#i should probably make a pinned post too oof

[seizedeath]

okay fearne's page is done! however i might spend,,,, most of the day modding my dai game bc i really want to play/write people from it again...

[separatist-apologist]

You run a lot of events, so what do you think about events blocking people?

Oof, okay. You keep sending this ask, so I'm going to answer it. Please take into account that I do not speak for everyone, though I do know the majority of event runners in the fandom (inability to mind my own business).

I want to start by saying that fandom events are for the fandom/community at large. The goal is to have dedicated appreciation around a character, ship, theme- whatever. Something that brings everyone together in a positive way. Every event in the ACOTAR fandom is volunteer ran and, at least from my experience, takes an enormous amount of effort.

I've never met an event runner who wanted their event to cause problems, start drama, or otherwise alienate people. I don't know EVERYONE personally, so maybe someone is reading this "well I do want that", but they're certainly in the minority.

Running an event sometimes requires balancing the overall needs of the community with the wants of a few people. I know folks who have blocked people from events because they have every member of the event blocked, and it's too much effort trying to wrangle these individuals, especially if the event is very large and has a lot of content each day. These events typically have their moderators listed on the pinned post of the blog, so folks can check and see who runs it, and if they're blocked AND they've blocked all the admins...that's probably why.

Other events may block people they perceive might be anti-character/ship. Elucien week does that liberally, I think a lot of ship events that are part of the "ship war" probably do this.

I know this can feel hurtful- it's why LB and I have chosen not to block people (minus the ship events we host), even if they have us blocked, from events we run (unless they start problems with the event itself). So long as people remain respectful, if they want to participate we set aside our personal feelings because we're balancing the enjoyment of the community with our own personal feelings and frustrations.

However, I'm not condemning events that choose to operate differently. Just like fandom events are a community, so too are our individual interactions with folks. I won't speak for anyone else, nor will I say I don't think this should be allowed. There is nothing worse than having to host an event people are using as a battleground, or having to play nice with people who are taking shots at you every other second of the year, especially when you're doing this because you love the material.

So in short- I think event runners should be allowed to run their events in a way that feels supportive to them. Running a successful event is incredibly difficult- LB and I began planning and implementing our projects for elucienweek in January of last year for an anticipated week in July. Events that feature a lot of interactive elements, activities, and what have you are also doing the same. LB, Meghan, and I spent a lot of money, for example, to commission our coloring pages. LB makes quizzes, we did flappy elucien- it's just a lot of moving parts, and I'm saying that because if you do it well, it all seems very effortless and easy. Behind the scenes, though, it's a lot of work and the last thing anyone wants to worry about is other people trying to wreck all the careful preparation.

[pluckyredhead]

🍊🍌🍐 for the emoji meme???

🍊 Who’s a character you don’t write for that often, but keep meaning to write for more? (They’re so interesting! But maybe you have trouble pinning them down, or keep getting distracted by another blorbo…)

Tim Drake! I think Tim's relations with the rest of the Batfam are so interesting, I just have no actual story to put him in. Someday I'll come up with a long plotty Batfam genfic and then you'll see, you'll all see!

🍌 In your opinion, what’s the funniest joke/reference/pun you’ve made in a fic?

Unfortunately the one that immediately came to mind is from a WIP and it's so good I don't want to spoil it. But I will also say that almost every line I gave Bart in Say It Just One Time makes me laugh, especially this scene:

Jon moved, but Bart got there first, wrapping his arms around Kara and letting her cry. “Hey, it’s okay, we can still get married. We don’t need the rings. Or we’ll get placeholders. We’ll get Ring Pops! Or we can steal some money from Tim, he’s loaded.” “I would just give you the money, you know,” Tim said, but he didn’t look too annoyed, probably because the joke had drawn a wet laugh out of Kara. “There’s no need to try to make Drake feel useful,” Damian drawled, stepping forward and holding out a little velvet box. “The clone’s clone might be strong, but he’s too stupid to notice when his pockets are being picked.” Kara stared at him. “You...you got them back?” Damian shrugged. “It was a simple matt—oof!” He staggered back a little as Kara grabbed him in a hug. “Thank you,” she said, her voice still a little shaky. “Thank you.” Damian very clearly had no idea what to do with either the hug or the gratitude, but Kara let him go before Jon started feeling guilty enough to rescue him. He did take a quick step back when Bart approached, as if to avoid another hug, and Jon had to bite his lip not to laugh. “Thank you so much, Damian,” Bart said. “You were killed by your evil clone once too, right? We should form a club!” “We absolutely should not,” Damian said.

🍐 Is there anything in canon that you absolutely hate and love to fix in fics? A wrong choice made, a fuck-up in characterization, a misunderstanding never cleared up, a conversation never shown onscreen, etc…

Lian's death, hands down. You'll note that the only fics I've ever acknowledged it in are post-Infinite Frontier ones where she's already back.

Also in general I love to acknowledge relationships DC has forgotten about. Jason and Eddie, Roy and Grant...actually literally anyone and Grant...

Ask me more fruits!

[miyos-multiverse-express]

Wait I forgot to post the live-blogging of the Aaron Vs Cynthia fight.

Thank fuck I took notes, I guess???

OKAY. COPY AND PASTE IT IS.

oh she's just sending out garchomp right away okAY

Drapion starts with Pin Missile, so far so standard - Garchomp tries to go in for a Brick Break, but it's dodged and ah OUCH that drapion knows ice fang -

NASTY earthquake there, Yikes. Drapion still standing though

Ice Fang again, yep - IMMEDIATELY followed by a Hyper Beam, is that legal? I should check later

Dragon Claw from garchomp, that's gotta hurt

*Squints* I swear hyper beam takes longer to recharge than that.

Dragon Claw aga - oh OOF and drapion catches it with ice fang! I think - yeah, that's garchomp out of the fight. Props to Aaron for that one, wow

Out comes the Lucario - and Aaron switches to Vespiqueen, that's probably smart. The Lucario goes for a Fire Punch - ohhh, good dodge

Air Slash hits, and Yeouch, that looked like it actually hurt. Immediately sends out a Defend Order too, smart.

Ohhhhh OW not smart enough to evade that Rock Tomb, though. Didn't know Lucario learned tha - WHAT THE DIST WAS THAT ATTACK

"Endeavor", thanks Brock. By the lakes, that looks like it nearly took the Lucario out.

... Not enough, though! Aura Sphere and the Vespiqueen is down.

Hi Beautifly! You were caught. Yesterday. And know Air Cutter, apparently. Down goes Lucario.

Hello Roserade! You are not a great choice for this.

Ohhhh, Poison Spikes. Yeah, that makes sense.

Annnnd now the poor dear is getting juggled by Air Slashes. That was quick, yikes. Bye bye Roserade.

Milotic, wow that's pretty. I've never actually seen one of those before, I think?

Aaron looks a little at a loss for what to do here.

Ahhhh, OUCH, Ice Beam.

Aaron switches out - smart move there, except that's his Skorupi?? Why the Child.

Oh it knows Toxic. That explains it.

Still, that is a Child™, so one Hydro Pump and it's out. Ouch.

Hi again, Drapion. Let me guess, Poison Jab? Poison Jab. Down goes Milotic, I guess.

Annnd Hello Spiritomb. With Confuse Ray, that's gotta be annoying.

Wait Fairy Types aren't a thing here. That 'mon has zero weaknesses, as far as anyone's aware. Legends, that's gotta be terrifying to face -

Yep, Hyper Beam isn't doing anything.

Confused AND burned with Will-O-Wisp? Ouch.

Annnd that Giga Impact went straight into the arena wall. There goes Drapion.

Out comes Beautifly again - their attacks aren't exactly doing a lot of damage, but they're very good at dodging, WOW. This is a chip-away game right there - annnd the Spiritomb is actually down!

Wait, is Cynthia on her last Pokémon? Wow, I did not expect that.

Gastrodon? ... I thought she had a Togekiss...? Wait, no, she used Gastrodon in Celestic, too. Weird.

Well, Gastrodon Vs Beautifly, go!

Beautifly attempting to go for a Solar Beam, but - Gastrodon used Stone Edge quicker than it could charge up -

Annnnd that's the match right there, yeah. Didn't expect that to be so close, though.

... I agree, me-of-a-few-hours-ago! That was a surprisingly close match!

... okay, I think I bolded all the Pokémon when they're switched or knocked out. I am. Not a professional battler by any means. Or a good storyteller. I uh. Hope the battle came across clearly enough anyway?

[whispersxwhimpers]

Oh my gosh they totally would get fired so quickly. I would love to think they would learn a lesson but some people probably never would get it. I’m thankful I never had anything too crazy in my service industry jobs but the way I want to tell people they are being idiots sometimes when I’m out… it’s hard to hold my tongue sometimes. 😂😂 and good! I’ll teach ‘em.

Well one of the reasons I wanted to message you was because I enjoy your posts and part of that is your pinned post. ☺️ that’s why you (and others) have them!

I meant to ask… what do you like to be called and how would you like me to refer to you?

Ohhh miss I want to taste you so so bad. I want to feel you grinding on my lips and tongue. Please miss. Please sit on my face. Let me show you how much I want to make you feel good. God please use my face. I’m so ready for you miss. Can you please let me have the pleasure of tasting you??

Well good thing I’m also a switch 😉 maybe we can give you the same treatment sometime.

Oh you’re very welcome. Thank you again for caring enough to check.

Ugh I know exactly what you mean because same here �� but some people need to be told about themselves and be humbled a bit!

Awww hehe I'm glad you did sweetheart 😘

Haha I prefer general terms of endearment, Miss, Mistress, and Mommy 🤭 My online name is Mermaid 😊

Such a good Darling, since you begged so nicely...🤭 Sure you can sweetheart 😘

Oh?? 🤭 Haha!! That should be fun 😉💕 the three of us being switches?? Oof 🥰

Of course 😘

[frogecstacy]

Hi! I really love your writing! My favorite is the one where the brothers don’t notice MC’s lipstick. Could I request you continue it with the newdateables (minus Luke) or just do Barb if that’s too much

OOf course lovely!!!

I’m so happy you liked it!

I’d be happy to do the new dateables (except Luke of course because I consider him my son)

For anyone who sees this first here are the brothers

https://frogecstacy.tumblr.com/post/645300851675709440/maam-may-i-please-request-mc-getting-a-new

Part 2 of the new dateables not noticing they are wearing MC’s new lipstick (except Luke)

Reader is gender neutral 

Hope you like it

Diavolo

Your relationship with Diavolo had to be very appropriate and mature when addressing the public and attending meetings

Never really getting to fool around (if you know what I mean)

However while still dating a royal Diavolo always made sure he had time for you and that your relationship was fun

He had read somewhere in a human world magazine that keeping you partner happy and living life to the fullest was how a relationship lasted

He vowed to live by that. I kid you not if not for Barbatos this man would have pledged his life to make sure your every need was acquired 

Diavolo had been very busy recently and you thought maybe this new lipstick you had bought would spark his attention

OH BOY WAS THIS MAN SMITTEN

He wanted you to paint a picture on his face

Your lips and the brush and the lipstick as the paint

Sadly you two were in a meeting regarding a new lunch menu, but the only thing this man had on his mine was eating your lips

His brain going BRRRRRR

You quickly picked up that his attention for this conversation was dropping quickly and was trying to end the conversation

As soon as the chef that runs the cafeteria left, Diavolo gave you no chance to say goodbye

His lips were on your quickly grabbing your cheeks so you could face him

“Now darling I must say this new lipstick of yours is quite tempting” Diavolo was smirking giving you a teasing tone

“Is it a crime to want my boyfriend’s attention” you loved giving him those innocent puppy dog eyes

“Why yes it is my dear, I’m afraid your punishment will be giving me more kisses” 

How you loved Diavolo’s “punishments”

This led to a quick make out session but it was cut short as Barbatos called reminding Diavolo he had a meeting with elderly demons regarding some RAD students getting out of hand

“We’ll continue this later my love, I hope you’ll be reapplying the lipstick. It tastes amazing.”

