#i felt like it would be fun to share ??

[crunchchute]

Sam and Max if they were cool /j

[arsenicflame]

steddyhands modern au inspired by this post:

(1828 words, themes of kink but nothing explicit, established blackhands & gentlebeard-centric. Happy Pride!)

Stede picks up leatherworking in the wake of his divorce. He's not exactly sure how it ended up being such an important hobby for him, only that he had always admired the intricate designs on his horse's best bridles, and with little else to do with his time, he decides to give it a go.

It's rocky going at first, but he's having fun working with his hands for the first time in his life, and there's a sense of satisfaction in seeing the design come to life as he works. With practice, his skills improve, and he learns how to make things that are truly one of a kind.

He starts off posting his pieces online, as a way to reach fellow enthusiasts, but quickly finds himself with a rather large audience. Stede’s style is unique, and, after many requests from his followers, Lucius encourages him to make some more basic pieces he can sell. It's not about making money for Stede, but another way to meet new people who share his interests- as Lucius keeps telling him, it's sad that his personal assistant is the main person he talks to these days. 

So Stede sets out on a new adventure, and has quite the time designing a new range of patterns for the market. He makes purses, belts, bracelets, and, most importantly, dog collars- all still with his unique designs embossed into them, of course. He rents a booth at his towns monthly craft fair, and very quickly finds himself with a new group of friends in the other regulars- Pete, his usual neighbour, who sells an array of wooden figures he carves, Roach, who runs a stand for his bakery, and Frenchie, who isn't actually a stallholder, but is almost always busking near his friend Wee John’s stand of knitted goods, bringing life to the market even in the pouring rain. There's also Buttons, another regular at the market. Nobody is exactly sure what he does there- he doesn't sell things, or seem to buy anything either, but rain or shine, he's there with the birds.

Stede’s been doing this a few months by the time June rolls around. As he's setting up his stand, he notices that the area is much busier than it’d normally be at this time of morning. Lucius, who got roped into helping run Stede’s stall somewhere down the line (despite his protests that this is not what personal assistant means… But hey, he got a boyfriend out of it, at least), reminds him that there's the parade today, too- not realising that Stede had no clue there was a parade today, and especially not that it was pride. Stede immediately jumps to fretting about the amount of stock he’s brought, and Lucius takes the cue to escape, saying he’ll go and grab them coffee (but really, he's off to flirt with Pete)

Lucius is still missing when Ed stumbles across the little leather stall. Stede’s just ran back to his car to fetch his last boxes of inventory, and by the time he returns, Ed’s already begun to narrow down his choices. Stede greets him, starting to tell him that they're not actually open yet, but before he gets more than a couple of words out, Ed’s exclaiming “You're a Kiwi!!!”

The two of them smile at the shared recognition, and Stede says he’ll make an exception, just for Ed, and asks him what exactly he was interested in. Ed tells him that he's looking for a collar “for his boy”, and points out the particular design he was looking at. It happens to be one of Stede’s favourites from this latest run of work, a fact he mentions to Ed. It leads them into a discussion about Stede’s craft, and Ed’s Izzy, and then everything in between. Ed’s listening intently to the things Stede’s telling him, completely drawn in by the process, and by Stede himself. He watches as Stede stamps Izzy's name into the collar, and Stede even lets him have a go at one of the stamps. 

Lucius reappears sometime in the middle of this- only to immediately retreat again, seeing Stede engrossed with Ed. He sets up camp at Pete's booth opposite, watching this man flirt intensely with his boss- and Stede flirt back just as hard. Does Stede even realise he’s doing it? Lucius had known Stede was gay since before Stede even admitted it to himself, but this is on a whole other level.

The pair stand there so long that Izzy comes to look for Ed- the two of them are manning a float on the parade with their crew, and it's past time for them to get geared up. He's already worked up, frustrated to have been left to set up everything alone, when Ed had just gone to see if he could get them both coffee. So maybe he's a bit of a prick, approaching with a brash “where the fuck have you been, Edward”, to which Stede brings the same energy, giving a bitchy “Ed! Do you know this guy?” Izzy tenses, ready to snap, but then Ed cuts in, excitedly telling Stede that this is “his Izzy!” Which confuses the hell out of Stede. 

Forgetting his earlier attitude, he asks Ed if he “really named his dog after his friend”, only to be met with confusion right back from Ed at where the hell Stede got the idea he had a dog from. Stede gestures at the bag with the collar in it, to which Ed has to tell him, “oh, no, that's for him.” Ed tells Stede that they're here to run a float for their local leather society, and while Stede is certainly shocked by what Ed’s saying, he's not finding himself… uninterested. It's simply that he’s never even considered any of this before, especially not that people would use the things that he made for this, but Ed sounds so enthusiastic about it all. He tells him about how his friends would love to see Stede’s work, about how classic leather gear is always so fucking boring- but not Stede’s stuff, no, Stede’s stuff is “fresh” and “fascinating” and unlike anything Ed’s ever seen before. 

