#i low key abandoned this project

[aro-aceattorney]

more dndads tarot cards!!

[arolesbianism]

Just realized I forgot to post these

[machveil]

silly thoughts for the wee early morning hours

Retired!König low-key becoming a cryptid in a small town. he’s finally retired and is done with dealing with people regularly. he moves out into the country, buys up a fixer-upper. the house’s driveway is nearly unnoticeable in the tree line and foliage. the house itself? it really should be condemned, it’s completely abandoned and crumbling apart. there’s mold, rotting wood, half the roof has collapsed in on itself. but König likes working with his hands, having a project like this will keep him happily busy

unfortunately, Retired!König walking around in the woods becomes a small town story. “Mama— mama, I saw somethin’ in the trees!”, “Hey, did you see that? No— no, c’mere, what the hell is that?”, “Guys— you wouldn’t believe what I saw! I was taking a walk in the woods this morning and I saw this massive figure! No, it wasn’t a bear, I know what a bear looks like, Nathan.”, König isn’t even aware people have been spotting his hulking figure in the woods. he chops his own wood, forages, hunts when he can

Retired!König goes into town as little as possible. he only goes if he needs something he can’t make, grow, or find in the woods. so… yeah, a store run here and there is necessary. but what he didn’t expect was to be talking to the cashier. König doesn’t engage in small talk often, a rarity, but when they mention the small town cryptid he chuckles, “I doubt it, there’s nothing out there.”. König elaborates a little when the cashier raises an eyebrow, tells the kid working the register that he lives out there

Retired!König being told, “Hey man, just saying. Be careful out there, who knows? Could be a monster out there.”. when König left town that day he scoffed to himself, a monster in the woods. what a joke, monsters aren’t real - humans are worse than any imaginary creatures. well… he thinks that until he saw a newspaper a month later coming out of the store. a photo slammed on the front page, a blurry shadow moving through the woods. he only paused because he recognized the hood the ‘figure’ was wearing

[unholyhelbig]

Obsessed obsessed obsessed with Firecrest 🥺

Title: Firecrest (Part 2/???)

Read Part One

Summary: Kate Bishop and y/n have an unspoken agreement that revolves around being enemies with benefits. But when Kate's new mentor is someone Y/n is very familiar with, things become complicated.

Warnings: Parental abandonment, horrible parenting, slight mentions of blood, reader has villain tendencies, and horrible grammar because I never proofread!

[A/n: I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I'm honestly really digging writing it. If this is something you guys would like me to keep going, I'll do my best. Just let me know!]

Main Masterlist | Read my stuff on AO3 | Leave Requests

A sting worked its way through your knuckles before dissolving into a dull ache at your wrist. Sweat had started at your hairline and the small of your back before soaking through the wicked fabric of your tank-top. You could feel your shoulders cramping up. But, you’d stopped crying an hour ago. You feared that if you stopped assaulting the punching bag, then the tears would spill over again.

Lance had told you to take it easy. Your ribs had been bruised after the situation you’d left the benefit for. While you were grateful, said distraction packed a punch and you’d taken a swift kick to the gut and the side of a fire escape digging painfully into your side. It took everything in you not to throw the low-level criminal onto the pavement below.

Instead, you’d cuffed him and left him there until morning, or until law enforcement showed up. You were projecting, you were sure. But if your mother looked at you with pity one more time, you would have shoved him to his certain death.

You’d gotten out of the house and came to the boxing gym. The owner had given you your own key and it gave you enough privacy. If you had any tears left, you’d be able to shed them freely. You clenched your eyes shut and threw a solid round of punches, a scream of anguish ripping through your throat.

Two more hits and the bag became stagnant. Not the same, rocking defense that you’d been punching. You were used to the rhythmic sway and your eyes sprung open at the change in density. You’d ripped a bag before, sand spilling onto the floor.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” You shouted, taking a step back. Kate Bishop was on the other side of the bag, holding onto it with a concerned stare on her features. Her annoying perfect features, despite the late time of night. You panted. “Shit.”

“I called out, but you didn’t answer. I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m sorry.”

She released the bag and it swung back and fourth between you both. The chain that attached it to the ceiling squeaked in a rusted effort. Her stormy eyes flicked up nervously and then back to you. You knew that Kate used to come here with her father, her biological father, but you weren’t aware that she had the same key privileges as you.

You worked a hand through sweat-soaked hair and closed the distance to the side of the boxing ring. You used your teeth to pull open the plastic nib on your water bottle, soothed by the cool swallows. Kate watched you carefully. Her eyes roamed over your form, coated in sweat and toned from years of physical exertion.

You couldn’t stop your shoulders from trembling. Violent attempts from your body to assert it’s emotions. You could give in, and you could do so easily. But you would not. Not with Kate Bishop relinquishing her hold on the punching bag that you’d nearly turned to a pulp of sand and shredded upholstery. This wasn’t your dynamic. This wasn’t how things worked.

It was easy to take a lot of things that Kate was willing to give; a ride home from the gym, a doll that matched hers when the two of you were young, soft touches and harder thrusts. But one thing you refused to take was her pity. It leaked from her expression like a broken faucet and for some reason, that angered you.

“What are you doing here, Kate?”

“I came here to work off some extra energy. What are you doing here? I figured I wouldn’t see you for a few more months after you left the benefit early like that.”

“There was no reason for me to stick around.”

The answer fell from your lips in a deadened, emotionless tone. She clenched her jaw and then unclenched it, mulling her thoughts. There was an apprehension to her stance, even as she closed the distance between you both. She stopped just short of your fingers twitching to press against her hip, holding her in place. You lifted an unimpressed eyebrow.

Another swallow of now-warm water seemed to stop the uncertainty of your movements. You hoisted yourself onto the edge of the ring with a sigh, pressing your fingertips to your temples. Kate moved silently and leaned next to you. The quiet she offered was something you took, just like everything else.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” Kate asked softly. You looked at her in confusion, lilting your head to the side. “You watched me fawn over Clint Barton for years. I had his posters in my room, and replica’s of his bows, and every news story ever written about him cut out and saved in a shoebox.”

“Because he’s important to you, Katie.”

“He’s your father.”

“He’s not.” You snapped. It was harsh. You forced yourself to relax, softening your voice. “He’s not. Lance is my father, and Clint Barton is far more important to you then he is to me.”

Kate swallowed thickly and hoisted herself up next to you. Her heat was overwhelming you with comfort. You didn’t have it in you to figure out what that meant, past your petty rivalry. She smelled of fresh detergent, of the winter air that clung to her so heavenly.

Her hand tentatively moved to your knee, and you didn’t stop her. You were still trembling and stilled at her closeness. “I’m not going to see him anymore.”

“Kate,” you chuckled sadly. “He’s your hero, and he trusts you enough to take over the Hawkeye name. You can’t throw that out because of his choices, and you certainly can’t throw that out because of me. We hate each other, remember?”

A look of sadness flickered momentarily against her features. The two of you had been in a constant head to head race to prove yourselves since you were young. Kate always came in first, and you had settled with second place; in school, in sports, in forced family outings. It used to end in toe to toe screaming matches.

But, the two of you were older now, and all that built up tension was easily released with stripped clothes and thrown around insults that did nothing but stir the excitement in your gut.

Being a hero was the only thing you were better at, than Katherine Elizabeth Bishop and you were sure that was about to change with Hawkeyes diligent teaching. Lance and Bobbi didn’t need the glory that came with being an Avenger- no, they kept the secret in the term secret agent.

“Right, of course.” She sounded out, nudged you with her shoulder. “But… you can still talk to me.”

You leveled her with an unimpressed stare. Despite her suave playboy attitude that infuriated you, Kate Bishop was not subtle when she wanted something. She chewed her bottom lip, both of her eyebrows raised in an adorable attempt to ease your nerves.

“Right, you’re right, sorry.” She moved to push herself off of the mat, but you wrapped your fingers around her wrist and gave it a tender squeeze. Kate froze in place before scooting back up, even closer this time. Her words reduced to a whisper, as if trying not to scare you off. “Okay.”

“Do you know what Terrigen crystals are?”

“We learned about them last semester, inhuman history. It’s a catalyst chemical that binds with red blood cells that are receptive to change.”

“Impressive.” You gave her a wolfish smile. “When I was growing up, my mom gave up her solo-agent status and conceded to joining a team, and one of their first missions together was to find, and retrieve these Terrigen crystals, the only ones in the entire world. They were meant to contain them, and nothing else, but things rarely go as planned.”

You were sure that Kate knew about the broken crystals that had leaked into the push and pull of the ocean. Fish naturally consumed the microscopic agent and soon, the Terrigen properties were distributed throughout the world commercially. Coulson had called it untamable. You remembered the fear in his eyes, and you had squirmed uncomfortably in the same Inhuman History class a year back.

“The day that things changed, my Aunt Daisy was in solitary confinement in the team’s underground bunker. My mom was busy running tests on her blood after she’d been exposed to the chemical agent. I knew how to stay out of the way, but happened to be in the lab with her when everything started to shake.”

“Shake?” Kate quirked a brow.

You nodded “The Terrigen crystal gave Daisy control of vibrational forces, but none of us knew that at the time. We just knew that something was wrong. The shaking startled everyone and my mom, she grabbed every Terrigen crystal but one.”  

If not for Jemma, if not for her quick reflexes and wrapping her arms around Bobbi, sending them both from the lab before activating the safety seal, then neither of them would have made it. Indigo mist rushed from the shattered crystal and you remember the acrid floral taste that coated your lungs. It suffocated you.

“The last thing I remember about that day is my mother sobbing. She had both of her hands pressed against the glass surrounding the lab. She wailed like I wasn’t coming back, like she had failed me.”

Kate whimpered your name “Y/n,”

A tear drop hit the collar of your shirt and wicked nicely with the drying sweat. You used the base of hand to delicately wipe the rest away and came to the startling realization that Kate Bishop was one of the only people who had ever seen you cry.

“Everything went dark, then. I remember this hot, prickling feeling and it was hard to move. And then there was nothing. I know now that it was some… some type of cocoon of dirt and stone, but it crumbled away easily when the Terrigen had taken it’s effect.”

“That must have been scary.”

“Terrifying,” You let out a watery chuckle. “But in the end, I was in the best place possible for something like that to happen. I was surrounded by people who cared about me, who loved me, and who could teach me how to control the fire that’s always just below the surface.”

You pulled one knee to your chest and leaned your cheek against it, keeping a steady eye on Kate. She was already watching you. Fingers toying with the small brass zipper of her sweatshirt. She looked beautiful in the dimmed lights, and being this close, stopping to talk to her, had given you an even view of her freckles.

“Clint was on a mission in the Baltic Sea with Natasha, or at least, that’s how my mom tells it. Point is, he wasn’t there and even when he did return he took one look at me in solitary confinement and packed a duffel bag. There were arguments, I’m sure, but I wasn’t privy to them.”

The last time you had seen your biological father was when he knelt down at the sealed doors of the lab. His hand was massive compared to yours, it looked unnatural and alien when he pressed it against the glass. There was a finality in his stare. He’d called you Sparky, and you’d giggled like it was the funniest thing in the world.

You could see the turmoil in her stormy gaze. There was the sense of betrayal there, and the quiet contemplation of someone who had just found out the reality of their hero.  Clint was her everything, her mentor, her teacher. He was the father figure she needed, and that was a clear line drawn in the sand.

Kate’s cold touch against your cheek, hot and tinted red from your earlier exertion, pulled you from your thoughts. Pity had replaced any semblance of anger she held onto. A whine moving involuntarily past your lips. You hadn’t realized how desperate you were for someone to touch you. For Kate to touch you.

Your relationship with the archer had never been any more than a succession of first and second place. A deadly dance that had culminated in open mouthed kisses and wandering fingers. This was one of the few times you’d had a serious conversation with her, a raw one that exposed wounds.

“I’ll do it,”

“Do what?”

You were hopelessly and pathetically lost. She smiled at that, an animalistic grin that often fell over her when she knew she was winning. You’d seen in countless times and couldn’t quite remember when it stopped annoying you and started turning you on.

“Pretend that we’re a couple,” She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, dropping her hand and hopping off the edge of the ring. You missed her warmth, but it didn’t last for long. Kate was suddenly posted up between your legs, her arms draped over your shoulders. She was so close you could smell the mint on her breath. “To piss off Clint.”

Your hands naturally found her hips, not daring to squeeze them, “I can’t ask you to do that.”

“First of all, you didn’t ask. You saw the way Clint reacted to us sleeping together and your instincts to make him angry kicked in. Secondly, I already told him we’re dating. I have way too much talent for him to drop me as a protégé just because I’m banging his estranged daughter.”

“Wow, you have such a way with words, Kate. Really, I’m just fawning over you here.”

She rolled her eyes, but you couldn’t stifle the phantom of a smile on your face. No one had ever offered to do something like this for you before. Especially not someone this close to the playing field. People had called you a freak for most of your life, an inhuman disaster that had a hot temper.

The anger you could control. It was the intensity in which you loved that got you into the most trouble.

Footfalls echoed against the rain-soaked streets of the city. A deep burn resonated within your chest, sweat forming against your collarbone and dripping down the small of your back. You’d never seen the benefit to tactical suits in the summer. They kept heat in like no other and by the time the night was over, your entire body ached.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

You’d lost one of the targets. It wasn’t something you’ve done in years, but your mind was admittedly somewhere else. You hadn’t gotten much sleep in the past week and it was showing in your sloppy work. Your mother had given you a worried look that only lasted half a second before you’d taken off.

The man you were pursuing was faster than you anticipated, but it wasn’t hard for you to catch up. You never understood why people ran into alleyways. They’d most likely lived in the city for their entire lives and knew that most of them ended in construction zones, or the end of a brownstone.

His chest heaved as he felt the wall behind him, turning and pressing his back against the wall. If he was desperate enough to run, you knew that he didn’t have a plan past this.

The tactical suit came with a few benefits that staved off the discomfort. While your mother preferred her staves, you had always leaned more towards a quarterstaff, a hot, reactive, type of metal that would glow a dangerous neon orange at just your touch.

It extended with a mechanical whir, your head tilting to the side. “Dude, really?”

“Look, I’ll never do it again!” His voice cracked like he was adolescent, but the beard that splattered the bottom half of his face betrayed the effects of his fear. “Just let me go, please.”

You closed the distance that lingered between you both, using the end of your staff to push up his chin. Your voice leaked with mock sympathy “Really? You promise?”

Half of his face was dripping with the blue dye from an exploding pack in a bundle of bills. His hands were coated entirely, the lapels of his shirt smeared from his lackluster attempt to wipe away the pigment. The man nodded vigorously.

“Oh, thank God, that’s a relief. I really thought I was going to have to take you in. The nearest station is eight blocks south and that would be a load of paperwork.”

“Yeah, yes, a lot of red tape” He shakily replied.

You slammed the quarterstaff into his gut. His breath left him, curling into himself as he fell to his knees. In the same moment, an arrow whizzed past you and lodged into his shoulder. His exhale of air turned into a scream of pain.

You groaned and pinched the bridge of your nose. The fletching was a dark purple, almost black under the light of the moon. Telling the difference between Clint’s arrows and Kate’s hadn’t become an issue until now. Knowing that he was in the same city as you made you feel ill.

“I had that!”

The staff retracted and you attached it back in place on your belt. So, what if you liked to play around with the perpetrators every once and awhile? You did good work, but there were long and deep lulls of footwork in the hero business.

Clint stood at the mouth of the alleyway. His stance was shadowed with the concise way he carried himself. You couldn’t tell if he was alone or not, but didn’t get the signature winter scent from Kate’s presence.

He strode up to the target, pulling the arrow from his shoulder with a gentle tug. He put it back into it’s quiver as if it wasn’t slick with blood. Clint cuffed him, dragged him into a sitting position by the arm. You watched his languid movements with a resentment you didn’t know you harbored.

“Yeah, it looked like you had it, Sparky.”

“I told you not to call me that.”

His blue eyes flicked down to your hands, watching for any signs of a dull glow. He didn’t�� find any. You balled your fists and clenched your jaw. You didn’t owe him anything. Tonight, he seemed to be approaching you with contempt, now that his initial shock had worn off.

Clint clearly didn’t’ know how to handle you, or the giant emotional elephant in the room. It was nearing midnight and there was a storm brewing, you could smell it. The last thing you wanted to do was stand by the dumpsters and discuss your feelings, so you started to walk away.

“Kid, wait. I’m approaching this all wrong. I’m sure you had it handled.” His words didn’t stop you, but he jogged to catch up and fell in step. You glared at him, shoved your suddenly cold hands into the pockets of your suit. “We need to talk about Kate.”

This stopped you in your tracks. He wanted to talk about Kate. All these years separated, living completely different lives and he wanted to talk about your fake girlfriend. “Okay. Yeah. Let’s talk about Kate.”

“You can’t continue to see her.”

You stopped, standing in front of him with your arms crossed. He had a few inches on you, but you carried his stance. One of the only things other than his stubbornness that you had inherited from him.

“I’m sorry?”

“Kate is persistent, I’m sure you know that. It took months of her poking and prodding for me to even agree to take her under my wing. She’s a good archer, but she’s reckless, thinks too much with her heart and not her brain. She can’t afford to have distractions right now.”

A brick dropped in the pit of your stomach. The flames seemed to lick viciously at your pulse points. But, you swallowed it back and let out a sad laugh. “You don’t think I’m good enough for her.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Didn’t have to, you did all the talking when you walked out on me at eight years old. Then you come waltzing back after years of building the family you wanted. The family that wasn’t filled with freaks.”

“Y/n, I don’t-“

“Because that’s all we ever were for you.” You growled at him. “the accident was just the excuse you needed to leave, and you’ve spent your time trying to make up for it by parenting every single stray that shows up on your doorstep expect for me.”

He was rendered silent, something that Clint rarely was. He opened his mouth and closed it again, a few times as if he was a fish out of water. You were breathing heavy, the words stinging your throat. You’d been harboring that for years, burying it deep inside. He’d tripped the metaphorical wire.

When he did find his voice, it was cracked and morose. “Okay. You’re right, you’re right.”

“I’m… right?”

He nodded sadly “I haven’t been fair to you, or your mother. I was a different person back then. I just don’t want Kate to get hurt, and I don’t want to hurt you more than I already have.”

A step back from him seemed to clear your mind. For a moment, you wanted to crash into his safe embrace, to breathe in the scent of his aftershave. He was your father, your biological father, and despite it all, you were drawn to his kindness.

You swallowed back the lump in your throat, mouth tasting of metal and bile. “You’re afraid of me, Hawkeye. You always have been.”

