#in exchange for killing his abusive family lmao

[ifitmeanslosingyouthenno]

au in which nathaniel is married to riko

okay so

in this universe there's no mafia, the moriyamas are just filthy rich businessmen, but nathan still is a serial killer

things go a bit different in the sense that nathan kills mary when neil is 10 bc he loses his temper and keeps neil practically captive in that house, torturing him endlessly until nathan slips up and somehow the fbi finds the evidence they need to raid the house when neil is idk 15 ish and they end up killing nathan and neil is sent to foster care

he doesn't have as bad a time in foster care as andrew did, some parents like slapping him around, but some are genuinely nice people

ultimately tho he's not adopted by anyone by the time he turns 18 (he tells himself he doesn't mind, who would want a damaged and quiet and sketchy and flighty kid in their family anyway?)

he's left on his own, to figure out how to be a real person, an adult, with no home, no place to stay, no friends, no family, nothing but himself

he goes through a few years where he just lives on the streets, spending the little money he has left on food, going to shelters when he can, traveling through states until he gets to new york

he's attacked and harassed by some guy at some point outside a bar or something and he's so dazed he cant even fight back, but someone fights back for him

and its riko moriyama, famous fucking exy star and professional athlete

he saves neil and he takes him to his place, where he lets him stay and recover and hey, he's actually kind of sweet, and he really cares about neil, and maybe it wouldn't be so bad to stay with him? and when riko kisses him the first time maybe its not so bad? and maybe when they start dating he's incredibly loving and he gives him gifts and it's the happiest neil has been? and maybe when riko proposes neil says yes and they get married and they're happy? genuinely happy for once?

except that at some point, the love becomes anger, the sweet gestures become punches, the care becomes jealousy and control and pain, and what was the best thing in neils life becomes a nightmare once more

(and maybe he blames himself, maybe its neil thats the problem, maybe its him who brings out the worst in people, maybe he's doomed to this cycle of abuse)

its not until riko beats neil withing an inch of his life that neil runs

OH SHIT WAIT LMAO I FORGOT TO SAY

neil doesn't actually go by neil throughout all of this, he still goes by nathaniel, his legal name, nathaniel wesninski is married to riko moriyama not neil josten

so neil runs and runs and runs with what little money he could steal from riko and he adopts neil josten's identity until he physically cannot keep going

luckily for him, his collapse happens far enough, all the way in seattle in the same pharmacy that medical intern aaron minyard was buying some supplies

so yeah aaron freaks out and almost calls an ambulance but neil stops him bc he's scared bc riko might not have mafia connections in this universe but he has so much fucking money

and it takes aaron and katelyn and abby on the phone for them to fix a heavily beat up neil who should definitely go to the hospital but this is the best they can do

(aaron just assumes he's homeless, and he cant pay the hospital, and he's a fucking softie deep inside so he does everything he can to help how he can)

and maybe when kate catches neil sneaking out one night, she does everything to stop him and offers him safety and maybe the exchange some truths, maybe kate guesses that neil had someone that abused him, maybe someone he loved and neil is scared and he doesn't feel like he can trust anyone but something about kate makes him break down and tell her what he can while making sure he doesn't reveal much

and im taking too long but basically aaron and kate take neil in and they introduce him to the foxes and to the legendary kevin day and andrew minyard, professional exy players for the seattle exy team

and well it takes time and lots of trust before neil lets himself open up again

but its in the form of andrew minyard and the way they can both respect each others boundaries, and neil tells andrew about nathan, but never reveals the truth about being married or anything about riko moriyama

until andrew asks neil to marry him and well

it all goes to shit lol

neil cant bring himself to tell andrew the truth and it all becomes a mess and andrew breaks things up and neil becomes a mess as well

(bc its true, it's on him, its always on him and god he never learns, he never fucking learns, he doesn't fucking get happy endings, he doesn't fucking get good things)

and he tries to leave aaron and kate's place again, and he's successful this time and he's on his way out of seattle when he stops by a gas station to get some food and he has no idea of where he's going and he hesitates for a while, until he catches the eye of andrew on his car outside, and andrew just looks away and leaves and-

and if neil was hesitating before he's sure now and he has to leave for good and he has to leave and get away and never come back and

and he runs right into riko moriyama as he's leaving the store

to be continued maybe??

part 2

[redrum-alice]

So I've been sketching Beauty and the Beast AU for ABAcelsus, and I just wanna lay out some HCs lmao...

First and foremost, the AU has its own twist and is loosely based on the fanfic "A possession of another name" on ao3. I kinda just wanna do some scenarios bc im doing some scene sketches for funsies. This is set in 1600s

P.S., some of the HCs are cheezy as hell, because Im cooking for myself (this whole AU is my own food lol)

TW: some headcanons may contain mature topics

ABA was the daughter of the town's doctor, Dr. Hohenheim (please bear with me). He was the one who makes successful medicine and healing potions for the sick and poor.

Because of his aptitute in medical field and science, the ignorance of townsfolk saw this as a threat of witchcraft and alchemy, accusing him to be worshipping the devil (may or may not be true, but he insists he was doing it for good)

Although he was met with criticism, Dr. Hohenheim wanted nothing more than to improve lives, until he met his untimely demise.

Leaving his daughter all alone and ostricized due to their family's reputation, ABA was taken in as a scullery maid in a mansion. She was left with a key that she turned into a necklace and a book of incantation in case she was in a dire situation. She held these two objects dearly

Just like her father, she was somehow skilled and knowledgable about medicine and healing, especially when it comes to blood. This unfortunately sparked outrage once the other maids outed her for her suspicious activities. They intend to burn her alive.

She quickly fled to the woods to escape the mob. When it was clear, she took out the incantation book to recite a protection spell. Turns out she summoned a demon named Paracelsus.

Paracelsus ignited flames in the outskirts of town in response to the young woman's call for help. The townsfolk quickly fled away and left the girl alone with the demon. Sadly, ABA fell unconscious due to the injuries her masters and other maids have inflicted on her. The demon eventually took her inside the pocket dimension to heal properly.

Paracelsus is a bloodthirsty demon that was captured by Dr. Hohemheim and a man named Slayer long ago before ABA was born, fearing the dangers he might inflict on people if he was loose. They kept a chain and lock around his neck, magically bound to the book and can only be free with the use of the key ABA is currently wearing.

Dr. Hohenheim gained his knowledge in medicine with Paracelsus' help, since the demon possessed knowledge one could not achieve yet in their era. This was all in exchange of blood, and Dr. Hohenheim was tricked into killing some of the people he was helping. Not wanting to be manipulated furthet, Dr. Hohenheim sealed him away. The doctor soon wrote a letter to his young daughter revealing the truth one day when she grows up, tucked inside the book

After ABA read her father's letter, she was devastated. With no one else to turn to, she became dependent on the only being who shown her kindness: Paracelsus.

Paracelsus wanted nothing more than to feed on ABA's blood, ignoring her plea to be his companion. Over time, he pitied the girl and slowly soften up. Even going as far as offering a pocket dimension to be her resting quarters if she got tired of traveling in search of a new place to live.

ABA notices how fond Paracelsus was with roses, just as much as she is with blue flowers. Paracelsus explains it was because they're close to the red shade of blood.

In some gruesome yet magical manner, Paracelsus performed a magic where he turns ABA's blood droplets into roses to amuse her. (Weird but romantic ig?)

Because of that, she scanned the book of incantation and finds a spell to turn her blood droplets into roses so she can surprise Paracelsus. The demon wont admit it, but was a very thoughtful gesture. He had to patch up ABA though

ABA has always been insecure about herself, after having been emotionally and mentally abused by her owners at the mansion. She never felt beautiful in her skin and cannot look at herself in the mirror. So in a twisted way, she sees Paracelsus' "attraction" to her blood as some sort of affection.

In a symbiotic sense, ABA found company in Paracelsus, while the demon feeds off on her blood as fuel to protect them both. He had to keep a close eye on the girl, for she holds to key to his freedom. He cannot use the key for himself because it was blessed and it'll burn him if he touches it.

Paracelsus doesn't want to admit that he finds ABA's meekness endearing. Whenever she wanted ask about something she didn't know (she grew up in a small town that has nothing to offer, and her master wouldn't let her out of the mansion), Paracelsus was glad to fill her with knowledge.

He finds ABA's curiosity to be charming as well, but it comes with him protecting her from impending danger. The girl was reckless at times.

Soon he found himself enchanted at the girl's pure hearted nature. He fears that his influence may corrupt her one day and tries his best to shield her from his bloodthirsty intentions.

ABA naively asked Paracelsus if they could marry. He flatly said no, but she kept trying lol

[pynkhues]

I kept thinking about how much Louis bases his worth on money and work and realized that he never really experienced poverty. He was well-off as a human, he struggled briefly in Paris but since he got with Armand he pretty much lived the life of a luxury lmao. Nothing comparing to the poverty that Lestat and and Armand experienced. Ngl, l was a little dissapointed when it turned out that Louis took everything in divorce. There's a line in iwtw when he was like: he could make me kill children but not part with my money, so what would it take to make Louis willingly part with his money? Can you ever take the capitalist out of him? I really wanted to see him living in a hovel wearing rags like he did at certain point in the books not live that rich capitalistic lifestyle lmao, but I don't think we gonna see it :(

Mm, he never experienced poverty per se, no, at least not in the way Armand, Lestat and Claudia all have, but I think Louis' relationship with money is very complicated, in no small part because money is used against him as a form of racial violence when he's a young man in New Orleans.

