#how many people call me 'Zed' in their heads?

[pb-dot]

Film Friday: Shaun of the Dead

It is somewhat of a shock to me that I haven't gotten around to covering Edgar Wright's Cornetto Trilogy, and so I am aiming to remedy this over the next couple of weeks. First up is Wright's first feature film, the ever-quotable Shaun of the Dead.

First up, I want to talk about the title a bit. There's something so effortlessly correct about the thing, how it references George Romero's genre-defining -Of The Dead film series, while also telling one of the movie's central jokes, in that putting a "normal" character who has also perhaps seen a zombie movie into the highly stylized trappings of a typical zombie movie would quite naturally lead to some laughs.

Shaun, played by the always hilarious Simon Pegg, is in a very familiar twentysomething slump. He's living with his college friends and roomates Pete and Ed, but it's hardly a tenable position as Pete's choleric temperament doesn't exactly jive with Ed's dedicated slacker vibes, and Shaun's girlfriend Liz is getting kind of tired of Ed third-wheeling all the time they spend together. It all comes to a head when Liz dumps Shaun and he, after carousing to forget his sorrows with Ed, decides to sort his life out. As fate would have it, the day after is the day the dead rise from their grave, somewhat complicating matters for everyone involved.

The central gag of Shaun of the Dead is that while what one might call the standard zombie rules are in effect (aim for the head, don't get bitten, don't call them zombies,) people, chiefly Shaun and Ed, are also aware of the genre conventions. This way, the movie pokes gentle fun of the trappings of the genre, among others with the reoccurring "we don't use the Zed-word" bit.

It's not all gags, mind. While there are plenty of scenes that rely on jokes about zombie movie logic, as well as more character-driven fare given wings by a truly magnificent cast, there's also some great zombie violence going on. Shaun and Ed dealing with two zombies in their garden at the start of the breakout is violent and hilarious, and while it is somewhat limited, Shaun discovering the fate of Pete is a surprisingly strong horror moment in an otherwise silly sequence.

I would, of course, be derelict in my duty as a zombie nerd if I didn't talk about the siege of The Winchester and all the glorious zombie violence both given and received therein. The fate of David is a glorious bit of gore, and a fun reference to Day of the Dead if memory serves. Then there's the light gun rifle shooting business which is admittedly a bit sillier than the high drama of the scene perhaps calls for, although it works as a thematic thing as well as being a good further raising of the stakes.

I have, however, gone long enough talking about just the fun bits. One of the greatest strengths of Shaun of the Dead, in my mind, is its beating heart, its sense of empathy and warmth. All this clowning on zombie tropes could easily turn out crass and irony-poisoned, but this movie doesn't. In part, I suspect, because it was made out of genuine love for zombie movies, and in part because Shaun and Ed's bromance truly is one for the books.

Usually I don't love the term bromance because I feel it kinda skirts the line of being an early aughts "haha gay"-joke. In this case, though, and in fact in most cases where Pegg and Ed's actor Nick Frost shares the screen, it's hard to describe it as anything else. The two have such effortless and intertwined chemistry on screen that watching them have a good time is infectious and watching them have a bad time is captivating. While there are many strong emotional moments in Shaun of the Dead, surprisingly many for being a comedy, none hit harder than Shaun having to say goodbye to Ed, who has decided to stay behind to ensure his zombie infection doesn't hurt his friend... or his friend's girlfriend I guess. It's a moment of genuine tender masculinity, or as close to one as you could do in a movie in the early 2000's at any rate. The fact that the scene pivots on a callback fart joke doesn't make it any less of a tear jerker.

The challenging thing about writing about Shaun of the Dead, I feel, is that there's so much to talk about. From the zombie movie angle, this was the best of it's kind made between 1985 and 2007, jokes and all. From the comedy angle, there's so many wonderful bits, one personal favorite is Shaun's ragtag party of zombie survivors encountering a gender-swapped version of themselves led by Shaun's Ex going the other way. Then there's the heart, the Shaun and Ed business is one thing, and the resolution about the subplot about Shaun's disapproving (?) step-dad, played expertly by Bill Nighy is surprisingly powerful stuff. So, to try to close this thing before I write myself into a migraine, I'd say go check Shaun of The Dead out if you haven't already. It's a banger.

[cielcreations]

Hazbin Hermits - Prologue

AN: Hermitcraft/Empires/3rd Life Series X Hazbin Hotel AU.

Meaning lots of cursing, fighting, blood, violence, flirting, shipping, sexual innuendos/implied sexual content, and pretty much everyone is a bad person to some degree.

If you don't like your favorite characters made to be not so great people, then do not read.

"Good afternoon! I'm Katherine Killjoy!"

"And I'm Joey JaxHammer! Chaos outside pentagram city today, as a turf war is raging on the west side between notable kingpins Lord Fwhip and self-proclaimed spunky powerhouse Mythical Sausage!"

"That's right Joey! After the recent extermination, many areas are now up for grabs! Demons all over Hell are already duking it out to gain new territory!"

"Those two seem to be really going at it, huh?"

"Looks like they're fighting tooth and nail for that hotspot!"

"And I'd like to nail their hotspots, am I right, fellas~?"

"Haha, you are a limp dick jackass, Joey! Or should I say-" Katherine poured her hot coffee on his lap, the man hissing and moving before she could actually spill it on his dick, "-no dick?"

"Bitch." The man hissed.

"Coming up next, we have an exclusive interview with the younger son of Hell's own head honcho, who's here to discuss his brand-new passion project!"

"All that, after the break!" Joey exclaimed, taking his mug and pouring his coffee on Katherine's head.

"YOU LITTLE SH-"

The two looked away from the TV. The blue haired demon tugged the tie a bit tighter, just to make the prince look more presentable.

"Okay." He finished, stepping back, "Are you ready? You remember what to say?"

The blonde took a deep breath, his purple eyes widening in excitement as he exclaimed, "Yes! Let's do this!"

"Just, look at me, and I'll mouth it to you, Zed." The man grabbed the prince's shoulders.

Zed had light blonde hair with brown ram horns, pale skin, wearing a black suit with a red tie, no shoes so his hooves could breath.

"Ugh, come ooooon, Tango, I know what to say!" Zed reassured, smiling, "But, I do think we should make it a bit more interesting! I-I mean, I don't want to go up there and sound robotic, you know?"

Tango, normally, had yellow hair, that could change into different colors depending on how hot he got. Since he could control fire and such, his hair would change colors to match the fire type and, sometimes, it could even turn on fire. His skin was pale with a bit of a blue tint, his nails sharpened into claws. He wore a black crop top and black shorts, long black heeled boots. He also had black belts wrapped around his waist with golden buckles, black cloth to create an overskirt. (Art of Tango by @/lunarcrown)

"I get that, babe, but this is serious." Tango reminded him, "You can't go up there and squeal and giggle the whole time. It's adorable, yes, but not all sinners are going to trust and believe in your project unless you look serious and you know what you're doing."

"I told you through a fit of excited squeals."

"Yeah, and I listened because I know and believe in you." The demon motioned to the others, "These sinners don't. They don't know you, they barely know your older brother, and they certainly won't believe in you at first. It's why you gotta go up there, show them who's in charge, and act like this plan is full-proof!"

"But we don't know if it is..." Zed reminded.

"Your right, and neither do they." Tango booped his nose, "Which is our advantage. No one knows if this works, but if we act like we're the experts, people believe."

"Prince Zedaph? Five minutes before we're live." A demon called.

Tango smiled at the blonde, kissing his forehead, "You got this! I'll be right behind the camera, so if you need me?"

Zed nodded, smiling, "Don't worry, I got this!"

He turned around, walking to the desk and smiling, offering his hand, "Hi, I'm Zed-"

"Katherine Killjoy." The female anchor hissed, "You can put that away. I would say it's a pleasure to meet you, but that would be a lie." She then sneered, "Look, my time is money, so I'll keep this short. You're not here because we wanted you here. You're here because Jeffery couldn't make it to his cannibal cooking segment! You may be some royal bigshot, but that doesn't mean shit to me! I'm too rich and influential to giving a flying fuck about some tux wearing demon 'prince'-" (she put "prince" in quotations, as if Zed wasn't one) "-wants to advertise."

Zed narrowed his eyes, "Listen-"

Katherine leaned forward, glaring, "So don't get cute with me, or I'll fucking break you!"

"And we're live!"

Katherine zoomed to her seat, tilting her head so much, it sounded like she broke it, "Welcome back!" Once Zed was sat down, she spoke again, "So, Zedaph!"

The blonde's eyes twitched as he smiled awkwardly, "It's Zed-"

"Whatever! Tell us about this new passion project you've been insistently pestering our news station about!"

"Welllllll..." Zed looked around at the demons, Tango standing by the camera man with a smile and thumbs up. He smiled and took a deep breath as he spoke, "As most of you know, I was born here in Hell and growing up, I tried to see the good in everything around me. Hell is my home and you are my people. We just went through another extermination and we lost so many souls! It breaks my heart seeing my people being slaughtered every year!" He slammed his fist on the table, sighing, "No one is even given a chance and I can no longer stand idly by when the place I call home, the place I love, is constantly being destroyed!"

He stood up, smiling, "So, I've been thinking, isn't there a more humane way to hinder Hell's overpopulation? Perhaps we can find a new alternative way to save souls through redemption? I think yes, and that's what this project aims to achieve! Ladies and gentlemen and everyone in between, I'm opening the first of its kind! A hotel that rehabilitates sinners!"

Everyone was silent, staring at the man.

Everyone outside stared at the TV.

One in particular tilted his head in curiosity.

Everyone in the news station... started laughing.

Zed shrunk in on himself as Tango moved to stand beside him, his blue hair turning into flames as he glared at everyone.

"What in the nine circles makes you think a single person in hell would give two shits about becoming a 'better person?!'" Katherine cackled, "You have no proof that this actually works and you want people to be good just because?!"

"You have no proof it doesn't work!" Tango hissed, flames surrounding his body, "Besides, we already have a patron who's showing incredible improvement!"

"Ooooooh, and who might that be~?" Katherine sneered.

Tango leaned forward, intentionally burning her wooden table with a smirk, "Oh, just someone named, SmallishBeans."

"The pornstar?" Joey asked.

"You fucking would, Joey." Katherine glared before snickering, "In any case, that's hardly an accomplishment! I'm sure you can get that hooker to do anything with enough lube and sugar!"

Tango continued to burn her table, the woman looking ready to scratch his eyes out as he drew little doodles, "I beg to differ."

Zed also perked up, smirking, "He's been behaved, clean, and out of trouble for two weeks now!"

"Breaking news!"

Katherine perked up before she smirked, pushing the men away, "We just received word that a new player has entered the ongoing turf war! Let's go to the live feed!"

They turned to the TV and Tango pinched his temples as he tried to control himself, Zed muttering out, "Oh shit."

"Oh shit, indeed!" Katherine exclaimed, "It appears the one to join is none other than porn actor Joel, aka, SmallishBeans!" She looked at the two, "What a juicy coincidence! I bet you feel real stupid right now! How does it feel to be a total and utter failure?!"

She began laughing, everyone did, once more.

Tango tried to control himself as Zed clenched his fists.

The prince looked at Tango with glowing red eyes, "Fucking, show them who's boss."

Tango smirked, his teeth sharpening to points, "Gladly."

He jumped across the table, lighting everything on fire as he began to beat Katherine and Joey.

***

The prince and his boyfriend sat in a limo, across from the other sinner. The sinner had brown hair with a green streak in the middle of his hair, matching his green eyes and green antenna. He wore a long white and light green suit blazer, the top unbuttoned and showing off his muscular chest. He had black shorts and long, knee length black heeled boots. To top it off, he had green transparent fairy wings on his back.

They watched as he rolled the window up and down, clearly in his own little world. Eventually, he seemed to notice the two were staring at him.

The brunette stopped, leaned back, and shrugged, "What?"

"'What?' 'WHAT?!'" Tango screamed, his hair turning to blue, almost purple flames, "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, JOEL?!"

"Ugh, I had too, I owed Sausage a solid!" Joel huffed, "Isn't that one of those 'redeeming qualities'? Helping friends and all that?!"

Zed leaned into the window with a groan as Tango reprimanded him, "Not in turf wars that result in genocide?!"

"Meh, you win some, you loose a few hundred!"

"Joel, that was really not cool." Zed groaned, "You just... You made us look like jokes!"

"Nah, chill out, jokes are funny! I made you all look sad and pathetic!"

"Oh, cause that's any better?!" Tango growled.

"Look, I had to!" Joel argued, "My reputation was on the line! You know what people would say if they found out I was trying to go clean?! Not to mention, people would know where I am and try to break into the hotel to get some of me! Do you want a whole mob down there?"

"Listen, if you want to stay here, you need to take this shit seriously!" Tango demanded, walking towards the brunette, "We're not going to give you a free room, free food, free whatever else if all you do is fuck around! So, you either sit down, buckle the fuck up, and try to redeem yourself and help the hotel's reputation, that you burned to cinder!" He glared, flames coming out of his mouth, "Got it?"

Joel groaned, "Okay, fine, whatever."

"C-Calm down, Tango." Zed offered his hand, Tango moving to sit beside him again, "I-It's not over yet, we can still try! It'll be okay!"

The limo stopped at the hotel and the three went inside. Tango flopped on the couch with a groan, Joel grabbing a popsicle and sitting in a chair. Zed groaned and went to go upstairs, only to stop.

Someone knocked on the door.

He walked towards it and opened the door.

In front of him stood a tall dirty blonde man with his eyes closed, wearing a blue striped coat with dark blue sleeves, the coat falling to his knees. Underneath the coat, he wore a white dress shirt with a black upside down cross on the chest, as if to resemble a tie, long black dress pants with bright blue cuffs. Over his feet, he wore black heeled boots that rested under his pants. Behind his back, he held a long thin cane with a sentient vintage style microphone attached to it.

The whole time, he smiled.

Zed shrunk a little as the man opened his eyes. He had black sclera with blue eyes, staring down at the prince.

"HELLO!" He spoke, his voice altered to sound like that of a broadcast.

Zed shut the door on instinct, "Uh, Tango?"

"Whaaaaat?" The flame demon groaned.

"The Radio Demon is at the door!"

[kokinu09]

The Alien Armada Series

Disconnect

A/N: Long time no see! With Z4’s announcement, I decided to jump back into one of my many WIPs and came across this one that was a quarter of the way finished! Enjoy~

Toes the line of T —> M but I’m not changing the rating. Nothing explicit.

~*~*~*~

Being the Armada leader of a telepathic species meant having quiet moments with her own thoughts was rare for A-dison. It seemed like there was always someone chirping into her mind with a question or request for her opinion.

