#he's DOING HIS BEST

[townofcadence]

bloodlustiing:

"Ohh there you go, isn't that sweet? Just like old times. Though I admit, it was more fun when you had all the room in the world to scream until you lost your voice, and nobody could hear you. Such a shame you went and destroyed my home, isn't it?" He squeezes down on a handful of intestines as he says the word home. Enough to cause pain, but not enough to rupture. It was a very delicate balance. "But don't worry, you will be rebuilding it in due time." His hand relinquishes its grip on Artair's intestines, but don't leave his body cavity. No, instead it continues and travels upwards inside, claws scraping across organs and tissue alike. Almost as if he's just playing with his insides, causing as much pain as he thinks he can get away with. At one point he even leans to reach farther up and in, careful to nudge things out of his way very tenderly so he can nudge at Artair's heart a few times-- just to make it spasm a little bit. But he doesn't linger there for long. In fact he's fairly quick to return to Artair's intestines and begin to pull them loose and even out of his body. Intestines were quite the fascinating things after all, capable of doing all this with sometimes only the barest of trauma. But Ares is intending a different sort of trauma with them. He takes the handfuls of guts and places them on Artair's chest, so that he may take hold of them soon. "Hm. It's really not as fun when you can't do much, is it? Tell you what…" His eyes flash, and he raises his finger to lick some of the blood off of its tip. He's released his holds on his toy. "Run. Try to get away."

"Hhhh-hhh-hhhhh....." Artair can't answer, not that he would if he could. But he does make a strangled noise as he feels hands inside, scraping and squeezing and doing all these things that hands shouldn't do inside a body, that his head can hardly fathom being done. He is still crying and he chokes, again and again as Ares hollows him out with his hands like he is a glorified pumpkin he's gutting.

There is a threat in what he says, but he hardly pays attention, except to the spike of pain that punctuates his words with the authority Ares desires. The sound he lets out is soft, but the whole of his body shows how much he feels it, as he all but splits in two by the spine with each tug, pull, squeeze, and scrape. He chokes when Ares' fingers press against his thundering heart, gasping and on the mismatched rhythm he forces.

He doesn't fully comprehend the situation, when his guts are freed and laid over him in handfuls. He certainly doesn't know how to respond when they are placed in loops that go in and out of him on his heaving chest. Ares says something, and his body goes entirely limp. His hand moves of its own volition. He can't focus.

"Wh---- -what...-?" He squeezes out the word, and it's louder than a whisper, by the barest degree. His eyes on Ares are wide.

That tells him all he needs to know. He grabs what Ares has spooled out of him and shakily pushes it back in through the horrific gash, rushing because Ares has never had much patience when he wants something. He rolls, and his single arm braces the ground before he tries to stand.

His legs bend wrong, they don't abide his desperation and he collapses back to the dirt in agony. His breath leaves him in a gust and pain burns in serrations at his knees. With a groan, Artair curls, hand splayed over the open wound in his stomach. All of him is pain right now. That's all that exists, each erratic pulse of his heart pulling it through all his veins and spilling it in his blood and tears.

But that's what he was made for.

And then his hand moves forward, taking a clump of damp grass. Rain pelts him and Ares and slakes the ground with mud, but even through that, Artair tries to crawl. His hips takes his weight and so does his shoulder and his arm grabs the earth to pull himself further along. How he even moves, he doesn't know. But it is something. He has to survive. He doesn't know how it is possible, but he has to.

[aurorepeuffier]

I animated my little Fern again. He's still doing is best at his new job

[lozziefrenzy]

Let him cook

[swirley1618]

[huyandere]

i drew klavier gavin working at mcdonalds after the gavinners got disbanded

[cheekinpermission]

The new chapter made me sad. Here's some happy content :)

Bonus Erin (Yuu MC) content under the cut!

[patrothestupid]

Werewolf with awootism

[ratsummer]

I think Phantom was fending for himself for years in the pit, running the circles from just about the age a ghoul can probably survive on their own. He was born into a small but loving pack, so he learned how to be a good ghoul kit, but once he was on his own, he didn't have anyone to socialize him as a young adult ghoul. Sure, he'd tag along with the odd band of ghouls here and there when the opportunity arose, but those alliances were born out of necessity and always quite brief.

All this to say, between his lack of guidance from adult ghouls, his trauma, and the neurodivergencies he was born with, Phantom has held on to a lot of ghoul kit behaviors.

When he's first summoned and meeting his new pack, everyone is on edge. He's small for a quint, and has a confusing blend of kit and adult behaviors. Once the infirmary ghouls have confirmed he is in fact an adult ghoul who chose of his own volition to respond to the summon, and not in fact a large kit they've accidentally abducted, everyone relaxes a bit.