Ed's enthusiasm is incredibly infectious, so when he invites Stede to come back to see their float, he readily agrees. It’s a concept Izzy’s less than enthusiastic about. He doesn’t really want to bring this man who’s dressed like he just walked out of a HOA board meeting to their kinky little corner of the world, but he is having a lot of fun watching Stede squirm, so decides not to raise a protest. He does demand he gets his long-overdue coffee first, though (Stede pays for it- as “compensation for him distracting Ed from his job”, he says, not giving Izzy a second to process before he's tapping his card)

By the time they return to the float, Fang, Ivan & Jim are waiting for them, all already geared up. Stede is stunned silent at the sight for about 5 seconds, before he starts actually looking at the quality of Jim’s harness, and proceeds to go off about the poor quality of the craftsmanship, about how the hardware is tacky and completely the wrong choice with this leather, how his “ten year old daughter could do a better job!!!” 

There's complete silence from the group, until Izzy, of all people, bursts into laughter at Stede’s audacity (and, the fact he was staring at Jim's tits completely unabashedly, like he hadn't even noticed them in the first place). Izzy's laughter sets Ed off as he tells the group about Stede’s misunderstanding- “you didn't say he was a person!” “I mean, he's my dog”- and soon everyone's having a friendly giggle at Stede’s mistake.

It's somewhere in the middle of the retelling that Ed remembers that this whole thing happened because he was buying Izzy a gift. After a moments fumbling, he presents Izzy with the collar-  It's a rich, deep black, embossed with a rolling pattern that resembles waves. It’s made from a firm enough leather to take the tooling, and to remind Izzy that he’s owned while he’s wearing it, yet still soft enough for long term comfort. Izzy's eyes immediately lock on to it, an unreadable expression coming over his face, and Ed turns it; first so he can really see the design and Izzy’s name embossed into it, and then so he can see the small “Ed ♥” on the inside of the collar, right over his swallow tattoo. 

“I did the heart,” Ed says to him softly, intended only for Izzy’s ears. Izzy's eyes flick up to Ed’s, and he raises his chin to give Ed the room to put it on. Ed buckles the collar around his neck almost reverently, a test of the tightness turning into a caress of Izzy's neck. It's a perfect fit.

It's as though something comes over Izzy; so twitchy and abrasive earlier, now silent, staring at Ed with a look akin to worship in his eyes. He obediently tilts his head for a kiss as Ed's fingers move to his chin- It's a sight to behold, and one that has Stede intrigued. He wants to know more about this lifestyle, and these men in particular. He wants to be the one to put that expression on Izzy's face.

The moment breaks as Ed and Izzy pull apart, and Ed calls for the crew to finish the last bits of set up. Izzy shakes himself a little before running off to bark orders again, but even still, there remains a softness to him that wasn't there before. 

Ed turns back to Stede with an apologetic smile, already obvious that he has to get going. Before he can speak, however, Stede jumps in -“My business numbers on the card in the box… I'll be around all day”- Ed’s smile turns more genuine at that, promising to stop by if he gets a moment, and that he’ll send his friend's Stede’s way- “if he wants that kind of business.” Stede says that he does, actually- that he's seen a whole new world already today, and, while he was a little taken aback at first, he can feel the passion Ed and his friends have for this life. If there's one thing that's ever mattered to Stede, it's other people's enthusiasm. Maybe he doesn't completely understand yet, but he would like to try.

One year later, Stede’s back at the market on pride weekend again, far better stocked for the crowds this time around. Lucius is finally free to spend the day flirting with Fang & Pete to his heart's content, now that Stede’s roped his own boyfriends into helping him run the stall- and into modelling the merchandise. Ed loves that part, while Izzy needs a lot more convincing, but the puppy eyes Stede & Ed weaponise against him make a very good argument.

[wildsaltair]

Nightmare

Pairing: Maximus Decimus Meridius x reader

Rating: T (hurt/comfort, angst, fluff)

Word Count: 2.3k

Tag List: @enjisbf, @nasatshirts, @empressenchanted

Author’s Note: Up until now I've never posted any Maximus fanfiction because it's always just sort of been something I did for my own enjoyment, but this is one that I don't mind sharing :) @streets-in-paradise inspired me by sharing some Maximus love with me, so this is dedicated to her (and all you other wonderful people who have made Tumblr a place where I can share my passion for this wonderful man)! There's a lot of love poured into this fic, so I hope y'all enjoy it :)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

You are not surprised to learn that Maximus has nightmares. The details of his past are something you can only guess at, though he has alluded to the terrible battles and bloody escapades that haunt his memories. You also know that his refuge in your home is the first peace he has known since he was a child.

