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ch3rriiii-bunn · 2 years ago

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How good are they at doing hair?

Got excited to make this one♡♡♡

Warnings: black reader (will mention different hair textures/styles), humor

Akaza

- is decent with doing hair since in his human life he had experience to comb out hair and put it up in a bun (even tho he dosnt remember who he did it for). Doing your 4c hair wasn't too much a challenge when he just followed what you said to do

- you'd have to remind akaza that it doesn't hurt everytime he combs your hair out. He thinks because he's pulling your hair hard it's gonna hurt you and it was sweet but funny

- "can I twist your hair again? It's quick and easy. it also looks good on you" and "can I take them out for you the next day?"

- twists on you is akazas favorite thing on you and he enjoys doing it

- praises praises, so much praising from akaza when your hair is done

- he threatened a male human to make a bonnet just for you and brought it to you as a gift, blushing like crazy

Douma

- pretty good at it and enjoys doing your hair

- he had to learn over time that he needed to ask before touching your hair and not just play with your curls at random

- douma's favorite thing was wash days. He'd literally get in the shower with you to wash your hair, his favorite part was brushing your wet hair and watching your curls spring back up

- when you explained to douma what a Bonnet was and how you needed one he crafted random hats until he got it right and gave it to you as a gift

- "no y/n don't put your hair in a bun! I love seeing your hair out" and "I'm bored. Can I play with your curls? Pretty please!"

- gets sad when you don't do your hair without him

Kokushibo

- thinks he's good at doing your hair but is actually not

- you'd think kokushibo doesn't pay attention to you when your doing your hair but he actually is

- kokushibo rarely expresses his like for something but whenever your looking at yourself in the mirror he'll stare at you in aw even tho it looks creepy

- "it's quite... beautiful" and "i love it"

- when kokushibo held a afro pick in his hand for the frist time he started using it like a regular comb. Even when you showed him how to use it he kept doing it the same way but in different angles thinking he's doing it right

- as for a bonnet he though putting silk pillowcase would be better for you and less trouble of you did have a bonnet and happen to lose it

Tamayo

- a perfectionist at doing your hair

- definitely the best demon to do your hair, like look at hers!

- Tamayo loves to do flat twists on your hair and put it in a bun at the back just like hers

- "y/n it's time for me to do your hair" and "look, i brought another hair pin to use. I think it would look lovely on you"

- like douma tamayo would feel down if you did your hair instead of her. In general your someone tamayo likes to look after

- Tamayo makes your bonnets, head wraps and any moisturizer your hair would need

Nakime

- not very good but is open to try

- you're the one actually doing nakimes hair all the time by brushing it out and styling it the way she likes it

- nakime would sit down and watch you take sections of your hair and brushing it out using the moisturizer from the aloe plant

- your afro is big and thick. Enough to cover your eyes similar to nakime which is what her more motivated to help you do your hair

- "like this? I need to hear your corrections on what I have to do y/n" and "we both have our hair covering out eyes... Interesting"

- even though nakime is emotionless around the other demons she's shown to be affectionate with you since she manged to get matching bonnets with you

Sekido

- his hair is wavy, your hair is wavy of course he's good but you'd have to beg him to do your hair of you were tired

- absolutely hates when you move your head when he's brushing your hair. If you complained about your tender scalp he'll literally call you names

- "you should be greatul I'm taking time out my day to do this. Say thank you" and "if you keep moving and changing your mind on a hair style I'm going to cut your hair off"

- gets you a bonnet to match the clothes you wear at night. Anything for his precious human even tho he won't tell you that

Aizetsu

- decent at doing your hair but will get sad if he can't help you since you had tighter curls (4b)

- normal black girl things is when your hair just isn't working with you those days so when that day came and you were frustrated Aizetsu offered to help but the brush snapped leaving you in tears and Aizetsu began to cry to because your upset and he felt bad

- you're the one who gets it together and calms the both of you down so when wash your hair Aizetsu puts it up in two buns

"Its like im doing a dolls hair. A pretty doll" And would just have a soft smile on his face which is a rare site to see

- as for a bonnet he went to one of his brothers to get you one since interacting with other humans ment killing right after and he just wasn't in the mood to do so

Karaku

- do not let this man near your hair

- he got a comb stuck in your hair one time and he laughed at you slugging to get it out for 20 minutes. He even tempted you to just cut it out but you got the comb out, the crazy part is you just asked him to make a part on the back of your head

- "y/n do those mini buns again! It looks super cute on you (bantu knots)" and "you can get stuff stuck in my hair and I can try to take it out ahah!"

- That's supposed "bonnet" Karaku brought back for u was just a shower cap. A win is a win

Urogi

- a bully. Like Karaku do not let this man near your locs

- almost gave you a heart attack when you were retwisting your locs and he said he'd pull one out but didn't, laughing crazy at the fear on your face

- "you're taking to longggg C'mon take a break from retwisting and have some fun with me!" And "you're locs are gorgeous on you"

- when he heard "protect your hair" because you needed a bonnet he used some of his feathers that came off easily to make a hat instead of a bonnet. It was a long argument that night leading you to get your own bonnet

Muzan

- Doesn't do your hair. He could but just doesn't

- tells you where to get the stuff you need for your hair because he won't get it

- "you're hair in corn rows is beautiful on you. Wear your hair like that for the next upper moon meeting"

- like kokushibo he just has all your pillows have silk pillowcase on them

- when muzan is in a good mood, he'll bring back accessories to put in your hair

#demon slayer fluff #kny fluff #muzan x reader #akaza x reader #kokushibo x reader #douma x reader #nakime x reader #tamayo x reader #sekido x reader #aizetsu x reader #karaku x reader #urogi x reader #kny x black reader #black reader

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the-100-days-of-junkan · 1 month ago

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Day 82

Another one that I love!~ Gonna be a lot of those from here on if you couldn’t tell!

Junko’s the Ultimate Fashionista (in the english release at least but hey Ultimate Gyaru has to have a little crossover right??), so of course she handles Mikan’s wardrobe the moment she’s allowed to. So . . . Extremely cute scene of her having Mikan try out clothes to see what she does and doesn’t like.

An opportunity for Junko to pamper Mikan, AND i get to draw Mikan in a sweater???? Heaven. Also like are we all in agreement that sweaters just look fuckin amazing on Mikan?? Like I admit, I think I just like drawing Sweaters on Mikan but they just make her look so much cuter because of how god damn cozy she looks in em.

Unfortunately that’s all I have to talk about for that topic? I think? So instead let’s shift over to a recent development involving Junkan!

I’m in the midst of working on the Junkan Christmas Eve comic, which hopefully will be getting posted on time a few days after this, and during the process of making there’s been something new with my current abilities.

I have officially hit the point of proper freehanding on these two.

Y’see this probably won’t make too much sense but i’ll do my best to explain.

So normally when it comes to sketches I’ve done things a bit less proper compared to more professional artists. I usually get a little start on the anatomy, and then just start sketching all the character details and moving out from there. It isn’t often that I do a full sketch for the basic anatomy of a character, I only do it when I really wanna not fuck up a pose. And as you also know up till now only one piece in this event was drawn normally. Everything else is a sketch that i cleaned up and colored, or just a sketch.

This is because generally speaking I can’t do art using my normal pen tool without a sketch to work off of, it requires a lot more finesse to use the G-Pen both because of the larger shifts that can occur in line width, and the slightly looser feel it has compared to my Pencil Tool.

That’s all to say that I have drawn Junko and Mikan so many fucking times that I can just, draw them without proper sketches now. I’m at a point where I just need to draw the head, torso, and legs for an anatomy sketch, and then with the G-Pen I can just, draw from there. That’s big for me personally, and also fucked up because god how even??? There hasn’t been a drop in quality either so far, i’m still able to refine the expressions and i haven’t fucked up with the arms too much yet, I’d even say it’s resulted in some of my favorite Junkos and Mikans period.

Now, the catch is that again, this is only Junko and Mikan. I could prooooobably get to this point with Mukuro eventually just because her design is much simpler compared to other DR Characters? I struggle with getting her colors right rather than linework, but that’s about it and still not really useful in my main line of work unless I memorize every character that’s ever existed, and it took like 150 fucking times for Junkan I can’t do that for an obscure RPG character that I might get commissioned once and then never again.

It’s also not something that I think i’ll apply to my normal Junkan works, because I am a perfectionist to a fault when it comes to pieces I care about and I want to make sure every detail these is exact. I need to be meticulous for ship art like this, every detail is important. And I can maximize that with sketching.

This new skill is basically useful for one thing. Speed.

