#honestly i would not blame you if you wanted to filter those out

[kazumasougi]

just know i am prying my eyes away from ur liveblogs which i dont have filtered out but its ok bc i will forget everything by the time ragnarok gets pc port

IM SOO SO SO SORRY 💀💀

[dreamsinmoonlight]

Angel Cocoon

(Blame the brain rot. I watched Hazbin and had a dream about pathetic Adam and found myself deeply in love with this asshole. I did not expect it and I feel if I don't write I will explode so have this. Probably not my best work but it was stuck in my head all day at work; I have ideas for other stuff, including a more indepth fic (might be x reader, might be x oc, haven't decided yet). Hopefully this isn't too bad though

Update: Now with a sequel, whaaaaa? Angel Massages up and running

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel

Characters: Adam (damned pathetic man), angel!Reader

Pairing: Adam x Reader

Genre: Comfort, fluff (not smutty? For Adam? I'm impressed by myself sometimes)

Summary: Every morning this happens. You do not mind.)

Every morning you were thankful that heaven's temperature was always perfect. Because every morning you woke up in a state that could best be described as the Cocoon.

When you first started dating the egotistical, loud mouthed, foul mouthed, perverted asshole known as the leader of the exterminators, aka Adam the first man or “Dick Master” if he could ever get his way, you had expected a lot of things. Getting your ear talked off on a regular basis, all sorts of pet names running the gambit from honestly a bit sweet (what, you liked being called sugartits) to you're-lucky-i-don't-take-you-seriously-Adam (who calls their significant other a slut, really), being expected to go to most if not all of his music gigs, occasionally having your back blown out because damn could that man fuck, learning to find some of the stupidest things funny because he managed to make it so; these were things you expected or at least got better used to. It was sort of like dating a hyperactive teenager but nine feet tall and with the strength enough to swing around a guitar-axe like it was a pool noodle. You had not had a normal day since the moment you agreed to this and you had quickly realized that that was fine by you.

But this. This you did not expect. Every morning, every single morning because God forbid you be allowed to sleep alone, you woke up not to your room, not to the ceiling or the sunlight filtering through the window or even your blankets. No, instead you woke up to the first man, first of the human angels, curled around you like you were going to disappear if he didn't hold you as tight and completely as possible. To call what he did a koala hug would be a disservice and did nothing to describe this phenomena, which upon the first morning after you had fallen asleep in bed with him you had freaked out a little over. You still were startled every time you woke up to it since. It was more like what you coined it as: a cocoon, created by the combination of two factors.

One: Adam. He was of course much bigger than you, a giant among angels and that was how you liked it. After all who didn't daydream of climbing a tree once in a while? Except this tree loved to talk and could make you feel things you were pretty sure was very much not pure. You were a good, solid four feet shorter than him, almost half his size; this worked in your favor when you wanted to hide behind him because of some stupid prank or when you again decided to climb onto him or honestly generally being picked up by the troublemaking angel which he certainly liked to do. The other side was that when he curled up his body enough it could surround you with little effort at all. Those arms of his wrapped easily around you and you could feel the fraction of true strength with which he held you, still more than enough to hold you where you were. His legs were folded up just enough to cut off escape from below, leaving you cradled against his body. His head tucked down, buried in your hair, he was warm and hairy in multiple places, and if you were absolutely honest a little overweight for someone who lived in heaven of all places. But none of these things bothered you and in the position you were in, your head pressed against his bare chest, you could hear the ever surprising existence of a heartbeat within a long dead man's chest. You felt your own calm hearing it; you couldn't help but love it.

Two: his wings. Oh those beautiful golden appendages, almost as beautiful as those golden eyes of your idiot boyfriend's. The feathers shimmered and shone near enough to rival the sun and you could see them past your prison of Adam flesh. How he could sleep so peacefully with them wrapped around you both was a mystery you spend every morning contemplating; it could not possibly be comfortable. Your own shuddered lightly on your back in sympathy but trying to stretch yours only brushed them against his and his, as they always did when this happened, quaked but did not open. He slept with them wrapped around you two like an eggshell, encasing you both and leaving no escape all around.

You reached out by instinct, running your fingers lightly along the feathers. They too were warm and soft as down yet you knew how strong they truly were, how strong his wings were like all other parts of him.

Save maybe his psyche. You felt the feathers shiver under your touch and he made a noise in his sleep, nuzzling his face further into your hair, his arms holding tighter to you. You woke like this every morning, since the first time you'd fallen into bed with him, and at first it was a mystery why, like so many things about him. How could he be so loud, how could he be so crude, how could he be so rude. But bit by bit you'd learned and you had come to understand.

He held onto you like you might disappear. Somewhere deep down that's exactly what he feared would happen. You knew about Lilith, you knew about Eve, and you knew how to read subconscious messages. He encased you like he was afraid otherwise you'd slip away, that you'd leave, that you'd go too. You woke to your head against his chest; how often had he fallen asleep with his on yours? Adam was many things, and truthful about what was really going on in his head and heart was definitely not one of them, but it didn't take a genius to know why he hated letting you out of his sight. Why he always held you like this in his sleep. Why he got enraged whenever the idea of you ever meeting Lucifer Morningstar came up.

Could you blame him? You couldn't and nor could you resist a smile as you wrapped your arms around him, closing your eyes and snuggling close to your ever-so-troublesome lover.

Sure you probably should get up soon but honestly it was hard to want to when you felt comfy right where you were. Besides it wasn't like you really minded all that much what would happen next after you both woke; he'd whine and you'd massage his sore wings. But you'd long since stopped trying to convince him to not sleep like that.

It was hard not to love being loved so deeply after all.

[willalove75]

Alcina's New Maid Pt. 23 Lady Dimitrescu x Reader

Summary: You and Alcina spend a cozy morning in bed before going to pay the prisoner a visit.

Warnings: 18+ minors DNI.

Tags: some smut, dash of sub!alci and a little soft!dom reader

Notes: Part 23!

I am SO sorry this has taken LITERALLY over a month for me to finish!! But I think I have a pretty valid excuse, for those of you who didn't see my latest update - I'm pregnant!! And it's a boy! The first trimester was ROUGH, I wasn't vomiting but I was so sick. I'm 17 weeks and am feeling much, much better! (Aside from hip/lower back pain, according to the old wives tales that's common when pregnant with boys lolz) anyway I'm hoping to update much more regularly now that I'm finally feeling better!

Click here for the rest of the series

The morning sunlight filters in through the window, gently waking you from your slumber. The feeling of a heavy arm draped across your stomach let you know that Alcina was still in bed with you. Turning over to face her, you come across a sight you don't see very often - if you've seen it at all. Alcina asleep on her stomach, one arm under her pillow under her head and the other keeping you close. Her usual pristine and perfect curls are sprawled out across the pillowcase with a few rogue strands hanging down into her face.

She looks so peaceful, if not for her size you would think she was human in this moment. Your eyes dance across her sleeping features. Her skin, riddled with scars and marks that she covers up with makeup, her over-plucked eyebrows that she also corrects with makeup are on full display. You notice how long and dark her natural eyelashes are as they rest on the tops of her cheeks. Her full pink lips, the laugh lines that rest at the corners of her mouth, everything about her is so beautiful.

You delicately tuck a strand of hair hanging in her face behind her ear, hoping you don't wake her up. But of course, Alcina is one of the lightest sleepers you've ever met - honestly you're surprised that turning in her arms didn't wake her.

Her eyes flutter open and beautiful gold irises look back at you.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up."

"Don't be, I am surprised I fell back asleep."

"Did you get up at all last night?"

"No," she says, shaking her head and pulling you in closer. "I laid here all night with you in my arms. I considered getting some work done but I couldn't bring myself to let you go."

Alcina nuzzles into your hair, taking a deep inhale and exhaling with a content sigh.

It wasn't until her hand rested against your bare back did you realize you were still naked from the events of the night before. You tuck yourself under her chin, trying to get as close as possible. Alcina kisses the top of your head and holds you against her chest. An audible purr rumbles through her as she buries her nose into your hair.

You can feel her purrs vibrate through your body and you can't help but lightly chuckle.

"What are you laughing at?" She asks, nuzzling into you more.

"Nothing, it just seems like both you and the dragon are enjoying yourselves this morning."

Alcina huffs into your hair and shakes her head.

"I suppose we are. It does seem to enjoy your company." She mumbles.

"I have a feeling I am going to enjoy her company as well. As long as she doesn't try to kill me again." You joke.

Alcina pulls away and narrows her eyes at you. You can see the hurt in her eyes, the regret she stills holds onto from that day.

"That is not something to joke about." She says with a deadly serious edge to her voice.

"I'm sorry. I only joked about it because I've been able to move past it. I don't want you to keep blaming yourself for what happened."

"I will because it was my fault."

Bringing your hand to cup her face, you brush your thumb across her skin.

"It was Miranda's fault, not yours. And I am going to remind you of that every day for the rest of my life if I have to, Alcina. I love you. I forgive you. I want you to forgive yourself."

Alcina closes her eyes with a sigh. She places her hand over yours and presses it into her skin. When her eyes open again they're glassy with unshed tears. Alcina opens and closes her mouth a few times, trying to find the words to respond with.

Instead of waiting for her response you lean in and press your lips into hers. Her golden eyes flutter shut and she kisses you back. The kiss turns from one of understanding to one of passion. Your tongue grazes her bottom lip and she parts them, allowing you in. The hand she had against yours on her cheek moves behind you before she rolls onto her back, pulling you on top.

As the kiss intensifies you bite down on Alcina's bottom lip and tug at it. A moan escapes from her and you bring your lips back to hers to swallow it. Your hands travel down her neck, past her shoulders to the tops of her breasts. She arches into your touch and you take as much of her massive breasts into your hands as you can - the only thing separating you from her skin is the thin fabric of her nightgown. Another moan slips past her lips into yours when you begin to massage her breasts. Taking her nipples between your fingers, she whimpers into your mouth causing to you moan in response when you roll them.

Last night she worshipped you, now you get to return the favor.

Releasing her breasts from your grip you grab the thin straps of her nightgown and pull them down. Alcina slides her arms out and you pull the silk down to her waist. She groans when your hands find her breasts once more and you start kissing down her jaw towards her neck.

She threads her fingers through your hair as she guides your kisses further down her body. As eager as the both of you are, you still want to take your time to try and kiss every inch of skin you can so you fight against Alcina's pushing a little. She groans at your silent protest and you respond by nipping at her collarbone, causing her to take a sharp inhale. Of course the mark immediately disappears but you're pretty sure you got your point across when you feel her grip loosen.

You kiss across her other collarbone before slowly making your way down towards her sternum and between her breasts. Her nipples harden in your hands and your own patience begins to wear thin. In one swift motion you pull away from between her breasts and take one of her hardened peaks into your mouth. Alcina's groan quickly turns into a moan as you circle your tongue around it and suck. Just before it becomes too sensitive you release her nipple with a pop and latch onto the other one, repeating your ministrations.

Moans pass through Alcina's lips as you suck on her. She certainly wasn't expecting this to happen this morning but now that you've started, she might go crazy if you stopped.

The silk of her nightgown is soft under your touch as you run your hands down her stomach. As you reach her hips you gather the fabric and begin to bunch it up before releasing her other nipple from between your lips.

Alcina's legs fall open and her hand rests on the top of your shoulder. Looking up at her you take in the sight before you. A true goddess, with her head thrown back into the pillow, her usual perfect and pristine curls splayed across the pillowcase. Her eyes are closed and her lips parted in anticipation for you to reach your next destination. She gently pushes down on your shoulder, giving you a not-subtle hint to where she wants you to go next.

Sliding between her legs, you leave open mouthed kisses on the exposed skin of her stomach as you make your way down. You place one last kiss above the band of her underwear before getting settled. Taking in the sight in front of you you see the large wet patch in the middle of her lacy underwear. Reaching out, you run your fingers up and down the wet spot, causing Alcina's breath to hitch with a groan.

Her hips begin to gently roll against your touch. Placing a kiss on the inside of her thigh, you rest your hand on top of her mound and let your thumb circle her already swollen clit. She lets out the softest whine that causes you to smile into the skin of her thigh as you continue to pepper it with light kisses.