The majority of the time, she didn’t really mind. It was natural to their people. But her time on Earth began to make her question whether she enjoyed letting everyone into her mind so freely.

This day in particular had her questioning their extraterrestrial habit.

‘A-dison, the transmission division is doing maintenance on Mothership this evening.’ A-spen’s voice chimed in her mind.

‘Wonderful. Thank you for the update, A-spen.’ She replied silently as she applied a new lip gloss Bree had suggested for her date with Zed tonight.

‘I donated my thermal overgarment to a human who was displeased by the temperature so they would stop their constant complaining. Can I borrow one of your extras, A-dison?’ A-li asked, sounding very annoyed to begin with.

‘Of course. I always keep an extra in the Command Room aboard Mothership. Feel free to take that one.’ A-dison offered through the mind link. At the same time finished her lips with a pop and set the tube aside.

She stared at herself in the mirror; blue hair curled, makeup done, lips plump from her new gloss. The dress she’d picked out at a human shop felt soft, flowy, and breathable on her body. A very pleasant contrast to the skin-tight bodysuits she was accustomed to. But it still hugged her waist just enough to show off her curves perfectly. She smiled at her reflection, excitement and space moths fluttering in her stomach thinking about showing Zed this new look.

‘I’ve decided to participate in an event called “The Olympics”. It consists of numerous competitions on strength, speed, and endurance.’ It was A-lan this time, interrupting her thoughts. A-dison audibly huffed in frustration. But before she could reply, another voice piped in.

‘Do you think you should leave the humans something of their own to compete over?’ A-spen asked curiously.

There was a brief pause before A-lan answered. ‘The joy of competition has consumed me and, unfortunately, I am just so good at winning.’

A-dison’s annoyance rose as A-spen went back and forth with A-lan about his decision inside her head. But she took a deep breath and let it go, opting to try tuning them out as she finished getting ready.

That was until—

‘A-dison?’ She froze at A-spen calling her name. ‘You’ve been quiet for all of this. Would you like to offer your opinion?’

‘Um! I, uh,’ she tried piecing together a response, ‘A-lan is allowed to make his own choices. We should let him explore his emotions!’ She mentally patted herself on the back for managing to come up with something halfway believable on such short notice.

‘Hm, that is a good point.’ A-spen agreed, sounding calculated and almost hesitant.

‘Excellent! I am eager for the humans to eat my stardust!’ A-lan then added proudly, ‘I’m practicing the “trash talking”.’

A-dison chuckled to herself at his excitement, happy that her people were having such fun in their new home. A gentle smile graced her lips as she finished the last few things she needed to be ready for her date.

~*~

For the thousandth time, A-dison mentally responded to another question posed by the maintenance team to her via the mind link. She hadn’t even realized her expression had blanked out, again, until Zed was snapping her out of her internal conversation with a clear of his throat.

She blinked rapidly as she refocused on the green-haired boy in front of her once more. “I am sorry, what were you saying, Zed?”

She didn’t miss how his smile had already dropped and his shoulders sagged in disappointment. “Uh, nevermind, it’s not important.” He sighed, poking his half-melted froyo with his spoon.

“But it is important,” A-dison insisted as she reached a hand out to touch his free one. “I enjoy hearing about your interests.”

He glanced up at her from under his lashes skeptically, trying to tell if she was messing with him or not. “No offense but you don’t seem very interested to hear me talk about football.”

She quickly shook her head with wide eyes in denial. “No, I very much am interested, Zed! Listening to you speak of something you’re so passionate about has my chest warming to magnitudes that rival the sun!”

Zed ducked his head shyly, the tips of his ears burning red as he couldn’t help but smile and laugh. His smile doesn’t fade as his fond eyes lift to look at her, his hand squeezing hers as he once again abandons his spoon in favor of drinking her in. “I believe you, Addy.” He assured her, then tilted his head towards the door. “Why don’t we get out of here, it’s getting pretty crowded. Maybe we can watch a movie or something at my place?”

Her eyes lit up at the suggestion, taking one last bite of her vanilla froyo before she jumped up from her seat. “Yes, let’s! The prospect of getting the ‘cuddles’ while watching a fictional dramatization depicting the culture of your plant sounds wonderful!”

Zed can’t help but chuckle, getting up and happily taking her hand as they exit the popular froyo shop to head for Zed’s house.

~*~

Earth’s customs still confused A-dison at times but she could really get used to these films they call ‘RomComs’. Not only did they help her understand Earth dating culture slightly better, a great source material for research, but she also found them incredibly enjoyable. Even if she had to occasionally avert her focus to answer someone popping into her mind link. The story was still lighthearted with plenty of opportunities for laughter and she found herself glancing up at Zed every time something romantic happened between the protagonists.

Maybe their story could have been in one of these ‘RomCom’ movies.

She absentmindedly played with a button on his shirt as the movie went on. Her fingers tracing the circular pattern above his heart.

Zed had seen this movie a hundred times over the years, one of his favorites if he was honest. And he knew what was coming. It was almost to the great climax where the guy confesses to the girl. The groundbreaking moment when they leap into each other’s arms to share their first kiss and live happily ever after.

Zed knew exactly what was able to happen. So why was he so nervous about it?

Oh yeah. The girl he’s in love with is cuddled in his arms and is about to witness a very passionate kissing scene probably for the first time and he most definitely wants to replicate said scene with her. And he inwardly wondered if she would want to kiss him too.

The way her delicate fingertip drew shapes over his hammering heart made him wonder if she could tell. Did she know what she was doing to him? Was she doing it on purpose to tease him? No. As much as he would enjoy being teased by the alien, she was way too naive to know how much of an effect something so small had on him. Only because it was her doing it.

The scene began to play out on the screen. As the man confessed his feelings to the leading lady, Zed’s cheeks burned but he still tightened his hold around her shoulders, rubbed his hand up and down her arm in a gentle gesture.

A-dison didn’t pay his movements any mind, eyes fixed on the screen. Tears were welling up in the actress’s eyes as a smile spread across her face. A-dison felt her heart begin to race, unsure of how they would further express their love. The human woman rushed forward and the man did the same until they were embracing, A-dison’s hold instinctively tightened around the man in her own arms.

Zed pulled her that much closer, his eyes ignoring the movie in favor of gagging her reaction, completely mesmerized by how beautiful she is when she’s focused.

The characters stared into each other’s eyes, transfixed on seeing into their lover’s soul, seeing the love reflecting equally as passionately as their own. He started leaning in, his eyes flickering to her lips, hers hooded with anticipation. A breath is lodged in A-dison’s throat as she held it there, watching at the edge of her seat to see how the humans express their true feelings for one another.

Because even as an alien, she knows intimacy when she sees it.

The moment their lips had touched, A-dison let out a quiet gasp. She watched their expressions, trying to read how they were feeling, the music swelling into a dreamy euphoria as an assistive depiction.

Suddenly, she turned to Zed. Her eyes were wide and wild as they bounced around his face, something he had never seen with her.

“Zed,” she breathed, “can I— we— I would really like to experiment with you what they are doing.” She finally rambled out, already scooting herself up and closer to him for better access to his mouth. He couldn’t help but chuckle, cheeks burning from her bluntness.

“Yeah Addy, you can kiss me. I’d like that too.” He confessed, eyes flicking to her glossy lips.

Her heart was beating harder than it ever had before. There was a brief second that she worried it was going to explode right there in her chest.

He allowed her to make the move, giving her as much time and space as she needed. As she grew closer, he could feel her warm breath fan over his lips, subconsciously wetting them with his tongue in anticipation. A small noise falling from her as she caught sight of the movement.

She wasn’t even sure why the sight of the appendage felt so attractive to her. But the prospect of what it might feel like to taste him made her legs begin to shake.

There was a momentary pause, a hesitation from her inexperience. Her eyes slipped back up to meet his, big blue orbs full of innocence and begging for guidance. His heart melted with adoration, his hand reaching to cup her cheek gently. He closed the gap.

Their lips touch light as a feather and A-dison worried for a moment that her stardust spark had gone haywire again. But when she peeks her eyes open when they pull back, Zed showed no sign of being in pain, eyes still closed and a blissful smile gracing his features.

When Zed finally opened his eyes to see her reaction, his smile widened. The 1000-watt smile that lit up her face made the whole botched date worth it. Watching this cheeky movie was the best choice he’d ever made in his life.

“Oh, Zed!” She said in breathless eagerness. “That was interstellar!” He ducked his head shyly but the wide smile he wore didn’t falter. “May we please engage in more of the kissing?” She nearly begged.

“Of course, Baby,” his eyes softening as he tucked a stray blue curl behind her ear. “As you said, we have all the time in the galaxy.”

~*~

Even after nearly 15 minutes, A-dison was still far from getting bored of this newfound connection she could feel with Zed. Their lips locked and tongues tangled in this unknown dance of passion. Her legs seated on either side of his hips, his hands on her waist while hers cup his cheeks, tangle in his hair.

Now and then she managed to pull the sweetest noises from him; soft gasps, needy moans. Not that she was fairing much better. But she craved to hear more out of him, testing how different touches and pressures on certain parts of his body drew the sounds louder from deep in his throat.

Her lips trailed down the strong line of his jaw, experiencing with gentle scrapes of her teeth along his skin. Trailing down the column of his throat and giving the tender flesh a trustingly harder bite—

‘Greetings A-dison!’ A-spen’s voice rang loudly in her mind. Being startled with her teeth against her lover’s neck, her jaw clamped unexpectedly and made Zed yelp. ‘I hope I’m not interrupting your evening!’

A-dison quickly pulled back. “Zed! Are you ok?! I am so sorry!” She apologized frantically, checking the spot on his neck for any punctures that might need attention. Sighing in relief at finding none too serious.

“I’m ok, don’t worry,” he assured her with a flushed smile, still affected by their extended make-out session. “What happened? Are you ok?”

“Uh, yeah! I’m alright!” She let out a nervous laugh but quickly decided she could not keep trying to hide it from him. With a heavy sigh, she opened her mouth to explain—

‘Ummm? Hello? A-dison? Are you conscious? Do I need to call the medics?’ A-spen once again interrupted.

‘I am fine, A-spen! No need to alert the medics. I was just, in the middle of something.’ She replied in the mind link.

‘Oh! Apologies! I will allow you to complete your task and return with my inquiry shortly!’ And with that, they were gone again.

“—dison? A-dy? Are you sure you’re ok?” Zed’s worried voice broke through her thoughts, hands gently gripping her shoulders.

“Yes! I’m fine! I-I’m sorry Zed,” she murmured, dropping her head in defeat. Unsure of what to do now. “I have not been completely honest with you this evening.”

Zed blinked in confusion. “What do you mean, Baby? Is something the matter?” His brows furrowed with concern.

“No no, there’s not anything wrong with me. It has more to do with…my nature.” She admitted. “I’m sure you have heard about our mind linking abilities?” Seeing him nod along, she went on. “They are doing maintenance on Mothership as we speak and all night I have been intercepting communications with the crew. Answering questions, giving my opinion, or advice,” she listed off with another sigh. “And just now, I had gotten surprised by A-spen popping in out of nowhere and ended up almost hurting you.” She said, pinching the bridge of her nose in exasperation.

When she opened her eyes again, he could see the frustration and sincere apology swimming in her stormy blue orbs. “I never meant to ignore you, or hurt you! I wanted our date to be special and all I did was mess it up…”

Zed lifted his hand to cradle her jaw cheek, stroking his thumb across her cheekbone affectionately. “You didn’t mess up anything, A-dy. Tonight has been one of the best nights of my life!”

“Really?” Her eyes sparkling with hope.

“Yeah, really.” He assured her, leaning back in for a soft kiss to her lips. “And if you wanna continue where we left off~,” he said with a wiggle of his eyebrows, “maybe you can just cut the connection for a little while? It can be just us for a bit.”

She wanted to mentally smack herself. Why hadn’t that option even crossed her mind?

Without a second thought, she zoned into the universe mind link with her people. ‘Greetings everyone. For the remainder of the evening, I will be unavailable via mind link. Please refer questions to A-spen, as my second in command, or I will be available to answer tomorrow morning. Thank you.’

Then she disconnected. Not waiting for a response. Not explaining herself further. Just disconnected.

There was a strange wave of relief that washed over her in that moment. Relief of the responsibilities. Relief in knowing no one would pop into her head without warning or consent. Relief of knowing she could relax for once.

And the adrenaline rushing through her veins from actually doing it!

Her wide, wild gaze snapped to Zed’s. He could practically feel the shift in her energy, his hands sliding back to their comfortable place at her hips giving them a light squeeze of encouragement.

“Now where were we?” She teased before diving back in for more of those delicious kisses.

[league-of-blorbos]

So, on a reddit post I made (it was on potential Arcane seasons) someone in the comments convinced me to write a whole essay on Rhaayn and despite writing it in an hour long hyperfixated haze I like how it came out so I'm posting it here too for the people who want to read my analysis on why their relationship could work:

Ok, so for myself my favorite thing about ships is when you can see what each member offers to the other, or you can see why they fell in love and chose to spend their life with that person specifically. And what Kayn and Rhaast have in common is that they are both lonely men that have been traumatized by war. Swain even says in a voiceline to Kayn that what he really wants is love, since as a child soldier Kayn has only ever known hate. On the other hand, the darkin have all lost themselves from their war with the Void and from being isolated for centuries in their weapons, and the other darkin we see all remedy their isolation in different ways: Varus’s heart is changed by Kai and Valmar, Naafiri embraces being a pack mother and wants the darkin to come together like a pack of wolves, and Aatrox calls his darkin brethren to him so they can have one last war together. Rhaast would never admit it, but I think him toying with Kayn instead of spending all his energy trying kill him is his remedy, he’s the only form of interaction he’s had in so long and deep down he knows he’d be isolated all over again without him. 

From there, we know from their Odyssey voicelines Kayn is much more susceptible to getting attached to Rhaast, he still tries to talk to him after he’s killed Rhaast off and reminisces on the fun times they shared, which makes sense. Kayn is much more of a serious edgelord while Rhaast is still edgy as hell, but more in a Dante from DMC and always joking around kind of way. Kayn could use someone less serious to balance him out and keep his mood from getting too dark. Kayn is also someone who desires praise, he wants to impress Zed any way he can and in Odyssey he wants the galaxy to bow down to him as emperor. What I’m saying is Kayn has an obvious praise kink. And in his own way, Rhaast praises Kayn for being both a worthy opponent and a worthy vessel.

