#how was it not priority to fix the most glaring issue

[tylerpitlicktruther]

i just hope we have a good run in 2024-2025 at this point man 😔💙

[onceandfuturelesbian]

another fic prompt cause i’m unhinged

in a closed council meeting w no servants (merlin as court sorcerer and next to arthur), arthur starts talking about how he thinks they shouldn’t called servants “servants” because he thinks it’s offensive/derogatory etc. and proposes they call them assistants because that’s what they do; assist.

“with all due respect, my lord,” merlin’s hard stare focused on the king, “that’s bullshit.”

“excuse me?” arthur, shocked by merlin’s comment, but more so by his language. he’d never heard merlin curse in their ten years of knowing each other.

“maybe you’ve forgotten, but i was a servant. your servant.”

“… yes, i’m aware.”

“servants do everything for their masters and more. we are below every other person living in this castle, we have to do whatever anyone tells us to do. we don’t assist. assistance implies we help with a task you are already working on. servitude means we do what we are told, no questions asked, no objections-“

“present company excluded,” merlin hears arthur mutter under his breath and fixes his glare back to his king.

“with only help offered by the occasional kind servant who has no urgent chores. which is very, very rare. we do the work for everyone in the castle, almost never sleep more than a few hours, before waking earlier than everyone else and do it all over again. we sleep even less if we have two jobs and also take care of secret, magical threats to the kingdom and its king.

“so no. we do not assist. we are not assistants. we serve. as servants.”

merlin catches his breath as he glanced around the table, everyone’s expressions ranging from annoyed to shocked to guilty and contemplative.

arthur absorbs every single detail that merlin had revealed. he felt impossibly guilty that not only did merlin do so much for him with no recognition and no rest, but that merlin had spoken as if he was still a servant. did he still feel that way? did people still treat him that way?

“so,” arthur begins quietly, resolving to speak to merlin about that later, “what would you suggest we do instead?”

merlin considers his question for a moment, finally calm after reliving his struggles of the last decade.

“make their lives easier,” merlin catches the confused faces of the council members. “hire more servants so you can give everyone days off without shortages and the chores won’t be spread so thin, increase wages slightly, the crown can afford it without tax increase,” at this, merlin makes sure he looks arthur and all the stuck-up noblemen in the eye.

“but most importantly,” merlin ensures he has everyone’s attention so his voice is truly heard. “be kind and protect them. servants do everything the nobles cannot, this castle would not stand without them. servants cannot protect themselves from visiting noblemen and women whose views are different from camelots. our servants happiness and safety should always be a priority.”

finally, merlin meets arthur’s gaze once again. he expects shock or maybe even anger, but all he sees is pride and adoration.

“it seems we all have a lot to think about,” arthur speaks like a king and merlin is enchanted (ironic). “council is dismissed.”

later, arthur asks merlin about his time as a servant, why he spoke as if he still was one, how people treated him now, etc

and if a few months later, the servants in the castle were happier than ever, well, everyone else was happier because of it.

—

aka merlin gets to be a bamf and school nobles on class issues while arthur is in awe

[kozukatt]

Ninjago x Reader headcanons (Bad Day)

✫Zane✫

✫ Whenever you feel down he would make your favorite food 

✫ If you don’t want to eat then he would save said food until you do

✫ His love language is acts of service so he would clean your room for you, make your favorite food, etc. just to see you smile

✫ Zane believes that the way to the heart is through words so he would constantly give you affirmations

✫ If it’s just one of those days where you can’t get out of bed, that’s fine! He would sit with you and bring you anything you need

✫ Zane is a very respectful guy. If you don’t want to be touched? He won’t. If you want quiet? He’ll be quiet. If you need to be alone? He’ll leave you alone, but will check up on you every hour or so

✫ A lot of times, when he’s on missions, he’ll bring you back a small trinket. Maybe it’s a pretty rock or a picture he found that reminded him of you

✫ As soon as he gets back from being out with the ninja, he goes to check on you. It doesn’t matter how long he’s been gone, you will always be his first priority 

Cole

 Tries to make you laugh all the time but if you don’t, he will gladly sit in silence with you

 An absolute teddy bear when it comes to cuddling. He loves physical affection and will always offer to hold you

 If you don’t like physical touch that’s alright! He will give you space and words of encouragement 

 Whenever you’re feeling down he would try to make you a cake, and inevitably come to ask you for help

 If you have body issues (dysmorphia, eating disorder, etc.) he’s in the same boat as you so he will do anything in his power to make you feel better

 Even if he is a people person, Cole appreciates the quiet things that come with a bad day. Of course he doesn’t want you to have one but is okay and will help you

 If Jay tries to ruin a moment in between you, Cole will glare at him until he leaves before going back and making sure you’re okay 

☯︎︎Jay☯︎︎

☯︎︎ Like Cole,he tries to make you laugh no matter what

☯︎︎ But if you tell him to stop he will always do so

☯︎︎ Won’t ever try to push your limits. If you say that you can’t, he won’t push you

☯︎︎ Even if he is a loud person he’s capable of being quiet when you need it

☯︎︎ Freaks out whenever you have a bad day but quickly gets over it to help you

☯︎︎ A sensitive guy. If you start crying then he’ll start crying

☯︎︎ He’ll offer to play him games with you if you feel up to it and will go easy on you to let you win

☯︎︎ If you want quiet then he’ll be quiet, maybe tinker with some invention he’s working on as quiet as he can

☯︎︎ Boy can’t sit still so he’s constantly moving, which leads him to drag you out of bed and dance when a good song comes on

☯︎︎ If you ever want to play with his hair he will gladly let you

☯︎︎ A very physical person but will respect your boundaries

☼Kai☼

☼ If you don’t want him to bother you he will leave you alone no questions asked

☼ If you just lay on him he won’t object he’ll just let you and rest his arm on your body

☼ He’ll do stupid tricks to try and make you laugh

☼ Will baby you automatically from being big bro Kai for most of his life

☼ Gives death glares to anyone who interrupts your conversation or cuddles

☼ Values quality time over anything else

☼ So. Many. Head. Kisses. 

☼ If you let him he would spike your hair up like his

☼ He’s a hair stylist so he will fix your hair if you impulse cut it but before he’d make sure you’re safe

☼ Sends you memes when he’s out on missions 

𖦹Lloyd𖦹

𖦹 Hes not good at understanding emotions so whenever you’re having a bad day he’ll be confused but understand once you explain

𖦹 Let’s you read his comics when he’s on missions (bro values those things above everything so it’s an honor)

𖦹 Just a kid in an older body so he doesn’t know how to deal with a lot of things but will try his hardest

𖦹 Music is his coping skill so he tries to let you have that too

𖦹 Tries to make you stuff but ends up with glue and paint everywhere

𖦹 The most wholesome guy he will do anything to help you even if it’s just getting you water and food

𖦹 If you want to try on his gi he’ll let you and even let you do a little fashion show for him

𖦹 Buys you thing. Whatever it is you want he gets. No questions asked

༆Nya༆

༆ The aggressive girlfriend we all need but will be soft when it’s needed

༆ Doesn’t take bullshit so you are drinking water and eating food

༆ Brushes your hair for you in bed if you can’t get up 

༆ So many cuddles and affirmations on how good you’re doing and how proud she is of you

༆ If you need to cry? She’s there. You need to scream? She’s there. Whatever you need to do she’ll be there

༆ A massage goddess (if you’re okay with it)

༆ If you start going down that rabbit hole she stops you and aggressively tells you how much you mean to her and may tear up doing so

༆ Can’t stand seeing you like this so she tries to do whatever she can to cheer you up

༆ Won’t let you rot away in your room she will make you come outside if you’ve stayed in bed for more than a day

[nastynobrainer]

Hmmm, Could you do Dream, Geno, Error and Ink with a God!S/O? It doesn't really matter what they are a God of but I think a God of Peace would be a very cool concept!

Ooo this is an interesting request! I'll try my best, though I'm not quite sure what to write if I'm being honest.. 😅😢

Dream!Sans:

-He'd be fascinated and curious about how you go around working your magic or anything related to what it's like being the God of Peace.

-He’s glad there's such a positive God like you to exist.

-He never brought up about how he and his brother had a bad past with ongoing conflict. Until you went to visit him one day, only to see him bruised all over.

-He reluctantly explained that he didn't confess earlier since he never had any intention of dragging you into his mess and insisted that he could fix their conflict on his own.

-You ignored his insistence and eventually resolved the conflict, and he seemed livelier than ever.

-He worships you.

Aftertale!Sans:

-When you first meet, he'd silently curse you for never granting him the peace he longed for in his AU.

-He would never talk to you whenever you visited him. He'd simply glare at you as you try to talk to him.

-His silent hatred towards you slowly died out when he realised what being the God of Peace is like. Inevitably, the results of his AU was an unlucky fate.

-Overtime, he’d be fascinated and curious, just like Dream. He finds that being the God of Peace is such an important job. (Not that other Gods’ jobs aren't as important but imagine a world without peace.)

-He questions but never asked if you're related to Reaper’s universe.

-He wants to see how you carry out your job as God of Peace in action and asked to tag along if you had to go off for work since he had nothing better to do in the save screen.

-Ever since you allowed him to watch you do your job, he always tagged alongside you.

Error!Sans:

-Peace? That's the exact opposite of him.. at least that's what he thinks.

-At first he thought that you were similar to Ink, interested in taking away his ability and choice to destroy AUs.

-However, you were different from his initial thoughts. You never complained or made snarky remarks about him making your job as a 'Peacemaker' harder.

-Error destroys AUs and maintains the balance. This balance equals to peace, and peace equals to you.

-You may or may not admit it, but you genuinely admire him. He makes your job easier without realising it.

Ink!Sans:

-God of Peace? Such a God exists? He has so many questions for you, an endless list of questions.. And he threw paint up.

-Being the creator of AUs, his main priority was only to ensure creators created their desired AU with no issues. But, peace was a situation he couldn't control in all the completed AUs.

-You offered to help him hold the peace within the AUs, and he readily accepted.

-The two of you are like partners in crime. One aids with creating, and the other perfects these creations.

(Please save me.. I know damn well that whatever I wrote most likely made no sense whatsoever.)

[flightergodesk]

How Monitor Arm Is Beneficial in Reducing Eye Strain

Prolonged exposure to computer screens is a common phenomenon, especially in bustling tech hubs like Singapore. This has led to an increasing awareness of the importance of ergonomic office equipment. Among these, the monitor arm available in Singapore has gained significant attention. These arms are not just a trendy office accessory; they play a crucial role in reducing eye strain, a common issue for many office workers and digital professionals. The online market offers a wide range of options tailored to enhance visual comfort. This article explores how a monitor arm can be a game-changer in maintaining eye health and ensuring a comfortable work environment.

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One of the causes of eye strain is glare from the computer screen. By purchasing the best monitor arm online, users can easily adjust the angle of their monitor to minimize glare from overhead lighting or windows. This results in a more comfortable viewing experience and less strain on the eyes. This flexibility means you can change the monitor's position throughout the day as the natural light changes, ensuring the screen is always easy to see. It's a simple change that can make a big difference in reducing eye fatigue.

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For those who use multiple monitors, monitor mounts Singapore and everywhere else are invaluable. It allows for easy positioning of multiple screens at the right angles and distances, reducing the need to constantly turn the head or refocus the eyes, which can lead to eye strain. This is especially helpful for jobs that require tracking lots of information at once, as you can position each monitor exactly where you need it. It makes working with several screens much more comfortable and efficient.

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Incorporating a monitor arm into your workspace can significantly reduce eye strain and enhance your overall work experience. Whether you're in a bustling city like Singapore or working remotely, a monitor arm is a wise investment for anyone spending considerable time in front of a screen. In the pursuit of the perfect ergonomic setup, Flight Ergo stands out with its range of high-quality office equipment. Their ergonomic solutions can transform your workspace into an oasis of comfort and productivity where eye health is a priority. To explore their range of products in detail, visit Flightergo.com.

[enginefirst]

Sydney's 24/7 Mobile Mechanic: Your Car's Lifeline

We've all been there - stranded on the side of the road, under the glaring sun or the cover of night, with a car that refuses to start. It's a situation that no one wants to find themselves in, yet it's one that can happen to anyone at any time. In those moments of distress, what you need is a lifeline, a savior who can come to your rescue when you need it the most. That's where Sydney's 24/7 mobile mechanic steps in, offering a lifeline to drivers in distress, ensuring that your car troubles are swiftly resolved, no matter the hour.

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Imagine you're driving home after a long day at work, and your car starts making strange noises. Instead of stressing about how you'll get it fixed, you can simply call Engine First, and we'll dispatch a mobile mechanic to your location. We understand that you have a busy life, and our goal is to make car troubles the least of your worries.

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[hops-hunny]

Distance Makes the Heart Grow

CHAPTER 6

Series Masterlist

Pairing: Mafia Boss!Neville Longbottom x Reader

Pronouns: She/Her

Word Count: 2.8k

Summary: (Y/n) lives a normal life. But that’s the issue, it’s normal, it’s plain, and it’s growing boring. Everyday she wishes for something, anything to spice up her life. But, when her old school friend (and crush) shows up at her bakery with a new look (and what looks like a new life), what will it bring for her? Will their puppy love grow? Will his big secret lead to the end of them or will it spark a new beginning?

Warnings: mentions of sex, suggestive conversations, fluff, fingering, soft smut

A/N: A little treat for the horndogs <3

"O-oh god! It's too big Nev, 's not gonna...c-can't-"

"Oh It's going to fit, don't worry pretty girl. Daddy's gonna fuck you so good. You want that, don't you baby?" He asked, cooing as she nodded frantically, tongue lulled out the side of her mouth. Neville had barely gotten past the tip before she began whining, crying about how big he was. He couldn’t help but lose control, shoving himself deep inside her, pistoning his hips at an ungodly pace. His eyes lingered on her chest, entranced by the hypnotic sway that they had due to his thrust. Pinning her hands to the bed, their eyes locked in an intense moment. 

“O-oh fuck princess, you’re so tight. You gonna cum? Hm? Gonna make a-”

“Nev?” he snapped up, a heavy gasp leaving his lips as looked to his side. (Y/n) sat there, a confused look on her face. “Are you alright? I think you were having a nightmare. You kept making a bunch of noises in your sleep!” he felt his face flush, clearing his throat as he looked away from her. His heart began to race as she climbed into his lap, turning his face towards hers. He looked at her, hoping his nerves weren't clear on his face. Due to the snickers he heard in the background, he was certain it was obvious to just about everyone but her what the issue was. 

“Hey um, petal, you might wanna move.” he whispered to her, trying to keep her hips from his troubled area.

“Why?” she asked, tilting her head once more as she moved back. Her eyes widened at the newfound breeze on her rear due to her skirt being lifted up. Not sure of what the cause was she moved back slightly, gasping at the feeling of something hard and long against her ass. Suddenly it all set in, he was- “O-oh. I’m sorry Nev.” she squeaked, quickly hopping from his lap. She smoothed down her skirt, clearing her throat as she eyed everyone in the room awkwardly. While the pair seemed flustered, the team couldn’t get enough of the interaction.

“Well I guess it’s clear why you’re the boss now.” Fred said, laughing as he motioned to the large tent in the man’s pants. George gave him a low five, joining him in his laughter as Neville glared at them all. Who were they to make him feel embarrassed? Standing up he adjusted the tent in his pants but despite his efforts, his dick was still prominent through his slacks.