It surprises you how sensitive she is until you realize how long it's probably been since her last release. Jealousy begins to set in when you realize the last person to touch her was that maid. The last person to unravel Alcina was that maid. Right then and there you make the decision to make sure no one will ever be able make her feel as good as you can. It becomes your mission to make sure no one else's touch but your own will ever be able to unravel her again.

Abruptly, you pull your hand away and she lets out a groan of frustration. Before she can protest any further you grab each side of her underwear and practically yank them down her long legs, throwing them aside.

You kiss your way back up the inside of her thighs before settling between her legs once more. Looking up at Alcina you see that her eyes are squeezed shut but you want her to see you pleasure her. You want her to see that it's you driving her into bliss.

"Alcina," you say as you plant kisses into her soft, muscular thighs. "look at me."

Alcina hears your request but can't bring herself to open her eyes. Last time she did it crushed her that it wasn't you between her legs. She's terrified that if she looks it won't be you there. So she shakes her head "no".

Nipping the inside of her thigh, she whimpers.

"Look at me." Again, she shakes her head no. "Alcina, my love, look at me."

The smell of her arousal is intoxicating, it's so tempting for you to say "fuck it" and feast on her as she's spread out before you, but you stay strong.

"My love," you say as you kiss the inside of her thigh again. "look at me, please."

Alcina rolls her hips towards your mouth but you do your best to push them back down, and much to your surprise you're able to - she doesn't put up much of a fight.

"I want you to look at me Alcina. Look at me."

The throbbing between her legs begins to surpass the fear she has. After taking a shaky inhale, she opens her eyes and looks down at you as she props herself up on her elbows. The air in her lungs stalls when she sees that it's you between her legs. Relief washes over her and she melts into the mattress as her body relaxes.

A smile pulls at the corner of your lips as your eyes meet her golden ones. You see the look of relief, of passion burning in them. There's almost a look of desperation, a silent plea for you to continue.

"Good job." You say. A wave of arousal courses through Alcina, she definitely wasn't expecting you to praise her and she definitely wasn't expecting the praise to turn her on even more. "Now keep your eyes on me. Can you do that?"

Alcina silently nods her head "yes" and you lower your mouth down to her. You lick a broad strip up her dripping slit, just barely brushing over her clit. Her moans fill your ears as you moan from her taste on your tongue.

Looking back up at her, you notice her eyes are closed and her head is thrown back. You nip at the inside of her thigh to get her attention and her head snaps back towards you.

"Eyes on me." You say.

Alcina goes to protest but before she can utter a word you dive back in and the words die on her tongue. Anything she was about to say was replaced by a string of soft curses and moans. Your eyes flick up to make sure she's still looking at you and you see her golden irises staring back. You smile into her and swipe your tongue over her clit before capturing it between your lips.

A large hand grips the back of your head and Alcina cries out as you lick and suck on her throbbing clit. Every time you check to make sure she's still looking at you, you see her eyes trained on you.

Doubling down on your efforts you flick your tongue over her clit faster as it throbs between your lips. Alcina's legs begin to shake and just as they start to tighten around your head, just before she's about to fall into bliss, you pull away.

Her fingers holding onto the hair on the back of your head tighten almost painfully as she cries out at the loss. Looking back up at her, her eyes are glowing with frustration and she growls at you.

"Shh," you say, kissing the inside of her thigh. "let me take care of you. Trust me my love." The grip on the back of your head loosens and her eyes soften. "Good, keep looking at me."

She nods her head and you lick up her slit once more before bringing three of your fingers to her entrance. After you coat them in her arousal, you part her lips and slowly push in. Alcina moans above you as you push your fingers in and pull them out before pushing them back in once more. You repeat this motion a few times before thrusting down to your knuckles. She lets out a moan when you start fall into a rhythm and curl your fingers into her velvety walls. Three fingers may feel good for her but you know it's not enough so after a few more thrusts and curls you add a fourth finger.

Alcina moans grow louder and you feel her clench down around you as you continue to thrust and curl your fingers. With her eyes still focused on you, she begins to rock her hips to the pace you've set.

"Oh, draga." She moans.

"Am I making you feel good my love?"

"Yes." She says with an exhale.

"Can you take more of me? Do you want me to fill you baby?" You ask as you thrust hard into her and curl your fingers.

"Yes!" She cries. "Please my love, give me more!"

Folding your thumb across your palm, you slide your whole hand into her and you feel her walls stretch around you. Alcina lets out a filthy moan yet her eyes never leave you.

"Good job, I know how much you love feeling me fill you. I know you missed this, didn't you?" You ask as you pick up the pace.

"Yes! I missed you inside of me, I missed you so much draga mea!"

Your thrusts become faster and harder as you feel her walls flutter around you. The tips of your fingers feel that spongy spot deep inside and you push further into it before your fingers curl. Alcina lets out a scream as you start to pound against that spot.

"Oh fuck, draga! Right there!" She cries as her hips rock harder against your hand.

"Right here?" You ask as you curl against that spot again and she cries out as she stares down at you. She couldn't pull her eyes away from you even if she wanted to in this moment. "No one knows you like I do, isn't that right? No one else knows exactly what spot to hit to make you see stars, do they?" You ask as you continue to fuck her.

Unable to form words, Alcina shakes her head "no" as more moans leave her lips.

"That little maid could never fuck you the way I do, could she?" Alcina's mouth hangs open and she shakes her head "no" again. "Answer me." You say before swiping your tongue over her clit.

Alcina's hips buck into you and she cries out.

"No! She could never fuck me the way you do! No one could ever fuck me the way you do!"

"Good girl." You say before latching onto her clit and sucking on it.

Alcina's moans and cries grow louder and you feel her walls beginning to clench around your hand. She's getting close but you want to drag it out as long as you possibly can.

"Not yet." You say before flicking your tongue over her clit again.

She lets out a frustrated groan and throws her head back.

"Uh-uh, look at me." She rolls her head forward and her half-lidded eyes lock onto yours. You can see in her eyes how close she is. "Not yet baby, not yet."

Alcina whimpers as she tries to hold off her orgasm. You push her further and further, her legs begin to shake around your head as she does her best to stop from falling over the edge.

"Almost, not yet." You mumble into her.

"Please." She whimpers. "Please my love."

Your eyes snap up to hers and you see the desperation in her eyes, a complete submission you've never seen before. The look in her eyes spurs you on as you thrust faster and suck harder on her clit.

"Draga, I - I can't -"

"Cum for me baby."

Alcina's body trembles and you can see the explosion behind her eyes before they roll into the back of her head as she lets out a scream. She clenches tightly around your hand as you continue to fuck her through her orgasm. Her clit throbs wildly in your mouth and you flatten your tongue against it as she bucks against you, letting her use your mouth as she rides it out.

Her cries soften and her walls start to relax. You swipe over her clit once more with your tongue - causing her to whine - before pulling your soaked hand from her. Alcina's chest rapidly rises and falls as she continues to come down from her high, trying to catch her breath. Aftershocks cause her hips and legs to twitch around you.

Crawling up next to her, Alcina opens her eyes and looks deeply into yours. Before you can say anything she pulls you into her and kisses you with an explosive passion.

When your lips part she buries her face into the side of your neck as the last of the aftershocks course through her. You run your fingers through her hair and kiss her head as she holds you tight.

Alcina has never relented control like that before with you. Even when you were pleasuring her in the past she was always in control. You wonder if she's ever let someone else take control before. Maybe before she got the cadou, but you're almost certain that she's never let someone else have control after.

She pulls away and looks into your eyes. You notice how watery they are and you cup her cheek and smile at her.

"Thank you." She says softly, holding back her tears.

"Of course. I love you."

"I love you, draga mea."

When your lips meet you feel a warmth flood your body. There's no hunger or desperation in the kiss, just pure love. She kisses you slowly for some time before your lips finally part. Alcina rests her forehead against yours and holds you tight.

"I love you so much. I am never letting you go ever again." She whispers.

"Good. Because I never want to let you go." You say back.

The two of you bask in the afterglow for a while longer, just holding each other in your arms while exchanging soft, slow kisses. It's moments like these with her that are your absolute favorite. Moments where the rest of the world disappears and it's just the two of you cuddled under the duvet. Your fingers trace her larger ones, in awe of how much bigger her hands are than yours. How soft her skin is, how strong they are. For the first time you really get a good look at the tips of her fingers and her fingernails. It fascinates you that her near perfect manicure can become such dangerous, beautiful claws in an instant.

"Does it hurt?" You ask.

"No. It was rather uncomfortable at first but I grew used to it over time."

"Was it hard to control?"

"I wouldn't say it was hard, but it did take some getting used to in the beginning. There were plenty of instances where a poor maid was in the wrong place at the wrong time and she was accidentally sliced to ribbons."

"What happened?"

"They were more difficult to control when I was in fits of anger - which happened often back then. They seemed to have a mind of their own."

"Like a defense mechanism?"

"In a way, yes. So if I wasn't careful about my movements or how close I was to someone when I was angry, well, lets just say it didn't often end well."

"How long did it take you to control them?"

"Not very long, a few years perhaps. Although still to this day I can feel them itching to come out when I'm upset or angry, but I have much better control now than I did then."

"Do you file them?"

"Every so often, yes. But the wear and tear of my everyday work naturally wears them down so they're not as sharp."

"Is this the shortest they go without you having to trim them?"

"You are so full of questions this morning." She says with a smile as a light blush dusts your cheeks. Alcina kisses the side of your head before answering. "This is their natural length, but when necessary I can retract them further. It can be uncomfortable but it's worth it so I don't injure my partner during certain... activities." She says with a smirk.

You thread your fingers through hers and cuddle into Alcina with a giggle. Alcina nuzzles into you and kisses you on the head before letting out a sigh.

"Nooo." You whine, knowing what her sigh meant.

"I know draga, but we've been in bed all morning. I have a long list of things that need to be done today, including speaking with our prisoner."

Grumbling into her shoulder, Alcina lets out a laugh before pulling you close and kissing you one more time before throwing the covers off of the two of you.

You try with all of your might to hold Alcina down but she quickly overpowers you and flips you onto your back. She clicks her tongue at you as she leans down.

"Valiant effort my darling, but unfortunately you do not have the strength to overpower me just yet." Your bottom lip pushes out into a pout and she clicks her tongue at you again. "Oh, what's the matter my love? There is no pouting after such a wonderful morning." She says before leaning down and placing a chaste kiss on your lips.

Alcina sits up and gets out of bed, not before tapping you on the thigh, prompting you to get out of bed as well.

"Come now draga, we have many things to do today."

The two of you get dressed and make your way down to the dining room for breakfast. During your meal Alcina goes over what she has to do today with the girls and discusses what she wants to happen with the prisoner.

"After breakfast we will pay him a little visit. Draga, if you would like to join us you are more than welcome to, but you are under no obligation."

"I would like to come, but I can stay out of sight. I just want to see if he tells you everything."

"What do you mean by that?" Cassandra asks.

"Y/n here went and visited our prisoner yesterday."

"You went into the dungeon alone?!" Bela asks.

"And you didn't die??" Cassandra asks.

"Why would you do that?!" Daniela yells.

"Girls, that's enough. We already spoke about it last night. There is no need for you to interrogate her about it, but I appreciate your concern for her wellbeing." Alcina says before turning back towards you. "Draga you are more than welcome to stay within earshot if you would like and if you want to make an appearance you may do so."

"I just don't want to see him get hurt."

"We will make sure you are escorted out of the dungeon before any of that takes place."

"Thank you." You say with a smile.

"Of course, my love."

The rest of the meal flies by and as the time to go down to the dungeon gets closer, you slowly begin to lose your appetite.

The girls finish their meals and Alcina swirls the rest of her wine in her glass before downing it in one gulp.

"Alright girls, I believe it's time to go visit the prisoner."

"I can't wait to take a bite out of him." Cassandra says with hungry eyes.

"And you say I'm always hungry." Daniela mumbles.