Which brings me to Rhaast, and I have an idea for how he would fall for Kayn which relates back to his desire for a worthy opponent. Rhaast rejected many possible vessels back in Noxus because he knew they wouldn’t give him a good fight, and were therefore too weak for him. But he respects Kayn’s power and wants to fight Kayn head on for his vessel. But what would happen if someone other than Rhaast brought Kayn near death? Rhaast feels like the type of character who wants to fight Kayn as his full power and have a fair battle before he would slay him (back with the DMC references, a very Vergil thing to do). I could see that turning into Rhaast being very protective of Kayn and even using his hemomancy to heal him during fights, as he can’t have someone stealing his kill, he needs Kayn to stay strong and healthy for when they have their epic duel to the death! Then once the time for that duel comes, Rhaast finally realizes he doesn’t want to kill this man he’s been protective over, who is just as bloodthirsty and lonely as he is, and who he sees as an equal. 

And from there, there are so many ways their dynamic could go that doesn’t involve them killing each other and they could spend the rest of their time together doing whatever they want and bickering over the dumbest shit imaginable. (may have strayed a lot from the rom-com idea and got too into character analysis, but that’s the beauty of this ship is that there’s a lot of different parts of their dynamic you could focus on and find the romance in, they just work so well together.)

[yourlocalzombie]

(Continuation of cleo loses headcanon...actually its just fanfiction at this point)

Cleo readied herself to enter the shopping district.

She hadn't been there in ages for...obvious reasons.

She first went to the dye shop, entering the grand dragon's head. She remembered the people she met, whose culture she modeled it on. They were kind people; curious people.

She remembered them fondly.

As she entered the shop, there were no customers, but rather the man who helped her run the thing: zedaph.

The humanoid sheep spun around to what he assumed to be a customer, only to be met with his favorite hulking zombie. Yeah, cleo was the only hulking zombie around, but she was still his favorite one.

"H- Cleo!! I missed you so much! I ran the dye shop when you were gone, even found a way to get even more dye!!"

Zedaph's eyes were wide, sparkling with the revelation of one of his many projects.

"I missed you too, zed."

Cleo gave him a tight hug. It was something she was great at. The wool was an added bonus.

Zed spoke again, "oh goodness I'm sorry, I got so caught up in the store I forgot to ask how you are..!"

Cleo chuckled and nodded. Zed always got ahead of himself.

"Well.." cleo took a breath, "admittedly I've been better but! I think I'm ready to face the world again!" Cleo's smile beamed. Her teeth were jagged, not quite where they should be, and much too sharp for anyone who didn't realize she's harmless (unless provoked, of course).

Though, it did have its charm.

Zedaph almost bounced at the news.

"I'm glad! And just know we're all here, for every step you take!"

"I won't be so ready to forget that." Cleo paused, "so...what is this about Redstone? And dye...production?"

"Ah, yes! Come with me."

Zed took Cleo through a passage to the neck of the terracotta beast. Within, an odd contraption had been made with flowers clek had never scene before.

"What's all this, then?" Cleo asked.

"Well...in the lab I made some...'super flowers,' so to speak. They're petals are larger and therefor, make more dye!" Zed went on, "and with this Redstone set up, it harvests automatically and heads right down there!"

Zed pointed to a stack of chests linked with hoppers.

When cleo took a peak, the chests were, indeed, filled with more dye than she thought possible.

As she looked up, she found machines delicately plucking petals from the flourishing flowers. It was odd, but helpful.

"Well, zed, I owe you-"

Zed cut her off.

"Nope! Not all, really!"

"Are..you sure?"

"Mhmm!" Zed nodded.

"Well...fine. for now." Cleo crossed her arms with a slightly smug grin.

Zed chuckled.

"Anyway, a couple people cam by earlier, askin me where you were as if I'd know." Zed looked...sheepish. More than normal, anyway.

Cleo tilted her head, "oh?"

"Yeah...it was Etho..."

"Oh."

Cleo didn't need to hear whoever else was involved.

They looked to the side again. She saw the petals be plucked. One by one, little cold hands removing them from their former life. Their former home. She remembered her draining body. Hour. By. Hour. She spent protecting her self-appointed sons. From the so-called bad boys. From their washed up 'father,' hour by hour. Smithereen to smithereen. It still hurt sometimes.

Sometimes she felt as if her body was splitting apart all over again.

Nobody knew this of course. Nobody was supposed to...

"...cleo?"

"Huh? Oh..."

Cleo looked down to see a worried sheep looking up at her, almost pitifully.

"I'm fine...did he leave any instructions?"

"Yeah, I think he gave them to whoever he met." Zed pulled a paper out of his pocket, deciding not to push.

Cleo read the paper. It was only some coordinates, which using her map, she found to be on an oceanside cliff.

Cleo sighed, "I guess I'll see what he wants, thank you again, zed."

Cleo turned to leave.

"It's no problem, and, hey, cleo?"

Cleo turned her head.

"Remember this isn't a life game."

"...I'll keep that in mind."

And with that, cleo left the base of the statue, leaving behind a worried zedaph and his petal plucking procedures.

[witchcraftandburialdirt]

❝ I’m not easily impressed by people, but you’re stronger than I gave you credit for. ❞

✧ ━━ 𝐁𝐀𝐋𝐃𝐔𝐑'𝐒 𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝟑 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝙻𝙴𝙰𝙶𝚄𝙴 𝚅𝙴𝚁𝚂𝙴

Robin's head whipped around with a suddenness that mirrored an owl's sharp turn, the sound of the movement echoing like splintered wood in the quiet of the forest. His selenic gaze, swirled with silver pools, locked onto the stranger who had called out to him. As about a dozen hushed whispers flittered around him, not quite loud enough to drown out the woman's words but enough to create a background hum, Robin's gaze lingered on her figure. Like a cornered animal trying to figure out the level of the threat being presented to them; the mage held an unbroken stare, his mind racing with thoughts as the wind danced through his pale locks, lifting his cloak in a graceful billow.

A Noxian?

He initially surmised, but upon hearing her accent, he realized it wasn't a perfect match, there was a softer quality … Maybe a frontier city? Definitely from Valoran, but it lacked the sharp consonants and murmuring tone of Noxus. Ah, a conquered city, he deduced, the realization dawning on him as he considered the woman before him. She must have been stripped of everything by the voracious appetite of Noxus, a fate that stirred a pang of sympathy within him for the unfortunate soul standing before him. Poor thing had probably been stripped from top to bottom for Noxus' hungry jaws, he wondered how many of her family lay within the fields of her homeland?

Although that did not help his predicament. It was a rare occurrence for someone to seek him out deliberately rather than stumbling into his presence by chance; and all of those visited were marked by an additional grave nestled in the serene expanse of Navori's rolling hills. He had half-expected an Ionian envoy, perhaps a member of Zed's order, but the woman who now stood before him was like none he had encountered before. Had his letter to Lord Vladimir been intercepted?

No. If indeed the letter had been compromised, he mused, she would surely have arrived accompanied by a retinue, given its contents detailing a demon's growing strength and the agreement to hang Swain's corpse from the Immortal Bastion. That should obviously raise some alarm within the guard - unless, of course, Vladimir had managed to somehow turn everyone into thralls but Robin severely doubted that. If he had, he would be here - not sending some uniformed official.

Regardless of the question that lingered in the air, no need to reveal anything; his expression remained neutral, betraying nothing of his thoughts. With a slight cant of his head, his voice, honeyed and that of smooth velvet, broke the silence,

"Do you know me, miss?"

[scottpaladin]

1. What stage of production is the most fun for you? Acting/directing. It's the most collaborative stage and the one with the tightest feedback loop. I love working with performers and putting on silly voices and getting the giggles at hour two of a recording. It's great. Love to every actor I've ever worked with

2. What’s a role in a different show you’ve heard one of your cast members in and just been absolutely blown away by? Have you heard @satyrofstrategy in anything he's been in? That dude always blows me away.

3. Show us an excerpt of script you’re extremely proud of.

4. Is there a specific episode that was especially fun to work on? It's a cop-out but the upcoming Fable of the Family mini-series was SOOOOOOOO much work but it's been really rewarding and had some of the best times recording it.

5. Be honest, which is your favourite character to write lines for? Don't make me choose between Heck and Zed Wild. I love them both so much in different ways.

6. You have to turn your podcast into a different type of media: what do you go for? Look, if HBO or Netflix wants to give us a half a billion dollars to make Breathing Space into a TV show we would do it, but honestly a comic-book would be really cool.

7. Tag a show you think would make a great crossover with your own (and maybe make it happen, who knows 👀) I don't listen to enough other shows to know one off the top of my head but I'd love to hear people's suggestions.

8. Pick a character from your show and put together an outfit you think they’d wear. I did this already with Heck and Cat and @achill3a went off and drew it and it's amazing

9. If your show was a different genre what genre would it be and how would the plot change? Breathing Space can't be anything other than what it is. The show is the setting and the setting is the genre and the genre is the philosophy behind it.

10. Recommend a couple of other shows for people who like your own! If you like Breathing Space, there's a really good chance you'll like SINKHOLE and ROGUEMAKER (what is it with us an all-caps stylized sister shows?)

11. Share a fun bts fact people might not know. The Peregrination is a transplanted idea from a dead project of mine. When Breathing Space started development, I dragged it out of the box of ideas and it helped form one of the central pillars for the setting.

12. Share something about a future episode that will mean nothing right now but will one day. "I ate a baby once"

13. What’s your favourite portion of sound design from the show? From my own stuff, I *really* like having someone close a spacesuit helmet mid-line. So you can hear their voice change from clear to slightly muffled. I do it a lot but you can hear it in Long Way Home From Ceres and Ride Boldly Ride. But also all the glitches and noises in I Walk These Hills and Objects in Motion. One of my favoritest things to make.

14. Share a show meme.

@incorrect-bsff-and-memes for more.

15. Are you working on anything else outside of this show? Yes! I am in the writing process for a horny werewolf noir audiodrama called It Takes a Wolf, hopefully that will premiere in the fall of this year!

16. Briefly outline your process for making a season happen. The dev writers lay out how many and what sort of episodes we expect to write, then we put out a call for pitches, read those and select from the candidates. Everyone writes for a month and we make sure that each script gets read by at least two editors. After revisions, things go to casting. Casting days are FRANTIC as we play a giant game of tetris to make sure we all get the best fit actors for parts. Then we schedule recordings, trying to get as much as we can done synchronously (all actors and director on a call). Then the editors crawl into their holes to make it all come together.

17. What’s something that inspired your show? Only speaking for myself: The Expanse, Firefly, the collected works of Robert A Heinlein, Mass Effect, Battletech Lore, Eldurado (the john wayne movie), Secondhand Lions, SIlverado, the works of Aaron Sorkin, the music of @narcissistcookbook, and Enter the Haggis and fuck, a whole lot else.

18. What’s something you’d like the audience to take away from your show? People are people. Mostly trying their best. Working together is the only way to beat the system. Fuck Amazon.

19. Do you have any playlists/music you listen to while working on production? https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGGpS-cz1Ls33WVVAMvQ26Y04kUqo9tqY < this is mine for the latest season.

20. What’s a moment from the show that just absolutely took your breath away when you heard it come together for the first time? Too many to count. At least one an episode. But the climax of Ride Boldly Ride felt like such a gamble when I was making it and it turned out so good and I never have gotten over that. But also maybe hearing the FotF theme for the first time.

Audio drama ask meme: Creator edition

The last one was extremely fun, but I want this one to help people help promo their wonderful shows!

1. What stage of production is the most fun for you?

2. What’s a role in a different show you’ve heard one of your cast members in and just been absolutely blown away by?

3. Show us an excerpt of script you’re extremely proud of.

4. Is there a specific episode that was especially fun to work on?

5. Be honest, which is your favourite character to write lines for?

6. You have to turn your podcast into a different type of media: what do you go for?

7. Tag a show you think would make a great crossover with your own (and maybe make it happen, who knows 👀)

8. Pick a character from your show and put together an outfit you think they’d wear.

9. If your show was a different genre what genre would it be and how would the plot change?

10. Recommend a couple of other shows for people who like your own!

11. Share a fun bts fact people might not know.

12. Share something about a future episode that will mean nothing right now but will one day.

13. What’s your favourite portion of sound design from the show?

14. Share a show meme.

15. Are you working on anything else outside of this show?

16. Briefly outline your process for making a season happen.

17. What’s something that inspired your show?

18. What’s something you’d like the audience to take away from your show?

19. Do you have any playlists/music you listen to while working on production?

20. What’s a moment from the show that just absolutely took your breath away when you heard it come together for the first time?

As always, please reblog, share, and enjoy! No need to send asks!

[olivedoesmagic]

Journal 102” Wallpaper ENgine olive brimstone occulltist art [Artist wendedwolf0 tumaart] francais english wallpaper by thatindiegamer

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2904977076

If I had a spot I’d be skinned alive. I think that is a message of my atonement. I learned to travel in time the next natural step to reality shifting and move between the contintuties of the french Olive Brimstone. I learned of being of made of clay, and I learned being the maker of the clay. It started simple. Space ship method. You take what you imagine a vibe to be an energy and mediate in a slow state, or clam state if you have ADHD, and you move the whole room like a spaceship to a random destination and suddenly your in anotherworld. An Alternate reality. I had to learn many things. Not to be biased towards that of pasta or pop culture. That tehre were people I disliked who knew more then me. That there were people egotistical and well known who I knew more then. That all magick was once ancient. And thus all magick was once SIMPLSITCILY ours and simplsiticly new.

What was in my head when I visited those towns? Infected by vodon meets the irish a plague like of zombies? A chainsaw top surgery. That only I and my friend who beleived in my methods LOE could verify to you? And when we parted per a foster of power, how restrained the worlds swapped to be? What if otherkin was reincarnation by BUDON. He woundnt lie to me about that, and the buddha did say as much. I have raped. Hazed. Ritualistically sacrtiticed. LYnced, and survived all for the sakes of my magick.

And in return i made a machine I call it a warp. Its a dream as it all starts but within it holds the rooms of tomorrow, all rooms towards painted or alive, where I myself may go. Not Zone’s Pandorlica. Not the jar of Pandora. Not teh Tardis of the Doctor. But rather a hallway similar to the concentration i was sent. Shooting targets with Roy Harper the one here in this reality, revealing my madness during SANTURNALIA too, and accused of indecency in greek robes in an an ambulance. I did the no more mama ritual, similar to that of that game. But I received little to nothing.

I wanted the world for myself. I married LOKI. I married HERMES. I was hope of olympus. AEOS the fusion of chrnos and apollo. I was ZAGEROUS of Olympus. Dionysus x Apollo. And I just wish that if they had vinerated me as ALEXIAN I knew why they kept calling me astounding. You don’t have to believe a word I say. Many never will. But I loved so many others. No matter myself how many times i tried to kill.

