#i didn't do anything funky with these gifs but i have no idea how to do that with animation anyway

[ettadunham]

✨ 2023 monster girl + tv tropes of the week 7/52

korra

“Do you think you're finally able to forget about what Zaheer did to you?” “No. But I am finally able to accept what happened, And I think that's gonna make me stronger.”

[hiwelcometothemonstersancturary]

Do you have ideas for how the Angel and The Prototype ship would occur and progress? (Like, who would get feelings for who first, who would they get advice from, how the toys would react, if it would be an even bigger romcom than Dogday and Catnap…)

FINALLY, MY TIME HAS ARRIVED.

Angel x Prototype in the Everyone Is Saved AU first starts after Angel finds a nice house for all the toys to live in. After everyone is moved out and settled in, Catnap convinces Prototype to leave the abandoned factory. Prototype reluctantly agrees, making sure to grab every single document he can find with him. I know Prototype is known by the authorities because Angel had to tell them about him, but not by the general public. When he leaves Playtime, it's a very quick and effective escape and into a small hut outside the farm.

This new place is way smaller than Playtime, physically wise, but it feels so much better in every way possible. Prototype is weirded out by everything at this point, even the sound of the toys playing with each other and talking like normal kids and young adults would do instead of trying to hunt each other for food like before. Elliot's mind is full, all the memories from the toys he absorbed together with his own, and now his brain finally has time to work out through the +10 years of trauma. He dissociates a lot, his hallucinations get weirder, all the good stuff about dealing with trauma, and the only ones who are there for him are Catnap and Angel.

Oh, Angel...

So we all can agree that Angel is also suffering from PTSD, right? And on top of that, they're taking care of +80 kids! Yeah some of them are young adults, but from Angel's POV those are still THEIR kids, and they have no idea how they work. Except Prototype does, and thus their relationship evolves from merely two adults desperate to give a better life to monster toys to two adults having no fucking idea what they're supposed to do for them. Prototype feels like he will never be able to repay for his sins, Angel feels like they'll never be able to provide everything the kids need. So one day Angel stays up late in Prototype's hut just talking about the toys, with Proto/Elliot also talking about them, and the two just go "this feels so overbearing, right?", and the other agrees.

When Prototype's relationship with Catnap finally gets better when they have some important conversations about the decade-long post Hour of Joy, there's a notable shift in his behavior, because now that he feels like he has his kid back it's like things can indeed be better. Cue to Angel getting better at dealing with the other toys, and as months go by their bond becomes stronger and more than just "hey the kids gave me a lot of work today and I need to drink/smoke, i'll stay at your hut so I won't be a bad example to them".

The really good stuff hits only after Poppy finds out that Prototype = Elliot Ludwig = her actual dad, because it's Angel grabbing Proto around and going "TALK. WITH. YOUR. KIDS", and it's the first time in decades since someone ever did that to him, because who in their right mind would bicker with a monster like HIM? And then Angel does exactly that. Smacks him with a newspaper and demands him to get his shit together instead of spiraling further into depression.

Somewhere during the months where Prototype is being promoted to parent #2 by each toy, one by one, is when Angel realizes that their friendship is getting a bit Funky(tm), but they just. Ignore it. Two years post-Playtime Co. go by and Angel is just there like "what I feel for parent #2 is entirely platonic and I do not think of him as anything else than a friend at all hahaha it would be weird right. Because he still talks to me about how he misses his wife (they divorced each other +70 years ago) and how he feels like he failed literally everyone important to him. I mean he didn't fail me what I see is just a guy struggling to be better and honestly I'm worse than him and- oh wait What" until like, they go to a family trip and Prototype decides to stay behind to watch over the farm, and Angel misses him way more than they think they would just miss a dear friend, and it's not just because he helps them with the kids.

Anyways Angel is panicking in all levels except physical when one day Prototype is talking with Catnap and Poppy (they're having a three-toy "tea party" because Pop wanted them to have a small family gathering) and she looks at him in the eye(s) and says "dad, are you sure you don't feel anything else for Angel?", and Proto is just "why are you asking me that???". Cue to Catnap staring at him like

And then Prototype realizes it's not very normal kind of platonic two months later when Angel, as per usual, is called by a scammer. And, as per house protocol, all the toys immediately go to the living room as Angel says "hold up, can you talk to my husband for a moment?" and gives Prototype the phone and tells him to do his thing and annoy the scammer. And Prototype feels weirdly a tiny bit too happy about pretending to be someone else's husband.

At this point the other toys are eyeing the two of them and going "no way..." as the two IDIOTS show them that yeah, yeah, they're witnessing the second romcom of the house, after Catnap and Dogday's telenovela-level worthy levels of drama. Some of them, like Kickin and Dogday himself, think it's no big deal, just two people being friendly, that's all, and then some time later Prototype accidentally sleeps over Angel's room during a thunderstorm (Angel is afraid he'll get struck by lightning so he stays in the main house for safety), and Angel, a genius Made In Brazil, decides to sleep in their room anyways because why not, Proto is just giving free teddybear vibes.

Proto wakes up and just accepts his fate (he's happy with that). Angel is half-asleep and very content with the setup.

... Anyways. Next day goes by, surprise surprise, the family's cuddle pile for movie night now has Prototype added to it, and it's not because Angel sleeps better when he's around. Nope.

Poppy and Catnap are considering start doing some bets to see how long it'll take their parents to realize It's Not Normal Platonic Anymore(TM) at this point, and are unimpressed when Prototype goes to them, sighs, and agrees that Poppy indeed was right. Meanwhile Angel has NO IDEA what to do because it's Prototype/Elliot, no way they have a chance, they'll just end up ruining their little weird family structure, and Dogday and Mommy Long Legs calm them down.

Bobby Bearhug and Craftycorn are working with the other toys to see if they can make Angel realize they need to do something, because Prototype is NOT going to do ANYTHING because his therapy is going strong but his communication issues are stronger. Hoppy and Picky know all about it and try to make Prototype do something about it, while Kickin and Bubba are Dissapointed But Not Surprised at the Situationship going on. "Guess Dogday and Catnap aren't the only ones with communication issues...", they agree, not realizing they also have communication issues. Mommy Long Legs is losing her fucking mind because HOW can one household have SO MANY IDIOTS RUNNING AROUND AND WHY ARE HER ADOPTIVE PARENTS LIKE THAT. AAAAAA. It's good drama tho.

Poppy tasks herself with keeping tabs on what's happening between her two parents. Catnap is watching in the background like "stop being so dramatic over this, Pop, they're working adults, they sure can talk". He may or may have not be gathering information to share with the old ladies at the church he goes to, because those girls LOVE Angel and are all curious as to how their relationship with the kids' "second parent" going. Catnap never tells them much asides from "my mother is, once again, terrible at communication, but has been doing well", but even he starts getting a bit impatient at one point.

Prototype and Angel's big telenovela-level worthy of romance drama lasts a few months, mostly because they both need lots of time with themselves in order to figure out what to do, and also mostly because at some point Angel is pretty content with just being Prototype's non queerplatonic/romantic partner. They're just going with the flow, initial anxiety being left behind and all of that.

Also Angel is a really big freaking dumbass, because Prototype's way of affection is through pampering, and he has been pampering Angel for MONTHS at this point and our human just didn't notice it's not platonic pampering. Prototype gets them more than one flower bouquet and Angel is just "oh this will be very nice for the house, Bobby and Long Legs love red roses!", and he keeps giving them the bouquets because it makes Angel happy, thus making him happy.

No, Elliot doesn't realize Angel is also stupid. He just tries to flirt like it's the 1930s while Angel is flirting like "haha what if we were married. Just kidding! Unless...?"

I think Angel doesn't exactly confess to Prototype in a traditional way. One night they're both chilling at either the hut or Angel's room after a long day and Angel gathers the courage to ask him what they even are. "You're the children's Parent, and I am Elliot Ludwig". Angel reworks their question to be "I don't think we're just platonic friends anymore".

"Do you want to be more?", Prototype asks, hopeful. Angel pauses, then agrees. "Then we can be more". After some talk they settle on either queerplatonic or romantic - I don't know which one would work best, but I think they aren't just platonic or just romantic. Angel and Prototype understand and respect each other a lot, and their relationship, for me, can't be defined with a simple "it's romance" definition. They're just them, and that's what matters.

Also Prototype goes "I WAS TRYING TO GET YOUR ATTENTION FOR MONTHS!" and Angel goes "I WAS REFERRING TO YOU AS MY HUSBAND ALL THE TIME AND YOU JUST THOUGHT I WAS JOKING AND BEING A SMARTASS????"

... Also Angel can wear a ring now! Prototype as well. They tell the kids about their new Situationship and Poppy very happily says "I won our bet!" to Catnap. Everyone else is glad for their parents but also their real-life telenovela is no more..,....

Anyways, I think this post is getting too long, I may share hcs about how their relationship works later, if anyone is interested!

[smorbee]

iBook Pyramid Behind the scenes!

This is a long one. Also keep in mind we made this a year ago so were going completely off of memory at this point BUT we do have the files. Unfortunately we didn't save specific versions of it really early into its creation so all the blender files close to being finished.

We have an intense appreciation for funky old computers. People correctly identified inspiration from the Thinkpad 701C. Less obvious in the final design but something that almost certainly influenced us as well was the 12-inch powerbook g4.

There is something very satisfying about nearly-square shaped laptops.

Others mentioned the JVC 3100R pyramid TV which, you'll be surprised to learn, we had never actually seen until after working on this project. The resemblance is uncanny and yet, entirely coincidental. Honestly if we had seen this thing, it probably would have had an effect on our design because the way that hinge is set up is beautiful. Our thought process was simply just comically emulating the form factor of a modern laptop but with a giant CRT.

We're pretty sure the idea started out as simply wanting to design a full profile keyboard into a macbook-like laptop because funny, and at some point the butterfly keyboard came to mind and we said Screw it and implemented that into it as well. Heres the keyboard separated into the different sections.

Sorry to say that the keyboard does not actually contain any switches. (You'll see that this computer was modeled to be viewed a limited angle)

Heres the keyboard from the top.

Once we got going with it, the whole thing was turned into a big joke of course, clashing many different eras of technology into one. Such as this massive beige tank of a "laptop" having a single USB C port as its main I/O.

And same with the software. This is the texture for the display, Which was taken from our real (unfortunately not crt based) macbook setup at the time. Except not quite, as the original screenshot was 16:10. We simply edited the image to make it 4:3. This is running mac os 12 with a majority of the icons changed to early osx equivalents.

We'll be real and admit the animation is not very intricate, theres no real "rig" for the model, parts are just parented together because we did all this in about 2 days. That said, we had loads of fun animating it still, trying to imitate the motion of someone struggling to lift the heavy top up before it swings open with an inaudible, but easily imaginable "Thud". Making the whole body shake and the trackball jump slightly was the finishing touch to make it complete.

The wire for the trackball was made using a circle with the screw modifier and then applied to a curve. Here's what it looks like with each modifier applied sequentially.

And then making the trackball itself a handle for the curve, we can have the cable be dynamic. (Yes, we notice that the trackball in fact has no mouse buttons. No good explanation for that, I think we just forgot lmao.)

For the screen, we make use of a location transform on the UV mapping for the satisfying detail of the screen distorting from the impact, which we swear we've seen before but no matter how hard we (safely) bumped our CRT monitor we weren't able to recreate it. Nonetheless even if its not entirely realistic we wouldn't remove it for anything.

speaking of which, an utterly useless detail considering the resolution and distortion of the final renders and yet we added anyways just for our own amusement is that the display has a shadowmask, simply done by just multiplying it over the base screen texture.