"Because you are! You insatiable beast!" Cassandra snaps back.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Girls. Enough. I need you to either take this seriously or you will not participate. Do you understand?" Alcina says with a stern look.

"Yes mother." They reply in unison.

"Ready, draga?" Alcina asks, reaching her hand out towards you.

You nod your head and take her hand in yours.

"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess."

"Then let us go."

Alcina leads you from the dining room towards the dungeon door. The closer you get the harder you feel your heart pounding in your chest. Bela, Cassandra and Daniela swarm down the stairs in a fit of excited giggles and Alcina stops at the top of the steps before kneeling down to your height.

"Are you sure you want to come, my love? I don't want you to feel pressured to be there."

"I know, but I want to. I have to. I just need to know-" you take a deep breath and Alcina nods at you, not needing you to finish your response. She knows why you feel like you need to come, that you need to see for yourself if he was as innocent as you thought he was - as you wanted him to be.

Alcina looks deeply into your eyes before pulling you in for a kiss. Immediately, your body relaxes into her touch and you smile into her. When your lips part Alcina stands back up and takes your hand in hers. She guides you through the dungeon door and you know there's no turning back now. You can only hope he tells them the truth - the whole truth. Not only does his fate hang in the balance, but so does the remainder of hope you've been clinging to.

"Well, here goes nothing." You say to yourself as you take the final steps towards the cell.

[enzenwriting]

7 days-without a week pt3 (2.3k words!)

Jake sim x reader. #childhood friends #angst #fluff

If someone said the days came easy to you, they’d be wrong. so wrong.

your days started with Jake and ended with Jake, so when your mind and heart finally decided to let go, filtering Jake out was almost impossible.

you almost walked to Jake’s car, you almost yelled for him across the street, you almost messaged him, and you almost always wanted to stray towards him.

Ah. How embarrassing. Maybe you were clinging to him too much for a best friend only.

the argument and his words still felt very raw as if it’s the only memory you have with Jake.

“I was really being too much for a best friend huh. Now I see it and I don’t blame him for making me realise”

“Don’t be stupid y/n. Anyone would kill for a best friend like you. He’d wish he would’ve realise it sooner” euijoo

but you wish that soon never arrives. You’d rather be caught drinkjng expired milk than to be how embarassing you used to be.

“Well, there’s no point on that now. It’s time to focus my energy somewhere else. I’d get rid of this feelings for him so I can be good best friend again someday”

euijoo hated how hard you were to yourself 😔

you were initially hurt because of the rejection and then embarrassment settled.

Each emotions was a rollercoaster everyday :(((

the second week was going a lot easier, you’re attending the art club for help to busy yourself from Jake.

YOU THOUGHTTT

only to find him walking inside the classroom too????????

Jake’s eyes found and focused on yours ONLY, and suddenly he’s sitting next to you. He doesn’t even hear his friends call him

because jake was going to finally fix things with u

after he’s done shaking internally

Jake sees you concentrates back on painting. He realises it had been a while since he’s watched you in serenity.

Ah Adorable.

But he’s got to do something than stare like a creep

“uhm... so are we supposed to just colour this anyway we like?” Jake felt SICK and nervous speaking to you

and you’re no better. first his voice surprised you, then nervous settled because he was speaking to you as if nothing had or is happening between you two

You only hum and nodded, returning back to your work

awkward 🐦‍⬛

He felt awkward. He longs to talk to you and spend more time with you without having this awkward tension. Jake just wants to talk to you about anything and hear you rant about absolutely anything and everything.

So he tries again

“can… can we share paint? They didn’t give me any”

“Sure... Or you can have mine. I can ask euijoo to share with me instead” he missed your voice but the ugly mention of the male’s name struck a bullet.

just when you’re about to stand, he holds your wrist, stopping you from moving.

Ah… he should’ve done this when you first walked away he thinks.

He should’ve followed those kdrama moment

“No, we can share instead right?” his hold on your wrist loosen but his eyes on yours are still strong

“and you know I don’t like sharing what’s mine with other people” he mumbles, maybe without a thought to his words.

Uh? Did he mean you? The audacity

“This isn’t about the paint anymore… right?”

“Y/n, I’m really sorry about that day.”

“I was… I was really annoyed that day. I know it’s not an excuse, and I should’ve spoken to you about it maturely but I- um... AHHH”

Jake sim is frustrated at himself

“Look, what I’m trying to say is. I’m so sorry for all the shitty things I’ve said and done. I just- I miss you. I honestly really miss you and I just want my best friend back. Can we start over?”

What? To start over? “What does that even mean?”

“I think I- no, I like you too y/n.” He bites his lips “and I really miss you-“

Ahh. So that’s what it was about.

“You don’t like me Jake. You’re only saying that because I’m no longer around you. You’re only feeling guilty and you’re mistaking it for something else”

“Y/n no-“

“I don’t want to start over.” To start the embarrassment all over again? no. you don’t want that

“You’re mean y/n. You don’t get to decide whether I like you or not”

“I’m mean? If I’m mean, then what were you that day? Just give up on this Jake”

“Look, I’m already apologising for that. I’m sorry again but I won’t give up. I can’t give up” he knows it sounds desperate and embarrassing but he can’t give up

“ I’m saying it nicely Jake. I don’t want to start again”

“That’s unfair. You didn’t give up for years, aren’t you being a hypocrite?” oh that shouldn’t have slipped out

“I’ve given up now. You should too-“

“Nope! I’m not giving up y/n. I’ll show you it’s real, be prepared for it!” and he’s off, leaving a half painted bear.

Sim Jake stuck to his word.

“The turn have now tabled” Riki laugh, watching Jake run towards your direction with a hot chocolate in hand early in the morning.

“He really isn’t giving up huh” Sunghoon laughs but is impressed at how much effort their friend is giving

Jake had been going strong in his pursuit for 4 days. Greeting you every morning, asking if you want a ride, messaging you, trying to talking to you, and is always gravitating towards you.

You’re afraid to say Jake had also been acting beyond the boundaries of friendship.

One day, you’re wearing a short sleeve when a cool breeze took over the afternoon. Heeseung saw you shiver and offered his blazer. Jake stood up, threw the clothing on the floor and zipped his hoodie on you instead.

rip Heeseung’s blazer💔

Another one was when he joined yours and euijoo’s walk to the shop just outside of the campus. He noticed you’re walking towards the road, so he jogs next to you, shielding you from an incoming slow vehicle.

The one which stuck out to everyone was that time after one late lecture. Jake who happened to be waiting for you outside of your class, instantly saw it wasn’t your day when you walked out.

His heart broke for you :( (his bby is stressed) so without a word, he walked up and engulfed you in a hug amidst the crowd. His hands covered your ears preventing you from hearing the whispers until everyone dispersed

that day , you followed as he took you to his car and sat you on the back seat. He wrapped you with his spare blanket (he’s always had for you) and played your playlist to calm you down. He never left your side until you were calm enough to go home (driving you home too ofc)

“I can’t believe not only you rejected him, but also not giving in when he makes moves on you. I’m kinda impressed but also confuse” euijoo comments.

“He’s returning your feelings and showing he’s determined, but you still haven’t changed your mind?”

“What if it’s only temporary joojoo? Jake can be easily influenced sometimes and I’m scared this is one of those times”

“Well, i think this influence might a good thing this time and if it’s coming from the right people like Jay, heeseung and the rest? I don’t think it’s anything to be scared of. You trust them too right?”

You do. but you’re still scared

even if your heart does little flips each time he’s around you

“day 5 of Sim Jaeyun being a total simp!” Riki laughed.

“My guy is going strong but y/n isn’t changing her mind still” Heeseung joined “rightfully so”

“Stop, I can’t think of anymore ways to tell her I actually do like her, and I feel like each day I lose her” Jake slumps on his friend’s bed

“Is she going to the match this Sunday? You can totally ask Press Yang to come up with a plan. He’d be totally down for it. That guy loves drama”

Oh! That’s it.

“Hey, I have to go. Just thought of something” Jake is already rushing out of the door; the the way all his friends wave him off except Jay, busying himself on his phone.

On the 6th day, you find Sim Jaeyun outside of the library after your study session.

He waits for the crowd to disappear before he speaks.

“can i- can i try one last time?” you’re confused

“One last time y/n. I’m showing you I’m serious about you and us this time. And if- if you still want me to give up after, I’ll respect that”

“what do you mean”

“We have a match tomorrow in the school court and I’d like it if you came.”

“Oh! But it’s totally up to you, but it would be cool if you came… um because it felts empty not seeing you there- I mean. Oh my god, this isn’t part of what I practised”

There’s your awkward first year highschool Sim Jaeyun

“Here too. It’s not much and there’s a note inside for you too. Don’t read it now before I leave so” you take the folded fabric and watch as Jake makes a run for it

The boy literally pulled lighting fucking mcqueen🏃🏻‍♂️

His antics makes you chuckle. Brings you back to first yesr uni

you reach for the note inside and pocket it before unfolding the piece of cloth.

It’s his jersey with his name and your favourite number

You don’t remember Jake having this number on the back of his uniform. It had always been his lucky no.5

You reach for his note and read it.

“Hey yn, I know this isn’t much but, as you can see, I changed my jersey to your lucky number. It might seem cheesy but, I realise I’ve always been lucky with and by your existence around me. You’re my lucky charm. I was a little stupid to realise that a bit too late. I’m sorry. Initially, I felt embarrassed planning on this, but then I felt happy and excited to do this for you. I understand why you like to gift me things now :)”

Jake sim is a silly silly boy

“I don’t know if you can tell yet but I actually really like you. And I really want this to work for us if you’re willing to trust me again. I would try my best not to fuck it up.

I know this probably isn’t going to make up for all the damage I’ve done but this is my best for now. If you decide not to come, I totally understand and I’ll stick to my words. I miss you. I miss my best friend and Layla’s adopted mom. I’m sorry that it took this much for me to realise how important you are”

Silly boy. Your heart hadn’t really changed huh

Jake Sim feels sick once again. He’s in the court with his new number on the back. The game starts is a couple of minute…

BUT HE CANT FIND YOU.

He knows it was up to you at the end of the day but it doesn’t stop his heart break when the whistle blows and the game starts without his lucky charm.

Jake is now alone by his locker. He refused celebration invites by his team member after a huge win.

He didn’t feel like he won at all because he lost you.

He understands now. He understands how you felt at that moment when he said those words 2 weeks ago. He knows how it felt to be abandoned by your own best friend. The pinky promise you both made not to leave each other at the age 10 doesn’t matter.

All because he broke it first

Jake felt the tears come down and he can’t blame anyone but himself. He’ll have to live with it.

Jake Sim is ready to face his new reality. He walks out of the court towards his car-

to find you leaning on it.

shivering in the evening breeze with his jersey on your body

Is he dreaming? Is he hallucinating again? But you weren’t in the court?

“Oh! Congrats Mr. MVP! You played well there. was it the lucky charm on your back?” you grinned “had to sit somewhere else today. You’re too popular”

Jake feels his knee wobble, and wobble they did until he’s kneeling with a tear rolling down again.

Oh so that’s why you weren’t in your seat

You were there. You’re in front of him now.

His breath is shaky but a release of relief comes out.

You jog towards him, sitting down to his level, wiping his tears. “Why are you crying? You literally won”

“You?”

You nod

Jake Sim really won. In a quick swift, he lifts you in a tight hug, spinning on the spot.

“I promise I won’t hurt you again. I promise I’ll be your best friend. I promise I’ll be your soulmate. I promise I won’t make you leave like that again”

“You’re my best friend. I won’t let you”

“And as your boyfriend I promise I’ll keep my promises”

“And as your girlfriend. I keep reminding you”

7 days a week, what did they mean to each other.

ׄ 　۪ 𓂃 ੭୧ 𓂃　۪ ׄ

an: that’s allllll for me! I hope you also found the Easter egg in there🤭

lots of love🥰

7 days masterlist / main masterlist

[yourfavoritewitchbitch]

Evermore

Summary: It's been 7 years since the love of your life left you behind for his career. When he decides to come back, is it too late to start anew? Will you decide to start over or realize what's been right in front of you this whole time?