“That’s not true” He said it weakly.

“It is. You wouldn’t have run the moment I became different if you weren’t.” another step back and he didn’t’ dare to follow you. You vowed not to cry in front of him, or about him. Not now, and not ever, but you couldn’t stop the tears from streaking your cheeks. “You don’t have to worry about Kate Bishop. She can take care of herself. And so can I.”

[sunnylolli]

Do you mind going in-depth about England and his BPD?

I would love to, actually!

I forgot if I already have, but my vision has ripened a lot since my initial headcanon.

It's a long post, so I'll put things under a read more!

I just want to clarify that I'm just giving him traits I can recognize from myself and friends I have that share the diagnosis, so in no way is this how every person with BPD/EUPD functions! (Also this is for my own indulgency first, please don't pick it apart for details, I'm just some gal projecting :,))

Anyway

The key components for this particular headcanon I see with him are unstable relationships, unstable self-image, paranoia/suspicion, imagined/perceived abandonment and a reaction hereto.

Because Arthur is afraid to be alone. He hates being alone and there has been a streak throughout his life of people leaving him or downright turning on him.

And what I see this mouthing out to is imposter syndrome and going black and white in pretty much everything.

"If they aren't explicitly with me, they're against me." (Ex. from historical canon see: Literally every single war and conflict he's been part of - Specifically I'm thinking about numerous instances in the war of roses and the Napoleonic wars.)

"If I can't be good (how he thinks goodness is defined as, which is practically angelic and pure, an impossible goal to achieve) then I might as well be as bad as possible." (His entire life, essentially.)

"I can't do it this way/I can't achieve it how I picture it, so I might as well not do it at all." (Ex. with how he gave up getting in shape because of Alfred's insane show of dragging his car around.)

He's uncertain in his ego and identity, he contradicts himelf a lot; Being proper and polite, posh, punk, pirate, primal feral animal etc. He has different aspects of himself he suppresses at different times and enforces at other times.

My favorite part to think about in this headcanon, is how in his childhood he was very much on his own, foraging and travelling, with the occasional encounter with people, his brothers and invaders. Such as France or Denmark and these encounters weren't always positive. I like to think of him being more lively and animated in his childhood. He shows what he likes and dislikes, he expresses himself and how he's feeling, he laughs more openly etc.

Overtime, he stores that away and puts on a farce to appear more serious and collected, because he wants to be taken seriously. He reflects the things he's seen and heard invaders do to his own lands and does that same thing to others.

He absorbs traits and aspects from other places, he allows himself to be influenced and altered, and reshaped and molded until he's so far from what he originally was that he's beginning to lose touch with what part of him is stolen and what part of him is genuine.

Thus, the personality disorder aspect.

As for the perceived/imagined abandonment, I see it being in many instances self-fulling prophecy, spurred on by low self-worth.

He has a hard time thinking and speaking positively of himself, and has a hard time truly believing that people actually like him and want to be together with him; Be that romantic or platonic or familial, he ends up being so disbelieving of it, he projects it onto others and gives himself excuses to withdraw from them or act cold towards them, such as "They'll leave eventually anyway".

His low self-worth vs. His self-confidence is a connundrum, because he can act self-assured and self-satisfied, but he's also absolutely not. The british spirit of self-deprecation compels him, fr.

He ends up being unpredictable in his mood, because either you'll push the buttons that sets him into a frenzy or he's going to downright stonewall you.

Lightly connecting this to his not-very-subtle alcohol problem, because I see him drinking to stop overthinking.

If he does allow himself time to think, he's going to spiral into the hardest self-loathing known to man and he can't really deal with stewing in his own loneliness, guilt, bitterness, sadness and self-deprecation for too long, before he actually begins to go crazy.

In most of my au's he does eventually go to therapy for it (Thank god) and his patterns do begin to grow more transparent as he tries to not be a self-sabotaging, insecure little man. And at the perceived abandonment moments, he'll start to look for ways to prevent it, instead of detaching entirely and repress the disappointment with liqour.

I think that's what I could conjure up from my mind about it for now, I'll reblog with additions if I remember more!

[kindersurprisebacterium]

Frigid (Ghost/Soap/Reader)

CW: Threesome, Anal, Vaginal, Oral (Giving/Recieving), Facials, Slight Breeding Kink, Alcohol

Gender Neutral AFAB Reader. They/Them Used

WC: 4.2k

The frigid air chapped my face. My eyelashes had frozen together in the blizzard-like conditions. Despite the layers of thermal clothing I had on under my snow gear, the chill went straight to my bones. I clenched my jaw tightly, hoping to dull the sound of my clattering teeth. 

Tucked up ahead between two rocky ridges was a plain looking concrete building. Through the blinding snow, it could’ve been easily mistaken for just another steep cliff face. I glanced back at the two men beside me. Captain McTavish’s brunette facial hair was now speckled with white. A blush had settled on his cheeks as the frost nipped his skin. Ghost was the furthest behind. While the balaclava on his face shielded him from the whipping wind, I didn’t doubt that he was miserable, trekking supplies through the deep snow. 

We approached the safe house. It looked like an abandoned bunker. Graffiti defaced the gray concrete exterior. Without a window, I couldn’t glance at the interior just yet. Johnny pulled out a set of keys from his pocket, the clanging just barely audible over the roaring storm. He inserted the key into the rusted knob and twisted, pushing weight onto the door with his shoulder. The door gave way and the three of us quickly rushed inside, slamming the door behind us. 

“Please tell me there’s a space heater or something,” I said as I brushed the snow off of my coat. 

“Think so. Dinnae see why there wouldn’t be,” Johnny huffed as he stepped into another room. The lights flicked on, and the low hum of electronics whirred to life. I glanced over my shoulder as one of the vents clattered, drawing my attention. I reached my gloved hand up to the vent. The faintest wave of heat washed over me. I grinned as I slipped my gloves off. 

“Central heating. They really spoiled us this time,” I said with a laugh. I undid the zipper of my overcoat next. I stepped into the next room, glancing across the arrangement of couches. It was decorated as if it was a home. A cow skin rug covered the floor. Atop it sat a wooden coffee table. 

“Are we sure this isn’t some kind of fancy bomb shelter?” I asked, dropping my coat on the floor. 

“Bloody looks like one,” Ghost muttered. I stepped out of my boots, leaving them by the door to dry. My fingers went to the buttons on my overalls, snapping them out of place. 

“Drinks!” Johnny shouted from another room. His boots clattered against the floor. With every step, the bottles in his arms clinked. I grinned at the Scotsman as I stepped out of the overalls. I felt much more comfortable in my sweats, without the suffocating feeling of gear on me. 

“Nice score, Johnny,” I said as I took a seat on the couch. 

Johnny was one of the first people I’d met on base. Being a computer expert, we often worked closely together. His personality was what struck me first. Others had said he acts like a puppy. I couldn’t help but agree. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do to see that beaming grin of his. 

It was on one of our nights off, at a bar near base, that we became friends. We spent the night talking over whiskey and swapping stories. He was affectionate, and touchy. With anyone else, I would’ve been put off, however it suited him perfectly. A simple touch of the shoulder could put you at ease instantly. 

Ghost was another story. The two of them were close, I knew that. Ghost was a prominent figure in the many stories he’d told me, and in the field the two almost always shared a tent. They’d been working for years together by this point. And yet, I couldn’t ever seem to break through his tough exterior. 

Any time we’d go out drinking, he sat silently, offering a small chuckle or a grunt occasionally. It was only after a few glasses that you’d really hear his voice, deep and gruff. And it was only after a bottle that I ever got to see his face. That night ended with the two of us dragging him back to base, nearly tripping over our feet to step over the trail of vomit he left. 

“Aye, they got bourbon. Tha’s fer you then.” He said, handing me a bottle. I popped the cap open with a grin and took a swig. The liquid hit my throat with a heat high enough to melt the snow off of my lashes. I pursed my lips as I swallowed, humming lightly. It was strong, much stronger than anything we had on base. I set the bottle between my thighs and watched as Johnny set the bottles on the table. I patted the space next to me with the palm of my hand. With his own drink in his grasp, he sat next to me. 

The couch cushions shifted under his weight. He threw his arm over my shoulder, now dressed down in a pair of thermal garments.

“To a job well done,” he said, lifting his bottle. I chuckled, clinking my drink against his. “You still need to show me how you rigged the detonator up to that computer.” He brought the bottle to his lips, eyes closing as he took down a few drinks. 

“Course,” I said, nudging him with my shoulder. “Ghost, what are you drinking tonight?” I asked the man. He picked up a bottle of what looked to be vodka. With Cyrillic letters, I couldn’t quite tell.

“Mystery Slav juice,” he grunted, taking a seat on the other couch. “Bloody hell my back is killing me.”

As the night went on, my limbs got warmer and warmer, and my bottle grew emptier and emptier. Mask discarded, the stuff man sitting across from me began to slowly open up. 

“You ever hook up with anyone on base?” Ghost asked with one of his legs crossed over the other. I laughed at the question, tightening the grip on my bottle. 

“Nah, never gotten that desperate,” I answered. He furrowed his brows, brown eyes flicking between me and Johnny. 

“I thought you two were going at it,” he said, narrowing his eyes.

“Simon, I said I wanted to, not that I had,” soap sighed. “Damn blonde cannae listen can he?” He whispered next to my ear. I chuckled, feeling an intense heat rise in my cheeks. The admission didn’t surprise me, but saying the quiet part out loud did. 

“We got damn close that one night, course I was actually dolled up. Figured that might’ve done it for him,” I pushed my elbow into his ribs. Simon tapped his fingers against the arm of the couch, lips pressed tightly together. 

“C’mon don’t get jealous now, Ghosty.” Johnny whined, squeezing me tighter. His tone made me stop. I glanced up at the blonde sitting across from me, brows furrowed as I sifted through my thoughts. Jealous? Sure, it could’ve been a joke, but the looks ghost was giving me were just that, jealous. 

“Are you two…” I paused, looking at the two in hopes they’d cut me off. Johnny opened his mouth, as if he were going to speak, then closed it again. 

“Couple times,” Ghost spoke bluntly. 

“More’n a couple,” he corrected, “why, you getting jealous too?” The answer to his question was an undeniable yes. After that night of drunken, grabby hands, I couldn’t help but wish it had ended differently. 

I set my glass down on the table, refusing to answer his inquiry. Out of the corner of my eye I saw his jaw drop. The corners of his mouth turned up into a smirk as the realization struck him. I was. 

“Oh my god,” he gripped my jaw, turning my face to look at him. “You are!” I pushed away from him, trying to hide my flushed cheeks. With a soft plop I landed on my side on the couch. Johnny stood up with a grin, setting his bottle down and bringing his hands to my calves. He pulled me down the couch and onto my back, then quickly leaned down to pull my hands away from my face.

“I d’nt even think you wanted to go there,” he grinned, eyes scanning my face. 

“Johnny we almost-“

“You fell asleep!” He bursted out laughing. “They fell asleep on me!” He explained to Ghost. 

“I was drunk!” I retorted, wrestling against his grip on my wrist, “I didn’t want it to end like that,” I pouted.

“Well, how’d you want it to end?” Ghost asked, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. 

I couldn’t help the rush of heat that went between my legs. The way he looked at me with half-lidded eyes and dilated pupils- it drew my attention. Johnny gently placed his hand on my cheek. I brought my gaze back to him, brows furrowing as I opened my mouth to speak. 

“I wanted it to end with us fucking- I really did,” I confessed, glancing away from him. He pushed one of my legs up over his hip and leaned down, hips pressing flush against mine. From underneath the layers of wool, I could feel something stiff pressing against my thigh. My head spun as his face grew closer to mine. 

His lips were chapped, and his stubble scratched my cheeks, and yet I couldn’t pull away. The way his hands skimmed up and down my body had me holding my breath. Our lips moved against each other at a steady rhythm. I could taste the alcohol on his breath. It was bitter and smoky, just like his voice. 

His warm fingers slid underneath my sweatshirt. I twitched under his touch, whining against his lips as his fingers teased my ribs, toying with the band of my sports bra. With a muffled groan, his lips moved to my jaw, hot breath teasing my earlobe as he pressed messy kisses to my skin. 

“Simon,��� I spoke up, looking over at the blonde. He simply grunted and stood up, not even sparing me a glance as he walked past the couch. I sat up, slipping out of Johnny's grip. I followed after the brit, my feet thumping as I hurried my pace. My fingers gripped his arm and roughly spun him around. With a firm grasp on the collar of his shirt, I pulled him down into a kiss. Without another word he gripped the back of my thighs, lifting me into the air. I crossed my ankles behind his back and smiled against his lips. 

Ghost’s lips were soft. He tasted of tobacco and sweat. His fingers gripped my hips tightly. His thumb stroked my thigh gently as he took a step forward. Maybe it was the booze, maybe the lips on my skin, but a heat struck me. It started in my face, toasting my cheeks. Traveling lower, a steady simmer settled in my stomach, dipping even lower. 

The couch creaked as he dropped me onto the cushions. A pair of warm hands went to my thigh. Johnny tugged my leg up onto his, spreading my knees apart. Simon took a seat at my other side, gently caressing my knee with his fingertips. Johnny reached out, grabbing the blonde's face and pulling him into a quick kiss. 

“You in, L.T.?” Johnny asked with a smirk. Wordlessly, Ghost nodded. “What about you, huh? Think y’can take us both?”

I leaned in, pressing my lips to the Scotsman. He smirked into the kiss and began hastily undoing the drawstring of my sweats. He kneeled between my legs, tugging roughly at my sweats. My body jolted as he yanked them down my hips, along with my underwear. He gripped my thighs and pulled me further down the couch until my ass was hanging off the cushions. He threw my legs over his shoulder and leaned in, licking a thick stripe up my cunt. I threw my head back against the couch and choked out a moan. With one hand I gripped Simon's thigh tightly, with the other, I tugged on Johnny's Mohawk.

Simon gripped my chin tightly and tilted my head to the side. He roughly began sucking and biting at my neck, leaving purple splotches behind. My breathing grew shallow and fast. The attention Johnny focused on my clit clouded any thoughts in my head. He traced tight circles around my clit with the tip of his tongue. My hips twitched, bucking away from his mouth. With a bruising grip, he held my hips in place, forcing me to endure the pleasure. 

“He’s good isn’t he,” Simon whispered next to my ear. His belt clattered as he undid the buckle. He pushed his pants down his hips, just enough for his cock to spring free. I let out a moan when I saw it. 

I didn’t doubt he would be big. Being over six feet tall, it’s guaranteed. What I didn’t expect were the two barbells at the bottom of his shaft. The silver complimented his pale skin, now flushed red with arousal. 

Johnny wrapped his lips around my clit and began roughly sucking. My thighs quaked and gently squeeze his head. My stomach tensed, drawing tighter with every flick of his tongue. Bringing my attention back to Simon, I held his cock and began slowly stroking him with a gentle twist. 

“Use your fingers, Johnny,” Simon grunted as he leaned in for a chaste kiss. 

My jaw fell slack as I felt the intrusion of two fingers. The sound it made as he began to slowly thrust the digits inside me was pornographic. Simon took advantage of my arousal, slipping his tongue past my parted lips, moaning into my mouth as I stroked him faster. At the end of every stroke, I teased his tip with the palm of my hand before slipping my hand back down his length. 

Johnny added a third finger. Every thrust shot straight up my spine, sending shoelaces across my body. My vision blurred. I could no longer focus on the blonde beside me, and my strokes grew erratic. And then it happened. 

He moaned. Directly into my cunt. It wasn’t a deep, growling moan, but a desperate whine. The vibrations pushed me over the edge. Both of my hands gripped tightly onto his hair, holding him steady as my climax wracked my body. My legs squeezed tightly around his head, and my back arched up off of the couch. The noises that fell from my lips were obscene and loud, completely unfiltered. 

My chest heaved, sweat running down my sternum as I slowly came back to reality. As my vision cleared, I could see both men staring down at me with blown out pupils. Johnny's face was soaked. Droplets stuck to his beard, just barely visible in the dim light. Johnny cupped my cheek, gently brushing away the tears that had fallen from my eyes. 

“There you are,” Johnny said with a smile. Simon pressed a gentle kiss to my temple, his fingers stroking my sore thighs. 

“Are you okay? You stopped responding for a bit,” Simon asked as he put his arm around my shoulder. 

“M’fine,” I slurred, placing my hand over Johnny’s. 

“D’ye want to keep goin’?” Johnny asked. I nodded, pressing a kiss to the inside of his wrist. “Let’s make up fer tha’ one night then, yeah?” He smirked. As he stood up, my eyes went straight to his cock. His thermal pants were already halfway down his hips. A string of pre-cum leaked from the tip of his cock. He glanced over at Simon, then nodded his head toward me. Simon circled around the back of the couch and gripped my biceps tightly. He pulled me toward the end of the couch until my head brushed against the arm. His thumb gently stroked my bottom lip, and then his lips were one mine. It was brief and teasing. I pouted as I watched him circle the couch again. 

Johnny settled between my legs, hands stroking my knees as he gently parted my legs. His pants had been discarded among the pile of messy clothes by the coffee table. With his thumb he guided his cock into my entrance. His teeth sunk into his bottom lip as he inched forward. 

“Feel so fuckin’ good,” he grunted, hips twitching as he bottomed out. Our bodies rocked in sync as he started up a steady pace, thrusting in and out of me. My toes were already curling. The way he filled me up was delectable, addicting even. He knew how to move, angling up to hit all the right places. 

Simon placed his hand on Johnny's shoulder, nudging him to lean down. The brunette placed his hands on either side of my head. He stilled inside of me, squeezing his eyes shut. 

I watched as his face contorted. He moaned out Simon’s name and began moving again. It was shallower than before, that was noticeable. But the look on his face more than made up for it. 

“Keep moving, sergeant. Don’t want to disappoint, now do we,” Simon said from behind Johnny. I felt a blush creep across my cheeks as I realized what was happening. Simon was knuckle deep in Johnny, pushing his hips forward, and into me. 

Johnny sped up, little noises escaping his mouth with every thrust. He grabbed my shirt, pushing it up over my chest. He pinched my nipples, toying with the sensitive skin. I whined and grabbed his wrist. My back arched up off of the couch as the pain drew me further into bliss. I reached up, holding his face with my hand. The stubble of his beard tickled my palm. I tugged him into a heated kiss. His spit soaked lips parted. I whimpered as he bit down on my lower lip. 

And then his eyes screwed shut. He parted his lips and shuddered. Simon gripped Johnny’s hips tightly, pushing him forward until he bottomed out inside me. 

“Let’s see who breaks first then,” Simon chuckled. 

