#it just was dramatic enough to serve my purpose

[ghostbusterscantcatchme]

men when their show has a lesbian subplot where one charachter sacrifices everything for the person she loves and is slightly hypocritical:

[unproduciblesmackdown]

omgg lol [guy who won't stop going "more like scapeGOATED" voice] now hold! on!! lmao [same guy just saw encanto voice] Hold on!!!

[your-local-simp-writers]

Puppy Love

Word Count: 1552

Warnings: None

Damian Wayne x Fem!Reader ︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

It was a typical day after school, one of those rare moments when Damian Wayne wasn’t caught up in some sort of mission or training. The clock ticked loudly in the classroom as you stared at your class partner. Damian was sitting at his desk, meticulously packing up his things, his movements precise, as always. He had a habit of folding his papers just so, making sure everything was in perfect order before leaving. It was almost funny how much effort he put into something so mundane.

You tapped your pen on the desk, your mind bouncing with energy, as it always did. You had an idea, a crazy, spontaneous idea. The kind of idea you always had, but this time, you had to share it with him.

"Damian," you said brightly, leaning across the desk just enough to catch his attention. He glanced up, his dark eyes narrowing slightly as if preparing himself for whatever your next move was. You grinned, already knowing what he was thinking. “Do you want to go to the fair?”

His brow furrowed. “The fair?” he repeated, clearly skeptical. “I’m not sure how that could be beneficial to anything.”

You waved a hand, dismissing his doubts. “It’s just a bit of fun. You know, something different. Besides, you can’t always be training or brooding, right?”

Damian looked at you for a long moment, then sighed dramatically, an exaggerated gesture you’d gotten used to. “I don’t see the point in such... frivolity,” he said, though there was an edge of curiosity beneath the words.

You didn’t give him time to think about it. You knew he would overanalyze it otherwise. “Come on, just for a little while. You could use some downtime, and it’s not like Gotham doesn’t need a break from your endless seriousness. You’re my class partner, right? It’s just a few hours of normal fun. You’ve done worse, I promise.”

You could see the inner conflict playing out in his eyes—the part of him that was trained to be a warrior, never wasting a moment, battling with the part that was slowly learning to open up to new experiences. Finally, after a long pause, he nodded reluctantly. “Fine. I will accompany you to this... ‘fair,’” he said, his voice still laced with skepticism.

...

The fair was a short drive outside of Gotham, tucked away just beyond the noise and chaos of the city. You could tell the difference immediately, as soon as the car tires left the paved roads and hit the dirt paths leading to the fairgrounds. There was a certain charm to the place, something rustic and simple, so different from the bustling streets of Gotham or the towering Wayne mansion.

The sun was setting, casting a soft orange glow over the rows of booths, food carts, and brightly colored rides. The scent of hot dogs, popcorn, and cotton candy filled the air, and the sounds of laughter and music echoed around the fairground. It was the kind of place where people went to escape from the grind of daily life, to enjoy the fleeting moments of joy that came with a simple carnival game or a ride on the Ferris wheel.

You could see Damian’s unease as you both walked toward the entrance. His eyes darted around, taking in the overwhelming sights, sounds, and people. It wasn’t quite the same as the controlled environment he was used to. But you didn’t give him time to overthink it. You grabbed his arm, pulling him toward one of the booths.

“You’re going to love the ring toss,” you said with a grin, all too eager to get him involved.

“Ring toss?” he repeated, the skepticism still clear in his voice. “What purpose does this serve?”

“It’s fun,” you insisted, though you knew he wasn’t convinced. Still, you managed to drag him over to the booth. The game was simple enough—throw rings over bottles. It was a childish game, but you loved it, and you hoped Damian would catch on to the idea of letting go, even if just for a moment.

He stood with his arms crossed, watching you carefully. "You really think I can waste my time on this?"

You gave him a sidelong glance and a teasing smile. "Well, it’s not about wasting time. It’s about... I don’t know, enjoying the moment."