Warnings: 18+ for future chapters. AFAB!Reader. Minimal use of Y/N. Reader is given the nickname Peach.

Word Count: 1.9K

Masterlist

Your peaceful, dreamless sleep was abruptly interrupted when the shrill sound of your phone ringing startled you awake. Light from the early morning just beginning to filter through the curtains casting a soft glow around your room, you peek one eye open to check the clock on your bedside table that reads 6:34. Drifting off to sleep only a couple hours before, the bright red letters now seem to taunt you. Placing the receiver to your ear with a groan, knowing exactly who it is before you answer.

“Yeah?” you huff, throwing your head back into the soft pillows.

“Well, good morning to you too,” that all too familiar sing song voice of your best friend, ever a morning person. You truly couldn’t be mad at him though. Even if it was your day off and you were hoping to sleep in. Days off seem to come few and far between with running not one, but two full-time businesses took its toll but you honestly wouldn’t have it any other way. Staying busy meant your mind stayed busy. No time for those intrusive, dwindling thoughts that creeped in when you were idle. Much like today, you wished you had planned your day off on a different day this week.

“Steve, get on with whatever you’re going to ask,” your voice raspy, still laced with sleep trying to keep up the feigned annoyed tone.

“Rough night?” his voice timbre lowered, laced with concern.

“Fine Stevie.” A lie you knew he could easily suss out. He knew you better than anyone. You suspect he might know you better than you knew yourself.

Deciding not to prod you any further this early in the morning, he went straight to the point. Changing the subject, his voice once again jovial,” Well… Maddie wanted me to ask if you wanted to get breakfast with us. She missed you this week. I know you hate me calling this early, but I also know you can never say no to her.” 

“Blaming it on Maddie, huh?  Right, well tell Princess Madelynn that Auntie Peach will be on her way as soon as she gets some caffeine in her bloodstream.” You heard him chuckle on the other end. He was right, you could never deny her.

“Hey, don’t worry about it, I’ll swing by. She wanted to go to Benny’s for pancakes. I’ll get her dressed; we’ll be there in 20.” Before he hung up you heard him tell her to get her shoes on, and heard that sweet voice yell over the receiver, “I love you Aunt Peach!” He laughed, and you answered with that same jovial tone. “Love you too sweet girl! See you soon!”

You drag yourself from the warm cocoon of your bed. Your bare feet hit the cold, hardwood floors and you shuddered not ready to face the day. You dressed and made yourself presentable before heading downstairs to make a pot of coffee.

Sipping your coffee while you wait, you see that now old, but still much-loved BMW pull into your drive and honk. The car he exclusively used only on the weekends now. You waved through the window and poured your coffee to go.

“Hey Angel!” You cooed at Maddie, while opening the door to sit down.

“Auntie Peach!” The young girl squealed, “Daddy said you needed cheering up today.” 

“Madelynn Grace! I told you to keep that between us!” He chided, eyeing her from the rearview. He then hesitantly looked over to you already staring at him. She moved her hands to her mouth but giggled, “Sorry daddy.”

“It’s ok Steve, it’s been 7 years. I’m okay. I didn’t even realize what day it was until a few minutes ago.” A lie you supposed would make Steve feel better, even if he saw right through it.  You reached over and placed your hand on his, resting on the console, gently giving him a reassuring squeeze. “I promise, I’m ok.”

He gave you a thin-lipped smile and nodded as he shifted himself to back out of the drive.  Maddie started rambling in the back. Always a chatterbox. If you didn’t know any better, you would have thought the kid was Robin’s the way she goes on and on, but Robin watches her while Steve works most days, so she picked up that habit from her.

The radio filled the comfortable silence, in between Maddie’s bursts of random thoughts or questions. You were ok. That’s the least you could tell yourself after all. Brave face for the ones you loved. Just get through the day.

You arrived at Benny’s soon enough. Steve got out and unbuckled Maddie. As soon as he sat her down, she tackled your legs in a crushing hug yelling for you to hold her. “Alright Angel,” you relented with no hesitation. She hugged your neck and gave you a big, sticky kiss on the cheek. “I missed you.” She said into your neck, and you could have just melted right on the spot. “I missed you too!” whispering into her curls as you squeezed her back with just as much enthusiasm.

The three of you entered the diner and found your usual booth in the back. Maddie abandoning Steve to take a seat by you. Marcie, the waitress came over with fresh cups of coffee and OJ for the princess. “Hey Y/N! Hey Steve!” She batted her eyes at him as she spoke. He thanked her and smiled as she walked away.

“Still got it, huh Stevie?” giggling, without looking up from the menu you were perusing. You knew he was glaring at you.  

“Stop it!” He tossed the straw wrapper from Maddie’s OJ toward you. She was now thoroughly distracted, enraptured by the crayons and paper provided by the diner ignoring the banter between the two of you.

“No, you stop it! I can’t tease my best friend now?” you sipped your coffee and smiled over the cup at him. He rolled his eyes as Marcie came back to take your orders.

You had your usual waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. Steve opted for something healthier, an egg white omelet with veggies, he said he was watching his figure. You couldn’t contain the eyeroll. And of course, pancakes with extra whipped cream for Maddie. The food made it out in record time, as usual.

“So, I was thinking…” Steve paused, finishing his last bite. He chewed his bottom lip for a moment.

“Easy now, don’t think too hard. You might hurt yourself.”

“Ha, ha! Anyway, how about we all get away for the rest of the day? I can drive us up to Indianapolis, and we can visit the Z O O.” Spelling it out so Maddie wouldn’t catch on. “I know it’s not exactly a relaxing getaway but it’s something to get you out of the house,” he looked up at you with those pleading, puppy dog eyes. He didn’t want you to be by yourself today. Steve, always taking care of everyone he loves. “I can drive you back home to change. I need to grab Maddie some snacks anyway.”

“What?” you snort, “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”

“What? No. I didn’t mean it like that. I…” he started, throwing his hands up in protest.

“I’m kidding! Let’s go, I’m game for anything.” You interrupted him smiling and looked over at Maddie. Sticky cheeks and hands from the syrupy goodness she just finished, staring dreamily out the window. You smiled and tenderly brushed her hair back from her face. “Ready to go Princess?” you asked her. Too enraptured by her sweet face smiling up at you, you had missed the way Steve stared at you both with his own beaming smile.

Eddie Munson is currently on a flight from LA to Indianapolis fighting what he can only describe as the worst hangover that hell could conjure up. Not the way he intended to spend his 30th birthday but here he was. The rockstar life was beginning to weigh on him. Yeah, the women and endless parties were fun, but he was starting to miss the way his life used to be. When things weren’t so complicated. That old saying you don’t know what you have until it’s gone is really starting to ring true for him here lately.  

He needed a break, and this morning only solidified that deep need within him. He had just kicked his current girlfriend to the curb after finding her in bed with one of the party goers from the night before. He was tired of the endless stream of bullshit that came with his fame and fortune. People used him up to the point that he barely recognized himself. After the knockdown, drag out blow up with his now ex-girlfriend he promptly packed a small bag and got his driver to take him to the airport where he now finds himself on his way back home.

He needed to see his Uncle Wayne. It had been far too long.  The weekly phone calls were never missed, but he was ready to see the old man in person.

As the drone of the plane’s engines stilled his mind, he tried to rest but couldn’t. His thoughts drifted to that one person that lurked just below the surface of his subconscious. He could picture those tears welling up in those heartbroken eyes while those words drifted from that perfect set of lips that he still longed to kiss when the world was quiet, and he was alone with only the ghost of you to haunt his dreams.

7 years ago, it was a much simpler time for him. He knew he would have been spending his birthday with you. He never once had to question your love or faithfulness to him. He wasn’t rich nor famous, but you had loved him anyway. The one person that gave a damn about him in that miserable town besides his Uncle. He pushed you to the back of his mind as best he could and ordered the stiffest drink the limited plane menu had to offer. He could at least numb the pain for a little while longer.

The day flew by in a whirlwind of smiles and laughter. Maddie had effectively worn herself out along with you and Steve. She was out as soon as he put the car in drive to head back home. She looked like a cherub, all rosy round cheeks and soft curls haloed around her face. You wished in that moment you could freeze time for just a little while so she could stay that little and sweet.

You and Steve chatted quietly about nothing in particular to pass the time. Sometimes moments of peaceful silence passed between you. It was always this way with you two. You could enjoy the company without a word passing between you. Most of the time it’s why you got along so well. You knew when to talk and you knew when to keep your mouth shut.

The time passed quickly and soon enough you were back in Hawkins.

“Why don’t you just stay over tonight since it’s already so late?” you asked, even though you already knew the answer. It’s not that he lived too much further in town, but you often stayed at each other’s houses on any given day.

Steve glanced at Maddie through the rearview, still snoozing away. “Yeah, of course. I’m sure she’ll be overjoyed seeing you in the morning again.” You saw his sleepy smile in the light of the passing streetlamp.

Both tired from the days adventure neither of you noticed the black car sat in front of your home or the man with those wild, untamed curls sat behind the wheel lighting up his cigarette watching that BMW that he instantly recognized slowly pull into your drive.  

[ariddletobesolved]

of preferences and headcanons.

Hi! I know I haven't posted real content in over a year, but since I've been on Tumblr the past week, I can't help but notice a discourse happening on Helsa tag.

I believe as a community, we should all respect other people's takes and opinions, especially in a fandom, where everyone may perceive things differently. Everyone has their own preferences that not everyone could get or understand, and that is okay. For example, and also to address the elephant in the room, if you prefer a ship (in this case, Helsa) to not be canon, it's totally fine. And if you would love for it to be canon, then that is fine too. It's not okay when you try to tell people how they must feel towards a certain media (in this case, Frozen) and tell fellow shippers they're not a true shipper just because they don't share the same preferences as you do. Stating an opinion of your preference is not the same as telling others to change that preference to suit the one that you like.

"I would prefer to not have them to be canon."

"If you're a true fan, you would have done THIS instead!"

See how different those two sentences are? The first one is neutral, while the other one is more demanding.

Honestly, I want to respect both, but I believe respect is earned and not given, and if the person is being disrespectful then I will return the disrespect back to their faces. Treat people the way you want be treated, remember?

I've been in between fandoms for over a decade, so I've come across discourses over headcanons and preferences plenty of time. Here's a reminder: Be respectful! It's not hard if you recognise that everyone perceive things differently and that the world doesn't revolve around you and your opinions only. You can always agree to disagree.

Being respectful also means being respectful to fanartists and fanwriters. Have some decency and refrain from using someone else's works without their permission (it's not hard to ask!). Just because you found it on Google does not mean it's public domain. As for appreciating fanwriters, you can start by reading what you want to read. You can start by filtering keywords and tropes or genres that you don't like. AO3 has a tagging system for a reason. If you don't pay attention to the tags, don't blame the writer for writing what they want to write and not how you want it. They create contents for free and you are not the boss of them. If you want something that specifically suits your taste buds, you can commission them.

Learn how to differentiate between what's canon and what's your own headcanon and interpretations, what's canon and what's a mere concept. Maybe you're reading too much into it, maybe it's in your head. Headcanons are fun, being delulu is literally my middle name, but not everything that you perceive is canon. You can disregard canon (like I do, most of the time) but you have to be clear about it, and draw a hard line to separate them, label them with 'canon divergence' or 'canon compliance' (you can look up each definition). A concept that did not make into the final product can hardly be considered canon.

This fandom community is supposed to be a safe space for everyone regardless their reason in shipping Helsa (be it because of their appealing aesthetics or others) as long as they're being respectful to each other. I didn't think I would be here writing all these to address the bad apples. Sure, the bad apples are always there in every community, but when these bad apples are the loud majority, I feel like I have to say something to clear up some misconceptions about this fandom. Helsa fandom isn't exactly popular, even back in the day, and it's mostly because shippers of other ships and fandom purists have already assumed the worst when they interacted with the ship before they did the shipper, which once again is out of the shippers' control.

From my experience, name-calling fellow shippers over these niche stuff will drive people away and discourage some creators from creating content (I already am on this stage). So, in my opinion, let's just agree to disagree. It's probably just me, but it's not like we have the power to make the writers write what we want anyway (Frozen 2 is already a proof that they would write what they want to write).