Combined with a glass material over the inner part of the screen, it utterly destroys low sample count renders of the screen and makes the project at least 3x as prone to crashing so thats cool! (it crashed on us while we were writing this section)

We've learned since in future projects that trying to optimize polygon count and materials is still very important even for offline rendered content. We can never be truly free from the constraints of memory limitations 😔

the final step was getting a more authentic less "polished" look in the compositing. This step can get very complicated based on the specific look were going for, but for this render its really just basic color correction and some blurring and sharpening steps. We used the default fake jitter node in blender at the time, though in more recent stuff we use the non-denoised image with filters applied to it instead, so its less uniform between images and more uniquely degraded looking.

Though we'd do a number of things differently now were still pleased with the final result. especially in animated form.

Heres an overview of the scene:

This is the bezeled apple logo in polygon form. Its simply an alpha texture with a normal map:

Thats all for now! Thank you for reading!

[the-s1lly-corner]

Hey I have a possibly another, better..? idea👀 it's a Slenderbeing reader! but they like to travel the world, a LOT. and usually in their human form. but they are so in depth with their magic's capabilities it's almost near impossible to detect any magic sauce from them, it's like they are truly a regular human being. until they reveal themselves and give everyone a heart attack😂

The slender reader is also like a runt, they hate the height difference compared to average Slenderbeings, but low-key likes the attention :P

Any characters! Have fun n take your time!! :D

Various characters with a slender-being reader!

Again so so so so sorry for taking so long to get to this :(

I've kinda been mostly checked out mentally this week and the past 4 days spiderverse has taken over my brain and

Sobs

Anyways! Most of these are platonic leaning, but that's mostly because I couldn't think of anything explicitly romantic <\3 these also may be

Short since I'm kinda

Dry brain

No gifs for each character since it lags my phone and I ain't dealing with that rn <\\3

Slenderman:

Head tilt

Of course he knew he and his brothers weren't the only slender-like.. beings in this world

But he didnt expect to see another (that wasnt splendor or trender) enter his woods... that and he also. Never really left his woods save for a few occasions.. never really met another creature like him outside family

Huh

Hes curious, of course! He himself can only talk so much about his day to day life, being more or less binded to his forest.. so hes willing to let you talk his non existent ears off

Likes making crafts for you that remind him of your stories

Doesnt particularly favor one form over the other; though with that said he almost offed you when you first waltzed in, disguised as a human

Makes him realize he... doesn't know how to do that..

Splendorman:

Oooh how cute! You're so tiny!

On the flip side, hes met dozens of slender-beings, due to him bouncing around just about everywhere

Doesnt make fun of your height, bullying isnt cool!!

You both exchange stories about places you've been and things you've done

Sits down and looks at you with so much interest when its your turn to speak

Finds both of your forms adorable

Laughing Jack

"I didn't even know they made them this size!"

Ljs already a little shit, but hes going to be even more of a little shit around you being a runt

He'll try not to take it too far, but hes definitely got a problem with his filter

Due to him being bound to his box and being passed around Lj only has so much experience with different kinds of people

So even though he'll crack jokes and interrupt, he's willing to listen to a story or two

You can still be taller than him and he'll still tease about your runt status <\3

Eyeless Jack

"Oh.. huh.. you're like.. that one guy,"

In my au he lives in the same woods as slenderman but they hardly interact and when they do it's barely civil

Both are very possessive of their areas so... yeah

Asides slender you're the only slender-being hes met; he wont even know you're a runt unless you bring it up

If you do he'll just

Not care, I mean hes short too so??

Has a weird.. vicarious thing going on with your story

Hes condemned himself to being a hermit due to his curse, so he ends up naturally.. doing that with your stories and makes small suggestions on where you should go next

What having your normal life snatched away does to a mf

Masky & Hoodie

"Mini boss?" "Mini boss"/j

Masky is.. well my take on him hes a little.. funky.. bro is likely watching you from a distance and not really.

Interacting

Kinda freaks out when you reveal your true form

Hoodie is a little more tame and open than masky, kinda just

Signs and asks questions but he isnt too social

"Why are you so short??"/j

Honestly I feel like these two would take a long time to warm up; they're already distant enough with slender

Idk, I really dont have any ideas for these two 💔😔☝️

[nonsensical-questions]

Errmmm annual update,

How are things goin for ya (not about sensetale specifically, just in general)

I appreciate the general check up as i haven't posted anything in a bit, but for a little update i guess, got a new job, pays me more and doesn't give me as many hours, this is a good thing as i can pay my bills just fine without having to work as much, but i am getting called in a lot and i need more money in general so i'm sorta trying to build stuff up... got a new name, i'm still keeping my old one i just have two first names i switch between now so that was funky but it made me feel a little better so it's nice got on HRT a while ago and it's fucking with me emotionally i think either that or i'm experiencing periods as it's not all the time, but it's too soon to tell if it's this or that so right now i'm just enjoying the general effects of it and learning how to deal with stronger emotions, this is a good thing i no longer feel as dysphoric about myself but it still comes from time to time as for projects and stuff i'm working on? got quiet the load honestly, no progress on sensetale for mental health and general self confidence issues, it's still on hiatus until i can get good enough to make the sprites i need or find someone willing to help me out but in non-sensetale related projects... well... i did wanna keep some stuff a secret but some of these have been in the work for a while so... what the hell might as well show some off I appreciate the general check up as i haven't posted anything in a bit, but for a little update i guess, got a new job, pays me more and doesn't give me as many hours, this is a good thing as i can pay my bills just fine without having to work as much, but i am getting called in a lot and i need more money in general so i'm sorta trying to build stuff up... got a new name, i'm still keeping my old one i just have two first names i switch between now so that was funky but it made me feel a little better so it's nice got on HRT a while ago and it's fucking with me emotionally i think either that or i'm experiencing periods as it's not all the time, but it's too soon to tell if it's this or that so right now i'm just enjoying the general effects of it and learning how to deal with stronger emotions, this is a good thing i no longer feel as dysphoric about myself but it still comes from time to time as for projects and stuff i'm working on? got quiet the load honestly, no progress on sensetale for mental health and general self confidence issues, it's still on hiatus until i can get good enough to make the sprites i need or find someone willing to help me out but in non-sensetale related projects... well... i did wanna keep some stuff a secret but some of these have been in the work for a while so... what the hell might as well show some off

vs. mad mew mew genocide route edition! i love mew mew as a character and i've been really inspired to make something relating to her i just didn't know what to, well recently i got my insperation and have been coding it out, don't know what the ending is currently but i have a rough idea of what i want to do, hopefully you will all enjoy it the song is Dummy! from UNDERTALE: Alternate, thank them so much for letting me use the song! couldn't hope for a more fitting battle theme that just so happened to accidently match with the character i was making the fight for lol I have more projects i'd love to show off but tumblr only allows for 1 video so you'll have to have the shitty gifs instead

after undertale yellow released I loved the concept of everything so much but i really wish some more attention to the lore had been put in, but hey there was still some really cool stuff they did like i loved the guns and ammo types, so i decided to work on what it would look like for the blue soul which i nicknamed melody as her healing things are music notes and clovers are well clovers, this spawned a whole thing where i started making characters and ideas and... honestly i don't think it will go anywhere soon.... if at all but hey a mouse can dream huh? well i might as well show off some characters with little to no context huh?

not all of these are major characters but just stuff I wanted to show off, if people wanna make art or ask about it, the au name is official "Undertale: Era of Integrity" but for now you just get the designs and simple mechanics that i showed off, i have more to talk about

an underfell project! this was mainly learning to code KR and fuck around with my idea of an underfell au that takes the canon version and makes small tweaks here and there, i made some sprites to show what i mean

again not really giving out much info, if people wanna know more let me know i guess! no official name just some underfell concepts i've been working on I do wanna make some playable fights eventually but i'd need to work out some kinks first to make it all work some other projects that feel too small to sorta show off stuff of are a Tale's end sans fight (like from the comic) i was working on with friskbits actually helping quiet a lot and a help_tale sixbones fight (again from the comic) both are almost done but also both have big hurdles i'll need to get past before i finish it, for tale's end it's just... writing, frisky is normally busy and i had major writers block, writing for what you may ask? the comic surely has most of what i need right? haha I wish, there are so many options and it all comes back to that stupid flower, i have like 20 endings based on if you kill or not and then reset and do a certain action, I have the main endings coded but the great flowey remembering my resets makes it way harder to actually finalize the sixbones fight is mainly the absorb stuff, as we never saw that in the comic so i sorta had to improvise and making it looks cool! but I'm sorta just winging it i guess i'm also working on a mettaton date, this one with an overworld, you know how alphys, undyne, and papyrus all got dates? oh and sans too sorta, well toby literally mentioned dating mettaton on the kickstarter and never delivered! so i'm doing it myself, date the sexy rectangle... eventually i'm still on the overworld stuff and need to finish designing mettatons room fully, i'd show some stuff off but i'm not sure how long it's gonna be plus this post is already hella long so just gonna cut this here and maybe talk about it later there is some other stuff here and there but it's mainly just ideas, I had an idea of something something deltatravelers something something OFF but i'm prob not even gonna do that, maybe i'll make some sketches or mock ups for it later but eh i wanna finish projects first i have too many on my plate currently I know a lot of people might be mad, that i'm working on other projects and stuff while im supposed to be working on sensetale, but I'm trying to improve skills and general get better at making the content so people can enjoy it more, and when i was ready i would try and work more on sensetale maybe remake the area do new poses make new characters or sprite something unique and cool, one of the reasons i don't post or even answer questions on this is i don't want to get people's hopes up that this will return soon, i really want it to return soon but I don't have the resources or time to commit to it I had a thought that maybe, I should make this a general au project stuff, so I can show off more stuff and see what people like but i've had 20 or so projects i've never finished. I wouldn't want to show all this cool stuff off and never deliver on it. But perhaps if that is what would everyone would enjoy more, seeing progress and stuff i'm working on, if people would be okay not seeing sensetale in favor of more content? just food for thought, i want to see what people think before i act.

[clatterbane]

My new gear, y'all! Ain't it lovely.

I am not going to model it even on here, because there are too many damn weirdos around. No free pics showing the stump at all from me. (Though, I might be able to get a pretty lucrative side business going--if the whole idea didn't creep me right the fuck out so bad. Even as the sorta dykey middle-aged nerd that I am.)

But, the appointment did turn out pretty well!

(Again, with the aid of sometimes wonky autotranslate.)

So yeah, they did seem to think that most of what I actually need at this point is to build up stamina up on my feet again. Which is pretty much my take on it too. With the rehab part to start once they get the initial custom leg fabricated.

In the meantime, they did send me home with silicone liners in a couple of sizes to get used to wearing. At no point did I roll the things onto my arm; that was one of the funky translations. You do get them on by turning them inside out and then rolling them on like the thickest, most unwieldy compression sock or nylon stocking/tights you can imagine.

Besides the getting accustomed to wearing them part, evidently they just don't use the fabric "stump shrinker" compression socks at all locally. (Which are standard a lot of other places.) The two specialist staff I was dealing with today had no idea what that was when I asked about it, even after I pulled up pics in case it might be a communication thing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(Complete sidenote: Looks like I will have to measure myself and buy some out of pocket after all! The things are useful for helping keep a lid on nerve pain, besides "just" the compression overnight and when you're letting your leg breathe out of a liner.)

Nope, they're putting people straight into the sweaty silicone liner sleeves, generally within a few days after surgery. And entirely relying on that for compression. After this amount of time, my stump has indeed already atrophied a lot and there hasn't been any swelling for quite a long while. But, I never got fitted with any compression anything before we left the UK. And they wanted to give my leg at least a few weeks of regular compression before even starring to fit the first socket for the aftermarket leg.

