#i triple checked to make sure i spelled this right

[james-p-sullivan]

had autocorrect gotten especially horrendous for anyone these past few weeks? its correcting words nearly an entire sentence after i write them and its never right

edit: I WROTE HAS FOR THE FIRST WORD THATS A PERFECT EXAMPLE WHY DID YOU CHANGE IT 😭

[f1goat]

more than friends + lando norris x part four

In which your best friend wants to help you so you get more sexual experience, but he discovers quickly that he never wants to share you and your new sexual experience with others.

masterlist - playlist

warnings: smut with a plot or a plot with smut? :) minors dni! i never proofread so probably grammar or spelling errors

requested: yes, based on: something with a driver sister that’s still a virgin & lando (her bestfriend) suggests to teach her things (ofc pretending for it to bot mean anything), while he’s actually in love with her

part one / part two / part three

“Lan,” you start you sentence a bit shy, “when uh, when are we going to have sex?” You continue to ask. You feel your cheeks reddening while asking him the question. Lando looks confused at your sudden question. 

“What’s with the hurry?” He asks you a bit confused.

You let out a nervous laugh. “This is going to sound stupid,” you say nervous, “but there’s this guy who asked me on a date.”

“So?” Lando asks. He already feels jealousy coming up. Someone asked you onto a date? He wonders who asked you. Fuck. 

“I uh, I wanted to wait with the date for when I’m not a virgin anymore,” you confess, “I think it’s uh, it’s better for my confidence.” Is it bad that you don’t tell Lando that you want him, specifically him, to take your virginity? 

“How long can you stall him?” Lando asks you, “because I don’t think it’s a good idea to rush this.”

“Uh now I already told him I would go away with you for the triple header,” you explain, “so at least three weeks.”

Lando feels a bit more relieved now. In three weeks a lot can change right? Maybe he will finally find the confidence to tell you about his crush. Maybe not. Since he has a crush on you for multiple years and all those years weren’t enough to gather the confidence to tell you… 

“That’ll work,” Lando eventually says. 

“So what’s next?” You ask Lando, “I feel like there’s so much you still have to teach me.”

“Relax babygirl,” Lando says, “I think we need to focus on how I’m going to pack my suitcase with stuff for three weeks in an hour..”

“You didn’t pack yet?” You ask Lando confused, “We’re leaving in an hour!”

“Oops?” Lando laughs.

You let out a soft sigh. “You never change,” you tell Lando eventually with a small smile. Then you stand up to help Lando pack his stuff. As you almost always do. It doesn’t take the two of you long. Like a couple times earlier, you secretly put some shirts into Lando his luggage. The boy is way too stubborn to pack something else then hoodies, but he never checks the weather. Something you of course already did while packing your own stuff, so you know for sure he needs some normal shirts.

“Thanks babygirl,” Lando says after he closes the zippers. He moves closer to you and presses a kiss against your forehead. You don’t know what has gotten into you, but without giving it a second thought you press a kiss onto Lando his lips. Lando smiles during the kiss. He pulls you closer to himself and wraps his arms around your body. The kiss was meant as a simple, innocent one. But Lando is quick to make it turn into a make out session. His hands are roaming over your body. Quickly he finds your ass. Softly he squeezes it a couple times. You let out a soft moan while your lips are still pressed on Lando’s. 

Lando his ringtone distracts the both of you from what you were doing. You watch him pick up and say a simple ‘okay’ after a couple seconds. “The driver is here,” he informs you, you show him a small nod. He grabs his luggage and takes a couple of your backs with him as well. 

“You know,” Lando tells you, “you’re a great kisser.” In the mean time the two of you walk towards the driver who’s there to bring you to the airport. 

“I learned from the best,” you tell Lando with a small innocent smile.

Lando lets out a soft laugh. “Imagine how great you will be on all the other things with such a good teacher,” he tells you with the same laugh. 

“We will see,” you reply.

+++

Lando sighs when he sits down in his drivers room. You don’t know what to say. He just lost a great lap time due to track limits. He would be placed second tomorrow if he didn’t lose his time. You know he’s probably mad at himself right now. Lando mutters softly. You can’t hear him properly, but you guess he’s calling himself an idiot. It hurts you to see him like this. You have been here for all his highs in formula one, but also for all of his lows. You have seen him this upset with himself many times before. It never hurts less. 

“Lan,” you softly say. He doesn’t even look at you while responding, “Don’t say it isn’t my fault, I’m the one who got track limits,” he states. 

“Maybe I can cheer you up?” You eventually suggest.

“Cheer me up?” Lando asks you confused.

“Distract you a bit,” you continue.

“How babygirl?” Lando asks you even more confused.

“What about another lesson?” You ask Lando, “You could teach me how to give you a blowjob.”

“But I didn’t even went down on you,” Lando quickly brings in, “you don’t have to do this.”

“What if I want to? You look like you can use something that cheers you up,” you state. 

“Sure?” Lando asks you. You show him a nod. “Words,” Lando states, reminding you about his need for you to say everything. “Yes Lando,” you say, “I want to give you a blowjob.” Lando’s facial expression is quick to bright up. He’s already smiling about the idea of your lips around his dick. It even causes him to get a boner.

“But you need to tell me what to do,” you tell Lando a bit nervous. Lando is quick to nod, he grabs one of your hands and moves it slowly to his boner. You don’t wait for a new instruction, slowly you palm his already hard bulge through his race suit. Lando stays silent for a bit, he enjoys your movements in peace. You apply a bit more pressure while palming him. In the mean time you press a kiss against Lando his neck. 

After a few minutes of moving slowly on his bulge, you try to grab his dick through his race suit. Lando groans when you take him inside your hand. He pulls down the zipper of his race suit. While he unzips his suit, you take a good look at him. It feels almost unfair how hot he is. His fireproof is doing all kind of things to you. 

“Can I take it off?” Lando asks you. “Yes,” you reply quickly. You move your hands away from him, giving him the space to pull of his race suit. Lando grins. He kicks off his shoes and then pulls off the suit to step out of it. You keep looking at him. It feels so bare to see him in only his briefs, but then you remind yourself that he will remove those too in a bit.

Before Lando can pull his briefs off himself, you move your lips to his chest. You press multiple kisses against it, slowly moving down towards his dick. In the mean time you hold his boner in your hand, slowly stroking it. When you reach the edge of his boxers, you stop stroking his member. Slowly you pull his briefs a bit down. His hard member is quick to pop out of his briefs. Lando continues your movements and takes off his boxer. 

You take your time to look at his dick. You have seen some porn movies before, so you already had an imagine from how it would look. But in a weird way, it seems more appealing to you now. Lando his member is pretty. You never thought you would think that about a dick. He watches you while you stare at his member. You notice the thick vein that is laying onto his dick, now that you think about it. His whole member seems thick. Maybe not as long as those in the porn movies, but you already guessed that those were a bit fake. You wonder how this will ever fit inside of your mouth and one day inside of your vagina. 

“If you’re not sure, you don’t have to do this,” Lando softly tells you. 

“No,” you quickly state, “I want to do this. Just tell me what to do.”

Lando grins happily. He’s glad you still want to blow him. He isn’t sure if a cold shower would have helped this time. In the mean time you move your hands onto his dick again. Lando feels himself hardening even more. Has he ever been this hard? You explore his dick slowly with your hands. You trace the thick vein on top of it with one of your fingers while waiting for Lando to say something. 

“You uh, you can lick it a bit if you want?” Lando asks you, “Make it a bit wet.”

You are quick to take his words into action. Without giving it a second thought, you move your head closer to his member. Carefully you place your tongue onto it, even more careful you give him a couple licks. Lando lets out a soft moan. You continue your movements. You let your tongue slide over his dick. Exploring the way it feels on your tongue. 

“Put it in your mouth,” Lando says after a while.

You do what he says. With a careful movement you take the top of his dick inside your mouth. You try to go as deep as you can, but you’re quick to feel some tears popping up in the corners of your eyes.

“Slowly babygirl,” Lando says, “you don’t have to take everything inside. The top is the most sensitive part.”

You remove your mouth shortly to take a deep breath. When you place his dick back into your mouth, you try to remember his words. You make sure the top of his boner is inside your mouth, there’s room for a bit more but you act carefully. You remind yourself to take your time. Slowly you lick around his tip with your tongue. It earns you another moan from Lando. Something that makes you feel good on the inside. Giddy even. 

“Move your head a bit down and up,” Lando instructs you, “Try to make the same stroking movements from before, but now with your mouth.”

Again you take Lando his words into action. Slowly you move your head up and down. You let your mouth slide over his dick a couple times. Lando moans again. You feel proud that you are the reason of those moans. Without thinking about it, you take the part of his member that isn’t in your mouth into your hand. You start to stroke it, alining the movements with the bobbing you do with your mouth. 

“Fuck,” Lando groans, “You’re good at this.”

His words make you feel even better. It causes you to fasten your movements. You try to lick his tip as well in the mean time. Lando is quick to start to become a moaning mess underneath your touch. You feel his dick pulse in your mouth. 

“If you don’t want a taste, you should finish with your hands,” Lando grunts. You don’t act on his words, you continue your earlier movements. Maybe you do want a taste? 

Lando looks at you while feeling himself getting close to his orgasm. He looks at the way you stare at his dick while making the movements that make him feel like this. He had a couple blowjobs before from different girls, but none of them felt as good as from you. How can someone like you - with no sexual experience - be so much better then others? It’s insane. While looking at you he feels his orgasm getting really close.

“Last warning babygirl,” he tells you softly. You still don’t remove your mouth from his dick. Because of his words you know that he’s close, his moans are also giving that part away. You try to take his dick a bit deeper inside your mouth. Before you know it, you notice a salty taste inside your mouth. You quick to find the reason. Lando just came.

Slowly you continue your movements from before, but you decrease your pace more and more. A couple more drops of Lando his cum are finding it’s way inside your mouth. When you think he’s completely empty you remove your mouth. While looking at Lando you swallow his cum. 

“Fuck,” Lando grunts, “I could come again by looking at you doing that.”

You show Lando a shy smile. He pulls you close onto himself. Lando presses a small kiss onto your forehead before moving his lips to yours. He presses another kiss onto your lips. 

“Will you believe me if I tell you that you just gave me the blowjob of my life?” Lando asks you. You are quick to shake your head, “No,” you say. 

“You just did babygirl,” Lando tells you honestly, “I have never been blowed this good before.”

You laugh softly. “Maybe this says something about those others girls,” you say. 

“No,” Lando quickly states, “It says everything about you. You’re really good at this babe. And you did find a really good way to distract me.”

You laugh, “I’ll remember that for the next time. Don’t beat yourself up because of it Lan, tomorrow you will fight for a lot of points. I bet you’re even on the podium.”

“If I get a podium I want to celebrate if with eating you out,” Lando states.

You laugh again. “That’s not a celebration.”

“It is for me.”

Fuck. Why is your stomach tightening because of Lando his words? This can’t be good.

part five

taglist: @booksandplushies @dinodumbass @formula1mount @words-are-cheap @allywthsr @inejghafawifesblog @chonkybonky @formulas-bitch @harrysdimple05 @vildetry06 @wherethefuckisthething @nonameishere @lauralarsen@meadhbhcavanagh @obliviatevamps @shy4turcs @fix5idiots @nightlockcornucopia @marialovesf1 @kapsylia @im-an-overthinker @jule239 @lanando4 @lauralarsen @leclercdream @agentadhd @rewmuslupin @allsouls-emma @iamshiningeuw @teenagedreams-cl @kiskso @loxbbg @vellicora @thomaslefteyebrow @avg-golden-retriever @amorydsmt @killjoynotes

[littleplantfreak]

That's our baby

The first time you call you and Umemiya's dog 'your son'

SFW ig but a little suggestive at the end. Also I wasn't gonna name the dog but then I was like "Fuck it! It's Balto now"

Umemiya Hajime

"Baby I can explain-"

"You can explain why our son has a bowl cut?" You fume pointing at your two year-old Samoyed's misshapen head. He sits politely on the couch showcasing his new haircut, which normally you'd find hilarious because usually he can't settle down when you first get home. Apparently, though, he can tell when his father is getting scolded.

"Okay, first of all, I love you so much, and I love that you just called him our son because he is our son and-"

"I love you too. Skip to the bowl cut." He can tell by your stance, you're pretty mad.

"...Our normal groomer quit, and I couldn't find anywhere else to take him to," your husband breaths out in defeat before continuing. "I figured if I found a good video online, it would be easy. It was easy until he sneezed while I was trimming his face and three inches came off instead of one. He'd look weird if there was just a hunk off the side of his face, so I evened it out and it ended up like...this?" He says before crouching down and squishing his cheek next to your dog's. "C'mon he's kinda cute like this! He's our baby; he's always cute no matter what," he tries to appeal to your soft side by giving you the same puppy eyes your dog is giving you, and it almost works.

"The other dogs at the dog park are gonna make fun of him," you grimace, and at the sound of the word 'park,' your baby's ears perk up. He starts lifting and stomping his front paws gently, trying to behave but so excited that he might be going outside. Hajime lets out a dramatic gasp, hand to his chest before saying telling you that's blasphemy.

"He's friends with everyone at the park. There's no way they'll make fun of him just because of a silly haircut! Daddy thinks your friends are gonna love it, my little marshmallow." He starts squishing your dog's cheeks and speaking to him in the baby voice he saves especially for him.

Upon hearing 'park' for the second time, he starts whining and pawing at Hajime's arm. "Balto, honey, let's go for a walk." You pat your leg before grabbing the leash, and he bounds over to you, leaving his Father to pout on the couch with a quiet 'traitor' mumbled under his breath. "Haji, call Toma and ask if his cousin is still taking new clients. I'm pretty sure she grooms both dogs and cats," you say, going over to press a chaste kiss to his mouth, only for him to pull you in for a longer one, tongue swiping against your bottom lip and you almost lean in for more. Until you feel a wet nose press up against your cheek and you snort instead. Drawing back, Balto tries to get even closer to give you both his own flurries of kisses.