[zeep-xanflorp]

ok i'm just gonna ramble ab unmortricken bc i have exactly ZERO COHERENT THOUGHTS AB IT

evil morty backstory - i rlly like that they just made him some random morty who rose above everything after getting sick of rick's abuse. it makes what he did feel even more earned and weighty. i think his motivation is a bit extreme still but i can't rlly blame him.

it's cool seeing infinity beyond the central finite curve. the jetsons inspired bit was v amusing bc i forgot about them lmao. but otherwise it seems absolutely wild west beyond the curve and i LIVE for that.

i also didnt imagine that we'd be seeing him again. i thought the way he left the show was perfect and if they brought him back it would just feel cheap but it DOESNT in this episode i love his appearance.

i rlly like seeing our morty be supportive of rick. he's literally trying everything to cheer him up and it's very important to me.

the prime decoys confuse me. like do they all share a consciousness? is prime just very very good at fucking with ppl that he's made all the decoys communicate w each other?

evil morty outsmarting rick is a great recurring theme in the episode. "filter for probability stasis" YEAH U TELL HIM LITTLE DUDE. we've never seen a morty like that EXCEPT for him and i think it's wonderful.

the exchange between rick and evil morty. "you're such a narcissist" / "literal glass house" / "you think you're better than me?" / "jesus i HOPE SO" SHITTING

i didnt initially like the decoy trap thing being full of loads of other ricks. it made me feel like our rick wasn't very important to this dude and rick just made an enemy of a guy who didn't know he existed. BUT i don't stand by that anymore. the rest of the episode made me change my mind very quickly with.

the omega device. holy fuck this is the worst reveal to come out of this episode. she wasn't just killed, she was ERASED by prime in every reality. like she is GONE gone. that's why we've never seen her, save in flashbacks and memories. she's gone.

and i'm pretty sure it's our rick's fault that he did that. we see his beth and his diane be killed by a bomb, not wiped from reality like slo mobius is later in the episode. so his family was killed BEFORE all the shit with the omega device. ik correlation ≠ causation, but it rlly explains why our rick in particular is so hungry for revenge. if he was the one that made prime kill diane everywhere then he had to be the one to make prime pay for it.

i like how the multiple monitors seems to be prime's signature move. it happens here and in the s6 premiere.

and oh fuck the parallels. "when i invent something it works, it's called being talented" in story train vs "when i make a weapon in works."

oh man the diane head weapon thing. it's interesting that it was programmed to mock rick sexually, but even on our rick who knows it's a trap, it still affects him seeing her face again. "god i missed that face." and then the blank stare when she asks for a kiss. pretty sweet and fucked up.

rick and evil morty having to work together to get their portals working. the contrast between our morty freaking out and evil morty blank staring.

the bit with the portal closing too soon. i know it happened earlier this season and i think it's so funny lmao.

I CANNOT STRESS TO YOU ENOUGH THAT I WAS SO MADE WHEN I WORKED OUT THAT INSTEAD OF YELLING WHILE GOING THROUGH THE CURVE THING IN THE MIDFLE OF THE EP HE WAS SCREAMING "PRIME" THOSE DIABOLICAL LITTLE BASTARDS AT ADULT SWIM.

prime calling rick the Wife Guy. hilarious. raises questions. makes me gnaw on my cell bars.

AND THEN the second incredible reveal of the episode: "Honestly, Wife Guy, I do miss when it was just us. The only two Ricks who actually invented portal travel." WHAT bestie prime bby girl u need to say that again. you guys were the ONLY ones who invented interdimensional travel, every rick's claim to fame. but no they just got the technology from prime who started a boys club of ricks who wanted to leave their lives behind that our rick refused.

but the reference to a time when they were closer, when it was only them - HELLO?? maybe i'm grasping at straws bc i want them to bang but holy shit.

the confirmation of the fan theory that rick based his AI voice on his wife. 10/10.

and then the fight scene. oh gods the fight scene. rick just screaming that he'll kill prime. prime regenerating constantly, looking unscathed as our rick becomes more and more dishevelled. it's too perfect i CANT. but otherwise they both seem pretty evenly matched w all the implants and stuff so without the regeneration i think rick would've had him. oh well.

rick like literally died during the fight.

the cool grandson/shitty grandpa exchange gives me breath. i LOVE how it's a morty that outsmarts prime. it's what he deserves.

prime still trying to be a smartass to evil morty, growing more and more panicked as it goes on bc he doesn't know what to do with the situation and control for once is not in his hands.

"what are u gonna 'aw geez' me to death?"

evil morty not even explaining his plan, just silently dragging in our rick and reviving him. saying "knock yourself out" with the intended double meaning. prime's almost scared expression as rick gets dragged in.

and then our rick has a choice. he can stop evil morty from keeping the weapon plans or he can kill prime. but that's a choice he made already. it's not even a decision. so his other enemy gets away.

the brutal brutal scene at the end when rick is just hitting prime. no tech, no implants, no gadgets. just fists. and rick beats him literally to a pulp as prime screams and laughs at him and taunts him further. it's meant to be sickening. it's meant to be personal. and it accomplishes that perfectly.

they don't even show prime's body in great detail. it's RIGHT in the background but we heard the sounds of the punches, we saw his nose break and his bloody teeth and haemorrhaging eyes and his brains coming out the side of it head and all we can make out is his fucked up swollen and broken face in the background as he sits still attached to the chair, a river of his blood pouring from the room.

but its not triumphant. they made rick's revenge hollow and bittersweet. its over but it destroyed rick in the process. who is he now that he isn't hunting prime? fucking no one.

then "look on down from the bridge" starts playing. we heard this in season 1 in rick potion #9 after morty had to bury a version of himself. he was struggling with the purpose of his life after switching universes. but he deals with it and overcomes it.

i think that scene is rick, for the first time in the entire show, struggling with his nihilistic philosophy. bc yes, he's shown to be an existentialist in the show (the difference being existentialists are "nothing matters but this matters to me" instead of "nothing matters so i don't have to do anything"). he had a drive. he had ppl he cared about. but now he's reached his goal he just feels empty and hollow. everything's meaningless and he's NOT okay with that. he never has been, but he has to grapple with that finally now he doesn't have a distraction. i don't think he can just bounce back and move past what happened.

ppl are saying this episode felt overstuffed and maybe it was but i'm very pleased with it and want to know where it's going.

i feel we still don't know the full story with prime. i'm predicting a flash back episode in the future explaining what the nature of their relationship was like before the bomb incident.

we also know that evil morty has this weapon that could destroy all ricks. so that is just a ticking bomb.

anyway i can't wait for angsty rick.

i actually watched unforgiven for this episode bc i'm a big fan of westerns anyway. the only real parallels i can see is they both have a group of three (two are already partners and the other one is the call to adventure) and an unsatisfying ending. bc that's the nature of westerns. they should NEVER end happily, and if u think so then ur wrong (/nsrs enjoy media how u want).

some things i haven't mentioned but enjoyed nonetheless

the schematics for the omega device is titled <SCHEMATICS BOOGER-AIDS-V2>

the arm/leg swap best in the fight

the comparison between the song at the end playing here and in season one shows with just visuals how the dynamic of beth and jerry's (and beth's) marriage has evolved since then.

everyone freaking out when indiana jones rick shoots and it ricochets off the wall and evil morty just stands expressionless until it hits his forcefield.

morty going to hug rick covered in blood, realising, hesitating, and then doing it later anyway to try and make rick feel better.

evil morty making a point to say that he doesn't want vengeful summers coming after him for omega devicing rick. not vengeful mortys, vengeful SUMMERS.

just evil morty in this whole episode was an absolute delight i need to see him more.

THE TEAR MARKS AFTER RICK EMERGES FROM BEATING PRIME TO DEATH

slo mobius' wife almost going down the same path our rick did only to find someone she loves and focus on that, saving her. makes me wonder if they're gonna try putting rick in a relationship.

this ended up being way longer than it should have. anyway. very pleased. this season is hitting all the marks for me overall.

also don't be too hard on me i didnt edit this 😭

[parkitaco]

byler 50 for the ask game i need this for reasons

Will Byers is good with secrets.

He hasn't had much of a choice, honestly, given the types of secrets he has. When he was younger, his biggest secret was liking boys. Then it was liking one boy, specifically, and then it was monsters and hell dimensions and government-issued secrets that he legally wasn't allowed to tell anyone. He'd never admit this, but those secrets were far easier to keep than the first two. He’s spent a good portion of his days learning how to keep quiet, how to omit information when necessary, how to keep his lies, on the rare occasions that he needs them, simple and believable.

(Okay, there had been one exception to the simple and believable thing, last year in that godforsaken van, but that was an outlier, okay? He’d been overtired and probably contact high and Mike had been freaking the fuck out, so he’d- he’d gone a little overboard with that one. Whatever. Everything turned out fine in the end - better than fine, even.)

Mike Wheeler, on the other hand, is not so good at keeping secrets. 

Will chalks most of this up to his boyfriend’s general lack of a filter - Mike has never shied away from saying what he’s thinking, and a lot of the time, what he’s thinking happens to be terribly incriminating. He knows that Mike has had to keep secrets too - secrets that, as it turns out, line up almost exactly with the ones Will’s been keeping. And to his credit, Mike had managed to keep most of those for a decent amount of time, but the ways in which he kept them were significantly- well, there was a lot less delicacy, in Mike’s case. 

Will doesn’t blame him for any of it, of course, because he knows how Mike’s brain works and knows that he doesn’t mean any harm, but it does make being his boyfriend - more specifically, his secret boyfriend - a bit tricky.

Like right now, for instance. They’re sitting in the basement with the rest of the Party, and Mike’s all curled up against Will’s side in an entirely incriminating manner. He’s also wearing Will’s sweater, which he could maybe have gotten away with under normal circumstances, but throw in the fact that this is the third time this week that he’s showed up in public wearing Will’s clothes, and- well, Will’s pretty sure the Party’s onto them at this point anyway.

“Mike, what do you think?” Dustin asks, and Mike stirs against Will’s side, blinking blearily at him.

“About what?” he asks absently, shifting and wriggling closer to Will, who is barely suppressing an eye roll.

Lucas looks like he’s on the verge of laughter. “Dude, were you listening at all? We’re trying to decide what movie to watch.”

“Oh,” Mike hums, and Will can feel the sound from where Mike’s chest is tucked up against his arm. “Uh, whatever you guys want, I don’t care.”

At this, the entire Party levels him with matching looks of concern - even Will glances down at him with an eyebrow raised.

“You don’t care,” Max repeats slowly, staring at him like he’s sprouted a second head. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you not have an opinion on something.”

Mike’s face flushes adorably red, and he looks like he’s seconds away from hiding his face away against Will’s shoulder, which would probably seal their fate as the most obvious couple of all time. Will elbows him, bugging his eyes out, and Mike clears his throat quickly as he sits up a little straighter, less like he’s curling as close to Will as he can get, which was, of course, exactly what he was doing. It’s still not- an entirely platonic position, with Mike’s thigh still pressed flush against Will’s and his fingers brushing Will’s where his hand rests on his knee, like he’s fighting the urge to thread their fingers together, but it’s- well, it’s a slight improvement. Even if Will’s side is now upsettingly cold where Mike was just leaned up against it. 

“I’m, uh,” Mike starts, and Will immediately thinks oh, no, “I’m focused on more important things.”

Will resists the urge to bury his face in his hands. 

“What sort of important things?” El asks, looking entirely amused, and Will glares at her, willing her to stop talking.

“Um,” Mike says, looking more flustered by the moment. “You know. I was thinking about- world peace. College applications. The future. My history project due on Monday. How to get my Spanish grade up. The SATs. What to do about-”

“Okay,” Will cuts in, sensing an onslaught of true Mike Wheeler word vomit brewing, and he reaches over with one hand to clamp his palm over Mike’s mouth. “We get it, Mike.”