As you looked over at Diavolo you saw the lipstick marks on his face and was going to tell him but he was already gone

You were a bit worried but thought that Barbatos would remind before he entered the meeting

You were wrong Diavolo had quickly ran into the meeting and was met with wide eyes

“I’m sorry I am late I had... ugh, some important matter to attend to” he had thought maybe they were mad that he was late but Barbatos had quickly pulled him aside for a private chat

“My Lord I believe you have MC’s lipstick all over your face” Barbatos was smirking

He could have stopped this but I mean who doesn’t love a bit of excitement 

Diavolo looked at himself through his camera phone and turned bright red

He just walked in to a meeting with a bunch of elders lipstick smudged all over his face

I mean the man jinxed himself, he wanted you to paint a picture

He quickly than realised something, why be embarrassed, these geezers should know he’s in an active relationship and he doesn’t care for their opinion

He wiped off most of the marks but left one on his neck for them to know he enjoyed himself, reminding them they took him from his enjoying moment

He walked right back into that board room with his signature smile and laugh and continued with pure confidence

You later found out and was so embarrassed but that thought was quickly swept away and Diavolo said he wanted to wear your love all the time

Damn sorry I got carried away with Diavolo’s

Barbatos

They should seriously make a UR+ card of this man ASAP

Okay Barbatos is 24/7 butler so you don’t always get time with him

BUT... you had a plan to get his attention today

You had bought a new lipstick that you knew would be to Barbatos’s liking

You had went to the castle for tea but you just wanted to get Barbatos (Sorry Diavolo we kinda used you as pawn today)

You had come to the castle in a new outfit that made you look stunning 

You already are stunning lovely this outfit just made you God’s competition. Simeon have to step up his game

Okay so you enter the castle giving a small kiss to your boyfriend and saying Hi to Diavolo

Barbatos quickly saw your new lipstick and outfit and man had to hide the small blush on his cheeks

I mean he could’ve known you were going to do this but he still would be blushing 

Your chit chat with the two was small as you could Barbatos was watching the way your lips moved or the way you sipped on your cup of tea

He was not subtle in any way today

Wanting to feel your lips on his he reminded Diavolo of some work he had to complete

Barbatos insisted in guiding you to the door and for Diavolo to return to his studies

As Barbatos was leading you out he put his hand on your lower back and said “I see what you’re trying to do my dear. You want me to give you some attention” 

Now at the door and facing him you said shyly “Is it working?”

“Mhm” as Barbatos hummed his answer he leaned into you and kissed your lips

But one kiss wouldn’t suffice, he need more

Now pining you against the wall he was holding you

Your kisses started to get more desperate and Barbatos was addicted to to your lips

You were kissing all over his face

His neck, his lips, his forehead, his cheeks, he was lost in the feeling

Being so lost in your loving lips he didn’t hear Diavolo walking down the hallway to ask a question 

You both froze when Diavolo stopped talking and was staring at you two

Barbatos quickly pushed you outside and closed door

Was calm and neutral Barbatos embarrassed

He didn’t hear the end of it from Diavolo

However the prince was now reminded he assistant was in a loving relationship and need to give him more time off

Barbatos was trying to explain himself but Diavolo cut him off laughing and saying “Barbatos you should wash your face first before you explain yourself”

He left to wash his face confused but knew why when he saw himself in the mirror

He was tempted to walk out and enter a new timeline

But how could he leave you, he loved you more than any teasing Diavolo could give

Simeon

I could not find a good gif for him so I’ll have to get one of my own for future posts

Okay I know everyone thinks this man is Holy as hell but I think NOT!!!

I mean look at him, look at his angel outfit you can not tell this man isn’t a tease 

If he asked I would give him all the kisses he wanted

Okay so you and Simeon were going to go on a nice date in the DevilDom and you decided to wear a new lipstick

I think sometimes this man just throws out all levels of holiness when it comes to your hotness 

I mean who would be able to resist your beauty. No one bam!

You and Simeon were going to Ristorante Six for a well deserved date

You two had agreed to meet there, but Simeon had the wind knocked out of him when he saw you

He seriously had to have conversation with Micheal asking why you weren’t an angel

I mean your his angel though soooo

Okay so not only is your outfit jaw dropping he can’t get his eyes of your lips

While you two are eating dinner you remind him that his eyes should be up here, looking at your eyes

While dinner was nice all Simeon wanted to do was kiss you lushes lips

He watched you reapply the lipstick before leaving

He burned the brand name into his head and made sure he would but it again

When finally reaching the house of Lamentation he couldn’t leave without a kiss

So when he received a kiss from you he couldn't get enough

Your small kisses quickly became long and needy

Simeon had you pushed up against the door and was kissing you like there was no tomorrow

You both making sure no spot on your faces were unkissed, the moment had to come to an end as you could someone approaching the door

One last kiss and whisper of a goodbye before Simeon left to go back to Purgatory Hall 

When he got home Luke screamed

Poor baby probably doesn’t even know how to make out with anyone

Soloman was smirking and suggested that Simeon go look in the mirror

When he saw himself and he blushed 

He had to admit though he looked good wearing your lipstick

Solomon 

Okay so this man loves getting handsy and intimate at random moments

Like you could be walking together at RAD and then he’ll just start kissing you and go into an empty classroom

He loves keeping the name of the sneaky and mysterious sorcerer 

But behind his little act he just loves kissing you

So when he sees you wearing a new lipstick at RAD he pulls another one of his stunts

However maybe it kinda backfired on him

So you two are talking about a new spell you were working on

I mean the two most powerful sorcerer’s dating makes the most powerful power couple

While you’re talking about one ingredient you can’t seem to prepare right you find yourself suddenly pinned against a classroom door

His hands are at your hips and his lips are mere inches away

He’s looking at your lips and asks “Is this a new lipstick”

“Ugh, yeah it is. Do you like it?” 

Solomon wasn’t usually this bold or so revealing in the halls 

He responds with the gears in this already wanting to kiss you “I love it”

He already has his lips on you and he’s hoisted your legs around his waist

Opening the classroom door and closing it behind him, he places you on the desk turning your light kisses into a hard make out session

Your lips trailing everywhere from his lips to his neck to his forehead

After almost trying to see who could go without air for the longest you two heard the bell rings and quickly separated going to your different classes 

Solomon had ran into Asmo and he got a handful of questions from him

Solomon was confused but than it him, he must be wearing MC’s lipstick all over his face

“Ahh, you and MC getting real bold at school Solomon” Asmo loved the tea on your relationship 

Solomon’s pride didn’t falter and just said “We did an experiment and that was it”

He walked away smirking

What a sneaky bastard

[asteristories]

The future of Nevermoore and this blog

(This isn’t an abandoning announcement don’t worry! 😅)

Edit:

Adding current demo link for ease of access since I’m going to pin this post

PLAY HERE

Edit #2:

But I’d recommend that you guys wait until the reboot to check the demo out because right now it feels very clunky and cringe, and the new version is looking a whole lot better haha. 

~*~*~*~*~*~

Alright...I’ve been meaning to make this for a while now but I kept blanking on what to say. So I hope these thoughts(tm) I’ve ended up forcing out of my head would make enough sense for you all haha. Apologies in advance for the wall of text.

When I started with this IF project of mine, I will admit that I rushed into it. It was my mistake for being too excited and not giving this a proper plan. I had the plot idea of course, but I’m more so talking about me not putting more care into organizing a blog, or even with the demo. I had shared the first iteration of the demo on the COG forum with only an incomplete prologue for crying out loud.  

And because of these things, I felt like it reflected on Nevermoore’s quality during its development. Like, I could never give you guys the content you deserve because I kept going back to edit chapter 1. But at the same time really I’m super grateful for your patience as I did that since I did want the demo to be as best as I can make it.

Decent progress has been for the next update, by the way. I just finished on my edits/restructuring of chapter 1, and will now move on to chapter 2 which will probably see the biggest changes. For those who weren’t aware, I will be combining most of what I had planned for ch3 into ch2 so you’ll at least get to see some new stuff when the update goes live!

And speaking of the update...I’ve been thinking of giving Nevermoore a new start through this. Yes, I know that I sort of did that already with the ch1 rewrite a few months back, but I want an actual fresh start this time. 

What do I mean by that? Well an ‘official’ proper dev blog for one thing. When the update draws nearer, I will be creating a sideblog that will be Nevermoore focused only (Nevermoore-IF is the name I’m leaning towards). With that blog, that is where I’ll also create the long-overdue intro post and put more effort into answering asks.

As for this blog aka @asteristories, I’m probably going to just turn this into a personal where I reblog other authors IFs, writing tips/advice, and maybe even share some of my art and non-IF writing among other things! There are a lot of old asks here, and many of them have been retconned by now. But for the ones that aren’t, I will either reblog them into the new blog or recreate them in a text post haha. (Oof the number of times I say the word ‘blog’...)

There’s other stuff I’d like to get done for NM as well, so to put it simply, this is what you should expect when Nevermoore undergoes its new cycle (like a Phoenix rising from it’s nonexistant ashes sksksksjkl)

I also considered in making a Ko-Fi, but I’ve decided not to worry about that just yet until I have all of these out for you guys first!

Thank you all everyone if you made it this far! And if you have any questions regarding anything I just said with this admittedly big announcement, feel free to let me know!

I love and appreciate each and everyone of my followers and readers, thank you all again for your continuous support and for sticking with me even through all of my rewriting nonsense 💖

[shianobuff]

Seven Minutes (Not) in Heaven

Written for Writer’s Pride Month 2021

Pairing: Maria Hill/Natasha Romanov

Warnings: None/Light Angst

Summary: Natasha’s mission goes FUBAR. Maria worries about her girl.

A/N: This is my first time posting a fic on Tumblr :). You can read the Ao3 version here

It was a mission gone wrong. Some rookie agent, who clearly had not paid enough attention during training, had triggered an alarm at the HYDRA base they were infiltrating. Nat looked at the monitor screen.  70% downloaded . Well shi-

She didn’t have time to complete her thought as HYDRA agents started streaming through the door. Perhaps it hadn’t been the best idea for her to split off from the rest of the group.

“Fall back to the jet,” Nat yelled into her coms,

“What about you, Romanoff?” Fields, one of the more competent agents (who Nat actually liked), asked.

“I’ll be fine. If I’m not there in seven minutes, leave without me.”

Fields started to protest, but Nat turned off her ear piece and turned to face the enemy agents. It was four-to-one. She smirked: she liked those odds.

The first agent rushed towards her, baton raised. He lacked agility, though, and Nat easily sidestepped him, slamming his head against the table.  80% downloaded . The next two tried to tag team her, but she hit one with her widowbites and side-kicked the other, sending the HYDRA agent flying across the room. 

The remaining agent was clearly more experienced than the three Nat had just knocked out. She threw a punch, which he easily blocked and he retaliated with a flurry of punches and kicks. Natasha looked over at the monitor.  95% downloaded .

It was a mistake to take her eyes off her opponent. She let out a little  oof  as he kicked her side, sending her stumbling back a little. Nat quickly recovered as the agent stalked towards her, using his cockiness to her advantage. He was overconfident now, telegraphing his movements. As he threw another kick towards her solar plexus, Nat easily caught his leg, using his momentum to swiftly pin him to the ground. She knocked him out with a forceful hit to his temples and walked back to the monitor. 

Data download complete.  She set the system to wipe itself and rushed out of the room, wincing in pain as her breaths became slightly labored. Her ribs were definitely broken. She raced through the halls, firing at the few HYDRA agents who tried to stop her. The base was like a labyrinth, probably designed that way, but, fortunately, she knew her way back. She got outside and rushed towards the forest. Fields was waiting when she got to the quinjet.

