#girlbosses-against-ah

[n0bluev]

redraw(ish) link

Um. Actually, ☝️, Geto is fun. (No offense but skill issue, Gojo. (☝️.))

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Very random impromptu god gojo AU thingy ??? I got the idea 5 seconds before drawing this (: brain empty….!! big eyes !!!eyes… GOJO? Gojo has eyes…- "BIG" eyes……..,'God' coded? Lets go with that.) and only thought a little while drawing so theres not much lol

But uhm.; So gojo is a young god ™ (around 20yo, typical gojo.) but despite that, he’s been overpowering other gods who have been there for thousands of years since the moment he was born (breaking the balance of the world as he does) so thats fun -- gods are immortal but he "doesnt count" yet right? his existence is an insult to the rest of the world. ‘Elders dont like him’ (that goes both for old gods AND old worshipers.) [<—aka ‼️OVERPOWERED YOUNGSTER OLD PEOPLE DONT LIKE ✅ (CHECK!) VERY GOJO!]

Theres a worship system thing going on in this AU ; A lot of people are very religious and follow these gods and whatnot (but there are probably groups that reject this lifestyle, or that sought out taboo methods instead, staying away from places where strict laws rule) [hashtag insert worldbuilding] —— GETO (born same year as « gojo ») HAS BEEN BROUGHT UP IN THIS SYSTEM SINCE A RELATIVELY YOUNG AGE AND IS FULLY EDUCATED ABOUT THE MANNERS AND RITUALS HE SHOULD DO AND BLABLABLA. Theres a hierarchy in the church/cult thing so theres higher ups for him to dislike while politely kissing ass (amen). Idk what he thinks of the gods (it’s between him being a model worshiper that truly has faith in them & him secretly having something against them for some reason, only believing in his own gatekeep girlbossness or something¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

EITHER WAY. he goes to meet gojo at some point. Probably because he has been asked to. Maybe the story is about (/or at least starts with) elders ™ deciding they want to find ways to control / restrain gojo (idk), leading to satosugu eventually teaming up to say fuck that.

Something something geto being « favoured by a god [gojo] » thus having a definite place in this world and gojo feeling like geto’s existence « grounds him » and gives him proper meaning in what to use his strength for and whatnot. Whatever (i doubt im going to write this so im not gonna elaborate lol sorry (i love me some character psychology but 💤💤)) Something something they are a destined cosmic pair your honour. Hashtag soulmates in every universe including this one HAh

Kind of an afterthought but: Gojo adopting megumi is definitely canon here too so 👍👍👍👍 (megumi is probably human but idk, as long as theyre wholesome im sold <3<3) SO LIKE, SOME PLOT HAS TO HAPPEN TO MAKE THEM FAMILY YKNOW - but deal with that yourself 😌(💤) (unless i come back to this idea with some deranged brainrot i didnt ask for + the will to create & share it✌️)

(Ps i decided gojo can change size so he can be human sized (oooo sneaky!), but ‼️‼️he can also be pocket size‼️‼️(i think thats the most important to note thank you v much), hes not stuck on giant mode yay :D)

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Everythings so sketchy haha, BUT GETO YOUR HONOUR! ah…no earring on this screenshot tho mybad

[hiskillingjar]

Free Use (Strade/MC)

i’m at work, i have meetings all day, and i’m sick as a fucking dog. put me down like old yeller.

I’m gonna spend the next few days working on commissions and university stuff btw so. taking a break until tueday where i’ll come back with something very very fun :) 

strade’s girlboss lawyer is @miveus' oc btw. check her out i love her

day 23: free use second person

"God, needy little slut, isn’t she?"

You moaned with barely quelled distress against the stranger's cock, pulsing halfway down your throat, your bound wrists straining behind you in latex and metal. Your thighs and calves ached painfully, just trying to hold yourself upright as you bounced on another cock, desperately, needily, underneath you. 

Hands like gnarled claws, ungroomed fingernails and calloused skin, curled around your soft thighs and kept your legs spread wide open as whoever thrust deeper inside you, mostly silent (lest they give away any potential identity to the blinking camera filming the whole thing), save for the occasional grunts of pleasure when you clenched tightly enough around them, made yourself a tight little toy for their pleasure.

They were maybe the third person (not including the dildos, beer bottles, knife handles and other phallic objects they could find to fill you with) you'd had inside you tonight, though they might have been the fourth for all you knew. 

It was easy (and, perhaps, integral to your survival) to lose count of just how many people has already fucked you and just dissassociate completly, especially so when your brain was in the process of leaking out of your ears from the sheer amount of cock being rammed against it.

Though, in retrospect, your dissociative haze was probably because of the “complimentary” cocaine and date-rape drugs the host had forced upon you (that Strade had let them force upon you without a word of complaint) that made everything blur into one.

Not that you had a problem with some casual narcotic use, though.

Things like that certainly did the trick at loosening up your nerves, or, at least they had done in the past.

"Takin' it like a fuckin' trooper too. Must be the fourth guy who's fucked her at this rate."

“Fourth? Ah, I should be charging by now. I didn’t know bringing a ‘plus one’ would cause such a stir~”

Ah. So it was the fourth.

The cock in your mouth came unexpectedly down your throat without a word (or vague noise or grunt) of warning, and your head was pushed away like an abandoned fleshlight, spittle and cum leaking from your open, gagged mouth and trickling down the latex panel covering your jaw. 

You might have been annoyed, in a previous life, forced to taste some grimy stranger’s cum (and lord only knew what diseases they might have been carrying and passing onto you), but another climax must have implied that you were getting closer to the end, didn’t it? That you were almost finished playing the party’s sex toy? 

How many people could there have been at a meet-up like this?

“You wouldn’t let anyone miss out on this opportunity, would you? I mean, you were kind of asking for it, bringing a hot body like that, wrapped up and mumbling like some cute, little retard.”

“Hah! I did not know you had a preference for the mentally disabled, TJ. I’ll have to keep that in mind, ja?”

When you (involuntarily) clenched on the cock buried inside you (the familiar growl of your master so close by enough to make your body react), they couldn't help but spill over too.

Filling up both your holes. It was kind of sinful just how much that idea turned you on, now.

Now that you had been broken in.

When they withdraw from you and pushed themselves away with a grunt, unexpectedly strong and gentle hands (but not his, you knew what his hands felt like) held your hips tightly to support your shaking body against the cold, cement ground, presumably so you didn’t fall like a rag doll and hurt yourself. 

A warm cocktail of cum dripped down the inside of your thigh, and you didn't even try and stop the delirious gurgle of arousal that slipped from your lips when you felt it.

“Maybe you should go legit and make real porn instead of snuff. I mean, the pay is shittier, but you’ll have a business when we’re shut down.”

“When? So pessimistic!” He cut himself off with a hearty laugh, the warmth of it making you relax in your binds. “No, no, I’d never turn sex into a business. I’ve already turned one passion into my income, I can’t do another.” 

You barely had a moment to really catch your breath, before another person was approaching you, jerking your body upright (easy when you were as docile as you were) as they unzipped the front of their jeans with the low drag of metal on metal. Without an order to, you obediently moved in closer with an low murmur, rubbing your covered cheek against the hard on underneath the layers of fabric.

Playing the good toy, the best toy, he must be so proud of you for this, mustn’t he

“No no, you shouldn’t worry about the site going bust. I’ve got that, ah, anwaltin, lawyer girl keeping my slate clean. She’s a pro with those sorts of things.”

“Oh yeah, I know her. She’s a hot piece of ass, ain’t she?”

“Don’t I know it. Wouldn’t mind sinking into her one of these days.”

You felt the smooth glide as a set of barbel piercings pressed against the drooling width of your tongue and it was enough to make you moan even more as you moved in closer, dragging your tongue needily over the length as soon as you had the space to, and taking the half hard cock into your mouth. 

Your whole body trembled when you felt it harden between your spread lips and your core clenched up tight, making it harder for another body to invade you as they pleased.

“Haha, careful! That’s how you lose a court case.”

“Doubt it. She’s too worked up trying to outwit me to try anything like that. Kinda gets me going, knowing how clueless she is.”

Delicate, feminine fingers then started to rub against your erect clit, giving you some stimulation while you were servicing everyone else so readily. All the while, a ripped, muscled hardbody kept you stil as they squirmed underneath you, another hard cock prodding at your entrance that was gradully loosening, as your hips bucked towards the acrylics teasing your slit.. 

Whoever had decided to show mercy on you worked you over slowly, pushing you closer to your edge and taking abdundant enjoyment in the way your body trembled, the sound of the shaking moans at the top of your throat as it got fucked, the desperation in your eyes as they squeezed tight to stop overwhelmed tears pouring down your face.

“Mm, make sure the camera is zoomed in on their face. I want to keep that expression for the photo album.”

“You’re a dirty motherfucker, you know that? Complain’ about me using them, shit…”

“Mmf,” You groaned helplessly, straining against your bondage and swallowing around the pulsing cock half-way down your throat.

The very idea, the very prospect of you maybe being seen at one of these places made your core throb even harder. 

A missing person, abandoned and presumed dead a long time ago, suddenly appearing in a sordid, quasi-snuff porn film, not only taking everything that was given to them but seemingly enjoying it too. 

Long gone was the person you used to be, replaced by a puppet that looked like you, a puppet that smiled through torture and death, as long as their master treated them with kindness afterwards.

In spite of it all, the idea was undeniably arousing and a rush of deeply desired humiliation and shame made your head spin.

 More hands stroked down your shivering body, fingers worming into your holes (even the one that hadn’t been touched yet) to test out just how stretched and thoroughly used you already were. You were sure that you could have taken the next one up your ass without any prep and bone dry, if you were in a particularly masochistic mood.

Which you were. Almost one hundred percent of the time these days.

And things like this were the perfect outlet for every one of your self-destructive urges.

[in-class-daydreams]

Dress Code

Pairing: Auror!Sebastian Sallow x Unspeakable!Fem!Reader (no Y/N) Synopsis. Basically a girlboss married to Sebastian simulator. You and Sebastian received a call from your daughter's school and neither of your are happy about it. On the plus side, Sebastian so loves watching your protective side come out. A/N: I churned this out in one sitting, no I didn't proofread. Also I'm not British so suspend your disbelief if you find inaccuracies about the school system. TW: Sexualization of a minor (alluded to)

The clacking of Sebastian’s dress shoes echoed off the walls of the empty corridor. He listened carefully. All was quiet. Good. His wife hadn’t arrived yet.

He tugged at his dark green tie to loosen it. Despite how sharp he looked in his black three-piece suit with a chain and cape over one shoulder, had he not been at work at the Ministry of Magic when he received the owl, he wouldn't have dressed up for his daughter’s blasted school at all. Sebastian was counting the days before he could send his sweet Eliza to Hogwarts next year.