Putting the smaller size liner on at first did almost have me throwing up in the floor. Not in small part because they had me try it RIGHT AFTER one of them had been hands-on examining the stump and purposely trying to trigger the nerve pain! 🤬 (For which I have been totally unmedicated since 2021, I might add. Which is unusual.) They did not seem to consider that this might not be ideal. (!)

Yeah, extremely tight kinda thick silicone did not feel great after that. The nerve pain was already VERY ANGRY when it went on. And I really couldn't keep a straight face.

The one size up was tolerable then, so they sent both with me. I figure the tighter one will probably be fine other than sensory badness when the damaged nerves are not in full Hulk Mode.

I am apparently supposed to work up to wearing the things for 3-4 hours straight, two periods a day.

I did not much like the apparent lack of understanding of how nerve pain works, or the perceived pressure to white knuckle through it. Or, you know, just not have any. Much less coming from people whose whole job is working with amputees. (Just try chopping somebody's limb off without doing significant nerve damage in the process...)

Again, there may have been some communication issues thrown in too. But the (pretty direct) message I was hearing was "How do you expect to use a prosthesis, if you're gonna be such a whiny baby about a liner sleeve?"

But, we'll see. I am really hoping that's not an indication of what to expect, moving forward through this whole process.

I may also end up needing to just ask who I need to talk to, in order to get back on some meds. AFAICT, that is the team that's supposed to handle all of this stuff.

I don't particularly want to live with Lyrica side effects again, but it did help some with the other neuropathy besides the directly sliced nerve bullshit. Even more in combination with the Tramadol, but good fucking luck with that here from experience to date. I am just about willing to deal with the dumb and tired, if it means the difference between excruciating nerve pain on the daily and not.

At any rate, next stop after they decide my stump is compressed enough is apparently a socket fitting. Where hopefully I will be able to discuss options more with a prosthetist.

Today they were also pushing pretty hard toward a suspension (attachment) system that I don't think I particularly want from listening to actual amputees with experience of different types. I want to know what models of ankle and foot they're proposing to give me.

And of course I also want to make damned sure that they don't just automatically default to the horrible uncanny "flesh" tone components that apparently some older people in particular do want.

Today they brought out an example leg very much like what this prosthetist is also using for demonstration purposes here--and I was seriously creeped out enough that I resisted looking at or touching the thing. (They ended up handing it to me, whether I wanted anything to do with it or not.)

It's not the fact that it is a prosthetic leg that gives me the willies, at all. It is totally the uncanny mannequin parts effect. And I would really prefer to be able to use whatever leg and foot that I do end up with.

[mod-kyoko]

Hello! Id like to make another request! So this one is not exactly nsfw in the general sense, but does involve link, although it does seem thats alright on this blog

Would it be possible to make hcs or a story (both are completely alright) with the scenario where gender-neutral reader meets Gundham Tanaka, and it starts off with fearplay vibes before becoming fluff later? (Reader starts off intimidated/scared of Gundham, but warms up to him)

Thank you a lot for reading and potentially considering this! Its alright if youd prefer nto to write it of course too!

gundham tanaka w/ reader that's scared of him (then warms up to him)

info: gn!reader, kinda nsfw?, fearplay kink, reader is DOWN BAD

type: hc format, in neo world program

a/n: I had no idea what to even call this ask lmfao, I love this funky nerdy DND soundin' ass mfker

⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡

waking up on this strange island, meeting the oddball of characters made you stand out if anything

still you made introductions around the island, everyone seemed like fun people... even hiyoko and fuyuhiko weren't as scary as they should be. but that might just be because they were short..

you last stop was the... ranch? why was there a ranch on an island?

ignoring the strange logic you noticed a boy you hadn't met before

...

he looked like dracula's son

now, you weren't one to judge another by the cover, even with nekomaru large size and ibuki's punky attire you didn't judge base off looks

but with him... you felt nervous to even approach him, his mere aura made a tight cramp form in your stomach and you face felt hot

was that a scar over his eye?!

and his arm is bandaged... was he a dangerous person?

you approached him cautiously, he seemed to be in thought and didn't notice you until you spoke up

"h-hi... I'm-"

"fuhahaha! do you wish to know my name?"

"uhm.. I didn't say-"

"very well, you may be graced by the Lord of Ice himself; listen well for I am GUNDHAM TANAKA! supreme overlord of ice and destroyer of worlds! cower in fear at my power!"

you were doing just that

even though it sounded ridiculous to hear it from a human being's mouth, somehow you felt like he was really a 'destroyer of worlds' from how he presented himself

you stood there with wide eyes, you had to admit that you were actually afraid of him... more so than the other students on this island

he chuckled and crossed his arms, leering at you

"well, mortal? are you truly speechless at the supreme form of the dark lord? my all-seeing eyes see your shaking form!"

indeed, you were shaking in your shoes and you tried to hide it by saying that it was just cold although he went on a rant that his title of 'lord as ice' gives such an aura

whilst he was rambling, your eyes looked him over

he seemed pretty fit and your eyes admittedly stare at his chest, your face couldn't help but heat up

this was weird... you were scared and intimidated by him, yet you found his appearance and demeanour very attractive

supreme overlord of ice... you wondered if you could be his loyal minion and to follow his every beck and call

whilst staring, you noticed his scarf was moving around and your gasp got his attention

"kehehehe...how lucky of a mortal you are that my four dark devas of destruction are not hungry, for as they are violent as they look..."

he pulled at his scarf and... four little hamsters scurried around him

gundham told you their names, adding dramatic flair to each one of them

however, you were mainly focused on how cute they were! you couldn't help but pet one of them much to gundham's surprise

"they are so... terrifyingly cute!"

gundham began to blush and hide part of his face into his scarf

"hm... it seems you have an affinity with even my dark devas... they would not usually allow mortals to touch them. perhaps you have a hidden dark power not even yourself know."

you had absolutely no idea what he was talking about but it intrigued you regardless, still petting his little hamsters

that was when you were made aware of his talent as an ultimate 'breeder'... so he works with animals? huh...

maybe you were quick to judge his character, even if he is still kind of... scary, he must have a heart of gold to love animals this much

you walked back with gundham to the hotel whilst he went on and on about demons and... deities, something like that. you just stared at him for the rest of the way

⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡

-Mod Kirumi

[exquisiteserotonin]

Precious Possessions Chapter 4: Mastermind

I lied last week, obviously, not the final chapter. Who knows along this will go. It ends, when it ends. 😏

Series Summary: Defense intelligence conferences are always the same informative but also always boring. You didn't expect anything different for this one, but an unexpected meeting with a man named Dave York, changes the trajectory of your conference experience and maybe even more.

Previous | Next

Pairing: Dave York x Fem!Reader, Dave York x You

Word Count: ~2.4K

Rating & Warnings: Explicit, 🔞MDNI!!!🔞 This fic contains, but are not limited to the following, dom!Dave, spanking, bondage, overstimulation, PiV sex, creampie, oral (f! and m! receiving)dirty, dirty talk

A/N: Not beta'd (all funky grammar an spelling things are my own).

Plans are beginning to take shape.

And as always a big, big thanks to my slut collective @blueheat1-blog @best-little-secret @basicoccult @redhotkitchen @legendary-pink-dot @sparklefarts38 @arcanefox207 @imalrightllama

Chapter 4: Mastermind

You sat on your plush, cream-colored couch, a blanket covering your lap as you sipped a cup of tea on a Thursday night. Nearly a week had passed since you had come home from the conference. You should have been relieved and relaxed to finally be in your cozy and quiet townhome, away from the noise and the toxic masculinity. Instead, you sat here having flashbacks of the excruciating ecstasy of Dave’s hand slapping your ass, being tied up while he ate your pussy like it was his last meal, and how his massive cock sent orgasms through your body that nearly split you in two. Before he even slipped a finger in you, you both knew you’d never be able to go back to your normal life. Instead of reading a book or binge watching your favorite tv show you replayed one of your conversations in your head.

“What are you talking about?” He asked again as he sat up, resting against the headboard.

You sat up on your knees, playing docile for him you couldn’t stop staring at his large cock. 

“Did you think it was a coincidence that we met, Dave?” You purred. “Some people would say I’m exceptionally gifted at what I do, it only took a little bit of digging to find out about your extracurriculars.”

You remembered him getting angry with you. 

“You have no idea what you’re asking me.” 

Yes, you did. 

“Yes, I do.” 

You crawled towards him on all fours. 

“Teach me to do what you do.” 

You remembered how dark his expression was, how low his brow was furrowed, but also how he licked his lips the closer you crawled towards him. 

“I promise I’ll be a good girl.”

From your hands and knees you lowered your face to his cock. He could look at you, scold you, spank you, or tie you up but you knew he wouldn’t say no. 

You remembered that he didn’t answer for a while, and he shuddered with a moan as you touched the tip with your warm lips. 

Then you remembered him grabbing your hair. 

“If we’re gonna do this, you have to do everything, and I mean everything, I say.” 

“Yes, daddy.” 

“Now give me that pretty, little mouth again.” 

****

Falling asleep on your couch only to wake up in a daze to traipse to your bedroom was becoming a nightly occurrence since you got home. This evening threatened to follow the same pattern. Nearly 8:00 pm and your eyes were already starting to feel heavy from a cocktail of boredom and exhaustion. The singsong chime of your doorbell camera alerted you to someone outside and you were suddenly awake. You looked at your app and raced to the door to confirm who was standing on the other side.

“Dave?!” You gasped as you swung the door so hard that a gust of air swept at your hair. “What are you---?”

He stood before you with the hungriest eyes, grabbing you by the waist and pulling you in for a  messy kiss before you could utter another word. As he kicked the door closed behind him, his large hands slipped under your shirt, kneading your right breast until he was rolling and pinching the nipple, forcing you to yelp. As he corralled you to the couch, you pushed against him weakly trying to get him to offer you an explanation. His lips gripped yours, fast, searing, and desperate to taste you. Your center, ass, and legs were suddenly cold as he pulled your sweatpants off you and onto the floor. 

Finally, he gave your lips the briefest of respites until they found another set of lips on your body that he was more hungry for. 

“Da--ahh,” you cried as his tongue licked a long, slow, deep stripe into your folds. 

He devoured you with his unforgiving tongue and lips. His wet hunger mixed with your essence sent tingles that undulated outward to every nerve ending in your body. Moans of his name were all that could leave your lips as his tongue lapped into you and as his lips sucked on your bundle of nerves until you were uncontrollably writhing, shaking, and screaming his name. 

“One,” Dave growled, sitting on the couch next to you while pulling you on top of him at the same time. His cock sprung upwards after he unzipped and pulled down his pants. He pumped himself for a few moments and lifted you, teasing your entrance with his erect cock. 

“Ride,” he demanded as he helped you lower you onto him, bucking his hips up to thrust into you. 

His fingers gripped the skin of your hips like a seatbelt keeping you in place. You bounced and rolled on his cock as his hands marked your hips that he was claiming as his own. He was so deep inside you this way and with each grind and thrust you felt his tip reaching into your deepest center, nearly sending you over the edge every time. Searching for a way to retain some semblance of control, you reached behind him and started massaging his balls. A rich moan traveled from his throat as you touched him. In your head, this would have made him cave to you, would have given you permission for you to make him yours for a little while. Yet, with every move and push of his cock inside you, he reminded you of how wrong you were and how in control he was. As if that weren’t enough, he swiped the pad of his thumb across your sweet bundle of nerves, circling it with furious determination as you bounced on his cock. 

“Fuckin’ ride me, firefly,” he said his voice coming out in a low thunder, the movement of his thumb growing faster. “Fucking missed your tight, little cunt.”