Mike looks, for all intents and purposes, entirely relieved at the interruption, and he slumps back against Will’s side, because clearly he’s learned nothing from the past few minutes. “We should watch Star Wars,” he says against Will’s palm, the sound muffled from the contact, and it’s all Will can do to repress the shudder that runs through him at the feeling of Mike’s lips moving against his palm. 

He must see the expression on Will’s face, or something, because all at once a gleeful glint appears in Mike’s eyes, and he presses his lips more flush against Will’s hand, kissing it firmly, because clearly he’s trying to give Will a heart attack.

Thankfully, the rest of the Party doesn’t seem to notice, having gone back to squabbling over movie options as soon as Mike stopped talking, and for once in his life Will is grateful for his friends’ short attention spans. Even so, he retracts his hand, sending Mike a burning glare that is probably entirely undercut by the blush in his cheeks, and Mike grins proudly to himself, turning to face the screen as it flickers to life. His leg presses against Will’s, firm and purposeful, and Will allows himself to be a little bit stupid about it when he presses back, biting his lip to hide a smile.

Mike’s pinky finger links through his, and Will forgets to worry.

It’s only later, when they’re standing in the kitchen together after the Party leaves, throwing out the last of the trash from downstairs and placing the popcorn bowl in the sink, that Will decides to make fun.

“I can’t believe you,” he says, shaking his head good-naturedly as he wets a sponge and begins scrubbing at the stubborn butter stains on the inside of the popcorn bowl. “Your Spanish grade, Mike, really?”

“Hey, I was doing my best!” Mike yelps, shoving the empty Dorito bag onto top of the already-full garbage can and walking over to stand beside Will at the sink. “You were no help.”

“I wasn’t the problem,” Will murmurs, smirking and not looking up from the bowl. 

Mike glances down, watching him scrub at it. “You don’t have to do that,” he says, reaching over to tug the sponge out of Will’s hand, and Will gives him a look even as his fingers go slack and he turns to face Mike, one hip pressed against the counter. “And don’t you want to know what I was actually thinking about?”

“I’m going to take a wild guess and say that it was-”

“I was thinking about you,” Mike interrupts before Will can finish being sarcastic, dropping the sponge unceremoniously on the counter and twisting around to mirror Will’s position, hand pressing against the top of Will’s against the counter.

Will presses down a smile. “You don’t say.”

“I was thinking,” Mike continues, not noticing Will’s facetious tone, or maybe he just doesn’t care, which is probably more likely, “about what it would be like to not think twice about sitting next to you on movie nights, and I was thinking about how much I like cuddling with you on the couch and how I want to do that all the time, and I was thinking- that I love you, basically.”

It’s nothing Will hasn’t heard from Mike before, but his face flushes anyway, and he shifts a little closer, the hand that’s not gripping the counter rising up to cup the side of Mike’s neck. “I love you too,” he says. “And- we will get to do those things. Eventually. Just- not right now.”

“Not right now,” Mike agrees, bobbing his head, because really, the whole secret thing had mostly been Mike’s idea in the first place. It’s almost funny, how in the beginning, Mike was the scared one who wanted to keep them a secret, and Will who willingly obliged, maybe a little selfishly, because he wanted Mike Wheeler all to himself for a little while, but this whole time, Will is the one who’s been better at hiding. Mike’s ready to stop hiding now, probably, if this conversation is any indication - almost, anyway. They’ll get there soon. Plus, the Party definitely already knows, so that takes some of the pressure off.

“You’re so pretty,” Mike murmurs, tilting his forehead to press against Will’s, and Will’s flush deepens, a pleased smile spreading across his face. “Have I told you that?”

“Yes,” Will laughs, as Mike’s free arm wraps around his waist and tugs him in closer, chests bumping.

“Oh,” Mike says, grinning teasingly, “Well, have I also told you that you’re my favorite person ever? And that you’re the smartest and bravest person I know, and that I’m so lucky to have you, and that-”

“Okay,” Will says for the second time tonight, laughing quietly, and he brings up the hand that’s been pressed against the counter and presses his fingertips against Mike’s lips gently. “I appreciate it, Mike, I really do, but I kind of really need you to shut up right now.”

“Why?” Mike asks around his fingers, feigning a pout, and Will grins as he slips his hand away from Mike’s face to cup the back of his neck instead.

“So I can do this,” Will murmurs, and tugs him in sharply, pressing their lips together firmly, and whatever fake-complaint Mike had locked and loaded seems to vanish instantly, his grip on Will loose and relaxed as he smiles into the kiss. He tastes sweet, like buttered popcorn and candy, these moments always made a little more special by the fact that they don’t get very many of them. Will would like to kiss Mike Wheeler more often that he does, maybe, like, all the time, actually, and the possibility that he could actually have that sometime soon has him smiling against Mike’s mouth and curling a hand through his hair, gentle and loving and sweet.

“You know,” Mike says against his mouth, pulling back a little, “If you had just said so, I would have stopped talking way sooner-”

“Shut the fuck up,” Will interrupts, hazy and kissed red and needing to be kissed again immediately. “Shut up, shut up, shut up-”

“Okay,” Mike says, and when Will goes in for another kiss, he doesn’t seem to mind in the slightest.

[beardedmrbean]

God the amount of people on here I’ve, not just lost respect for, but become completely repulsed by in the last few days. People I share fandoms with who every so often would reblog those stupid “goblins are Jews so anybody who puts them in stories is antisemetic and should be shunned!!!” Which I usually just rolled my eyes and moved on. Those same damn people are on here justifying Jewish people getting slaughtered and kidnapped. And even if in their minds it’s truly just about “Israel vs Palestine”, not a fucking peep has been heard from any of them about the attacks now occurring to Jews around the world. “Punch Nazis! Listen to Jewish Voices! Be aware of antisemitism!” All goes out the window now I guess?

Gonna be setting everything to do with this situation to 'mature' and tagging "middle east mess" from here on in, this situation is far too much for lots of you and I get that I'm trying to balance things out best I can.

Go into your settings to the "content" filtering as well as "tag" filtering and punch in any terms you can think of to get most of this all off your dash.

Schrödinger's POC.

One thing I've come to realize in my observations over the years is the majority of the different activists, really loud ones at least, don't actually care about the causes they claim to care about, they don't actually want things to improve for people. Having perpetual victims while they themselves are not victims seems to let them look like they're trying to help and stand up for injustice and victimized people while still covertly looking down their noses at them.

Israel is a great example of that since they do a pretty good job mostly on their own surrounded by enemies on all sides, gotten a little less dangerous over the decades but they're still in the danger zone and generally still thriving.

That and they very rarely get involved in a difficult fight, much easier to virtue signal over a video game than it is when there's some fairly complex geopolitical forces at play. And hating Israel is the easier of the two routes to go in this one, you'll also be seeing the folks that say it's not Jews it's "Zionists" even if the overwhelming majority of Jewish people are Zionists.

Which hey, you're all entitled to your opinion but before you go and start bashing Israel on a hourly basis go ahead and look at all the other countries out there and see how you feel about them and decide if you honestly think you're judging them all by the same standard or if you're judging Israel (or any others) more harshly and then ask yourself why that is.

Amnesty went in to Ukraine at one point after several schools had been targeted by russia, amnesty pointed out all of the obvious signs that the ukrainian military had been using those schools as weapons cache's or staging grounds or any of a number of other military purposes and they declared that to be a big no no and properly laid the blame on the ukranian military and government. You made it a military target by putting troops there.

Oddly even though it's widely known that hamass does the same thing, somehow amnesty still goes after Israel who will "knock on the door" of places they're about to level that are legitimate military targets, if they're also civilian buildings. hamass using the roof of a building as a place for a communications array/radio tower they'll get a dummy bomb dropped in their lap and civilians have their 30 min notice to evacuate because it's going down in 30 min one way or the other, but somehow that's not good enough.

and Oh lord I was in the notes of a couple different post and people talking about the Jewish citizens of Israel not actually being the same people that are the indigenous population to that area, which dna tests have proven that wrong, but hey they're out there repeating talking points made up by goebels so remember that next time these people call someone else a nazi, granted they're stupid enough to call actual Jewish people nazis to their faces showing that they've really just turned that word into something that's on par with butthead at this point.

Circling back round, like I said most of these activists they don't want conditions to actually improve for anyone, because they won't be special little guys helping out the poor oppressed people, they'll just be ordinary.

Cancer researchers would be very happy if they got put out of a job, professional activists not so much.

Article link

___________________

This is all beyond very tragic both for the people of Israel and the people of gaza who just want to live their lives free of fear and hate, it is interesting to see people doing 180's on their stances on things like rape and child murder/infanticide and such given who's doing it this time round, if I were Jewish I would be seriously reconsidering my position of I want everyone who wants to and can responsibly do so to own all the guns they like, but having one isn't for me.

I'd cut that last bit out, I'd be armed everywhere I go.

There's lots of issues on both sides of this conflict, but only one side went in to a music festival and murdered 260+ people and dragged off hostages to rape, torture, and maybe attempt to bargain with at some point if the mood strikes.

That's not something the good guys do.

Side note, I'm surprised I haven't seen a specific insult tossed out between members of the Jewish community who are on different sides of this issue, for the curious it's a german word and I'm not going to type it out.

Had someone throw that one at me once which confused me given my lack of being Jewish, loses all it's punch at that point.

[willowisapillow]

🍭🍬 Candy Collecting 🍬 🍭

🎃 Hope you guys had a great Halloween! 🎃

How did your Halloween go? For me, it was honestly a whole lotta fun. Yeah, it did get kinda boring after a while once 9 o’clock rolled around, because a lot of people either went home or to a different part of my neighborhood.

I had a blast, though, I was the one passing out candy, and if you didn’t see my previous post on here, I dressed up as Tiffany AKA, the Bride of Chucky, and I had my talking Chucky doll on my lap while I was passing out candy. A lot of people really loved my Chucky doll and costume, I even met someone who was also dressed up as Chucky, and we both just started fangirling 😭

Though there were some little kids who were absolutely terrified of my Chucky doll that they didn’t even want to get the candy, so I just passed it off to their parents instead, so they could give it to their kids. Honestly, I don’t blame those kids at all whatsoever, if I was their age, I would have been scared too 💀

Speaking of costumes, I saw a lot of really cool horror costumes, I saw some Wednesdays, Moritias, Chuckys, Jasons, and a lot of Freddy Kruegers and Michael Myers. Though funnily enough, I didn’t see any Ghostfaces or Megans. I also saw a lot of cool non-horror costumes, I saw some Disney Princesses, Marios, and Sonics, and I even saw a few dressed people dressed up as Glamrock Freddy, Huggy Wuggy, Patrick, and motherfreaking Barney, so uh yeah that was a thing lol

And there was this one family that was all dressed up as Demon Slayer characters, and it was pretty wholesome 💕

As for my art, this is a follow-up of my silly little AU that I posted a while ago, and if you haven’t seen it, here’s the TL;DR version of it; it’s an AU that takes place in the very first Child’s Play movie, Chucky is not a serial killer (but he’s still a major douchebag), and still lives with the Barclays (Andy and his mom, Karen).

This picture was also made as a (belated) birthday gift to one of my closest online friends, RobTheAlien on Amino, Deviantart, and Twitter. I made her a Chucky-related gift for her last year, so why not make another one for her, we both really love the series <3

For the context of the art, Halloween started rolling around, and both Andy and Chucky were super hyped to dress up and get some candy, mostly Chucky because he had a little plan up his sleeve. Basically, since Chucky is well, y’know… a doll, he looked to be around the average height of a toddler.

So, his plan was that while they were trick-or-treating, he could get Andy to tell the neighbors that he was bringing along his, “baby brother, Tommy”, and that it was his first time going trick-or-treating. The neighbors would give the both of them candy, thinking that Chucky was his, “brother”, and thus, they would get double the candy (and double the diabetes as well 😋).

At first, Andy was against the idea, since it didn’t feel right to trick the neighbors in a selfish way to get some sweets, but Chucky managed to convince him that they could have the biggest candy collection in the entire neighborhood, with all of the candy a kid his age could ever want and eventually gave in to the idea. He also decided to dress Chucky up as a ghost to make the whole thing look more convincing.