"See, he doesn't like when we fight! We have to get along for our baby's sake," he smiles letting your dog taste his entire face. You put one more kiss on his cheek before walking to the door.

"If you can't find a groomer by his playdate on Tuesday, you're getting a matching haircut. If you do find one, though, I'll wear that new outfit we got at the mall the other day. Y'know the one you almost ruined when we were in the dressing room? I'll let you ruin it for real this time," and you can see he's speechless now, head full of the red lacy thing that was more ribbon than clothing, that opens just like a present if you pull the right strings. Closing the door, you shoot Hiragi a text to let him know Hajime will be calling in the next few minutes and to get his stomach medicine ready, apologizing in advance for the hour long phone conversation he'll be subjected to. For now, you and your son have a walk to go on.

(I'm waaay to tired to triple check for spelling/grammar so I hope I got everything. I'm doing the same prompt but with Sakura next I think uwu)/ and then Sugishita as well...probably...maybe.)

[mc-lukanette]

Marinette didn't particularly get the idea of music translating into words. To her, music was music and words were words; you could mix the two in a song to evoke more emotion, but that wasn’t the same as one becoming the other.

That was the reason she was there, she supposed. Luka had intrigued her with his offer, and if anyone could make her believe it or learn something new about music, it was him. Sure, he was also kind of handsome, had soft blue eyes, and a dazzling smile, but she was there for a potential new understanding of the creative process, nothing more.

Not that there would've been anything wrong with going for both, of course.

She looked at the note once more to make sure she was at the right park. Luka's handwriting was unique and identifiable as his: not wild, but not "standard" either, while still being totally readable. It made sense for someone who had to write a lot.

After triple-checking to be certain, she stepped out onto the smooth walkway leading in, looking around for the fluffy black-and-blue hair she'd met only a week ago. There were some couples with little picnics set out that she couldn't help feeling jealous of, but she tried to ignore them.

She heard Luka before she actually saw him, which was a weird thought. A quick set of notes from a guitar had made her turn, spotting him sitting on a bench in the pleasant shade of some trees and waving at her.

She smiled, waving back and walking over to him. "Hey, Luka! How—" She stopped in place, catching herself before she could properly ask him. She raised the cellophane bag in her hands to her mouth, biting into the side to both free her hands and keep herself quiet, then made a flurry of hand movements to ask how he was doing.

He blinked rapidly in surprise, then gently rested the neck of his guitar on the bench so he could sign in return. His gestures were more natural than hers - had she been signing to herself, it might as well have been the language of aliens - so she could easily tell what he was asking.

"Yff—" She brought her hand back up to pull the bag out from her mouth, then answered proudly, "Yes, I learned a little bit over the weekend!" She waved her free hand from side-to-side like she was casting a spell, despite the sheepish look on her face. "I might've forgotten how to sign 'yes', but I knew what you were signing! That's something, right?"

The dazzling smile that she remembered, showing just a little bit of teeth but not too much, had returned. Luka nodded at her, pulling out a notepad and pencil from his pocket to write while she got herself settled in. He'd already left enough room on the bench for her to sit, so she took up the empty space and got comfortable.

He went to hand her his notepad, but she lifted up the cellophane bag first, giving it a shake to show off the assortment of macarons, cookies, and candies inside. "Here! Trade me."

He visibly perked at the offer, their fingers brushing as he took it from her.

She only realized what she'd done when his notepad was already in her hand, hurrying to say, "Oh! I put that in my mouth without thinking, didn't I? You don't have to—"

He'd already loosened the string so he could open it, grabbing one of the candies and unwrapping it before popping it into his mouth. He'd clearly heard her, but it was quickest to eat one to prove his point rather than tell her it was fine.

Plus, she had one of his forms of communications in her hands, so that had been out. She looked down to read what he'd written.

You didn't have to dress up for this, but you look nice. I hope this is enough shade for you.

She blushed at the first line. It was one thing to be complimented verbally, but in writing, she could read it over and over again. She checked Luka's reaction to see if he had any regrets about it, but he was cool as a cucumber, chewing on the candy she'd given him whilst getting the guitar back in his hands.

The second line was more confusing to where she had to actively dig through her memories to think of what it could be referring to. She did recall sitting down with him after the chaos had settled down, having some juice together, and her rambling unnecessarily long about everything from her job to—

"Wait—" she began in realization, "was this all because I complained about how hot it was that day?! That was one thing in all the nonsense I was talking about!"

He shrugged, smiling innocently and holding his hand out for his notepad. She pouted, feeling like he was being unfair with how sweet he was to someone he'd barely just met, but relented and gave it up to him. She just couldn't quite believe it, having felt so bad for how chatty she'd been with him, but he'd apparently paid attention to every word of it.

She wasn't sure if that was more or less embarrassing than being ignored the whole time.

"O-okay, so..." She looked down sheepishly at his guitar, trying to change the topic as casually as possible. "How are we going to do this? You showing me how you talk with music?"

One hand still holding the guitar's neck, he flipped through the pages of his notepad with the other. He showed her a pre-prepared page with his answer, which stated:

I'll play something for you. You don't have to do anything but listen and imagine a story in your mind.

A story? What kind of story? She wanted to ask, but knew that she wouldn't get a response.

Squinting at him, still skeptical, she gave into the request and closed her eyes. "Alright. Ready when you are."

There were a few small, short notes at first - either Luka warming up or being genuinely nervous to start - but then an actual melody began to develop. She shut her eyes tighter, like it might ruin everything if she looked, and her nose scrunched up as she tried to focus on what he was playing and the instructions he'd given.

It sounded... regal? No, adventurous? Maybe both? It reminded her of movies that she would watch as a child, where a knight would go off somewhere for the sake of a princess. The music would get more dramatic as the knight was surrounded by dangers, then victorious as he triumphed. She caught herself smiling over this imaginary character she'd literally made up in her head, returning to the princess and receiving a favor from her for his efforts. It really was like a film, but shortened to a few minutes long and somehow familiar to her.

Her eyelids popped back open when the music ended, then blinked to readjust to her surroundings. Luka was staring at her curiously, the hand that'd been strumming resting more casually on his guitar as he waited.

"Erm..." She trapped her chin, slightly anxious and feeling like she was being quizzed. There weren't any real stakes involved, but what if she failed? "I... thought about a knight? He met and saved a princess, and she gave him her thanks? Maybe she even offered him something for it?"

The actual image in her head was more vivid than she let on, but it was difficult describing it when she figured that it could've been her overactive imagination.

Not missing a beat, Luka shot her a smile and flipped a page in his notepad to present to her. No way.

That's us, on the day we met.

Her mouth dropped open. She got it right? But then... "Uh—! So I'm the knight?! You're joking!"

Not that Luka wouldn't have made a pretty princess though. If he had just the right dress that accentuated—

She shook her head, trying to focus on the matter at hand. He, meanwhile, was unphased by the mental struggle she was having and flipped another page.

You were so cool. I've been trying to figure out how to say it all week.

"It wasn't a big deal!" she insisted, flushing pink. "They were judging you because of your looks and how 'quiet' you were, so I—you know—"

She made a few wild gestures that in no way resembled sign language but she hoped would convey the full dismissal of whatever he'd apparently been imagining their first meeting to be like. Worse still was that what he'd written implied that he'd been working on that melody all week in order to have it ready for her, and she knew what it was like to pour one's creativity into something.

He meant it and she'd heard as much.

Dropping her hands into her lap shyly, she had to relent, "But... I guess I get what you mean now, about saying things with music instead of words, even if I feel like your notepad should be confiscated."

Amused, he smirked, purposefully holding the notepad to the side furthest from her, out of her reach as she teasingly swiped at it. Using only the tilt of his head and look in his eyes, he asked her a playful 'why?'

"Why? I—" she began, then stopped when she needed to actually think about it. One disadvantage to not being mute like him was that she wasn't required to think before saying anything, such as how Luka needed to take the time to write out a full thought and read it before showing her.

Clearing her throat, she started over, "I can't believe you had fun last week? I mean, I guess it made sense if you invited me here, but I thought it was just from me helping you a little! Since we were there for a whole hour and I felt so bad because—" She realized what she was about to say, but it was too late to stop it. "—I was doing all the talking!"

Luka laughed outright at that, and the only thing keeping her from crawling under the bench and wishing for death was that it was actually pretty cute. He had a breathy sort of laugh, making it more quiet than a typical one but somehow incredibly charming.

Marinette leaned forward and rested her elbows on her lap, clasping her hands together in front of her mouth as her lips tried to both smile at him and grimace at herself at the same time. The fact that he hadn't fled at her flubs was a relief but also utterly perplexing.

She dared a peek over at Luka, who'd finished laughing and was trying to write something. It was taking him longer than usual and she noticed a little twitch in his brow, a contrast to what had otherwise been him being totally calm the whole time. Eventually, he tore the page out, scrunched it up, and stuffed it in his pocket, opting to put his hands on his guitar instead.

Marinette grew curious when his fingers twitched without playing any actual melody. He did start, but stopped, then started and stopped again, biting his lower lip in contemplation. Hand motions were also useless without a full understanding of sign language on her part.

He ended up settling on the notepad again, this time being unexpectedly quick in writing something. She hadn't realized how much suspense she was in until he presented it to her, her hands practically snatching it from him to read it.

You make me feel speechless, Marinette.

She blushed all the way up to her ears, speechless herself. She could excuse being told that she looked nice as some casual remark or pleasantry, the music as his only way of teaching her what she'd asked about, and not being put off by her constant talking as him being extremely polite, but this—

Was he flirting with her? There was a mild possibility of it being a joke at his own muteness, but when she checked his expression, he was watching her with a half-lidded gaze without any sense of playfulness. If anything, she could've sworn she saw a hint of shyness. Had he never put himself out there for someone before?

"You—" She looked at the notepad again, forcing herself to relax her grip before she wrinkled the pages. "You make me feel... um, speechful? I've never talked so much to someone I just met." She ducked her head. "You look nice too, by the way."

That was all she could really manage without feeling silly. Her experience with relationships was laughably limited and she didn't know how to flirt back or assure him that his flirting wasn't unwelcome. She just knew that he was thoughtful, adorable, and sweet, and that every time she glanced at his mouth a little too long, she'd catch herself thinking about other things it must have time for if he couldn't use it to talk.

She became alert as she felt a tug on the notepad - Luka having reached over to take it back - but she impulsively resisted, blurting out, "C-can I have this? The note I mean, not the notepad!"

He grinned, any of the previous nerves she thought she'd seen before gone as he nodded. The notepad slipped easily out of her hands this time, him far more careful tearing the note off than the other paper he'd scrunched up, and he wrote something extra before handing it off to her.

You can have more than that.

Underneath the line he'd written was his phone number, a rush of heat and relief going through Marinette at the confirmation that she wasn't the only one who wanted to meet up more. Whether Luka's directness was from the inability to speak or simply part of his character, she wanted someone like that; no misunderstandings, just his honest feelings.

She wasn't quite sure what she'd gotten herself into in the long term but, going off the matching pink on Luka's cheeks, she was sure that it was a good thing.

[differenteagletragedy]

if you're up to it could you write that camping HC you had with derek 🥺

Derek was always prepared -- it was one of his many, many charm points. If he hadn't dedicated all of his free time as a child to being sports, he would have made an excellent boy scout. In his home, he had multiple fire extinguishers and first aid kits, and kept a small stock of protein bars and water bottles in his car, just in case. He was the definition of dependable.

That's precisely why he was beating himself up so much for forgetting to triple check the weather forecast before your camping trip.

It was supposed to be a nice little getaway for the two of you. You'd planned on flying back home over the summer to visit him, but the plans fell through at the last minute, and this was the rescheduled trip. It was fall now, and in Prism Vista it was still warm and comfortable, but out here on the mountain, with the sun tucking itself behind the horizon, things were getting chilly.

"It's fine," you told him after you both came into the tent after a quick dinner by the fire. "It's not even that cold, really."

"Is that why you're shivering?" he asked, trying to mask his disappointment in himself with a teasing smirk.

After a pause, you came up with the brilliant retort of "Shut up, you're shivering."

"You're clearly sh--"

"Your mom's shivering, Derek, get off my back."

Derek laughed freely, feeling a little bit of tension leave his shoulders. If you were willing to joke around with him, maybe you weren't mad that he'd been so thoughtless to miss the cold spell you now had to deal with overnight.

He had feelings for you -- well, they were more than feelings at this point, as the decade-long crush had long since developed into a deep aching love -- but he was keeping them to himself until the moment felt right, if it ever did. Until then, your friendship was certainly enough for him.

He told himself that as he turned his back so that you could both change into your pajamas with the semblance of privacy in the cozy tent, trying not to picture what was happening behind him as he heard the soft sounds of your clothes slipping off your body.

When you told him you were done changing, he turned, ready to hit you with a brilliant smile, but his mouth turned downwards into a frown when he saw that you were wearing shorts and a tank top.

"It's all I brought," you told him, correctly interpreting the look he was giving you. "It's no big deal, it's just one night, right? And the sleeping bag will be plenty cozy."

To drive your point home, you unzipped your bag and climbed in. You put on a show for him, snuggling down, zipping yourself in as much as you could and then burrowing down and letting out a content sigh.

"See?" you said. "Snug as a bug in a rug."

He shook his head, but the little act did bring his smile back. He got into his own sleeping bag, placed just a few feet away from yours, and turned to face you.

"But you'll tell me if you get too cold, right?"

"What would you do if I did?"

He didn't know how to answer that, and while he thought, you smiled and reached over to turn off the lantern he'd brought into the tent with you.

"Goodnight, Derek," you told him.