The couch creaked as the both of them began moving. With every thrust from Simon, it sent Johnny forwards, hitting deeper and deeper. Johnny now braced both of his hands on the arm of the couch, using the leverage to drill into me fast and hard. 

“Fuck- y’feel so good!” Johnny moaned. 

Simon reached forwards, gripping Johnny’s throat tight. I watched as his blue eyes glazed over, and his teeth sunk into his bottom lip. 

“Like getting it from both ends, Johnny?” Simon growled, rutting forward roughly. 

“I-I can’t- “he stuttered, eyes going cross. 

“Yes, you can. Now c’mon, play with their clit.”

The vulgar display in front of me was already pushing me closer to my climax. The minute Johnny began circling his thumb around my clit, I twitched, clenching tight around his cock. Johnny shuddered, head hanging low. His blue eyes locked onto me, my scrunched-up face, and my quivering thighs. 

“Ooh, you’re squeezing me, Johnny. You close?” Simon teased, moving his hand from Johnny’s throat, down his chest to toy with his nipple.

“Fuck yes!” Johnny cried out as his eyelids fluttered shut. I reached up and gripped his chin, pulling him close to me. I pressed a kiss along his jawline before pulling back. 

“Johnny I want you to cum in me,” I spoke softly next to his ear. 

His eyes shot open and his gaze met mine, as if asking if I was serious. I smirked, watching as he reached his orgasm. His pace grew erratic and arrhythmic. Obscenities flew out of his mouth as he came, flooding my insides with warmth. 

“GonnaFUCKin’breedye. Soo good” he slurred, punctuating his words with a groan. 

And then he stilled. His lips were parted as he painted, catching his breath. Sweat beaded down his forehead and chest. Simon pulled out, letting his hands drop to the Scotsman’s waist. Johnny whimpered and stood up on shaky legs. With a thud he threw his body down onto the other couch. 

“Now I wanna see what’s got him all worked up,” Simon said, pulling a condom off of his cock. A condom which I couldn’t recall him putting on. He grabbed my hips roughly and flipped me onto my stomach. 

“Nice and wet, aren’t you,” He smacked my cunt with the palm of his hand. I could feel the cum leaking out of me, running down my thighs. He pushed inside me all at once, knocking the breath from my lungs. I buried my face into the cushion, muffling the moan that came out of me as I felt him stretch my insides. 

“Tight too,” he grunted. “Wish you hadn’t kept this nice pussy a secret.”

“Simon!” I cried out as he pistoned his hips in and out of me. He was faster, rougher than Johnny was, and yet hit all the same spots. The barbells at the base of his cock made me shudder as I felt them pressing against me. 

With every thrust, his balls smacked against my clit. My stomach tensed as he continued his assault on my insides. 

“Next time, Johnny and I oughta fill both your holes,” Simon spat, gripping tightly on my hair. I couldn’t help the heat that rose in my stomach, or that I clenched around his cock. 

“Oooh you like that don’t you. Dirty slag,” he landed a harsh smack on my ass. I jolted, crying out his name. “Hear that Johnny? Looks like we’ve got some DP on our list.” 

I glanced up at the couch. Johnny was sitting up, watching the two of us. His hand stroked his cock which was already hard again. I licked my lips, eyes flicking from his cock to his flushed face. 

“Come here,” I said, biting my lower lip. He obliged, rising, and making his way toward me. I held my mouth open for him, reaching out to grab his cock with my hand. Simon grabbed both of my hands and roughly tugged them behind my back. I winced at the tugging pain in my shoulder, then returned my attention to Johnny. He slid his cock into my mouth, gently placing his hand on the back of my head. He pushed more of his length into my mouth. 

Simon pulled out before sinking back in, roughly thrusting against my cervix. I moaned around Johnny's cock, earning a grunt from him. I could feel Simon's cock twitch inside me. I could feel that he was close with the way he sped up, somehow hitting even deeper inside me. 

“Gonna fuck another load into you,” Simon groaned, gripping my hips tightly. Between the dirty talk and the soft moans coming from Johnny as I swirled my tongue, I felt myself drowning in lust. My extremities were burning, muscles tensing as I approached my climax. My vision grew hazy as my eyes unfocused, and the pang of arousal in my stomach grew deeper. I pulled off of Johnny’s cock, contorting as I came. A string of obscenities slid off of my tongue in a sputtering, incoherent mess. Simon stilled inside of me with a grunt, thumbs rubbing soothing circles into my heated skin. With a tug of my hair, Johnny tilted my head. I watched as he jerked his cock by my face, brows furrowing as he reached his second orgasm. His cock twitched, then spurted pearly strings of cum over my face. I squeezed my eyes shut and parted my lips, sticking out my tongue. 

Once he finished, he loosened the grip on my hair. I was left feeling utterly spent. I could feel the cum oozing out of me, making a mess of my legs. The strings of cum landed in my eyelashes, weighing them down. 

“Is there a bathtub here? Something like that?” Simon asked from behind me. 

“Down the hall. I’ll start the water.”

And then I was being lifted, pulled into a sweaty chest. With a swipe of his thumb, Simon wiped my eyes clean. I opened my eyes, only to be met with a brown gaze. I hooked my arms around the back of his neck, resting my head on his collarbone as he walked towards the bathroom. 

Steam rose from the half-full tub. Johnny held out his arms for me. The tile floor was cold against my feet. Simon gently set me down, holding onto my hip in case I fell. I stepped forward and into Johnny's arms. Glancing back over my shoulder, I watched as the blonde turned away. 

“You’re not joining us?” I asked.

“We’re not fitting in that tub. I’ll use the shower.” He mumbled. 

I reached out, grabbing his arm. With a small tug he inched closer. I propped myself up on my toes and leaned in, pressing a kiss to his lips. When I pulled back he was smiling, the first time I’d seen it. It was subtle, just a curl of his lips, but it was definitely a smile. 

Johnny helped me step into the tub. The hot water soothed my aching muscles. He slipped in behind me, pulling me into his lap. My back pressed against his chest, and he settled his hands in my lap, fingers gently skimming my thighs. 

“So we’re doin’ this again, right?”

[midknitefox]

Nova Bamon.

Close ups + info dump under the cut ^^

absolutely obsessed with her freckles

anyways ahem

Nova Bamon is the daughter of one of the scientists at Urbanshade, an experiment conducted in secret for a long time before the breach.

Nova was only three years old when the experiments began.

She lived a life of solitude, kept in a self sufficient aquarium style tank in a secluded room.

She underwent procedures as her father wanted to try to solve gills before the rest of the company to prove himself. He quickly gave up when she gained her monstrous form, instead resorting to conducting experiments to see what exactly was happening to her.

Once discovered by the company, Nova was still isolated, as her father was disallowed from working on her.

She was incredibly violent, and had associated all forms of physical contact with being jabbed by needles. This led any who attempted kindness vulnerable to an attack.

Doctor Bamon, her father, kept very limited records of her, so the company had to try and figure out what exactly she was on their own.

Which meant more poking and prodding with needles.

Hint, it was Bull and Mako sharks ... maybe more things, haven't decided. suggestions open.

Her tank and enclosure room were kept dim, as she was noted to have extremely sensitive eyes.

Her excellent sense of hearing, quick speed, and agility led her to resisting experiments, hiding in various spots in her tank. Eventually the project was abandoned altogether when she was 16.

She spent the last 4 years before the breach in solitude.

When the breach happened, initially she refused to leave her tank, until she sensed the panic going on in the building.

When she did escape the newly unlocked room, she killed anything that came within sight.

Once her temper had cooled, and she'd become acquainted with Sebastian Solace, she found herself a medium sized tank, which shed find to sit in at times.

Nova, despite her extended solitude, cooperated quite well with Expendables, going as far as offering hints and tips, which had a mixed result- as she often lied, some of these would get Expendables injured or even killed.

If flashed by a flash beacon, she would hunt and kill everyone in the vicinity, her feral nature coming into play.

Nova has a tendency to return to her room, hiding for what is often hours at a time.

Nova has incredibly sensitive eyes, bright enough lights will render her blind for hours.

She has strong senses of smell and hearing as well, and tends to gravitate towards the smell of blood.

She likes the smell of blood, and seems to enjoy the taste as well.

She's very unpredictable, doing whatever pops up in her head.

She has an aversion to touch.

She also has a habit of making empty threats.

"Me?... my name is Nova... But if you tell ANYONE that, I will tear the flesh from your bones and feed it to the shark." Nova

She believes that anyone who knows her name can leverage it against her.

"Oh come on, just give me your arm, and I promise you can go home to Mommy. It won't even hurt. Please, Nova?" Doctor Bamon

She sees herself less as human and more as animal, and as such if supplies get low, is willing to eat dead Expendables. She already seems like she could eat more anyway, and you don't want to come across a starving shark...

She can breathe underwater through the use of gills.

Nova will ambush people.

Doctor Bamon, who is still alive, has in fact been trying to get his hands on her, which is kinda hard since she's in the facility and he's safely not.

Low-key shipping her with my expendable OC, a dancer who found himself framed for his sister's murder and ended up down there. Casually teaches her to be human. he's based off my Roblox avatar UMMMMM

low-key redraw of an old art. he's chill. His name is Anansi (someone else named him cuz he's very spidery originally but I dulled it down to be human)

that's all if u read this far I'm so sorry ok bye

[demonslayedher]

Links, why started, and why abandoned:

Rengoku+Akaza Sitcom: It was very silly and rereading it still makes me laugh. I've had passing ideas here and there and have made two separate attempts to continue it, but I haven't captured the same flow. Kyojuro's efforts to get me fired as the lead writer and keep this sitcom canceled have so far panned out.

Low-Key Married AU: When I look at the notes sometimes I am like, "wow, this must be my most popular AU, but it is such a mess and I feel so bad for people trying to follow it." I got as far as The Nezuko Incident, but it was already super long, and rather than being engaging it felt more like it was just trying to give chronology to this AU. ZenNezu Angst (no link): I was in such an indulgent, angsty mood when I wrote it, and I wrote myself into an angsty hole. It was whump with an intended happy ending but by the time I went back to it I was not in as whumpy of a mood and I had forgotten how I was going to build up to the intended happy ending and found it meh. Also, I am embarrassed by how whumpy it is and even considered publishing under a different name.

Raw Sword Production: I want so badly for the fandom to appreciate the intricacies of Japanese sword production, which is why I put it into fiction format in the first place with Teppi being the vehicle through which readers can learn a complicated but fascinating process. I wound up learning a lot more since publishing that, and wanted to fix some details, as well as make it clearer with more illustrations, and add on the full process of smithing (instead of glossing over it in the conclusion and focusing most of the smelting). Got to about the point of polishing (one of the last steps), felt overwhelmed by the amount of illustration it would benefit from to be clear, and lost confidence feeling that even with all that effort, there probably would not be many people who read all the way to the end. Filler Arc w/ Character Beats: I still really like the ideas, have had ideas for how to expand it to a proper flow and make a solid story out of it, it had a very cute start, but I lost steam. I want Ufotable to make it instead and just let me direct. EDIT: So far it doesn't seem this one is going to win the poll, so I reread what 5577 words I had, and gosh dang it, it was cute. So I have posted it.

Again, zero promises of any of these projects getting more attention, even if they win the poll. But knowing what people would enjoy reading might provide more inspiration. EDIT: Guys, if you want "other," ya gotta tell me which one! Also, if you want more than one, feel free to say so too. Again, the point is to see if I can work up the inspiration to finish. If.

[animeomegas]

24 Hours - Epilogue

[Alpha!Reader x Multiple Naruto Characters]

Summary: You had spent the best part of a week married to each of your possible future suitors. You had enjoyed yourself immensely, but now was the hard part; you had to sort your life out and figure out which path you were going to pick... GN!Alpha!Reader x Multiple

Warnings: Pregnancy stuff, swearing, vague descriptions of injuries, some n-sfw discussions.

(And here we are!! The epilogue is complete!!! This project has been a ride, but it’s all worth it to give to @omeganronpa​!! I hope everyone else has enjoyed also though, and I hope you enjoy the ending, even if it’s not the one you hoped for :D Merry Christmas!!!!!! 💞💞💞)

Word count: 9.4k

Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Epilogue

When you opened your eyes, you expected to see the purple-on-purple design of the fortune telling shop through clouds of incense, with the mysterious fortune teller hovering over you and smiling in that infuriating way that made you want to answer the question of whether to thank her or punch her with the answer ‘both’.

But no, you woke up in your shinobi, standard issue flat, in your boring, plain bedroom that never had time to be interesting or messy because you were never there. Your whole body ached from the mission you had almost forgotten you’d just done, but you pushed yourself into a sitting position regardless.

You were still wearing your mission clothes and you clearly hadn’t showered. It was almost too normal to find yourself in such a situation.

Had it all been a dream? No, you decided, definitely not. That was too much for a dream and what would anyone have had to gain from such a genjutsu. No, you really had lived an extra week in the future, and doubting the authenticity of it wouldn’t be helpful. But did that mean the fortune teller had carried you to your room? You felt strange that she’d seen you in such a vulnerable state and then gained access to your home, apparently bypassing all your traps, only to leave you lying on your bed. She had done you a great service, but that didn’t mean you trusted her enough to feel comfortable with that.

Ignoring the fact that you looked and probably smelt like shit, you jumped out of bed and ran through your house, barely remembering to grab the keys from your mission pack on the way and stormed down the stairs to the ground floor. You needed to see the fortune teller. She needed to explain herself to you.

You squinted against the bright light of the sun as you exited out onto the quiet street, but when you swivelled towards the fortune telling shop, you found it as empty as it had always been. The windows were unobstructed by purple curtains and the only thing you could see inside was small amounts of debris and an abandoned counter. Baffled, you walked to the door, noticing the fortune telling signs replaced by the old for sale price with an abysmally low price, and tried to push it open. Locked.

It was exactly as it had been when you went on your mission. Empty, abandoned, lifeless and containing zero fortune tellers or purple décor.

Completely bemused, you had no other choice but to return to your flat. It felt so cold after all the homes you’d spent the last six nights in. You had believed house and home to be synonyms previously, but the last week had shown you how wrong you were.

Regardless, you couldn’t believe the whole shop was just… gone!

You decided to get out of your clothes and hop in the shower; you’d be able to think and rid yourself of the dried blood and mud at the same time. You turned on the hot water, silently mourning the superior shower and bath at the Nara compound as you did and stepped under the water.

You stayed standing there for a few minutes, watching the brown water flow down the drain as you pretended that you hadn’t just had your entire world view turned on its head by a possibly-not-real fortune teller.

How were you going to pick? You ran through everyone you’d spent a day with as you squirted shampoo into your palm. No, it was more than that. It wasn’t just about picking a mate; it was about picking a whole life. You had so much you needed to do before you’d be in a position to take any mate and give them the version of you they deserved.

You needed to sort yourself out before you tried to court one of them.  

Your number one priority was to figure out how you could be in the village more often. The schedule you were operating on now was unsustainable, with or without a future mate, but you also couldn’t be a good alpha is you were never present for your omega. Unfortunately, you’d also be a pretty bad mate if you were completely broke and unemployed because you decided to stop taking missions. You had to find a middle ground.

It would be a slow process, and although it hurt your heart to think about going back to your lonely life there was no other choice; you wouldn’t be able to stop missions right away. But you could start working on something else, something that would allow you to switch to taking missions part time eventually. Or should you go for an in-village job?

No, you quickly dismissed that idea. You would miss the thrill and the travel that came with taking missions, so your first plan was better. So, what could you do part time while taking missions for the other half of your time? What were you good at? What experience did you have outside of the usual shinobi skills? What would be a good fulltime venture in the event that you were too injured to continue missions or for after retirement? You had to consider it all.

You took a moment to just appreciate the hot spray of the water once more. It was soothing to think in the shower, all the best ideas were born there in your experience.

As you pondered the question, you started thinking about what other ninjas had done and you found yourself considering Ino’s dad’s flower shop. A shop could be perfect. You were great at business; you had been thinking about that only yesterday when future Naruto was telling you about the business fairs Konoha was hoping to start.

The more you turned it over in your mind, the more you were convinced that it was a great plan. You started to feel enthused just thinking about it. You’d have normal hours to work around whatever family you had, you could easily hire someone to run it while you were on missions because running a shop didn’t require specialist skills and barring the most extreme injuries, you’d be able to do it fulltime if you were forced into retirement early.

Yes, you liked this plan. It felt right. It had you feeling hopeful for the future, something you desperately needed. What kind of shop though? And how could you afford it?

The image of the now empty shop under your flat came to mind immediately, mainly because of how cheap it was. It was a rundown commercial building in a residential area, it wasn’t like people were clamouring to buy it, but if that kind of property was all you could afford, you’d need a business that could survive in such a location.

What kind of shop wouldn’t need much foot traffic to survive? Perhaps a shop that people didn’t visit every day and were therefore more willing to travel out of the centre of Konoha for. What kind of shop could you run where the remote location was a selling point?

Hmm, you would have to think about it more, but buying the shop downstairs wasn’t a bad idea if you could figure out a business that would work.

The water was getting cold, so you stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel, drying yourself off and trying to avoid aggravating any injuries.

Getting this business set up would be step one. Dropping to part time missions would be step two. Getting closer to all your friends and helping them out with your future knowledge would be step three. Then and only then would you think about a mate.

…

Despite your energy for change, your life continued much in the same way for another year or so, and while it hurt at first, you’d fallen into the familiar pattern pretty easily. The goal you had made it easier to preserve though; knowing you didn’t have to do this forever was energising.

You put away as much money as you could from every mission, trying to save up for that shop, but before you had enough and before you had a chance to deepen and create all these friendships you wanted to make, war broke out.

The war put things on hold for obvious reasons, and in the darkest days, you wondered how the futures you had seen could ever be possible, because it felt like no one and nowhere would be spared from the brutal destruction.

You had fought as hard as you could, for those perfect futures and for your present loved ones. But eventually, it was over, and you had won. Sasuke came back and you focused on rebuilding your village and your home. You had a lot of time to think about your shop as you cleared rubble and organised relief efforts. Haku turned up to Konoha not long after it was up and running again, and you knew it was time to start chasing that future once more.

You opened your shop exactly two years after the war had ended. It wasn’t under your old flat, because the whole building had been destroyed, but you went for a similar place. You needed somewhere a little more private, a little more hidden, for your store.

You created a shop for heat and rut supplies, but you specifically aimed it towards shinobi by, among other things, allowing multiple exits to and from the building, operating on weird opening hours a few times a week for shinobi who were on missions during usual opening times, and including specialist seals for protection and scent control that shinobi could use to feel safer during their vulnerable times.

