#is really not going to make the actual traversal harder

[reliquiaen]

Dear Respawn Entertainment,

Since I know you'll insist on putting those horrible traversal challenges in your inevitable Jedi Part III, please consider doing one of those pan shots like in older 3D platformers where you can see the whole level and the rough path to take. Because as they are, the traversal tears are nightmarish creations that really force people to experience your namesake to learn the paths. Perhaps the camera pan could be a lower difficulty setting option for those of us who aren't masochists.

Thanks

[greycaelum]

Kaleidoscope Series—Clouds and Mochi Chapters { Blue }

—Gojo Satoru X Wife Reader

𑁍 Synopsis: a date with Satoru and finally knowing your Sunshine's gender

𑁍 Genre: family theme, fluff, very mild angst if you squint, comfort

𑁍 CW/TW: (2.6k)—pregnancy, domesticity, suggestive content, kisses, mild profanity, mentions of pregnancy fear, overall fluff

𑁍 Grey ✒️☕: this chapter is dedicated for { @afortoru } thank you for being here pretty one, I'm delighted to meet you and know you even in such short time! So for now let this be your bookmark in this lil'corner and my good luck charm for you —XOXO

Satoru diligently packed several tumblers of the chilled fresh orange juice in the bag along with some packed lunch and oranges. He knows how cute you look whenever your cravings are satisfied. After all, no one wants a grumpy pregnant wifey.

Now, he just has to wait for you to get ready, so both of you can go.

Having two children, naughty ones at that, and with an incoming one or more, people often wondered how the two of you are doing in your marriage. Hopeless as he is, Satoru knows he's often away and he has to make up for it.

"Love, helpppp!" You hollered from upstairs sending him to a mini heart attack, traversing the kitchen to the bedroom in one warp.

There you are standing in front of the mirror in a powder blue maternity jumper dress, holding a pair of socks with a pout on your lips. He could see the little beads of sweat forming on your temples, telling your struggle before you called out for him. Your 26 weeks bump, which he could say is a little bigger than usual, is making it harder for you to bend.

Pretty little thing. You're gonna make him crazy with your antics. 

"Really? We're inside the house and you go warping around?"

"Well, someone's trying to give me a scare with her bloody scream." Satoru chuckles and takes the sock in your hand, guiding you by the hip to the nearby chair while he kneels and holds your swollen foot.

He has seen you swollen with his child two times and still seeing you waddling around with your pretty baby bump gets his nerves giddy and his heart fluttering.

"What are you grinning about, Love?" You owlishly blinked at him.

"Mnnn, that you're really beautiful." Satoru smiled. And he meant it, so much that after all these years he thinks his crush on you never faded. The way you giggled at his compliment as he kisses the peak of your bump is so calming he wants to keep you in his arms all day long.

But that's for another time. He's got plans for you today.

"Could you now tell me where we are going?" You stare at Satoru and huff. He never told you anything about this date. Only telling you to dress comfortably and dragging you to walk somewhere you don't know.

"Later you'll see."

Your arm loosely hang around Satoru's waist, while the other held your orange juice occasionally sharing a sip with Satoru while waiting for the green lights at the crossroads. Satoru held your shoulders to keep you from bumping into anything, while his other arm carried your bag.

From time to time gazes fall on the two of you, walking past the neighborhood. It's not usual to see a couple walking around leisurely. Satoru paired your look with his loose white button-up shirt tucked in his blue chinos and a pair of white topsider going for a cutesy blue and white palette for your date.

"Oh, is that your first? Such beautiful parents for a little one." One of the grandmothers in the neighborhood greeted the two of you. Walking around, there are times pleasant people greet you for small talk, especially seeing you with a baby.

"Thank you, it's actually the third." Satoru grinned proudly, his hand that was on your shoulder slid down to rub your belly.

Show off. You snorted and thanked the lovely lady.

"Really 'Toru, where are you going?" It's not the usual district you go strolling around. It's been a while since you had a walk around the town. Being swollen and pregnant easily exhausts you, opting you to be a couch potato in the house after sending off the kids to school.

Satoru knows that that's why he arranged this little excursion for the two of you. Away from looking after the kids, and just simply as a couple.

"We're..." Satoru trailed off and halted in front of a tall building. "Here it is, ta-dah!"

"Palettes & Paint" you read the artistic signboard of a cozy-looking cafe with floor-to-ceiling window walls and inside is a vintage brown vibe space.

You let him pull you in, donning the apron over you, and sat on a corner with different kinds of paint and paper. While you're not particularly inclined to do this, watching Satoru focused on his canvas, mixing paint and all is a sight in itself. Besides you are snacks and some creamy drinks Satoru ordered.

"Why painting, Love?" Mindlessly you brush the stray hair over Satoru's forehead and propped your elbow to support your cheeks.

"Nothing, just thought it'd be nice for Sunshine to enjoy art." Satoru turned to you and grinned. "You're staring, Baby"

"Uh-huh, which baby do you mean?." You smiled and went back to your canvas.

"My first Baby."

Satoru inches closer and press a kiss on your cheeks, and went back to his work with a boyish grin. Satoru watch your lips pursed, hiding the smile blooming on your face.

"I'm going for a doctor's appointment, they said we can finally see the gender. Do you have time this Friday, Love?" Carefully you draw a cute snout on your painting.

Satoru has been looking forward to this moment. Kouki and Saika have been bantering about the little one's gender. For Satoru, he is fine in any way, he's just so happy right now that he can't think much of the gender. 

"Of course, I need to be there. What do you think of our Sunshine's gonna be?"

Your hand froze, and setting down your brush you look at the painting you made. It's a cute white wolf, with equally blue eyes as Satoru has.

"A boy... I guess." You chuckled lightly. Poor Saika if that ever happens, she'll have a riot every day with all the boys in the house.

A boy huh? Satoru brushed his chin.

Lately, he has been visioning a little girl looking so much like you. Crawling all around the house. Saika and Kouki would fawn at her so much, knowing those two were asking for a sibling that has your hair. And he too, wants to see a baby looking so much like you.

"Love? You're spacing out."

Satoru snaps out of it and laughs to himself. Thoughts of babies with you are his distraction.

"I think it's a girl."

"Really?" You laughed. "Kouki's gonna be overpowered by his sisters."

Looking at you right now. Glowing and happy like this, he thinks that maybe he should bring you out more often. There's that trend going on about a babymoon. Going to the ocean with you and the kids sounds nice. But he thinks that if he sees you in a bikini, Satoru would go batshit feral. Seeing his wife is all sexy and pregnant with his baby, even for him is too much.

You're the best mother for the kids and the best wife to him. Always making sure the house is ready when they get home. Arranges stuff that he can't handle in the Gojo Estate. Your patience must be that of a saint, knowing Satoru is often away and you have to deal with more than you can handle. Having obligations is already enough, but watching over two kids as well...

You're really strong and smart to handle it all and still love him without hating his lacking.

"We should go together in your Lamaze classes." Satoru brush away the stray hair on your cheeks. "I only got to do it thrice with you."

Once with Kouki, and twice with Saika. His schedule back then was such a mess that even on weekends he has work. Satoru's eyes landed on your baby bump.

But for this little one, time couldn't be more perfect with the relatively peaceful period.

"Oh, by the way, what are you drawing Love?"

"Hmmm?" Satoru showed you his canvas. "Hey! What's with your constipated face? This is art y'know!"

"No matter what you say it looks more horrible than a grade 3 student's doodle." Perhaps it's time Satoru accepts the only thing he's good at mixing colors is his curse techniques.

You promised the two munchkins that you'll pick them up from school after the doctor's appointment. Satoru has to slip in a little more bribing just to ease up the two cats who were ready to sulk after hearing they can't come with you to see their baby sibling.

"Hi Mrs. Gojo, are you ready to know your baby's gender?"

It was a split second but you certainly felt someone stiffened. You turned to see Satoru smiling at you, except that his forehead is a little sweaty even with the air conditioning.

Silly one...

The sonographer applied the gel and the transducer and let you relax. Satoru held your hand, while his eyes are so focused on the monitor. The sonographer is explaining the position of the baby.

"Is that the eyes?" Satoru's jaws fell open. "He just opened his eyes!" Satoru looks at you, shock written all over his face. You could swear he grew pale by several degrees. You have to hold his hand a little tighter because Satoru is too blown away that he doesn't notice his palms are sweating coldly.

"Ah yes, the baby's eyes are partially open by 26 weeks, but don't worry it's not yet the final shade of his eyes." The sonographer kindly explains this to your flabbergasted husband.

"Hey, Love. Are you okay? You're so pale." You chuckled as Satoru brought the back of your palms to his lips, kissing it over and over again. It's not like it's his first time, but damn does it makes him so nervous.

Seems like the sonographer can tell as she finally asks the question.

"Would you like me to write down the gender—" but the sonographer froze all of a sudden, all eyes glued to the screen.

"Uhm, is that another head am I seeing?" You blinked several times to confirm your vision.

"Uh, I think we need a second opinion here." The sonographer looks at you, nodding at your question.

There are cases of pregnancies where you're pregnant, and got pregnant again, maybe days or weeks apart, but certainly carrying two babies at the same time. There are very rare cases called superfetation. In most cases, it was made possible by artificial reproductive technology, but yours was simply a miracle.

"So I'm technically pregnant at the same time, but it's not twins?" You look at your ob-gyne. The fear starts to creep in with the sudden revelation.

"Yep, that is right. And judging from your ultrasound, they're growing one week apart. The little one here has successfully hidden behind the older one until now." Your doctor smiled at you.

Satoru has been listening, and he's blown away by this.

"What do we need to do to keep my wife and babies safe? Complications? Treatments? Does she need medicines? Listen the money doesn't matter. I just need my wife and kids, safe." He's adamant about this. Desperate is an understatement. There's no way he'll gamble about you or his kids.

"Love calm down." You reach for his hand. Even if your mind is reeling too.

"To be honest, the thing that we should look out for most is the babies' growth. The older one may be ready for birth while the younger one is still not. But seeing that they're only one week apart, that lessens our worries." You Ob-Gyne assured you with a bright smile. "I know this sounds very daunting, but despite this unseen situation, it's possible for both babies to be born fully developed and completely healthy."

Several thoughts are running through Satoru's head. This is fine, he has to support you. This is totally fine. There are cases of mothers pregnant with four kids at the same time. That's right, he should be more mindful so he can keep an eye on you and your delicate situation.

But damn, were his little swimmers that strong to get you pregnant twice? Guess, staying up all night romping on the bed really did a number on you.

Flick

"Owww!" Satoru rubs his forehead and looks at you, your brow raised at him.

"Seems like Mr. Gojo is too excited to even listen." Your OB chuckled and opened a small paper. "So, would you like to hear the gender?"

"Can you just write it Doc? We wanna open it with our kids." Feeling the way Satoru grips your palms. You couldn't agree more with him. Satoru discussed more with the doctor while you waited. He was meticulous about your vitamins and symptoms he should look out for. Seeing him going through almost everything somehow eases your nerves.

But really you're scared. Can you handle two children at the same time? What if you can do it? You'll end up neglecting one or the other, or your body can't take all at once that you'll—

"Shhh, I'm right here." Satoru brought your head to his chest, feeling the reality sinking in as the clinic doors close. "I'm right here, Baby."

You nodded, just listening to Satoru's heartbeat and cooing until your emotions and hormones calm down.

Leaving the hospital you're feeling clammy with the sudden news. You're never ready for this. Is this why you're more adept at your cravings? Or feeling more clingy with Satoru in the morning... 

The chauffer discreetly pulled up the partition to give his madame and sire privacy.

"Baby." Satoru brought you out of your trance. "The kids are in the house, do you want me to pick up a cake or something on our way?"

You nodded absentmindedly. Satoru could see your thoughts are still suspended in the air.

"I know this is scary for you, for us. But I couldn't wish for more, and just so y'know, I would do everything in my power to protect you, the mother of my kids, and these little ones here." Satoru protectively laid his palm over your belly, caressing the bump before pressing a soft kiss on your lips. "And you two in there, better not give okaa-chan a hard time or else otou-chan's not gonna share my strawberry daifuku with you anymore." Satoru huffs seriously.

It's gonna be alright...

Your lat your head on Satoru's shoulder, inhaling his scent. This time he really did took a bath with the soap you gave him, so he's not stinky.

"I want to eat chiffon cake 'Toru. I'm so hungry."

"Hai, hai, anything for you Honey."

"And we should make a bet, the loser will change the diapers."

"Yes Ma'am." Satoru shakes his head. Even if he wins he knows he'll be the one to change the diapers anyway.

The car didn't even pull up but the front door busted open with Kouki and Saika running to greet you both.

"Mama! Mama! How was it? Is it a sister?"

"It's a brother, right Mama?"

Satoru ushered you three inside the house while holding the chiffon cake.

Kouki immediately ran to the genkan and help you out on your slipper while Saika held your hand to keep your balance. Kouki did the same for his Papa.

"Mama are you okay? Does it hurt anywhere?" Sai look at you with a worried look on her face as she climbs on the couch beside you.

"I have orange juice Mama," Kouki ran to the kitchen bringing you a tumbler of chilled fresh orange juice immediately lightening your mood.

"Mama's fine, sweetie. Thank you sweetheart. You see, Mama and Papa has a surprise for you!"

You glance at Satoru bringing out the cake with a lit candle on it. Totally unnecessary but who are you to question your husband's shenanigans? Even if you said no, he'll do it anyways.

You brought out the envelope from the ob-gyne and the kids are squealing in excitement. Kouki clung to your arm so tight and Saika was giggling as she waved at her Papa to sit down.

"Let's see." Satoru set the cake down on the table and joined the huddle, putting Saika on his lap while Kouki curled under your arm.

"It's a girl..." Saika gasp.

"It's a boy!" Kouki cheered.

They were jumping up and down, realization finally sinking in until they stopped and looked at you and their Papa smiling so wide.

"Why is it two?!" They chorused.

You hit Satoru's chest, keeping your laughter contained, while Satoru chuckled sweeping in to kiss you senseless.

—GreyCaelum

PLAGIARISM IS A CRIME

Check out the Masterlist for more

All rights and credits of the Jujutsu Kaisen character(s) mentioned images(s) and songs(s) used, belongs to their respective owner(s)

General/Kaleidoscope Series Taglist: @ice-icebaby @aeanya @gummy-dummy @tender-rosiey

[star-bear-headcannons]

could you do one for the bachelor(ette)s going into the mines with the farmer, and like how they would act and stuff? i personally think it would be really funny

(love your writing btw!!!)

Thanks ❤️

Bachelors

Alex: Is scared but pretends to be a macho man. Until he lets out the girliest little shriek over a bat. He's pretty strong and has good endurance so he clears out the stones in the mine and you do the fighting.

Elliot: Dead weight. He is terrified of everything and can't help you at all. He is also a monster magnet. That also makes him the perfect bait :)

Harvey: The medic. Heals you up for free finally. He gets really scared after seeing what's actually down there and pushes even harder for you to stay away.

Sam: He acts like he's a tourist. Taking pictures, grabbing rocks as souvenirs. Another monster magnet. He tries to smuggle a slime out.

Sebastian: Actually really good at fighting. He brings all the essentials so it turns into a little camping trip. He grabs a bunch of gemstones and geodes.

Shane: Brings a baseball bat. He can one shot almost all of the lower level monsters with brute force so you can focus on ores and he takes care of the bugs. He thinks smashing their heads in is very thereputic.

Bachelorettes

Abigail: Very excited. Really wants her own sword. It's going to be a great adventure! Turns out comic books tend to leave out the long hikes, sweat, and blood. Sees the mines in a new perspective and has more respect for it and the people who traverse it.

Haley: She hates it. She couldn't even get good pictures of the cave! Grossed out for most of the journey. A slime gets some goo on her new shoes and suddenly the slime population is downed by half.

Emily: "Can we keep it?" "No." That's most of the journey. She tries to do a pacifist run and it takes so much longer because she has banned you from killing. You get nothing done and Emily nearly gets killed 5 and 1/2 times.

Leah: Pretty good fighter and a very good forager. She saves you from many poisonous mushrooms and bats. Is probably the best person you could have brought.

Maru: She's a medic and patches you up. She also designs some new bombs just for the occasion. She also uses this as an opportunity to help her dad with research.

Penny: Ha.. Hahaha........ HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Go into the mines? Are you crazy!?!?! Berates you for half an hour and makes you spend the day with her so you don't go into the mines and get yourself killed.

[l-bubee-l]

“600 miles of open sea”, and you telling me there wasn’t a single fish for you to catch🤨? I know you got those six torches back there pookie 🤨🤨, I know you can cook em if you catch em.

1.-

🎣

2.-

🐠

🔥

🪵

I think that when they left the Underworld, their brain cells failed to leave with them /j.

But fr, I've personally been thinking that it might be some sort of divine happening. Maybe something that's got to do with Poseidon? Dude just kinda making it so there's barely any fish for them to catch? Because honestly I have a really hard time believing the fact that Odysseus and crew have successfully been avoiding a god when they've literally been traversing his domain.

Especially since Odysseus has made it into said god's hit list. But rather than to just straight up attack them again, he's just been watching, bearing witness to the suffering and hardships that the crew went through. Content to just make life a bit harder for them all for the time being.

"But before you go I need to make you learn how Ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves."

Because Odysseus managed to escape Poseidon the first time, he inevitably prolonged the lesson that Poseidon wanted to teach him. As the story goes on, we obviously see how effective the lesson was as Odysseus begins to abide by it.

Thunder Saga happens, Odysseus loses his men and he ends up trapped on an island with a being who holds more power over him, seemingly no way of getting back home, all hope is lost, the sea god is still contently watching.

Odysseus manages to leave, but he's still not completely safe, trials and suffering and all that. Oh but yippee! He's managed to get through each and every single one, determination burning within him.

"I've been waiting, for this moment For the perfect time to strike."

And that's the exact moment he's been waiting for. He ensured that by that time, Odysseus had finally managed to grasp the full extent of his original point. Ruthlessness is mercy. He's finally learned, so it was time that he went.