He didn’t look at you, but he did take a few rings and line them up, aiming carefully. You grinned to yourself. Even when he was trying to act all serious, his precision couldn’t be denied.

With a flick of his wrist, one of the rings flew through the air, landing perfectly on a bottle. You raised your eyebrows, impressed.

“Nice,” you said. “You’re better at this than you let on.”

Damian didn’t respond, his eyes narrowing as he picked up another ring. “I don’t do things halfheartedly,” he muttered, almost to himself. “If I’m going to do something, I do it properly.”

You watched him, a strange warmth spreading in your chest. The boy was so driven, so serious, yet you couldn’t help but admire his determination. It was rare for him to let his guard down, and even rarer for him to admit that something could be fun.

Soon enough, you had won a small stuffed bear, and Damian had reluctantly agreed to take it from you. You held it to your chest, practically skipping to the next attraction.

“What now?” he asked, clearly still unsure.

"Let’s ride the Ferris wheel," you said, already making your way toward the line.

He didn’t protest, which surprised you. Damian was a creature of habit and control. He liked to know what was coming next, not to be thrown into something unfamiliar. But here he was, following you as you led him toward the towering wheel. It was slow-moving and simple, but you could tell the height of the ride was making him a little uneasy.

Once you were both in your seat, the Ferris wheel creaked to life. The world below you began to shrink, the lights of the fair twinkling in the distance, and the sky above grew dark as the stars started to emerge, one by one. You glanced over at Damian, who was staring out at the lights, his face unreadable.

“You know, it’s nice up here,” you said softly, breaking the silence. “Don’t you ever just sit outside and stare at the stars? It’s so peaceful.”

Damian turned his head toward you, his expression stiff. “I prefer to watch... other things,” he said, his tone flat, almost as though he hadn’t really considered the question. “While I’m at it, I watch the bumper-to-bumper traffic and listen to the sounds of car horns and sirens.”

You couldn’t help but laugh, shaking your head at his dry sarcasm. “That is exactly why I like to be in the middle of nowhere. No traffic, no sirens, no deadlines. Just peace.”

Damian looked at you, the barest hint of amusement flickering across his face. “Peace,” he echoed, then gave a short huff. “I don’t know that I would describe Gotham as anything remotely peaceful.”

“Well, I’ll take peaceful over chaotic any day,” you said, your eyes drifting back to the sky, the colors of the fireworks beginning to light up the air. You handed him a stick of cotton candy, offering it with a teasing grin. “Besides, I think you could use a little fun, Damian. Maybe the world won’t end if you just enjoy the moment.”

He hesitated, eyeing the fluffy treat in your hand before taking a cautious bite. His eyes flickered back to you, his voice quieter this time. “Fun. I’m not sure I remember what that feels like.”

You blinked, surprised at the admission. For a moment, you didn’t know how to respond. You were so used to seeing Damian with his walls up, his rigid control always in place, that hearing him admit something so vulnerable took you off guard.

“Well, maybe now’s a good time to start remembering,” you said, your voice soft. “There’s a lot more to life than training and working.”

Damian didn’t answer, but he didn’t pull away either. Instead, he continued to chew his cotton candy in silence, staring out at the fireworks. You could tell, even without the words, that he was beginning to relax, if only for a moment.

The rest of the ride passed in a comfortable silence, the fireworks exploding around you in bursts of color. It was a strange thing, this peacefulness, and you couldn’t help but smile as you watched Damian begin to melt into the experience. For once, he wasn’t the brooding, serious heir to Wayne Enterprises. For once, he was just a boy—your class partner, Damian—enjoying the simple joy of a fair.

As the ride finally came to a stop and you both made your way back to solid ground, you felt a strange warmth between you both, something unspoken but real. You hadn’t just taken him to a fair—you’d taken him to a moment where he could simply be Damian, and for the first time, he seemed to appreciate it.

“Not so bad, huh?” you teased as you walked side by side.

Damian glanced at you, the slightest smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. “Perhaps... just this once.”