I pride myself on my efficiency, even if I have waned over the years due to burnout and overwork, when I get into it I can fuckin move with my art. And so if I need to say, make a 28 page comic in under a month? Being able to mostly skip an entire phase of the art process is very, VERY useful, ESPECIALLY because it’s a comic. Something which generally takes more time than my normal art by nature of it’s format and what it involves. When making the Comic for Day 60 it was all sketches, which was equally fast but could leave small imperfections at the time that either went under my radar or I just let slide because i was trying to be efficient.

This is basically perfect for having to speedrun a Junkan comic, it’s all the speed with the usual amount of visual quality.

So in short . . . I’m turning into a nightmarish hell machine but specifically for drawing Junkan. I am genuinely curious how much farther I can go up from here, like, what the hell else could I be capable of with this???? Am I just gonna learn how to fuckin beam the art onto the canvas with my brain???

Moral of the story is just get mind numbingly obsessed with a ship and I guess you’ll get better at stuff??? I have no idea, i’m still kind of processing the comedic value of what this year has been because I was desperate for these two to make out.

As always, Reblogs, Comments, and Little Notes in the Tags are appreciated!~ They always make my day!~

#danganronpa #junkan #junko enoshima #mikan tsumiki #junko x mikan #tsumiki mikan #enoshima junko #enomiki #shipping #junkomikan

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cryingpariah · 2 months ago

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I love how one of the common pitfalls with Vegapunk is that in spite of him being a genius, he rarely actually thinks things through.

Like, he called his collection of scientists dedicated to 'world peace', which by the by consisted of a burgeoning dictator and two eco-terrorists, MADs.

Even though a lot of his inventions like the food machine or the island ac work fine and could be mass-produced by scaling them back a bit, no doubt helping the vast quantities of starving people in the One Piece world, he just hoards everything on Egghead and brands things that more or less work fine as failures because of his perfectionist streak until another idea pops into his head and the cycle starts all over again.

He couldn't put it together that his greatest vice sentience and a physical body would come back to bite him in the ass later on.

He gave the child soldier clone robots access to the Lineage factor of the six most powerful pirates and was shocked when it turned out they inherited personality quirks and memories from them two.

Dude rolled a nat 20 on intelligence but a negative 20 for wisdom. Which btw, Goodness and Wisdom were the two Vegapunk satellites who were taken out early on and if that ain't symbolic I don't know what is.

*slaps the top of Vegapunk's apple head* this fella can fit so much dramatic irony and hubris in him!

Vegapunk is sooooo odd to me. Everything about him is so oxymoronic it’s actually kinda baffling how Oda put everything that he did into this character. He’s all book smarts with absolutely no streets smarts and it’s almost sad to see. Everytime they showed us a decision he had made I was thinking ‘Okay…why would he do that though?’

From the creation of the Satellites (who makes robot versions of themselves that embody literal VIOLENCE AND EVIL and thinks things are gonna be hunky dory?) to the stuff with MADs (NEVER put more than 2 scientists in a room together or they’re gonna try to create a new element and jumpstart the end of the world) to making it so inanimate objects could eat devil fruits (I still want him to walk us through the process for that one causeeee 😬😬) to not joining Dragon and the Revs because they didn’t have the money to support themselves (which like I get it dude but like have a heart they’re trying to liberate the world).

The worst thing about all of this is you can tell he has a good heart, he genuinely wants to share knowledge and make the world better he just..keeps stumbling over that finish line. (Or mor accurately he stops midway through the race and restarts because he figured out a better way to run).

#you look up self-fulfilling prophecy in the dictionary and you get a pic of Stella #one piece #vegapunk stella #dr vegapunk

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nyarlathotep-thecrawlingchaos · 1 year ago

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I'm soooo sorry you're under the weather and dealing with crappy stuff! I hope things get better for you, physically and mentally 🙏 Get lots of rest if you can, and drink all the fluids!

Headcanon requests, is it? How about the OPLA men (Shanks & Mihawk, but also take your pick, etc) with a multi-tasking reader who delights in various hobbies to keep busy, and occasionally drags them into getting involved? Whether it be container gardening, knitting, baking, sewing, artwork, etc.

Bonus if they're also contending with where exactly reader stores all of her crap when it's not in use, not at all guilty of this myself 🙈🤣

Thank you so, so, so much. It’s been a really bad day and this has honestly helped a lot.

Like I feel this hard. There’s guitar picks and tuning peg winders and little notebooks full of story notes and recipes and origami scattered all over my house.

Just gonna do Shanks and Mihawk this time, because they very much are my main comfort characters right now.

The fact that one of my comfort characters is so murdery probably does not say good things for my mental health but whatever

Hobbies

OPLA! Shanks and Mihawk x Reader

Cloyingly fluffy, here is a spoon with which to gag yourself, just in case c>===

Shanks

He is absolutely so game for all of this.

Such a child about it, if you’re trying to do anything new he’s just so excited about it and needs to know everything.

Completely in your business, asking ten thousand questions, along with the inevitable starry-eyed, “Can I help?”

And you’d have to be heartless to turn down those puppy-dog eyes.

It might not turn out to be his thing, and he might get in the way more than he actually helps, but he’s going to enjoy the experience with you regardless, and his enthusiasm is just so precious that it makes it more fun for you as well.

The exception here is knitting. Knitting can get fucked. He tried, holding one needle in his hand and the other between his teeth, and somehow ended up nearly giving himself a tracheotomy.

But if you knit, sew, or crochet something for him, he’s going to unironically wear it everywhere and brag about it to anyone who will listen.

Baking, though, turns out he has something of a knack for it. And now his go-to solution if you’re sad or upset about something is to bake you cookies, because “How can anyone be sad when there are cookies?” And, well, he’s not entirely wrong.

The captain’s cabin is just completely cluttered with arts and crafts supplies, with so many signs and knickknacks of your many and varied hobbies, and he sincerely loves it because there’s just so much of you everywhere he looks. He’s always felt at home on the sea, but this just makes it feel even more like home.

Mihawk

Not quite as perceptive to participating. He might if you ask him, but some things might take convincing.

He’s an utter perfectionist about everything, so if you do convince him to try anything, he’s probably going to fixate on it until he’s a certified expert and compete with you over who’s better at it.

More refined and traditional artistic endeavors definitely appeal to him more—you could probably convince him to try painting or drawing pretty easily, but things like sewing or crocheting are going to be a little more of a stretch.

Gardening in general is honestly fine as well, container or otherwise. The more you can grow on the island or around the castle, the less he has to concern himself with leaving to deal with other people. And it is fairly convenient to have fresh herbs growing right in the kitchen.

Fairly adept at cooking already—he’s spent most of his life in solitude, so cooking for himself was something of a necessity. Baking isn’t exactly his forte, but he will partake if you ask him to.

He acts like the clutter of your supplies irritates him, but really only so he can give you a room or two of the castle dedicated solely to your hobbies. No point looking a gift horse in the mouth, and you know he’s just being surly to protect his pride.

You know because even if he isn’t interested in it himself, he does enjoy watching you work, sitting off to the side with a book and a glass of wine, glancing up every so often to see your progress.

#opla #one piece #mihawk #shanks #dracule mihawk #red-haired shanks #shanks opla #mihawk opla #opla headcanons #one piece headcanons #shanks x reader #mihawk x reader #fluff

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coryothesub · 9 months ago

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Maybe Coryo will give some Mother's Day gifts to the reader, not exactly out of affection...

nsfw / mdni / sub!coryo / dom!reader

It was a Sunday morning and you were woken up by the lovely smell of coffee coming from the kitchen. You smiled to yourself realizing Coryo had got up earlier to make breakfast for both of you. Such a good boy.

You stretched and turned to your side just to notice one of his signature gift boxes laying on the sheets next to you. You took the white rose that was attached to the red ribbon and inhaled its scent wondering to yourself.

It wasn't your birthday and neither was it the anniversary of your relationship. Coryo hadn't been a brat for a while and there was no need for him to buy himself out of a punishment. So what was the occasion?

You noticed a card and opened it with great interest.

Happy Mother's day! Here's a little something to make mommy even more beautiful…

Love, Coryo

“Oh you, kinky little weasel,” you chuckled to yourself and opened the box. It contained an exquisite set of lingerie in blood red color.

You wondered to yourself whether Coryo had crossed the line with this stunt, but at the same time you liked him the most when he was acting like a little pervert. The soft red lace felt so good in your hands and you wanted to try it on so badly just to slide into the kitchen and catch Coryo off guard.

You put on the lingerie and looked at yourself in the mirror. Damn, it left even less for the imagination than you had suspected. Lacy fabric was virtually transparent and your nipples were peaking out no matter how hard you tried to adjust the tiny bra for them to fit in. Then it hit you. It was designed like that on purpose!