"Goodnight."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Some time had passed -- Derek wasn't sure how much, but he thought he'd dozed off once or twice. He was disoriented, but a strange noise jolted him awake. He sat up partially, darting his eyes around, using the dim moonlight to try to see what was making the sound.

As he became more aware, he realized that the sound was coming from you. He squinted and leaned closer, and he felt a pang of guilt when he realized that the noise he was hearing was your teeth chattering together.

"Hey," he said softly. "You awake?"

"No, I'm dead," you replied, your voice a little jerky because of the shivering. "I died of hyperthermia and you are now speaking to my ghost."

"Actually it's hypothermia," he corrected softly, wiping the sleep out of his eyes.

"It's good you know, alert the coroner."

He laughed, then sighed. He felt guilty for not being prepared for the cold, for bringing you on the trip at all when there was the possibility of it being this cold, and then he felt guilty that his guilt was at the forefront of his mind instead of a solution for the problem. He weighed his options in his head, trying to figure out what would be best, when you made a new sound, a sort of moaning sputter accompanied by a somewhat violent shake.

"All right, come here."

He sat up all the way and unzipped his sleeping bag, his mind made up.

"Huh?" you asked.

"Get in here with me," he said, thankful that it was too dark for you to see what he knew would be a deep blush on his cheeks. "I think my bag is a little warmer, and I'm not cold."

"Would be sort of a tight fit, don't you think?"

Derek was used to making himself small, to shove aside his wants and needs to fit into the perfect mold he'd made up of himself -- he wanted you, desperately, but he'd never be so forward as to get you in such close quarters like this. But as much as he'd trained himself to keep away from what he wanted, being a gentleman was more important. And it wouldn't be very gentlemanly to let you freeze to death on a mountain.

So he reached over, his eyes having adjusted to the dark enough to make out your sleeping bag. He grabbed the side of it with both hands and scooted the whole thing close to him, then unzipped it.

"Come on," he told you quietly, backing up against the side of his bag as far as he could and holding it open for you to climb in. He thought he saw you hesitate for just a moment, but then you were moving. He felt your legs knock against his as you situated yourself down beside him.

You were close -- close enough that different parts of your bodies were touching and your smell was invading his senses. He gulped, but halfway through he realized that would be kind of an obvious gesture, so he turned it into a cough, which honestly did end up much better.

"You all right?" you asked.

At this distance, you were close enough that he could see your expression. It was smug, but there was a shy tenderness underneath it.

"I'm gonna zip us in," he said, ignoring you, even as you laughed.

He reached over you, trying politely not to touch you, but it was a tight fit. As he struggled to get the zipper pulled up, you kept sliding closer to him to make the job easier. By the time he was done, your legs were tangled together and your chest was pressed lightly against his. He did notice that you had pulled your hips back when he was done with the zipper, and he couldn't tell if he was grateful or disappointed not to have that closeness too.

"Well, this is cozy," you said, just above a whisper. He felt your breath, hot on his face, and hummed in agreement.

He felt your arm, which had been firmly placed on your side, move, then stop. He cocked an eyebrow at you.

"I mean ... is it ok?" you asked.

"Is what ok?"

"If we, you know ... cuddle. Just for tonight." When he didn't answer straight away, you added, "It's cold."

"Yeah," he said finally. "Of course. That's fine."

Derek tried to keep his breathing steady as you used jerky little movements to slide even closer next to him. He could feel the hesitation, but eventually you ended up with your leg nestled between his, your arms wrapped around each other and your head tucked under his chin. He slid his hands over your bare arms, feeling the goosebumps there that he was sure was because of the temperature and not because you could possibly be as excited as he was to be this close to you.

"Can you sleep like this?" you asked, and he almost whimpered at the feeling of your lips moving lightly against his neck as you spoke.

"Sure, yeah," he answered. "I was just about to doze off."

He didn't like to lie to you, not at all. But sometimes, every once in a while, it was easier that way. Derek knew, as he felt you adjust your leg between his thighs, that sleep wouldn't come easy.

[olderthannetfic]

Take this as a confession: I changed several of my characters names from being very obviously poc, because I just couldn't deal with the commentary about me overstepping as a white author, and some other comments very much just focusing on me instead of my effort as a writer. In my head they're still the ethnicity I gave them in the beginning, but constantly having people being rude about me writing what I wanted, even in "safe space" writing groups just really didn't pair well with my anxiety and other issues. So it's just easier to not even try and make it obvious I wanna write "outside" of who/what I am. It's a fantasy setting, and I try to build a lot from the ground up, but always try to do my research for the things that are inspired by real things. The names are/were also actual names, triple checked and made sure I got the spelling right and even a note with the right pronounciation. I hate it. I don't write to publish, I write for myself, my friends, and those who just like my writing, but very negative comments just really takes the fun out off writing outside my own experiences.

--

What unhelpful writing groups!

[allwaswell16]

Incredibly unimportant fic request, but do you know of any merlin/Arthur focused ones? Alternatively I'd just take medieval fantasyish

Hi, anon...so since there aren't tons of these I'll just give you what I found here on your ask, and also I'll link you to my Medieval fic rec in case you want to check that out as well <3

🌸 Medieval Fics

Truth Behind Golden Eyes by MyEnglishRose / @lwtisloved

Louis is a royal servant born with magic in a kingdom where his sole existence is outlawed with a war he has no idea he has a part in upon him. Harry is the prince on whom the burden of mending a broken kingdom falls upon and he might be willing to risk it all for a simple servant if only he admitted it to himself.

Or. A Fantasy AU loosely inspired by Merlin BBC where one relationship has the power to define the destiny of the whole land.

I've Seen How You Sparkle by orphan_account

Their eyes locked again and Harry blushed, suddenly feeling shy. Louis just smiled at him, tilting his head a little as his eyes ran over the younger boy. Harry self-consciously placed his arm over his stomach, afraid that Louis would somehow see through his clothes and notice the druid mark on his right hip. It was a triple spiral, a triskele. Although it wasn’t that big and fairly easy to hide, Harry was always paranoid that he would maybe stretch too much and reveal the mark.

It wasn’t that he actually believed Louis would have him executed, but he knew Louis was fiercely loyal to his father. If it came to choosing between Harry and his father, Harry was honestly not sure what Louis would do.

Or Louis is the Crown Prince of Camelot and Harry is a druid hiding his magic. It would have been a lot easier if he didn't also have to deal with a forbidden love, a dangerous quest and a whole lot of trouble.

Up On The Shore by wordsnnotes / @quelsentiment

Magic has been outlawed on Eroda ever since President Cowell came into power, and all the magic people had to go live on the island of Stonell. Things are not looking good for Harry when he finds out he's a magician and his abilities seem more and more out of control. Thankfully, his best friend Niall's mother has the idea to put him in touch with Louis, a magician boy living on Stonell. They begin a secret correspondence and drama ensues.

Or: Louis hides his feelings under sarcasm, Harry is too sweet for his own sake, everyone is a rebel, the mums are amazing, Harry's dad is a jerk, and I'm struggling to make it understandable without using normal narration.

Had Enough of Silly Love Spells by learnthemusic

“Why would you give him a potion?”

The more Harry received the question, the more he wondered what his intentions had truly been. He knew—had done from the moment he got embroiled in that first romantic saga of Kidan the blacksmith—that tampering with the heart was dangerous. It was too fickle to contain with a spell, no matter how arduous or simple.

Yet he’d gone against his own intuition, and now he was sat in the kitchens with Niall, whose latest conquest was Lottie’s newest maid and who never had any decent advice to offer him when it came to Louis. How was he getting out of this one?

A Merlin AU in which Harry, Court Sorcerer, slips a love potion into King Louis' sleeping draught in hopes of awakening his true feelings for Harry. It goes wrong and Harry puzzles over how to get things back to how they used to be.

you're a king by orphan_account

“and god, this is how louis is going to die. they'll write stories about him. the prince who died because harry styles is an idiot.”

[yandere-romanticaa]

I want to ask an opinopn if you don't mind, you see i've tried to write a fanfic with an original idea and i kinda use ai (like chatgpt) to make sure the grammar is correct (since i'm not a native speaker) but only for that, and what do you think ? Is that bad ?

The reason why people give AI so much crap is because people are starting to use it in order to cheat the arts, basically. You can just give the AI a prompt and it'll churn out a soulless product but hey, a story is still a story, right?

In your specific case though I think it's fine. Writing is an excellent way to learn a new language and wanting to spell check is nothing you should be ashamed about. While Chat Gpt can be good with that, I recommend you use websites made for spell checking specifically because from my personal experience, Chat Gpt messes up! There were times when I would not just double, but TRIPLE check with the thing and it would still give me the wrong answer! Personally, I really like this specific website to check my spelling.

[kaiowut99]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Episodes 117-119 Subbed (Finalized)

(Previously: Episodes 115-116 Subbed [Finalized])

(Check out my Subbed!GX Stream Masterpost!)

TURN-117: The Decisive Battle! Judai VS Professor Cobra

Judai and Johan, having defeated Cobra's assassins, are joined by Asuka, Jim, and their other friends before hurrying towards Professor Cobra. Meanwhile, as he independently works his way to Cobra, Amon gets to Cobra before Judai and the others, informing him that "they won't make it." Judai and the others hurry, but the electronic control system shorts out and barrier walls begin to come down one after the other--yet right as they think their way forward is obstructed, O'Brien drops in and stops a barrier wall with his shoulders--and with O'Brien's rescue, Judai at last gets to Cobra. His duel with Cobra then begins.

TURN-118: The Terror! Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes

Cobra activates his Venom Swamp Field Magic, which pours poison onto the Monsters Judai summons, decreasing their ATK and destroying them. To oppose him, Judai fuses Sparkman with Edgeman to summon a new Hero in Plasma Viceman, who destroys his Venom Snake. But Cobra uses the effects of his Trap Cards to summon two Monsters and perform his poison assault. In addition, he tributes his two Monsters to summon Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes, who destroys Plasma Viceman. Helpless against Cobra's poison deck, Judai summons a new Hero, but...

TURN-119: A Triple Contact Fusion! Magma Neos

Judai is unable to freely wage attacks against Cobra's Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes Monster. But by drawing into his Miracle Fusion Magic Card, Judai summons Wild Jaggyman and destroys Vennominon. With his Vennominon destroyed, Cobra activates his Descent of the Snake Deity Trap Card, summoning Vennominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes. Judai takes damage from Vennominaga's attacks, but as this damage activates Vennominaga's effect, poison will have spread throughout his body in three turns, causing him to lose the duel. Continuing to fight, Judai fuses Sparkman with Necrodarkman to summon Dark Brightman and attack Cobra, but...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, these took a bit longer than anticipated, with 115-116 being done at the end of August--partly because of getting ground broken on working to re-translate some Duel Links text lol--but that aside, I hope you're ready for these monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday-to-Friday helipad; episodes 117-119 are up and finalized! 🐍

One of my favorite duels in GX, between Judai finally getting to Cobra to put an end to the Dis-Duels (and this first arc in Season 3) and the ensuing duel between them showing off Cobra's poison/Venom strategy (which I always thought was cool), the Amon backstory as Boy of Light talks with him, and the scene as O'Brien helps him along the way and he talks about how they got off on the wrong foot--and of course Cobra's own backstory which does make you feel for his motivations a bit. And it all comes together in 119 with Cobra building on Satou's message to Judai about dueling motivation as Cobra talks about his "unserious" dueling not giving him much to support him in a crisis--which surely won't come back to hurt in a sad monologue sometime or anything. All told, these three eps are pretty enjoyable, with the animation/art looking gorgeous in 117 and 119 (I love the gradient/shading choices in 117 in particular) and while GX has been picking up its OST game for a bit so far in Season 3, I think it picks up really well here, between the really good use of "Terror" during Amon's backstory or the Snake Whistle scene in 118, and "Lamentation" during Cobra's backstory--and of course "Determination" during Johan snapping Judai out of listening to Cobra going into Magma Neos. Fun times.

(Also, while I previously used "Venominaga" and "Venominon" for those names, I went with "Vennominaga" and "Vennominon" per the TCG since, with how their JP names are spelled for the OCG, those two aren't part of the "Venom" archetype.)

Animation error-wise, despite the all-around great animation in these episodes, each one had a fair share of errors to fix, lol; in total I fixed about 25, with about 8-10 in 117 and 118 each and 119 getting just six but from the eyecatch on. For the most part, they were more quality-of-watching things like split-screen timings but there were a handful of card errors in there, too, along with another quick audio edit. More on these further below for the interested! (Feels like it's been a bit since I could also just include those notes in the release post lol)

Quick housekeeping: I made an update to 113's ED credits to correct a minor error in positioning for the Key Animation credits of the ED that I picked up on as I worked on 117-119's credits; I've updated the link in its release post and the masterpost, and I'll post that re-encode with 117-119 on NAC.

Anywho, enjoy! With our first arc in Season 3 now over, I'm going to go do some more TFSP work and knock out Kiryu's story to complete the 5D's cast's story events, so stay tuned there. Once that's done (and I work a bit more on DL), I'll be planning to work on 120 and 121 together as we get isekai'd into our first alternate world of the season, though I'll do a little prepwork here/there before working on 'em proper. Stay tuned!

Fixes/Edits! (117)

During the recap of 116 at the beginning, Emerald Turtle is reversed on Johan's Disk as he plays Take to the Wings; I reused my fix to that from 116 placing the card with its name box on the left.

Also during the 116 recap, the split border between the Ruby and Emerald gems as they fly up to join Johan's hand is irregular, with extra bits of border on Turtle's side as the screen, and there’s a quick frame where Turtle’s split doesn’t move while Ruby’s does, with more of the background in Turtle’s split behind Ruby’s moving split instead of Sapphire Pegasus being transitioned into. I reused my two fixes to that from 116 applying a full border and then redoing that frame of the split-out to move Turtle's split and mask in Sapphire Pegasus behind/between both splits.