You stocked everything you could think of. Toys, lube, informational books and porn, nesting materials, high calorie ration bars, seals, nest décor, water bottles, low effort recipe books, first aid kits, cleaning supplies designed to be odourless so they don’t interfere with the heat/rut, and so much more.

It was a slow start, many people not aware of your shop for the first few months, but shinobi were awful gossips, so every one of them that came to your shop spread the word and soon business was booming and the money followed not long afterwards. You hired some brilliant staff to cover your days off and missions, and everything went as smoothly as you could have hoped.

The war was over, the shop had been set up, missions were dropped to part time, and you had money rolling in. It was time for the final step: choosing a mate.

You had become closer with all the omegas you’d spent those futures with, after the war.

You had asked Shikamaru to teach you to play shogi, and now you played together every week, allowing him a break to indulge in his hobbies with you. He beat you every time, but you were getting better, and he seemed to like watching you grow and change as a player. He had never once let you win though even when you had begged for a the shallow ego boost.

You, Naruto and Sasuke were closer than ever. You helped Sasuke fit back into the village and looked after him when the trauma got too much. You were there for Naruto to talk through his feelings about the war and to cry on each other’s shoulders as you thought about the people you had lost. You started to nudge them both together too, because whether you chose to join them or not, you wanted them to be happy.

When Haku had come to Konoha, you had helped him find a place to live, conveniently retracing your steps from memory to the place you had lived with him in the future. He had loved it and after you’d given a few suggestions on the interior from your memory, Haku had called on you for interior design advice every time he needed it. You were pretty sure his love of your designs based on what you saw of his choices in the future was definitely some kind of paradox, but that wasn’t going to stop you.

You had reached out to Shino in order to get to know him better and you’d had many ‘friend outings’ with him alone and also with his team. You listened to him and were delighted to find he already had that strange sense of humour that cracked you up more than anything else.

It was through Shino that you got closer to Kiba as well. And when Kiba had been sick on his birthday, all his friends on missions or unable to risk getting sick from him, you had been the one to spend the day with him, nursing him and trying to cheer him up. He had returned the favour when you had inevitably caught the sickness a few days later and you’d been lose ever since.

You had supported Neji leaving his clan as best as you could, offering him free reign over your shop for nesting supplies after hours, so he could shop privately for the supplies to build his first nest. You had even started stocking specific medication after hearing about how hard it had been for him to find pain meds that didn’t mess with the ones he already took to manage his heats after years of suppressant abuse. It had been difficult to get your hands on the medication, but for him, you did it.

You had also prioritised the other relationships in your life. Sakura, Sai, Ino, Chouji, Hinata, Lee, Tenten… all of them.

So, now, at your birthday party, the table was full of all these people. Your relationships with your friends were the most precious thing you had, and to see them all together here, to celebrate your birthday, it brought a tear to your eye.

It had taken serious planning to get a night where everyone would be there, but you had done it and it was more than worth it.

Neji caught your eye and nodded at you with a small smile; you had slipped him some free heat meds when you had arrived.

Kiba was grinning at you and poking your leg with his toe at varying intervals.

Shikamaru was watching you and when you caught his eye he mouthed ‘happy birthday’ before turning back to his drink.

Shino was sat right next to you and was telling you a story about his latest mission.

Haku was sat on your other side, between you and Naruto because you’d been worried about him feeling out of place, but he simply looked serenely around the table. When he got to you, he grabbed your face in his hands and pressed a kiss to each of your cheeks. A birthday greeting from Kiri, he explained.

Naruto was frantically searching through his bag for your gift that he was swearing must be there somewhere, while Sasuke stood at his shoulder, rolling his eyes.

These were the people that could be your future. And you knew who you were going to pick.

…

After agonising over the perfect courting gift, the right place for a first date and the right things to say, it was surprisingly easy to start a relationship with who you had picked. It was so easy that you kind of regretted over analysing every second of your memories of that cycle to find clues as to what you should say or do.

But in the end, you didn’t even give the courting gift or get through the planned words before your courting offer was eagerly accepted.

Things moved quickly. You were glad that you had worked on yourself first; you would have been unable to handle being a good partner back then, but now you could do everything a good mate should do and more.

Technically, you were on a courting date now, but you were far past the awkward restaurant dates and daytime walks around the village. No, this was relaxed, the eating takeaway in your living room and binging bad movies together kind of relaxed.

…

“What kind of decision was that?” you exclaimed, watching the protagonist choose to run upstairs rather than out the front door while she was being chased by a serial killer. “Like, I’m not here to victim blame, but…”

“That sounds exactly like victim blaming to me,” Kiba laughed, knocking his shoulder into yours.

“No, I said I wasn’t victim blaming!”

“Uh huh, like you said you weren’t going to eat all the mac and cheese,” he said, eyeing the empty pot that said mac and cheese had once been in.

“Shut up, I hate you,” you grumbled, snuggling into his shoulder and pulling the blankets around yourself. The protagonist was getting brutally murdered on screen, but you weren’t paying much attention. It wasn’t like these civilian horror films ever got anything right about actual murders anyway.

“Yeah, you hate me?” he leant down and whispered directly in your ear. Shivers ran down your spine. “I don’t believe it.”

“Believe it, dog boy,” you said without any heat.

“You sound like you’ve been spending too much time with Naruto,” Kiba smirked, pushing himself somehow closer to you. “Should I be jealous?”

“Never,” you said firmly, dropping the joking tone immediately. “My attention is yours; I’ll never look away, I promise.”

Kiba grinned, his lips now hovering close to yours.

“I love it when you say stuff like that,” he said, voice lined with a growl. He kissed you before you could formulate a reply.

With Kiba, you’d quickly learnt that every kiss was like the first time. Not because he kissed slowly or hesitantly or sweetly every time, but because the first time had been intense, hot and heavy and so was every kiss that followed.

You hummed into Kiba’s mouth, satisfied by the way he was using his tongue. You had become so comfortable with Kiba so quickly, but you’d yet to go all the way. Kiba seemed eager to take that step as soon as possible, but you wanted to court him for a little more first; you really didn’t want him to think that you were only there for sex.

You kissed until the credits of the film started to roll and only then did you realise how late it had become.

“Damn,” you said, pulling away, panting a little. “It’s already almost 1 AM, you don’t have a mission tomorrow, do you?”

“Nope,” Kiba replied, snatching one of the last slices of pizza from the table and shoving it in his mouth. “I’m still on leave from the last one.”

“Nice… Do you, uh, well,” you stumbled over your words. It was annoying considering how much you have practiced being casual about it in the mirror. “Do you want to stay the night?”

Kiba looked at you for a moment, a little bit of pizza sauce on his cheek, but before long he was grinning again.

“Hell yeah, I do!” he said, excitedly. “But I don’t have any pyjamas or stuff with me.”

“I have a spare toothbrush,” you said quickly, deciding not to mention that you’d bought an extra just for him. “And you can borrow some of my clothes to sleep in.”

You weren’t sure if it was just your imagination, but Kiba’s eyes seemed to darken at your words.

“Sounds good,” he said after a long pause. His voice was as heavy as his gaze.

…

You had offered to take the sofa and let Kiba take the bed, but the look of offence he had given you had had the offer dying on your lips.

You and Kiba were laying together in your bed now. You pointedly ignored the instinctual rush of having the omega you wanted to mate in your bed.

Kiba was draped over you, seemingly feeling no awkwardness at sharing a bed with you for the first time. He really wasn’t going to change much, at least personality wise, if the future version of him that you met had been accurate.

You sighed happily, rubbing circles on Kiba’s back. The mixing of his scent and your scent was making you pleased and sleepy. It was so nice to have Kiba here with you, and you couldn’t wait to see how your relationship was going to grow and change.

“Just so you know,” Kiba said sleepily. “Inuzuka don’t get married, so if you’re waiting until marriage to fuck me, you’re going to be waiting a long time.”

You snorted at the unexpected statement, having to stifle your laughs with your free hand.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“I was just letting you know.”

“You don’t have to worry, anyway,” you said, still chuckling. “I’m not waiting for marriage, I just… want you to know that I like you for you, not for sex, y’know.”

“I already know that, dummy,” Kiba said, flicking you on the side. You could almost hear him rolling his eyes. “You don’t need to wait for that.”

“Seeing as we’re on the topic though,” you said, resuming your rubbing of his back. “Why don’t Inuzuka get married?”

“There’s no point of marriage if you already carry each other’s bite marks,” Kiba said bluntly. “Nothing is more important than that.”

You turned the thought over in your mind. You had kinda assumed that future Kiba and you had been married, but apparently not. It made sense though, now that you were thinking about it, and not being married wouldn’t change anything in your relationship.

“I get that,” you said. “It fits your clan, not going to lie.”

Kiba snorted but didn’t deny it.

You laid together in silence for a while. You were starting to think Kiba had fallen asleep, but he’d obviously been thinking about things, because he spoke up again, sounding a little hesitant for the first time since you’d known him.

“Do you, uh, want any pups?” Kiba asked, trying and failing to sound casual.

You just started to laugh as soon as you registered the words. You couldn’t help it.

“Wha- hey! Why are you laughing?”

“I’m sorry, I just-“ you couldn’t get the words out between laughs, but Kiba’s frowny face eventually calmed you down. “I would love to have pups in the future. How many do you want?”

“A few, I guess-“

You burst out laughing again, unable to keep it in with the thoughts of Kiba only having a few pups. This time Kiba hit you with a pillow.

“Why are you laughing?!”

You responded by picking up your own pillow and hitting him with it, devolving your quiet cuddling into a wild pillow fight.

You had a sneaking suspicion that despite you taking these early days slowly, it wouldn’t be long until Minoru popped into existence. And maybe it was a weird thing to think, but you were really excited to see him again.

…

It turned out that Minoru did come pretty soon, only two years after that first time you’d slept in a bed together with Kiba.

And just over a year later, Ichika joined the family, and you were now a family of four.

Kiba had proclaimed multiple times how you were on the same wavelength with names because he always loved your first suggestion. You kept where the inspiration came from to yourself as it was technically cheating.

Now, Minoru was three years old, Ichika was two and it had been four years since Kiba had gone on a mission. He still worked around the compound when he had the chance but being pregnant was too much of a risk on the field and he was still breastfeeding so he couldn’t be gone for more than a day or two.

He wasn’t technically retired, simply on leave, but you had a sneaking suspicion that he was pregnant again (with twins), going by the timeline you’d seen from the future, so he wouldn’t be returning to being an active shinobi anytime soon.

(You remembered when Kiba had been worried about him and Akamaru getting bored without missions, but the pups had kept both of them more than busy.)

You were still taking missions, but you had stopped taking long ones altogether and pulled back the number of short missions as much as you could. You spent almost all of your day in the shop instead, so you could be home for dinner and the bedtime routine almost every night. Kiba and your pups deserved a present mate and appa.

Unfortunately, even though you were only taking a short mission every fortnight, that didn’t mean being a shinobi wasn’t dangerous.

The last thing you remembered was accidentally triggering a trap and having your foot mangled and a paralytic fired into your neck.

The paralytic had worn off on its own, but your foot had required pretty intensive surgery in the hospital back in Konoha. You honestly couldn’t remember much about the journey back or initial treatment, but you had eventually been released home with strict instructions not to put any weight on your foot unless absolutely necessary.

You felt guilty for burdening Kiba with your care on top of your two toddlers, but he had been rather aggressive when you tried to apologise.

“It’s my job to take care of you,” he had said. “I don’t want to hear any apologising bullshit.”

At least you were capable of staying alert all day, even if you were stuck in bed. You could work on the paperwork for your shop which stopped you from feeling entirely useless.

You sighed, leaning back against the headboard of your bed. You still had another week before your final surgery and then another week of recovery before you could try to walk again. You amused yourself briefly by imagining putting a bounty on the head of whoever set that trap, but your daydreams were interrupted by the door opening.

In toddled Minoru, tightly clutching at a glass of water, using his entire focus to keep from spilling it. Kiba, holding a sniffling Ichika, came in behind him.

“Hey everyone, what’s up?” you said, smiling as Minoru successfully placed the glass of water on your nightstand without dropping it. “Good job with the glass, baby, thank you.”

Minoru smiled, but it was sad and lacklustre. He looked more worried than anything else.

“We’ve come to check on you and bring you some water,” Kiba said. He sounded stressed but was obviously trying to keep it together. You weren’t surprised; you had heard Ichika crying all morning.

“How are you feeling, appy?” Minoru asked, nervously fisting at his shirt.

“My foot’s a bit poorly still, darling, but I’m okay,” you smiled at him and ruffled his hair. “Do you want a cuddle? You won’t hurt me, I promise.”

He nodded, and with your help and a frankly over the top amount of caution to avoid your foot, Minoru settled down and curled up on the left side of your chest. For being only three, Minoru was already such a worrywart. You were thankful that your arms were uninjured so you could snuggle him and pepper his head in kisses with no constraints.

Minoru purred under your attention.

Ichika was less content though. Despite Kiba rocking her and attending to her needs as best as he could, she was still crying. You could see him talking to her in low tones, although you couldn’t hear what he was saying.

You suddenly remembered the day you’d spent in the future, something that was still weird to recall now that you had got on with your life. You remembered Ichika’s issues with her Inuzuka senses being too strong and overwhelming her. It would make sense that those issues had started young.

“Babe, pass her to me,” you said softly, holding the arm you weren’t using to support Minoru up. “I have an idea to stop the crying.”

Kiba didn’t look like he had much hope, but he didn’t argue, simply passing her into your free arm with no complaints. Ichika struggled and increased her cries as she realised she was being put down, but calmed a little when she realised you were now holding her.

You manoeuvred her head so that one ear was pressed against your chest, and you covered the other one with your hand.

“Try covering her eyes with your hand,” you said to Kiba, seeing as your other hand was holding Minoru. Kiba looked sceptical, but he’d obviously been worn down with the crying because he followed your instruction with no complaint, shuffling onto the bed on your right and using a hand to cover Ichika’s eyes.

The sniffling and quiet cries continued for a while, but Minoru seemed content to snuggle, and you’d mouthed ‘wait’ at Kiba enough that he did. Eventually, the sniffles died down and Ichika’s breathing evened out. When you and Kiba withdrew your hands, she was asleep.

“How did you do that?” Kiba whispered, looking like he wasn’t sure whether to thank you or accuse you of witchcraft. “I’ve been trying to get her to take her nap for three hours.”

“I’ve been thinking about it,” you explained in an equally soft voice. “And I think she’s been having trouble with her senses getting too much for her. That’s why when we muffled her hearing and sight, she was able to relax enough to fall asleep.”

Kiba’s mouth pressed into a firm line and his eyebrows furrowed in concern. He looked very worried.

“That’s not good,” he said, stroking her hair gently. “We’ll need to go to a medic and see if it can be fixed because if not, she-“

“Hey, stop spiralling,” you chastised softly. “She’ll be fine. Even if she needs more support or she decides against being a ninja, she’s still healthy and we can manage the symptoms and make her happy. That’s what matters.”

“Is Ich’ka poorly too?” Minoru asked suddenly. You and Kiba both looked to him, having forgotten that he was still awake. His bottom lip was trembling, and the poor thing looked incredibly upset at the idea that both his sister and appa were unwell.

“No, baby, Ichika is fine,” Kiba rushed to reassure him verbally while you pressed a kiss onto his little forehead. “We just think that sometimes things get too loud for her, so we’re working out how to fix it for her.”

Minoru blinked at you a few times but seemed to believe you because he nodded and laid his head back down on your chest, yawning.

“Okay, ommy,” he muttered before sticking his thumb in his mouth.

“They both ended up missing nap time because Ichika was crying,” Kiba explained, gently climbing off the bed and leaving your two pups snuggled up on you.

The pain in your foot was overshadowed by the burning affection that threatened to overwhelm you as your two babies snuggled into your chest.

“I’m going to change your bandages while they’re sleeping,” Kiba said, slipping into the bathroom and coming out a few moments later with everything needed to tend to your foot. It was common for him to change them while the pups napped because neither of you wanted them to see any of the gore in case it scared them. Especially Minoru, who had been inconsolable when you’d come back injured from your mission.

“Ouch,” you grumbled as he wiped at your foot with cleaning alcohol.

“Oh dear, poor baby, are the wipes too much for you?” Kiba teased, picking up the bandages and beginning to wrap them around your foot. “Do you want me to kiss it better after it’s all bandaged?”

“Yes,” you said earnestly, ignoring the teasing aspect of his question.

Kiba snorted, but obliged, pecking the bandaged foot while trying not to laugh. You hoped you could make him laugh more often; he had been so serious and stressed recently, torn between your injury, Ichika’s constant crying and Minoru’s refusal to leave the house in case you got worse while he left. And all of that was on top of the normal caring duties for two toddlers.

You felt guilty for getting injured and making his life so hard, but you knew he wouldn’t appreciate the insinuation that you were a burden on him. You were pack and as far as Kiba was concerned, pack looked after each other no matter what.

“Are you okay with them in here with you? I need to go and try and clean the house, it’s in an absolute state,” Kiba asked, packing away the medical supplies.

You didn’t want him to work and work and work until he dropped.

“You should lay down with us, babe,” you said, still keeping your voice low so that you didn’t disturb Minoru and Ichika. “You look like you need it, no offence.”

“None taken,” he snorted. “But I still need to clean and Ichika has been refusing to be put down, so now’s the only time I can do it.”

“Let’s just, hire some poor genin team to clean the house or something,” you suggested. “We have enough savings and I’d class this as an emergency.”

Kiba hesitated, but in the end, you managed to coax him into climbing in on Ichika’s other side and having a nap with the rest of the family.

Once you were better, you couldn’t say that you weren’t glad, but you still treasured the little nice moments that you had managed to find in between the hardships.

…

A month after your foot had mostly recovered, it turned out that you had been right about Kiba being pregnant, and before you knew it, your family was now six people as Akemi and Kaito made their appearance.

With four under four, you and Kiba tried your hardest to put the hundreds of condoms you’d received as gag gifts to use. Of course, you knew from your trip to the future that it wouldn’t last forever, but you made it five whole years without Kiba being pregnant even once. When people teased you for having the largest family of your generation, you just laughed, knowing that it was going to get bigger one day.

You had been right in your assumption that picking Kiba would mean that you were never lonely again, and although you sometimes longed for moments where no sticky hands were trying to climb you, you thrived in the large family atmosphere.

You also carved out time to spend with your friends, refusing to let the relationships you had forged die from something as mundane as not having time to hang out.