Coryo was gonna have some explaining to do…

You quietly walked into the kitchen and observed Coryo as he was carefully arranging your breakfast on the platter. Perfectionist as always.

“I found your gift, Coriolanus,” you said in a stern tone.

Coryo turned around and froze for a good minute, staring at your body dressed in nothing but those two tiny lacy pieces.

The boy's eyes widened and you could see them filling with lust as he looked you up and down. Then he approached you and put his hands on your waste, his surprised expression turning into a bratty smirk.

“Do you like it, mommy?”

“Well, I am not sure how I’m feeling about you wishing me a happy Mother's day,” you tried to wiggle out of his grip, but his slender fingers dug into your naked skin.

“But you are my mommy and I wanted to make this day special for both of us,” Coryo batted his big blue eyes innocently, his fingertips caressing your sides.

“Or you wanted to make it special for yourself,” you chuckled nervously, feeling you were about to give in easily. God, you were such a slut for him.

Coryo shook his head giving you the most innocent look. The boy was wearing only his tight white undies and you noticed a prominent bulge forming under the thin fabric.

“You want this?” Coryo smirked, looking down at his stiffening cock and then back at you.

Such a brat.

Before you even managed to answer, he closed the distance between you and pulled you in a long passionate kiss devouring your lips like no one else ever could. It made you feel like you were about to lose control.

“Coryo…” you tried to sound serious but it sounded more like a desperate moan.

“Please mommy!” he pleaded so prettily, just before giving you the signature little peck on the lips that always followed his long, hungry kisses.

“You look so delicious in red, I want you to be my breakfast,” he whispered against your lips while directing you back to the bedroom.

Moments later you were a moaning mess under his weight, your lacy panties pushed aside and his handsome long cock sliding in and out of you while his lips were wrapped around your exposed nipple.

“Oh, Coryo!” You moaned his name, tugging at his soft blonde curls as your wet walls clenched around his rock hard cock.

“Mommy, you look so beautiful like this,” Coryo murmured before switching to your other nipple while his fingers gently tweaked the first one.

Your dripping wet cunt swallowed all of his length with ease and his thrusts became even more enthusiastic as you felt his soft moans vibrating against the sensitive skin of your breasts.

“Oh, fuck, mommy, you're so damn tight,” Coryo groaned, looking up at you, his icy blue eyes full of adoration.

“Wanna make you cum so badly.”

You wrapped your legs around him and pulled him close for another kiss.

“You're doing so good, angel,” you whispered against his soft pink lips. “I’m so damn close.”

After hearing that Coryo sped up his pace even more and you felt his velvety tip hitting your sweet spot repeatedly causing your whole body to tremble in pleasure.

A few more seconds and you reached your climax, your feet pushing against his firm butt helping him to thrust his cock all the way inside you as you drenched it in your warm juices.

Your pussy convulsing around Coryo's dick brought the boy over the edge and he came inside you with a deep groan, his forehead pressed to yours while his wide blue eyes were fixated firmly on yours.

You let Coryo collapse on top of you, panting heavily.

“Thank you for the gift baby boy!” You hummed, brushing a strand of sweaty curls off his forehead.

Coryo looked at you and graced you with the prettiest smile.

“I told you I was gonna make this day special for both of us.”

#thank you for the ask #coriolanus snow #young coriolanus snow #coriolanus x reader #coriolanus x you #coriolanus snow x reader #coriolanus snow x you #thg #the hunger games #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #thg tbosas #tbosas #blurb #cts ask

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thatpersonwhosaidtheywouldnt · 13 days ago

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Thinking about what would be the best way to modernize the general chaos that was Rudy West in the late 80s. Overall I think keeping him being a Manhunter acolyte in modern comics would be absurd, frankly it was absurd then. But I think that the general premise of Rudy being promised he would have a powerful son and doing his damnedest to raise Wally to be exactly that is fantastic narratively. I would likely just remove the Manhunters connection and probably say either that he simply is a perfectionist parent that wants their child to do everything they couldn't or that if he was promised a powerful son he's just a guy that puts too much faith in a psychic's predictions.

Meanwhile Mary doesn't really need any changes, she's a self focused, neglectful, and, while comics seem to have her become an alcoholic when she's older, I think it makes sense she was during Wally's childhood in response to her perfectionist husband. She basically lets Rudy raise Wally how he wants most of the time.

Now in the little bit we've seen if these two post Rebirth, it seems implied they got at least separated the summer Wally went to live with Iris. That being said, they are still together as of World's Finest: Teen Titans so I think that they ended up working things out to stay together. Wally clearly keeps his powers from his parents for years, them still not knowing during WWTT. Just like was originally the case, Rudy expects so much from Wally that it pushes him away. Rudy views Wally as purposefully refusing to be who he wants him to be. Rudy's abuse ranges from the out there stuff he does like poisoning Wally's baseball coach to the more mundane of constantly yelling at him to get his head out of the clouds and focus on what Rudy wants of him.

Overall, not much changes. I think Wally does not really manage to distance himself from his parents until adulthood. I think that the whole Rudy going full villain thing in Wally's early time as the Flash can stay, just again with less Manhunter weirdness and the Russian heroes he involves... For some reason. Honestly what would be interesting would be Rudy making a deal with a Flash villain to go after his son.

In general I would just love if DC acknowledged Wally's parents enough for us to properly know how they've been updated. I would also love to see more fanfic exploring Wally's home life and abuse to actually explore things that go in line with canon rather than making Rudy the stereotypical drunk abusive father. Wally's family life is much more nuanced than that, which also makes it more realistic. I know I'm gonna be trying to explore some of these ideas myself.

#tw child abuse #wally west #kid flash #the flash #rudy west #mary west

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judgeanon · 9 months ago

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So about that DETECTIVE COMICS #1084...

As a big Shiva fan, I really, really liked that. Maybe my favorite issue with her since Hill's Outsiders run. I made a thread in another site about it but I liked that issue so much that I'm gonna take a sec to repost it here too, so hit that jump if you wanna read an in-depth analysis of 'Tec #1084... or at least, its backup feature!

I'm kinda kidding, I actually enjoyed the main story too. I liked seeing Bruce and Talia reunited in a very touching moment of romance that gives way to grim tension as the unfortunate complications of the strange and violent world they live being to slowly rip them apart once more... and then Shiva happens. For one panel and in a flashback but it was really fun to see Talia call her a friend for a bunch of reasons.

The most serious one is that I genuinely think that, given enough room to work with, Talia and Shiva could be a very compelling pair. Shiva is known to be interested in people who are in a state of flux, who find themselves in crossroads trying to figure out where their true path really lies. And Talia, for better or worse, has been there for, like... years now. I've always thought that Talia, endlessly torn between her love for Bruce, her love for her father, and her love for the world, might even find something tempting about Shiva's absolute detachment, about her comparative freedom from all connections. Which would be fun to explore.

The other reason comes from the issue's backup story by Alex Paknadel and Robbi Rodriguez, which I didn't expect at all but ended up being a huge treat for me, since it aligned so much with a lot of what I consider the most interesting elements and perspectives in Shiva and Cass' relationship.

Right from the start, we have Shiva being able to read Cass and figure out what's wrong with her just from a couple of fighting moves, which I absolutely adore. What looks like a fight is really just them having a conversation, at least for Shiva, who is very quickly able to get at the deeper emotions troubling Cass and holding her back.

(Also, that one panel of Snake Style ThodThodThod's really made me smile. I love the idea of Shiva using stranger, more exotic martial arts than anyone else, especially in Gotham)

On my first read I wasn't really onboard with Shiva's words about not killing Cass, like there was something about them that didn't quite click, but after mulling them over for a while I feel like they can be read as Shiva intentionally picking at Cass' perfectionist nature and competitive spirit. It's less "I spared you and now you owe me" and more "You trying to be Batman makes you suck, here's why, now be better." But I might be reaching a bit there.

Still, it does work, which I really enjoy. I like Shiva being able to prod Cass into reaching deep within her, figuring out what's wrong and improving herself. And we get a lot of that in the next couple of pages, where Cass grapples with the Azmer while also grappling with her own nature. Cass' training with David is an extremely defining element of her character. It's her instincts, her mother tongue, her main method of expression, but it's also something that causes her a ton of inner turmoil, due to the intentions of that training.

Cass is presented in this story as someone inwardly ashamed by her nature, worried of the assassin skills that are weaved into her very nature and what that may say about her. Of course, this is something that Cass has been through before and has developed quite a bit, maybe even outgrown but with Batman dead and gone, it probably makes sense for her to lapse a bit back into self-loathing without that symbol to guide her and with her failure at trying to emulate it. Which I think is a very human thing to happen. Your worst traits are never really gone, and tend to slip back into you when you're at a low point.