You tried to form words to tell him how much you missed him too. How much you missed being impaled by him, but all that came out was moans and screams. The tight, sensitive shivers intensified as he kept working at your clit while fucking into you, bouncing you up and down.  You desperately tried to brace yourself against him as his cock pounded your spongy center until all you could do was clutch at the cushions on your couch as you screamed out his name in desperation and ecstasy as you reached you high.

He laughed again, pressing your torso into him as he sat up. His tongue blessed your nipples with aftershocks to add to your orgasm. 

“Two,” he murmured. 

Counting. He was counting how many times he made you come. Your chest heaved, with hot breaths and sweat that illuminated your skin all the way to your ears. 

“Can you give me one more, firefly?” He teased, rolling you onto your back on the couch. “Strangle my cock with this tight pussy?”

“I, I--,” you tried to will the words out of your mouth through the overstimulation. 

He was your drug and you needed your fix.

You watched in a misty gaze as his dark eyes fixed themselves on you with something even deeper than a primal hunger for you. Your body nearly melted at the touch of his hands as he pushed your legs close together, pressing your knees up to your chest. The ragged breaths that escaped his mouth as he lined himself up at your entrance set fire to the air. A forceful slap of his stiff, wide cock had you crying out for him.

“Fuck, Dave, please!” 

He pushed himself into you, stretching you, his skin causing every fold in you to flutter as his thrusts quickened. 

“Can’t stop thinking about this pretty pussy!” He growled. “Couldn’t stop thinking about it, when I had to fuck her.” 

His words would have made any other woman stop at the thought of him filling up someone else, even if it was his wife. It sent your ego soaring and you clenched him tighter in response. A loud, rumbling groan left his lips and he pounded into you faster. The most sensitive part of your core, began to roll and rumble sending a wave after wave of pleasure that had you searching for anything to grab onto to brace yourself for its arrival. 

“So--fucking--tight,” Dave growled as he held onto your legs in vice grip until you screamed his name over and over, not caring if your neighbors could hear you through the walls, “choking my fucking cock.”

With one final push Dave emptied into you, keeping his cock tight into you for a few moments to feel every tremble your body made for him. Intoxicated in the afterglow, you rolled over with a gasp when he pulled out, trying to regain some semblance of yourself. He gave a quick slap on your cunt and then on your ass, evoking one last desperate moan from your cherry lips. 

“Where’s your bathroom, firefly?” he asked with a low, raspy chuckle, admiring how you lay breathless and weary because of him. 

You gestured down your hallway, weakly. Laying naked on your couch, all you could muster was a soft giggle of ecstasy. After deep breaths, the kind you practiced during yoga, you felt yourself recovering. It felt like a dream as you saw him walking back to you, naked and confident like he was in his own home. He put on his boxer briefs before sitting next to you on the couch.

“Clean yourself up and come sit in my lap,” he stated as he patted his leg. 

You nodded and ran to the bathroom to clean yourself of his cum, its stickiness imprinting itself within you. You brushed your hair quickly and then returned, taking your place on the throne of his lap just as he had asked. His right hand wrapped securely around your waist while his left hand ran over the surface of your legs. There was almost something domestic about it. Another deep breath forced you to force that thought from your head and you took his chin and turned his face towards yours, biting his bottom lip. 

“What are you doing here?” you inquired, nursing his bottom lip with your thumb. 

“You mean other than fucking you?” 

You rolled your eyes as you waited for an explanation, hoping it would ease your anxious thought that someone, anyone might know what was going on between the two of you.

“Yes, other than that.” 

“Carol and the girls are out of town for a long weekend,” he smirked, “a girls scout camping trip.” 

“Mmm, lucky me,” a giddy mischief boiled up inside you. “So I have you all weekend long.”

You straddled him and grabbed his face in your hands. He wrapped his arms around your waist, giving you a discerning look that consisted of a furrowed brow and dark, determined eyes. 

“Oh, I see,” you replied, feeling the warmth of your afterglow cool on your skin. “Mixing a little pleasure with your business?”

You tried not to reveal any kind of disappointment. The sides of your jaw tightened as you narrowed your gaze to his face, trying to read the expression on it. A veil of realization covered you, understanding the importance of his unexpected arrival to your home.

“You are my business; you wanted to learn, firefly, get dressed.” Dave ordered, swooshing a large hand to your ass with a firm slap. 

“Yes sir,” you growled, nipping at his lips and grinding into him. 

“I said, ‘get dressed,’” he reiterated through gritted teeth as he grasped her by the wrists, “I don’t need the distraction and neither do you.” 

You stood up, taken aback with how quickly he shifted from pumping you full of his cum to a man who so easily and systematically killed people like it was a nine to five job. His eyes stayed on you intently, a smirk painting his lips in appreciation of the view that was you. Upon your return you were clothed in a pair of joggers and a sweatshirt. You found Dave dressed in sweatpants and a v-neck t-shirt, his laptop open and on. A close examination of his screen revealed an already comprehensive, electronic dossier created for Brad from where he was born, where he’s lived, all his schools, jobs, and relevant figures in his life, an asterisk by the name of his father, a lifelong diplomat. 

“Nice homework,” you remarked, “but an easy find on the internet.”

You felt the gravity of the situation grow heavier on your shoulders when Dave gave you a cold, harsh glare in response to your quip.  

“Rule number 1: you get cocky , you get killed.”

You straightened your posture at the words and nodded in acknowledgement. Dave excelled at this for a reason. Remembering the intensity and hard work it took you to excel in your job helped you to reframe your perspective of how you expected Dave wanted you to act. You pulled your hair up in a ponytail, hoping to show Dave that you were ready to listen and learn. With his leg he pushed back the stool next to him at your kitchen counter and you took it, moving closer to him.

“I’m not going to make this easy on you, firefly,” Dave said, the tone of his voice void of any expression or urgency, “but we need more than what I have and the only way I can get it is through you.” 

“I’m listening,” a tightness formed in the back of your throat, “what do I have to do?” 

“I’m oversimplifying it,” Dave replied, “but you have to do whatever it takes to get Brad to trust you.” 

An initial, uneasy chill traveled through your bones at the words. It lasted fleetingly, as something different and indescribable took over your brain. You could work with this, especially with someone as slow-witted as Brad.  The sweet memory of how you got that lecherous teacher fired replayed in your brain. This was really just the next logical step from that. An anxious excitement brewed inside you as you turned to Dave. 

“So…when do I get started?”

Brad, the poor bastard, he would never see it coming.

[wilders-girl]

I Collect Spores, Mold, and Fungus.

Egon Spengler x Fem!Reader

PG, fluff, but also angst. I am a sad person I cannot help myself

Mild cursing, Egon feels undeserving of reader's luv, bro cries, reader cries, everyone cries, mutual pining but they're painfully unaware

3,428 words

Not proofread bc I'm silly 🤯

This was 100% an impulse write and it was created from the hours of 12-2 AM for a fortnight. Not my best work but I am in love with this silly goofy fellow. Ray is there!!! And mentions of the other guys too! Hope u enjoy ♡

༻﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡༺

"So, what kind of hobbies do you have?" I meekly asked, watching Egon work from afar.

"I collect spores, mold, and fungus." He answered without skipping a beat.

I was startled at his quick answer, but responded soon enough that he wouldn't think I was judging him.

"That's quite interesting, actually." I spoke. "Do you have to take care of them like a houseplant, or something?"

Now it was his turn to look startled, glancing up at me for a moment before resuming his work.

"In a way, yes. I observe their progress as they grow and record differences between members of the same species and such."

He adjusted the dial on his microscope and changed the slide.

"Obviously, they're less demanding than a houseplant." He finished.

"I can understand that." I nodded.

"God, it seems like houseplants are allergic to tap water. Only the finest H2O for you, my liege!" I joked, shaking my head.

The corners of his mouth pulled up in a small smile, and I felt my heartbeat quicken at the sight.

A moment of silence passed before I spoke again.

"Fungi sound easier to take care of by a long shot. Do you have any favorite types?"

He paused his research and looked up at me, seemingly amazed again.

I had an apologetic expression and started to stand up from my awkward position on the couch.

"Sorry if I'm bothering you, I can go back upstairs if you'd like-."

"No!" He interjected, wide-eyed.

"Sorry. I just…" He trailed off for a second, analyzing the best way to say what he wanted to.

"I didn't expect you to actually be interested in my hobby." He spoke slowly, as if each word carried more meaning than at face value.

"I didn't think anyone cared."

"Oh, Spengs," I placed my hand on my chest. "I'm sorry. If it means anything, I'm not lying. I really do think it's interesting."

I felt a wave of sadness envelop me as I realized how he'd felt all this time. Reading between the lines, I knew what he really meant.

"I didn't think anyone cared about me."

He swallowed and locked eyes with me, his eyebrows furrowed in sincerity.

"Thank you."

His voice carried heavy emotion, very off-brand for the usually stoic scientist.

Snapping out of his trance, he got up from his desk himself and walked over to me.

"Would you like to see my favorite specimens?" His voice was quiet, very hesitant. Like if he spoke too loudly, I'd disappear.

I smiled up at him, and we made eye contact again.

"I'd love to."

I felt something change between us the moment we looked into each other’s eyes. He let his shoulders relax a little, he smiled a little wider than his typical smirk, and his gaze softened behind those thick glasses. The most insignificant changes meant so much for a man like him. I could tell, though, at that moment, that he trusted me. Somehow, this cold, unsociable man allowed me into his world, a heavily guarded fortress. All because I showed him a little bit of love. And he had no idea how much I had to give him.

After putting on sterile gloves, he carefully took a petri dish from the top rack, closest to the heat lamp, and showed me a funky looking pink fuzz.

"This," He began, a smug look appearing on his face, "Is one of my top three favorite specimens. This is fusarium oxysporum, a type of filamentous fungi that occurs most commonly as a soil-borne pathogen to many plants. This one's a tough specimen; it's survived nearly every experiment I've put it through."

I analyzed it in his hands, admiring the dark magenta color.

"Why is this one of your favorites?" I asked, looking back up at him.

He looked away in embarrassment.

"I like the color." He muttered.

I laughed softly at that.

"I expected a more scientific answer, Dr." I joked.

He sighed and looked for another specimen near the middle racks, and I laughed again at his shyness.

"Ah. There it is." He sported his signature half-smile.

He brought out a piece of a tree branch, and his eyes gleamed.

"This one is terana caerulea, also known as the velvet blue spread. It's a saprobic crust fungus commonly found on the underside of fallen trees in deciduous forests."

"I really like the texture of this one!" I looked at the specimen closely. "It really is like velvet."

"Mhm. This one was the most vivid sample I could find when Ray forced us to go camping upstate a few years back. As you can see, it's been doing pretty well, too."

I snickered at the thought of the boys, especially Egon, going camping. It just didn't sound real.

"And why is this one of your favorites, Dr?" I teased.

He looked down at me and smiled.

"I like the color."

I laughed again, missing the look of adoration he sent me as I did.

"Is it your favorite color?" I asked once I regained my composure.

Looking away quickly to hide the fact he was looking so intently at me, he nodded.

"I guess it is."

I kept that in the back of my mind. Just in case I needed that information someday.

He discarded his gloves, washed his hands and walked back over to his desk, and I followed, standing a polite distance from him. I needed to tell him something.

"Hey, Spengs?" I quietly asked.

He turned around and raised an eyebrow, leaning on the desk.

I fidgeted with the ring on my little finger.

"I really like talking to you, you know. I think you're great."

I paused, looking at the floor.

"I guess it's because you treat me like an equal. I guess more like an actual human being if we're comparing you to Venkman. But, like, I never feel stupid or out of place when I'm around you. It's the opposite, actually. I feel really comfortable around you. You make me really happy, Egon."

I smiled at the ground, feeling as though I'd just run a marathon. My face was terribly overheated, I could feel it. For a second, I regretted this random burst of confidence and wanted to crawl into a hole and rot so maybe he'd collect the fungus growing on my dead body.