Later in the episode, as Judai expresses his envy for Johan's reason to duel, Johan tells him he just hasn't noticed what has to be driving him beyond the fun of it, prompting Judai to repeat, "I haven't noticed it?"--but as he does, there's an error where the shading under his closed mouth is kept during his open-mouth lip flaps, effectively giving him two bits of mouth shading. Fixed this as I also noted here, by first taking the two open-mouth lip-flap frames and removing the closed-mouth shading in Photoshop for each, then using Sony Vegas to re-zoom each instance of the lip-flaps during this slow-zoom shot.

After #3, Judai then flashes back to his duel with Satou (as he thinks that Satou said something like Johan just did), with the flashback featuring Satou activating Scab Scream to destroy Neos and eventually summon Crying Scarknight but showing Scab Scarknight activate on the field. I first reused my fix from 114 to that, first going back to the AfterEffects project file to reencode the fix itself before then taking that back into the Vegas project so I could redo the fade from the card activating to Scab Scarknight, as it's a quicker fade here. After that was done, I also re-clipped the flashback, going frame by frame to pull the equivalent clips from 114 proper, then took everything into Vegas and re-applied a flashback border frame on the video, as well as a little color correction to match the video in 117, to keep it consistent.

Later, after Amon arrives at Cobra's room, he challenges Cobra for "that card," but knowing he might not play fair in a duel with the Dis-Belts in play, chooses to use force; he takes off his headset as he does, but once the headset is off, a repeat of #3 happens where Amon's closed-mouth shading is kept as his open-mouth lip flaps occur. A quicker fix here than in #3 as this was a still shot; I just masked in his correctly drawn mouth/chin from before he takes the headset off over the error frames.

After the eyecatch, as Judai and co try to run towards a wall coming down, O'Brien swoops in and buys them some time, firing off some rope onto the sides of that wall to help hold it in place--but as he does, there are a quick few frames where O'Brien's vest is miscolored as the shirt under it while he fires the ropes in his right hand; this gets fixed as he moves to fire the ones in his right hand. There's also an odd error in which everything O'Brien except for his left arm bicep was drawn a few pixels up--as he moves to fire the ropes in his right hand, he moves back down into place, though as this whole bit is a quick 17-19 frames, it's only somewhat noticeable. Fixed this in Photoshop, using a fixed frame as a guide, by splicing in the corrected part of his vest and editing it slightly; once done, I took that fixed frame into Vegas where I masked it onto the video, then masking O'Brien's [massive] shoulder over the edit to prevent detail loss, and also masking the bottom of O'Brien's right bicep and the wall behind him and then moving it up a few pixels so it lined up with his shoulder.

Later, once Judai makes it to Cobra, who's waiting for him on a helipad, Cobra tells him his plan being in its final phase means the Academy has no future left for it, and Judai shouts angrily at him; Cobra then slides in on a split-screen to press a button that starts raising the helipad upward, but as their split-screen splits apart, their respective sides are unevenly timed such that Judai's gets offscreen a frame earlier. Fixed this in Vegas by redoing Judai's split so that it slides out in sync with Cobra's.

A bit later, as Judai and Cobra get ready to duel in the air, Judai talks about how he's been itching to duel Cobra and hopes they have a good time of it, but Cobra mentally finds him to be a fool--as Judai's side of their split-screen slides out for Cobra's thoughts, for some reason, Judai and his background are detached from the split-screen border for the 5-7 frames of the slide-out. Fixed this in Vegas by redoing Judai's slide-out so that his split fully slides out correctly.

[continued below due to Tumblr's dumb character-per-text-block limit]

(9) Once the duel's underway, Judai opens by playing Clayman in Defense Mode; he then ends his turn, but as we pan/zoom to him from Clayman, we see the Clayman card on his Disk is reversed (name box on the right). Fixed in AfterEffects, after using Vegas to reverse the clip so I could apply motion tracking a bit easier, where I first used motion tracking to track the zooming/positioning, then put a correctly facing proxy into place and applied the tracked motion to it; once done, I took the fix into Vegas where I un-reversed it and mixed it into the footage.

(10) A bit later, Cobra activates his Venom Swamp Field Magic, which expands throughout the field; as the camera zooms out behind Judai and Clayman while it does, we see that Clayman's card on the field is now reversed under him. This was a bit more complicated to fix, particularly because of the fade that happens to the overhead shot as Shou and Asuka react to Venom Swamp, along with tracking the zoom; I first used Vegas to reverse the clip again for easier motion-tracking, which I then did in AfterEffects. After several tries at getting a good position/scale tracking, I applied a correctly facing proxy and also masked Clayman over it, then applied the tracked keyframes to both layers and rendered them transparently; I then took this transparent render into Vegas and un-reversed it, blending it into the footage. To replicate the fade into the overhead shot--since I couldn't just fade my edit out or else the original card would be briefly visible--still in Vegas, I took the first post-fade frame, made a still of it, and then slowly zoomed it in backwards going back to when the fade starts, sorta guessing at how much it'd be zoomed in for those 12-ish frames, then used a Composite Level envelope on the video track to manually fade it in well enough that the edit fades out naturally. Phew.

(11) A bit later, as Judai reacts to Clayman's ATK taking its first 500-point hit due to the poison bites on him, Cobra slides in on a split-screen noting that he has another bite; as their splits split apart, both Cobra and Judai are detached from their splits' borders, in a repeat of #8. Fixed this in Vegas by redoing their splits, taking stills of each split which I then re-slid-out, applying a motion blur as I did to replicate the original motion blur they had.

Fixes/Edits! (118)

During the recap of 117, error #8 still happens in which Judai's detached from his split's border as he slides off his split-screen with Cobra; reused my fix from 117 for it.

Also during the recap, error #10 happens as we see Cobra activating Venom Swamp with Clayman's card on the field reversed under him; reused my fix from 117 for it.

After the OP, we see Judai and Cobra's current LP count, with Cobra taunting and saying that half-hearted Monsters won't make it past one turn on his field--though for a quick frame before Cobra's LP counter disappears as we fade to the Eye, it actually starts to decrease. A quick fix in Vegas, as I just held the previous frame to keep the counter still at 4000 throughout.

A bit later, as the others ask Cobra about his plans and why he's made the other students pass out from their Dis-Duels if he's not up to anything, Cobra says he's only trying to perform a miracle; Judai then slides in for a split-screen as he questions that, but in the first frame as Judai starts to slide in, Cobra's side doesn't move accordingly. Fixed in Vegas by redoing Judai's slide-in to time it with Cobra sliding leftward.

Later on, Cobra uses his Venom Shot Magic Card, sending a Reptile-Type Monster in his Deck to his Cemetery to give Judai's Marine Neos two bites of poison; he's shown holding up Venom Serpent as the card he's pulled from his deck for this, but after we see Johan and co. reacting, we see him sending a copy of Venom Snake instead. Keeping in mind the Monsters Cobra's played thus far, this actually should have been Venom Serpent--he first summons a Venom Snake on his first turn, which then gets destroyed by Plasma Viceman; he then uses Snake Whistle and Damage = Reptile to summon a Venom Serpent and Venom Boa, tributing both for Vennominon; when activating Snake Deity's Command against Judai's R - Right Justice, he uses a second Venom Snake from his deck as its cost; and when Marine Neos uses his effect to destroy a random card in Cobra's hand, it turns out to be his third Venom Snake. So, given that, I fixed this by using AfterEffects to first track the motion of the Snake card in Cobra's hand, then applied a Venom Serpent proxy and applied those motion tracking keyframes to it, and then masked in Cobra's fingers over it. (The dub, for their part, made it so Viper grabbed Venom Snake to be consistent with the later shot, but given that Marine Neos destroyed his third Snake and he can only have three copies, uh...)

A few seconds later, as the first of the two bites of poison reach Marine Neos, we see Judai turn to react--and there's a blank card where Marine Neos would be on his Disk. Fixed in AfterEffects, first tracking the motion of the clip from when Judai's first visible to before he starts to move and the shot is still, then applying those tracked position keyframes to a proxy I put into place.

Some seconds later, once the bites are in place, Cobra orders Vennominon to attack Marine Neos, but as the shot on him zooms out before fading into Vennominon's attack, there's a weird glitch with the Vennominon card on his Disk where it looks multicolored. Fixed in AfterEffects by first tracking the position/scale motion on the zoom-out, then applying those keyframes to the proxy I put into place; once done, I masked Cobra's jacket sleeve over the edit, fading it out as the shot fades into Vennominon.

As the episode nearly ends, we have Yubel--I mean Eye's female voice--saying that they'll be seeing Judai soon, before the male voice kicks in to say his name as we see Judai staring Cobra down; during this, the Vennominon card on Cobra's Disk looks to be blank. Fixed in AfterEffects, first tracking the motion of the rotation in this shot, then applying those keyframes to the proxy I put into place. (Boy, motion tracking turned out to be pretty nifty! [Well, when it properly tracks things, at least lol])

Fixes/Edits! (119)

Our first error for 119 doesn't come in until the eyecatch, surprisingly--as the eyecatch starts and Cobra slides leftward, as Judai starts sliding to the right, the show's logo starts fading in early as the sparkles that are supposed to reveal it a few frames later appear; a similar error happened back in episode 85. Unfortunately, I deleted a few too many draft files I saved in the Vegas project file after I fixed it for 85, but did my best to fix it here, first redoing Judai's slide across the screen; to do it, I masked in the pre-logo background over where the logo would fade, then masked Judai out and re-keyframed his slide across--then, I used the Chroma Keyer effect on a stock video of sparkles I'd saved before to make it transparent, and I enlarged it some before masking out a piece of it which I enlarged and let play over a few frames before ending the custom sparkles and returning to the original video. Looks good enough in motion, I think!

A bit later, Judai groans after Cobra notes that Vennominaga also has Vennominon's revival effect; Cobra then slides in on a split-screen to start removing a Venom Snake from his Cemetery to revive her, but Judai starts moving for the split-screen a frame early, causing the transition to be slightly out of sync--I fixed this in Vegas by redoing Cobra's slide-in to be timed with Judai moving for it. Not too long after, their split-screen splits to show Venom Snake being pulled from Cobra's Cemetery, but they split unevenly with Judai's going offscreen a frame or two earlier--I fixed this in Vegas by redoing Judai's slide-out to be synced with Cobra's.

A bit later, before Judai's last turn and as he's thinking he has no way of winning, Cobra slides into a split-screen to tell him that the goddess of victory would never smile on his dueling for fun; as they split apart, there's a quick frame where Judai's split is missing its border. Fixed in Vegas by quickly adding a border on it.

Later, as Judai's last turn is underway, he activates his Cocoon Party and Contact Magic Cards to summon Cocoon Mole and Cocoon Larva and evolve them into Neo-Spacians Gran Mole and Flare Scarab--though as he does so, neither Cocoon or his Flare Scarab appear on his Disk (Gran Mole's card would be obscured by Flare Scarab's head), and the Cocoons would've been added since they're being summoned to the field while Gran Mole and Flare Scarab appear on Judai's Disk later as he Contact-Fuses for Magma Neos. Fixed in full, first using AfterEffects to apply proxies for the Cocoons over a still shot after the rapid zoom-out that happens as the shot starts as a draft for Vegas, while then also applying a Flare Scarab proxy later after the burst of light he emerges from fades out and fading it in as it does so to fix that part; once both were done, I took them into Vegas, where I first zoomed in on my draft Cocoons edit to blend it into the very start of the shot, then zoomed it back out into place and applied some motion blurring for the initial few frames to match the rest of the shot, and then faded out the fixes as the burst of light faded in, while I added my Flare Scarab fix to the footage for the end of the shot.

A few seconds later, as Judai uses Necrodarkman's effect in his Cemetery to summon Neos, he erroneously calls it a "Special-Summon," like he did back in episode 62 (though Tribute-Summoning Neos by tributing Fluff Tokens at the time). Thought to fix this one by first using UltimateVocalRemover to isolate Judai's voice from the music and the rest of the audio, then removing the word "tokushuu" ("Special-") from his line; in doing this, I noticed that Neos's shout upon being summoned sounded a bit low due to the isolation, so I also used UVR to isolate his shout from his summoning in episode 96 (as it's actually the same animation and nearly the same shout) and mixed it in behind Judai's voice. I then added the fixed audio to the clip involved, clipped out the surrounding video and audio and combined everything back to make it seamless. (I'll probably want to go back and fix it in 62... lol)

During the preview for 120, as Manjoume leaves his Infirmary bed, the Ojamas are suddenly materialized under his sheets, but there's a quick frame as the sheets unfurl to reveal them and they start to move where Ojama Yellow's right eye vanishes. As the error happens in 120 proper, too, I fixed this by first applying a quick fix there, just masking out Ojama Yellow's right eye from the previous frame and putting it back.

[yellowkitkieran]

Home (Kieran Tierney)

Masterlist

Word Count: 1.7k

Summary: Kieran surprises you by coming home early from his loan spell in Spain.

“When do you come home?”

Kieran smiles because you're both aware you've had the answer to that question memorized for months. But he indulges you anyway, “Friday. So only a few more days my love, and then I'll be home with you again.”

You sigh and begin typing your next email. You've become adept at multitasking while on the phone with Kieran; he'd be in the gym, airpods in while you chatted, and you would be settled in at the desk in Kieran's guest room working away on your laptop. Stolen moments like these have become the norm since Kieran went on loan in Spain. To make the most of a bad situation, you both came to the silent agreement that you would spend as much time on the phone together as possible. As a result, you now often find it hard to concentrate without Kieran on the other line. 

“Right, Friday. In the afternoon right? I'm gonna try and get the house cleaned up before then, I don't need you seeing how messy I keep it when you're away!” 