“I told you to leave after seven minutes,”

“I figured you might need a couple extra seconds. Did you get the data?”

“Your lack of confidence wounds me, Fields,”

The more junior agents looked scared at the accusation, but Fields just chuckled and shook her head. Nat went up to the cockpit of the jet and told the pilot to fly them home. Sitting down next to Fields she muttered to the agent quietly,

“Hill is gonna be pissed.”

 ———

 To say Maria was furious when the team returned would be a massive understatement. She had received a post-mission summary from Agent Fields and she was fuming. Her glare paralyzed most of the junior agents, and the more senior ones were smart enough to stay far, far away from their commander.

“What the hell were you thinking, Richards?” Maria’s voice rang out across the hangar as she berated the rookie, “You could have gotten your whole team killed. You’ll be lucky if you're not stuck with desk duty for the next decade.” 

Nat tried to sneak away, hoping to avoid Maria’s tirade. Unfortunately for her, Maria had expected this and whirled around, jabbing a finger at her, “And don’t even think about trying to skip medical, Romanoff, or I  will  make you babysit Stark.”

Maria turned back around and went into full commander mode, making sure everyone’s injuries were tended to and ushering them into debriefing. Sighing, Nat turned to walk to the medbay, skipping a checkup definitely wasn't worth watching Tony. It wasn’t unusual for Maria to get like this, especially if she got hurt. It was endearing, knowing how much Maria cared about her. The second she stepped foot into the medbay, she was whisked away into a room Dr. Cho came in and immediately got to work.

“These two are broken,” Dr. Cho examined Natasha’s ribs, “And you might have a concussion. You’re staying overnight for observation.”

Dr. Cho had learned a while ago not to give Nat any leeway when it came to her health. If she said Nat “should” do something, she probably wouldn’t do it, so Dr. Cho gave Nat orders, and ratted her out to Maria or Steve if she didn’t.

“Fine,” Nat grumbled and pouted her lips. Dr. Cho arched an eyebrow and Nat sighed, “Thanks, Helen,”

“You’re welcome, Nat,” she turned to walk out the door, “I meant what I said about staying overnight.”

 ———

 “Tasha?” Maria leaned against the doorframe. Nat blushed at the nickname, her cheeks tinged pink. Clint wasn’t even allowed to call her that.

“Hey Commander,” she smiled as her girlfriend entered the room. Her face quickly changed when Maria opened her mouth,

“Do you know how stupid that was? You could have been killed, I could have,” Maria paused, choking on her words, “I could have lost you,”

“Masha.”

Maria looked at Nat and immediately softened, looking guilty. She ran a hand through her hair,

“I’m sorry, I just freaked out,”

“It’s okay,” Nat reached to grab her hand, “you never know in our line of work. I’d be the same way if you got hurt. But it’s just a couple broken ribs, Maria.”

“Broken ribs?” Maria immediately pulled her hand from Nat’s and pushed up the shirt she was wearing to reveal nasty purple bruises forming on her torso.

“If you wanted to undress me, you should’ve just asked, Masha,” Nat smirked. She faked a hurt expression when Maria slapped her arm, “the betrayal. Hurt by my own girlfriend.”

Maria smiled slightly, relieved that Nat was well enough to joke around.

“I’m just glad you’re okay,”

“I know. I’m sorry I made you worry,” Nat placed a gentle kiss on Maria’s lips, “I love you so much, Maria,”

“I love you too,” Maria smiled, placing a hand on Nat’s cheek.

“You better get going before your agents start thinking you care too much,” Nat straightened Maria’s blue uniform, “Can’t have them thinking ‘Hardass Hill’ has gone soft,”

“Fine. But I’m coming back once I’m off the clock. Want me to bring dinner?”

“Is it a date, Hill?”

“Only if you want it to be, Romanoff,” it was Maria’s turn to smirk and she winked as she walked out.

Nat smiled. Near-death experiences were almost worth it to spend time with Maria like this. Almost.

[flyingcookierambles]

sadness over a3! eng i guess

oof just on my 700th day.....

kinda sad because of the announcement about A3! ENG server shutting down soon due to financial difficulties at LIBER/CYBIRD in the past two years (covid-19 related, etc.). according to a rather in depth reddit comment that had links to LIBER's publicly available financial reports + some financial reports from LIBER's parent company, Aeria, in english, covid-19 really hit LIBER hard since they had to cancel many money making events, from pop-up shops for the typical anime merch trinkets (keychains, plushes, pins, etc.) to the huge in-person events (voice actor meetups, the stage plays of MANKAI LIVE, etc.). due to shrinking player base on the ENG server + major loss of profits on both JPN and ENG servers, LIBER had to choose one or the other and they chose the JPN one, which i totally understand since it's way bigger there and the JPN fanbase will continue to give the franchise money more often. also, another person found a financial report/estimate from the google play store or something, and A3! ENG only made ~$20K to ~$10K in the past few months, which i guess is not enough to keep a server and localization company afloat. 

i got pretty attached to the characters and it was a great game to help get by during college. and honestly, while i am very sad about this, again, i understand why LIBER did this, looking at their financial report from 2020. I would LIBER save the entire franchise rather than shut all the servers down, making us all unable to see our favorite actors ever again, even if it means that we ENG fans will have to go thru the extra steps of finding/reading fan translations, wikis, etc., to read any further stories from where A3! ENG left off. still, A3! ENG's localization was something special. i'm saying this as a TKRB JPN player who read the wiki for all the character voice lines and then had to see the official TKRB ENG localization make Yamabushi Kunihiro a rapper for some reason? lol. it was....weird.... meanwhile, all the memes and slang in A3! ENG didn't seem out of place and all fit their personalities because 3/4 of the troupes were all high school to college age and 3 of them were ~Gamers~. Out of all the gachas i've played, i feel like the only other F2P gacha game that had this incredibly smooth, all cultural jokes/puns translated in a way that still makes sense/fits the character/doesn't require a galaxy brain and some TL note to understand, is probably dragalia lost and that's only because it has frickin Nintendo localizing/publishing it globally for CyGames. Nintendo. i'll eventually read the fan translations of A3!'s Act 3 on the wiki, but it won't be the same without Kazunari's super high-energy influencer slang of "'whoa fam! that's totes 'blammable, gotta take a pic!" or Itaru's gremlin Gamer speak of "lol get rekt noobs" or Tsuzuru's tired dying breath of "that ain't it chief." the appropriate slang and relatable meme speak of the localization really helped humanize these characters as people of their respective ages, rather than just a typical formal speak or some directly translated JPN slang -> ENG that turns out super awkward that can be found in bad localizations.

going back to the reddit comment too, the death of A3! ENG servers could have bad repercussions in the future for other joseimuke games. josei, if you for some reason have been in the anime fandom but still don't know this term, is basically the genre of stories/video games/media/etc aimed at women. it's the mature adult counterpart to seinen, media aimed at adult men. basically shoujo/shonen = elementary/middle school/high school aimed while josei/seinen = high school/college/adult aimed if that helps. Joseimuke is a part of josei that is not specifically romance. while some josei/joseimuke can overlap with otome, aka female aimed dating sims/romance media, they have many things about them that make these all separate genres. one of the official A3! ENG translators and a known fan translator of another joseimuke gacha, Mahou Yaku/Wizard’s Promise, minami, goes more in depth with this in a twitter thread. 

A3! was an actor raising game, and a big part of it was found family and relationships that were platonic. yet it got advertised as an otome, which has more connotations with dating sims and brings to mind other shoujo/otome games and anime where the cast is all high schoolers and the setting is most often in a high school. but, other than some characters making flirty jokes or implied to have crushes on Izumi/player character, many character relationships with Izumi are platonic and not romantic at all. Spring Troupe in the game also jokingly calls themself a family. the entire Mankai Company is basically found family. plus, since the game actually has time passing in story and the characters age with each year, half of the characters aren’t even in high school anymore. a large majority of them are in college or are graduated by now, with only a few still in high school. i’m not surprised if a reason that some people left the game was due to feeling bored with the slice of life/not romantic story, feeling that they were lied to about it being an otome, which was falsely advertised since it is a game meant for the older teens/adults demographic of josei/joseimuke.

i’m worried that other japanese companies will look at this shut down as a “josei/joseimuke doesn’t work well in the west” and never localize other josei/joseimuke gacha games like Mahou Yaku, EnStars, Twisted Wonderland, Helios, etc.

while i like otome and shoujo, i, as a 23/soon to be 24 year old college graduate and now tax paying adult, want more stories that have more mature themes and characters that are more my age so i don’t have to feel awkward when i’m playing some dating sim and i, a literal 23 year old adult, and trying to woo a 16 year old. it’s...a little awkward to say the least. i would gladly welcome more mature media that is categorized as josei/joseimuke.

sorry if this is all over the place, but overall im just sad that A3! ENG is shutting down. i don’t know if i’ll join the JPN server yet. i’m def going to read the Act 3 story via fan translators on the wiki, but A3! gameplay was...boring lmao. as much as i love A3!, im sure that the constant event grind/burnout and boring rng gameplay turned people off too and i dont blame them. i felt the burnout bad since i participated in basically every event since day 1. it. is. rough. i’m not joining the hellish thunderdome that is the JPN server and im not ranking anymore as a F2P player lmao. literally had to play almost every waking free moment to get into the 30%-20% bracket as a F2P person and i never got to top 20%-10%, much less top 1% lmao. i’m don’t whale enough lol. 

i feel like i should probably just. crack open my genki 2 textbook and uhhh totally legal pdf copy of tobira. so i can just. get the JPN version of games in the first place so i don’t have to worry about getting shafted since overseas fans are often considered expendable. 

i wish that, when any games that are online end, gacha or mmo or anything, anything online, companies will let fans archive things. or like. release a book that is just the story text or something. like. CYBIRD is letting us still technically play the game and have the story and all, but what if they eventually later shut everything down? why not just release a pdf/ebook that’s just the text of the eng localization for some money? i’d buy it. for nostalgia and rereads and all and also archiving purposes. i think i’ll try to help with any english localization archive projects if i can so that the hilarious and incredible localization that was a work of love from the translation team doesn’t just disappear forever.

well.

that’s it for now. as i said, guess i’ll head to the app for one of the last times to read the last unread stories and mini stories i have left, then the wiki for Act 3, and then i guess i’ll crack open genki 2 and bunpo.....

some fun random links for you to think about!

random ffxi article that came to mind (if ffxiv ever shuts down in the next 20 years or whatever i’d be cool to get a statue of my character at the end)

and death of a game playlist by NerdSlayer Studios on Youtube that has me thinking a lot about game preservation and losing MMOs and games

the lost media wiki  and blameitonjorge’s lost media iceberg

other gacha games i’ve played that have shut down that i think about sometimes because the loss of A3! ENG isn’t my first rodeo:

terra battle & terra battle 2 (1)

AFTERL!FE

(related kitsu post link for archive reasons)

[aceofshitposts]

Happy Valentines Day everyone!!! This wasnt actually what I initially planned and it technically... isn’t v-day themed but it DOES feature idiots in love so that’s good enough, right? No beta we die like robins okay hope you enjoy! (will probably throw this up on ao3 tomorrow too)

ALSO a reminder that you can totally send me prompts for little drabbles/ficlets!! a sentence or dialogue or just an au you think might be cool (i adore aus) or if you just wanna say hi!

-

Jason's not stupid. It's just that. Things can sneak up on you sometimes, okay? They all have that habit of getting lost in the details or not looking for what isn’t expected. And boy, is this not expected.

"Please," Tim is imploring in the same tone a child asks their parent for a candy bar at the grocery store checkout, "Bruce isn't even going to be there so you don't have to worry about him."