Everything Odysseus had lost served as an example for him. But with home so close now, he once again had something. Hope.

That was what Poseidon planned to make him lose. Rip the opportunity of him finally reaching his one true goal at the very last second.

"I can't go letting you walk or else the world forgets I'm cold."

As a final end to the lesson, the sea god was going to make an example out of him.

So yeah, me thinks Poseidon actually had more of a hand in all of this than we thought. Lurking around and closely monitoring Odysseus somehow, making sure everything eventually led up to the perfect moment where he'd finally be able to take his long awaited vengeance.

After all, when Odysseus gets washed up onto Calypso's island, what was it that carried him there in the first place?

—

[abeautylives]

Times I Remember Well

(and Some That I Don’t)

Part 3

author’s note: Thank you for reading this ridiculous story. Now for the good stuff.

pairing: female!OCxjake

time frame: 2016-2018

word count: almost 7.8k this part

warnings: language, underage drinking (implied), mentions of sex and sexual situations, nudity, oral (m. and f. receiving), unprotected penetrative sex

You know how most people’s lives change pretty drastically when they move away for college?

What, were you expecting me to claim that I was different, special in some way?

I’m not.

If you’re wondering, Sam and I were fine. I guess he’d matured enough to keep speaking to me when he found out I’d almost fucked his brother. I was still immature enough to give him a classic three day long silent treatment over the whole Sam said he thought you were fucking that guy you dated thing.

I even made him agree to never bring me up to Jake again. Ever.

Anyway, my first semester of college kind of kicked my ass. I was smart enough, but I couldn’t decide on a major and it made the whole experience feel like a waste of time. I didn’t meet anyone worth much of my effort to get to know, and I spent a lot of nights alone in my dorm room. I barely even liked my roommate. Meanwhile, Sam was at home breezing through his last year of high school and preparing to actually go on tour.

Like a real tour. It was my worst nightmare. And I had to hear all about it when I came home for winter break. 

But he was excited, of course he was. And I was proud of him. And Josh, and Danny. I couldn’t bring myself to have positive feelings for Jake. After he’d rejected and embarrassed me (again), I’d run off to school determined to lose my v-card to literally anyone who’d never been to Frankenmuth or heard of their band. Fortunately for me, almost no one had heard of either.

So, I did. And Matthew Nowak had been a very cursory and lazy fuck, but he got the job done. I mean, he popped the cherry or whatever, he didn’t make me come, and I never gave him another opportunity to try.

I almost didn’t even go home for Christmas, my dad had been begging me to come see him, but I knew if I didn’t go home, I might never see my best friend again.

Was that a little dramatic? Sure, but the dates for tour were going to start around my birthday, before he even graduated, and he wouldn’t be home for the entire summer. There were talks of getting signed, to a fucking label. Releasing their music to the world. Jake’s dreams were coming true and he was stealing my best fucking friend from me.

He really was an asshole.

I went back to school in the spring a little sad, nostalgic for a time when things were easy and fun, and I always had a weekend smoke sesh in the Kiszka garage to look forward to. There was nothing for me to look forward to in Ann Arbor. Until I met Soph.

Sophie and I were paired up within the first few days of one of our classes, and thank God we were. We clicked instantly, she was almost like a female version of Sam with even better hair.

She got me out of my slump, out of my dorm room and out of my own head.

As we started hanging out more outside of class, we learned about each other’s lives at home, and she let me talk endlessly about Sam. About moving away from Traverse and finding the best friend I’d ever had, growing up with him, becoming an adult at his side.

I don’t remember exactly when it happened, but eventually I ran out of stories and didn’t feel the need to talk about him much anymore.

For a few months, we worked hard and partied harder, and I felt more and more like myself, or my new self, with her help. My new self must have been putting out certain vibes that attracted attention, because I wasn’t hurting for it. Not that I really had back home, but home had narrowed my view, the Kiszkas my whole world. Even when I did date boys, Sam was there to tell me he didn’t like them, then Josh was there shining brighter than the sun, blinding me to them.

Then Jake was there. Ruining me for everyone else, just by existing.

In Ann Arbor, Soph had the opposite effect. Every guy was cute, cute enough to talk to, flirt with, party with. A select few were hot enough to make out with, let them touch our bodies, we would touch theirs. Dance with them, let them pull us close, throw our arms around them and tell them to take us somewhere quieter. 

There was that one time, I’d gone back to this guy’s dorm and he’d put a playlist on shuffle. Ya know, so we wouldn’t be heard. And right before I put his dick in my mouth, fucking Highway Tune started playing. 

Instant no. I left him there with a hard-on and zero promises of returning.

But anyway, Soph and I had fun every weekend, studied every weeknight. By the end of the second semester, we’d decided on my major, and made sure we would share more classes in the fall.

When summer break rolled around, we spent the first half with her family in Grand Rapids and the second, reluctantly, with my mom. Home was weird without Sam, but he was off galavanting across the U.S. Communication between us had been sparse, though he did call me once every few weeks to fill me in, and let’s be honest, brag. I didn’t mind the bragging, much, but even with how well things were going at school, I’d have given anything to drop it all and be with him. 

Even if it meant tolerating Jake. 

Life goes on, time keeps on slipping, the wheel in the sky keeps on turning and all that. 

College was hard, but Soph and I really buttoned up in the fall. More studying, fewer boys, a little less fun, but Michigan gets cold fast and running wild all over campus didn’t hold the same appeal. We vowed to live it up in the spring, maybe settle down and get some boyfriends. Maybe not.

“Holy shit holy shit!”

We were in the library, Soph across the table from me with wide eyes, laptops, books and notes spread out between us.

“Shhh! What? What the fuck?” She leaned in conspiratorially and I turned my phone around to show her the screen. 

“They’re playing in Detroit. They’re coming home!”

“Will you be quiet? Who, Sam’s band?”

That made me laugh every time. I always called it Sam’s band, because he would’ve loved it and someone else I knew would have loathed it.

They hadn’t been home in forever, they were hardly even in the states, and when they’d played the Fillmore in the spring I’d been so bogged down with new classes and so much fucking homework, I couldn’t justify leaving campus let alone the city. 

But they were coming back, and I’d be on winter break. Sam had sent me their schedule, which I’d thrust into Soph’s hands.

“Aww, reunion! I wish I could go with you.” Her pouty face was unmatched, but she was going with her parents to visit family in Ohio for the holidays. For a moment, that realization made me panic. I wanted to go, needed to see my best friend, but to do it alone? Why did that make me nervous?

Maybe because I hadn’t seen him in two years. Maybe because I hadn’t seen him in more than two. I doubted I’d even get to spend much time with Sam, and I doubted further that I’d be able to get him away from the others.

Not that I wouldn’t want to hang out with Danny, or even Josh. But… well, you know.

I wondered if they were going home for the brief break between Detroit and Seattle, and I made a mental note to ask Sam. 

I’d insisted on buying my own ticket to the show, their third added at the Fox after the first two sold out, but Sam wouldn’t hear of it. He set me up with a ticket and access to see them backstage, and I tried not to let it get to my head. It's not like they were famous or anything.

Selling out multiple shows.

I FaceTime’d Sophie so she could help me decide what to wear - I hadn’t put this kind of pressure on an outfit since the night I kissed… yeah, you saw how that went.

We landed on skin tight faux leather pants, an extremely low-cut black and tan floral print top with a fitted bodice and wide, flowy sleeves, and chunky black boots. I planned to top it off with a vintage fur coat Sam and I had found thrifting a few years back. We’d always joked that it originally belonged to the old lady they named their band after. 

“Okayyyyy, so what about your underwear?” 

I stopped spinning in front of my phone, where I’d been showing Sophie the whole get up.

“What the fuck do you mean, my underwear? Who cares?”

“Babe, it’s a rock show! What if you meet a super hot guy with like, tattoos and a tongue ring that wants to rock your world?” I watched her eyebrows waggle as she stuck her own tongue out at me. 

“Yeah I don’t think that’s really their demographic.” 

But… an idea started to form. Sexy underwear would make me feel sexy. Who would be irritated to see me, looking and feeling sexy, arguably hotter now than I’d ever been? Who would be downright furious to watch me get a little flirty, a little provocative with another man? Men? His brothers?

Ohhh, Jake Kiszka was gonna kill me. And it was gonna be worth it. 

The ticket Sam held for me was in the front fucking row. Of the seats, behind the pit floor, but still. How embarrassing, what if I didn’t know any of the words? I didn’t really listen to their music, not since I was in high school, watching them practice or play at Fischer.

As you can imagine, I didn’t need to worry. Every, single, song was familiar. Songs that they’d written or started writing when Sam was barely fifteen. But the people around me knew them all, better than I did actually. 

That was… pretty cool.

I left my seat as the guys were blowing kisses and throwing flowers into the crowd, stopped in a bathroom to check myself out, and followed Sam’s directions to make it backstage. The guys made it there before me, I could hear their excited voices from the hall as a security guard led me to their green room. We slowed as we got closer, and I stopped the guard before we reached the door, composing myself, slipping my coat off, smoothing my hair and controlling my expression. 

You should've seen his face when I walked through the doorway, slow clapping and wearing my best deadpan. They all turned their heads in my direction, but his face was the one I sought out. 

His cheeks were still flushed from the stage (he honestly goes crazy up there) but he immediately turned so bright pink I hoped his head would explode. 

“YOU’RE HERE! Holy shit, you’re here!” Sam rushed at me and instantly my feet were off the ground, he swung me around and I couldn’t help the smile that stretched wide as I laughed with him. 

“You’re sweaty! Put me down, idiot!” He dropped me to my feet and grabbed a hand, lifted it above my head and spun me in a circle.

“Look at you, you look hot, T!” His laughter cracked loud and joyous and my heart soared. He didn’t mean anything by it, of course, but he was right and I knew it.

Danny approached me next, taller and even broader than I ever remembered him being, and wrapped me up in another sweaty hug. “Good to see you, did you get tinier?” We laughed and I slapped him away. Then Josh caught my eye, arms crossed over his bare chest under an open black vest and leaning against the vanity, grinning. 

I moved toward him and he met me in the middle, opened his arms and threw them around me. He didn’t make fun of me, or comment on the way I looked. Our cheeks were pressed together and he turned his face and dropped a kiss to mine. “We’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you guys too, more than you know.”

He let me go and his grin stretched into a blinding smile. “What’d you think of the show?”

“It was fucking awesome, I can’t believe you guys are like, legit rockstars! Seems like yesterday you were jamming in your garage.” Sam sidled up and threw a long arm over my shoulders.

“To be fair, we didn’t really stop jamming in the garage until last year, T.”

I knew that, I guess. But I’d missed it, and I’d missed the moment my best friend grew up. But this wasn’t the time to get weepy about that. I still had a mission to accomplish.

Turning out of Sam’s hold, I faced him. He no longer looked apoplectic, but his nostrils were flared and his arms were crossed, one hand running a finger across his chin below pursed lips. His focus was distinctly somewhere on the floor, but I walked toward him and watched his eyes connect with my boots and then travel, slowly, all the way up my body. 

Get a good look, asshole.

And he did, his gaze lingered for a fraction of a second on my hips, and then again on my chest before it finally met my face.

Say something stupid, I dare you.

“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?” 

My own eyes rolled in my skull. “Good to see you too, Jacob. How have you been?”

His features twisted in confusion for just a moment before he smoothed them back out. Good.

“Fantastic, living the dream, ya know. How have you been, Tiny?”

“Oh, really good!” I crossed one arm, tucking it under my tits and pushing them up while I twirled a finger through a strand of my hair with the other hand. “I’m majoring in English and Writing and aced all of my finals this past semester. Just really living my best on-campus life. Work hard, play hard and all that.”

It was so satisfying, the way he’d accidentally looked at my chest and then failed to look back at my face until I was done speaking. I swear to you my pussy fluttered when he swallowed, hard, before responding. It was that satisfying. 

“That’s- ahem, that’s great. Glad to hear it. Thanks for coming by to say hi or whatever but we need to pack up our gear and head to the hotel.”

Nice try.

“Oh, cool! I’d love to come with you guys, I just miss you all so much.” His face started turning pink again before I looked over my shoulder. “Sammy! Can I come with and hang out at the hotel? Just for a little bit?” I whipped my head back, my hair swinging with it, to see his face before Sam even answered.

I wanted to see if steam came out of his ears.

“Fuck yeah! You can crash with me if you want!”

One corner of my mouth lifted and curled. “Perfect!”

I regret to inform you that no steam came out. But I think it was pretty close.

When I pulled in at the hotel, I texted Sam and he told me they were in the lobby so I flipped my visor down, checked my face and fluffed my hair. After a deep breath, I got out of the car and made my way inside. 

The hotel wasn’t anything too ritzy, and I figured despite it all, they weren’t that famous. Sam still looked and sounded like the best friend I’d grown up with, though there was something about him that had become more attractive. All of them actually exuded more… sex appeal? 

Ugh, musicians. 

My timing was pretty good, I entered the building in time to catch them getting in the elevator, Jake being the last left in the lobby. But we caught each other’s eye and instead of walking on, he backed up a step. The doors closed and the elevator rose without him. 

He stood there, hands tucked into the pockets of his jeans, and waited for me to reach him. When I did, he spoke before I could. 

“What are you doing here, T?”

I painted confusion on my face instead of the pure gratification I actually felt. “Visiting my friends? What are you-“

“Cut the bullshit. It’s unbecoming.”

Okay, that was a little wrinkle in my plan. I hadn’t even started shamelessly flirting with anyone yet and he was already cursing at me. I doubled down.

“I came to see them, Jake.” I pressed the button to call the elevator back down and crossed my arms.

“And what about me?”

“What about you?” Just as I glanced up, feigning more interest in the LED display of numbers as the elevator came down than this conversation, he stepped closer and gripped my arm. Pulled me closer.

It felt familiar.

“I’m not buying it. Come on.” The elevator dinged and the doors opened to an empty car, but he was already pulling me down a hall toward a stairwell door. It swung open as he shoved through it, yanked me through and pushed me ahead of him, and it slammed shut behind us.

The stairwell was silent, our breathing was amplified and bounced off the walls. His voice made me flinch.

“Third floor. Go.”

Four flights of stairs and two landings separated me from their room. That was fine, I could do it.

Except he stayed behind me the entire time and didn’t speak a word. By the time I pushed the door to the third floor open, my nerves were fried and I was still trying to discern his reasoning for taking the stairs. If he had yelled at me or pushed me to the wall and kissed me in the stairwell, it would’ve made more sense. Instead, he placed a hand low on my back and led me down a deserted hallway to room 307. I breathed a shaky sigh of relief, ready to abandon the plan completely and run to Sam, use him as a personal human shield for the rest of the night.

But he pulled a key card out of his pocket and slid it into the lock, and the heavy door opened to a dark, empty room. 

Jake stepped inside and flicked on a light, holding the door open for me. I didn’t move.

“Jake, what-“

“Get in here, we need to talk.”

It sounded like a terrible idea, I hadn’t come here to talk. I came to spend time with Sam and do enough harmless flirting with the guys to drive Jake crazy. 

“No. Where are the guys?”

He just stared at me for a tense few seconds before he sighed impatiently. “In Sam and Danny’s room.”

“And which room would that be, exactly? I’ll just go knock-“

“Please.”

I know, I know. Did he really have to go and ask nicely?

“Fine, you know what? You have five minutes then I’m the fuck out of here.” He had the nerve to give me a tight-lipped smile, lift his palm and wave me in as I started to pass him and head into the room. Then he let the door swing shut.

We were alone.

The room was pretty standard, two queen-size beds, a table and two chairs. Not exactly rockstar shit. I tossed my coat onto the closest bed.

“You want a drink?”

I dropped into a chair, crossed my legs and folded my hands over my knee. “No, I don’t. What did you need to talk to me about? You have four minutes.”

He pulled a White Claw out of the mini fridge, popped the tab and sat at the end of the bed closest to me. After a swig from the can, he leaned forward and propped his elbows on his knees. 

“Three minutes.”

“Jesus, give it a rest, T.” He pinned me with a glare and my eyes widened. “Don’t. Don’t act all affronted because you’re not getting your way, I’m sick of it.” 

“I don’t know what you mean, I-“

“Stop! Tell me why you’re really here.”

“To see Sam! I told you-“

He stood from the bed, leaned across me and slammed the can onto the table. I jumped in my seat, but then he bent down and gripped the arms of the chair on either side of me. Right in my face, he ripped me to shreds.

“I’m tired of this, T. Since day one, everything has always had to be all about you, your feelings, your stupid ideas, your fucking games.”

That was ridiculous and it straightened my spine, I sat up taller and put us nose to nose, but he didn’t stop.

“How many times have you come between us and Sam? Pitted us against each other? Run away when you didn’t get your way, with one of us or all of us?”

With a huff, he pushed himself away from me but now I was ready for a fight. Launching from the chair, my body followed his. “And what about you, Jake?  You spent years fucking with me, leading me on, just to humiliate me over and over again!”

“Is that really what you think?!” We were squared up now, hands flailing as we yelled in each other's faces. “I didn’t do shit, and you spent years avoiding me, making me feel awkward and unwelcome in my own house because God forbid I ever be in the presence of such a self-entitled, delicate fucking princess!”

“Oh, you fucking prick. Fuck you-“

“So eloquent, that’s really lovely Tiny.”

You already know that he said that on purpose.

“Don’t. Call. Me. That.” I was fuming, the steam was probably coming out of my ears, and that pissed me off further. Everything about this was infuriating, my night completely off-railed, my time with my friends ruined. I was done.

I threw my hands up and then put them on his shoulders, with all intention to shove him out of my way and walk out of the room with some part of my dignity intact, for once.

But that’s not exactly what happened.

Because once I touched him, the tension reached a breaking point. And boy did it break.

Before I could push him away, his arms were around me, his hands spread across my back, and he pulled me in. 

Yep, he was kissing me. 

Our mouths slammed together and all the anger, all the fury, combusted between them.

