#he's such an intense weirdo about certain things

[zorobff]

how to disappear. (opla!zoro x fem!reader)

synopsis: joining luffy’s crew made you believe that you’d finally escaped your former pirate crew and nightmare of a captain for good. that is, until a certain butler starts looking a little too familiar. good thing zoro’s keeping a close eye on you.

warnings: opla spoilers (ep 3), some direct dialogue from opla, mentions of verbal/physical abuse, kuro is just a weirdo tbh, reader is called a bitch, protective zoro, for the sake of the story sham and buchie joined the black cat pirates after reader left

word count: 4.7k

���this guy is full of shit.”

you knock your shoulder into zoro’s wider one. “be nice. and so what if he is?” 

zoro gives you a pointed glare. “then we should turn around and look for someone who can actually help us find a ship.” 

“all business, as per usual,” you reply, with a purposefully dramatic sigh. “why can’t you have a little fun?” 

“what about this is supposed to be fun?” zoro spits out the word like it’s poisonous. “this is the blandest village i’ve ever seen.”

you scoff. “now you’re the one that’s full of shit. nothing’s ever bland with us and you know it.” 

the us in question was your newly formed pirate crew… if you and luffy could even be considered that. having left the ship you’d been on a few years ago, you were in search of a new crew. luffy was persistent and charming — when you’d crossed paths in shells town, it took little to no time for him to convince you to join his hunt for the one piece. zoro and nami, on the other hand, had yet to follow in your footsteps. 

“well, considering that we’ve only been traveling together for a day and a half and i’ve already escaped a marine base, defeated a marine captain, and fought a clown with devil fruit powers… i’d actually have to agree.” 

you can’t help but giggle at his sarcastic delivery. “be grateful, zoro. not many pirate crews are this fun to be on, trust me. oh wait, that’s right, you still haven’t officially joined—”

“tell me about your old pirate crew,” interjects zoro, your comment having piqued his interest. 

you notice that the playful atmosphere dissipates. “god, where do i even start?” 

zoro answers that for you. “why did you leave?”

“starting with the hard hitting questions, huh?” you joke, mostly to stall. you clear your throat before you answer. “well, it was different. nothing like what luffy has going on. he actually cares about his crew… and even those who aren’t technically on it.” 

at that, a smile tugs at the corner of zoro’s lips. even you crack a small grin. although as you continue speaking, it fades. 

“on my old crew, we were dispensable. anytime something went wrong, our own captain would threaten to kill us. it was… scary, to be completely honest. there were so many times when i thought i’d die with that filthy crew. and i never wanted that. so as soon as we docked at shells town, i left.”  

zoro’s jaw clenches as imagines the things you’d seen and been subjected to. “this old captain of yours sounds like a real—”

“he was a nightmare,” you tell him. “he didn’t care that i was the only woman on board, he treated me just as horribly, if not worse.” 

zoro stops so suddenly that it takes you a second to realize he’s not walking alongside you.

“what do you mean by that.” the way zoro phrases the inquiry doesn’t even make it sound like a question. more like a demand. his narrowed eyes are fixed solely on you. holding his gaze feels… intense. 

you can’t help but glance away as you answer him. “he was just a bit of a creep.”

before zoro has the chance to try and extract more information out of you, a familiar voice calls both your names. you’re not really sure when you and zoro had fallen behind but from where you currently stand, the rest of your group looks miniature. or perhaps it’s just the massive size of the mansion behind them that makes luffy, nami, and usopp look pocket-sized in comparison. 

“why’d you stop walking?!” your captain shouts, hands pressed on each side of his mouth to amplify his voice. “get over here, we’re about to go in through the top secret entrance!” 

you vaguely make out usopp gesturing for luffy to keep his voice down. you’re sure that would warrant another comment from zoro about his reliability but he’s too busy staring at you with that expectant look in his eyes. 

“we better catch up,” you tell him, heading in the direction of the deluxe home. 

he allows you to dodge the subject and sighs, walking in long strides to catch up to you.  

“i’ve never seen a house this big before,” luffy admits, admiring the mansion along with the wellkept greenery surrounding it. 

“awesome, right?” usopp gloats, walking around like he owned the place. “kaya’s given me an open invitation to drop by anytime i want.” 

“wow.” you’re not sure if luffy was just going along with usopp’s act or if he really believed him. knowing the devil fruit user, it was more than likely the latter. “all this for just one person?”

“well, she lives here with her butler and a few other staff,” usopp replies, leaning against the stone well that sat in the middle of the lawn.

“money really shows you who people truly are,” nami mutters, eyes scanning the property. “most people only care about themselves and what’s theirs.”

zoro is quick to throw the insult back at her. “sounds like someone i know.”

you roll your eyes at his comment, though you make no effort to disagree with him. nami was a little on the materialistic side. 

“and a small staff makes for easy pickings,” she continues, proving your point.

“we just got here and you’re already planning on robbing the place blind?” you ask though you already know the answer.

“at least a little blurry,” she smirks, following behind luffy and usopp who walk toward the entrance. 

you and zoro share a look. one that says disappointed but not surprised. 

going under a shrub shaped as an arch, you’re met with a beautiful pond. you admire the pink lilies that float at the top and the bushes that were intricately trimmed into the shape of various animals. even if the people that lived here were filthy rich, at least they had good decorative taste. 

“so if you have an invitation, why are we going around the back way?” luffy ponders.

usopp’s answer is nonchalant. “oh, i never use the front entrance. like i said, this is the vip entrance reserved for special guests.”

zoro scoffs. “this guy’s definitely–”

“don’t start,” you groan, cutting him off. 

abruptly, usopp freezes and spins around, attempting to usher your crew back. “you know what, there’s actually a more exclusive entrance this way–”

the sharp swoosh of a knife cutting through the air and burying itself in the ground between usopp’s feet cuts him off. from the direction the kitchen utensil was thrown stands a heavyset gentleman with his face wrinkled in anger. his demanding voice booms through the garden, “the hell are you doing here, usopp?” 

the dark-skinned boy fumbles over his word. “buchi, buddy, uh, kaya’s expecting me.”

“another one of your lies,” the man – seemingly named buchi – seethes, grabbing him by the collar. “you ain’t welcome here and you know it.”

“i know nothing of the sort,” usopp retorts, keeping his cool even when he was practically being lifted off the ground by his shirt. “i’m here to give kaya an extra special gift.”

before buchi can get another word out, a feminine voice calls out for your companion. coming down the steps is a frail looking girl in a pink dress. on her arm is a man dressed in a crisp suit, presumably the butler usopp had mentioned earlier. though, from where you stand you can’t see either of their faces too clearly. 

“what a wonderful surprise,” she exclaims, breathlessly. 

“kaya!” usopp exclaims, returning her enthusiasm. buchi has no choice but to let him go, begrudgingly. usopp makes sure to shoot him a smug look before walking towards the young girl. “happy birthday.” 

the butler clears his throat, not afraid to intrude on their special moment. “usopp, we’ve discussed this before. you mustn’t show up unannounced.” 

“nonsense, klahadore.” kaya smiles warmly. “have you come to tell me another story? i do love hearing about your adventures.” 

“i’ll do you one better,” usopp smirks with such confidence that even you’re left wondering what kind of surprise he has up his sleeve. “i brought some of my crew!” he gestures back towards the four of you, proudly. 

your excitement vanishes. “oh. the surprise is… us.”

“well, that’s boring,” luffy agrees, just as disappointed as you are. 

kaya, on the other hand, is none the wiser. “it’s so nice to meet you. you must all stay for dinner.” 

klahadore lowers his voice. “miss kaya, it is a bit last minute. i’m afraid the kitchen hasn’t prepared for any extra guests.”

“please,” begs kaya, softly. “it’s my birthday. can’t be too much trouble can it?” 

giving in, klahadore purses his lips. “anything for you, miss kaya.” 

luffy claps his hands together. “alright! when do we eat?” 

“you don’t. not dressed like that, at least.” the butler directs himself to a staff member with teal colored hair. “sham, kindly show usopp and his friends to the guest suites. you will bathe and change before dinner.”

she follows his orders and leads the way. luffy, usopp, nami, and zoro trail behind her and you go to do the same. however, all it takes is a quick glance to stop you dead in your tracks. usually, you weren’t one to stare but klahadore’s face. that stare. so dark and depraved. 

“yes, miss?” he asks, holding your gaze. “can i help you?” 

“n-no, i…” your throat goes dry as you attempt to recover smoothly. “i just wanted to, um, thank you for being so hospitable.” 

his lips curve upwards into a sinister grin. “the pleasure’s all mine.” as if to confirm your worst fear, klahadore uses his palm to readjust his glasses. his beady eyes gauge your reaction closely.

the familiar gesture sends chills down your spine. appearance-wise, he had changed drastically but his aura was still just as menacing as you remember it. he was still the corrupt pirate captain you used to serve under. you feel like a weak and helpless subordinate all over again.

“klahadore!” giggles kaya. “you’re smiling! that’s certainly a rarity.”

he hums. “i’ve simply come to the realization that having guests once in a while can truly be a delight.”

his sickeningly sweet tone makes your stomach turn. just the fact that you were standing in front of him – captain kuro – again after all these years was nauseating in itself. last you’d heard he had died at the hands of captain morgan. how was this even possible? then again, he wasn’t dubbed kuro of a hundred plans for no reason. he always had a trick or two up his sleeve. you assumed this was no different. 

“hey, you comin’?”

you turn around to see zoro waiting for you. he meets your gaze for a moment. the softness of his eyes is a stark contrast to kuro’s. it’s a breath of fresh air. he then shifts his attention to your former captain and you swear his eyes darken. 

“yeah, sorry,” you mumble, trying not to look shaken as you walk up the steps. 

zoro follows behind you, this time closer than before.

“why would anybody even need this many clothes?”

“it’s not about need with these people, luffy. it’s about want,” nami spits, thumbing through the various fabrics on the wall. 

“at least she’s rich and nice,” luffy replies, innocently.

nami rolls her eyes. “yeah, letting us stay for dinner must be her idea of charity work.” 

“what are we even supposed to wear?” luffy continues, uninterested in nami’s criticism of the rich. 

“anything you want. when are you ever going to get the opportunity to wear things this nice?” 

you step out from behind the changing board where you’d swapped out your old tee and cargo skirt for an elegant satin dress. it was a stunning shade of olive green and frilly lace decorated the edges. not to mention, it hugged your curves in all the right ways.

nami’s eyes widen. “see, she’s got the right idea. you look amazing.” 

you smile, bashfully. “honestly, i feel amazing.”

“you look the same to me,” your captain shrugs.

nami shoots him a death glare but you intervene before she can scold him.

“way to keep me humble, luffy.”

“no problem!” 

at that exact moment, a freshly showered zoro arrives donning a silk robe. he eyes the multitude of garments that cover every inch of the room, not particularly impressed. 

“there you are. don’t you think she looks nice?” nami asks him, gesturing towards you. she doesn’t notice how you shrink under zoro’s gaze. neither does he, as his eyes take their time raking over you, from top to bottom.

he hums. “suits you.” with that, he sets off towards a chair in the corner of the room.  

“seriously?” sighs nami, exasperated. “are you two physically unable to give compliments or something?” 

“hey, doesn’t that butler seem familiar to you guys?” zoro asks, promptly ignoring nami’s complaint. 

his question causes your breath to hitch. you’d pushed the kuro problem to the back of your mind while you were in search of a suitable dinner outfit. you figured that as long as your crew was by your side, he wouldn’t dare try anything. and even if he did… well, you’d seen what had happened to axe-hand morgan and buggy. 

“yeah, i think he was at the last dinner party i attended,” nami replies sarcastically, taking a handful of dresses behind the changing board. 

as he takes a seat, zoro grumbles, “i swear i’ve seen him before.” 

“where?” you can’t help but ask, fiddling with the lace on the neckline of your dress. 

“so far, i’ve got two suspicions. a wanted poster or funky bar on mirrorball island. you ever been?”

you know zoro’s teasing you, judging by the grin on his face. after all, funky bar was known to get insanely rowdy; never would he imagine finding someone as gentle as you there. but what he didn’t know is that it happened to be one of kuro’s favorite bars. per his request, you and the rest of the black cat pirates frequented it often, so he was more than likely right about having seen kuro there. he’d probably even seen you in passing, once or twice. thankfully, he doesn’t seem to have any recollection of that.

the thought of zoro knowing about your past forms a knot in the pit of your stomach. would he think less of you for having joined such a ruthless crew at one point in your life? what if it put a strain on the friendship you’d worked so hard to form? 