That's. Really not the problem. The problem is Jason has no idea why Tim is asking him, of all people. Not that he doesn't like hanging out with Tim, as a matter of fact he probably likes it too much. Seeking Tim out had become a bad habit, if he’s honest, that has escalated from working on cases together to eating meals after patrol and even occasionally meeting up during the day to whisk Tim away from the office for a proper lunch.

They're friends, right? But that doesn't explain why Tim is inviting him to an important social gathering and not, say, one of the Titans if he needs a second that badly. Hell, Dick or Stephanie are better choices than Jason is. Asking Jason is. Is. It’s-

It feels a little like Tim’s asking him on a date. Which is absurd for all kinds of reasons, least of which is that Tim doesn’t like Jason like that.

"Why are you asking me?"

Jason winces. That sounded harsh even to him and the way Tim’s expression goes from distinctly hurt to completely closed off has Jason cringing even more.

“Okay,” Tim says, turning towards the open window.

“Okay?” Jason repeats, already forgetting that Tim hasn’t answered his question.

“Mhmm, don’t worry about it,” he says in a tone that suggests Jason should absolutely worry about it.

With that Tim slips out the window and into the early Gotham morning, leaving Jason with an extra breakfast burrito that they’d never even got around to eating before Tim had… whatever the hell that had been. Jason stares at the open window for a moment more, the wind blowing a napkin into his face, and decides he’ll deal with it after sleeping.

-

“What the hell did you do??”

If the sound of Jason’s bedroom door violently hitting the wall didn’t wake Jason up then Stephanie’s indigent yelling would have done the job just fine.

“What the hell do you want?” Jason asks, then shoves a pillow over his head in the vain hopes she will go away.

“Get up!”

The covers are pulled from his body which wouldn’t be so bad if this didn’t also give Stephanie better access to punch him squarely in the stomach. Jason snarls, leaping out of bed to tackle Stephanie to the floor. They grapple around on the floor for a while, Stephanie succeeding in nailing Jason in the throat with an elbow and pinning him to the floor.

“What,” she says pointedly, “did you do to Tim??”

Jason wheezes, only half due to the pressure still on his throat. Stephanie stares down at him furiously.

“I have no idea what you mean,” Jason says hoarsely. 

Stephanie’s eyes narrow.

“Well, you better figure it out because he showed up at my apartment and has spent the entire morning moping under my blankets and obsessively redesigning Redbird on his tablet.”

Stephanie gets up in one smooth motion then offers a hand to help pull Jason up from the floor. Jason rubs at his sore throat giving Stephanie an incredulous look.

“I dunno what his problem is; he asked me to some fancy dinner and I just asked why he wasn’t asking you or whatever-”

“You what?”

“What! What did I do?”

“What did you do??” Stephanie shrieks in lieu of answering the question. “You have to be joking.”

When Jason just stares at her for a good minute Stephanie’s expression breaks and she starts laughing.

“Oh my god, please tell me you got dosed with something from Ivy or took a blow to the head recently,” she wheezes through her laughter. “Oh, noo, this is too stupid.”

“If you’ve figured out whatever is going on, could you clue me in?” Jason implores which only makes Stephanie laugh harder.

“Nope!” she says, popping the P, “this is too fucking funny. You’re on your own, bro.”

Before Stephanie leaves she makes sure to steal some of Jason’s leftovers and laugh at him some more, giving a two fingered salute as she leaves through the same window Tim had earlier that morning.

Over the course of the day Jason tries to busy himself cleaning his weapons and kitchen but he just end up stewing in the echoes of Stephanie’s laughter. He’s slumped on the couch rereading the same paragraph of a random paperback he’d grabbed when around four in the afternoon he receives a text from Cass that’s just a smiley face. It’s the only warning he gets before Tim comes stumbling through his window, laptop tucked under his arm.

“Okay, so, I’m still mad at you,” Tim starts, which is great, “but I want you to watch this.”

He sets his laptop down on Jason’s coffee table and maybe Jason can finally find out what this is all about.

On Tim’s laptop screen he opens what looks like a power-point presentation, and isn’t that just incredibly Tim, with the title: “Reasons We Make A Good Couple and Shouldn’t Break Up”.

Wait-

Back up.

“Break up??” Jason asks incredulously.

Tim’s head whips around to look at Jason, the slide on the screen changing to a picture of the two of them in uniform at the local 24 hour diner, probably taken by the waitress and posted on some social media platform, Tim reaching across the table to snag a piece of Jason’s bacon. It’s got several heart emojis all over it.

“You- yes? Isn’t that?” Tim sputters suddenly turning a bright shade of red.

“To break up don’t we have to date first?” Jason asks in a rush before his brain has really caught up with the situation.

Tim gets impossibly more red, muttering, “oh my fucking god,” while slamming the laptop shut. He runs a hand through his hair, looking as nervous and off kilter as Jason currently feels.

“I’m. I’m so sorry, Jay, I thought-” Tim starts rambling, words flowing together into an incoherent string while Jason’s brain tries desperately to parse what’s happening.

Like a lightbulb finally turning on in the middle of the night, Jason understands.

“Tim. Are we dating?”

Tim stops, jaw audibly snapping shut. He looks at Jason for all of two seconds before his gaze darts away miserably, looking at the floor.

“Yes?” he ventures, sounding unsure. “I just. I assumed you wanted to take it slow.”

Jason can’t help the bark of laughter that escapes his throat.

“Do I look like I do anything slow, Babybird?”

Tim growls in frustration, throwing his hands in the air and then pointing an accusing finger at Jason.

“We go out all the time! I hang out in your apartment! But whenever I’d try to initiate something more, you’d back off! I was trying to be considerate!”

Oh holy shit. Stephanie is right, this is stupid. Jason had thought he’d been projecting his own desires onto Tim, that there was no way Tim would want to be close to him like that. Even after all this time, Tim still finds ways to surprise Jason.

“Well, this explains why Stephanie punched and then started laughing at me this morning,” Jason laughs while draping an arm over his eyes. They really were Batman’s kids if their complete inability to communicate like normal people was anything to go by.

“God, Jason, I am so sorry,” Tim says, dropping down beside Jason on the couch with an oof. “I never should have assumed anything.”

“Hey, Babybird?” Jason shuffles over so he can throw his arm over Tim’s shoulders.

Tim startles, looking at Jason with wide blue eyes.

“Shut up and let me kiss you.”

Yeah, okay, maybe sometimes Jason is stupid. But he can at least find solace in the knowledge that sometimes Tim is also. Besides that, Jason tells himself, what really matters is that they got their shit together in the end. Even if that realization is undoubtedly going to come with a large amount of their family all pointing and laughing at them for being idiots.

“So,” Tim ventures after they’ve spent half an hour making out on Jason’s couch, “does this mean you’ll come with me to the dinner?”

Jason muffles a laugh against Tim’s collarbone and says, “yeah, sure I’ll come.”

“Okay, cool, cool. We’ve got to be there in an hour then.”

[engagemachine]

How would J react if Taylor swore infront/at him?

May 22nd: New update

Anon, I’ve been thinking about this ask for daaaaays. Had to write a fic. This is just part one (turned out a lot longer than I thought it would be--wrote it in one sitting) and I’ll post part two as soon as it’s done!

FYI: This takes place early on in Burn, probably sometime around chapter two, so Taylor is back in high school. 

---

It’s still snowing outside when Taylor slides into her seat for third period English. She loves the overlarge windows in here, stretching along almost the entire wall of the left-hand side of the classroom. Black windowpanes showcase the little fountain in the courtyard, the stone benches seated around it, and the long, winding sidewalk where each senior from the class of 2002 got to lay down a single handprint in the cement to commemorate their pending graduation. Taylor thinks she would’ve liked that, to immortalize a piece of herself in that way, inscribing her name inside her handprint. Taylor B. It intrigued her, the thought of someone walking over her handprint years later, wondering who Taylor B was, what she was like, where she was now.

The fountain is frozen over, and the courtyard is blanketed in a thick layer of snow, still untouched. She wonders what it says about her that she often fantasizes about being the first one to run out and ruin it, leave her footprints behind, crunch through snow that is knee-deep, that no one else has sullied yet. There’s something about being the first person to disrupt the beauty of nature. Like stepping on a fallen dead leaf, the satisfaction of hearing it crackle beneath your feet. Or jumping into a still lake, watching the ripples that fan out across the water as you break through to the surface. Like leaving footprints in the sand at the beach, only to have them rinsed away by the incoming tide moments later. It’s a temporary disruption—and perhaps that’s the appeal.

Taylor settles into her seat and takes out her books. The classroom is unusually bright, the sky outside milky and pale as the snow piles up, falling softly in great big clumps. Mrs. Herndan leaves the lights off because they don’t need them.  

Everyone is a little more animated than usual. If it keeps snowing like this, they might call it a half day and get to go home early. Taylor hopes that happens, that way she can order take-out and hang out with Mr. J. Maybe they can watch a movie together—something scary, so she has an excuse to cuddle up next to him, if he’ll let her. She’s been testing the boundaries of affection he’s willing to allow her to bestow, and recently she’s been surprised by how much she’s been able to get away with. Just last week she fell asleep next to him on the couch with her head on his shoulder—totally by accident—and he didn’t even move her. Just let her sleep there like that until she woke up, his hand heavy on her thigh, right above her knee, at which point she jumped up, all groggy and still rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She swore up and down that she was sorry, she’d never do it again. She was so afraid he’d be mad, but he just looked at her kind of funny, like he was trying not to laugh, and she blushed furiously and hurried off to her room.

Class is kind of boring, and it’s hard to focus when everyone seems just as distracted as she is. Mrs. Herndan has to stop her lesson twice just to tell everyone to be quiet and put their phones away. Taylor is snapped to attention each time she does. She didn’t even realize she had been staring at the window.

When the bell rings, Mrs. Herndan shouts out their homework assignment for the weekend, but it’s mostly lost to the din of jostling bodies and excited chatter of weekend plans as everyone fights to get through the door at once. Whatever. She’ll just have check the syllabus when she gets home. They’re reading Romeo and Juliet and it’s really hard to understand. Maybe she can find a way to rent a movie of it from the library—there’s supposed to be a version with Leonardo DiCaprio, she thinks. Maybe that’ll help. Sometimes she wants to ask Mr. J for help—and in the past she has, like when she had to make that volcano for science class, and he knew exactly what to do—but Romeo and Juliet is way too embarrassing. All those thees and thous, the declarations of love. Like she could ever ask Mr. J to interpret that for her, not without dying from embarrassment first.

She gets twenty minutes into her next class before they finally call it on the overhead speakers—school is closed. She smiles to herself as she packs up her books, already imagining herself curled up on the couch with her sketchbook and a cup of hot cocoa. She should still have some marshmallows left over—as long as Mr. J hasn’t eaten them all. He’s always eating her snacks. Sometimes, in a moment of pure frustration upon stumbling onto an empty bag or box of secret snacks she had stashed away specifically for herself, she tells him to buy his own snacks, but he always counters with, I did buy these, giving her a pointed look, and, yeah, he kinda did. It’s his money, after all. Not like she could buy any of this stuff without him.

She’s pulling the rest of her books from her locker and shoving them into her backpack when she feels a tap on her shoulder from behind. She turns around to face Jennifer Bartlett—from her geometry class—who is holds out a pink envelope decked in glitter and little metallic hearts.

“You’re inviiiiited,” she sings, thrusting the card into Taylor’s hands. Taylor blinks at her.

“Me?” she asks. Clearly this is some kind of mistake. Maybe a joke.

“It’s a sleepover, so bring a sleeping bag, okay? And like, don’t tell your mom or whatever, but my parents won’t be there, so make sure you just get dropped off in the driveway and none of your parents try to come inside.”