“Poor (Y/n). She’s not gonna live to see another day after that thi-”

“Would you lot quit it?! When the fuck are we landing?” Neville growled at the bunch, causing the laughter to cease. Everyone knew what it was like to deal with an enraged Neville and that was the last thing they wanted. If the plane hadn't already landed, he’d shoot it right out the sky.

“We’ve actually just landed, boss. I was going to tell you before this little…situation that just occurred. Your bags have already been brought to the villa to ensure we have maximum time to scope out the museum.” Harrison said, giving the man a nod. He hummed, giving him a nod. “In the meantime, the city is yours to roam girls. We’ll be sending two men with you for your safety.” he snapped his fingers and two tall men appeared, their scary appearance paired with “tourist” clothing. What was supposed to be a disguise was just a funny sight of two muscle heads in brightly colored floral shirts. The (h/c) haired girl walked over to the leader, tugging on his sleeve some. He looked down at her, face softening at the pout on her face.

“Will we be able to spend some time together eventually? I know this is technically a work trip for you but I-I’d really like to spend time with you.” she said, making his heart melt. She never failed to make his heart burst, unreasonably cute without even trying. He had already planned on making time for her but now it wasn’t just something on his list, but his main priority. Stroking her cheek gently he put a soft kiss on her forehead.

“ ‘Course petal. In the meantime,” he leaned down sucking on the skin below her ear as he let out a chuckle, “Why don’t you go buy yourself something pretty for me?” her eyes widened but she nodded regardless, looking at him with a shocked expression as he pulled away. Before she could respond Twyla began to drag her, yanking her down the stairs of the jet.

“Come on babes! We’ve got some shopping to do.”

--------------------------------------

“Was it really necessary to send them with us?” (Y/n) whispered, looking over her shoulder at the two large men that had been following them from a distance. “I mean, everyone’s looking!” she hissed, pointing to a group of people that were pointing and whispering to them. Twyla shrugged, a subtle skip to her walk.

“Just means we look important! You worry too much, babes. We’re on an expense paid trip to Italy and we don’t have to pay for any of these clothes? There could literally be an angry mob after us and that still wouldn’t kill my mood!” she sighed, still noticing the girl’s tense mood. “Plus, Neville would want you to enjoy yourself. Speaking of him…” she grabbed the girl’s hand, walking into the lingerie store on the left. She looked at her confused.

“Why are we here? Nev already bought me underwear.” she asked, following Twyla as she began to grab different sets off the racks. Another layer of confusion was added on when she noticed that she wasn’t grabbing her own size. Twyla let out a snort, throwing the small pile that she had somehow amassed into her arms.

“Don’t be ridiculous! You’re telling me after today’s little ordeal that you haven’t noticed? Your hottie has definitely been thinking of banging your brains out.” she said, giggling at the girl’s bashful expression. “I’m only telling the truth! And judging by your reactions, you’ve been thinking about it too.” she pondered her words for a moment. It wasn’t not not true. She most certainly had thought about Neville in more unsavory ways. Even before their reuniting, (Y/n) always thought about him as she attempted to get herself off, imagining they were his hands touching her bringing her to a well deserved climax. However anytime she’d get close, she’d become overwhelmed with the thought that what she had been doing was shameful. Masturbating to her old crush from school? What could be more dirty?

“I-I guess I have thought about it once or twice..” she admitted. “B-but I don’t have the balls to just walk out in something like this! What if he laughs at me?” Twyla gawked at the girl, blinking repeatedly. She could not believe her ears.

“Are you kidding me?! The only sound that will be leaving that man’s mouth is the sound of him telling you to get on your knees.” she responded, turning back around to look through the racks for more. “Plus, it’s not like you have to pounce on the man. All I’m saying is wait for the right time, maybe after a nice dinner or something then boom, whip out the goods. You’ve got everything to gain and nothing to lose. If that’s all then let’s check out then go get massages! I’m making you pamper yourself this trip. Merlin knows you need a break.”

(Y/n) was thankful for Twyla’s pep talk knowing the blonde was right. Neville would like anything she did; it was just a matter of when she should do it.

---------------------------------------

And pampering they had done. (Y/n) and Twyla had been to just about every ritzy spot Italy had to offer them. After their shopping trip, the taller girl had taken them to get massages. It was funny how the masseuse instantly knew it was her first time from the abundance of knots in her back and when the man was done? She was most certainly an inch taller! They also had gone for manicures (despite having done that a few days ago..). Being bold she decided to get a set out of her comfort zone which she was beyond satisfied with. But the hot Italian sun combined with all the running around had tired her out, resulting in the driver bringing them to the villa.

The villa wasn’t as big as Neville’s second manor but was still insanely big. After the bodyguard had carried her bags to her room for her, she climbed into the brand new silk robe she had gotten, laying on the bed drinking the smoothie the maid had gotten for her. It was nice, just being able to relax. Throughout her years of working, (Y/n) rarely took off days. A lot of the time she’d even cover shifts for employees that couldn’t make it and even when the bakery was closed she would come in, fixing things up and tidying up mindlessly. Numerous times Twyla had caught the girl there when she wasn’t supposed to be and forced her to go home out of concern for her health.

Her eyes fluttered open at the sound of the bedroom door opening, widening with enthusiasm as she saw the tattooed man in the doorway, a bouquet of flowers in his hands. Hopping up she ran over to him, jumping into his arms which he gladly accepted, holding her tightly. “I missed you.”

He smiled, setting the flowers down to hold her better before placing a soft peck to her lips. “I missed you too, love. I left early so I could spend some time with you.” his eyes moved to the bags in the corner of the room, chuckling at the large pile. “I’m guessing your shopping trip was successful?” she felt her face heat up at his lack of knowledge of the lingerie that lay within one of them.

“I guess you could say that. Come, come! I wanna relax with you.” she began dragging him over to the bed, straddling him once he was situated. They sat in a comfortable silence with Neville holding the girl close to his chest, just appreciating the closeness he had with her. Since they’re reunion, every intimate moment, be it sexual or not, had been interrupted by some instance where he was needed somewhere else. He hadn’t been able to spend nearly as much time as he wanted with her but now he had her all to himself. His hands rubbed at her back gently until he got bored, deciding to test the waters. He knew it’d take a while before they’d get anywhere near what happened in his dream but he was willing to wait. He’d do anything to be able to touch her, feel her in a way that was less than innocent. As he gripped at her ass with one hand he brought the other one up to her cheek, cupping it as he pulled her into a deep and sensual kiss.

She gladly accepted, kissing back as she brought herself closer to him, playing with the bits of loose hair at the base of his neck. He began to nibble on her lip before pulling away, trailing open mouthed kisses down her neck. A mewl sounded from her, causing him to pull away slowly. Gripping at her waist above her robe, he gazed into her eyes intently. “You wearin’ anything under here?” he asked, watching as she looked down, shaking her head. “No? God you’re making it so hard for me to not just fuck you right here.” he sighed some, reaching for the ties on her robe. He stopped, looking at her once more for confirmation. She nodded frantically before stopping, feeling slightly embarrassed from how eager she was. With one soft tug, her robe was undone revealing her soft supple breast which he instantly went for. With his lips wrapped around one he began to lick and suck at the other, both of them moaning in unison. After a while of him teasing her sensitive nubs she began to grow impatient, rocking her hips against his gently as she let out a soft whimper.

“P-please..” she moaned breathlessly, not too sure of what she wanted. All she knew was that she wanted something, anything. Everything he did had her near her edge, from his kisses to his tongue and she needed to feel more. Pulling away he looked at her, thinking for a moment before pulling the two of them up.

“I wanna try something,” he said, positioning in front of the mirror. “He pushed back the fabric of her robe, putting her pussy on full display. His pants tightened at the sight of her glistening folds which she avoided in the mirror. Neville gripped her chin gently, positioning it to look at her bits in the mirror, chuckling at her wide eyes, pupils fully blown with arousal. With his other hand, he began to massage up and down her thighs. He watched as her legs grew weak, shaking with anticipation. Trailing his fingers near her sex, tracing small patterns on the inside of her thighs. 

He patted the side of her cheek with two fingers, pulling her attention away from herself to make eye contact with him through the glass. “Open up.” he whispered, small praises of approval leaving his mouth as she did. He took his thick digits, slowly pushing past her kiss stung lips. His eyes watched in the mirror as they entered her wet little mouth, groaning at the feeling of her soft tongue gliding along the underside of them. Pushing them a little further, she gagged, eyes tearing up. She looked so pretty with tears in her eyes, already fucked out before he had even put them in. It was hard to tell who wanted it more at this point but as Neville finally slid a finger into her folds, it was obvious. Hot tears fell down her face, already overwhelmed from it all. Pumping his finger in and out, his eyes flickered between her fucked out face and her pussy, juices already coating her thighs. Moving his face to her neck, he began to suck and kiss on her neck.

(Y/n) was becoming more and more desperate by the moment. She had subconsciously begun to play with her tits, rubbing and tugging on her nipples. “M-more, Nev please!” she begged to which he instantly complied, sliding another finger in. He began to work her open more, scissoring and stretching his fingers inside of her. Once her muscle had relaxed once again, he began to speed up his moment, the heel of his palm creating a slapping noise each time it’d meet her pussy.

“Merlin, baby, you’re soaked. Your messy little cunt’s just eating my fingers.” he purred out, chuckling deeply as he felt her clench at his words. Who knew his pretty little princess would get worked up so easily, slowly reaching her peak just from a few fingers and words? He used his other hand to rub at her clit, causing her knees to buckle, falling back onto him for support. He loved how much she relied on him, becoming a needy mess just for him. He curled his fingers up, aiming for her spot until he found it causing her to let out a loud cry, gripping onto his arm tightly. Neville watched as her face scrunched up, tears streaming down her face.

“N-need to….need ta….O-oh god Nev! I’m gonna-” before she could finish her eyes widened before snapping close, head falling back onto his shoulder as she rutted her hips against his fingers, whimpering as she rode out her high. He continued to rub at her clit, fingering her cunt until she began to whine, pushing him away. He smirked some, admiring her fucked out expression in the mirror. Her eyes were shut, pants  puffy lips. He licked his lips at the sight of her cunt, sensitive and fucked out, messy and cum covered from her orgasm. As he pulled his fingers out, he had to stop himself from letting out a string of curses at the way her cream began to run hot down her legs along with the bit that had gathered on his fingers. Lifting them to his face he wasted no time, sucking and licking on them. He moaned softly, continuing to clean them thoroughly, not stopping until the only thing that remained was the salty taste of his own flesh.

“You look so pretty when you cum, flower.” he muttered, smiling as the girl just let out a soft ‘mhm’, half asleep and barely able to process his words. He took off her robe, lifting her up as he began to carry her to their private bathroom, letting out a content sigh at the events that had just happened. Although he hadn’t been able to get off himself, he was more than happy being able to just please her. 

Afterall, it was what he wanted more than anything, to have his flower live in absolute happiness and pleasure.

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TAGSLIST: @vayeya11 @pink-hufflepuff @clancyscookies @elemental-of-magic @beewitchedlou @simpforremuslupin @mottergirl99 @princesslaiahg  @nevillelongbottomsgirlfriend @redpanda-poetry @vibingaesthetically

[foulcrownkryptonite]

The Man He Loved

Erwin x Levi 

Levi disagrees with Erwin’s plan and confronts him after a meeting with the Scouts.

3.4K words

Content Warnings: swearing, bursts of anger, general meanness before the cavity inducing fluff comes into play :)

Levi sat quietly, arms crossed and eyes scanning each of the Scouts as Erwin laid out this coming mission's details. It was late and everyone was past the brink of exhaustion, but this meeting was unfortunately urgent. Eren and Historia… Those damned Internal Police lackies will stop at nothing to get their filthy hands on the two kids. And with the influence they have, their chance at success is more than possible. There was no time to waste. What they needed was a plan of action, an infallible one, at that.

“We still have many uncertainties about the titans and what the Beast titan’s plans are…” Erwin continued. “But keeping Eren and Historia safe is of the utmost priority. Humanity will fall if the Internal Police get their hands on them. In two days' time, we’ll need to devise a distraction.” Distraction? Levi swiftly side eyed Erwin as he continued his disquisition, his prominent features set in dedication. Why doesn't he tell me these things beforehand...

“Jean, you’ll pretend to be Eren and-“ Erwin was cut off by Jean’s groans.

“Huh? I look nothing like that brat. Clearly I’m far more handsome. They’ll think he suddenly became a model and Eren does not deserve that reputation.” Jean quickly retorted. Despite being crudely cut off, Erwin’s eyes remained weighted and unmoving. The stretch of silence that followed elicited an ugly snort from Conny, earning a poorly contained laugh from Sasha and a silencing glare from Mikasa. Once the punishing eyes moved to Jean, he quickly shut his trap and slunk in his chair, a curse being muttered under his breath. Are these damn brats capable of a single serious meeting? Levi scoffed to himself as Erwin resumed.

“As I was saying,” Jean somehow receded further into himself. “Armin will play Historia.”. Armin nodded, knowing there’s no saying no to the commander in this state. “I’ll lead the distraction as I’m perfectly fine with playing bait. They want me too, but that’s not important.” he went on. At this, Levi's jaw tightened. Not important?! They’ll kill you. What is he-

“Don’t worry, as this will not be for another week. The news of us hiding out won’t get to them for a short while.” Erwin concluded, standing up in his chair. Before he could finish his brief remarks, the scouts eagerly stood to attention. “Very well, that is all for tonight. Get some rest, Scouts. You’ve done good work. If there are any questions, feel free to ask. But for now, seek your sleep.” And with those words of finality, he receded back into his seat, the phantom pains in his arm ebbing and flowing as they usually did. Erwin never talked about it, but Levi could tell when it was bothering the commander. His eyebrows would furrow slightly, followed by a look of realization then poignancy. Whether he really wanted to or not, Levi always noticed these little changes in the man.

Hange let out a big yawn, waiting as everyone else quietly left the room. That is to say, everyone besides Conny, Sasha and Jean, those loud fucks. Levi instantly began mentally reciting what Erwin had previously said. Distraction my ass… Hange kicked up their feet onto the coffee table, expecting the usual post-meeting chat between the three of them. “Eyy I’m pooped, how about a-“

“Hange.” Levi said plainly.

“Eh?”

“Not today.”

“Alright… then why don’t we-“

“Not. Today.” Levi snapped, uncrossing his legs to stand. “Leave.”

Hange rolled their eyes, used to and unthreatened by Levi’s usual ire. “Whatever, I’ll just go party somewhere else then.” They stood too, walking toward the door. “You two buzzkills have a goodnight~!” They sang sweetly before sauntering out in an exaggerated confidence. Levi sighed before going to the door and locking it. Erwin just watched, unamused and unsurprised by his behavior. Levi leaned against the locked door and put his hands on his hips.

“So, a suicide mission? That’s your master plan?” he said coldly, grey eyes meeting blue in an unfriendly gaze. Erwin kept his lips sealed with silence, knowing full well the man across him had a lot more to say. “Tch, silent treatment too? Why don’t you tell me these things? Did you hit your head on the field before losing your arm?” He taunted, attempting to coax the tall man into talking.