I've talked about it on here a couple of times now, but I've been doing a lot of research lately on the culture of money for a project that I'm working on, because it's systemic failures to understand that money is not an objective thing, but something that wields enormous social power, that allows for financial abuse to happen. While I'm researching it specifically through a domestic violence lens, there's a lot of crossover with that when it comes to racism and government failures in acknowledging how money is used to further entrench not just inequity, but racial violence (I've actually been particularly researching dowry and remittance abuse too, which is fascinating and uniquely awful [not dowries and remittance payments themselves, but the way they can be weaponised particularly in culturally blind systems like we have in Australia]).

The first few episodes are extremely clear that Louis' experiences as a professional man have been limited by his race, but they're also clear that he's a victim of financial abuse by white society men who'd pay him a fraction of his worth in exchange for a seat at the table they clearly don't think he belongs at. This is pretty much said explicitly at the card game scene in 1.01 (and not really here nor there for this post, but I think a vital point of connection in that Lestat sees this for what it is and maintains the ruse while helping Louis to cheat a game that's rigged against him).

Louis swallows it because he's ambitious, yes, but also because he's the sole provider left in his family given nobody else in his family has the want or capacity to work.

We don't know the entire situation with his father's sugar plantation, but the implication is that it wasn't in good shape when he died, which is a part of the reason Louis became a pimp. He needed to make money to keep his family not just financially secure, but thriving, but at the same time, Louis' desire to earn is, in my opinion, about more than just personal ambition and providing, it's about social power, autonomy and independence. For him, money is symbolically something that was used to keep him low and to keep him out of what he knew he deserved, and I don't really think that's changed for him. He uses it to buy what he wants, yes, in art and interviews and blood donors, but it's also I think about having social power over the society that once exercised repressive and racist power over him.

I think the version of the character we get on the show would never give that up, and honestly, I wouldn't want him to? I think thematically it's too important now as it's tied inherently to Louis having both options and autonomy, and I don't really like the implications for his character about what it'd mean to give it all up.

As for Armand - we don't actually know if he ends up with nothing post-s2. Yes, Louis keeps the Dubai apartment and kicks Armand out, but I kind of assume they'll have done some sort of asset split (although I do imagine Louis will take most of it, because of his association with money and power). Given how rich they seemed to be, I imagine even if Armand does get a fraction of what Louis keeps, it'd probably still be an eye-watering amount of money, haha.

[zeep-xanflorp]

ok i'm just gonna ramble ab unmortricken bc i have exactly ZERO COHERENT THOUGHTS AB IT

evil morty backstory - i rlly like that they just made him some random morty who rose above everything after getting sick of rick's abuse. it makes what he did feel even more earned and weighty. i think his motivation is a bit extreme still but i can't rlly blame him.

it's cool seeing infinity beyond the central finite curve. the jetsons inspired bit was v amusing bc i forgot about them lmao. but otherwise it seems absolutely wild west beyond the curve and i LIVE for that.

i also didnt imagine that we'd be seeing him again. i thought the way he left the show was perfect and if they brought him back it would just feel cheap but it DOESNT in this episode i love his appearance.

i rlly like seeing our morty be supportive of rick. he's literally trying everything to cheer him up and it's very important to me.

the prime decoys confuse me. like do they all share a consciousness? is prime just very very good at fucking with ppl that he's made all the decoys communicate w each other?

evil morty outsmarting rick is a great recurring theme in the episode. "filter for probability stasis" YEAH U TELL HIM LITTLE DUDE. we've never seen a morty like that EXCEPT for him and i think it's wonderful.

the exchange between rick and evil morty. "you're such a narcissist" / "literal glass house" / "you think you're better than me?" / "jesus i HOPE SO" SHITTING

i didnt initially like the decoy trap thing being full of loads of other ricks. it made me feel like our rick wasn't very important to this dude and rick just made an enemy of a guy who didn't know he existed. BUT i don't stand by that anymore. the rest of the episode made me change my mind very quickly with.

the omega device. holy fuck this is the worst reveal to come out of this episode. she wasn't just killed, she was ERASED by prime in every reality. like she is GONE gone. that's why we've never seen her, save in flashbacks and memories. she's gone.

and i'm pretty sure it's our rick's fault that he did that. we see his beth and his diane be killed by a bomb, not wiped from reality like slo mobius is later in the episode. so his family was killed BEFORE all the shit with the omega device. ik correlation ≠ causation, but it rlly explains why our rick in particular is so hungry for revenge. if he was the one that made prime kill diane everywhere then he had to be the one to make prime pay for it.

i like how the multiple monitors seems to be prime's signature move. it happens here and in the s6 premiere.

and oh fuck the parallels. "when i invent something it works, it's called being talented" in story train vs "when i make a weapon in works."

oh man the diane head weapon thing. it's interesting that it was programmed to mock rick sexually, but even on our rick who knows it's a trap, it still affects him seeing her face again. "god i missed that face." and then the blank stare when she asks for a kiss. pretty sweet and fucked up.

rick and evil morty having to work together to get their portals working. the contrast between our morty freaking out and evil morty blank staring.

the bit with the portal closing too soon. i know it happened earlier this season and i think it's so funny lmao.

I CANNOT STRESS TO YOU ENOUGH THAT I WAS SO MADE WHEN I WORKED OUT THAT INSTEAD OF YELLING WHILE GOING THROUGH THE CURVE THING IN THE MIDFLE OF THE EP HE WAS SCREAMING "PRIME" THOSE DIABOLICAL LITTLE BASTARDS AT ADULT SWIM.

prime calling rick the Wife Guy. hilarious. raises questions. makes me gnaw on my cell bars.

AND THEN the second incredible reveal of the episode: "Honestly, Wife Guy, I do miss when it was just us. The only two Ricks who actually invented portal travel." WHAT bestie prime bby girl u need to say that again. you guys were the ONLY ones who invented interdimensional travel, every rick's claim to fame. but no they just got the technology from prime who started a boys club of ricks who wanted to leave their lives behind that our rick refused.

but the reference to a time when they were closer, when it was only them - HELLO?? maybe i'm grasping at straws bc i want them to bang but holy shit.

the confirmation of the fan theory that rick based his AI voice on his wife. 10/10.

and then the fight scene. oh gods the fight scene. rick just screaming that he'll kill prime. prime regenerating constantly, looking unscathed as our rick becomes more and more dishevelled. it's too perfect i CANT. but otherwise they both seem pretty evenly matched w all the implants and stuff so without the regeneration i think rick would've had him. oh well.

rick like literally died during the fight.

the cool grandson/shitty grandpa exchange gives me breath. i LOVE how it's a morty that outsmarts prime. it's what he deserves.

prime still trying to be a smartass to evil morty, growing more and more panicked as it goes on bc he doesn't know what to do with the situation and control for once is not in his hands.

"what are u gonna 'aw geez' me to death?"

evil morty not even explaining his plan, just silently dragging in our rick and reviving him. saying "knock yourself out" with the intended double meaning. prime's almost scared expression as rick gets dragged in.

and then our rick has a choice. he can stop evil morty from keeping the weapon plans or he can kill prime. but that's a choice he made already. it's not even a decision. so his other enemy gets away.

the brutal brutal scene at the end when rick is just hitting prime. no tech, no implants, no gadgets. just fists. and rick beats him literally to a pulp as prime screams and laughs at him and taunts him further. it's meant to be sickening. it's meant to be personal. and it accomplishes that perfectly.

they don't even show prime's body in great detail. it's RIGHT in the background but we heard the sounds of the punches, we saw his nose break and his bloody teeth and haemorrhaging eyes and his brains coming out the side of it head and all we can make out is his fucked up swollen and broken face in the background as he sits still attached to the chair, a river of his blood pouring from the room.

but its not triumphant. they made rick's revenge hollow and bittersweet. its over but it destroyed rick in the process. who is he now that he isn't hunting prime? fucking no one.

then "look on down from the bridge" starts playing. we heard this in season 1 in rick potion #9 after morty had to bury a version of himself. he was struggling with the purpose of his life after switching universes. but he deals with it and overcomes it.

i think that scene is rick, for the first time in the entire show, struggling with his nihilistic philosophy. bc yes, he's shown to be an existentialist in the show (the difference being existentialists are "nothing matters but this matters to me" instead of "nothing matters so i don't have to do anything"). he had a drive. he had ppl he cared about. but now he's reached his goal he just feels empty and hollow. everything's meaningless and he's NOT okay with that. he never has been, but he has to grapple with that finally now he doesn't have a distraction. i don't think he can just bounce back and move past what happened.

ppl are saying this episode felt overstuffed and maybe it was but i'm very pleased with it and want to know where it's going.

i feel we still don't know the full story with prime. i'm predicting a flash back episode in the future explaining what the nature of their relationship was like before the bomb incident.

we also know that evil morty has this weapon that could destroy all ricks. so that is just a ticking bomb.

anyway i can't wait for angsty rick.

i actually watched unforgiven for this episode bc i'm a big fan of westerns anyway. the only real parallels i can see is they both have a group of three (two are already partners and the other one is the call to adventure) and an unsatisfying ending. bc that's the nature of westerns. they should NEVER end happily, and if u think so then ur wrong (/nsrs enjoy media how u want).

some things i haven't mentioned but enjoyed nonetheless

the schematics for the omega device is titled <SCHEMATICS BOOGER-AIDS-V2>

the arm/leg swap best in the fight

the comparison between the song at the end playing here and in season one shows with just visuals how the dynamic of beth and jerry's (and beth's) marriage has evolved since then.

everyone freaking out when indiana jones rick shoots and it ricochets off the wall and evil morty just stands expressionless until it hits his forcefield.

morty going to hug rick covered in blood, realising, hesitating, and then doing it later anyway to try and make rick feel better.

evil morty making a point to say that he doesn't want vengeful summers coming after him for omega devicing rick. not vengeful mortys, vengeful SUMMERS.

just evil morty in this whole episode was an absolute delight i need to see him more.