I forgave my rapitsts each and every one. I loved the taggen and the zeds of tomorrow. I missed vegas and I missed his bar mitzvah. But now their is a habbad and now it sells hallah. The peteah bread the ways of a damsen in distress loving someone who was under house arest. And Halsey was my publicity. IN the music industry wee’re tied together, this adam pazass wrote those ancient texts /j. And as a result I came up with her songs in a shift of NICO while smoking underage in a mental ward. Coming across crazy for the wrong generation. Its alexy neris.

How would i explain skipping stones?

Every soul has an embodiment. That creates its life force and its layers. And within lays a shell of its personhood like whom you could be or assumed. These shells can be cracked broken repaired rememended or shared. And most boat their shell is the embodiment inside falsely. The identity of the shell is the flavor to the layer. So like a peanut people are complimentacated as spirits. LIke rain and water and wind and storms. And so when an identify is presented one shell with a unique flavor may steal the seasoning. An identity, a personification, a rational. And that is what is otherkin is about.]

Use an earthen filter. Humans look a little odd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZmPQD-5tCw 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV_aMiRqMS4 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOI6CQC1joc&t=9s

Youtuber diongoespew current name braincake. Theirs nothing crazy about pop culture magick. YES the OLD WAYS are forgotten and important. DID YOU FUKING KNOW BITCH? That they preserved them via FICTION? Man you must moron to not even fuck around and find out. Sincreely Occeair’s golem. OLive Oliva Remy Brein Brimstone.

they always ask me if im content, if i am satisfied but i promise you i shall never be. And when i started shifting again i saw the multiverse for what it was, a mirror here a crack there. Being fractured across space and time via zone morgan zag felix and my own methods. Copies upon copies of us in the multiverse. And now im going back togehter shifting every other night. IT was like dragons, it was that of dragons i had raised. A puppy mill like in slideres a birthing joint i lived through. Being kind here and quen there and learning that that pushed forward alternate reincarnates that only a changling could solve. Myabe got off his ass he woudnt of bullied adam off witchtock. maybe if you remembered your maytsprit. A worwld where i was enslaved was here and how i ruled there peacefullly.

Maybe you should admit your not that original? Ay tough guy.

-Olive Brimstone

4:59 PM

4/2/2023

[zylphiacrowley]

Tagged by @nikisaur who is a wonderful person!

1) Name/nickname: Zylphia. Z (I find it hilarious that I call myself "Zee" but a lot of people probably pronounce my nickname for myself "Zed"), Zyl, and to a guy who worked in Hot Topic in Northern Minnesota sometime in the early 00s (when Tripp pants were at the height of their popularity); "Hey you with the ears"

2) Gender: Lady

3) ⭐ sign: 100% pure uncut Gemini.

4) Height: Like 5'8/9"ish?

5) Hogwarts 🏠: Gryffindor, and I've got the haughty pride to prove it.

6) Favourite animal: Caribou! Pretty much any animal with antlers, Sheltie pup pups, foxes, black cats, any animal that looks at home in the tundra basically...

7) Hours of 💤: I average about 3-4 on work days, days off I'm dead to the world.

8) Dogs or cats: Catdog.

9) Number of blankets: As many as humanly possible.

10) Dream trip: EVERYWHERE. But if I have to narrow it down, Finland, South Korea, and somewhere green (maybe even New Zealand or like Scotland or something?) There's way too many places I want to visit. There's a lot of pretty places in this world.

11) Dream job: To either write for television or teach English as a foreign language.

12) Time: Warp? (9:34pm)

13) 🎂: June 14th

14) Favorite Bands: Florence + the Machine, Matthew and the Atlas, Imogen (and the) Heap, My god why would you make me choose?!

15) Honorable Song Mention: The entirety of Florence + the Machine's The Odyssey.

16) Song Stuck In My Head: Pray by Sam Smith

17) Last Movie I 👀: I'm not sure but I feel like Stardust would be a safe assumption. When in doubt, Stardust.

18) Last Show I 👀: American Gods (everyone knew this was coming)

19) When Did I Create My Blog: A long long time ago.... I can still remember, that music used to make me smile... And I knew if I had my chance, I could make those people dance and maybe they'd be happy for a while. (lol I don't remember when I made this blog)

20) What Do I Post/Reblog: a ton of crap.

21) Last Thing I Googled: Soft pastels vs. Chalk pastels

22) Other blogs: I have three that I never use.

23) Do I Get Asks: Ver rarely but I love it when I do. ❤️

24) Why I Choose My URL: For all intents and purposes it is my name. Except Crowley is after A.J. Crowley from Good Omens, who is one of my favorite literary characters.

25) Following: Trends.

26) Followers: Lost probably.

27) Lucky Number: 14 and 27.

28) Favorite Instrument: Cello, piano, pipe organ and anything that makes big grandios sounds (not the same thing as loud)

29) What Am I Wearing: the most comfortable pajamas pants in the world (with pockets!) from Old Navy and a tank top.

30) Favorite food: You can never go wrong with mac and cheese... unless you're lactose intolerant... which I am... Still mac and cheese though.

31) Nationality: (begrudgingly) American from the U.S.

32) Favorite Song: HAHAHAAAHAHAAAAA a lot.

33) Last 📓 Read: I think I started trying to reread the first book in The Doctrine of Labyrinths again which is called Melusine

34) Top Three Fictional Universes I’d Like To Join: That parallel dimension where everything *didnt* go tits up a year or so ago, The Kingdom of Stormhold (Stardust). Sometime in the Suikoden timeline, preferably after sea voyage was the main mode of transportation. I hate the open ocean. It's terrifying.

Do I tag three people? @ambalambs, @kibuto, @rydiaasuka? If you want to?

[heart-forge]

I had a question (stemming from being a hijabi) about Zed and the head coverings, you mentioned that there would be situations where they wouldn’t wear it? Also, I don’t see many problems with including hijab as long as there are situations we aren’t forced into that go explicitly against our beliefs (i.e. having to drink alcohol, going to a bar,etc.) alternatively if you don’t want to make it religious at all maybe just not call it hijab? Plenty of people in Muslim majority countries wear a scarf/sheila for cultural reasons

Ah see, that's the vital context I need, because outside of context they're just all grouped together as headscarves and so I assume the terminology is all referring to the same thing, you know? I only delineate between religious and cultural because of the idea that someone may be non practising but still like, observant? So I thought that cultural could then imply both religious reasons (depending on the person picking the option, obviously) and personal observance, but if I understand your message then maybe that's not the way to go? Would it be more accurate to then specifically separate cultural and religious?

I should say, it won't necessarily come up in the sense that you're asking. Regardless of how it gets laid out, a character wouldn't automatically drink or eat something without the player personalizing that: so there'd be no instance where you'd assert that you wear a hijab and then I obligate you to do shots, you know? So specifying religious wouldn't change the game in a significant way, I don't think: even if I added some sort of daily ritual that could include prayer, I would allow the player to pick that even if they hadn't specified that they're wearing anything religious. This is an aesthetic choice meant to modify dialogue other people have with you about your clothes.

Another thing that just occurred to me based on your message, but I imply that Zed isn't wearing a specific and identifiable covering, but is still covered (so, none of the ROs would be able to look at Zed and see any specific headscarf: this is because Trigger specifically acts very suspicious and I didn't want to imply that a) headscarves are so uncommon that any of them wouldn't be able to look at you and identify the reason you're covered, and b) to specifically change dialogue around Zed becoming uncovered far into the future, and dialogue about it being odd that Zed is covered. So, if I have a Zed based on myself, I can assert that I'm not usually covered, but also that I refuse to get less covered: this let's people (Trigger dsjkfhsdkjf) react to me suspiciously, because there's nothing inaccurate or offensive about asking me that. A Zed based off yourself, though, could assert that they're also usually covered but not usually in the manner that you are (because as I've mentioned, Zed is COVERED, to the point where they're wearing like work gloves—anything I do in the future with Zed's reveal will be a) voluntary on the part of the player, and b) take into account that some people can be obscured from view in a similar way) and Trigger will stop bringing up the fact that you're covered, because he understands now and that's a fuckass rude question when you've been told. Also, just for clarity's sake, HE brings up the fact that you may be covered for a reason, there's no like...racism interlude.

Would that not work, though? I preface this by saying that everything I know about other religions was taught to me by Catholics who had no business teaching me math let alone about other cultures, and they were frequently and identifiably wrong in a lot of ways so I'm sure that extended to stuff I didn't know they were wrong about. But it was my impression that the specific coverings were designed to cover rather than with any like meaningful specificity. From this logic, I gleaned that a Zed that's wearing like, a hoodie with a big hood and their hair wrapped and put away underneath (and still not visible to anyone looking at them) could also assert that they would normally be wearing a formal headscarf, but didn't want to get any of theirs dirty in the woods to explain why they weren't wearing one. Is this not accurate? Would it need to be the specific headscarf (although obviously idt you're like, an expert on all of them) and then they would have one that's specifically for dirty chores? This question kind of delves into speculation because for normal people who live in the right now where fabric isn't necessarily rationed in the same way the answer would probably be obvious, but I don't want to imply the incorrect thing about anyone yk?

Thank-you for responding, you brought up a lot of good points. I totally understand if you don't have the bandwidth to indulge me this far but I can check some stuff out on my own as well if you don't. 💚

[hunters-house]

Zed took a few deep breaths. He had gone on countless missions, killed Gods know how many people, and all it took was soliciting some… good times to make him as nervous as a teenager on a first date?

“Come on, Zed. Head in the game, head in the game,” he said to no one. He started to type, before realizing he needed a fake name.

[TXT: You can call me Mason. I’m looking to hire your services.]

“Holy shit, it works!” (From Zed at hh-after-dark)

@hh-after-dark || A Text!

[[To Unknown Sender:

‘Huh? It works? Either yer bein weird abt my # or you’s got smth neat fa me. This is Angel Dust, Sweetheart, what can I do for ya?’]]

[leagueoflegendsimagines]

Hello, love your work! May I request SFW + NSFW headcannons for Zed?

As a disclaimer, the difference in age between Zed and the reader isn't too great. Around 7 or 8 years - and by the time their relationship starts, the reader is a young adult. Around 20 years old.

Second disclaimer: this is a very long post. I apologize to anon for that.

SFW:

- You met Zed in a very unexpected way and, truth to be told, you never imagined that you two might ever become lovers.

- You became a honorific member of the Order of Shadows because Zed was indebted to your parents. As strong political figures in the world of Ionia, they had helped him and his Order many times - standing by his side from the dark, misty shadows of the councils. Supporting his cause.

- When they died - assassinated, nonetheless - you were heartbroken. But, as their only child, you were sent to the safest place in Ionia: Zed's sanctuary.

- Zed silently mourned the tragic death of your parents. And while he could hardly swallow the fact that such a young girl - barely a woman - would live in his order, it was the least he could do for your deceased mother and father.

- The first time he saw you... he felt a pang of shock and nostalgia. As a child, you looked identical to your mother. But now... now you looked like neither of your parents.

- No, you looked like your grandmother. A woman full of prestige and respect in the whole land. A woman Zed had always respected with his whole devotion. Willing to fight for Ionia until her very last drop of blood - a dignified and incredibly strong woman, both in body and soul.

- Physically, you did look like her. But... ah, yes. The determination and steel in your eyes. Yes, you shared the same spirit as her.

- Maybe that's why Zed took such a high interest in you. Maybe that's why he started, little by little, to care for you more than he should've ever allowed himself to.

- As time passed, you started opening yourself more to him - and to the members of the order.

- You had vowed to avenge your parents, no matter what. You had a strong character - but, at the same time, you were as gentle as the first rays of dawn and as brilliant as the sun of a bright July afternoon.

- You exhaled spring and summer. You were a breath of pure, refreshing air in the dark, hallowed hallways of Zed's home.

- For the order, you were a direct example of the things they were fighting for. In you, they saw every young girl or woman of Ionia, wishing for a brighter and better future - innocent as the melting snow of a late spring.

- Zed didn't keep you under a lock in the order. He would take you to the vast hills, forests and waterfalls to be found outside of the grim labyrinth he dedicated his life to.

- He spent so many hours watching you harvest the bounty of summer and autumn. With a white summer dress and that wide straw hat you would wear you looked like an innocent, sinful delight.

- Zed realized too late that his platonic desire to watch you slowly turned into brewing lust.

- It came to his mind one August evening as he watched you from underneath an old tree. He kept a close eye on you, admiring your sun kissed skin in contrast to the yellow dress you were wearing. It only made everything else brighter. Your eyes, your smile. The rainbow of gentle, soft colors in your hair, shining like precious stones under the sun.

- When he caught the shiver of lust wrecking his body, he recoiled in repulsion.

- Repulsion directed to his own person.

- You were his friends' daughter.

- How could he even think of you as a woman?

- Of course, he was well aware of your beauty. You ravished the heart of one too many disciples. They wouldn't even dare to make a move - you were Zed's most prized protege.

- Not even Kayn dared say anything about you - in his absence or presence.

- After all, Zed had eyes and ears everywhere.

- From then on, Zed became distant. Cold.

- You figured it out fairly quickly. As innocent as you were, you knew the power of your own charms. The power of your youth.

- You didn't have to be a beauty or an incredibly attractive woman - you only had to be yourself. And that was enough.

- Your smile, your youthful energy... it ravished him.

- Oh, how he longed to bask in your light - to enjoy the gentle sun of youth in your presence. You were a sun to him, warming up his calloused heart.

- For your young age, you were incredibly intuitive and sensitive to the energy of those around you. And, of course, you easily felt the effect you had on him.

- After all, it was quite similar to the effect you had on his students. But... it left you confused. Vulnerable. So similar, yet so different.

- Things were different with him. While you wouldn't have minded the shameless flirt with one disciple or another, only to burst into a childish smile full of radiance and leave them yearning for more as you ran outside to play or dance your worries away - with Zed things were so tense and...

- You couldn't really describe it. You didn't know what Zed would do, after all. What would happen if you flirted with him?

- Would he scold you the way he did when you trained with him? Would he accept it? Would he give in?

- You shivered at the thought of how he might react. When he allowed you to go to visit the few female friends you had in nearby villages - always followed in the shadows by him or the guards he assigned you, of course - you would hear so many stories. You had a vague idea of what love meant for a woman. Or... what to expect. But you were too innocent to know the full extent of it.

- Yet, you felt lust. Zed was a dominant and strong man. It was hard not to, as you grew older and older until you reached your ripest moment of youth. It was hard to not observe or admire him with the eyes of a woman.

- One of your friends once called him delicious.

- You couldn't help but agree.

- Your slow dance around each other came to an end one late October evening.

- It had been a cold, rainy day. As such, you spent it inside the Order's headquarters, reading and lazing around with your novels. As you got bored, you moved in silence to Zed's study.