“Oh,” she says, her mind still swirling from the invite. A sleepover. “Okay.” She forces her gaping mouth shut, quickly nods, tries not to look too overeager. “Okay,” she says again, a little cooler, smiling a little. “I’ll totally be there.”

“Great!”

Jennifer bounds off down the hallway, joining a group of giggling girls waiting for her at the end, and Taylor looks down at the envelope in her hand, her name on it and everything. Taylor B.

She bites her lip and smiles.  

--

Taylor can’t get home fast enough.

The bus takes forever, and they have to divert into South Side because of an accident near Paramount Park.

When she finally hops off the school bus and bounds for home, perhaps she takes off a little faster than she should. One moment her backpack is bouncing behind her as she races down the sidewalk, and the next, she’s spread-eagled and lying flat on her back, staring up at the gray sky as snow drifts down in soft little clumps around her. Oof. That hurt. She didn’t hit her head—thankfully—but she managed to scrape her cheek on the icy pile of snow packed into a miniature wall along the edges of the sidewalk. She thinks her cheek might be bleeding.

She doesn’t know what’s more embarrassing: the fact that she fell, or that the bus driver didn’t stop to help.

She winces as she gets up, wipes the blood from her cheek, brushes the ice and snow from her hands, wipes her palms on her jeans. The bus hisses as it pulls away, and Taylor’s cheeks burn. Maybe no one saw?

Her right leg kind of hurts, and she hobbles the rest of the way home, her excitement not dampened as she crashes through the front door, making it halfway through the kitchen before she remembers to shimmy out of her wet boots. Her socks are wet—there was a lot of slush on the sidewalks the closer she got to home—and her feet leave little wet prints on the kitchen floor before she gets to the carpet. 

“Mr. J!”

He’s not in the living room, and he’s not in his bedroom, either, when she throws open the door and scans the bed, his empty desk. She frowns, pokes her head around the doorframe to her own bedroom. Not there, either.

“Mr. J?” She goes back to the beginning of the hallway, knocks eagerly on the closed bathroom door. She can see yellow light bleeding out from the crack beneath the door, doesn’t know how she missed that before. “Mr. J, you’ll never guess what happened at school today!” She waits a beat for him to say something—a grunt, even, some form of acknowledgement that he hears her, she’d take anything—but when she’s met with silence, she barrels on. “I got invited to a slumber party!” she gushes. She has both palms pressed flat against the door, is bouncing on the balls of her feet. “I ran all the way home to tell you, I can’t believe it!” she squeals. “It’s this Friday so we have to go to the store A-S-A-P so I can get a sleeping bag, okay? I mean—if it’s okay with you that I can go. But I’m sure it will be because I really want to go and I’ve never been to a sleepover before.” She sighs, taking a breath. He still hasn’t said anything, so she turns her back to the door and leans against it. He has to come out eventually. “And you won’t even have to worry about dropping me off because I can just take the bus, okay? I looked up Jennifer’s address at the library at school and I already wrote down how to get there, so I won’t get lost! Oh, and maybe I should get new PJs, too? And do you think that—”

The door is jerked open so suddenly she doesn’t have time to react, and she’s falling backwards before she can catch herself, straight into Mr. J’s chest.

He’s holding her underneath her arms, and she tilts her head back to look up at him—upside down—as he looks down at her. His greasepaint’s bright. Fresh-applied. She can smell its gummy texture.

She smiles up at him, a little unsure. A little frightened. His eyes are so dark. “Jeeze,” she says, lightly, trying to dissolve the tension. “You have to give me a warning, Mr. J.” She tries to laugh a little, but it comes out stilted, and the look he pins her with makes the smile slip right off her face.

“Maybe I would if I could get a word in,” he replies. He gets his arms behind her and pushes her off him. Taylor’s cheeks burn as she stumbles a few feet into the kitchen. She knows she talks a lot when she’s excited. She’s like a faucet that won’t turn off.

“Sorry,” she murmurs. She keeps her head low, a little afraid to meet his eyes. He’s in a bad mood—but she’s determined to go to this party either way, and she won’t stop prodding until he says yes. She glances up for just a second to catch the narrowing of his eyes, and then his hand is reaching out, closing around her jaw in a way that makes her flinch, pulling her towards him.

“What’s this?” he says. His eyes on her skin burn, and it makes the cut on her cheek throb in memory.

“It’s nothing,” she says, annoyed, maybe a little embarrassed. She doesn’t want to have to tell him that she slipped and fell. Also, can they please get back to talking about her slumber party? She impatiently reaches up and pries his hand off her—he lets her. She ventures a few steps back, watching him, and her back hits the counter with a thud. “But about the party—it’s okay if I go, right?”

He ignores her question in favor of taking a few lumbering steps closer—towering over her—and his fingers around her jaw are much softer this time when he takes it in his hand, tilts her head to the side so the cut on her cheek winks at him in the light that streaks out from the bathroom.

He sounds almost curious when he asks, “Did someone hit you?”

His question feels like a gut-punch. She looks up at him, eyes widening in surprise for a moment, and then her gaze narrows, and she’s a little more forceful this time when she pries his hand off her jaw.

“No,” she snaps. She can’t believe he thinks she got bullied. “I’m not a loser. I know how to fight back if I have to,” she scowls.  

He looks at her for a long moment, his eyes hard and calculating, but she makes a point to meet his stare head on. She’s not going to flinch away. After a beat, he grins a little—some secret smile, like he’s in on some joke she’s not privy to.

“Of course you do,” he says.

“So can I go to the slumber party or not?”

Mr. J raises his eyebrows as he thinks about it. “Dunno,” he says, “I seem to recall your last little, uh, party, didn’t end so hot. Maybe you remember,” he muses, leaning down low, so their faces are level, “—or maybe you don’t, since you were high as a fucking kite.”

Taylor balks at him—he never curses, at least not around her—and she can’t help the way her mouth parts in shock. She can feel the threads of hope she’d been clinging to rapidly slipping out of her hands.

Truthfully, there’s not a lot she remembers from that night. Just a bonfire and a stranger’s half-remembered bedroom. The weight of a body she hadn’t wanted, a frisson of fear, electric as it sizzled down her spine, and then fumbling down the stairs, out the front door. Nobody had even cared. And then the frigid moon, the icy bite of wind on her cheeks. She remembers Mr. J, at some point, and waking up in that old airplane hangar, where she’d promptly puked her guts out over the side of the couch. The rest of that night is a blur. It’s probably better that way.

“It’s not—” she stops. Tries to find her footing around the right set of words. She just wants this so badly. It’s her one opportunity to fit in. To make friends. To be somebody. She wants so desperately to try and explain it to him, make him understand how badly she needs this—but somehow she knows he won’t get it. He doesn’t care about fitting in, or being liked—he’s the most unliked person in all of Gotham. Maybe even the whole world.

“It won’t be like that this time,” she assures. “There won’t be any boys there. I promise. It’s just a girl party. And I promise I’ll be really, really good and come straight home after.”

Mr. J’s eyes are dark as he watches her plead her case, and she takes the opportunity to stick out her bottom lip and put on an exaggerated pout. “Pretty please?” she says. “With lots of sugar on top?”

The corner of his mouth curls into a grin. “Okay, baby doll. Since you asked so nicely.”

“Eeep!” She squeals in excitement, immediately perking up, diving forward to throw her arms around his waist. She gives him a squeeze and he surprises her by patting her back. Once. Twice. His display of affection makes her cheeks warm, and she squeezes him a little tighter, happy to bask in the moment. “Thank you, Mr. J.”

--

Taylor buys a new set of jammies and a sleeping bag. She even spends the whole day prior reading about sleepovers, Googling at the library, getting more and more excited. She wonders if they’ll do face masks, or have a pillow fight, or watch a romantic movie, or paint each other’s nails? 

She goes to Mr. J to model her new PJs for him, a yellow top with tiny blue flowers, with little matching shorts and a scalloped hem. She is bouncing around his bedroom—she had a Red Bull earlier for the first time ever, and whoa—and she does a cartwheel on the bed once she has his attention, collapsing into a heap on the floor because she misjudged the distance. She giggles, and then uses the bed to pull herself up while she prances around the room and chatters about her slumber party. She has a little notepad she found in a drawer in the kitchen, and after a few minutes, she flops back on his bed, holding the notepad above her face. She’s making a list of all the stuff she might need to bring. She read online that sometimes you should bring snacks. 

“Hey Mr. J, cookies or chips?” she asks.

She turns to lay on her side, facing him, where he’s seated in his desk chair and has spun around to watch her, his fingers drumming against the armrests. His eyes are dark—but he doesn’t give her an answer. 

She scowls at his lack of participation, and redirects her attention back to her list, tapping her pencil against her lips.

“Hmm… sometimes cookies have peanut butter, even if they say don’t, and I know lots of people have peanut allergies, sooooo… I’ll go with chips,” she decides, resolute. Her tongue pokes out when she makes a careful, neat checkmark next to the word chips.

She crawls off the bed and skips around the room for a little while longer, clutching her notepad, chattering to herself, mostly. She plays with the books on the bookshelf, all the little knickknacks left behind by the previous owner, rearranging them while she talks, musing about how cool this party’s gonna be, how many friends she’s gonna make. It’s gonna be great.

She lays down on the floor to make some snow-angels on the carpet, flapping her arms and legs slowly, staring up at the ceiling, feeling her energy start to wane. She asks Mr. J if he thinks she should wear her regular clothes to the party, or if she should come dressed in her PJs? And doesn’t he think they’re really pretty? And her sleeping bag comes with a built-in pillow, and isn’t that super cool?

She jolts awake when a pair of arms slip underneath her, hoisting her up, off the floor. She must have fallen asleep.

She frantically blinks the sleep back from her eyes. It’s dark, and she can’t see. “What day is it?” she asks, panicked, her voice cracking. “Is it tomorrow yet? Did I miss the party?”

“Shhh.” Mr. J carries her the short distance to his bed, lowers her to the mattress even as she wraps her arms around his neck, refusing to be put down. She doesn’t even have the forethought to marvel over the fact that he’s just put her in his bed, that she’s lying down on his pillow, or that the covers smell like him. 

“But did I miss it? Is it over?”

She thinks she can hear a smirk in his voice when he says, “No, baby doll, you didn’t miss it. Time to sleep.”

He peels her arms away from his neck, and this time she lets him. She sinks into the mattress, and sinks quickly back into sleep. 

[lilxberry]

Rough Landing - Peter Parker

Synopsis;

Peter has a rough night on patrol and comes to you in quite the state. You help clean your clingy yet fidgeting spider-boyfriend with the promise of cuddles and something more if he behaves and stays still.

Warnings: Bit of language. Fluff. Implied smut (no actual smut ya nasty). INJURIESSSSS!

Words: 1,149

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader (established relationship)

_______________

A loud crash startled Y/N as she sat at her desk. She looked over at her window to see the red and blue web slinger fumble about outside her window. Shaking her head at his antics, she stood and crossed the room to allow her boyfriend access to her room.

“Jesus Parker, you scared the shit out of me.” She whisper-yelled at he boy now crawling through a window, releasing a pained ‘ow’ as he moves through the opening.

He closed her window behind him softly and stood, towering over her. “Ha, yeah, sorry about that.” He rubs the back of his neck as he tilts his head to the side, smiling sheepishly. “Rough landing.”

She sighed as she smiled up at him. “You’ll make me go grey at the age of bloody 16, dude.”

“You’d look hot with grey hair.” He flushes a dark red as he realisation quickly hits at what he had said.

“Awe, thanks Pete, I think I’d look pretty hot with grey hair, too.” She laughs as she takes in his appearance. “So, where’s the injury located tonight?”

“I-I-Injury? What injury?” He slightly stutters as he tries to showcase his self as cool and collected through his posture.

“Peter, I heard you say ‘ow’ as you came in. Now stop being a bitch and show me where it hurts.”