“i’ve, uh, heard of it,” you decide to reply, pushing down your worries for the time being. 

he tilts his head slightly, thinking out loud. “then again, i have seen a lot of wanted posters and bars in my time as a pirate hunter.”

you feel a grin creep onto your face. “probably more bars than posters, huh?”

zoro mirrors your smile. “shut up.”

by the time dinner rolls around, the entire crew is doing what they do best. 

luffy is stuffing his face, nami is attempting to swindle one of the staff, zoro is hanging by the drinks, and you’re hanging by zoro. 

“hey zoro, you gotta try this!” luffy calls through a mouthful of food.

“i’ve got all i need right here,” he mutters, taking a swig out of his champagne flute. 

“you know, i don’t think i’ve ever seen you choke down something that isn’t alcohol,” you comment, watching the way he downs the glass in one go. 

dryly, he replies, “that’s because i haven’t.”

“very on brand.”

“ladies and gentlemen,” calls out that voice from the top of the stairs. “may i present… miss kaya.”

arm in arm, kuro and kaya walk down the steps, all eyes on the birthday girl and her stunning gown. well, except you. your eyes never leave the so-called butler by her side. your jaw clenches when he has the audacity to meet your gaze and hold it. shameless bastard. 

once they reach the bottom, merry leads kaya to the guests while kuro takes his post at the bottom of the stairs… right next to the drink table. before you can think about steering yourself and zoro away, kuro speaks.

“forgive me if i am speaking out of line, madam, but i must inform you. you look positively radiant,” he purrs, soaking in your appearance. he looks ready to pounce.

you can’t stop your eyes from rolling. good to know he’s the same pervert he used to be.

looking between you both and sensing your discomfort, zoro steps in. “and you look familiar.” 

kuro’s head stiffly turns to face him, eyes peeling away from you. “highly doubtful, sir.” 

“funky bar? mirror ball island?” 

“funky bar?” kuro repeats, disgusted. “well, i can assure you i’ve never patronized that type of establishment.” 

while it was amusing to see your highly esteemed former captain lie through his teeth, the tension between him and zoro was unbearable. 

“well then.” zoro continues with his little interrogation. “ever been on a wanted poster?”

you cringe at his bluntness. sometimes it seemed like he had less of a filter than luffy.

kuro puts on a scandalized face at the question. “sir! such an accusation is highly offensive.” tugging on his collar, he goes to remove himself from zoro’s probing. “now, if you’ll excuse me, i’m going to help prepare the dinner table.” 

he leaves, en route to the dining room. zoro’s eyes follow his figure until he disappears, squinting as he racks his brain for any further recollection of this suspicious butler. 

you sigh. if zoro was going to continue being so relentless, you were sure the night would end in bloodshed and uncovered secrets. 

“keep this coming,” zoro demands, handing the empty wine bottle to sham. she takes it with a glare. 

“would it kill you to say please?” you ask, slicing the slab of fish on your plate into smaller pieces.

“the service here is shitty. why should i have to be polite?” 

you scowl. “remind me to never have dinner with you again.”

zoro turns to you with that cocky grin of his. “what if i asked nicely?” 

his quip makes your heart flutter but you manage to keep your composure. “you can try your luck.” 

before he can respond, usopp speaks up. “luffy, isn’t there something that you wanted to talk to kaya about?” 

luffy gesticulates enthusiastically with his fork. “oh, yes! usopp told me that you own the whole shipyard.” 

“well, actually, my parents founded the shipyard and merry’s been running the business since they… passed. but all that’s about to change. tonight, at midnight, i will become the sole owner.” she smiles somberly. 

“well, that’s great,” luffy says, raising his drink at her. “because we want to buy a ship from you.” 

“ah, i see. usopp mentioned that you’re sailors.” 

“nope, not sailors. we’re pirates!”

you’re certain at least three people at the table choke on their food, yourself included. 

“this ought to be good,” zoro mumbles behind his glass.

you’re too busy coughing into your napkin to chastise him for finding this entertaining.

“pirates?” kaya repeats, unsure of how to react. 

“yup! we haven’t sailed together for very long but we’ve already defeated an evil clown, raided a marine base, and taken down a captain with an axe! for a hand!” luffy holds up a fist, presumably to impersonate axe-hand morgan.

“sounds a lot like your adventures, usopp,” kaya says, turning to the brunette.

all he can do is laugh dryly. “yeah, that’s… that’s crazy.” 

“and we’re just getting started!” luffy continues, climbing up onto the table.

“someone put me out of my misery,” you mumble, looking down at your plate to ignore the secondhand embarrassment.

a tap on your shoulder answers your plea.

turning around, you find yourself face to face with kuro once again. “madam, a word please?”

“might i ask what for?” zoro cuts in before you can so much as think of a response.

kuro offers him the most forced grin you’ve ever had the displeasure of seeing. “i’m afraid that is between the lady and i.”

the swordsman turns to you, scanning your face for any ounce of discomfort. “you okay with that?”

you inhale, figuring it was finally time for you to confront the darkest part of your past. it was silly to assume you would be able to ignore him throughout your entire stay here. besides, you were sure zoro, just like the rest of your crew, would be on standby if kuro got brave enough to try anything. “sure. just… keep an eye out.”

zoro understands completely. truthfully, you didn’t even need to ask – he always looked after you. “got it.”

you push yourself out of your seat and smooth out your dress. you allow kuro to lead you to the doorway – he was smart enough to know that was the farthest you’d let him take you. 

“what do you want, klahadore?” you seethe, folding your arms.

he arches a brow. “why must you call me that? it’s ridiculous.” 

you tilt your head with faux innocence. “oh? is that not your name? must have misheard.”

he gives you an irritated look, dark eyes drilling into you.

“i remember that look,” you mutter, your memory serving you well. “it’s the same one you’d give me before you’d threaten to slice me to bits with your claws.”

kuro has the audacity to chuckle dryly. “but i never did, did i? although there were certainly times times where i should’ve.”

“what you should be is dead,” you hiss bitterly. “when i heard the news, i knew it was too good to be true.”

“you wound me, kitten,” he drawls, reaching up to fix his glasses. 

the condescending nickname makes your skin crawl. it carried so many awful memories of your time spent with the black cat pirates. it reminded you of just how weak kuro viewed you — nothing but a helpless, pitiful kitten in his eyes. typical of the man that abused his authority and treated you with not a single ounce of respect. 

he continues, putting on a sweet tone. “after all these years, stuck waiting hand and foot on that spoiled brat, there’s nothing i’d love more than to hear my favorite crew mate say my real name.”

you snap at him. “i’m no crew mate of yours.”

he sighs, dramatically. “sadly, you’re correct. after all, you did slip off the ship the moment we docked in shells town. locating you on an island crawling with marines proved to be nearly impossible. we had no choice but to leave without you.”

“that’s exactly why i chose to escape there.” 

“and to this day i can’t for the life of me figure out why you would ever do that. why would you want to leave us? leave me?”

you actually laugh right in his face. “is it really that hard to figure out? you were evil. you threatened and harassed me on a daily basis.”

“so your solution was to join that ragtag crew?” he glances at the table. “it’s pathetic, even for you.”

you lean into his face, lowering your voice down. “i’m happier than i ever was on your shitty crew. every day i wake up grateful that i managed to escape you.”

you see that vein on his forehead bulge before he’s gripping you by the chin. “listen here, you little bitch–”

the shiny silver of a sword slides between you and kuro, coming to rest against his neck. his adam’s apple bobs as he gulps anxiously, releasing you. thanks to zoro’s sword, it seemed as if he finally remembered where he was. you were no longer on his ship, he was no longer allowed to treat you like the dirt he walked on. not without someone noticing, that is. 

“why don’t you step away?” zoro offers simply.

that much was a kindness. usually those who found themselves on the end of zoro’s blade(s) weren’t lucky enough to receive a warning. however, the swordsman didn’t wish to cause a scene. at least not when you were right there and everyone was watching with shock from the dinner table.

kuro obliges, stumbling back. he meets kaya’s horrified eyes, feeling ashamed that he allowed his act to slip. surely this would cause some setbacks in his plan. with no excuse for his uncharacteristic behavior, the raven haired man scurries away and up the stairs.

zoro turns and locks eyes with luffy, giving him one singular nod. luffy returns it, jumping out of his seat and going after the butler. quiet murmuring breaks out at the dinner table, everyone surely confused. 

sheathing his sword, zoro directs his attention to you once more. “are you alright?” a calloused hand comes up to grip your chin, much like kuro had. however, this time, the touch is gentle. loving, almost. you welcome it.

“yeah, i’m… fine.” your heart is beating out of your chest and it has everything to do with your close proximity to zoro.

he tilts your face around, inspecting every inch of it. once he finishes, he pulls back. his demeanor goes serious once more. “we need to have a talk.”

you nod. “i know. i’ve been keeping some things from you guys and–”

“just tell me what’s been going on,” he demands. “and don’t overcomplicate it. you can be straightforward with me.”

his sincerity makes you start over, this time far more candidly. “klahadore used to be a pirate. i was part of his crew. he was my… captain.”

the shame in your voice pulls at zoro’s heartstrings. didn’t you know there was no reason to feel guilty with him? “is that it?” 

you open your mouth to speak but come up empty. all you can do is furrow your eyebrows at his unexpectedly dismissive reaction.

“i knew it,” zoro continues, annoyed. “i knew i’d seen him on a wanted poster before. just didn’t have any proof.”

“wait, so you don’t– you really don’t care?” you ask, still avoiding eye contact. “me being a former black cat pirate doesn’t bother you?”

he shrugs. “you said it yourself. ‘former.’ all that matters is that you got the hell out of there. and away from that creep. would he always put his hands on you like that?”

you blink a couple times, sighing. “his temper was really bad so–”

that seemed to be enough for zoro. “i’ll kill the bastard,” he hisses. “wanted to slice him to bits the moment i saw him grab you.” 

though it’s a violent threat, you can’t help but smile. the idea of zoro being so protective that he’d kill a man just for touching you made you blush. pirate love language, you suppose.

“well, i wouldn’t have stopped you,” you tell him, more than ready to see your former captain go.

zoro clicks his tongue. “nah. could’ve stained your new dress with his blood. i never would have been able to forgive myself.”

“so you do have a soft spot,” you tease.

“only for pretty things.”

“do you mean me or the dress?” 

now it’s zoro’s turn to become bashful. though, his lack of response is an answer in itself. you can’t help but giggle. 

a loud bang from upstairs interrupts your moment with the green-haired man. you assume luffy had gotten his hands on kuro… or vice versa. zoro must be thinking the same thing judging by the way he instinctively rests a hand on the handle of his blade.

“you should go up there,” you tell him. “i’ll stay with kaya.”  

he gives you a nod, though he doesn’t make any effort to leave. he stands there like he wants to say something… or do something. before you can think about it too much, you pull him in by the collar and crash your lips onto his. they’re slightly chapped and taste like the wine that’d come from the cellar – it’s pleasant. his large palms come to rest on your lower back; his hold feels tight and secure. 

when you finally allow yourself to pull away, you’re biting back a smile. “kick his ass for me.” 

“will i get more of that if i do?” asks zoro, wetting his lips. they now taste like the cherry lip gloss you’d borrowed from kaya. he takes a step forward, attempting to close the gap between you two once more.

you shrug, pushing him away by the chest. “go help luffy and we’ll see.”

you both know that means yes.

[simonbrain]

I just saw the post you made for creepy weirdo simon and ngl, I need more. Maybe even one for soap too. Your brain is very 🤌

i feel like with simon, he knows when to not push the limits too much. for all the shit you put up with, there have only been a few times he's actually made you uncomfortable, and he's never done them again. but he does attempt to get to that point without actually crossing the line—it's almost like a game for him. it's just lucky that you love him so much. you knew what you were getting into with this creep, so you beam at him and give him a sloppy little kiss on the lips whenever he's up to no good. simon thinks it's cute that you enable him.

with johnny, however, i think he comes on way too strong. on the first date, he took notes of your coffee order, the way you did your hair and the accessories you wore, your mannerisms. he paid close attention to everything you said, taking each word to heart and not blinking once. you brushed off his intensity because this was your first date in a while and it was nice to be sought after, especially by someone as handsome as him, so you kept the same energy even if his staring made you feel shy.

after that, he's already looking up your family history and friends online, your past homes and the places you've lived (even for very briefly), your workplace. he's stalking keeping tabs on you while you're running errands and noting the things you're buying and the places you go to; he's even taking a few pictures of you to show the lads his new girl.

by the time the second date rolls around, he's vibrating in his seat, trying to hold himself back from blurting out that he has your engagement ring in his pocket.