But you are not prepared for the sheer forcefulness of his first nightmare. He’s asleep next to you in bed, pale blue moonlight filtering through the window of your room, but you are awakened by his movements in the middle of the night. He’s jerking back and forth, his face twisted in a look of concentration, agony, and terror. You can’t help the fear that rises in your throat at the sight.

He makes a quiet sound in the back of his throat, one hand gripping the sheets tightly enough that his knuckles turn white. Blinking yourself into consciousness, your heart tightens at the sight. Even all these miles and months away from battle, still his past pursues him in dreams.

His next convulsion shakes the bed, and you instinctively reach out to him, hoping to wake him from the nightmare. It proves to be a mistake the second your hand presses onto his shoulder to shake him awake.

His eyes fly open at your touch, but it’s abundantly obvious that he is not awake, still seeing visions of whatever memory he was in a few moments ago. The look in his eyes is one of pure survival instinct, of a desperation that breaks your heart.

A split second later, you’re flat on your back, and the full weight of his body is pinning you down against the bed. You barely have time to register the shock of his swift movement before you realize that you did not wake him up. Blinded by memory, all he can see is his opponent, and the thought drives you to panic and try to wriggle out from under him.

Grinding his teeth, he grips both your wrists in his left hand and restrains them above your head effortlessly, despite your struggling. You call out his name softly, then more loudly, but still he is lost in the nightmare.

You thought you had tasted his strength before, when he’s made love to you and demonstrated how easily he can hold you in whatever position he chooses, but this situation gives you an entirely new perspective of his strength. A second after flipping you over, his right hand is around your throat, his thumb pressing into your jugular with enough force to crush it.

You’ve never been afraid of him once, but in this moment, without a single hint of recognition in his eyes and all his power focused on choking you, you are so terrified you can barely react. You can’t even use your hands to try to push him away.

Knowing that you may only have a few seconds to react, you gasp out his name as loudly as you can, the word immediately drowned out by the pressure on your throat. Your vision is fading to black a moment later, all the feeling in your hands gone from his vise-like grip.

But your strangled cry reaches past the fog of his nightmare somehow. The pressure on your throat releases, and his eyes widen suddenly, letting you know that he’s finally awake and realizing what he has been doing.

You can never forget the look in his eyes at that moment. All the terrifying forcefulness, the single-minded fierceness, the brute strength that made him such a force of nature on the battlefield — it all vanishes in a split second, dissolving into a gaze of such horror and regret that it shatters your heart instantly. You know that from this moment forward, he may never truly trust himself with you again, a thought that devastates you for him.

You can’t move for a moment, still struggling to catch your breath, and the look of horror in his eyes only increases as he pushes himself off you. He seems torn between the need to gather you in his arms and the fear of hurting you as he just did. His lips move, but no sound comes out.

You draw a ragged breath, reaching out one hand toward him desperately. “I’m all right,” is all you can manage. “I’m all right.”

You try to push yourself to a sitting position, but you find that you simply cannot, still so shaken from thinking you were about to be choked to death by the man you love, who you know would rather die than cause you any harm. His hands are trembling wildly when he reaches out to steady you.

“I didn’t know it was you,” he says, his own breathing so erratic that you wonder if he can feel your pain. “I couldn’t see you. I didn’t know it was you.”

He’s repeating himself in absolute shock, his eyes scanning every inch of your face, your neck, your arms to see what damage he’s done to you. His shaking only worsens, but he doesn’t lay a hand on you during his frantic checking over you for injuries, just lets them hover as if he’s afraid to touch you again.

You manage to sit up this time, steadying yourself with a calming breath and trying to give him a relaxed smile. “I know, I know,” you murmur, reaching out to brush your hand over his ruffled hair. He almost recoils at your touch.

“I could have killed you,” he whispers, involuntarily shifting himself to the edge of the bed away from you.

You keep running your hand lightly through his hair, determined to reassure him. “Of course not,” you promise. “You were only dreaming. It was just a dream.”

“It was just a dream,” he echoes, but not in agreement. “A dream of a battle in which I almost died. In which I killed so many men I could never count them.”

You don’t betray a single hint of fear, just scooting forward to close the distance between you. You use both hands now, framing the sides of his face as his eyes search your face desperately.