Which is why I really like the last few panels of this story.

Although first, Shiva calling Talia an "associate" makes me giggle a bit. C'mon Shivs, don't be so tsun-tsun... anyway.

On the most basic level, we have Shiva offering Cass some solid advice that ties the whole story in a neat bow. But it takes on an even stronger quality when you remember this is Lady Shiva talking here. Shiva, who we know wants Cass to be more than just a Bat. Shiva, who understands the strength that comes from finding your own path and following it. Shiva, who maybe more than anyone knows exactly how strong Cass can be once she embraces all aspects of her own nature and finds harmony in herself.

From almost any other character, that last phrase would just be a nice little canned moral. From Shiva's lips, it carries the weight of decades of character work for both Cass and Shiva. It's a solid ending that's elevated by the history between its characters. It hits SO many of the notes I want to see, the things that I think make Shiva's relationship with Cass genuinely compelling. Shiva being able to "read" Cass through a fight, her wanting Cass to be herself more than anything else, and all of it unhindered by any kind of easy moral judgment from Cass or the story itself.

Shiva is not presented as a monstrous villainess who Cass must reject, but as her own character with her own story that happpens to cross with Cass' for a moment. And from Shiva, there's no berating Cass for being a hero or choosing not to kill. There is berating, sure, but it works because it speaks to something a lot more personal for both characters than generic notions of good or evil. It speaks about Cass' need to find and be herself and stick with it no matter what.

(Which this arc also touched upon a couple months ago in 'Tec #1082, which very elegantly made it clear that Cass had the heart of a hero before she even knew what a Batman was -- an incredibly powerful statement made in just two captions)

So this is a story that hits pretty much all the right notes for me. I wish it would hit them a bit longer, or in a few different ways that didn't involve Batman, but it's just a perfect example of most of the elements that I think make this relationship worth exploring. Even the fact that this makes it the sixth major appearance of Lady Shiva in a row that is ultimately dedicated to her relationship with Cass doesn't bother me because this is precisely how I want this relationship to be written. If they were all this good, I wouldn't even mind.

And on top of all that, this issue is also a good example of something I'm always thinking about: tempting as it is, you don't need to make every Shiva appearance be huge and bombastic and lead to some massive story arc. It can be something small but meaningful, a quick appearance with some very choice words, Shiva walking into an ongoing story to, in her own way, help others get through an inflection point.

If I had to say something I disliked about it, I do think it's a little blunt in its themes and execution. Paknadel has Shiva quite literally spell out the problem for Cass, which I guess is fine given how short the story is, but it does lose a bit of elegance because of it. Still, it was a great little treat and while I know Ram's 'Tec run is coming to its end, I do hope he'll find a place for one last bit of Shiva in it.

And I also hope he gets to write her for more than just one wordless balloon because Ram V's Lady Shiva is a dream book in my book.

#DC #Comics #Batman #Lady Shiva #Batgirl #Cassandra Cain #Alex Paknadel #Robbi Rodriguez #Ram V

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welcometololaland · 18 days ago

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Hi Lola! 🪩 🎉 and 💌 please!

hi friend!!! ty for the ask, i appreciate it!

💌 Are you willing to take requests or prompts for writing?

as a general rule, no. i will do the odd exchange or prompt fill (for example, the gaza one earlier this year) but outside of that, not really. it's mostly because i simply don't have the time to finish most of my current wips, let alone take on new stuff!

🎉 How are you going to be kind to yourself if you don't meet your goals?

this is very much linked to my below point. the truth is, i'm not and i have no idea how. but i am going to have a good, long think about it now that i've been asked the question. so thank you!

🪩 Do you have any "good" writing habits you want to cultivate?

yes! sorry for the incoming rant!

i'm on a mission in 2025 to be less perfectionistic. perfectionism runs my entire life in a very detrimental way. perfectionism means that i rarely ever take risks, say no to people (even when i really need to) or feel good about how i look or my work or my writing or anything i do because i'm on a mission to reach this ridiculous and extremely unachievable standard. and something i've realised recently is that my mindset is so focused on personal success vs. failure. there's literally nothing in between for me and it leads to me feeling like i'm constantly a failure because i never manage to meet the stupidly high bar i set for myself.

i think a lot of people think that perfectionism is the weakness you say when you're trying not to have a weakness, but i don't think that encapsulates what crippling perfectionism is. it's like...you are CONSTANTLY in self doubt and fear because you KNOW you're gonna let yourself down and you're afraid of the inevitable disappointment. you never want to talk about your goals because you're terrified that saying them aloud makes them real and might mean that you have proof of failure. you don't want to try new things because what if you suck at them? and i have this struggle a lot of the time with writing - no matter how happy i am with a fic, after a few weeks i decide there are so many flaws in it that i never want to read it again. or, i get stuck in scenes for ages because i can't think of the 'perfect' way to write them. sometimes, i toss and turn over characterisation because i'm not sure if i've got it exactly right.

basically, i just need to chill the fuck out. that's very hard for me. but i'm trying!!! which is why i didn't edit the grammar on this post properly HAHA.

send me a 2025 writer ask <3

#fic writer ask game #perfectionism #writing things

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quarantineddreamer · 10 months ago

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Jyn Week Day 1: Home

I wasn't sure I was gonna post this, because it's really not my best work. But then again, with the way my brain has been lately not much is! And I wanted to participate and show our girl some love so. Fighting through the perfectionist in me and here's this little thing <3

Though the Rebels had breathed new life into the cave upon their arrival, the network of tight tunnels and sprawling caverns that made up Echo Base had a history that stretched back to a time long before the war. There were stars younger than the stone walls that surrounded them, buried beneath layers of ice so thick, it was unlikely the galaxy would ever uncover the secrets they contained.

It had not taken Jyn long to begin exploring the area, seeking hidden nooks and crannies to which she might escape. Within a week, she had formed a sprawling mental map, memorized the quickest routes to every exit, marked the nearest spaces to duck to when Draven was after her about her latest display of ‘irresponsible/reckless/unacceptable’ behavior–or, when she simply needed quiet. (Which seemed to happen more and more with each passing day spent trapped in this hellhole.)

Tonight, she was bundled in her warmest gear: every thermal layer she possessed, two sweaters, one parka, her hat and scarf, gloves, and four socks pulled one after the other till she could barely squeeze her feet into her boots, much less feel them.

Clumsiness was the price to pay when you wanted to be up and about at this hour on Hoth–that, or frostbite. It was why, for the most part, no one on Echo Base left their beds after sundown unless they absolutely had to. In temperatures this cold, you’d have to be out of your mind to willingly leave the relative comfort and warmth of your room without very good reason.

Apparently, Jyn was out of her mind, because she’d woken from a dream–the one where the fires of Scarif blinded her one minute, and she was trapped in the cold bunker all alone the next–and crawled out from beneath her blankets. She’d dressed in the dark, moving by instinct more than anything, her skin itching and heart racing as the walls seemed to press closer and closer. Before she’d fully realized what she was doing, she had found herself fumbling by the dim yellow cast of a lantern to a place well-beyond the boundaries of Echo Base.

It would have been all too easy to take a wrong turn–and subsequently freeze to death trying to find her way back–but her body had taken care of her when her mind could not. Before too long she had arrived at a vaguely familiar antechamber, small and circular, with smooth, curving walls.

As she sat and leaned her back into their hard surface, it felt as though she were being held in the palm of some ancient, mysterious being. She took in her surroundings like someone waking up from a dream. Why had her instincts guided her here?

Then she felt it: air, fresh air; the barest of hints of it brushing across the tip of her nose and suddenly it all made sense. She closed her eyes and drew it deep into her lungs–holding it for a moment with the gratitude of someone reuniting with a long lost friend–before releasing a slow, careful breath. It lingered in the air before her–the ghost of a scared and lonely girl—a swirling cloud of mist, glowing purple.

Heart in her throat, Jyn lifted her eyes, seeking the source of the strange light. High above her, the chamber’s ceiling of ice and rock gave way, revealing an incredible sweep of night sky, dancing with color. Wind whistled across the opening of the cave…waves whispered upon a black-sanded shore…

“What are they, Mama?”

Her mother’s amused hum tickled at her back. “The Force paints a path home for those that are lost, my love.”

Jyn squirmed beneath the blanket, trying to find her father’s face amidst the orange, flickering shadows of the bonfire. “What are they really, Papa?”

Mama’s head rested beneath his chin, his arms wrapped around them both, a shield from the wind. He gave her a smile; her favorite kind, the kind he gave her when he asked if she could keep a secret. “You don’t believe your mother?”