Kieran’s quiet laugh sends a slight shiver down your spine. “We both know it's not that bad. I'm sure you keep it plenty tidy. Don't worry about keeping it spotless, cause I'm just gonna mess it up as soon as I'm home.”

“Still. When you get here, I just want to focus on you. You kept Saturday open for sure yeah?” 

“Mmhhm. Everyone else thinks I'm coming home on Sunday, so I'm all yours.” 

You smile to yourself, sitting back in your chair. You have a full day planned for the two of you that mostly involves making up for lost time. Assuming your Friday night will be spent wrapped up in each other completely, you've mentally blocked off a few hours on Saturday morning to recover and wind down. After that, you'll help Kieran unpack his suitcases, do whatever washing needs done, and finally end off the day with dinner at his favorite place in Central London. 

“Good! It'll be… fun… oh fucks sake…” you trail off as you read the email that's just arrived in your inbox. “Seriously- why! Can people not read?!”

“What's wrong babe? Someone mess up the catering order again?” You can almost hear Kieran's smile through the phone. “You'll fix it in time, you always do.”

“Yeah of course I will,” you grumble, now zeroed in on pulling up receipts and time stamps to triple check the order you placed versus the order that you were quoted for. “Just means more work for me is all. And just when I thought I was done for the day!”

“Shame that, I was hoping to get some time with you today.” You swear Kieran's voice is echoing. “You sure you can't put that off until the morning?”

“No, I can't, I have to do it now. Ugh, this wouldn't happen if people paid more attention!” 

“I think you should close your laptop.” 

Frustrated, you rub your temples and close your eyes. “Babe I can't. This is for tomorrow's lunch so-” 

“So that means that you'll have time if you wake up early to get it fixed up. I think you should come downstairs.” 

Okay, either you're hearing things or there really is an echo. You frown, setting your phone aside and listening closely for any sounds in the house, but you only hear Shadow, Kieran's dog, pacing downstairs on the wood floors. 

“Did you send another delivery or something babe? Because Shadow always gets anxious when people come up to the door, I wish you'd give me a heads up.” Unfurling to your feet with a heavy sigh, you pad downstairs with your phone tucked between your ear and your shoulder. “One of these days you're gonna give that poor dog a heart attack-”

“Hi baby,” Kieran says, tucking his phone in his pocket. Shadow sits at your boyfriend's side, his tail thumping merrily whilst you stand perfectly still. Your brain goes into overdrive, mentally counting days and confirming that today was not Friday, and therefore Kieran should not be home yet… but here he stands before you, flesh and blood and just as handsome as the last time you saw him.

A delighted, high pitch squeal bubbles out of your chest. Kieran laughs and opens his arms, which you promptly take as an invitation to leap into them and latch onto him like a koala. “Oh my god, oh my god! You're home already?!” 

“I am,” Kieran murmurs into your hair after kissing the top of your head. “I packed up early and decided I couldn't wait another second before I saw you.” The urge to squeeze Kieran until he wheezes is nearly overwhelming. Instead of acting on impulse and earning yourself a lecture, you pry your face out of Kieran's neck- his aftershave tickles your nose- and pepper kisses across his face. 

“I- missed- you- so- much- you- pretty- boy-” Kieran's cheeks become hotter with each peck you press to his skin. Shadow barks to indicate he's keen to join in on the action. Soon Kieran is supporting your weight with a hand under your bum and scratching behind Shadow's ears when the big pup jumps on his hip to demand his attention, too. Kieran is happy to balance you both, eventually crouching down to sit on the floor with you still wrapped around him.

Once Shadow calms down and rests his big head on Kieran’s knee, the room quiets. Kieran draws shapes on the small of your back, letting you gaze upon him for as long as you desire. He is content with your fingertips brushing over his cheekbones, along his stubbled jaw and down the side of his neck. You smile at his contented sigh, the breathy sound distracting you from your reverence. 

“You're actually tan. Took you long enough to stop burning like a tomato.” Your eyes flick to Kieran's smile and you do not stop yourself from stealing a kiss. You'll never take those lips for granted, not after being forced to cope without them for so long. 

Kieran rolls up the sleeve of his white tshirt to show you his tan line. Halfway up his bicep, his golden, tanned skin gives way to his natural pale shade. You trace the line with a finger as Kieran defends himself, “Spanish sun cannae fully fix Scottish skin, my love. But I know you like when I'm not so pale, so I figured I'd soak up as much as I could before I came home.” 

Muscles flex under your finger when Kieran wraps his arms around your middle once more. You lay your palm flat to soak up his warmth and smile to yourself.

“I love you just as much when you're ghostly white. Doesn't matter to me. But the sun makes your little bitty freckles come out, so I do enjoy those.” 

Kieran's nose scrunches up when you lean forward to kiss it. You could sit like this until the end of days and be perfectly happy. With Kieran sat beneath you, soft, idle touches and whispered words would be more than enough to pass the time.

At some point Kieran coaxes both you and Shadow to your feet and leads you to the sofa. A happy sigh falls from his lips when you tumble into him and hook one leg over his hips. Shadow curls up in his normal spot at Kieran's feet like not a day has passed without his dad there. 

“What should we do tonight?” Kieran's words are a rumble beneath the hand you have laid on his chest. When you don't immediately answer, Kieran’s hand lands on the back of your thigh and coaxes you to find your words with a soft squeeze. 

“Dunno. Nothing? I don't plan on moving.” You assume Shadow's moody huff is a sound of agreement and grin. “See? Even the dog doesn't want to move. We want to stay right here and spend some quality time with you.”

The hand that drifts to the hem of your shorts is at odds with Kieran's words. “I guess I can't object to that. Just cuddle? I can at least have a couple kisses, right?” 

Lifting your head just enough to meet his tawny brown eyes, you ponder his request. You drag out the suspense and drum your fingers on his chest despite both of you knowing you would never refuse a kiss. “I'm sure something can be arranged. Put something on the telly to entertain Shadow then, he doesn't need to be scarred for life, mister ‘I can't keep my hands to myself’.”

Kieran lifts a shoulder in a what are ya gonna do kind of gesture before putting on a random nature show that immediately captures Shadow's attention. One of Kieran's hands remains on your thigh whilst the other comes up to cup your cheek and pull your lips to his. 

Stubble scratches your chin, but you don't mind. Right then, all that matters is giving Kieran the kiss he deserves. He expertly pulls soft, breathless sounds from you as his tongue glides against yours. The kiss feels familiar and brand new at the same time, like dejavu in the best possible way.

Breaking away for a chance to breathe allows Kieran to drop kisses like dewdrops across your jaw. You smile when he nibbles softly at the skin of your neck, already unable to contain himself. 

“I said cuddles only tonight my darling,” you remind him. “You're pushing your luck. Behave or I'll make you stay in the spare room tonight.” 

Kieran's laugh is full and throaty. You've missed the true sound of his laughter, without it being distorted by a speaker. “That's an empty threat if I ever heard one. If I was a betting man, my money would be on us falling asleep right here on this sofa.” 

In the end, Kieran turns out to be correct. Neither of you moves an inch as the sun sets, your urgent emails suspended in time while you're safely wrapped up in your boyfriend's loving, tanned arms. 

[sweetcocopowder]

Destiel | Playing Couple Pt.4

Synopsis: After the party, Dean is freaking out because Sam can't reach them until the coming weak. And so he's stuck in the house with the angel.

Word Count: 1.1K

Genre: Supernatural Fluff

Pairing: Castiel/Dean Winchester

Warnings: Still internalized homophobia

Extra notes: Stuck to my promise :]

Pt.3 | Pt.5

The very next day, Castiel calls Sam to come by. That this is bigger than any of them could have ever imagined. But from where the bunker is and how far they’re out, Sam won’t be here until later this week. The younger Winchester is currently out on another hunt with Eileen. It’s sweet to hear, but Dean only wishes for Sam to be here.

Because it’s too long for Dean to be sitting around doing nothing. Waiting for someone to make the move. Because for sure that little scene at the party had only raised questions within the neighbourhood and whatever spell that witch had cast. She’s got her answers. Cas reacted, Dean did not. And Dean’s got his best bet on that she was seeing if they were creatures or not.

Dean wishes he had Sam’s laptop right now so he could up what that symbol the witch cast meant. It’s been itching at his brain the entire day and he can’t stop pacing. Last thing he wants to do his ask Rowena for help.

“Dean. Stop,” Castiel snaps from where he is on the couch, finally having enough of the hunter’s wondering and pacing about.

“What else am I meant to do?” Dean throws his hands in a fit.

“Sit,” is all the angel says.

Dean grumbles to himself before he sits himself down on the far end of the couch from Cas. His foot fidgets and bounces up and down. He hates waiting around and isn’t too good at it when the entire neighbourhood is filled with different creatures.

A firm hand on his thigh stops his bounding foot.

“We’re fine, Dean,” Cas assures him.

Castiel’s hand is warm and that’s all Dean can think of before he pushes himself off the couch, out of the angel’s reach.

“What can we do!?” Dean exclaims as he begins pacing again.

“Unless you want to go headfirst into a bunch of witches, werewolves and other creatures, then I suggest sitting down and waiting for Sam,” Castiel speaks firmly but calmly.

He knows how jittery Dean can become in these types of situations. Shoot first, ask questions later. Even if it means he’s vastly outnumbered. Which is something that only jitters Castiel’s nerves each time he thinks about it. He watches Dean pace back and forth, then into the kitchen to grab himself a beer and chug half the bottle in one go. Cas can only sigh as Dean tries to calm his nerves. The last time he saw him like this, it was quite awhile ago now.

Instead of pacing, Dean comes back to the couch and sits where he originally was with a grunt and a huff. He takes another long drag from his beer before turning to the angel.

“How are you so calm?” Dean asks.

“Because we’re protected and if we both freak out then it won’t do us any favours in the long run,” the angel chides, hoping the message gets through.

In human terms, he needs to calm the fuck down.

“I am calm!” Dean snaps back.

Cas only raises a single brow at that before he leans back into the couch with his hands in his lap. He keeps his eyes on Dean though as the hunter rolls his eyes and downs the rest of his beer.

The rest of the day went by like this. Dean wanted to head outside and ask questions around the neighbourhood. But Castiel stopped him, saying it would only raise more suspicion and they can’t afford that now.

Instead, Castiel burrowed Dean’s phone and rang Gabriella to say thanks for inviting them. She was more than delighted to hear from them and to hear that Cas was fine. She even mentioned that both of them should come by again soon for a little cup of tea.

Dean wanted to say it’s a trap, but Cas wasn’t getting that type of unease with Gabriella. Not even with Dante.

-

That night, after double and triple checking the wards and the salt lines, Dean had put on a movie to ease his mind. He couldn’t stop thinking about what the witch had done to Cas. Yes, it was an easy fix. But with how helpless he felt surrounded by so many people, it made him shiver. An uneasiness coming over him. He’s seen the angel in pain before and he wished, prayed even that he never have to hear those noises again.

But here he was, having fresh memories in his head of Castiel crying out in agony. He sips on his fifth beer for the day with a little less enthusiasm than the last.

Cas, having left his trench coat and suit jacket behind, sits down on the other end of the couch with him to join him for the movie. They sit in silence for a while, but Dean can feel that the angel wants to say something.

“Spit it out, Cas,” Dean suddenly says. “You’re making me feel itchy.”

“I want to say we can’t faulter in our disguise now,” Cas inquires. “Especially not now.”

“I know that, Cas,” the hunter says as if it’s obvious.

But the angel only raises a single brow as he frowns slightly. Dean scoffs at this and looks to back to the movie before back at Castiel.

“Do you? Because every time I try and play this role, you’re the one pushing away,” Cas says firmly.

This strikes a nerve in Dean. He wants to snap out, lash out, bite. But he knows why he’s like this. And it all has to do with these weird feelings he has rocking around in him that he can’t make heads or tails of. So he does the only thing he knows and reverts to anger and biting, which doesn’t get him anywhere.

Dean keeps his mouth shut for a few seconds before letting out the air from his lungs he didn’t realize he was holding in. He huffs somewhat to a child and adverts his eyes.

“Then what would you suggest I do?” Dean asks, more or so grumbles.

At this, Castiel shuffles a little closer to the hunter on the couch. By instinct, Dean stiffens up.

“Come here,” and with, Dean is being pulled into the angel’s warm arms.

Dean can’t help but stare at the space in front of him. It’s all pretend. This isn’t real. There’s no need to panic. He shuffles a bit so he can get comfy in Cas’s hold, but the angel makes it clear he isn’t letting go. Not until he relaxes.

They watch the movie in silence but all Dean can think about how… safe he feels. The jumble of emotions running circles in his gut feel like a thousand butterflies. He’s never felt like this flirting with woman. Not even when he knows he’s nervous.

The movie passes by but Dean is very aware of how warm the angel is against him. It’s… nice. And something deep down in Dean, something he will never admit.

He wishes this all wasn’t pretend.

[adventuresasmrsfindley]

Nothing annoys me more than when someone spells my name wrong in an email or Teams chat. It is RIGHT THERE for your reference. 😤 I triple check to make sure I spell names right and everyone else needs to do the same.

[unpublishedwriter]

If we make it through December

Fandom: The Last Of Us

Characters: Joel Miller, Ellie Williams, Gn reader insert

Warnings: This is NOT a ship fic. Father/Daughter relationship, Father/Child relationship, mentions of abuse, mentions of blood, not very graphic description of injuries, hurt/comfort, found family, usage of they/them pronounce for reader.

Summery: After escaping David and his people Joel, Ellie and y/n make their escape through the forest. Once they find a place to stop for the night the three must come to terms with what they've been through and what they've become.