“I’m perfectly all right,” you assure him with a smile. “See? No harm done at all.”

“You don’t understand,” he insists vehemently, his voice breaking. “I could have killed you. I didn’t know it was you. I only saw my enemy and thought of killing him.”

Seeing how shaken he is, you push forward and clasp your arms around his neck to steady him. He still doesn’t touch you, doesn’t return your embrace. You can feel his whole body quaking in your arms.

“You don’t understand,” he repeats. “You don’t know what I’m capable of.”

“I don’t need to know,” you whisper in his ear, stroking his hair rhythmically in the way he always responds to.

He actually pushes you away this time, his hands gentle on your forearms as he puts space between you again. His eyes are blazing, his face as white as your sheets. “You don’t know,” he murmurs again, dropping his hands. “I could snap your neck with one twitch of my wrist. I could break your wrists, your ribs, your spine as easily as I can hold you down.” He holds his hands up in front of you, eyes wide and haunted. “You have no idea what these hands have done.”

“I don’t care what they’ve done,” you argue, seizing his hands with yours before he can pull them away. This time, though, he doesn’t make a move to pull away, freezing in place while he watches you carefully. Slowly, intentionally, you kiss the backs of both his hands, his knuckles, his fingers, to demonstrate your words. “I know you, and I love you, no matter what you’ve done.”

He shakes his head, though his eyes drift closed at the touch of your lips on the base of his palms. “No,” he half-whispers, “no, no.” Your heart tightens seeing him so tortured, knowing that all this anguish lurks beneath his stoic exterior every day, hiding so you can’t see it. “I should never have risked you like this.”

“You’ve never risked me,” you insist. “You’ve never done anything but protect me.”

“Until tonight,” he counters sharply, his eyes flashing open and fixing on yours with his typical intensity magnified. “It only takes one time. I should never have taken the risk.”

You can read the meaning behind his words — that he thinks he can’t trust himself to sleep next to you. The thought of giving him up, especially for this reason, is utterly unacceptable to you.

“I am not afraid of you,” you tell him firmly. Your words seem to affect him, because the tension in his shoulders lessens fractionally. You kiss his hands again and again, then rest your cheek against the roughened skin that you love so much.

“You should be,” he replies softly, the severity in his voice already decreasing. You can see the waves of exhaustion and sorrow washing over him, and you reach out your arms to enfold him again. This time, he accepts your embrace, folding his arms around your waist gently and resting his forehead in the crook of your neck. His skin is burning hot against yours, his arms still trembling.

“I could never be afraid of you,” you whisper. “I could never be afraid of the man who has protected me and cherished me. You have treated me so gently, so tenderly all these months. Never once has it crossed my mind to be frightened of your strength.” You press a kiss to his shoulder, then the side of his neck. “I take pride in having the heart of a man so strong, so capable. I know you would never hurt me.”

He shifts you in his arms, lifting you slightly to align more easily against his body. You can feel the deep, shuddering breath he draws while he thinks about your words. “I would never mean to hurt you,” he replies, “but in a dream, I cannot tell the difference between memory and reality.”

“I believe you would be able to keep yourself from truly hurting me,” you reassure him, threading your fingers into his hair at the base of his neck. He reacts to your touch with a hand sliding up your back to cradle you closer to his chest.

“And if I could not?” he whispers in response, his lips pressing against the sensitive skin of your neck. “If I should wake and find you dead by my hand?”

You shake your head, feeling tears spring to your eyes. Any fear you felt in the moment while he was holding you down is completely gone, lost in the tender embrace he holds you in now. “I do not believe the gods would allow such a thing to happen. Not to you. Not to us.”

He releases a shaky breath, one that glides across the exposed skin of your neck. He ducks his head to press a kiss to your collarbone, letting his lips linger there in a way that makes you shiver in his arms. “I am honored by your trust.”

You smile in response, dragging your fingertips lightly down his sides, over the deep scar that slices down his ribs. “I could never trust another man on earth as I do you,” you reply. “My only fear is that I may drown in the love I see in your eyes every day.”

He kisses your collarbone again in response, then moves upward slowly, pressing his lips to the soft hollow of your throat, then the underside of your jaw at your pulse point. Lifting you up effortlessly with his hands hooked under your arms, he repositions you so that you’re straddling him.

He then rests his fingertips, feather-light this time, against the sides of your neck. He strokes his fingers over each mark they left, then presses the softest of kisses against each one. Goosebumps break over your skin at the intimacy of his actions, of the wordless apology in every touch.

He lowers his forehead against yours, eyes closed as he breathes you in. “I do not know what blind fortune allowed me to find you,” he murmurs, touching his lips softly against the corner of your mouth, “but I thank them every moment for the gift of holding you like this.”