Erwin’s eyes darkened just slightly. He really wasn’t in the mood to bicker with Levi. His plan was practically foolproof, Levi just wasn’t thinking rationally. His arm hurt and he longed for a good night's rest, not wanting to be barked at by the man standing across from him. Truthfully, he was tuning most of what he said out. Just let him ramble until he’s satisfied.

Levi stomped his boot on the door, causing it to judder in return. “You’re not even LISTENING. Oi, shit-for-brains, talk to me like a man and stop wallowing in your suicidal self pity. What the fuck are you thinking?”

Erwin took a steady breath, composing himself before finally speaking. “Is this really about the mission, Levi?” He was met with cold icy eyes set in a dead glare. This really isn’t what he wanted to do right now. “Y'know what, nevermind. I don’t wanna hear it tonight.” he dismissed.

Levi was beyond irked. “Eh- what are you even saying? Damn, that titan really did scramble your head. Do I need to spell it out for ya? Write on little cards so you can relearn your ABC’s? Eh?! You’ve gone mad. This is stupid-“

Erwin lifted his hand up to silence him. “You don’t have to agree. By all means, yell at me. But this doesn’t change my plan.” He lowered his hand and looked him in the eyes, his mind tired and begging for rest.

Levi could feel his face darkening into a prominent scowl. “I can’t fuckin’ believe this… Your self righteous fantasies of being the humble hero are clouding your judgement. Pride? Heroism? That’s just some bullshit excuse, Erwin. You aren’t expendable. Killing yourself now isn’t going to help anyone. It’s not going to fix anything.” He spat, poison dripping from each word as his gaze remained locked on target. Erwin eyed him in return, eyes growing darker with each passing second. A tense silence stretched between them.

Levi sighed before starting again.

“We need that damn head of yours if we want to have any chance of a future, so quit being a baby and let’s figure out some other plan.” He reasoned, hoping these words would make his commander understand where this bout of anger came from.

Erwin sat silent for a moment, contemplating his words and filtering them with his usual routine of rationality and logic. What was Levi’s goal here? It is putting his own life in danger, not Levi’s. Unless the issue was that fact itself...

“Levi…” He began calmly, his assuring tone of voice encouraging Levi to calm himself. “I recognize how you feel, but you must see the bigger picture. You need to understand, I am replaceable, Eren and Historia are not.“

Levi instinctively tensed again, knowing exactly where this conversation was headed, and knowing full well he wouldn’t like whatever Erwin would say next. “This mission is above me - above us. It’s our best option. We don’t have the luxury to achieve results without sacrifice, or at least without the risk thereof. I have abandoned many soldiers in the past, and to cower when that chance weighs on myself is unbecoming of a commander. I did not call a meeting tonight to discuss, but rather to inform. This is the plan, Levi. And frankly? I do not wish to speak about it further. That is all.” Erwin languidly finished, his usual punctuality succumbing to a tired dejection.

Levi realized then. He wasn’t speaking to Erwin, the man whom he trusted and dedicated his life to. Levi wasn’t speaking to the one who dragged him out of that shitty dump of a home and into the Survey Corps; He wasn’t here with the man who made badly timed jokes Levi could only roll his eyes at, nor the captain who suddenly took an interest in cleanliness upon Levi’s arrival, nor the friend who kindly lent Levi a shoulder and a warm cup of tea following his squad's extinction. This was not that man. Levi was stood in front of the Commander of the Survey Corps. An artificial hero who’d rid himself of his humanities in the name of freedom, eager to sacrifice what he must for the prosperity of the future. Erwin looked at Levi from behind that old table as if it were a wall of its own, made not for keeping titans out, but for imprisoning the man Levi knew him to be within.

A heroic façade. A selfless demeanor. That is what Erwin has chosen to be.

Bullshit. Absolute fucking BULLSHIT. There are at least a thousand ways out of this mess, why the hell is he so set on risking himself? An unbridled rage swiftly lifted Levi off the back of the door, boots stomping up towards the tired man in front of him. Levi seethed. He won't let Erwin succumb to whatever dumbass funk he seems to be in. He crossed his arms and scowled, voice biting and unsympathetic. “So that’s it then? You’re just going to give up under the ruse of heroism cause you don't feel well? Because you lost your fucking arm to some ugly ass titan?”

Erwin glare was maddening, something that would make any other soul cower in fear, yet it only fueled his own vehemence. He’s not going to let Erwin walk away from this. “Tch. And to think I’d thought so highly of you... Go on then. If this is really what you want, go and die a coward's meaningless death.” The air hung heavy as they stared each other down. Silence, tense uncomfortable silence and shit ok maybe Levi had gone a bit too fa-

BANG. His hand hit the desk hard, the sound of Erwin's arm slamming the old wood echoing harshly off the cold stone walls. He was standing now, chair forgotten and fallen behind him. The look on his face made Levi’s heart catch in his throat, a dry lump forming as Erwin's eyes bore menacingly into him. His small figure felt diminutive as Erwin’s chest heaved with ferocity, before finally cracking with pure fury. “You dare tell me what I can or cannot do with my own life? Who the fuck do you think you are? I am your superior officer before I am your friend and I will not take this shit from you!”

Levi went cold, backing once more into the door as far as he could, gripping the handle for support, or perhaps a possible escape. He’s never seen Erwin snap like this and to see this eruption in him… It petrified him. “Well, now who’s the coward?” He said maddeningly, kicking the discarded chair further into the corner which sent Levi’s fight or flight into overdrive. Erwin towered over him, his hand slamming against the door a good two feet above Levi’s head. When did he get so damn close?

Levi opened his mouth, but could produce no sound. He was scared. This wasn’t Erwin. A primal rage had overtaken him and Levi could see it in the way his eyes oozed with hostility, in the way his astute demeanor had morphed into that of a feral beast’s. Taking a chance, Levi took a breath. “Erwin…” he whispered carefully, like a cornered animal trying to negotiate with its prey. Erwin’s eyes flashed with an indescribable something. He dropped his hand.

“Fuck,” he cursed, putting his hand to his head and wobbling backward before facing Levi again.

“Fuck, Levi, I’m…” he began. Once again, Levi was experiencing a new side of Erwin, a common theme tonight.  “You…” He paused, collecting his words and continuing. “You need to understand exactly what it is I’m trying to say. It’s my life and you said it yourself earlier, I’m as good as dead. This arm…  How exactly am I supposed to fight like this?” It was barely audible, but Levi picked up a slight crack to his voice. Infuriated Erwin was shocking to see, but this completely foreign vulnerability was something else. The two had been rather close, but nothing quite like this. It was jarring, but not at all bad.

Before Levi could say anything in return, Erwin continued, voice almost hushed and pleading. “Eren is the key to saving humanity and you damn right know it. If I can just lead the charge-“ he was cut off by Levi swiftly grabbing hold of his hand. He didn’t really know what the hell he was doing, some innermost part of him doing the decision making here. The action terrified the both of them, but it was a sign of comfort and that’s all Erwin needed. Besides, it stopped him from spouting more nonsense… So that's good, right?

Noticing the slightest squeeze of his hand in return, Levi found the words he wanted to say. Needed to say. “You know I didn’t mean that. I won’t let you die out there, Erwin. We need you…” his voice grew soft before he carried on. “I need you… So I won’t let you just throw yourself away, dumbass.” Ok now he really didn’t know what the fuck he was doing. The air was stiff as Erwin only stared down at him, and Levi directed his eyes back to the discarded chair. Anything really to distract himself from Erwin’s wide eyed stare. It wasn’t working. Why wasn’t Erwin saying anything? He had made it worse. Fuck.

“I- um I’m I’ll just, I’ll just-“ Levi stammered, earnestly fumbling with the doorknob to leave. Bad choice. Bad night. Time to go. Erwin promptly grabbed Levi’s arm and pulled him closer, until he was flush with the broad surface of his chest. Levi’s face burned due to the proximity, and as Erwin snaked his arm around his middle, his dreaded blush only deepened. Not quite knowing what to do with his hands, he mirrored Erwin’s own actions, enclosing the embrace and- Oh. This is nice. Feeling Levi’s arms wrap around him, Erwin took the initiative to bend down, lowering his head to rest atop Levi’s shoulder.

“I need you too... More than anything” he breathed softly into Levi’s jacket.

Levi had never been one for flattery or sugared words. Lies only beget other lies and Levi valued honesty and definiteness. But this… This was something entirely different. Erwin’s voice was barely above a whisper, purely unguarded and emotive. This wasn’t some false declaration to earn his sympathy, but rather raw feeling, something Levi is not used to having directed at himself.

The tears came before rational thought could beat them, and Erwin deepened the hug in response. The two didn’t say a word as they stood and kept their embrace, never wanting to let go. It was then that he realized Erwin was shaking slightly, tears falling from the man in his arms as well. Levi gripped tighter onto him, his cloak bunching up into his fingers as he held on perhaps harder than need be. Levi wouldn’t normally indulge himself in such juvenile behavior, but he supposed, at least for tonight, he didn’t want to hold himself back.

Erwin’s calloused hand slowly crept its way to Levi’s neck, causing him to shiver. Unsure if this reaction was a positive one, the taller man froze. Levi understood this fearful body language and strengthened the hug, signaling it was ok. Taking this in, Erwin began to rub gentle circles on the back of Levi’s neck, causing him to stir and the fine hairs on his neck to stand. They’ve never touched, not like this. Neither dared to speak, each fearing it would end this blissful spell.

Returning the intimate gesture, Levi began to softly move the palm of his hand along Erwin’s back. Levi wasn’t a touchy-feely person - or, so he thought because being touched like this… He could truly die right here. And that would be ok.

Erwin rotated his head so he was facing the crook of Levi’s neck, and Levi shuddered as he felt Erwin’s hot, shaky breath. This in turn made Erwin nervous. What are we doing? I shouldn’t be-

Levi snaked a hand up to the base of Erwin’s neck and began to tenderly run his fingers through his hair. Erwin took this as complete reassurance that yeah, this was ok. And Levi was ok with it too. Nerves were high as Levi gripped the man’s shirt, wanting to cling to him in silence forever.

Craving his touch, Levi bent his head to face Erwin’s. Erwin noticed the sudden change in movement and opened his eyes to see Levi staring right back at him. He pulled his head back ever so slightly, ensuring he was properly facing Levi. He searched his steel eyes and found only warmth. Still, not a word was said as they got even closer, noses just barely grazing each other before finally-

Unexpectedly, a jarring thud came from outside the door. This was promptly followed by a distant “I’m ok!”. Being so caught up in the moment, Erwin jumped, his heart racing and a mess as he lifted away from Levi. He muttered a curse word before being forced to talk about what just happened between the two men.

Levi just stood there, the sudden lack of intimacy making him realize exactly what had just happened. Feeling damn near faint, he sat on the couch closest to the warm fire and Erwin followed suit, placing his hand on the cushiony surface as he glanced at the visibly nervous Levi.

Erwin reached over and grabbed Levi’s hand causing Levi to meet his gaze. “Is this ok?” He asked gingerly. Levi’s expression softened as he put his other hand on top of his. “Yeah, this is ok”. They sat like that for a moment, deep breaths filling the silence.

“At least let me come with you,” Levi said hurriedly, and Erwin’s eyes grew wide. “Levi…” He began, moving his hand to cup his cheek. Levi leaned into his touch, body settling as he listened to Erwin. “Levi, when have I ever excluded you from a mission? We're doing this together…” he pulled Levi’s face closer to his as Levi put a hand to the man’s chest.

“Together.” Levi repeated before Erwin sealed the space between them with a feather-light kiss, still not wanting to scare the shorter man away. But Levi’s return to the kiss was immediate and desperate, once again wanting to be close to the man he’d admired for years. The man he… Fuck it, the man he loved. Being held like this, being needed like this, needing him in return, it all felt so familiar despite how foreign it really was.

It was like home. Not the putrid and disgustingly cluttered underground, but rather the sentiment of it all. Being in Erwin's embrace, he thought of Farlan and Isabel, his dedication and her compassion. He thought of the ever rowdy scouts, of Hange, of the feeling of Erwin’s lips against his: that was a big one.

Levi wasn’t sure where this mission would take them, or where any of their upcoming escapades would lead them. But he was sure of one thing, as long as he was at this man’s side, his warm eyes meeting his own, he could bear it. No... They could bear it. Erwin pulled away from his lips for what felt like the tenth time this night. Grey eyes met blue, and for the first time in what had felt like years, Levi felt himself fully smiling back.

That night, perched in that dimly lit safe house on a tawny old couch, was theirs and theirs alone, forever to be looked back upon fondly. They were safe. And most importantly, they were each other’s.

“SASHA HOLY SHIT ARE YOU SEEING THIS!”

“CONNY SHUT UP!”

“MMPH!”

And most importantly, Levi had a couple of brats to silence.

[demonicheadcanons]

I'm feeling angsty, could you do how Lucifer, Diavolo, and Barbatos would react when MC break up with them? (Due to MC having to go to back to the human world)

AN: Ahhh angst :3 Contains spoilers for season 1 of OM! (up to and including lesson 20).

I’m one of those people who doesn’t... really see them reacting in any extreme way, probably because I’m on the aro spectrum and don’t form strong romantic attachments so breakups don’t affect me ^^” Sorry if this isn’t as angsty as you were looking for.

Lucifer

Things had been going well after he had finally opened up to you. It was earlier than he expected, but after the whole issue with Belphie, Lucifer knew he had to make a move. Over the course of the year he’d gotten closer, and when he asked you out and you said yes, he’d been ecstatic, trying to ignore the fact that there were only a few months left of the exchange programme - you’d be invited to stay, and you’d never really talked much about any human connections that would stop you from accepting.

His confidence in the matter wavered slightly as the time got closer and you started to distance yourself from him. He doesn’t react much at first, maybe seems a little more frustrated during the day and is quicker to snap at people, but overall he tries to act unbothered. It would hurt his pride too much to admit that he was worried.

When you finally broke up with him, not long before you had to leave, he stands up very straight and looks steadily at you. In reality, he’s frozen, trying to make a decision, but it looks like he’s glaring at you, as cold as the day you arrived.

His initial reaction is to say no. To completely reject the idea. He considers it for a moment, just saying ‘no’ and turning away, the concept not even worth his time. But... it took him too long to build this up, and he actually had feelings invested in this relationship. If it had started as something less involved, he’d absolutely force you to stay in the relationship. But because it’s something he cares about, he doesn’t want it to be one sided.

His response is quite simple. He half smiles, eyes cold but otherwise unreacting, and says “Alright. I just wanted to remind you that we have a student council meeting today after school, and that your presence is required.” He walks off, and for the most part, he stays... fine?

He isn’t, really. Lucifer doesn’t get invested in things he doesn’t expect to last. He can do casual and he can do dedicated, but not jump from one to the other or have a dedicated relationship crumble leaving him with no clue why. He wallows in it, working hard to cover it up until the day you leave.

You see it in his face when he has to say goodbye to you. There are too many emotions to count, but anger and desperation win out in equal measures. “You could stay,” he reminds you. He won’t beg, won’t stoop nearly so low. But he... wanted to make sure you knew. You smile sadly at him. “I know. But I... don’t want to.”