(when he actually has you as his missus and he's certain you won't run away, he tells you all about his crazy ass behaviour before you got together, about how he was already dreaming about having a nice, big family with you and how he was ready to get on his knees and sing his praises.

you cut his rambling off by leaning forward and shoving your tongue down his throat, eager to have sex for the nth time. you were right; it's nice to be showered with so much love and attention by your man.)

[desos-records]

The part I appreciate the most in the Lockwood and Co show is how it handles depression and suicidal thoughts in teenagers. As a theme, it’s not often (ever) done well. Lockwood and Co is the only story I can think of that depicts it in a nuanced, realistic, non-romanticized way

but first, before I get into it: [if you’re in crisis or need someone to talk to and don’t want to/can’t use your national hotline, highly recommend Samaritans, genuinely saved my life] okay, let’s go

Lockwood is the most obvious, with his general disregard for his own life and admitted suicidal ideation. Lucy struggles with her self-worth and the intensity of the emotions she’s subjected to. George worries that he doesn’t belong, that there’s something useless or wrong about him. The show depicts these thoughts and feelings in a way that isn’t overblown or dramatized, it’s all but casual. Which is how it happens. Depression or suicidal thoughts don’t crash into you all at once, they creep into your life without you noticing

But more importantly (and again, something I’ve never seen anywhere else), the show also offers counterpoints to those thoughts and feelings. It shows that there is a way out, even though you may feel trapped and hopeless. This is crucial for the show’s target demographic. Bad media depictions of depression or suicide get internalized, contribute to the stigma, and make it harder for people to ask for help. This show doesn’t do that. This show tells its audience that, yes, things are scary and painful and it fucking sucks, but it’s not hopeless. And it says it so well

In the second episode, when Lucy wants to quit, she admits something that I’m almost certain she’s never told anyone

“sometimes I just think I’d be better off dead”

And when I watched this the first time, I expected Lockwood to react the way I’ve seen people react in my own life; with silence or panic or downright dismissal. But he didn’t. He stays calm and he says something that is so so important to hear when you’re struggling under the weight of feelings like this

“I understand that”

Saying this tells someone several things: that you’re on their side, they aren’t strange or monstrous for feeling like this, and that you’re not going to attack or abandon them because of it. And you can see the impact it has on Lucy, the way her face clears. She went from struggling to breathe and near tears to calm and steady. It’s no mistake that in this moment we hear his and Lucy’s theme for the first time (those simple, beautiful guitar strings)

The next thing he says is also important

“and it’s not true”

Simple, to the point, directly addressing her feelings, and (the most common mistake) doesn’t make it about him. Telling someone that you love them or that they’d be upset to lose you might sound nice, and it can be later on in the conversation, but in a moment like this, it’s infinitely more helpful to confront the thought itself

A similar moment in the first book stuck with me too, when they’re underneath Combe Carey Hall and Lucy almost steps into the well. What she’s hearing in her head (and the general phenomenon of malaise that ghosts produce) is very similar to depressive or suicidal thoughts. Before she can fall, Lockwood pulls her back

“no, Lucy, that’s not the way it’s going to be”

Depressive and suicidal thoughts deal in absolutes, so sometimes it takes an absolute to counter it

In the last episode, George has that heart-breaking moment where he says all the awful things he thinks about himself, partly because of the influence of the boneglass and Bickerstaff, but it’s also been building up, there in the background. Increasingly, it’s Lockwood and Lucy working together and George working on his own, which picks at old wounds (engineer, engineer, engineer, weirdo). He bonds with Joplin because he feels like she understands him in a way the others don’t

“it’s nice to have someone to show off to”

But Lucy pushes back against all that because she sees herself in all the ugly things George is saying, because she’s felt that way too. She understands that. She’s so surprised and horrified to hear him saying those things, resigning himself to dying down there, she’s not going to let him go on believing them

“you’re not a third wheel or an oddball or whatever it is that you think you are”

“you’re the best of us”

“we are not losing you, Georgie”

Flo called him that earlier too, but Lucy wasn’t there for that and coming unprompted from her it sounds so much like something you might call your slightly annoying younger brother. She’s so absolute about it all, with no opening for doubt, and you can see something like surprise on George’s face (but also pain because now Lucy’s in danger too)

For all Lucy knows, the boneglass will kill her. I don’t think for a second she genuinely believes her talent will protect her; she told Joplin that to protect George. It’s unclear when exactly she came up with the plan to use the skull, but she was willing to risk it anyway. And she knows, she knows, George will blame himself for this (because she would too, if it were the other way around), but even then, she’s very clear

“this isn’t your fault”

Their whole scene down in the catacombs is two kids trying to keep each other alive, physically obviously, but on the inside as well. And, oh god, George almost crashing down next to Lucy after he’s knocked over the boneglass, trying to wake her up. His voice

“Lucy, Lucy, it’s me, it’s me, say something, speak to me”

I think it’s down in those catacombs that George and Lucy really understand each other for the first time. In their own ways, they’re both curious and suspicious about the Problem and what causes it, trying to learn more about it (and stressing Lockwood out in the process). They both left their families; they both struggle with feeling strange and different than everyone around them. That connection pulls them both back from the edge

Lockwood, for all his confidence, is practically in crisis or was fairly recently (I suspect living with George helped). It’s fairly common, actually, for someone suicidal to overcompensate with an exterior shell to hide it, which can manifest in different ways depending on the person (they may not even realize they’re doing it, I didn’t)

And I love how the show handles it. He’s not made into this dark, tragic figure. He’s so full of life it hurts. He jokes around with George and Flo, fights with Kipps, admires Fairfax. He has dreams (plans) for the future. He’s struggling with trauma, they all are, but he’s not Broken™ in the way similar leading characters are often made out to be, in the way we often fear we are

And, of course, there’s Lucy, a wreaking ball through the precarious balance of Lockwood’s life. It’s not so much that she gives him a reason to live (although she definitely helps), but she holds him accountable in a way no one else does. This is the difficult part of recovery that no one talks about. Having people care for you (George) and sympathize with you (Flo) is great and necessary, especially early on. But at some point, you have to take responsibility for yourself and the noise in your head (you have to open your door on the landing)

What that looks like is complicated and messy and different for every person, but seeing it played out in a story is remarkable. I’ve never seen anything like it. This is a difficult thing for anyone to learn (many adults never even try)

That shot of George, Lucy, Lockwood (and Kipps) rising up on the catafalque sums it all up for me. Each of them fell into darkness alone and rose out of it together. They inspired each other to fight and win their individual battles, even when they couldn’t be there to help

[milkywayhou]

"One step backward. Two steps forward"

Summary: “호랑이🐱: Congrats to the happy couple! @Hans839 I’m sure you’ll take good care of our Snow.”

Or

Snow make one silly post and it accidentally blew up.

TWs: Nothing. Just some weird stuff.

Words Count: 900+ words (Not really much)

It was meant as a harmless joke – Snow never dreamed it would cause such a stir. It all started when she took a rare week off to help a friend with their photography project. Trying on various elegant gowns was good wholesome fun – at least until she impulsively snapped a selfie in her favorite flowing white gown with some vague caption about “Feeling nervous for the big day”

Her post were blowing up with congratulatory messages, assuming the gown meant something more significant. Snow laughed it off, replying with bubbles and clown emojis.

Suddenly she noticed a new tag in one of the comments from a certain Korean operator, Horangi.

“호랑이🐱: Congrats to the happy couple! @Hans839 I’m sure you’ll take good care of our Snow.”

Squinting in confusion, she clicked to see who this “Hans” person was that he had tagged – only to realize that the account was set private.

Then Snow nearly dropped her phone in horror when Horangi’s congrats and mysterious tag unleashed a torrent of notifications – their colleagues from KorTac flooding her post, assuming the worst.

Her blood ran cold.

Even some higher-ups Snow barely knew chimed in with off-color jokes. Great, now she’d given the crotchety old Admirals yet another reason to gossip about her love life.

Holy shit, was this some practical joke? Snow wracked her brain trying to connect the dots as more congratulatory messages poured in.

All at once, things clicked into place. Hans must be a high rank man on their base. And knowing Horangi’s mischievous streak, he had purposefully tagged the him just to stir up trouble. Judge by his name this Hans dude was probably a German person, and she was aware of the fact their Colonel is a German.

Fuck

It was König.

As in, her commanding colonel at KorTac, König. The scary, stoic commander she’d only ever patched up in medbay. Faceless weirdo who’d never said more than four words to her but ALWAYS stared so intensely she swore he hated her guts. Snow had no idea he even had social media, much less that his profile was connected to his real name! What was Horangi thinking?

There was only one thing to do – delete the evidence and face the heat wave of embarrassment back at base. But when Snow pulled up the post, she froze again when she noticed more senior commanders had already congratulated her! Deleting it meant the possibility of loosing her face on her workplace!

That day, Snow was mortified hurrying back to base, ready to hide in the weapon lockers for a year and came back later like nothing happens, praying and hoping everyone will forget about her silly post that created these misunderstanding if she suddenly show up one day with a big smile and say “Oh, no, That post is just a joke hahah. And no, I don’t marry the colonel. It was Horangi’s idea haha..” Oh how she wish it was easier like that. Pretty sure it wouldn’t end too well.

“Soooo, when’s the big day? I call being best man.” Snow’s panic must have showed, because Horangi chose that moment to saunter over with a shit-eating grin.

“Horangi I swear to God, you and I are gonna have words-“

“Oh, by the way Colonel König wants to see you, Snow. Good luck…” And with that he leaves doing only God knows what while humming something that sound similar with ‘Here Comes The Bride’, leaving Snow shuddered to imagine König’s reaction, quietly seething behind his closed office door no doubt.

She was so screwed.

How could she face him now without dying of mortification?

Steeling her nerves, Snow marched over and gave a tentative knock. At his gruff “Enter,” she slipped inside, bracing for the inevitable eruption. Instead she found König leaning back casually in his chair, staring at her with an amused glint that somehow wasn’t comforting at all.

“So Schatz , care to explain this intriguing post I saw over your break?”

Snow spluttered helplessly, launching into a garbled excuse about costumes and photoshoot as König watched with growing amusement. Finally he cut her off, standing to slowly circle her desk until she was caged between his arms.

“I see. Well since we’re apparently already engaged…” His predatory tone sent a shiver down her spine. “…We may as well have some fun with it, ja?” That’s when Snow knew she was absolutely fucked when she felt the cold feeling of metal on her ring finger. She sighed before replied back, fighting a smile of her own while mentally plotting Horangi’s demise.

“Of course, Sir”

=====

At the base, König went about his duties as usual. But come evening when things quieted, old habit drew him to Snow’s profile like a moth to flame when she was away from him. What he found made his breath catch.

There she was, his beautiful Schatz, beaming radiantly in white satin. Before reason could intervene, König double tapped to like the photo, mouth curving up at the image he hoped to see for real someday.

Unfortunately one certain meddlesome comrade had been watching too, ready to seize any opportunity. Not long after, a notification popped up on König’s phone – Horangi had tagged him in a comment on Snow’s post, congratulating them both excitedly.

On the one hand, he knew Snow too well, It was undoubtedly just an innocent tease on her part. But on the other hand, the thought of another man putting that gown on her, claiming HER as their wife... Makes König saw red. At that moment strange knot formed in his stomach as he studied the photo more closely than proper.

And then, an idea took hold that he might be able to use this amusing misunderstanding to his advantage…

=======

Phewww. I just done write this one a few weeks ago. Don't worry, I'll continue the other fic later but don't know when, since my right ear is getting worse and I might go seek medical treatment.

Also Love, Reblogged and Comment will be really appreciated!

[f4riedimples]

MY COLLECTION

pairings: pimp!sam carpenter x f!reader

warnings: mentions of drugs,underage drinking,sexual harassment ,provocation dancing, prostitution

wc: 1241

a/n: hi everyone, just wanted to finally come back since I’ve only been active on wattpad recently. Hope it’s not too bad!

Oh.

this has to be the worst mistake of your life.

like your whole fucking life. You knew this was a bad idea but you loved Sam so you did it anyways. It took some time convincing but you caved.

you don’t even know why she wanted to start doing this. You were only dancing but even that made you feel a certain type of way because of the way it went.

Sam would invite people over, get them tipsy, get you and the “client” in the room, you would dance, get paid, and that was that.

you didn’t complain since it would bring in a lot of income a week.