The Headmaster’s office was at the end of the hall. This school was much more dreary than Hogwarts to the point where it seemed like a prison. It wasn’t the first time he second-guessed his and his wife’s decision not to call in a favor to secure a Hogwarts enrollment early. His wife was worried having an auror and an Unspeakable as parents would make them insufferable if they overused their influence. Considering that their parenting wouldn’t reach as far as Hogwarts, Sebastian relented, even though he was hard-pressed to entrust his baby girl anywhere other than his alma mater.

Sebastian made to knock as he usually did, but remembered himself and rapped lightly on the door. His wife always chastised him for banging on doors like the law enforcement. He argued that it was a force of habit and she denied him kisses for two whole hours. Never again. The door opened to reveal a stout man a head shorter than Sebastian with a beard and tweed coat.

“Mr. Sallow!” The auror reluctantly shook the Headmaster’s hand. “It is an honor, sir. Would you like some tea, sir?”

Sebastian denied the tea, but exchanged half-assed pleasantries for the sake of his daughter, who was sitting in a stiff-backed chair against the wall. He kneeled to eye level in front of her.

“There you are, sweetheart,” he cooed, weak to her big brown eyes looking up at him.

“I’m sorry you got called from work, daddy.” Eliza looked teary. “I know you had important auror things today.”

His heart clenched. “There’s nothing in the magical world more important than you, darling.” He looked down in confusion. “Why are you wearing those?”

Instead of her plaid blue skirt Sebastian cried upon seeing the first time - first time fathers, right? - she had on loose, ratty gray trousers held up by a brown belt that looked even older than Sebastian himself.

When Eliza looked down in shame, he straightened up and addressed the Headmaster.

“Explain.”

The Headmaster straightened to his full height and placed his hands on his protruding stomach.

“Well, Mr. Sallow, your daughter has just received her third uniform violation in as many months. It is time we addressed it,” he said.

Sebastian raised a skeptical eyebrow. “What’s wrong with her uniform?”

Taking a sip of his tea, the Headmaster said, “It is much too short. Several of her teachers have made comments.”

“Ah.” Sebastian crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. “Then we’ll just have to wait.”

The Headmaster eyed him warily. “Whatever for, Mr. Sallow?” Typically, Sebastian would take full advantage of his height and aura to put the man in his place, but there was a much more fitting punishment on its way and much more severe.

“My wife will be here momentarily,” he said.

“What would you call your wife for?”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Because we’re a partnership. If you had to ask, I feel sorry for the poor woman that had to marry you.”

“Well, I never–!”

Their conversation was interrupted by a light knock on the door. Grabbing the handle, Sebastian cast the Headmaster a sideways look.

“Endeavor not to disrespect my wife. She is not the submissive housewife you seem to be imagining.”

He opened the door and in you strode, clad in an elegant dark green velvet pantsuit. Sebastian smiled to himself, happy that you let him convince you to match colors with him while buying work clothes. The way the slacks hugged your legs was just a bonus.

“Headmaster,” you said sharply, taking his hand. Then you turned and crouched in front of your daughter as Sebastian had.

“What’s going on, my love?” you asked. The two of you shared the same curve of your lips, but nothing more. Of course you’d carry a child for nine months only to have her pop out a splitting image of your husband.

The Headmaster cleared his throat. “Miss Sallow’s–”

“Hup-up-up,” you tutted, “I was speaking to my daughter. You’d do well not to interrupt.”

His face reddened at being spoken to in such a way, and by a woman, no less. Sebastian, on the other hand, was beside himself. His heart swelled with love the way it did when you first handed him his ass in a duel all those years ago.

“Go on, it’s alright,” you told her.

With some reluctance, Eliza replied, “My skirt is too short.”

You stiffened and momentarily met Sebastian’s gaze through the corner of your eye. “That’s nonsense, your father and I know the uniform regulations by heart.”

Eliza shook her head. “My teachers have said it’s distracting.”

“What’s distracting, love?”

“Me. My skirt.”

You wiped your hands on your slacks and cupped your daughter’s cheek. With a reassuring smile, you straightened and turned to Sebastian, who looked a mix of incensed and amused.

“Don’t overdo it,” he told you.

“Now’s as good a time as ever,” you argued.

“Don’t,” he urged. “Think of the paperwork.”

You cupped his face and planted a chaste kiss on his lips. Then he held out a hand towards Eliza.

“Come, now. Mum will take care of this,” he said.

Eliza eagerly hopped out of her chair and took her father’s hand. He led her out into the hallway and shut the door behind them.

“Is mother going to kill the Headmaster?” she asked innocently.

Sebastian laughed. “No, love, dead men can’t send a message.”

“What does that mean?”

Sebastian cringed and cupped his hands over her ears, as if that would somehow protect her. Hopefully you didn’t hear that.

“Never mind that. Mum will be out soon and we’ll go home and make dinner together,” he assured her.

“What about work?” Eliza asked.

“I have the feeling she and I will be taking a half-day.”

Inside the Headmaster’s office, you tapped a heeled foot. Hogwarts was quite the progressive school considering what was going on outside it in your time. Still, you were always caught by surprise when such archaic ways of thinking cropped up. Though you supposed this wasn’t the first upset of this nature and such indiscretions would continue long after you were gone.

You crossed your arms.

“My daughter’s skirt is well-within regulations. According to your handbook, the hem must be touching the knee at all times while standing and cannot rise above a quarter inch above the knee while sitting. Her hem touches her knee even while sitting. Seeing as you have eyes and I assume you know your own handbook, I’d like an explanation as to why you interrupted my workday over this.”

The Headmaster sputtered under the coldness in your tone.

“Mrs. Sallow–”

“No.”

“Ma’am, teachers have been making complaints about how inappropriate Eliza looks in her uniform. I’m sure you can see that she looks rather improper at times. It is distracting.”

You blinked.

“I see. Which teachers have called her distracting?”

The Headmaster seemed to interpret your question as his opportunity to throw some credibility behind his words. He rattled off the different teachers and the subjects they taught. There was a single woman, but you were unsurprised to hear ‘Mister’ this and ‘Mister’ that.

“They can vouch for what I’ve said, and I would call them to my office if need be,” he smiled like he won. Like him calling for backup could do anything against you.

“Please do.” You nodded calmly. “It will be good to match a face to a name during the investigations.”

The Headmaster paled. “Investigations?”

Your stern gaze met with his shifting, nervous eyes.

“But of course,” you said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “My auror husband and I simply cannot allow men who would be distracted by a ten year old girl to work at a school. That won’t do at all.”

The Headmaster stumbled around his desk in his haste to approach you.

“Now, now! That is quite the conclusion you’ve come to, Mrs. Sal– Ma’am. Our faculty has simply observed that Eliza’s body has developed in such a way that–”

You put a hand up to stop him. “I see. A young woman’s body changes the slightest bit and suddenly grown men are unable to contain themselves.”

“That’s not what I–!”

Turning to take your leave, you call over your shoulder, “I hope you have other skills, Headmaster, for you’ll never work in education again. Consider my daughter disenrolled.”

You step out into the hall and are greeted by your husband and child. Eliza looked nervous while Sebastian was trying to hide a smile.

You lean down to ask your daughter, “Do you have all your things?” She nodded. “Everything? You won’t be coming back here.” She nodded again.

“Good.”

Sebastian placed his hand on the small of your back, took Eliza’s hand, and guided you both to the exit. He leaned over and spoke in hushed tones.

“All settled? Finished tormenting him?” he asked.

“My love, I haven’t even begun to torment him,” you replied.

He kissed your temple. “You are absolutely terrifying.”

“I am.”

“I’m desperately in love with you.”

“You are.”

---

A/N: Sebastian's auror outfit is inspired by a fanart I saw by @notashree on TikTok, and it looks like she has an instagram @itsashree.

Also, the line where The Headmaster tries to call you 'Mrs. Sallow' had a different response, but it's a spoiler for a different fic I'm writing, so I changed it. Yeehaw.

[shiny-jr]

So what was the process like for creating the MC's personality in damantion au? Like how similar they are to their counterparts

how close they are to the version of the characters in the film they are based on.

I assume you're asking this for each MC thus far? Since I won't reveal too much on the last two MC's yet. So, this'll probably be a long post, or not, as there isn't a lot about the MC's that hasn't already been said.

King!MC. The very first MC I developed for the damnation series. In fact, I thought of this MC before I even knew damnation would become a pretty long series. They were the first, they came before the majority of the plot and all. At that point, all I knew was I want an MC that acts like the king, and screws things up. And thus, King!MC was born. I mainly drew inspiration from the animated version of the King of Hearts, however, the fate the MC knew awaited them was inspired by what had happened to the King of Hearts in the live-action version. I would say that of the MCs thus far, they are the most like their counterpart. Although the King of Hearts is not a major character in the animated film and only appears for brief moments, those few seconds give the little guy a lot of personality, which I drew from and then some. Really, I just wanted someone kinda pathetic with Riddle.

Chief!MC. Before I even began writing for them, my main goal for them was to be the epitome of girlboss, boyboss(?), theyboss(?). Basically I wanted them to be badass, a mature figure but still with a bit of a temper or snark at certain times. Someone that could stand toe-to-toe with Leona when he's being cunning. Like the previous MC, here I had the privilege of having two sources, the animated one and the live-action version. In the animated version, Shenzi is more humorous at times but in the live-action, she's much more serious, so I used both. I thought I'd used their point of view to portray a different perspective of the Lion King story, and use Chief!MC's traits and desire to survive push the plot forward but eventually make mistakes due to being a bit rash at times.

Diviner!MC. Ah yes, the first difficult MC. For them, I had to think a while. I was stuck thinking, just where exactly I could assign their role since there was essentially no role for them. For a short time, I entertained the thought of a possible apprentice under Azul, but in the end I opted against the idea as that would make it difficult for MC to reason why they would want to leave and it would make things more complicated with the whole legs and fins, air and water, thing which was hard enough to write for. Diviner!MC is loosely inspired by Vanessa, the identity taken up by Ursula. I say loosely, because yes, while they did take over seducing the love interest, they also changed things. There were a lot of changes I had to make in order for this new role to work, such as the protagonist also being seduced. Really, it just made a whole mess and it was not fun. Ultimately, not an MC I'm proud of, but they're there. I figured someone suave and confident was needed for the role, not only to be distinct from the meek King!MC and assertive Chief!MC, but also to be on par with Azul.

Anyways, that's a lot so I'll leave that there for now. Let me know if you wanted to hear about Vassal!MC and Retainer!MC, and I'll answer that in a separate post.

