#i tried to color it with gold first but it looked dumb

[surrealcervidae]

Silly Ahk doodles from the past few days

[futuremrscameron]

·:*¨༺ ♱✮♱༻¨*:·bestie!kook·:*¨༺ ♱✮♱༻¨*:·

content warnings: toxic codependency, mutual obsession, discussions of antiblackness in predominantly white spaces, mentions of drugs/drug abuse, symptoms of bpd, discussion of colorism, sexual tension, misogyny, blood, violence, implied underage drinking, maternal issues, fear of abandonment, parental issues, classism, hinted/implied sexual content

bestie!kook is not spoiled, not bitchy, but a secret third thing (knows what the fuck she wants and doesn’t let anyone call her bitchy greedy or selfish). she’s an only child, of course she turned out this way.

bestie!kook lives in a mansion-like beach house and met kelce at the house party her parents threw to get to know their neighbors (flex on them). she and kelce both had the same idea of hiding out on the roof. they watched the stars, talked about school starting soon, and the struggles of being black in figure eight.

she hates her parents for moving her here.

okay hate might be a strong word but she’s not thrilled. she adjusts her halter green short chiffon dress as she sits down on the roof. she may be mad at her parents but she would never hear the end of it if she flashed the party guests. she removes her sparkly green heels and looks up at the stars. she knows there’s no real answer in the stars but looking at them has always helped her. she closes her eyes, ready to wish upon a star when she hears him.

“you mind if i chill with you?”

a dark skinned black boy she saw earlier at the party. kelce. he’s wearing a rose gold three piece suit with brown shoes. great taste in fashion? his parents definitely made him wear it.

“did my parents send you?”

“no.”

“did your parents send you?”

“no.” he chuckles

“huh.” interesting. “fine.”

he looks amused. she hates him already. “don’t jump for joy too much, i don’t know how sturdy your roof is.”

he chuckles, “that’s dark.”

“maybe.” he takes off his blazer and carefully places it on the space next to her. he sits down, arms holding his knees, looking up at the stars.

she breaks the silence when it becomes unbearable. “why are you here?”

he glanced at her and shards before turning his attention back to the stars. “party’s lame, not really my scene.”

“what’s your scene?”

he smiles, “you’ll find out soon.”

“you’re just assuming we’ll roll with the same crowd?”

he scoffs as if telling her not to play dumb. “please.”

she nods, understanding what he’s hinting at. “that bleak huh?”

he shrugs, “i’m not gonna lie and tell you i was the only black kid in school but… it’s no new york.”

“so ten times worse.”

he chuckles dryly, “exactly. before i came up here i was called “surprisingly well spoken”.”

she’s not surprised but it’s not what she wants to hear . especially not after getting her life uprooted by her parents the summer before her thirteenth birthday and moved them to the middle of nowhere.

“can’t say i’m surprised. i mean, not even an hour into the party some lady tried to touch my hair and some boy said “my skin looked good in green” fucking bitch.”

“oh we’re trading horror stories? in third grade my math teacher kept getting me confused with the other black boy in class.”

“let me guess he was light skinned.”

“light skinned. light as the fucking sun.”

they both laugh, not at the situation itself but the predictable action. when the laughter dies down he clears his throat.

“you know i have these two friends i think you’d like them.”

��only two? shocker.”

he sighs, “you ever hear the phrase ‘you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.’?”

she raises an eyebrow, “is that what you tell yourself to get you through these parties? go along to get along?”

“basically.”

“there’s no way you actually believe that.”

“and what if i do? is that so awful?”

she looks at him, really looks at him for the first time that night. “i guess not.”

they sit in silence again.

“why?”

he looks at her. “why what?”

“why reach out to me? you could’ve just left me up here alone, let me be an outcast. why didn’t you?”

he stands up and picks up his blazer. he looks down at her and smiles. “i know you wanna look like this lone wolf cool girl but… i see you..”

his words send chills down her spine. she writes that off as the cool night air.

“fuck off.”

he chuckles. “see you monday.”

he later invited her to a party the saturday before school and the rest is history.

bestie!kook is kook princess before sarah. the most popular girl in school and in outer banks, an amazing feat for someone who wasn’t born and raised in obx. she was known for her jaw dropping beauty, affluent family, and strange friendship with the kook boys. rafe, kelce, topper, and her were very popular and not just cause they were the richest. the parties they threw are still talked about to this day

bestie!kook who everyone assumes is sweet because of her bright colored outfits when in actuality she’s blunt, cold, stand-off ish, and at times, a genuine menace. she once planted coke on a girl and got her expelled for distribution all cause she didn’t like the way she looked at rafe at a party

four years after moving to obx and she can’t imagine being anywhere else.

“i guess i’m just trying to understand why and how she could do something like this. she was top of the class!” tiffany pushes a honey blonde french curl braid off her shoulder and behind her back. she brushes down her uniform's skirt and fiddles with her loose tie.

tiffany was bestie!kook’s first black girl friend in outer banks. she moved there a year after her which tiffany thinks was fate. they met in pre-algebra, tiffany helped bestie!kook solve a problem that was kicking her ass. they got to talking and have been best friends ever since. she was genuinely kind and despite popular belief, really fucking smart. academically not socially.

“please, this is totally on brand for girls like her, they think they’re too smart to get caught. did you hear her talking about ‘academic immunity’ when they arrested her? that’s not a thing!”

gianna, was the only obx native in the trio. though she transferred from kildare county high school to kildare private academy in the middle of the semester last year. she was tiffany's complete opposite in every way, she wore the complete uniform with no alterations, was more of a loner than a social butterfly, and rocked bold makeup rather than tiffany's go-to subdued look.

she and bestie!kook got along immediately despite being so similar and horribly blunt. bestie!kook loved her no bullshit attitude and disregard for standard kook faux niceties. she also loved that they were close in skin tone. she adored tiffany but there were some things the light skinned girl just couldn’t understand.

bestie!kook stifles a laugh at her friend’s remark and thanks the heavens that her face is buried in the locker so they can’t see her grin. they’re talking about the scandalous affair that they witnessed less than an hour ago but she’s too hungover to care.

she opens her locker and lifts her sunglasses to cheek herself in her locker’s newly bedazzled mirror.

“but still, ashley? ashley who calls weed marijuana expelled for selling coke!? personal feelings aside you can’t tell me that’s not totally sketch.” tiffany’s cheeks are flushed from her raising her voice and screaming about her conspiracy theory. she fans her face, trying to calm herself down. her usual light skin has some more melanin to it after spending her summer outside tanning.

“yes i can. it’s not insane, she acted like she was better than everyone, people like that always have some shit to hide.” gianna frowns at tiffany’s sympathy for the girl.

“but she was always nice to me.” tiffany frowns at the newfound information.

“gee i wonder why.” the dark skinned girl unwraps a piece of bubblegum and pops it in her mouth. “that bitch had it coming. you remember when she wrote that “anonymous” column about how certain students need to ‘speak properly and appropriately at school’. should’ve beat her ass then, pick-me ass bitch.”

“we don’t know that that was her.”

“she’s already been through so much.”

“please did you see the way she looked at rafe? she totally wanted him.”

tiffany frowns, not at the slight directed at her but the new information. “really? i never noticed.”

bestie!kook loved her but she was never great at paying attention to details and believed people always honest about their intentions. she also had certain blind spots like anti-blackness that wasn’t blatantly obvious.

“of course you didn’t.”

“hey!” tiffany's face is red with anger and embarrassment.

bestie!kook slams her locker shut, drawing both girls attention to her. she sighs and punches the bridge of her nose. “it’s too early for this shit.”

the girls apologize at the same time. bestie!kook frowns, “i don’t want you girls fighting over someone so… insignificant.”

they both look like they want to argue their points to her further but are (thankfully) interrupted by none other than rafe cameron.

rafe throws his arm around bestie!kook reader and gives the other girls a semi-friendly smile. “hey ladies.”

“hey rafe!”

“cameron.”

bestie!kook pouts, “what, no greeting for me?”

rafe turns his attention to her. he still towers over her despite her heeled shoes.

he shrugs, “well you ditched me this morning and we saw each other in home room." his tone is nonchalant but she knows him, his real feelings always show in his eyes. his stare is cold, if looks could kill she'd burn under his gaze.

she scoffs, “okay 'ditched' is crazy, i drove myself to school one time and home room was hours ago i want a new greeting.”

“hmm.”

his cold response irks her. she glances at her girls and they get the message.

gianna clears her throat. “we should probably get going tiff.”

tiffany frowns, “what but this is our free period?”

“which is why we made plans remember?”

“we did?”

she grabs tiffany's hand and drags her away. “yes.”

“ooh can we go to chick-fil-a!?”

“sure babe.”

rafe turns his attention back to bestie!kook, "what were you guys talking about?"

she closes her locker and takes off her sunglasses. “nothing.”

he removes his arm from around her shoulder and blocks her view of the hallway. “it was ashley wasn't it.”

of course he knew. "if you knew why the fuck would you ask?"

"well fuck me for giving you the benefit of the doubt."

"benefit of the doubt for what!?"

"to tell me the truth!" they've gained the attention of some students and admin by now. she blushes and grabs his hand, "come on." she drags him away and doesn't stop til they reach the janitor's closet.

"i know this is about last night. you know you can tell me anything right?" his strikingly blue eyes shine with worry.

she nods. “okay.”

she tells him everything. that morning she threw on her sunglasses after donning her uniform with a plan in mind. she hadn’t even carpooled with rafe like they usually do just so she could get there early and set her plan in motion. she had ashley write her a fake doctor’s note for her sunglasses and hugged her to show her appreciation. the girl was caught off guard and that’s when she planted the coke on her.

rafe is stunned into silence. he looks down at her, “you did that for me?” his voice is uncharacteristically soft.

she looks up at him through her eyelashes. “i’d do anything for you.”

bestie!kook might be a nepo baby but she works for her money. she has her own business doing hair and opened up outer banks's first beauty supply store at 19. her grandma thought her when she was young cause she hated having to wait on her to book (mostly home) appointments, with her busy schedule.

bestie!kook and kelce are like siblings in the way they argue. a lot of the figure eight residents also think they’re related but that’s something else entirely. he was her first friend in obx after all and is one if the few black kids in figure eight.

bestie!kook cleans up her diy hair station in her living room as kelce follows her around.

“if you’re gonna be here you might as well help.” she shoves a large container of hair into his hands. he looks down at it and back up at her, she’s already moved onto another location.

he catches up to her easily. she curses his long legs internally. “what about the friend discount?”

“doesn’t apply to you after you broke my fucking vanity.”

he pouts. “how long are you gonna hold that against me?”

“forever. don’t ask me stupid questions.”

“okay if not for me then do it for my sister.”

“that’s not fair.”

“she really wants to look good for her eight grade formal and i know it’s last minute so i’ll pay extra.”

he gives her his best puppy dog eyes. she looks disgusted.

she rolls her eyes and sighs, “fine. but only ‘cause i love your sister.”

“yes!” he gives her his best boyish smiles, “and i know you love me too.”

“please. you’re lucky i don’t gut you with this comb.”