On the fourth day you made just 950 dollars in two hours. And it just kept increasing from there. But this didn’t seem worth it anymore.

it all started just a few nights ago. Sam told you who you would take to the room and dance for and that was supposed to be it.

afterwards though you saw the creepy state the guy was giving you. After he paid all his money he tried to grab you but your waist and sit you on the bed.

you immediately got up not feeling comfortable. “No touching, nothing further.” You replied calmly before trying to move past the man and check your earnings.

The dance was quite short but he still paid around 300-400. “Take off your clothes.” He order as he looked you up and down.

you almost froze up in shock and disgust. You knew this would probably happen sooner or later. “That’s not my job.” You denied with a small bit of attitude.

“I’ll give you five dollars, just take your clothes off and fuck me!” He demanded impatiently assuming your it was part of your job or you should go further instead of just selling the fantasy.

“sir, like I said, that’s not my goddamn job.” You didn’t want to raise your voice since this wasn’t a regular. You never know what this man could pull out of do.

Things were getting too intense too fast and you just needed it to stop. As the man tried to get near you again you just wanted to grab the knife hidden in one of the drawers.

just as he was about to reach you, you heard a small bang on the door. “Open. Now.” It was Sam. It was Sam! You immediately ran to the door and unlocked it.

just so no one could sneak in and try to get a free dance with friends, it was a responsibility to lock the door.

Sam immediately came in and glared at the man. ��What the hell happened?” She asked already seething. She had heard some of this from outside of the door.

“she won’t fuck me.” The man tried to stay confident even though he knew Sam would be pissed off.

“asshole, she’s a dancer, not sex worker.” Sam hissed before guiding you behind her. It made you feel a bit safer knowing Sam had did something and was here to help you now.

“get out.” Sam said and the man had no choice but to leave. After this Sam immediately stopped the party and everyone went home.

she sat you on the bed and lightly caressed your cheek with her thumb. “princesa, I’m so sorry. Did he hurt you?” Sam asked feeling guilty.

you shook your head only feeling a bit shook up. “No, he didn’t. Thanks for saving me.” You whispered a bit down by the experience.

“There’s no need to thank me. I’ll always protect you from weirdos like that.” She spoke softly before hugging you. You couldn’t help but tear up.

now however you were worried things would be different.

it had been around a month since the whole incident and you were Sam were out on a date. Sam had brought up the idea of bringing in another girl which made you feel a bit jealous.

you never knew if Sam could try to find interest in a new girl. Even though you knew she was joking you couldn’t shake off another feeling you had towards the idea. Fear. Or maybe guilt.

You knew Sam would probably bring in another really young girl desperate for money who wouldn’t know how dangerous this was until it was too late. You couldn’t imagine what could happen.

you couldn’t imagine someone else go through what you did or worse while you stand by participating.

that’s why you had to tell Sam what was on your mind. “Hey Sam? We need to talk about something serious.” you were gonna be open and hope for the better.

Sam immediately got serious and paid close attention. She stare at you still with her usual caring eyes as she waited for you to speak.

“I don’t think I wanna do this. Not anymore or ever again. This whole pimp and dancer thing is just not for me.” Even before you had agreed to do this you knew that even actual strippers or dancers can usually be followed home or harassed by creepy guys.

you knew that some men and other woman felt entitled to seeing more even if that wasn’t on the fine print.

Sam took a tense breath before shooting back. “Are you serious? Like- are you sure that you wanna do this?” Sam was cautious and hesitant not wanting to seem insensitive. She also knew this could lead to lots of troubles.

she tried to respect you and what you wanted. She tried not to be so blinded by the money. At the end of the day you were still her girlfriend.

“yes.” Your voice was soft and you almost felt bad. You didn’t want to disappoint Sam but you also wanted to put yourself first.

“then okay. That’s how it’ll go. I’m just surprised because you seemed to enjoy it especially when the nights were late.” Something about Sam’s last sentence caught you off guard.

on late nights you would decide to get a little extra tipsy to loosen up your nerves but not because you wanted to do more with these clients. “Excuse me?”

“you just seemed to really like it. You never complained.” Sam spoke a bit more quietly as if she was nervous to say. She started to realize maybe this wasn’t the best idea.

“you’re the one who asked me to do this. I could’ve said no but I didn’t because ends needed to be met and I loved you.” Sam was the one who had offered you this after seeing you give her a lap dance.

she realized how good you were naturally and decided that maybe she shouldn’t “let your talent go to waste”.

before this you never consider Sam would ever even have an idea like this. She would tell you how you would deserve the best but right now it didn’t feel the same.

You’ve been dating each other for around a year and known each other for way longer. how could this be your girlfriend.

“I know. And I’m sorry. I was selfish and was desperate to pay the rent and the bills and get more than cheap food.” You let out a soft breath as your nerves temporarily calmed down.

you reached out and held Sam’s hand. “And I forgive you.” You smiled sweetly before pressing a soft kiss against Sam’s lips.

but will things fall back in place?

[hannahssimblr]

We spend the afternoon here, talking about all the things that come into our heads, most of which is music, happily, as I always have a lot to say on the subject. I let her go through my CD collection, and she confesses she hasn't heard of most of the artists.

“Bloc Party, really?” I say, showing the CD to her. “You don’t know them?”

“No! Why would I?”

“I don’t know, because they’re famous?”

“I know Eminem,” she picks that one out of the pile, and I smirk, “That’s a pretty old one. I don’t really listen to it anymore.”

“Hm,” she turns it over in her hands. “Well, just letting you know, you forgot to take all the stickers off.” Her thumb nail picks at the corner of the parental advisory sticker, and I snatch it out of her hands. 

“No, leave it.”

“Leave it?”

“Yeah, the sticker stays on. C’mon, everyone knows that.”

She examines me like I’m the weirdo. “Um! It’s a sticker, the same as a price tag. You just peel it off like a normal person would.”

“No, you keep it on so everyone knows you listen to music with bad words in it.”

This makes her laugh. “Oh, yeah, very important. Sorry. I would have peeled it off, because if my mam saw an album with that sticker on it, she’d have brought it to the charity shop the next day.”

“Bit strict, hm?”

“Yeah, I suppose. She just doesn’t like the idea of me being exposed to certain things.”

I’d like to ask Evie what specifically she’s not allowed to be around, but judging by the bizarre way Shane clucks around her like a mother hen, I can guess. Alcohol. Drugs. Boys like me. I’m curious what it’s like to have parents that care about any of that stuff. I can’t imagine. 

“How would she feel about you coming to the festival? Does she know there’ll be songs with bad words there?”

“No, obviously,” she gives me a playful shove, “She’s not going to be going on iTunes and finding the artists. She barely even knows how to use the internet, and she’ll be fine about the festival as long as she knows Shane is there.”

“What’s it with Shane, anyway?”

“Oh, God. She loves Shane. For some reason, she’s just obsessed with him, and keeps trying to get me to go out with him.”

“You don’t want that though, do you?”

She snorts. “Hardly. That’d be so weird.” She grabs my Prodigy CD and slips the booklet from inside. “He’s like my brother or something. It’s just sick.”

“Right, right, so, like, just curious, what kind of guy would you-”

“That’s you,” she interrupts, holding a picture of Keith Flint with his tongue out up to my face. He’s got that green, clown hair thing going on and really intense black makeup under his eyes. I laugh, surprised. “What?”

“That’s you,” she taps her nail against it. “Him.”

“Why? Because he looks bad?”

A shrug, “Yeah.”

God, it’s so stupid. I understand there is no sophistication to this joke, that it’s just an ugly-looking man, but that’s exactly why it’s so funny. She grins at me as I snicker into the back of my wrist. “What?”

“You know that’s good, c’mon.”

“I actually don’t know why I even said that. That’s the sort of thing I say in my own head.”

“Very funny, okay, well two can play at that game.”

I reach for my Dodos, Beware of the Maniacs album, and she starts protesting before I can say a word. “No!” she says, “No, no! That’s not me!”

“Uh huh!” 

“That’s offensive, you can’t say that!”

“Evie…” I show her the image.

“No!”

“...Is that you?”

I grab her leg and we fall about, howling, wiping tears from our eyes, laughing until I think I might be sick. If someone ever asked me what we were laughing about, I’d have to play it off, and pretend that I didn’t really think it was so funny, that it was a bit juvenile and stupid, but I would be lying about the first part. For some reason, nothing has even been as hilarious as pointing to an image of a big, looming bald man’s face and asking Evie if it is her.

It goes on like this, as we try to find more ugly things to compare each other to, eventually pulling that magazine from under my bed and wiping off the dust to flip through, eventually landing on an very serious article about a family of inbred royals from Austria. We don’t even have to say anything. I just turn the page and we start shrieking. 

“Oh, God,” Evie’s face is red, and she has tears in her eyes. “I promise I’m usually not this weird in front of people.”

“Me neither, fuck sake, we have to calm down.” 

We look at the picture and burst out laughing again. 

I decide it would be cool, eventually, to show off my immaculate, curated CD collection. I hold her hostage while starting and stopping my CD player, running through all the best songs and the best albums in my possession. Evie keeps pretending to know them, but then doesn't recognise their biggest hits. 

“Of course I know Gorillaz,” she scoffs. “I just don’t know this song, is all.”

“This is Feel Good Inc.”

“Yeah, I just don’t know it.”

“You’re lying to me!”

“No! I’m not caught up on new music yet! I don’t have time for everything…”

“Evie…”

“What?”

“This album is five years old.”

When I try to teach her German, she fares no better. She pores over my textbook, trying her best to pronounce all the long words at the back, the ones that are, like, five different words squashed together into one. I understand the difficulty on one hand, but on the other, it's really not that complicated.

“You have to stop trying to pronounce them weird.” I'm know I am beginning to come across as an impatient person. “It’s not like French. Just think in English.”

She takes a determined breath and gallantly butchers the word “entschuldigung.”

We go back to the start of the book and try “eins, zwei, drei” again. 

“I’m tired of this! I can’t do the throat sound,” she protests, so I relinquish the book and lay it on the bedside table. 

“Well, just pointing it out, but you’d get it after a while if you kept trying.”

She peers at me. “It’s not a very nice language, is it? It sounds harsh.”

“There’s something about it,” I say. “Like any language, you know? Once you get to know it, you start to discover the nice things.”

“Are you worried about having to speak it all the time?”

“Kind of. I’m mostly worried that I’ll have a strong accent, you know? And everyone will just think of me as the foreign guy, rather than who I really am.”

“Hm, yeah, I never thought about that.”

“It’s hard to be myself when I speak German. I just don’t know how to express what I want to say, or to be funny and whatever.”

 “Well, you could just show them an ugly picture in a magazine and say ‘ist das du?’”

“Thanks, I’m sure I’ll come across great.”

Her eyes dart across my face. “I don’t think you should worry. I think everyone will like you, even if you have a bad accent. They’ll know just by being around you that you’re cool, and they’ll line up to be your friend.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah, Jude, I think you’re really nice.”

I smile. Resting my head mightn’t have been the greatest idea, because my body quickly informs me it is time to give in and sleep. Insomniac nights routinely catch up on me by the afternoon, and now heaviness pulls at my lids. With the sun heating my body through the window, and the soft, dreamy melody of a Radiohead song coming from the speakers, I want to stop fighting. Evie too watches the waves outside the window, and her breath moves with them, a meditation. I shut my eyes. It’s just for a few minutes, just to ease the sting. Then we can talk some more. I really want to talk to her more…

Beginning // Prev // Next

Corresponding LG Chapter

[ceapa-mica]

How to befriend Grand Admiral Thrawn

I AM SO BACK! And I wanna thank my friend @thrawnsboots for some ideas for this. 💙

SFW | reader is gender neutral

Taglist: @bingbongooo @dance-like-russia-isnt-watching @ele-millennial-weirdo @enaelyork @jesslove23 @thrawnalani @twincesskorisoka @davesrightshoe @shoe-bag @tearyeve @blackddarling @obbicrystaleo

You want to become Thrawn's friend? Let me tell you how to gain friendship points with the Grand Admiral.

Work hard and contribute good strategies and ideas to his plans.

Be willing to take responsibility for mistakes and errors you've made.

Dare criticize him. Your co-workers would never. Thrawn is glad you're open and honest with him about your concerns.

Thrawn appreciates people he can trust and who keep their promises. Honesty and reliability matters a lot to him.

Show genuine interest in his art collection, and don't mind him explaining art for hours.