[queenie-ofthe-void]

“Led Zeppelin? Never heard of them,” Steve lies, like a liar. Of course he’s heard of them, thinks maybe Hop’s mentioned them before. Doesn’t really know the band well, and probably definitely couldn’t name a song. But the comment serves its purpose, and the trap is set.

Eddie calls it the Zep Campaign. Every day they’ll listen to one album, and Steve will pick his favorite song from each. Eight days for eight albums. On the last day, they’ll narrow it down to one song to rule them all– because apparently even Led Zeppelin likes the Mordor books Dustin doesn’t shut up about. 

Each day, Steve struggles to pick a favorite. Day four isn’t bad– doesn’t mind a song that is actually called Rock and Roll, which is just a lazy title in his opinion– but they’re only half way through and the songs are all starting to sound the same. An endless stream of too-fast guitar melodies and weird, wobbly sounds he’s sure he’s never heard before. The vocals are his favorite part, but the lyrics are vague and confusing.

Long story short, he’s not a fan.

But this growing thing between him and this ridiculous metalhead is new, fragile. So if it’s important to Eddie, it’s important to Steve. 

“Stevie, we really don’t have to keep doing this,” Eddie concedes. It’s day eight, the final album, and he thinks even Eddie might be desperate to listen to something different. “You’ve listened to every other album and honestly this one is the worst. They were all on drugs, and this isn’t even their sound ya know? Like it’s not even real metal.”

And honestly, Steve does know. He’s been listening to this band for eight days and yeah, all the songs sound the same. But these ones are different. Softer. He’s made it this far, and he’s nothing if not persistent for the people he loves.

Sprawled out on the floor next to the boy he likes, passing a fading joint back and forth, he thinks he can suffer a bit longer. 

“No Eds come on, we’re halfway through anyways. Just flip it over and we’ll smoke while we finish.” Eddie huffs a sigh, but Steve can see the slight uptick of his lips, reminding him of why he’s doing this. He flips the record and crawls back, presses himself flush up against Steve’s side.

The next song is long, too long to keep his attention. They burn down their joint and Steve leans heavily onto Eddie’s open chest. He gets lost staring at the vinyl art. A guy dressed in a fancy white suit sits alone in a dive bar, the only splash of color against a dull background. The bartender looks gruff, like the rest of the bar, making the man stand out even more. He wonders if that’s how he looks posted up at the Hideout during Eddie’s shows. Wonders if he looks just as out of place in Eddie’s life as this man does, even though he looks comfortable there too. 

Eddie shifts his arms around Steve, bringing him back to the present. The song has changed and Steve feels the slow melody wash over him.

“Wait,” Steve cries out, flailing up and out of Eddie’s arms as he registers the new song. It’s soft with a steady beat. It’s got synth-- the sound Eddie told him he likes in pop music. This song isn’t loud and chaotic like the rest. The voice is soothing and the lyrics are mostly simple enough. It’s different, and he can’t believe it but–

All of my love, all of my love

all of my love to you, oh

“This one. I like this song. Like actually like it.”

Eddie sits up and stares at him. He can see the dramatic shock and annoyance on Eddie’s face. But it’s doing nothing to hide his broad smile and shining eyes. 

“Steven. Stevie. Baby, sweetheart, this absolutely cannot be your favorite Zeppelin song. Out of all the songs on all the albums and all the hours of poetic melodies I’ve forced upon you, you choose the most non-Zep Zeppelin song.” Steve laughs sweetly as he watches Eddie fail to keep the glee out of his supposedly annoyed voice.

The cup is raised, the toast is made yet again

One voice is clear above the din

“This song isn’t even metall!" Eddie screeches. He rants and raves, waiving his arms as he regales Steve with all of the reasons he should absolutely not like this one particular song. He's shining with happiness, dial turned up to a hundred and it's all aimed at Steve. He can't help but to gaze back fondly, enraptured in the adorably obnoxious spectacle.

"It’s all synth, almost no guitar because Page didn’t even write this one! He wrote all of them except two songs, Stevie, and of course that’s the one you chose. No one who knows good music even likes this album. It’s not even metal music and honestly I almost didn’t show it to you, that’s how bad it is!” They're both giggling, leaning falling slowly into the other's space. Facing one another, their feet tangled together, Steve twists and pulls on Eddie's rings. Just to touch.