Lucifer won’t tell anyone, but he does check up on you in the human realm after. Just once. He wants to see what’s so good about life up there that you turned him down for it, and he honestly can’t figure it out, but if he sees you with someone else? Your luck turns sour, things just seem to go wrong. His aura is faintly present, but he doesn’t leave any hints that it could be him causing it. It won’t last long, but the bad spell is bad. He’ll move on, in time. He’s just looking for some stress relief before that.

Diavolo

He wasn’t sure when he’d started to taking a liking to you, but he had decided to pursue it almost entirely on a whim, and let his feelings slip at his birthday party when he was a little out of it. You’d still been ignoring him, and he knew it was his fault - after all, hadn’t he sacrificed you for the brothers? Hadn’t he made it clear what you meant to him, in your mind? It took until he was leaning on the banquet table beside you, one elbow against it as he smiled at you and mumbled how he actually felt, for both of you to understand, and you’d been inseparable since. He’d even been considering a pact, towards the end of the year. Wouldn’t it keep you with him?

The answer, it turned out, was no. You had been avoiding him and he was desperate to find out why, and kept you behind at the end of a meeting, waving Lucifer and Barbatos both on. Barbatos gave you the faintest glare before leaving, clearly having been the one who’d been comforting Diavolo in your absence.

When you tell him you want to break up, he doesn’t really know how to react at first. He lets out a simple ‘ah’ and then presses one hand to his chin, expression unreadable. After a brief pause, a few dreadfully quiet beats, he asks why. You had everything you could want here, didn’t you?

But not really. As much as the Devildom had felt like it over the past year, it still wasn’t home. You were still just a human. You didn’t have the sun, the animals here were hostile, and you were so very alone the second you stepped out of the house because no matter how many classes you went to and no matter how long you stayed, how many times you’d tried to interact with others, the demons were just... uninterested in you, or outright infuriated by your presence. And you missed the human realm, too, for so many more reasons.

You explain what you can to Diavolo before getting too upset and clamping your jaw shut, and when you glance up at him you see a storm of emotions wash over him. The one that settles is a blank frustration, a cold air that seeps out into the room and leaves you shivering because he’d never really looked at you with anything but that warmth that had shone in his eyes and radiated out from him when he confessed to you. He’s quiet, looks calm despite it all, and he just sighs.

“Alright. If you don’t intend to stay, I suppose that’s your decision,” he says, voice on the edge of something, but he smiles loosely and gestures for you to leave. Anything you say doesn’t really land with him, and he just continues to smile and lead you towards the door. Barbatos and Lucifer are waiting, confused, but Diavolo just laughs and says “I’ll see you later then, MC!”

The problem arises when he seems... completely normal over the next few weeks. He’s similar to how he was when you’d first arrived, that kind of distant and polite 

Underneath it all, Diavolo is... torn. He’d rarely formed actual connections with people, was careful as could be as the upcoming King of the Devildom. Realistically, if he wanted to, he could keep you here. But... he didn’t. You clearly didn’t care for him as much as he did for you, and whilst that hurt, it wasn’t something he planned to dwell on. He has too much to do, and so he decides he’s just going to have to get over it and keep moving on. It might be upsetting to see, but Diavolo is the quickest of the 3 to visibly recover from it.

Barbatos

Your relationship was one that had slowly developed. Barbatos had watched the others essentially fall for you, and in his curiosity, had pursued some sort of friendship to see what was so special about you that you had 8 of the most powerful demons trailing after you and seeking your affection.

He hadn’t quite figured it out but instead found himself very relaxed when you were around. It made his day easier, made him feel a little lighter. He waited to see if you felt anything similar before making a move, and thankfully, it had all worked out. His intention, though, was to pursue more of a casual relationship. You were human, your time was limited. Barbatos also didn’t have the time to develop a dedicated relationship.

His job was still his priority, and this was something he would come to regret when you started distancing yourself from him. The dates you’d have when he had a break became shorter and less frequent, with you making excuses for not being able to show up. Your time in the Devildom was nearing an end, and he was starting to realise that maybe he did crave you presence more than he intended to.

When you broke it off, he was very... accepting. He simply nods at you, bowing stiffly and making some comment about how it was good whilst it lasted. Not one to dwell on things, Barbatos continues going about his days as normal, but during his breaks he’s visibly upset. Its less enjoyable on his own again now that he knows what its like to have someone around, someone excited to see you. He avoids you as much as he can, but doesn’t go out of his way for it.

He also blames himself, and when you leave to go back to the human realm, he finds himself wondering if he could go back and fix it, spend more time with you, make it more of a priority. He doesn’t. But he could. For a brief period he’s quite bitter, but Barbatos is quick to recover and move on. The future will hold many experiences.

[galladerocksgamer]

Okay so I love the Paranormal Liberation War arc, it does so much fantastic stuff, dang near perfect across the board. But I think it’s pretty widely felt that the pacing got a bit off the rails near the end, we had big reveals and character moments stacking up and half of them barely even felt relevant. And me being the person who just thinks about things in depth and for long periods, I’ve still been dwelling on it for months. And now as the manga has continued, I’m finally seeing how some of the aforementioned War moments could have been better executed in different situations, because honestly this latest arc seems like it would have been tailor-made to address them all. So lemme take a closer look at three different components here: Mirio/Eri, Bakugo, and Hawks.

1. Mirio and Eri

Probably the most random moment from the war’s climax, don’t think anyone was predicting the sudden return of Mirio to battle. I love Mirio, he’s one of my favorite characters, but it was a pretty anticlimactic way to bring him back into the fold. He doesn’t even really bring anything special to the battle, nothing uniquely Mirio. His role is just backing up Best Jeanist against the Nomu, and anyone could have done that. Burnin could’ve arrived sooner, or Manual and Rock Lock could’ve come back after getting the injured heroes to safety. Heck, if you still wanted the Nighteye agency to be involved, then Bubble Girl and Centipeder could’ve been the cavalry to help Jeanist. But instead Mirio returns unexpectedly and none too remarkably.

And on top of that, we’re basically just told “oh by the way Eri has some control of her power now.” Something that the series had been building up toward for awhile just … occurs off-screen with no forewarning. Really feels like a disservice to Eri and her development to not give that intense moment any real spotlight.

It felt extremely weird for me at the time, but I also kinda wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the coming arcs just couldn’t afford to place focus on Eri and Mirio, so their respective developments were tied together to lend an extra surprise to the war’s final bout. But instead this most recent arc has gone the opposite route … through the return of Chisaki.

The man once known as Overhaul, now thoroughly broken and wanting nothing more than to fix his one great regret. With Nagant’s defeat, he winds up back in custody, but having now once again met with Midoriya and made his wish known. So indeed, the opportunity arises for Eri and Mirio to be brought back to the forefront. I don’t doubt that we will indeed have at least a brief glimpse at Eri healing Chisaki’s boss as Midoriya promised, but the potential for that scene could really have been through the roof if it was the impetus for Eri to willingly use her power on a person for the first time.

Imagine Midoriya coming to Eri with that heavy request, of Eri deciding to offer this kindness toward Chisaki of all people, using her power to heal before the man who always told her that she could only destroy. Because really, I don’t think there’d be a question of that, we know the kind of kid Eri is, and she won’t let anyone suffer if there’s any way she could prevent it. Even if Chisaki was the person asking, there might be hesitation and fear, but is there any doubt she’d offer what aid she could in the end? And for Pops to be the first person she helps, to undo the harm carelessly inflicted by Chisaki … well, it’d certainly be poetic.

As for Mirio in this scenario, that could go a couple ways. Route 1: Eri is hesitant to help Chisaki with Pops because she would rather help Mirio get his Quirk back, and we know that her power seems to have a bit of a limit on it via the energy stored in her horn. So what if it did work, but she ran out of juice healing Pops and then made Mirio wait even longer? Well, of course that’s exactly what he’d insist on, he wouldn’t let himself take priority over another person in need of Eri’s help. And he’d take it all in good spirits as always. Or Route 2, if there was concern that Eri’s power could run wild while trying to help Pops, then they could go the complete opposite direction and have Mirio offer to go first, to be the guinea pig for Eri in case of emergency. But of course, he’d have full faith in her all along and coax her through, ensuring her of just how helpful and brave she always is.

So yes, can see how Eri and Mirio’s development could have taken a more satisfying route, and cap us off with some good ole Chisaki angst to boot (though at least we’ve still got a decent serving of that). Now moving on …

2. Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight

So Bakugo’s long and arduous journey of personal growth reached a new peak during the battle with Shigaraki, where his body moved without thinking and he underwent his true heroic awakening to protect Midoriya. Such a sacrifice seems like a perfect cap for his development for the War arc … and then a couple chapters later he forces himself right back into action to back up Best Jeanist, and as promised he reveals his over-the-top hero name to his mentor. In this case I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with the reveal, but in light of his preceding big heroic action, it really feels like a hat on a hat.

It’s not like Bakugo’s hero name heralded some major turning point for the battle; Jeanist’s arrival (and subsequently Mirio’s) had already assured that. And like Mirio, there wasn’t any real special reason for Bakugo to rejoin the fight with the Nomu, especially with Iida and Hado on the scene. After getting skewered by Shigaraki, it would have been pretty simple for Bakugo to just spend the rest of the fight bleeding unconscious on the ground, rather than complicating matters by shoving him back into the fray. And ultimately, the moment feels a bit anticlimactic. All the suspense waiting for Bakugo’s hero name, and then it’s revealed at a time where he barely even has the spotlight.

Of course, such a bombastic name as “Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight” doesn’t particularly lend itself to a quiet or emotional scene, so it wouldn’t be thematically fitting to move that revelation to Bakugo’s hospital bed or his somber apology to Midoriya. That said, given his decision to announce the name first to Jeanist, there would at least be precedent for him to have a “Dabi says secrets in a black speech bubble” moment in the hospital in which he talks to Jeanist but leaves the readers in the dark, before coming back to the actual audience reveal later on.

And there must certainly be other opportunities to present the name appropriately. Bakugo is a master of making an explosive entrance, after all. And when Class 1-A finally catches up to Midoriya, if Bakugo really wanted to make a big impact on his friend/rival before getting into the sentimental stuff, then it would be a prime chance to reveal his hero name in grandiose fashion, both to Midoriya and the audience.

Or if his hero name had been Kacchan, then that reveal would have fit right in with his apology to Midoriya, but that’s neither here nor there

This could be one scenario, of course, but it hardly feels like that would’ve been the only option. And compared to the crammed-in reveal in the final fight with the League, it’s easy to say that there could have been plenty of smoother roads to take.  But setting that aside, moving onto the final touch:

3. Hawks

The long-awaited Hawks backstory doesn’t really disappoint. Admittedly, there weren’t really a lot of holes necessary to fill in there; we’d had enough bits and pieces provided before this point to pretty much put together the whole picture of his crummy childhood. But even without any really surprising turns, the flashback is welcome and hits some good emotional beats. But really, the glaring issue in this area is the timing.

We’re presented this backstory at an instance where Hawks is hardly the most relevant character. Shigaraki is undergoing a personal crisis as All For One seizes the reigns of his own body, Endeavor’s dark history has been exposed and the Todoroki family is in turmoil, escapees from Tartarus roam the streets, and Midoriya consults internally with the vestiges of One For All ... and the narrative decides to take a chapter to look at Hawks. Practically nothing from his flashback directly relates to present events, serving only to further emphasize his already well-established devotion to Endeavor and his (misguided) understanding of Twice’s feelings. The timing is just kind of baffling, especially with some other more appropriate places being readily apparent.

For instance, only a dozen chapters later, we’re properly introduced to Lady Nagant. As Hawks’s predecessor within the Hero Commission, the two have a lot in common, and the similarities and differences between the two could set up some interesting comparisons if Hawks’s backstory was saved to follow up Nagant’s. Two idealistic young children, handpicked by the Commission and groomed into assassins, yet whose outlooks in the present day are starkly opposed? Nagant's guilt driving her to turn on the Commission, while Hawks holds few regrets despite the blood on his hands, longing for freedom from the Commission’s grasp? That kind of parallel could really have built a more solid foundation for Hawks’s past to be laid upon.

That could be an effective setup, but there’s another approach I’d actually much rather have seen, one that brings Hawks’s backstory not later, but earlier: during the dramatic confrontation between Hawks and Dabi. The instant that Dabi reveals he knows Hawks’s real name, the story opens itself up perfectly to dive into his past. And the timing would be superb, showing Hawks at his worst as he murders Twice, then turning back the clock to look at the innocent child who just wants to save people. A little boy whose feathers tingle with the need to rescue those in need, superimposed against the man whose same feathers are used to deliver the killing blow to a victim of hero society’s ills. You want angst? Now that’s how you do angst. Placing the backstory there would play up the tragedy of both Hawks and Twice simultaneously: a “hero” raised by the Commission to cut threats to their control short at the root, and a “villain” who could have been a kindred spirit but instead suffers for their would-be friendship.

And that’s not even the icing on the cake. The real matter of interest here comes in Hawks’s view of Endeavor. By the time we get to Hawks’s backstory, all of Japan has already learned of Endeavor’s history from Dabi, and the result of the timing feels a smidge tone-deaf, and fails to realize the full potential resonance of the situation. The flashback to young Hawks as a victim of child abuse, who is rescued (unwittingly) when Endeavor arrests his father, is presented to us as the moment when Hawks realized that heroes are real, not merely a fantasy. We see why he developed such an ideal view of heroes, and why he is so specifically loyal to Endeavor ... so just imagine if all that was presented during his showdown with Dabi. Imagine if all that came before the tragic revelation of Toya Todoroki. The true terrible irony, that Hawks was rescued from his abusive father by someone secretly guilty of the same crimes, that Hawks’s whole epiphany of “real heroism” was founded upon one of the most corrupt enforcers of all.

The end result would be the same, I’m sure. After all, this is certainly the same thought process Hawks was going through all along, and his decision to maintain his faith in Endeavor’s personal growth would presumably remain unchanged. But presenting Hawks’s backstory before Dabi’s would have opened up a lot more room for us as the audience to actually see Hawks’s views be challenged. If there’s one real complaint I’ve got about Hawks’s character, it’s that we don’t really tend to see him questioning himself or his actions; whatever happens, he rolls with it and presses on, no matter how his ideals are brought into question. But this simple matter of timing could go a long ways to remedying that, granting the audience the chance to watch Hawks grapple with his personal image of and approach to heroism, and his relationship with Endeavor, rather than allowing most of that to pass unseen in the wake of the war’s end. Even if he would ultimately come to the same conclusion, at least such a narrative structure would provide a much more satisfying presentation of his struggle up to that point.

So, I’m not great at endings, but that brings us to the conclusion of my rambling though process here. To recap, the more I’ve thought about it, the more obvious it is that the backloaded War arc could be remedied, and the following arc only made that more obvious. Why force Mirio’s return so soon when he could be tied in later with Eri mastering her powers and the desperate pleas of Chisaki? Why shove in Bakugo’s hero name when the boy has already made a tremendous impact on the arc, and will be more open to further focus during the conflict with Deku in the next? And why throw in Hawks’s backstory as a standalone chapter at a time when it’s largely irrelevant, when there was such great potential to emotionally contrast him with the backstory of Nagant or Dabi? These are the kinds of things I think about. Little things, really, and honestly the whole reason they stand out to me is just that the rest of the arc around them is so dang fantastic. So … yes. This is the testament to my love for this manga, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk, byeeeeee

[dilfdarthvader]

For the bad things prompt!!! Padawan anakin hiding an injury from obi wan (if you want it could be a 2 for 1 and be school struggles too!)