My own hands betrayed me and shot from a grip on his shoulders to a grip in the hair at the back of his head, still slightly damp from sweat or a shower at the venue, I had no idea. And I didn’t care.

He ravaged my lips until they felt bruised, opened them with his and forced our tongues to battle for dominance, sucked the air from my lungs until I couldn’t breathe. I pulled away to drag some back in but he hardly gave me the chance, tugging me back in to kiss my lips, bite my jaw, murmuring between the attacks. 

“Why are you really here…”

His hands slid up my back and sunk into my hair, pulled my head to the side so he could continue his attack on my neck, my throat.

“Say it, the truth.”

My brain was in shut down, I forgot what words were and how to make them. His teeth reminded me, scraping along my skin.

“You. For you.”

His lips closed over mine again and he was moving me, two steps backward and we turned, the back of my knees hit the bed where he’d been sitting. Our mouths broke apart, our hands fell away. The sound of our breathing, fast and uneven, thundered between us.

“I’m not gonna stop this time, T.”

My heart stumbled over its next few beats.

“I don’t want you to.”

We fell back into silence as he reached forward and slid his hands up underneath my shirt, rough fingertips pushing the fabric up over my ribs, my chest, I lifted my arms and let him pull it over my head and shook my hair out as he let it drop to the floor. 

There was just enough light coming from the only one he’d flicked on, and the moonlight spilling through the uncovered window, that I saw his nostrils flare. His eyes trailed over my lace and silk covered chest before meeting mine.

“You’re so beautiful,” My breath caught, I held it. “I’ve never told you how beautiful you are.”

I couldn’t speak, emotion squeezing my throat, the words I’d always wanted to hear from him tightening every muscle in my body. So instead, I mirrored his actions and tucked my fingers under the hem of his t-shirt. Soft, heated skin met my touch and I flattened my palms over his hips, up over his stomach and I swear he trembled. Seriously! When they made it to his chest, I could feel the hard, steady beat of his heart, rapid beneath my hand. 

Maybe he knew I could feel it, maybe not, but he leaned in and pulled a soft, sweet kiss from my lips before he took over and tugged the shirt over his head. 

“Jake…” His chest and stomach were lightly toned and completely flawless, a glimpse of which I’d gotten when he was onstage, shirtless under an open jacket. I wanted to tell him just how perfect I thought he was, he’d always been, but the words wouldn’t come. So I bent my knees and dropped to the bed, the barely there happy trail leading up from the low waist of his pants now directly in front of my face.

I leaned forward and kissed it. A strangled noise came from above me, I smiled against his skin. Then his hand was in my hair and he pulled, forcing my face up. He smirked.

“You ever done this before?”

Asshole.

Blindly I reached for and found the button of his jeans, popped it open and worked his zipper down slowly. 

“Please don’t piss me off, or I won’t be nice.”

A chuckle rumbled through his chest. “Just making sure.”

His grip in my hair kept my chin tilted up, eyes locked with his. I peeled the denim over his hips and pulled it down to his knees. Heat rolled off his body in waves, I was dying to look at it, take it all in but there was fire in his stare and I was burning. My fingertips mapped out what I couldn’t see, found the subtle V that led down into his briefs and traced it before I tucked them under the elastic and rolled it down his legs. 

Jake Kiszka’s cock bobbed in the air between his hips and my face. Crazy, I know. I wrapped shaky fingers around him, felt how thick and hard he was before I’d even seen it, tried to picture what I could remember from his dark bedroom.

“Fuck, T.” I tightened my grip on him, just a little, stroked him once. His eyes slid shut.  “I can’t believe you’re here.” I stroked him again and his grasp on my hair loosened, my chin dropped and there it was. As perfect as the rest of him, his dick was big, the head flushed pink. My mouth watered.

For real.

In that moment, I wondered quickly what he liked, how fast, how slow, how hard? My tongue slid out and tasted him, just the very tip, and he snatched my hair up again. The sting in my scalp made my eyes water and I opened my lips and took him in, wrapped them around him and swirled my tongue over his skin. He whimpered.

I could be remembering that wrong, but I swear he did.

He wanted to take control, I could feel it in the smallest amount of pressure from his knuckles on my scalp, but I wanted to be stubborn. I was tired of the control he seemed to have over every one of our interactions. I released him with a soft pop and his eyes shot open. 

“C’monnn,” he groaned. I took my hand off of his dick and pushed him back, he almost stumbled, his legs still trapped in his half-removed jeans. I stood from the bed, spun us around and reversed our positions, then pushed him by the shoulders to sit.

“Patience, Jake, patience.” I flicked the front clasp of my bra open and felt the unrestrained relief as my tits spilled out, then that flutter of satisfaction as his eyes went wide right before going soft and dreamy. What can I say, Jake’s a breast man. “Aht.” He’d reached for them, lifted his hands like he just couldn’t wait to feel them again, but they paused in midair. “I said patience.”

He huffed out a sigh and dropped them, so I continued. Made a little show out of unzipping my boots, sliding them off and peeling the skin-tight material of my pants down my legs. His fingers flexed against his thighs the entire time, clenching into fists and releasing over and over. I waited until I was left in just the lacy thong to instruct him to remove his pants. 

His boots were kicked off and denim tossed away in an instant.

And there we were again. Jake, fully bared to me while we stared at each other, my tits out and pussy covered. But this wasn’t going to end the way it did two years ago. 

Not if I had anything to say about it.

I dropped to my knees and his legs spread, making room for me to kneel between them. His cock jumped when I touched him, just my fingertips, up his shins and over his kneecaps before I placed my palms flat on his thighs. When I peeked up at him through my lashes, he was staring hard, jaw clenched and nostrils flared again. So I continued to trace my fingers over his skin, further up his thighs, over his hips, up and down his happy trail. 

Through gritted teeth, “Baby, please.”

Baby? I was throbbing, slick between my thighs already but that hit me like lightning.

I wrapped a fist around him at the base and took him all the way to the back of my throat.

I had to. 

A string of rough curses fell from his lips and a hand tangled in my hair, but I kept my composure, sucking him in and stroking with my fist, letting him sink as deep as I could without choking. His skin was hot velvet on my tongue, I could taste his desire, his need, and I couldn’t help the moan that rippled up my throat around his cock.

“Jesus fuck.” His hips jerked, I gagged around him, he fisted the hair at the back of my head and yanked me off of him. “Get up here.”

Remember how I wanted to maintain the control here? Yeah, I failed. 

He used his grip on my head to bring my lips to his, his tongue sweeping in to dance with mine immediately, his hands moving down my body to pull me up and into his lap. I threw my arms around him and rocked into it instantly, his roving hands landing on my ass and pulling me in, his dick rock hard and slick with my spit grinding against my silk-covered pussy.

Just like that, I lost control of my insolent mouth too.

The kiss broke and I rested my forehead on his, my eyes trained on what was happening between our hips. “God… I-“ The head of his cock caught on my clit, I gasped at the feeling. “I’ve wanted you for so long.”

Embarrassing, I know. But then… ohh then.

His hands skimmed up my ribs until they were cupping my breasts, thumbs grazing over my nipples. 

“I’ve wanted you longer, T. Forever.”

Goosebumps. Literal goosebumps ran up my arms, I shivered, my nipples tightened, and he pulled one into his mouth. He sucked and lapped at it, thumb still moving over the other, and without hesitation he sunk his teeth in. 

“Fuck yes, yes yes…”

His tongue circled it again and he released it, pressed a hot and fast kiss to my mouth. 

“You still like that, huh?” He chuckled as he opened his lips over the other side. The silk between my legs was soaked, I could feel how easily I was sliding over his cock, and I was getting impatient despite the way I’d reprimanded him hardly ten minutes ago. 

“Jake, please…”

He popped off of my nipple and pulled another kiss from my lips, then leaned back and let one corner of his mouth curl up, self-satisfied and cocky.

Still an asshole. 

“Please what, baby? Tell me.”

My eyes rolled, even as he tucked his face into the crook of my neck, nipped and licked me there.

“I want you inside, please fuck me.” Self-control, out the window.

“Mmm,” he hummed into my skin, “No.”

Before I could be properly offended, and believe me, I was, he gripped my thighs and hauled me up, then deposited me onto the mattress. Well, tossed me, really. I bounced once, arms and legs flailing, hair falling in my face. By the time I pushed it away and propped myself up on my elbows, he was standing at the foot of the bed, dick in his fist. I opened my mouth to speak, to yell at him or beg him to stick it in, I don’t know, but he was stroking himself, and he moaned. My mouth snapped shut.

“I’m not gonna fuck you,” I scoffed, offended, pissed even. “Yet.” He let himself go and placed his hands on the mattress, then climbed onto the edge of the bed and started crawling towards me.

It was so fucking hot. His cheeks were flushed, his hair wild from my hands, his eyes dark. I backed away, moving up the bed until my shoulders met the headboard. He didn’t stop coming, and I didn’t want him to. Instinctively, my knees bent and my legs fell open, inviting him in. But he didn’t settle there, when his hands reached me, he grabbed me by the calf and threw my leg over his shoulder on his way down. 

His mouth opened over damp silk and I cried out, his name or God’s, I’m not sure, but his lips and tongue were moving against me and I may have blacked out. I came to when one of his hands skimmed up my inner thigh, and he broke away long enough to slip two fingers under the material and tug it aside. 

Jake Kiszka’s tongue was on my actual, bare pussy. 

My shoulders sagged against the headboard as I reached for him, burying my fingers in his already tangled and unruly hair, our eyes met and he dragged his tongue over me again and again.

“Shit, you were right, this is better,” I panted. He smiled against my cunt and I felt it. I smiled too.

My cheeks hurt I was smiling so hard, until he laser-focused his attention to my clit. His lips wrapped around it and he sucked it past them, my jaw dropped. 

“Oh, oh my God, oh my God!” He was good at this. Too good. The beginnings of an orgasm were already swirling, tightening in my belly, making my toes tingle. The tip of his tongue moving against me until he opened his mouth over me again, and I felt it plunge inside me. The sounds I was making were unholy but I had no shame, I couldn’t feel anything other than need. I needed to scream, I needed to come, I needed him. 

He brought a hand up around my thigh and ran his thumb over my folds, licking himself as he lapped at me, then swirled it over my clit as his tongue fucked me. Before I could even moan, two fingers from his other hand replaced his tongue inside me.

“Jake!”

His head tilted and he pressed his lips against my thigh, kissed it and grinned. “Yes?” Fingers everywhere, filling me and fucking me, circling the most sensitive part of me - I forgot what I wanted to say, if I had even wanted to. Instead I pulled his mouth back, he slid his thumb away and flicked his tongue against me. 

“Yessss, yes just like that, please!” I let my eyes close and stars were already dancing behind my lids, I was close, so close, and I told him so. I moaned it and his fingers plunged deep and curled. I screamed it and he sucked my clit back into his mouth. 

I came hard, nails dug into his scalp, bucking my hips against his face, screaming his name. 

It was unreal. College guys had nothing, fucking nothing, on him.

Before my muscles had even relaxed, he lifted his head from between my thighs and moved up my body, his fingers still pumping slowly inside me as he kissed my hip, my stomach, my breast on his way up to my mouth. He tasted like me when my tongue touched his, and he eased his fingers from my body. 

“Absolutely fucking stunning, breathtaking.”

His breath was taken? I still couldn’t breathe, my chest continued to heave as he left the bed, taking my panties down my legs with him, and I could barely lift my head to see what he was doing. My eyes closed and I felt the mattress dip with his weight as he returned and settled on his heels between my legs, still splayed open. I cracked an eyelid and found him watching me, wrapped condom held between his fingers. 

Under his gaze, I shifted down until my head rested on the pillows, spreading my legs wider, pussy presented to him on a silver fucking platter.

This was happening. There was absolutely no way this was not happening. Not this time.

“Now, Jake.” Unrecognizable, my voice had a distinct sex kitten-like quality that I loved as soon as it hit my ears. He must have loved it too, because his dick twitched and he gripped it. I reached up and snatched the condom from his fingers, tore it open and started rolling it on while his eyes bugged out and his jaw fell slack.

“Jesus, not your first time, huh?” My hand replaced his around him and I stroked, he leaned over me and I guided the head to my center, moved it through the slick pool of arousal there. He paused, poised to enter me, and met my eyes.

“I’m pretty much out of firsts, Jake.”

His eyes closed, his hips rocked forward, and he pushed just past my opening, the tip not even fully inside me.

I tilted my own hips up, he slipped a fraction of an inch deeper. I whispered, and it was sexy, and seductive. “It could’ve been you.”

He sucked in a sharp breath, opened his eyes and we watched each other’s faces as he sunk deeper, slowly, to the hilt. “It should’ve been me.”

Stunned, speechless, we stayed like that. Unmoving, bodies connected, eyes locked. He broke first, dropping his lips to mine and rocking into me softly. A sound I’d never heard before, quieter than a moan, crept up his throat, trapped behind his lips as they caressed mine. My legs lifted, cradling him between my thighs and wrapping around him. 

It was gentle, sweet. The exact opposite of how I knew it would’ve been, if I’d let him be my first, thinking he wasn’t. 

I felt my cheeks warm, my eyes pool with tears. I blinked them away. This was everything I’d wanted and more. I knew I’d been an idiot to think otherwise. Especially when he pulled back and delivered a quick, deep thrust and there was no pain. Only pleasure bloomed inside me, hot and volatile. 

“Again, more…”

An excellent listener, he repeated it. Again, again, and I met each thrust with my own. Our kiss turned frantic, sloppy, lips and tongues clashing and pushing, pulling and taking. The temperature in the room was rising with the heat of our skin, our bodies slipping against each other. He lifted his chest from mine, hands braced on the pillows on either side of my head, and the conditioned air on our damp skin made us both groan in ecstasy.

I damn near came again, almost commented on it but he dropped back down and shoved an arm between me and the mattress, rolled us both. We laughed as we landed, his hair strewn across the pillow and mine falling in his face. My laughter stuck in my throat when he grabbed onto my thighs and pulled, tucking my knees against his hips and forcing me to sit. I propped myself up with my hands on his chest and fell back into the rhythm, my hips rolling. 

“Goddamn, you feel so good, look so good riding me.”

My head fell back as his words rippled through me, his fingertips digging into me, his hands moving my body over his. He brought one to my chest, squeezed me roughly, rolled my nipple with his fingers, pinched it. Hard.

“Yes!” He did the same to the other, my pussy clenched around him. 

“You like when it hurts a little, don’t you?”

“I- I don’t know, I guess so- ohhh!” He wrapped a hand around each tit and sunk his fingertips into my flesh, then kneaded them both, ran the pads of his thumbs over the peaks. 

“Fuck, that’s so hot. You’re fucking perfect.”

Yeah, I lost my mind a little bit. My hips bucked wildly in his lap. Perfect? Me? My nails pressed into his skin, I dragged them down his chest, reveling in the sharp hiss sucked between his teeth, the way his own hips lifted from the bed and he fucked into me. Sharp, fast thrusts hitting me so deep I was screaming his name. He sat up and pulled my face to his, kissed me hard, bit down on my bottom lip, and then tipped me backwards.

My head was nearly hanging off the end of the bed, but really, who cares? My ankles locked behind his back and he was slamming his hips into the back of my thighs.

Fuck, was I gonna come? He had to be close. I lifted my head, now very much hanging off the bed, to ask him.

Beep. Click.

His hips stuttered and paused, we both whipped our heads to the door, which was fucking opening. 

Josh appeared, his foot crossed the threshold and he was looking down at his phone. 

“GET OUT!!” We yelled in unison. Josh’s head popped up, his eyes went huge, and then he laughed. 

“Shit, sorry guys.” He started backing out into the hall, the door creaking closed. “About time,” We heard him chuckling to himself and the door clicked behind him.

Jake turned his face back to me and seemed to realize for the first time that I was barely on the mattress. An arm wrapped around my back and he shifted us until I could look him in the eyes.

“What the fuck…” I whispered up at him.

His smile was subtle and affectionate before it stretched to a full grin, and he huffed a laugh.

“There was no fucking way I was stopping.”

I matched his grin and lifted to pull a kiss from his lips. “Good.”

He tucked his face into my neck and began the roll of his body into mine again. I let my hands roam across his back as he kissed and nipped my skin and his thrusts picked up speed. The orgasm that had been teasing me before we were interrupted built again quickly, and Jake was panting in my ear. 

But then… then. A whisper. Low and deep, but a whisper nonetheless. 

My name, my real name, hit my ear and I gasped, right on the edge.

“Come for me. Please come for me.”

How could I say no?

It broke, crashed, consumed me. His name on my lips as I tightened, writhed, and shook for him. 

He didn’t stop, didn’t slow, he chased after me and followed into the flames. My name burned into my flesh by his kisses, a guttural groan as he came inside me. 

Easily the best orgasm I’d ever had. Easily.

Because he’s just a man, albeit an incredibly hot, multiple-orgasm-inducing man, he collapsed on top of me. I let him. I ran my hands over his sweat-dampened hair and the soft skin of his back and we both caught our breath. Then he started giggling. 

I pinched his ass. “What’s so funny, Kiszka?”

His head popped up and he propped himself on an elbow, a wide grin splitting his face in half, gorgeous. “I can’t believe we waited so long to do that, that might’ve been the best sex I’ve ever had.”

We both laughed as I slapped his chest. “Might be?!”

“Okay okay, you’re right.” He looked at me dreamily, his eyes bouncing around my face. “It was the best.”

Because I’m a woman, albeit a mind-blowing sex goddess, I started overthinking. I couldn’t help it! You should’ve seen the way he was looking at me. 

“Jake…” He lifted his eyebrows, I lifted a hand to his face, tucked a loose strand of hair behind his ear. “What does this mean?”

Those eyebrows knitted together, a quick moment to think that over. Then he kissed me, soft and slow. 

“I don’t know what it means. But I do know this hotel has free breakfast downstairs, so be up and ready by nine.” His smile stretched again, and I couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Oooh, do you think they have French toast? That’s Sam’s favorite.”