I looked up at him for a quick second and saw him with furrowed brows and pursed lips. Tears were threatening to spill over his eyes as he looked away from me.

I automatically assumed the worst and let my arms hang limp at my sides in my shameful retreat upstairs. I did too much.

"Aw, Spengler, I'm sorry -"

I was cut off by the feeling of arms wrapping tightly around my torso in a hug before I could take a step away.

I was shocked. It took me a couple of seconds to realize what was going on and melt into the sensation.

He shook gently in my arms as silent sobs escaped him.

I closed my eyes and whispered sweet nothings to him while rubbing circles on his back. It probably looked a little awkward from an outsider's perspective since he was bent so far over my smaller frame, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.

For a moment, I tried to discard my feelings for him. I told myself he needed me as a friend at that moment, and blinked back a few tears of my own as I realized a friend was all he wanted me as, selfish as it was in that moment.

I tried to calm the fluttering in my heart as he held me even closer and let out a shaky sigh.

"I'm sorry, I should have asked -"

It was my turn to cut him off now.

"Hey, don't be sorry. You're alright. I'm here for you." I spoke softly in the crook of his neck.

He pulled away, to my dismay, and immediately looked at the ground, upset at himself.

"This is completely irrational of me, I'm truly very sorry." He mumbled.

I reached a hand out towards his, silently asking permission to hold it.

He hesitantly took my shaky hand in his cold one.

"I should be the one to apologize, Egon. I brought it up out of nowhere, and it was just weird of me to say. I'm sorry for making things weird. I just wanted you to know that you're appreciated, and I really do think you're worth my attention and time.

He whispered my name.

"You make me happy too." He was still looking down, but a bit of the sadness was erased from his eyes.

"Ever since I met you, you've brought me nothing but happiness in my life. Nobody really tries to understand me like you do. And…"

He slightly tightened his grip on my hand.

"I'm sorry if I ever make it seem like I don't value you. I'm aware that I don't express my emotions as clearly as other people, but I wish I was clearer with you. You are one of my favorite people. You mean a lot to me as a friend."

I felt my heart drop a little at those words, and I looked at the floor. I mentally cursed myself for focusing on the "friend" part, when it was obvious he needed me to be a friend and be there for him right now.

"You mean a lot to me in general." He paused.

"Maybe even beyond friendship." He spoke under his breath. If there had been any other noise, I wouldn't have heard him say it.

I snapped my head up to look at him in shock.

He took off his glasses and wiped away the remnants of his tears with the sleeve of his lab coat, breaking our hand-holding and eye contact.

I couldn't muster up the courage to say anything as he put his glasses back on and looked at me confused.

"Are you alright?" He said my name.

I still couldn't speak, and all I could do was look up at him. Maybe I was hearing things. Swallowing thickly, I broke our eye contact again.

"Shit." He muttered, quickly bringing a hand up over his mouth.

I looked back up at him to see his face creased in worry.

"Did I say that out loud?"

I felt my ears go hot and looked away while nodding.

He hissed a string of profanities and turned around to rummage through the drawers in his desk.

"I'm sorry," He shakily said my name, "I wasn't thinking straight. Please forgive me. It's unlike me to speak without thinking, God I'm an idiot!" He rambled, still looking through his drawers with a prominent redness in his cheeks.

"Did you mean it?" I whispered, effectively snapping him out of his quest.

He made eye contact with me, brows knotted, and opened his mouth like he was going to speak but decided against it. He began to scour the drawers again.

"There it is." He pulled out a small journal and clutched it tightly.

He stared intently down at it, eyes flitting to me occasionally as he spoke.

"I'm not very good at… conversing 'without a script', so to speak."

He cleared his throat.

"I, uh, figured it would be better for me to not… speak… when this situation came around."

He held his lips shut and handed the book towards me with a shaky hand. His eyes were still trained on the book, even though I was looking at him.

I hesitantly accepted the journal from him and looked at him to ask permission to read it. He nodded and leaned against the desk, picking at his fingers in anxiety as I opened it to the first page.

---

10/3

We hired a new worker today. She's going to assist Janine in taking calls. I overheard some of the interview walking upstairs to get food, and it seems she's more well-versed in paranormal studies than Janine. I might have to quiz her on that later.

10-27

After getting to know her a little better, I've decided she is worthy of entering my lab. I let her come down today to investigate, and she seemed quite intrigued by the happenings down here. I wonder what she found so fascinating. I couldn't ask her, I'm not sure why.

10-30

It's become increasingly more difficult for me to speak to her about personal affairs. I'm still unsure why. She's easy to get along with, and I seem to be able to converse with her just fine, but I freeze up when she does certain things.

11-2

I've noticed a pattern with the phenomena that triggers my inability to interact with her. I've found that it happens most when she smiles or laughs, gets close to me, makes physical contact with me, etc. The PKE didn't pick up any suspicious readings from her, so maybe there's something wrong with me. I'll run an experiment tomorrow.

11-3

The research shows I'm completely fine, but she still renders me speechless. After work today, she changed into a very flattering dress, saying that she was going out with her friend for drinks. It was, at face value, a regular dress. Though, somehow, it looked stunning on her. I didn't realize I was smiling until she pointed it out. I fear that I might have a different problem than I imagined.

11-15

My problem is most definitely not paranormal. It's biological. She was in the lab again today, helping me with my temperature-related differentiation study with the penicillium species. She comes down here on slow days when Janine tells her she can handle the work. When I moved to take the petri dish out of her hand, I accidentally brushed my fingers with hers and almost dropped the specimen. She was warm, but that wasn't what was alarming to me. I simply enjoyed the feeling. I enjoyed her presence, and I enjoyed her as a person in my life. I liked seeing her happy, and couldn't bear seeing her sad. I realized a simple truth at that moment: she made me happy and I wanted to make her happy too. Irrational it may seem, but she means the world to me.

11-22

I have come to a conclusion. How can I tell her without making a fool of myself? I fear it cannot be done. I can't say my feelings aloud to her. But I need to let her know how much she means to me.

11-23

I'm giving her this journal.

11-27

Since you've come this far in reading this, I want to tell you the facts, since it's easiest for me to think in a logical way. After running some studies on myself, i've come to some conclusions. When I make physical contact with you, my heartbeat quickens an average of 15%. After a prolonged interaction with you, I've recorded that the dopamine levels in my brain rise around 3 pg/ml. I find that when you're gone, I think about you around 2 times per minute; sometimes more, sometimes less. It's so comfortable for me to live in the analytical, logical world, but oftentimes you make me want to forget the science. You've made me feel things I just cannot explain. You have made me smile more than I have in years. I just feel happier with you, I don't know how to explain it. I have this irrational yearning for you. I want to see you happy, and I want to be the cause for your happiness. I want to be near you and see you at all times so I never forget how beautiful you are. I want to touch you, to be close to you so you can fill me with the warmth you bring in my heart. That, I can't explain. Therefore, logical or not, the signs point to one clear idea. I am in love with you. I felt you needed to know. I couldn't keep making excuses for my strange behavior. Thank you for reading this.

---

I closed the journal and felt a tear drip off my face. Wiping my eyes, I didn't realize I'd been crying until I felt the cold wetness against my fingertips. I sat there for a minute, collecting my thoughts and composure, and set the book down on Egon's desk.

Without a second thought, I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around him. This time, not bothering to be reserved with my emotions. I held him to me as tight as I could and felt euphoric by his reciprocal. I closed my eyes and let myself enjoy the feeling like I was on cloud nine.

Breathing in his scent one last time, I pulled away slightly and looked up at him. I probably looked like shit, but I didn’t care.

"I love you, too." I smiled.

He breathed out a sigh of relief and we went right back to our embrace.

I giggled, thinking about how nervous he was to not mess anything up. He was always so considerate of me. I didn't know why I never realized it. Then again, I guess he didn't realize it either.

He muttered my name, and I pulled away again to look at him, though I'd have stayed entwined with him forever if I could.

"Thank you." He smiled softly at me.

I reached for his hands and held them level with my shoulders as I leaned up to press a kiss to his cheek.

He blinked a couple times and looked away shyly, a rose tinge washing over his cheeks and ears. I could only giggle at how adorable he looked at that moment. I never wanted to stop kissing him.

He pulled away, still smiling, and shut off his machinery for the evening. I reached for the journal again and smiled, thinking of the unspoken words in there. I learned that he was not a man of few words, rather, he just didn't voice his thoughts aloud. What he did say aloud was always the most meaningful or efficient of his thoughts.

"It's late." He spoke softly, turning around to face me. "You should get some rest."

I rolled my eyes.

"And you shouldn't?"

"I can function on an hour of sleep, thank you very much." He teased.

"Tell you what, Dr. I'll sleep if you sleep." I raised my eyebrows in mock defiance.

"There's no way to hold each other accountable for that, you know. You could be lying and stay up another few hours."

I clicked my tongue and pointed at him.

"That's exactly what someone who isn't about to sleep would say."

He shook his head with a half-smile.

"What, do you plan to hold me accountable somehow? Make me pay if I don't follow your bidding?"

I cocked my head, pretending to think about it.

"Doesn't sound half bad, actually. Renowned scientist Egon Spengler groveling at the feet of a woman who wants him to sleep."

He laughed, the sound I love so much. Then, an idea popped into my head. I slowly let my grin grow like a Cheshire cat.

"What if I did hold you accountable?"

He narrowed his eyes on me in confusion.

"If you crash at my place, I'd know you aren't cheating."

His eyes widened, and he suddenly took off his glasses to inspect them so as to break our eye contact.

But he didn't refuse.

I slowly stepped closer to him and took the glasses out of his hands to make him look at me again.

"What do you say, Spengs?" I innocently batted my eyelashes at him.

He looked away and swallowed, clearly flustered.

"You can say no." I spoke in a more serious tone, handing him back his glasses.

He put them back on and looked down at me with a surprising amount of confidence in his eyes, demeanor, and voice.

"Deal." He muttered.

—

We left the station shortly after, quietly conversing on our way out. Ray was still working on the Ecto-1 and squinted up at us from the car. His eyes widened when they landed on our entwined hands, and the cigarette almost fell out of his mouth in a shocked expression.

Egon turned around briefly and gave him a look I couldn't figure out. Ray nodded in acceptance and went back to work, whispering a "good night, you two," probably not to wake Peter "Sleeping Beauty" Venkman upstairs. With a wave and a smile, we exited the premises.

He fell asleep first.

—

A/n: oh my days writing this HEALED me. I've been in a tough situation with someone irl for a couple months and it just killed any semblance of happiness I believed still lived in me. Like seriously I try to play it off bc I'm cool but it made me really sad. AND COMBINED W SCHOOL I JUST. seething. But I'm back!!! And fictional men are helping me regain my hope for humanity (and maybe men). Sorry for the long break, but I am back on my bullshit now 😈

[animehouse-moe]

Dr. Stone S3 Episode 1: New World Map

Looks like science is back on the menu boys! Dr. Stone returns with its third season (which is 2 cours once more!), with the goal of creating a ship to cross the ocean. An ambitious goal considering the technology of their time, but one that come Heaven or Hell Senku will complete. Though every dream that aims for the stars starts with a humble beginning, this one starting with a search for oil and the beginnings of agriculture.

It's been a while since I've really watched or paid attention to Dr. Stone stuff, so I've been reminded of how enjoyable the art and designs are for this series. They're incredibly tight and creative, and plenty vibrant without being overly contrasty or excessive in terms of color design. It's a really great balance that puts the focus on stranding out, and being strong.