At your affectionate smile, he finally gives you the ghost of one in return, though his eyes are still haunted. You suspect that he will retain that haunted look for some time, no matter how many reassurances you offer.

As the intensity of the last while calms, he shifts you in his arms again, cradling you gently and laying you back against the pillows. He leans up on one arm, facing you, and you reach up a hand to stroke the side of his face. His expression softens again, giving you a look of utter fondness and devotion that makes your heart melt.

He leans forward slowly, as if asking your permission, and you gladly grant it. His lips touch yours with a gentle brush, then a bit more pressure. His tongue slides across yours in the way that always sends shivers up your spine, and one of his hands reaches up to stroke your hair, the other resting lightly on your waist. He kisses you once, twice, three times, each one more tender than the last, then lets his lips linger against yours for a moment more.

“I love you,” he says softly that you barely hear it, but rather feel it against your mouth.

“I love you,” you return, “more than I can say.”

One last kiss, and he finally lays down beside you, his face mere inches from yours and his arm folded across your waist. He takes his time in going back to sleep, choosing instead to gaze at your profile in the soft moonlight, but sleep finally takes him. And when you finally close your eyes, content to sleep peacefully beside him again, it’s to the sound of his even breathing and the warmth of his protective embrace.

[reksink]

Furred Attempts at One's Self

[animangalover-writes]

Time for another dream i had, this time about zutara.

This one is a lot shorter, but essentially I had a dream where kataras whole family(which seemed to have more members then in the show) all live in the fire nation, hiding the fact that they're water tribe(rather, they were water tribe).

Katara is in some sort of relationship with zuko. It's unclear if she's his wife, his girlfriend, or his mistress, but its not hidden. People know about her and her relationship with him.

(Putting the rest under a cut so I don't clog up the feed lol)

If she was his mistress it's kinda held in that way that kings had other women they'd sleep with along with their queen and it was just an accepted, albeit kinda shitty, thing to do.

Anyway, katara is also pregnant, which was kind of an underlying "plot point" and would return home to her family every day to check on them.

It's revealed here that katara is basically the only reason her family is doing pretty well for themselves. Her relationship with zuko means that they have enough to get by. It's also noted that her whole family(katara, sokka, their dad, their grandma, and some made up new family members) all live in one house. So its clear they're still kind of struggling.

It's also revealed, through a conversation with her grandma, that the only otehr reason katara is with zuko, is because it was part of a bigger plan. She and her family are part of a resistance against the fire nation, and when they realized zuko liked katara, wanted her to infiltrate and pretend to be in love with him.

The plan had clearly gone on longer then anticipated, for whatever reason, and katara is conflicted because she actually does have feelings for him now, not fo mention she's pregnant with his child.

There's a "scene" either at the beginning or after this reveal that shows zuko in a meeting with other fire nation officials, including his father and sister, and that either he was against one of their plans but is ignored or his plan gets shut down(I don't remember which). Katara always sits in on these meetings with him, and afterwards, as everyone is getting up to leave, she leans her forehead against his and whispers that everything will be alright. This is why we can tell she truly does care about him, to some degree. But it's also a moment showing potential manipulation, like shes pretending to care. It's supposed to be a little of both, she needs him to trust her but she does still love him.

After all of this, we cut to a scene in a forest/swamp. This part is kind of blurry in my head, but basically, it's a secret meeting. Katara is dressed similarly to the painted lady, her and a few other resistance members, including Sokka, Suki, and Hakoda, are planning an ambush on Zuko and his family, who are supposed to travel down a path nearby. Katara is a key part of this plan, as she's the only waterbender, and she knows this. She nods along to everything regarding the plan and she goes over important points herself as well. But as everyone else continues talking, katara is having doubts. She loves Zuko. She's about to have his child. She cares for him. But she needs to free the world from the fire nations clutches as well. She doesn't want to kill Zuko, but she has to in order to help others. She's hesitating.

They continue with the plan anyway, and through the foliage that katara and the others are hiding in, we see a carriage making its way down the path. Zuko and his family(or at least his father) are in there.

Everyone is getting ready to fight, to jump out and attack. We see a close up shot of Katara, conflicted. She's still not sure if she can go through with this, if she can kill Zuko.

And then I woke up.

[localgardenweed]

Just saw the new video Hargreaves posted via tiktok and im sorry i sighed seeing the Tord clip im sorry gang i cant get myself hyped.