A/N: So this is my first time posting a fic online (wattpad who? sorry don't know what ur talking ab I definitely didn't have a wattpad when i was 11) so like bare with me please haha. Any and all constructive criticism is welcome:) Y/n and Ellie aren't actually related (unless u want them to be ofc) but they see each other as siblings. Reader is older then Ellie but still a teen (in my mind they are 17 but u can choose whatever age u want). Can be read as both game tlou fic and show tlou fic cuz I love both and didn't put any specific descriptions for Joel or Ellie. Also English isn't my first language, I triple checked the spelling but if you find any mistakes then sorry! This fic is dedicated to everyone that looked at Joel Miller and said "damn, i wish he was my dad"

They didn’t know how long they’ve been running for. Joel kept a firm grip on both kids, completely ignoring the ache from his right side where his wound was stitched up.

The pain didn’t matter. What mattered were the two kids he kept an iron grip on. The two kids that had been taking care of him, two kids who had to fight to survive while he was unconscious. Two kids that had to kill while he was in that basement. Two kids that he failed. 

His kids. 

He couldn’t think about that now, couldn’t let himself drown in guilt. 

No, he had to keep pushing forward, he had to put as much distance between them and that awful village. 

He had to get his kids to safety. 

Then he’s going to check if–   

No, he’s going to check where and how they’ve been hurt, because as much as he wished for it, there was no way they got out of this without any injuries. 

He had already noticed the blood running from Ellie's nose and the giant bruise on y/n’s cheek. 

The two teens were covered in blood, head to toe, and Joel prayed that most of that blood wasn’t their own. 

Time didn’t feel real as they kept pushing forward, going wherever their eyes could see. The kids held on tightly to Joel, almost as if to make sure that he wouldn’t disappear, to make sure he was really there. 

The wind started picking up and it looked like a snow storm was coming. 

While the storm would cover up their tracks, Joel’s stomach sank as he looked around and saw nothing but trees. Joel didn’t know what to do, he only knew that they wouldn’t survive outside. 

He kept walking forward, against the wind, as the two kids gripped him harder, practically wrapping him into their arms from both sides. 

They were all exhausted, on the verge of collapsing, and the wind was getting stronger. 

It can’t end like this. He can’t fail them again. He can’t lose them. Not again. 

Maybe luck was finally on their side, or maybe the god that Joel had long since stopped believing in had heard his prayers, but as they walked out of the woods Joel saw the outskirts of a small town. 

The ice cold wind was blasting in their faces, but they were together and they were almost there. They’ll be ok. They’ll have to be. 

The closest building to them was some sort of store, probably a drug store by the looks of how small it was. It's doors and windows were intact so it was their best option at that moment. 

The three made their way in and reluctantly pulled apart to check if there were any infected, or people. They were relieved to find out that the place was empty. 

Joel pulled one of the shelves to the door, barricading it. The windows were sealed and boarded up so no one could see inside but some light still filtered through the cracks. The light was grey and cold, the outside now completely overtaken by the snow storm. 

No one’s gonna find us here.

Joel walked away from the window and turned around to look at the two teens. Ellie and y/n were once again checking every corner of the store, making sure there was nothing bad in there with them. 

“Hey” Joel spoke softly and both teens stopped what they were doing. They looked at him, their eyes still frantic. “We’re ok here, we’re safe.” Joel assured them but it didn’t seem to ease them. They were shaken, bloodied and bruised and it was all his fault.

No, there’s no time for that now. They need me. 

Joel walked over to the side of the store that seemed to be the most clean of any rubble, then he put down his backpack and his gun. He looked back at the two kids who were still standing in the same places, staring at him. He nodded his head to the side, calling them over. Y/n closed the door to the storage room as Ellie walked over and put down her bag.

She didn’t remember when she got it back, nor when she had put it on. It didn’t matter much. Even if she’d lost it, it wouldn’t have mattered. 

Y/n also walked over putting down their own bag, then their gun and their bat. But as they looked at the bat, or rather the half dried blood on it, they decided to put it a little further away from them. 

They didn’t want to look at it, didn’t want the reminder of the things they’ve been through, the things they’ve done. They knew that they did what had to be done, had to protect themselves and their sister, but their stomach still turned as they remembered the screams of those man.

They quickly forced themselves out of it. This isn’t the time for it. They needed to make sure that the others were ok, they can deal with it later. 

“How’s your wound?” They asked nodding towards Joel. Y/n looked at his shirt, noting that there was no blood on the side of his injury, which probably meant that his stitches were still intact. 

“It’s alright, I’m alright.” He reassured them. They nodded softly and before he could ask them whatever it is he wanted to ask them, they had turned to Ellie, looking her up and down, holding her upper arms gently. 

“What about you? Did they get you anywhere? How’s your nose?” They looked at Ellie’s face, searching it for an answer but Ellie just looked back at them blankly before shaking her head and looking down. 

Y/n wasn’t sure they believed her, but they didn’t want to push. They didn’t find any wounds on her so they decided that the best first thing to do was to get Ellie cleaned up. 

Joel rolled out his sleeping bag on the floor next to a wall so y/n gently sat Ellie down on it before walking over to their pack. They pulled out an old shirt and without thinking about it ripped off a big chunk. Then they took out their water bottle and poured some of the water on the cloth, ignoring how the water made the open gashes under their, now soaked, bandages burn. 

Ellie was sitting there, completely zoned out and Joel was trying to figure out how to warm this place up. Even though they were inside, the walls and the floors were made of concrete, and the heating wasn’t working for obvious reasons. It was cold but he couldn’t start a fire since the windows were sealed shut. 

Y/n gently tilted Ellie’s head towards them, only holding her by the chin. Ellie was still spaced out, shaking both from the cold and the stress still running through her body. Y/n knew what she was thinking about, trying to process the horrors of the past few days. 

She must’ve been so scared, alone in that horrible cage. Y/n didn’t know exactly what happened to Ellie, they were stuck in a different room in their own cage, but through their own experience they knew that this is something Ellie will be haunted by for a very long time. 

Y/n gently started wiping away the blood on Ellie’s face. Her nose stopped bleeding a while ago, which y/n took as good news. 

Joel, seeing how much Ellie was shaking and not knowing what else to do, took Ellie’s sleeping bag from her backpack and unzipped it all the way. He walked over to where y/n was now carefully wiping the blood from Ellie’s hands, and wrapped the sleeping bag around Ellie hoping that it would warm her up. Then he walked over to where y/n had left the other part of their, now ripped, shirt and picked it up. 

Snow had flown in when they got inside and was now sitting in a pile next to the entrance. Joel wrapped as much snow as he could into the cloth and walked back over to y/n who was still trying to get blood off of Ellie. He gently took the wet cloth from y/n’s hands to which they protested and tried to get the cloth back but he stopped them. “It’s ok, I got her.” He spoke softly. “Here, put this on your cheek.” He held out the improvised cold pack to them. 

Y/n looked between the pack and Joel, who nodded softly for them to take it. So they did, and then put it on their cheek. They didn’t notice how badly it was hurting until now. “Thanks.” They said to Joel who just nodded and turned back to Ellie, wiping the remaining blood off of her. 

Y/n sat there for a second, not really sure of what to do. 

These past few weeks as Joel was recovering y/n was constantly busy. They were the one to check on his wound, they were the one going out to hunt and look through the empty houses for anything of use, they were the one to take the watch at night so that Ellie could sleep. 

Y/n needed something to do, something to distract them from all these thoughts and feelings in them. They walked over to where their backpack was and sat down next to it. With their free hand they ruffled through their belongings until they found their first aid kit. It was mostly empty now, after all the time of tending to Joel’s wound, but it still had a roll of gauze. They put down their ‘cold pack’ and started to undo the bandages that were currently on their hands. 

They were soaked in blood, both their own and the blood of the hunters. Their hands had chapped from the cold, so much so that gashes split open in their skin, causing their hands to bleed. They didn’t have anything to treat their hands with so their best option was to wrap them up, at least to prevent infection. 

Taking the gauze off proved itself to be an issue. Their hands were shaking more than usually and it was very painful to peel the gauze from the skin. They struggled a lot but finally freed their left hand. 

Wrapping the hand, as it turns out, was going to be even more of a challenge. Last time they did it their hands were not in that bad of a condition. But after all that time in the cold and all the fighting they found their hands in terrible shape. They had to handle it. They had to. 

They had to fix their hands, and go back to taking care of the little family they now had. They needed to protect them no matter the cost. They weren’t going to let their hands stop them from doing so. 

They had to keep them safe, they had to- “Let me see that.” Y/n looked up to see Joel now kneeling down in front of them. They looked behind him to see Ellie who was now clean of blood, except for her clothes but it was still an improvement, wrapped in the sleeping bag and looking through the crack in the bordered up window. 

They then looked back at Joel whose hand was reaching for their now bandage-less hand. Not touching them, just giving them the option. 

They held out their left arm which Joel gently took, avoiding all the open wounds. He looked it over, then reached over to the now almost melted ‘cold pack’ next to y/n, got the remaining snow out of it, and gently started to wipe away the blood on their hand. Then he took the new gauze and started wrapping it around y/n’s fingers, asking them if it was too tight or if it hurt every once in a while. 

Once he was done with that hand, he repeated the process on their right hand, just as gently and carefully. Once he was done, Joel helped y/n put everything back into their pack and then helped them get up. “We’ll find you something to help with that later, ok?” 

Y/n nodded and picked up their own sleeping bag and walked over to where Ellie was starting to drift off. Joel sat down next to Ellie after pulling out the gun out of his holster. He stayed close to her but gave her space. Ellie however moved closer to him, leaning on his side for warmth and comfort. Y/n mirrored her, they sat down on the opposite side of Joel, unwrapped and fully unzipped their sleeping bag, and then carefully placed it on top of their and Joel’s legs. 

Finally, a heavy silence took over them. None of them could talk, all three were lost in their own thoughts, trying to process all that had just occurred. 

As it got darker outside, Ellie lied down on the ground, putting her head on Joel's thigh. She looked like a child. Of course Ellie was only 14 and still was a kid but right there and then she looked even younger, curled up at Joel’s side, sleep finally taking over her. Joel put his hand on her arm. 

“You should get some sleep.” Y/n whispered to him. “I can take first watch.”

“No it’s alright, you should sleep tonight.” He said in a lowered voice as to not wake Ellie. 

He saw that y/n was about to disagree but he shook his head. “I’ve slept enough already, and knowing you, you probably got no sleep at all.” Y/n got quiet and turned their head to look forward instead of at him. 

They looked exhausted, their skin was sickly pale and the bags under their eyes were almost as dark as that horrible bruise on their cheek. They were a stark contrast to the bright and funny teenager he got to know these past four months. The teenager that always had a look of wonder on their face, finding beauty even in the broken world around them. 

Sometimes when something reminded them of their past they’d get lost in thought, their eyes only focusing on the ground under them, but they’d always comeback to reality quickly, if not for themselves then surely for Ellie who’d talk her heart out until y/n said something back. 

The same Ellie at his side that hasn’t said a word in hours. It was uncomfortable to not hear Ellie's voice for so long. No questions, no puns, no sarcastic comments. 

And while now Ellie was asleep, Joel knew that she wouldn’t be back to her normal self tomorrow. 

His heart clenched as he realized that there’s a possibility she’d never go back to her normal self. Neither of them might. What if his two children will never be the same again? No more stupid jokes, no more silly arguments, no more talks about the stars, no more questions about the past and the future, no more wonder.

No more Ellie and y/n. 

How could he have let this happen? Doubt and guilt started clawing at his mind again. His weaknesses led to this. Because of him these two wonderful kids have been stripped of their identities. It was all his fault. 

He failed again and again and aga-

His thoughts stopped in their tracks as he felt y/n lean their head on his shoulder. Y/n wanted to stay up, they wanted to protect the two people they loved the most, but their body was betraying them. 

After weeks of barely any sleep, after all the fighting and running, they were shutting down. 

They needed to let go, they needed to sleep for at least a little bit, but they were so afraid that while they slept something terrible would happen and they’d wake up all alone, without a trace of either Joel or Ellie. 

Their eyes were drooping as they fought to stay awake. They tilted their head a bit upwards as they whispered

“Joel?” 

He hummed, letting them know that they had his full attention.

“I’m so tired.” They whispered. 

It was a confession. It was more than just about their body. They were tired on so many levels.

They were tired of being an adult when they should have been a kid, they were tired of being scared, they were tired of being unloved. 

They confessed that to him, quietly, not expecting him to understand it on any other level other than that of a physical tiredness. 

But Joel understood. Of course he did. They were his child. 

And it didn’t matter that he didn’t see them grow up, it didn’t matter that he wasn’t there when they spoke their first words or took their first steps. 

It didn’t matter that they weren’t tied by blood.

All that mattered was that they were there by his side, and he was going to take care of them. 

He was going to take care of both of them, both Ellie and y/n, because now he had two children. 

It didn’t matter that he failed, it didn’t matter that he wasn’t as strong as he thought he had to be to protect them. They were his kids and there was nothing he could do about that now. 

All his doubt and all his guilt was nothing compared to how much he cared about the two kids that were now clinging to him. 

He let go of the gun he was holding, leaving it in his lap, then he wrapped his now free hand around y/n’s shoulder, and y/n hid their face in his neck as they felt tears welling in their eyes.

“It’s ok, you’re ok now. I’m here, you can sleep. You don’t have to worry anymore. I’m right here. I’ll take care of you, I promise.” He reassured them quietly. 

That was all it took for y/n to start sobbing. He held them tightly as they let it all out. 

Joel had only seen them cry two times. 

First time after Henry and Sam, when they held on tightly to a shaking Ellie, covering up the young girls eyes when Henry pointed the gun at himself. 

The second time was back in Jackson, in that little room on the second floor. 

He regretted what he said, he regretted how he made those kids feel. 

Quiet tears slipped down both of their faces when he told them that they were not his children and he was not their dad. He was lying to them as much as he was lying to himself. 

But the way they were crying right now… he’d never seen them cry like this. 