And one last thing before I get into it, the direction for Dr. Stone has never really stood out to me. It's one of those things that just focuses on not getting in the way of the story and its characters. It leans perfectly into the comedy and excessive nature, but doesn't attempt to try and put a spin on things or really do anything crazy with it. Not exactly bog standard, but not something that you point out and talk about.

So with that in mind, I'm jumping right into science!

I thought this blueprint was rather fun, not really accurate in any way, but something and interesting to younger audiences for sure. The cross section is a solid idea for showing how it's supposed to look, and there's even measurements just poking their head out from the bottom of the image. But ultimately, it's slightly more than a glorified drawing of a cross section of a ship.

Now, two little tidbits here, not really important but just stuff I found fun. The first is Yuzuriha being put to work, considering her sewing skill it makes sense, but if it weren't clear to others she's the one that's putting together the sails for the ship which was a fun little background detail to add. Similarly, Kinro and Ginro are working together to plane the various logs into workable lumber. They weren't using it, but was fun to see them show off a planer (and helps remind you of the level of technology available to Team Science).

Now, I'm not 100% certain on what sort of tool Ukyou is using here. My immediate thought was a sextant, but that's used for celestial navigation and they're in the daytime and are surveying land. So, due to lack of knowledge I'm chalking it up to "funky telescope for charting topography".

So, maybe not science, but I really enjoyed this piece as a bit of logic behind the crew's search in the skies. Rysui points out the existence of a herd of wild animals. Now, for a herd to support itself, there must be sufficient food in the area, which Team Science also happens to be after. Sort of a two birds with one stone moment that works out quite well for them as they stumble upon wheat, of all things.

So, on the topic of wheat, I was kind of sad that they didn't explain this little piece here. It's a fun and interesting little thing that helps with an overall mundane task. Threshing is the stage where you separate the stalk/straw that holds all the wheat together, and the more traditional way to separate the two is, essentially, to smack it against something. Because of that, seeing it done in a much more refined and controlled manner was interesting, so I was kind of disappointed they didn't add any dialogue to the scene.

And the last real science-y thing of the episode was a litmus test. A really fun and simple example of the importance of stuff that you might have thought random when in high school. Litmus paper (and acid-base testing in general), is applied in all manner of facets of modern human life. Seeing it as such a simple yet important example was really fun and inspiring, and a cool way to casually teach people about the challenges of agriculture.

Of course, Dr. Stone isn't purely about scientific advancement, so they throw in some sentimental moments as well. In the smaller dosages that we see them in, they serve the story perfectly to allow for the characters to develop, and to help frame the importance and magnitude of the advancements that color human history.

Though you'd be kidding yourself if comedy didn't reign supreme after science. The sort of chibi style that appears just helps accentuate the ridiculous nature of the comedy, while separating it comfortably from the more scientific or sincere sides. It's basically a textbook approach that's executed incredibly well.

And lastly, Minecraft is in an anime. Yeah. Weird, yet awesome decision to have some of the exposition scenes appear as something styled after Minecraft, given the similarities. Great fun, and a cheap and easy solution to those moments, which can allow them to put more focus elsewhere.

[airiblackwood]

⟨ katherine mcnamara. cis female. she/her. 28. ⟩  We just saw airi blackwood entering the the news building. I heard through the grapevine that they are photographer for the times. Although they are [ with the media ], they can sometimes be impulsive, reckless, or even stubborn but I’ve also heard some people say that they were imaginative, affectionate and quite kind.— aria. est. she/her

PINTEREST

FACTS:

name : Airi Marie Blackwood (pronounced air-ee) nickname : Airs, Rirri, Air-bear age & birthday : 28, April 9th gender : Cis Female pronouns : She/Her sexuality : Pansexual occupation : Photographer for The Times

affiliation : Media place of birth : London, England neighborhood : Kentish Town languages spoken : English & Japanese

personality  : + imaginative, affectionate, kind , - impulsive, reckless, stubborn

BIOGRAPHY: Airi was born in London, to her father Colin, and his wife. Everything seemed so wonderful! She was a cute little girl with bright red hair, that seemed to come out of nowhere. But she was a good kid, always loving everything to do with spending time with her father. It didn't matter what he was doing, she wanted to be with him. But when he was busy off at work, she spent time with her mom, learning about all of the girly things. However, that didn't stop her from missing her father. As she got older, she noticed things changing. Her dad spent more and more time away from work and she hated every single second of it.

When she was 10 years old, her parents got divorced. It absolutely tore Airi apart. She hated the idea of her parents splitting up. While they had shared custody of her, it still hurt. She loved having dinners with her parents, spending as much time with both of them as she could. It took years to get used to them being separated.

But one of the biggest ways that Airi distracted herself was with photography. She received a camera for her birthday when she was about seven years old and it completely changed her life. Her camera went everywhere she did. She took pictures of everything and absolutely adored all of it.

She was always a good student, doing well in school, and when she reached sixth form, she did excellently in her A levels. Everyone who knew her knew that photography would her choice for subject. It was obvious.

Airi attended The University of Arts London and learned as much as she possibly could about photography. She did an internship at The Times and impressed them enough for them to hire her for a job.

While in university, Airi learned that she was bisexual after spending nearly three weeks with a girl in one of her classes for a project. They would up spending every waking moment together, ultimately dating for a couple months. The breakup wasn't bad, but they both simply got distracted. It took her about a year longer to find out that proper term to describe her sexuality was pansexual.

None of that bothered her, at all. She loved how she turned out, and loved that she got to stay in London to be close to her parents. Her job at The Times is everything she could want, but she wouldn't mind being promoted to a lead photographer, simply so they'd respect her more. She tries her best to keep her father out of the news, but it doesn't always work out in her favor.

Airi is very sweet and affectionate. She adores spending time outdoors or doing anything that requires a little bit of adrenaline. Due to her reckless nature, she'll do just about anything and actually has sky diving at the top of her bucket list.

HEADCANONS:

Airi's day doesn't start without iced coffee. If she hasn't had her coffee, you better not speak to her. She can be very short with people without caffeine. There are at least ten different mason jars with funky designs, straws, and lids for her morning coffee. She tries to drink it before heading out of the house for the day, but sometimes when in a rush, it comes with her.

Related to her caffeine addiction, if she doesn't have her afternoon tea and snack, she gets very cranky. The snack can change, from either a crumpet, a scone, or a biscuit, but the tea must always be earl grey, with two sugars, no matter what.

Growing up spending time outdoors with a reckless attitude, Airi became quite an adrenaline junkie and loves any kind of activity that raises her serotonin levels. She's the kind of girl that will go stand out in a thunderstorm with a cover on her camera just to try and take pictures of the lightning.

WANTED CONNECTIONS:

Ex - The one that helped Airi realize she liked girls. It would be a smooth breakup and they'd probably still be friends.

Exes - in general, male or female presenting. She's probably dated quite a bit but is also very career focused, a trait she got from her father.

Ride or Die - A best friend that is there for her no matter what, that always knows the right thing to say and how to tease her.

Enemies - People she really doesn't get along with for whatever reason.

Party friends - Friends that she parties with on occasion.

Co-workers - Either other photographers, writers, or editors she works with.

[kaixwinter]

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like it. Or felt anything like it." But he was sure it had something to do with the sinkhole that had opened up near town. "It's probably a good idea to be careful out there, something weird is happening, and I have a feeling this is only the beginning."

Kai never worried too much about breaking out a spell or two in front of strangers. Sometimes it felt like the supernatural outnumbered the humans in Raven's Peak, so he figured the odds of whoever saw him doing magic freaking out about it were pretty slim. Plus, in situations like this, it was kinda necessary. He had no idea how to get blood stains out of carpet with actual cleaning products, but he knew exactly how to do it with magic, and once this guy was patched up, that was his next job once he got back downstairs.

"For right now, no. But, it'll likely start to sting again in a few hours when it wears off. It'll help with the healing process, though I have a feeling you'll heal faster than the average person. So by the time it wears off, it'll probably be healed completely." Kai eyed the man, trying to put his finger on exactly what species he was. He wasn't a witch, he knew that much. And he could rule vampire out too. From what he knew about Raven's Peak and it's inhabitants, that only left werewolf, and whatever had crawled out of the sinkhole.

"If you're worried I put some sort of hex on you, I didn't. It's a standard healing potion. Works a treat in times of trouble. You might wanna just sit there for a while just to make sure nothing funky happens though, I've never used it on a werewolf before." He watched the man to see if he reacted to his words, then got to his feet and walked over to the kitchen to get him a glass of water. "So, you got a name?"

Aiden only gave a nod of confirmation-- yes, it burned like hell, actually. He wasn't sure why either. It wasn't like he hadn't gone through terrible injuries before, but this one was different. In fact, it reminded him of one he'd had a couple years back, when he was dealing with a demon... One that he'd sort of been romantically entangled with for a brief, whirlwind of a moment... But-- that was probably a stretch. "What do you think did?" he asked anyway, as it seemed the other had some thoughts to it.

The wolf stayed still and silent, merely observing as they worked over his arm. Appreciative to have the help but not really knowing how to express it. Wouldn't it be so stupid to just blurt that out in the middle of all of this muttering? Even though Aiden's ears were so sensitive to all the sounds, he still had no real idea what it was this man was whispering about. But it clearly had something to do with this mess, as there suddenly wasn't any... Well, the wound itself was still there, but the actual mess of it.. Aiden briefly looked up at the man's face, unsure. A witch, then? Is that why he smelled so... It was hard to put a finger on it, actually, but if he had to, he'd say it was something close to something singed. Not necessarily unpleasant, though.

He grunted under breath at the 'tickle' comment. Aiden didn't care if it hurt or tickled, or whatever-- he just wanted this thing to be wrapped up and forgotten about. He did his best to not move, mouth still fixed tightly as he did his best to ignore the little pricks and strange sensation of the thread sliding through. But the witch made quick work of everything, a lot hastier than expected and it looked fairly reasonable, too. Aiden wondered if the male had been in the healthcare field before or maybe just had personal experience. His lips parted in some surprise when, whatever it was that just got dropped over him, caused a cooling sensation until it soothed over completely. "I don't feel anything anymore," he remarked, staring down at the bandage in doubt. "Am I supposed to feel nothing?"

[remmammie]

i haven't see any twewy work here.. So let's change that :D Beat x gn!reader? just dating headcanon + cuddles?

feel free to ignore or to delete this request

I've only had one TWEWY request in the past and I love this series so much that I'm super glad to get more, about one of my favourite characters nonetheless. I relate to Beat a lot so maybe this will be easy for me, who knows? I'll do my best, enjoy! (And I would never delete or ignore such a lovely request, shush~)

Beat x Reader HCs

Let's get one thing straight right away: if you don't have Rhyme's approval, you may as well kiss any of your chances with this boy goodbye. She is everything to him (even if he didn't know it for a lot of the first game,) he trusts her and her opinion really matters to him so, if you give Rhyme the wrong vibes, sorry, you're done.

But, let's assume you got past the little sister wall and she loves you almost as much as her big brother does because these are dating HCs!

Wow, are you in for a wild ride of emotions with Beat. From his outside demeanor, anyone would assume Beat would be super outwardly affectionate and boastful about you as his partner, and he is!...just in private. I can't see Beat as the kind of man that has the public confidence to go screaming about dating someone all the time - maybe it's because he'd just get teased for it.

However, if someone close to him does get him talking about you, then it's over for them for probably the next few hours. Beat strikes me as the kind to have so much love for someone but keeps it all bottled up until he's around his you or someone prompts him to talk about you. Then he can talk for ages.

Definitely someone who's super protective over you, 100%. If you met during a game, then that increases tenfold. You're his moral support! How is he supposed to go on if you get erased?! ...you're also someone he really treasures and adores and wants to squeeze until you pass out but...y'know, he'd never say that in the middle of a fight.