“Well, maybe that’s why I like it,” Steve snarks, taking his hand. “Plus it’s a love song.” Daring to reach out.

All of my love, all of my love, yes

All of my love to you

Eddie’s smile dims a bit, softens at the edges as he grows serious. “It’s not a love song Stevie, not like that.” He’s looking at Steve but he isn’t. Looking past him into the back of his thoughts. “The lead singer, he wrote it for his son. His kid died of some kind of bad illness while he was on tour. Didn’t make it back in time.”

He pauses, and Steve waits. Knows Eddie has more to say, hoping his patience will pay off. Eddie’s sight refocuses and he heaves a heavy sigh. His eyes glisten as they lock onto Steve.  

“My mom used to sing it all the time. While she was cooking, or putting me to bed, or pulling weeds in the garden. She’d sing it constantly. Hell, she didn’t even know all the words, but she’d still try and sing the interludes– ya know, the music between the lyrics.” He laughs lightly, a stray tear just barely hanging on. Steve tightens his grip around Eddie’s hands and presses a kiss to his knuckles. A silent sign of gentle support and encouragement. 

“Sounds like a love song to me,” Steve whispers. Leaning forward, he presses a kiss to his forehead and pulls Eddie into a tight hug. 

All of my love, all of my love, to you now

“A love song just for you, from both of us.”

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

I've always headcanoned that Eddie loves Led Zeppelin, because he plays guitar and loves metal and reads Lord of the Rings so of course he would.

[brattyfork]

don’t you dare

summary: you were a little shit all day, chris gets fed up.

warnings: brat!reader, dom!chris, bdsm type relationship kinda, face fucking, kinda intense but not super crazy

“go put on real clothes before matt and nick get home”

chris was doing the dishes from breakfast, i was sitting on the couch in just one of his tshirts and my panties, since it was just the two of us home at the moment.

“no” i spat back quickly, not taking my eyes off my phone.

“no?” he seemed genuinely shocked by my response.

“you heard me”

“go get dressed, now”

“but i’m comfyyyyy” i whined.

“i won’t tell you again. go” he pointed toward the stairs.

i threw my phone down on the couch before getting up and stomping downstairs. when i got to our room i slammed the door, a little harder than i meant to but whatever, it served its purpose.

i looked for something to wear and decided on some short athletic shorts and a tight crop top. i chose to wear a bra so i wouldn’t get actually murdered.

i walked back upstairs and made my way over to the couch. chris looked up at me when he heard me approaching. i met his eyes briefly before he looked away, huffing and shaking his head.

❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎

“baby can you bring me a pepsi?”

i had gotten up to go to the bathroom and after i walked out i heard chris call out.

“sure” i said back, loud enough for him to hear me.

i walked into the kitchen and grabbed a can from the fridge, also grabbing myself a water. i left the pepsi on the counter, and walked back to the couch.

i could feel chris’ eyes on me as i sat down, placing my water on the coffee table and taking out my phone. i turned to look at him.

“what?” my attitude definitely came out in my voice, i could tell when his gaze changed.

“pepsi?” he asked, trying to be patient in case i actually did forget.

“oh yeah, i forgot” i quickly went back to my phone but i could still feel him staring at me. he finally turned away, lifting himself off the couch with a huff.

❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎

chris was sat at his pc while i laid on our bed. he needed to do some boring work thing, meaning i was getting no attention. i sighed as loud and as dramatically as i could, determined to get his attention but he didn’t even flinch.

“chris” i said, very monotone and at my regular volume. he either didn’t hear me or he was ignoring me.

“chrisss” i whined, a bit louder this time.

“hm?” he mumbled without turning his head.

“i’m bored” he didn’t respond. i got up from the bed and walked to his desk, leaning over his shoulder and licking a stripe up his neck to his ear. he stayed silent.

“did you hear me?”