Im also avoiding packing (it stresses me out so much that's its not done but doing it also stresses me out so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

yay thank you for the prompt!! the injury is more “attempted to hide an injury” but, you know, anakin had other priorities.

relationship: obi-wan & anakin

rating: T

words: 1.5k

send me prompts!

Anakin hated literature. No, really. He thought it was useless, pretentious, and not at all applicable to his role as a future Jedi Knight. He especially hated his current literature classes that he had to take as a Senior Padawan— currently, he was stuck in a class on High Republic Romanticism.

Obi-Wan wasn’t either a fan or a detractor of literature, but he saw some almighty importance in the classes. So Anakin was dutifully signed up for this course. The only positive was that this was his last literature class ever. If Anakin had it his way, he’d never write another essay on the various literary lenses and how they apply to some book from centuries ago.

Speaking of essays.

Anakin had been having a good morning, until he happened to glance at his datapad and noticed the shining notice: HRR essay due today— read plot of Coruscant Parks.

Unsurprisingly, Anakin had not read the Starnotes for Coruscant Parks, which he assumed had to be the most boring book ever.

(Not that he’d know for sure. Because he hadn’t read it.)

His stomach clenched still the reminder of the essay. He was already barely holding on to his passing ranking. Obi-Wan wasn’t a huge stickler for grades— it’s not like he expected Anakin to get Exceeds for every class, or even Acceptables. But he at least expected Passing. Falling into the Remedial category was met with longer Archives hours.

Anakin could not handle longer Archives hours.

If Anakin couldn’t finish the essay today, which honestly seemed pretty doubtful, he’d quickly dip below Passing. And that meant the teacher would contact Obi-Wan.

This is not good.

Anakin blinked at the datapad in horror a few times, processing all of his options.

There was, of course, one option. It was risky, but this particular teacher only accepted essays in person, not via upload. Which meant that if Anakin didn’t go in person, he wouldn’t have to hand it in. And that would give him another night cycle to get the essay done.

The only risk was if the teacher contacted Obi-Wan to let him know he’d skipped, but attendance for Senior Padawans wasn’t monitored as closely. He could get away with at least one skip. Obi-Wan would never know, the essay would be done, and he’d maintain his Passing grade.

It was foolproof. All he had to do was get out of the Temple. Maybe do a circle around Coruscant.

Nothing could possibly go wrong.

—

Anakin, unfortunately, hadn’t taken into consideration his tendency to crash, or other drivers' tendency to slam into you causing you to crash.

He was over the Western Hemisphere, easing back towards the Eastern, when the Force screamed at him to watch out. Anakin was, as it were, on edge about being caught by Obi-Wan, and therefore immediately started looking out for ships owned by the Temple.

Which meant he completely missed the van ship barreling towards him. That is, he missed it until it slammed into him, causing his own ship to slam into the side of a nearby building. If Anakin were to retain consciousness from this, he’d be aware of his final oh, shit that was broadcasted out through his bond. The bond he shared with a certain Jedi Knight who’d been (unsuccessfully) working on fixing a caf machine for the past hour.

A few thousand miles away, though certainly just a short drive on the city planet, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s head popped up from where it had been by the broken caf machine, his eyes narrowed.

And when he reached out in the Force to find out why his Padawan, who should be in his High Republic Romanticism class, had just sent out a distress call, he was very unhappy to discover that said Padawan was not in the Temple, or on this side of the planet.

With a growl worthy of a tooka, he grabbed his robe and headed to the hangar.

—

Anakin awoke as he was being loaded into the back of an ambulance. When he opened his eyes, he saw the face of a togruta EMT, who arched an eyebrow when she noticed his eyes fluttering.

“Welcome back, Padawan,” she said.

He glared, though even moving his face muscles caused him to wince. “How’d you know I’m a Padawan?” he asked, ignoring how his words slurred.

The togruta rolled her eyes. “You have a braid and a lightsaber, dingus.”

Ah.

“Don’t try to move,” she said. “You definitely have a concussion. Probably a broken rib or two. Wouldn’t be surprised if your left ankle is broken.”

Anakin scowled. “Is anything not broken?”

She shrugged. “Your spine seems fine.”

Well that’s always a positive.

The EMT continued to load him into the back of the ambulance. “Do we call the Temple or your, uh, what do you lot call them. Master? That’s a bit weird, yeah?”

Anakin sighed. “Master.” Anakin paused, considering. “But do you have to call him?”

The EMT rolled her eyes. “Feel like that might get you in more trouble, yeah? If you just disappear?”

Anakin pouted. “But he doesn’t have to know, does he?”

She shrugged. “Your funeral.” Before turning to walk out the door. “We’re heading to the hospital in just a minute,” she said, tossing it over her shoulder.

It was only a few more seconds after that when Anakin, now very nervous about Obi-Wan finding out, nervously poked at their bond. Hoping nothing would come of it.

He got a very annoyed poke back. A poke that demanded his location. His state of being. Anakin could feel that Obi-Wan was currently trying to find him.

I’m fine, Anakin tried to think at him. Nothing to worry about.

Obi-Wan sent a feeling of disbelief. The general vibe of I can feel your pain, my young Padawan, was sent through.

Anakin had a feeling hiding this injury was not possible.

He really, really should’ve gone to class.

Honestly, there’s no issue here. I’m about to go to the hospital—

Humor and worry, an interesting combo, colored their bond. Non-injured people don’t get transferred to the hospital.

Anakin glared at the wall in front of him. Smartass.

The EMT walked back in. “Still going to avoid calling your Master or whatever?” she asked.

Anakin’s glare shifted towards her. “He felt my pain. He knows anyways.”

“He felt your pain?” she asked. “That’s weird. Your lot are weird.”

Anakin snorted. Tell him about it.

“What’s his frequency, then?” she asked.

Thinking about numbers hurt his head, and he let out a low groan, rattling off the number with a wince. She looked at him in sympathy, before grabbing some tubes nearby, bringing them over to where he was laying.

“What are you giving me?” he asked. He’d never liked the doctor.

“We’re going to knock you out for a bit, get you ready for bacta.”

Anakin pouted. He hated being knocked out.

Maybe he should’ve just gone to class.

When he awoke again, it felt like no time had passed at all. And yet, he was in a bed in a hospital room that was most assuredly not the healer's wars in the Temple. He let out a small groan as he felt the residual soreness of his body, before he heard the shuffling of feet next to him.

“You’re alright,” his Master said, coming to stand next to him. He looked worried, his eyes scanning Anakin’s face. “You had me concerned.”

Anakin winced. “Sorry,” he whispered.

Obi-Wan hummed. “Do you want some water?”

Anakin nodded, gratefully taking the glass when it was offered. His throat felt parched.

“You’ll need to take it easy for a few weeks,” Obi-Wan said. “We’ll be doing light training. Nothing strenuous.”

Anakin nodded, finishing the glass and placing it in his Master’s outstretched hand. He shifted a bit in his bed, remembering why, exactly, he’d been in the speeder in the first place.

“Am I in trouble?” he asked.

Obi-Wan arched an eyebrow. “I think this was a good enough lesson on skipping class, hmm?”

Anakin huffed. “I didn’t finish an essay,” he admitted. “I just needed more time.”

Obi-Wan let out a long breath, reaching up a hand to rest on Anakin’s neck.

“Let’s just agree that you’ll ask for an extension next time,” Obi-Wan said. “Instead of breaking numerous bones. The first option is much simpler.”

Anakin blinked at him. “I can ask for an extension?”

Obi-Wan blinked back for a moment. “Of course you can ask for an extension, Anakin. Essays are late all of the time. It happens.”

Anakin continued to stare, before groaning and throwing his head back onto the bed. “I’m an idiot.”

Obi-Wan chuckled, giving his neck a small squeeze before stepping back. “Don’t think you’re getting out of extended Archive hours.” He paused, before crossing his arms and giving him a stern look. Anakin shifted in his bed. “And you know better than to attempt to hide an injury from me, young one. Do not try that again. Am I understood?”

Anakin blushed, but nodded. When Obi-Wan continued to glare, he let out a quiet “Yes, Master.”

Obi-Wan smiled. “Good. Now, we can discuss what you’re going to tell the Council in regards to the crashed speeder that wasn’t authorized for use.”

Anakin groaned again, just accepting the pain that came with the motion.

Yeah, he really should’ve just gone to class.

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 127

Annnnd a-one, and a-two, and a queue-queue-queue!

This chapter has one of my favorite things in the world to write - Interpersonal relationships (if you are surprised, I’m going to assume you are new here....).

Specifically, one of my biggest pet-peeves is when friends or siblings are written in a way that shows that the author doesn’t actually have any friends or siblings they are close enough to that all rules of societal politeness go whizzing into some far-off dimension as soon as they are in proximity.

When I get to write a chapter with such close friends/ersatz-siblings and also have @baelpenrose cackling and egging me on, it literally makes my whole day.

P.S: If anyone has wondered about the ages of the characters, several are clearly lined out in this chapter......

EDIT: Fixed some insane formatting issues.

“The food festival, Sophia? Really?” an incredulous voice asked before the door to my office even opened all the way.

I resisted the urge to scream, but did surrender to pinching the bridge of my nose and breathing slowly. “Hello, Arthur. Do come in. Long time no see.  Of course I’m not busy…” My one day each week to have a few hours to myself - no mentees, no assistant, even Tyche was off work….

“We saw each other last night when I came over for dinner after sparring with Conor, and  you’re never busy on Saturdays, Alistair makes sure of it.” He dragged a chair in front of my desk for what I felt was the sole purpose of putting his boots on my desk instead of the conference table.

“I thought you two didn’t even like each other, how did you - “

He waved a hand dismissively. “Enemy of my best friend’s enemy is my friend, that sort of thing. Anyway - “

“Did you just call me my own worst - “

“You are, let’s not pretend otherwise. Anyway.” Arthur arched an eyebrow at me and waited for any further objections, but I couldn’t think of any. “The Food Festival. It’s my one favorite tradition on this ship until armed combat becomes a spectator sport, and you are putting Parvati and Hannah in charge of it?”

After a beat pause to make sure he was done, I glared at him. “Everyone has asked me that, and I don’t understand the issue.  They’ve both helped in the past, even before they started training to replace me.  I’ve handed more and more off to them each time, and they did great! Plus, they have three months, it will be fi - Wait, why do you even care, Arthur?”

He held up one finger with the authority of a deity who would have smited me if he could. “One, Parvati Fletcher does not like mapo tofu. You do. Specifically, you like it from that one vendor who grows her own Sichuan peppercorns and uses them like they are an infinite resource. Two, I spend entirely too much time working with Zach Khan, and he won’t shut up about how stressed Hannah is. Three - “ I was seriously starting to get concerned he actually could smite me at this point - “As much as I love you in the most platonic way possible, you are an obsessive, compulsive perfectionist who insists on doing everything herself and running herself into the ground so that everyone else has the time of their lives. So why are you trusting this, the largest and oldest event on the Ark, entirely to other people?” Dropping his boots from the desk, he leaned forward, palms down until we were nearly nose to nose.

“Sophia Reid, I swear on any god I can kill if you are dying…”

“WHAT!?” I squawked, jerking back and standing so fast I knocked my chair over. “For the love of little fish, I’m not dying! I haven’t had a near death experience in four years, thank you.”

“Three, not counting the fact that there is a reason Alistair makes you drink anything through a straw anymore.”

“How did - Nevermind.” I shook my head and tried to focus on the topic at hand. “No, I’m not dying. Nor am I injured, having a midlife crisis, rethinking my life choices any more than I ever do, or so much as in possession of a stuffy nose.” Taking a deep breath, I rolled my eyes and started counting off before I could stop myself. “Conor and Maverick and I are fine. No, I’m not arguing with Tyche again. Yes, I’m still going to therapy. Else is fine. No new sentient plagues or rogue cult leaders that I’m aware of. Nor have I become immortal, queen of the universe, savior of humanity, pregnant by Noah, or possessed.” Carefully, I picked my chair back up and sat down.

“Good...to… know?” He gave me a funny look. “Who asked the most disturbing one?”

“Immortal or Savior of Humanity?” I asked for clarification. “Those were Maverick and Derek, respectively.”

The look only got worse. “I meant ‘pregnant by Noah’, but fascinating to see where your priorities lie….?”

“Oh. That was Charly.”

“Dammit,” he swore softly. “I had her pegged for ‘possessed’.”

“I’m pretty sure she is, but the suggestion that I am came from Tyche, on no fewer than 3 occasions, by 4 different entities. She seemed pretty hopeful that Else was potentially mind-controlling me in an effort to make me take a nap,” I admitted.

“That tracks.” A nod of approval prefaced the question I had been avoiding - successfully, thus far, I might add. “Now that you’ve ruled out every possible plausible reason that you would entrust this to literally anyone other than a clone of yourself, why?”

“Why what?” My face was composed in an expression of innocence so convincing that I probably deserved an Oscar.

“I can and will convince Charly to turn all your coffee to decaf, so help me, Sophia.”

Realizing that he was, legitimately, worried about me and at the limits of his usually-impressive patience, I held up my hands in surrender. “Fine. You get the scoop.  Please record this and send me the loop, so I can just flick it at people who ask, please?” When he nodded, I exhaled slowly.  “It is no secret to anyone that I never wanted this job. I made the mistake of establishing the Food Festival, which as you point out is the largest event of the cycle on the Ark - the last three years, literally everyone attended in some capacity.” When he opened his mouth to argue, I held up a hand to stop him. “Don’t get me wrong. I love the Festival. What basically started out as a potluck because we were homesick and needed to meet - you know, the rest of humanity - is a huge, three day holiday.  It’s amazing!” I spun in my chair, arms flung wide for emphasis, before stopping to face him. 

“It also consumes my life, for months, to prepare for.  And that’s just implementing changes to make it more accessible so people don’t miss out! That doesn’t include adding things to make it more interesting or keep it from getting boring, or whatever. I literally don’t have time to do any of that!”

“So, you’re inflicting this on them instead?”

“Inflicting?” I snorted.  “Hardly. This is their final exam, their capstone project, their dissertation.  If they pull this off, I will gladly hand the entire office over to whoever is elected, cheerfully and knowing the Ark is in good hands.  But, they have to pull this off.  It’s the only major part of being Councilor of Resources and Relations that they haven’t done yet by themselves.”

He rubbed his face, looking somewhat impressed. “That’s honestly not what I was expecting.”

“I don’t think it ever is, honestly.” I shrugged at the question he glanced towards me. “For Evan, it was coordinating the weapons exhibitions.  Charly managed to pre-empt her own by designing more efficient aqueducts and filtration for when we reach Von - you know, the ones that also produce light?”

“Of course she would invent glow-in-the-dark plumbing. Who else?” Something caught up with him. “Evania Josue got away with planning an event? Seriously?”

“Oh, that’s right… you weren’t on Level One…” I murmured. When he only looked more confused, I clarified. “She was Maverick’s co-pilot when we needed people to pilot the Ark, which was not designed to pilot manually, via dead reckoning, using cameras pointed out the few viewports we have, for several weeks after the sensors were sabotaged.”

“She was whose co-pilot?”