I dont know why but for a while now all the Tord stuff has been leaving a bad taste in my mouth cause before it was “guys dont ask us about Tord stop asking ugh so annoying” to “hey guys dropping more Tord merch, episodes, spinoff show and also gonna send him over to do a concert with Miku” or some shit like ok they realized he is a cash cow its okay to admit that but idk, as much as I love Tord i feel like it would have been better to let him go bury him in satin laid down on a bed of roses sunk into the river at dawn sent away with the words of a love song. I know people love Tord and I DO TOO if you look through my old stuff you knew he was like one of my favs and also ya know the whole oc x canon stuff but i dont know, knowing Larson wanted Tord out of the show after he left just for him to be brought back in The End, show ended and like hm well this is it to Beyond dropping and getting made fun of for wanting him back to then turning him into a cash cow and whole joke and middle finger to fans who wanted him back by teasing them with him behind a paywall or just murdering him on screen. I know they need money this shit doesn’t come for free but idk it always left a bad taste in my mouth. For those who are happy for the possible probably maybe return of Tord, good for you guys, but im gonna hold off on celebrating.

[invasive]

Labru (shrug) I just might like it

[dragonanne4fun]

.

[boyapologist]

people who have been to american/europe theme parks!

[fictionadventurer]

All the tour groups in Springfield should be very proud of me for how well I refrained from sharing all my fascinating Lincoln facts.

[l0ganberry]

Have you guys ever had to explain Welcome Home to any of your family members?

I did and I'm really glad to say that my own Grandma loves Barnaby too.

She was asking me about what I wanted for my birthday so I told her about the Barnaby plush. Which, indeed resulted me to explain what Welcome home is. And I believe she likes it too.

She did said that she loves informational details and long texts. So it was great for me and her on both ends.

[knbposting]

im writing a vorpal swords era fic and i was going to keep it all aomine pov but then i changed my mind as a fun idea entered my mind and switched to kagz for this chapter. i just thought it would be cool to post the old aomine version of a paragraph starter:

versus the kagami rewrite:

and to talk about the differences in how i approach their pov?

here are my bulletpoint lists of things i like to pay special attention to in order to hopefully create distinctive internal voices (accessed via very close third person) for these two very similar stupid idiots

aomine:

analytical, much more aware of how other people are feeling and what they're likely to be thinking about

he is often wrong about others' feelings, but he isn't aware of it so it rarely comes up

especially obvious in APRIL SHOWERS., his perception of how kagami feels is pretty clear and understanding compared to kagami who genuinely doesnt understand what the fuck is going on (hence why he's so defensive)

he pays attention to the environment he's in and notices details about it (when he breathes out a cloud of mist in cold weather, the glow of street lights in the dark, the warm lighting of shops while he's outside in the rain, etc)

i think it comes as something of a surprise, but i write aomine to catastrophise considerably less. he jumps to conclusions, but he doesn't immediately assume the worst

he bitches about people SO MUCH in his head (constantly calling kagami a stupid idiot (affectionate), bitches about how satsuki thinks she's his secondary mother, complains about the weather as well, just bitches generally)

his vocabulary choices (still in close third person) are simple, but slightly more varied

he notices boobies

generally much more aware of how physically attractive he finds kagami

very prone to dismissive internal language after someone has said something he doesn't agree with

example: [kagami is apologising for having slipped and hurt aomine, and is speaking here:] "Like I did that on purpose!" Who said you did, stupid?! "Is your arm okay?"

example 2: "What?!" Kagami's surprise, as usual, descends quickly into anger. Daiki stands there waiting for it to happen. "What the Hell?!"

aomine's pov utilises all of his nicknames for people in his life, like tetsu, satsuki, mom, dad, et cetera. as in: satsuki said, tetsu said, etc.

aomine likes to stand back and assess things before leaping in

he's very confident in his fighting ability and this confidence does seep into his pov, because he rarely approaches situations without knowing that he can always dig himself out 

kagami:

kagami's vocabulary is extremely casual and often uses contractions

kagami's pov cusses a LOT more

very reactive. while aomine pov does have some use of "Ahh, this guy!" it's kagami pov where they're much more heavily used

he also has so many uses of WHAT?! in his internal monologue/pov. he consciously forces himself to slow down and think things through, but that's usually after he's just said something really loudly

kagami catastrophises ALL THE TIME

the fact that kagami refuses to address his abandonment issues and the pain that his personal life has inflicted upon him, means that all of that is quite close to the surface. it's linked with catastrophising, but as soon as something happens, he does tend to assume the worst

the only times that he pays any attention to his environment is when it's related to basketball, or his little romance with aomine. he feels that his senses are sharper in those moments

kagami thinks of himself more distinctively as TAIGA rather than kagami, because, please :) Mr Kagami is my father's name :) i'm kidding but when i started writing aomine pov, i was still using aomine's surname as the character name. i changed that fairly late in if i remember correctly

his pov is much more focused on feeling, usually centered around how HE is feeling because he can't read minds!!!