Beat's really not afraid to step in front of anything or anyone for you, offering to square up against the Composer themself if he had to! - you beg him not to.

Now, dates with this endearing clod. Unfortunately, during the game, it won't amount to much besides maybe paying extra for you to eat something nice at a restaurant or buying you something he thinks would look amazing on you at a clothing store because, let's face it, he doesn't really have the means to do anything special at that point.

On the other hand, when you both get back to the Realground, Beat's mind is buzzing with ideas. He's a homely man, so I reckon your first date would just be a comfortable, warm home setting with candles and dinner, then blankets, cuddling, a random movie, and falling asleep on the sofa together (Rhyme took plenty of photos for blackmailing you both.) From then on, though, Beat makes it his dang mission to treat you like the royalty he sees you as: yen spent on brilliant days out to beaches, arcades, or restaurants and parks and cafes; yen spent on new clothes; yen spent on any funky little gift or knickknack that takes your interest; yen spent on vinyl records of your favourite artists.

Tell him to slow down! Beat is so eager to impress you and convince you of just how much he loves you that he forgets he...doesn't have any more money. Ah. But it's fine because home dates are just as good as outside dates, and he makes a killer home-made dinner.

In private, Beat probably has two moods: his usual loud and abrasive self or he turns into someone all flustered and quiet, silently admiring. If it's just a normal day and you're not treating him any differently, Beat feels free to sling his arm over your shoulder and hold you close or even pick you up and carry you around in public if you're okay with it - he acts how everyone expects him to with you and it's genuinely really sweet how people can practically see the stars shining in his eyes when he sees you. But, if it's completely in private or just you, Beat, and his friends, he tends to be a little quieter. He's a man with taste; he likes to admire you from afar (like before you started dating) whether you're fighting Noise like a complete monster, thrashing everything in sight with immense Psyche powers, or you're simply laughing at something cutely teasing Rhyme said. He's entranced by everything you do and it takes someone waving a hand in front of his face or clicking their fingers or a swarm of Noise appearing to snap him out of it.

He'll always deny he was staring if it's someone else that asks. If it's you, though, he'll happily tell you he was admiring from afar. A real romantic, this one, in his own quirky way.

And hugs with Beat? Don't get me started! He's really too big to give up the domineering position in a hug unless you catch him off guard. If you want that, wrap your arms around his neck and kiss him before hugging him - skaterboy'll be completely stunned and you could probably tackle him before he'd snap out of it. He'll blush a bright red then immediately attack you with a strong hug out of retaliation, smiling like a complete moron: bless.

Either way, cuddles with Beat are always warm because, of course, the muscles, but also because of his tendency to fluster easily. Simple physical affection can really stir up all those pesky butterflies in his stomach! They make you feel extremely protected, safe, and secure - it's just the aura Beat emanates~

[slashingdisneypasta]

(Random ask/message allert!) So few days ago I was having internet discassion with people about 'comfort movies'. And I told what mine's are. The list included some horror movies and everyone was like "WTF?! How can that be comforting?!" Because everyone's idea of 'comfort movie' is different. Btw do you have any comfort movies?

Oh!! Yes, I totally agree with you! Of course horror movies can be comforting! Even if they do scare you- I find it nice to be made uncomfortable/spooked by something that's NOT my real life. But, because many of us are Slasher fuckers- they can be comforting in a myriad of different ways ^^

What are your horror comfort movies?? I'm very curious!

Mine are:

#1. Freddy VS Jason. Its a good one to sit and boil over- I don't know why, haha. Like, its got my interest enough to distract half my brain (That half can sit and sympathise with Jason and empathise with Freddy's anger and just enjoy these two in general) while the other half can think things through a little calmer while my emotions are being distracted. Basically just when in doubt- put on FVSJ.

Hush. For whenever I have to watch a movie with family, but I'm in a funky mood so I don't really wanna laugh (And I laugh a lot in general- so if I didn't have this kind excuse, they would notice).

The Last Showing. Whenever I feel I've had a close call romance-wise. Movie theatres comfort me and my first run-in (As an adult) happened in a theatre+pretty soon after I watched TLS for the first time to boot. Plus Stuart is more than creepy enough for me to be able to focus solely on that rather then any need to write fanfic- but its also good for that, too.

Curse Of Chucky. Similar to Hush. Except I CAN laugh a it- Chucky's jokes- and I can use that as a sorta defence mechanism when around people I'm not totally, or at all, comfortable with. Like I will unapologetically cackle at something that that fucked doll has snivelled out and it is code for back the fuck off.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre; The Beginning. My fucked-up crush on Sheriff Hoyt can distract me from anything, haha XD

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Drayton and Chop are just so comforting, I don't know why- Well I don't know for Chop. Drayton is full of hatred and anxiety and so he is my sometimes-spirit animal.

Other movies aren't comforting to watch, but are comforting to write about (2001 Maniacs is definitely one of them. I just love working with those characters).

There are all sorts of ways horror movies can be comforting! You need to open up the internet peoples eyes- everyone could use more comfort movies XD

(I also have plenty of non-horror comfort movies XD Like Cars and NATM and How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days)

[katerix]

(How old is New Vegas? And it’s still my fav part! I feel like I need more Raul content even after all these years🥺)

Drink with the living dead

Characters: Raul Tejada x Reader Summary:  Courier and her companion returned to New Vegas after a long wandering to get a drink and gamble, but faced serious inhospitality. Six was not ready to leave her friend behind, so they changed their plans. Warnings: - Words: 2781

***

It was almost half past midday, when a dusty dirty road to New Vegas welcomed the wanderers with just another sandstorm without any declaration of war. Courier’s mirror aviator sunglasses could hardly stand that gusts of winds, so she decided to hide it in the pocket of her jacket until the better times. Six and her ghoul-companion were on foot for nearly five hours, and now the hightower of «Lucky 38» looked huge in contradiction from its look an hour ago.

It was not their first visit to New Vegas, but every time she saw a glowing and sparkling casino’s signs, she was bringing up the idea of going there and wasting an evening gambling and drinking. Just like everyone does. The fact that she spent here some time, passing all the entertaining places by, met with Mr. House and performed several missions for NCR ambassador, but still never took a break to try some of those things, these poor fellows from all Mojave wasteland were arriving for - was a crime by its definition.

Coddling this thought, Courier continued to trudge the nasty weather, until they walked up to the Northern gates of Freeside.

- What’s the plan when we reach Strip, boss? - asked Raul, shaking his dull-green jumpsuit down: it all was full of pervasive grains of sand, as well as the girl’s clothes.

- At first I wanna visit the «Lucky 38» apartment and change the outfit, then go to the bar and win big in the kazino!

- Perfect plan, chief, ironclad like my revolver. - the ghoul was sarcastic as usual, but didn’t evince any sight of disagreement.

When she turned around to continue movement, he added: “Wait, amigo, there's a tuft of straw stuck under your collar.” - and carefully extracted an annoying piece of flora, stuck to during the storm.

“Gracias!” - Six smiled widely and made a fast gesture of gratitude with her hand. Without wasting time, they passed heavy metallic gates.

Freeside met companions with a funky, stinking smell. She still couldn't get used to it. Dusty air seemed to mar the cityscape: it looked much pale and lighter than from the outside. Just fifteen minutes and they’ll reach the destination. The picture couldn’t be called unusual for this time of the day in this part of town: one or two shabby hobos against the dingy walls, kids in wrecked clothes playing a tag-game in the area of the «Mick & Ralph's», random citizens with roving glances, sneaking around, wasting their time in an idle attempts to figure out how to spend their life in this Dump. On the other hand, there are many places where people live even worse: take a look at Westside, for instance.

«What a hopeless sight, - thought the girl. - Hope the Followers are really able to do something about this in the future».

- Something on your mind, boss? - it felt like nothing could hide from Raul’s inquisitive look.

- Just thinking. I find this picture quite dismal, like there’s no tomorrow, and humanity is still doomed. Like there’s no chance to restore life, as it was before.

- When we are on the road again, I’ll tell you about the Football Cup in Mexico, if you like to hear another one “before the Bomb” story. - he obviously picked up on her mood and decided to cheer up the girl, carefully diverting the theme.

- I do. Have you attended it?

- Sure thing. That was a big day. We drove to the capital to see it with our own eyes.

- Sounds pretty good! Let’s not ruin the intrigue.

- You asked.

They passed a small cross-road, which didn't have to be called like that anymore, as it was just one of the ghosts of the past with it’s burned skeletons of cars, left here motionless as evidence of human lost ambitions. The air in this part of the town was stale, despite the fact that they were in the streets, the smell of some broiling meat and spoiled vegetables was sticky like an ant's nectar. Sudden wild cryings and shouts were heard from the nearest dead end. 

One glance was enough to understand that the Kings had cornered swashers, their prey, who were too fucked up and all-fired sure of themselves to attack the town’s main showrunners just a couple of minutes ago. And the Courier was not going to do anything about that: she herself was nearly butchered by one of them, shown up from nowhere. If it was not her loyal companion who dealt with it with one precise shot, she, probably, would be dead by now.

It took more than ten minutes to cover the distance between the East and Strip gates - right now there was no reason to hurry. As they got closer, the protectrons took up their positions immediately. One of them articulated “Move along” with a familiar metallic cold of lifeless voice of his, when companions were passing by.

“Never liked these guys. They are like slow mines: you never know what they do the next second.” - grunted out the Courier, as two of them found themselves on the first line of the Strip between “Lucky 38” and “Gomorrah”.

“Hey, so who is an old one here?” - the ghoul chuckled in response.

She went ahead, so he could never see how her lips slightly bended in a ready-to-laugh smile.

***

Presidential luxe met nomads with a deep, wrapping silence of a broad, gloomy space. This was definitely not the place a person could wish to stay in: walls with, once being gorgeous - now - greasy dark-wine wallpapers were giving an oppressive feeling. Six was happy that they didn’t have to stay here for long. Only to sleep or change the outfit maybe.

She got near to the wardrobe in her room, where the majority of things, accumulated during the long travels, were stored. Took out two dresses, went to the guest-room with a billiards. Raul was civilly waiting for her there.

- What you think? Which one?

He raised up his head, looked from under the sunglasses for several seconds, examining, and answered in a casual tone:

- It’s really up to you, boss. - made a pause, then added, like a little confused: - But I like the pink one. Might look graceful.

- Great! Exactly the one I wanted to pick.

The ghoul just gave her a hesitant nod, wondering if she noticed that detail. Courier went back to her sleeping-room and returned after some minutes, informing: “Ready to go! The next stop is “Ultra-Luxe”, yee-haw!”

***

After a while they were in the street again. All they needed was just to reach the second line of the Strip and pass a hundred meters to the “Ultra-Luxe”. Lots of NCR soldiers were hanging around, goofing off, as long as they had a chance, and indulging in lust in the nearest private clubs. Nothing unexpectable. When they passed by a small group of drunk, barely balancing on their feet big guys, Six suddenly heard a hushed voice from behind her back, addressing his teammates. “Do they let ghouls on the Strip now? Perfect, let’s make it a spooky ghost-town.”

“Yeah. That’s why civilization will start floating away again. Our attempts are meaningless.”

Only just Courier wanted to turn around and shout out something to those sons of a b or event take out a gun and shoot beneath their feet, Raul caught her arm:

- Hey, hey, calm down, that’s okay. NCRs are many here, you know, even for a dashing rider like you, boss. Even with me backing you up. From behind the farthest stone.

- But we can’t simply swallow that shit, Raul!

He just spreaded his hands:

- Fine, then go shoot them and be killed by protectrones because of two drunk idiots. Very helpful, chief. I’ll stay all alone, without my beloved companion but with a protected pride. Thank’s.

Six stood still for some seconds and nodded after that.