“You really never heard this story? You practically live with seven people who were there…”

“Usually I get the bits about ‘Sophia nearly got her brains bashed out’ and ‘that traitorous bitch’, then start tuning out while I try to decide what it would take to get Charly to teach me necromancy… If Evan was the co-pilot, then why is Maverick….”

“Not in line to replace any Councilors? Arthur, we know that would be a disaster for him.”

He nodded reluctantly. “Your younger partner is a nice boy.”

“For fuck’s sake, he’s thirty seven!” I groaned.

“Nice man, whatever,” he waved off. “Which is exactly what I would like for you as a partner. You need nice partners, and blunt siblings. But I see what you mean about him being a Councilor… he’d be miserable.”

��What was yours?” I asked mischievously, dropping my chin onto my hands.

That earned me a flat stare, until he finally surrendered when I didn’t flinch. “The Twentieth/Early Twenty First History curriculum.”

“Seriously?” That had literally been the first thing he had done when Eino tapped him as a possible successor.

“I didn’t budge on points even he admitted he would have, out of fear of offending people.”

“Which is a fear you very much lack,” I pointed out.

“The truth is the truth. Coating it in sugar only makes it taste worse.” He shrugged nonchalantly before suddenly looking dangerously like he was thinking again. “There’s two of them.”

“Yes, Arthur. Hanna and Paravati are, in fact, two distinct and separate women-type-lady-people.”

“Thank you, Fee, I was well aware.” I suppressed a growl at the nickname - he knew I hated it. “I meant, only one can win the election, smartass.”

“Better to be a smartass than a dumbass,” I muttered.

“Sophia, you are forty five. Please grow up just a hair?”

“Tyche doesn’t want to be HR forever, you know.”

That brought his mind to a visibly screeching halt. “Wait, what?”

“What what?” I asked. “She does it because she is phenomenal at it, but it isn’t her passion.  She only stuck around as long as she did to make sure I didn’t trip over a chair and brain myself while I was at work.  When I’m gone, she’s gone, loser take the spoils.”

He whistled softly before shaking his head. “It’s bizarre to think of you two retiring around the same time I’m just starting the position.”

“I’ll have been a Councilor for a decade when I step down,” I pointed out.  I almost included unless I die first, but that never seemed to be as funny as I thought it was.

“But you aren’t that much older than me,” he sighed dramatically. “Anti-aging technology is frustrating.”

“Annnnd this is a natural extension of your career, with a ten year break thereabouts the middle.”  My grin was so bright it made him scowl before I finally got a begrudging smile.  “Think of it as getting elected head of the school board.”

The groan he let out probably echoed for several levels throughout the ship. I had basically just pointed out that he was becoming that which he most hated.

Or not. He seemed to recover with a gleam in his eye. “Pfft. Dean of Students, at the very least.”

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[blazefire-engine]

Rivamika Office!AU

Alright fam, I made this on January 16, 2016. I made a few tweaks since I am now in the workforce and at the time I made this fic, I wasn’t LOL 

It’s never seen the light of day, but here it is. Enjoy my fellow Ackermates.

- - -

Slurp… Ah...

Mikasa gave a delicious sigh after slurping from a steamy cup of noodles.  Her consumption resulted in the artificial, sodium-packed broth to splash on the screen of her laptop.  However, at the current time stating to be half-past noon, her dirtied screen is the least of her concerns and a grumbling stomach was her number one priority.  This was the consequence of skipping breakfast to catch the bustling 7:00 a.m. train. 

As for missing the "most important meal of the day,” her wake-up time had been pushed fifteen minutes from the usual. Another consequence for submitting a coding assignment for her graduate course in the God-awful hour of 2:00 a.m.

Thus, these chain of events culminated into a terrible Monday morning.  It seemed that the whole world was against her when the day was accompanied with dreary skies, pouring rain, and, as if to pour salt on her metaphorical wound, without an umbrella.  

She strode in the building with her short hair damp and whiplashed as tendrils stuck to her face.  The Burberry trench coat did little to shield her from the rain but performed well as a barricade from the chilly wind.  

The beige coat, that now laid on a stool next to the heater and the one she had been staring at for the past few minutes, was the trigger that made her recall the horrendous morning.

Slurping another portion of noodles, the broth now splashed on the surface of her red-rimmed glasses.

“Tch, how unsanitary."

Mikasa looked up through her splattered glasses to see an intruder in her office space.  The source of the abhorred voice was a man in a crisp navy suit with a sleek laptop clutched to his hip.  His face clearly disturbed and a grimace plastered on his lips as he eyed the styrofoam cup in distaste.  

His comment was enough to stir annoyance.

Snatching off her glasses, she plucked a facial tissue from the desk drawer.  “Don’t you have the decency to knock?” She glared at the man and resumed the task of cleaning her lens.  

The man raised an eyebrow.  He paused, giving a subtle hum as if he needed to think of what to respond. “Particularly, I don’t have to.  I can roam about any room I wish.”  He finished his response with a smirk and walked to sit on the chair prior to her desk.  

Mikasa felt her body temperature rise upon each step he took and his arrogant tone grated on her nerves.  How dare he… If she held on any tighter, the wooden chopsticks in her hand would inevitably snap into two.  

“You must be quite the asshole then.”

“Excuse me?”  He replied, feigning innocence.  

“Butting into someone’s personal space without permission is quite the asshole move.”  She snapped back, explaining to him the reason for her anger.  

“Personal?  You’re here to work.  There’s nothing personal here."

Although his words did hold true, there is always that time of day that separates work from personal life.  

“It is personal if you intrude during my lunch break.”  Glancing at her cup, she finished the last of her noodles and patted her lips with a tissue while he simply sat and waited for her to finish.  

Well, he must have gone here for a reason.  Eyeing the laptop in his hand, she released a reluctant sigh. “So, what can I do for you?” Despite their rough start, Mikasa is a woman who never refused someone that needed help.  

The man’s expression perked up, seemingly pleased with her cooperation.  “I’ve heard you’re one of the best in the IT department and I was wondering if you can upgrade my software program.”  He waved the expensive-looking laptop and placed it on the stack of papers on her desk.  

“Are you unaware of how things work around here?” Mikasa frowned. “If you have any IT issues, you’d need to submit a service desk ticket.” She grabbed one of her stack of business cards, one that contained an e-mail and call number for the service desk, and slid it to him. “That way we can track your issue and file an internal report.”

He shook his head, glancing at his wrist. “I don’t have time to waste. I’m here now, aren’t I?”

Mikasa raised an eyebrow in disbelief.  “And you think I’ll do this for you right now?” She asked almost incredulously.  

He gave an uncharacteristic snort. “I would be a fool to believe you could, but think of this as helping a colleague."

She stared at the laptop, at a loss of what to do. The sheer audacity of this man to barge in and rudely ask for her to fix something without even a shred of consideration for her time. 

“How much do you have in mind?” The man asked in nonchalance.

Mikasa narrowed her eyes at his offer.  Just what kind of person did he think she was?  “I won’t ask for money.” She said firmly.  

She could have sworn she saw a smidgen of a smirk on his face. "So is that a yes?"

Before she can conjure up a proper response, she nodded once.  “You owe me a favor instead."

“A favor?” He repeated, now his turn to be surprised.  From the sound of it, the man smiled, very interested in her offer.  “Very well, what favor?"

The ears hidden underneath her hair were surely pink. Mikasa cleared her throat, rather embarrassed and she found the lint on his pants suddenly interesting.  “I don’t know… Rain check?"

“Well then, I accept, Ms. Ackerman.”  The man placed his laptop on her desk and checked his wrist for the time once more.  “Lunch break is over and I have a meeting. It was quite fascinating meeting with you, Ms. Ackerman.  I hope we can engage in another conversation soon.”  The man turned around, threw her a rather mysterious smirk over his shoulder, and left her office.  

She stared at her doorway, wondering who the hell was that guy.  She’d never seen him in the IT department before, so perhaps he was from another department.  

But as he left, she realized she never got his name or when she would give it back.   

- - -

This’ll probably have a part 2, although I don’t know when or how that’ll go LOL. But thank you so much for those who liked my previous post; it gave me the courage to once again post rm fics. 

Also, Mikasa with red-rimmed eyeglasses was from an official art years ago if I remember correctly. 

[rabble-dabble]

The Cancer King

Well, here’s an Evil Karkat to go with Evil John.

So, let’s set the stage. How does Karkat become the villain? That’s honestly a pretty tricky question. Contrary to John, most of Karkat’s arc comes from him growing to shed or suppress any potential flaws that would make him an outright villain, so it’s a lot harder to make him turn into a villain on his own. So, we’ll have to give him that push.

So, after The Condescension dies, she gets sent to the dreambubbles. She’s both frustrated to be defeated and relieved to no longer be under Lord English’s thumb, so she decides to start planning her rebound.

She traverses the dreambubbles searching for her most competent and loyal minions from her old empire, building an army with promises of a new eternal empire that will span the multiverse. Once she’s confident in the size of her armada, she travels to doomed timelines and begins sucking the life force out of thousands of still living players, using the energy to resurrect herself and return to full strength. Unfortunately for her, she’s a Thief of Life, not a Rogue of Life. So, to resurrect her army, she’s forced to mind control a Rogue of Life and have them steal the life force from enough people to resurrect her entire army. With her preparations complete, The Condescension launches her invasion on Earth C.

Still starts by ambushing Karkat during some diplomatic meeting, detecting that he was the weak link, seeing as he’s the weakest non-immortal out of all the God-Tiers and his death would likely demoralize and horrify his friends. But, as she prepares his execution, the Condescension notices his blood color. Her thoughts immediately flicker back to the Signless and a particularly evil idea settles into her mind. The Signless had been the single biggest pain in her ass before Lord English, as his influence managed to haunt her even after his death. So, now’s the chance to get some payback.

She decided she would try to corrupt Karkat into everything the Signless would’ve despised. Transform him into her ruthless right hand man. 

Initially, the torture doesn’t work, so The Condesce decides to switch gears. After her forces manage to capture Terezi, Condy gives an ultimatum. Serve or she dies. Karkat is forced to work for her. Still, Karkat actively works against her. He uses his position in her ranks to leak information to his friends. The Condescension full expected this and keeps giving him false information to leak. She then leverages the resulting casualties, complimenting him on his “victory” and wonders just how long they’ll continue to trust him. “It’s been a few months since they lost you, guppy. Maybe they think you broke.”

The Condescension continues to get inside his head. She reads his mind to see all of his little insecurities and she leans into each and every one of them. All of his past mistakes and failings. For example, she offers to mind control Terezi into loving him as a “reward”. When he gets disgusted, she brings up the time he tried to schedule how much time she could spend with him and Dave without her permission. “Doesn’t matter how you get her so long as you get her. Sounds like past you had his priorities in order." 

She gives him ideas in his sleep, plaguing his mind with nightmares where his friends horrifically die from following his advice or while trying to save him. It inspires him to make a public speech denouncing his friends so they’ll stop trying to save him. After that, she fills his sleep with dreams of him dutifully serving by her side, forcing him to question why exactly he denounced his friends. 

His friends, naturally, don’t buy it. They know Karkat and they’re going to bust their asses off to save him. It’s only a matter of time before John kicks down the door to his room and scoops him off his feet in a hug.

As the captured Condescension is being dragged away, she smugly thanks Karkat for being so helpful with her regime. Karkat hunches up, but John grabs his hand behind his back. It helps keep his glare from wavering. 

Karkat is still noticably distant, even after the Condescension is executed. Naturally, his friends try to comfort him. Terezi is there to reassure him, assuming he went through the same kind of torture she did, while Jane and Jade are able to relate to being forced to serve the Condesce. However, they’re not quite able to get through. Karkat is convinced that he was actually beginning to genuinely abandon his friends and he’s too stuborn to "pawn his problems off on someone else”, in his words. Still, they’re not stupid. Everyone is able to tell the Condesce did something to him and that it’s still bothering him.

Karkat is haunted, day in and out, by nightmares of him abandoning his friends. He keeps berating himself, chastising himself for trying to abandon them after everything they went through together. His self-hatred is creeping into his skull like a poison and because he refuses to talk about it, it keeps getting worse.

No matter how much Karkat tells himself that it’s not true, that he’d never abandon his friends or hurt them, the nightmares linger.

So, Karkat decides to prove to himself that he’s loyal to his friends and would never actually abandon them. Since she was able to come back from the dead before, she could logically do it again. After stewing the problem over a bit, he goes to John with an idea. John is going to use his Retcon powers to help Karkat become God-Tier. That way, he can destroy The Condescension’s ghost in the dream bubbles so she can’t come back. John figures that this is Karkat’s way of facing his trauma directly and agrees. Mostly because he’s been spitballing with his friends about what Karkat’s problem might be and Rose brought the idea up.

John and Karkat travel back in time so that Karkat can use his old quest bed. It’s not like Past Karkat was going to use it anyway, so nothing really changes. The same Knight of Blood rules as in the Lord Egbert timeline apply, meaning that Karkat has all the powers of everyone that he’s friends with. 

John and Karkat hunt down HIC and manage to destroy her, but not before she manages one last sickening taunt. With her final breath before she fades away, The Condesce claims that Karkat denounced his friends of his own free will. John tells her off, but Karkat confirms it. Before John can press on the issue, Karkat teleports away. John tries to chase after him, but he isn’t able to find him. Karkat has a close enough relation to Void (via his old friendship with Equius) that John can’t just will himself to Karkat’s location. Karkat could feasibly be anywhere in Paradox Space.

While John is out looking for him, Karkat is mulling over his past mistakes. The Condescension’s words ringing in his head. He believes that, somehow, he choose to betray his friends. And as he keeps teleporting throughout Paradox Space, witnessing every mistake he ever made, that rabbit hole goes deeper. He wonders if maybe he tried a little harder, Eridan wouldn’t have gone crazy. Maybe if he cared a little more, Nepeta and Equius wouldn’t have died. If he was less selfish, none of this would have happened. 

It’s an ugly thought. He knows that. He knows he did the best he could. His friends won’t let him forget that. But a dark part of his mind won’t let it rest.

Then, Karkat realizes that he can fix this. 

He has the power to do simply travel back and prevent their deaths. He can save them. He can save everyone.

It backfires spectacularly.

The resulting future ends up becoming a horrific destopia. Sense Eridan never died, he ended up joining up with The Condescension in this timeline, acting as her double agent and letting her win. From there, HIC is able to discover a means of absorbing Lord English’s power, allowing herself to become the supreme ruler of Paradox Space. 

John manages to avoid this timeline, as his Retcon Powers protect him from changes in the timeline, so he doesn’t notice as he’s still looking for Karkat. 

Karkat is naturally horrified by the future he’s created. All of his friends are eitger dead or enslaved and everyone, everywhere, lives under the boot of a bloodparched despot. With John nowhere to be found, he can only imagine tge worst. He teleports away to the Furthest Ring.

He just floats there in the empty void for awhile, mentally digesting everything. Everything that has led up to this point, all the mistakes that he made and all the things he could’ve done, play on a loop on his mind. No matter what he does, he somehow fucks it up. And when he tries to fix those mistakes, he ends up making everything worse. In his mind, he’s the problem. And, as such, it’s his job to fix everything. 

Wracked with guilt, Karkat has to not only fix this timeline, but he has to make sure he can never mess anything up again.