The garden you had wistfully imagined hosting BBQs in while you were in the future was now frequently filled with those once imaginary BBQs. Naruto and Sasuke always came, Naruto excited to play with your pups and pine over the pups he and Sasuke were eventually planning on adopting together. Sai and Sakura came too, Sai always bringing some bizarre side dish with him. Hinata and her two children seemed a little intimidated by most of your feral goblins, but Ichika got on with them like a house on fire and you were happy to provide her with some calmer company. Shino had adopted a distant relative from his clan and was raising him as a single oma, although when they came along, little Kazue (and oh goodness did it pull on old heartstrings when you saw him for the first time) normally tucked himself up on Shino’s lap and refused to play with the other children.

It was chaos when you all got together, but the kind of chaos that lit a fire in your very soul. It made all those earlier lonely days seem like hallucinations.

After those five years, Kiba was pregnant again, with the baby that you’d almost seen born during your future excursion.

You were incredibly thankful when the birth passed without any fainting incidents. You had even managed to intercept Minoru’s anxiety by explaining to him about clan pregnancy before his lessons on childbirth at the academy and so instead of the tears and worries over Kiba dying, he’d instead proudly explained to all his classmates that his clan and oma were simply ‘built different’.

The actual birth had also gone much smoother. You were his actual mate this time, able to easily provide the comfort and intimacy that Kiba needed while also having the know-how from the previous three births to support him and the pup properly. It wasn’t your first rodeo this time. It was rodeo number four, which you considered an ‘out of the danger zone’ number of rodeos.

And with that, you had Hibiki, your fifth child and third son.

When you had been in the future, you had assumed that the mystery fifth child would be the last one, but you knew better once you’d actually been mated with Kiba for years.

Yua, your sixth child and third daughter was born a few years later.

And when, a few years after that, Kiba got pregnant again, you immediately booked an appointment to get sterilised so that you could continue to indulge his breeding kink without making any more mouths to feed. You were doubly glad about that decision when the final pregnancy was revealed to be twins.

…

“You’re doing so well, babe, so well,” you were naked and pressed up against an equally naked Kiba, holding him from behind as he worked through a contraction.

“It feels strange that this is the last time I’m going to do this,” Kiba said between gritted teeth. “I kind of don’t want this labour to end, is that weird?”

“Yes,” you said bluntly, vaguely concerned but not surprised.

“Yeah, that’s fair,” he acquiesced, relaxing slightly now that the contraction had passed. “You sure you don’t want one more?”

“You know you’re not allowed to make decisions when you’re in labour, horny or feral.”

“I guess that’s also fair,” he sighed, stretching out his legs.

You rubbed on his stomach to try and ease the discomfort as best as you could. This was your sixth rodeo now though and it was almost funny to recall the panic from your trip to the future and at Minoru’s birth. You could probably deliver an Inuzuka baby in your sleep at this point.

“Drink some water,” you prompted, holding a water bottle to Kiba’ lips. He drank obediently, emptying the bottle in one go.

“I reckon these twins will be out pretty soon now,” Kiba said, reaching over to grab a ration bar and tearing it open with his teeth.

“I’m not surprised, it’s probably like a slip n’ slide in there by now.”

Kiba laughed at your joke and almost choked on his ration bar in the process.

“You’re the one who’s been in there the most, so you would know.”

“Pfft- Shut up,” you smacked him gently on the shoulder.

“You should know by now that that won’t happen,” he smirked, pressing his lips against yours.

A muffled smashing sound from the main part of the house had you both startling apart.

“Want to take guesses on which chaos gremlin was the cause of that?” Kiba said mildly, unperturbed by the sounds of destruction after so many years.

“Hmm, I bet it was either Akemi and one of her experiments gone wrong, or it was Hibiki attempting to eat his dinner from a dog bowl on top of the counter again.”

“Not a bad bet, but personally I think that was the sound of Minoru snapping and frisbeeing something fragile at the wall.”

“May the best person win,” you said, shaking his hand. He played along with a grin, but he soon tightened his grip and bent over in pain.

“Fuck, maybe I don’t want this to last forever,” he grunted, still squeezing your hand. “It hurts like a bitch.”

“I’m sorry,” you said, holding him tightly. “I wish I could take some of the pain for you.”

“I think it’s time,” he panted, ignoring your statement, not that you blamed him.

“Alright, I’ve got you, let’s get you sorted.”

That evening, twins Kaede and Natsu, a girl and boy respectively, finished off your family.

…

As a family of eight, the days felt long but the years flew by.

It was with a mix of relief and sadness that you faced your youngest, Natsu, moving out of your house. You had done it. You had successfully raised eight pups into functioning adults and sent them out into the real world.                    

It wasn’t like all of them didn’t pop over for dinner three times a week and crash here after missions, but still, it felt strange that you wouldn’t be caring full time for your army of pups anymore.

Some of them were already mated and you already had two grandpups. Most lived in the compound, some were ninja, some were not. But they were all exceptional people that were exceptionally loved.                                              

You and Kiba were holding each other on the couch as you mourned the final pup leaving the nest. Kiba had hugged Natsu so fiercely that you were worried it would hurt him.

“I can’t believe they’re all gone,” Kiba said, sounding unsure about how to feel.

“They’ll be around, I wouldn’t be surprised if Natsu was back here tomorrow asking how he’s supposed to cook pasta, when what he really wants is for you to cook it for him.”

Kiba laughed, but his heart clearly wasn’t in it. You pulled him closer and let him grieve this stage of his life.

You had never regretted your choice to choose this family for your future, not even once.

You thought about all of your precious pups, the highs and the lows of raising them, of seeing them grow. Each of them were so different but so precious. And funny, all of them had immense comedic value and you had so many funny memories from raising them.

Like Minoru, your oldest and most responsible. He’d decided to become a medic, something you could easily tell from the near permanent expression of exasperation on his face. You remembered the day his old genin teammate had come back from a mission injured but had refused to go to the hospital. Minoru had dragged her back to your house.

…

“If you won’t go to the hospital, then you’re going to let me heal you, no arguments!”

That was the first thing you heard after the front door went and it was enough to pull you from the washing up.

“Minoru, please, I don’t want to intrude-“

“You’ve already bled all over the carpet, so you can get over issues of ‘intrusion’,” it was Minoru’s voice and the voice of who you believed to be one of his genin teammates.

He came into view moments later, dragging said old genin teammate. He muttered a ‘hi, appa’ but then promptly ignored you in favour of dumping his bleeding friend on the sofa.

“Um, you should probably go to the hospital,” you said tentatively, walking over to the two teens. “Our house is like, covered in mud and dog hair at the moment, that can’t be sanitary.”

“You’re right! She should be in the hospital!” Minoru shouted. “But she’s such a- such a-“

He struggled to find the words to match his fury for a moment.

“Such a… rat bastard! And she won’t go to the hospital even though she’s bleeding out!”

You snorted but quickly disguised it with a cough. You should probably discourage that kind of language but it was hilarious, so you decided to let it slide.

“Look, give healing them your best shot, but if anything gets worse or she passes out, let me know and we can take her to the hospital, okay?” you said, putting your reassuring appa voice on.

“Fine,” Minoru grumbled, kneeling at the side of the couch, hands hovering over her stomach. “I don’t care if this hurts, by the way.”

You didn’t manage to disguise your laughter quite as well this time.

…

Ichika came to mind next. She had worried you and Kiba a lot when she was younger, with her senses heightened so far above the normal Inuzuka level to the point of pain. But in the end, she had turned out perfectly able to take over the clan leadership when it became clear that Hana wasn’t going to have any of her own pups and Kiba and Minoru were uninterested in such a role.

What made her so perfect was her ability to make herself, and by extension the clan, seem perfectly normal and well-functioning. She was the only non-gremlin child you had, and the clan was using that to their advantage in negotiations and political bullshit.

Sometimes she fooled people too well though. You distinctly remembered the first time she had brought her boyfriend to a family dinner to introduce him to you, Kiba and the rest of your family. Ichika had tricked him with her normalness and the poor man had no idea what he was getting into.

…

Ichika had called a family meeting about an hour before her new boyfriend was supposed to show up, and so all of you were crowded in the living room because no one wanted to piss off an already stressed Ichika. Even the terror twins were managing to sit somewhat still.

“Listen up!” she shouted, slamming her hands on the coffee table. “I really like this man, so I will have no one scaring him off, is that clear?”

A couple of your pups chortled, but Ichika’s glare cut them off.

“I mean it,” she said. “That means no asking if they have any ‘interesting’ diseases (she pointed at Minoru), no setting a trap on his chair or in any other part of the house (she pointed at the terror twins), no eating from receptacles designed for dogs (Hibiki was pointed at next), no trying to bite him (Yua) and well…”

Kaede and Natsu blinked up at her innocently, only two years old, each sitting on one of yours and Kiba’s laps.

“I guess you two get a pass,” she said reluctantly. “For now.”

“Pass!” Natsu giggled happily.

“What about us?” you asked, gesturing to yourself and Kiba, trying to hide your grin. “Do we have rules too?”

She squinted her eyes at you as she considered it.

“You are allowed to threaten him once each. Once only,” she stressed. “And they have to be normal threats that normal parents make, got it?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Kiba snorted, bouncing a happy Natsu. “So, when’s Kairo getting here then?”

Ichika’s eye twitched at the deliberate incorrect name.

This evening was going to be fun.

…

Your terror twins, Akemi and Kaito, came to mind next. And that was Terror Twins (affectionate) of course. They had both taken to shinobi life a little too well, specialising in tracking as any good Inuzuka did, but also traps and demolition, to the surprise of no one. And of course, they loved to practice those skills in your house.

Their Inuzuka dog companions were just as bad as they were, but their killer puppy dog eyes always got them out of trouble.

They both had genin teams at the moment. Rival genin teams. Although the rivalry seemed to just be between your twins, because the genin seemed to become close through commiserating over their ridiculous jonin instructors.

You still remembered the first chunin exams that they had been entered in. As green genin, none were promoted, but seeing as it was hosted by Konoha, Akemi and Kaito had begged the whole family to attend to watch their genin beat the other’s genin.

…

“Kick his ass, Sakurako!” Akemi shouted from the stands. “Yank that pretty boy hair!”

“You got this, Akihito!” Kaito shouted, not wanting to be outdone. “Don’t be afraid to bite her if you have to!”

You put your head in your hands, hoping that no one figured out that you were technically responsible for both the crazy jonin. You regretted saying yes to attending.

…

Next you thought about Hibiki, the boy you almost saw born twice, which was a cool fact that you’d never be able to tell him.

Hibiki loved dogs more than people. Yes, that wasn’t uncommon for Inuzuka, but Hibiki took it to the extreme. He had demanded to eat from dog bowls rather than plates for five years, and maybe other parents would have put their foot down and said no, you and Kiba had just decided to indulge the little weirdo.

Hibiki liked walking dogs, playing with dogs, learning about dogs, barking at people and a whole myriad of other similar things. He spent every day shadowing his aunt Hana in the vet clinic and resisted going to the academy because there weren’t dogs there. It was not surprising at all when Hibiki started to work at the clinic full time.

You still remembered the first time Hibiki had asked Akamaru to join him in the bath, as all of his older siblings had asked before him. It was the first time that Kiba’s normal hose threat hadn’t worked.

…

“I want Akamaru to come!” Hibiki sulked, stomping his feet.

“Akamaru gets hosed down in the garden, so unless you want to do that, it’s time to get in the bath without Akamaru,” Kiba said back, the threat of the hose well practiced.

“Okay!” Hibiki said, face lighting up. “I want to get hosed in the garden with Akamaru!”

You could almost see the wind getting taken out of Kiba’s sails.

“I- what? You want to get hosed down with cold water in the garden?” Kiba questioned, eyebrows raised.

“Yes! Thank you oma! You’re the best!” Hibiki cheered, running from the bathroom to the back door.

You and Kiba made significant eye contact, but in the end you both just shrugged.

“Alright then.”

…

Yua was next. She and her dog were inseparable and impossible to trick. She had gone down the traditional Inuzuka route of tracking, and Yua’s wicked smarts were perfect for it. She started leading tracking teams when she was only 15 years old, and you were more and more proud of her every day.

She did have a mean streak though. She wasn’t a bully or anything, you wouldn’t have allowed that, but she became easily frustrated with those around her. Like the time you and Kiba had been called into the academy because Yua had been in an altercation with some of her classmates.

…

“You have to apologise, Yua,” you said, trying to keep your voice steady and firm.

“But why should I have to apologise if what I said is true!?” she exclaimed, obviously frustrated. “I didn’t lie!”

“It doesn’t matter if you think something is true or not,” you explained, taking a breath to keep your patience. “Telling someone that they could ‘have an intelligent thought bite them on the nose and still not know what it was’ is very rude and mean.”

Yua huffed, obviously not understanding the situation. You were very aware of the academy teacher watching you fail to get through to your daughter.

“Fine,” you said, giving up on the explanation. “No training at home until you apologise.”

“What? Appa! No!”

…

Finally, you had Kaede and Natsu, the babies of the family. That title was something that Kaede resented wholeheartedly and something that Natsu embraced with enthusiasm.

Kaede’s favourite phrase growing up was “I can do it by myself, appa!”, while Natsu had favoured the “Can you help me appy, please?”.

Kaede had always been determined, someone who knew themselves entirely. You remembered when they had told you to switch their pronouns to they/them at age 12, they had done it with the confidence of someone so much older.

They had become a paperwork ninja, deciding it was their destined role and that no on would stop them and no one would talk down about the job. They were a force to be reckoned with, behind that desk. Just because they were the first Inuzuka paper nin didn’t mean they were well adjusted or normal. In fact, her companion dog had been trained to bite ninjas who gave late reports or who didn’t take enough time to make their writing legible.

While Kaede had been determined and self-reflective, Natsu only knew one thing: he loved cuddles. For years, he had been happy doing anything as long as it included getting cuddles or praise from one of his family members. Even his Inuzuka dog was the snuggliest dog you had in the family. He did have a penchant for teasing people though, but in a charming, if a little feral, way.

He had decided that the ninja life wasn’t for him, to the surprise of no one, and instead he helped out in your shop full time. Your customers loved him and his pup, who stayed curled up by the counter, was just as big of a hit.

You were still sometimes in awe of how different they were.

…

A breaded chicken fillet was on the menu for most of the pups tonight. You sat around your massive dining room table in the house you had to buy a few years back when it became clear that the number of pups was vastly outnumbering the number of bedrooms, passing round the plates.

You automatically turned to Kaede and picked up her knife and fork in order to cut the fillet up for her.

“No, appa! I can do it myself!” she said, pulling her plate away from you. “I’m not little anymore!”

“Alright, alright,” you said holding up your hands, having passed her cutlery back. “Let me know if you need any help, okay?”

“I won’t,” she said fiercely, immediately attempting to cut the fillet up herself. She was butchering it a little bit, but it would all taste the same, so you let her get on with it.

“Appy?”

You turned to see Natsu with his full-on puppy dog eyes staring at you. He was holding up his knife and fork for you.

“Can you cut my chicken for me, please?”

You softened as you looked at him. Apart from Ichika, he was the only one of your pups to have fully grasped the concept of manners.

“Of course, I can, darling,” you smiled, walking around the table to cut up his fillet into little chunks. “Do you want ketchup as well?”

He nodded, so you took the ketchup bottle and squirted a little smiley face with the sauce.

“See? It’s a smiley face because it’s happy to see you!”

Natsu grinned, looking up at you like you hung the stars in the sky.

“Thank you appy, I love him!”

“You’re welcome, baby. Would you like some, Kaede?”

She nodded too but held out her hand to take the bottle from you, clearly wanting to pour the ketchup herself.

It was quite amusing that the two were twins; they couldn’t be more different.

…

They were all your pups and you loved them so much that you couldn’t articulate it. You would cherish them forever and from your perspective now, it was strange that you had ever considered choosing a different life with someone else.

You had thanked the fortune teller in your mind many, many times since that fateful week, but you also had to give yourself some credit for putting in the work to make this life happen. You built your shop up from the ground, you helped your friends, you wooed Kiba into being your mate, you built your family with him, you raised all these amazing human beings and somehow kept your sanity amongst the chaos.

You had earnt this life, fully and completely.

“We did good,” was the only thing you could say to Kiba as you held each other on the couch. “We did so good.”

“We did,” he agreed. “And we have so much more good to do.”

And you did, but you felt like you had it under control now. You knew what you were doing, no longer were you that hesitant teenager with desires for a life so much more than they had.

No, you could handle whatever was thrown at you now.

So, imagine your surprise when Natsu burst into your shop only a week later to tell you that he’d met a mysterious fortune teller in the night and spent a week in the future, mated to seven different friends.

The end. 

[soon-palestine]

Oxfam experts, together with cocoa farmers, will be at the World Cocoa Conference in Brussels (21-24 April), taking place against a backdrop of unprecedented production shortfalls and skyrocketing cocoa prices, which topped $11,000 per metric ton for the first time.

Chocolate giants have already raised prices for consumers to offset rising cocoa costs and, despite years of soaring profits and massive payouts to shareholders, have consistently pushed back on anything that could reduce their profit margins. New Oxfam analysis has found: - Lindt, Mondelēz, and Nestlé together raked in nearly $4 billion in profits from chocolate sales in 2023. Hershey’s confectionary profits totaled $2 billion last year. - The four corporations paid out on average 97 percent of their total net profits to shareholders in 2023. - The collective fortunes of the Ferrero and Mars families, who own the two biggest private chocolate corporations, surged to $160.9 billion during the same period. This is more than the combined GDPs of Ghana and Ivory Coast, which supply most cocoa beans.

Decades of low prices have made farmers poorer and hampered their ability to hire workers or invest in their farms, limiting bean yield. Old cocoa trees are particularly vulnerable to disease and extreme weather. Many farmers are abandoning cocoa for other crops, or selling their land to illegal miners.

Speaking ahead of the conference, Oxfam’s Policy Advisor Bart Van Besien said: “It’s ironic —the cocoa price explosion could have been averted if corporations had paid farmers a fair price and helped them make their farms more resilient to extreme weather. And it’s hypocritical —chocolate giants are paying high prices now that the market demands it, but have pushed back every single time that cocoa farmers have. The only way forward is fairly rewarding farmers for their hard work.”

And Ismael Pomasi, Chairman of Ghana’s Cocoa Abrabopa Association, said: "Nothing is more demotivating —all my hard work on the farm barely pays off. Between battling pests and the drought that is killing my cocoa trees, I'm really struggling. I wish I could afford irrigation. If the multibillion-dollar chocolate industry paid fair prices for cocoa, I could actually tackle these problems and make a decent living."