- He knew you were sneaking in - but he never said anything to scold or push you away.

- You were his one guilty weakness, after all. The only one he could afford.

- Zed did it only because he knew you would be safer with him than with anyone else in this world.

- As you sneaked in, you wrapped your arms around his broad shoulders the way you always did. But this time... this time, things would be different. For a moment, you briefly wondered if he could feel your erratic heartbeat.

- But as no objection came from him, you leaned to look over his shoulder with a hum. "You're working too much." He only answered to you with a soft tap on the paper - a warning.

- With a bold move, you slipped into his lap with an apologetic smile. "You should work less now - and pay more attention to me instead."

- You felt him grow stiff under your soft weight. Surprised. Shocked. Caught unaware. You knew how much Zed hated it - but you couldn't sit around doing nothing. Not anymore.

- "You have grown very spoiled, little sun." You heard him grit his teeth, a low growl in his voice. A very obvious and threatening warning. You were pushing him too far.

- Still, what would happen if he were to break?

- So you did it.

- You shifted your position to a more daring one, your warm thighs enveloping his lap in a bold statement. Maybe this shocked him too much into stillness. Maybe this is why he didn't move in the slightest as you took off his mask - and pressed a soft kiss on his pale, cold lips.

NSFW:

- Unsurprisingly, your action killed Zed inside. He wasn't a person to chase physical pleasure. When he reached a point of frustration, he would find one or two willing women to quench his lust - no emotions, no second meetings.

- But you were different. You were something to be loved and cherished. You were... innocent. Pure.

- Maybe not so innocent - that was his impression as he looked down on you with angry, dilated pupils. As much as you tried to cower under his unnerving glance, as much as you tried to look innocent... you knew it wouldn't work on him.

- You also knew that, no matter what might happen next, you wouldn't regret it.

- You only hoped it would help settle the fire between your thighs, so closely and intimately pressed to his.

- What you didn't expect was the tight grip on your shoulders, pushing you back against his desk until he was above you - a whimper escaping your lips as his hot, throbbing pelvis pressed between your quivering thighs. Your rumpled dress left your legs exposed, vulnerable. It almost made you feel ashamed.

- "I believe someone is feeling their age a bit too much." His heated words, right next to your ear, made your breath hitch. It sent almost painful shivers down your body, warming your flesh down to your toes.

- Even for his solitary life, Zed was still a very experienced man. He was a perfectionist. He would always be an expert in everything he did - combat, reading people or pleasing his partners.

- As such, he knew how to read you like an open book.

- He also knew how to drive you crazy.

- If you wanted him, so be it.

- But he would make you earn it. And he would make you pay for being a little brat with him.

- "Do you think I'm one of my students, little sun? Do you think I'll accept your teasing and let you run away?" He watched you shake your head with a teary daze in your bright eyes. Yes, the lust was getting to you. And as he rolled his hips against you with a strength and force only he possessed, he realized it was getting to his head as well - more rapidly so as he heard your stifled, confused little moan.

- "Or do you want something more? Is that why you've been looking with those hungry eyes at me these past months? Is that why you're more focused on staring at my body than learning proper combat?" Another roll - another moan from your innocent, untouched rosy lips. It sent such delicious ripples of pleasure down his spine.

- "Do you truly want to know how a man feels? Do you think you're prepared for that?" Your spine arched painfully against him - and Zed didn't waste the opportunity to wrap his strong arm around your body, biting down almost painfully on your shoulder.

- You were a shivering mess in his arms, almost crazy with lust and desire.

- And nothing had ever felt more like home than the moment when he filled you so deeply with his cock, driving into you like a man dying of thirst - or the moment you rested your head on his shoulder, wrapped in his warmth and security. Safe. Home.

- He was your home.

- At that point, Zed knew he couldn't let you go. Not until you would push him away mercilessly.

- Until then, he would always be by your side.

- In lovemaking, Zed is a very dominant man. He enjoys your innocence and youth. He enjoys how small you are or how well you fit in his arms. There's nothing he adores more than holding your hands above your head or behind your back, fucking you roughly into the soft and almost luxurious covers of his bed.

- There's nothing he enjoys more than hearing your almost pained moans, feeling you quiver in intense, almost overwhelming pleasure.

- He is quite a large man - but by the time he gives in to your desire, you would be more than ready for him. He always takes his time with foreplay, prolonging it and frustrating you to no end.

- He adores edging you. Bringing you to the brink of orgasm time after time after time - only to offer you, with his cock, the satisfaction you desire.

- You will never feel lacking when it comes to your sex life. And while you do have your own problems, like every couple, Zed has enough wisdom and experience to deal with them in a mature and calm manner - and to show you the way to do so as well.

[jojikawa]

Fatal Attraction | Kayn x Fem!Reader | League of Legends

˗ˏ✎ [Honey-Maron] *ೃ

✧『Fandom』: League of Legends

✧『Character』: Shieda Kayn

✧『Word Count』: 2,960 words 15,587 characters

✧『Summary』: As a child soldier, Kayn had only made one friend who he wanted to protect during the battles against the Ionians but during his final battle, he was too busy defending himself to see what happened to her. Her body was never found so he knew she wasn't dead and now it was his goal to find her.

(This hasn’t been proof read enough times so bare with my typos)

There was a time in the Noxus military where the battle was getting hard and the Commanders needed a new tactic that would surprise the Ionians. The idea that ended up going through was for the military to pick up poor children off of the streets and train them to fight well enough to distract some Ionians for more capable adult soldiers to come and pick them off.

Kayn was amongst these many children along the way he had met a small and dainty girl that he wanted to protect. When he was injured, she always knew how to patch him up, even if it were with a dirty cloth and a minimal amount of medicine. He assumed that her previous family was doctors and them being tragically killed is what lead you to be on the streets at such a young age.

She was the only person that showed him compassion and the two of you formed a natural bond. Whatever happened, he wanted to make it out with her alive.

════ ⋆★⋆ ════

During the training the children were issued to have, you were having a hard time getting used to the sudden change. You were always so small and fragile, Kayn was always doing things for you. He knew that once the battles started that he wouldn't always be there to protect you, so whatever he learned from Noxian commanders, he taught you in secret so that as time went on you wouldn't fall behind the next day.

Eventually, the day of the battle came and on such short notice too. It was assumed to be the last day of this group of children before they would need to go out and fetch a new batch.

“(y/n),” Kayn called to you. “Remember the promise you made to me.” His voice was young but stern. You nodded, too nervous about the fighting for you to reply any other way.

The two of you and others like you were so young and were forced to engage in such violence at the hands of your own commanders as bait and when everything started, all you could do was watch as kids you knew were cut down in front of your eyes.

You had lost Kayn and with a sword and dagger among the fighting, you were left to fend for yourself. You didn’t want to attack these people, instead, you wanted an adult to come to save you but you knew that would never happen, and out of fear you ended up killing more men than you can count on your own two hands.

You weren’t even thinking about the promise you made to Kayn, you were just so scared and couldn’t bear the thought of dying such a horrible death. You wanted to run but at every turn was a man trying to corner you to kill you.

Most children who didn’t die took the chance to run away before they were noticed so, as time went on you had gotten more and more outnumbered.

A group of three men had surrounded you. You could take one, maybe two but three wasn’t something you were made for. Not to mention your own physical strength was still lacking.

“Sheida!”

Kayn had heard his own name faintly in the crowd of people fighting. The Noxus regulars had come to take care of the real threats but there were too many people in the way for him to get to the voice he was so familiar with.

The fighting lasted around a day or two before it was over and word got around that Noxus had attacked an Ionian village.

All the kids who part took were all dead or gone.

Kayn had been left behind. He had been scooped up by the Order of The Shadow not long after.

Master Zed offered to take in Kayn since he had the fighting spirit and tenacity of no other but he didn’t listen to his plea of look for you once more even when he begged to.

It was very hard on him since members of the Shadow kept pushing him to believe that you were dead and your body simply couldn’t be found or maybe your body was there but was ravaged beyond recognition. You were in a better place now.

Kayn refused to believe that and he bided his time in the Shadow until he felt like he was strong enough to make the move of looking for you so that he can have closure once and for all. He felt that if he were the new leader of the Order of The Shadow, he would have the proper resources to locate you somewhere in Ionia.

When Zed had given Kayn the task of retrieving a Darkin weapon in Noxus territory, he saw this as his opportunity.

Kayn had underestimated the journey of obtaining Rhaast but he had done it. His own will kept Rhaast from stealing his body. Now he felt like he could be the most powerful man in the world.

Kayn went back to the Epool River, where everything had taken place and where everything had gone wrong. What remained of it was still damaged from long ago and unwanted memories had flooded his head. He pushed all of that to the back of his mind because knowing if you were really dead or not was his top priority.

Apart from damaged structures and now a small grave honoring those who fell that day, some locals were unable to move and still reside in what’s left of the village. The only thing he could think of was asking locals about you before he decided to take more extreme measures.

“Excuse me” He called out to one person.

“I’m looking for a girl-, uh, a woman I mean.” He said to another. “She has (color) hair and (color) eyes.”

No one was able to help.

He had been asking around all day and at this point, Rhaast had been urging him to start killing people, which would be what made them talk. Kayn refused.

It was the evening when Kayn was about to give up for the day when he was approached by an older woman who seemed extremely nice.

“I’ve never seen you around here.” She commented. “You’re really unique looking as well. You’re not from around here.”

Kayn frowned. “No, I’m not from here. I just came to look for someone, is all. This is where I lost her. It was years ago and I don’t think she’s here anymore.”

“You’re looking for someone? What makes you think you would find her here anyway? This place hasn’t been the same since that terrible invasion that happened years ago. So many children died. Most locals left to a safer place after that.” The old woman remarked as she looked at all the destroyed homes that had never been repaired.

Kayn was hesitant at first but it ended up coming out anyway. “She was here when that happened! We got separated and then when everything stopped she was gone. Have you seen her?”

“Really? I’m so sorry the two of you had to endure that. Those Noxians are as cruel as they come. There were a few children we found that survived. They ended up leaving but a girl stayed behind. Maybe you can ask her where this person you’re looking for went.” The old woman explained.

Kayn’s eyes widened. He suddenly got a second wind. Is it possible? Could finding you really be this easy. “Yes, please! Where can I find her?” He asked frantically looking around.

“She doesn’t live in the village anymore. She lives a bit far out in the forest. She lives alone as well, so try not to startle her.” She warned.

Kayn smiled but it wasn’t his usual devious smile that he would wear while killing Noxians. It was so hard for him to contain the excitement he had boiling inside of him when he got this news. Just when he was about to give up as well.

Kayn carefully followed the directions he was given. This woman was deeper in the forest than he thought. How could anyone "normal" live this far out and be okay with it?

He made his way through and eventually he began to realize that he was at his destination. It was a small neat cottage next to a small pond some yards away.

At first, he saw no one, so he had tread along the cobblestone path quietly. The pit in his stomach was very present and it made him nervous. Rhaast could sense this and only laugh at how silly he looked.

Then Kayn had heard faint water sounds.

Someone was at the pond nearby!

When he got there, he saw a small, young woman. She was covered in scars and wore a simple white dress and a sun hat as she gathered water from the pond below.

She must have not heard Kayn’s footsteps because she has not acknowledged his presence at all.

“Excuse me.”

Kayn’s voice visible startled the woman, causing her to knock over the bucket she had been putting clean water into. She quickly turned around and was immediately frightened.

“I’m looking for a woman...” His sentence was unable to be finished once your eyes met. It’s like he had already known.

The skin, the hair, the eyes. It was you. You were alive!

“(y/n)? You were here all this time?” His knees became weak and he collapsed to the ground at the realization.

“Who are you? I don’t know you!” You furrowed your eyebrows at him, upset at this man for disturbing you at your cottage.

“It’s me, Kayn! Don’t you remember?” A satisfied look dressed his face gracefully as he dropped Rhaast and slowly began crawling toward you.

“No! You’re not Kayn. He’s dead. If you’ve come to kill me just do it already!” You closed your eyes and kicked, sending you back and further away from him. You could feel the water of the pond touching the edge of your palms.

“No, I never died, I’ve always been here. I thought I was the only survivor. Trust me! I taught you how to fight- at the camp, remember?” You could hear the speak of desperation in his voice.

Did you really believe he left you behind like that?

You opened your eyes and really looked at him. He did have black hair and the same color eyes but his body was different. It was...demonic.

“What happened to you...?” Your voice was soft. “I thought you died and that’s why you couldn’t-” you cut yourself off with a choked sob.

Ever since that day you’ve been so alone. The only person that really understood you, you believed to be dead and gone. You had even been trying to move on but then he suddenly appears, unharmed.

“This weapon. It’s special but we can talk about it later. I’m not what’s important right now. I’ve been looking for you ever since we’ve been separated.” He started. “If only I knew this village was still standing. I would’ve come sooner.”

To Kayn, you looked so different but he was able to tell that it was still you. You were so...beautiful. Just as small and fragile but with a strong will to live.

“You were looking for me? I’m sorry. I thought you were dead. I-If I knew, I would’ve tried...” you then mumbled something Kayn couldn’t hear. You were so shy.

Your eyes were glossy like you wanted to cry. So soft and delicate but you were covered in scars that only a warrior could have. You were truly so unique. Too kind for this world.

This was all too much for you. Maybe he should think of something else to talk about that would help since this was a lot for both of you.

“This is your house? So this is where you’ve been hiding out all this time. We should go inside.” He remarked.

“O-Oh, well, okay.” You stood up and grabbed the bucket. Despite knowing Kayn was alive, a sad, sunken look graced your features.

It had been a very long time since you two have been together but it seemed like something more recent was troubling you.

“When we go inside, please remove your shoes. I try really hard to keep dirt and dust outside.” You told him and he did as he was told.

It was so warm inside and the lingering smell of baked goods and cinnamon filled his nostrils. Were you really living here all by yourself?

“S-So, I’ve been wondering.” You touched your index fingers and looked slightly off to the side as he stood in front of you.

A blank look covered his face, confused at your sudden urge to speak to him, but it was welcomed with a curious silence.

“Where did you go? You were...nowhere to be found...when I needed you.”

“There were too many!” He blurted out. “I heard you but I couldn’t get to you. Please don’t think I abandoned you. I’m here now.”

You gasped at his sudden outburst but then sighed when you had processed what he had said. “You can sit if you want.”

The two of you sat on the couch together, drinking a homemade drink you had made. You held your cup but didn’t drink.

“And you?” Kayn broke the silence.

“Huh?”

“You asked what happened to me and I wanted to know what happened to you.”

You frowned. “No, I meant what happened with you being gone for so long. I figured that you died but you’re here. What were you doing all this time?”