- Fine. Whatever.

Then merely continued walking in the direction of the cazino. The ghoul hesitated for a bit. He understood that she was acting out of good intentions and she just wanted to protect her partner, as she was the one who had a right of speech here. And that made his heart melt and he was silently praising her for that, because nobody seemed to do anything like that for him in a while. But picking a fight with these dummies, who fill the streets of Strip like water fills the canyon, was not wise.

“Sorry for that, Niña. I really appreciate what you do. I just don’t want you to get in trouble because of me. You don’t notice, but there are often lots of sidelong looks and hardly heard whisperings along the way. I'm used to it and don’t want it to affect you.” - he tried to lighten things up.

The girl turned her head a bit just for him to see her glance softening.

- Let’s just reach the bar and relax.

*** 

An unexpected trouble struck them further - black line has not ended yet. Courier already picked her place at the bar desk in the distant hall and ordered a glass of whiskey, when a bartendress leaned over and said in a low tone:

“I’m sorry, but here, in “Ultra-Luxe”, we serve only the citizens and guests of the Strip. I’m able to bring a drink only for you, ma’m.”

That was the last drop of her patience. The girl slowly raised her head at the bartendress, ready to blow up, and responded:

- Are you fucking kidding me?

- That’s the rule. I don’t need problems. You can ask any guard or another worker.

She bowed her head and gave a fast hidden glance at her ghoul-companion. He was sitting there next to her and looking straight at his arms crossed on the desk, like he had nothing to do with it. But he, of course, heard every word. His eyes weren't moving, just a finger was slightly knocking the air, producing a rhythm he alone knew. Six couldn’t even imagine what her friend might feel at the moments like that. An anger came upon her.

“Are you all that scumbags here? Keep your drinks for acceptable ones. Ma’m.” - the girl said, getting up from her barstool and heading towards the exit.

Raul stood up without a word and, as he always did, followed Courier. He had mixed emotions. On the one hand he was glad they left that place and that Six is such a kind and loyal partner, but on the other hand he felt a little guilty for himself. After all, it was him who was the reason for such inhospitality in some kind of place. Even now she couldn’t get what she wished for so hard. Her idea of “winning big” in the kazino seemed to be falling apart, as together they won’t be even let to the gambling table. And she, obviously, won’t leave him in the street and have fun on her own, and an old ghoul didn’t want to be a ball and chain.

- Boss? Are you sure we need to leave? Maybe you’d better stay there? And I’d wait for you somewhere else or go back to “Lucky 38”. Fresh air won’t do any harm for my old lungs.

- What are you even talking about? You know, even the best drink worth nothing, if there’s no one to share it with.

- You have a heart of gold, chiff. - these words came fast, in an undertone, as if he was embarrassed, - Well, I saw a small sign in Freeside. I believe we’ve never been in that part of the city before.

- Hope it’s not an «Atomic Wrangler».

- Nope.

- Great! You lead. They passed the ruins, generously spread all over the suburbs, while every their step sounded louder thanks to trash, small pieces of brick and other rubbish. The sun was already going down and the heat was getting less intense.

Finally they reached a small inconspicuous wooden door. Only a little sign next to it represented that place as a bar.

As they entered, nothing changed. There was not much to be changed. There were no crowds of gamblers, no fancy casino machines and no shiny-polished bar desk. Bartender was a man in old ragged clothes, probably in his late fifties. He was slowly wiping cut glasses with a gray dusty piece of fabric full of holes.

When the companions stepped in the room he just looked up at them without raising up his head and got back to his plain, simple activity. There were not many customers besides the two of them. A woman was sleeping on the table in the far corner - her head rested on her arms while her shoulders were calmly going up and down. Another guest settled down at the edge of the bar desk.

“Fancy,” - giggled the girl.

“Ah, let’s get down. Ladies first.” - Raul just waved his hand.

Six made a few steps in the direction of the bar desk and sat down, Raul followed her.

“Barman! Two beers, please”. - she laid some bottle caps in front of him.

The barkeeper took them and then put two opened bottles onto the surface.

“Bon appetit.”

Courier took her bottle up and clinked it loudly with Rauls one. His soft non-blinking sight of half closed eyes was locked on hers, while he made a sip. His heart always went pop when it felt like there were just two of them in the world, though he never showed that.

Raul looked around and suddenly his eyes stopped on a guitar lurked behind the racks.

“Hey, can I…?”

The barman followed ghoul’s gaze and shrugged his shoulders: “This piece of wood? Be my guest.”

In the next second he was on his feet. The courier raised her eyebrows as she almost forgot if she saw him that agile. Raul approached the metal shelves, put aside some garbage and waste paper, then carefully extracted the instrument and blew away the dust.

Six and the bartender were watching him closely. The ghoul got back to his chair, sat down crossing his legs to position the guitar more comfortably. Then pulled the first string to check out the tuning. It was no surprise that it was out of tune, so the next minute Raul spent trying to fix the instrument.

When everything, as he thought, was ready, he played a couple of notes in fingerstyle to flex some life back into his fingers. After nearly 200 years the skill was obviously weakened.

“I didn’t know that you could play the guitar.” - said the girl.

“Sure you didn’t. I never told about that.” - he looked back at her with a little smirk, - “What was the point if there were no music instruments left anyway?”

He laid his right arm down on the body of the guitar, fingers on the cracked wooden surface, and took a deep breath.

At first Courier could hardly hear or see the slightest movement of ghoul's fingers on strings, but soon the sound became more clear. She was sitting there with a bottle in her hand, unable to look away from her companion.

The sound of slow mexican melody floated across the room, filling every corner of the room with itself. The windows were closed with wooden boards from the outside, so the sunlight was trickling down through narrow gaps between them. Warm light was leaving gold-yellow lines on the walls, tables and the bardesk where the Courier and Raul were sitting. She could even see the tiniest specks of dust freeze in the air. The ghouls face was half hidden by a shadow and the sunbeams were highlighting one of his eyes which now looked like a beautiful transparent crystal and his hands all covered with veins and partially with thin skin.

The whole space imbued with peace and calm, even the impenetrable bartender set his glass aside and leaned his head on the hand, listening to the sensual music.

They travelled together for a while now, but never before had Six seen him the way she did now. Something new was arising in her soul.

“Hey chief,” - Raul closed his eyes and slightly threw back his head grinning a little, fingers still dancing over the strings. - ”You’re the best friend and partner one could ever wish for, you know. Thank you for always being on my side.”

“Raul, I’ll never leave my partner in crime behind!” - she chuckled as she felt like something pinned her heart.

The ghoul continued playing the tune without opening his eyes. A grin turned into a soft smile and the feeling of joy span all over him for the first time in a while.

“I’m following you to the world’s end, boss.”

Also, here’s a link to this fanfic on my AO3 (gif is mine \ use credits if repost)

[darcyxpalmer]

Darcy didn't even realize she steered into talk that Zaid wasn't really happy or comfortable with - it wasn't simulation talk and he couldn't really expect them to just get rescued anytime soon anymore anyway, right? Still, it seemed talking about what they would be expected here was also not something he liked. Darcy raised her hands in a defensive position.

"Hey, even if you take the simulation out of it, it gotta make sense, right? We weren't just randomly shipwrecked here, you have to believe there had to be some kind of intention behind all of it. Otherwise we wouldn't have memory gaps between our last memories and us waking up on the cruise ship. And then all of us slowly, one by one, start showing different kind of powers or such?"

She paused and shook her head as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. To her at least it was. "It must be part of the reason why we're here. If you want to, call it something else, not our job, but it's still something to explore, something to learn to control."

Hearing all the different kinds of powers Darcy witnessed from others got Zaid even more surprised and this time, Darcy just tilted her head in a question, raised her eyebrow at him. "You just blew up hot in an energy ball that you couldn't really control or stop that destroyed most of the leftover at the feat and threw me several body-length back, and me teleporting is that impossible to you? Zaid. Come on!"

Granted, it wasn't something normal. All of their memories were of the simulation where nothing like this was happening, and when you still wanna hang onto what you considered normal before, it made sense that Zaid might have not wanted to believe this, not wanted to even hear it. "Also, Selin didn't change into a rodent, she just turned rodent-sized. She went tiny. But she was okay, she turned back eventually."

Why was she telling her now. Darcy just gave him another look. "You literally just asked me if I felt anything funky or similar to what just happened to you, that is why I am telling you, please don't freak out on me again. I just try to talk to people and then things happened. And you and Tej definitely count - you blow up energy stuff, what did Tej do? What happened to him?"

He was getting overwhelmed, Darcy could see that, but they were also just getting to the juicy stuff, the interesting things, and Darcy definitely didn't learn from pushing Zaid and how that probably wasn't the best idea, and she said, "Please, what do you mean no more questions? We are getting somewhere. Isn't this just exciting, figuring out how others and you can do these wild new things? We gotta figure out what everyone's powers are and then we might be able to do amazing things here!"

They got to the warehouse and she actually let out a laugh when Zaid complained about the coffee. "Sorry, I have no actual connection to them, but I'll see what I can do. I wouldn't mind one either, though." She took the cup and took a sip, closing her eyes and letting out a content sigh. It wasn't the best cup of coffee, not even close, and yet somehow it still was at the same time. "Fuck, I really needed this."

She gave a small nod. "Yeah, it was a diner. Small town in the US, nothing fancy. Only diner in the town, actually. What was your restaurant like? What drew you to food?"

"It feels terrible. I don't like it," Zaid said conclusively. Added to the fact that Darcy added her own observation: it looked like he had no control. What a terrible thing to say to someone, Zaid thought gloomily, and simultaneously felt sorry for himself. That on top of everything - everything - he'd endured and suffered in the past year, all the control that slipped out of his fingers like water? Now he had this...whatever it was. Manifesting inside him.

No control of his life, no control of his body, either.

"Astaghfirullah, what have I done to deserve this," he bemoaned, somewhat dramatically. Feeling also a bit impressed and grateful at Darcy, that she wasn't freaking out over his explosion. She seemed the pinnacle of concerned, curious, and calm. Maybe in a case like this, it helped to be a little mental.

And then Darcy had to go into the mental talk. "I'm sorry, our jobs? I have a job, ta. What kind of key - what are you on about now?? First a simulation, now...what?" If Zaid thought about it a bit harder he could imagine what Darcy was going to say, but. He wanted to hear her say it.

Easier to blame her, than to blame his own thoughts, after all.

"Erm, just...just on the beach," Zaid mumbled. More questions, both disorienting and centering him. And once again, just as he was starting to feel steady, Darcy had to go in on some more hare-brained madness. "I'm sorry. Selin - that pretty little teacher - she....changed into a rodent? Invisibility? And you teleport?" Zaid closed his eyes, drew in a sharp breath. "I'd ask if you were mad but that would be redundant."

He shook his head. "Why are you telling me this? Why are you telling me this now?? What is going on? I'm asking you to explain, because you seem to have been in everyone's business." He thought about Maria, and Lindi's panic and made another woeful observation: "And why is this only happening to women? And me? And Tej, I suppose, but he don't bloody count."

Darcy had more questions and Zaid shook his head as they got into the warehouse. "No. No more questions, I just - I don't want to think about it anymore." He searched the shelves, and eventually found the instant coffee. A sigh. "No coffee beans, though. Can you tell your new friends who run this place that I'd like some roasted coffee beans, and a grinder? And a proper coffee machine, if they don't mind."

A grunt. "I try not to be a prat in other restaurants. Some places do try my patience though...but rarely the servers. Mostly the cooks." He looked over at Darcy. "So if I'd come to your restaurant, you would've been safe. What was it, a diner?"

Selecting a tin of coffee, Zaid shook it towards Darcy. "The spit thing is dead true. And worse, depending on the customer."