prettiest ghouls at the partyyyy /ref

[konjacjellysoup]

Southeast-asian chinese miku but she’s a 4th gen immigrant who’s never gotten to try hanfu on in her life because we only have cheongsams here,,,

i’m also part peranakan so heres peranakan miku

[sengenism]

u don't understand senku wanted gen to understand that it's christmas SO BADLY

like he hung up those light bulbs on the tree and just started dropping hints randomly. like oh, today's perfect actually. i'd say we're right on schedule. nudge nudge wink do u get it gen do u get it

and then it FINALLY clicks to gen that it's christmas so senku pulls this classic tsundere move:

[softerhaze]

arden aged up 🥺

and IMMEDIATELY started getting on my nerves??

don't worry guys, paloma's gonna keep him in his (spare) place

[deathdetermineslife]

let me tell you SOMETHING

your f/o loves you so, so, so, so, so much. everyday they look at you and are so grateful they have you in their life. they love you more than the universe, the sun, the sky, the seasons, they love you more than anything you could think of.

they talk about you to their other loved ones, you're always on their mind, they find you in everything they see. they love YOU. they love you. only you. you are perfect to them

[ollyollyartt]

ladies and gentlemen, god's favorite twink

[14dayswithyou]

💖 Day 3.5 is now available! 💖

For the last couple of months, only Server Boosters had access to the 3.5 update... Buuuuut now it's available for everyone to play in the 14DWY Discord — and soon itch.io once I'm happy with the QA and state of the game — so please don't feel pressured to join unless you want to!!

The full devlog + even more screenshots are under the cut ^^

What's been added to the 3.5 version?

📺 Streamer Mode!

I've been told that it's difficult to stream and monetise age-restricted videos on YouTube and Twitch, so I added an option to remove the sexual content and strong language used in the demo.

Now y'all can invite Ren into your bed for cuddles without putting your streamer career on the line /silly /lh

This won't affect the 18+ rating or dark themes/elements of the game, however! Although Streamer Mode will prevent you from seeing any "gruesome" CGs in the future, most of the core elements of the game will still be tied to the choices and decisions you make. So you won't miss out on the overall experience by using streamer mode!!

⚙️ Custom Pronouns!

It only took me one entire year to get around to it, but you can finally choose your own preferred pronouns (or use a set of pronouns instead)... At the cost of being able to change them mid-game ^^;

Since the original pronoun screen wouldn't update until a new scene was displayed, I temporarily disabled the feature. But once I find a workaround, I'll bring it back!

💗 Choose how others perceive you!

You can now choose how the cast and narration perceive you! Originally, the narration was kept strictly gender-neutral (outside of pronouns and genitalia picked by the player), but this will soon change in future updates.

For more clarity: you don't get to choose the words specifically, but you can choose between masculine, feminine, and androgynous terms!

📋 Separate top and bottom genitalia!

You can now choose your tatas and pps separately! >:3

Alongside that, you can also choose your preferred body type!

I removed the "both" genitalia option because a few players still assumed it was an obscure version of "intersex". That wasn't my intention and I don't want to mislead anyone, so I took it out for now ^^;

I also didn't want to include a screenshot of the new genitalia choices in action (because it's NSFW), so y'all get the same character menu screen for the nth time instead lmao

📱 Relationship Screen Overhaul!

You can now change your own status for more immersion, and long-term Server Boosters will eventually be able to submit and use their own icon within the game as well!

Stalking finding your friends has now become easier by using "Buddy Maps"; a new app that allows you to see the location of all the cast members!

I want to offer players more incentive to check the relationship screen since they tend to miss the status updates, so hopefully this might help ;v;

It also says it "updates every few hours" so folks don't go overboard and check every 5 seconds to see where Ren is gdsghf (also keep in mind that he's a hacker lol)

🖤 Additional Scenes Update!

Day 2 received a brand new CG!!!!! Originally, I planned on only adding a few CGs sporadically throughout the game, but it didn't feel right to leave Day 2 so... empty... so I added a brand new CG to (hopefully) make things feel more balanced and natural!

If you decline Teo's offer on Day 3, Leon will now call and try to convince you to reconsider. However, players are still allowed to decline, and if they do, they'll reach a dead end.

After listening to feedback on itch, I changed some of the dialogue during Days 1-3 to make it seem more consistent! They're only small changes though, so it's honestly not worth looking for sdgjssga

🎶 Updated BGM and SFX!

I wanted to try out a different style of music to see if it fits the vibe of 14DWY more! The BGM features more acoustics to suit the "beachy" theme of Corland Bay, though I made a conscious effort to include piano elements as well to stay true to the original!!

I figured it'd be better to give players a live example before I make a poll (to see if they prefer the change or not) and publish it to Itch.

Some new SFX have also been added, though it's very minimal and honestly not that noticeable.

How to download and play the update?

(warning: clicking on the following links will open Discord!!) To download the Day 3.5 update, simply join the 14DWY Discord server, verify your age, and visit the "14dwy-updates" channel!

Alternatively, you can also wait until the update is publicly released on Itch to play it as well!! (It normally gets released shortly after a round of QA testing/getting feedback from the server, though I may release it earlier if I feel like it hehe ^^)

Enjoy!!

[m3lth3ph4nt0m]

I will forever stand by the fact that these two should have been in freaky fusion. like come onnn

these are super old and my designs have changed since but ehhhh fuck it I'll update that laterrr

(much credit to @nottrye and @sockpansy again because of their continued feeding of my monster high autism. i still dont know what the fuck was inspired by them but im tagging them to be sure <3)

[mipexch]

robot & angel

[sieglinde-freud]

shitposting while at work take it

[no-one-ask]

It's been nearly nine years since Sun and Moon came out and we're finally getting our first Lurantis plush Let's go!!!!!