THE TEAR MARKS AFTER RICK EMERGES FROM BEATING PRIME TO DEATH

slo mobius' wife almost going down the same path our rick did only to find someone she loves and focus on that, saving her. makes me wonder if they're gonna try putting rick in a relationship.

this ended up being way longer than it should have. anyway. very pleased. this season is hitting all the marks for me overall.

also don't be too hard on me i didnt edit this 😭

[transthadymacdermot]

WIP intro: Brave Boys of Renown

Genre: horror, political fiction, kind of histfic but idk if you would really classify it as that lmao

Setting: Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1974

Warnings: this is, at its core, an extremely dark and pessimistic story about paramilitaries cannibalising people. if this puts you off in any way block the tag. it is also about child abuse, classism, colonialism, and the top ten most unsanitary commercial kitchens + none of the characters are in any way good or even mostly tolerable people. once again this is mostly just a personal catharsis story for me so I will be writing whatever I want and if it isn't for you then settings > account > filtered tags > "wip: bbor"

Synopsis

Lazarus McClure's day is already going pretty badly, but even after everything that's already happened accidentally hitting and killing someone with his car represents a serious escalation. Faced with the prospect of years spent in prison for what looks like yet another contribution to Northern Ireland's already years-long civil war, he makes what is of course the only logical decision available to him: forcing the only witness, a bystander by the name of Brendan Breen, into the car with him, and driving him and the body back to the chip shop which represents Lazarus' livelihood -- a place where, shall we say, no one will notice another body. But Lazarus has no idea how to dispose of it in a way that definitely won't trace back to him. He even considers turning himself in. And then Brendan, who works part-time as a butcher, cleverly noticing that they are currently in a room full of meat mincers and fryers, offers, in exchange for his freedom, to provide a solution...

Inspired in many ways by my own family history (NOT INCLUDING THE EATING PEOPLE. LET ME CLEAR THAT UP NOW) and an inability to stop thinking about politics ever. I will say rn that the cannibalism present in the story is used almost wholly as a horror aspect and is. how do I say this. basically if you're looking for cannibalism-as-desire this piece will disappoint you. however, if you're looking for cannibalism as a metaphor for colonialism, capitalism, the British aristocracy, power imbalance within relationships, and [insane person voice] the underrepresentation of any non-England place within the UK parliament, this will likely appeal to you slightly more <3

[that-starry-freak]

Ahhh yes, the "I Can Fix Them" au

Genuinely just a comfort au where I play with relationships and things. The actually story/plot of the au isn't too important. There is one tho!! Thats what this post is for, and for exploring some of the relationships in the au!

The au mostly follows Canon up until around Solar being brought back (though there is already kind of an established qpr between solar and Nexus that was disrupted by solar's death and Nexus becoming a villain, but yknow-)

After Solar is brought back, immediately is worried about Nexus. He ends up getting closer with Moon, but he is working on a way to help Nexus. 

He does end up finding him. But he can tell something is wrong as he talks to him, and nothing he says helps. So, he starts panicking, and does the one thing he can think of: kisses him.

AND IT WORKS?? (True loves kiss lmao)

no one knows how to this day, but for some reason the virus in Nexus just breaks when he kisses him and Nexus is free. Of course he feels so so bad for everything he did, and cries for awhile in Solar's arms till he passes out. Solar takes him home, and the family is very apprehensive of Nexus being back in the family, but they eventually warm back up to him (starting with Sun). Moon hates him still, though him and Solar are friends. Soemthing Nexus HATES, but it's mutual because Moon hate state Solar and Nexus are now dating (how yeah and they started dating)

On top of this, but Eclipse has to move out of the dimension because of Solar. So he goes to another dimension and moves into an apartment with Puppet and works as security for a small fazbear's pizza (yeah were saying fuck you to eaps i don't have the energy to watch it 😔)

Nexus and Solar are grateful for bringing Solar back. Nexus visits him quite a bit, ectopically cause he was the one who talked Earth into forgiving Nexus, so he's even more grateful. The two end up getting close, and Solar and Eclipse exchange letters a lot. But they can't actually see each other.

Solar and Nexus realizing they're both falling for Eclipse.

Yada yada it all ends up fine and Eclipse gets a new signature and they all can kiss now 👍

They are all healing and things, cause oh my god they're all SO FUCKED UPPPP

There's also probably stuff going on with Dark Sun, I havnt gotten that far yet. Idk what happens to him after Nexus is save.d he probably just disappears for awhile and Nexus jumps every time he sees Sun, because he was abused a lot by Dark Sun.

Nexus honestly isn't that close with Sun, less than before. Moon doesn't want him around Sun, and Nexus doesn't like looking at him because it makes him think of Dark Sun.

Monty dies idgaf. Bitch dies, Moon realizes how much of a bitch he is and hat he isn't good for Earth and confronts him and Monty tries to fight him and Moon kills him. No more Monty <3 (second au I've killed off Monty now)

Lunar isn't the biggest fan of Nexus but he gives him a second chance. He hates that he's dating Eclipse tho.

Moon eventually starts warming up to Eclipse. And Nexus, though that takes longer.

Uh- Sun and Bloodmoon are in a qpr- yeah-

Qpr blood/sun:

They met after [insert dead brothers name here] died. The remaining bloodmoon brother was incredibly vulnerable and terrified without counterpart. Sun, against his better judgment, reached out with help to them. They were suspicious at first, but eventually accepted.

They grew closer and the twin practically became like a cat to Sunny. They slept in his bed with him, and was by his side often. The family repeatedly asked if they were dating, but they denied it each time, sometimes even seeming kind of grossed out by it. Cause they weren't dating, it was a lot more complicated than that

Eventually Eclipse helps and they figure out how to bring back the dead twin. They Are… unsure, at first. So much as changed since they're death, and him and their twin were still separated… and the person who killed their original virus was so close with their brother? It was an uncomfortable situation, but they ended up becoming comfortable with it too, though wasn't as docile as their counterpart, much more talkative, talking for their twin usually

Eclipse/solar/nexus:

If you know you know. I won't say more here, but-

https://www.tumblr.com/that-starry-freak/760369555440861184/okay-wow-uhm-this-is-my-rant-about-eclipse-x?source=share

Solar and Moon:

God they're beasties. Bffs. It makes Nexus really insecure, but they're still friends. They talk about their Suns and their inventions and things. Sometimes they'll just quietly work together cause they're both bad at talking

They mostly avoid the topic of Nexus and Eclipse cause Moon can't stand them, but once Moon accidentally slipped an insult/a bit of shit talking and Solar just snapped. And yelled at Moon about how he should empathize with Nexus. He stormed off after. 

Later he tried to anxiously apologize to Moon but he just reassure him that he was right, and tried his best to give Nexus a bit more of a 2nd chance

Solar once, as a prank, painted an aroace flag on the entirety of one of the walls of Moon's room with washable paint. It took forever to get off and Moon made Solar do it. Eclipse was laughing the entire time both at the prank and his bf lmao.

Anyway yeah they're stupid antisocial nerd beasties

Silly and sad au

[crossroadsghost]

fargo s5 details i have noticed on rewatch:

-munch's differences in body language/behavior/violence around men vs around women is so pronounced and tangible when you pay attention. even when he's supposed to be helping abduct dot, he hands the hammer off to donald instead of wielding it himself, and the only time in the rest of those scenes he ever touches her is when she's at the bottom of the stairs and he goes to pick her up. he kills the guard outside roy's house, but doesn't lay a finger on karen or the twins when he goes into their room. i can't actually think of any time he's violent towards women.

-munch's blood type is mentioned to be O negative, which is universal donor. fitting for a sin eater to have blood that can be exchanged to save anyone.

-sam spruell has such long eyelashes

-at the scene where ole munch is waiting at the gas station to kill gator's partner, the final lyrics of "this is halloween" to play are "i am the one hiding under your bed, teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red/i am the one hiding under your stairs, fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair." given the visual emphasis on ole's teeth and hands, i assume it's meant to be a comparison to him

-one of the street signs dot rearranges is named nylund circle. rose nylund from the golden girls is supposed to be from minnesota. whether it was intentional or not, it made me giggle.

-subtitles say ole munch's original name was bryn.

-the symbol on ole munch's chest during his ritual looks like the Peorð/ᛈ symbol from the elder futhark, a rune that has unknown meaning. the rest of the symbols shown are invented, so this could be a coincidence.

-"ring the door bell pretending to be trick or treaters and grab whoever answers" is literally how they catch santa in the nightmare before christmas movie. i'm still not sure what they were driving at with so many TNBC references in this season.

-there's gotta be a reason danish has one eye and lorraine's husband is named wink, but i don't know what that reason is.