he is NOT a good judge of how other people are feeling, but he tries anyway

kagami has a really tough time reading aomine and how he feels, as is most evident in kagami's pov of APRIL SHOWERS. where he has no idea what daiki could POSSIBLY be thinking! also in THE LONG WAY HOME., kagami cannot see how much aomine genuinely cares for him in this. tragic

kagami doesn't spend a whole lot of time thinking about physical attraction, but it is mentioned occasionally

his respect for people is more evident in his pov versus aomine's respect for others in his, because kagami is constantly conscious of translation issues and not coming across formally enough

there are way more ellipses used in kagami pov because boy does this bitch ponder and then lose the plot, get distracted, and move onto something else

he's very easily distracted in general actually

[mitamicah]

I see a lot of people have made covers of the snippet of Everybody's Waiting (the new JO track)

I may do it too but at the same time I am hesitant given that I am 90% sure they won't see it (since everything else I'd ever made have never been noticed by them - Bojan's big share yesterday included) and if by chance it is getting seen I am not sure how I'd feel having the first thing noticed by them be just another cover

I am probably overthinking things again

[wellzofyouth]

That one post of my mine predictably aged like fine wine. Never let somebody on comic twitter in the writer's room😭😭😭 Like imagine a 1 to 1 adaptation of literally any event?? -1b at the box office. "Who are these people???"

[mad-hunts]

feeling strangely... sort of fluffy, but in an almost sad way, right now and this is because i could just imagine barton setting up some of those synthetic ice-skating tiles whenever marcy was still around and doing so in their kitchen. and this way, he could help her practice it at home && IDK why, but them almost always skating to something fun like 'let's groove' just makes sense to me — because in essence, barton thought it'd help her relax a little more, and he just liked being a little silly around her sometimes 😭

[mobius-m-mobius]

Pt 2:

(Okay I'm sorry this length is actually a bit absurd. As you can see my mind is SPINNING and this may have gotten. Out of hand. Please do feel free to ignore me, I promise I won't take it personally 😆😆)

So here’s the thing. In Loki and Sylvie’s first full episode together, I read the nexus event as being Loki experiencing self-love for once in his existence. Until events unfolded and I sighed and resigned myself to the inevitable heterosexuality of fit all. But.

Consider it from Loki’s perspective. You find yourself caring for this person who is and isn’t yourself. And it’s nice, at the end of all things, to care. Then the most emotionally intelligent man you know is insisting you’ve fallen in love with her. And gosh golly gee that is NOT what you thought was going on there, but you’re new to this whole letting yourself care schtick—how would you know?

Then, a miracle—against all the odds in the universe, Mobius decides to trust you after all. To fight by your side.

And within seconds, it gets him killed.

It feels like everything is over, and you don’t understand why. But it isn’t. The world is still falling apart, and Sylvie is still trapped, and whatever the way in which you care for her, you do care. And Mobius—he is dead. And nearly the last thing he said to you was that he thinks the love between you and Sylvie could save the universe. So what else can you do? You have to try. For both of them.

So you go to Sylvie, and it’s hard to get the words out, and it doesn’t feel quite right, but you try to tell her—

Your maybe universe-saving hopefully-actually-true love confession is cut off, and things get a bit wonky after that. And in the meantime there is another miracle—Mobius is alive after all.

But the universe still isn’t saved. And Mobius isn’t dead, but you thought he was, and you’ve been so viscerally reminded that to love is to lose. And anyway—before his seeming death the last thing Mobius said was that if he could go anywhere, it would be to his own life. Those scant moments when it seemed you might move forward side by side were illusion indeed. Mobius has a life of his own, in which you have no part.

So you turn to this other self, and say, ‘will you stay will me, after?’

She isn’t you. But perhaps she’s near enough to stay. No one else will.

Then you have the Sylkie kiss, which frankly imo barely counts as evidence on its own. When Sylvie finds out about Mobius’ nexus event theory she immediately goes to Loki to say ‘yeahhhhhhh so lets not do that bud … hey did you notice how much Mobius cares about you? 😃” Lok got a little confused, but Sylvie doesn’t seem, to me, to ever have thought her feelings for Loki were romantic. And when she kisses him, it’s a betrayal. Giving him what he seems to want as a distraction for the sake of her own ends.

And so he can’t trust her, and she won’t trust him, and there is no safety in running to himself to avert his loneliness. And he kissed her, and the universe isn’t saved.