“Okay! Okay. No need for insults. I’m already hurt physically, don’t hurt me emotionally, too, babe.” He yields, adding a joke into the mix to lighten the mood, making the girl laugh. He hits the symbol at the centre of his chest, the suit soon falling to the floor, exposing hit bruised and cut up torso.

She leant down, examining his current state, evaluating what she should do with his injuries. “On the upside, these cuts don’t look too deep and it’s probably only going to take you a few hours to heal up those bruises.” Y/N straightened herself back out, sending him a small, reassuring smile. “Go sit on the bed.”

He nods and shuffles his way over to the inviting piece of furniture. He falls back on to the mattress with a soft ‘oof’, mindful of his injuries, as Y/N heads to her bathroom to collect peroxide, gauze and bandages.

She returns shortly after, arms full of first aid supplies, pile overflowing and almost falling free from her arms. She reaches the bed and opens her arms, dropping everything on to the bed next to the boy whose eyes are closed, arm draped over them, probably blocking out the harsh light in her bedroom.

After situating herself on her bed, she gently removed his arm from over his eyes. “Hey, I’m gonna start cleaning you up now, okay?” Peter gives her a small nod and watches her closely as she begins to focus on his injuries.

He hisses in pain, his jaw clenches as the peroxide touches the open wound. “I’m sorry.”

“No, no, no, it’s oka-ah, fuck!” 

She smiles at him sadly, hating seeing in him pain. No matter how many times he shows up looking like a dead dog, she could never get used to seeing the person she loves in so much pain. 

She notices the tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. She leans down close to his face, admiring his features which are sadly twisted in pain and lays a gentle and tender kiss on to his lips. 

Almost instantaneously, he kisses back, bringing his hand up to hold the back of her neck, trying to deepen the kiss. She pulled back slightly, their lips brushing against each others as she let’s out an airy giggle. “Okay, eager beaver, let’s get you cleaned up first, yeah?”

He juts his bottom lip out in a pout, looking at her with pleading eyes. “But BABE, I wanna make out.”

Y/N rolls her eyes playfully. “You’re fucking impossible, you know that?”

“I prefer the term ‘difficult to handle’.“ He flashes her a cheeky smile, drawing a small smile out of the girl too as looks back down towards his banged up torso.

“As soon as I’m done cleaning up, we can make out, cuddle, whatever you want. But you gotta be patient AND NO COMPLAINING!”

Peter all but nodded his head eagerly, laying back and motioning for her to continue. She smiles down at him once more before picking the bottle of peroxide back up, dampening a spare bandage with the cleansing liquid before applying pressure to the area that needs cleaning.

_______________

Y/N finally covers the last cut up with gauze and medical tape, huffing out a breath as she stretches her arm above her head, cracking her stiff back from lack of movement. “There. All done.”

Peter cracks an eye open and peers down at her handiwork, smiling to himself before shooting up and pouncing at his girlfriend, pinning her to the bed. He grins widely down at her. “Can we make out now?”

“Fine, I guess you deserve it after being such a brave boy!” She mockingly coos at him, snorting as he rolls his eyes.

He leans down slowly and captures her lips with his, nibbling at her bottom lip, asking for permission which she gladly grants. He slips his tongue in her mouth, quickly gaining control over the make out session. 

Her arms wrap around his neck, drawing him closer to her body as his tongue explores the inside of her mouth and his hands drag across her body, landing at her hips, digging his fingertips ever so slightly into the skin.

They break away for air, the need for oxygen to much. “You said we could do whatever I wanted if I didn’t complain, right?” He asks in a suggestive manner, biting his bruised, kiss-swollen lip.

“I sure did.” She giggles softly, looking up into his lust filled gaze.

“Good.” He smirks as he starts to attack her neck with open-mouth kisses, throwing the covers over them, causing her to release a final small bout of laughter.

_______________

Y/N and Peter lay there together underneath her comforter, their bodies bare and sweaty. Her head resting on his chest, lazily drawing circles across his skin as his fingers tiredly ran through her hair. Their actions both lulling the other to sleep.

“I love you, Y/N/N, so much. Thank you for putting up with me.” He spoke softly, lips touching her hairline, pressing a small kiss to her forehead.

“I love you too, Pete.” She smiled lazily, pressing her face further into his chest, leaving a trail of kisses across his pecs.

Peter soon felt her breathing slow and even out, notifying him that his girlfriend has finally drifted of to sleep. “I’ll never let anyone hurt you, ever. I promise.” He whispered as she took a final glance down at the girl asleep in his arms before finally falling into a deep slumber himself.

_______________

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First Peter fic and honestly, I don’t hate it

I’ve still got a lot to learn when it comes to writing any form of fiction but I’m quite proud of some of the things I’ve posted so far

Anyways, I hope you enjoy

And, as always, constructive criticism and requested are welcomed and greatly appreciated :D

[pmlylm]

SOME STUFF

I just need to get this off my chest, things that have been troubling me concerning this project. It’s a bit of a long post sorry. I also share some updates on where I am right now with the game - so click if you want to read it ˅˅˅

Okay so here’s the thing: This project is probably gonna take a long while to get finished. This is simply because I cannot afford right now to work on it. I’m already struggling to pay rent so when I work it has to be something that makes me money, simple as that. Finishing this game would really help me out, because then I have a back-up for income, and it’s something I can build on with merchandise and DLC etc.

A way to fix this is starting a kickstarter. This will allow me to work on it full time and hopefully finish it somewhere this year or the next. However I’m terrified of starting one.

If you’re unaware of kickstarter: People can pledge money to your project and in return will recieve rewards. But I don’t know a whole lot of rewards I can offer. And I’m afraid that the rewards will take up way too much of my time. One of my biggest fears is letting people down and I’m afraid this kickstarter will be a total flop. But then again, I should also take more risks if I want this to work.

Some things I can think about for rewards are these things

- name in the credits for a one dollar pledge or something? Or maybe a one dollar doesn’t have a reward and this can be for the pledge above it. - digital art book With all the art and the sketches. I should be able to make an art book, or I can hire someone to do this if it really takes up too much time. - get the game early When someone pledges something above 20 dollars they can get the game early maybe? I honestly don’t know how that would work, but I see a lot of other kickstarters do this as well. Send the files over in a ZIP file? - special wallpapers? Yeah I don’t know if anyone would want to give me money for a lame wallpaper hahaha- but I saw many other kickstarters do that as well. - design a character in the game I see this one a lot as well, however I’m always a bit hesitend with this one. Sometimes it’s very clear which character is someone else’s OC and it clashes a bit with the others? But since this is a modern setting I think it will be a bit better to disguise. And I do have some small roles that can be filled up by other people’s characters.

I can’t do pins or stuff like that- I live in a very small (shared) appartment, so I really have no place to ship pins from. Besides I live in the Netherlands and most of my followers are outside Europe, so there’s a lot more shipping payment. Other then that I have no ideas for rewards, if anyone has ideas I would love to hear it!

I also don’t know about the money goal - I think I can stretch it to 500 dollars per month (to be able to work on it full time) since I still get money from Patreon and YouTube. I don’t know how much more months I need though. It’s hard to say. I’m also willing to give other stuff when higher goals are reached. I was thinking about maybe hiring voice actors for one of the goals? How the game is structured point wise and all, I’m afraid there won’t be place for more scenes and stuff. If anyone has more ideas for goal rewards, would love to hear those as well!

Please do note that this is just me saying some ideas out loud - starting a kickstarter for this game is in no way official.

Let’s talk about the game itself, instead of it’s financial issues haha - Like I said before I don’t have much time to work on it, due to money (but also some mental stuff I had the past months). But I do want to show what I have so far so you can kinda see what’s going on.

WRITING

Every route has 9 scenes, I first set them up (an overall story line), then I write a detailed synoposis for every scene, and then I write the dialogue.

VIOLIN ROUTE overall story line done ✓ synoposis scenes done ✓ dialogue 3/9 done

GLOCKENSPIEL ROUTE overall story line done ✓ synoposis scenes not started yet dialogue not started yet

DRUMS ROUTE overall story line done ✓ synoposis scenes 4/9 done dialogue 2/9 done

SAXOPHONE ROUTE overall story line done ✓ synoposis scenes not started yet dialogue not started yet

GLUE SCENES (inbetween scenes that tie everything together) 20 in total overall story line done ✓ synoposis scenes 3/20 dialogue 3/20 (from the demo)

TOTAL 6/56 SCENES DONE (oof)

SPRITES

22 characters in total - 18 have a design - 12 have a sprite but it’s not updated with the new shading style yet - 4 are fully done with the new style

each gets different expressions - but those aren’t that hard and I will know what expressions I need once the dialogue is done.

BACKGROUNDS

I know how much backgrounds I need once the dialogue is done. I might hire someone for them though - if it really takes a lot of time (only when the idea of kickstarter goes on of course, I don’t have a budget on my own to hire one). There are 15 backgrounds right now planned. Maybe it will be more (or who knows, maybe less). 6 of them are done.

GUI

Interface and stuff (menu’s etc.) Mostly is designed. I just need to properly make it and implement it. I had some trouble with it but I think I will be able to pull it off with a new idea I had. So this one is going pretty okay!

PROGRAMMING

Most of the point system is finished. I just need to program some screens but that’s it. I’m not that worried about this one :)

OVERALL

Yeah - so there’s still a lot to do. Sometimes just thinking about this makes me really stressed honestly 😅 Like I said before, my biggest fear is to dissapoint people and I feel like I’m doing that. Not only people who want to see the full game but also myself. I hate that it’s taking me so long, which makes me lose motivation, which makes me hate it even more that it’s taking longer (it’s a cycle). SO I just wanted to get that off my chest. Maybe it helps with stuff haha! And if it really goes downhill at one point I will have to hire writers maybe... I’m not very fond of that idea because my vision for this game is very specific and I’m afraid I can’t communicate that well to other writers. And if I give the task of writing away to someone else it doesn’t feel like my game anymore. WELP sorry for the big pitty party. I hope to write more soon, when I can~

[fandomsnfluff]

can you plssss do a renga fic perhaps a sleepover which started off with them watching a movie and having a pillow fight turning into a tickle war! (both of them beings lees and lers with either one of them winning at the end)

hey anon!! full fic requests are actually closed right now but i’d be happy to write a longer(-ish) drabble based on this prompt, cuz this sounds super duper cute!! <3

sleepovers (reki/langa, langa/reki)

◦◦,`°.✽✦✽.◦.✽✦✽.°`,◦◦

It was around 7:30 when Reki came by Langa’s house for the sleepover that they had planned at school a couple days before. Langa’s mother had gone on a few-day business trip, leaving her son alone to tend to himself. She was fine with Langa having guests over, as long as they didn’t completely trash the place. Reki doubted that the workings of just two teenage boys could do that much damage (oho, you’d be surprised); he only went over to spend some quality time with his boyfriend.

Langa let Reki in as soon as he rang the doorbell, as if he was waiting there at the entrance until he had arrived. Langa was so attached to him; it was actually pretty cute.

The taller teen led Reki into his bedroom, which was just up the stairs to the left. It was a rather spicy room, his bed in the back right corner facing a drawer with a TV on it. On the other side was a door, assumed to be the opening to a closet, and the space along the wall not taken up by bookshelves or his desk was littered with beanbag chairs and blankets. Without asking, Reki plopped onto the soft futon-looking beanbag chair, snuggling up in the warm blankets that were littered all across the furniture. Langa didn’t seem to care, though; he sat up on his bed, grabbing the remote and turning on the TV to look for a movie. “Do you like horror movies, Reki?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I absolutely love them! You got any zombie ones at all?”

“Hmmm...” Langa squinted as he began to scroll through Netflix, pausing on one titled The Awakening. “This one’s about a person who is trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world and finds a way to bring about a civilization again, but not without lots of battles, of course. How’s it sound to you?”