[redflagshipwriter]

Hi, it's Tim (just Tim) chapter 6

Masterpost

San Francisco was a breath of fresh air. It would have been better if Dick wasn’t shepherding him there like the world’s most anxious and chatty herding dog. Tim halfway wanted to make a break for it to see if Dick would bark at him.

He nobly resisted the urge. He actually hadn’t gotten in trouble for going no contact. Incredibly, Bruce hadn’t noticed that he had been with Superboy. He must really be wound up about the Red Hood.

Speaking of- “What’s the Red Hood done that makes B think I’m the target to be concerned about?” Tim asked.

Dick looked a little ill. He clearly didn’t want to answer. “Well, he’s been pretty clear,” he said apologetically. “Very clear. A lot of metaphors about breaking off your wings that B is taking pretty seriously. It’s like English class all over again,” he complained. Dick scrunched up his face and gestured wildly with his long elegant hands. “There was this like, poetic reference that I didn’t get, but it was about stomping on a bird and crushing all their bones under your boot. B had to look it up.” He cocked his head to the side at the end.

…This guy was referencing poets B didn't know offhand, and they were meant to think he was some big scary thug?

“...So he’s, uh, well-read, then,” Tim concluded, adding it to the very short list of things they knew about the Red Hood. “Loser.”

“We shouldn’t say that,” Dick demurred, which meant ‘lol yeah.”

Tim gave the older bird a judgemental look for even trying as Dick typed in pass codes for Titan Tower. That was their whole thing as Bats. They took information and made deductions. This particular deduction made him feel cockier. While the big bad Red Hood had been wasting time reading, Tim had been studying the blade and uh, making out with a really hot guy. Heh. He couldn't hold in the self satisfied smirk. Hood was a loser. He could use his time much better than by reading moldy old books.

Dick stayed long enough to get Tim settled, but he was clearly anxious to get back to Gotham.

Tim was torn. On the one hand, he did not like essentially being benched. But… Well, he wasn't benched outside of Gotham, Tim decided, wandering through the shared kitchen and rummaging around for a snack. He could go on any Titans mission that came up. He opened the fridge and squinted suspiciously at something in the vegetable crisper.

He had always assumed someone really liked potatoes. But knowing what he did now, he wondered if those were Kon’s groceries. Did the guy just eat raw fruit like some kind of lunatic?

…Maybe no one kept potatoes there after all. He had thought it was weird since he never really saw anyone cook. Tim picked the suspect up and sniffed at it. This ugly thing was a fruit?

Well. He was brave and he was bold. Tim bit through the skin. His teeth sank in with much less resistance than he expected: not a raw potato. It tasted okay. This was Kon’s favorite flavor? Tim had another bite and mulled it over. It was alright. It wasn’t exactly bacon and artichoke pizza or sour cherry candy, though.

Huh. He shut the fridge door with his hip and made his way to his room, planning to drop off his travel bag.

A window opened and slammed shut nearby. Tim detoured to see who it was. His heart beat hard against his chest when he rounded the corner.

“Superboy,” he said casually, as if he hadn't been making out with the guy a couple hours ago.

“Hey, Rob.” Kon breezed past, obviously lost in thought. He stopped midair and frowned. “Do you smell mango?”

Tim hid the half eaten fruit in his utility belt. “No. Maybe you're just hungry.”

Gaslight gatekeep girlbossing worked, as always. Kon let out a “huh,” cocked his head, and zipped away to the kitchen.

Ah, hell. Tim realized he was smiling like a dope to the empty hallway. He wiped the expression from his face and hoped that no one ever reviewed that section of security tape. How embarrassing.

He hid away in his room for a while, letting tactics and plans stew away in his mind. He was hyper aware of the fact that Kon was somewhere in the tower. Was anyone else? He didn't know. He should check.

While he was at it, he should try and hack into whatever B was hiding about the Red Hood on the bat computer. Tim spun idly in his desk chair as he thought it over. Bruce was being twitchy. He wanted Tim so far away from the situation that Tim knew in his gut it would eventually be his problem. That was how this shit always worked; the most dramatic thing possible would happen.

He emerged from his room to find Kon in some kind of argument with Cassie. Tim decided to stay way the fuck away from that. He steered to the living room. Raven looked up from her book, expression flatly unamused.

“Robin.” She acknowledged. Then she looked away.

She was in a great mood, then.

He checked through the logs: it was just the four of them. As Tim watched, Cassie's status dinged to display ‘out of the tower’.

Just the three of them, then. And Raven wasn't going to come seek anyone out.

Tim went Kon hunting. Kon was sprawled out in his room, tossing something up and down. It glittered where it caught the air.

“Superboy,” he said, leaning on the doorframe casually. Did it look casual? Did it look douchey? Tim stood up straight before Kon looked up.

“Hey, Rob,” Kon said. He flashed his toothiest grin at Tim. Fuck, he was pretty. “Did you want something?”

“Yeah, I wanted to talk. Can I come in?”

Kon sat up on his elbows. “Come right the hell in, my dude.” He cocked his head to the side and a curl fell over his face. “Everything alright?” A smile tugged one half of his mouth up mischievously. “Come sit on my lap and tell me all about it.”

The thing was that Kon said shit like that all the time. He said it to Tim, he said it to Cassie, he said it to any number of civilians. Tim had thought that Kon was just being kind of a bitch to him.

“Thanks,” he said easily, and sat with his knees on either side of Kon’s thighs.

Kon’s mouth fell open. Tim waited, but no sound came out.

“I was actually wondering- you say things like that to me a lot,” Tim continued, feeling very smug. Haha, Kon hadn't just been needling him. He'd been pulling pigtails. He wanted Tim, what a loser. “A guy starts to get the impression that you're interested. And…” he dragged his gaze pointedly down Kon’s perfect body. “I'm not disinterested,” he finished coyly.

“Robin.” Kon swallowed visibly. “I uh. I'm really flattered.”

Ah. Fuck. Tim had a very bad feeling.

“I'm kind of seeing someone at the moment.” Kon’s voice cracked. “If- if I hadn't been, I would be all over this. But I am. So.” His hands hovered uselessly a few inches from Tim’s sides.

Well then. Tim slid off Kon’s lap. He didn't let howling frustration show on his face. He was cock blocking himself. “I see,” he said simply. “No worries. I'll see you around.”

“Right.” Kon’s voice cracked again. He shoved his hands in his pockets. His eyes were wild.

Wow. Okay, so life isn't fair. It was good to know. Tim sulked his way back to his room. Well no, actually, he hated this information a lot. But it was useful for his prediction models. He should have known better than to think things would work out.

On the one hand, Kon was apparently loyal to his flavor of the week. Tim could choose to appreciate that, since he was flavor for early September.

Or he could be mad that he'd apparently chosen the wrong ID to flirt with Kon under. He paced an angry circuit in his room around the pile of things he was going to eventually reconstruct. Hell. Fuck. This sucked. Kon had a crush on Robin, the guy he actually knew. What a wasted opportunity!

He calmed down enough to think.

Of course that was when sirens went off. Tim booked it to the landing pad, pulling up the alert on his wrist computer on the way.

They had a mission. Okay. Tim compartmentalized away all the mortification. He could deal with it after they got back.

[marikosenwrites]

"smooth like butter!"

sen: lyrics prompt (kinda rushed)! got this idea when i was listening to butter yesterday...so yeah. and i thought it would fit gojo better than the rest (oh god he is so handsome)

notes: this is in still in the jujutsu world! reader's also a sorcerer, but alas, not that strong. i'll be saying about grade 2. sorry if you wanted a girlboss! reader is about 170cm...and toru is 190...

lyrics:

ooh, when i look in the mirror i'll melt your heart into two i got that superstar glow so, ooh~!

summary:

a normal morning, getting ready for work, when your husband steps in and steals your precious attention off your make up.

warning: suggestive content, implied fem!reader(?), gojo is precious, nicknames, established relationship, make up

word count: 0.66k

"my curses...this is hard to apply..." you muttered to yourself as you tried applying some new make up foundation you bought yesterday. although your workplace doesn't really require make up, you had a date with your boyfriend tonight either way. you had to look your best.

"princess? are you in there? let me in." gojo called from outside the washroom.

"ah, satoru? hold on, give me a second." you quickly put your sponge down and went over to open the door to let your husband in.

"well? do you need help? it's been past twenty minutes." gojo put his sunglasses away and put a light kiss on your forehead. "and you usually only take ten minutes."

"you know the powder foundation we bought yesterday? it's taking me longer than usual to apply," you pout.

"you don't need make up, sweets. look in the mirror." he guides you until you're in front of the mirror, staring at your reflection and his muscular figure.

"...yeah?"

"see how handsome i am, and how beautiful you are?" gojo's fingers reach your chin and tilted it up, now your eyes meeting his.

"'toru..." you mumble, knowing what's coming next whenever it comes to your insecurities about yourself.

"yes, princess?" he answered your call.

"you're going to kiss me, aren't you..." you smile.

"you know me too well, doll. aren't you a genius." gojo chuckles and gives you a peck on your lips, only for you to grab his chin again and pull him down.

"mm...satoru, kisses can't fix everything..." you mutter in the kiss.

"but it can fix you, can't it?" he replies.

"...i guess...but that only works on me, i'm not the problem of the world." you lean back to have a clearer look at his face and his blue eyes.

"but you're my world, doll." gojo studies the look on your face, "isn't that enough?"

"you're right, satoru." you lean in for one final kiss before you continue applying make up.

gojo watches you as you give up applying the powder foundation and start applying lip gloss instead. it's a blood red color, a constant reminder to gojo to protect you at all costs, or you would turn that color, too.

when you finished putting it on, you turned to look at gojo. "satoru, that look again? i'm not as weak as you think i am." you sighed, "okay, maybe weaker than you, but still. you're the strongest."

"you really think so, princess?" he whispers, only audible to you.

whenever he's in your presence, he's weak. he is the lovesick fool everyone knows him to be. he is yours. yours to command, yours to make fun of, yours to take care of.

he's simply gojo satoru. no one else.

"satoru..." you put a hand on his cheek in a comforting way. no words were needed when it came to communicating with him.

gojo lands a needy kiss on your lips, pressing you against the counter. surprised, you let out a whine, opening your mouth to do that.

gojo takes the chance, smoothly slipping in his tongue to let it have a taste of you, all while slipping a hand inside your cargo pants, precisely the ones you were about to head to jujutsu tech with because it was kind of casual and handy.

"'toru-!" your words all succumb into the hot, intimate kiss.

"what, princess? you don't want to do this?" his eyes are pouty.

"sa...toru, this can wait, no?" that's what you said, as you pull away, although, you don't really feel like it.

"i don't want to!" childishly flailing his arms, gojo buries his face in your neck.

"just for today?" you retort.

"just for today," gojo smirks.