You can impress him with knowledge, specifically about art, culture and war. Even more so if he isn't familiar with the knowledge you're sharing with him.

If you want to spend time with him, be prepared for intense sparring lessons in his personal dojo.

Respect Thrawn's boundaries. Period. That goes for both, emotional and physical. If he doesn't want to talk about himself, accept it and move on, and don't be clingy.

Keep in mind that he's a busy man. So don't be disappointed if he doesn't seek you out outside of work all the time.

Learn to read his facial expressions. Thrawn's very good at hiding what he feels and thinks. Only those closest to him can read him, and when you do, he knows putting effort into your friendship is worth it.

Share your hobbies with him if you can. Cook a meal, knit him socks etc. He will appreciate your efforts.

Remember what he likes. How does he like his caf? Favorite artists? Favorite music? Favorite holonovels etc.

Gift giving is one of Thrawn's love languages (platonic & romantic), along with acts of service. He appreciates when you return the favor. Love languages are a two way street!

Let Thrawn feel included. As a Grand Admiral he has a certain reputation to maintain of course. When off-duty, he won't mind if you treat him like you're on the same eye level though. Less formality and more deep conversations.

Make sure Thrawn knows you see him as the man he is. Not only as the powerful Grand Admiral but as an autistic art nerd with an extraordinary mind.

You know you've gained maximum friendship points with this man when he chuckles over one of your jokes

Be prepared to go out of your comfort zone. Thrawn will encourage you to try new things, whether it's food, art or work related.

Thrawn is hard to befriend, but once you manage to earn this man's friendship, he's a loyal soul who will stop at nothing to support you unconditionally and who brings out the best qualities of yourself.

Let me know in the comments what you think or if I missed anything. 💙

[whatyadrawin]

The Fruit After the Flesh 18+ -Chapter 11-

Minors DNI!

Masterlist

Approximately 3,545 words

Pairing: Thomas Hewitt (Headcanon) x AFAB reader

This chapters Warnings:  Sexual language, foul language, use of a slur, depictions of violence. This is Slasher smut, be mindful of that and use your discretion.

A/n: This chapter was an intense write, I flew through it and the momentum continued right into chapter 12. I sort of rushed the art a little due to having a bunch of exams lined up this month plus assignments so please be patient. Let me know if you want to be in the tag list. I update chapter progress on the masterlist whenever something changes.

Please enjoy this chapter! I worked very hard on it so reblogs, comments, and likes are appreciated very much.

Tag List: @fan-goddess , @artxasa , @baybaybear1

Chapter 11

                Charlie made you stay on the property close to the house, if you needed to leave in order to work the orchard or check on the construction on your home, you had to bring him or Tommy along with you. After you told Charlie about the incident, both he and Tommy searched the property for clues, footprints, anything to be able to try and identify who it may have been hiding in the forest that night, but they always came back with nothing. It was as if the shadow person really was just a shadow and nothing more, but you knew what you saw, you saw its form very clearly in the dark of the night.

It had been three days since you told Charlie about it, Luda Mae was on edge worrying about you and your safety. Tommy was also being overly protective of you, he watched you everywhere you went when you were outside, he made you join him in the barn to have you near him while he tended to the animals, you didn’t mind spending the extra time near him.

Today was no different from the rest, the sun was bright in the sky with a cloudless expanse of blue surrounding it. You spent a lot of the morning doing laundry, as you finished hanging up the last of the garments on the outside hang line, you heard a call from Luda Mae,

“Hun, can you come in here when your good and done that laundry?”

You respond in agreement, the final clothespin now tightly pinching one of Tommy’s massive white shirts. You step down from the stool and admire the clothes swaying in the gentle breeze, you felt a certain nostalgia for hanging clothes, your grandmother used to have you help her hang the laundry on the line when you were small, and you never forgot the fresh smell of the outside air on the clothes when you took them down for folding.

You walked into the kitchen from the backdoor with the empty laundry basket in hand, Luda Mae was dressed to leave the house, she grabbed her purse and turned to look for you,

“Oh, there you are. I need to go to the gas station today. Charlie’s gon’ drop me off, then he has to go to town and get some things.” She walks over to grab her sun hat which hung on the wall, and continued,

“Thomas’ gonna be out in the barn with them cows while we’re away, one of ‘em needs a hoof trim so he’s gon’ be a while. Can you stay inside ‘til we’re back? I don’t want to risk you gettin’ hurt by some weirdo or nothin’”

You follow her to the main entrance, you felt compelled to ask,

“Shouldn’t I just stay outside with Tommy?”

Luda Mae is now already opening the door, Charlie is honking the horn in the distance to push her along,

“I just wanna be sure you’re safe hun, it’s mighty boring watchin’ a man shave a hoof down, n’ it takes forever to do.” She opens the door to leave but turns and says some final words,

“Every door in this house is locked, as soon as I close this one make sure to lock it and check the door you came in as well. If you’re in the house at least I know you won’t be messed with. I’ll be back in a few hours hun.”

She shut the door and ran to the idling truck while Charlie reamed her out for taking so long. You lock the door as she asked, and head to the kitchen to lock the back door as instructed. You sigh and look out the window at Tommy who was pushing one of the cows’ legs into the holster to prop it up for the trim -I guess I can go to my room and read for a bit-. When you entered your room, you noticed a bit of dust floating in the air, you decide to open the window to let fresh air inside. You went over to one of the bookshelves in the room and picked out a book you never got to finish from high school titled ‘Island of the Blue Dolphins’.

You lay down on your bed to start the book from the first chapter, each sentence reminded you of the past. The book took you out of your head and into someone else’s world, a story from history retold. As you continued to read you grew tired, your eyelids became heavy and before you could put the book down, you were out like a light.

Tommy was still working on the cow, he was gentle and sliced thin sheets off the keratinous layer keeping in mind the comfort level of the cow. He was at it for over an hour, he decided the cow had enough and deserved to take a break. He unhooked the leg and brought the cow out to the pasture with the others, he watched as it happily bounced away to go find a moist patch of grass to munch on. He missed you, and wanted to check in to see what you were up to and get a glass of water while he was inside.

Tommy unlocked the door to the kitchen and poured himself some water which he guzzled down in an instant, as he filled the cup again, he called out to you but there was no answer; Finishing the next glass of water, Tommy went to look for you, calling your name as he moved through each room, but there was never an answer. He felt a chill go up his spine and began searching more frantically, loudly yelling out to you in hopes you were on another floor. He went to your room and knocked on the door, no answer.

Tommy opened the door and looked around the room, he saw your bed was messed up and the window was wide open. You were gone. He screamed for you, running all over the house in case he was wrong about his assumptions but each room he checked was met with dead silence and no one to see. He ran outside, the barn was the first place to look, nothing. He ran to the wheat field, searched around each corner including inside the silo, nothing. He looked in the car graveyard, opening the doors and trunks, searching under the cars, nothing. The final place was the pond, he ran as quick as possible, he looked through the trees and all around the surrounding forest, he searched the dock and the water, nothing again.

Tommy felt like his world was collapsing in on him, he couldn’t find you anywhere, you were taken from him and he wasn’t there to stop it, he was brimming with rage at his failure to protect you.  Now that you were missing, Tommy was hell bent on finding you, he would search to the ends of the earth if he had to, he won’t stop until you are in his arms again.

-

You woke up in a dark room, it was lit dimly with old string lights. The ceiling and walls of the room were made of dirt, like they had been dug into by a shovel, the walls were reinforced by wood beams that the string of the lights would loop around. You felt exhausted, you could barely keep your eyes open and your vision was going in and out of blurriness. You felt like you were laying down on a hard surface, it was cold in this place, -am, I dreaming? Where am I?- You were too exhausted to panic, when you tried to lift your arm to rub your eyes, you realize you couldn’t, you were unable to move your whole body, the best you could manage was just curling your toes or twitching your fingers.

You groan to see if you could speak, you were able to squeak out a noise thankfully. You hear footsteps coming towards where you lay, a smell follows when the footsteps drew close, body odor, really bad body odor. You push out some words,

“Hhhwho, whos…there?” it was weak but audible.

You hear the footsteps come close to you, a chuckle rattles into your ears, someone walks up to your side and looks down at you, their face is too blurry to make out, they speak,

“Nice o’ you t’wake up.”

The voice was familiar, but you struggled to think of the person it reminded you of, you squeeze out another question,

“Hhhh…hhhwho?”

The person kneels down and gets really close to your face, its Dover. You grumble and try to move to get away but he laughs as you struggle.

“Recognize me now dontcha bitch?” his words were pointed, he continues to speak,

“Finally caught ya when those freaks went away. They fucked up muh dang fire and now yer still alive. I intend t’change that.”

You squirm, tears start to roll from your eyes, -why can’t I move? Please let this just be a bad dream- you blink frantically, feeling like if you could just push yourself then somehow you could get out of there. Dover goes over to a shelf area and grabs some ropes, he comes back to you and starts tying your arms and legs down,

“I drugged ya while y’slept in yer nice cushy bed at the Hewitt house.” He ties your hands together and attached the rope to a pole that was behind you,

“Im gon’ wait ‘till it wears off so y’can get the full effect of what I’m gonna put ya through. Payback fer Tilly just up and givin’ everythin’ away t’some whore from Canada.” He ties your feet together and lifts you so you sit upright against the dirt wall next to were you lay.

He walked away and disappeared around the corner, all you could do was cry, as time passed you started to gain your movement back and were finally able to speak. You didn’t remember anything other than falling asleep in your bed with the book, you felt like you were in a waking nightmare. You tried to scream out for help, calling each of the Hewitt’s names in case either of them could hear you, tears streaming down your face as you yelled.

Dover returned, he mocked your screaming and crying and laughed when you stopped, he looked worse than usual, his beard had grown in and was yellowing already, he smelled like he hadn’t bathed in forever. You try to free yourself from your bonds but they were so tight it just cut into your skin the more you struggled, you look up at him as he stood over you, smirking, you ask,

“Why are you doing this?!”

He tilts his head back to chuckle to himself, then says,

“I deserve some fun b’fore I take up the deed to Tilly’s property, I earned it.”

You respond,

“Where did you go after the fire? And where the fuck am I?”

He kneels down to you, his rank smell overwhelming your senses,

“When I saw the fuckin’ Hewitts drivin’ up I had t’run, so I made my way out to an abandoned lot n’ dug this hole so’s I be able t’kill ya without no one knowin’ where I was.” He looked around and continued,

“Seems it worked. Oh, y’can scream all ya want here, no one’s gon’ hear ya.” He cackled and walked over to the table where he got the ropes from,

“Y’see, Im gon’ take pleasure in fuckin’ ya up. Maybe after I kill ya, I’ll give yer body t’the Hewitts, so they can eat it.”

You hang your head down, the tears dripping onto your legs,

“What the hell are you talking about? Just let me go! If you let me go, I won’t say anything to anyone, please!” you had to choke past your tears to speak, you were so scared of what was coming next, you continue to plead,

“Please let me go, please, I don’t want to die.”

Dover just laughs at you, he turns away from the table and is holding a knife, he inspects the edge of it with his thumb as he walks over to you,

“Y’think I’m stupid? I know If I let y’go, those cannibals’ll be after me.” He kneels down and starts to cut away your shirt exposing your bra,

“Y’gon be mighty uncomfortable in the cold down here. Ain’t no comfort comin’ t’ya. While yer awake and alive, you might as well know the truth ‘bout the freaks you lived with.”

You cut in, “What?”

He smirks and continues to tear away the rest of your shirt,

“Those Hewitts, used t’eat people back b’fore the orchard grew. The economy was down, real bad, everyone left town fer greener pastures. Not them though, those dumb fucks wouldn’t leave their big fancy house. Once the food went out n’ deliveries stopped, the animals starved n’ stopped producin’, they ate what animals were left ‘til there was none.” He looked up past his brows at you,

“That’s when they started eatin’ people. Travellin’ folks would be picked off when they came in town fer gas, killed ‘em all n’ cooked ‘em up fer dinner. That big retard one did most of the killin’, he’d slaughter ‘em all then butcher the bodies fer the meat. He’s evil with how many he killed.”

You just sat still, eyes wide,

“How do you know all this? Why didn’t they kill you?”

He ran the knife up your arm, tracing the tip over your skin, he said,

“I used t’be the one deliverin’ gas to the station, only reason they had a fuckin’ store t’begin with. Then when Tilly came round, she hired me on t’start up the orchard. She paid me t’keep quiet. None of it matters now anyway, I’m gon’ report them to the sherriff, and blame them fer ya dyin’”

You yell at him, “What makes you think they won’t hunt you down after I’m dead?”