He attacked me, tickled me until I had tears in my eyes, kissed me until I was breathless, and fell asleep with his arms around me.

The truth is, I don’t remember the exact moment I fell utterly, completely in love with Jake Kiszka. Maybe you should ask him. 

[isagrimorie]

I think Sisko would have a very hard time on Voyager. His mind would go to the Borg long before they even have contact and Wolf 359 trauma would make it harder for him to deal with this. The way Miles was so specifically unhappy to be on DS9, the Cardassian station of all places, with his history.

Also one of the biggest strengths - that Ransom was clearly missing - is Janeway's science background. I think we also see it a bit in Tom, who idolizes the good old days. The exploration of it all. Explore new things without a safety net. When the DS9 crew ventured in the Gamma Quadrant, there was always a way back home. There is lots to talk about right there.

The DS9 character to absolutely thrive on Voyager would be Dax, well, Jadzia Dax specifically. Wise and curious, good combo. But Dax would also feel a new kind of fear, because Trill is so far away, no new host easily reachable. Could this be the end? Fascinating.

Janeway on DS9 would climb up the walls. To be stationary. She would use every chance she gets to get into the Gamma Quadrant. If she would get the whole Emissary storyline as well, I think she would be more open in some ways (so ready to embrace how these unknown aliens perceive time) and rejecting others (dealing with Winn Adami???? oh boy).

Ooh I love this thought experiment!

His mind would go to the Borg long before they even have contact and Wolf 359 trauma would make it harder for him to deal with this.

Honestly, I agree with this, I noted in a previous post that actually, Sisko and Janeway were positioned very well because their postings don’t really interact with their traumas much. The Borg were barely anything on DS9, and Janeway only had to deal with Seska, who was laser-focused on Chakotay.

A good thing… because Seska didn’t really trigger Janeway’s Cardassian triggers ala Miles.

Also one of the biggest strengths - that Ransom was clearly missing - is Janeway’s science background.

If I remember right Ransom doesn’t like direct confrontation. His style is hide and run, from what I remember all he’s ever commanded were small science vessels.

I suspect that Sisko would react to Ransom and his crew almost exactly how Janeway reacted to Ransom.

With even less pushback, because when he did the same thing with Eddington he had little pushback. Dax was even in full support of Sisko’s actions.

The DS9 character to absolutely thrive on Voyager would be Dax, well, Jadzia Dax specifically. Wise and curious, good combo

This is true! I kind of wish there was either a Dax or Garak-like character on Voyager to mix things up as Seven did. Speaking of Seven of Nine… unfortunately, I don’t and can’t see how Seven would survive beyond the first episode on a Sisko-led Voyager.

Unless maybe Dax talks him out of it? Dax would make the case that Seven would be the ‘local knowledge’ as they traverse Borg space.

Sisko would be a lot harder on Seven because of his trauma.

But because of Jake, Sisko always has a clear motive to get back to the Alpha Quadrant. It’s not just for the crew but because of his son. He doesn’t want to miss the life of his son, this would be a more bittersweet ache for Sisko, I feel.

Unless! Jake was with him during the Maquis hunting mission? On the other hand, I don’t see Sisko wanting to put Jake in danger like that, so soon after Wolf 359.

On the other end, I would love to watch Janeway butting heads with Kira Nerys, initially, because I don’t think Janeway has the same trauma as Miles had but also I don’t think she would love interacting with Cardassians either.

And, knowing the DS9 writers, I feel they would play up Janeway’s Cardassian War Record. Garak would know Janeway’s war record and I bet he would enjoy poking at Janeway.

Janeway would indulge Quark but only to a point.

But also, it would be so interesting for Scientist!Janeway to butt up against Bajoran spirituality and religion, especially if the Wormhole aliens pick her to be their Emissary. Sisko was already (initially) uncomfortable with the role, what more Janeway?

Janeway is diplomatic but her faith is in science. I think in this way, Sisko was more open, especially once he warmed up to Bajor and its cultures. I don’t know if I can see Janeway ever comfortable in the Emissary role.

Janeway vs Kai Winn would be fascinating. They’d both tear at each other with sugar-sweet smiles.

Janeway would also be pushed to make the same decisions as Sisko did in In the Pale Moonlight because just like Sisko, she takes every death personally. And the deaths during the Dominion War were constant.

It would be fascinating to see Janeway in the Siege of AR355 though just to see Janeway in another siege war. She already mentioned on Voyager how devastating that was, in her low-key way.

Saving the Cardassian was a moment that won Janeway back her soul, if not for that moment, I honestly feel Janeway would’ve been lost.

Also, I feel Janeway and the Founder would have An Enemy Mine situation instantly. Janeway would also 100% support all of Nerys’s anti-Gul Dukat moves, she’ll hide it but she will low-key condone it.

Sisko was always contemptuous of Dukat but it was never personal, Sisko had to be driven to the moment of hating Dukat. Since, again, his hate would go towards the Borg more. But for Janeway? It’s a skip towards hating Dukat.

We could also see Janeway in a more casual setting more often, maybe even date. I have a feeling even if Janeway stayed in the Alpha Quadrant, Janeway and Mark Johnson wouldn't have stayed together.

[clumsiestgiantess]

Chapter nine of the Other-world Universe; drunken shenanigans! Amongst other things. (This chapter’s one of my favorites)

all chapters linked here

[Hangover? I hardly know her]

On one boring Saturday, several weeks from my first attempt at redemption, I left for the other-world after dinner.  It seemed so much more inviting now that Erica had forgiven me.  Well, not forgiven me, actually.  It was more along the lines of facing the reality that I occasionally wandered through her world whether she wanted me there or not.  I had a better feeling about things, regardless.  I still wanted to make a better impression than I had when we first officially met.  Erica had willingly spent time with me, and she'd actually enjoyed it.  She said so herself.  The thought of that rainy day made my heart skip a beat.  Befriending the people of the other-world was a lot more gratifying than sitting around invisibly controlling them.  Albeit, it was a lot harder.

It wasn't raining that evening, but large clouds hung heavily in the air.  Erica's house was empty when I meandered past the cliffside, and I couldn't help but feel a twinge of sorrow at the sight.  What was I going to tell her, anyways? I asked myself internally.  'I came back because my world's boring and you aren't?'  No, it was for the best that she wasn't home.  I could wait for tomorrow — maybe get there a bit earlier.  I’d come later into the night, but then again, I always come around dark.  It stresses me out less and makes me feel a bit more hidden.

Wandering further through the outskirts of the city, I debated controlling someone to get closer to its center.  However, since everything that happened, I was really trying to be less lenient with my own rules.  'Absolutely necessary' was already vague enough.  Deep in thought, I stumbled over a car in the street, not even realizing it had turned down the road I was walking on.  I glanced backwards to find the vehicle flipped upside down in the road behind me.  Too many bystanders had seen it happen, though.  This was a residential area, and people were already flocking out of their homes to witness the damage.  Like so many other accidents I'd caused, I could do nothing to help without making a scene.

I guiltily slunk off to a different, less inhabited place.  The streets were filled with pawn shops and sketchy offices that were most likely fronts for a plethora of illegal things.  I quickly moved on from that section and continued around the outside of the city.  After finding nothing of particular interest, I was ready to call it a night and head back to my own world.  A split second from vanishing away, I felt a magnetic-esque tug.  Erica.  Should I look for her?  Will she think I’m stalking her if I do?  In the end, I decided to just check in on her, then head back home.  Strange streets slowly became more recognizable as I traversed the roadways trying to follow my and Erica's sixth sense.

Once the old club came into view, I picked up the pace, suddenly realizing where she must be.  Erica was nowhere in sight when I arrived, and I had to wait later into the dark morning for her to emerge from the building.  This time, she actually recognized her car, so I assumed she wasn't too buzzed.  However, the second her car was running, she proceeded to put it into drive rather than reverse.  She came horribly close to smashing directly into the car parked in front of her.  Thankfully, my reflexes reacted before my brain did.  I quickly stopped the vehicle in its tracks with a free hand.  Eyeing the empty streets for any passerby, I brought her car to the empty lot I'd sat in to watch the city over a year ago — only a block or two down the street.  It took a few moments after I'd placed it down, but Erica eventually stepped out of her car and looked around the lot, confused.  "This isn't my house," she stated confusedly after examining the darkening streets.

Oh boy.  "Erica, what are you doing trying to drive this drunk?" I asked quietly, slightly exasperated, "Weren't you already arrested for doing this?"   She whirled around towards the sound of my voice, glancing around the dark with a bewildered expression.  "H- hello?  God, is that you?"  Shortly afterwards, she dissolved into a mess of giggles and slumped back down into the driver's seat.  "Don't take me yet!" Erica exclaimed drunkenly, "Wait until the hangover starts, then I'll want to leave."  Sighing, I kneeled on the concrete and considered my options.  I couldn’t leave Erica in the lot; she was far too drunk to stay by herself in the city, especially at night.  My first thought was to take her home myself, but that meant I’d have to pick her up either in her car or just in my hand.  I knew for a fact that sober Erica would passionately refuse both options.

Taking her car was basically out of the question, though.  It would be way too risky trying to hide it from the view of all the people in the other-world who might look up and spot it, even if it was the dead of night.  The only way to get Erica home is to carry her there.  I debated my decision for a moment.  “Erica, can you come out of the car for a second?  I- I need to take you home, but I’m honestly not sure how.”  Erica shrugged and stepped off her seat, stumbling on the cracked cement.  Hesitating a few times, I reached for her.  Unfortunately, I had to keep myself invisible in the outskirts of the city.  Erica would have a fit if I were to try this while she was sober, but I had no other choice.  

My fingers slowly curled around Erica’s torso, lifting her a few inches into the air.  The second her feet left the ground, she shrieked like she was being murdered.  I quickly set her back down, regretfully watching as she scrambled behind her car for safety.  Her bubbly mood was replaced with a newly terrified one.  It was heartbreaking; all her newfound trust in me was instantly revoked.

Erica’s frightened voice echoed from her hiding spot.  “I can’t be controlled again.  Please, it has to stop.  I don’t want to be a puppet.”  She sounded like she was on the verge of tears.  Was she really this scared of me, or is that the alcohol talking?  Sitting up as much as I could without fully standing, I surveyed the area for people.  Streetlights and neon signs hummed with life, but otherwise the surrounding streets were completely dead.  Tentatively, I came out of invisibility.  “Erica,” I called softly, “It’s just me.  I won’t control you, I promise.”  Her head popped up from her hiding place behind her car.  “You’re not?” she asked, looking me over warily.  I shook my head and she slid out of hiding.

Erica meandered around the lot for about 20 minutes afterwards, blabbering drunken nonsense and pacing around aimlessly.  She tried twice to drive home, but I refused to let her get in her car.  I’d quickly slide my hand over the door every time I saw Erica make a move towards it.  The second time I blocked her, she pressed herself into my fingers, trying to force them apart so she could get past them.  It was strangely adorable, but I still refused to let her in.  Driving in her disoriented state was basically a death sentence.  

“Come on,” she whined, “I wanna go home already!”  “I can’t let you drive this drunk,” I replied.  She sighed, giving one last attempt to pry my fingers free.  Finally, she sat down tiredly on the back of her car.  A few minutes later, Erica nearly slid off her seat in drowsiness.  I quickly reached over and caught her before she got a face full of cement.

Immediately, Erica slid out of my grip and hurried to the newly opened doorway.  At that point, I was worried I might have to hold her car aloft to stop her from using it.  However, Erica paused at the door, hand hovering over its handle.  Slowly, she turned to look up at my exhausted expression.  "You're..." she paused, considering my large form sitting cross-legged in the lot, taking up more than half the empty space.  "You're my friend, right?  I can trust you?"  

I was baffled by her questions, but immediately had the answer.  "Of course you can trust me."  Erica gave me an oblivious, innocent smile, "That's good.  I like you.  I'd invite you over to my house, but you won't let me go."  She wandered over to my hand, laying back on it like a bed.  "Guess I'll just sleep here tonight.  But I’m going to make it your problem."  I sat stunned while Erica rambled on in a half asleep voice.  In her slightly delirious state, she'd asked me where my house was and questioned whether I even had one or just slept in the mountains somewhere.  Before I could try to explain my situation to her, she'd fallen asleep.

After a few minutes, I bent over to see her closer, fingers cupping around her ever so slightly.  I didn't dare get too close though, just in case she woke up and my closeness scared her.  Butterflies flitted around my chest as I gazed down at Erica tucked sleepily in my palm.  I gushed over how sweet a moment it was before realizing something like that would probably never happen again.  Once she sobered up, I doubted Erica would ever be that trusting of me.  I can enjoy this moment now, though.  Before it ends, and I go back to being seen as an 'untrustworthy monster' not a 'safe friend'.

My pulse quickened slightly as I felt Erica shift unconsciously on my palm.  Her arm slid over my thumb, pulling it closer to herself as she nestled her head on the pad of another finger.  The feeling was so overwhelming, I felt my eyes tearing up.  Seeing her sleeping soundly was making me doubly tired.  It was definitely well past midnight, and I still hadn’t slept, myself.  Even when I closed my eyes to get some rest, there would always be some suspicious sounds out on the street or a slight movement from Erica, and I'd suddenly be woken again.

Eventually, I must've fallen asleep, because when I woke up the sun had drifted above the horizon.  My heart dropped in panic as I quickly became invisible once more.  Hopefully no one had spotted me while I was sleeping.  Erica was still out cold, so I slid my hoodie out from its previous use as a pillow for myself, and placed it on the ground with Erica on top of it.  My hand prickled awfully from the loss of blood over the course of the night.  I had to hold it still for hours so Erica wouldn't wake up.  As I shook out my hand and bent my fingers to get them back to normal, I pulled away from the building behind me to check how much damage I'd undoubtedly caused by leaning against it.  There was a large dent in its side where my back rested.  Thankfully, the building looked long abandoned.

Early city sounds started up for the day, and I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.  Horns blared in the direction of the highway, and a flock of tiny pigeons scattered into the sky.  Suddenly, a small yelp startled me mid-yawn.  I glanced over at my hoodie where Erica was now sitting upright in confusion.  "What-  Where am I?  What happened?  Alexis, are you-"  "I'm here," I replied softly, not wanting to draw too much attention to myself.  Erica flinched slightly at my voice before calming down once she recognized it.  A few seconds passed as she stared into the distance, possibly remembering vague details from the night before.  

"You.. wouldn't let me drive home last night..."  "Because you were ridiculously drunk and almost crashed within five seconds of trying to drive," I finished.  Erica sucked in a pained breath of air as she clutched her head and slowly laid back down.  "Fucking hangover," she cursed under her breath.  "I think the drinks might’ve been spiked.  I.. I really shouldn’t keep going back there.”  She rolled over and clutched fistfuls of my hoodie closer to herself. “Thank you though, for keeping me off the road.  I could've died; I wasn't really thinking." I smiled, breathing in the early morning air.  "You're welcome."

"I have some water in my car," Erica realized aloud.  "If I could just get it..."  I would offer to get it for her, but I doubted I could get to the bottle without accidentally tearing the door off.  We sat in the lot for some time, Erica trying to power through her headache long enough to make it to her car.  She got two thirds of the way there before doubling over in pain.  I had to reach out and catch her before she fell to the ground.  Erica froze when she felt my fingers hoist her back up, but she quickly got over it and made her way into the driver's seat with my help.  Finally, she got out the bottle and swallowed a few sips, slumping over in pain and exhaustion afterwards.

I noticed her cast a longing stare directed at my hoodie.  Erica wanted to lie back down, but didn't want to keep me here longer than she already had.  She sat sideways, legs still dangling out of the car, and looked up in my direction.  "Did I-” she stopped for a second then started her sentence again.  "I don't remember much of last night, but.. did I fall asleep in your hand?" she asked hesitantly.  "Yes," I confessed, "You wanted somewhere to sleep, and since I didn't let you into the car…"  "I'm sorry," Erica interjected, "That's.. embarrassing, I'm so sorry.  I kept you here all night."  I let out a breathy laugh, "No, it's fine Erica.  I really didn't mind!  It's not like anyone's missing me back home."  She seemed slightly concerned for a moment, sitting up to get off her seat before letting out a small yelp of pain and reaching for her temples, again staring longingly at the comfortable pile of fabric a few feet away.

"Hold out your hand," I instructed.  Shockingly, Erica made no argument.  Her tiny digits brushed over the pads of my own, leaning her weight onto me.  Gently, I hauled her up out of her seat.  With small careful movements, I managed to guide her back to my hoodie so she could lay down again.  With a wan smile, she burrowed herself in its folds.  "Did you know I'd be out drinking last night?" Erica asked after laying there for a while, her eyes closed in a half-sleep.  "No, I was just sightseeing in the city again," I answered honestly, "I was about to leave when I felt you were nearby and went to investigate."  

"By 'investigate', do you mean 'spy on me'?"  When I answered with a dull silence, she opened her eyes and sat up slightly to look at me.  Well, to look at the empty space that I sat in.  "That was supposed to be a joke, sorry.  I wasn't trying to chastise you."  This was new.  I don't think Erica had ever apologized to me before.  Not that she had anything to apologize for.  "I'm just glad I came when I did," I replied, "before anything happened."  She must've sensed my tone shift a bit, because she frowned at me and stood slightly before realizing that wasn't helping her headache.  "You were worried about me?"  Erica asked, looking slightly flattered.  "That's.. really sweet of you."

I nodded vigorously, though Erica couldn't see me.  "Of course I was worried about you!" I exclaimed before realizing I should probably keep my voice a bit quieter.  It hurt my throat, but it probably kept me a bit more secretive.  Even if it didn’t, whispering would also be better for Erica’s headache regardless.  "Imagine how awful I'd feel if I came back to the mansion to visit and you weren't there.  I guess I would think you blew me off, but I'd really start to worry once you were gone for weeks afterward."  