-crack theory time: danish is wayne's real father. wink is so busy drinking and playing with models he would never notice. danish refers to wayne as slugger, and wayne refers to scotty as slugger, which implies something. it would also explain some of danish's emotional investment in the family and willingness to try to save dot with or without permission from lorraine--it's not only lorraine's feelings he cares about. and it's only after lorraine finds out that danish disappeared on the ranch that she decides to go full tilt against roy--she wasn't willing to go that far for dot, but she is for danish? maybe this isn't a crack theory at all actually.

-donald trump in the chat on roy's livestream lmao

-it feels like the dugout is meant to be a metaphor for . . . violence? trauma? manhood, patriarchy? okay i'm not exactly sure, but it's where munch performs the ritual, where witt dies, where gator has to pass through to get home and injures himself as he goes, it's where roy escapes to and says, "my destiny is at the other end of that tunnel." there's some significance to it.

-i don't adhere to the theory that the ending is a dream/delusion/afterlife/whatever, but if it is, i think it starts in the moment when the fbi rolls up on dot as she's about to kill roy, not in the backseat of the fbi vehicle. IF i supported this theory i would say they shot dot and killed her because she was holding the gun, and everything after is unreal. but i don't really support that theory to begin with, so eh.

-lorraine occupies the same metaphorical-and-literal narrative space as munch, of being a device of debts paid and owed, of use and abuse through the concept of debt, but she exists at the other end of the scale. she represents the eternal "ruling class" in both a literal and metaphorical sense, just as munch represents an eternal "oppressed class" in both a literal and metaphorical sense; he is forced to take on the debts of others because he's powerless, lorraine claims the debts of others to be empowered by them. i don't think we're meant to see her as a redeemed girlboss; she's supposed to be an implacable force of nature, and sometimes awful people like roy get swept up in that tide too, but that doesn't mean she's on anyone's side but her own. it's just that now she sees dot as "belonging" to her, and she protects what belongs to her.

-when they're praying at the dinner table and the prayer ends munch does not let go of dot's hand; she has to pull her hand away from his. thisisfine.jpg

-a charting of ole munch's life: we know he was born in wales, but uses a scandinavian name and mentions crossing the sea in longboats. vikings did know how to travel by water from scandinavia to greenland to canada, but they had basically stopped doing this completely by the 1500s; idk if we're meant to believe ole hitched a ride on an ill fated expedition or what, but technically they did know how to get there, they just had given up on attempting to colonize it, so the timeline is a little wonky there. regardless of that, the indigenous groups he mentions are the cree, arapaho and tonkawa, which were primarily in canada, colorado, and oklahoma, respectively. judging by this, he left wales and traveled north to adopt a new identity in scandinavia (sin eaters were treated as pariahs in their communities, so that's presumably why he left), then at some point sailed across to canada, then traveled west across canada, then south through colorado, then on to oklahoma. the tonkawa were forced south into texas in the 1700s, but then were relocated back to oklahoma later; during the civil war they were heavily massacred, so it could be that is what he's referring to when he talks about "the cannons and the muskets," but the timeline on when he actually lived with them is wobbly too. it's all kinda vague and the timeline is a little weird but not unfeasible.

-all throughout the final scenes, ole refuses to eat or drink anything the lyons give him- he doesn't actually drink either the orange soda or the beer wayne gives him, and when he's describing the "sins of the rich," he pushes his untouched plate of chili away without tasting it. like maybe he's convinced this is all a big trick; that the last time people brought him into their home and gave him a plate of food, it condemned him. ergo, the biscuit is more than just a gesture of forgiveness from dot; for him, taking a bite was also a gesture of trust in her. ow oof my heart.

[lassieposting]

Might be a bit sick but in retrospect, Skulduggery telling Omen he had “disagreements” with his father (or did he say this to Valkyrie? Don’t care not checking) is the most understated hilarious possible fucking way of describing “oh my dad fucking murdered my mother and turned half my siblings pure evil and we had to give him a kicking like the bomb gave hiroshima and chain him up in a magic coffin and jail him in an alternate dimension as an exchange prisoner with a tyrannical god-king because he was too powerful to even consider killing”

Like lmao. “Disagreements” give me a break

—

In his defence, this is one of the few times where Skug is actually incredibly diplomatic. There’s a few reasons for this:

1. The obvious one: Omen is a kid. More than that, Omen is a lame kid, whose entire life experience at that point is Being Fat, Being Lame, and Sitting In Maths Class. He would have no point of reference for how to react to something as viscerally horrifying as my father murdered my mother. That would be a wildly age-inappropriate story for Skug to tell him - so much so that even Skug knows it. 

2. The other obvious one: all the Abrogate bullshit would be a very painful, very personal, very old wound for Skug. No way in hell would he want to open it for the benefit of this boy he barely knows. Yes, he’s prone to dropping inappropriate stories out of nowhere, but most of the time it’s because they’re either relevant to what’s happening around them, or he doesn’t realise they’re inappropriate, because he’s messed up, and his upbringing was messed up, and his concept of what’s normal is decidedly skewed as a result. 

And 3. The one I think actually occurred to him at the time: Omen is a child with an abusive home and parents who have a hardcore golden child/scapegoat dynamic. Omen is a child who has spent his entire life being overshadowed by and negatively compared to whatshisface, the brother. And in this moment, Omen is a child who is - tentatively - reaching out to someone he sees as a Safe Adult. He’s testing the water to see how Skug reacts to a relatively minor disclosure, because he - Omen - isn’t sure whether he really is just disappointing and useless, or whether he’s justified in feeling neglected and badly treated. 

Skug also came from an abusive home, was also the family scapegoat, and at some point probably dropped the same kind of hints to Ghastly’s parents. He would know how important it is that he react correctly, because it would be so easy at this point to make Omen feel like he can’t open up to anyone about his home life again. 

And “Yeah, well, my father murdered my mother, we’ve all got problems,” would be a spectacular way to make sure he never brings up his family issues again. It would be overshadowing his pain, putting him in the same position he’s been pushed into by his parents all his life. It would be saying your suffering doesn’t matter because I had it worse. 

And Skug is a lot of bad things, but he’s not deliberately cruel to people who don’t deserve it. He’s kind to Peg Muldoon, he’s kind to Scaramouche van Dreg, he’s kind to Scapegrace - all people who could have reasonably been handled with violence or cruelty. So he’s absolutely not going to choose nastiness with this boy. 

He says: I liked my mother. I think I might have even loved my mother. I had disagreements with my father. In the same conversation, he tells Omen that parents should love their children, and that it’s not Omen’s fault that his don’t. 

That’s. A very carefully-worded way of putting it. He’s chosen words that will seem, to Omen, to mimic his own situation. He’s saying I understand what you’re trying to tell me. He’s saying I see how they treat you and I don’t approve. He’s validating what Omen has been through as the scapegoat child, and telling him it’s not okay. He’s giving Omen an ally - an adult who sees the Darkly parents’ behaviour, isn’t okay with it, and isn’t afraid of them. Basically, he’s trying to give Omen the kind of support that Ghastly’s parents probably once gave him when he was in Omen’s position. 

And for that, Omen doesn’t need to know how much worse Skug had it. He just needs to know that a) Skug survived it, and b) someone he has a lot of respect for has confirmed that the way his parents treat him is Not Okay. It’s really quite a startling amount of tact and empathy for someone who is so, so damaged, and this is probably the closest we get to seeing how he likely behaved with his own child. 

(It is a hilarious understatement, though. Good job, buddy.)

[aphicelend]

OC - Profile

Sigurdur Borchgrevink

24 y.o | 1.73 cm | Feb 28th | ISTP | Chaotic Evil

Story - ❤️‍🩹 North

⚠️ TW: S.A.

🧸 Oc Masterlist

---

Manipulator | Impulsive | Aggressive | Emotional

Sigurdur is a complicated guy, he can go from calm to violent for nothing. Sigurdur acts according to his own interests, is kind when it suits him, and has contempt for authority figures. He hates his older brother, he blames him for everything bad that happened. He usually plays the victim, everyone is to blame except him, He enjoys making his brother and Christian feel bad by blaming them.

About him

Born in Sweden, Sig is the second son of the Borchgrevink family. Their family moved to Copenhagen when he was 4.

Not much later, his father abandoned them, Sig's mother became mentally unstable and began to beat her children, Erik, his older brother tried to protect him from the blows.

On one occasion the woman threatened Sigurdur with a knife, Erik intervened so that she would not hurt him, In the struggle, Erik ended up stabbing his mother in the chest by accident, killing her instantly.

Later, Erik and Sigurdur left their home, their mother buried in the backyard. They were looking for a better life, until they came across a young man, Ulrik, who offered them shelter in exchange for working for him.

Sig and Erik found a new "family" with other guys living there under Ulrik's control. Erkki and Lennart were other kids living there. They often argued about money, Erik worked so that he and Sig could stay there, Lennar worked so that Erkki could be there too.

Long short story, one day they had a discussion, Ulrik threatened Erik with a knife but Sig put between them and then Ulrik hurt Sig.

Sig ran away, and then things happened.

When he came back to the house he wasn't the same. Neither Ulrik, now Christian.

His story it's too long so I'm gonna cut things.

Now

After an incident where Sig almost kills his brother 🫡, he's now recovering. But I wanna ruin him more so I'll prob make him suffer later. Kinda did him a redemption arc but I like him being a shitty person 😀

Cool bug facts

He was my version of 2p Iceland, I made him on 2013 lmao

He was? On a relationship with Ulrik/Christian (Sig was abusive with him)

He likes to manipulate his brother 💘 they did things

Dom Bottom

He's bi but he despises labels and such

He's blind of his right eye

He has BPD and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital

After leaving the hospital he devoted himself to studying plastic arts.