“jesus.”

bestie!kook who puts up a wall to stop people from getting too close because she believes when you let people in that’s when you get hurt. rafe changes that for her

bestie!kook and rafe being so close is a surprise to everyone in town until they get to know her. they’re the same but different. he trusts her more than anyone else, it’s why he tells her everything from his mom leaving when he was young to killing peterkins

bestie!kook whose fashion can be described in five words; bright colors and mini skirts

bestie!kook who is always the best dressed at midsummer and always goes with rafe

year 1

year 2

year 3

year 4

year 5

year 6

year 7

bestie!kook goes to the main land a lot cause the local shops just don’t have what she wants and brings rafe along nine times out of ten

rafe and bestie!kook planned their shopping day to the mainland weeks in advance. it was the perfect date. emphasis on 'was'. topper joined last minute because he was in a bad mood after sarah made him look stupid. again.

bestie!kook runs around the shop like a kid in a candy store picking up dresses, tops, shorts, and skirts and putting them in her cart.

"rafe!" she runs over to rafe and shows him her newest find. "isn't this the cutest?"

rafe smirks, "you gonna model it for me."

she bites her lower lip, "maybe if you’re good"

he chuckles as she skips away. he looks to his left and spots his friend frowning. "what?"

topper jumps slightly like a kid who's been caught taking extra halloween candy. "nothing."

his passivity has always irritated rafe, "just spit it out. i don't want you sulking for the rest of the day."

topper takes a deep breath, preparing himself to speak and for rafe's reaction. “i’m just saying man no disrespect to you or her but i wouldn’t let my girl leave the house wearing shit like that.”

“damn this is hard. listen to the man who got cheated on and punked in front of a crowd and called me crying about it and begging for my help at 3 a.m. or keep doing what i'm doing." rafe pretends to be deep in thought, tapping his chin and furrowing his brows. “i think i’m good.”

topper frowns, "you said you wouldn't bring that up again."

bestie!kook and rafe’s relationship is the topic of many discussions, people don’t know if they’re just friends, dating, or friends with benefits. the main questioners are the camerons and topper the topic usually comes up at breakfast which ward mandates a family event.

bestie!kook whose boyfriend best friend rafe has scary dog privileges. he’ll fight anyone, girls included he doesn’t give a fuck.

bestie!kook loves getting high with rafe cause they balance each other out. she gets all deep in thought and philosophical and he gets pathetic and horny.

bestie!kook, smoking leisurely: you know… while i was away, when i felt down… i would climb up to my roof and look to the stars. it was comforting knowing you were under the same stars. 400 miles away with the same constellations, isn't that crazy?

rafe, on his third line, pupils so dilated he looks like an excited kitten: can yuo put that out on me?

bestie!kook loves partying with rafe, whether it’s a party thrown by one of them, their friends, or a boneyard party they’re there one never far from the other

rafe doesn’t dance. it’s not that he can’t he’s just not into it. at parties he’s either selling, drinking, or doing coke. unless he’s with bestie!kook. she's sitting on his lap while he counts money. he's doing a line off her tits and he's placing an ecstasy pill on her tongue. she’s dragging him to the dance floor. slow dancing leads to grinding which leads to one of them dragging the other to a private area and coming back 30 minutes later with ruffled clothes and hair.

bestie!kook who uses rafe’s need for approval and complex maternal issues to combat being on the receiving end of his misogyny make sure she comes out unscathed compared to the other women in his life

rafe comes to her after melting the cross. it's almost midnight when she answers the aggressive knocking and sees a bloody rafe.

“oh my god.” he pushes past her into the house muttering something to himself. she closes the door and follows after him, “rafe.” he continues pacing and muttering like he doesn’t hear her. “rafe!”

“it’s all my fault. everyone’s gonna know. they’re gonna- just gotta- gotta fix it i can’t fix it.”

“rafe!” he snaps out of his daze and finally meets her eyes. there’s blood around his mouth and bruises on his hand.

“what happened?”

“um..” he sniffs and wipes at his nose. “i tried to fix it.” his voice cracks, barely hiding the sadness in his voice. “i tried i did but i- i just made it worse.”

she holds her arms out. he melts into her arms and shrinks himself down to fit in her hold. “i’m sorry.”

she caresses his head. “hey it’s okay. it’s okay.”

bestie!kook is 99% positive rafe does not like women. he’s definitely attracted to them but she doesn’t think he views them as people. over the years she’s noticed that rafe puts women into two categories; caretakers and objects of desire

bestie!kook doesn’t strictly fall into either category so it breaks his brain a little bit trying to figure out how he should treat her which leads to many of their fights

they're at a party a when he pulls her off the dance floor and away from her dancing partner and takes her to an empty room.

"what the fuck rafe!?" she screams as she watches his lock the door.

he stalks towards her, “so what you’re just throwing yourself at any guy who’s nice to you?”

“fuck you rafe! you’re just mad he had the guts to admit what you’ve been thinking all these years.”

he scoffs, “is that what you think? huh?” he chuckles and moves closer, every time he takes a step forward she takes a step back. “yeah i bet you’d like that wouldn’t you? you know i thought you were a nice girl but you’re just like every other slut in this party.”

“i’m not talking to you. not when you’re being like this.”

“like what?”

“an asshole! i don’t like talking to you when you’re being an asshole, rafe. okay?”

he chuckles coldly, “what you think you’re better than me?”

his movements are twitchy, scratching his ear one second and rubbing his head the next and his pupils are dilated.

she frowns, he's really high right now. "look i don't have time for this back and forth bullshit okay?"

he frowns, "it's not bullshit okay and and i just i don’t get you. you lose your shit when i talk to a girl but here you are doing worse. do you know how it makes me look? my best friend dry humping some guy on the dance floor?”

“of course it’s about you. it’s always back to being about you. you’re so fucking selfish!”

“hey!” he grabs her face, squeezes her cheeks with his hand. “you think you’re better than me is that it?”

she scratches at his hand and pushes at his chest but when he’s high he’s like a whole different being. “let go.”

“i’m just trying to figure out what your end goal is.”

“stop it rafe!” she pushes him away, tears in her eyes and fire the first time she looks genuinely afraid of him. that sobers him up real quick.

“i’m sorry.” he reaches out to her but she slaps his hand away.

“fuck you rafe.” she storms past him, leaving him stewing in self hatred and regret.

bestie!kook who lets him in when he apologizes the next day like clockwork saying the usual right things

“i’m sorry. i was high and-”

“you said some really hurtful things rafe.”

“i know.”

she can’t stay mad at him, not when he gets on his knees and begs for her forgiveness. begs her not to leave him.

bestie!kook who is an icon to many of obx’s young women. she doesn’t take shit from anyone. especially not men.

“hey jj, she said she doesn’t want the drink fuck off.”

“well if it isn’t the future mrs cameron. shouldn’t you be busy buying his coke or something?”

“so funny! hey stop me if you’ve heard this one, white trash pogue joins father in jail after forcing sketchy beverage on sarah cameron, daughter of prominent figure of the community?”

“fuck you.”

“byyeeee.” she smiles and wiggles her fingers while waving. she turns back to sarah, “sorry about that.”

sarah looks at her in awe, “thanks, sorry you had to do that.”

“please, we girls gotta look out for each other. plus you could put in a good word for me with your brother.”

“my god.”

bestie!kook whose relationship with the camerons is all over the place. rafe is her favorite but sarah is her biggest supporter (after rafe of course). she often lends an ear to her when she fights with rafe though she’s not the most helpful and her bias shows.

it’s 1 a.m. on a saturday when bestie!kook sees topper’s instagram story and spotted rafe in the background with his tongue down some girl’s throat. she sits on her bed crying while gianna and sarah comfort her.

“i told you he wasn’t shit.”

sarah nods, “gianna’s right, you deserve better”

gianna sobs harder, “why didn’t i call tiffany?”

“because you wanted the truth not to be coddled.”

bestie!kook continues crying as sarah rubs her shoulder.

“hey he’s a dick.”

“he’s your brother sarah.”

“which is why i know it better than anyone.”

bestie!kook who treats wheezie like the little sister she’s always wanted. rafe says she spoils her but she doesn’t care she finds the girl absolutely adorable.

she takes wheezie out for a girls day filled with ice cream, shopping, and fireworks watching. all good things can’t last long though which is why rafe calls her while she’s out with wheezie. she answers the phone cheerfully, “hi rafe.”

“i miss you.” she can almost hear his pout over the phone.

“i miss you too. but i promised wheezie i’d take her out for ice cream.”

“you spoil her. it’s why she acts like that..”

she rolls her eyes. “look i gotta go, my favorite cameron’s calling me.”

“haha. wait do you really mean that? hello!?”

“bye rafe.”

bestie!kook and ward’s relationship is a bit strained, he likes her but he worries about her impact on his son’s fragile state and her hold over him. he’s like a wise father figure with a sketchy past and present.

bestie!kook who is actually sweet to rafe. everyone notices the way she is seeing others vs the way she acts around him. goes from ambivalent god to schoolgirl in love

he comes to her often crying about ward’s mistreatment and distrust. when ward kicks him out he goes to her.

“you shouldn’t be just tell me to fuck off. i’m more trouble then it’s worth.”

she frowns, “don’t say that that’s not true.”

he sniffles and shakes his head. she doesn’t know how to help him, she hates seeing him in pain like this. she slowly and gently reaches out to him and grabs his hand. she feels him tense and gives his hand a soft squeeze,. “you’ll always have me. i’m on your side.”

that’s exactly what he needed to hear.

bestie!kook and rose don’t get along much. rose is very passive aggressive and bestie!kook is very blunt. unstoppable force immovable object.

bestie!kook notices rafe’s coke use is becoming more frequent ever since he came back from the bahamas. she wants to help rafe get better but there’s only so much she can do. people (ward and rose) often forget she’s just a kid, she loves rafe but love isn’t enough to save him.

“mrs. cameron-”

“please no need for formalities you’re practically family. call me rose.”

“okay rose. i’m not gonna beat around the bush cause i respect you. i think rafe should go to rehab.”

“what?”

“it’s on the mainland and i know it seems sudden and all but i’ve noticed him getting worse and i’m scared that- that if we don’t act now. before we know it- it’ll be too late and i- i don’t wanna lose him.”

her voice catches in her throat as she thinks of rafe’s declining mental state and growing drug use. rose hugs her and softly rubs her back.

“hey hey it’s okay it’s okay. you really love him.”

she sniffles and nods. rose nods, “then don’t mention this to him. forget about it.”

“excuse me?”

“he’s going through a lot right now.”

“yeah no shit that’s why he needs this.”

“why now? hm? why the sudden change in heart?” when she doesn’t get an answer she scoffs, “you spend all this time going to parties, coming here at good knows when high out of your minds and now you care? why? cause it’s affecting you now?”

“that’s not true. i care about him.”

“then don’t do this to him. not now not while he’s in such a fragile state.”

she scoffs, “please. like you care. we all know this isn’t him its about preserving great cameron name and its bullshit legacy.”

“keep your fucking voice down.” she glares at the girl. “you have some nerve coming to our house with this holier than thou bullshit. especially in our time of grief.”

she marches over to to the door and opens it, “i think it’s time for you to go.”

bestie!kook scoffs but walks to the door, not wanting to give the woman any more of her time. she glared at the woman, “if anything happens to him it’s on you.”

bestie!kook finds renfield’s dead body in the truck

she didn’t mean to truly. she was just worried about rafe and went looking for him in his own. he hadn’t been home for a while she wasn’t expecting him to be there, much less there with a dead body.

“it’s not what it looks like.”

she gasps, “rafe.”

“don’t scream.” breathing heavily, he looks at her lips then her eyes. “i didn’t kill him.”

she meets his eyes. “i believe you.”

his eyes widen in relief and shock. the upper corner of his mouth twitches up, the ghost of a smile. “i don’t why i ever doubted you.”

she looks back at the body and frowns. “what are we gonna do?”

“we?”