“Perfect!”

It had barely been five minutes into the movie before Reki noticed that Langa had begun to tense up. His face betrayed nothing, but the way he squirmed in his seat presented nothing but fear to Reki. Smirking, the redhead grabbed a fluffy blue pillow near where he was reclining on the futon beanbag, and tossed it at Langa. It hit him square in the head, and Reki couldn’t help but burst into laughter. “Scared?”

“Shut up!” Langa retorted, throwing the pillow back at him. The whole thing descended into a back-and-forth pillow war before Langa decided to jump off his bed, his own pillow in hand, pouncing on Reki and bringing it down on him.

“Oof!” Reki let out a puff as the pillow came down on him. “You want a pillow fight? Well, you’ve got one!”

The boys spent the next few minutes tussling on the pile of beanbags, blankets, and pillows, the movie completely ignored. Langa thought that it was a good idea to wrap his leg around Reki’s upper torso to pin him to the futon so he couldn’t assault him with the pillow anymore. However, Reki had another plan up his sleeve. Letting go of the pillow, he wrapped his arm around Langa’s ankle and scribbled his fingers across the socked sole of his foot.

“R-Rekiiihihi!!” Langa squealed, suddenly beginning to squirm around, kicking in a desperate attempt to dislodge his leg from Reki’s grip. In his moment of strength, the little redhead rolled over onto his side so he could pin Langa’s upper body to the ground with his legs, allowing for an easier reach for the lower half of his boyfriend’s body. Finding out that his boyfriend was this ticklish under his feet was probably the best discovery he’d ever made; it gave him such an advantage, especially since the spot was so hard to defend.

But that didn’t mean Reki didn’t have weaknesses of his own. In fact, when he loosened his grip to get a better reach on his boyfriend’s feet, Langa managed to slip his upper body free and grab hold of one of Reki’s ankles, beginning the same assault on him.

Reki completely wasn’t expecting a counterattack; he thought he had his boyfriend pinned well enough so he wouldn’t be able to wriggle free. He screamed at the sudden attack, the panic causing him to kick out and squirm away from Langa. Even though the taller teen didn’t get a good enough grip on his ankle to continue assaulting him, he was still too fast; he abandoned Reki’s lower extremities and instead pinned him down by the chest with one hand, the other exploring the ticklish points along the redhead’s torso, making him caterwaul and howl with laughter.

“LANGAAAHAHAHAHA PLEEEASE I’M SO SORRY!!!” Reki screamed through his laughter, feeling the tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. Finally, after a few more moments of the incessant tickling, the strongest of the sensations finally faded, and Reki was left panting, nearly crying.

“That was mean,” he complained, too weak to even attempt to sit up.

Langa only scoffed. “But it’s fun,” he complained. “You’re too easy to get. And you started it. I only stopped because I got concerned about the neighbors. You should really keep it down, you know.”

“Shut up! You know I can’t help it!”

A sudden shriek from the television got both of their attention; they suddenly realized how far along the movie got; they had missed a good portion of it with their pointless squabbling.

“You better rewind that before I decide I never want to come over here again,” Reki teased. That earned a glare from Langa as he reached for the remote, and the redhead couldn’t help but burst into laughter once again.

◦◦,`°.✽✦✽.◦.✽✦✽.°`,◦◦

ok soooo that COMPLETELY turned into a fic kskdjhsjdfhs. idk ig that means drabble fics are acceptable to request??? idk lmao. but anyways i hope you enjoyed this anon!!! <3

[arcgeminga]

Romantic Headcanon Meme: 2-4, 9, 12, 16, 17, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26-29 (Aspros (lol obviously his ship with Manigoldo haha))

Romantic Headcanon Meme | AsupuMani (my OTP ❤️)

What my Muse admires about their love interest(s)

Hm... This is pretty hard to pin down for Aspros. In the most canon version, Aspros doesn't really realize he loves Manigoldo. Yes, he does have an attraction, but he doesn't realize that it's a 'love interest' sort of attraction. I don't even think he's consciously aware that he admires some parts of Manigoldo.

Metagaming tho, he admires Manigoldo's boisterous nature. It's like an attractive amount of cockiness and confidence that isn't too overpowering since Manigoldo can and will be humble should he need to be. It's just Manigoldo prefers to hide this part of himself.

I would also guess that Aspros unconsciously admires Manigoldo's respect for life and people from all walks of life? I feel like Manigoldo, from what I gathered in his gaiden, doesn't really hold things against people. like, he even said something along the lines of "The world isn't there to satisfy selfish people, but even then, I don't hate those kinds of people". And he says it with a smile. So I'd think that Manigoldo isn't the type that judges people just because of how they are or where they came from. You treat him and his friends good, and he'll accept you how you are; if you're an enemy, he doesn't make a whole show about how you are. I think Aspros would unconsciously admire that greatly (especially if you take my headcanons of him being gay-leaning into account since it was loathed in the 1700s). This is hilarious since I'm sure after the assassination attempt, Aspros would have been enemy number 1 on Manigoldo's list.

What sort of daydreams / stray thoughts they have about their love interest(s)

Woof.... As you know, in my headcanons, Aspros is a romantic. I'm sure that the things that 'normal' couples can do in public, Aspros would have daydreams of. But, you know, since they're in a forbidden love, they would probably never do such things. But, also, if we're going with the close-to-canon-as-possible portrayal for this, I'm sure Aspros wouldn't even admit that he has such daydreams. Or, actually, I'm sure that he wouldn't be aware of having such thoughts. If he does catch himself having those thoughts, he would think that he's having a sexual craving rather than it being a romantic desire.

Their worries/insecurities regarding their love interest(s)

Oof... I don't think Aspros would be aware of any worries or insecurities. Aspros is a very guarded person and he's also a very selfish person. Especially since we're doing this post-corruption. Plus, I don't believe that Aspros would have a lot to worry about with Manigoldo. Taking inspiration from my previous RP partner that helped me develop the AsupuMani ship, Manigoldo is pretty loyal, and since Mani didn't have any prior relationship, he's pretty blinded by his first love.

I will say, the only thing that Aspros would be mildly concerned about is if Manigoldo manages to somehow see through his plan of seducing him. Like, Aspros *is* using Manigoldo in order to get an idea of how the Pope sees him and as a safety net of support for after he secures his position as pope. So if Manigoldo ends up seeing through his act, then it would undoubtedly lead to Manigoldo losing trust in him. And, out of everything, Aspros puts a lot of significance on loyalty and trust. So that's about the only thing I'd say that Aspros is concerned about, but it's a very mild concern.

Any physical/emotional/mental/spiritual feature(s) they find attractive

Oh woof... let's go down the list of prominent things then, shall we?

Physical: Muscles. /shrug/ As I said, my version of Aspros is gay, or rather gay-leaning. He's more attracted to the toned body of men than he is into the curves of a woman. I'll also say he's attracted to Manigoldo's smiles and grins? Because Manigoldo does have really cute smiles and smug grins, I feel like Aspros would unconsciously be weak for those. And, ofc, as a gay man, I don't think I need to say that he's attracted to... ahem. Other parts of the body...

Emotional: I feel like Aspros would find Manigoldo's empathy attractive. My version of Manigoldo is very empathetic (Cancer trait), so he'll understand how other people are feeling without needing to ask. But just as he is attracted to that part of Manigoldo, he's also very cautious of it since, because of that emotional reading, Aspros is aware of how much of a risk it is if Manigoldo manages to 'read' through his acting. So, it's an attraction to a double-edged sword.

Ways my Muse goes out of their way for their love interest(s)

I wouldn't doubt that Aspros is a partner that would take more than he gives, and Manigoldo would probably be satisfying giving more than he gets... but I do not think that Aspros would be an unfair sort of lover. Within the "love languages", Aspros definitely falls under 'acts of service' more than he falls under 'physical touch'. So Aspros would do things he knows would probably benefit Manigoldo. And should Manigoldo ask for his assistance, Aspros would grant it immediately. He would probably even do things in the background that would make Manigoldo's missions run smoother. He would even, perhaps, stick his neck out for Manigoldo a little more than he should. Not quite risking his position, but obviously in a way that would be rather uncharacteristic if anyone is paying attention close enough.

And the most hilarious thing about this is that 85% of the time, Aspros would be unconsciously committing these acts. Some things might be intentional, such as doing things in the background to aid Manigoldo, but the majority of them won't be.

My Muse’s kinks and how they would bring them up to their partners), if at all

hahahahehehehuahuahuahuhuhuhohoho

Hm... Well, I do have the kink that Aspros likes when his hair is pulled, he also has a thing for dirty talking too, especially if he's bottoming. There's also edging, both receiving and giving, I can see that being a part of his kink list. There are also some moments, especially when he's feeling upset, when he wants to ravish and/or wants to be ravished (in the CNC/rough sex way), but never anything that treads into BDSM... Another thing I can see is semi-public sex or the thrill of nearly being caught/being heard by others... Although that's more of a fantasy he has, I would say he still gets off at the idea of it.

But, ah, I'm very bad at this... I don't really know much more unless I explore it in drabbles (since my stories and headcanons write themselves, some things just pop up while I'm writing)...

How he'll bring it up? Communicating and just sharing the fantasy with Mani. Aspros isn't afraid of talking these things through, especially if it's important to talk it over first before getting into it. Although, for some things, I'd imagine he'll bring it up via dirty talk, just to see Manigoldo get agitated and aroused by the fantasies.

My Muse’s sexual fantasies regarding their partner(s)

Oh. Boy.

Can I just answer this by saying 'There's a lot'??? Because there is. Even with things that aren't really his kink, he fantasizes about because he's fascinated with Manigoldo's reaction before, during, and after the deed is done.

Any pet names my Muse has or would call their partner(s)

Hm... I don't think so? Aside from 'darling', 'beloved', 'love', so on... Things he thinks he doesn't mean.

How my Muse would comfort their partner

As I touched upon it before, Aspros' "love language' is 'acts of service' and 'physical affection''. If Manigoldo was ever upset, Aspros' way of comforting him would be to 'be of service' no matter how he's used, as well as physical affection such as hugs, cuddles, and kisses should it be needed. Of course, he'll do these things believing that if he were to be at Manigoldo's side during difficult times, it'll get Manigoldo to trust him blindly--not quite realizing that he himself is genuine in these acts.

My Muse’s thoughts on marriage and their position as a spouse

Oh ooohhhh... This is an interesting thought, especially since we're going with the close-to-canon portrayal for this ship.

I don't think Aspros ever thought upon marriage. I don't think he was ever interested in it, especially since, during his time, marriage was exclusive to a man and a woman. Or, rather, I don't think it'll ever be in his thoughts unless it was brought up by his partner, and his partner specifically. If it's brought up by anyone else, he'll probably brush it off, but if Manigoldo brought it up (like, perhaps a sexual fantasy where they're roleplaying the wedding night), he'll probably mull over the idea more than he should.

But I'd imagine that after he starts to think about it, it'll just be a daydream. Since, after all, it's unheard of to marry another man (for his time period). But I would think that, if he were to daydream about it without being a prick to himself, he wouldn't be against marriage to his partner. It would be a private/secret thing, but it would definitely satisfy a large romantic desire he wouldn't know he would be craving. He probably wouldn't think on it deeply since, a.) he doesn't want to believe in fantasies regarding a romantically fulfilled future (since, if you go with my headcanons, the last time he did that with Klaus, it hurt him terribly) b.) It's useless to think about such things unless it's a roleplay fantasy for bedroom activities.

Although, in the canon divergence on the successful assassination plot, I can see Aspros sort of coaxing Manigoldo into a pseudo-marriage. Using Manigoldo's emotional vulnerability to get him to vow to be by his side forever. Not officially a marriage, but something very similar to it and extremely private to just them two. That way he can keep a powerful saint by his side while also securing his partnership with Manigoldo (unconsciously fulfilling the romantic desire).