“yes baby, i heard you. i promise i will give you attention as soon as i’m done.” he said, finally facing me.

“but i need attention nowww”

“the sooner i get this done, the sooner i can give you attention. now go sit back down and be quiet”

“whatever” i replied with such a dramatic attitude, i could practically hear him rolling his eyes. i flopped back on the bed, pulling out my phone and going on tiktok, purposely turning the volume up.

“turn that down” he said sternly.

“or what?” he spun around in his chair.

“turn it down, now” i tried to hold his stare but he ultimately won, i mean how could you disobey those eyes? i rolled my eyes, turning my phone down and rolling over so i was facing away from him.

❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎

we had all ordered a pizza and were sitting on the couch eating. i was being purposefully loud, nick was enjoying it while matt just kind of smiled to himself. the only one i was really annoying, was chris. he kept giving me looks

“y/n” i turned to him, “lower your voice”

i stuck my tongue out at him before turning back to nick. i could feel his eyes burning a hole through the back of my skull.

nick was very aware of our dynamic, being my best friend and all, so he shot me a look. i just shrugged and continued eating, getting back into my conversation, lowering my voice just a bit.

“fucking brat”

❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎

after dinner we decided to watch a movie, something none of us had seen before. we all got comfortable, chris and i on the chaise of the couch, nick laying on the main part and matt on another couch perpendicular to ours.

i cuddled into chris, even if he was pissed at me he never denied cuddles. he wrapped his arm around my shoulder, pulling me close.

at this point, i was frustrated. i had been such a little shit all day, why hasn’t he fucked me? or teased me at least. i noticed his hand over my shoulder and decided to bite it. not hard, just enough to get his attention. he pulled his hand away and flicked my ear, i just cuddled back into him as if nothing happened.

but i got bored again. i placed my hand on his thigh, far away enough from his crotch that it could be seen as innocent. i slowly inched my way toward the inside of his thigh before just placing my palm over his dick through his pants. he grabbed my hand and looked at me. i couldn’t contain my smirk, he was just so easy to get riled up.

chris stood up, his hand still wrapped around my wrist though the grip was tighter. he pulled me up off the couch and towards our room.

“we’re going to bed, goodnight guys”

“night” nick and matt replied at the same time, giving each other a look.

❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎₊ ⊹ ❤︎

chris harshly pulled me into his room and shut the door. he let go of me and i stood in front of the door.

“i wanted to finish the movie” i whined, knowing that i didn’t give two shits about the movie.

“so did i” he walked towards me, forcing my back against the door, “but i couldn’t because you were being a fucking brat” he spat, words soaked with venom.

“you’ve been a brat all day”

“i don’t know what you’re talking about”

he wrapped his hand around my throat, pinning me up against the door.

“you sure about that? you weren’t acting like a little bitch all day to get daddy worked up?”

i just stared at him, even if i had something to say i wouldn’t be able to get it out.

“i asked you a question slut” he tightened his grip on my neck.

“jus wanted to tease you a bit, that’s all…” my words trailed off.

he pulled me over to our bed, his grasp on my neck still firm. he pulled my face close to his after he sat on the edge.

“strip” he commanded, letting go of my neck.

i quickly pulled off all my clothes, minus my panties, he always wanted me to keep them on.

“on your knees” his tone wasn’t angry, but stern enough to make me think twice about disobeying.

i sat in front of him, on my knees with my posture straight. chris hated when i slouched. he leaned back, resting his hands on the bed behind him. i took this as an invitation, well, more of a command i guess.

i moved my hands to the waist band of his pants, slowly, in case i had misread his cues. hooking my fingers around them and his boxers, i pulled them both down, chris lifting his hips slightly so i could take them all the way off. his cock was red and angry, precum covering the tip. i went in immediately, desperate to taste him, to make him feel good.

i was interrupted by his hand in my hair, harshly pulling me back. i looked up at him, slightly confused.

“only good girls get to suck daddy’s cock, whores get their face fucked” i pouted a bit, not intentionally. i didn’t love face fucking, but chris did and i knew full well that it was a possibility when i started my act this morning.