Then Karkat realizes something. If The Condescension was somehow able to absorb the powers of Lord English, then he logically should be able to as well. Hell, he could go one step beyond. He could become powerful enough to gain control over the story itself. He’d just have to figure out the method.

After doing some poking around Paradox Space, Karkat discovers how the Condescension became so powerful. The HIC consumed the lifeforce of trillions of people, draining entire timelines of life until she was in the same league as Lord English. Once she became powerful enough to affect him, she sucked the lifeforce out of him, absorbing his powers and becoming just as powerful as the Lord of Time. Since then, she’s been hunting down and sucking the life force out of Lords and Muses across Paradox Space. 

Even with how desperate he is, Karkat isn’t quite willing to go that far. So, he hatches a new plan.

He seeks out some Doomed God-Tier versions of Terezi, Aradia, and Rose, seeing as they’re really good at digging up lore. Through them, he’s able to discover a secret. Absorbing the lifeforce of God-Tiers grants more power then just absorbing the countless mortals the Condesce did. So, if Karkat stays focused on God-Tiers, he can avoid having to commit the same level of Genocide as the HIC. Of course, this means that he’d have to find a way to absorb powers to begin with. His first bet is too just befriend a version of Meenah but no dice. The Condescension went out of her way to completely annihilate any alternate versions of her to avoid this exact problem. So, Karkat has to resort to finding Life artifacts and weapons that grant the same effect.

Karkat quickly gathers up a team of Doomed God-Tier versions of his friends, promosing them something on exchange for their help. (IE. a version of Gamzee who killed all his friends on Lord English’s orders, but was then abandoned for it. Apparently, English was bored and wanted to test how loyal Gamzee was. Karkat offers him the chance to resurrect and apologize to all of his dead friends) The only person he can’t get to join him is John. He just can’t find a version of John willing to join him and most try to talk him down after seeing how far he’s starting to fall.

He then sends his friends to various ends of Paradox Space. They’re all tasked with finding Life artifacts, gathering up God-Tiers for Karkat to absorb, and distracting the HIC’s forces to keep them from finding him.

…They’re also there for him. On the rare times he can bring all of his friends together, he sees them interact. He sees them bond and forgive in eays they never could in his timeline. It reminds him of what he could have had. What he’ll never have. Because he failed.

It keeps him going. Everytime he sees everyone together, he becomes more convinced that this is the right thing to do.

Karkat gets his moniker from Gamzee. At one point, Gamzee comes across a group of former Lord English worshippers, who are forlorn at the loss of their master. To rally them together, Gamzee tells them of a new messiah.

“A WICKED, RAGING MESSIAH WHO DREAMS OF A UTOPIA OF MIRTH AND BEAUTY. a brother who captivates all who listen and guides gods from afar. THE CAPRICIOUS CANCER KING! leader of the lost lambs the Lord betrayed. AND DESTROYER OF THE WICKED FISH BITCH HERETIC WHO DESTROYED OUR WHIMSY!”

Gamzee leads them as a surrogate army against tge Condescension’s forces, all whilst they shout the praises of the Cancer King.

At one point, Karkat hears rumors about a version of John who has started a revolution against the Condescension on her home turf. Karkat goes to investigate and finds out that it’s John from the main timeline. At some point, he went back to the main timeline to get help, only to find the dystopia that replaced it. John managed to free some of his living friends from mind control. Sense Jane was among them, she could start reviving the rest. With them, he’s been leading a revolt against the Condescension.

Karkat explains his plan… much to John’s horror. Karkat’s plan is effectively mass murder, but Karkat brushes this off as necessary. Besides, he can undo them once he gets control of the narrative.

Karkat teleports away before John can talk sense into him, using his powers to keep John distracted long enough to escape.

Eventually, Karkat absorbs enough power to match The Condescension and he soundly defeats her, absorbing her lifeforce. But it’s nit enough to give him full control of the narrative. Hellbent on undoing his mistakes, Karkat doubles down on absorbing the life force of God-Tiers. He will become strong enough to undo all the damage he’s done, he has no choice now. And the only thing that can stop Karkat before he steps over the edge is John Egbert, with his ragtag group of friends.

There will be an epic showdown. But who wins? I’ll leave that up to you.

[varibean]

Try Turning It Off And On Again

This was my piece for the tangled dreams zine that can be found here! I wanted to try writing a bit of Team Awesome/Dadgene so I hope y’all enjoy and lmk what you think! 

Read On AO3

It was no small exaggeration to say that, on paper, Varian was living a near perfect life. It was hard to imagine the boy-or as his father so often called him, ‘young man’-wanting for anything and for the most part he didn’t. After the battle with Zhan Tiri and the terrifying day of the eclipse, all of his dreams had been practically handed to him on a silver platter. Royal Engineer, renowned alchemist, best friend to several important people; with all that under his belt it was hard to imagine him not being in a constant state of euphoria over how well his life was playing out. Especially after his rocky start.

However if someone was to catch him in the early hours of the morning, they would be led to think that nothing had ever gone right in the history of his entire life.

It wasn’t a fact of Varian not being a morning person that was the issue but rather the sheer number of things he had to do once he got up. Early on in his career as royal engineer, Rapunzel thought it to be a great idea that he live in the palace with them. He’d been excited about the prospect at first; getting to live close with his greatest friends? Spending his days working on machines? Winding down at night in the grand ballroom for dinner? Absolutely perfect.

What he hadn’t considered was the fact that, by living in the palace, he was essentially on the clock twenty-four seven. Every morning when he woke up he skipped his usual routine of combing his hair or brushing his teeth in favor of opening up his bedroom door. That action was always greeted with a pile of neatly placed but still numerous scrolls, all left behind by the morning castle page. Each one was either a task, request, or order form filed by any and all who needed his service. It was only after he picked them all up and read through them that he continued his other morning tasks.

Life at the castle was more boring than he’d ever considered life in a castle could be. The whole place worked like clockwork and not the fun kind. The only thing that broke up the monotony of the place was Rapunzel, with her always chipper nature, and Eugene, who often tagged along with her despite his own duties as Captain of the Guard. But even that small burst of excitement was becoming less and less as time went on. Less Rapunzel, less Eugene, more work.

When Varian first arrived, everything had been wonderful and new. The scrolls at his doorstep were exciting projects, not boring chores. He had time for his own inventions and endeavors no matter how small they were, and most importantly, he got to spend time with his friends. All of those things were slowly fading, dwindling in time and importance as his daily tasks grew and grew. When writing his father about it, the older man simply replied that it was all part of growing up. Varian hated that. Still, the days dragged on, the ever steady pace of the castle completely uncaring to his internal plight of drudgery.

____

It was on a day of heavy rain and wind when Varian got the notice that something was wrong with the boilers. Nothing major enough to cause an entire village to explode, he’d been sure to put that safety precaution in place, but enough to warrant a knock on his door as he was preparing for lunch. No ham sandwich break for him today.

Apparently some rainwater had managed to seep through the shallow earth and gotten into the underground reservoir used to fill the tankers, in turn causing them to overflow. It wasn’t the overflow that was causing any structural issues, the machines wouldn’t rust overnight after all, but it was causing an imbalance in the chemical reaction. Too much water meant there was more liquid than the chemicals could properly heat, leaving everyone with lukewarm water. Tragic.

Duty called though and lunch would have to wait.

“Lukewarm water. Oh”, Varian said sarcastically to Ruddiger as he prepared to go down and find the leaky bit of earth that was causing the problem, “The horror of it all.”

The people of Corona could survive a day or two without hot water, but why should they when they had a Royal Engineer at their disposal? Nevermind the fact that he was a person too, who was currently missing out on his meal so that everyone else could wash their hands in comfort.

He bit back the desire to spout out another sarcastic comment to his furry companion, knowing that he was just being unreasonably bitter because he was hungry. Food would still be there when he got done; the longer he ignored the problem the worse it would get. In all fairness, it took priority. Besides, something like sealing up a bit of loose earth and diverting the dripping water from the tankers would be an easy fix. He could do it in his sleep.

____

Varian had been correct in assuming that the boiler problem would be an easy fix, maybe slightly tedious at best. What he hadn’t accounted for was how difficult it would be to simply get down to the reservoirs in the first place.

The problems started the second he stepped out of his room and into the main hallways of the castle. Ruddiger trotted beside him happily, the fat animal knowing that his only job was companionship and nothing more. Given the time of day and the raininess outside the place was busier than it normally was. Gardeners muttered over their tools, maids rushed to clean up dirt and grime that had been tracked in, and all the other servants began to hustle and bustle around in order to make sure that everyone was safe and well attended to.

It shouldn’t have been a long trek, just a few turns before getting to the downstairs, but the trip was elongated by everyone constantly bumping into him and pushing him aside.

Despite being a respected member of the staff, he was still just a boy in many of their eyes. He glared at the people who brushed past him, knowing that he’d helped each one of them with at least half a dozen things at some point or another. They’d been perfectly kind to him then but now he was nothing more than another body blocking their way. It was easy to be nice to someone while they were doing something for you and even easier to ignore them when the time was over.

Half way through the crowd to his destination he felt a hand grip at his arm and turning around he was met with the stern face of a maid, face flushed with frustration.

“Excuse me young man, you’re the Royal Engineer correct?”

Her voice was twice as haughty as she looked, speaking as if she couldn’t believe that she had to stoop to the level of talking to him in the first place.

“Varian. Just Varian.” He didn’t have time to deal with whatever nonsense the woman needed him for even though he had a sneaking suspicion that he was about to be given no choice.

He was quickly proven right as the woman gave a soft huff and pulled him alongside her to whatever issue she needed fixed. For a moment he considered squirming out of her grasp or maybe telling her that he was busy but as nice as those both seemed he knew that it would only come back to bite him in one form or another. If he didn’t fix whatever problem she had now then he would have to do it later. He was already missing lunch, might as well make the most of things.

She all but shoved him into one of main rooms, where he was met with several maids and servants covered in dust and circled around one of his many machines.

Ah , he thought, That explains a lot.

“Your blasted machine blew up. How are we supposed to clean up dust when the device that you made to help does nothing but blow it back in our faces?” The woman huffed as she crossed her arms.

Varian would have rather been scolded by old lady Crowley than whoever this woman was. At least Crowley didn’t balk like a fish when she was angry.

“Have you tried turning it on and off again?” Varian tried to joke to lighten the mood, but was met with only a cold shoulder and a stifled chitter from Ruddiger.

Eugene or Rapunzel would’ve found it funny.

He signed while leaning down to the device and fixing it up with one very simple step: Flipping the switch from ‘blow’ to ‘suck’.

“Let me know if you have any actual problems with it ma’am. Sadly, even I can’t fix operator errors.”

He skittered out of the room before anyone could berate him for his mouth. He smirked to himself, thinking how funny one of his friends would find that line. That was only the beginning of his troubles though.

It seemed that every step he took towards the boilers, someone needed his assistance.

Nigel’s mechanical pen needed the ink chamber fixed, Hope needed the automatic laundry cart’s wheel to be tightened, one of the chefs needed more preservation chemicals to keep the food fresh until next week.

By the time he actually got to the door to the boiler room it was well past his lunch break, time slowly and steadily creeping towards dinner. Hours of helping crowds of people with their problems and all that just so he could get to the actual problem of the day.

But yet again, right when he was about to turn the knob on the door and enter the stairwell for the boilers at long last, another hand grasped at his arm.

“Hey there buddy-”

“For the sun’s sake I just need to fix one stupid problem!” Varian shouted, turning around to face the stranger who’d grabbed him only to find that it wasn’t a stranger at all.

Instead he was met with Eugene’s surprised and amused face looking down at him, red uniform dampened slightly from the outside rain and hair slicked back in an admittedly stylish fashion.

“Well hello to you too short stack.” Eugene’s response was met with a groan as Varain pushed in the door and began to descend into the underground area. “Rough day?”

“Not more than any other day here.”

“So I’ll take that as a yes. What’re you doing going to the boilers so late, it’s almost chow time kiddo. You know how your dad will chew us out if we don’t get you your three squares a day.”

Even with Eugene’s joking nature Varian could hear a bit of sincerity in his words. He couldn’t bear the thought of confessing that he hadn’t gotten a chance to eat lunch. Instead he just kept walking downwards, the other man following close behind with Ruddiger.

“The rain cracked through one of the underground tunnel walls, which has been causing the small reservoir down there to flow faster. It’s overfilling the machines which means the formula for heating them isn’t working and that means a bunch of people upset at me until I can fix it.”

“Well of course, can’t imagine what a tragedy it must be to go a full day with only lukewarm water.” Eugene’s tone was sarcastic, mimicking Varian’s earlier sentiments on the matter.

Despite the day he had, the alchemist laughed. Of course Eugene of all people would share his same sense of humor at the situation.

“It wouldn’t be so bad if people would just let me get down here in the first place.”

“Nah, they can’t make it too easy on you kiddo, that’ll just make you go soft.”

Another chuckle rang out against the walls. It was more than Varian had laughed in probably an entire week. Suddenly the task of fixing a leak didn’t seem so bad; having company helped and though he loved Ruddiger to pieces, there was only so much conversation that a single raccoon could have.

“So what do we have to do to fix it?” Eugene asked after the laughter had settled and the two made it to the bottom of the steps, leading to the underground tunnels.

“I’m just going to put some of my newest solution on the crack and up the Flynnolium for a few hours. That’ll give everything time to reset by morning and then I’ll adjust the Flynnolium solution release back down to four percent per tanker. And it’ll also give everyone else ample time to find something new to yell at me about.”

Though he spoke with a joking tone he could see the flash of concern that drifted over Eugene’s face, making him instantly regret saying anything at all. He didn’t want to appear ungrateful to the older man; he really did love his job even with the few pitfalls that came with it. His snark was nothing more than the result of a little stress. That’s what he told himself at least.

The rest of the walk was short and comfortably chatty, Eugene going on about his latest guard duties while Varian laughed and ribbed him on his work ethic. It was nice to finally get some time to talk to his friend again, Team Awesome. He almost didn’t want his work day to be finished but the fixes he needed to implement were easy; it had just taken him forever to get down to do them. Just as soon as the two (plus Ruddgier) had made it to the caves, they were back to the top of the staircase.

“Well kid,” Eugene started, “now that we’ve got that all done let’s go get some grub. Don’t want to keep everyone else waiting.”

Eugene began to walk in the direction of the dining hall but Varian stayed put. He was hungry, that much was for sure, but he’d spent all day around people. Being around them, fixing their problems, having them bump into him and squawk at him. It was nice to spend some time with just Eugene but an entire room full of more people...now that was something different entirely.

“Actually I still have some leftovers from lunch in my room.” By which, of course, he meant his entire lunch. “I’m not that hungry anyways so I think I’m going to pass tonight, tell everyone I said hi.”

“Are you sure? Heard there was going to be cookies tonight-”

“Yeah, don’t-don’t worry about me it’s just been...been a really long day.”

Varian mustered up his best smile and gave a thumbs up as he walked away before Eugene could say anything else.

It had been a nice reprieve from his regular day to day drudgery, but it was time to go to bed and start the whole process over again tomorrow.

____

When Varian woke up the next morning he wasn’t tired which was his first clue that something was wrong. He stretched and yawned, squinting as the sun shone brightly through his window which was the second clue.