“Oh, I...” should he tell you? Was it against Master Zed’s rules to disclose something like that? He couldn’t t...

No. You were more important than some old man’s rules. He was going to be the new leader anyway and in his new vision for the Order of the Shadow, you’re there with him.

“I have been training with a group called the Order of the Shadow. I’ve been with them ever since.” He said with confidence.

“Are they responsible for what happened to your body?” You pointed out that the left side of his body was different.

“In a way, yes. But it’s not by force. I have a great plan and me looking like this won’t last for long.” He explained. This didn’t make you feel better at all.

“I see.” That was all you said in response.

“When I lost you,” you had begun, clenching the drink you had made. “I was surrounded by a lot of men. I had already killed so many of them but I was tired, I couldn’t fight anymore.”

“I-I feel so bad.” You saw the glass on the table and grabbed your head. The memories of gore and bloodshed etched into your brain, haunting you every moment of your life. “They were just trying to help me and I hurt them.”

Kayn didn’t know why but he felt like he should comfort you somehow and he did. He rested a hand in your shoulder. “It’s not your fault. A lot happened that day. They probably would have killed you. You were just defending yourself.”

“NO!” You yelled. “I stabbed one of them because I was scared. Then I was knocked out by the other. When I woke up I was in someone’s home. They took care of me and the person I stabbed died. I’m such a horrible human.”

“Don’t say that! You’re amazing. It was war and you were scared. I’m here for you.”

Your breathing began getting out of control. You were a monster. You destroyed so many people's lives and took lives that can never be brought back.

“Why did I have to live?” Hot tears began spilling out of your eyes. “They were innocent people.”

Kayn was at a loss for words. You were right, they were innocent people but you were too. It was just an unfortunate situation in the wake of war. He had no idea how to comfort a person in such a complex situation.

He hugged you, squeezing you and letting you sob into his chest. He felt so bad. You were hurting all this time...alone.

“Those who’ve died will forgive you. You were forced into this life. You had no bad intentions. Please understand that you live for a reason. Think about it. The two of us were in a horrible situation where we both could have died.”

Your sobbing had ceased, but only just a little. “But here we are, alive and together. Sole survivors.”

“Growing from this won’t be easy but you aren’t alone anymore.” He added.

You clenched onto him. “Ever since that day, it’s been so hard for me to form a real connection with someone. I’m so glad you lived.” You shyly reached your hand up to his face.

His skin was soft and although he didn’t expect this, he didn’t pull away from you. “You’ve grown so much and you’re so capable. I’m very proud of you.” You’re leaned forward and pressed your forehead against his.

Kayn didn’t know what this feeling was. It was almost like nervousness with a bit of excitement. All this time he’s missed your voice and caring nature. He was naturally drawn to you and you were to him. He was your only family.

“I love you, Shieda.”

Kayn immediately kissed you. You weren’t surprised at all. You kissed him back and he held you close.

Tears, of sadness of your pain and the joy of being with Kayn again, streamed down your soft cheeks. A hole inside of you was filled and now you could begin healing mentally and emotionally.

[eve6262]

some rhaast thoughts

There’s nothing worse than silence. It’s a slow killer, infecting your mind like a parasite, nibbling away at the edges of your mind until it gets to the center and you think, wait a minute, isn’t something wrong? Not silence as in the absence of sound, mind; the absence of everything. An abyss, of nothing created by nothing for nothing. Nothing, a perfect 0 that loops like a circle, without even the slight oval dimensions the number usually holds. A 0 shaped like an O. Silence.

It was that, for a long, long while. And then Kayn picked him up, and life has been very loud.

Loud- colors, sounds, a battle- is overwhelming after a perfect silence for so long. Initially he was hurt, wincing every time another light broke its way into his vision, but he didn’t dare complain or show weakness because then he might be thrown back into that silence prison, and all he needed was time, surely.

Time passed, and now he’s used to it. The colors aren’t so sharp anymore, the world isn’t so fast, Kayn isn’t so strange and loud.

“Good morning,” he says to his scythe, brushing his hair while the thing rests on his lap.

Good morning, Rhaast replies, idly watching the mess on his head turn into a sleek black waterfall. It has taken them an eternity and a day to reach this point, seven strange conversations, three days spent melodramatically ignoring everyone else, five hours of betrayal, a minute to murder the people who used to live here. A man and a woman, relation unknown and unimportant, because for now this is Kayn and Rhaast’s house and they are confident the Kinkou will not chase them this far. The daybreak proves it, as there’s not a soul nearby.

Well, there are souls, but none of them living. Ionia is a strange country.

There is, admittedly, one small problem. Zed could and might follow them, try to address this himself. Kayn, he can feel, fears the man, though for different reasons than Rhaast. He thinks that Zed could defeat him, or manage to confiscate the scythe and force him never to stay together again, or perhaps kill him on the spot; but his scythe knows better than that, knows that the leader of the Kinkou is nothing but a coward and an idiot who relies on the shadows that do not love him. The shadows would despise him, no longer grant him his wishes, if only their Queen was awake.

Is that a true story? Did he make that up in the void of nothing, or is it a distant memory that got eaten by time?

His breakfast today looks alright. A mess of rations he had smuggled away, taken with him when they fled, plus whatever they found in the little abandoned house in the forest. Some fresh bread, meats strung up, eggs freshly harvested from the wildlife, considering the lack of a coop. “Better than I expected.”

Of course. They weren’t exactly expecting to die.

“With how old they were? They should have.”

Usually there’s jabs and nonsense and idle conversation with these two, never a dull moment. But now, instead, they’ve found a comfortable silence- and isn’t that funny, the thing he used to abhor- to rest in. Will it eat at the edges of his mind again, until he forgets slowly even the life before this, with Zed and the Kinkou and some nonsensical fight for power when, really, they’re at their strongest as a team?

There are so many stories in the edges of his mind that he can’t figure out the veracity of. Is is true that there was once a reigning emperor of the sands with feathers and a commanding voice and a penchant for men? Or maybe the tales of the Elderwood, a forest not dissimilar to Ionian magic but with gods sealed below the size of mountains and with the power of Targon combined? Surely the Aspects of Moon and Sun have changed- are they still lovers? Surely the Aspect of War has changed- are they still a peaceful tactician who prefers the strategy of war to its more bloody parts?

Was any of that ever true? Are there parts he’s missing, parts he’s added? He knows, mostly, three things: Kayn is with him, Zed could find them, and he has a brother named Aatrox.

Everything else seems to be triggered by happenstance. For example, once, on a trip that led them to the mountains, they met a child with longer hair than their body that faded into the different colors of the sky and he knew, right then, right there, that the old Aspect of Twilight had died, and this new one was named Zoe and that she was very, very annoying. Somewhere else- the location he’s fuzzy on- they met a darkin with a bow and he recognized Varus and called out and his brethren responded “Oh, you’re gay too?”

His brother would have slain that man in twain. Kayn, assuming the darkin was talking to him, responded, “Who cares?”

Secretly, Rhaast thinks Zed would have hated him for it. He seems like the type. Maybe he’s just never “understood” that sort of attraction, or maybe he has an age-old crush on a friend that he pretends doesn’t exist by pretending it can’t be true. Perhaps both, in a way and form, where that interest went unexplored and misunderstood and pushed away.

“Rhaast.”

Yes?

“Did you not hear me?”

No. Say it again.

“Honestly.” He sighs, rolling his eyes. “I was asking you what you want to do.”

Why?

“Why?...I...”

Don’t have anywhere to go, huh.

“Don’t say that.”

Not in a bad way. But no direction.

“Yes, I do. I want Noxus to fall. But I’m not doing that alone, and not now, so.”

He thinks for a moment, then responds. Shurima.

“Why Shurima?”

I want to see what’s left of Azir.

“Who the hell is- ...you know what? Sure. Shurima it is.”

--

thought I wanted to write ship. turns out I just wanted to do Rhaast character studies. (also, the line about Azir liking men is a hc of mine that you can interpret as false or true)

~Eve6262

[brettwife]

Imagine Hardin Scott

WARNING: nothing

STATE: Hardin Scott x fem reader

"OUT OF HERE! GO TO THE PRINCIPAL" yells the angry teacher you raise your eyes to the sky bored taking all the books you had on the desk and I leave the classroom.

You walk quietly through the corridors, by now you know by heart the way to go to the presidency from the many times you went there.

You open the door and greet the secretary, by now you have become friends "here again Y/n" she giggles, you nod with a giggle and go sit down waiting for the headmaster to be free.

As soon as you sit down you notice a guy two chairs by yours.

You sigh closing your eyes, you knew that sooner or later you would see him, but now it was too early.

He was watching you with those whipped puppy eyes of his, when in reality it was quite the opposite.

"Like the first time we met here," he says, even if you didn't look at him you still felt his gaze still burn on you.

"Yeah, what a joy" you answer sarcastically "how is Tessa?" you ask pungent.

"Well I think and she's falling for it," he replies.

"You'll fall for her too, Hardin, you'll fall in love with her" you answer feeling the tears forming in her eyes, Hardin was a delicate key for you, and a wound still too fresh.

"Y/n, how do you think she can fall in love with that perfect girl when I have only you in my head?" he says pushing himself from his chair towards you, he too had tears in his eyes, you couldn't believe the great Hardin Scott crying for a girl.

"Miss Y/s/n, come on" you get up as soon as the headmaster calls you, you look at Hardin one last time miming a 'let's talk about it later' shake your head and walk into the headmaster's office.

...in the afternoon...

You sip your coffee while you do your homework, after school you avoided Hardin like the plague, you know very well that it is very expensive to be here since you are meeting here with your friends.

And here the little bell clicks, keep your gaze fixed on the literature book trying not to encroach Hardin's possible gaze.

"Hey Y/n" you hear yourself called, you close your eyes and finally you decide to look up, it wasn't Hardin's voice, but your ex-best friend/casual hooked up, Zed.

You give him a nod and you go back to your homework, with him obviously were Hardin and Molly.

You and Molly were once friends, actually best friends, but since she started having feelings for Hardin while he was your boyfriend she hasn't spoken to you again.

"Go talk to her," the pink-haired girl says.

"Indeed" his best friend dirties him.

Hardin takes a good sigh and starts to approach you as soon as you notice him you start playing with your lip piercing.

He sits in the free chair in front of yours "it's busy" you try to lie to get him away.

"And by who?" he asks him crossing his arms on the table, he raises an eyebrow waiting for your answer.

He knew you too well, he knew very well when you were lying "damn Hardin" you think, shake your head admitting your lie.

"We haven't finished talking this morning"

"What should we still talk about?" you ask closing the book.

"About us," he says, you laugh.

Heard the bell swing, Tessa had just entered the door.

"There isn't a we Hardin anymore, it's just your fault and that" raise your voice a little "if I hadn't accepted that stupid bet we would still be together" many people had turned around, you were successful in your intent: to let Tessa hear you.

She was looking at you with tears in her eyes «Is it true Hardin? But of course I should have expected it is Y/ n the untouchable" answers Tessa.

"Oops" y say pretending to be sorry.

"Youu got pissed every time I said something bad about her or said it was still hard to talk about"

Your heart squeezes at Tessa's words, just as Hardin was your weak point for you, even for Hardin you were.

You watch Hardin look down, you swear he just dropped a tear.

Tessa leaves in tears, you look at Hardin who still has his head down "do you love me?" you ask the boy who raises his head.

"To die for," he replies, standing up.

Without warning you hug him, at first he was surprised for a moment but then he reciprocates, you take his face standing on tiptoe and say "me too"

He starts to kiss you but you stop him "we could go back together, you have to win me back, so we'll do it all over again, see you tonight at 7 in front of the never room, we'll make a first date" you say taking all your things and leaving.

It was the right decision, it was also the last chance you gave him, when two people are meant to be together it's hard to keep them apart for a long time. And this was your case.

[that-gt-and-vore-stuffs]

Experiment 05SB

Alternatively titled “I’m sorry 2B don’t hate me please”

I hath given in to the M4dc0m brain rot at the cost of me now having written a 7k+ word fic because I’m not confident enough in my art skills to draw it at the moment. Here we go!

Oh, there’s also implied fatal in this (it’s of unnamed characters, plus this is M4dc0m, but I’ve gotta say it. I guess you could take it as reformation if you really wanted to.). Mentions of blood I guess?

As always, Vore under the cut :)

“Ey 2b? You there?” Deimos’s voice crackled to life through the plastic earpiece currently jammed into his left ear, yanking the hacker and unofficial ‘team medic’ as he was called once (much to his own confusion. Sure, he knew basic medical but by no means was he any sort of doctor) back into reality. A brief moment passed in the silence of his room, more often called ‘the lab’, of their base before everything came crashing back at once. Deimos, Sanford, and Hank were out raiding a A.A.H.W warehouse at his instruction. Meaning he was alone in their base, also known as a breaking down appartement they had taken shelter in. It had electricity and provided shelter from the harsh hell scape that had once been the state of Nevada. A dark red sunless sky overhead, vegetation and any ecosystems completely wiped out from what they’d seen, bandits and zeds equally ready to eat the nearest person if it meant living another day, the Agency hunting you down if they thought you’d possibly be working against them or with the infamous Hank J. Wimbleton, and having little to no essential resources for days at a time to top it all off like some twisted cherry on this sick cake. Home sweet fucking home.

“Doc? Helllloooo?” Shit, right. Deimos.

“Sorry, I’m here. What is it Deimos?”

“And the medic lives!” The small cheer was accompanied by laughter from the smallest member of the team. Jebus, how was he able to joke in even the most dire situations?

“Just get to the point, chucklehead.” 2b could hear Sanford add in over the static, the man’s laughter just barely making it to tired ears.

“Right right, sorry man. Anyway, if we wanted to get food on the way back would you say no?” Pardon? There was no way he was hearing that right. There were several reasons why he couldn’t be hearing that right. A. food wasn’t by any means the easiest thing to come by in this hellhole, B. restaurants weren’t really a common thing anymore so those were out of the picture, and C. there’s no way they could p- actually, scratch that last one. Robbing a corpse wouldn’t be the weirdest thing that those three had done. Not by a long shot. Still though, how was he supposed to respond to that request?

“…what?” Apparently by asking the first word on his mind.

“We saw that one hotdog vendor on the way here and we’re all starving. Can we or can we not get hotdogs on the way back?” Oh. That’s what Deimos ment. How on earth had that hotdog vendor not been killed yet?

“Is this a genuine ‘we’ or is it a ‘me’, Deimos?” That seemed like a more fair and answerable question.

“Hey I-!”