“if you think i’m gonna let you do this alone you really don’t know me.”

bestie!kook who is crushed when rafe leaves for guadeloupe. she stays in her room and cries believing that he’s gone for good. her friends and parents are worried at

bestie!kook who gets a knock on her door on her balcony window when she wakes up and runs to grab the gun she got after everything that went down with rafe and barry

she slowly approaches her window and opens her curtains with her gun drawn.

“hey.”

“rafe?” to say she’s shocked would be an understatement. “what the fuck are you doing here?” her tone hurts his chest but it doesn’t surprises him.

“i understand you’re mad.”

“understatement of the year.”

“but i can explain everything.”

“okay go.”

as far as explanations go. it’s not the worst excuse she’s ever heard. he pulls her into a tight hug. she could never stay mad at him for long.

“don’t ever leave me again.” it’s muffled into his chest.

“i won’t.”

————————————-———————————-

i really hope y’all liked this one it took me a minute. comment your thoughts, criticism is welcome as always but keep it classy. <3

[ckret2]

How did you come up with your human Bill design?

I described my goal in the first post I made about his design:

After seeing dozens of tall dapper skinny white twinky anime boy Bills, I wanted a design that matches none of those words. My other two goals were to use the show’s art style; and to lightly pay homage to Alex Hirsch’s “canon” human Bill with the triangle body… except not deliberately hideous.

My unspoken final goal was "and I'm gonna make him damn good looking."

All the colors were sampled from Bill & Bipper, except his skin (which I sampled off a background character and tweaked until it looked good with the yellows) and his gold tooth (which I sampled off of Ergman Bratsman's).

On top of the fact that I was tired of specifically white dude Bills, brown skin tone was chosen because of the emphasis on Bill's interactions with ancient Egypt; I wasn't sure at the time how much of an influence I was gonna headcanon he had on the region, and it woulda felt weird depicting Egyptians bowing down to a white dude. (And then I decided to deemphasize his influence on Egypt almost completely lol.) It woulda been more accurate to go darker, but I was worried it would start to tilt his design into Nyarlathotep-esque Creepy Pitch-Skinned Mysterious Demonic Threat From The Orient racist territory, especially when he's already got demon eyes.

The triangular torso is the most important part of his design, I usually draw an equilateral triangle in the sketch layer and then pad it out.

If I were a better artist a year ago, I would have given him a double chin so his head+torso together would be triangular. But when I tried, I couldn't figure out a way to draw it that looked appealing instead of like a mean fat joke. So I took the coward's way out and gave him a skinny neck with a vaguely triangular chin, and now write him complaining about having a neck every few chapters.

I think the skinny neck, thinner face, noodle limbs, and typical baggy hoodie fooled people into assuming he's skinny. I figured out a way to draw a rounder face with less neck that looks more appealing to me than the original face, so I do that now. Can't do anything about the noodle limbs tho, those were chosen to match Bill's canon noodle limbs.

I went for a hoodie instead of the typical suits you see on human Bills for two reasons.

One: several years ago I had an OC I'd conceived of as a dumb kid who'd given Bill permanent standing permission to use her as a puppet, and when letting Bill take over she'd hide her human features by wearing a hooded poncho and tying a blindfold with an eye on it over the hood, and that idea stuck with me.

And two: for the story I came up with this design for, the premise is that Bill's been recently unhappily stuffed in a human body and dumped on his enemies' doorstep. So, he doesn't have the freedom or money to get fancier clothes; he's too depressed over being stuck in a human body to care much about his human appearance; and he's most comfortable in something that obscures his human anatomy and reminds him of his real form. If he was rich, free, and able to ditch the body any time he wanted, he'd be wearing suits.

[autisticlalna]

don’t have the braincells to do anything with this, so i figure i could just throw this out there for, like. the five people who’d know what this is.

anyway: sbk shadow people au 👀?

YOU HAVE GIVEN ME INFINITE POWER

a quick recap of what Shadow People AU is: alternate universe where 1.15, on top of everythin else it Actually added, included a poorly-documented new mechanic where you could summon a black-and-yellow shadow copy of yourself. if you killed your shadow you would get a copy of everything you had in your inventory when you summoned it, but it would also be stronger with each death. if a shadow dies enough times, they can evolve to the point of being able to strategize, to build, and to communicate. oops! theyre self-aware!

there's a lot more to it than that, but ill explain as we go. because my favorite thing to do ever is apply this concept to different mcyt series and explore what might happen, and ive been toying with makin a variant for sbk. SO LETS GOOOOOOO

Viking would use his shadow to dupe materials and as an extra hand when buildin farms, so his shadow would develop to be more work-focused i think. zeroes in hard on a task and will not give up until its done. leave him alone he's got Shit To Do. either Viking gives him a cool mythology name, he continues the season nicknamin scheme to match Summertime, or Avid calls him somethin dumb and it sticks.

Vintage gets Antique. bottom text. i can actually just point at Antique as-is and go "yeah that's her shadow" LMAO. recolor the colored bits yellow and give her her eyes back and Antique is good to go. fun fact: the only* thing that can kill a shadow is their summoner or another shadow. run.

(* theres more than that but this post is already pretty long. spau is Big.)

Ruby is probably where we first run into the idea of "entity corruption", because god knows whats going on with Cherruby. basically if you've gotten corrupted by an entity in any way (eg Scar and Cub havin Vex magic, Watcher Grian, Karl Jacobs gettin put in the time travel blender), that bleeds over to your shadow and can cause... problems. i have a lot of thoughts about how this applies to TSMP specifically, but im squintin at Cherruby going what is your deal because there is SOMETHING messin with zhem and whatever it is is gonna mess with xis shadow too.

Avid would not risk havin a shadow. the most obvious reason is bc his shadow would be Super corrupted bc of basically everythin that happened in Nightmares, but the actual reason is that it would look like Avoid and that would freak Avid out too much :,D

rose suggested Marmalade would have the Old Shadows and OOGHGHHHHH FUCK . that goes hard. basically there's an associated dimension called the Shadowlands, and you can royally screw up your shadow's data by goin there before theyve finished forming for the first time. the outcome is a maxed-out shadow with a god complex that is capable of whatever you think its capable of. Marm might've drawn a connection between the Shadowlands and the Void, tried to use it as another way to get down to the Limbo border when the Void wasn't lettin her in, and instead got the Abyss equivalent. probably just named Void because of initially assuming theyre an extension of the Void itself.

Trog would be the runner-up for the Old Shadows, i think, but also they probably thought about it and went "nah" and forgot to warn anyone else that thats a thing. continues the trend with my Trog hcs of lookin perfectly normal and Not Being Normal At All. not entity corruption, just, like. corruption corruption. somethin broke here.

wait lmao i just realized something really funny and its that Fool's shadow would literally just look like him but all shadow-y. bc Fool already normally has the yellow/gold cracks. solar probably will have more ideas on what to do with this guy but i am proudly announcing that it is now Two Of Them Thursday

i cant decide if Leon's shadow shows signs of ender-ification before he does, or if he stays Completely Normal while Leon mutates. the latter is probably more interestin bc shadows gettin messed with is a pretty common trait in the au so havin a situation of "the shadow is normal while their summoner gets more and more fucked up" is fun. also: shitpost incarnate. this penguin cannot be stopped by any mortal means

i dont know how the tube thing would affect the shadows, is the fun part. like, "mechanically" the way the shadows work is they're tied to playerdata, so the likely idea is that Cloneby would have Cherruby's shadow. that's fun and fucked up!

fun side note: shadows are ground bound. they can do the kingdom hearts heartless thing of going flat to travel up surfaces and fit through spaces but they cannot jump over gaps. skyblock is maybe the worst experience for a shadow ever LMAO

[asher-agere]

Tips!

I received a very special ask that is getting immediate priority!

It’s absolutely alright to call me that! And it’s alright to be shy hehe, the possibility of being judged is scary, it’s best to keep yourself where you know you’re safe until you’re confident enough to do more! Onto the tips! To clarify my regression experience, I’ve had multiple many month long periods without a caregiver, so even though I currently have a caregiver I have plenty of experience with solo regression!

・┆✦ʚ♡ɞ✦ ┆・

♡ If you’re able to buy things, invest in a sippy cup! Big kid cups are prone to spills, and trust me. If you’re tiny and all alone? You don’t want to clean up spilled milk or juice, you also don’t want to leave it sit for awhile. This of course depends on your headspace age! A baby needs a bottle and a bigger kid can just use a straw, but avoiding disaster is so so so important!

♡ This sounds kinda dumb considering we are. On a social media? But find a safe social media! For me Pinterest is huge, because it’s very interactive in that I get to organize the things I like! Of course tumblr, I don’t have any other social media but I think you get the idea! Only if it’s safe media though, don’t want any yucky stuff!

♡ YouTube is a gold mine!!!! There are like endless cartoons on there, make use of it! Set up a playlist when you’re big! A tiny guy doesn’t always spell things 100% perfect, so not needing to search for things is certainly ideal!

♡ Drawing! Coloring books aren’t always the easiest to get, but blank paper will do the trick! It sounds like being apart from your caregiver is temporary, so take pictures to show them! Or keep all the drawings to give to them later! Maybe even write them little notes! (Writing with your non dominant hand makes things look more childlike!) Or if you can’t/don’t like drawing like that, you can find online coloring pages!

♡ Feeling lonely? Plushies to the rescue! Set them up with you! Watching something? Make sure they can see! Cuddled up? Make sure they can breathe! You can even talk for them and give them silly voices! Or if you’re unable to or uncomfortable talking out loud, imagine their voices in your head! This way they always sound how you want them to hehe

♡ Journaling! This one is especially huge for if/when your caregiver is coming back, journal about what you do each day and how you feel, then when they’re back you can show them! Or even if it’s just for you! Journaling can be a very fulfilling activity, plus you can use stickers if you have any! And stickers are the best!

♡ Try and find your “regression triggers”, things that make you instantly feel tiny! For example for me it’s milk! Any kind of milk and yes hi I am tiny. These triggers can change over time! And that’s perfectly ok! Just try to keep up with them hehe cause it’ll help you a lot!

♡ Overall get that cozy environment going! Put something on to watch/listen to! Put on those cute/comfy clothes! Get those snacks! Snuggle those plushies! Style your hair super cute! Whatever is comfortable to you that’s what you do! This is another thing that changes over time! The first time I regressed I did pigtails and all pink, if I did that now I’d make myself sick from dysphoria

・┆✦ʚ♡ɞ✦ ┆・

I hope this is helpful? I tried- I believe in you! You can do this! Stay strong little soldier!

[hikennosabo]

#tristampparty day 7, episode 7: wolfwood

this is another episode i've watched multiple times, but mostly just the first half for Livio Reasons. once again... LET'S GOOOOO

i've seen ppl say this is razlo at the start of the episode... i wonder... he is more razlo-like in his movements, and he starts yelling a lot... but his expressions are still livio-like, i think... i mean he is more expressive BUT he's not grinning like razlo usually does? sigh... see the problem is that we ALSO have a level of EoM brainwashing (and whatever the fuck else is going on) on top of everything which throws a wrench in trying to figure things out. I Just Wanna See My Boy.

i love vash holding his gun backwards and using it as a bludgeon and i love going frame by frame to get cool screencaps like this 💖

wolfwood vial count: 4

at the very least, by the time of this next scene, it's definitely livio and not razlo because he's mumbling about "catching up" again which is a livio thing

when i saw the corresponding manga panel for this my brain neurons activated so hard LOL i wonder even more how orange will adapt razlo... since originally livio was trying to catch up with razlo. which i love and think is super interesting. so what is orange planning? ...is livio even aware razlo exists at this point...?

oh also livio looks a bit older here. which once again has me wondering about the timeline. the way the experiments were presented with rollo and nicholas, it looked like they were just on that table forever. as in there were no breaks in between. so... when is this? how long is it between livio volunteering himself for EoM and the experiments on him taking place?

i think it's cute that nico bumps into him :(

let's take ibuprofen together

i wonder who these people are... i thought they might be the EoM soldiers that razlo killed, but those aren't EoM uniforms... it looks like the prison uniform wolfwood was wearing... wolfwood tried to run away, so it makes sense that he wouldn't be the only one, although the phrasing "stand in our way" more implies they tried to stop the operation altogether. but... hmm... they just had regular goons as guards at the time of wolfwood's escape attempt. livio is special... would they really give him a job like guard duty?