Jyn didn’t think her question had anything to do with belief, she simply wanted to know. Mama often told her stories about the Force; stories about love and anger, light and dark, and the threads that tied the world together–just like the ones her favorite blanket was made of. But Papa told her stories too; stories like what kind of soil made the plants on the farm grow, or why her skin turned red after too much time in the sun, or how to fix Stormy when his arm fell off. Mama’s stories were stories she saw and felt on the inside, while Papa’s were ones she held in her hands. But they were both a part of her, pieces she carried with her wherever she went.

She studied the sky again, following the splashes of purple and green and blue as they wove their way between clusters of stars. She wondered what it would feel like to stand on one of the rippling bands of light; tried to imagine stepping one foot after the other across the horizon as her mother had described. Maybe it would be warm, like sand in the sun, or maybe it would be more like waves lapping at her feet, cold and tingly.

“A scientist’s daughter through and through,” Mama laughed. “I recognize that look in her eyes…”

Jyn wasn’t sure what exactly she meant by that, but she tore her gaze away from the lights in the sky and turned towards her father instead, ready for his answer.

His skin shimmered green, then blue, and back again, the same colors as the ones that hung in the air above them. “The path your mother spoke of is made of particles, shed by our planet’s suns.”

Jyn frowned at this. “But it’s nighttime.”

“Just because we cannot see something, does not mean it is no longer there,” Papa explained, reaching over to tug the blanket back over her shoulders. “Tonight, the aurora reminds us that the suns have not left us, and they will rise again tomorrow.”

She twisted to face Mama again. “So the suns are the Force?”

“The Force is the suns,” her mother murmured reverently, “and the wind, and the waves, and the sand beneath you. It’s the salt on your tongue when you breathe in and…” she smiled as she poked Jyn’s nose with the tip of her finger, “that means it’s a part of you, and me, and your Papa too.”

Jyn settled into her parent’s arms again and shut her eyes, feeling for the Force her mother spoke of. She wasn’t sure what it was supposed to feel like.

But she thought there might be some truth to her parents’ words, because though she could not see them anymore, she could sense them there beside her. The comfort of her mother’s heartbeat under her ear, the warmth of her father’s breath as he bent to press a kiss to the top of her head.

And if she were to find herself lost and standing amidst the aurora, she felt certain this was where they would bring her.

The colors of the sky began to blur and run together. Jyn wiped roughly at her eyes, urging tears away before they could turn to frost upon her cheek. Hoth was more than a far cry from the beaches of Lah’mu, yet she felt closer to it now than she had in a long time.

“Beautiful,” a voice murmured, echoing quietly off the stone around her.

Jyn started, turning towards the rasp of footsteps. “Cassian…” Leave it to the spy to find her in the middle of a labyrinth in the dead of night.

“How long have you been standing there?” she asked warily, taking one last self-conscious swipe at her face with the sleeve of her coat.

“Not long,” he answered, lingering at the entrance to the cavern.

But long enough… Jyn figured. She heaved a short sigh and returned her gaze to the aurora, an ache in her chest. “There were lights like this on Lah’mu,” she murmured, an explanation of sorts–though Cassian had not asked for one.

He ducked past the icicle that hung in from the tunnel’s opening and silently came to sit beside her, his shoulder brushing against her own. Though it barely made a difference in a cold this numbing, Jyn found herself drawing comfort from the warmth of his body beside her.

“How’d you find this place?” he asked softly.

She glanced at him, but he was looking at the lights above, granting her a reprieve from the weight of his stare. “How’d you find me?” she countered.

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly, but his eyes were serious when they landed on her again. “I went to your room and you weren’t there. For a moment I thought…” he shook his head and took a sudden interest in his boots.

“You thought I’d left?”

“I didn’t know what to think. I checked the infirmary next.” There was an odd strain to his voice, something she couldn’t quite place. “No one had seen you there either, so I headed towards the perimeter,” a small smile crossed his lips, “I’ve noticed you wander to the edges of Base when you’re trying to avoid Draven.”

“Of course you did,” Jyn remarked. “Then what?”

“I followed the light…”

“And it led you here…” The memory of her mother’s story–still fresh in Jyn’s mind–began to mingle with words Cassian had once spoken to her. The kyber crystal she wore seemed suddenly heavier than it had a moment ago, a hand resting over her heart.

She thought of Bodhi, Chirrut, Baze, even K2. Of all the people who she had gotten to know because of the Rebellion. People who had her back. People who might not understand all of her, but who accepted her nonetheless.

“Hoth is the first time we’ve really slowed down since Scarif,” Cassian said, ignoring her sudden glance at the mention. “I know it can be hard to adjust to life in the Rebellion.”

A tentative smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “Yeah,” she replied, catching a ripple of light and shadow as it wandered across his face. “I've been feeling lost…but I think I’m beginning to find my way.”

#jynweek #jynappreciationsquad #rogue one fanfic #b writes #jyn erso #galen erso #lyra erso #cassian andor #(rc if you squint but you def dont have to whatsoever)#this is probably gonna get buried in boops and thats okay too <3

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spaciebabie · 1 month ago

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any advice 4 when u want to keep drawing 2 improve but u cant get over perfectionism ? like when u just dont care how its gonna turn out, if its bad its bad yknow?

ahh yes lowkey ive struggled with this a lot. not as much now as in the past tho, and honestly its beecuz ive developed a more neutral view on myself/my art in general. its going to take time to get to this state of mind, so dont be too hard on yourself when you find yourself falling into bad habits.

advice under the cut (kind of long winded) ⬇️⬇️⬇️

the first thing ive done to overcome perfectionism is focus less on details and more about overall shape and form. when i sketch im trying to get roughly what i want, and i limit the strokes i do in certain parts of my sketch to like 1-3 depending on what im drawing (im ngl i also am very impatient and have created a workflow that makes it so i am able to start and finish pieces as fast as possible LOLOLOL. shrugs. i just like drawing fast).

a good example would be this thing i just drew:

in all of my sketches i tend to use as few strokes as possible and just get the basic idea down. good for not overly focusing on teeny tiny details and worrying about them later (i also use the same technique for lineart, but just end up connecting the lines. thats another tip i have, if you like your sketches more than your fully lined pieces, just line the same way you sketch! or you could also use your sketch as your lineart :P)

another tip i have is to draw from references, and once again, focus mostly on shape/form/the big picture of your subject before going into details (do you know how many planes there are on the human face....i still dont know howta draw faces properly but im not mad at myself anymore about it, i just open up a reference and try to learn). i also recommend having a drawing session where the goal is to draw awfully. draw something you want to draw, but that you're not sure if you'll draw it right, and draw it. dont try to correct it, acknowledge that what you made isnt perfect, and then draw something else. you're learning! of course its not gonna be perfect. but inevitably, you're going to get frustrated. just remember if its something you really want to go back to, you will be able to revisit it in the future. feel your anger and frustration, but do your best to not direct it inward.

small side tangent about shading- I AM SO SHIT AT SHADING SKFHSAFDJHS. people dont tend to notice (surprising), since ig my shading style is considered "beautiful" or something, but if you looked at it on a technical level, there are mistakes everywhere. i havent really tried to improve it. i dont really care most of the time b/c i just like shading for fun. and especially when im shading my sketches, i already have it in my mind that its not supposed to be perfect. its a sketch. this is where im supposed to make all of my mistakes. once i start making my way to the final product is when i start worrying more about if i did the lighting correctly (even then ik im not good at it im not trying to be a god im just trying to draw things that make me happy).

additionally, i really rec u dont try and fudge a sketch until its better if you're deep in a Perfectionist moment. keep the old sketch and start over on a new sketch taking bits and pieces you liked from the original, and improving on those that you dont (shitty thumbnails are also good if you have a vague idea in mind but need ta figure out howta place subjects in your scene). honestly drawing the same thing/idea over and over gets me a better understanding of my subject each time, so naturally each iteration looks better. it doesnt take me that long to sketch tho, so if sketching takes you forever (sometimes if sketching takes you forever its b/c you're a perfectionist skjfskdjf) just think about how much time you're willing to spend on something. remember☝️ its okay to give up/take a break on something and try again later. sometimes you just needta stop looking at your art and like. look at a tree or something lmfao.

i will also say that im not looking to go into a career in art, im more of a hobbyist. ik school environments dont exactly.....help with perfectionism lol. there are certain expectations put on people who go into the art field that are inescapable. if this is the case for you, i still think what ive discussed before can help you, but i also think that you may need to lean more on the mental tips i have also provided below.