“It’s a genuine ‘we’ Doc,” Sanford’s voice chimed in. By the cursing in the background 2b could imagine that he had flipped up Deimos’s mic to temporarily mute him in the realm of their earpieces. “Pretty sure one of our stomachs gave us away to the last group of agents we had to take out. Not gonna point fingers but I’m pretty sure it was Hank- Ack! I’m just saying!”

“Thought we weren’t pointing fingers.” There was the third voice. Rough from years of fighting yet still all too recognizable as Hank. The same Hank J. Wimbleton on the wanted posters that scattered the walls of almost every nearby building, wanted dead by the Auditor and his whole agency. He must’ve smacked Sanford for his comment. Well at least he didn’t do worse, whether on purpose or accident.

“We aren’t. Now Cmon Doc, you never answered my question.” Hearing the other hacker’s voice ask for an answer again 2b sighed. Always eager, wasn’t he? How the man had seemingly endless energy on missions would forever remain a mystery to him, Jebus be damned.

“I don’t really care what you do on the way back so long as you all come back in one piece and with the stuff I sent you there for. Understood?”

“Aye aye, Captain Doc! Over and out!” And there they went. The earpiece went dead, leaving 2b on his own once again once he flicked up his own mic. Back to silence. Sweet sweet silence. It wasn’t often they got that in their shared apartment of a base. Someone was always awake, someone was always saying something. It was never really quiet unless you were lucky enough to be the only one awake. 2BDamned had seen plenty of those rare times, if only because he overworked himself and didn’t sleep. So maybe it was one of his less than desirable qualities, when living in a hellscape being ten steps ahead of the agency trying to kill you is always good. He had to keep that up, on top of keeping the others alive and well.

And then there was his little experiment. That also was taking a toll on how little he slept. Not all that long ago the trio had returned from a mission with the data he had requested and more. Specifically a duffel bag full of seemingly shrunken grunts and two only slightly bigger shrunken MAGs. Pft, how funny it was to say that. A shrunken MAG. Hell, he wouldn’t believe it if you told him with no proof. The idea seemed insane. Oh but it wasn't. Not by a long shot if the cages sitting on one of his tables said anything. Normally he’d call such a thing like keeping people in cages inhumane, not that there were many humane things in this hellhole to begin with. He’d expect keeping them in cages that probably used to be for pets to be a move pulled by the Agency, not himself, however he had to make do with what they could find and had access to. Also known as: not much at all. He wanted to study them after all. Letting them free was just not an option.

Now that probably sounds bad, studying living beings like himself, but one couldn’t blame 2b when you considered his situation (at least he hopes one couldn’t). Somehow the Agency found a way to shrink living beings. That’s power that could be used against him and the others to make everything turn for the worst, something which he wanted to avoid at all costs. However, if one of his teammates or himself were to be shrunken on a mission it would be possibly lifesaving to know how to reverse the effects. Plus, having the power to shrink enemies on their side could certainly prove useful. All that being said, he needed these few alive in order to try and figure out what caused them to be how they were. Hence the repurposed, beat up pet cages. Two of them to be exact. One held the grunts and the other for the two MAG agents. None of them had killed each other yet, so that was nice. A few simple experiments and a dissection of a grunt that had been dead upon arrival to him proved that they still functioned as they would if they were their normal size. Just on a smaller scale. He had sent Hank, Deimos, and Sanford out for supplies today, yes, though if they found any information regarding the shrinking of their little ‘guests’ then they were to bring it to him. With no information on that though, he had to continue his other work. Tired eyes met the screen through red goggles. Moments later his head found itself cushioned in the crook of one of his arms.

“What the hell.” 2b grumbled, a fresh headache slowly starting to pound against the inside of his skull. What the hell was up with him? He should be fine. This was only his second day without proper ‘longer-then-15-minutes’ sleep. He’d gone longer before, he should be able to function. Why was the screen giving him such a headache now of all times? He needed to get stuff done. He needed to finish up this…this……what was he working on again? Hold on, no, he should remember. This shouldn’t be slipping his mind like it is. Maybe if he just thought back a few minutes. It would come back to him, right?

“Ok right before Deimos called, what was I doing?” 2b thought out loud to himself, trying his hardest to recall what had happened prior to the call from his allies. ”I was sitting here…then Deimos called in. Wait, no. Go back. From the top. Since…however long ago I’ve been sitting here, working on…what was I working on before Deimos asked about getting food? I sent them on the raid, didn’t eat, got to work and- no. That’s not it. Why can’t I just-“

Gggnnnnnnrrrr…

Oh well fuck him. That’s why he couldn’t focus. 2b groaned, not bothering to hide the noise as of now. He was alone, no one would hear him or tease him. Unless you would count the shrunken men in the cages, however it wasn’t likely they’d say anything. When you’re the size of a rat, spare the MAGs who were more rabbit sized, to your captor pissing them off seemed like the worst thing one could do. Clearly the hacker wasn’t at all in the mood to deal with teasing, so their mouths remained shut. That left 2b alone to deal with his complaining stomach, a feat which proved easier said than done when one was going off a day and a half without properly sleeping. He couldn’t even remember the last time he ate something. It was all just fuzzing together at this point.

Pushing himself off his desk 2b flopped back into the worn chair he’d been sitting in for God knows how long. Relaxing into the backrest was certainly more comfortable than being hunched over a laptop screen typing away like he had been for the past day or two. A hand fell to rest over his stomach while the other removed his goggles. Those were not helping the blooming headache. A low growl from his stomach drew a small hiss through his teeth, the sound being accompanied by a familiar empty cramping.

“Oh you can shut up.” He grumbled at the organ half heartedly, “It’s not like I can eat anything right now. There’s a reason I sent Hank and the others out.” His stomach growled back, the empty sound ringing in the hacker’s ears. He needed to eat, that was undeniable. The problem was getting something to eat. He had few options, none of which he particularly liked. Option 1. going out to look for something even slightly edible on his own, option 2. wait and hope the others found and brought back food, or option 3. contact the others through his headset and ask them to get him something on the way back. The first option was clearly undesirable on its own and the other two weren’t much better. Sure, asking them to grab something for him would probably be easiest and most logical, however he was almost certain that they didn’t want to hear that out of the blue in the middle of a fight. That and he didn’t want to deal with any teasing that might come along with asking. He wasn’t about to take that chance when he had things to do. He couldn’t remember those things at the moment, sure, but they were still things he had to do! So asking was not an available option at the moment. That left waiting and hoping for the best.

Rrrrrrrnnngggggg….

“I know. I don’t like the idea either.” 2b sighed as he spun around in his chair, gently patting his stomach. He needed to get out of his chair, even if it was just a walk around his room. He needed something after a day and a half straight of sitting there hunched over staring at a screen. Maybe it’d help with the headache if he was lucky. Probably wouldn’t but hey a man could dream. With a small grunt of effort the hacker found himself on his feet, his balance wobbling and legs feeling like brittle pasta beneath him. Ah, that's what I wanted to do earlier. Go figure taking breaks gets ignored by my brain. “However, I do believe it’ll end with the best result. I’m sure they’ll be home soon anyway.”

They wouldn’t. That was a lie, to himself and to his stomach alike. He likely had a few more hours alone, maybe two at least. The A.A.H.W warehouse he’d sent them to was big and if you account for fighting delays and them stopping on the way back then the chance of them being back in the next two hours would be some sort of miracle. By the way his stomach reacted every time he brushed over the thought that the trio was getting food on the way back then he wasn’t going to be looking so hot by the time they arrived back. Oh he was going to get the short end of the stick no matter what he did, wasn’t he? Talk about luck. 2b sighed, running a hand up and through his hair as he walked along one of the walls of his small room. His stomach clearly wasn’t shutting up any time soon so the next best course of action would be to ignore it. Maybe that would help him wait it out. What could he focus on? There was work, he could clean up a little bit maybe, or he could focus on the rattling coming from the cages and-

Hold on.

That most certainly wasn’t right. 2b cocked an eyebrow, crossing the room to where the three cages were placed. Quite the interesting scene was playing out before him. From what he could see a few of the shrunken grunts were teaming up to try and break out of the cages. This wasn’t their first little escape attempt, no, but it interested him enough as he stood there watching and attempting to grab his tablet at the same time. Eventually he had succeeded, opening up a new document to scribble down a few notes.

Title: Log 073SB

Time: 6:34 pm, xx/xx/xx

Author: 2BDamned

Note: Grunts working together to attempt escape. MAG agent seems to be attempting to cause a distraction by rattling the wall of the cage. Or perhaps they just want out. Very annoying either way. None seem bothered by my presence.

Satisfied with his little note, 2b closed the tablet and set it down on the counter next to one of the cages. Whether it was him being too rough with setting the tablet down or the low grumble from his stomach that startled the cage of grunts was up for debate, but currently he couldn’t find it in himself to care. Right now he needed to have a chat with the little troublemakers. Without hesitation the unofficial medic reached forward, opening the little hinged door located on top of the cage with ease compared to what the grunts inside were attempting before. He didn’t think twice before he reached in and grabbed the two topmost grunts from the pile of attempted escapees before retracting his hand, repeating the process with his other hand, and finally closing the cage. Hands now full, each holding two fighting bodies, the hacker sighed.

“Escape huh? How many times have you already tried that and it didn’t work?” 2b asked, a less than impressed tone lacing his voice. Sure, he needed a distraction from his stomach but he didn’t want to have to deal with escape attempts left and right for the next however long. “What made you think it’d go any different this time?”

There was a moment of silence before a soft voice spoke up, one that clearly hadn’t been used recently. One of the grunts in his left hand. “W-we figured i-if we actually tried and w-worked together then maybe we’d b-be able to manage a successful…e-escape…”

“Really now? Interesting.” 2b mumbled, looking over the grunt in his hand. They were all so small. You’d think he’d have gotten used to their size by now but every time he held one it seemed to slap him in the face. Offing them if they got too rowdy wouldn’t be hard at all. Wouldn’t need to use anything to begin with. How crazy it was. “Though I’m not sure I can let this slide as I have with previous instances.”

“W-what?” His response seemed to temporarily stun the four in his hands, most likely because of how it was different from his previous comments on their attempted escapes. A shiver passed over them like a wave while the hacker only nodded.

“Your previous attempts at escape. While I can understand why one would try I’ve made it quite clear that successful escapes won’t be happening nor tolerated, correct? I need to prove my point here because you all clearly don’t understand words.” He shifted on his feet slightly, a new question wracking his brain. What could he do to show he wasn’t going to deal with constant escape attempts? It had to be something that stuck, seeing as they clearly didn’t understand his earlier comments about escape not being tolerated. Only a few moments of silence passed before his lips were moving again. “You four are going somewhere else. A stronger holding space. If any of the others try anything they’ll join you. Simple, yet effective.” Or it would be if he knew exactly where he planned to stick these four. What did he have that could serve as a stronger cell for them? The cages were already pretty secure in terms of what he could work with. He just needed something stronger, close to him, hard to escape, and threatening that held a sense of danger with it. But what could that be? His eyes darted around the makeshift lab, trying to find something.

Grrrrroowwwllll…

2b’s eyes slowly scanned down from his shaking captives to his stomach. For a moment he just stared, eyes lacking any readable emotion. Well now that was certainly an option. It fit his criteria. Almost too well. Strong, hard to escape, close to him, and it held a sense of danger. Under his mask his torn and scared lips quirked up into a little smirk. “Mmhm. That’ll do quite nicely, in fact~”

The final moments of peace were shattered as the meaning of his words collided with his captives like a well aimed punch to the gut. Hearts sunk to their feet like rocks in water, despair rearing it’s head in their struggles. Those fortunate enough to remain in the cages simply watched with a muted horror as the four bodies were tossed onto the table and held down with little to no effort. The hacker wasted no time removing the mask and bandages that usually covered his mouth, tossing the fabrics haphazardly beside his discarded tablet. Despite the word fresh being the last thing he’d use to describe the Nevada air, 2b knew he’d be lying if he said it wasn’t nice to just breathe the air in alone and not through the layers of fabric like he often did. With the temporary roadblock now gone his eyes drifted downward to the bodies pinned beneath his hand.

“Well, I believe that eliminates any preventable issues we could encounter here.” He hummed softly, plucking the grunt who was covered by his hand the least up into the air. It certainly was odd to watch the little body squirm and fight against him, all attacks on the two fingers holding it proving futile. Their only hope seemed to be 2b letting them go, something which proved less and less likely the longer they studied the look in the hackers eyes. It wasn’t a look one ever wanted to find themself on the receiving end of. The sight of sharp teeth, glimmering with saliva through grinning lips, certainly did not help to lower the grunt’s heart rate at all. 2b simply clicked his tongue. “Meaning stalling time is up. Stay still, won’t you?”

The grunt did not, in fact, stay still. It was impossible to do so as far as they knew when you had a spit soaked tongue dragging up every inch of your front, sharp daggers of teeth only millimeters from their face. A deafening silence washed over the others, only being broken by a small pleased hum from their normal sized captor.

“Not bad…” the man mumbled, dragging his tongue up the squirming grunt yet again. A small voice in the back of his mind, his voice of reason, yelled out the obvious loud and clear to him plenty of times: this was wrong. It wasn’t right to be doing what he was about to do. This was stooping down to the bandits level, something he never intended to do unless absolutely necessary. He shouldn’t be enjoying the taste of another living being like this. And yet…here he was. Ignoring any logic and reason in his mind to proceed with this. Thank goodness he was alone. 2b didn’t even want to think about what the others might say if they were to see him how he was now. Shaking his head softly he shoved away the thought, opening his jaw as far as the joint and scarred tissue that made up his cheeks would allow. He wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or concerned with how easily the small body slipped into his mouth.

Despite their best efforts to squirm free of their new confinement, the slippery surroundings of the unofficial doctor’s maw proved to have horrible traction. Saliva dropped onto the unfortunate grunt’s head from above while they desperately tried to crawl out of the dark cavern. Feet scrambled on the soaked surface of their predator’s tongue as the muscle moved and flipped them around as if they were some piece of candy, all while their hands desperately tried to keep as little of them between the axe like teeth. One bite and they were done for, a terrifying thought. Through it all only three sounds were ever heard from those lucky enough to not be in the current grunt’s position. The sickening sounds of soaked struggle, terrified yelps from the grunt stuck within 2b’s jaws, and the occasional hum from the man himself. The torture, as those watching from the cage would describe it, seemed to continue for hours and hours on end.

Glk

Glp~

Until it all stopped with two simple swallows and a collective gasp of horror from those watching. The relaxed posture of the man they all watched failed to help their situation.