“don’t you dare pout,” he tightened his grip on my hair, making me gasp, “you know what happens when you act like a brat”

i tried to wipe the pout off my face, hiding my disappointment that i wouldn’t get to suck him off but i should’ve known better.

“open” i opened my mouth wide and stuck my tongue out. chris stood up off the bed, slowly pushing himself into me. he kept his grip on my hair and put his other hand under my chin so he had full control over my head. he started slow, knowing that this wasn’t my favorite thing and even though he had to punish me, he didn’t want to hurt me.

the thing is, he’s just so fucking thick. when i’m sucking him off i can take my time, i have no issue taking all of him, but he’s so thick that i literally have to stretch my mouth out. so when he fucks my face, i don’t have time to get used to it and my mouth gets tired.

his thrusts got harder, sharper. i looked up at him as best i could, his head was thrown back, hair sticking to his forehead and his eyes closed. i wish i could have this image of him tattooed on the inside of my eyelids.

he must’ve felt me staring, snapping his neck down and smirking at me.

“such an obedient little whore. i knew you couldn’t keep your act up forever, just needed daddy to make you desperate enough”

i groaned around him. he knew me so well, inside and out.

“fuck you’re gonna make daddy cum baby” he praised, unable to help himself, “and you’re going to swallow all of it, you don’t wanna know what’ll happen if you don’t”

i did kind of want to know but the thought of swallowing all his cum was too appealing. i moaned around him, letting him know i understood. he groaned at the vibrations and after a few more thrusts i felt him shoot his warm load to the back of my throat.

i took it down easily, loving the taste of him. i stuck my tongue out, showing him that i listened. he grabbed my jaw and smacked me lightly.

“my perfect slut” chris reached his hands out to me, helping me up off the floor before pushing me back on the bed. i looked at him confused, he met my eyes and looked down. i followed and was faced with his still hard cock. i must’ve really worked him up.

he moved his hands down my stomach coming to the waistband of my panties, a dark spot covering my core. he pulled them down my legs, discarding them somewhere in the room.

“i’m not done with you, hands and knees”

this wasn’t a punishment for me anymore, i loved doggy, feeling his chest against my back, his hands in my hair or around my throat and his balls slapping my clit, god it was just the perfect position.

chris positioned himself at my entrance, his grip on my hips light as he sunk the tip of his dick in me. he did that a few more times, hands on my hips barely touching me.

he ran his hand up my spine, ghosting my skin, with only the first inch of his cock inside me. grabbing my hair, he slammed into me, giving me no time to adjust to his girth before pulling out and pushing back in harder, if that was even possible. i screamed, the pain to pleasure ratio too high.

“fuck so good daddy” i yelled as best i could, it came out as more of a squawk.

“yeah you like how hard daddy is with you?” he pulled tighter on my hair, “how worked up i get when you act like a little bitch,” slapped my ass, “you belong to me” then the other side.

“you are fucking mine, you obey me, listen to my orders”

“hnngggg daddy please”

“say it” i stayed silent “say. it.” he spat into my ear, making me jump.

“i’m yours, fuck i-i’m all yours”

“and so you don’t fucking forget it, i’m gonna pump my cum so far into you it’ll never come out”

“god please PLEASE fuck n-need it please daddy”

“love when you beg me like a good slut. do it some more baby, tell daddy how much you want it”

“FUCK daddy please god i need it so bad”

he grunts.

“daddy please please please i’ll be good i promise, please” i was practically sobbing, begging him to fill me up. i knew he’d hold this against me, next time i’m feeling bratty, more likely tomorrow morning.

“good girl baby, so good for me, just needed to be fucked good. that’s all, right?”

“yes fuck daddy cummmming” was all i managed to get out.

“yes baby, let go, been so good for me”

and just as soon as he told me to let go, he did too. i felt his hot cum paint my walls and i saw stars, i let out the most ungodly noise. you could probably hear it at the wendy’s down the street.

chris continued to pump into me, keeping his promise and fucking his cum so far inside me it was never coming out. he collapsed on top of me before rolling us over on our sides. i thought about trying to move away, get him out of me but i was so tired, and i love having him inside me.