He fell in love with his psychiatrist 🫡

Unemployed

Used to do drugs (he always made his brother worry about him)

He used to get into trouble at school, once he stabbed a classmate and he was sent to reformatory

He harms himself and deals with his condition poorly

I love you and I hate you Sig...my baby girl with a disorder.....

My edgy boy but I love him so much, as much as Misaki they're important to me 🗣️

Prob gonna hide his profile later LMAO

Gallery

They blonde guy is Ulrik/Christian he was the 2p Denmark of a friend when we used to rp back then :3

[tsams-au-confessions]

Ok finally I'm not too tired to dive a bit into the lore I'm giving the silly horses

I'll probably start off with the smaller parts of the lore since it's a whole mess at this point lol

So Sun and Moon had come across Misty (Earth) when the three were very young, and they took her in as their sister. Beetle (Eclipse) and Silkworm (Lunar) are brothers and grew up in the Changeling Hive, didnt meet Sun and Moon until they were all adults. Crimson, Scarlet (Bloodmoon Twins), Flare, and Night (KC) live in the Badlands, where they live in this giant ass cave system and dont usually leave it. Emerald (Monty) is a dragon that lives in ponyville and owns a golf course. Dim (Solar) lives in ponyville and works as a Mechanic, and was later adopted into the main family. Castor and Pollux are the main Alicorn siblings and live in Canterlot. And Abnormality (Ruin) lives in the Everfree Forest. But Abnormality isnt important rn

Lore time. This is gonna be a pain to summarize LMAO

(Warning for anyone who isnt a big fan of verbal and physical abuse. As well as limb loss and head trauma since theres a moment of that too)

Basically, Sun, Moon, Misty, and Emerald just lived a normal life until Beetle and Silkworm came along. Sun and Moon got captured and locked away in some underground labyrinth cave system, and the two changelings took over their lives, disguising themselves as Sun and Moon. This entire arc being reference to the October takeover. Emerald convinces Silkworm to stop working with Beetle after Beetle proves that he would hurt Silkworm to get what he wants. Silkworm helps Emerald and Misty locate Sun and Moon, and all of them fight Beetle and get rid of him for good. Or so they thought <3

Beetle later conjured up a plan to absolutely fuck up Suns life. For context: Batponies in this au are able to bite other ponies and turn them into batponies as well. So basically Beetle convinces Crimson and Scarlet to attack Sun when hes flying a bit after dark, in exchange he would give them food. They agreed and didnt really care all that much because they literally have never met Sun or Beetle before this, but they'd do anything for free food. They bite Sun, and now Sun has to deal with the problem of turning into a batpony at night. Moon would've absolutely come up with a cure for it if Sun had told him what happened, but he refused to tell anyone, so he had to deal with that problem alone. Beetle then disguised himself as Sun and taunted Sun when he was alone, causing Sun to think he was going crazy and hallucinating due to stress. The constant taunting, as well as the whole batpony thing (and having to get used to a bloodlust like the twins have). Beetle later got him to start killing other ponies, and Sun just went completely off the rails after that, and got stuck as a batpony entirely. So he didnt switch back to a pegasus when the sun came up anymore, and he ran away from home right after that happened

After like. A month of this, Dim was wandering around one night looking for Sun, and caught Sun in the act of killing someone. He tried to fly away, but Sun very quickly tackled him and ripped one of his wings off, so flying away wasnt an option anymore. He severely injured Dim and just assumed he had killed him, but he didnt. He then turned on Beetle, and attacked him as well. The main injury he received from that was getting his head knocked into a tree that made him fall unconscious. Sun then left the scene after that, luckily for Dim, Misty was searching in the general area that he was too, and found him and Beetle (who was still disguised as Sun, so she thought he was Sun) and were able to help them both recover from that. Tragically she could not help Dim with his wing though

So now Misty, Moon, Emerald, Dim, and Stormy (Silkworms new name) were all living with Beetle again and have absolutely no idea

This won't be my last ask abt this au cuz it's not the end of the lore dump, I just need a break from typing it lol

The lore dump...it gives me LIFE 😩

[hushpadart]

Lil watercolor thing of my OC Maggie. One of these days I'm going to actually draw in detail what's going on with her teeth. Best way I can describe it is she looks like a vampire with hyperdontia. She has too many teeth, and most of them are sharp. I will also eventually actually draw her curly hair and not half ass it lmao

Maggie is a haint but didn't start off that way. Her story is not a happy one, but she's content with her existence now.

Tw: murder, violence, mentions of bigotry, racism, homophobia, transphobia, stalking (all of the mentions of bigotry are in regards to people she targets, and she was the one doing the stalking in her quest for vengeance after a great crime had been committed against her)

She was born a human girl in the late 19th century to a well off if not rich family, and a man in some position of power(maybe a politician or lawyer or owner of a big company) who was secretly hella crooked and corrupt courted and married her. It wasn't until after they were married that she began to see what kind of person he really was, and at some point her parents died in a "mysterious accident", leaving their money and property to her. She had a strong feeling her husband was responsible for their deaths and after some discreet investigation, she found she was right, but before she could even go to the police, her husband killed her too. However, her ghost stuck around, angry and wanting revenge but unable to do anything about it... Until something much stronger and of a darker nature than herself found her and offered her the power to avenge herself and anyone else who had been harmed by people like her husband(that is, people who can fool others into believing they're decent folks so they can get what they want, but on the inside their soul is rotted through with greed, hate, bigotry, cruelty, machiavellianism etc) in exchange for service. She gained the ability to see into people's minds and souls and judge for herself if they were corrupt enough to deserve death by her hand. She mainly targets corrupt politicians and police, people who seem like the nicest folks you'll ever meet in the daylight but put on a white hood at night, cult leaders, people who claim to love everyone as their god loves them but will abuse and shun and throw out their own children for being gay or trans.

Of course her first victim was her self-widowed husband, and she took a dramatic route with her vengeance. She started by showing up in his peripheral vision, then directly in his line of sight. Every time he saw her, she was dressed in what she'd been wearing when he killed her, but she'd disappear within a few seconds after he saw her, until he started to wonder if he was losing his mind. Then she started standing outside his house at night, knocking and scratching on the doors and windows and occasionally calling his name. She'd stalk him out in public, making sure nobody but him could see her, and when she was ready to strike, she allowed him to shoot her so he would think he was safe when she went down, but then she got back up and said, "You done killed me once, you can't do it again, honey," before tearing him apart. She ate most of his corpse but took his heart back to where she'd met the being that had given her the power to do this and left the heart as an offering, and she would leave the hearts of future victims as offerings as well.

Her power grew over many years, and she eventually grew strong enough to break away from the being that had given her power, and now serves herself and the hunger for vengeance that still boils within her soul. She can be injured and even incapacitated if you know how to do it, but she can't be killed because as long as one person still walks this earth carrying the same kind of corruption that killed her, she will also be walking this earth seeking their blood. She can sleep to recuperate if she gets tired or uses too much energy, but she can never truly rest. Still, she's content with the way she exists now, and she's even made friends with another haint woman with a similar story to her own and the other haint woman's companion, both of whom will be posted in the near future.

[composeregg]

The like 3 things I know about WWX (notably this does not include 'the title of the thing he is from') strongly suggest to me that he is what you'd get if an artsy imperial twink had Dying Victorian Woman Disorder. Would you say this characterization is accurate?

okay this sent me into a coughing fit from laughing thank u genuinely

so that is like, not quite his characterization but I can super see where u got that from lol

He's from the danmei novel (and donghua by the same name) Mo Dao Zu Shi/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. (Also the manhua and the live action Untamed exist too)

Think more like playful michief maker turned insomniac sleep deprived (slightly mad) scientist inventor who got inflicted with disease of anger issues and necromancy powers (via LOTS of trauma!)

[chierry]

hi chierry! i’m currently reading khr and i wanna talk about it with someone but why do you think tyl-tsuna confided his plans to hibari when he didn’t even tell gokudera and yamamoto? i have always found this super interesting so i wanted to ask your opinion too 🙈 (i wish he had seen more of everyone ten-years-later 😭😭😭, khr has so much potential it really pains me that it ended the way it did)

Hi anon!

My personal theory on that is that Hibari was the perfect combination of several factors that other guardians might have, but not all at once.

1. The number one reason I think is that Hibari is simply insane in the best way possible. If Yamamoto or Gokudera heard Tsuna saying he would fake his own death the plan simply would have gotten scrapped because they are NOT accepting this. And if they DID, I don't doubt that the guilt of seeinf everyone grieve Tsuna would make them REAAAALY hurt. I don't think they would reveal anything, but simply they wouldn't be able to take it without a lot of damage. Hibari tho? I am not discarting the friendship he has cultivated with everyone in the future nor his feelings, but he would take it better than Yammu/Goku.

2. Hibari is REALLY hard to get information about. Both meta-wise and canon-wise. This plan could NOT work if anyone else other than Tsuna, Irie and Hibari knew about it. Everyone in the Vongola has a semblance of a past and family to serve as possible hostages in exchange for information, but Hibari? We legit don't know if he even has family. King of keeping his private life and work life separated. Pairing that with the fact that he is also a MIST now, it's straight up miracle work to get a hold of him if he doesn't want you to. With that, Tsuna didn't have to worry about any outside influences or enemies getting this information, probably not even Tsuna himself has a fool-proof method of getting to him lmao

3. Going back to the insane point, he is insane enough and smart enough to hear the kind of time-travelling BS Irie and Tsuna came up with and just go... Fine. Give me two real good fights and I'm in. I think that Gokudera could take the infomration well, but again, emotionally he wouldn't be able to take it for too long, and let's be real, Tsuna was ALREADY abusing their feelings there. He prob also didn't want to pile up those feelings even more.