He laughs,

“They ain’t gon’ get the chance, the sherriff’ll be called b’fore I leave this hole after I’m done with ya”

You start screaming again, as loud as you could just in case any of the Hewitts were nearby. Dover slaps you across the face,

“Save yer screams fer when the fun starts.”

The sting from his slap was panful, you already felt dizzy from the drugs he injected into you wearing off, the slap just made it all worse. You try to struggle again, hoping to possibly get loose form the rope, Dover was now cutting away at your shorts laughing at your efforts to escape,

“Struggle all ya want whore, yer never getting’ out of those knots.”

You curse at him,

“You fucking evil pig, what are you planning?”

He tears away the cloth from your shorts, now exposing your underwear, the chill of the room now giving your skin goosebumps, you feel so cold you shiver. He says,

“I’m gonna take y’apart, piece by piece.” He laughs to himself as he gets up to grab something off the table again.

You wriggle your hands back and forth; you start to feel the rope loosen so you continue steadily wriggling to help loosen it more. You watch Dover to make sure he still has his back turned, you were able to get your hands free, you start to untie your feet while watching Dover. You were able to loosen the rope on your feet and quickly placed your hands back to where they were, holding the rope with them so he didn’t know they were untied, he turned around and had a larger knife with him now.

He came and squatted down to look over your body, he touched your leg and ran his calloused hand up your thigh,

“Don’t know where t’start.” He said as he looked over your legs.

He placed the knifes edge on your collarbone, he pressed in and you winced in pain, he started laughing maniacally, his eyes closed tightly as he threw his head back with glee. Just as he exposed his neck, you punched him right in the Adams apple and he fell backward choking. He dropped the knife to his side as he held his throat, you picked it up and plunged it into his calf, it penetrated and sliced through his muscle and poked through the other side, he clenched his calf with his hands as he choked, trying to catch his breath.

You removed the rope fully from your feet and ran out of the area, you turned the corner and found a doorway made of scrap metal, you fling the door open and start running, barely able to see in front of you. The pathway was at an incline upwards, it led you to a dead end, you looked around for a door and spotted a ladder, you looked up and saw a wooden latch door. You frantically climbed the ladder and pushed up on the door, it opened up to a field with extremely tall grass, you were almost fully out of the hole when you felt a tug at your foot, Dover was behind you pulling you down, it made you fall to the ground above the latch door and he began to drag you into the hole, you screamed as loud as you could.

You were almost pulled in again but you landed a swift kick to Dover’s face with your free foot, he grunted in pain and fell backward into the hole, letting go of your foot. You closed the latch door and ran as fast as you could through the grass, you didn’t know where you were but you knew you needed to put distance between you and him. The sky was dark, it was already nightfall, you were grateful for the heat, it was warming your cold, exposed body. You snuck your way through the grass, being careful to not leave an obvious trail for Dover to find you. You hear his laugh,

“Im gon’ find you bitch! You can’t hide from me!” His words resonated loudly, he was nearby.

You crouch down low and quiet your movements to try and hide in the grass as best you could. You hear him shuffling haphazardly as he floundered around the brush. He was getting closer; you quietly move yourself to a denser area of the field and kneel down as low as possible. You listened for him, his footsteps were inching closer to you, you could hear his heavy breathing and sat as still and quiet as possible when you saw his legs through the strands of vegetation surrounding you,

“Come out lil’ piggy, I’m gonna getcha” he called out for you in a sing-song way, sounding even more unhinged than before.

He was now right next to where you were, you hitched your breath and lowered yourself further into the grass hoping for the best. After a few seconds of just hearing his heavy breathing, he moved on. You waited for a good minute and then when you couldn’t hear his movements again, you quietly snuck away. You continued moving in the same direction, hoping it was going to at least get you to a road, you raised your head above the grass slightly to see where you should go, a forest could be seen in the distance so you made your way towards that, now running as fast as you could.

Just when you reached the edge of the forest you felt your hair pulled back roughly, it made you fall backward and you yelped in pain.

“Gotcha!” he shouted with glee.

Dover dragged you closer to him by your hair, you scratched and clawed at his hand to release your hair. You were at his feet now, he let go of your hair and stood over top of you, he placed his foot on your stomach and stood onto you, you yelled out for help with your last inhalation. He kept applying pressure, now making it hard for you to breathe in, you punched his leg as hard as you could but this just made him laugh loudly. He dropped himself on top of your body, he placed his legs on your arms to prevent you from moving, you gasp for air and let out another scream.

Dover punches your face, you yell in pain and feel dizzy again, his hands are now around your neck squeezing your throat. In this moment, you feel helpless, you can’t squirm enough to get him off of you and now the blood is unable to get to your brain causing you to slowly slip into darkness. As the world around you begins to fade, you hear a low rumbling, like the growl of a wolf. The pressure from your neck is gone and there’s no one on your body, as the blood starts rushing back into your brain you gasp for air, coughing and sputtering as you roll over onto your front.

The sound you heard was no wolf, it was the revving of an engine, a small engine, a chainsaw.

Next chapter-

[realcube]

˖°.𓆩♡𓆪 .°˖ TROPE GENERATOR for @sofiepofie20

𓆩♡𓆪 part of my lovers level — 3k follower event

𓆩♡𓆪 chosen character: tsukishima kei

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ YOUR TROPE IS...

MATCHMAKER

after being invited by your close friend yamaguchi to a new cafe that just opened, the last thing you expected was to show up and not see him at all. usually he is quite a punctual guy, so you're a bit concerned, but you shrug it off at first, assuming he is just a bit late and it's no big deal.

you text tadashi and wait outside the cafe for around ten minutes — nothing. the lack of response is what prompts you to go inside and wait in there instead, however, when you enter, you see a certain blond-haired boy already seated at a table for two, all on his own. that's when your heart starts thumping in your chest, and you have a suspicion as to what is going on.

and your theory is only confirmed as, on cue, you receive a text reply from yamaguchi.

it reads, "sorry i lied, i'm not coming to the cafe 😭 maybe you and tsukki can hang out instead 😉"

you huff out of your nose as though you were angry, however you couldn't bring yourself to feel even a twinge of irritation towards tadashi as you are mostly consumed by pure nervousness. yamaguchi had been your friend since the beginning of high school but you were never really that close with tsukishima — just mutual friends — but tadashi knew you've had a bit of a crush on tsukki for a while now, so this stunt of his must be his foul attempt at playing matchmaker.

but you weren't going to entertain his schemes; no, not today! you were far too shy to approach tsukishima — a boy you hardly know — and ask to join him for dessert. absolutely not.

swiftly, you spin around on your heels and are about to dart straight out of the place until you feel a large hand on your shoulder hold you back, and familiar voice state, "sofia."

you jerk around at the touch, startled. even more so when you realise who it is standing in front of you — tsukishima kei. he stares down at you with an intense look in his amber eyes, "did yamaguchi invite you here too?"

"yeah." you stutter out, wide-eyed. the last thing you expected was for a guy known for his rudeness to approach you in such a mellow fashion, unless there was some underlying disrespect that you weren't picking up on, but it didn't seem so.

"he did the same to me. what a weirdo." tsukishima mutters that last part but you still hear. it sends a shudder down your spine to hear him talk about his best friend in that way, but admittedly what yamaguchi did could be considered weird and it clearly pissed kei off at least a little, "but since you're here, might as well join me." he points lazily at the table where his bags were placed, then turns to you for a response.

still looking like a deer in headlights, you glance rapidly between him and his table, then blurt out, "sure."

"cool." he says, and you follow him over to his table, and he pulls out your chair for you but in such a casual manner that you wonder if it's deliberate or if he just did it by habit. though he doesn't seem like the type of guy to pull out chairs for everyone.

you take a seat across from him and he plops himself down with a huff, adjusting his glasses as he picks up the menu, and after staring at him for a couple more seconds, you do the same, skimming over their vast selection of food items.

"what are you going to order?" he asks, having already been sat for a while now — when he thought he was waiting for yamaguchi to show up — and decided what he wants.

meanwhile, you've not been given much time to browse at all, "hm, probably something sweet." you muse, noting that it's much easier to talk to him when there is a big menu blocking your view of his piercing amber eyes.

his heart skips a beat when you say that, and admittedly his cheeks heat up a little. it's embarrassing that you saying you'd like to buy a dessert had such a fierce effect on him, but it did. perhaps it was mixture of other suppressed feelings too, but hearing that you had a sweet tooth like he does completely enchanted him.

"so will i." he nods in affirmation, hiding his slight blush behind his menu.

"maybe i'll get some macarons. but they are super expensive; i'm sure you could make them for a lot cheaper."

"you can. i could probably make double the amount for the same price." he comments, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he pretends to be reading the menu.

you lower the paper to display to him your shocked expression, "you know how to bake macarons, tsukki?" immediately after the nickname leaves your mouth, your cheeks heat up from embarrassment and your whole body tenses. you didn't mean to call him that; it's just that you were so used to hanging out with yamaguchi — who refers to him exclusively as 'tsukki' — it kinda slipped out.

but to your surprise, tsukishima doesn't seem to mind you calling him that at all. in fact, he subtly smirks a little as he declares, "yes, i do."

in your mind, you exhale in a deep sigh of relief upon tsukishima not making a big deal out of your little slip-up. "nice, i bake too. macarons are super hard to make, though."

"i could show you how."

you perk up at his offer, "how to make macarons?"

"what else?" he scoffs, though you can tell by his warm smile that he doesn't mean to be bitter.

"that would be fun." you can't help the grin that envelops your face, and neither can tsukishima, but he does a good job of playing off and he continues to look at the menu.

"it's a date."

for @sofiepofie20: had to use the cafe date , it's always so cute !! also yams is a bit of a trickster but also match maker supreme. mwahaha!

[magic-crazy-as-this]

fanon vs canon: we're talking (an essay)

Hiya! I've been seeing a lot on my dash these huge arguments about fanon vs canon in the DC/Batfamily univers, and it's getting pretty heated. People seem to be getting upset about what "counts" as canon, what parts of the story are "real" or "made up by fans" and what is "allowed" to be "real".

Personally, I find the entire argument to be reductive and extremely so.

Here's why:

Batman as a property has existed for 85 years. The idea and mythology and story of Batman has been handled by countless writers and artists, been seen in every kind of artistic medium, and has been changed over and over again over the past eight and a half decades. This story has never been told the same way twice and that's half the point of these stories and mythologies we've built up. We've seen Bruce Wayne be morally questionable if not outright reprehensible, a loving father, a staunch loner, a murderer-by-proxy (Batman v Superman, you know not what you do). It's okay to pull ideas from across time because, well, there's a lot of it and things are changing all the time!

There's a lot more there than we can easily comprehend (this is kind of more of a "1a, but fine, whatever, hey) This is something I see a lot where someone is accused of being "too fanon" only for it to turn out to be something pulled directly from the over eight decades of work. Maybe it's not productive to accuse people of this kind of thing when maybe, just maybe, there are sources for this.

Flattening these characters into "allowable" ideas of the character limits our creativity I mean, think about it for a moment: why should we limit what stories we tell and things we create by what other people tell us is acceptable? After all, if we said there were only certain kinds of stories and ideas allowed, we would never have Dark Knights of Steel, Red Son, or even Batman Beyond. Without taking risks, making changes, and telling our own stories, we miss out on so many amazing ideas that would never be permitted to bloom. (ok but the LEGO Batman movies make Damian this cheerful people-pleasing little ball of sunshine and that's not it tbh, there are limits)

People are more nuanced than you think - it's okay to be a little contradictory (this means you!) When I was growing up, I was in an intense and huge music fandom that engaged in something called The Great Poser Hunt of '07 (IYKYK). In what was supposed to be a loving space for the outcasts and forgotten weirdoes of every known high school, we would bully each other relentlessly for "not liking the right thing" or "not being a real fan" and we would constantly test and torment each other over it. It was stressful, it was awful, and it made me and many others like me feel like we had to fit a certain aesthetic, mindset, and media taste otherwise we would be outcast again and this time from a group already ostracised. (And these aesthetics and media tastes that were chosen for us by large corporations but whatever, that's another essay for another day) I listened to Backstreet Boys in secret with my iPod under the blankets, I could let none of my friends know about my secret love of Bon Jovi, and the parts of my heart devoted to 80s New Wave were locked away where no one could see. I felt reduced to what other people wanted from me. I hope you're reading this and thinking "man, that sucked, I don't want to be like that! I want to like all the things I like and proudly!" Which is grand! Please continue to think nice things for yourself! My question to you now is: why would we do this to fictional characters, too? Why can't Dick Grayson be cunning and clever, sometimes kinder than he is wise, friendly and funny and horribly ruthless when he needs to be and all at once? Jason Todd already embodies this kind of thing by being a head-taking badass biker who loves the classics but you know what, he can listen to Slipknot and Britney Spears! That's okay, too! And whatever it is you like, whether it fits a certain aesthetic or scene or mould, that is okay. You deserve to enjoy your things freely and without shame and without shaming others. (So leave Jason's Katy Perry CD collection the hell alone, ya vultures!)