Erica sat silently for a bit, deep in thought.  "I..." she started, "I guess I didn't realize you cared about me that much."  A long silence followed, her last words resonating in the empty air.  Erica's expression became clouded with emotions I couldn't quite read.  "Are you alright?" I asked uncertainly.  The silence broken, Erica shook herself off and straightened up.  "Yeah, I'm just thinking.  I really should head home, though."  "Alright, I guess I'll do that too.  Do you need help?"  She shook her head and stood slowly, "I should be alright until I get home."  I watched her return to the driver's seat, readily waiting to catch her if she fell.

Before closing the car door, Erica slowly turned to look at me.  "Thank you, again, for dealing with me last night.  I swear I'll try not to get that drunk from now on.  It’s not that I want to, it just kinda.. happens, I guess."  I laughed slightly, "You work on that."  Erica started up the car, smiling lightheartedly.  With a little wave, she drove off back to the mansion, leaving me behind on the cracked concrete lot.  Just in case, I trailed her car from a distance.  She said she was alright to drive, but I wanted to make sure she made it home safely before I left.

I could barely sleep that evening, far too awake thanks to the events of the day, along with the fact that I’d just woken up.  Erica had trusted me so wholly that she’d slept in my hand.  I felt giddy just thinking about it, but at the same time, I had to come to terms with the fact that the incident had everything to do with the alcohol and whatever else she’d consumed and nothing to do with her actual trust in me.  However, even when she’d slept it all off, Erica had still trusted me enough to touch her that morning.  

I hadn’t touched her or even got very close to her since I’d grabbed her during our first true meeting.  She made it crystal clear that she didn’t want my massive appendages anywhere near her since then.  That was until just this morning, when she’d willingly taken my hand.  It might’ve just been Erica being in too much pain to be stingy, but she was stubborn; if she didn’t want to do something, it was near impossible to get her to change her mind.  The only reason I say near is because of my abilities, but using those was obviously out of the question.

Exited that Erica finally seemed to be warming up to me, I eagerly returned on the following Saturday.  I’d chosen Saturdays simply because they were the day I had the most free time.  I raced downstairs right after lunch and zapped off to the other-world, almost jogging to the cliffside before realizing the tremors I would undoubtedly cause.  Stepping up to the mansion, I found Erica on the phone with someone inside.  Resting on the cliffside a bit further down, I waited for Erica to finish the call and come to the door.  It was taking a suspiciously long time for her to get there, so I began wandering off to the areas nearby.  

Eventually, I noticed the glass door, which had now been fixed, sliding open.  Erica stepped hesitantly onto the patio outside.  "Alexis?  Are you out here?"  I made my way over to the mansion again.  "Yeah," I answered, "It's Saturday.  I'm here."  My sudden voice caused Erica to jump a few feet in the air.  Her face scrunched up in thought, “You came today?  It’s.. not the best time for me.  I have errands to run today."  I stared blankly at her, suddenly feeling very awkward.  "I.. oh."  I felt so stupid — it was all I could say.  “N- Nevermind.  Sorry to bother you.”

Erica snickered, shaking her head slightly in embarrassment for me.  She thought for a moment, then made a small 'aha' gesture.  "Hey, you know what?  While you're here, do you think you could help out with stuff?  I was just on the phone with a decor store.  See, I have this new couch coming, but the store's being big jerks about it and they won't deliver it for me.  They said they'd have someone help load it into my car, but.."  She stepped out a ways, gesturing to her two-seater sports car parked in the driveway.  Its trunk was only a few feet long, and that was in other-world measurements.  "It won't exactly fit.  I told them that, but I don't think the lady on the phone particularly gave a shit, so.. I'm thinking maybe, while you're here and everything, you can get the couch for me?"  

I mulled her idea over.  I don't really have anything else to do, and I was planning to spend the rest of the day here anyway.  "Well, I can't just go there and get it by myself, you have to go and claim it."  Erica waved a hand to shush me, "Yeah, yeah, I know.  I'm coming too.  I just need someone to take the couch."  "Alright," I agreed, "I'll help out.  I was planning to be here today, anyway."  My agreeance was instantly rewarded with a rare genuine smile from Erica, which was compensation enough for me.

It took Erica a few minutes to get herself ready, but soon we hit the road.  Well, she hit the road and I followed from a distance.  I was still amazed by how easily I could keep up with vehicles like her car.  Technically they were only toy-sized so I guessed it made sense.  We had to diverge paths for a bit when the highway turned through a forested area I couldn’t walk in, but using our sixth sense, I was still able to follow her despite not being able to see her.  When she got to the parking lot, she took a space at the very far end.  

“Alexis?” Erica called, stepping out of the car.  “I’m here,” I replied quietly, kneeling down.  There was an empty dog walk beside the lot on this side that gave me just enough room to stay.  Erica had probably parked all the way over here because of it.  “I’m going to have them leave the couch out on the corner over there.  Do you think you could take it without anyone noticing?”  “In front of the entire parking lot?” I asked skeptically, looking out over the stretch of asphalt and cars, "I'll try."  Soon, the new couch was brought out to the corner.  Erica told the employees who took it out there that a truck would be coming by any second to take it, but they insisted on waiting for it to arrive so they could load it inside.  It was their policy or whatnot.

Erica began to get annoyed, realizing that they would get suspicious when no one actually showed up.  Spying a van nearby, I got an idea.  I made sure Erica was preoccupied with the moving guys before stepping over and latching onto the driver.  I had them pull up to where the couch was waiting, then call out to the movers and Erica.  ("I'm here!  Is this the couch?")  Erica's eyes went wide in shock, her face paling as she rapidly figured out what I’d done.  I instantly regretted my decision, but the two movers got right to work placing things inside.  

The moment they left, Erica glared at me through the person she realized I must be controlling.  "My car.  Now."  I hesitated, but begrudgingly had the person drive out and park beside her fancy red sports car.  Erica marched up to the driver, "What the hell is wrong with you?  I thought you weren't doing any of this shit anymore!"  It was weird watching her yell at the innocent person I was controlling instead of my actual self, who was watching invisibly from above.  ("They weren't going to leave, so I thought this might help,") I explained.  She stared at the driver a moment, "Can.. Can whoever you're controlling see what's happening right now?  I remember it was like spacing out and watching things happen around me…”  Her expression shifted from anxious to enraged in a matter of seconds.  “Alexis, you can't do this to people!"  ("I know, I know.  I just need to do one thing, then they'll go off and forget this ever happened.")

Erica stood irritated the entire time as I, myself, got the couch out of the van.  Quickly, I had the driver pull away and forget the last few minutes.  "See, they're gone.  It's like they were never here," I said quietly.  I knew what I did was not going to be cast aside that easily.  "Can we just… go back to the mansion and I can explain-"  "Explain what?  You controlled someone right in front of me!"  "Erica, I controlled them for five minutes.  They were completely fine and I did nothing to hurt them.  I- I understand that what I did to you was very wrong, but it wasn't like that.  I had someone do us a favor, and that's all."  "Just bring the damn couch home."  Erica slammed her car door and sped away before I could reply.  I took up the piece of furniture and held it beneath my shirt to keep it hidden.  

I stood in numb shock as I watched Erica’s car disappear down the freeway.  What was I thinking, controlling someone in front of her, even if it was only for a moment?  On my way back, I realized that without my sixth sense to guide me, I was a bit lost.  I followed the trail of places I recognized, unsure whether I recognized them from the trip today or from another time.  The sudden sound of something ripping apart startled me from my pensive mood.  I nearly tripped over a stoplight when I looked up.  

A pitch-black tear broke through the sky to my right.  It was as if the atmosphere itself had been cut open, filled with a gaping black void of whatever was inside.  There were only two or three other cars on this backroad, but everyone who saw it stopped and watched in frightened awe.  The tear looked exactly like the strange instance of black lightning I’d noticed from a distance a long time ago.  I’d completely forgotten about it until then.  Now that it had opened a yard or so away from me, I realized that the strange phenomenon was definitely not natural.

A few seconds of stunned silence later, the tear slowly closed back in on itself, sealing up the sky once more.  What in the world was that!?  Clearly, no one else seemed to know either.  A crowd of bystanders formed in the street by their abandoned vehicles, debating over what exactly they’d witnessed.  Talk of aliens and dark magic drifted to my ears from the road below me.  Whatever strange things were going on, this time, they were not my fault.  Not wanting to stick around in case any government agencies came looking, I backed off and continued the long walk to the mansion.

When I got back, Erica was there waiting for me.  Silently, she opened the back doors and pointed inside to where the old couch used to be.  I delicately placed it inside like you would a piece of dollhouse furniture.  It wasn't completely dark yet, but it was getting there.  It had taken me a while to find my way back without Erica to guide me.  Her back was turned and it looked as if she might shut the back doors on me, so I quickly shifted to visibility.

"Erica, I'm sorry.  I'm so, so sorry," I pleaded, "It's not fair what I did.  It should never have been that long, I- I just got into the habit and didn't stop…"  She turned around to face me.  My eyes were brimming with tears, and I was gripping the cliffside so hard that chunks of rock came away in my hands.  "You're not talking about today, are you?" Erica asked, leaning tiredly against the doorframe.  I shook my head, bending down to look her in the eyes.  "You.. didn't deserve that.  I stole eight months of your life, and I convinced myself that you were better off because of it…"  I took a shuddering breath and continued.  "I don't want to scare you or hurt you, I promise."  

There was a long moment of dull silence where I could've sworn Erica would tell me to leave her alone, but all she did was sigh and step inside.  My stomach plummeted.  I stepped away, trying desperately to keep myself from full-on crying.  I had come so close.  "Hey, I'm-  I'm still here," a whisper echoed from the second floor of the mansion.  "I just came up here to talk to you easier."  I wiped the tears from my face as best as I could in the pitch dark of the coming night before stepping into the light of the house.

"You genuinely care about me, right?" Erica asked once I came back over.  I nodded furiously.  "You're lucky that I care about you, too.  We’re friends, which means we’re supposed to look out for each other.  So just.. Please don't control people anymore.  It’s not right and it freaks me out."  She crossed her arms defiantly, "And if I ever see you do anything like that again, even if it's for a few minutes, even if a person isn't affected by it in the slightest, that's it.  You and I are done."  I blinked, slightly astounded despite my awful predicament.  "There's.. there's a you and me?  We’re friends?"  Erica rolled her eyes, "That's what you got out of all this?  You know what, maybe there isn't a you and me after all."  "No, no!" I backtracked, "I agree with what you said before, I won't control anyone again!”  "You better not," she chided, pointing a finger at me, "Or else."

I stood feeling chastised while Erica glanced awkwardly back into her house.  “I should really go make dinner," she mused, more to herself than to me.  "I haven’t had anything to eat since eleven o’clock this morning.  I’d order in because I really don’t feel like cooking, but I did that yesterday.”  I stood up so fast, Erica flinched.  “I can get us something to eat!”  Instantly, I vanished into my world and grabbed the backpack I’d been planning to bring.  A few sandwiches were packed inside.  

Moments later, I was back at the mansion.  Erica still stood hesitantly on the balcony.  “It.. might be a bit too much, but I have these,” I said, offering her one of the sandwiches.  It occurred to me then that I probably seemed a bit desperate to make amends by doing this.  I watched Erica’s expression.  She mostly seemed shook by the fact that I had a sandwich the length of the room behind her.  “Are you trying to win me back with food?” she questioned, glancing at me smugly.  I looked away, embarrassed, “I just.. don’t want you to be mad.”  “Then maybe you should listen to me the next time I tell you not to do something.”

“Ok..” I answered guiltily, letting the sandwich fall to my side in my hand.  She did have the right to refuse my peace offering.  “Woah, wait,” Erica stopped me, “I take bribes, hand that back.”  At her sudden remark, I let out a surprised laugh and took the sandwich out of the bag it was in, breaking off a piece that would be semi-manageable for her.  “Here you go, then,” I offered it to her.  We spent the rest of the evening eating and talking until we both started getting tired.  Before I could say my goodbyes, Erica stopped me.

“I.. You..."  Erica paused, mouth opening and closing silently as she searched for a way to tell me what was on her mind.  "You’re not controlling me anymore, are you?  And then making me forget?”  “What?” I asked, genuinely confused.  “L- Like that guy in the parking lot?  You made him forget about what he did.”  I leaned over to rest my head on my hands, propped up on the side lawn.  “Why would I want to control you?” I asked her earnestly, “What would I possibly hope to gain from doing that to you now?”  

Erica hesitated, thinking.  “I only did that to make you live an easier life.  Now that I know I was only making things harder for you, why would I keep doing it?”  She sighed, resting her head face down on the railing in front of her, staring silently at the floor for a while.  “I guess that makes sense.  And I don’t have any strange gaps in my memory like I used to.  That.. was you making me forget stuff, I think.  Some people just don’t care about others’ opinions, you know?” she explained, “I just wanted to know if you listened to me about that at the very least.”

I nodded, understanding.  Slowly, I shifted back upright.  It had to be scary — realizing that someone could take a part of your life away without you even knowing about it, or knowing what that piece of your life was for that matter.  “I swear on my life that I haven’t controlled you since the night you called me out on it,” I promised.  Erica’s head lifted, and she scrutinized my expression, searching for the truth.  “I believe you,” she said after a brief silence.  “And if I need anything in the future, like.. I don’t know.. Iike how you forced John to leave me alone, or when you stopped me from getting in a drunken accident a week ago, you’ll still be here, right?”  

“I’ll be around,” I answered.  “Every day I’ll come over here for a minute or two, probably right before I go to bed.  I’ll come check on you, and if you need anything, you can let me know, and I’ll see what I can do.  How does that sound?”  Erica let out a relieved breath, “It sounds like the right way to help me fix my life.  Thank you.  I- I guess it was wrong of me to tell you I wanted you to stop controlling people, end of story, because I agree that it is a useful ability.  So maybe you should only do it if I ask you to?  I don’t know, it just.. it scares me.”  I so badly wanted to hug her.  My hands twitched at the thought, inching closer before realizing she probably wouldn’t enjoy my giant form encroaching in her small space.

Hesitantly, I brought a hand over to the balcony and reached out a single finger instead.  “You shouldn’t have to be scared when I do that.  I want you to know for certain that I will never ever even try to control you.”  Erica stepped backwards in concern, unsure what I intended to do as I got closer.  When I paused right in front of her, her eyes widened slightly, and she stared at the outstretched digit in awe.  Slowly, Erica’s gaze lifted to meet mine.  “It’s alright,” I told her softly.  With a shaking hand, Erica reached out and delicately put her hand over the pad of my upturned finger, mouth dropping open slightly in wonder.  She dazedly traced the swirling marks of my fingerprint, shook by something so much larger in scale.

A brief moment later, I took back my arm, leaving Erica standing there speechless.  “I’ll be back tomorrow,” I promised, “to check on you like you asked.”  I backed off the cliffside and smiled at her hopeful gaze.  After a small goodbye, I left for my own world with Erica still standing wide-eyed on her balcony.

The following few months were filled with similar affairs.  Erica and I got together for a few meals, and she’d started letting me in on a few things that had been happening in her life that she’d previously kept hidden.  She admitted she’d been afraid that I’d mess with things again if she told me about them — a subtle hint to the fact that she was no longer afraid of my ability to do so, and realized that I really did never intend to use it on her again.  

Once we even had an accidental meeting when her car died in the back roads by her house.  It was deathly hot out now that summer was coming, and without any air conditioning, it was stifling.  Thankfully, I came by a little while after the car died.  I’d already been to her house and decided to walk back through the mountains where there was a bit more of a breeze, only to find Erica’s very noticeable car on the side of the road there.  Erica had been halfway passed out from the heat by the time I found her.  Her phone had died as she tried to call a towing company because she spent all her time trying to find a well-reviewed one.  

Hesitantly, I'd asked if she wanted me to get someone to help, but she strongly refused, knowing that meant I'd have to control someone again.  Even when her life might depend on it, Erica refused to break her own rules — something I seemed to be in the habit of doing, though I was getting better at it.  All she’d done was tell me: "I'd be too nervous sitting in someone else's car while you're controlling them," and I immediately halted mid-argument.  If Erica wasn’t comfortable with it, then neither was I.

I ended up taking the car back to the house with her inside it — a quick transport to the air-conditioned mansion.  Erica was thankful for the lift, even though she didn’t approve of my methods whatsoever.  I had to argue with her for fifteen minutes straight just to convince her that I wouldn’t accidentally drop her.  Erica claimed she nearly had a heart attack when I picked up the vehicle without warning.  Still, she thanked me with a gift: a bottle of champagne.

“My last bottle of alcohol in the house,” Erica admitted, “It’s yours.”  She handed me the tiny bottle, which couldn’t have been more than an inch long.  “I’m finally going sober.”  Erica beamed up at me; her eyes shone with an excitement I'd never seen before, even when I showed up to meals with oversized food from my own world.  Ever since I’d brought her that sandwich, it was like she’d finally realized that I had a whole world full of comparatively gigantic things.  Many of my recent trips, I’d brought along either food or an item for Erica to mess with.  She’d practically fainted when I came with a full-sized tube of lipstick a few days ago.  It was nearly as tall as she was, and she’d made a huge mess of it when she tried to use it herself, staining her outfit red, permanently.

Now, I stared down at the tiny champagne bottle in my hands, feeling the same strange wonder of seeing something normal at an entirely different scale.  "How about you start that tomorrow?" I asked, referring to Erica’s remark about being sober, "Go inside and get yourself a glass, will you?"  Erica nodded happily and disappeared into the mansion, returning with one of her champagne glasses.  She took the bottle from me and poured herself a cup, carefully handing it back so it wouldn't spill.  Taking the bottle between two fingers, I held it up to Erica's glass.  "Cheers," I announced, "to you finally getting your life back."  "Oh, I'll definitely drink to that," Erica remarked, clinking her glass with mine before taking a sip.  I took the wine bottle and poured the entire thing into my mouth.  It was barely more than a sip, but it tasted good.  It occurred to me then that I wasn’t supposed to be drinking alcohol; I was only a few months into being eighteen.  It wasn’t much, and I didn’t really care, but still.