"fine, then. don't be too rough?"

gojo cheers and carries you bridal style into your shared bedroom, laying you down on the soft mattress.

"i'll make sure that you take the day off, love."

©the fanfiction and dividers, banners, above are all made by @marikosenwrites. you are free to use it, but give credit. i own none of jujutsu kaisen's characters and plot.

↳ ❝ [ reblogs, likes, and comments are welcome! for feedback, feel free to dm me! or if you're a fellow writer and would like a collab...no problem! ] ¡! ❞

[olderthannetfic]

https://olderthannetfic.tumblr.com/post/759473232339419136/httpsolderthannetfictumblrcompost75896449235#notes

ONTF: "I haven’t read the actual book. Does it come across as just a repeat? My impression was that it was supposed to be more of a critique/reaction."

I read the book and watched DitF when they came out, so years and years ago, back when the book still used the lines about being like handmaide's tale and pacific rim, before at my bookstore deleted that tagline. I didn't know it was inspired by DitF when I picked it up.

I read the book without knowing about the DitF ties, and to me the DitF plot elements immediately jumped out and were a bit too blatant. The male female pair needing to pilot the mecha is one thing. Or reversing 02's murderous piloting and making it an all against the women by men, then making the murder part universal and not just exclusive to one individual also was fine. I'm no expert on mechas, so at first I just waved it away.

But parts of the plot also felt very copied to the point that I just knew the twist not because the book did anything to foreshadow it, I just had to remember DitF and could vaguely predict the plot twist. My most eyeroll example is probably the "The humans are the real invaders!" which I kinda guessed within the first few chapters, if not pages, after noticing the DitF ties, even before the story tried to cobble that foreshadowing together. Basically if you have watched DitF you could basically predict 70% of the plot twists and reveals. 🤷‍♀️ I might be misremembering but I think even the Alien plot twist was just used beat for beat, but I'm not sure if I'm mixing them up in my mind.

Even if it was a critique of that anime, it still felt too copied and like more of a fanfic + analysis, than a work standing on its own with original ideas. You could have changed the names, and it'd have felt right at home with the DitF fanfics. I think the best way to compare it is with Hunger game clones, the original Hunger games had a large focus on social commentary and the woes of the people, while many Hunger game clones were basically just focusing on the love triangle and #Girlboss without any of the apparent depth the actual book had. It had a bit of that feel, just that DitF wasn't that good either. 😖Ironically, never read that one, but my friend who read the Hunger games, and some clones explained that to me.

I know the author themselves admitted to it, but I think the problem is less the admitting to having copied certain concepts. I think the problem is them being mad that people still critique that aspect at all. Even if you openly tell people you copied or got inspired by another work, if people think it's too blatant, that doesn't negate the fact that people are gonna find a problem with how obvious or blatant the copying is. Offence can be a defence from accusations of copying, but depending on your writing it can still warrant people criticizing it because of how much you copied or "got inspired by". Like, the tiktok I saw wasn't about people finding out about the DitF copying, it was XJZhao trying to shut up the DitF people by saying they got the greenlight from the DitF showrunners, when that wasn't really the problem. I mean some people bitched about that, but it was also aimed at people just criticizing how obvious it was, even if they admitted to it being based on DitF rewrites. 😐

--

Ah. Honestly... I think a lot of problems come from publishing's love of marketing very young writers because it's exciting and aspirational for the audience and thus sells books. This just sounds like inexperienced writer stuff plus a bad penchant for fighting on social media when they should refrain.

[rainbowxspooky]

💜🕷juri x falke✨️💛

︶︶︶ 𔓕 ︶︶ ୨୧ ︶︶ 𔓕 ︶︶︶

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

here's some sf headcannons of a girlboss and girlfailure being in love with each other! (^v^) [this is my first time writing smth like this so please go easy on me!!]

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

︶︶︶ 𔓕 ︶︶ ୨୧ ︶︶ 𔓕 ︶︶︶

°ah yes...neo shadaloo's girlboss and metro city's biker girlfailure...what could go wrong?

°well for starters let's get one thing straight...juri is AWFUL with woman.

°I'm talk stumbling with her words, freezing up, smiling like an idiot BAD-

°falke on the other hand, is practically a natural, even if she doesn't mean to be.

So the fact that juri han could get with someone like falke, who in her words "is some chick who ain't half bad"...yeaaaa that surprises her.

°the first thing juri does when she's in a relationship with falke is move into her apartment!

°and by move in...I mean sneak into her apartment and makes herself at home...on the couch.

°falke was caught off guard [and kinda annoyed] at first...but after a week or so...she gets used to it

°falke knew she was doomed...but she didn't mind sense she was doomed by the one and only juri han

°falke, being a member of neo would be too busy to see juri. Andddd juri taking "jobs" that totally aren't kicking ass and kidnapping...would be too busy to see falke...you see the problem here?

°despite this though, juri and falke would still keep in touch as they're out with their duties [with juri sending memes and falke being confused]

°now as the relationship starts out...falke would push juri to be more polite while juri would push falke to be less of a "prissy pushover" and get her hands dirty

°falke would definitely give juri a glare if she were to do something she wasn't supposed to do...like tripping a child or beating someone to a bloody pulp

°falke would also push juri to eat more healthier food

°would juri like it?..hell no. But would she do it?..yea, but just so falke could get off her ass for it

°juri would definitely ride around metro with her babe.

°falke would probably [definitely] get a biker helmet after one of juri's little bike rides😏

°in juri's own words..."I don't slow down for anyone babe, so you better keep up."

°speaking of babe...babe would totally be one of juri's petnames for falke

°falke would use more softer pet names, like honey or dear

°now, juri DESPISES pda, everytime she sees it in public, she scowls and vomits in her mouth...

°but when it comes to falke...yea she still hates it. [It's juri han, what do you expect]

°falke wouldn't push her wife- I meannn girlfriend to do pda, that's just not right to her...if she had to, she'd take it slow with falke when it comes to psychical touch

°juri would still try to commit to pda [depending on her mood] buuut being the girl failure she is...screws up by either squeezing falke's hand too hard orrrr sweating an abnormal amout

°now when it's just them...alone?..yeaaaa juri gets her act together and steps up

°falke and juri would share the couch...sometimes falke would lean in too much...other times juri would settle her feet onto falke's back...but when falke holds juri in her arms and juri leans into her shoulder like a cat nuzzling into its owner...it feels right

°OKIE SOOOO DATES...welll...that can vary.

°when it comes to dates...it can be a bit random, sometimes they can have cute dates! like that one time falke took juri out to that cafe that serves the best milk tea [even tho juri would rather drink bleach than milk tea-]

°other times...their dates are just them going into metro and tagteaming on shadaloo

°oh yea, did I mention that juri and falke are a duo you DON'T wanna F with. Since both of their combat styles would compliment each other so well, they can easy work together

°if ur up against a taekwondo masochist and a baton wielding perfectionist...yea ur cooked.

°juri and falke would definitely have their moments where they share bits and pieces of what shadaloo did to them...stole from them...took from them...

°...but what's the point of that sappy crap?! Juri has falke and falke has her!! as cheesey as it sounds...as long as they have each other...they could kick anyone's ass!

°falke is the cook in the relationship, meaning she handles the food

°falke would treat juri with some cuisine level food. Sometimes she would cook traditional german food for her girlfailure [she would even try and cook some traditional korean food for ber]

°i could also see falke cooking breakfast at 8:35 am and juri sniffs the food, ascending in the air as she floats to falke's godlike cooking

°even though they have their disagreements and flaws...juri and falke love each other deeply. They'll fight for not only each other...but also a future where they can be together peaceful...

[Oki now that I'm done...oh and it's 12:00!..yeaaa that totally would make me dead tomorrow😀...I can now see why my friend [@xoxoive] takes awhile to cook with her fics...writing is NOT easy, but I hope you enjoy these headcannons!..don't expect me to do another tho-]

[beevean]

Carmilla: rants about there being discrimination against women in Dracula's court

Meanwhile

Dracula when Carmilla insults him and his dead wife in front of everyone: Well ok I'll let it slide

Dracula when Godbrand makes a valid point: The fuck did you say to me you fuck!?

Well there's discrimination all right

clearly, Dracula jugs that Respect Woman Juice because he's such a loving husbando <3 /s

I'll never be over Carmilla's out of nowhere "There are perhaps four other women in this castle and they all glare from the edges, either disempowered by posturing man-children or too paralysed by sheer fucking rage to do anything"

one, there are only three women in the castle, Carmilla being one of them. two, ah yes, the sheer fucking rage of the most tragic victims of sexism in the story, these randos right here

I remember when they were about to save the day, but the Evil Penis-Endowed Men told them to shut up and cook blood in the kitchen because they're just women <3

well I would remember, if they bothered to be characters.

Then again, NFCV's idea of showing Carmilla's abuse at the hands of a man is a flashback that only depicts her killing her master like a true #girlboss, because god forbid we see her in any other light. Why bother actually showing us the pain she went through and fuels her ever-growing rage, when she can just talk about how she deserves to take stuff from stupid old men like the most shallow parody of a radfem? 🙃

something something the abused woman is always shown in a strong light and are only told in passing of her weak moments such as her having nightmares (?), while the abused men are humiliated and fetishized. gotta do the big think on this 🤔

[baenyth]

Bethany's Bizarre Miraculous Reviews Episode 3-8: Oni-Chan

Babe wake up! Kagami episode!

Oh god even Alya's fed up with Marinette's shit. Or at least when Lila's around.

Fucked-up girlfight! Marinette stole and crashed Juleka's bike and tried to break into Adrien's house through the power of minecrafting trash cans while Lila manipulated her way into the Agreste Manor to @everyone a pic of her kissing Adrien. This is why I ship Adrigami the most out of the Adrien ships, btw.

And Kagami's a lumberjack girlboss as well!

I like how Oni-Chan just teleported into the car Lila was in and just stayed there. Hilarious.

Also despite what Lila says, that horn's pretty good! A bit red for her color scheme, but eh.

Ah, so that's where the "Cat Noir hates Adrien" thing comes from.

Oni-Chan stealing Ladybug's lucky charm and immediately using it against her was great. We love a girlboss.

And Adrien/Chat has finally discovered Lila's evil intentions! Hopefully he'll do something with this new knowledge, right?

At the end we get the Gabriel-Lila teamup, the good version of what I know will inevitably happen at the season finale.

Well that was definitely an enjoyable episode. Makes me want to see an episode that's just 23 minutes of Marinette, Kagami, and Lila fighting. Not as a weird thing, I'm just tired of this unresolved rage and tension. Call it "THE GIRLS ARE FIGHTINGGGG" or something like that. Chloe tries to jump in and gets flung out a second later. Lila's wig that she apparently has since that's not her hair gets snatched at one point. There's commentary from the onlookers so it doesn't get too dull. I'll even take a five-minute short, damnit.