CHAPEL JUMPSCARE

razlo sweetiepie there you are!!! mwah mwah mwah mwah mwah

HE'S SUCH A FUCKING DRAMA QUEEN HE'S SO FUNNY

since zazie is the one talking, our attention is drawn to them, so i'm glad i paused on this because the fact that legato is also looking up at wolfwood and smirking is so funny to me. EYES ON THE ROAD BESTIE!!!!

this line is always so funny to me. shonen protagonist ass

i love the scene of vash at the spaceship controls, the animation when he's working the keyboard is so smooth. hmmm, it also reminds me of wolfwood's introduction episode in 98... serves the same narrative purpose of Vash Knowing Things He Shouldn't about spaceships

i love that wolfwood thinks shooting the base of the cannon will do anything. like that's the first thing he tries. shoot first ask questions later i guess

going frame by frame on scenes of legato because i'm unwell... his eyebrows are surprisingly thick! and his eye color is grey... it was gold in 98... oh, i just noticed his eyelashes are light blue!! cute!!

i just think this is a handsome angle for him. his facial features are so pretty and delicate

this is why he buckled his seatbelt :)

... i need to stop posting legato pictures

no because what the hell is this

wolfwood vial count: 5

episode 5 had me asking about the wind... legato asks zazie if they were the one who caused the sandstorm (which they deny)... could it be... is it possible...?

my dumb ass watching this for the first time: damn it's so sad that livio is dead and now they're even gonna use his corpse for nefarious purposes :(

vash's plant markings are so pretty fr <3 orange was big brained for this too

everyone always points out the episode title card being a gut punch but THIS was an unexpected one:

this is how wolfwood is credited this episode and because i'm insane i immediately had to go back and check - this is also how he's credited in episodes 5 and 6: as "nicholas d. wolfwood/nicholas the punisher". in episode 4, he's only listed as "nicholas d. wolfwood". haha ouch!

this post ended up being a little less substantial than expected LOL but we'll soon be getting into the episodes that really give me psychic damage so :^) looking forward to it!!

[cloudninetonine]

Y/n was convinced Lady Luck had it out for her and was conspiring with The Fates, how else could she have ended up in her current situation? She and The Chain had been exploring some dilapidated dungeon in some unknown era, and of course they got jumped by some Poes and Stalfos… and then her dumb arse managed to get herself separated from the rest of the group in the confusion in an attempt to stay out of the crossfire. She tried to retrace her steps while trying to ignore the unnerving eyes carved into the walls… riiight until she spotted a Stalfos patrolling a corridor she was about to walk down… She quickly ducked into an adjacent (and thankfully monster-free) room and prayed it hadn’t seen her. Nervous eyes scanned the room, hoping to see something she could use in case of a fight, and they landed on a sword in the far corner of the mid-sized room. ‘Oh, Four would have a fit if he saw this thing.’ Was her first thought. It looked old and beat-up, with rust spots running up and down the dull, chipped blade. It kind of reminded her of some of Wild’s swords with the way it looked like it’d been dragged through hell and back. ‘A garbage sword is better than no sword I guess…’ The brunette thought with a tired sigh. As she got closer though, something about it felt… familiar… And as her hand gripped the hilt, she realized all too late why as a blinding glow forced her eyes shut and an indescribable pain shot through her entire body, like sharp claws were trying to ripe her apart. Once the pain abated and she could open her eyes again, she saw the most surreal sight imaginable; three near identical clones of herself scattered about the room, with the only difference being their eyes. The one with bright golden eyes was pacing around the room muttering to herself and occasionally stopping to tap her foot, another copy with soft lilac eyes was kneeling on the ground trying to calm down a pale silvery grey-eyed doubleganger who looked like she was hyperventilating. And then there was herself, standing there trying to comprehend what had just happened. She looked down at the blade as the puzzle pieces finally clicked into place and felt stupid for not realizing it sooner. Her reflection was a bit hazy duo to the polish dulling over however many years it had been sitting here, but it was still shiny enough that she could see what color her own eyes were; a warm, autumnal orange, which they most certainly were not prier to this. As she stood there mulling over what to do (and how to explain this to The Chain), she heard what sounded like one of the guys. Gold stopped trying to wear a hole in the floor and also looked at the door just as Time and Four poked their heads in the room. The Smith’s eyes widened and she could see them swirl with different colors, no doubt the colors were trying to figure out what to do. The old man also looked surprised before letting out an exasperated sigh and burying his face in his hand.

======================

Ended it there since I couldn’t figure out what else to write. Plus it’s already REALLY long. Any longer and it could be its own one-shot. Hope ya like it~ 

----------

AAAAAAAA PIXIE I FUCKING LOVED THIS IT WAS FUCKING AMAZING!

TIME IS DEF TIRED, BRO NEEDS A NAP AND ESPECIALLY NOW CAUSE HE’S GOT TO DEAL WITH FOUR PLAYERS, BROS NOT IMPRESSED

[snackara]

King Manuel

The Audacity of Dis Bitch

Can we all agree that Magnifico is kind of a dumb name? Yes? Coolio. In this rewrite the king probably has the least changes, at least when it comes to design. I wanted to keep him closer to what we see in the first half of the movie, where he tried to act sincere, but you can also tell he’s kinda bullshitting and hiding more then he’s letting on. My main focus was to make him (and by extension Amaya) more of a threat in the story. In the movie he really doesn’t do anything that’s all that bad. Sure, he steals people’s wishes, but they don’t seem too upset about it, and he just keeps the wishes in a tower. In this story however…well he may end up having a kill count.

Again, I really wanted to lean into the show host side of Manuel’s personality. He takes a lot of inspiration from Hades in this rewrite, able to crack jokes here and there while still being a large threat to our heros. He’s highly manipulative, even towards his own family. He presents himself, Amaya, and Flazino as the perfect royal family, when behind the scenes he’s a power-hungry dictator, his wife is a witch who may or may not have married him just for power, and their son is depressed.

As far as his design goes, I would change very little. The only significant change I would make would be to make his clothing more gold and blue like above. It would add a lot more color to his design and make him stick out better from the subjects of Rosas, like with Asha’s design. (small side tangent here, but I hate how muted the colors are in the movie. like it’s not a problem in any of their other 3D films, so why is it here?)

Onto his backstory:

In this rewrite, Rosas was founded by Manuel’s father, Enrique. It was nothing special, mostly adverted as a place where all people could find a home, no matter their background.

As Manuel grew up, he began to learn magic and grew to be even more powerful than his father, and helped people with all sorts of things. Through his youth he also became friends with a young man named Tomás (remember him for later), who taught him about the Celestial Realm. Manuel became obsessed with the realm, and was determined to find a way to use it to fuel his magic further.

When he was around his twenties, he met Amaya during one of the wish granting ceremonies and instantly fell in love with her. It was hard to say if Amaya reciprocated those feelings at first, but when she discovered Manuel was the prince, she quickly warmed up to him and they became married.

One day, thieves began to raid the kingdom and killed many people, including Enrique. They were eventually stopped, but the damage was done. Looking for someone to blame, the people turned to the stars and rumor spread that a wish gone wrong had been the real cause.

The stars slowly started to disappear from the sky one by one, and people could no longer rely on them to grant their wishes. However, once Manuel took the throne he began to grant wishes himself. He also made it law that every citizen had to give up their wish when they turned eighteen to avoid history repeating itself.

Most people agreed to the new policy, still shaken up from the previous events. However, a small amount of citizens were suspicious of Manuel and his intentions, especially Tomás. His and Manuel’s friendship had been on a gradual decline over the years, but after an huge argument between the two where Manuel even lashed out at his friend, Tomás left the kingdom with a small amount of people, never to be seen by the king again. (or was he? who knows? oh, only I do!)

Admittedly I don’t know how I’ll convey some of this backstory in the story yet, if I will at all, but I feel pretty good about what I came up with here. And now we just have Amaya to go, for now anyways.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more.

[hungrydolphin91]

our endless unfinished wips 🤝

would very much like to inquire about 'Innominat Returns (Falling Awake)' bc the title does intrigue,,

You're in luck Jay because that's actually one of few WIPs that's actually somewhat written AND posted— you can read the first 5 chapters right here on AO3! Like the summary and tags suggest, it's a bit of an angsty post-game fic in which Mikleo, desperately trying to fix a world still filled with chaos and malevolence so Sorey can reawaken, stumbles upon the sealed Innominat and ends up biting off a little more than he can chew. And if you don't mind spoilers for this story will eventually go, I described the heartbreaking climax to V in this post, as well as posted excerpts from it here and here.

Anyway, since all I really did here was drop a bunch of links to old stuff I might as well share a new excerpt from the yet-unposted 6th chapter, where we re-encounter a perfectly normal Meebo, nothing weird about him at all. See if you can tell whose POV this chapter is written from 😂:

The stranger is a seraph, clearly, with long, gold-tipped hair tied back into a fluffy ponytail. But judging from the strength of his domain, which overpowers even Eizen's cursed aura, he is far more than that. It rivals the strength of a Shepherd, or perhaps, an Empyrean. I descend from my precipice to confront this mysterious person, only to snort as I recognize his face. "Oh. It's you, Meebo." Mikleo spares an annoyed glance in my direction but otherwise ignores me. Not that I can blame him, with a dragon drooling over his head and preparing to make him into a Mealbo. Yet even though Mikleo is alert, he doesn't seem at all afraid of the behemoth before him. "So this one is Eizen, then..?" He studies Eizen's face like a stupid scientist about to get eaten by a dragon. I don't know how to respond to such an dumb, obvious question, but Eizen, it seems, has an answer. He tries to play the old bite-them-in-half game again, but Mikleo deflects his jaws with a mere strike of his staff. Eizen seems a little startled to have his attack countered so easily and tries again, with the same results. Idiots, both of them. As I watch them volley blows, I start to feel more uneasy about this new Mikleo. Going toe-to-toe with a dragon, commanding the earthpulse, wielding a domain twice as strong as usual. Not to mention his appearance. There's no doubt his body is 100 percent pure Meebo, but the colors are all bad, traces of blue hair changed to gold tips, purple eyes now flashing dangerously gold. Gold, gold, gold. It looks dumb on a water seraph like him. And his behavior feels all wonky too. Mikleo's always been too stuffy to have fun, but he seems even more aloof now, more pretentious, even ruthless. He counters my brother's attacks with ease, like he knows the dragon's weaknesses firsthand. In fact, he even seems to be holding back, drawing out Eizen's rage yet waiting for something more. What could you possibly want from an angry dragon except his mercy?