alright! mental health tips in regard to art:

so, i have c-ptsd, and with that comes a lot of self image issues that ive had to work on. my feelings about myself extended to the way i felt about my art. it was shit, it was awful, i cant draw like this other person can so why bother, if its not perfect i shouldnt draw at all, etc. and honestly, something thats helped is affirmations. my affirmations are c-ptsd related, but ive noticed a shift in the way i view myself, and by extent, my art since ive started repeating them to myself daily. and honestly, i think a requirement of overcoming perfectionism is telling yourself that your art doesnt hafta be perfect, A LOT. LOL. LIKE YOU ACTUALLY HAFTA ACTIVELY TELL YOURSELF YOU'RE NOT AWFUL LMAOOOO. its funny, we dont think much about how we naturally are self critical about ourselves, and we dont realize that we are basically repeating negative affirmations about ourselves over and over and thats why we're not improving (mentally).

even when you're not drawing, i think it would benefit some people to have some kind of notification on their phone to remind them to tell themselves that their art doesnt hafta be perfect daily/however often you feel you might need it. and then with that affirmation, practice Shitty Drawing. one of the best tips ive ever gotten for this was from one of my friends monnie. get out your sketchbook or some printer paper, take out a shitty pen, and DRAW. and then any mistakes you make are permanent and you cant just endlessly try and fix them. it forces you ta sit with this uncomfortable feeling that something you made isnt perfect. eventually your brain will realize that when your art isnt perfect, you can still draw and you're ALLOWED to continue to draw even if what you make isnt spectacular. if you dont want to repeat an affirmation daily, try to remember to at least repeat it before you sit down to draw. something along the lines of "my art doesnt hafta be perfect in order for me to want to draw. im allowed to draw even if its not perfect" or something else. it depends on what you most struggle with in regards to your perfectionism. im ngl its probably going to feel cringe at first, but i promise you, it really works if you put it into practice longterm.

shoot for neutrality instead of positivity first. let me tell you thats where i am now and its so much less exhausting drawing lmfaooo. i make something that looks like shit and im just like. i dont fucking careee i dont give a fuccckkkkk

those are my tips :] i hope this was helpful!

#spacie spoinks #art tips #kind of?#art advice #i would have added more art but i dont have my art saved on this device KSHFSKJDFH #i copy and pasted my art above from my tumblr post 💀💀💀💀💀💀#anyway #have a great day anon!!

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polarisbibliotheque · 7 months ago

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Survivor's Blood (Leon x Reader) - Chapter 6

Survivor's Blood

Pairing: Leon x Reader

Summary: After Raccoon City, Leon became the only Government agent with that kind of expertise. With relentless training, he was now a Special Agent - again, on his first day in the job. He just didn’t expect to live Raccoon City all over again… Maybe Leon was fated to always have the worst first-days-at-work ever.

Age Restriction: 18+. It’s horror, so expect a lot of graphic violence and blood dripping from this. I mean, VERY GRAPHICAL VIOLENCE. Nothing we haven’t seen on RE, but still. Yee been warned

TRIGGER WARNING: Leon has a slight panic attack on this one, right at the end. Proceed with caution.

Author's Notes: Wow. I just looked at the last post, Chapter 5, I posted LITERALLY one year ago, on June 26. I swear I didn't plan this, life's crazy! Craziness aside, this time we have a slight smaller chapter because I wanted to end it with Leon having a small panic attack from his PTSD the poor guy. I recently watched REC, the Spanish found footage horror movie, and OH GODS, it's AMAZING. LOVED it. Took a little to find the one with original Spanish audio, but totally worth it - if there ever was a Resident Evil movie following the games, it had to be like REC; hence why I came back to writing if after such a long time. Also, I'm now watching the RE4 Remake as a movie - I'm a little sad I don't know any streamers I like in English who have played the game, so I'm watching with no commentary, as I did with RE4 looooong ago 'cause I was too scared of chainsaw man. Maybe I'll get to finish this story soon!

Chapter 6

Hospital Arklay Hill, April 29th, 2001 – 22h13

Leon stared at his watch – glancing at the clock on the wall, you understood why his eyes seemed so restless: on his schedule, you had to be at the school in less than ten minutes.

And that would never happen.

“Is it ok if we run a little late?” You quietly asked him, avoiding the ears of the other survivors. Neither of you wanted them to get desperate.

“Yeah, I planned it with a few minutes for us to breathe in case something went wrong.” Even so, his sigh showed Leon wasn’t too happy with that.

You almost smiled. Such a perfectionist. You could easily see how high his standards were for himself – and how much he wanted to achieve them.

“Well, I’m counting Lickers as something going wrong.” Your answer made him huff a quick smile. “Seriously, those things are awful. What was Umbrella thinking…?”

“They weren’t thinking. Period.” Leon’s words were dry and filled with a bitterness that made you stare back at him. As he checked the shotgun’s ammo for the last time, there was something sharp in his eyes – only Leon knew how everything that happened in Raccoon City affected his life. “Ready to go, partner?”

“Oh, yeah, choco chip.” You had a not so happy smile on your lips as your words dripped sarcasm. Leon couldn’t stop himself from chuckling.

“C’mon, we’re getting out of this. You’ll never have to think about it again.”

You sincerely hoped his words to be true.

“When we open this door, no one comes out. I’m gonna check the corridor and when I tell y/n it’s all ok, you can get out. Understood?”

All survivors agreed with their heads – even if you didn’t agree much on Leon going out on his own, seeing you basically saved his life, killing a Licker point blank.

You would do it again if you had to.

Leon silently opened the door, leaving the shotgun hanging on his back. You had no idea why he didn’t have it ready on his hands, but you weren’t a trained agent like him. He didn’t fully close the door so it wouldn’t click and you held it on place – your head almost glued to the wood, trying to hear any kind of noise going on the other side.

“What if he dies out there…?” Valerie’s whisper was almost as silent as a needle dropping on the floor – but those words were as deadly as a nuclear bomb.

Up until that moment, you hadn’t stopped to think about that – and, to be fair, you hadn’t had the chance to think. Everything was chaos and the only thing you were supposed to do was keep going, keep moving to survive that hellish night. But Valerie’s words had reason: what would you all do if Leon, the only one trained and seasoned enough to get through it, died right then and there? What would you do if a Licker shredded him to pieces and decided to wait for you all to come out so you would have the same fate?

If Leon didn’t survive, you probably wouldn’t survive – it was simple as that. But something else hurt in that thought… Yes, you had just met him, but not having him around seemed… Empty. Unfair.

He couldn’t die. Leon wouldn’t die. You would make sure of that – after all, you had fearlessly killed a Licker in the heat of the moment to make sure Leon would keep walking by your side. And you would get out of that damned city together, that was the only certainty you allowed in your heart.

Not wanting to make any noise, you held Valerie’s hand, lightly reassuring the woman everything was going to be alright. She turned her eyes to you, taking a deep breath upon seeing you so calm and sure – still trying to hear whatever was going on outside.

In that situation, though, a few seconds dragged themselves like a whole eternity. You were probably holding your breath, you weren’t really paying attention to that at the moment, when you heard a light scratching on the door.

“Clear.” Leon’s voice was but a murmur, one only you could hear, but it was enough.

You signaled the other survivors to leave the room: the man in the lab coat went first, followed by a father and his teenage son, an elderly woman and finally Valerie. You kept your gun ready in your hands, leaving the room with the door open – if one of those creatures tried to follow from the depths of the corridor, the door could perhaps distract it.

Leon signaled you to take the lead, keeping the shotgun locked and loaded as the scared group followed you towards the door – wincing as soon as they saw the Licker, covering their mouths so they wouldn’t scream in horror. Valerie aided the elderly woman while the lab coat man only rolled his eyes. The father, helped his son walk straight, as the boy was wearing hospital clothes. Leon watched everything carefully at the back of the group – also making sure he was listening carefully.

He had seen survivor’s groups like those – he had talked to Jill and Carlos about their many missions, he had conversations with Chris about his S.T.A.R.S assignments, and he had heard a story or two from Claire. Lab coat man obviously thought everyone was a hinderance, so Leon would keep a sharp eye on him as well: those kinds of people wouldn’t flinch at the chance of sacrificing someone else to save their own skin.

And even if Leon despised those types, he would save that guys’ ass because of his own set of moral values – not because the guy was actually worth something.

As soon as you reached the dead Licker on the floor, you raised your right hand so the group came to a halt – making Leon smirk in the process. You were proving to be quite a surprise and, if he was going to be honest, a very welcome one.

Quietly kicking the Licker aside, you forced the door open one more time – using your stealthier skills as to not make any noise at it. Holding the gun with one hand, you looked back at Leon and, as he nodded, you nodded back, pushing the rest of the door and holding it open with one of your feet, immediately pointing the gun at the corridor you had first seen that horrid creature.