[sqtorux]

i had a similar day of rotting tbh

laid in bed all day and scrolled through tumblr. made myself a burger though! that was productive i think

also read ur smau abt taking them on in a fight... toge was so foul for that 💀💀💀

ah yes we should embrace the rot days to have the juicy i don't make the rules,, balance baby (⁠*⁠˘⁠︶⁠˘⁠*⁠)

there's no winning against toge either in verbal arguments or training, he's just That much of an athletic girlboss 😭

[hairstevington]

Freaky Friday (Steddie's Version) - chapter 5!

Eddie Munson x Steve Harrington

Summary: Steve and Eddie can't keep their shit together, so Robin and Dustin take matters into their own hands. Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4- Link to Ao3

Word Count: 3.6K

Warnings: Forced proximity baybeeee, talk about implied consent/setting ground rules, Girlboss!Robin, enemies to lovers, slow burn, canon universe (more or less) set before season 4, body swap, they are idiots, ANGST, POV switching

A/N: This will be the last chapter I put on Tumblr, but I will continue the fic on Ao3 for those that would like to follow along! Please see warnings above - there is an implication in this chapter about consent and body swapping that I wanted to get out of the way so that everybody knows that's not where I'm going with this story. Respectful Kings only in this fic!!

“Okay, seriously,” Steve said, putting his hands on his hips. It was a pose that Eddie hadn’t ever done in his whole life - until now, anyway. “How could you have messed me up that badly.” 

Eddie wasn’t sure what he was referring to, until Steve walked towards him and started running his fingers through hair that used to belong to him, smoothing it out and styling as best he could without gel. 

“I told you -” Eddie said, attempting to swat Steve’s hands away to no avail. “- not to touch me.”

“Believe me, I don’t want to touch you either, Munson, but you’re making me look like a crazy person.”

“It’s just hair, Steve.” Before Steve could oppose, Eddie felt strands snag against familiar metal. “Ah! Ah, ah! Rings! Ringsringsrings!”

“Quit being a baby,” Steve mocked, releasing Eddie from his grasp and taking a step back to admire his work. “Okay, much better.”

“You do realize I could just as easily mess it up again, right?” Eddie held his hands up and mimicked circular motions above him, demonstrating just how he would do so. 

“Do it and I’ll shave your head,” Steve threatened. 

“Then I’ll shave yours,” Eddie shot back, taking a step towards Steve. 

“God dammit, can you just not be a dick for one second?”

“Nope,” Eddie responded, flashing a devilish, closed-mouthed smile. 

“Guys!” Dustin interrupted, effectively shutting them both up. “Are you actually five years old? What’s wrong with you both?”

“Uh, how much time do you have?” Eddie asked. 

“This is too weird,” Robin said from behind them. She’d been silent through this whole interaction, pondering all she’d just revealed to Eddie without knowing it. The panic of her secret being out to more than just one person was making her feel sick - Eddie could sense it. “And Dustin’s right, you’re being ridiculous.”

“He started it!” Eddie began, gesturing to Steve. “Look, I - I’m sorry.” He turned to Robin, his voice becoming surprisingly sincere. He really did save the most bitterness for Steve and Steve alone. “He just drives me crazy.”

“Yeah, we know,” Dustin groaned. “And neither of you seem to have a specific reason, either.”

“I have reasons,” Eddie insisted. “Plural.” 

“Care to share them with the class?” Robin asked, her words much more pointed than they’d been a few minutes prior. 

Eddie opened his mouth to respond, but thought better of it. The truth was far too personal to confess with Steve right there. He attempted to repress the memory, but he felt it swimming closer to the surface of his mind. A football field - No. Stop. 

Instead, he honed in on a different memory - the one where, hours after he’d sold weed to Steve Harrington, King of Hawkins High, Eddie’s friend Rick came knocking at the door. 

“Dude, what the fuck?” Rick said as he burst in. “I got busted. Some idiot in a polo ratted me out. What the hell did you do?”

“Busted?” Eddie questioned. “Again?” 

The first time Rick had gotten in trouble, he stayed in a jail cell overnight before some distant cousin bailed him out. It had happened a few times, actually, but usually due to Rick’s own stupidity, not Eddie’s.

“Yeah. Busted. Cops showed up today and I just barely was able to talk my way out of it.”

“How did you talk your way out of it?” Eddie asked. He figured that, surely, the cops had Rick’s excuses damn near memorized by that point. His prints had been in the system since he was like eleven years old. 

“I told them the guy must have been mistaken, because I’d stopped dealing ages ago. And that the new guy, the one who ratted me out, was the real guy they were looking for.”

“What?!” Eddie exclaimed. He knew Harrington was an asshole, but he didn’t deserve to be framed for drug dealing. “And they bought it?”

“Relax.” Rick waved his hands dismissively. “You know that guy’s father is some bigshot lawyer, right? He’ll be fine. Charges will disappear, no skin off anyone’s back. Especially mine.” 

He was right. That was the worst part. Eddie had always felt guilty about it, but the truth was - Steve was still at school the next day. He hadn’t even had to spend a night in jail. And he’d ratted Rick out for some reason. Some superiority complex disguised as being a good Samaritan, Eddie always figured. Stupid double fucking standard.

Eddie realized it had been far too long since he’d responded to Robin’s question, and took a deep breath.

“It doesn’t matter, I guess,” he finally said, his voice sincere. “All of this just sucks.”

“Yeah, it does,” Robin agreed, “but that doesn’t give you an excuse to be an asshole.”

“Woah,” Steve said, surprised at Robin’s language. “Did he say something to you?”

“Robin, I -”

“You manipulated me into giving you a whole bunch of information you don’t deserve to know just so you could feel better about yourself.”

“He what?” Steve asked, growing more agitated. 

“Can I just -”

“No, stop,” Robin said, backing away. “Both of you. I don’t want to talk to you -” she said, pointing at Eddie, “- and I don't want to talk to the guy who looks like you. Just let me go in the back room for a bit, and hold the fort out here, okay? Eddie’s like, weirdly good at this job anyway.”

“He is?” Steve asked. 

“Don’t be so surprised,” Eddie replied. “A goldfish could do this job better than you.” Robin groaned. 

“You know what, Munson?” she said. “You got what you wanted - I now have an opinion on you.”

With that, she closed the door behind her and left the boys to fend for themselves. 

-

“Jeez,” Dustin said. “I’ve never seen her angry like that before.” 

Steve hadn’t either. Generally, Robin was a pleasant person who saw the best in people. She knew how to dish out plenty of sarcasm, but she also knew where the line was between snark and genuinely being mean. If she thought Eddie was an asshole, then he was. Steve felt a spark of validation in his own opinion, but it was quickly overcome by anger. 

In an instant, Steve was in Eddie’s face again, grabbing two fistfuls of his shirt and pushing him against the counter.

“What did you do, Munson?” Steve questioned, rage bubbling within him. Steve noticed Eddie’s body was far stronger than he’d anticipated, and a few inches taller. He was able to hold Eddie (in Steve’s body) with ease, so much so that Eddie (once again, in Steve’s body) had to be on his tiptoes. Or, Steve’s tiptoes. Goddammit, this whole thing was a mindfuck. 

“I - I didn’t - nothing, I swear!” Eddie answered. His bravado had melted away into something entirely different. Complete and total remorse. He was almost pathetic in the way he’d succumbed to Steve’s intimidation immediately. He knew he deserved it. “I mean, I - I may have asked her some things out of curiosity -”

“What kind of things?” Steve pressed, his grip tightening. 

“Not what you’re thinking,” Eddie insisted. “You would have done the same thing if your coworker casually started talking about being tortured.” 

Steve’s eyes widened in understanding, and as quickly as he had grabbed Eddie, he’d let him go. 

“She told you about that, huh?” His voice was low and serious. 

“Among other things,” Eddie admitted. He turned to Dustin. “Did this guy really save your life?”

“Yeah, a few times,” Dustin answered. “Well, there were the demodogs at the junkyard, and then the demodogs under the field, oh - and when he totally stood up to Billy for us, although I guess Max was kinda the one that saved us, there. And then I saved him from the Russians. We’ve all kind of saved each other's lives pretty consistently, I think,” he concluded. 

“I - you - what?” Eddie stuttered, mentally unable to comprehend any of the things that he’d heard today. 

“Yeah, I don’t think he needed that many details,” Steve replied. 

“There’s a lot of shit in this town that most people don’t know about,” Dustin said with a shrug. 

“Okay, but why do you know about it?” Eddie wondered. 

“My friend Will,” Dustin answered. “You probably remember that whole thing. When he disappeared?”

“Oh, yeah,” Eddie nodded. “The kid got lost in the woods or something.”

“Yeah,” Dustin replied. “Except he wasn’t actually lost in the woods.” Eddie’s brow furrowed, and Steve grew irritated by how much information they were disclosing.

“Okay,” Eddie acknowledged. “So that explains you. What does Harrington have to do with it?”

“Wrong place, wrong time I guess,” Steve muttered. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I personally love fighting hell monsters and getting the shit kicked out of me every so often, but -”

“Sorry to have missed that,” Eddie teased. “I would have loved it, too.”

“Stay in my body long enough and you’ll probably get to experience it yourself,” Steve joked. It was a moment in which the two of them once again laughed at the other, and not in a mean way. The moments were few and far between, but they were there. Steve wondered why they couldn’t just be civil. 

“Okay, so,” Eddie said with a sigh. “What now?”

“We were trying to come up with a way for us to switch back,” Steve answered. 

“Oh, is that all?” Eddie mocked. “I suggest we start with finding a witch.”

“That’s somehow worse than Steve’s weatherman idea,” Dustin replied. “Obviously, we’ll figure out a way to switch you guys back, but I think there’s something a lot more important that we need to do first.”

“What are you talking about?” Steve wondered. He couldn’t think of a single thing more important than getting out of this nightmare.

“Ground rules,” Dustin responded, as if it were obvious. “You’re in each other’s bodies. You are living each other’s lives. If you’re not careful, people could seriously get hurt.”

“Like Robin,” Steve reminded them all, nodding towards the still-closed door. 

“Like Robin,” Dustin agreed. “But also with the two of you. Did you guys talk about any of this before you committed identity fraud?”

“Is it identity fraud if -”

“Yes,” Dustin answered Eddie’s question before he could finish asking it. 

“We talked about some of it,” Steve responded. “That’s why I went to school and he came here.”

“Yeah, we set a rule already,” Eddie added. “He keeps me from flunking out again, and I keep his job. Seems like we both succeeded.”

“Okay, then why did Steve totally blow his cover immediately at school?”