And the lonely god runs straight on back to Mobius. And he might have still been sorting his head out a bit in the first two eps of s2, yet. He never leaves Mobius’ side again. Not until it is only way to save him. Not until he has spent centuries searching desperately for a way to stay by his side.

Wouldn't dream of ignoring you, absolutely love hearing the thought process people go through while watching or rewatching the show (starting another rewatch of my own soon!) and found myself noticing many of the same things you've mentioned especially regarding Sylvie as a representation of Loki coming to terms with self love for the first time which then led to the actualization of forming the kind of emotional connection and openness with Mobius that romantic love can build on.

Will reply to both parts of your ask here (linking part 1 just in case anyone hasn't seen it) and absolutely believe you're right in that while Loki would've always had potential escape from the methods and mistrust of the TVA in the back of his mind, he was very rapidly starting to separate Mobius from being part of the collective because there were too many genuine moments building between them to ever be in line with what the TVA would normally allow.

(adding a read more bc, well, it's me so we know this is getting long)

The shot in Roxxcart that lingers on Loki watching Mobius walk away after their discussion of trust always stuck with me because at that point I was under the assumption Loki was grappling with awareness the mission could be an opportunity of escape and for the first time didn't actually *want* to leave but had no idea how to process the feelings that had developed from being in a partnership of mutual respect and further taken a hit with the reminder that Mobius is still a major part of the TVA, and no one at the TVA will ever fully trust him.

Funnily enough even though it's kind of a running joke that Mobius had fallen for Loki before they even met (and he absolutely had 😅), the fact that it really was something more always came across as almost subconscious for him?? Loki knew what they had but panicked, never having experienced anything of that level before and not knowing what to do with any of it while Mobius has repressed his feelings about, well, everything for so long just to cope with life at the TVA it's hard for him to picture anything outside their rule.

I never saw Loki taking off after Sylvie as anything more than the chance to escape what could, or in his mind at that moment couldn't, grow with Mobius while taking a perfect opportunity to explore curiosity on his part as to who this is, whether she's useful, and how she connects to being a Loki and from that point on we continue to see in his interactions with Sylvie they mirror each other at various stages of life.

If anything his clear hesitation at leaving Mobius definitely made the betrayal sting that much more, which is why Mobius lashed out so openly during the next interrogation without even bothering to hide his hurt and I've always thought the moment where Mobius calls him out for being a bad friend in front of the guards is when it actually clicks with Loki that he may have ruined something big, something important between them if Mobius is willing to not just admit to them having a real connection in front of people who would almost certainly report something like that but consider him a friend to have trust in for the time in his life. So he risks it all trying to convince Mobius to trust him one more time and thinks he failed like usual, only to have Mobius come back with faith in who he can be, faith Loki doesn't feel he deserves but gladly takes which leads directly to Mobius getting pruned trying to protect him.

And I love how you phrased this section because exactly, Loki is so completely lost and torn apart in a way like never before after watching Mobius die. Sylvie is the only anchor to anything left, and Mobius had just (misguidedly, but still lol) told him the two of them could make a difference so that's exactly what Loki tries to do but every time he attempts to involve some level of emotion like the possible confession before also getting pruned or discussing their nexus event it's immediately cut off and for good reason; because that's not who those feelings are meant for. It's important to note as well that when Sylvie tells Loki how much Mobius cares about him, it isn't brushed aside or joked about but instead allowed to land and breathe in that moment because they know how true it is, but also that Loki isn't ready to face that yet.

Then at the citadel (and didn't s2 go a long way toward erasing pretty much all the implications meant here besides the fact that they'll never see eye to eye 😂) Loki and Sylvie immediately clash, with both of them openly wondering why they can't trust each other. Loki's frustration is clear because if he had been talking to Mobius instead they could take some time so things wouldn't have reached this point but he isn't, so he and Sylvie come to blows.

In my opinion Sylvie had never seen Loki in a romantic light either or even wanted to consider the possibility, but she did notice his constant struggle to reconcile feelings that did exist for Mobius and took advantage as a distraction and mirror to the Roxxcart grocery store divorce which leaves Loki confused and alone, processing what's just happened as he realizes despite everything his trust in Mobius has never wavered and never will. He races towards him only to finally know what it does feel like to look into his eyes and find that trust fully missing, so once he gets his Mobius back he spends almost every moment of s2 as close to his side as possible until he's forced to give him up, but as you said not until he's exhausted centuries seeking a way to stay. It's clear both of their endings are to be left wanting and waiting which is the most tragic way to have Lokius confirmed but we can only hope sooner rather than later they have a chance to work their way back to each other 🥰