You quickly pointed at one side, then at the other – checking it twice just to make sure. It was empty, quiet, like a forgotten tomb reeking of blood and decay. You furrowed your brows as something immediately came to your mind: what if there were other survivor’s hidden at the hospital who weren’t as lucky as those with you to have an old radio and ask for help? They would be left there to die – and you were right there.

You didn’t have time to search the place with Leon, though. Even if you wanted to, your heart desperately screaming you should delve in deeper and help those who couldn’t help themselves, you couldn’t. You had to save those you were able to save. You had to turn around and never look back.

Shaking your head quickly, you held the door open so the group could continue forward. Leon noticed something was wrong – as you stared at a bloodstain on the floor with an empty yet uncomfortable expression. He had to tap you on the shoulder so you would snap out of it, looking back into his grayish sea eyes, and finding them with a question inside.

You could almost hear him saying ‘are you ok?’ – which seemed to be something you would ask each other infinitely that night.

You nodded back, quietly closing the door and taking the lead once again. You made sure to guide the group through the safest patches of floor – those that weren’t slippery with blood or that weren’t filled with broken things that when stepped on could make a horrible noise. Keeping that pace, you would reach the door in no time.

As the group kept going, Leon’s steps got slower. Something crept from the bowels of the Hospital to cling into his heart; something wasn’t right. He kept walking slowly, trying to figure out that feeling at the base of his stomach – but you were almost there. By crossing the sterile white doors, you would get to the waiting room, then the main hall, and then out.

Leon halted completely when he heard something. Looking back at you and the survivor’s group, it seemed like he was the only one who had heard it. Leon immediately turned his head to the other end of the corridor – covered in complete darkness, looking like an endless descent into hell itself.

The noise came with a gentle gust of cold wind, sounding like a faint breath from something inhuman. As if the Hospital itself was breathing – slowly, ominously… Hungrily. Leon could swear he heard very distant groans and things being knocked out of their place, echoing through the halls and corridors, to almost fail at reaching his ears.

But if there was something he learned at the RPD that fateful night, that would be listening. He survived through carefully hearing and identifying how to choose a slightly safer path that night.

As you reached the white double door, you looked back to check on Leon – only to find him standing at a certain distance from the group, gripping the shotgun with both hands in front of his body, looking back inside the Hospital.

You almost let out an audible sigh. There was no way you could know what he was thinking without speaking to him, but watching Leon looking back made your heart stir with a violent desire of going even deeper into that hell to search for other survivors. There was no way a place as big as that would have only five people alive – and you couldn’t even imagine how harrowing it would be to survive only to be left to die in there, unable to save yourself.

“Leon…?” You risked a murmur, barely noticing how the other survivors watched you both with expectation – and uneasiness. “Leon…!”

As you slightly raised your voice, Leon seemed to snap out of it and look back at you. The worry in his grayish sea eyes was different than the one that resided in yours – making him wonder even more what in the hell was haunting you since you got out from that room. You signaled the double door with your head and he agreed, quickly – but quietly – regrouping.

That alleviated a little bit of the tension on the group – and, as you carefully opened the white door, they had no fear because Leon was on the back giving you cover. Just like before, you stepped in the waiting room first, checking every corner with your gun before holding the door open for the other survivors to come through.

The father told his son not to look at the dead bodies you and Leon had shot before. Valerie did her best to help the elderly woman to cross the path without falling. Lab coat man kept rolling his eyes and fidgeting, almost pushing the father and the son out of his way to reach the exit first – being blocked by you as soon as you reached the milky glass door.

“C’mon. Let’s get out of this fucking place already.”

“You wanna go first and risk being eaten by one of those things? Be my guest.” You waved at the door, staring at him without a single drop of patience left in your body. Leon had already been rude with the man before, so you took the chance to do that too. No one would tell you off if you did so – in a matter of fact, you were probably saying what everyone wanted to say. “Things aren’t much better out there than in here, you know.”

The man looked like he had just eaten a full slice of lemon and was tasting the consequences. If you weren’t in that situation, Leon would’ve probably laughed.

As the milky glass door jammed once more, you looked back at Leon only to see him nodding: you could go to the other room, he would cover you and protect the survivors. Pointing the gun in the air once more, you squeezed through, ready to shoot anything that might have come in during your stay in the Hospital.

And once more, Leon looked back – to the double white doors you had just left behind. Did he hear a… Stomp?

His heart trembled inside his chest. Suddenly, it seemed like the entire Hospital didn’t have enough air for him to breathe. Leon furrowed his brows as his heartbeat got faster. It couldn’t be. That Tyrant, at least that’s what he was told that thing was called, couldn’t be back. He had killed it, blown it into oblivion with a missile launcher – Leon watched as the only thing that was left from that Tyrant were its legs; tearing it in half being the only way to make it stop following Leon around.

For years after he left Raccoon Leon kept dreaming about that. Constant nightmares with that Tyrant following him, sucker punching him every time they met and Leon wasn’t quick enough to run away. It felt like his whole body was broken, but he couldn’t stop running, could he? Even if his bones turned into mush, Leon had to keep running – or he would have never left Raccoon City.

Even now, there were some nights Leon woke up with the sound of those steps viciously approaching him in his nightmares – only to have him open his eyes on his bed, sweating like a pig, barely being able to breathe. He could’ve escaped and killed the creature, but he couldn’t escape meeting it in his dreams when his mind was particularly unstable.

And he could swear he was hearing those stomps, right there in that Hospital, echoing like a ghost coming back from his past to haunt him in the present.

“Leon…?” It was Valerie’s voice that tired to pull him out this time. She carefully tried to touch one of his arms, knowing very well it wasn’t the smartest of choices, given the fact he was holding a gun. But Leon closed his eyes, trying to take deep breaths – Valerie was used to seeing panic attacks and that was the beginning of one. And her rescuer having a panic attack was definitely not a good thing. “Leon. You need to come back.” Her voice was almost inaudible, but she was close enough for him to listen. Placing her whole palm on his arm, she started to gently rub his skin, trying to anchor him back into the present. “Listen to me. It’s ok. We need you here, Leon. Please.”

Those words made him open his eyes again, looking back into Valerie’s eyes. The woman had nothing but reassurance, even in that godforsaken situation – clearly a seasoned nurse who was used to taking care of people… And people like him.

Leon took another deep breath, watching her smile in the process, finally noticing her touch on his arm. With another breath, his heart started beating a little calmer and it seemed like the stomping had stopped. Leon looked back at the white doors again, but nothing could be heard. He closed his eyes once more, taking another breath, and looking back at Valerie right after.

“Thank you. We need to go now.” With those words, he nodded at the jammed door – Leon and Valerie were the only ones left, with you helping the elderly lady squeeze through without getting hurt. Valerie smiled back, immediately going to the door to help you and cross to the other side.

Leon risked one last look to the double door, only to hear nothing. Whatever it was, it would be shut in the bowels of that Hospital forever – and he couldn’t be happier with that.

To be continued...

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hamofjustice · 9 months ago

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Julinemo Week, Day 3: Study Session

(This could probably be better but this week is an exercise in just posting without being a perfectionist and I wanna go to bed, so)

The late afternoon breeze streaming through Nemona's window kept her room smelling as fresh and alive as a new adventure, as she and her favorite guest did something quite a bit less exciting: reviewing their Battle Studies homework.

Nemona was on her bed, leaving just enough space for her napping Pawmot, while Juliana and her Gardevoir were down on the plush green rug she'd picked out for Nemona the previous week (which Nemona insisted on paying for). The Battle Frontier Channel was on the big TV as familiar background noise, though Gardevoir at least seemed more interested in looking up at that than the open books.

"Uhhh… question nine… 'Which kind of Terrain protects from ailments instead of powering up attacks?'" Juliana read out.

"Oh, um… Misty Terrain! I was just thinking about that one. It might help you remember that one's different 'cause it's not called Fairy Terrain."

"Oh yeah, huh. Good point."

"It's not teeechnically correct to say it's the only one that does that, 'cause, like, Electric Terrain keeps you awake, and Misty Terrain does power up Terrain Pulse and Misty Explosion, but… I think you can safely ignore those since there's no 'none of the above' options… right?"

"Uh… nope, there's not. Wow, Mona… you know more than these books do, huh? Hehehe…"

"Heh. Nah, they're probably just tryin' to keep it simple. I've never used Misty Explosion in my life!"