Oxfam spokespersons and farmers available for interviews in Brussels:Nana Kwasi Barning Ackay, project officer at SEND Ghana and Coordinator of the Ghana Civil Society Cocoa Platform (GCCP) (English) Ismael Pomasi, Chairman of Ghana’s Cocoa Abrabopa Association (English) Anouk Franck, Policy Advisor on Business and Human Rights, Oxfam Novib (Dutch, English) Bart Van Besien, Policy Advisor, Oxfam Belgium (Dutch, English, French)

Key dates: Oxfam spokespersons and farmers will come together to hand out chocolate produced by Ghana’s Women in Cocoa Cooperative (Cocoa Mmaa), and will be available for interviews and photos. 7:30-9:00am CET on 22 April at Place d’Albertine, in front of the World Cocoa Conference.

[blackwolfstabs]

The Wolves of Woodsboro - Chapter I

summary:

Tara and Sam have been going to therapy together since the end of Richie’s family. For Tara, things have been difficult, but she’s surprisingly been able to talk about her trauma with their therapist without too much resistance. Sam, on the other hand, has found it very difficult to talk about everything and relive the life she’s been running from for so long, causing her to relapse into the bad habits of her late-teenage years. She holds a dark secret that’s sparked from the murders she’s committed, and it makes the line between her and Billy Loomis blurrier than ever. And when visions of her father and his voice in her head warn of another Ghostface-storm on the horizon, she begins to tie the identifying ribbon of her secret and bloodline into one. She’ll need to work with him to protect her family and uncover the last member of the Kirsch family as the Wolves of Woodsboro.

fandom: Scream

characters: Sam Carpenter, Billy Loomis, Tara Carpenter, Chad Meeks-Martin, Mindy Meeks-Martin, Danny Brackett, Ethan Landry, Richie Kirsch, Quinn Bailey, Wayne Bailey, Kirby Reed, Gale Weathers, Nancy Loomis

SPEED

characters: Sam Carpenter, Tara Carpenter, Mindy Meeks-Martin, & Danny Brackett

Samantha Carpenter had always been hung up on speed.

Always on the run. Running towards something, running away from something. She had always been unpredictable. She was mysterious to many and a misunderstood criminal to most. A stray dog, a wild horse, a feral cat, a savage wolf. 

Like a wolf, she was strong and loyal. Like a wolf, she was judged and territorial. Like a wolf, she was reserved and distant. Very distant, and in more ways than just being the daughter of the legendary wolf that had started the endless franchise of killings in a Ghostface mask: Billy Loomis.

She was different. Her father promised her that title. And he given her something more. Something that hadn’t awoken inside of her until she held his murder weapon in her hands and wore his mask over her face.

“Murder’s in your blood.” Wayne Bailey, Richie Kirsch’s father, told had her.

“Your birthright.” He had said.

And he was right.

She was Samantha Loomis. 

She was a wolf . 

It had been 6 months since the Kirsch family had been sent to their graves, and a lot had happened. Moving on and holding on. It was different for all of the survivors. Sam, Tara, Chad, Mindy, and Danny abandoned their split apartments to come together under one roof in the suburbs. It was a small, one-story house, surrounded mostly by larger, newly built homes, but it was good enough for them. Furthermore, the three younger survivors had continued going to college, and like they had promised each other, the Carpenter sisters had been attending weekly therapy sessions together. The therapist they had been going to was the best they had met so far. She was understanding, low-key, and didn’t project herself as a know-it-all, just-there-to-get-paid counselor. This made it fair to talk to her.

Well… for Tara at least. 

For someone who wasn’t used to opening-up to a stranger about her past, trauma, and scars, the younger sister was able to communicate herself fairly well a few sessions in. She was skeptical, but she had made a promise and she intended to keep it. Not to mention, her well-being needed to be secured in order for her to live the rest of her life. 

After all, survivors didn’t run from their past, they outran it towards something better.

On the contrary, Sam was the opposite, which was surprising, since she had been the one consistent with trying to receive help before the 2023 Ghostface attacks had happened. Ever since she killed Richie’s father and sister, she hadn’t been the same. She hadn’t felt the same. Her aggression had grown along with her temper. She had become very territorial and instinctive. And she had been fighting in a tailspin with her Loomis-bloodline. It had taken her a while to figure out what these differences were from, but when her guttural feelings betrayed her insides to reveal themselves, she had learned quickly.

She was a wolf. Not symbolically, like anyone would assume, but a shapeshifter. Triggered by emotions, her form would change from a human to a wild animal, and no one knew. The visions of her father occurred more frequently, and she heard his voice often. He was a shifter, too, but he couldn’t tell if he had passed down that gene to her until it happened.

He explained that it was a mutation in her Loomis DNA, an awakening that bloomed when a trauma so severe affects the host to the point where murder feels right, and the killer instincts surge. Wolves were raised to hunt, defend, and kill, and that’s what she was good at. 

Together, they were the Wolves of Woodsboro.

But she had kept it a secret from everyone. She was still trying to get a handle on it, hence why she shut down during therapy. She was indifferent, easily angered, and extremely defensive when she would be accused of trying to protect herself from vulnerability. Tara would even jump her from time-to-time, saying how they promised to do this together, but now she seemed to want no part of it. She didn’t understand it, and if she were honest, Sam couldn’t either. She was afraid of hurting Tara. She had hurt her too many times before. And she didn’t trust herself to let her sister and the rest of their household know. 

These new, unruly instincts and behaviors were messing with her mind, hormones, and personality. It was like she was going through puberty again. She couldn’t seem to control certain things, and as a result, would run off at night and get into any trouble it brought her to.

That was when the wolf inside of her ran wild. All of the emotions she held back would rush to the surface, and her father’s voice would yell at her the whole way. She would run until her chest hurt so bad, she thought she was going to have a heart attack. She would chase prey until her eyes burned from being so fixated. She would kill again and again, until her muzzle and paws were soaked and matted with blood. And when she tore the meat and broke the bones, she’d eat until she was so full, she’d throw it all up. Just to get the energy out. Just to feel something more than anger, paranoia, and the distressing loss of control.

And then, she’d go to the lake and wash herself off, drink away the metallic taste of blood and vomit, and then go home. By that time, it’d typically be between 2:30 and 3:00 in the morning. 

Danny waited for her every time she left. He never pushed her to tell him where she went or what she did, just asked if she was okay. She’d nod and say she was fine, but she knew that he knew better. She was exhausted, and he could see it in her eyes. She was queasy, and he could see it in her complexion. She was lost, and he could feel it in her kiss.

But he never pushed, and she never told. That was the way it was. 

At least until a week ago… when it got worse.

There was a new darkness on the horizon. Nothing unpredictable, nonetheless, but just as haunting as the last two times it had occurred. 

Ethan Kirsch was still alive and out for revenge against the two that ended his siblings and father. Billy had warned his daughter the moment the surviving murderer began his hunt. Every time she saw her reflection, he was there. Every time she was alone, he was there. As much as she knew he was trying to help her, she didn’t care. She didn’t want or need his help. Not when he was constantly whispering in her ear and grooming her into another version of himself. She was born a mess, so there wasn’t anything she could do to change her DNA. Sure, he had helped her with killing those who endangered her family previously, but he had quite the insulting way doing it. 

It was bold and upfront. Frustrating and intoxicating. Making her feed into the side she never wanted to be. She hated being told that deep-down, killing excited her, because she didn’t want to believe that was true. But it was…

She didn’t ask for any of this. However, no one would ever see it that way, other than the four people that she lived with.

Now, they were in danger again. This was where their progress with moving on got caught up in ropes. This was where their “ happy ending ” ended. This was where she relapsed into a hellhound with a relentless drive for speed. To hunt, to chase, to maul. She hadn’t told the rest that Ethan was alive, because her father had told her that he was taking a different approach. He wouldn’t go public with murders or attack those who were connected. That would just end up in another game of strategy. He would simply attack. 

He only had two targets. And those were the ones he would strike.

For this, Samantha planned to beat him at his own game. He couldn’t win if she found him first. And that was exactly what she planned to do.

“ Sam ,” Tara let herself into the garage to meet her sister, who was busy putting laundry in the washer. 

Her voice snapped the older sibling out of her daze that she always got in whenever she was alone. She glanced over.

“We’re putting dinner up,” she informed, “Are you gonna eat or not?”

Sam shook her head. “No, I’m good.” She shut the lid to the washer and slid the detergent cap back on the bottle. She could feel the tension between them rise instantly as she moved to put it back where it belonged, dreading to turn around and face that same frustrated glare that she had grown used to for weeks.

“This is the third night in a row that you haven’t eaten dinner,” Tara spat as she faced her. She moved all the way inside to have the screen door shut, blocking the exit to make sure she didn’t just walk out on her. But when her sister just gave a small shrug, she pleaded. “Sam, what’s wrong? I mean, I get that you’ve been having a hard time with this whole therapy thing and trying to move on, whatever, but it’s more than that. I know it is.” 

The she-wolf stared at her, her jaw tightening as she shifted her weight. Nightfall was when her anxiety, paranoia, duality, and psychotic symptoms triggered, so her appetite eluded her. Of course, she could force herself to eat, but making herself sick wouldn’t do any good when around the others.

“You’re not you anymore.”

This cut her like a knife, making her indifference vanish into a wave of emotion that took her by surprise as it threatened tears to flood her eyes. She wanted to tell her. Tell her everything that had happened since. Tell her why she was different, because she knew waiting on it would only turn out bad, like it did when she revealed the truth about their family. But every time she was tempted like this, a rugged voice hissed into her ear.

‘ “Don’t say a word.” ’

So she was forced to push it aside and excuse herself from the idea. “Not now, Tara,” she replied, refusing to meet the younger’s eyes as she tried to walk around her to exit. But her sibling’s hand clutched the door handle to hold it shut.

“Then, when? ” she demanded. “Huh? When are you going to tell me?” Tara’s eyes became darker than the shadows of the night, harder than the stone wall she was trying to break, and clearer than the indigo sky. “That’s been your answer every single time, one of us has tried to talk to you. You remember the last time you held a secret from me? How that worked out for you?” Her tone deepened into a growl as she found the older’s eyes, “Don’t make that mistake again.”

The more she talked, the worst Samantha felt. Because she knew it was true. Because she knew it was toxic. Because she knew she was repeating everything she had promised not to. As much as the Ghostface killings had taught her, she could never overcome the fear she had of herself. It was so twisted and confusing, relentless and exhausting. Yet, she couldn’t stop. She didn’t know how to. Her voice came out almost hoarse, quiet with the emotion and hatred she had towards this situation. “I’m sorry… I’m fine,” she lied.

This made Tara hot. “Don’t you fucking lie to me,” she growled. “You can pull that crap with everyone else in the house, but you can’t fool me, Sam.” She didn’t bother to hold back anymore as she let her anger raise her tone. “At the beginning of all this, you begged me over and over to go see a therapist and now, all of the sudden, you act like you’re not into it! I said we’d get through all of this shit together, and I meant it! But lately, I think I’ve been on my own… Because you’re never around anymore.” She knew her words were harsh, but nothing was changing. Someone had to confront her at some point. “You said you were never going to leave me again. Did your word mean nothing to you?”

And just like that, her older sister went from feeling guilty to defensive. Her blood boiled at that accusation. She glared at her. “Don’t you dare throw that in my face!” It was like a switch. “That shit isn’t the only thing I’ve been dealing with! Forgive me for wanting to keep you out of my drama that seems to get in your way so much—”

“You haven’t dealt with anything, that’s the problem!” Tara shouted at her. “I-I mean, we go to therapy and— and you just shut down. You don’t even try at all. I get that you have your own issues, okay, I got that, but I didn’t do this just for me… I’m doing it for you too.” 

A deep growl stirred in the other’s throat. Her spine pricked, and her muscles contracted with the onset of needing to phase. She saw red, tired of everything and everyone, and it didn’t make it any better when her father’s voice purred again.

‘ “Time to go, Sam. You’ve gotta let it out.” ’

“Just drop it,” she warned and pushed her way past and out into the open air. She heard the screen door slam shut and footsteps follow her down the driveway.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Her younger sister had one hell of a mouth on her that she had no reins on, especially when it came to her. “So, that’s the way it is, you’re just gonna run off like you always do?!”

“I don’t expect you to understand!” Sam replied, without looking back.

“I don’t have to! I just want to know what’s going on!”

‘ “Hold it in.” ’

“It’s none of your business!” It was so fucking hard. Her voice was already changing.

“Bullshit! I have a right to know as your family! Your sister! ”

“Tara, please!”

“Is it your father? Is he the one doing this to you?!”

Sam’s whole body was tense as she made it to the double-gate that guarded the front yard from the backyard.

‘ “If you don’t want her to know, get the fuck out of there right now.” ’

She turned around to face her sibling, who stopped a few yards away. “I learned to trust you, Tara,” her voice was dangerously low, corrupted with a venomous streak that made the other go silent. “I got off of your back, so get the fuck off mine .”

Tara didn’t say anything, at a loss for words at the aggression of that warning that was easily a threat. She was offended, for sure, but she had never spoken to her that way before. 

The evening breeze filled the brief moment of silence, before the wolf-shifter jumped the gate and disappeared into the night, leaving her sister alone in the half-light.

Her jaw shifted in disbelief as she stood there. “Wow,” she sarcastically nodded. If Sam thought keeping her in the dark, after everything they had been through together, was fair, she was wrong. Very wrong. She wasn’t asking for much, just for an answer. It didn’t have to be the ins-and-outs, it didn’t have to be deep, just something other than lies and deflections. Something that she could piece together. But she got nothing. Her sister was on thin ice, and her patience was getting there with this too. 

She scoffed, rolling her eyes as she stepped back to retreat to the back door, “Okay.” 

Her temper was still sharp when she ducked into the warm lighting of the living room, her hard gaze scanning the area for a single being.

“Everything okay?” From the couch, Mindy blinked at her. She had overheard the indistinct argument from inside the house—over the television—and she could tell by the look of the youngest’s face that it hadn’t ended well. “You two sounded like you were going to kill each other out there.”

“Where’s Danny?” the teen demanded, ignoring any questions and only focused on answers she was still looking for. She would find something , even if she had to wait all night until Sam returned to get it. Not that she expected her boyfriend to know, because she, as her blood, couldn’t even be trusted enough.

Mindy, while normally very inquisitive, had sensed something in her that told her to refrain from prying. So, she pointed to the room beside the fireplace that the two oldest household members shared, “In there.”

Tara slammed the back door shut and stormed in the direction she was pointed in, hearing the female twin call out behind her.

“Danny! Tara’s comin’ in hot!”

She entered the bedroom, immediately finding the male’s gaze as he looked over from the right side of the bed. As angry as she was, she knew it wasn’t his fault, so she would have to bite her tongue to avoid putting blame on those who didn’t deserve it. But Mindy couldn’t have said it better… She was hot . “Can I talk to you?” She couldn’t promise she wouldn’t lose it.

While this was a question, it came out like a demand, but Danny knew it was only a matter of time before she came to him directly, due to his relationship with her sister. He knew exactly what this was about. So, he wasn’t surprised or phased, just nodded, “Sure.” He set the towel he was folding down, muted the small TV mounted on the wall, and moved away from the bedside to listen to what she had to say.

Tara gently kicked the door closed to give some privacy, before stepping up to close the distance between them. “Does Sam talk to you at all? About… anything that’s been going on with her, since what happened 6 months ago?” She struggled to hold back her frustration, throwing her arm out and letting it fall against her thigh as she emphasized ‘ anything ’.

The other was as composed as ever as he shook his head. “Not lately. She talked to me once, but she didn’t say much, and I didn’t push her.” He could see her jaw shift behind tight lips, which led him to try to explain further, “Our relationship is different than the one she has with you—”

“ You’re a pushover ,” the younger cut him off aggressively, earning surprised silence that made her continue. “Sam is someone that needs to be pushed to open-up, because she can’t willingly do it herself. I’m younger than her, so she’s been hard-wired to keep shit from me, but, as an equal, you have the right to know what’s going on with her; especially if this relationship between you two is going to last.” She wasn’t even thinking about what she was saying before she said it, the words rolling off her tongue like second-nature. “She’s damaging every single relationship she has with the people in this house, the ones who care about her the most, and she’s having help doing it.” At this point, she had stopped blinking, staring at him like she had only stared at one other person: her sister. It was anger that masked desperation, because what she wanted was something that couldn’t be achieved by her hand.

Brackett stayed silent for a long time. As little respect as she had just shown for him, not only as a superior, but as a member of the household, he didn’t shout at her or show his offense. He simply stayed calm and listened to her… Because that’s what he had learned to do from knowing Samantha. Tara thought he didn’t know enough about her sister, but he knew more than she thought he knew. From the day they met, he had studied her. Her likes, her dislikes, her mannerisms, her habits… There were countless nights that he had listened to her talk or vent. There were other nights he helped her take her mind off of her pain, fears, and inescapable toxicity. He had felt every scar that stained her body for himself, because she allowed him to. She didn’t sleep with him for no reason, other than to be reckless with her sexual availability. 

Yes, she was reserved, and too much for her own good, at that. 

Yes, he had the ability to break her down, if he chose to do so. 

Yes, he technically was helping her sabotage herself, because she’s terrified of the dark potential inside of her that she can’t decide is an advantage or not. 

But he trusted her. 

He trusted her, because he knew where she had been and how she had handled it. He trusted her to trust him when she was ready, because he knew trust needed to be earned. He trusted her to make the decisions she believed was right for herself and the family she had vowed to protect. 

And for these reasons, he respected her privacy. He knew there was something bothering her. He knew it was driving her crazy and that’s why she wouldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, and stayed out late at night. And so, that’s what he needed to tell Tara.

“I get what you’re saying,” he finally began, his gaze having fallen to the carpet while processing everything she had thrown at him. He raised his eyes again to meet her, “But, Tara, you have to understand that, mentally, your sister doesn’t know what the right decision is to make. She never has. Her father is a murderer that is so well-known, her connection to him has forced her to live in a world of a thousand enemies. When she runs from it, it debilitates her. When she faces it, it haunts her. It doesn’t matter how much myself, or you, or anyone else tries to get it through her head. It is up to her on what she wants to share and when she wants to share it.”

“Okay, I understand that, but why can’t she trust us?! I figure after everything we’ve been through, she could. Like, why… Why is it so hard for her to just be honest?” Carpenter’s anger had run its course for the night. She’d blame it on her homework and the late nights, but the truth was she just wanted her only sister to confide in her so badly. It hurt her to not feel like she was capable of helping her in a critical period. She had willingly let Sam be a part of her life—she wanted her to be—she literally told her that…

Why couldn’t she be a part of hers?