4. It's not weird for Hibari to just be on his own. Wich means that he can be prepping A LOT of shit for this plan and nobody would suspect. Let's say, Yamamoto is missing for 4 months? Mh, weird... not out of the question considering their line of work but weird. Hibari missing for 8 months? Lil rascal is prob in one of his many mansions chilling. I feel like this privacy gives him an edge that is perfect for prepping for a super-secret plan with little suspicion.

5. (SPOILERS FOR SIMON ARC) Hibari has said he feels some kind of gratitude for Tsuna, and I don't doubt that this feeling grows in the future. Paired with all that above, I feel like Tsuna just legit felt like if Hibari was the one helping with it, he wouldn't fuck it up. That mutual trust thing going on you know?

6. uh this point is kind of stupid but he probably has counting on Hibari being able to go full-on nuclear in case everything else failed lmao

7. I think that, meta-wise, Amano wanted to show that Hibari, for as much as he denies being part of the group, still very much got attached to being a Guardian.

TLDR: I think that the emotional pain it would bring other guardians + his aloofness + his power + his relationship with Tsuna was the perfect storm to make him be the perfect choice.

(and don't tell me, I would legit kill for a future-only arc!! I LOVE LOVE seeing them grow and a good chunk of my mental space is dedicated for thinking the kind of adventures they go now. Like, please, the angst? the relationships? THE POWERS? THE A N GS T you have no idea how right you are anon. We were robbed of an arc of them being adults and I will forever cry obver the potential

[writefasttalkevenfaster]

John Munch / Simple

Prompt: “Suck it” “oh i’m gonna suck something” 

Word Count: 3,887 

Warnings: canon typical situations and violence, discussion of rape (non-graphic), hurt/comfort apparently, fin and munch are literally some of my fav characters to write for lmao, some discussion of the psych evals from 1x22

A/N: what is this? how did this happen? I don’t know - i blame @laneygthememequeen​ mostly, but also my friends for enabling me beyond belief lmao. 

“Am I allowed to come in or must I bow and show my allegiance before I am deemed worthy?” and you didn’t need to look up from your desk to know who it was. Your pen still moved, scribbling notes in the margins of the answer that was given to you by Roger Klessler — more hassle than law. 

“No need for allegiance, Detective Munch — I know you only give that to your squad and your string of conspiracy theories,” you finish with the page, sparing him a glance, “only compliance is needed — the one thing you didn’t do on the last case.” 

“Your hands aren’t exactly clean yourself, counselor,” he shuts the door behind him, slipping his hands into his pockets, “what did you do to get that warrant again?” 

You raise an eyebrow, “Are you questioning my integrity?” 

“Funny, I didn’t know lawyers had any,” 

“They don’t, but I can try, can’t I?” you lean on your elbow, “what do you need?” 

“We have a suspect in holding who just invoked, we thought they might be a little more conducive to having an A.D.A. in the box with them,” he tilted his head. 

“Alex isn’t available?” 

“Alex told us to get you,” you held in your sigh, “don’t you lawyers talk to each other?” 

“No, we communicate through telepathy,” you reply drily, grabbing your coat and bag, “Let’s go.” 

~~~

“Counselor, you should remind your client that his options are running out,” to say this meeting was going poorly would have been the understatement of the century, “and my patience is running thin.”

A serial child and women abuser — with videos abusing so many children and women over the last twenty years, videos that made your stomach turn — and to make matters worse, he had made into a business, selling these children and women and their pain for profit — and now it was time to make his pain your profit. 

“You have no evidenc—” 

“We have a witness who saw your client, we have his DNA being run against the blood that was found at the scene, and when it comes back it will match and your client will be facing life in prison—” your teeth grit,  “And I’ll be sure he gets it. Or, give up your sick buddies. And maybe you’ll have the possibility of parole in the far off future.” 

“You fucking bitch—” he spits at you. 

“Is that the best you can do?” you raise an eyebrow, as you see Munch tense out of the corner of your eye, “Mr. Bradford,  I’m not scared of you. I’m not a defenseless child or battered woman you can intimidate—” you cross your arms, “not so easy picking on someone who can fight back, is it?” 

 Bradford lunges,  but Munch shoves him back into his chair, “Do we need to add assault on an A.D.A. to your laundry list of charges, Bradford?” and you blink, slack jawed, a shiver going down your spine — if Munch was a second later— “Try that again and I’ll have you—” 

There’s a knock on the window, and your eyes snap over, “Control your client, counselor, or I’ll have him locked up in solitary,” your jaw is set — you wouldn’t give him the pleasure of seeing you waver, “the offer had 24 hours — it now has an expiration date in ten, so look forward to hearing from you in one.” 

The door shuts behind you, your fingers white knuckling the handle of your briefcase. Liv frowns, “Are you—” 

“I’m fine,” you wave them off, as Munch emerges from the room as well, “tell me when he caves to my offer. And when you’re setting up the sting to get the other guys — I want to be there to make everything go smoothly. No screw ups this time.” 

“All due respect, counselor, but we don’t need a babysitter,” Fin says. 

“All due respect, Detective, maybe you do,” you swallow the lump sitting on your throat, “we need to nail these guys — we have all of New York, 1PP, and the D.A.’s office all breathing down our necks — it needs to be airtight,” you scan all of their faces, “unless all of you would like to take the heat?” 

“I don’t think any of us want that, counselor,” Cragen cuts in, “we appreciate your help. We’ll let you know when we decide to go ahead with the sting.” 

You nod curtly, intent on leaving the precinct as quickly as you could — the image of Bradford lunging at you still fresh and stinging — but nothing was that easy, “Counselor,” Munch was at your side, standing beside you at the elevators, as you pressed the button, “in a rush?” 

“To go home? Yes,” 

“I just wanted—” 

“Wanted what, Munch? What do you want?” you sigh exasperatedly, fighting a losing battle for your voice not to break, “I’m not in the mood for a verbal sparring match, so why don’t we take a rain check?” 

The elevator doors ding, and you step in, hoping to spare yourself the agony of a response, but he follows, the doors shutting behind him. 

But surprisingly his voice was soft,  “I wanted to make sure you were okay,” 

“I’m fine,” you cross your arms, hoping that it would hold you together, until you got to your office, “I’m not scared of him, Munch—” 

“I know you could kick his ass, counselor, I’m not asking you if you’re ready to go seven rounds in the ring with him—” he leans against the wall of the elevator, “I’m just asking if you’re alright.” 

You raise an eyebrow, “John Munch asking me if I’m alright? No sarcastic remark?” 

“I know, I’m surprised myself, I might have to ask Skoda to do a psych eval on me,” and you crack a smile, shaking your head. 

“It was scary,” you admit, something you didn’t want to, “I’ve been threatened before — messages, verbally, even had a guy say he would kill my family—” you bite your lip, “but I never had someone try something, physically before.” 

“It’s okay to have been scared, y’know,” the elevator doors ding, and you step out, shaking your head, “no one expects you to be strong all the time, counselor.” 

And you pause, looking back at him, “But I do,” you blink away the tears, “good night, detective.” 

~~~

“It’s too risky!” you ignore Munch, continuing to fix your makeup, “You saw how you acted when Bradford lunged at you — why—” 

“I would do anything to make sure these men get put away,” you finish your makeup, grabbing the outfit Liv had handed you, “and that includes this.” 

This being an undercover operation designed to get names of victims, ages, and dates if possible, before arresting the group for exchanging pictures and videos of their crimes. 

“Putting yourself in the middle of this chaos? You’re being reckless—” 

You slide past him and into a bathroom stall, “I know what I’m doing,” 

“Do you? Do you know how many things could go wrong?” he continues, “I could list them for you for posterity — assault, battery, rape, and let’s not forget murder—” 

“I don’t think Liv will let me get murdered when she’s in the room with me, and I would you, Fin, Stabler, and the Captain wouldn’t either—” 

“Things go wrong on these ops, counselor — the field isn’t as safe as a courtroom — court officers, a metal detector right outside—” 

His words fail when the door swings open, a skin tight bodysuit clung to your figure, crimson, just as his ears nearly were, his eyes raking over your outfit, before finding their way back to your raised brows, “You were saying?” 

He stumbles over his words, “I was saying that—” you cross your arms, waiting and he finds himself distracted all over again, before he shakes himself from his stupor, “I was saying that this is too dangerous—” 

“Munch—” you cut him off, “I appreciate your concern, really I do, but I’m going to nail these guys anyway I can, so you can’t change my mind,” your hand finds his shoulder, squeezing, “but I can count on you to have my back right?” 

He simmers, sighing, his eyes softening, “Of course,” and you squeeze his shoulder, and he calls after you as you head towards the squadroom,  “I just hope they taught you taekwondo in law school,” 

“And I hope you know by ‘having my back,’ I meant more than my ass,” you flash him a smile over your shoulder, shaking your head, and flexing your fingers. 

It would be fine. 