My Muse’s thoughts on their experience / skill in bed

Oh, he knows he's good. Before Manigoldo, he had a lot of sexual partners due to his sexual desires. Although, the number pales in comparison to Defteros' body count since Aspros doesn't seek out the company of harlots and stray men frequently. So he knows he's skilled in bed. But not like Manigoldo would notice (since Mani's first is Aspros, a headcanon I will take to my grave).

My Muse’s favorite part about having sex with their partner(s)

Hm... Well, I mentioned it before, but Manigoldo's reactions before, during, and after sex would be Aspros' favorite things... but Aspros also loves to hear his partner too, from moans to growls to screams. Plus, I would imagine, although Aspros had a list of sexual partners before Manigoldo, I'm sure he wasn't too emotionally invested in them. So, when he does it with Manigoldo, because he's unconsciously emotionally attached, it would just feel a lot more fulfilling. So he'll just like it more overall when it is his partner.

My Muse’s go-to gift or treat for their significant other(s)

Hmm!! I honestly haven't thought about it...

I would think that expensive things would be a go-to? I mean, after all, Aspros is of the mindset that the wealthiest of people will show off their wealth by buying high-quality and rare items. I would imagine that, in order to lavish his partner, he'll buy things like expensive clothing and jewelry. Especially something that isn't straightforwardly a romantic item, so that they can keep their relationship a secret.

My Muse’s favorite way to spoil and/or pleasure their partner(s)

lmao, you mean something other than smoldering his partner with kisses and dragging them to bed to have sex? Honestly, for spoiling, probably cuddles, treats out to restaurants, lavishing with expensive goods... pleasuring his partner? Hm... anything sexual, I guess, but also entertaining emotional needs as well, even if he thinks he isn't involved too heavily in it. He would say words of affection as well if he knew that his partner needs to hear such things, but he wouldn't ever say "I love you", because--as far as he's aware--he doesn't love his partner (at least until a second before he dies when he realizes that he actually does, but by then it'd be already too late).

My Muse’s preferred method of being spoiled / pleasured by their partner(s)

lmao, you mean something other than being smoldered by kisses and getting dragged into bed to have sex? For being spoiled, Aspros loves head scratches. His scalp is pretty sensitive (like Defteros'), and he absolutely loves it when a hand runs through his hair and rubs his scalp. It turns him into a docile creature (or an aroused docile creature), but not a lot of people know about that. Pleasure? Definitely any sexual act. Also, while he wouldn't be aware of it, but hearing words of affection would bring him pleasure in an emotional sense. Especially, as ironic as this is, the "I love you" words. He'd see it as him successfully tricking Manigoldo into an emotionally secure place, but he wouldn't realize that he craves to hear those words (another romantic desire he wouldn't realize he has).

[having-a-hyperfixate]

The Final Day’‘

This is absolutely going to be long and rambley af so I’mma just put a cut here. This is just one massive post for the entire rest of the game.

Rindo is back in the RG somehow. Which makes less than no sense. What was that crazy beam. Shibuya is GONE there isn’t an RG to send him back to, even if someone did want to send him back?

That beam reminded me of the Jesus beams not gonna lie.

But… Fret. Presumably Nagi and Beat too. They’re. Gone. Poor Rindo… That’s the worst kind of gaslighting. Reality itself is gaslighting this poor kid. ‘Your best friend in the world is gone, so gone that no one remembers him. You don’t even get to mourn properly because there is no one TO mourn.’  I am also not okay.

I assume this random talking to us at Hachiko is the dude I saw a brief glimpse of in a screenshot from the final trailer. Hazuki Mikagi, okay. Everything about this is supremely weird. 

Leading this weirdo around and he asked how we feel about emotions? Um, what?

Was he responsible for that beam of light?

This whole thing is extremely unsettling, I don’t think I like it. The music is all… serene, this guy keeps asking existential questions, who even comes up to some kid clearly having a bad day and demands a tour of the city.

He knows Rindo’s name even though we never told him. Not sure if that was a slip or an intentional nudge that Something is going on but there we go.

‘I should take this chance to apologize for Kubo. He’s a real piece of work.’ WHAT. YOU SEND HIM TO SHINJUKU?!?! IS THIS KID GOD!? WHAT!??!

‘Exorcised’. Like a demon. Which is a psychic rank you can get in the first game, and probably this game, ergo, a thing that exists in this universe.

Okay. So this Hazuki guy is Something Else. I dunno if he’s an Angel or higher or WHAT. He’s something. And he “exorcised” what Fuckwad had Fallen to when he decided not to stop at Shinjuku and continue on to Shibuya. But he only did this after Rindo faught so hard to stop it. And then he gave Rindo what he thought Rindo wanted. And now he’s here trying to understand why Rindo is miserable. Which to us, as humans, is obvious: the people he loved, the connections and family he had made through the game are all gone and worse, no one remembers they ever existed.

And now he’s being offered the chance to try again. This feels like a double edged sword. And I don’t care.

Okay I actually kind of appreciate the thing Hazuki is pulling here. He knows what it is that Rindo wants, I’m pretty sure he’s listening to his thoughts, actually, and in order to make Rindo own up to it he’s arguing the ‘no’ position. Giving Rindo someone to argue against so he can convince himself.

WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAPPEN AT UDAGAWA.

Bruh some of these clips were in the announcement trailer.

(I can’t wait to read the secret reports. That’s gonna be a wild ride.)

Oooooh that’s what ‘exorcised’ means. That is hardcore. He definitely deserved it but that is uh. Slightly inconvenient.

Can we actually contact Rhyme this time PLEASE. Oooh Rindo worked out Kaie is waiting for Rhyme. :O I’M FINALLY GONNA GET MY MASSIVE COUNTER OFFENSIVE FUCK YES. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I’M PUMPED LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOOO!!!!

Who’s gonna protect them. Beat. Really. Just give them the damn pins at this point. They both know their ways around a fight and Kaie might need the backup. If we lose, we’re all toast regardless, and if we win everyone gets put back where they belong.

AAAAAAAAAAAH SHE’S HERE!!! RHYME!!!! Aw… She can’t see Neku and Shoka cuz they’re actually dead. That’s really depressing. Makes sense but like. Oof. Especially for Neku.

I love that Rhyme still has a saying for everything.

This timeline is going to be a mess by the time I get everything positioned correctly lmao

Beat’s ‘How do you know about my sister?! Right, future.’ is never going to NOT be funny. It’s very refreshing to have a time travel plot where people just listen when he tells them shit needs to happen.

Is it acutaly Shiki time ohh my god. I might cry. Please tell me she has a face now. If her face is still illegal I will actually scream.

I’m offended. We didn’t get to go see Shiki. The betrayal. OH but now we might be? Stop playing with me, game. GIVE. ME. SHIKI.

Rindo was freaking out that we weren’t gonna be able to get rid of all the Noise around the café and I definitely threw my hands up and yelled when I saw the word ‘zeptogram’. And I read it before he said it, cuz I read v. fast. Nice to see you again, idiot. Please don’t go berserk again.

I am. Very impressed that Minamimoto managed to work out where the Dissonance Noise are coming from, down to the exact energy source that creates them. He nailed it. Well done sir.

I think… he’s proposing we awaken the city and use the energy generated by the thoughts and emotions of the living people to neutralize some of the Dissonance Noise that are waiting in the pin. Erode some of its power.

“How about this: I’ll talk, you type.” Lmao.

I got denied Shiki again. Part of me is annoyed. The other part of me is like ‘are they saving her entrance for when she can see Neku again properly because I can live with that’.

OH the Hishima cutscene is voiced now OKAY. Guess that means this is the one. Rhyme is voiced too. This is gonna be it.

And she speaks Minamioto. Coo.

Huh. Neku’s power is to sync with people. Which he learned to do in the first game. From Mr H, with the harmonizer pin. (Twister is playing and I have Emotions help) And now he’s gonna do it on an absolutely MASSIVE scale. This is insane. I am 1,000% here for it. Sync, Dive, Remind. And if I had to guess, we’re doing this atop 104.

Alright Shiba. ‘Mere. Tsugumi’s eyes aren’t all freaky anymore yay. Oh snap. He’s gonna unleash the Plague Noise against the Dissonance ones. Nice. Turnabout is fair play. I’m kinda sad Fuckwad isn’t here to witness that.

Alright. Change. Our. Fate.

SHIIIIIIIIIIKKKKKKKKKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I gave myself a headache ow.

“07734.” “Ew. Hey! Don’t just spout off numbers and walk away, you jerk!” That was amazing.

FUCK ME SIDEWAYS. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. NO. NO WAY. I DIDN’T THINK THERE WAS ANY WAY. OH. MY. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. This is the first time Neku’s seen him since Joshua failed to stop Coco from killing him. I’m. A puddle. Help. Neku looked so happy. My cat is slightly concerned haha.

Neku still holds his hands like he’s got the headphones. The same pose as in the first game when you scan. This gives me all the feels.

“They’re just mindless thoughts” Okay so I’m mentally exhausted at this point and I processed that as ‘thots’ and it was hilarious. BEGONE THOTS.

Okay this thing right here? This is a final boss. And it is cool as fuck. Too bad it’s trying to END ME. So cool. SO. COOL. Here comes phase 2 lol. I died and had to redo it. FML.

That. Was awesome. A worthy successor to the epic final strike of the first game. 999% eh?

I continue to not like Shinjuku rules. Once you’re a Reaper, leaving means you get erased once the game ends? Disrespectfully, fuck that. Oh don’t you dare, Shoka. Don’t. You. Dare.

Oh, Joshua is here. PLEASE. Lmao Shoka’s reaction. I’m sure he appreciates that, the drama queen.

*facepalms* Joshua strikes again. I’ve missed you, you little shit. You are terrible, but I missed you. Rindo, I’m pretty sure she’s fine. I think captain helpful over here reincarnated her for you. Since you saved him and his city. I guess I’ll see though.

Uzuki and Kariya continue to be adorable. I love them. And yeah, good luck calling in that debt from Minamimoto, Coco. Gooooood luck.

I’m having a lot of Joshua centered emotions right now there is too much Joshua all at once help. “I should have known I could trust you.” You are killing me dude. You really, really should have. I’m going to turn that line over in my head for way too long, I just know it, but let’s try to get through this before my brain turns off completely. “Let’s not keep her waiting.” OKAY THANKS I’M GONNA CRY AGAIN.

What Hazuki was saying about ‘purifying’ as opposed to ‘destroying’ Shinjuku makes me think that restarting it in some form was always part of the plan, so hopefully they’ll have luck with that. It’s still profoundly fucked up that any of that happened, and even more so that it was sanctioned. I’m. Going to be hung up on that for a while once it sinks in.

This poor idiot hitting on Rhyme is about to get got oh no XD

Shiki is breaking my heart. Aaaaaaaah!!! Reunioooooon.

Ooof it’s been a month since Rindo saw Shoka. Big oof. Joshuaaaaaa.

And then they almost got hit by a car lmao. OMG HE MISSED HER FRIEND REQUESTS AHAHAHAHAH YOU GOOBER. Neku really should have warned them that Joshua is Like That lol. Even when he’s being helpful it’s in the must backhanded way possible.

I would very much like to know why on earth Shinjuku needed to be obliterated though. Like. Does that… Happen often? Maybe the secret reports say.

Speaking of, time to get those, along with the rest of the trophies.

!!!! The title screen updated, NICE. Can’t let anyone who hasn’t beaten it see that but NICE.

There’s another Another Day. Oh boy. I am not ready for that madness yet.

Random thought as I was moving this from word, where I typed it: I’m really, really fucking glad they didn’t decide to deal with Mr H the way they dealt with sleezy mcfuckwad. That would have been… I don’t have a word.