Oh Chuck, such a good role model and influence on little Andy/j

At first, I wanted to draw Andy alongside Chucky but didn’t feel like it because A. I wanted to make the art less time-consuming, and B. I ain’t very good at drawing little kid characters. But I will say that he did dress up as a vampire, complete with fake fangs and everything, and maybe I might make fanart with the both of them together in their costumes in the future.

As for the art itself, I really loved how it turned out. I was farting around with the filters on IbisPaint X, and I eventually chose the exclusion filter, and I felt like it was perfect for this art, ‘cause I wanted to go for an indie kidcore-type vibe for it. And as for the candies I chose for the picture, I basically just googled, “What types of candy were popular in the 80s?”, and I eventually went with the three candies you’re currently seeing in the picture.

Honestly, the only candy I really like out of the three are Skittles, I don’t think I’ve ever tried a Charleston Chew or Baby Ruth before. But what’s your guys' favorite candy? 👀

🍭 🍬 👻

[flecks-of-stardust]

what are those mods that were cooler than MSC? if they're that good i have to try them out

So upon further thought of this topic, I think i’m misrepresenting my thoughts on my enjoyment of MSC. A more accurate way to put it would be that I had more fun with a lot of other mods. However, I don’t think it’s necessarily fair to compare MSC to them, because the goals of MSC are different from that of other smaller mods. I guess this counts as an analysis post; this will be long.

TLDR: I had more fun with a number of region mods and I think some modcats are cool, but Rain World’s design makes having a DLC that stays true to its core ethos difficult, so I find it hard to really blame the MSC team for MSC being a lackluster DLC.

Regions

When I say that I enjoyed other mods more than MSC, I think a lot of it is in the level editing (ie, lediting), in the sense that region mods have consistently wowed me far more than MSC’s regions ever did. Conceptually, the regions that it added were incredible; I loved seeing Moon as close to her prime as she could ever be shown in Spearmaster’s time (ie LTTM the region; DM), but also finding her ruined structure (MS) as Rivulet, and the idea behind Silent Construct (CL) is also fantastic. But gameplay wise? I didn’t particularly enjoy any of these regions, especially not CL. I hated the spider clogs that I had no way of dealing with, and overall I really just bumrushed it and cheated to get to the story. Metropolis (LC) and Outer Expanse were okay in terms of gameplay, but LC’s tiling and geometry is just kind of boring, if I had to be honest. It’s quite repetitive and not particularly unique, except for maybe Atop the Tallest Tower at a stretch. OE was fine by virtue of not really having another region to compare it to and also being comparatively more plant focused, but honestly, other mods have still wowed me more. So I dunno.

Like when it comes to having regions that feel interesting to explore and are also nice to look at, there’s always Pilgrims’ Ascent and Scorched District, both by Myrmice, and these two also fit so well with vanilla Rain World’s vibe to me. These two, along with the Mast from Snoodle, are all but canon to vanilla to me, because they just fit so well and add to vanilla while still maintaining their own identities as regions. And even beyond having to feel vanilla necessarily, because that’s not always the point of mods, there’s regions like Stormy Coast, Coral Caves, Howling Rift, more that I won’t list because of how long the list will get, but the point is that all of these regions give me more engaging gameplay and paths for exploration than I felt I got for any MSC added region. Granted it’s been a while since I played MSC’s content in full, and my memory of this stuff is generally poor, but I’d rather explore Aqueducts (OA) again than do MS. OA was big and I kept getting lost even with a map, but it was big and disorienting in a way that just felt better to me than MS. The same goes for Deserted Wastelands and CL, personally.

MSC regions feel very vanilla-like to me, in that they’re kind of easy to filter out of your conscious processing so you can focus on other things. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, but for the price that you have to pay for Downpour, I think it falls a little short. The thing is that MSC is very much story-focused, putting more emphasis on the slugcats you play as and their stories rather than the lediting of the regions exclusive to them (in my opinion anyways. I ain’t a leditor). Which brings me to my next point:

Modcats and Story

This might be a bit of a hot take, but I think Rain World is inherently a gameplay focused game that doesn’t support much overt story or plot. The lore in all three vanilla campaigns is entirely optional, and if you kill Moon? Fuck you! No lore for you! And even if you wanted the lore, you have to figure out that pearls have to be taken to her to be read, and that the colored ones have unique lore, and you have to find them and hope the scavs don’t take the pearl first. Even with Hunter, you can choose to toss the green neuron and do your own thing. It doesn’t even stop you from ascending either. The story is entirely optional in Rain World. So then to add any story focused campaign at all inherently takes it away from Rain World’s initial design. And on top of that, you’re playing as a slugcat. It’s really hard to add any sort of story in Rain World that doesn’t circle back to iterators in some way. But then what else do you do besides ascend? Eat a few specific types of food? Gourmand does that. Kill a specific creature? That’s Artificer’s thing. Talk to all the echoes? That’s Saint, and kind of Hunter in a way. What else can you do without radically changing the structure of Rain World itself? And to that end, would that still be Rain World? I’m not saying it’s impossible to have a story based campaign that doesn’t involve iterators, but I do think that it’s really difficult to have them be completely irrelevant to the story and still have an engaging story, because Rain World itself is so not story focused. But if you don’t add story, then what do you do in the campaign that doesn’t make it just a rehashed version of Survivor’s campaign?

So like. I can’t really take issue with MSC’s story based focus that much, because genuinely, what else do you do? And basically any modded slugcat available in 1.9 that I think is worth trying falls into the same category. I think Pitch Black is really promising, but it introduces A Lot of changes to the world, and there’s currently almost no story. Vinki isn’t iterator focused necessarily, but their story still hinges on pissing Pebbles off and is overall very silly (not in a bad way! But it doesn’t fit the vibe of Rain World). And Gravel Eater,, you can’t get more intertwined with iterators than with GE’s story, but they’re still my favorite modcat because of how detailed their story is and how interesting their mechanics are. And if you just have a scug with abilities and no story, that’s… not really interesting to play, because then it’s essentially just Survivor, but you’re able to like, say, make spore puffs for free.

Maybe I’m just not creative enough in this aspect, idk. But genuinely I can’t think of much else to do in this game that doesn’t involve iterators in some way. If you know me, you’d know I’m Iterators McGee who has written 70k+ words about a character who has literally no canon dialogue. I fucking love iterators, but I think their stories should be separate from that of slugcats, but in game, just. How? I genuinely don’t know.

Other Thoughts

I think in some ways I view MSC as more of a framework that has allowed other people to build their own stories off of it. The only other mod that has a scale even remotely comparable to MSC is Drought, which is also iterator centric in story. I can’t speak to its lediting since I haven’t played Drought myself (but I’ve heard the quality… fluctuates?), but story wise… yeah. I don’t know. I just don’t think Rain World can really have a DLC that doesn’t pull it away from its original ethos in some way. I would not want Drought to be a DLC either, as cool as I think it is, and I still value a lot of things about MSC. It’s lackluster as a DLC because again, what sort of campaign can you add that doesn’t add a story that isn’t iterator related in any way?

I guess the way to summarize this is that I think MSC tells some really interesting stories through its gameplay. Even the parts I hated are part of the story it’s trying to tell, and on that front I think it does well. But by virtue of being story focused (and, by virtue of story in this game being very iterator centric), it doesn’t feel as much like Rain World, and so it’s not as good as a DLC as it would have been as just a mod. And now that it exists and is widely used, other people have been spurred to make their own ideas and show their creativity, going bigger and bolder than MSC in some aspects. And regarding me enjoying region mods more than MSC’s lediting, I think enjoying the region for being a region is kind of the fucking point of playing a region mod, whereas that isn’t exactly MSC’s focus. So some things are hard to compare.

This is kind of an incoherent ramble but I hope I got the main points across. I still like MSC and I won’t tolerate anyone bashing it here. You will get blocked.

[padfootastic]

Your tags on that “we know nothing about the marauders so we can make it all up post”… YES wow especially the part about tagging OOC content??? What a world that would be… as it stands now there is absolutely no way to filter between canon and non-canon/canon versions of the characters.

And the overtagging! Why is Jegulus tagged on Sirius fanart? Why are all the marauders-era characters tagged on a portrait of Lupin? Why is wolfstar tagged on literally everything?? It’s straight up impossible to find specific character related content via the tags, or any content at all if you’re trying to filter out one or more of the above. How do you manage to find the content you’re looking for?

exactly!! and it’s really a bit of a doubled edged thing for me, bc i am NOT someone who enjoys canon characterisations usually (my current tirades notwithstanding and that’s really mainly bc i hate the fanon versions even more) and honestly, i’d like shit to be tagged bc i want to look for it lmao

it’s like—imagine if all fics, regardless of how they were plotted, were just ‘golden era’ or ‘marauders era’ with NO concept of canon compliant or divergence or AU or anything. u can argue ‘meh what does it matter’ but then really, that’s a question for the entire institution of tagging then, isn’t it?

as it stands, as our ~fandom social contract~ dictates, tagging is a way for us to find what we want and avoid what we don’t. having a baseline helps operationalise that. u can say ‘okay, yeah, this is a thing and i’m CHANGING it’. it’s a scientific experiment 😌 but to straight up say?? nothing is real?? like bro take ur nihilism elsewhere pls thx

and gosh. don’t even get me start on the overtagging. literally every time one of my posts gets rb’d with wolfstar, it makes me wanna scream. i can’t see my own posts. and that’s not to mention all the others that get mistagged and i keep playing roulette w them. i honestly mostly blame tumblr’s system for this bc,,,why u including everyone’s additional tags bruh. obv someone will tag what they see. that’s what we all do. why do i have to suffer for it 😭

i also think it’s bc of like,,,those auto generated text thingys? and reader insert accs who want reach? that are fully clogging the tags. atp i just go by recs and a few trusted mutuals pages lol that’s what i’d recommend to anyone similarly frustrated 💀

[applesandbannas747]

for the ask game: 6 for dead hearts and sinew&bone, 12 (sorry had to), and 17 👀

For this ask game! Thanks so much for playing <3

6. What’s one fact about the universe of a fic that you didn’t get a chance to mention in the fic itself?

Dead Hearts:

oooo probably Warlock stuff. I really love the concept of wizards, witches, and warlocks all being Different, nongendered, things instead of gendered and/or interchangeable names (I blame Septimus Heap for that one). Anyway, warlocks in Dead Hearts have a special connection to magic because while witches' magic connects them to the earth, warlocks are so much a part of the earth that magic flows directly from it through them--it's also what makes them able to read others' magic (like Eugene did to Jesse's) because they're a conduit for magic and connection as much as the earth itself is, so their magic is sort of...everyone's magic. It's a stream always flowing through them as opposed to a witch's bottomless lake. (Wizards might harness magic artificially, though I didn't completely flesh out that thought--a wizard is probably what Nick would have been during his first life, because his magic was being pulled from an outside source, and what Eugene was trying to do--and eventually succeeded in doing was open Nick to the flow of magic warlocks experience).

I wrote up a bunch more lore and realized that it would be a shame to share it in case I ever wanted to write about it, which means my dumb brain has probably decided it does want to write the theoretical eugesse spin-off at some point. so stay tuned for that in like 3 years i guess XD

Sinew & Bone:

So! When Nick sees Jesse in Eugene's room, they immediately recognize each other as pack. Nick had previously commented to Eugene to leave whatever werewolf he's sleeping with because it's obviously he's stressed all the time now and his scent is all mixed with wolf. The reason Nick didn't know then that Eugene's wolf was Jesse is that his brain filtered the possibility out. The scent was Eugene, Family, Wolf, and Nick immediately assigned the family association to Eugene completely on accident and with no recognition that he even smelled that on Eugene because his subconscious sees Eugene as family, so he didn't register anything amiss with Eugene's scent in that regard. So all he picked up from Eugene that was out of place was a random shifter's scent.

12. Are there any tropes you used to dislike but have grown on you?

oh man i fEEEL like there was a specific trope I immediately had in mind for this one but because I waited so long to answer, I literally can't remember anymore.

Perhaps song fics? I hate reading them but have ended up writing several tangential fics that DO quote song lyrics in them jfdsah Really I'm just a hypocrite. I'll come back if i ever remember my real answer??