"Oh. Well, I appreciate trying to keep it simple, 'cause some of these things have so many arbitrary little details to remember…"

"I know, right? I guess it's not like anybody sat down and designed 'em all elegantly like a video game, though." Nemona pointed out, before starting to tap her pencil eraser to her chin and then her temple as she looked up at the ceiling. "I wonder if Misty Explosion might be decent BECAUSE no one expects it…"

"Maybe? Mmm, I dunno…"

"I've actually gotta figure that out soon. When you get into Advanced Battle Studies like me, you'll have to--"

"IF I get into Advan--"

"WHENNN you get in, 'cause you're smart and cool and attr-- attentive, and a Champion like me, and have me helping youuu…" Nemona insisted, briefly pointing her eraser down at Juliana as if it were a threat. Pawmot kept sleeping, fully accustomed to its Trainer's volume. "… You've gotta make theme teams for all these field conditions! It's kinda fun, but… I dunno how good some of these would be. They start ya off easy with Rain, but… hmm…"

"Oh, is that what you're working on up there?"

"Eh, sorta. I've got the Psychic Terrain one for this week figured out ahead of schedule, so I'm getting started on the Misty Terrain one now."

"So you could just… not be doing homework right now, if you wanted?" Juliana prodded.

"I mean… I guess, but then I'd probably just be bored and houndin' you to go out with me. Uh, f-for battles and stuff."

"Mmm. Yeah, probably. Well… thanks for matching my pace, then."

"Always."

"Hehe… "

They both smiled at each other for a bit before getting back to work. Each of them sighed happily and gave their partner Pokemon some petting. But eventually…

"Uh… I'll be right back. Gotta use the bathroom." Juliana quietly announced.

"Mmmkay. Be my guest."

Nemona looked up from the page and gazed off into space as Juliana stepped out, but then…

"Hey, Gardevoir." she whispered.

"Devoira…?" Juliana's companion answered sleepily, turning its head up to Nemona.

"Can you… show me how Juliana feels about me?"

"Garde." the Embrace Pokemon said with a nod. It rolled its neck a bit before scooting a bit closer and reaching out to Nemona with its green hand.

"Ooh, are we gonna do a mind meld? Heh…"

Almost as soon as she took its hand, Nemona's eyes shut and brows shot up like she'd once again misread a teaspoon of Spicy Herba Mystica as a tablespoon. After a few moments, however, she seemed to become accustomed to whatever had been put in front of her mind's eye. Her expression became one of curious awe, then wholesome warmth, then giddy delight as she wiggled her feet happily behind her. She opened her eyes back up as the emotional transmission ended, needing a moment to refocus on reality. "Oh… oh man… th-thanks bud. I, uh… huh…"

"De gara, devoira."

Juliana came back into the room to find Nemona blushing and giggling, and immediately looked down at herself to try and find a reason for it, to no avail.

"Hehehehe… Hey, I think I might be moving down to the floor with you, actually." Nemona decided, picking up her book.

#julinemo #juliana pokemon #nemona pokemon #nemona #julinemoweek #pokemon sv #pokemon scarlet and violet #nemonaposting #hamfiction #julinemoweek2024

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vacuously-true · 2 years ago

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I'm trying really hard to practice not having opinions about stuff that's not worth my time and energy.

I don't have enough information on that public issue to form an opinion and it is not worth my time or energy to research it and form an opinion when there are already experts working on it and journalists reporting expert findings.

We need to make this team decision but I don't actually have an opinion about it and I can see that other people do so how about y'all just sort it out and tell me the decision and I'll abide by it. If none of you have opinions on it or if you do and can't agree, sure I'm willing to think about it and come up with something if it's helpful, but unless you need me to I don't mind just not having a say in this one. It could make the decision easier to reach and I can do other stuff with my time.

Why do I need to have an opinion on pineapple on pizza or what counts as a sandwich or whatever. Who cares. I have other things to spend my time and energy and decision making points on. I don't enjoy being fake mad about stupid fake questions as much as I used to. Like sometimes it's still fun to have silly arguments but sometimes it's not and I'm just not gonna do it when I'm not in the mood anymore. Fake arguments get me for-real agitated and that spills over into whatever else I'm doing. No thank you.

Me having an opinion on that subject benefits no one. It is so far removed from me and the people I interact with and the people they interact with. It is so far removed from the realm of things I have the proximity to and resources to control. I cannot impact the situation. Having an opinion on this will not benefit anyone and will waste my time and energy. I am going to go think about something else now.

This needs done and actually I do kinda have an opinion about the best way to do it but I don't have the time or energy to do it myself so I'm going to ask someone else to do it and they may or may not do it the way I would have done it but they will do it fine and it will be done and that's what's important. And maybe they'll do it better than I would have. I don't actually know everything, even if I did have opinions on everything.

Et cetera

Like I'm just so stressed. And I don't need to be. I don't need to think about half the things I think about right now. Maybe more. There's so much pressure to have a Take on everything. I don't want to. The projects and causes I do contribute to regarding things I do have opinions about are better off when I focus on them and not on other stuff I cannot do anything about. I'm trying to stop being a perfectionist about, like, the whole world. Not everything needs my input. I don't need everything to be perfect, I don't need everything to be my idea of perfect.

I don't mean I don't care about stuff. Or that I am going to pretend not to have an opinion on like, human rights. I just mean I'm trying to be really careful about where I allocate my limited time and energy and decision making points. I just think I'm going to be able to do the most good when I focus on the things I know well enough to be informed about and make a difference in. I just think I'm going to feel less anxious if I just choose not to stress about some stuff I can't or won't actually do anything about. Like come on. I'm tired. I'm doing a lot. I don't care. I gotta let myself just not give a shit sometimes. It's hard but I really think I have to try it.

#leemursays #mine #about me

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wayfaringtrainers · 3 months ago

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So I constantly joke about how Robin's cooking skills are comedically terrible, but this has always been exaggeration for comedic effect. It got me to thinking: "how capable is Robin in the kitchen? and it kinda snowballed to thinking about all my muses and their culinary capability, sooo, from worst to best:

Worst: Robin

Yeah no, he's a terrible chef, let's not get ahead of ourselves. But not as bad as we've made him out to be. Robin did spend 6-7 years alone on the road, and at least half of them were a hermetic, loner lifestyle so he had to be capable enough to cook for himself.

For the most part, Robin is fine with really basic things. He can butter some bread and slap meat between it, he can fling something into the oven for half an hour. Robin's main issue is impatience; he cannot stand hovering in the kitchen for an hour or two, doing all the prep-work required, his instinct is to just throw it all in at once, no matter how bad an idea that is: if the vegetables needs half an hour at 200 degrees to cook, but the meat takes two hours at 150? He throws them both in at 200 and walks away for 2 hours. It's probably why curries are the only thing he can reasonably cook (being very much a "throw everything in and cook it" kind of food), but even they are just... Mediocre.

Bad: Katrina

Anybody is a master chef in comparison to Robin, but that doesn't mean Katrina is a good chef, she just isn't a disaster. Unlike Robin, who is impatient, Katrina is inexperienced: she's never really done a lot of cooking, because it's never held her interest. She'll cook if she has to, but she doesn't really want to: so her cooking tends to be somewhat plain, bland and uninteresting.

Katrina is strictly a "follow the cooking guide" girl and if she's asked to cook something that doesn't have instructions? She's not even gonna try. What's more, while Robin and Amber will go out to eat because they travel a lot, Katrina will go out to eat regardless, even if she has access to cooking facilities. It just isn't something she cares for.

Average: Amber

Amber's only ahead of Katrina by necessity. Before she met Robin, Amber had a theoretical knowledge of how to cook, but due to her childhood illness, she was rarely allowed to cook for herself (her father and brother were obsessively over-protective). Plus, being Robin's travel companion means she can't rely on him to cook for them, so she has a better handle on it.

Good: Samantha

Being a single mother of two on a budget means Samantha had to be pretty good with her utensils to keep her kids well fed. Prior to her kids, she was already pretty good at campfire culinary, on account of her ranger training.

When times were tough and money short, she may have taken to some of her old-school foraging knowhow to keep food on the table, but Samantha has had years to get comfortable with the kitchen. Her only fault though, is her reluctance to get creative; like everybody else, cooking is a chore for Samantha and while she does it well and takes pride in her skills, she doesn't do it for pleasure, only because she has to.

Best: Dante

Dante is the only one on this blog who actually likes cooking. Dante always had a stressful life, being the favourite child of a perfectionist mother, he was always expected to excel, excel, excel and anything in his life that didn't contribute to accolades, achievements and ambition was something he was discouraged from.

(Yeah, neither of the Richards siblings had a good childhood, go figure)

Cooking was effectively an escape for Dante, it was something practical that his mother couldn't dismiss as a waste of time, but also something he could enjoy doing. He likes the whole process of forming a meal, considering it significantly less stressful than literally every other moment of his life (which includes: work as a nuclear physicist, being Amber's guardian during her sickly days, his whole grief-induced mad scientist arc and having to literally work with criminals). Even the most complex meal is a breeze compared to all that.

#Robin ic #Amber ic #Katrina ic #Samantha ic #Dante ic

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