And Danny had an answer to that. “Because she’s scared to be honest with herself,” he told her. “She still hasn’t accepted herself. She’s gotten close, but she can’t give in to what she might become. Not yet. And if she can’t be honest with herself, then how is she supposed to be honest with anyone else?”

Tara just blinked at him, her expression almost blank as she couldn’t seem to evoke enough understanding to outrule what she believed was more imperative to her sibling’s well-being. “She needs the ability to see herself as herself and not Billy Loomis. And right now, she doesn’t have that. But we sure-as-hell do. She’s not a psycho, she’s my sister. She’s not a criminal, she’s your girlfriend. She’s not a murderer, she’s our family. ” Her brow hardened, and her tone deepened a little as her words became imperative and emphatic. “If it’s help she needs, we’ve got it.”

He agreed with her, knowing good and well they had just made it to the same page. However, he also knew that with how fast Samantha seemed to be progressing through this phase she was experiencing, chances were that ‘ help ’ went into the wrong hands. 

There was only one other person that was around her as much as they were, if not more. 

Only one other person could call themselves her family . 

Only one other person she feared more than herself…

Her biological father.

“I think someone else beat us to it.”

TAGLIST: (gonna start one for this story bc i know a few people who are interested)

@alphawolfstabs @fantasylandbitch @bowergirlwitch let me know if you'd like to be tagged for updates on this fic!

All my best! 🩶

- parker (BWS)

[ohwell-itsme-but-danganronpa]

Co-parenting Found Family

[Miu (has a baby), Rantaro, Tsumugi & Kokichi friend group, Saiouma]

Me: you ever read a crackfic one-shot and realize you'd want to read a serious longfic with the same premise? cause now I am thinking of this stupid.. pregnant Miu shows up to saiou's apartament, asking Kokichi for help but instead of going with the crap about her not realizing she's pregnant for this long, I would like it to be angst inspired by her lhs

Clown: Yessss!!! I read that one!!! Absolutely loved it, mostly because I'm a sucker for them navigating something like this so ridiculously

Me: I liked it too, the joke about her not being able to tell rubbed me the wrong way, but it was actually nice after that, I would read more of it if they write a continuation

Me: basically, Miu ghosts everyone for a few months, not that unusual, she can disappear in her projects, she pops back up to brag about the prize she got for it when she's done, but not this time, this time she shows up to saiou's apartment, severely pregnant and devastated turns out she jumped headfirst into a relationship with some guy, tried to go through with her baby-trapping idea from LHS, because, hello abandonment issues, and for a bit it looks like she's exactly where she wants to be, but then, only weeks before she's due the guy ditches, leaves some note about realizing he's too young to be a father, and he's gone also, I'd add https://archiveofourown.org/series/976308 friend group to the mix, so while Ouma is the first person she comes to, the whole gang unites to help her

Clown: The friend group coming together instead of another potential partner is clenches fist so good. Miu is someone who is pretty fixated on relationships, it's almost as though in her mind she won't really be completely until someone loves her that way. So to give her a chance to move past that in this situation is just so interesting AND ITS JUST SO GOOD! In my mind for her to come to ouma of all people. Because he provided some familiarity to her, some safe space where she can in her own way step back into her usual. And Ouma would low-key go "shit. I'd jump shit too" and shuichi sends him a look but doesn't dare say anything because he kinda agrees. And it's a complete wreck but it's good

Me: yeah, if it's platonic relationships being as important as romantic ones, if not put first (actually, love Kokichi kicking Shu out so he can focus on comforting Miu), I am an insane person unapologetically I just think. found family coming together to raise a child. like if you agree I've done it before with DICE adopting a kid and I'll do it again

Me: Kokichi would agree with being the father, he's going to use it to gaslit their other ex-classmates (I imagine this is a few years post-HPA) into thinking he's the one who ended up with a kid their friend group + Shuichi know the truth of the arrangement, but that's it she might have been in a state of shock when she suggested it to him, but he's embraced it he Will be "the ultimate dad", (she regrets coming to him instead of Rantaro or Tsumugi when she sees all the custom print tees he got) he's telling Kaito about His pregnancy and childbirth experience the next time he comes over, he's preparing stories when it's aliens that got him pregnant, but no it was actually one of those dinosaur foam pills he swallowed, unless… Kaito, who just wanted to eat lunch with Shuichi: Shuichi, who is a simp: [relieved emoji] he won't help you, Kaito

Aalliyah: He swallowed a watermelon seed

Clown: He's taking this so seriously jagdjdhs He laid an egg [pensive emoji] I love shuichi just going along with it. Everyone expects some sort of something from him and he's just "We planted him in our garden from a toe nail and-"

Ves: this is gonna be the most spoilt baby

Me: on some bigger (as in just about the whole class is there) reunion, (probably a regular event organized by Kaede, like a movie or boardgame night) they look to Rantaro, who's always been the most reasonable of their group, and he's just mentally in the hehe hoho I'm an uncle and doesn't have more to add, he's zeroed-in on the baby, will get back to you later, maybe. [replying to Ves] oh, absolutely Tsumugi is part of the problem, always making something but. there is always somebody who wants to carry the baby never left out of sight

Clown: How do the squad [sunglasses emoji] , eventually find out??

Me: I think after Miu cries herself to sleep Kokichi texts their group chat using their emergency code (sacred, extempt from lies) to get Rantaro & Mugi to come over the next morning so they can tackle it together because in reality, he's a little overwhelmed too, and in the moment doesn't know yet if Shuichi will adjust to this with him so they all eat breakfast together, reassure Miu that they'll be there for her no matter what, start making a plan, a shopping list, beginning of a schedule, then Kokichi has to take the first scary step of the plan - talk to Shuichi about it; but Shuichi is like: yeah, of course because how could he expect his boyfriend not to help out? this is literally why he loves him, of course he will go a little overboard when it's for his found family he knew he had to prepare himself for Something when he saw Miu crying on his couch, at least it doesn't involve committing crimes against whoever hurt her, for now.

Clown: It's a big step!! (And very sudden) Even if it'll be a shared responsibility It's an entire new person! One that ouma is already in his mind accepted he'll be there for. He wouldn't immeadiately expect Shuichi to agree to something like that on a whim, but to know Shuichi is willing to look for solutions, to stay and work through it with him without question because of course. Sobs. Yeah. They've GROWN!!! Planning would be hellish though. Oumas filling the table with hundreds of scribbled papers and everything. Yes absolutely we need to sign this bitch up for maternity classes. Fuck it, Rantaro you go too, check in with us later. Tsumugi!! Need 3 months of baby clothes STAT! SHUICHI!! you just sit there and look pretty…SIKE ERRAND BOY GET THIS FOR ME

Me: let's be real, he's the first to sign up for those parenting classes and buying books about it but yeah, he does make Miu go too, for sure

Clown: Yeah he would!! He wants to be prepared

Me: also not to take from egg's family au directly but https://eggs-can-draw.tumblr.com/post/711383943783579648/omg-i-just-thought-so-byakuya-would-be-like Togami's motherhenning = Kokichi here and, while this is all sweet, I think Miu also needs to get mental health help, get that girl some therapy, she needs to work out the flaw with her logic, because, while it was already proven wrong when the guy left her, she needs to be given alternatives and you know, I think she would struggle with her feelings about the kid, it was supposed to be her ticket to being loved, and the kid is certainly getting a lot of love, but… maybe she would want more attention for herself? how is she meant to score a relationship now? she's going to need help understanding that those people are her family and that she's already loved

Ves: yeah!!! i think kokichi would b pretty blunt abt it too he tells her to shape tf up

Clown: YEEEAHHH. Honestly having a lot of people helping her out, some who give out reassurance easier than others, is a good start. But she is in that place where she's looking for something else to latch on. Usually that's the kid. I feel like had she gone through this alone she'd be one of those mothers constantly flipping through "You ruined my life" and "your the only thing in my life that loves me unconditionally" towards her kid. Ouma definitely helps in the way that he doesn't sugarcoat a thing.

Ves: local cluster b morons try to make a child well-adjusted baby'll be ok tho i think

Clown: Yeah baby will be ok! Everyone gets therapy [gun emoji] by law

Ves: praying that includes whatever poor man miu fucked up RIP king the kid is gonna be FUNNY when it grows up tho

Clown: [2 sob emojis] they'll be the ultimate comedian

Ves: saihara please pretend to be normal they need a balancing influence

Apollo: That kid is gonna commit crimes and use the skills Shuichi teaches them to get away with it

Clown: Somehow they pick up only on saiharas ingrained need to find the answer to questions The question is what would happen if a fork goes into an outlet

Apollo: They manage to somehow get the baby proof thing off the outlet and Kokichi fucking dives to stop them

Clown: Miu is just "let it happen. This is how I learned!"

Apollo: Kokichi just looks at her, blood dripping from the cut in his forehead and mumbles about how 'That explains a lot' Kokichi acts like kids will be kids and thus they get injured so there's no need to panic but the kid trips and he freaks the fuck out Like the kid doesn't even fall over. They stumble slightly and Kokichi is instantly there

Clown: He's the doting one. He's sobbing going, "my god. Your going to hate me one day. I'll be cool!! You can do a drug!"

Apollo: Poor Shuichi wakes up to Kokichi sitting up in the middle of the night because he's stressing over if he's cool or not and Shuichi has to remind him that the kid isn't even a year old yet and thus, has no idea what cool even means

Beez: smh shuichi just lie to him and say he is

Clown: Shuichi for real he needs to know, is he the lamest guy at the daycare?

Apollo: He's too tired to lie right now. Kokichi bursts into tears because is this his way of saying he isn't cool?

Clown: The pure betrayal!! From the one he trusted most!!!

Apollo: It's 2 in the morning [sob emoji] Kokichi has to have his devices taken away because he's staying up searching up how to be the cool guardian Ves: miu and him fight over who's the cool one when the kid is older (it;s neither of them)

Me: I can see Miu and Kokichi arguing about which one of them is cooler, but it's definitely Miu who lets the kid get away with things (like not brushing teeth) to be cool, and would likely mean the letting them do drugs thing, Kokichi would scold her for that and then his version of cool is teaching them lockpicking and making the scary faces, which in turn, she tells him off for

Apollo: Kid says it's Rantaro and both of them decide that he must go /silly Rantaro is riding the high while running away from Miu and Kokichi

springbug: it [rising the baby] surprisingly goes well too sure the kid might pick up on swearing at the age of 5 BUT THAT'S OKAY

Apollo: I mean, kid's gotta learn at some point Okay but father's day at daycare and just Shuichi, Rantaro, Kiibo and Kokichi all show up [idek why Apollo added Kiibo to the mix, he wasn't mentioned before, I didn't skip anything like that]

springbug: "i'm the father" "no i am" "what are you guys talking about? i look just like them" "sorry ma'am, im actually the father"

Me: nah, daycare, kindergarten etc. people think Miu and Kokichi are divorced or something if they come together they probably have some of their barely censored banter; sometimes Kokichi comes in with Shuichi, or it's Shuichi who drops the kid off on his own while he's on the way to work, kid refers to him by his name and calls him "dad's boyfriend"; sometimes uncle Rantaro or aunt Tsumugi come to pick them up; both Miu and Kokichi love to act like they're a single mom, works three jobs when other kids' parents try to ask them about life, and sometimes complain about each other

springbug: imagine gonta taking them to the park and showing him all the cool bugs [smiling face with tear emoji]

Me: once the kid is a bit older they let Rantaro and Gonta organize a camping trip for them and their friends, Kokichi is crying when letting them go because he's a motherhen and his baby is growing up and not scared to sleep away from home and him because the bugs will kill them

Clown: Miu and Kokichi giving their all to be divorcecore so true Everyone has ideas of the outrageous affair that ended their marriage that never happened

Beez: u just know the tea is PIPING among the staff

Clown: They're picking sides for sure

Me: imagine someone on the staff is homophobic so one of those days when it's Shuichi's turn, he gets told that his gay agenda is the reason the kid has to live in a broken family he's so confused the asshole is dealt with, but the anecdote lives forever also, I think Kokichi is the parent that always takes the chance to help out at school when they ask for a volunteer to join the trip or some event at school idk, if it's an universal thing, but here it's common practice that when little kiddos go on trips around town one or two of the class moms are asked to join after the first time the teacher is like "does anyone other than mr. Ouma wants to join? [sweat smile emoji]" but he persists he's just a little to prepared for anything to happen and kids feed into that energy and it becomes entirely beyond the teacher's control

Clown: OUMA BECOMES A PTA MOM AKSHJDHD The children are the next in line to be a part of his criminal organization so he needs to see them regularly, duh

[tarotreaderbabe]

Pick a Card: Grounding.

Feeling spacey and scattered? Let's go in depth to find out why and how to fix it.

🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

Pile one

I believe it's hard for you to focus. You might the person that's always changing projects. I sense you have trouble deciding as well, because you get lost in the small details. This happens because you're highly disconnected from your intuition. It literally helps you feel what's right and wrong for you, and without that it's very easy to get lost. You can't get the sensations that tell you which one to focus on.

Things that feel right in a second feel wrong in the other. Must be a bit terrifying.

You could use some meditation. Set the intention to tap into your intuition, and meditate on the gut area, to awaken it. Move on and meditate on the mind's eye, and and just let it awaken. Afterwards, let it go, and say " it is done", because it is. Your intention is already on its way to manifest.

You could also listen to 852hz music. It helps awaken intuition.

Pile two

Your confidence has suffered. There were times you were so excited about an idea and readily shared with others, only to have it shattered by opposition. There were times you really thought someone would work out, only to have your expectations broken. And you even probably have endured criticism and low-key abuse from others. You said to yourself you could never trust yourself again. Without healthy confidence, you became paralyzed. Start building healthy confidence again. Not expectations, as these will always be broken. Nothing happens as we expect. But build that faith in yourself that no matters what happens, you will handle it. And no matters what others say, you will handle it. Your foundation will be strong, and you will be able to move forward without fear. And remember, expect a little bit more of yourself, and a little less of others. See yourself as highly capable, highly intelligent, and incredibly strong. because you are. :)

Work with tigers eye, it's spirit will teach you the essence of true confidence.

Pile three

Suddenly, your connection with Spirit was broken. You probably came from a religious household, and one day, you simply couldn't feel it. You couldn't feel anyone, anything, watching over you. You felt alone, deeply alone. You might try to make sense of God/Spirit/Universe/What you personally believe in mentally, because you can't connect in any other level. You might feel an urge to fight it, to be angry at it, but it's like fighting the wind. Without Spirit to guide you, you felt lost. You felt abandoned, and you are fearful of every single decision you make, because you're sure you'd end up dead if you make the wrong one. Stop fighting. Start sharing. Tell Spirit about your day, as ridiculous as it may seem for you. Tell them how you feel, even if you don't expect an answer. You deeply crave connection with Spirit, so let them know it. Come to them instead of waiting for them to come to you. That's the thing your soul craves the most.

[mingos]

「 h.c. 」 ー the one about rosinante

　　　　hot take(?): doflamingo loved rosinante a lot.

　one of the few people he would have the emotional capacity to and his worldview would allow him to love, actually.

('but he was planning to sacrifice himー' we will get to that. look, it's complicated.)

to explain what i mean (& prevent from being too long) i want to invite anybody who hasn't seen this to give it a look. here, i talk in more detail about what i mean when i say doflamingo 'loves' somebody & what his limitations are as a neurodivergent person with low empathy.

maybe i'll write a separate post about his cognitive empathy (using logic to determine how someone feels) vs. his emotional empathy (the ability to resonate with someone's emotions and feel what they feel) because it's complicated, and nuanced, and all that junkーbut that's a deep dive for another day. right now let's just talk his emotional empathy.

-

　basically, his love functions differently because his empathy (a pretty key component in loving somebody) functions differently. for most people, he 'loves' in the sense he attaches himself to you because you make him feel good & feed his ego, and he wants to keep you around as a result. he recognizes that, in order to do this, he needs to provide you with things in exchange: protection, money, opportunities, etc. but he cannot connect with you on an emotional level, or at least not where it matters: empathizing with you.

　　that's for most people, though; there are some rare exceptions, and even then it's still a bit... off.

he 'empathizes' best with not just people who have experienced the same things as him, but who experienced the same thing with him. ('empathizes' in quotes because, even then, it's more him projecting how the event made him feel onto a person rather than actually knowing how they feel and it just so happens that sometimes those feelings can overlap sometimes but, eh, he's trying his best...).

he lived in garbage dumps with his four executives, he built his pirate crew up from scratch over 25-30 years, and, uh... y'knowーspent two years suffering poverty & unimaginable abuse side-by-side with his little brother. it's a circumstance that allows him to speak in detail, and commiserate, and genuinely come the closet to caring about someone's feelings that his extremely finicky brain will allow.

　but with rosinante specifically, doflamingo's capacity goes even deeper. because he, most likely, was not only the first person he developed a bond with as his brother, but he inherently places a higher social value on him because he's a celestial dragon. so, in a world of humans (people he declares himself as being socially, morally & maybe even genetically superior to) rosinante is the closest person he has to an equal, and that counts for something.

it counts for a lot, actually. it allowed rosinante to get away with a lot:

leaving for 14 years

coming back inexplicably

the frequent accidents

letting him just leave again for another 6 months & also take law

being seen as generally incompetent when doflamingo values people so long as they're useful

we also don't know the extent of how much rosinante masked his caring & compassionate side during his undercover mission before breaking away with law, but i have to assume doflamingo at the very least knew and, despite hating that side of him, overlooked it and allowed him to stay close.

i also genuinely believe vergo when he says doflamingo didn't suspect him and he accepted rosinante back with completely open arms & no strings attached. for my own portrayal of doffy, i've toyed with the idea of him being secretly a little bitter about being 'abandoned' because he's got some issues with that which may or may not have made the decision to sacrifice his brother easierーbut canonically it's probably a bit more cut & dry.

sacrificing him with the op op fruit was never the original plan. he didn't give rosinante the directive to eat it because he wanted to get rid of him for the last 4 yearsーhe wanted to sacrifice him because he was disobedient.

more than that, he wanted to sacrifice him in this specific way because it was a test to reconfirm his loyalty one last time. at the cost of his life, yes (though, all of his 'family' members are held to the same standard) but he gave rosinante something he didn't give his father or anybody else that betrayed him: an option of how he'd like to die.