In conclusion:

It's okay for people to make up new ideas for the things you love. It's okay for people to try new things. It's okay for you to disagree with them, too, you don't have to like everything anyone ever comes up with.

But bullying people for their creativity, especially when there's over eighty goddamn years of media to be inspired by, when limiting creativity is stifling and has us miss out on truly special things, and when people in general are more nuanced than you think?

[bloodywankers]

Your take on yan Bachira was 👌👌👌

Since you mentioned that darling has no monster and both of yall understand each other, imagine yan Bachira with f!darling similar to him; a talented athlete who has a monster too, and that monster of yours was the one who leads you to your success.

However, that same monster of yours was the one who encouraged you to never have deep relationships with people, only form relationships due to certain benefits, and isolate yourself; basically making sure you never let anyone get close to you (maybe darling's "monster" is her coping mechanism manifesting itself? Who knows).

Bachira being excited because there's someone out there similar to him and he's not entirely the only one with a monster, but his darling's monster was the one who made her distant from him.

Trigger Warning! Yandere Meguru Bachira! Unedited!

Life is hard when you’re labelled a weirdo by all your peers and even those that do share a common interest with you find you “too intense” for no better way to put it.

No one understood you, not like Bachira did. He sympathised with you. He talked about the same monster that pushed you to pursue your dreams with such ardent passion.

Bachira likes you, he enjoys your company and your endless rambling about your dreams and aspirations, he also loves it when you listen to him muse on and on about football and about the new players he’s been obsessed with.

Friendships are hard—they require time and effort, which you could instead be pouring into bettering yourself. You like his company just as much as he does yours but you don’t crave validation as much as you crave victory.

You enjoy speaking to him and knowing you’re not alone but you enjoy winning more, and there's nothing you hate more than a loss that could have been avoided had you just worked harder.

This is where Bachira starts to notice a conflict in interests.

Maybe this is post-Blue Lock so by now he's quite well accomplished— so are you in your own right— but it's come at the cost of your relationship. You don’t meet nearly as often, don’t reply to his messages as quickly as he’d like you to, nor do you attend any of his matches anymore.

He likes seeing you achieve all these things, for the monster within you to grow larger but he has dreams and aspirations too, not just football. He also wants to spend time with you and talk to you and ramble to you about his day and wake up to you.

It’s your dream versus his now and as much as it pains him, he’s willing to sacrifice yours. After all, if this is all it took to subdue you, then maybe your monster wasn't all that strong to begin with.

But it’s alright, you can have new dreams, ones that involve him.

Masterlist

[misc-obeyme]

Hi hi!! May I request the brothers with a MC (works better with female, but feel free to choose any pronounces you see fit) that changes or just hides their gender when going out?

Like, where I live, (as a female) the dress code is really tough and you can get in prison for not wearing certain things like hijab (not to mention the creeps.) And when going out I just hide all my hair, wear extra baggy clothes, mask, etc to look like a guy

So the brothers are visiting the human world, their MC is going to show them around, but suddenly they're all changed up and disguised. I understand if you wouldn't want to! Thank you <3

Hi there, anon!

Okay, I did go with fem!MC because it does make more sense for this scenario. Though I'm still using the you/yours pronouns, which makes it hard to tell sometimes! But I have used some gendered words as well.

Also I can't say I've ever experienced something like this, so I did my best on that part. Hopefully it's not too far off from what you were asking for!

Thank you for the request!

the brothers react to fem!MC dressing like a guy to show them around their home in the human world

Warnings: mentions of weirdos/creeps, mostly in the context of getting weird looks

Lucifer

He might not comment on how different you look at first, but you can tell that he's noticed. His eyes are taking in the way you've tucked your hair up into a hat, the baggy clothes, the mask. He doesn't have any issue with you dressing this way - finds he doesn't care what you're wearing, as long as you're doing what makes you happy. But it's clear that you're trying to disguise yourself, though he doesn't know why.

He can't stop himself from asking eventually, though. If you've taken him out to see where you live, he's going to ask you at some point. Why are you dressed like this, MC? Is there something he should be aware of?

The minute you explain why it's dangerous for you to go out looking female, he's going to frown tremendously. You must know that you're safe with him always, no matter what the laws are. Lucifer is nothing if not prideful, so he thinks he's above any kind of human world nonsense. And while he kind of is, you aren't. He won't do anything he thinks will have real repercussions for you.

Now that he's aware of what's going on, he will glare down anyone who even looks at you funny. Has a formidable aura about him as he's gone into full on protective mode. If you tell him to calm down, he will, but he's still going to be a little bit on edge.

Mammon

Woah, hey, MC, ya look totally different! What's with the get up? He's instantly asking you what's going on. Especially if your disguise is very different from what you would normally wear. He wants to know why you're clearly trying to make yourself look more like a guy? Blushes as soon as he asks you, though, because let's face it - he thinks you're hot no matter what you're wearing.

Once you’ve explained it to him, though, he forgets about all that and just gets really confused. You have a dress code just for going out in your free time? And the penalty is prison?! Has a hard time wrapping his head around it.

Don’t think for one second that he won’t also get protective on you though. He’s a little less intense than Lucifer and he’s going to follow your lead. But he’ll do things like placing a hand on your back or stepping in front of you.

Mammon will tell you directly that he will keep you safe. He wants to see where you live, but he won’t let anything happen to you. Show him the ways and tell him how to act, he will do whatever you say.

Leviathan

Oh hang on MC is this some kind of gender swap cosplay? He thinks you’re just doing it for fun at first. You do look completely different! He’s impressed with your disguise and how effective it is. Starts envisioning you in all sorts of genderbent cosplays of his favorite characters and gets blushy.

You’ll have to tell him the real reason for it though. And once you do, he tries to talk you into just staying home. Who wants to go out anyway? Only normies! But if you insist, he will go with you. Partly because he wants to see where you live and partly because he's now worried about you.

Even more nervous than he normally is when out and about. While he would be quick to defend you if necessary, he's really jumpy and worried about every little thing. You might have to calm him down a bit. He'll eventually get more comfortable, but never totally relaxes.

Be careful because Levi will absolutely summon Lotan without a second thought if he feels the need to protect you. If you don't want the streets flooded, you'll have to talk him down before he gets to that point. He will listen to you.

Satan

Somehow already knows about this. He's not surprised to see you dressed differently. He didn't know you were going to disguise yourself like this, but it makes sense to him. He has no problem with you dressing this way, but he certainly prefers when you're free to dress like yourself. Frowns at the mask, at the hidden hair, but doesn't say anything.

Considering he's already aware of the rules here, you don't have to explain it to him. However, he will ask you how you feel about it. He wants to know what he should do. This is your home, after all. He's ready to do whatever you tell him is best.

Satan's instinct is to protect, of course, and if anybody gets weird at you, he's going to really struggle to prevent himself from shifting into demon form. He won't, of course, because that would likely be a huge disaster, but he's having a hard time.

Instead he will ask you if you're okay. Tell him what you need, MC. He's here for you. Will likely hold your hand or put his arm around you - something to indicate that you're with him. Will absolutely make sure he's got a terrifying expression to keep people from approaching if he thinks that will help.

Asmodeus

At first, he's amazed. You actually look so cool like that! He gets right away that you're trying to look more like a guy. Probably has tips to help out with your disguise. Let him at least make you look like a cute guy! You might have to talk him out of adding all kinds of embellishments to your outfit. The goal is to blend in, not stand out.

You'll have to explain to him why you're doing this to begin with. Then he's upset. Asmo has a really hard time understanding why a dress code would be enforced outside of something like school or work. He can't imagine not being able to dress how he likes in his free time. That sounds terrible!

Not to mention the threat of prison. He is not okay with that at all. Not only does the idea scare him, but he really hates the idea of you going to prison. Unacceptable, MC! You are far too precious to him for him to allow anything of the sort! So he'll listen to you when you explain what needs to be done regarding this.

Has an amazing resting bitch face that scares off anyone who might look at you funny. If they dare to approach, he can get them to leave with only a few well said lines. Something about his tone of voice scares everybody off.

Beelzebub

A mixed reaction. Beel actually doesn't care at all what you wear, so if you show up looking different it must be because you want to and he's fine with that. But also there's just something about you dressing up like a guy that's making him blush. Covers it up by asking you about it, since this is obviously not your normal mode of dress.

Gets serious as soon as you explain. Another one who will just follow your lead on this. He doesn't want anything bad to happen to you, but he also realizes he knows very little about how things work in your home. He absolutely wants to see everything you want to show him, too. Just tell him how to act.

He's intimidating just because of his size and he knows that. He doesn't go out of his way to look scary, just sticks close to you. He knows his presence is more than enough to ward off weirdos. He's aware of his surroundings, but his focus is on you.

In the end, he proves to be an effective deterrent for weird looks. He's just happy he could be here for you, MC. Please show him all your favorite places. Especially interested in any food you might be taking him to enjoy. He doesn't mind that you have to disguise yourself, but he does wish you were free to be how you want.

Belphegor

Blushes immediately upon seeing you, but forces it down because he recognizes right away that you're deliberately trying to hide your gender. The mask and tucked up hair really kind of give it away. He frowns at you because he's confused. Asks you about it immediately. Why aren't you wearing your usual clothes?

Once he understands, he might take the Levi route and suggest staying home. You could totally just take a nap, it's fine. No need to go out. It isn't that he doesn't want to see your home - he really does - but he's also worried. And when he's worried, he acts like he doesn't care instead because that's easier.

If you insist, he will accompany you. But he stays by your side the whole time, practically glued to your hip. Another one who has to fight down his demon form if anybody looks at you funny. Belphie is one of the quieter brothers, but that doesn't mean he won't go feral if he thinks it will protect you.

Tell him everything is okay and that he just needs to do what you say. He'll calm down. Sorry, MC. He's just a little on edge. But he does want to see your home, so please take him wherever you like.

masterlist | Thank you for reading!

[paragonrobits]

so for a while I've had a recurring on again-off again concept for a group of antagonistic characters based on the worst aspects of the powerscaling community; the general concept being a team (at least 5 members, with each having their own combat forces or territory, given the focus on empire building and large scale conflict in my story ideas) of extremely powerful, ruthless and smug powerhouses whose abilities are usually based on a mix of characters overhyped by powerscalers (SPECIFICALLY to the extent of badly mischaracterizing them), the worst extremes of the 'isekai power fantasy' self insert protagonist

and very crucially, the attitudes of the people who make these arguments so unbearable; the One Piece fans who endlessly complain about Luffy's devil fruit being silly and not badass, that constantly argue against a series they hate and only want curbstomp attacks and not clever strategies, as an example, or the Dragon Ball fans that depict Goku as a bloodthirsty brute who kills everyone he encounters for the sheer joy of feeling them die

But i've never really gone anywhere with it for two reasons; firstly, I tend to base these character concepts on deliberately edgy vibes, and that winds up giving them a surprising charm. I really value sincerity, lack of irony and genuine enthusiasm, so characters that are unironically sincere about their aesthetics and tone, even if they're malicious and deliberately edgy about it, feel GENUINE. The second is that my main characters tend to occupy somewhat similar grounds; their aesthetics are heavily inspired by heavy metal and punk sub-cultures, and they're usually contrasted against more prim and proper or cutesy and innocent groups as the 'tough and scary weirdos from the Garbage Realms', because of their monstrous powers and often brutal fights, but they're just so GOOFY and cheerfully weird that there's very little actual spookiness about them.

And since 'deliberately edgy', with the visual aesthetics that implies (so things like Overwatch's Reaper , in the sense of a massively over the top edgelord who treats his visual design with absolute seriousness), that makes them quite close to my characters, and they come off not as much as foils as I might like in this case.

So, as I was doing some creative thoughts earlier, I had an epiphany. The main issue is that my examples and inspirations are actually pretty bland and I don't really have that much to work with. On a certain level this could be a good thing and allow me to make these antagonists a fundamentally shallow group of recurring antagonists who are deliberately lacking in character, but I don't know if I find that appealing. But it made me think about a possible missing piece.