“I didn’t immediately -”

“Yes you did,” Dustin insisted. “Everyone thinks Eddie showed up today on a new drug because he didn’t remember a damn thing about his own life.”

“That’s because it’s not my life,” Steve replied. “How was I supposed to know?”

“Because you were supposed to talk to each other!” Dustin shouted. “Jesus Christ, you both are impossible. You’re making this so much more difficult -”

“He’s right,” Eddie sighed. “It’s my fault, I think.”

“You think?” Steve repeated. Eddie scoffed. 

“Come on, dude, I’m trying to be decent here.” Eddie seemed genuine enough, but sometimes it really felt like one step forward and two steps back with the guy. Like, he had brief moments of authenticity followed by an hour of bullshit. “I kicked you out last night, and I shouldn’t have.”

“You’re just lucky my mom didn’t see me like this,” Steve mumbled, wondering when Eddie was going to turn back this time. 

“Yeah I - I know,” Eddie continued. “So, we talk about it. Henderson, how do we do this?”

“Well, I’m not an expert,” Dustin said. He started pacing the room, thinking so hard Steve could almost hear the gears turning. 

“I’ll start,” Steve said. “Stay away from Robin.”

“Like, entirely?” Eddie questioned. “I can’t do that if I’m working here. I know, I fucked up earlier, but lesson learned. Robin’s cool. She doesn’t deserve my bullshit. It won’t happen again.”

Okay, so he was being genuine for longer than a moment this time. Any moment now it would crash. Steve braced himself for it. As his anxiety grew, his need for a cigarette did, too. 

“Fine,” he agreed. “Here’s another one - no smoking, no exceptions.”

“Aw, come on,” Eddie whined. 

“Should be easier for you than me,” Steve continued. “Considering I’m now addicted again. Thanks for that, by the way.”

“Next time I’ll make sure I quit before I swap bodies with you, Harrington.”

“It’s a good point,” Dustin interjected. “About drugs. If you’re gonna do anything that could affect the body you’re in, you should get permission first.”

Steve did the thing he wasn’t supposed to do - he thought about the shower thing. They’d at least had a discussion about that. Steve quickly glanced at Eddie, and had a sneaking suspicion his mind went to the same place. 

They were interrupted by the door to the back room opening, and Robin re-emerging into the store. 

“I have a rule to add,” she announced. 

“You’ve been listening in?” Steve asked.

“Well, yeah,” Robin admitted. “The walls are thin, and you guys are loud. Plus, I’m with Dustin on having to talk about this stuff, and I have a rule to add.”

“What is it?” Eddie wondered. 

“No dating as each other,” she declared, staring directly at Eddie. "No kissing, no hook-ups."

“Woah, why are you looking at me?” he asked, defensively. “I’m not the one screwing around.”

“Hey,” Steve said. “She’s got a point.” 

“Right, because I won’t be able to help myself around all the girls that line up at the Harrington house,” Eddie said, rolling his eyes. 

There he was - the Eddie that Steve wanted to slap across the damn face. 

“I’m serious -”

“I know!” Eddie replied. “I’m serious, too. That would be fucked up for either of us to do. It’s a good rule, let’s move on.”

….Okay. Now Eddie was being reasonable again. Steve was truly at a loss with this man. 

“You don’t spend each other’s money,” Dustin said, moving on as Eddie had suggested. 

“No tattoos or other big changes in appearance,” Robin added. 

“Nothing illegal, either,” Steve warned - the suggestion pointedly at Eddie. 

“Okay, you can fuck right off,” Eddie responded. “You don’t even know why I got into selling drugs in the first place.”

“Money, right?” Steve asked. He didn’t mean it in a derogatory way, he truly thought that was it. 

“Yeah, money,” Eddie confirmed. “Because my uncle and I don’t have it, and it costs money to live. Something you’ve probably never had to think about.” 

“Yeah, you’re right,” Steve snarked. “That’s why I’m working this shit job.”

“It’s not a shit job!” Eddie yelled. “You have it so goddamn easy -”

“Then why didn’t you apply here?” Steve wondered. “You could, just as easily as I did.”

“They wouldn’t hire me,” Eddie remarked. There was a sadness to his voice that Steve didn’t expect, and suddenly he was thinking about all the offhand comments he’d experienced throughout his day as Eddie Munson. All the staring, the judgment, the way he felt like everybody was always talking about him, and the way his feelings likely weren't too far off. 

“Maybe if you hadn’t tried selling drugs, first,” Steve retorted, regretting it immediately. Eddie groaned. 

“Jesus H. Christ! Do you guys see?” He gestured at Dustin and Robin, who looked extremely awkward. “I’m not even trying to start shit, here.”

“Honestly, you’re both pissing me off,” Dustin said. 

“Yeah, me too,” Robin agreed. Her and Dustin’s eyes flickered to the back room at the same time, and Steve could practically see the same lightbulb illuminate over both their heads. 

“Hey Steve - I think I left a tape in the back last week, could you go get it for me?” Dustin asked. Steve was confused at first, then shrugged. 

“I guess. Which one?”

“I can’t remember the title. It’s dark blue.” Steve headed towards the back room, but was stopped by Robin. 

“Uh-uh, you actually can’t go in there,” she said, pointing at the sign on the door that said employees only. 

“What the hell are you two doing?” Steve asked, fully annoyed with their plotting. 

“Just trying to follow the rules, Harrington. Come on, Eddie, go on in.” Eddie also seemed suspicious, but did as told. 

“Uhh, okay. Dark blue tape?” He headed into the back room, and then Robin pushed Steve in behind him. She closed the door and locked it, then turned to a grinning Dustin. 

“That’s what you were going for too, right?”

“Robin, you’re way too good for Steve.”

“I know,” she smiled. 

“Hey, what the fuck?” They heard Steve’s voice through the door. 

“Why does this room lock from the outside?” Eddie’s voice echoed. Dustin joined Robin at the door and shouted back. 

“We’re sick of you guys, so you’re staying in there until you either stop fighting or kill each other.”

“Whichever comes first,” Robin snickered. 

“I hate you both so much,” Eddie’s voice said.

“We know!” Robin and Dustin replied in unison. 

-

“Well, this sucks,” Eddie said as he sat down in front of the TV. “I can’t believe we both fell for that.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Steve agreed. Eddie absentmindedly started to pick up tapes and put them in the VHS so he could rewind them. “Are you actually doing work right now?”

“Steve, I would rather do literally anything than talk to you right now,” he replied. 

“Fine,” Steve scoffed. “Robin wasn’t kidding when she said you were better at this job than I am.”

“Yeah, well…” Eddie’s voice trailed off as he started watching one of the movies in reverse. He’d seen it before, but not this way. This job was actually really cool. Steve had it good, here. 

Eddie started to like Steve’s life. He liked his job and his best friend and he was suddenly sad that at some point most likely this would all come to an end. Eddie would just be Eddie again. 

He felt the urge return- the self-sabotaging ache that brought him trouble over and over again. Once, he heard that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result. Eddie would have gladly taken the label of being insane, except he didn’t expect a different result every time he did something he knew he shouldn’t. So what the hell did that make him?

He wanted to ask Steve about Robin - specifically what she had told him without realizing it - but he knew that was over the line. He wasn’t even curious for the reasons most people would have. Eddie didn’t care about Robin’s sexuality in the slightest. He cared that Steve knew, and he didn’t say anything to anyone. Most of the other jocks at school that Eddie lumped Steve in with would have jumped at the chance immediately to spread that information like wildfire, but Steve didn’t. 

It was the first time Eddie admitted to himself that there was a strong chance Steve really had changed. 

“I don’t think we’re going to switch back today,” Steve said after a while. 

“Yeah, me neither,” Eddie agreed. 

“So, we should talk,” Steve continued.

“I thought we did already,” Eddie replied. “No sex, drugs, or felonies, right?” Steve sighed. 

“I shouldn’t have - shit. I shouldn’t have said that before. Sorry, man.” 

Eddie stayed focused on the TV. He wasn’t sure if he could trust Steve, and if he could, it would just make him feel like shit for not trusting him sooner. Lose-lose. Once again. 

“Nothing I haven’t heard before,” Eddie responded. 

They’d gone a whole three minutes without raising their voices at each other, so far. Progress.

“I meant, like, we should talk about tomorrow,” Steve continued.

“What’s tomorrow?”

“Uh, you have band practice, right?”

Eddie dropped the tape he was holding and looked up. 

“Shit,” he muttered. “Any chance you kill monsters and secretly play guitar?”

“Not unless air guitar counts,” Steve admitted. “Although, I do play a pretty mean air guitar -”

“Steve, shut up, this is serious.” He took Corroded Coffin very seriously. Hellfire was his baby, sure, but his band was like - well, it was his one chance to be someone else for a change. He could be whoever he wanted on stage, separate from the person people knew at school. 

Performing at The Hideout used to be the one time he pretended to be someone he wasn’t. How times had changed. 

“Okay, sorry,” Steve responded, his hands up in surrender. “Could you cancel? Say you’re sick or something?”

“No, we’ve got this gig on Tuesday and if we miss it we might lose our spot,” Eddie replied. Their weekly performance at the dive bar across town was all that they had, other than practices in Gareth’s garage. They’d worked their asses off to perform in front of five drunks once a week, and Eddie would be damned before he’d let Steve Harrington take that away from him. 

“Okay, so -” Steve seemed to really contemplate different ways to get around this, which was admirable. He was…complying. “- you could wear, like, a full body suit and mask or something and just go up there in my body and play.”

Eddie stared at him blankly for a moment, wondering if the absolutely bonkers idea actually could work. 

“That would be…weird,” Eddie responded. 

“But it would work,” Steve said with a shrug. 

“Let’s call it plan B,” Eddie decided. 

“So, what’s plan A?”

Eddie nervously ground his teeth back and forth for a moment, looking at himself up and down and wondering just how effective muscle memory was. 

“Plan A is that I give you a bit of a crash course, Harrington.”

(Read the rest on Ao3!)

_________________________

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[innytoes]

I read prompt 51 in Reggie’s voice, so please - with whoever else you think!

- @anotherfantom

Set in the Cat!Reggie and Sugar Salmon!Daddy verse.

Reggie was lounging on Caleb's bed, waiting for the guy to get out of the shower. He kind of regretted not joining him, but he'd still been in Cat Mode when Caleb got home, curled up in the middle of the bed in the perfect pool of sunlight, and he'd been too cozy to move.

It wasn't like he lived here, or anything. It just wasn't like he didn't live here, either. Caleb had installed a magical cat flap that only let him in, and he had his own drawers in Caleb's drawer, with fancy outfits Caleb had gotten him, and a toothbrush in the bathroom, and all his cat stuff around the house. But he was free to come and go as he pleased.