“H….huhh…that was..” the uncertified medic breathed, breaking the silence. His free hand lazily felt down his throat, tracing where he could feel the squirming body slip further down by the second. It didn’t take a genius to decipher that the less angry sounding gurgle from the man’s stomach signaled the end of the unfortunate grunt’s descent. With eyes widened just beyond his natural look 2b gently pressed his stomach. How interesting it was, as morbid as it might sound, to feel something squirming around inside the organ. Before he could even stop to consider a better way to word his thoughts, he finished his sentence. Just not in the way the grunts wanted to hear. “…incredibly easy.”

The last thing any of the remaining grunts wanted to see was those eyes scan up slowly before locking on them as if they were some sort of dessert. The clearly out of place smile on the man’s face didn’t help the feeling of impending doom either. If anything it only made it worse as a rough hand plucked another grunt from the selected three that had remained under his hand. Down, beneath his newfound curiosity and odd urge to continue what he was doing, 2b knew he should have been more concerned about how easy this was coming to him. No sane person would take so calmly to swallowing living beings, especially not of his own kind. Yet here he was, smirking as he licked over his scarred lips with cold eyes locked onto the small shaking body like a cat would after spotting a mouse. Looking at their sizes in comparison to one another? The simile was scarily accurate. Through his whole little mental debate the hacker found it all too easy to slip the small body into his mouth, licking it over to draw out as much of that strangely addicting taste before slowly beginning to nudge it back. Just bit by bit until it was far enough.

Glrk

Grk~

“Two down…haahhh…two to go…” the hacker sighed as he traced the lump down his throat. There was a waiting period once more but it didn’t last long before the shiver inducing gurgle signified where the poor soul had ended up. How the man hadn’t gotten sick yet was beyond the understanding of those who witnessed the event and even the man himself. Surely he should feel at least a little nauseous with two rat sized bodies squirming within his stomach. Nausea and fullness were the two sensations he had expected by now and yet neither had shown their face yet. Deep within his mind, from an area he didn’t even know existed until it spoke, a voice urged him to test his limits. 2b had shaken that idea off nearly immediately. As….enticing as that idea was, he still needed a few of the shrunken grunts alive and well to continue his attempts to recreate and reverse however the Agency had shrunken them before. Four however….well that wasn’t the biggest loss in the world if something happened to go wrong. Leaning a little more heavily over the table he grabbed one of the last two grunts, shoving the struggling body into his mouth head first. Quite the sight it was to watch flailing legs be slurped into someone’s mouth like nothing more than wet noodles. Interesting and horrifying.

Glp

Glrk~

Though compared to seeing someone who had been beside you ten minutes ago disappear down your captor’s throat as nothing more than a barely visible lump would top it in the scarring scale. Nothing could compare to that sight. Good god was it terrifying. The reality that escape was impossible was all but cemented into the remaining grunts' brains now, as that had been what had gotten their companions into this situation in the first place. This was happening because their capturer wanted to prove his point that attempted escape would not be tolerated. At this point they were convinced they’d have to have a death wish to attempt escape now. Especially when their conditions weren’t horrible compared to what they could be in, something which hadn’t crossed their minds till now. Now don’t take their words wrong, by no means did they want to stay here. Especially not now. However, if it meant living another day and not ending up as lunch? Staying definitely was the preferable option.

“One to go. Damn.” The hacker's voice snapped all attention back to him. His position had changed, now leaning back on the table as he looked over the struggling form in his hands. The words seemed to flow from his mouth without too much thought needed behind them. They just felt…right. It was a feeling he never expected to experience in such a context that he was now, much less to have it almost piloting him as it felt now, but he was nearly willing to say he welcomed it. He wasn't well acquainted with the idea of eating living beings after all, so the subconscious help to ease the process along wasn’t something he’d push away. Not unless it were to cause an issue that is. However, nothing of the sort had happened yet, meaning he was going to keep letting his actions flow naturally.

Just as he had with the three before this one, 2b wasted little time starting towards his goal. Raising the grunt just above his head the man dangled the flailing body over his open mouth, a sight that he could assume would terrify anyone in the grunt’s position. All went smoothly as he lowered the small body in. That is until the grunt, having seen an opportunity and taken it, grabbed and yanked down his mic. While he tried to react as quickly as possible, he could only pray the microphone had not managed to pick up the gag he’d made after panic and shock had caused him to jolt forward and send the grunt to the back of his throat. He flipped up the mic as fast as he could, trying to determine the best course of action one could take with a squirming body halfway down their throat and a possibility of having just been ratted out to the others by their lunch. He was screwed were they to find out, what with how at least two of the three always seemed to be looking for teasing ammunition. That and this….well this wasn’t exactly normal, you know.

“Doc? Is everything ok over there?” Fuck. That wasn’t good. Ignoring the sinking feeling of dread in his chest the best he could, 2b took a deep breath and forced the fourth grunt down with a swallow that took a little more effort then he felt it should’ve. Flipping down the mic, he answered.

“Damnit- yes. I'm fine, Sanford. Don’t worry.” The sentence had to be his least convincing lie yet. Between his heavy breathing and dryness in his throat he could tell his voice wasn’t helping him in any way. Now he didn’t take his teammates for idiots, despite how it sure seemed like they were sometimes, but in the moment he found himself wishing they were.

“You sure? You don’t sound all that fine. Did something happen back at base?” The worry beginning to lace the man’s voice through the static filled earpiece only served to worsen the feeling of dread in 2b’s chest. He needed to get Sanford, and the others who were no doubt listening, off the idea something had happened. He needed to deal with the whole I-just-swallowed-four-people-alive thing before they came back, so them returning early was not in the plan.

“No, nothing happened.” He shot back, only realizing the speed in his voice wasn’t too reassuring after he said it. Ok, what was a believable excuse for why he sounded like he did? “I just…spilt coffee on my legs after burning my mouth. Must’ve knocked the mic down in the process.” With a hand to his chest the hacker forced a soft swallow, trying to at least get rid of the uncomfortable dryness that had settled in the back of his throat. Please say they believed that.

“Pft, really? Damn, wish I could’ve seen that. Think you looked like one of those old cartoons, Doc?” Phew, crisis averted.

“Real funny, Deimos. Get back to your mission.” 2b shook his head at the comment. At least they seemed to believe him. It was worth it, even if the mental image of those over exaggerated cartoon characters was now going to show up whenever he even slightly burnt his mouth on coffee. Oh well, some sacrifices must be made.

“Alright alright. We’re going.” The man on the other end laughed. Those idiots. Damn his heart caring for them, now he was attached. “See you when we get back. Over and out, Doc!” And there they went.

Fighting off his own soft laughter, 2b flipped up his mic. A soft sigh escaped him before he could even think to stop it. That could’ve been horrible. While one hand softly rubbed at his neck, sore from what he had to guess was the miniature disaster that just took place, the other gently laid itself over his stomach. The four inside never seemed to stop moving, constantly squirming and slipping about. There were a handful of reasons he could assume was the cause, though the most likely was that being shoved into a soaking wet moving sack with three of your colleagues provided little traction or ability to get comfortable. That and panic. Panic was probably a rather big factor in how they were feeling. 2b, on the other hand, had to be feeling the exact opposite of how they were. The warm weight of his four ‘victims’ was a welcome sensation within the previously empty pit of his stomach. As twisted as he knew it sounded, he would’ve been confident saying that what he was feeling was honestly satisfactory. Why having living beings stretch and actually round out his stomach in a barely noticeable way was causing this feeling was a mystery to him, but at the moment he couldn’t find it in himself to care. Not when it felt this nice.

“I hope I’ve made my point clear.” The unofficial medic hummed, looking over to the grunt filled cage. They had backed away from him by now, huddled in the back most corner of their confines. The sight drew a genuine laugh from the man they all seemed to fear ten times more than before. Well that was proof if he’d ever seen it. Looks like their escape wasn’t something he had to worry about any more. So maybe he sacrificed a little of his ‘I’m not going to hurt you’ act for this. It was worth it in his eyes. And besides, he was probably the most gentle with them out of his whole little gang. If they wanted to be left with one of the others then go ahead. Although being left with the mercenary who you were created to kill didn’t sound like the most fun time to him. Smirking, he collected his goggles, mask, and tablet from the table. “It seems I have. Glad we could have this little -hic!- chat. Heh.”

He gave the cage a pat, the rattling of the metal only serving to scare the grunts further back in the ball of bodies they’d curled into, before turning to walk back to his desk. He needed to sit down. Standing apparently became a lot harder when you had four people fighting against your insides. Thinking back, he didn’t know what he would have expected. Did he stumble a little bit trying to get back to his desk? Yes, he did. It was like he forgot how to walk in all honesty. Another reason he was glad he was alone in their base. Like most things though it proved worth it when he finally collapsed into the worn chair he used for work. Without thinking twice he opened his tablet and started a new log.

—————————

“Doc! We’re back!” The call rang out through the appartement, followed by three sets of footsteps marching their way in and the door slamming shut perhaps a little stronger than needed. As the hinges of the door stopped rattling the three expected to hear a displeased groan, followed by the ruffled form of 2b appearing in the hallway to scold them for being so aggressive or something like tracking blood into the base. Honestly, why he still bothered was a mystery to them, at least Sanford and Deimos for they had zero clue what went on in Hank’s head, for the most part. They were mercenaries, fighters, people looking to not end up with their brains splattered on the wall or something worse. They were going to be bloody upon returning, even if that blood wasn’t their own. It wasn’t like their floors were carpet or anything either. In the end though they never bothered to fight the scoldings. No use making the unofficial medic mad, especially if they needed help. The lack of disgruntled medic in the hallway or at least yelling when silence returned to the room was worrying. After a minute or two with nothing spoken and no ruffled hacker to be seen, Deimos tried again to call him.

“2b?” He called out, peering down the hallway which led to their rooms. There wasn’t any blood on the walls, a good sign to start, and no bullet holes that weren’t there before. Unless the Agency suddenly learned how to do stealth missions, something he and he knew the other two were hoping wasn’t the case, he had hopes. Again, no response from the man. Gun still in his hand he took one glance back to the others, a silent ‘follow me’, before continuing down the hallway. Although Deimos had made it to the closed door first he’d been pushed past by the red goggle wearing giant as he reached for the doorknob. Hank had been the one to open the door to 2b’s room. He’d also been the first of the trio to feel the tension in his shoulders drop. It wasn’t long after he had relaxed that he was shoved into the room by two bodies trying to get in and see any damage that could’ve been done while they were gone. The sight of 2BDamned softly snoring away in his chair, nothing in the room seeming out of place, was most certainly a welcome one.

“Ah. So that’s why he isn’t barking us up a tree for your entrance, Dei.” Sanford hummed with a laugh, careful to watch his volume. If there was one thing he didn’t want to deal with after their mission it was a cranky Doc who got woken up by them. It wasn’t a secret he didn’t necessarily sleep after all and there was no way he could survive off coffee like he seemed to silently claim he could sometimes. They all had times when their sleep schedules were fucked.

“Oh shut up, ‘Ford.” Deimos shot back with a playful punch to the man’s bicep. “It’s not like I’m the one who slammed the door. That’s what he would’ve been on our asses about.”

“You slammed it open then yelled loud enough for all of Nevada to hear you. Don’t act like you’re innocent!”

As the two’s words morphed into friendly bickering Hank took it upon himself to deliver the bit of what they got that couldn’t stay in the duffle bag slung over his shoulder at the moment. Buried in the pocket of his jacket was a small object. Something he hadn’t expected to find, but had snagged nonetheless when it had been pointed out by Deimos. For a second as he walked over to the man a rough hand dug around fabric, fingers gripping plastic as he arrived at his destination. Without thinking he tossed the USB onto the hacker’s desk, eyes wandering over small things like the empty coffee mug or discarded goggles. Behind red-tinted goggles they landed on the man’s tablet, the screen now illuminated thanks to what he could assume had been the small drive hitting the desk. Prying wasn’t something he often did when it came to his teammates, respecting their privacy as they often did his, but after a certain word caught his eye he couldn’t help but read the log that had popped up.

Title: Experiment 05SB

Time: 7:42 pm, xx/xx/xx

Author: 2BDamned

Note: I…cannot believe I’m about to write this. This is update one of Experiment 05SB, an experiment started without much if any bit of a proper plan behind it. Phase I, I suppose you could call it, was a success. The shrunken grunts are, in fact, small enough to swallow whole and…alive. MAGs have not yet been confirmed to be the same way, though I’m sure that answer will show itself one day. I am unsure why I am able to keep four of them down without feeling nauseated, but I can. I will update at a later time when more information has presented itself.

The log ended there, eyes falling away from the screen as Hank’s mind worked to process the information it had just been given. According to what had been written before the man had fallen victim to sleep, it was not only possible to swallow the shrunken beings sitting in one of the cages behind him, but the unofficial doctor had done it himself. Four times to be exact. Curiosity grabbed control of his eyes, slowly panning them up to the cage of grunts who looked noticeably more terrified than they usually did. Had they seen the whole thing go down? His mind continued to wander, finding new questions like how on earth the hacker had managed to keep living and no doubt moving beings down like the log said he did. That is unless he’d spit them up before falling asleep. However that seemed highly unlikely-

“Snooping around Doc’s stuff, are we Hank~?” When Deimos had appeared behind him was beyond the mercenary, though the shock of hearing his voice out of the blue was enough to startle him into quickly powering off 2b’s tablet and whipping around to face the two that now stood across with him with far too smug looks on their faces for his liking.

“Woah there, big guy! We didn’t mean any trouble.” Sanford cooed, the fucking Chad cooed, holding his hands up as if he was under some sort of arrest. “Just wanted to know what you were reading over here is all~.”

“Yeah, exactly. I never expected to find you clicking through Doc’s diary.” Deimos added on nearly flawlessly. Sometimes he really hated how well they worked together. Namely when it was against him. “So, was it a love confession~?”

Hank sighed, glaring at the two through his goggles. He sure fucking hoped they could see the look on his face, despite most of it being covered by bandages and his mask. Because he was not amused and he wanted them to know it.

“No, not a love confession, you morons.” He groaned, shaking his head. Telling them straight off what it said would probably be horrible. At the moment he was still having a few difficulties understanding parts of what he read. Lying just seemed like the best choice overall. It wasn’t like he’d be the only one doing so, after all. It sure seemed like 2b did to them over the mic. Speaking of the man, Hank turned around to take a good look at him. At first glance he seemed like he normally did when he passed out in his chair from overworking himself like this. It was only when Hank took an extra second to look and let the information in his brain guide him did he see the slightly out of place softness around the sleeping hacker’s stomach. Unable to help himself Hank felt his ruined remaining lip quirk up into a small smirk under his mask as he turned around to shove the Dumbass Duo out of the room so 2b could sleep.

“Bunch’a nonsense, is all. Now move. I don’t wanna deal with him if you idiots wake him up and we still have shit to put away.”