There's a kind of person in paleoart communities, I hear, called awesomebros; they're the sort of people who get really hateful and intense about discoveries and theories about dinosaurs that seem to soften them or 'de-badass'-ify them. The ones who complain REALLY loudly about theropods in general being feathered, birds being surviving dinosaurs (they're the ones that make rants about 'HOW ARE BIRDS SUPPOSED TO BE SCARY') or having evidence of complex social structures; in short, people who resent dinosaurs for apparently not being 'badass' or mindlessly violent movie monsters, but actual animals.

There's a big focus on visual design above all else, a contempt for anything except superficial badass-ness, or acting as if scientific investigation is a personal blight on their childhoods, and this synchs up well enough with certain aspects of powerscaling to give me an idea.

Specifically, this antagonist group being mirrored by both awesomebros and the worst of powerscalers; for the latter, SPECIFICALLY the ones that don't want clever fights or complex characters, they just want a continuous series of brutal curbstomps and painfully one sided fights. They want their favorites to be limitlessly powerful destroyers with no real character, just a vessel of destructive power. So combine that with the awesomebro fixation on badass designs and ferocity over anything else, with a bias against anything soft or complex (both politically and in terms of their actual goals), and you have a possible idea for a group of antagonists.

So, based on this, this suggests a group of antagonists and violently minded conquerors, who excel at combat and mainly use overwhelming power and incredibly brutal attacks, and they just want to win fights as brutally and ferociously as possible, always outdoing their previous records. (So a bit of speedrunner aspects in there, possibly with a similar sense of elitism you can see from time to time.)

They don't conquer territory because they actually want it; some of the other factions may be trying to rebuild civilization after a great collapse, unite existing societies together, or build a home for themselves, but these guys have no real interest in it. They conquer so they have a reason to crush and kill, and they pay very little attention to the results, with their subordinates (less powerful but more world wise) doing the actual management. As such they often serve as antagonists because they want to fight and a given situation and provide that fight, regardless of context; they're powerful and not to be underestimated, but their hostility towards clever plans means that basic strategies are effective against them, and they do HORRIBLY against characters with 'puzzle boss' mechanics or loopholes that must be exploited to penetrate their defenses. All they want is overwhelming power and to make a spectacle of applying it, so a situation where it is inapplicable completely leaves them useless.

They also have a fixation on awesome; baroque designs, monstrous appearances, powerful military capability, and a deliberate emphasis on coolness always gets their respect, even if the recipient isn't happy about it.

They may also be virtual ghosts of a kind; the ones you see when fighting them aren't the 'real' ones; all the members of this team have a power or technique of some kind that allows them to astrally project, manifest an avatar to act through, generate a secondary body through ambient energies, and otherwise their real bodies are somewhere else, directing the ones you see as a very literal metaphor about being shallow characters. (This may also indicate a weakness as well as indicating that this group of characters are entitled bullies who don't have the stomach for actual risk or injury; their projections are functionally balloons. They hit hard and they're tough, but are relatively easy to pop once you get past their defenses, and they REALLY hate this, having frail egos.)

As my main character squad are heavily depicted as incredibly stubborn who have a lot of powers based around increasingly high returns for greater effort and weaponizing injuries to motivate them to pull off victories they objectively shouldn't get, it also makes them an excellent contrast.

[sparkles-and-trash]

Okai but dabihawks au where Touya is hired to be Hawks’ ghostwriter???

Hawks is finally free from the Commission after it gets outed for all the shady shit, but nobody really understands what happened to him there, and there is a LOT of rumors going around, none of them true.

So Hawks mentions this to All Might, who’s been very helpful in the whole debacle, and All Might brings up the idea of writing a book about it.

The idea is good, but Hawks cannot write anything more than silly and slightly awkward tweets (he was only recently allowed to handle his own social media okay?), but All Might has the answer to that as well!

Endeavor’s oldest son is a talented writer, and has written sevral biographies for other heroes, he even wrote the only one All Might himself signed off on, so Hawks decides to meet with him.

Now, Touya usually ghostwrites biographies for people who’s stories really need to be heard, so he’s very much on the fence about the whole Hawks thing.

It doesn’t help when Hawks is a total weirdo when they meet, mostly just nodding and shaking his head to any question Touya tries to ask, averting his eyes all the time, blushing whenever Touya asked certain questions and just being very hard to talk to.

Listen, Hawks had no idea Endeavor’s son would look like… THAT!

And have that stupidly hot voice and intense eyes like he really wanted to know him, and Hawks KNOWS it’s for the book, but he’s allowed some delusions in his life, okay?

Now, it takes a while, but when Touya actually starts getting some stories out of Hawks, or Keigo, which is his actual name, and his interest is peaked, but so is his rage, because damn, this weird, but sweet guy has been trough the shit, and nobody knows anything about it???

Long story short, Touya takes the job, they spend hours together talking and gathering stories and before they know it, they’re in looooove ~

masterlist - wip list - ao3 - ko-fi - wishlist

[etherealmach1ne]

- Intro Post ⋆｡°✩

| Hello! My name is Ori/Bee/Star or V1 and i am 20. This is primarily my otherkin/personal blog, however ill probably post whatever. ^^

i'm an artist and occasional animator, i also do livestreams every so often. i love drawing robots or fanart of things i like, i also draw furries. I am autistic, adhd and likely (quiet) bpd.

i am agender, my pronouns are they/he/it/bot. i do not mind most gendered terms (although i tend to prefer the masc ones, there is exceptions) so you can use he or "look at the little guy!" the way you would if you saw a little robot wearing a fancy hat. Im also Greysexual and Queer.

My Kins/Kintypes (will go more in depth another time)

Robotkin/Machinekin - Nonspecific, i feel this with anything that could be referred to as a machine, electronic or mechanical. Although with robots im most attached to ones with non-humanoid faces. This was the first kin-thing i discovered about myself!

Angelkin - i believe this is also nonspecific, but im most drawn to multiple winged ones, the statues of angels, or depictions of them being abstract like beings of pure light.

Fictionkin - v Here is a list of my fictional character kins v

Starscream (Transformers) - My highest(and most intense) kin, mainly G1 starscream or similar versions (earthspark and some comics). He is incredibly important to me. Skyfire also plays an important comfort role to me because of this kin, I do ship them so i am incredibly attached to them both.

Bumblebee (Transformers) - Much less intense of a kin, i mainly kin G1 or the bumblebee movie version (or similar ones in some comics once again)

V1 (ULTRAKILL) - Realised this kin at the same time i realised i was robotkin! Was also a very intense kin, however its calmed down as im hyperfixated on starscream/transformers at the moment.

Questioning/not sure

Starkin - This may link with Angelkin, as i do see stars and angels as connected/appearing similar.. not sure.

Birdkin - Same thing, i do very much relate with having wings. some of their behaviours i also feel attached to, but im unsure if its just because i associate them with other kins..

Deerkin - Ive had certain shifts that seem to align with deer, ive always been quite drawn to them.

Foxkin - i connect a lot with the way foxes act and used to identify with them a lot in my early teen years, some shifts ive had could also align with them.

Interests (some, at least..)

Transformers (current special interest) | Robots/anything mechanical (also special interest)

Space/Sci-fi | Character analysis (or overanalysing..) | Art/Animation (of course)

(Any kind of) Science ( i am not smart enough to understand it fully but im autistic enough to find it exciting regardless /hj)

Video games in general (ULTRAKILL, Undertale/Deltarune, Fnaf, Splatoon, Portal, to name a few) | Phasmophobia/Lethal Company/Among us

Clowns/Jesters | Markiplier (his videos and his projects) | Good omens

Other

With fictional kins i do tend to feel discomfort with doubles (people who share the same kin) however you can still interact, i do try to look past the discomfort.

DNI if youre a weirdo (proship, homophobe/transphobe, racist, ect.)

i'll likely never post anything entirely nsfw here, but im not sure about suggestive stuff,. it will be tagged if i do, so if you dont want to see that it should be easily filtered out! i'll likely leave it all below a "read more" anyway just to be safe.

Dont be shy to interact! whether its to ask questions or anythin!

[pb-dot]

Film Friday: Red Eye

After ridding myself of some bile last week, I believe it is time to return to the world of the sanguine movie recommendation. I have a theory that the best movies, the best stories overall really, come from making a universal experience into something exciting. Jaws preys on the ancient fear and fascination with the sea, The Matrix taps into the feeling of the world not being what it appears to be, and today's movie, Red Eye, describes both the allure and dangers inherent to sharing a transport seat pair with a beautiful weirdo.

Our protagonist in this chamber play is Lisa Reisert, played by the always astounding and captivating Rachel McAdams, a consummate professional hotel manager who finds herself seated next to a charming, and clearly interested stranger, Jackson Ripner, played by the equally astounding and captivating Cillian Murphy. What initially plays out like a romcom meet-cute, though, takes a sinister turn once the plane takes off and Jackson tips his hand. He's a Fixer, and he has stalked Lisa with the express intention of forcing her to comply with his plan, an assassination plot against a politician staying at Lisa's hotel. In addition to the physical danger he represents, Jackson also has men keeping close tabs on Lisa's father, with the instructions to murder him if Rippner doesn't call it off.

What follows is an incredibly tight chamber play as Lisa attempts to outsmart Rippner, who for his part treats the outing as a delightful romp until unearthing certain facts about Lisa's life seemingly provokes something ugly within him. It's a tight story that utilizes the setting of a plane in flight to the max, weaving in near misses and almost-escapes to ratchet up the intensity of the drama. Rippner's control seems absolute with every contingency accounted for, but it does come to a head in a staggering act 2 climax where Lisa, after having ostensibly given in and aided Rippners plan, shares the last secret that Rippner has been unable to unearth... and stabs him in the fucking throat.

Act 3 may be a bit less tight than the preceding two acts, and rely heavily on a pre-9/11 level of airport security, but DAMN if I don't think of it every time I hear the sound of the "Seatbelts On" light turn off. Act 3 is decidedly more hectic as Lisa rushes to escape Rippner, who is down but not out, save her dad, and foil the assassination plot.

Now, while the setting and screenplay are both pretty clever what mid-budget thrillers are concerned, what really makes this movie sing are the characters and their actors. Cillian Murphy truly has some otherworldly peepers, and he leverages a fascinating blend of intensity and charm in his Rippner persona. He's the perfect man, as long as you're ok with everything about him being a lie to further whatever goal he's working for, even his laid-back "I'm too evil to have feelings" shtick is an act, as evidenced by the possessive rage he displays when he discovers Lisa having managed to hide things from him.

And Lisa, oh, Lisa. I may not be the biggest fan of the reveal that the secret Lisa has kept from everyone, even Rippner, was a sexual assault, but I won't deny that there is a certain triumphant flair to how she has turned this traumatic event into a bedrock of strength. If she was a real person and not a fictional entity I would perhaps ask if this was a healthy coping mechanism, but I am not an expert in these matters. Either way, I love the way McAddams plays her, how she projects this people-pleaser-act, but avoids social interactions, preferring to concede whatever ground is necessary to make sure conversations end prematurely. It's never elaborated on, but just the way she decides to lie to Rippner about her preferred drink order to dodge the connection is some compellingly subtle stuff.

Let's not forget about the chemistry, though. The setup only works if we believe in the meet-cute idea for long enough to get suckered in, and both McAddams and Murphy bring their a-game here. She's reserved but friendly, and he's harmless and charming, of course, they're both acting at this point, but that only underlines the parallels. For their own reasons, Lisa and Jackson both project a more socially acceptable persona, and it is in the way these come to clash throughout the movie that it ascends from engaging potboiler to something quite special.

Also, this may be a tiny bit unprofessional, but I have never claimed to be anything more than a passionate amateur so here it goes. Wow is this a tough watch for us bisexuals. Rachel McAddams and Cillian Murphy are both handsome people in their own right, but together they've got some kind of additive effect to each other that just makes them hotter. Perhaps it's that they're both fucked up in their own way or maybe it's just the way that "traditional" romantic tension gives way to an intense rivalry that just flips all the Enemies To Lovers switches and makes the whole thing seem way more queer than it has any right to be. That could be wishful thinking, but either way, this was a movie I watched a ton of times before I realized my sexuality and I couldn't quite figure out what I found so compelling about it. Now, however, I will say it makes way more sense.

So, with that personal aside, I will conclude my talk on this movie. Go see it if you haven't already!