You would be fine. 

~~~

It wasn’t fine. He couldn’t find you. 

“Where is he? Where is that son of a bitch, he took—” 

“Munch, calm down,” Liv starts, and he’s shaking his head, his finger in his face. 

“You were supposed to watch them, you were supposed to—” 

“Hey, Munch,” Elliot cuts between him and his partner, his hand on his shoulder,  “we all were there, Bradford slipped out during the raid, there wasn’t anything we could do. We’re going to find them.” 

Munch brushes him away, finding Fin, “Where are we on Bradford?” 

“Got him sneaking out during the takedown,” Fin points you out in the crowd, “looks like he had a knife pressed against counselor’s back, just out of view.” 

“How the hell did that scum sucking, gangrenous low life of a—” 

“Looks like he stole it off one of his buddies he was setting up,” Fin rewinds the tape, and points it out, “lifts it right from his pocket.” 

“Where does he go?” Fin fast forwards, until he gets to the cameras outside, shooting from the van itself. 

“He steals a car down the street, must belong to that brownstone,” Fin shoves the equipment at another officer, “Let’s get the license plate and get a bolo out.” 

Liv and Elliot join the two of them, handing a report to Fin, “We got a list of places that Bradford was known to hang out at—” 

“What are we waiting for?” Munch brushes past them to the car, rounding the car to the driver’s seat, pulling it open, before Fin stops him. 

“I’m driving,” Fin says, holding his hand, and Munch opens his mouth to rebut, “do we really have time to argue right now?” 

Munch glares at him, before handing him the keys, “You better not abide by any traffic laws,” 

“Do I ever?” 

~~~

“Can we go any faster than this? I swear my great uncle could drive faster than this,” Munch expects his partner to be angry, but he’s only sighing and shaking his head, “what?” 

And Fin side eyes him, “If you’re in love with—” 

Munch gapes at him, “I’m not—” 

“--then why don’t you just say something, man?” Fin scoffs, “you can deny it all you want, explain it away with one of your crazy ass conspiracy theories, but it’s there, John.” 

Munch pulls off his glasses, running his hand over his face, fingers resting right below his nose, “You know every time I got married, I thought I was in love,” 

“I know, and then your ex-wives screwed you — what about it?” 

“This is different,” he sighs, “and I don’t want to admit that to myself.” 

“What’s so bad about that, Munch? You want to try again,” and Munch is shaking his head. 

“You know a psychiatrist once told me that the reason all my marriages failed was because I chose women who were spoiled, beautiful, and not my intellectual equal?” 

“Meeting some of your ex-wives, I could believe that,” Fin’s eyes fall back to the road, “what’s your point?” 

Your name slips from his lips, “this is different — this is someone’s who's my equal — smarter than me, beautiful— it could — we could be—” he cuts off, “I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose--” and he cuts off, sighing, “I don’t know.” 

“Well that’s easy, John,” Fin pulls over, the car screeching as it does, “we won’t,” and he jerks his head, “whose car does that look like?” Munch calls in the car, unbuckling himself and slipping from the car, “We have to wait for back-up—” 

“I’m not waiting—” before he adds, “you don’t have to come—” 

“I’m not letting your bony ass get shot again,” Fin is already shutting the car door, pulling his gun out, “let’s go.” 

~~~

“Are you scared now?” Bradford asks, circling you — a predator gauging its prey — no, he was simply playing with you now. Your wrists flex against your restraints, the wood grain of the chair digging into your skin the more you struggled, the rope around your wrists ungiving, “are you, counselor?” 

It was rhetorical — judging by the tape stuck to your lips and the fact he continued to speak, and his fingers fist into your hair, pulling your head back, “Come on, no smart remarks now?”

Are you that stupid that you’ve forgotten that you taped my mouth over? 

No, wait he was that stupid. 

And he slaps you — the sting of his palm against your cheek dazes you a moment, and then his fist lands a blow in your stomach, choking on the same air you breathed, tears burning before slipping down your cheeks. 

“Do you think this is bad?” and now he’s holding your face between his fingers, nails digging into your cheeks, and he grins, a shiver going down your spine,  “just wait.” And he disappears a moment, his shadowy figure rifling through a bag on a table. 

Your eyes darted around, looking for something that could help you, something to help you escape, but nothing was within reach. Your chest squeezed — what if you died here? What if you never saw your family again? What if you never saw your friends again? What if they never found your body? Fear claws up your throat, eyes burning. 

What if they found your body? 

What if Munch found your body? 

You had promised him you’d be careful, but you were careless. You didn’t watch Bradford close enough, you didn’t stick with Liv, you were stupid — so stupid. 

And you wondered if he’d rape you before he was done — if they would find your body like so many victims that came across your desk. You wondered if he’d kill you at all — or just let you live with the memories of his torture. 

And you didn’t know what was worse. 

But then something clatters in the distance, and his head is whipping around, there are footsteps, and he’s grabbing a knife, cutting your restraints free,  “Come here bitch,” he mutters, hurrying to cut the ropes, at your feet before moving to the ones at your wrists,  “they aren’t taking me before I get a chance to slit your throat.” 

Blood roaring in your ears, you know you have to do something — he’s almost done cutting the last rope at your wrist. You couldn’t wait for help. 

You rear your head back, before smashing it into his, hard. His groan gets caught in his throat, as you lunge for the knife, the handle within grasp of your fingers, and you’re trying to crawl away, a deep ache in your skull. You’re stumbling to your feet, but his fingers close around your ankle. 

“I should have fucking killed you from the start,” and you kick him with your free foot, hearing him scream and the satisfying crack of his nose breaking, gripping the knife in your hand and pushing yourself to your feet. 

And you rip the tape from your mouth, “Get the fuck away from me!” you point the knife at him, heart pounding against your ribcage, as he lays clutching his bloody nose. 

But he’s still getting to his feet, “You better hand over that fucking knife—” 

“You better not take another step before I blow your brains out,” and suddenly Fin and Munch are there, Fin stepping forward to arrest Bradford, as Munch is beside you. 

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” and he’s trying to ease the knife out of your fingers, but you won’t let go, “let go of the knife, it’s okay,” he’s murmuring in your ear, slipping the knife from your fingers, “you’re okay. I got you.” 

Your knees are buckling, and he’s holding you, your head buried in his chest, “I thought he was going to—” 

“I know,” he says softly, “I know, but you’re okay.” 

“Because of you,” And he’s helping you up, and police sirens in the distance, as he helps you out of the building, “I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t be,” he whispers, “I’m sorry,” 

“For what?” and his arm around you squeezes you gently. 

“For not saving you sooner,” And suddenly EMS and police are flooding the scene, Fin is shoving Bradford into a car. And you spot him, glaring, but Munch steps between his view, his arm around your shoulders, “don’t bother with that scum. He’s not worth it.” 

And he wasn’t — you knew he wasn’t, but you know that you wouldn’t be able to prosecute him now. But, you craned your neck to watch him be taken away, you wanted to see the bastard get put away at least. 

It’s over, you tell yourself as you rest your head against Munch’s shoulder. 

It was over. 

~~~

“I just want to go home,” you shake your head, but he pulls you along regardless, protesting all the same.

“Just let them look at you, please?” he asks, “if only for my sanity.” 

And you scoff softly, “I thought you lost that a long time ago,” 

“There’s that wit,” he replies, and you go with him, fingers intertwined with his. E.M.S. examines you, insisting on taking you to the hospital for a possible concussion. But you don’t want to — you just want to sleep, you want to take a shower, you want to forget this ever happened— 

“Please just let me go,” you’re pleading with him, tears slipping down your cheeks, “John, please let me go home.” and he’s wavering for a moment, before his hand is on your shoulder, gently pushing you back down. 

“I can’t, and you know that, counselor,” he never wanted to see you cry like this, he never wanted to see you as a victim — because you aren’t just another victim at his desk or in photos spread across his desk — you were you. 

But you were also a victim now. 

“Why not?” you lie against the pillow in defeat, tears slipping down your cheeks, and he’s leaning down to your level, running his fingers through your hair. 

“Because you’re hurt, and you need to be seen. I don’t trust doctors as much as the next conspiracy nut, but you still need to see one,” he tilts his head, “do you want me to come?” 