It also occurred to me that I had no idea how old Erica was.  She didn’t look that much older than me, but I’d never asked.  “Erica,” I began, resting myself on the edge of the cliff so my head was even with the patio.  “How old are you?”  She froze mid-sip and glanced over at me.  “Why do you ask?”  “I just realized that I technically shouldn’t even be drinking alcohol at my age.  Not that I mind the tiny amount I got from this bottle,” I added with a shrug. “Are you.. I mean…  You’re out drinking all the time, so I assume you’re at least twenty-one, right?”  The look of guilt that sprung to her face immediately made me think otherwise.  “W- Well how old are you?”  I shook my head, “You first.”  “I’m.. I’m only twenty,” she confessed, “but legal drinking age is.. like.. eighteen so…  Yeah.  Now answer my question.”  

It took a moment for me to respond after that.  Not only was I unsure whether she was lying about the age a person could drink in her world, I realized that when I first saw her a year before, absolutely wasted in the parking lot, trying to break into a car she’d mistaken for her own — she was only nineteen.  In my book, that was too young an age for her to be in that situation, and way too young an age to be in the situation with John in the alleyway.

“Alexis?” Erica asked questioningly.  Her voice held the tiniest tinge of fear in it.  “I’m eighteen,” I told her.  My junior year of high school’s almost over.”  She nodded, “Unpopular opinion, but I actually liked high school.”  As I voiced my opinion against her own, claiming she probably just wasn’t remembering it clearly as a joke, I noticed her look darken for a moment, but chose not to press her about it.  I changed the topic entirely and made some small talk for a bit before we parted ways for the night.  I kept the empty champagne bottle as a souvenir, rubbing it thoughtfully between my fingers in bed that night.  "Cheers," I whispered to myself, "to finally getting things right.

[invested-in-your-future]

How would you write Ruby then?

That's the easiest one yet because that's something I have been thinking about since V3 ended.

If I were to to summarize Ruby after V3 ended in one word, it would be "Haunted".

As the V3 progressed and slowly but surely everything went out of control, we saw Ruby and foundations of both her idealism and escapism be genuinely shaken. I have written about it before, really

Basically as rewrite starts, you have Ruby in quite a chaotic state. She's haunted by what happened to Pyrrha and what happened to Penny and at the same time all the other terrible things through her life are also closing in like her vague memories of what happened to her mother.

The fact that her relationship with Yang is "a bit" strained also doesn't help. Yang has always been supportive and cared for Ruby, often at the cost of herself, but now? Now Yang is hurting and she's in no place to do that. One could see it even in V3 finale - their interactions are bit awkward now as Yang is a LOT worse at masking her hurt than Ruby is. So, needless to say, Ruby leaves home on a pretty bad note as far as conversations with Yang go, their final farewell being something that haunts both her and Yang going forward.

So you have Ruby who is unsure of her path, haunted by the terrible tragedies that befell her and also feels like she's been kind of cut off from her support net - relationship with Yang is strained, Weiss left for Atlas before Ruby woke up and Blake just outright disappeared.

As her journey goes on, Ruby is dealing with conflicting feelings - she still wants to be a hero, but she also finds herself willing to do whatever is necessary to protect the people she cares about and also she absolutely wants to make Cinder pay. One would expect for her to find some solace with Jaune going through grief too, but unlike in the show, rewrite Jaune handles grief differently - he finds peace in his memories of Pyrrha and, just like Pyrrha would have wanted, is in the middle of of trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life and what kind of person he truly wants to be beyond all the fake bravado and knightly nonsense he tried to do before. Nora and Ren are dealing with grief too, but also returning to Mistral adds a whole another layer of worries and past memories for them because there's quite a bit left unsaid between them in regards to their own personal past tragedies.

So even though Ruby is traveling with Jaune, Nora and Ren, at the same time she's also someone who is traversing a dark forest all alone.

She still smiles and she still acts like everything is fine as much as she can, but on the inside she's terrified. Various moments from her life come back as dreams and sometimes they can make it pretty ambiguous on what is real and what is not amidst all the anxiety and panic attacks. Also, especially during stressful situations, Ruby finds it a lot harder to handle her emotions now (because she repressed a LOT of negativity before and what happened kind of broke the dam and you can't just "unbreak" it). She's a lot more prone to displaying anger or acting reckless. Her outfit is in a bit more of disrepair and her weapon is damaged from fighting that way.

Meanwhile, the world doesn't wait - with the transmit system being gone, there's a world war brewing as mistrust grows between nations and also in the corners of the world, dark things are slowly awakening. Oh yeah and also certain girl with a pointy umbrella seems to have dedicated her life in chasing her down and making her life hell.

How does Ruby deal with where she's at right now as far as life goes? How does she handle possible tragedies in her future? Where will she be emotionally when one day team RWBY actually meet again? I think its pretty interesting angle to take.

Thematically Ruby, as protagonist, is the microcosm version of the whole setting and the whole narrative itself, so it makes sense that both the larger world and the protagonist herself would be in a state of terrifying unknown, dealing with grief and lingering sense of dread from everything they experienced.

Each RWBY character is handling Fall of Beacon differently - Ruby finds herself falling apart, Weiss finds her conviction and belief renewed as she views everything around her in a different light, Blake needs to face her past and Yang is picking up the pieces of her life and trying to build some kind of meaning out of them.

[milimeters-morales]

me rambling under the cut

one of the least bad/most annoying side effects of atsv is how much it fucks over my thinking process when i’m trying to write a more realistic way of miles meeting up with people and friends from other worlds while being a student + spider-man + having a family that likes to spend time together, esp since i like to throw some comic characters into the mix. like it seems easy right? open a portal and go say hi. except you have to still plan ahead, because i have the times set different (for example peter is 30 minutes ahead and pavitr is an entire 12 hours), everyone has lives outside of being a vigilante (though gwen and margo give me the most freedom with this), and sometimes people just don’t wanna hang! don’t get me started on the portal itself, which you need to find a hidden spot to open and then take a few seconds to go through, to another side that you aren’t sure of the exact location. did you see the way the portal to pavitr’s world had Miles? and the way the go-home-machine sent gwen flying? of course, those are two diff types of portals, & there’s a workaround to everything, but it’s still a lot to consider and it just results in me taking forever to actually get shit down on paper. oh my god and the subtle tells of shit being resolved after btsv (bc i am not dealing with that) making the characters seem too ooc when they technically aren’t. bc it could happen. i’m always losing the idgaf war i love details i love hypotheticals and i love hidden meanings

another thing that isn’t canon and is just me making it harder for myself is me adding in anxiety and autism and a weird learned social behavior into the mix for miles. sure, guys and girls hang out. sure, they can be just friends. but he’s a guy who LIKED gwen and his parents don’t have the best first impression but are generally okay with her, and he’s at the age where all his girl friends will be teased as possible girlfriends by damn near everyone he knows. so it’s reasonable for him to not be around her while also around other people who don’t know the two of them like that, because dealing with that shit is exhausting AND embarrassing, stuff we both know Miles doesn’t like even if he can move on pretty quickly. so i expect him to sorta be like “nahhh… my cousins are here and… look let’s just hang out next time pleaseeee” and here’s where the anxiety and autism come in. miles (atsv) is not the type to care about how people view him based on his friends, and autism will result in him missing a lot of social cues but it’s kinda obvious to me that he doesnt miss the more romantic ones when it comes to gwen and how people view them together. this doesn’t help though because he doesn’t know what the do about it! he KNOWS the right thing: don’t let others get to you and work your shit out with gwen the way you know is right. but the anxiety makes him overthink about how gwen views all this (which i don’t actually go into detail that much about bc this is miles’s POV) because she means so much to him. and of course the whole “do i actually like her or is this just really deep connection or” from autism sometimes making it hard to define your feelings and a relationship, and anxiety making it a scary minefield to traverse if you wanna bring it up with said person. and don’t forget the awareness that the anxiety is making everything seem way worse than what it is, which Miles has and is so fed up by.

It all comes off as Miles eventually getting annoyed and tired of Gwen, which you know she did not take well. anyways…. throw all of this in with being a highschool student with a busy schedule and you’ve got miles’s main source of problems . too many friends and too many mental disorders and not enough time . i’m rereading this post and realizing none of it makes sense and kind of meandered .

[bafflement]

Deaged Oz AU - Collecting [Very] Long Lost Property

Oz bit his lip slightly, as he pored over the maps Qrow had found of Mistral. The sooner they got the lamp to Atlas and the relative safety the floating kingdom could provide, the better it would be for everybody involved. The sooner they were out of Haven, the sooner damage control could be started... all those hunters that Leon's cowardice had killed, though. How were they ever going to replace them. Could they even replace them? Mistral needed protection, but with so many dead... he just hoped whoever Leon's replacement would be would be up to that task. He didn't envy them in the least... maybe they could draft in outside help? That would leave things spread worryingly thin, though. Ah well, it was out of his hands.

The worry must have shown on his face, though, because Qrow shifted position beside him, one hand coming to rest on his shoulder. They shared a conflicted look, Qrow was from Mistral, he knew as well as Oz did that the outlook might not be very bright for quite awhile. At least with the relic gone, Salem was less likely to target Mistral with an overabundance of Grimm? It was far from impossible, but none of them had any choice now. The lamp was too important, they couldn't stay to try to protect those left behind. So why did it feel so much like cowardice?

Shaking his head slightly, he went back to the map, plotting out the easiest route. There was the nagging feeling that he was forgetting something very important, though. Some of the marks on the map felt familiar in the same way most memories previous Oz's left him did, though he still didn't really remember anywhere near all of them. Without truly thinking about it, he mapped out a strangely winding path for them to follow. While it followed a lot of the natural contours, it wasn't the easiest it could have been. But it felt right.

"You sure, Pocketsized?" Qrow asked, sounding vaguely doubtful, though Oz was very aware that he was likely to follow it anyway. Qrow could be predictable like that and at least two of the arguably straighter routes would have lead them over some steep terrain that, frankly, he was uncertain he could easily traverse at the age he currently was. Much less his physical state, he had no memory of his limp having been quite this bad the first time around but it was more than possible he'd just forgotten. Or suppressed it, maybe, ether one was possible. How he wished they had access to an airship, it would make this so very much easier.

"I am. Several routes would be rather harder for me as things currently stand. While I am not actually the child I resemble, I can't help but worry that there are still a great many things my body is not fully capable of. Besides, I believe there may be something I should pick up along the way. I just do not currently remember what that is."

Qrow winced, but nodded anyway. It made a lot of sense, put that way. Oz wasn't actually a kid, of course, but that didn't stop him from having all of their physical limitations at the moment. More than, considering the health concerns that had seemed strangely far less serious in the adult than they did right now. He didn't mean to worry for him, but then they all did. He'd heard the kids enough, they all knew that Oz as he was needed their protection just as much if not more than they needed his expertise. Not that that was always easy to get him to accept, but then it was never really going to be. Oz was still far too independent for that.

It didn't take long for them to grab their belongings from the house they were staying in. All of them had packed relatively light, after all. The basic necessities had been restocked while they were in Mistral and they had plenty of food scattered around their various packs, but the rooms they had been staying in felt dismally empty once their stuff was all packed. The packs weren't even that large, yet in many ways they held their entire current lives. More than one of the kids looked rather depressed, noticing that. In the storm of packing, Oz carefully did not pack the hair dye. After all, they were always going to forget something, weren't they?

Tip blinked around at the tall trees surrounding them. None of them were familiar, but then if the half remembered impulse was right they might well not be. Whatever it was his subconscious was telling him to find was still a mystery, though he was dismally certain that he'd know the place when he found it. Did this particular part of the forest really need to go out of its way to make him feel even smaller though? Glancing across at Weiss, he saw that he wasn't the only one of their party who looked slightly intimidated by the sheer size of some of these. Not, of course, that Miss Schnee would ever admit to any such thing. He suppressed a grin at that, even though things had changed in the months they'd been in Mistral, he rather doubted anything would ever change enough for that.

"These trees are huge!" Ruby murmured, though she sounded more fascinated than intimidated. At that, Oz could no longer suppress the grin. Trust Miss Rose to lighten any mood, that was sorely needed right now. Why was he so morose? What was it that he was going to find, all the way out here? He didn't remember ever owning anything in this part of Mistral, but then with the state of the merge as it stood, would he? Had it even been Mistral at that point? The kingdoms hadn't exactly lasted forever, after all. There was plenty of time before that which this feeling could originate from.

Then again, the idea that anything could have survived from that far back was a very different matter. There were few things he'd ever really thought were important enough to protect in the ways that he would have needed to, back then. Unbidden, his mind flew to a specific fairy-tale, his eyes widening. Well, if it was that then... that might explain a few things. He could have sworn nothing had been left, but then... again, he just didn't know. He briefly cursed Cinder Fall, thankfully keeping enough control to use a language that the children would fail to recognise. The last thing he needed to do was teach them more swear words.

There was a delighted snort from behind him and he spun on his heel, staring at Yang, who was mouthing the word gleefully. Oh dear. At least it was Yang, since he was absolutely certain Qrow had already taught her and Ruby both enough words over the years, Maybe even some of them on purpose. Yang winked at him.

"Thanks for the new word, Professor! Tell me what it means?"

"Nice try, Miss Xiao Long." Oz replied, a laugh in his voice. Yang's face fell slightly, but her eyes gleamed. She was very aware from Oz's reaction that whatever it was was less than polite. Perfect, another one to add to her ever growing list. The syllables felt strange on her tongue, but she shrugged that off. So did some of Qrows... huh. Had Ozpin taught him those? She really would need to ask him, at some point...

Blake snorted, too, but at least she didn't seem to be mouthing the swear word to herself. Under the circumstances, Oz was very happy to take that as a victory. After all, his students were all teenagers, some things he feared were likely to be unavoidable. He frowned as his foot slipped, concentrating on his footing once more. It would be a very bad idea to fall right now, this far away from help. The others would, he was sure, but he didn't dare burden them any more than they already were by his presence. He hated being this vulnerable, but there wasn't really much he could do about that right now.

They turned a corner and Oz stilled, staring at a rocky outcrop that was instantly, primally familiar to him. The garden was long gone, of course, but the house was still there. The others, following his gaze, came to a halt too. There were various surprised noises, but Qrow turned to Oz, looking almost amused.

"I assume that was what ya were looking for, pocket sized?" Qrow gestured towards the building. It looked pristine and untouched, strangely out of place in its surroundings. Part of Oz marvelled that nobody had found it before, even as a brief flash of memory overtook him. No, no, he'd hidden this house, long ago. He could see it, those with him could see it. But nobody else could, he remembered now. Salem would have found it amusing to tear it down and it was too important, too special for that. It really was the house he thought it was... which meant he might have to explain a few things, not that anyone would believe the others if they talked. Besides, they all already knew the maidens existed, what was one more confirmation?

"It is indeed. May I present to you the Wizard's cottage?" Oz's voice was light, but the meaning behind the words wasn't lost on any of those around him. From the wide eyed stares, they appeared rather awed, but then you didn't often get proof of your fairy-tales, even in Remnant. This house was certainly proof of something. He inclined his head, gesturing towards it with a soft smile.

"Would any of you care to take a look around?"

"Yes!" was the chorus, even Qrow joining in, a strange awe in his eyes too. Oz was briefly touched by that, he was very aware that The Story Of The Seasons was far from Qrow's favorite as of late. But then, considering Raven... and Cinder... it wasn't really Oz's, either. Ah well, each to their own.

The cottage, whose door opened at Oz's touch looked exactly as it had the day he left. There wasn't a mote of dust on any of the surfaces, the ancient wooden counters and floorboards just as solid as he recalled them being. There wasn't a lot to see, really, but that didn't seem to stop how awed the others were. Leading them into the sitting room, he was surprised to see a fire spring up in the grate as he entered. Well, at least they'd all be warm tonight? He didn't remember setting that up either, but though his magic purred contentedly under his skin, it hadn't seemed to interact with anything else. A proximity alert, maybe? He longed to experiment as to whether it would trigger for any of the others, but they probably didn't really have the time. The chairs looked nice and soft though, so he nodded to them. The others all took seats, almost vibrating. Huh, this place really had affected them, hadn't it?

Of course, there was a part of Oz that was awed, too. After all, this was the house from the story. Though he was very aware it was a real one, he never thought he'd actually lay eyes on this place at any point outside of his own memories. Now, if only he could remember just why he was meant to come here? Showing his friends was amazing, of course, but he rather doubted that was the full point of their visit. Ozymandias chuckled in the back of his head, but didn't seem inclined to offer any help. Ah, so he was on his own to figure this out.

"Professor? Is this really the Wizard's house? From The Story Of The Seasons?" Nora sounded breathless, though the fact that she'd called him Professor again as opposed to the usual things she used to tease him underlined the seriousness of the question.

"Well, yes. Yes, it is. It appears to be exactly as I remember it, though I do urge you all to be careful, as despite appearances, this place is well over ten thousand years old."

"Ten thousand?" Oscar breathed, looking a strange mix of awed and horrified, one hand reaching towards where Oz stood as though he wanted to grasp him and never let go. "Oh, Tip, you left it this long? You never went back? This is your house!"

"Yeah, pocketsized." Qrow agreed, looking shaken. "I can tell how much this place matters to ya, but... how could it be that old? Houses decay, ya know that. Or is it magic again?"

"Well, yes... although, I rather fear I did not wish to lead Salem here. This house is special, she would have destroyed it out of sheer malice. After all, fairy-tales contain hope." Oz's smile was fragile now, gazing around the room with hazy, far away eyes. The kitchen, the hall, the sitting room, the bathroom... the bedroom. Had there really only been five rooms to this place? For all it was small, Oscar and Qrow were right. It really did feel like coming home.

The bedroom. There was something there that he'd left, meant to come back for and never had. He darted from the room, moving unerringly to what had once been the Wizard's sanctuary. One small bed surrounded by a great many shelves. All the books he'd stored here were gone, of course, he'd taken most of them with him... but had he taken everything? The vague feeling in his brain was a blaring siren now. There was something, somewhere in this room. He heard footsteps and looked up, meeting Qrow's eyes. Of course Qrow had followed him, he could really expect nothing less. As protective as Qrow was... but surely he realised there wasn't anything in this house that would ever harm him?