They were trying to be as silent as possible, both for his and Ellie’s sake. Their body shook as they took in rigid breaths. 

Joel felt their tears on his neck, and it broke his heart. 

That was the moment that he vowed to himself that he would do everything in his power to make sure that neither of his kids had anything more to cry about like that. 

He knew that they’ve been through a lot. He knew that the two charming kids that had not only broken down his walls, but also crawled into his very heart and made themselves at home there, had lived through things that no human, let alone a child, should ever live though. 

He knew that they’ve lost people, he knew that they’ve been neglected and abused, left to fend for themselves for years. 

And as sad as it made him he knew that there was nothing he could do to change that. 

But as y/n finally fell asleep, their tears still wet on their cheeks and on his neck, and as he held the two sleeping kids in his arms he once again made a vow to himself. 

A vow to give these kids a childhood, a family, a home. 

He knew that they still had a long road ahead of them, their journey wasn’t done yet. 

But they’ll get through it. 

They’ll finish this whole vaccine business and go back to Tommy's. He’ll teach them everything he knows, he’ll take care of them. 

They showed him that, what he thought had died all those 20 years ago with Sarah, was still there within him. So he’ll do the same for them, he’ll show them that they can still be kids. 

He’ll show them what it’s like to have a family and he’ll watch them grow up. 

Yes, the road ahead was long and hard, and he knew that this wasn’t their last challenge. 

But it didn’t matter because they were all together. 

They had each other and if that wasn’t worth fighting for then he didn’t know what was. 

[originalwinnercheesecake]

What pokemon would make up teams owned by the Characters in Star vs The Forced of Evil

I am back making my lists, and its time to do Star vs the forces of evil. So like my previous lists (TOH, GF, Amphibia) this show had a large cast. This show was also had a longer run time than any of them, 4 seasons, and who the important characters were depended on which season. This list contains my picks for Star, Marco, Ludo, and a handful of Star and Marco’s close friends. If you do not see your favorite character here, and have an idead as to a pokemon they would be a really good trainer for feel free to put them in the comments.

Star Butterfly

Star was a really easy one to make a team for. Most of her magic moves with her wand involved conjuring up animal based creatures, and I just transfered them over to pokemon.

Cetitan: Star’s trademark attack is her “Narwhale blast” and when looking up Narwhale pokemon (and double/triple checking I got a actual pokemon and not a fanmade one) this is the pokemon that came up for Narwhal pokemon.

Joltik: The smallest and (In my opinion) the most adorable of the spider pokemon, also packs a powerful shock. A near perfect representation of Star’s strongest spell: Spider with a top hat.

Yamper: a cute and playful little yellow dog pokemon with a heart symbol somewhere on its body. Its the closest I could find to the Laser puppies Star gifted the Diaz’s with on arrival.

Galarian Rapidash: Star had a love for Warnicorn’s, their speed, their furosity, and did not want an adult life were she had no time to ride and have fun with them. So I will give her a Rapidash.  An Galarian rapidash because those fit Star’s style better and add a fairy type to her team.

Makuhita: Star does not always really on magic to fin a fight though, She also knows how to brawl/box. So I wanted to give her atleast one fighting type. I picked Makuhita while its a heavy hitter and a real tough pokemon its also got a very cute and tubby design; it looks like a Sumo pikachu. Like Star its adorable from a distance, threatening up close.

Nidoran girl: represents her bond  of friendship/romantic with Marco. He has a boy one.

Marco Diaz

Solrock: Marco was originally going to be named Sol. He is also represented in that Prophatic image as the Sun right? Star is an actual star and Marc is the sun, they are together? Pretty sure I remember that. If Marco is represented by the sun n the show than it’s only fair I carry that over onto my team by giving him a solrock.

Lucario: Marco loves and does karate, so I picked a fighting type that’s method of fighting it more simlar to karate for him.

Shiny charizard: I really wanted to give him a dragon type to reresent his dragoncycle Nacho’s. The Original one I had picked out was another Fame made non offical pokemon (I have to be more careful of those). Of offical pokemon Charizards Shiney form. I think its still fair that this be his strongest. He did spend decades training and fighting with Nacho’s in Hekapoo’s dimension

Kirlia: a graceful and feminie pokemon to represent Marco’s super popular princess persona Princess Turdina. Also to give him a fairy type as well.

Nidoran boy: represents his bond of friendship/romance with Star. She has a girl one.

Ludo Avarius

Mimikyu: A fairy and dark pokemon that has issues with its appearence as well as mentality, and can also mess with the mental state of others. I am not sure if Ludo and Mimikyu would make each other better or worse, or worse than better (hopefully that one). But that they would be a very intresting and entertaining partnership of that I am sure.

So Ludo’s monster henchmen in season 1 were not the best as we can all agree (Sorry about that Buff Frog. We all know you did try). But in season 2 he had a pretty strong team, what with Bird, Spider, and those rats. To represnt them I will give him a Sparrow, an Aridos, and a Alalon Rattata. 

Rufflet and Vullaby: These represent his brothers and sisters. The ones who after going through everything he did, he was able to go back and save from their awful parents. 

I gave these three teams of six since they were arguably main characters. The rest of the list will be notable secondary characters, who will each get three.

Janna Ordonia

Haunter: Both it and Janna like to scare/prank people

Nickit: a theif pokemon that helps Janna swipe other peoples stuff

Klefki: It helps Janna break into places she is otherwise not allowed

Tom Lucitor

Scorbunny, Litleo, Fennekin.

I gave Tom each of these three for the same number of reasons. Firstly they are all fire types, and Tom is a fire demon. Secondly all of them are fuzzy and adorable, and in the show Part of Toms anger management therapy involves soothing himself by petting/playing with cute fuzzy animals. I could see eaxh of these three being part of his therapy (yes I did look up “fire bunny pokemon specfically to find one to represent Marshmellow) Lastly while they are in no threatening, cutesy, first forms now, they all evolve into very strong battlers. Once Tom got his own temper under enough control that he could handle pokemon battles he could do pretty well with these three.

Jackie Lynn Thomas

Chimecho: She has a very soothing appearence and personality. She also told Marco that one time she is into soft rock. So I gave her a soothing, soft toned, music pokemon

Baltoy: She also told him she was really into studying history. Baltoy may not be a fossile pokemon, but it is historic. In addition to that it has great balance to stay perpetually spinning in place like that. Jackie also has great balance on her skateboard

Vaporeon: So despite fans best efforts and theorising, the show creator never did reveal Jackie to secretly be a mermaid, who’s able to live on land becasue her shell necklace is actually a magical amulet that when worn exchanges her see tail for a pair of land legs. But it was a great theory, and she does give off very beachy, merlike, vibes. So idecided to give her  a merlike water pokemon, that could travel both in water and on land. Also I had to exclude Vaporeon from my Gravity Falls list, and still really wanted to give it to someone cool.

Kelly.. Huh looks like she was about the only character to not get a last name. Wow. Okay just Kelly

Galatian Moewth, Mankey, Tangrowth

Like with Tom all three of Kelly’s Pokemon were ones I picked for the same reasons. Those reasons were that all three are tough, scrappy, pkemon; completely covered from head to toe in wild, untameable, hair.

Eclipsa Butterfly

I wasn’t gonna do Eclipsa at first, simply becasue I wanted to keep the secondary characters evenly split between earth and mewni characters. But she is like the third most iconic character in the show and I had to do her.

Spiritomb: You know dark types would be her favoite, and I feel like the more sinister lore with Spiritomb would really intrigue her and make her want one.

Honchkrow: eyes in the sky to replace he all seeing eye spell . They also have basically the same taste in hats, so there’s that.

Roserade: She says in the beganing of season 3 that she loves roses.

Oskar Greason

(why does he get a last name when Kelly didn’t?) Here let me throw Oskar in as well as Eclipsa to keep numbers more even.

Toxel: To represent his interest in playing music.

Furret: Because he has a pet ferret

Noibat: goes with his whole bad boy musician vibe, and with the added bonus that it would maybe be able to freak out his mom’s boyfriend whom he is implied to absolutely hate.

[heroiclegendyt]

Master Duel Rookie Guide!

When you're first start Yugioh Master Duel, the temptation is high to just spend all your free gems on anything that the shop promotes at the time. I'm here to advise you that maybe instead of jumping right into such, we instead try to be a little more optimal... then jump right into buying whatever you want.

First Step - What to Buy

There are many Archetypes within Yugioh and some of them do work better than others. Do some studying on what's meta, though if none of that interests you, you're free to try your hand at a Rogue Deck or something out there. While you may not win every match, you'll still have a strong sense of pride and victory when you do come out on top. However, a strong deck starts with a strong base, and these eight cards might just be what you need. The first on your shopping list should be one of the following (Listed by Most Value to Least in my own personal Opinion) :

Infinite Impermanence Set

Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring Set

Lighting Storm Set

Solemn Judgment Set

Triple Tactics Talent Set

Forbidden Droplet Set

Effect Veiler Set

Nibiru, the Primal Being Set

All these bundles provide you with 10 Master Packs with which you can get any number of random, but potentially powerful cards, and even if you strike out with pulls, you are guaranteed at least One SR Rarity Card (10 SR Dust if you don't care with a chance to be 30 if Royal Glossy). On top of that, you have a chance to find Secret Packs for cards you may already want which would eliminate having to craft one first. If anything, you should buy at least ONE of the bundles to help you get started. Once that's done, look at how many gems are left and get started on pulling from a secret pack.

New Packs are also always coming out so be sure to check them. They can have a combination of new and old cards and tend to be more geared towards updating an existing archetype while introducing a new one. They also might just be releasing good generic cards that can help to shape up a deck.

On top of that, if you feel like you'll enjoy using a structure deck more, then I recommend purchases three copies of the deck, looking what it has, removing what you don't care for to add in the extra copies, and crafting/Secret Pack pulling the rest of what you need. It might be cheaper than you know! Remember, a structure deck is 500 gems and you can get three for 1500 gems to get three copies of a card from it (or more from the older ones) and with that you can have a better chance to build the deck that works for you, on top of that, if you get lucky with pulls from a secret pack containing cards from the deck (or the archetype) you may even be able to construct a better deck than ever for much cheaper. Also, as a lil bonus, here are the numbers for ya.

All Eight Sets - 6000 Gems One Copy of Each Structure Deck - 6500 Gems Three Copies of Each Structure Deck - 19500 Gems The Feeling of Victory - Priceless (ImsorryIhadto)

Second Step - Deck Building

Deck construction in any TCG/OCG is important, it determines how often you'll have the chance of drawing what you need to win or what you'll need to survive. Your opening hand could spell victory or defeat, and knowing how your deck can handle things is just as important as knowing what your cards do. On that topic: READ. YOUR. CARDS.

Many a match is lost when someone notices they read the card wrong and have ended up in a situation where they are forced into an action they cannot reverse. There is no 'Oh I didn't mean to do that, can I take it back?' in Master Duel, and you have ample time to read and understand what a card does. When you've constructed a deck you like be it from having pulled cards from a secret pack, a structure deck brought it's bits used to make a deck in tandem with secret pack cards, Normal AND Secret packs used to make your deck, or even the complete insanity of just using Master Packs, take your deck into Solo Mode or Free Duel (if your brave) to see how well it does. Take the time to learn your combos, understand how your cards chain and such, and if you need to, look up guides and videos to better help your deck and deck-building skills.

One other thing you can do, if you need, is going through the Practice Tutorials that Master Duel has for you. Though a lot of it is REALLY BASIC, you might still enjoy a little,

Third Step - Ranked

So, you've brought what you needed, you built your deck, you tried it out and learned it, all that's left is to Duel. Take your deck into Ranked and do your best to climb. Find out what the Meta looks like and make adjustments to your deck to help you fight against it or turn it completely on it's head. If you start to suffer a loss-streak, maybe try building a new deck and see if you might have more luck with that, but the moment it stops being fun, it's time to put down the controller, mouse, or whatever else, and take a break. Tilting can lead to misplays, forgetting about the timing of your cards, or just plain exhaustion. If you're genuinely trying to play so you can participate on a Tournament Level, find ways to help de-stress and de-tilt so you can keep climbing, learning, and trying for the top. Don't compare yourselves to others either, you're going at YOUR pace and at YOUR time.

If you find, during a ranked match, you've already lost and see no point in continuing, don't. Surrender. No points are lost in Ranked, a loss would've been a loss anyway, no need to suffer through it. Though Surrendering forfeits your claims to any bonuses you might've gotten after the duel, you may wish to sit there an just let it happen. Dealer's choice. In my personal opinion, I don't enjoy wasting an extra two-minutes of my life to let my opponent Ego Stroke, so I'll just scope and go next. If you want to stick it out and get your rewards for your plays, go right ahead, you complete your missions even if you lose. It's all up to you to decide how you handle it.

Final Step - Post-Match (Ranked and Casual)

The Match is over! You've either won and are celebrating, or you lost and are trying to figure out what went wrong. There are a few things Master Duel allows you to do Post-Match.

For a limited time, you can grab the gameplay of your match and save it. Simply go to Duel ----> Then go to either Ranked Duel or Casual Match ---> Go to Match History ---> Click on the match you either just did or did a while ago ---> Click Play Replay or Save Replay if you wish to watch over the match or save it for future videos of your own, submission clips to those who upload such, or if you just wanna review things on your own. Your other options are to view the profile of your opponent, confirm their deck or Report (Max is 3 times per Day/Maybe per-opponent?). Confirming a deck is something you can do to see if you were just an unfortunate victim of Konami Favoritism (Not salt(alilsalt)) or if your opponent just had a really well constructed deck. You might also get inspired to try something similar or even take the deck and see if you can improve upon it. Viewing the Profile allows you to see the person you've faced and potentially 'Follow' them. You may find you enjoyed the match and want to follow them or maybe you'd like a rematch and you follow them and try to invite them for a round two. Just don't harass or spam them. Reporting should be reversed for the people who actually did something worthy that you can prove or at least have strong evidence of some wrong-doing.