And you’re blinking back tears, before nodding, “I’m sorry, I’m—” 

“Don’t apologize,” he’s wiping your tears away, “don’t ever apologize for this.” 

~~~

You don’t remember much else — it’s a blur of testing, until finally they let you sleep. And you don’t know how long you sleep. But you don’t dream, and for that much, you’re thankful. You awake to the low hum of hospital machinery, and quiet voices in the room. And you blink, the fluorescents much too bright for you, and your eyes flutter shut again, before not before voices creep in. 

“—been asleep?” 

“It’s been a few hours,” Munch whispers, assumedly trying to keep from waking you, but that was out of the question already, “docs gave something for sleep.” 

“Have you said anything yet?” and it’s Fin asking. 

“When? In between the ambulance ride here and the C.A.T. scan and the fifty other tests they ran?” Munch replies drily, sighing, “it’s not the right time,” 

“You know there’s never going to be a right time, John,” and you’re grateful that you’re turned away from them, your brow furrowed, their voices growing louder, “you have to say something or is counselor a mind reader now?” 

“Well—” 

“Don’t spout another conspiracy theory or you’ll be the one in the hospital bed,” you could almost see Fin crossing his arms. 

“You know that psychiatrist also told me I could make a conspiracy theory from a five-year-old’s lemonade stand,” 

Fin raises an eyebrow, “Well now that I believe,” 

“What am I supposed to say?” Munch asks, “‘hi, I know you almost just died, but I think I’m in love with you?’” 

And your eyes snap open, the air sucked straight from your lungs — “It can be that simple,” 

He was in love with you? John Munch was in love with you. Your heart squeezed at the thought — you hadn’t a clue that he was. You knew he cared — but you didn’t know he… loved you.  

“Nothing is ever that simple,” and you turn around, the words leaving your lips without a thought. 

“It can be, John,” and both him and Fin’s gazes snap to you, a small smile on your lips, “if you let it be.” 

Munch is staring at you slack jawed, while Fin is grinning, elbowing him, “I’ll leave you two alone,” before he adds, “remember that there is an officer at the door—” 

“Fin—” and he’s gone, disappearing out of the door, and Munch is wiping a hand down his face, his cheeks flushed red, “so how much of that—” 

“All of it,” and he’s covering his hands with his face, “for someone who claims to be so evolved, you’re very cute when you’re embarrassed,” 

“I’m cute?” he repeats, and you hold out your hand to him, and he’s staring a moment — as if he can’t believe it — before taking your hand, “how cute?” 

You snort, “Just cute enough, don’t go getting an ego,” 

“You’re sure it’s not just the concussion? And the almost dying?” and you roll your eyes, tugging him closer, by his coat’s lapel, and he’s whispering your name. 

“How’s this for an answer?” and you kiss him — his lips barely brush yours a moment, but he’s already pulling you back in, parting and meeting until you hold him there a moment, fingers twisting in the hair resting on the small of his neck, “John—” you breath against his lips. 

“I don’t understand why…” he whispers, your foreheads brushing. 

“Why...?” 

“I don’t understand why me,” his fingers cup your cheek gently, as if you’d disappear between his fingers, “you could be with anyone — why would you choose this paranoid, old detective?” 

“Because it’s you,” you softly chuckle, and you draw your lips to his again, “and I wouldn’t want you any other way,” before you add, “except maybe sharing your feelings more so I don’t have to overhear any other conversations to know how you’re feeling.” 

“I could say the same to you, counselor,” 

“Excuse me, I said how I felt first,” you gape at him, in mock offense. 

“Only after hearing how I felt,” but you shrug, smiling as your noses brush. 

“Still, I was the first, so suck it,” you reply, and he laughs, a warm sound that makes your chest stir. 

“Oh,” his lips brush yours, a smile on his lips,  “I’m gonna suck something.” 

[herotome]

I'm so confused by that last ask lmao. Why would anyone want to buy spray and hurt someone who did nothing wrong to them/wasn't making them feel uncomfortable in any way??? Instead, how would the RO's react to a very soft and bubbly MC, that bakes them stuff and compliments them and is just,, a very somft person??? And when in a relationship stage, treats them with so much tenderness and love that it should be illegal. Have a wonderful rest of your day/night, author!

Agh, well, I don't want to make it a purely black/white situation; because if somebody knocked on my door well after sundown, I would certainly be uncomfortable.

While I can confirm that Warden had good intentions, those are the bricks with which hell is paved, yes? He DOES commit a social faux-pas. It is a BAD IDEA to knock on strangers' doors in the night! It would be perfectly understandable if the MC feels any range of discomfort or skepticism; even threatened or alarmed.

I remember this one time a perfectly nice young man approached me in the parking lot; I was about to get into my car, and I was so taken off-guard and terrified that I flattened myself against the car door the entire time, eyes darting. He didn't mean me any harm (good intentions), but the faux-pas of approaching me right outside my car was too great - I could not humanly have felt comfortable in that situation.

... I didn't hit him or spray him though, since he made no move to touch me. 😂 Iirc he wanted my help because his car died. I think sometimes people are too quick to be enact cruelty on men, because they assume all men have bad intentions, or that men are strong, they can take the abuse. But I also understand how people - particularly (but not limited to) women - are so often put into awful, deeply stressful situations of "I need to hurt them first, before they hurt me."

I want to acknowledge pretty privilege as a factor as well - while I wrote Warden as a Nice Fella, I also made conscious design decisions to make him generically attractive: even proportions, nice smile, neat hair, clean clothes. Would we be as understanding of Warden if he was fatter, uglier, more disheveled? Would we be as open to follow-up with him, follow him onto the path he sets for us? I'd wager not. (And then ah, viola, the MC never leaves her apartment and the game falls apart. Hahaha.)

Errr. So, ah. Those are my thoughts. No real conclusions, no hard and fast rules - I just want to encourage this blog/game to be a space where we exercise nuance whenever possible.

Anyway! Thank you for the lovely sentiment anon, here's the answer to your ask:

Warden: Disbelieving, really not used to such tenderness from anybody. Sort of wonders if MC is trying to trick him? It takes him some time to warm up to it and understand MC's angle. Blushes particularly hard when complimented.

Griffin: Fully participates in exchanging sweetness, for the most part tit-for-tat. Griffin might have gloomy or whiny phases and will take some alone time, but will very often seek MC out for comfort and very long, vulnerable hugs.

Mia: Flustered to the core, often tries to outdo MC in sweetness - Mia is a deeply reciprocal person, always returning favors, so it would drive her a little batty to be matched. She's used to being a giver, she'd have trouble quietly receiving.

Dart: Skeptical, distrusting, surely this is an elaborate act?? The pies must be poisoned. You'll catch him staring REALLY hard at MC, searching for flaws and slip-ups that would help him understand. There is a point, though, where Dart will begin to view MC as "family" - and then the distrust switch totally flips into undying trust and protective loyalty.

Jade: Wants to protect MC from the first moment she sets eyes on her, would kill for this MC.

[transthadymacdermot]

i hope this isn't too broad but i'm v curious now what brendan's deal is.. like what his occupation is & how he and lazarus met, what they see in each other (does brendan reciprocate the fanatical obsession or is he just chilling?) and whether they come into conflict ideologically (like. are the religious differences a problem, and what does brendan think of lazarus' other beliefs)

Not too broad!!!

Brendan is a farmer by trade. His family are farmers, and when the story starts he's moved in with a slightly more prosperous friend of his brother Charlie (Seamy's father) by the name of Patrick Dolan to help on the farm and occasionally mind the children in exchange for food + housing + a small amount of money. On paper it's a good situation for him because he's close to his brother and has a lot of freedom because Dolan has others helping him and Brendan is basically a nepotism hire lmao, but in reality The Conflict and a lack of prospects has depressed him and he spends a lot of time indoors smoking or going for very long walks alone. He doesn't have many friends apart from his brother and maybe Sarah because she's similarly miserable. He and Lazarus met when Whittaker figuratively dragged Lazarus kicking and screaming to Newry to meet on 'neutral' ground and discuss the strength of the Peep of Day Boys in Lazarus' area + Brendan happened to be there visiting one of his brothers and Lazarus went "Oh my god guy from my town... and he's hot how have I never noticed this before." After initially spending the night together there they met again when Brendan's brother Charlie dragged him to a parade/show of force the local Defenders put on, and which Lazarus decided to spy on, following which they tentatively started meeting on a semi regular basis.

In terms of what they see in each other... hm. I would say a large part of their relationship is based on the fact that, despite outward differences (Lazarus being the son of a baronet, Brendan coming from a family of subtenant subsistence farmers, etc) their family situations are really not very different. Much like Lazarus grew up in the shadow of 2 far more successful siblings with an abusive father who he feels like he can't escape, Brendan's father was neglectful and his mother was often outright abusive, and he feels similarly to the way Lazarus feels about his father about his brothers Charlie and Hugh. Consequently they understand each other's feelings about things intuitively most of the time, which Brendan really really likes. Lazarus is also very relaxed about social norms and is just like... broadly the kind of person Brendan can actually feel comfortable around. Brendan DOES reciprocate the fanatical obsession but in a slightly different way -- he would never outright admit it but secretly he loves the attention and is kind of... obsessed with the fact that Lazarus is obsessed with him, if that makes sense. He PRETENDS to be just chilling but he's absolutely goading Lazarus into killing another person together the second they're alone.

Wrt ideological differences, let me preface this by saying that large parts of the way they handle their religious differences are inspired by my own experiences with such relationships in real life and therefore before anyone accuses me of bad representation let me make it clear that their relationship is like... based in reality. Anyway most of the time they handle it by talking and thinking about it as little as possible because I think they both cope with it by just pretending the other belongs to the same religious group, but whenever it does come up both instantly default to viciously mocking the other's position -- Brendan tells Lazarus he can't cook dinner because he has to go to Good Friday mass and Lazarus starts singing The Boyne Water, Lazarus mentions something the local reverend said and Brendan starts talking about how the revocation of the Edict of Nantes was good, and so on and so forth. Neither is upset by this as they both do it and you would be hard pressed to convince either of them that this is a bad thing. Oh and they definitely both kinda think the other is probably going to hell for being heretical but, once again, both view it as not a problem because both of them do it. In general they're both too obsessed with one another to care about any of it.

Politically, the ideological differences are only slightly more of a problem. Brendan is 'apolitical' to a fault and thinks Lazarus' beliefs are daft but doesn't say anything; Lazarus thinks Brendan is lying about not caring about politics but does sort of like that he's not having to hear constant tirades about whatever the issue of the week is from him so he also doesn't say anything. They're both AWARE of each other's views but don't talk about politics, and whenever it does come up both of them just pretend like they can't hear what the other says on the topic and then immediately pretend like the conversation didn't happen.