This WIP haunts me more than any other honestly, it's right behind my ongoing passion project Two Hearts Could Be One in terms of emotional investment. But it's tricky to write because it's 1st-person with multiple POV (including Berseria characters so it requires cross-game knowledge) and I haven't played Zesty in so long so I can't get the voices and lore quite right anymore 😭 not to mention the ending I had in mind is still very vague and unfixed. Right now I'm keeping my Graces fixation going so I can hopefully finish 2HCB1 (I did NOT write 60k words for it to give up now pleaseeee brain let me finish something for once 😭) but ngl I have been secretly pining for Zesty this entire time and the SECOND I get back into it I'm gonna work on this fic some more 💜💜💜

[neptoons1998]

Nannying a CEO

A/N: Here's Chapter 2

Chapter 2/4:

a/n: Second chapter let's go!!

Summary: Riri's first time visiting her new boss.

Tag Gang: @mal-urameshi @pantherheart @somethingcleaverandwhitty @xblackreader

In a couple of weeks, Riri arrives at a townhouse that was sandwiched between two upscale stores Riri would over her pay grade. She pressed the buzzer as she waited. This was a dumb idea, Riri thought as she fixed her clothes. 

“I should’ve worn more business casual after all,” Riri mumbled to herself. She did want to make a good impression on the family she was going to help the nanny with. How was I supposed to know some wealthy family wanted to hire me, She thought, when I get home I’m going to kill MJ for putting this idea in my head. 

Riri groaned as she looked up her eyes met a woman who smelled like vanilla and coffee beans, “You must be the new hire,” The assistant said, “Welcome, Miss. Udaku is waiting for you.” 

Riri dumbly nodded as she walked along with the assistant.  In the long hallway, Riri could see all the luxury like the golden vases and murals on the walls that splash with colors; Miss. Udaku and her child had. Why did she post online looking for a nanny when she could’ve had one of her interns babysit her kid? Riri thought she accidentally bumped into the assistant’s back, “I’m sorry.”

“She’s in there,” the assistant stated as she gave a kind smile as pushed the door open, “Good luck Miss.Williams.”

Riri took a gulp as she walked inside the home office.  The room was painted with purple and gold accents.  Shuri looked up from her oak desk the CEO  gave the woman a kind smile. Oh no, she’s hot, Riri thought as she sat down on a chair, not looking away from the beautiful woman. 

“Hello Ms. Williams,” Shuri greeted with a smile. Shuri finally caved to Aneka’s advice, Shuri needed some help with balancing her work and life. Shuri didn’t consider how pretty the young woman standing in front of her was. Stop thinking like that she’s here for a job and to help Toussaint Shuri thought to herself. 

Riri gave a smile right back, “Hi, you can just call me Riri if you want.”“As long you called me Shuri,” The CEO responded to her. Shuri reprimands herself Don’t flirt with the new nanny. Riri nodded along. I’m sure she does that with everyone. Riri tried to reason as the pair went through the daily routine for her nephew.

[nyxlaufeyson]

Hello, World, I'm Your Wild Girl (Pandora's Box)- Chapter 10

Main Masterlist - Pandora's Box Masterlist

A/N: Okay, so uhm this is a chapter I wasn't sure how to go about and it turned into a cliche party fic. Whoopsies. Enjoy the fluff while it lasts. Yes, the chapter name comes from Cherry Bomb by the Runaways.

After that incident, nothing much changed. Pandora avoided the subject at all costs, and Loki didn’t push it. He figured that with time, things would become clearer. He wasn’t going to risk fracturing one of his only friendships. 

The next step in Pandora’s new journey was to be introduced to the world. Well, re-introduced. Some of the world already knew her, just under different names. But she was never the center of attention, so it was unlikely anybody would remember Pandora, the bartender Roxie, the waitress Leslie, or any of the other facades Pandora had hid behind. 

Unfortunately, the best way to introduce her to the world that Stark could come up with was a party. A party where invitations had been sent out to the press before Pandora even heard a word about it. 

When Tony struck her with the news, she looked at him with wide eyes. “A party? To introduce myself to the public? Absolutely not. That’s ridiculous.”

Tony looked at her like she was the one who was being ridiculous. “Why not? I have parties all the time, the press will never see it coming. It’ll be great. And don’t worry, the press and all the other boring people will get cleared out after an hour or so, leaving us to celebrate!” 

Pandora shook her head. “Tony, it’s going to be a nightmare. You don’t want me anywhere near the press, I don’t know what to say! ‘Hey, I’m this magical girl that’s been living amongst you with no one the wiser?’ Plus, parties are dumb. I don’t do parties.”

“Don’t worry, my PR team will work with you. Plus, you’re an avenger, you do parties now. It’s part of the job description.” Tony said, tilting his head. “Which, actually, I think Pepper asked me to get you to sign that. Something for the job, I don’t know, just go talk to her about it sometime.”

Natasha, who was sitting nearby, jumped into the conversation. “Don’t worry, there’s been much harder introductions that have been made about members on our team. It’ll be over before you know it. Public opinion isn’t that hard to win over, just ask the PR team. They’ve worked wonders with some of the shit Tony’s done.”

Tony’s eyebrows shot up. “Hey! I never do anything that bad .” He said, but everyone in the room knew that was a lie. He had done some pretty stupid things. 

~~~~~

Pandora, Natasha, Wanda, and Pepper weaved in and out of stores, looking for the perfect outfit to make her first appearance to the public. According to the PR team she had been working with the past few weeks, first appearances were everything.

So she tried on all different colors and styles of dresses and suits, looking for the right one. Although, unfortunately, the PR team suggested not wearing a suit for the first appearance. The public could be brutal, even if wearing a suit meant absolutely nothing about anything. That was just how the world worked.

That didn’t stop her from trying on some suits though. She even bought one to keep for a future occasion.

With each dress she tried on, there was always something wrong. The color was off, the waist was too tight, the neckline dipped a little too far. Pandora was about to call it quits for the day until she tried on a beautiful golden dress.

Not quite long enough to touch the floor, it was the perfect length. The color wasn’t an ugly yellow, it was a gold that matched the shimmer that Pandora’s magic sometimes left behind.

When Pandora stepped out of the dressing room, the rest of the girls nodded. “This is the one.” Wanda said without hesitance, and so they bought it. Pandora was relieved to be done with trying on clothes. It was always so exhausting.

They made it back to the tower in time for Pandora to nap off the shopping before her next session with the PR team.

~~~~~

The night of the party, Pandora was nervous. Under regular circumstances, she could drink a little to ease her nerves, but she didn’t want to risk the alcohol making her say something dumb. Especially with the world watching. 

Her hair wasn’t in space buns like they typically were, but instead in a singular bun. The front bits of her hair framed her face in waves. 

She exited her room and started her walk to the elevator. Loki was also heading to the party, and they met in the hallway.

He flashed her a smile. “You ready?” He asked as they stepped into the elevator. He pressed the button for the second-to-last floor, where the party was being held.

Pandora let out a sigh. “Not really, but I don’t think that matters at this point.” She fiddled with her necklace. 

“I’m sure you’ll be fine. Give people just enough truth to keep them satisfied, while fabricating in other elements.” He sounded so well versed in the art of public speaking.

Pandora smirked. “You have experience with lying to the public, mischief?” 

Loki smirked right back at her. “You know I do, darling.”

The elevator reached their destination, and they stepped off in sync. They could already hear the music. 

As they reached the door, Loki turned to Pandora. “I’ll go in first. Wait a few minutes before you make your entrance. Don’t want the public to see us walk in together. My reputation isn’t the best, and you don’t need nasty rumors already.”

Pandora frowned, but knew that he was right, so she agreed. Loki took one more look at her before he grabbed the handle to the door.

“By the way, you look stunning tonight.” He winked at her. “Good luck.” With that, he opened the door and entered the party. Pandora felt herself blush lightly at his compliment.

After a few minutes, she gathered all the courage she could muster and walked in. Faces turned towards her, and conversations seemed to die down. Pandora took a deep breath and smiled. 

Then, once the shock wore off, people were all over her. They shot questions at her and took pictures, crowding around her. 

Luckily, Tony saw the struggle and made his way over to her. “Okay people, there’s a designated Q&A later, let her breathe first.” The crowd reluctantly dispersed, and Pandora gave Tony her thanks. 

Pandora mingled with both familiar and unfamiliar faces, some friendly, some not. It wasn’t long before Tony came to get her and brought her to the stairs that lead to a small stage with a microphone. He told her to walk on when he signaled, and so he went on first.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” He tapped the mic to ensure that it was working, and the attention of the room shifted to him. “It is with great honor here tonight that we get to welcome the newest member of the Avengers. Please welcome Pandora!” 

The crowd clapped and cheered as Pandora walked onto the stage and took her place next to Tony, who cleared his throat to quiet the crowd. “She will now be taking your questions, and please keep the questions appropriate to the situation.”

He gave her a thumbs up and exited the stage, leaving Pandora alone. 

Then came the questions. Several people spoke at once, and she could only make out a jumbled mess of words. So she held up a hand, and to her relief, the crowd quieted. She pointed to one of the reporters near the front. “You first.”

The reporter beamed. “How exactly did you become an Avenger?” 

Pandora gave a smile that she had practiced in the mirror, as requested by the PR team. “Well, to make a long story short, I ran into some of the other Avengers and we had a misunderstanding of sorts, but I suppose I must have grown on them since I was offered the job.”

She picked out the next person to ask a question. “What do your powers include? What do you bring to the team?”

“I practice an ancient magic that is beyond the reach of most individuals. I can use this to assist in any of my new duties.” Simple and short, not revealing too much information, was exactly the kind of answer she was going for. 

There was a short reporter in the back with their hand raised, so Pandora chose them. “Are you Asgardian? Like Thor?” 

She shook her head. “I am of a sister race to them, but we are similar in many ways.”

“Do you have any family?” Another person asked.

Pandora inwardly cringed a little at the question. “Not on Earth, no. But I do have family back on my home realm.”

After that, the questions breezed by. She had prepared for the exact questions that the press asked, and for the most part, she didn’t need to think twice before responding. That was, until she got to what would be the last question of the day.

“What size dress are you?”  

She froze, caught off guard. Why would anyone want to know? Luckily, Tony took that as his cue to return to the stage. “Alright, everyone, thank you so much for coming tonight, but unfortunately we are out of time for our little Q&A! We hope everyone had a great time.”

He ushered her off the stage and away from the press. She followed him over to an area that was mostly people she was familiar with, as the rest of the crowd began to file out. 

Natasha, who was behind the bar, eyed Pandora. “You look like you need a drink. Got any preferences?”

Pandora shook her head. “Surprise me.” She replied, and Natasha sent her a wink. 

“Careful, I wouldn’t let her do that if I were you.” Bruce said. “Last time I told her to ‘surprise me,’ she gave me straight up vodka.”

Natasha smirked. “It’s not my fault you can’t handle a little vodka, Banner.”

She handed Pandora a drink, who then took a sip. “Nope, not straight vodka.” She took another sip. “Madras?”

Natasha nodded. “You know your alcohol.”

“Yeah. I was actually a bartender once.” Pandora said, causing several head turns. 

Tony cocked an eyebrow. “Bartender, wow! I didn’t see that on your resume.”

Pandora rolled her eyes. “I didn’t even give you a resume, Tony.”

She went and sat on an empty couch, relaxing her head back. She felt the seat beside her dip down, but she neglected to open her eyes at the moment. 

She felt someone lean a bit closer to her ear. “You did good tonight, darling. The press is taxing to put up with, unfortunately it is a necessary evil in this world.” Loki said.

She sighed. “You don’t say.” At this point in the night, her bun felt too restraining, so she unpinned her hair and let it fall around her face. 