He just happened to like to be here at times he knew Caleb would get home. Especially if he was going to be naked. So sue him. His boyfriend was hot.

He perked up when he heard the water shut off, changing back to human so he could fully enjoy the view. He was still in the cozy patch of sunlight, except it only covered part of his back. The light on bare skin was different than on his fur, but also nice. He was just wearing some cute cotton shorts Caleb had gotten him as he lazed on his stomach, kicking his feet in delight when Caleb came out of the shower, still toweling off his hair.

"Hello, Kitten," he said, leaning over to kiss Reggie.

"Hi," Reggie said, a little breathless after the kiss, and the view. "How was your day?"

"Oh, simply awful," Caleb said, as he rooted around his drawers for some comfortable silk pants. Reggie enjoyed the view while it lasted, though Caleb in silk was also nice. "The Council is all up in a tiff because apparently the pixies that have roosted in my Club are 'illegal' and 'not supposed to be there'."

"You don't mind them?" Reggie asked, making grabby hands at Caleb until he sat back down on the bed. Okay, so he only did it to put on his socks, but he was still shirtless. Jackpot. Reggie draped himself over the man's back, enjoying his warm, clean skin against his own. Caleb happily leaned back.

"No, if you give them something to do they're actually quite helpful. Also they've been ah, deterring staff who keeps trying to use my props room as a make-out spot, which is ever so helpful."

"So how are you going to gaslight gatekeep girlboss your way out of this?" Reggie asked. From Caleb's rants - he did them less when Reggie was human, but he loved grumbling about it when Reggie was a cat, especially when they hadn't yet officially established Reggie could be human - the Hollywood Wizard Council were pretty much sticklers for the rules they themselves made up.

"How am I what?" Caleb asked, turning to him. He looked adorably confused, which was a new expression on him. Reggie kissed his nose, and he wrinkled it even more adorably. And handsomely.

"It's a thing," he shrugged. "An internet thing."

Caleb turned to kiss him properly. "It's a good thing you make me feel so young, darling, because you just made me feel very, very old."

"Oh, I'll make you feel young, alright," Reggie grinned.

The silk pants came off again, and they had a very, very nice evening. Later, when Reggie was curled up on Caleb's chest, feeling like he'd be purring if he was in Cat Mode, he looked up. "Okay but how are you going to get the Council off your back about the pixies?"

Caleb looked down. "Oh. I drew up a contract and had them sign it. They're now officially employees of the Hollywood Ghost Club, paid in room and board and one shiny button a month. They negotiated hard for that last one."

"You do have a lot of nice and shiny buttons," Reggie mused.

"Is that girlboss gamer gatelight of me?" Caleb asked, and Reggie laughed so hard he accidentally turned back into a cat.

[purplehanfu]

Warrior: Episode 1

notes: Spoilers! It's the 4th of July! (that's not the spoiler) Master list of all recaps

An American show? In my primarily cdrama blog? Sure, why not. The show is Warrior and the first two seasons were on Skinemax Cinemax so you know it has all the non-stop swearing, graphic violence and gratuitous nudity one expects from premium cable. What an unwelcome detour from my usual fare! And that's not even taking into account all the crimes against costuming:

All of this character’s outfits look like things you would wear to seduce Captain Kirk. Everyone else gets to be from 1878, however. More on this phenomenon later.

Read on!

The Story            

It's 1878 and we are on the docks of San Francisco. Debarking from the hold of a ship that has just arrived from China is Ah Sahm- he's a master of martial arts (of course) who speaks perfect English due to having an American grandfather (sure), and has a head of artfully tousled modern hair filled with styling product (everyone else has a queue though). Side note: get used to this inconsistency in character styling. Why has Ah Sahm undertaken this arduous journey? He's here to look for his sister Mai Ling who ran away from an abusive marriage to a despotic warlord. Did I mention she only married him in exchange for her brother's life? Achievement unlocked: tragic backstory.

time to first altercation: 3 minutes 33 seconds

Due to his superior fighting skills Ah Sahm gets sold to the Hop Wei Tong (a tong is secret society that was often the front for organized crime) by Wang Chao whom I adore. 

Loveable sleazeball Wang Chao is consistently the smartest man in the room- loyal to none and profiting from all.

Ah Sahm impresses his new Hop Wei manager with his fighting skills and as a reward gets to go on a work outing to a local brothel where we meet Ah Toy, the madam. 

I hope she has that on her LinkedIn profile!

Ah Sahm immediately asks her and all the ladies there if any of them know his sister. Dude you had weeks on that ship to think up a plan, and this is the best you can come up with?

But Ah Sahm isn't the only one investigating here in Chinatown. We also meet "Big Bill" O'Hara an Irish police officer who was voluntold to be the head of a new task force looking into anti-Chinese crime. The only other member of his task force? Richard Henry Lee, the new recruit from Savannah Georgia. Many of the police, including O'Hara, are union veterans of the civil war. This brings up a certain amount of awkwardness. Richard mentions that even though he was too young to fight, the Civil War destroyed his family:

oof.

Ah Sahm doesn't have to look too hard for Mai Ling; she comes looking for him. Their reunion isn't very sweet- she tells him she's done waiting for others to rescue her and she is now her own #girlboss. 

To that end, she's married the aged head of a rival Tong, the Long Zii. She's the one running the Long Zii's business from the shadows. Oops, maybe Ah Sahm shouldn't have joined the first Tong he ran across. Now the siblings are on opposite sides of a war that's brewing in Chinatown.

It's Dark in Here

Both the subject matter and the actual show. There's quite a lot of graphic violence even outside the choreographed fight scenes. No spitting blood here, we're just straight up hitting people in the face with hammers. 

When all you have is a hammer, anything in the dark might be a nail

The show itself was shot in that murky unlit way that gritty action shows use to say "this is so intense that you don't need to see it". Don't worry, we'll soon be getting an eyeful of other things:

Nudity

Wow! You won't be seeing this on Chinese television anytime soon. 

Or this!

I would like to point out that we see full frontal on the ladies but no action jangling on the men. Another win for the patriarchy, I guess. But things only get nominally better when the clothes go back on:

Costuming

Look, I get it. This is meant to be in the style of an old western, so historical accuracy might not be a top priority. However, it is so jarring to see everyone in a reasonable approximation of 1870's clothing with the exception of a few characters- namely Ah Toy and Mai Ling. Make of that what you will. It really takes the viewer out of the show to have some characters dressed like this:

And to make it worse, these costumes are all wildly unflattering and poorly constructed. Olivia Cheng, the actress who plays Ah Toy is objectively a beautiful woman. Why are they doing this to her? Who wants a dress that pulls focus to your inner thighs? And go back to the picture at the beginning of this review- the thigh slit (very Victorian) on that green gown has wonky seams and the neck piece(?) looks like it’s bolstered with a cardboard insert. Again I ask why. 

Below: is this a bathing suit cover up? Are we headed to brunch at the beach?

This red look is giving “Mars Attacks but make it prom night”.

I don’t know what’s going on here but I do know that if you want to see what Ah Toy might have actually been wearing in the 1870′s, you can do no better than Chinese fashion history ramblings by @audreydoeskaren​. I’ve learned a lot there!

In Conclusion

The Good

I had a $2 digital credit from amazon, so this episode was free.

Opening theme song pretty good

Hoon Lee as Wang Chao 

Based on a show idea by Bruce Lee, hopefully his estate benefits from this

The Bad

Andrew Koji not selling it as a hero;  brings all the passion of running Saturday errands to his search for his sister. Nice abs, though.

Tom Weston Jones, who is British, playing a character from the deep south. At times his accent veers dangerously into Foghorn Leghorn territory. But I forgive him because he was Lt. Gore in The Terror.

Everything else outlined above

Bonus Round

We Now Resume Our Regularly Scheduled Programming:

oh thank goodness.

Master List of all recaps

[flock-from-the-void]

Some doodles of my ocs in hanfu <3 Some info about those guys under the cut!

Hanfus' photos sources: Plafoshere's, Nocte's, Taikcza's, Dasagi's, Dai's (they were randomly chosen, both hanfus and ocs)

Plafoshere /plafɔsħɛʁɛ/ any/all The guy is from the universe of And May the Moon. It's not clear if they actually exist or not. They're kind of a lizard-demon person, related to Run, evil sun deity. In the ancient times, they were used for excusing love affairs and explaining heatstrokes (and other sun/heat related physical problems).

Nocte /noktɛ/ he/him He's from PRL inspired supernatural universe. He's an orphan who got a bit lucky and found himself a rich friend. They together go against the trouble of living in a poor, weakly governed country with extremely unjust system and also young adult drama of attending to collage. In his free time, Nocte likes to tinker. Ah, and he can steal people's motivation. Literally.

Taikcza /taikt͡ʂa/ he/him From time to time I mention a comic I'm planning to do, something about gods and souls, and forces. He's from that universe (and will probably have a cameo in the comic). To put it simply, he's the force of foolishness, able to (knowingly or not) increase stupidity of humans, demons, souls, gods, basically everyone except other forces. Husband of the first god of the underworld. He's my comfort character and mentally fucked-up. He's all: gaslight gatekeep girlboss and manipulate mansplain malewife.

Dasagi /dasaɢi/ she/her A soul of a village woman, currently head of Taikcza's bodyguard unit. She will take care of you, whether you like it or not. She's straight to the point and great in management, but sucks at people. Dasagi is used to having total power over everyone but turned out that thing's aren't quite the same after death.

Dài Shānkŏu /tâɪ ʂánkʰòʊ/ he/him You can find him here, in Mirage of Spring introduction.

[twoidiotwriters1]

The Curse of Oenone (Leo Valdez xFem!Oc)

A/N: Honestly I love deranged women -Danny Words: 2,089 Series' Masterlist Previous Chapter // Next Chapter Listen to: 'Keeping Your Head Up' -by Birdy

XLV: We Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss Through

It must be sturdy down here because Hazel isn't insisting on going in first before Ara. Unless she's so pissed that she's hoping Ara will die on accident. This wouldn't be the first time in Ara's life that a child of the Underworld prays for her downfall.

The girl walks forward while Leo tries to cheer Hazel up. Ara has a goal and a plan, and that keeps her mind clear, so she's okay... as okay as she can be after hearing her dead sister talking to her. A squeak makes her stop making the two kids behind her collide against her. Gale the gassy polecat is glaring at them from the ground. 

"Not the farting weasel again," Leo groans. "If that thing lets loose in close quarters like this, with my fire and all, we're gonna explode."

The polecat goes off on Leo in a series of irritated screeches and Hazel hushes it. "Be ready," she tells them. "We're getting close." 

"Close to what?" Leo questions.