'you can keep running if you want, prove to me right now you're a traitor, and i'll come & kill you myself. or you can come home & show me you're still my loyal little brother by giving your life to me. i'm giving you a choice.'

rosinante decided to run, and i have to imagine that broke doflamingo's heart a little. or, whatever what was left of it

[psychoblush]

Andor - S1E1 "Kassa" - Structural Analysis

This is a written analysis of the plotting and structure of Andor from a screen/TV writing perspective. I'm an aspiring screenwriter studying TV, film, and theater writing in college and this is my pet-project: to examine the way Andor constructs story in order to achieve certain dramaturgical effects. I hope to do similar analyses for the rest of the season as well. Thank you for reading!

This will contain spoilers for all of episode 1, spoilers for the first arc (E1-E3) and mild spoilers for the rest of the season.

Show premise

Petty-thief Cassian Andor is hunted by the Empire while a revolutionary movement coalesces across the galaxy.

Ferrix Arc (S1E1-S1E3)

Stories (Arc-wide)

A-story: When a pursuit for information regarding the whereabouts of his long-lost sister leads to him being a wanted man, petty-thief Cassian Andor is forced to do anything he can to remove himself from the attentions of corporate security, but the ensuing confrontation leads to death and destruction within his community.

B-story: (in flashback) When a mysterious starship de-orbits over Kenari, young Kassa embarks on a quest to prove himself as a capable member of his community, but the confrontation results in the destruction of his community and his abduction by off-world scavengers, never to see his family or his sister again.

C-story: Deputy inspector Syril Karn seeks to prove himself as a capable officer and a force for justice by apprehending the killer, but does so by disregarding his orders and endangering the lives of his comrades.

D-story: When Timm gets jealous of Cassian’s reentry into Bix’s life, the relationship is strained by mutual secrecy and miscommunication, leading to Timm’s death at the hands of a corporate cop.

S1E1 - “Kassa”

dir. Toby Haynes, wri. Tony Gilroy

streamed September 21st, 2022

Stories

A-story: Petty-thief Cassian Andor seeks to lay low and cover his tracks after a fatal shake-down with two corrupt cops leaves him a wanted man, but finds that his community distrusts him after overdrawing one too many favors.

This A-story is very central to the entire episode and with the exception of the B-story, all other stories causally spring from this story and end up relating to it in some way by the end of the arc.

B-story: In flashbacks, young Kassa wants to prove his worth by embarking on a scouting mission with the other “adults”, but abandons his sister in doing so.

The B-story serves both in the arc and the episode as a way to provide an elegate symmetrical structure. There’s a scene in the beginning of the primary action of Cassian’s pursuit after the opening sequence, one in the middle, and one in the very end. At the same time, the flashback serves to articulate some of the internal dysfunctions of the character, even though it takes a few episodes for it to fully manifest.

C-story: Security deputy Syril Karn wants to solve the murder of the two cops to fulfill his vision of justice, but finds that nobody in his organization, especially his boss, wants to help with his pursuit of the killer.

Here, Tony starts to flex his muscles in devising institutional drama and plotting. The main antagonistic force in the story does not operate unimpeded; he instead is faced with his own antagonism that articulates two key themes: 1) the empire stifles the freedom of those that serve it, and 2) fascist societies generate fanaticism regardless of whether or not it advances their cause or helps to maintain the preferred status quo.

D-story: Cassian’s reentry into Bix’s life prompts friction and secrecy between Bix and her romantic/business partner, Timm.

This almost functions as an addendum to the A-story, but gets its own special attention in how it chooses to articulate the Bix/Timm relationship. But it comes to have a direct causal effect on the A-story in subsequent episodes. Infact, the way causality transcends the stories becomes extremely intricate in its own right. Dramatic action becomes an emergent property of these interactions.

Scene sequences

OPENING/CLOSING IMAGES

OPENING IMAGE: Streetlights moving rapidly in the rain; Cassian in pursuit of his sister.

CLOSING IMAGE: After Kassa leaves his sister for the last time, she watches him as he runs away.

1: I./E. BROTHEL, MORLANA ONE - NIGHT (A-STORY)

Cassian enters an upscale brothel in search of his sister. When he receives special attention from the hostess, two on-duty corporate cops start antagonizing him. Cassian gets too pushy in getting information from the hostess, prompting him to get kicked out of the club and his pursuit thwarted.

2: EXT. MORLANA ONE - NIGHT (A-STORY)

Cassian tries to exit discreetly, but is held at gunpoint and shaken down by the two offended corporate cops. They attempt to rob him, but Cassian is able to outwit them, inadvertently killing one of them in the scuffle, and recovering the gun. With the tables now turned, the remaining cop tries to persuade Cassian to spare him, but Cassian kills him to make his escape.

Let’s talk about these two scenes as a sequence, because they function as one discrete unit of storytelling. Andor doesn’t do cold opens - though this sequence could very easily serve as a riveting cold open if they moved the title card to right after this scene. Being a streaming exclusive without commercial breaks, Andor also doesn’t use hard act structure with distinct act outs, even though we’ll come to see Andor as employing techniques similar to traditional TV act structure at times.

In TV writing, we sometimes encounter this idea of cold opens or opening sequences serving as story microcosms. In the sense that the structure and action of the sequence is representative, in a small way, of the way the world we see in the episode, season, and series functions. Andor’s opening sequence has him engage in a seemingly innocuous pursuit, enter a highly dangerous yet extremely familiar situation of power-tripping LEO, and leads him to make a difficult choice to escape the dangerous situation. It’s telling us that this is a world where good people have to make hard choices to survive because of the danger of the society they live in, which we will come to see in subsequent story units, is a racist, fascist, imperialistic, and capitalist society.

3: I./E. FERRIX / MAARVA’S SHIP - MORNING (A-STORY)

An extremely quick scene introducing us to Ferrix before work-hours, B2’s winning personality, and establishes the pretenses for Cassian’s flashbacks in the B-story. 

This isn’t really a real scene because it doesn’t have conflict, it doesn’t have antagonism, and it doesn’t have pursuit. But it serves as a good framing device and orients us to where we are on Ferrix.

4: EXT. KENARI VILLAGE - DAY (B-STORY)

This scene introduces us to Kenari, Cassian’s sister, and Kassa (the young uncontacted version of Cassian). We don’t get much action or context in this scene, but discerning viewers are able to pick up on the fact that this is a society populated solely by children and teenagers wearing and using old industrial equipment. Something very bad clearly happened here. We also see the mysterious ship de-orbiting, and the reaction the community has tells us this isn’t something they’re used to.

The decision to completely eschew subtitles is a pretty fascinating directorial choice and one that has gotten a lot of attention online. But It does a lot to ground the movement solely on the acting and visual language, as opposed to dialogue construction - though arguably it makes the plotting of this story a bit more sparse.

5: INT. MAARVA’S SHIP - DAY (A-STORY)

We get a short scene with Cassian where he starts to formulate a plan. We also get some indication that Cassian has a community on this planet with Bee mentioning Maarva and Brasso. In some ways, Maarva’s the antagonist in this scene because she’s besmirching Cassian to the others, even though she’s not there and it’s coming from Bee.

“Spectral” antagonist: A representation of the antagonistic force in the story by a character who isn’t that main antagonistic force. Bee’s just passing on information from someone else, but in doing so, he’s softly acting as the antagonist for the moment. We see this technique employed a lot in this episode and this show, especially since shows operating in the prestige mode often go entire episodes without main oppositional characters meeting (i.e. Cass and Dedra still haven’t met).

6: EXT. RIX ROAD - DAY (A-STORY)

Cassian convinces Brasso to spin a lie for him, but in doing so, it becomes apparent that Cassian’s sleaziness has overstayed its welcome in the community.

This is when the main sense of antagonism in the episode starts to crystalize for Cassian. Maybe once, his petty crime and hustler antics were overlooked in the community, but those days are coming to an end as Cassian’s options dwindle. That’s the source of danger, more than the possibility that he’ll be caught for the time being.

7: INT. PRE-MOR SECURITY CHIEF’S OFFICE - DAY (C-STORY)

Syril delivers the report of the double-homicide to Chief Hyne - keen on making a good impression and presenting himself as a dutiful officer, but Hyne sees through the bullshit and orders him not to investigate the murder in an effort to sanitize Pre-Mor’s crime reports under Imperial jurisdiction, leading Syril to be incredulous.

This is a great scene. It works wonderfully schematically, the scripting is stellar, and the acting is spot-on. This is the scene where I was truly convinced of what Andor’s storytelling was capable of. Syril comes in with a pursuit (deliver a report) with a deeper motivation (pursuit of justice) which is fueled by dysfunction (he is deeply insecure about his position as an officer and is desperate to please). The pursuit is met with opposition (Hyne has a completely different perspective on justice, being a pragmatist and someone who doesn’t want to rock the ship) and reversal (Hyne orders him to drop the matter and implies he wants to fire him), which leads us with a clear emotional context from Syril (anger and disbelief) which propels him into action (go behind Hyne’s back) for the rest of the story arc. It’s Emmy-worthy writing in a single scene. And it all happens in 3 minutes.

8: I./E. TIMM AND BIX’S SALVAGE SHOP - DAY (A-STORY) / (D-STORY)

Cassian comes in to convince Bix to contact his black-market dealer so he can sell his Starpath unit for a premium, but it generates friction between him and Bix because Bix assumes he’s been undercutting him. When Bix offers to buy it off him, Cassian refuses and convinces her to make the call. Timm expresses resentment for Cassian’s past with Bix - when Cass tries to dissuade his concerns, Timm gets more jealous of the two of them.

This scene’s also a banger. It has a complex shape - the danger is threefold: Cass doesn’t want Bix to know what trouble he’s in, he’s externally threatened by the sense of fear he has over being caught, and neither Bix nor Cass want Timm to discover the extent of their black market side-hustle. Bix is an antagonist to Cass, Timm is an unknowing antagonist to both Cass and Bix, and Timm thinks Cass is his antagonist. It’s great, and from here the causality gets pretty wild.

9. EXT. KENARI VILLAGE - DAY (B-STORY)

Kassa tries to go on the war march by joining in on the face-painting, even though he knows it means abandoning his sister. An older boy tries to stop him from participating, but the older female leader lets him join, prompting him to paint his face the same way she did.

This is a good scene with sparse plotting befitting the style of this story. The antagonistic force is the sense that Kassa should stay with the community and be with his sister, while the pursuit is that Kassa thinks he’s of more service if he leaves with the war party. The two antagonists are his sister and the older boy. Kassa gets what he wants in this scene, like he does in all the scenes this episode. This is because this story functions on an inverted sense of danger: the closer Kassa gets to what he wants, the more dangerous things will be for him. So the stakes are actually higher if his actions aren’t opposed very firmly. His dysfunction drives the story forward, with opposition deferred until it gets extremely bad in the third episode.

10. INT. PRE-MOR CORRIDOR / AIR TRAFFIC OFFICE - DAY (C-STORY)

Two security workers laugh and greet Syril in the hallway - Syril’s awkward response causes him to feel isolated. Syril corners the air traffic controller into reviewing the logs for him, but when the controller expresses apathy over the matter, Syril threatens him into compliance by invoking his authority.

GREAT LITTLE SCENE. It illustrates dysfunction: Syril is lonely, all he has is his job and a black-and-white view of morality and justice. It shows him acting transgressive to get what he wants, specifically by abusing his power over others. And it articulates the antagonism the same as the previous scene with him: what he perceives as laziness and apathy is what keeps him from getting what he wants.

11: EXT. FERRIX BACKALLEY - DAY (A-STORY)

Cassian is cornered and hustled by Nurchi, a local to whom he’s greatly indebted. Nurchi attempts to intimidate him with the help of Vetch, but Cassian is able call Nurchi’s bluff and escape from the situation.

It’s a good scene, really short and sparse. Thing to track here is that the town is becoming increasingly hostile to him and he’s generally unliked by folks.

12: I./E. TIMM AND BIX’S SALVAGE SHOP / FERRIX STREETS - DAY (D-STORY)

Bix is cagey about where she’s headed when Timm asks. Bix leaves, Timm attempts following her but quickly loses her trail when it’s clear Bix knows the streets better than he does.

13: I./E. PAAK WORKSHOP / RADIO TOWER - DAY (A-STORY)

Bix goes to Salman and Wilmon Paak’s workshop, asking to use the radio. Bix radios the buyer to come to Ferrix.

I put this as A-story because this scene has more to do than the previous one with Cass’ situation than the friction emerging between Timm and Bix.

What’s important about this scene is that it clues us into a larger underground network on Ferrix - Salman, Bix, Cass. It's a community where folks otherwise look the other way at this kind of stuff. Otherwise it’s sparse, no conflict, no antagonism.

14. INT. PRE-MOR SECURITY HQ - DAY (C-STORY)

Syril recruits the main security IT staff to help him apprehend the killer, but the staff express a general unwillingness to help him - both because they don’t care and because Syril doesn’t actually possess the authority to sanction an operation like this. Syril bullies the staff into compliance, telling them to put out a notice for the killer on Ferrix, despite the lack of authority Pre-Mor has there.

I like this scene, it plays slightly double-beaty because Syril is employing the same tactics as before on different staffers, but it also establishes it as a pattern. Syril advances unopposed in this story - especially in the context of later events, we know this is because we need to see him get into danger faster. It's another example of inverted danger.

15: EXT. PEGLA’S JUNKYARD - DAY (A-STORY)

Cassian tries rewire the ship he borrowed’s transponder codes, but in trying to justify his actions, pisses off Pegla and tells him he’s no longer welcome to take out favors from him.

This is a pretty lowkey scene, but it’s the closest we get to a crisis/climax moment for Cass in this episode. I’ll talk more about why that is later; it refers specifically to the way Andor modulates story in ways that work distinctly from other TV shows. Still, it has everything a scene should. A pursuit/tactic, opposition, reversal. And those elements push the story forward in more dangerous ways, as we’ll come to see in the next two episodes.

16: EXT. KENARI VILLAGE - DAY (B-STORY)

His sister tries to plead with him to stay, but Kassa leaves with the other war party members - promising to return for his sister.

Yeah, this bookends the episode. The episode begins with Cass in pursuit of his sister, the episode ends with Cass leaving his sister, never to return for her.

What do we hear Bix say of Cass in the last episode? “Cass always comes back.” It’s a gut-punch.

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

Andor is a show that functions in a strange and specific way compared to a lot of serialized long-form narrative TV. Andor uses episode as building units to articulate larger discrete units of story within the season. In this sense, Andor’s “pilot episode” (I put this in quotes because most streaming dramas don’t have pilots) isn’t really the first episode, but all three of the episodes in its first season story-arc.

The way I was taught TV, is that all three-act narrative hinges on the elements of set up, play out, and pay off. Andor’s three tri-episode story arcs - which I will call the Ferrix Arc (S1E1-S1E3), the Aldhani Arc (S1E4-S1E6), and the Narkina Arc (S1E8-S1E10) - all hinge on this principle of modular three-act structure. Kassa doesn’t have a typical hard crisis/climax because it isn’t really a complete self-contained episode of TV. I suspect that’s also why the Ferrix Arc was ultimately aired all at one, as opposed to one episode at a time.

Still, Kassa is a strong and capable episode of TV because it demonstrates the strengths of Andor’s storytelling: the principles of causality, dysfunction, and institutional characterization.

causality: the chain of events in story that facilitate and heighten dramatic action in a linear manner. Andor shows us the investigation of the murders that happened in the first sequence - having the action of earlier scenes spiral into increasingly dramatic and complex action in subsequent scenes. The way the D-story with Bix and Timm loops into stuff that happens in the next two episodes is absolutely exquisitely done. Later in the show, the fallout of the Aldhani Arc is central to all of the action that happens in the second half of the season.

dysfunction: a character’s internal dilemma, ideology, or experiential understanding of themselves and the world that makes them operate transgressively within the world of the narrative. This is sometimes a character flaw, but can also be a sense of righteousness that puts them against unjust actors within the narrative. Cassian’s dysfunctions have to do with his desire for self-preservation and an easy payday, Syril’s dysfunctions relate to his inability to live up to his idealized notions of justice, and Timm’s dysfunctions come from the feeling that he can’t be as close to Bix as someone like Cassian can appear to be.

institution: the man-made structures that characters navigate within the story world and define the shape of the narrative. These institutions function as characters in their own right; Pre-Mor has as much of an effect on the narrative as a character like Cassian, as does Ferrix’s tightly knit working class community. And in subsequent episodes, we’ll look closely at how the empire’s administrations and power structures have material effects on the world. This principle is why Syril and Dedra spend much more time fighting their own institutions than fighting Cassian or the rebels. It’s a story about how highly-motivated actors navigate the challenges of their environments; dramaturgical complexity is almost an inevitable emergent property of this paradigm.

This episode and the one following it are among the least-tightly plotted of the season, but there’s still some intricate stuff. There are little moments in scenes where a single line provides an oppositional reversal that redirects the character’s trajectory for the rest of the episode. This isn’t a testament to Kassa’s weakness, it’s an appraisal of how Andor as a whole is a narrative that benefits from emergent complexity. When things go on for longer, more moving parts are in play, the story can move in unpredictable and highly dynamic ways. It’s a staple of prestige TV as a mode and Andor’s first season executes it exquisitely. With that being said, a lot of fans tend to underwrite the first arc of this season. And while I agree that it is personally my least favorite, it’s still really well-done. In the same way Andor has three tri-episode arcs, this is the “set up” one, and it does a lot of heavy lifting that allows the show to play uninhibited in future episodes. Don’t underwrite this one.

Thanks for reading! Let me know if there are any questions about terminology, theory, or just about the show in general, or my interests as a fan and writer.

[redbuddi]

i would love to hear more about what u think of boxtrolls, if u'd like to elaborate 👀

i've been thinking about watching it for a while but idk if it's worth watching lol

Pretty mid for the majority of it's duration, but there's one running gag that is genuinely so hard to watch, it's gross-out humor that would give the worst episodes of Spongebob a run for their money, and unfortunately this gag is plot important to the point is being key in the villain's defeat, so you can't even skip the scenes.

The scenes also have this thematic implication that I am kind of just not a fan of, essentially the subtext is that the villain is low-class but trying to appear high class, and we are meant to find it funny that this man is trying to project that he is higher in society than he is, like with a huge "haha the poor thinks he could be one of us!" vibe that is just gross feeling.

Oh also there's one other thing that I'm very salty about but since it's a spoiler I'll put it in a read more.

So like the thing about the main character is that he is a human boy that was presumably abandoned and taken in by box trolls, but by the end of the film we find out that his father is alive and never meant to abandon him and there's this whole vibe of like "wow it's great that he can be with his real family now!"

Which was kind of very bad when my family went to see it because we had just had the talk with my little bro where we explained that he was adopted and I swear as we walked out of the theater we all like looked at my bro and then at each other all like "oh dear god please do not let him get the wrong idea"

so yeah