“The press always asks dumb questions. Especially to us girls.” Wanda said with a frown. “I guess that’s the sort of thing that sells.”

Natasha shrugged and took a swig of her drink. “Money makes people do stupid things. You won’t believe the amount of people in this world who don’t have any common sense.”

Pandora laughed. “Believe me, I’ve met quite a few in my travels. Working customer service was a nightmare that I will never do again.” 

Clint, who had just started listening, raised an eyebrow. “You worked in customer service?”

She nodded. “Unfortunately. Those are the types of jobs that are easiest to secure. For quite a good reason, too. It’s atrocious.”

“I had a job in retail once.” Tony said, causing everyone to look at him in disbelief. “What? It’s true. My mother told me that I needed to start being productive with my life, so I was like ‘how hard can it be?’ I got a job at some random store down the street.”

Steve laughed. “And how long did that last for?” 

Tony shrugged and scratched his head. “A little less than two days.” 

Everyone laughed and Tony went on trying to defend himself. “But listen, I had a terrible first day. There was this old lady who came straight up to me and started yelling in my face, and she spit on me! I mean, what was I supposed to do?!” 

Pandora contributed to the conversation here and there, but she found herself slowly not paying attention. Once her eyes began to close on their own accord, she decided it was time to head back to her room. “Well guys, I think it’s time for me to call it a night.”

Tony pouted at that. “But you’re not even drunk yet!” 

She laughed. “I’m not looking to be here all night, Tony. Besides, that’s not my definition of fun anyways.” 

So he gave up and said goodnight, prompting the others to do the same. 

“Would you like me to walk you back to your room?” Loki asked from his spot on the couch. He had been engrossed in a conversation with Wanda, and he seemed to be comfortable. He didn’t seem to be that way around the team that often, so Pandora quickly shook her head.

“That’s quite alright, thanks though.” She said, and then slipped out of the room and headed towards her apartment.

TAG LIST (If you want to be added or removed, comment or inbox. If you want to only be tagged for this series/or just oneshots, etc... make sure to let me know. Make sure your tag settings are on.)- @anukulee @mischief-dream @iceeericeee

[yourlocalartsonist]

PSST! The fanfic is officially out now! Read it here <3

Hi uh I decided to start a ROTTMNT fanfic ;w;

So it kinda started out as just random “what if” scenarios of me and the turtles interacting but then got out of hand when I officially started developing my self insert character a bit more and giving them a backstory and creating an overarching narrative, blah blah blah. And then it just got more set in stone when I ended up actually writing an entire chapter and having way too much fun doing it. I wasn’t sure whether or not to announce this now or later when the chapters actually start going up on AO3 but I got too giddy to just not say anything so here we are :D

Introducing my dumb little rise fanfic: Moths Fly in Packs!

So this story is meant to take place a few months after the movie events. In my head canon, the movie takes place in August 2020 and the story starts March 2021. I’m not sure how long it’s gonna be yet but I know for sure it’ll cover a few years of their lives since I want the dynamics to seem believable and not hilariously rushed

SO! I actually had two versions of this story planned out. One is just continuing the Rise series in general with the turtles being the main characters and this fanfic’s MC being more on the level of April or Casey. That whole stuff I wanted to save for a future comic series if I ever get to it with a more similar tone to the show. The fanfic is showing that story from MC’s perspective, having them be the main character and following the events of her life with the turtles and the tone being SLIGHTLY darker than the main show. It doesn’t feel too different though since I think the show kinda already nailed the blend of fun and trauma that I love, just increased the trauma a teensy bit. Oh also cursing I guess

Speaking of MC, here’s their design! :D

Salena Moni :D she/they

LOOK AT MY DARLING BASKING IN ALL HER GLORY! She’s half Japanese half Bengali and is actually (unknowing to her) part luna moth Yōkai and I’m not gonna talk more about that as it would spoil parts of the story. She’s the same age as Mikey, both 16 in the story, and yes this is gonna be some turtle x oc shipping since I’m a simp for Leo and I’m not wasting an opportunity to create a fictional relationship with him <3 Aside from that, Salena is sweet, spunky, and chaotic, wonderfully fitting in with the rest of the gang. Of course, she has her dose of trauma and baggage too since it wouldn’t be a rise fanfic without that! Their weapons are mystic sickles and their powers are still in the works

For any of my fellow character design nerds: I tried putting some luna moth elements into her design. Her color palette is inspired by the green, pink, and yellow palette of luna moths and the spots on her sickles are meant to resemble the spots on their wings. They’ve got gold earrings in the shape of feathers to emulate the cute fuzzy antennas on luna moths. The bag isn’t related to moths, it’ll get explained in the story it’s a pretty sweet moment I don’t wanna spoil. There’s probably more but I’m forgetting that right now ANYWHO

Um yea I think that’s everything? Apologies if I sounded like an awkward dork, it’s because I am and still not used to posting on tumbler. I’m really excited to share this story since I think it’s a lot of fun and just a really sweet found family story. It’s kind of my little comfort fanfic as a lot of the original characters are inspired by people I knew in my life and a lot of the events are a mix of things I struggled with and the potential life I would’ve had if certain events ended more tragically than they actually did. I struggle with feeling lonely a lot and this story lets me breathe in another universe as a character who eventually finds their true family despite the things they’ve been through. A family that accepts them for who they are, weird quirks and all. It’s a wholesome ride and I can’t wait to share it with y’all

As in literally can’t wait, I might honestly just put the first chapter on tumbler instead of waiting for my AO3 account to activate since there’s APPARENTLY A WAIT TIME FOR THE INVITATION but anyway enjoy a little fluff drawing I did of Salena and Leo that’s now my homescreen

[mydisenchantedeulogy]

Love Me Bitterly [Chapter Two] Dumb Luck [Adam]

Warning(s): family drama, hazbin lore, oc, redemption fic, Adam being Adam, hobbies, accidents.

Tag list: @lala-1516

Previous chapter Next chapter

No Minors Allowed!!

Marcella woke with the sun. She was an early riser; had been since she was a child. Her mother was strict about certain beliefs. Early to bed, early to rise, she would say. No matter how often she tried to break these rules, Marcella could not. It was hardwired into her brain. Much like her routine.

Like every morning, despite her protests, she eased out of bed feeling relaxed yet worn out and made herself a smoothie - this morning's flavor was pineapple - then she rested on the cushion in front of her bay window and peered out at Halo City as it came to life with the light. In the distance, beyond the glistening crystal buildings, the cumulus clouds stood out, painted light orange and rose gold in the sun's rays. It was a marvelous sight, such pleasures that were everywhere in Heaven.

As she sat there, Marcella tried to look for inspiration as to what hobby she wanted to take up. Photography, perhaps knitting. There was never a shortage of things to do. She reckoned she would know when she saw it.

Finishing off her smoothie, the tired blonde stood and stretched her wings. She then washed out her cup and put on a baby blue sundress before she left her apartment.

Seraphim Square was around the corner. It was an open space used for festivities with a gorgeous crystal fountain in the center. A plethora of Virtuous and Heaven-born crowded the area, enjoying the venues and stores that bordered the square.

Marcella did not have to wander around long before she spotted what she was looking for; Heavenly Crafts, a hobby shop. She sauntered inside and took a curious look around, hoping that something would catch her eyes. There were so many materials, each clustered in distinct categories lined along shelves like a grocery store. Where would she start?

“Can I help you find something in particular?” A feminine voice asked. An anthropomorphic capybara with reddish-brown fur greeted her. The tag on her apron read Cappy.

“I'm…not certain what I'm looking for - aside from knowing I want to start a new hobby,” Marcella answered with a frown.

Cappy smiled.

“That's no problem. I can show you around, perhaps something will spark your interest.”

Marcella was grateful. She nodded, then followed the helpful capybara to the first aisle, listening to her talk adamantly about the hobbies that each material was linked to. Overwhelming was an understatement.

At the end of the third aisle, containing sketchbooks and a wide variety of drawing pens, a stand of flowers wrapped in newspaper caught Marcella's attention. The vivid colors reminded her of the sunset. She gently traced her finger around the pink petal of Magic Star Lily and hummed.

“This might be it,” Cappy stated with an excited chirp.

Marcella raised a brow.

“You can use flowers for a variety of different hobbies. Perhaps you would like to make your own Potpourri or make a beautiful arrangement to display on your dining room table. I like to press flowers and make art from them,” she explained.

“That sounds lovely,” Marcella uttered.

She had heard of flower pressing before. Her aunt liked to hang her finished arrangements on the walls in her homes like a picture. She claimed that it was a type of stress relief for her.

“I think I might give it a try.”

Cappy smiled.

“Say no more. I have you covered.”

The excited woman hurried down the next aisle, leaving Marcella to look through the bouquets. When she returned, some ten minutes later, she had several items tucked beneath her arms; newspapers, untreated facial tissues, and a variety of other items Marcella had no idea what to do with.

“Let's pick a bouquet,” she suggested.

Marcella felt dizzy. She was in the dark about this sort of thing.

“What do you suggest?”

“The simplest most humble flowers to press, in my opinion, are buttercups, clovers, and stitchwort.” She paused a moment to look over the bouquets, then motioned toward one. “The pink buttercups should do nicely.”

Marcella gathered them, then followed Cappy to the front where she had set several more items. The worried look on Marcella's face made her laugh.

“No worries, the instructions are easy to follow. I made sure to include them.”

Marcella hoped so. She watched her place the materials into an eco-friendly bag.

“Besides this, did you find everything that you were looking for?” Cappy asked with a smile.

Of course, she did. And even if Heavenly Craft did not have everything in stock, there was no scarcity of resources in Heaven, everything was attainable.

It was also the reason money no longer existed. There was no reason for it.

“Be careful with this bag,” Cappy mentioned while pointing to the bag closest to her. “There are some glass frames in there, for you to get started with.”

Marcella was grateful.

“Thank you for the help.”

“It was my pleasure,” Cappy retorted. “Please come again.”

With a brief nod, Marcella left the hobby shop and hurried back to her apartment. She still had an hour before she needed to be at the library so she wanted to at least press some of the flowers before she had to leave.

As she rushed around the corner, someone side-swept her shoulder and knocked her off her feet. Marcella fell with a squeak and landed on her rear, dropping her bags. At least one of them made a sharp cracking noise when it struck the ground, the glass in the frames was no doubt broken. And to make matters worse, something cold that smelled distinctly like coffee poured down onto her head. A shiver went down her spine and her feathers stood on end.

“Watch where the fu–”

Adam paused when the angel that knocked into him tossed him a glare. He recognized her; Marcella. His lecherous eyes trailed down her body, noticing that her dress had slid up, revealing her white and blue panties to him.

He was spellbound until a nudge against his side brought him back to reality. Adam tossed his lieutenant an irritated look.

“Stop fucking cockblocking, Lute.”

The stoic woman slid her arms behind her back and gestured toward the blonde with her head as if to tell him to focus. He understood.

To his dismay, however, Marcella had straightened her dress and was checking her bags. Adam cleared his voice and spread his gold wings.

“Hey, bitch.”

Lute turned up her slitted eyes.

Bitch. Was he talking to her? Marcella raised a brow and peered up at him. While not acquainted with Adam, she knew of him…and his antics.

“Excuse me.”

She was a bit sore about her frame - one of them had cracked - and the iced coffee in her hair.

“I said, hey bi–”

Lute nudged him again, shaking her head.

“Erm…what's up?”

Was he an– no that was not fair. He was a Virtuous, the first man of Earth. Of course, he was terrible at talking to women. He did not know better, though perhaps he did.