"Hey, Pocket sized, ya looking for something?"

"I believe so, yes. Two sets of eyes would be better than one, though I cannot be certain just what I... they... hid here. I just know that it's very important that I recover it. It's been lying here for too long." Oz smiled. "Up to a treasure hunt with me, Qrow?"

Qrow grinned back, eyes alight. "I'd be happy ta help, Oz. I still can't quite believe this house exists. I mean, I know the stories are real, but..."

"How are the children, by the way?" Oz asked curiously, both of them starting to search the small space. Qrow chuckled fondly.

"They're okay. Talking up a storm in the other room, surprised you can't hear them. Although..." Qrow cocked his head, frowning slightly as he realised that he couldn't hear them from here, either. Eh, they'd be okay for a few minutes, he could probably just chalk it up to yet more of the oddness of this house. Oz's house... at least he might have somewhere to go when this was all over that wasn't that damn clock tower?

Oz ducked under the bed, fingers running over the floorboards, searching for a gap. Like the door and the fire, it seemed to open at his touch, though it was very cramped under the bed. He wriggled back out, grinning widely.

"I Think I found it, but I'll need help moving the bed to get to the hidden compartment." Qrow made a face, for some reason moving or disturbing anything felt almost like desecration. But this was Oz's house, if anyone had the right to alter things, it was him.

As the bed shifted, the hole was revealed. It wasn't very large, but it was more than sufficient for the pair of carefully wrapped packages within it. Oz's eyes were wide and his hands shook as he carefully removed them from their long term resting place. What had he left behind? He knew there were things he'd misplaced over the millennia, after all. Qrow replaced the bed and Tip lay the bundles on it, shaking from sheer nerves now. One of them was book shaped, but as for the other? Could this have been its final hiding place? He remembered in flashes, Salem finding the decoy of what he was starting to be very sure this had to be. He remembered that death, too. He shuddered, choosing to unwrap the larger bundle first.

They both stared down at a slim book of fairy-tales, bound in a shimmering green leather that could not possibly be natural. He remembered this book, too. Remembered stealing it from Salem, running with it, hiding it. It had been the book he used to read to his daughters, millennia ago. He sobbed, sounding broken, as Qrow gathered him into a hug. Qrow didn't know, of course, but as always he knew what to do to comfort Oz in his grief.

If that was the book, though, then the other item had to be what he thought it was. Still, he needed to be sure. Squirming out of Qrow's arms, he unwrapped the other item, staring down at Ozma's emerald. The real one, not the various fakes he'd carried over the millennia. Ozymandias gasped in his head, sending a wave of comfort that Oz sincerely appreciated. It was strange, but he thought he'd miss Ozzy even more, this time, when he left again. Was it selfish, to hope the meld took awhile longer?

Qrow was staring again. That was fair, though, the emerald was rather larger than his hand. Qrow's hand, that was, not Oz's. It was perfectly flawless, too... and Oz had no idea how much it would fetch were anyone to steal it from him. If it could be stolen, which he wasn't entirely certain about, he seemed to remember it coming back. Either way, wandering through Mistral with something worth that much would certainly be an experience, He wasn't likely to leave either item behind, though.

He rewrapped them carefully, unpacking his pack in order to cushion both items as best as he could with his limited amount of spare clothing. He looked up at Qrow, who still looked a bit shellshocked and grinned shakily.

"You were a bandit, Qrow, surely you've seen precious gems before?"

"Yeah, no, Oz. Not like that. That's not like anything I've seen before, magic?"

"Well, yes and no. It's the gem from Ozma's staff, Qrow. I don't know why I'll need it, but I think that's why I was drawn here."

Qrow stared for a solid minute before he could get his voice to work well enough to ask the other question on his mind. "And the book? I saw how it affected you, Pocketsized..."

"I... I don't want to talk about it, Qrow. Maybe one day, but not right now. We need to go and check on the others." Hauling his pack back onto his shoulders, Oz left the room. Qrow could only shake his head, hoping that Oz really would tell him, one day.

[heckinconfusedparade]

I have no idea if you still take prompts but here’s a short one. Sonic actually stops to listen to Tails before destroying the Paradox Prism. But that distraction did get Eggman an advantage as he removed the paradox prism from the ground and someone else decided to smash it. Who was it, it was Amy. Idk, I just want to see Amy traversing throughout the shatterverse.

I still take prompts! And I really like this one!

“Sonic, no!” Is what triggers Sonic to stop running. His attention now turned to his little brother. In the same minute his attention is turned to Eggman who was successful ripping the prism out of the ground.

Amy takes a running charge, hammer ready to slam.

“AMY DONT” then shatter.

Next thing she knows, Amy is falling from the sky into a city. She dusts herself off “where.. am I?” Amy looks around to take in her surroundings. She’s not in Green Hills anymore.

She tries to ask around for answers but everyone’s ignoring her, which upsets her. Amy decides to look for Tails. He’s the smart one so he must know what’s going on.

As she’s walking, she notices her shoes are sparking and lighting up. “..that’s new. Gotta find Tails..” then she spots him in the subway. Amy tracks him into a pipe and into a workshop.

Shoot, it’s padlocked. If she remembers correctly, the code is 1992. She celebrates her memory before stepping in.

“Oh, Tails am I happy to see you!” Amy bounces over to Tails, who shrieks and holds up a wrench as if he considered stabbing her in hen he sees her. “What did you call me?”

“Tails! It’s me! Amy!”

“I don’t know an Amy.” Something hard hits her away from him.

She looks up at Tails who’s staring down at her in annoyance and anger. Who does she think she is?

“Tails stop!” Amy pleads, but it makes things worse. “Don’t call me that. MY NAME IS NINE!” Nine engages his mechanical tails and lunges at her.

Amy rolls backwards onto her feet. She summons her hammer and discovers it feels really weird. Not heavy, but harder to swing. That doesn’t stop her from batting away Nines sharp tails.

“T-..Nine stop! I don’t want to fight you!” Famous last words before the fight is brought to the busy subway.

Amy is more focused on defending herself rather than fighting back, which is annoying Nine a lot.

“Why. Aren’t. You. Fighting. BACK!!” He screams taking one final lunge before slipping to the side of the train.

He notices a bright light approaching at high speeds which means TRAAAAIN!

Amy lowers her hammer down to him “grab on!” Nine has no choice but to trust her in this moment, as it’s the best choice for survival. She brings him up right before the train passes.

Nine takes several deep breaths. His heart is pounding. “Why did you save me?”

“Because you’re my friend, Tails. You have to be careful!”

“You’re not my friend. I don’t HAVE any friends. And? My name. Is Nine! Emphasis on the nine!” Nine shows all of his tails.

Amy taps her chin. Somethings not right.. no, nothing is right. Is she in another dimension?

Amy asks Nine why he thinks he has no friends. Nine explains his backstory.

Amy has heard that story before.. except Sonic had been there to help Tails.

“Wait, what about Sonic?”

“Who’s Sonic?”

“Yknow, blue hedgehog?”

That earns a confused look. Amy asks about the city.

Then everything falls into piece.

She is in a dimension where Sonic doesn’t exist.

Or so she thinks.

Amy eventually is captured with Nine and brought to the council.

In walks Sonic.. but he isn’t quite Sonic. His body is mostly metal like a cyborg. He’s tall and lanky with a blank stare. Amy stares in horror.

“Oh Sonic.. what did they do to you?”

Sonic doesn’t respond or even look her in the eye.

Rebel and Knucks come through to rescue Amy. Rebel insisted that there’d something about Amy she thinks could help them.

[dangans-ur-ronpas]

danganronpa monsters and mythics au: the students

i go into a little more detail on their individual profiles but here's some brief summaries

makoto: 100% human. has only ever lived in human society with little to no exposure to anything outside of it - regarded most magic and nonhuman creatures as stuff of fairy tales

kyoko: a man-made semi-biological automaton. she was built to be a tool for monster hunters to act as bait and draw out non-humans, but she managed to gain independence after successfully handling an incident involving a dragon on her own

byakuya: a half-dragon, half-human hybrid. the first heir of the togami line to be of human descent to any capacity - isn't taken very seriously despite winning the heir competition due to his mostly human features

aoi: a selkie. she likes the human world, especially the cuisine, but has a harder time navigating land as compared to water. distinguished herself as one of the fastest swimmers among most creatures to be allowed to traverse deeper into human society

sayaka: a half-harpy, half-human hybrid. she doesn't have arms but she has human legs - her biology makes it hard for her to fly for long period of time. she promotes herself as an 'angelic figure' and became a popular idol among humans and non-humans alike

leon: a satyr. wants to become famous. saw sayaka's fame among human fans especially, and now aims to become a punk rock star. is trying to sell his image as a 'devil who plays punk rock' but the only instrument he can play so far is the recorder

chihiro: a pixie. their wings were warped and damaged from birth, so flying is impossible, but they built and enchanted a wooden doll to carry them around (alter ego). most people assume chihiro is a magic, sentient doll instead of a pixie piloting a doll. theyre very skilled with complex enchantments for automations

toko: a human. descended from some powerful exorcists, but her family had fallen out of that practice by the time she was born. has been able to see ghosts from a young age and is prone to getting possessed, namely by one ghost she's been able to see since birth named 'syo'

hifumi: a tanuki. is infatuated with human culture and anime, and usually goes around in human form so as to enjoy it more. is considered a weirdo among tanukis for liking humans so much

celeste: a vampire...? actually is a kitsune who really likes the gothic aesthetic. prefers the mystery and dark romance of vampires compared to the trickery associated with foxes, but is not afraid of using magic and trickery to get what she wants

mondo: a vampire. leads a gang of other vampires and thralls that enjoy biking at night. had to consume his brother's blood when he died, and now has an aversion to the taste of it

kiyotaka: a werewolf. his grandfather was trying to build the imagery of werewolves to be loyal and noble, but that fell through due to scandal. he's now trying to rectify his grandfather's mistakes and acts like a loyal hound

sakura: a half-oni, half-human. achieved status as 'the strongest' among her family despite being of human descent, and gained respect among oni society because of this. wants the same from the human side as well, or at the very least, acceptance

hiro: a magic tree/dryad? a seed fell from the sky (likely from a World Tree) and landed in a flowerpot on an apartment windowsill tokyo. the woman in the apartment grew the seed, and when it turned into a human, she raised him like a son until he grew up - now independent, he goes around selling half-baked prophecies and magic charms

junko: a human. rumored to be descended from a witch who once nearly doomed all life on earth, but nowadays insists she's just a girl whose only skill is charm magic. gained a lot of renown in the human world as a fashion model

mukuro: a human. was indoctrinated in an organization of monster-hunters for a time in a northern continent before the group dissolved mysteriously. she doesn't seem to be entirely human-like, but it's hard to place how and why

[prototypelq]

Monster Hunter World finished main story thoughts:

- Game is super good, an easy reccomend for anyone really. Action-rpg fans who enjoy building their character, armor and stats will like it. Entire game that consists of boss battles is just a great formula in general, the combat feels very good, monster designs are top notch. The game is a must-play for every monster-hunter genre fan for sure.

- 60 hours later, and I am Still Amazed How Good The Locations Are. They are beautiful, they are complex, the terrain is never flat, and they never feel like 'a bunch or arenas for fights connected with corridors'. Ancient Forest and Rotten Vale are easily the favourites here, Wastes gets third place. I think it is very beautiful, but easily overlooked out of all the other locations. Recess is beautiful, but a bit bland for me, and Highlands, while gorgeous, are just such a traversal hassle I try to avoid them.

- Final four bosses are not nearly as fun to fight, even when you combine them all together, as a single Nergigante bossfight. Nergigante is the true boss of the game, and I can easily understand why fans love him so much.

Teostra you just cool-drink or outheal. Vaal Hazak, while he has extremely good and creepy aesthetics and the best presentation out of all these elder dragons (he even outclasses Nergi and Xeno in terms of presentarion in my opinion), I beat him first try, while his half-hp debuff was on me.

Technically, I do cheat cause I installed unlimited consumables, so no healing flasks limit for me. Still, having a limited amount of healing items doesn't make the boss harder, it makes it frustrating and adds on unnecessary grind before you fight him. Vaal in terms of combat is just a walking hitbox, really, I didn't even faint once, and again, his half-hp debuff was working cause I didn't bring the item to cancel it. I am not a super skilled player, I am lazy and technically do cheat, but still beat him first try.

None of this mattered to Nergi, that bastard wiped the floor with me multiple times.

And I don't even want to talk about Kushala. Just no. I want to...at least interview the designer who created that bossfight, cause what the Hell was going on in his head. Did (s)he playtest this boss even Once??? This fight is criminally bad in my opinion, like, really freakin bad, because it is simply boring.

Xeno was cool but...again, a giant hitbox really. The presentation is great, and I reckon this fight is much more fun in multiplayer, but as it was I just peacefully stood underneath the belly and Xiva couldn't hit me once. Looks menacing, but the fight itself was boring. Not as nearly as bad as Kushala disaster, but still boring. Beat first try with 1 faint.

- The real hero of the game is my kitty squire. That boy faced horrors thousands his size, literally, in case of Xeno maybe even millions, and never Once backed down. All while never once asking for anything in return or taking any honours. Rootbeer was jokingly named because I didn't think much of palicos when I started the game, but he is the real Monster Hunter here, while I gracelessly bask in his honour.

Thank you Rootbeer for your service. I will strive to be as powerful and brave as you are.

- Somehow I never mentioned this, but the music in the game is also great. Really really good and specific monsters have very distinct tunes, so you know they are coming even before they enter the actual arena. Also the ambient sounds - bird singing, water running, monsters walking about, are just...so good. I genuinely booted up a game one time I really needed to calm down, picked some gear with stealth and walked/ran around the Ancient Forest for an hour. I will gladly listen to MHW locations ASMR videos. Never have I played a game where nature sounded so true, whimsical and beautiful.

- Numbers-wise I think the game is all over the place. Low to High rank transition is especially rough, cause you're very underpowered for new monster damage levels, are underpowered yourself (sharpness meter is the biggest issue here in my opinio) and you need to Continuously grind for the new gear. And then you need to grind for upgrade materials. Basically, this is where the mmo-ish nature or ambitions of capcom shine their true colours.

I have hunted 15 odogarons. I still don't have his full high level gear set cause I need gems. Also I finished the game without even upgrading to the final odogaron glaive form, cause again GEMS. Either the glaive-crit dmg build is busted or smth, I dunno. Why would you even need another weapon tier level if you are already destroying every monster in the game, which, I don't think scale with the hunter level, cause I keep butchering them in less than 30 mins when I need to. Anyway, numbers in this game are weird.

- For a game that showed me a new level of hand-holding, more like hand-cuffing, tutorials, this game does not explain shit. At all. You need a wiki and 30 youtube guides to see the entire moveset of your weapon, cause there is no united moveset list to read. You need a guide for the canteen, cause this thing is extremely useful, but it's help is veiled behind cryptic messages like 'wet blanket flop' or smth. You need a guide to understand where to even get the upgrade materials, cause surprise, important ones don't come from just slaying the monster (like the freakin gems), you need to specifically get a quest first.

This destroyes any need for exploration, besides your first trip to a new location or first-second hunt of a new monster. Outside of those conditions, you always will travel to a specific place to hunt a specific monster, whose spawn point you already know. There is no need to look or wander around ever again, which is a real shame, cause the locations of this game are gorgeous and deserve more attention than just your first time there.

It also messes with the optional quests system, cause hey, you have optional quests for some benefits, like new cooking canteen ingredients, but you can complete this only in the form of Chosen Quest, which you can get only one, and this lock you out of getting additional loot. So you need to hunt 15 odogarons for your material grind, plus some extra odogarons for a useful sidequest, but without getting those materials.

Hopefully I explained sufficiently enough why this is a goddamn mess, and I am on my way to nexusmods to mod the materials grind away before digging into Iceborne.

- surprise pinecone-bombs attack

- I think the items category should have been reworked too. There are two ways to go about consumables - make their effect minimal, so it only works in combination with others or exists purely for the fun-optimising-gamers who need their 3% attack boost. Or. You make them mandatory.

When you go to hunt and odogaron, you either take the glaive to simply fly over every single hitzone of his attacks, or you take an item to counter the bleeding debuff, cause otherwise you will just die from any of his attacks, cause most of them apply that debuff. When you hunt a venomous monster, you bring antidote, cause otherwise you will die.

This puts MHW firmly in the 'items mandatory category'.

When items are mandatory, you make them accessible. Otherwise, the player will get insane difficulty curve, and each subsequent failure to counter it will punish them even more, so the difficulty curve skyrockets even higher. And it makes the items useless, cause when the player finally conquers the obstacle - they no longer need the item, which was required by design.

In Death Stranding for ex., crafting ladders, vehicles or boots is not costly. Taking them with you is, as your weight capacity is a constant limiter, but it forces you to choose carefully what you bring next with you, especially when you go into new uncharted territories. So, you can pretty much always make the tool you deem useful for the task at hand, you just need to account for it's weight, and limited number of uses, and the weight of the cargo, plus the terrain again, plus the possible enemies. This makes planning interesting and worth it.

MHW kind of falls into every pothole available in this equation. The basic necessity of any combat game - Healing Items, are limited numbered consumables, which you Need To Craft. You Can Run Out Of Healing Potions.

(there is an asterisk here, cause crafting basic or even upgraded healing potion is not too hard and later you get a garden to grow ingredients, so you can not fear for healing items, but this solution ends here and other consumables are most of the time ungrowable).

You can and will run out of items required for specific fights (aka items needed to counter monster specific debuffs), which creates that skyrocketing learning curve.

So yeah, when I first realised exactly how prevalent this issue is, I said To Hell With It and installed unlimited consumables mod. Cause I want to have the counter-items required for some fights on me, without the need to grind for them on different locations.