The third, and by far the most obvious clue, came when he cleared his nose and sniffed a few times and was met with the scent of fresh ham and eggs. Turning to his night stand he saw a brilliantly decorated tray of toast, butter, and scrambled eggs with ham and tomato slices mixed in.

“What in the-oh shit!” Next to the delicious smelling breakfast was his alarm clock which had apparently not gone off despite having wound it up the night before, seeing how the time displayed on it read 11:12. He was late, beyond late. It was nearly noon, he would never hear the end of it. Not only that, but there was a bigger issue at hand.

“The Flynnolium!” He darted up out of bed, not even bothering to put on his work clothes or brush his hair.

He nearly tripped over his own feet trying to reach the door. When he opened it, however, he ran face first into a solid body, sending him reeling back from the impact.

“Well good morning there sleepy head. Man, you really must’ve been worn out to sleep that long huh? Any sweet dreams?” The voice was calm and teasing with just a hint of sincerity playing against the tone of a smile.

“Eugene!” Varian steadied himself and once again tried to get by him. “I can’t talk right now, I have to go. I overslept somehow and-and the Flynnolium has been set on high for too long, I need to get down there and-”

“Set it back to four percent per tanker? Already taken care of buddy. Now come on, I worked all morning on that breakfast and you haven’t even touched it. Well, the royal chef worked all morning on it but I was in the room so i’m pretty sure that counts for something. Supervising, you know, is a very important part of the process.”

“Wha…”

Varian couldn’t even finish his sentence as Eugene guided him back to his bed and sat him down, moving the breakfast tray onto his lap.

“Well don’t sit there wasting all that hard work, dig in.”

“But I don’t...I don’t understand how-what the hell is going on?”

“Language.” Eugene chidded jokingly before sitting down beside the other, “I noticed you seemed a little stressed yesterday. So, I took it upon myself to give you the day off. Woke up this morning and turned the Flynnolium down. Bribed Ruddiger with a few apples to get him to turn your clock off and let you sleep in.”

Varian looked down at the food in his lap, speechless. He hadn’t been that tired, had he?

“Why though?” He asked, quizzically picking up a slice of toast and slowly biting it.

“I just told you, you’re stressed. We’re Team Awesome and Team Awesome looks out for each other.”

Varian continued to crunch slowly and Eugene let out a soft sigh before putting his hand on the other’s back.

“I know the people here demand a lot from you. It would be a big adjustment for anyone just to exist around this place, let alone be the Royal Engineer. Doing projects every day, people only giving you the time of day when they need you, running around like Pascal chasing after a fly. And I know I...probably haven’t helped much in that regard either. You’re the Royal Engineer because Rapunzel and I know you can handle it. But just because you can handle it on your own doesn’t mean you should have to.”

The more Eugene spoke the more Varian relaxed, shoveling more food into his mouth as he got more comfortable.

“Fankfs.” He said, his cheeks full like chipmunks, causing Eugene to laugh.

“No problem buddy. Anyways, like I was saying, I’m sorry I haven’t been around as much-”

“That’s not your fault.”

“No, but it is my fault for not trying harder. And for not realizing how tough things have been on you. So, here’s the plan, once a week from now on you’re getting a full twenty-four hours of off time. Maybe after a few of those and we’ll finally have you back on a decent sleeping schedule. Anyone who interrupts it gets thrown in the dungeon, my royal decree as Captain.”

“I don’t think Captains can make royal decrees.” Varian stated flatly, suppressing a smirk.

“Ok smart mouth, well they can now. You have the rest of the day off.”

There was a comfortable silence for a moment as Varian finished eating, setting aside the tray and closing his eyes. He leaned against Eugene’s shoulder, content and full and happy.

“Thanks Eugene.”

“Anytime kiddo. Team Awesome?”

Eugene extended his fist and Varian happily, if not a bit tiredly, pounded it with his own.

“Team Awesome. Now, since I have the rest of the day off…” In a split second Varian was falling back against his bed, rolling himself up in the blankets pillows, “I’m going back to sleep.”

Eugene laughed and playfully shoved his shoulder.

“Lazy bones. Well, have sweet dreams. Sugar plum fairies and all that.”

“Nah, I’m going to be dreaming of cute blonds who look like Flynn Rider and take me on daring adventures.”

That caused Eugene to laugh even louder.

“Wow, you really are such a teenager aren’t you? Well tell dream hotshot that if he wants your fantasy hand in marriage he’s going to have to get through me first.”

“And my dad.” Varian joked bluntly.

“Personally I think I’m the more important one to impress but, yeah, that guy too-” Suddenly a pillow hit Eugene’s face, muffling his chuckles, “Ok ok I get the message, I’m leaving, I’m leaving.”

“Eugene?”

“Yes sleeping beauty?”

“Thanks, I needed this.”

“Any time kiddo. Love ya.”

As Eugene closed the door, Varian closed his eyes, sinking down into his mattress and into a day of blissful sleep.

“Love you too.”

By the time Varian got the drowsy words out, Eugene was already gone, but it didn’t matter. He already knew.

[kaioken16]

Just a One time thing

Mallek Week 2021 - Day 4

Day 4: Fashion  Word count: 2130 Rating: Teens and Up Character(s): Mallek Adalov, MSPA Reader, Original character, Bronya Ursama, Remele Namaaq, Lanque Bombyx, Dammek

AO3 link

A/N: It was hard to figure out what to write, as this prompt would better for a drawn piece. But I managed to come up with something. This was inspired by many offices and fashion company-themed AUs. 

sidenote: MSPA Reader will be referred to as 'Sam' as I have a few headcanon names for them that are nonbinary. 

Summary: A day in the office turns upside down by a series of events, Mallek Adalov, graphic designer and production assistant at a fashion company finds himself temporary modeling for a day.

Mallek was working at his computer, he was roaming through many documents, his eyes were beginning to feel heavy as he had to occasionally remove his glasses to rub his eyes. He had been at this for hours, but nothing he couldn’t help. He worked in the marketing and production department for one of the most successful fashion companies all over Prospit city. Not the kind of place that Mallek would work initially, if you had told him back when he was a teenager that he would be working in a company like this, he would’ve laughed and said that was a funny joke.

But that several years ago and he was now fresh out of university and needed a way to pay the bills for his home, his equipment, and his hobbies. So after a few applications and phone calls and a quick interview, he found himself working here. It was new territory, but the work mostly entailed computer-related stuff, from ordering products and material, going over the programs that the designers used, making sure there were no issues. But it paid really well, the hours were agreeable and the people he worked with were nice.

Mallek had been working in the department for over two months now. And today started off as a normal day, a quiet morning there only a few of them in the office, so he could relax while he worked, as he types away an email for the head office, an empty coffee Starbucks cup was on his right side, along with a half-eaten cinnamon raisin bagel.

Suddenly he hears a loud bang which disrupts the silence, making him stand up from his desk, he then hears wails and a loud voice screaming. Was someone hurt?

He rushes over to the location of the screams to find the scene, four people, pieces of paper all over the place, some just hitting the ground. Your good friend Sam, who was carrying the paperwork, and was probably overlooked due to his short height. Remele, one of the designers who was the one screaming, and Bronya who had an annoyed look on her face, Lanque was also on the ground too, rubbing the back of his head.

“Is everything okay?” Mallek speaks, as it was clearly not okay.

“This is a disaster! Oh no, no, no.”  Remele proclaims.

Lanque chuckles awkwardly “Oh no, it’s okay, I think I’m okay-”

“Not you, you piece of meat! My outfit, it’s been stained.” her gaze is fixed on the stains on the suit he was wearing, as it had been stained with either coffee or water.

Sam immediately goes to try and help Lanque. “I am SO sorry about that, I didn’t see you and I was losing my grip on the papers…”

“NO! Don’t touch my creation before you ruin even more!” Remele shouts which make the tiny individual flinch. She was only a few inches taller than them but still very scary.

“Hey, they’re just to help, and you need to chill.” Bronya snaps back, her tone was firm but not yelling as she goes to help Lanque.

“Here lemme help ya their buddy.” Mallek helps Sam gather up their papers.

Just as Lanque is helped back to his feet when he suddenly hisses out in pain. “Ah!”

“What’s wrong?” Bronya asks him, concerned as she can see the pained look on his face.

“I think... I twisted my ankle.” He says as the pressure on his leg sends pain through his limb.

“What?!” Remele’s eyes widened with shock, she then glared at Sam. “So you damaged my outfit and my model?!” She balls her fists, gritting her teeth causing Sam to hide behind Mallek.

“Whoa, take it easy.” Mallek holds his hands up attempting to diffuse the situation.

“Remele, you need to calm down. We will sort this out, I’ll let Rhakei know what’s happened and we’ll deal with it.” Broyna adds.

“Are you kidding me?! She’ll flip and if he can’t walk, how’s gonna do the shoot? We don’t have to get another model here in time.” Remele argues back as their head designer and studio manager ‘Rhakei Nadzas’ was in charge of the shows and was a no-nonsense woman.

“She’ll understand. We have a spare for this outfit, and we’ll get this one cleaned, but first things first we need to get him some first aid.” Broyna’s first priority was to make sure their model was okay.

Remele was still losing it, putting her hands in her hair. “But where are we gonna find someone 6 foot, and can fit into this outfit within the hour…”

Sam’s eyes were shifting between everyone as they argued, it’s then their eyes shifted up to Mallek. He was over 6ft, and his build was similar to Lanque, and without his glasses and a bit of touch up…

“Uh…” They raise their hands to get everyone’s attention. “Bit of a long shot but Mallek here could do it.”

“What?” Mallek, Broyna, and Remele say in unison at this suggestion.

Mallek chuckles nervously. “Oh no, no… I’m not a model I couldn’t possibly-”

“That’s not a bad idea.” Lanque says which was even more surprising to hear.

“Seriously? I just work here in the office, I don’t think I could-” Mallek is cut off as Remele suddenly approaches him, and pulls off his glasses, he blinks a few times adjusting, she then examines him cupping his chin and moving his head around.

“Long shot, but we don’t have much time.” Remele says. “Okay, I’ll take him to hair and makeup and get him fitted.” she says without letting Mallek get a word in, she pulls him along out of the office.

The next thing Mallek knew he was brought before Ms. Nadzas by Remele who gives her the rundown and after being ‘examined’ by her as well she gives it all clear. Mallek felt like he can’t say no in this situation and wanted to lend a hand since he could tell that Remele was both desperate and would want Sam’s head on a platter, and he wasn’t mad at his friend for suggesting him. He just wanted to be helpful and do whatever he could to make the situation easier for the company. They needed to get these photos done for the shoot by the end of the day, and only had an hour to get ready as other departments would need the camera and get to the photo ready. Plus it was just gonna be a one time thing after all...

…

How on earth did you feel yourself in this situation? That was the thought that was racing through your head. What chain of events led to you here. One minute you came into work, to handle some server issues, and sort out some files and orders for an upcoming show. Now here you are dressed in an all black suit, tight-fitted like you could see everything more or less. You had been given a touch up on makeup, and your hair had been slicked back. You were standing backstage, waiting for the shoot to begin. Yes, a fashion shoot.

You had to keep reminding yourself of that as this was really happening right now. To say that you were nervous would be a major understatement. This was a very extroverted activity you were about to engage in, which didn’t match with your introverted tendencies.

But it wasn’t like you had much of a choice.

Just then you hear footsteps approaching from behind, you look behind you to see Rhakei, the tall jadeblood wearing a simple long dress, high heeled shoes, on her right arm was a wristband which flowers sewed into, and under her left arm was a clipboard with a bunch of documents, her hair is tied back into a ponytail. Before you can say anything she invades your personal space, and reaches up to your hair, fixing something by the expression on her.

Then she walks around you, you can feel her touch on your clothing, followed by the sound of her pen writing short notes on her clipboard. “Hmm. Very nice.” She says but you weren’t so sure if she was complimenting you or the material of the outfit, there was no in-between with her.

“You also clean up very well.” Okay, now you know that she was talking about the suit earlier.

“Thanks…”

“Alright, nothing too serious just a few photos in our three outfits along with the other model and that’s it.” She explains to you in a quick tone, as this was the first of three new outfits that you would be modeling for.

“O-okay. I understand…”

She must’ve caught the nervous tone in your voice because she looked at you directly but only for a moment her eyes returned to her clipboard. “Deep breaths, relax, this is just an only time thing. And no pressure we would be jumping down your throat or being hostile. You’re doing us a favor on the short notice and we appreciate it.” That was a very kind thing to come from her, considering that you had heard on many occasions her arguing with the head designer in his office, between raised voices and literal objects being thrown around.

Guess you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

“You’ll be fine Mallek, just relax, and if you feel stuck or uncomfortable just let or the others know. And you won’t be alone out there either.” She reminds you as there would another model right beside you, and it was only gonna be a handful of people so it wouldn’t be too embarrassing.

“You ready?” Rhakei asks as you just nod.

She smiles faintly and leads out to the photoshoot. They're waiting for you was another troll, a bronze with antler horns, his eyes were shielded by sunglasses, he was wearing a completely different outfit. While you were in a suit, he was wearing a leather jacket, a long sleeved shirt, jeans and boots, and a pair of spiked cuffs.

“Alright boys, we’ll be doing a few photos for each outfit, a few poses, shouldn’t take too long.”

“Dammek, this is Mallek, he works in one of our offices and will be filling in for Lanque just for today. There was an incident earlier.” Rhakei casually explains to the other model, naming him ‘Dammek’.

“Alright, that’s fine. I’m cool with this.” Dammek responds in a nonchalant manner, it didn’t seem to bother him.

“Great, then let’s get started.” She says as the camera and lighting team sets up for the shoot…

“Okay, here we go…” You whisper to yourself under your breath.

…

Later on, after the photoshoot, Mallek is back in his normal clothes back at the office, he was a little exhausted leaning back into his chair. That was… Something. Miss Nadzas said that he was a real natural, he did well and even Dammek complimented him, it really boosted his confidence, and he ended up having fun with it too. It was very straightforward, the only hectic part was sudden outfit changes and his questions regarding how he should pose, and many other questions. But other than that, it went really well, Remele was happy that the outfit looked good in the photos, Lanque was grateful for his help, and both Broyna and Sam said he did a great job.

“Hey, dude!” He looks over to see Sam smiling, holding what was probably a peace offering, some fresh coffee, and something that smells really good.

“Just thought I would drop these off.” They place the items at your desk.

“Thanks.” Mallek smiles as he was in need of some fuel, opening the bag to see the contents, some slices of pizza.

“Sorry again for throwing ya under the bus like that, I hope you didn’t mind plus the photos looked really great.” Sam rubs the back of their head, it just happened.

“Don’t worry about it. At least this way you wouldn’t get murdered by Remele for the accident.” Mallek jokes at his friend’s expense as this would be a new thing to joke about.

Sam chuckles. “Y-yeah, she said that we’re even so that means I’m off her kill list. Just gotta be more careful in the future.”

“So whaddya think, you could definitely be a model on a regular basis, maybe do a fashion show.” Sam retorts as they had a new topic to tease Mallek with as well.

Mallek laughs. “Ha! Nope. My modeling career began and ended today, this was a one-time thing so Remele wouldn’t murder you and they could get the photos for the designs ready for the magazine.”

“If you say so dude, but you did look great out there.” Sam adds which does make Mallek smile.