“Shopping,” she uttered, gathering her things.

Adam snorted. Women. He ogled Marcella as she stood. Despite her dress being stained with coffee, the light reflecting through the crystal buildings cast a vivid array of colors on her. She looked divine…and delicious.

“Cold?” He asked with a toothy grin.

Marcella raised a brow. What was he talking about? It wasn't cold. The weather was perfect, as far as Heaven went.

“Um…I don't–”

Adam pointed a finger at her chest. Upon realizing that her nipples were showing beneath her dress, she squeaked and covered herself the best she could. Marcella was mortified. The iced coffee that had run down her dress paired with the breeze was not doing her any favors.

“Relax, babe,” Adam stated, tucking his wings beneath his arms like a resting bird. “I've seen plenty of nipples…like a lot.”

Right. Well, this was awkward. Marcella frowned.

“I need to go. It was an honor - I guess - to meet you.”

As she tried to walk around him, he extended a wing.

“So, you like flowers?” He asked quickly.

“I guess,” Marcella answered. “These are for flower pressing though.”

Adam raised a brow.

“Lame.”

This guy was hard to be around. How is it that the Seraphim allowed him to command? He was judgemental and a bit rude.

“Not to me,” Marcella pointed out. She took an uneasy breath to control her annoyance. “I need to–”

“Look, sir,” Lute interrupted. She reached forward and plucked something from the bouquet. “A four-leaf clover.”

What dumb luck. Cappy must have bundled a few with the buttercups for her. She would have loved to display a rare four-leaf clover on her wall.

Adam snatched the clover from Lute's hand.

“Fuck yeah! All mine.”

“Lucky you,” Marcella uttered.

Sliding under Adam's wing, she shivered as his soft feathers slid over her bare arm, then once she was clear, she walked toward her apartment. Unfortunately, she was again stopped, referred to as ‘babe’ rather than her name. Marcella peeked at Adam over her shoulder and raised a brow. Her wings rose in annoyance. Patience was not her virtue.

“You got a little something on your head.”

No shit. The coffee that he dropped on her after he knocked her down.

“Thanks for that,” Marcella grumbled.

She turned her back to Adam and walked away, unaware of the lecherous gaze on her rear. She would have to wait to try out her new hobby; she needed a shower first.

Adam grinned and balled up his fist.

“Crushed it.”

Lute bumped his fist. She had nothing to say in regard. This - whatever it was - was never going to work.

[kahelnalangit]

Reasons why B was a terrible boyfriend:

* He never saw me as a real person. When I asked liked the most him what about me, he said "you're hot, duh” that's all.

* Because of # reason, he didn't know basic about me things 1.5 years into the relationship. The last straw was him getting me blue balloons for my 22nd birthday. He told me "they didn't have the rose gold ones you wanted, only pink and blue. So I got you blue of course." You dumb bitch. I was wearing a taupe dress that evening. What made you think that blue was the better choice??? Also, pink has been my favorite color since I was years old. FIVE. I wore it all the time at school. He's seen my school supplies: PINK.

* He didn't eat me out often. So when I tried to teach him what I liked, he complained and whined. He pretty much cried and said shit like "I’m a failure wahhhh” like he literally curled up into a ball and started to sob? I had to comfort him...

* Cheap. One Christmas (before we broke up), he asked me if I wanted this one thing. So of that time, he worked of a lab doing tests. I think mainly cosmetics and shit. Well, his workplace had this bundle deal where a bunch of stuff from their clients were sold in bundles at a discounted price. I’m talking brands from department stores. So anyway he asked if wanted one. I said sure why not. That ended up being my gift for Christmas. It was pretty much like the bundle you get from Sephora when you spend $75 and use a certain coupon code. Except these were full size. I ended up giving away most of the products. After I checked their expiration though by looking up each lot number of the item. Most of them were close to expiring... That's why they were in the discounted bundles.

* Cheap #2. He always complained about getting food for me even after he got a full time job. Mind you, I'm not even the type ask for money, gifts, or anything.

* He didn't invite me to his 21st birthday clubbing celebration. He denies it to this day, but I remember that he only invited me to the football game. He never told me about going clubbing. Yeah, it might've been an impromptu thing but he couldn't shoot me a text? I had to watch all of that shit happen on Snapchat. I bawled my eyes out until 3 A.M. when I had a photoshoot at 7 A.M.

* He gave me my first UTI. I spent the afternoon at his dorm while he was out doing whatever. Instead of doing homework, I cleaned his apartment. It was dusty so l tidied up. When he came back, he appreciated the gesture. Then we had sex. Afterwards, the way he treated me was infuriating. I think he was very dismissive and short with me for god knows what reason, it made me so upset (especially after also cleaning he's dorm) that I left the place to go to my review session without peeing first. Which led to a terrible UTI that I had to get treated with antibiotics. The worst part about this whole thing is he wasn't even my official boyfriend at the time.

[dragonlillywriting]

Born in Anarchy: Book 1, Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1: 

Dust fell from the ceiling as Iris lay in her bed during Anarchy. Her one bedroom apartment was located on what the humans in the city of Prathem called Fifth Street. To the world of supernaturals, however, it was known as Combat Alley. Being located at the beginning of the street kept Iris from being subjected to the fighting outside for the most part. The building received damage from time to time but the violence never made it inside. On normal days she would not even be home at this hour but for some reason she had taken a nap when she got home from work and slept till dusk. She had woken up and spotted the sun and moon both peeking over the buildings in the distance. It was too dangerous to go out now. 

Anarchy was the time of day when the sun and moon shared the sky. It was an hour-long event in the evenings that allowed for vampires and immortals to kill or hurt each other without legal consequences. It was the Elders’ way of preventing civil war among the opposing species. However, the only place this could happen was on Combat Alley. Every city or territory had their own location for Anarchy.

Iris groaned as more dust fell on her. She coughed and sat up in her bed. She tossed her blanket to the side and looked around her room. It was boring, to put it nicely. It was quite literally just somewhere for her to sleep at this point. A small two-drawer dresser sat across the room from her against one of the white walls. She rose to her feet and pulled out a pair of jeans and a grey v-neck shirt. Once Anarchy was over, she was going to the bar.

Iris headed out of her room and across the hall to the small bathroom, the wooden floor creaking beneath her feet. She looked in the mirror above the bathroom sink. She looked rough. Her shoulder length, almond colored hair was matted and knotted in multiple directions. Dark circles hung below her green eyes, standing out against her porcelain skin. The swirl of gold in her eyes was a reminder of what she was, no matter how desperately she tried to live a human life. Unfortunately, it was impossible for an immortal to live a human life. Sucking the life energy out of someone is frowned upon in human society, apparently. 

“At least I don’t drink blood.” Iris muttered under her breath. She brushed her hair and pulled it back in a tight braid. She heard knocking on her apartment door and she tensed. She never had visitors, especially not during Anarchy. She left the bathroom and moved across her apartment  as the knocking persisted and grew more frantic. It might be someone trying to find sanctuary during Anarchy, she thought. They can move on to someone else’s apartment. She heard the door handle jingling and she tensed again. The door was locked and the deadbolt was in place but she did not trust it. She grabbed her knife off her nightstand and eased across the room to the coat closet. She slid inside and closed herself in. As soon as she settled behind the hanging clothes, a banging sounded on the apartment door and it burst open. 

“I know she’s in here. I saw her come in here earlier and watched to see if she’d leave.” said a gruff male voice. 

“Are you sure?” said another deep male voice. 

��Man, I’m positive. She must be hiding somewhere in here. She wouldn’t be dumb enough to slip out the window during Anarchy. You take that side and I’ll take this one. We’ll sniff her out.” The first man said. 

“I still don’t get why we’re going after her.” The second man said. 

“I told you: the boss said she’s important or some shit. I don’t know, but if you wanna keep him happy, we gotta find her and bring her in.”

Iris felt her heart racing in her ears and she swallowed hard. She gripped her knife in her hand tightly, readying herself to attack if the door opened. She heard footsteps through the apartment and held her breath as they stopped near the closet. The door handle twisted and light flooded inside. A deep chuckle sounded and when her eyes adjusted, Iris saw a big burly man with brown eyes standing in the doorway. His eyes were accented by a gold swirl that matched her own. She was hit with a wave of confusion but did not hesitate in dashing out of the closet, slipping under his swinging arms. The man cursed under his breath and followed after her, a knife of his own in his hand. Iris was not much of a fighter but she adapted quickly and she was proud to admit that her one strength was her speed. She dashed out of the apartment and tore down the stairs. Going out onto the street would be severely dangerous but she was betting on her speed to see her through. Hopefully she would survive to see the sun again.

…

Enzo was not happy to be dragged down to Combat Alley by his brothers. The two older men were twins with jet black hair and eyes to match. The red swirl in their eyes proved they were more than just vampires; they were bloodthirsty. Anarchy during the previous night had proved to be a challenge for the skilled fighters and had ended up with their friend’s death. They had not given Enzo very many details but the gist of it was that an immortal had killed their friend and they were going to get revenge. The men were skilled but even the toughest fighters did not stand a chance during Anarchy if they were outnumbered. Enzo merely agreed to come to give the illusion that they had more numbers. He had no intention of actually fighting but not because he was incapable. All three of them had been trained relentlessly from the time they were old enough to hold a knife. Perks of being part of the royal family, he supposed. 

“Yo, Enz, you got our backs, right?” Donovan asked, glancing back at Enzo as they walked along the dark path through the woods that led to Combat Alley.

“Sure.” Enzo replied. 

“That doesn’t sound very promising.” Acacius muttered. 

Donovan spun on his heel and stopped in front of Enzo, towering over him. The twins were a few years older than him but they were superior in strength and size too. However, Enzo was not intimidated by them. He stopped and arched a brow as Donovan huffed. “Don’t chicken out on us, Enzo.”

“I won’t.” He said firmly. He waited while Donovan scrutinized him. He huffed again and continued along the trail. Enzo rolled his eyes and followed after. He was not a coward, he just detested violence.

The sun and moon were already in the sky together and the sounds of chaos were already drifting their way. Anarchy was in full swing and a pit formed in Enzo’s stomach. He was not typically afraid, at least, not of dying. Their training prepared them for a life of battles. Death was just another obstacle to overcome in their eyes. However, where their training had turned Donovan and Acacius into reckless assholes, it had turned Enzo into a warrior with a conscience. He could not stand the idea of taking a life, especially for the fun of it. Acacius and Donovan were heartless and the thrill of the kill was what drove them to Anarchy several times a week. As much as he hated to come with them, it would have been viewed as a betrayal for Enzo to not come when they had requested it. Betraying one’s kind, one’s family, was a serious offense and would secure a one way ticket to execution. Enzo was not interested in that, either. He was not afraid of an honorable death but he feared the opposite.

As they grew closer to Combat Alley, Acacius scanned the street from the cover of the woods. “That dickhead always hangs out by the alley between the bar and the pharmacy.” Donovan said. “We should be able to scope him out from here. Once we spot him, we’ll sneak in through the back of the building and take him out before he knows what hit him.” 

“I want him to know what hit him.” Acacius muttered. 

“No, this needs to be cut and dry. No mess ups. The longer he stays alive, the more chances of mess ups there will be.” Donovan ordered. “Follow my lead.” 

Acacius grumbled but nodded. He peered through the trees. A few moments passed. “Found him.” 