"Close to me." Answers a fourth voice."Welcome. I've looked forward to this."

The decoration in this new room is screaming: YOU'RE DYING TODAY! But Ara's attention isn't on that. Right in the middle of the chamber, is a set of elevator doors that remind her of the ones leading to Olympus.

"That's it," Ara breathes.

"Yup," Leo sounds less enthusiastic about it. "Those are doors, all right."

Ara spots the chains on each side and her hand reaches for Almighty, but she doesn't move. It can't be this easy.

"Where are you?" Hazel asks tensely.

"Don't you see us? I thought Hecate chose you for your skill."

A dark cloud forms and vanishes just as quickly leaving a tall giant in its place. He's not too different from his brethren, except that he's all black and made of smoke. He's weaponless, which concerns Ara.

Leo whistles under his breath. "You know, Clytius... for such a big dude, you've got a beautiful voice."

"Idiot." 

A woman shows up next to the giant: Full Greek attire, a high updo that reminds Ara of that movie Silena used to love—Pride and Prejudice, the one with Keira Knightley—and a necklace with a miniature maze. 

"Oh!" Ara lets out in understanding. "You're the minotaur's momma!"

"Arae Jackson," the lady sneers. "I have a name."

"Pasiphaë," Hazel replies.

"My dear Hazel Levesque," the woman nods politely.

"You two know each other?" Leo asks. "Like Underworld chums, or—"

"Silence, fool. I have no use for demigod boys—always so full of themselves, so brash and destructive."

"Hey, lady, I don't destroy things much. I'm a son of Hephaestus."

"A tinkerer," Pasiphaë scoffs. "Even worse. I knew Daedalus. His inventions brought me nothing but trouble."

"Daedalus... like, the Daedalus? Well, then, you should know all about us tinkerers. We're more into fixing, building, occasionally sticking wads of oilcloth in the mouths of rude ladies—"

"Leo." Hazel interrupts him. "Let me take this, okay?"

"Listen to your friend—Be a good boy and let the women talk."

Ara's eyes go past the giant and to the doors behind him. She tries to figure out how to run past him, but if he doesn't move, she can't tell how to one-up him. "Easy, child of Olympus," the woman speaks like soothing an energetic puppy. "We'll get to that in a moment."

"Your—your friend doesn't say much," Hazel points out. 

"Pray he stays silent, my dear. Gaea has given me the pleasure of dealing with you; but Clytius is my, ah, insurance. Just between you and me, as sister sorceresses, I think he's also here to keep my powers in check, in case I forget my new mistress's orders. Gaea is careful that way."

"Whatever you're planning," Hazel continues, "it won't work. We've cut through every monster Gaea's put in our path. If you're smart, you'll get out of our way."

"You don't look like much," the woman continues unbothered. "But then you demigods never do. My husband, Minos, king of Crete? He was a son of Zeus. You would never have known it by looking at him. He was almost as scrawny as that one." 

"Wow," Leo grumbles. "Minos must've done something really horrible to deserve you."

"Oh... you have no idea," Pasiphaë's eyes flare up. "He was too proud to make the proper sacrifices to Poseidon, so the gods punished me for his arrogance."

"The Minotaur," Hazel brings up Ara's only memory of the myth.

"Yes. My disgrace was unbearable. After my son was born and locked in the Labyrinth, Minos refused to have anything to do with me. He said I had ruined his reputation! And do you know what happened to Minos, Hazel Levesque? For his crimes and his pride? He was rewarded. He was made a judge of the dead in the Underworld, as if he had any right to judge others! Hades gave him that position. Your father."

"Pluto, actually."

"I knew Minos," Ara declares. "Big-time loser."

"Irrelevant," the woman scowls. "I hate demigods as much as I hate the gods. Any of your brethren who survive the war, Gaea has promised to me, so that I may watch them die slowly in my new domain. I only wish I had more time to torture you properly. Alas—"

The Doors of Death light up a sign letting them know someone is coming. Ara's heart nearly jumps out of her chest.

"There, you see?" Pasiphaë sighs. "The Doors are in use. Twelve minutes, and they will open."

"More giants?" Hazel's voice trembles.

"Thankfully, no. They are all accounted for—back in the mortal world and in place for the final assault... No, I would imagine the Doors are being used by someone else... someone unauthorized."

"Percy and Annabeth," Leo states.

Ara draws out Almighty. "I'm sorry, but there is little you can do to keep me from making sure they get out alive."

"Oh, not to worry." Pasiphaë shrugs. "Clytius will handle them. You see, when the chime sounds again, someone on our side needs to push the UP button or the Doors will fail to open and whoever is inside—poof. Gone. Or perhaps Clytius will let them out and deal with them in person. That depends on you."

"How exactly does it depend on us?" Hazel asks.

"Well, obviously, we need only one set of demigods alive. The lucky two will be taken to Athens and sacrificed to Gaea at the Feast of Hope."

"Obviously," Leo makes a face.

"So will it be one of you two and that annoying boy, or your friends in the elevator? Let's see who is still alive in twelve... actually, eleven minutes, now."

Ara runs into battle only to be swallowed up by darkness. Just like in her dreams, she gets spit out in the middle of a different scenery, with Hazel and Leo on each side of her.

"What the heck? Where are we?" Leo looks around in confusion.

"This is an illusion," Ara turns to Hazel with urgency. "Get us out of it."

Hazel scowls. "I'm trying."

Leo lightly hits a wall with his fist. "Pretty solid illusion."

"Annoyingly realistic," Ara agrees. "But it's beatable. It has to be."

"Got it," Hazel replies grumpily. "Would be more useful if you could just shoot around until you hit Pasiphaë?"

The woman laughs, and the illusion becomes stronger. "Oh..." Ara backtracks until she's right up against the wall. "No no no..." Her eyes widen. "Not this place again..."

"What? What is it?" Leo gets closer. "What's wrong?"

"The Labyrinth," Hazel says with a stringy voice. "She's remaking the Labyrinth."

It's the only thing in the world that makes Ara's skin crawl this way, and now she's back in it.

"What now?" Leo asks anxiously. "I thought the Labyrinth collapsed during that battle at Camp Half-Blood—like, it was connected to Daedalus's life force or something, and then he died."

"Ah, but I am still alive," the sorcesses replies bemusedly. "You credit Daedalus with all the maze's secrets? I breathed magical life into his Labyrinth. Daedalus was nothing compared to me—the immortal sorceress, daughter of Helios, sister of Circe! Now the Labyrinth will be my domain."

"This place was indecipherable," Ara's knees buckle. "I can't beat it!"

"It's an illusion," Hazel reminds her. "We just have to break through it."

"Too late, too late," Pasiphaë taunts them. "The maze is already awake. It will spread under the skin of the earth once more while your mortal world is leveled. You demigods... you heroes... will wander its corridors, dying slowly of thirst and fear and misery. Or perhaps, if I am feeling merciful, you will die quickly, in great pain!"

Ara remembers what it did to Chris and Clarisse, and how it got Lee Fletcher killed. She wants no more suffering, her people have seen enough of that. "You petty psycho!" The girl hisses. "You're gonna sit there in your centuries-old mummified ass and antagonize a trio of TEENAGERS? You can stick your loathing up your crinkled butt!"

Ara turns to Hazel with vengeful, wild eyes. She's been cornered and hates when others make her feel small. Nemesis told her she'd be a massive pain in the ass for others one day, Pasiphaë's about to find out.

She holds Hazel's face and uses charmspeak. "Hazel, this is your labyrinth. Build us a way out." Hazel raises a hand, opening a hallway before them. The girl runs tugging them forward. "Give her what she wants!" Ara encourages her.

The floor opens and Hazel jumps in, pulling Ara and Leo along. Both scream as they fall, but they land much faster than expected, and it doesn't hurt. The walls around them flicker and Ara spots Pasiphaë.

"You'll rot in your hatred!" She grabs her flintlock and shoots. "Hazel's so much better than you! "

"Eight minutes now!" Pasiphaë speaks over her, the walls building back up. "I'd love to see you survive, truly. That would prove you worthy sacrifices to Gaea in Athens. But then, of course, we wouldn't need your friends in the elevator."

Ara whispers directions to Hazel every time the walls flicker so the younger girl can build a path. Hazel does make a show out of it imagining traps, poisonous gas, and debris that collapses around them, which delights Pasiphaë so much she puts less effort into the illusion.

"Seven minutes now—If only we had more time! So many indignities I'd like you to suffer."

Ara still feels like a scared ten-year-old, she still thinks of herself as the short, vain girl she was seven months ago when she met Leo. It may feel like she has nothing to offer, but she does.

"I'll show you indignity," Ara turns Almighty into a bow. She uses her charmspeak again. "Show yourself, Pasiphaë!"

Ara's voice comes out stronger than the woman's defenses, so distracted that her mind can't reject the orders. The walls flicker away and Hazel sees Pasiphaë, and when the woman lifts the illusion again, it's too late.

Hazel creates a ramp and pushes them forward to throw them into a large pit. This time, the fall doesn't last at all and the trio drops right on top of Pasiphaë. "Ack!" The witch squeals under them and tries to crawl out.

Ara tackles her again and presses her knee on Pasiphaë's chest, then raises her bow and tenses an arrow on it aiming at the woman's head. 

"Three minutes," she speaks, her gaze cold and calculating. "Any last words?"

"You miserable wretches!" The sorceress cries.

"Leo, tie her hands."

"Gladly." The boy gets to work while Ara still aims at the woman.

"You must really hate demigods," Hazel smiles mockingly. "We always get the best of you, don't we, Pasiphaë?"

"Nonsense! I will tear you apart! I will—"

"We're always pulling the rug out from under your feet," Ara doesn't know why Hazel's taunting Pasiphaë when she's already subdued, but she won't complain. "Your husband betrayed you. Theseus killed the Minotaur and stole your daughter Ariadne. Now three second-rate failures have turned your own maze against you. But you knew it would come to this, didn't you? You always fall in the end."

"I am immortal!" She wriggles against the ropes. "You cannot stand against me!"

"You can't stand at all," Hazel grins.

"You're dying," Ara's gaze darkens as she tenses the bow again.

"Are you killing her?" Hazel asks with genuine curiosity.

She freezes, then lowers the bow. Hercules's words come back to her: all children of Olympus are killers. Ara eyes the witch with apathy, turning away from her. "I'm better than that."

"Okay," Hazel points at the floor where the woman is kneeling. "Bye!"

The ground swallows her. Leo stares at the girls with his mouth wide open. "You make a spooky team!"

The elevator doors ding again, Ara glows silver and shoots the arrow at the button to let her friends out. Smoke comes out of it like it's been severely overused, and Percy and Annabeth spill out onto the hard floor.

Next Chapter –>

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