At first, as they're learning about how Phantom was living for years prior to his summoning, emotions run high. They all hide it well from him, not wanting to frighten or burden him. Even so, there are many late nights in the den spent whispering and weeping as they process the things they learn of Phantom's past.

As time passes though, and Phantom settles in and gets comfier with all of them, the sadness and anger pass. They learn to interpret Phantom's unusual blend of behaviors, and they love him all the more. No one pressures Phantom to change, or tells him that he's doing something wrong. They accept him for who he is, and as long as he's not uncomfortable, embarrassed, or inadvertently harming himself, they're happy.

And oh, how they love their baby bat.

It took a while for Phantom to relax enough around anyone to purr at all, but now it's almost nonstop. Almost anything will set it off, too. Swiss walks into the same room as him? Purring. Mountain puts a hand on his shoulder to keep him still while he reaches over him for something in the kitchen? Purring. Dewdrop says good morning? Purring. When everyone gets together after a long day to cuddle in the den, Phantom's purrs stand out from the rest. He hasn't quite switched from the cooing, nasally purr of a kit into the rumbling, chest purr of an adult. He's slowly working into his chest purr, especially as he spends time cuddling on Mountain, Aether, and Swiss. Their purrs are deepest and most obviously resonating from their chests, making it easier for Phantom to imitate. Regardless of how he sounds, though, a purring Phantom is a happy Phantom is a Phantom getting many kisses.

Phantom is also working on scenting. The first person Phantom ever tried scenting was Dew, and boy was the fire ghoul confused at first. They were cuddled up on the couch, watching Cumulus teach Swiss some new crocheting techniques, when Phantom started headbutting him. To be fair, it was a gentle headbutting, really more bumping his face into Dew's jaw and nuzzling into him each time. Even so, it caught Dew off guard. Luckily, Rain was sitting on the opposite end of the couch and caught Dew's attention before he could react poorly. Dew, unlike Rain, had never really spent much time around ghoul kits, so failed to recognize Phantom's kit-like attempts at scenting. Rain mimed at him frantically until he got the memo and started scenting Phantom back. "Oh, Phantom," Rain chimed in soon after, "You're being such a lovebug for Dew. He likes gentler scenting though, sweetheart, do you want me to show you? Come here, it's my turn!" And of course, Rain instantly had a lapful of cooing, cuddly ghoul to coach, leaving Dew to roll around and be embarrassed over how in love with Phantom he is.

Phantom also kneads a lot more than most adult ghouls. While the others might do a little kneading here and there when they're feeling deeply sleepy and relaxed, Phantom seems to knead whether he's feeling calm or stressed. His most frequent victims are Cumulus, Swiss, Cirrus, and Mountain, and he kneads on whatever body part is closest. Tummies, thighs, arms, Cumulus even lets him get away with kneading on her boobs. He zones out hard when he starts kneading, almost slipping into a trance. They've all had to do a little correcting for Phantom with this behavior, just to show him how to keep his claws from hurting soft skin and to make sure he doesn't squeeze too hard. Sometimes, when he's having trouble being gentle, they'll pass him a stuffie or a pillow to work instead. He seems to knead the most during mass, Papa's chanting and the choral accompaniment relaxing him. Usually it's Mountain who will grab him when he starts getting glassy-eyed, holding him in his lap and letting him knead away at his arm.

Aether and Cirrus have spent a lot of time helping Phantom with his emotional regulation. Once he's feeling safe and secure with his new pack, that no one is going to hurt him if they notice him, he gets a bit too reactive when his emotions run high. When he messes up the same section of a song for the sixth time, he starts yelling and crying. When he slept poorly, he hisses and growls. When he trips down the last couple stairs in front of some siblings, he hides and mopes for hours, crying and skipping meals. Aether and Cirrus help him learn to identify how is body is reacting in a situation, and what emotion goes with it. They help him respond more calmly, so he doesn't hurt or frighten anyone. They teach him coping skills, like deep breathing, or leaving a room, or asking someone for a hug. It's not always easy, but Phantom is diligent and attentive, and with guidance he quickly finds techniques that work for him.

Yeah, idk. Just. I could go on and on. Phantom being a little different from what his new pack is used to and it's okay. It's not his fault. He's so full of love, and he finally gets to share it. He's so full of love, and his pack is thrilled that he shows them in his own way. Ugh. Nobody look at me.

[bugganox]

He's trying

[brodorokihousuke]

having to use logic to connect "there are 3 cups of coffee" and "there are three chairs set up" is so funny. so this is what you're using your logic skill to figure out, Miles?

Were there really three people? Do you think that? Are you completely, absolutely sure, especially with the previously very obviously noted detail that only three costumes were taken?

[taroddori]

lol 💀

[reebmiester]

falling grayson

[saurix5]

[xray-vex]

[rstarsk]