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

oh man so many honestly. and like. I do it pretty regularly XD but two super specific and indulgent aus that genuinely no one but me and, like, one other specific person would read are:

1) characters somehow getting swapped with older/younger versions of themselves. For example, 25 year old Nick swapping places with 16 year old Nick and remembering what a dick baby Seiji was to him, while 16 year old Nick's trying to fight with a 25 year old Seiji. I like versions where it's just mind swapped and versions where it's whole body as well (those are fun for the oh no he's hot moment they come with). Fun fact, my original idea for the 'childhood' prompt in the 30 Day Fence Challenge was 17 or so Nick swapping out minds with 12 year old Nick but I couldn't make it work the way I wanted it to in the time I had to write it so it got shelved

2) the Ultimate self-indulgence of MAXIMUM cringe level but aus where a pre-get-together ship's future kid somehow gets dumped back in time and seeks out their parent/s and they're like what do you mEAN I married him?!?! and yes i do have a specific scenario for both Eugesse and Nichoji fics of this variety and if I had time to fit them in my writing schedules, y'all would have to suffer months of irrelevant content from me uwu

[tahyal]

Hello!

I hope you’re having a great start to your week. I wanted to know how you as the peaceful and holistic goddess that you are deal with anger, anxiety, and emotional distresses that come about in today’s world? As a lot of us here are on our own spiritual journeys, how do you approach dissolution of ego to reach a state of peace and filter out today’s world? I’ve been actively seeking reading material and possibly any teachers that would have more knowledge on this but don’t know where to begin. Do you have any recommendations? As always thank you for taking the time to read and respond to my messages. Sending love, light, and good vibes to you. 💌

Hi! 💞

Dissolution of ego isn’t the goal, it’s about observing how you react in unpleasant situations and recognizing your patterns, from there you can pinpoint your ego’s beliefs (that were crafted to protect you at some point in your life), and eventually switch them, or change them to fit the new version of you.

For example if for some reason you get triggered by something you saw or heard, your old self would lean into that triggered feeling and dwell in it for the rest of the day (and perhaps engage in blaming and condemning), your new self would acknowledge your emotions at that moment, feel them, and then would get into self analysis to figure out why they were triggered in the first place, what those emotions mean, where do they come from (wound?), how they can release and let go of whatever caused their wound (forgiveness? Inner child healing? Perspective shift? Casting the burden on the Divine? Etc), and finally they would craft how they want to respond from now on. Basically gently coaxing their ego to work with them instead of against them.

It’s honestly not easy to maintain peace and inner harmony in today’s world, especially if you have wounds to work through (which we all have to some degree). But it is not impossible, it takes discipline, gentleness and kindness towards the self and others, and an immense amount of strength. Once you kind of get the hang of it though it’s absolutely beautiful, it won’t mean that you won’t feel down at times, but you will know how to transmute it rather quickly, and use it as a catalyst for growth.

I highly recommend Master your emotions by Thibault Meurisse (I think its available in audio form on youtube), and Florence Scovel Shinn’s The game of life and how to play it.

[sevensistersofsussex]

In my opinion Caroline was the worst character. She was a judgmental hypocrite who didn’t deserve Tyler after what she did to him. She was always jealous of Elena because she got everything she wanted first (ie Stefan) So unlikeable in season 1 and even more unlikeable in seasons 3-6. Seriously all that insensitive stuff she said at the dinner in season 1 (forgot what episode) LIKE WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU, SHE LOST HER PARENTS! And she couldn’t keep her mouth shut when Elena told her not to tell her about her and Damon. She literally had the audacity to act like a victim to Tyler when she hooked up with the guy that KILLED HIS MOTHER and her BEST FRIEND’S AUNT! Caroline is definitely NOT a girlboss, she is a stupid shallow waste of a character.

A nerve has been struck.

I'm assuming this is coming from my post where I reference the girlbossification of Caroline.

I somewhat agree with you. Caroline is not a "girlboss". But I do disagree that she's a stupid, shallow waste of a character.

Caroline x Tyler

So much to unpack here. These characters had a lot of potential that I loved. Tyler and Caroline knew each other for a long time and saw each other at their worst. Acknowledged their worst traits and still wanted to date. They were there for each other in the beginning and then....it started to unravel.

Caroline plotting his friends murder with her other friends.

Demanding that he choose her over his "revenge" against Klaus.

Wanting his immediate forgiveness when he founds out that she slept with said tormenter.

It's interesting because a lot of the relationships in the latter half of the series tend to serve one character over another. Typically the woman making the man better.

But this relationship tends to serve Caroline's character more. Instead of them both equally which is how it started.

A lot of people, myself included, think the latter half of the series was bad for Elena's character writing and I'd say the same thing for Caroline and most of the other characters. I think Elena was blamed for a lot of strange things in the show and I think Caroline was uplifted for a lot of strange things. Both of these perspectives hurts the character and their writing. It's like the scapegoat and the golden child, both hurt but in different ways.

Jealousy

Caroline's jealousy and self-pity are a core part of who she is as a person in the beginning. And no outside force can placate that sense in her that she is somehow not enough or worse, too much. Not becoming a cheerleader, not becoming the captain, not dating any guy. It's never enough. Because those feelings are coming from within.

And despite it not being outwardly addressed in the show, I do believe that she was likely hurt by how close Elena and Bonnie had become in the aftermath of Elena's parents dying. Maybe Caroline wanted her old friend back too fast. Maybe Bonnie was better at holding space for feelings because of the friend group she was the first to deal with familial loss. Either way, we do see that Caroline is excluded and treated like she is exasperating. Which, she is, but it is still something that would hurt.

I think these aspects do make her relatable to people watching. But I think the part people also miss is that this doesn't make Elena the villain. It's easy to look for wrong-doing but sometimes hurt feelings happen without any wrong-doing.

Insensitive remarks

Oh definitely! A lot of things she says, especially in the first season are completely insensitive to Elena's grief. I think this also plays into Caroline's feelings that she's too much for people. She lacks tact and a filter. She honestly probably says whatever is in her head without thinking about how to make it tactful.

And the thing is.

These people exist. The people who regret a lot of what they say. The people who say insensitive things and have to apologize for it later. The people who have to learn how to have tact and empathy the hard way by continually messing up and having to make amends for it.

The show definitely didn't focus on her making amends cause she was part of an ensemble and not the main character for awhile so it's fine that we don't see it.

But still. Caroline knows she says the wrong things. She's aware of it and does show anguish over it.

Not keeping secrets

Yes, true. She does tell Tyler she's a vampire when she's been asked not to. She tells Stefan about Elena and Damon even though Elena asked for time to tell him herself. Which does suck. She probably felt bad for Stefan being unaware. She's been there before with her friends keeping her out of information. And also, she liked him a lot. That doesn't go away. Yes, maybe she had ulterior motives....

....but, it keeps the narrative moving and creates drama which is necessary for a story.

[brooklynislandgirl]

Bottled a few years before Beth breathed into existence, the Chave Hermitage Blanc is a tiny ocean of golden hues, waves cresting and breaking time with each swirl of Lawrence’s glass. Barely a competition against the constellation of Manhattan at night, halogen lights twinkling through the panes of his own corporate monolith. A machine he only visits on occasion these, and tinkers with even less, letting the churn of worker bees buzz under Mary’s guidance and leaving him free for more interesting pursuits. It is, still, suitable enough for this specific parley.

“As I’m sure you are aware by now, many of those with power and affluence seek the obscene and the taboo to evoke any sense of excitement.” He takes note of the wine’s bouquet without tasting it. “I’m aware of one who spends a large chunk of his inheritance bribing women to allow him to be the one to ‘deflower’ her – his prosaic term, not mine. Not that I am suggesting you make his acquaintance, Beth. You need neither the money nor the tedium involved.”

Lawrence lounges upon an over-stuffed seat, one ankle to knee, the black of his suit only a handful of shades darker than the leather beneath. “I mention him because he puts great value on the concept of virginity. The motif of the value of virgin blood is hardly new, and yet, I am curious as to if there is any true merit to it. Some say virginity is a construct.” The flash of white teeth might be paired with a joke, if coming from any other man. “So, I come to the expert for the truth, before I start locking the young and innocent away to keep a ready supply on hand.”

~*~

A Will and a Way || -

She really wishes she could say his taste in wine is trash, but to do so would make a liar out of her, and he'd call her on the carpet for it. Her curiosity at his casual invitation unto his kingdom is enough for her to venture out once the sun has set much to the annoyance of her sibling for not telling him anything more than she's taking the car into the city and not to wait up for her. Now she's perched a hip against the edge of his desk, watching not his face but rather the motion of his wrist, the angle at which he holds the glass, and breathes in its aroma from her own glass. She has no fear that he will have any cause to poison her, not when all the things he wants most are so readily available to his reach in and with her. Even if he was feeling those particular oats, her body would filter out any potentially lethal toxicity from her blood, and she has a bezoar in her grove, along with enough amethyst to flood 5th Avenue. He'd be better off making good on his once-threat of throttling her, or expunging his innate rage by laying hands on her. He won't. Not when she can see the question burning in the coldfire of his gaze.

His preamble draws a look of sheer disgust from the delicacy of her features and she sets the glass down beside her, equally untouched. In the world he speaks of, many of her sisters and aunties, her countless mothers and daughters, even cousins ~both in the dream of shared Kinship and stranger alike~ find themselves in a place of no power. It was not always like this but the rise of Reason was also the turning away from equality; in a rush to fill the vacuum people like the one he tells her about rose from the mud and the dark and beat fists upon their chests. And then turned that violence on the life-givers, the wise-women. It makes her sick but she doesn't blame the women who must be so desperate to need the unknown stranger's money, attention, or whatever else he provides for their validation and continuing survival. She needs to know the man's name, though she can likely suss it out on her own with a little determination. A pack of her more militant female cousins would see it as a gesture of good will between Tribe and Tradition. She also makes absolutely certain that her face doesn't betray a single lick of dark humour.

She honestly cannot imagine Lawrence....deflowering any one. She inclines her head at his surprising gentility regarding what she may or may not need, and for once she lets it go without biting instinctively back, asking if he's got plans for what she may or may not have. Which she does, even now. Ah, and there it is. His gaze still burns, but his is the light of Diogenes. For the sake of clarity she sets aside her natural speech patterns, reaching rather for his or some reasonable facsimile. "Blood has always been a sacred thing, a liminal matter. It could empower or pollute, restore health or waste corporeal and spiritual existence. It was the Divine Mystery in the mortal creation. For a very long time, those of us who were Awakened, understood this bond and this responsibility. Even before my Tradition took it on as a formal responsibility, we traced the progeny of our forebearers, for in blood there was always power."

Her eyes see beyond him and beyond his glass, something deeply bitter that goes hand in hand with her magicksplaining. "A splinter group broke off and formed...the Hippocratic Circle and they were largely the ones who ruined it for the rest of us. Through them the world came to see that male blood and bleeding was a public experience, connected to heroism, lineage in familial relationships, and to sacrificial practices, while female bleeding is a private matter and that women's blood while connected with parturition and life, should be feared for its polluting qualities. "But that wasn't your question. Your question is specifically about virgins. And the only answer I have for you is...I don't know. Depends on what you or I or anyone else deeply believes. It isn't lip-service level, either. It comes down to what you know in your soul. I use my own blood in rituals, of course. And others, when the need arises. My Tradition knows and uses blood the most, be it animal or human. Some people believe virginity conveys purity, virtuousness. A sort of appeal to the Unseen forces in any mysticism. They might value it more highly than perhaps I would."

She pushes herself off the edge of the desk and pads barefoot toward him. She rakes him from head to toe with a particular sort of gaze; part feral and part threat, part oddly affectionate. Then, she smiles and only the darker aspects of her nature remain. "If you ever require virgin blood for any reason, just ask for it. A lot safer an’ easier for everyone really.” She then hunkers down into a vague sort of squat, until she can look up into his face. It is a look too keenly like her Cousins to be comfortable.  “Now, Larry, be a dear and tell me more about this...ah...friend....of yours.”