Donovan followed Acacius’ gaze. He grinned, his sharp fangs glinting in the eerie light that the sun and moon provided. “Let’s go.” Donovan said. He took off out of the woods and Acacius followed quickly after. Enzo groaned and darted out of the woods. He kept his hand on his knife that hung off his belt but made no effort to unsheathe it. 

The alley that Donovan had indicated was at the beginning of Combat Alley. It stood across the street from a grocery store. The bar was perpendicular to an older apartment complex that they had to run by to reach the alley. Enzo was several yards behind Donovan and Acacius when he passed the building-- his plan was to lag behind and allow time for the other two to strike without him. Just as he was coming up to the last window of the apartment building, a loud shattering sounded and a body came flying out of the window. The person rolled to the ground, grunting. Enzo stopped, eyes wide as he took in the sight of the person. 

A young woman, possibly close to his age, looked up at him. She had golden brown hair, almost the color of almonds. Her skin was fair, despite the blood now covering it. When her eyes locked on him, he tensed. Her green eyes had swirls of gold that marked her as the enemy. Her eyes were wild with fear and she breathed heavily but she did not appear to be afraid of him. She glanced back at the window when the sound of yelling came from inside. She got to her feet quickly just as two burly men came barreling out of the window. “Shit!” She yelled and took off running away. The men did not seem to notice Enzo as they chased after her. His brows furrowed when he noticed the gold in their eyes. Why would immortals be chasing after their own kind? 

More curious than concerned, Enzo took off in the direction the woman had taken. With him blocking the way out of Combat Alley, she had been forced to go toward the bar and pharmacy. One of the men followed her directly while the other went around the bar to head her off. Enzo followed in the shadows, careful not to make himself known. When he arrived at the back of the pharmacy, he noticed it was a dead end and the first man had the woman cornered. She was frantically trying to get away by scaling the side of the brick building but the blood covering her hands proved to be a problem. Enzo noticed the woman stumble and spotted a large cut down her arm. She was suffering from blood loss. She turned her back on the wall to face the men as they moved in on her. She held a knife up in a shaky hand. “Wh-what do you want with me?” She asked angrily. 

“Don’t worry ‘bout it, doll baby.” One of the men said as he spit on the ground. “Just come with us and find out.”

“Dude, she’s bleeding out.” The other man said. 

“Yeah, I know. We can’t let her die. Boss said he needs her alive. Let’s grab her and go or he’ll have us killed.” 

“Why?” The woman demanded, trying to stand her ground. She swiped her knife and caught the first man’s arm as he tried to grab her. He cursed and surged forward. 

Unsure why he was doing it, Enzo bounded forward. He tackled the first man and then rolled to his feet. He spun a leg out and tripped the man who had been cut. He pulled out his knife and stabbed the first man in the chest. The second man was taken care of shortly after. Just as Enzo turned toward the woman, he heard yelling and screaming coming from the alley his brothers had gone down. He turned to run that way when he noticed the woman stumbling. Her eyes grew heavy and she began to fall forward. “Shit.” He whispered. He surged forward and caught her before she could fall. With a quick glance back at the alley, Enzo made the snap decision to abandon his brothers and to betray his own kind. He scooped the woman into his arms and took off back into the woods. 

(chapter 2)

[kazewhara]

stay.

# — pairing: kazuha x gn!reader

# — characters: gender neutral reader, kazuha

# — warnings: mentions of a nightmare & a sprinkle of self-deprecating thoughts (feeling bad for being selfish)

# — tags: some angst, fluff, canon semi-compliant, late night talks with kazuha, yes there are kisses involved why wouldn't there be

# — notes: it's slowly getting lighter outside, lol... anyways, like always, reblogs and reactions are always appreciated, and i hope you enjoy!

wanna join the tag list?

✧ — 🍁 — ✧

"you're spacing out again."

"hm? am i?" the frozen smile on kazuha's face thaws out and softens as you speak, the present warmth somehow warming even further. his hands are resting comfortably on your cheeks as you cry silently and your tears that once ran rivulets over your skin have their paths broken by his thumb. his hands had attached to your face like a magnet the very second he caught a glimpse of the sheen in your eyes that you tried so desperately to hide. "i don't think i am."

for the first time in about fifteen minutes, you feel the need to laugh. kazuha will never admit when he's lost in his own thoughts. as composed as he is, it's a common occurrence for him to wander into the ever-changing labyrinth that is his mind with no end in sight. it shouldn't be amazing given his ability to conjure words from nowhere at all times of the day, but what you do find a bit strange is how often he seems to lead himself astray whenever he's looking at you.

even when you're standing before him with damp cheeks and a blooming sinus headache, kazuha's lost himself in your eyes.

"you definitely are." you chuckle wetly. as... sweet as it is that kazuha finds you alluring no matter what state you're in, you feel insecurity pluck at your mental. you unconsciously rest your hand over his own and battle the urge to push it away. you're not sure if you should ask him to focus on you or to leave you alone — both options are equally unattractive to you. "what are you thinking about?" is what you come up with after a few seconds.

autumn-colored irises don't gloss over this time. there's a whisper of gold in them, and you realize just how hard it is not to lose yourself in his eyes. kazuha's standing close to you, but he steps even closer. "breathe," he says when he notices your stiffness. "i'm not going anywhere."

and that's kind of the problem, isn't it? why won't he go anywhere? why does he insist on being here all the time? why does he occupy your thoughts and dominate your life the way he does? from the moment you wake up next to him to the moment he lays down beside you at night, kaedehara kazuha is in your heart and mind, and frankly, you don't believe he belongs there sometimes.

he's a drifter; a wanderer. kazuha is like the wind, and it's something you tell yourself whenever he's gone for more than an hour. if he were to just... never return, would you be upset about it? initially, the answer would be a definite yes — that is, after all, what had woken you up so abruptly that you felt the need to wander the deck of the alcor at such an ungodly hour — but once the dust has settled and your mind is flushed free of the sorrow, would you be surprised? would you miss him?

would he miss you?

are you just another encounter in his life? does anything you do hold any real value to him? why is he still here?

"gods, this is so dumb." you hiss at yourself. when kazuha is right before you, you still think such thoughts. you could pour it all out right here, right now, right before him for the world to see, but something keeps your jaw wired shut and grindss your teeth to dust.

there's a frown forming on kazuha's features. "you're not telling me something." his thumbs swipe over your skin gently and your heart stutters in your chest. "was your nightmare about me?"

you raise an eyebrow. "how did you know i had a nightmare?" you ask. "did you learn that by staring at me?"

"you always get up and walk after nightmares." kazuha corrects you. he sounds patient; concerned. "did you think i wouldn't notice?"

you shrug half-heartedly, but swallow back the sudden nervousness in your throat. does that mean he noticed everything else you've been worrying about?

kazuha wouldn't be kazuha if he wasn't paying attention to your every move and privy to your every thought. "you also just told me yourself. you didn't deny it, petal."

ah, you think absently, and he's just a normal, observant guy.

soft lips press against your forehead. "you've been having these nightmares for a few nights now. i haven't followed you so as to give you peace of mind, but enough is enough. i'm so worried about you." kazuha murmurs his concerns so quietly, you almost miss them over the distant crash of the waves against the side of the ship. "i don't want to push you into telling me what's troubling you," he continues, "but i want to remind you that you don't have to shoulder that burden alone. you shouldn't, in my opinion, but i can't force you to speak to me."

you sigh. you want to tell him. you should tell him. you have to tell him. but...

"i know." is all you can manage at first. tell him. tell him, tell him, tell him. "but..."

kazuha perks up at that. you can see the way he eagerly awaits your confession, his hands dropping from your face to your hands, locking your fingers with his and holding them between the two of you.

and so you tell him.

you don't spare a single detail and kazuha doesn't miss a single one. he soaks in every last word, nodding along and transferring some of the weight on your shoulders onto his own. and after you've finished, he waits a moment before speaking.

"after what happened at tenshukaku, you must have overheard me saying that i would part with the crux once i felt the need." there's a crease between his brows that you want to smooth out. your fingers twitch as he keeps talking. "but that was over six months ago now. it sounds like you don't want me to leave but you're--"

"wondering why you haven't already," you finish for him. "like i said, i don't want you to, but... i've been steeling myself for the inevitable for months, kazuha. i'm so tired." your voice cracks and you look away from him. you can feel his eyes never leaving your frame. "you didn't know i heard that, so i understand why there hasn't been an answer. but i need one. please."

there's that silence again. it's broken by the waves and, if you strain your ears, the footsteps of xu liushi as he tirelessly keeps a lookout for any danger, but there is still silence as kazuha thinks about his next words. he's so careful with his words when he's with you -- even more so than usual. there's pauses between his words with you that aren't there when he speaks to others.

kazuha squeezes your fingers. "tell me to stay."

"what?" that's what he comes up with after two minutes of nothing? what was the point in telling him all of that? if it was that easy, you would have done that already. "i can't do that."

"do you not want me to stay, then?" kazuha feigns a look of hurt.

"will you leave if i don't say it?" as soon as the words leave your mouth, the two of you wince in tandem. the very thought of being separated so easily brings you both so much pain that it shows.

kazuha gives you a tiny smile. "of course not. not even an archon could take me from your side, dove." his smile grows into something bordering on cocky — his words hold much more weight seeing as how the electro archon quite literally failed to kill him. he had the lightning scars on his chest and arms to back it up. "but i want to return the favor."

"favor?"

"you taught me to be greedy." beneath the azure glow of the moon, kazuha's crimson cuts clean through it all. he stands out, to put it lightly, and he commands your attention. a gentle breeze brushes his bangs across his forehead. "i want to teach it to you as well."

greed? is that was this was about? were you not being selfish enough? did you not want enough for yourself? when you try to think about hoarding kazuha for your own selfish needs of being loved, you feel guilt standing close by. and immediately, you realize how right he is. even still... "if you come to resent me for tying you down," you ask, a self-deprecating smile souring your face, "what then?"

"as if i would ever resent you for anything." kazuha practically scoffs. he brings your hands up and rests them on his own face, holding them in place. "i am yours from now until forever, songbird. please; tell me to stay."

"i want to." you say. his skin is so warm beneath your fingers. his gaze is so laden with love that you can feel it prickling your cheeks and warming it. you're honest with him — it's impossible not to be. "but kazuha, if you want to leave... i-if you don't want to stay, then--"

kazuha wastes no time covering your mouth with his own, swallowing your doubts with a kiss. your mind goes haywire with the shock, but you reciprocate with a soft sigh. it takes a minute or two before your lover is pulling away and resting his forehead on yours. "you think too much." he mumbles in the space between you. his voice is the loudest, most soothing thing you have ever heard. "talk too much, too. did you know that, dove?"

you huff a laugh. "i learned from the best."

kazuha kisses you again, even longer this time. his lips are soft, so soft, yet so grounding. his kisses are familiar -- they're like coming home and shedding the layers of the day; like resting all your burdens at the door. kazuha is like relief personified, and it's in the way he tilts his head to deepen the kiss, the way you mirror his actions almost on instinct, the way you can feel your breathing evening out. you hadn't realized how much more worked up you were becoming, but with kazuha here, so present and so real before you, you can finally make out one thought.

"stay." you whisper when you finally part. you sound so desperate, so needy, but in that one word you've poured six months worth of desire. "stay with me."

kazuha kisses you quick and pulls you into an embrace. his forehead rests against your shoulder as he holds you close. "for you, my love," he whispers in return, "anything."

✧ born out of sleep deprivation, a horrible nightmare, and overwhelmingly negative emotions (and dehydration)... here you go! this was supposed to be a "stop getting lost in my eyes" cute fluff thing but uh. you can literally see that evolve here, so 😭