I thank you for reading this whole thing if ya did and do certainly hope that I was able to help out in some form. Obliviously, this is for new players to Master Duel and potentially Yugioh as a whole. I'm no expert and alot of what I do here is casual play and opinion, granted my casual play is just Ranked cause... rewards, but yeah. I still do hope this was able to help, enhance, or simply just give ya little smirk or smile, even if it's at my expense ;u ;

[the-panmixxia]

Pound of Prevention (and an ounce of cure) Chapter 3

"Greetings. Welcome to Compendium Library for References and National Research. Might I assist in any way, or point you in the direction of the correct section for your needs?" 

The person in front of them was undoubtedly a vampire, more apparent than Remy could ever be. Pale white skin, pristine black hair, and sharp red eyes - all sitting on an angled face, and donning a rather teacher-esque outfit. The name 'Logan' was clipped to their breast pocket. 

Remy perked up, dramatically throwing an arm around Virgil and smiling. "Hey babes, we're here to look at curses and such. You got like, 'Warlocks for Dummies' or something?" 

Logan blinked, looking vaguely suspicious. "Neither of you are warlocks or witches. You do realize you are incapable of casting spells?" 

"Uh-huh, yeah babes, totally. We're just like, trying to be supportive! Our roommate is totally a spell caster and we just wanna look into it, make sure we don't uhh, ruin any spells?" 

"While I have the distinct impression you are deceiving me on this front, all information is free to be accessed by all members of the public so I have no true reason to withhold it. So, follow me, I will lead you to a selection of books that I feel will assist you in whatever concealed agenda you have. Right this way. "

The trio made their way through an impressive array of shelves, stacked high with ladders on a track to reach taller levels. There were hardly any other people within the library, mainly stereotypical professor-type people hobbling around to create their next thesis. The back of the building seemed to be a lot colder, shelves no longer having plaques or markings, making the whole area feel out of bounds. But the guide abruptly turned heel, with a perfectly inoffensive four-finger point down an aisle. 

"I believe these books will most pertain you your queries. Please note that as a reference library you may not take these books and scriptures home, you are permitted to read on the desks in the center or come to the front where I will gladly photocopy pages for you. The first five pages may be photocopied free of charge, then each page will be five cents for black and white, seven cents for color. You are not permitted to eat or drink, or have any potentially staining products in this area. Any damage to the books that is evidently intentional or grossly severe can face punishment of a permanent ban from the premises. Now, we ask you to stay quiet and respectful of others as they expand their knowledge. Bathrooms are on the third floor, accessible via the elevator or stairs. We are open twenty four hours, seven days a week, so you are welcome to spend as much time as you like."

Remy smirked, throwing a cocky salute to their fellow vampire. "Sir, yes sir!" 

Seemingly unaware of the sarcasm, Logan nodded back 

"Thank you, nestling. Enjoy your stay." 

Logan was swift to leave, making his way back to the desk at a brisk - yet not supernatural - speed, while Remy gawked at the perceived slight. 

"Girl! Do not call me that! Virge, Virgey, did you hear that bitch? Ugh, yelp is gonna hear about this one-" 

"Remy, shut up and help me look at the books." 

The two worked in unison, searching shelves and carefully thumbing through old journals to find any shreds of information that could help them. Most entries were non descriptive, or cautionary tales about not pissing off powerful magic users which was, you know, a bit too late for Virgil. 

-

"Oh! This might be the one, the curse is really similar to mine, but this girl turns into an owl each night… Much cooler to be honest. C'mon, where's the reverse, she has to get better-" 

"Babes? That's a novel, not a first hand account."

"Ah, fuck." 

-

"Oohh, babes, for realsies, I think I've found it! Super old, check, written by an actual warlock, check, an itemized anthology of hexes, curses, and spells? Triple check!" 

Virgil metaphorically pounced, the two roommates ending up practically cuddled up on the floor as they observed the book. The first few pages had an English translation next to the traditional script, but after the introduction, it was entirely foreign. Crap. 

Virgil stared at the text, willing the pages to make any semblance of sense. Spook sighed, slamming it shut while rubbing spooks eyes. 

"Well, we need to find someone that can help us with spells, or whatever this is classed as."

Remy was quiet for a moment, biting their lip and shrugging a feigned nonchalance, "I know my sire can read this shit. It's like, old timey language that all the magical ghoulies used to read and write in so they could have their own super secret club." They tapped a symbol while pouting. "I could probably find some way to contact her?" 

Virgil frowned in distaste, watching Remy's expressions close. Admittedly, Virgil didn't know the intricacies of vampire society, but what spook did know was that, typically, sires were very protective of their fledglings even after the rearing. 

Nestlings were kept in the 'nest', a broad term for the main residence of the sire but there was often an actual nest of blankets involved, for fifty or so years, at least. After that time slot, the nestling, now considered a fledgling, is allowed to wander round at night so long as they're tucked under the sire's arm the whole time. Somewhere around a hundred and twenty years a vampire would be fully formed with all the dlc that came with it. 

Remy wasn't a decade turned yet. 

Remy's so-called sire was sheepishly handing Remy a set of keys to this very apartment, telling them to find a roommate for company (this is where Virgil came in. Essentially the baby vampire's emotional support puppy.) and she'll sort the rent, and then booking it across the world for who knows what. Virgil hasn't met this woman, but from Remy's accounts, she shows up every few months to bombard him with love, drink from each other to strengthen the sire-fledgling bond, promises to be more present, then inevitably leaves. 

It hurt Virgil most that Remy still spoke so fondly of this woman, despite the hurt. Spook gently held their cold hand, half smirking. 

"I'd rather stay a cat forever than meet that woman. We'll find someone else, there's probably a lot of people that can still read this language."

"Pfft, you're right. Wouldn't want to call her back from a very important vacation. I'm sure we can find another fossil to read this crap." 

"What about Logan? He seems, uh, academic. Surely he's an old enough vampire to see the use in learning this." 

"What? No way, I'm not asking for that nerd's help, he insulted me to my face." 

"I'm sure it wasn't an insult, Remy-" 

"It was, we're not asking!" 

"Remy!" 

"Nope." 

"Remy…" 

"Ugh, fine. Let's just clean this up first."

Virgil took one pile, while Remy took the other, working in conjunction to tidy the area up. It was rather relaxing to potter away and organize the endless shelves. Remy was a little less meticulous and was only concerned with getting the books back on the shelf, not breaking their brain trying to remember their exact placement like Virgil. 

When the two finally approached the front desk, Virgil holding the opened book like a damned caroler, Logan was working away at an ancient looking computer (who on earth would willingly use a Macintosh Classic? Not even the color model?) The older vampire gave no indication of noticing the two, but before either could speak up, Logan had saved whatever document he was working on and was standing up to address them.

"Salutations. I see you have selected a book to help with your endeavors, would you like to utilize the photocopying machine, or search up a cited reference on the database?" 

"Oh, no thank you," Virgil gave a hesitant smile. "We need someone to, um, help us read this?" 

"You can't read the book?" Logan asked with slightly raised brows. 

"Uh, no, we can't, we were hoping you'd read it to us if you aren't busy?" 

The librarian softened his gaze, leaning closer to lower his voice. "I see. In twenty minutes I finish my shift and would be happy to help you two comprehend. For the future, I do assist certain charities to offer these free lessons…"

Remy grabbed the pamphlet, frowning at the 'adult literacy lessons' and sliding it back over. 

"No, babes, we can fucking read." 

"Remy, he's being nice, stop being a grumpy bitch. Sorry about that, what we mean is we can't read this. It's written like, minecraft enchantments or something." 

"I'm afraid I don't understand," Logan interjected, fiddling with his tie and looking unbearably bashful. "Is this a mockery?" 

"No! No, I'm sorry, Remy's a little unbearable right now cause he's not slept for thirty hours and it's manifesting in almighty bitchiness. Uh, we were hoping with how knowledgeable you are that you could help us translate it to English, cause the book is like all these weird letters."

"Oh. Certainly, may I see the text in question? Let us sit at this table and I will see what I can do." 

Virgil, Remy, and Logan all rounded the study table, moving the educational pamphlets to sit the ancient book in front of the equally ancient vampire (Virgil was assuming Logan was ancient, Remy was normally only this crabby with the old ones, mainly because most stared them out for being an unattended newly turned) 

"Ah. This book is entitled Puttuhk, an attempted encyclopedia of known spells to be cast by Warlocks and possible variations and uses for the spells. The reverse of each page enlists the reverse for the spell to negate the effects. It was written by 'Üswa the Untold, a powerful Warlock from 1422. She lived in Danzig, the capital of the Teutonic Order which is close to modern day Gdsank, Poland. The script you're intending to decipher is Mettan, considered a dead language akin to Latin, but used predominantly by magic users." Logan's gaze looked up to Remy, tilting his head inquisitively. "I assume your sire has scripture in this language, you seem somewhat familiar despite being unable to read it."

Virgil squeezed Remy's knee gently, trying to convey a message of "please don't, we need him" the vampire physically swallowed his words. 

"That's… probably perfect, thank you. We're looking for a reversal in particular, it's quite strong." 

Logan nodded and switched to the index while Virgil rattled off the specifications of the curse Janus had cast. In turn Logan would ask questions, often long winded and seemingly unimportant - was the caster left or right handed? Did the recipient experience unconsciousness after the curse had been cast? What day of the week did it occur? All of these Virgil answered, while also trying to not make it obvious that spook was the one that turned into an animal at night. 

"The machinations of this curse are truly complex, likely deliberate, has the recipient visited a clinical witch doctor to help alleviate the curse?" 

"Um, apparently when they went the doctor just uh, said there wasn't much they could do without having the perpetrator." 

"Ah, and did the two not know each other? Was there no way to contact the perpetrator?" 

"No." Virgil simply responded. "They aren't on good terms, it isn't an option." 

"I see. Well, I am obligated to inform you that despite being a very well informed individual I do not have formal education on this subject. Despite this, I feel I have the correct reversal highlighted here. Would you like to write down my translation?" 

There was a plain notebook on the desk, which the librarian nodded towards as a prompt to begin writing. Truthfully, Virgil was just planning to record Logan speaking on spooks phone but decided it probably seemed rude considering how much effort Logan seemed to be putting into this. Spook hadn't written in a while, but hopefully it will still be legible. 

"Right, to begin, this reversal is technically an entirely new spell. This time it is a ward that will deflect the previous hexx from afflicting you by working to protect the physical body from transformations. I'm just confirming that this can only be done on Humans, Elves, Centaur, Manticore, Satyr, Gorgons, Naga, Gnomes, and Ogres. This is because these creatures are not able to naturally shift their form, which if they could, would cause major conflict with this ward." Logan waited for both parties to confirm before continuing. "To begin this ritual, the one with the curse, hence described as the "subject" must be at a point of elevation no less than thirty meters - this would've traditionally been achieved on a cliff top, but any tall building should suffice - and most prepare a blue flame with these harvested ingredients; the venom of a vampire, the pelt of a were, blood of a fae, scale of serpentine, and lastly on offering of their own-"

"How the heck do we get a were pelt? Ask a wolf if we can pretty please skin it?" Remy asked, swishing a can of cold brew that he'd had stored in his bag. To be fair, it had been over an hour, that was a long time for Remy to be without coffee. Logan looked slightly peeved but made no comments towards. 

"Well. The pelt is referring most to the fur of the Were, so receiving it can be entirely consensual. Once the blue flame has been successfully fed, it should turn a vivid purple and gravitate towards the subject. The flame will chase the subject at that point until they digest it. The process will burn, and likely leave the subject unwell for a long while after as they heal. Hospitals are equipped to handle these types of recoveries though if the subject is struggling to heal or simply needs somewhere to rest."

Huh. Aside from the strange array of items the process seemed rather straightforward. Virgil was expecting the full shebang with cloaks and ritual daggers. Maybe even a goat or something. 

"It seems…easy enough?" Spook hummed after a moment's thought, sitting up a little with slight confidence. "I mean uh, I'll let them know and we can, you know, help this person reverse the hexx. Yeah!" 

"Magic has a reputation of being complex and dangerous, partly because of humans fearing the unknown and partly due to Warlocks guarding their practices from outside communities."

"We stan a gatekeeping queen. Work it!" The younger vampire chirped, curling their lip in a smug smile to show off some fang. From what little Virgil knew about vampire culture, the gesture would be considered quite rude and overconfident. Like putting your feet on someone's coffee table when you've just met. Logan didn't seem to care, though, so perhaps not all senior vampires were sticklers for etiquette. 

"I have no understanding of your rhetoric, one of my coven mates uses the term 'stan' to show admiration for an individual but I fail to see why you'd use it on a porter. Is it metaphorical?" 

"...No."

"Right, we need to go." Virgil sent spooks roommate a sharp elbow jab, smiling at Logan just enough to be polite. "Thank you very much for your help. We'll, uh, pass this information on to the uh, person. Yeah. Thanks, again."

"It is no problem, I am always happy to provide knowledge where needed. I hope your acquaintance is able to purge the hexx ailing them." 

"Yep. Yup. Bye, babes. C'mon Virgey," the young vampire wrapped an arm around their roommate, lowering their voice despite almost definitely knowing that the other vampire could hear it. "It's time for an epic, not at all tedious, fetch quest!"

"Oh, brother. This is gonna be a whole thing, huh? At least step one and five is covered between us. That's slightly less overwhelming."

"Yup. Just gotta pluck a Naga, shave a wolf, and stab a fairy. Average Wednesday evening, to be honest." 

Virgil sighed and flicked hair out of spooks face, clambering back into Remy's shitty little car. 

At least Remy seemed somewhat optimistic.