- Sharpness system kind of has the same problem, but inside the combat loop. Sharpness directly impacts your ability to deal damage, and if it is low, your weapon will just bounce off any armour the monster has. However, To sharpen and be able to deal any damage again, you need an opening, cause the process takes a bit of time. And you can't create an opening to sharpen your weapon, if your weapon is already bouncing off the monster, so it can't deal damage to make said opening.

I learned through trial and error that sometimes you can bait a monster into attack, which you instead use to sharpen, but this does not translate well to every monster, and other ones are designed to obliterate your sharpness (hello Kushala). So those are fun. I did categorise this as a skill issue, rather than design oversight, so I didn't install mods for constant top sharpness.

- It's a disappointment that low and high rank monsters don't have any differences in their behaviour or attacks. Just the damage numbers go up. Understandable, but still disappointing

Anyway, all of this is just a gamedesign analysis fun thing for me to speculate about. Feel free to add or counter anything and everything I wrote here, I am interested in hearing other opinions. Also, obviously I didn't work on this game or at capcom, so I don't know the intent behind their design decisions. Perhaps for them, the points I presented completely nullify the idea behind the systems, and I don't understand shit, their game is perfect. I dunno. That's why I'm interested in discussions.

Just a reminder that I did enjoy the game immensely, and will happily continue playing it, even with all the flaws I pointed out. Would love to get a few hours of life wasted on material grind back tho.

[sailorsplatoon]

Chapter 6 of a Dedf1sh fanfic I wrote

Here it is, the very last chapter! While this was really short, I'm still very proud of it. Maybe I'll add onto this in the future, but for now I'm happy with where it is. I put a lot of time into writing and editing this, and it's been my very first fanfiction to actually escape the abyss of "I'll post this someday". I had a lot of fun with this, and it makes me so happy to know that even just a few people enjoyed it!

First

Previous

Read it on ao3

Chapter 6 below!

(TW: mention of blood, swearing, vomiting, mention of medical procedures)

DJ Dedf1sh’s hearts thumped slowly. Why were their hearts beating? They pulled their hands away from the turntables. Everything was so loud. What was going on? It was scary and new. But they were scared. They felt scared. How? What was different? Why now? Their legs trembled as they made their way to the large door, the only door in the entire room. It was locked.

“Shit,” they muttered. They spoke something at least. Something more than a number. Without missing a beat, they ran to the opposite side of their turntables and shoved them into the door. The metal slab burst off its hinges with a crash while their equipment shattered. Those turntables had been their entire life since as long as they could remember. And they were destroyed.

“Good fucking riddance.”

As they crossed the threshold between their prison and the outside world, their legs gave out. They were never meant to leave that room. It hurt as if their muscles were being torn apart with every movement. Looking to their scattered turntables, a round tube of metal stuck out. Without hesitation, they ripped it off and used it to hold themself up. It supported their weight well, even if it was just temporary until they could get their hands on something more suited to their needs.

The journey was long and difficult, but they eventually made their way to the central station. Shattered bits of glass and plastic were strewn across the floor. It was gone. The phone was gone. They were free. They climbed up the escape path that had been carved by the final test subject of that horrid place. Thankfully, they were still able to super jump, but the path was clearly made for someone who had full use of both of their legs, which made the trek that much harder.

As DJ Dedf1sh traversed the now empty layers of security, they began to search their memories for some trace of a name. Ah… Ah? All they could think of was Acht, the number eight in some human language. Well, close enough. It was the best they were going to get for now, they sort of liked how it sounded. They continued to climb as they searched their memories for any trace of life before the sanitization. To their surprise, there were some bits and pieces that they could remember. But rather than full moments it was more flashes, like trying to recollect a dream. There was only one thing that they could remember clearly. Why this particular person, Acht had no clue. Marina.

***

“She needs help! One of the machines malfunctioned and she got hurt bad!” An octoling rushed into the infirmary carrying an adolecent girl. Both were covered in blood. 

“Lay her down on the cot, Ah███ get the gauze and—shit there’s something lodged in the wound— we’ll need the scalpel too!”

“Right, where’s she hurt? And will we need any nitrous oxide?”

“She’s scratched up all over, but the main source of bleeding is a deep gash in her abdomen, looks like a piece of metal stabbed into her from the machine. She’s in a lot of pain, nitrous oxide is a good idea. Mx. were you hurt at all?”

“No, just her,” the octoling who carried the girl in said, “She was working on a prototype for the flooders, but it suddenly fell off its hinges and landed on her.”

The memory blurred and refocused in a new setting. Now Acht was in the patient ward of the infirmary, speaking with the octoling girl who had been injured before. “You’re going to be alright, but you have to stay here until your wounds heal. I’ll come back every few hours to give you another dose of pain killers. If you want, you can opt out of them, but seeing your injuries I wouldn’t suggest it.”

“No, I definitely won’t be opting out. Thank you for taking such good care of me. I really didn’t think I would make it out of that accident,” she glanced at the bandages wrapped around her midsection and scattered along her limbs. Her teal tentacles writhed in worry.

“I’ve seen worse, you have nothing to worry about! My name’s Ah███ ██████ by the way. I’ll be taking care of you during your stay here.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Marina Ida. Did you guys already have that on record?”

“We didn’t actually, you were listed as Jane Doe. Your companion failed to mention a name before leaving to continue working. I’ll make sure to notify the rest of the staff that we have a name for you.”

Another blur, and then they were outside the infirmary. With Marina. She’d been better for a while now.

“Shouldn’t you be working? The DJ is gonna flip his lid if he finds out you’re skipping, especially now that you’ve been promoted to wasabi supply unit,” Acht placed a large trash bag in the dumpster outside, they’d been given garbage duty for the day. 

“I’m on my lunch break and I wanted to pay you a visit!” Marina chirped with a smile. She had such a beautiful smile.

“You only get fifteen minutes, you need to-” Before they knew it Marina had pressed her lips to theirs.

Blur, scene change, Acht was already getting bored of this routine. They wished they could just remember without the— shit! They slipped and nearly fell into a giant pool of water. Fucking Belly Phase. Maybe this test subject that broke out could’ve made it easier for others to leave?

“I’m leaving,” the memories started again as Marina stared at them.

“Like, you’re being promoted again to a different division or?”

“I’m leaving the army, Ah███. I… I heard the inklings sing. It changes everything.”

“Marina, no. They’re just trying to confuse you. This is our home you can’t-”

“Come with me.”

“What?” A lump formed in Acht’s throat as they tried to hold back tears.

“I want you to come with me. Please.” She paused before muttering, “I love you.”

“Marina I…” Acht’s eyes searched the surrounding world for some excuse, some reason for them to stay together. “You know I love you. But this is our home. We can’t just… we can’t.”

“Just listen!” She pressed a button on the small set of portable turntables she had tucked under her arm. A track played with two inkling girls singing. “Don’t you see? Were prisoners here! The DJ doesn’t care about us at all! But maybe if the inklings can make something this great, they’ll accept us!”

“Marina,” Acht looked her in the eyes, “I know. I’ve known how awful this place was since I was ripped away from my family. I see dying soldiers every day because Octavio won’t give them the new gear and weapons that they need. And I can’t help them because we can’t get the medicine and supplies that we need! Of course he doesn’t care about us, all he cares about is getting revenge on the squids. But we can’t leave. You really think the inklings would accept us? That they wouldn’t send us right back into this underground hellscape to be executed for treason? That they wouldn’t murder us themselves? Marina, I know you want to get out of here, but I love you, I can’t let you go get yourself killed.”

“If you really loved me, you would have left with me sooner, seeing how long you’ve known.” Her words cut sharper than any knife. Acht felt a warm stinging in their eyes as the tears finally came spilling out.

“Are you breaking up with me?” They choked.

“You’re not coming with me, are you?”

“I can’t,” Acht refused to make eye contact.

“Goodbye, Ah███. Don’t forget about me, okay?” She stretched out her hands, offering them a the turntables. They were covered in stickers and drawings made with various markers. Acht took them carefully, as if they might fade out of existence with one wrong move. With that, Marina sighed and walked away. 

As Acht stepped onto the elevator of the spinal phase, they began to cry a little. They weren’t sure if they were happy that they could remember, or if they were sad about what they were remembering. One thing was certain, they needed to find Marina. For some reason she was the only person they could clearly remember, so maybe she could help them uncover more of their memories.

Acht suddenly felt an immense pain in their stomach, the fell to the floor, dropping their makeshift cane, and threw up. They were reminded of the dream they’d had during their sanitization, how the mem cakes spewed from their mouth. This time, however, they expelled the same greenish ooze that had been injected into them. It burned. But there was an instant relief as soon as it was out of their body. They could finally breathe. For the first time in years they felt alive. Or, as alive as they could be when their skin was still the color of decay and their memories were shattered like a vase.

The elevator screeched to a halt and a ladder stood in front of Acht, leading them out of this hell. Their legs barely worked when they walked, even with the help of a cane. Trying to climb a ladder in their state would be impossible. They relied almost entirely on their upper body, holding their cane in their mouth and pulling themself up with their arms. It took so long to climb all the way to the top. They slipped and nearly got stuck multiple times. And it was wonderful. They made mistakes, they took their time. It wasn't perfect. Finally. All they were doing was climbing a ladder but it felt like such an accomplishment. They reached the top and the light of day shown down on their face. A breeze brushed their tentacles, and they could swear their sense of smell was returning with the salt of the ocean wafting up into the air.

The sky was blue. Acht couldn’t remember seeing the sky before. It was so beautiful.

[bearpillowmonster]

🎵 Poppin' bottles in the ice, like a blizzard. 🎵

This thing-

This thing changes everything, it gives me nightmares. This is the first Sly game flipped on its head. So rather than a one-hit KO (unless you gained a horseshoe) you now have a health bar, a lot of enemies had a one hit ratio in the last game but this one, they're less like Crash villains and actually fight back. This sets off your health bar as "alerted" or spotted which is later a feature in Assassin's Creed, there are even trailing and chasing missions.

There are no longer lives because of this meter and makes it so the levels aren't built the same way to where you need checkpoints. This can be both a good thing and a bad thing because I feel like the jumps are more responsive (that could also just be me with more experience now) but sometimes the controls are too responsive so if there's a wire underneath another or something then sometimes it picks the one that you're not aiming for which has blown my cover before. It would've been a lot simpler to just auto-death from that than to have to try to reset it myself by taking damage.

The levels are no longer portals, they're set up inside the hub world so that you enter whatever building it's leading you to or even take place in the hub itself. There are waypoints activated from your binocucom, mostly easy to find. I can't tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing though because on one hand it fleshes out the area that you're in but on the other hand, it diminishes the amount of variety that was allowed in the last game so one level may look like an extension to the last. But once again, each level acts towards a grander mission, except rather than just collecting keys (unless it's a mission on its own), you collect intel and sabotage the enemy's plans, it's more in depth and makes for some wacky shenanigans.

Making up for that lost variety, one of the big selling points of this game is that there are now multiple playable characters which means separate levels for each. Bentley excels in tech and long range Murray in destruction and Sly in stealth, so it is indeed like I remember it. Basically, (when playing as Sly) unless Bentley says otherwise, you shouldn't fight or you'll fail the mission. You can get away, in fact, you have a run button now since your walk speed is more sneaky but it's a little bit louder so it's really only for getaways. With each character, I feel a slight disadvantage for traversal but it's not too overbearing. (Only Sly can tightrope walk and such)

Without horseshoes, you now have all these leftover coins and I've mentioned this in other games and this one actually follows through, it lets the coins act as currency to buy useful items, in this case the stuff that you would've unlocked from the bottles in the first game.

Like my little chart? It would've been confusing otherwise but I wrapped my head around it. So, now the levels no longer hold the bottles but the hub worlds do. This makes it a bit harder because like I said with "unless Bentley says so", if you've started something to do with a level, go too far away from the area you've chosen and Bentley might make you abandon it. So only collect at certain times because it's easier when there's less to keep track of. (That's a good euphemism for this game overall tbh, it's a flip flop whether it's better or worse than its predecessor)

The vault is held in one of the levels but since it could be any of them, you do have the chance to go back to that level once you find it if you haven't had the chance to collect them all the first time around. The bottles still give you abilities, exclusive ones that the coins won't net you, so you actually have more abilities than the first game.

I've complained enough about the differences.

One of the games that I want more of is Beyond Good and Evil and I just haven't found anything like it...until I played this game, I mean you even get to take pictures (not like you would on PS4) but it's nice to see it implemented into the gameplay, especially seeing as BGAE came out just a year before this. And as much as I loved the first game, this one actually actively gave me ideas for how good that supposed movie could've been, it's just a shame we lost it (though maybe a blessing as well?)

I enjoy the story of this game more and while there are some things better, there are some things worse and I think my favoritism of the overall picture would be ratioed to Thievius Raccoonus.

[marinaiguess]

SONIC HEROES BRAINROT TIME (pros and cons :) )

Cons:

The physics are terrible to deal with. I can’t blame sonic team, they tried their best in the time they had but,,,try playing casino park without rage quitting I DARE YOU. or rail canyon. or final fortress. okay, you’ll find yourself rage quitting a lot. and most of the time, yes, it is not your fault.  

You are obligated to go through the same stages 4 DIFFERENT TIMES. 14 stages. 4 different times. all teams have the same objective, except for team chaotix and that’s: reach the goal. 

You can’t unlock the last story unless you collect all chaos emeralds. Which is fair. But how exactly do you collect them? You have to acquire a key (there are a few scattered around the stages) but only on the second act of each “zone”. And, dont even dream of getting damaged. One wrong move and you lose all your rings and the key. So, you have to restart the stage or move on. 

Bonus stages. You thought the physics in the regular stages were a problem? Try this one. You move the joystick like 1mm and you’ll be thrown in the air and by the time you’re back on track the chaos emerald is like 67 miles ahead of you or your time’s up. If you switch to fly type during this by accident? Good luck reaching that emerald. Oh, and say goodbye to your thumb, it’s gonna get wrecked from how fast you are supposed to smash the button to boost. And the chao sections are horrible.

 Did i complain abt the physics enough? Did I analyze how attrocious and unforgiving the rail system is? I did? It deserves an extra bullet anyway. 

Ah yes, the boss fights. The ones with eggman are ridiculously easy, you spam one button, then wait till that energy fills up and lastly, do the blast attack thing (rinse and repeat the last steps) and done! They get quite repetitive and most feel like a mini boss rather than actual bosses. 

Dont get me started on the team fights. These are either too easy or unbelievably hard. That thing is COMPLETELY broken, I cant explain how frustrating it gets. 

While in this topic, the fights between the teams had absolutely no reason to happen? Everyone was in a bad mood and didnt want to socialize and thought fighting was the best option lol. 

Moving on to the story, Amy, no, you are not supposed to throw Sonic from a fucking building/arena because YOU WANNA MARRY HIM? Also, youre 12, the heroes manual states it, you SHOULDNT wanna marry anyone girl. 

Shadow why are you here? Weren’t you supposed to be dead? Oh, you lost your memory, awesome. *cough* fan service *cough* Okay but seriously? The fuck did they add Shadow for? My boy didnt even turn into super shadow in the end even though HE WAS RIGHT THERE. 

Also on that note, no super tails nor super knuckles. They get some fancy, glowing, bubble shields that make them fly alongside super sonic. No seriously, thats it.

There’s idle chatting in the pc version but you’ll never hear it cuz you have to stand still to trigger it. And thats a shame cuz its really good and interesting. 

Voice acting did not pass the check.

Pros:

Many playable characters! 4 teams, 12 characters, each with their special abilities (seriously, their abilities are cool, Espio literally turns invinsible) You can switch to whoever you want or whoever you need so you can proceed. Fun mechanic to include many characters.

The chaotix! They’re back! (sort of) Omega’s debut! Cream is here for her first 3d appearance!

The stages are quite a lot and there are a lot of interesting environments for you to traverse through. Starting from the classic valley, passing through a casino, an industrial area, a forest and ending up in the sky.

Also, you do go through all the same stages with the separate teams but there are a few differences. So, Team Sonic is a regular gameplay, Team Dark is a harder version of Sonic’s, usually longer stages and harder robots to deal with. Team Rose is very easy and each stage is quite short. Also features an extra tutorial stage in the beginning. Then there’s the Chaotix. You need to do a mission for each stage and there are a lot for you to do. 

Getting the key in the first act gives u the ability to go to the bonus stage and practice! Also gives you extra lives if you get enough points :)

The bonus stages are a reimagination of the bonus stages of sonic the hedgehog 2! The idea is really cool and it’s the first instance of sonic boosting in the entire franchise. 

Getting that A rank won’t be easy. You have to earn it. Idk, thats a good thing imo. The ranking system in some cases is a bit meh (team dark ocean palace im looking at you, 90,000 points in less than 4-5 mins? it’s just the 2nd stage, gimme a break) but overall it’s just right. 

You have a level system! It makes the game more interesting, trying to level up in each stage so you can unlock the better utilites of your character and make your job so much easier. The blast attack is a bonus as well! You earned it. Now kick robutt with just a push of a button. 

The music is literally iconic? So good? 11/10

Actually solid cutscenes.

Drummond on his best performance ever. 

Story-wise, the plot is pretty good for the most part. Every team is doing their own thing but ultimately they’re chasing the same thing (for different reasons, sure). Sonic and co. need to save the world, Dark try to catch eggman so they can get info abt why shadow cant remember shit (why did no one tell him he was supposed to be dead btw?), Rose are after chocola and froggy (in reality, theyre after sonic LOL) and the chaotix are trying to pay their rent. 

METAL SONIC IS THE REAL VILLAIN? WHAT DO YOU MEEEAAAAAAN? that was a cool plot twist (even if it was predictable after a certain point, it was still pretty cool okay?)

The interactions between the characters are very very interesting. You should check the idle chatting for everyone, really sums up their characters. 

SUPER SONIC HAS TAILS AND KNUCKLES BY HIS SIDE TO FIGHT THE FINAL BOSS, POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!

okay that was a lot, but yeah, had to write this down. i think you need to try it to be pleasantly surprised :)