“i think you should have to sleep with my cock and cum inside you” i could hear the smirk on his face. i just pulled him closer, as tight as i could, which apparently wasn’t very hard because he laughed at me and pulled me farther into his arms. i could feel his cum move around inside me as he kissed the top of my head.

“fuckin brat”

a/n- i really really really like this it was so fun to write i hope yall enjoy

[elliespeach]

no chances | ellie williams

˗ˏˋ"scared yet?" ´ˎ˗

pairing: ellie x afab reader synopsis: you and ellie are on rival volleyball teams and your dangerously competitive nature gets the better of the two of you. warnings: 18+, foul language, sexual descriptions, men (the coaches), eventual smut (ellie n reader) i changed the rules a bit, ik liberos have rules tehy gotta follow but to hell w that for the plot author note: the name comes from the twenty one pilots song!! i lowkey had sm fun writing this, i watched womens volleyball as i did and yall....volleyball ellie has my heart fr. this is gonna be a series n im excited to see where it goes wordcount: 2k ishhh

ellie pressed her feet flat to the floor, eyes locked on the other side of the net. she was behind her usual middle blocker, her arms raised up to align themselves with her stomach, her hands interlocked and her thumbs pressed together. she waited patiently, the sweat dripping off of her eyebrow and down to the gym floor. 

she sized up the team in front of her, ellie’s team played them often as they were rival colleges, especially for women's volleyball. her eyes scanned the team, the coach called a player in from the back row, the girl placed herself on the bench with a solemn look expression. that’s when ellie saw you emerge from the far side of that same bench, once previously blocked by standing bodies. she sighed heavily and muttered “fuck.” to herself as she watched you approach your coach. a pep in your step, and ellie rolled her eyes. you took the place of the previous girl in the back row, grinning ear to ear.

ellie was hoping you weren’t playing today, the amount of times you two had gone against each other was uncountable. both of you being exceptional liberos caused a rivalry of it’s own between the two of you to manifest over months. she couldn’t stand you and it was because you were just as good and just as passionate as she was but she refused to admit it, even to herself. despite your fierce competitive nature with ellie turning sour, you thought it was funny to taunt her. her expression would change in a heartbeat, and you knew it got to her before she composed herself. but you’d be lying if you said she didn’t get to you either because she most definitely did. 

you caught ellie’s eye and waved teasingly to her, mouthing a slow and pronounced, “good luck.” and ellie darted her eyes away, not wanting to be distracted by you. she shook her head from the thought of you and heard the familiar smack of the serve from your team. the ball went up and over the net flawlessly. her team kept the ball up, passing it back over with ease and ellie glanced at you while you stared down the ball with focused eyes. your setter mistakenly hit the ball at an angle which sent you diving to the floor to keep it up, shooting it straight back into the air and the outside hitter sent it back to ellies team. 

it went on like this for a while, sending the ball bouncing between the two sides of the court. the score quickly became nearly tied at twenty-two points. for a quick second, ellie caught you staring at her and her head cocked to the side, feeling her competitive nature step forward. “scared?” she mouthed tauntingly, a fake pout splayed across her face. focusing back to her team, ellie turned with the surge of confidence flowing through her, the ball came directly to her from the setter and she took her opportunity. from the back row, ellie jumped straight up, her hand connected with the ball with a hard slap, sending it flying right at you as if on purpose. she had distracted you well enough, you fumbled, the ball bounces off your hands and to the floor.

her teammates shouted in triumph, giving her several highfives and she looked back at you through the white net as they cheered, “sorry.” she mouthed again, her shoulders coming up to shrug dramatically. your face turned into a snarl, determined to do the same back to her. ellie’s team served next, shooting the ball up and over the net and it somehow went directly to you. you set the ball to your outside hitter beside you, and ellie heard you shout “back! back! back!” indicating to return the ball to you. with this ellie lowered herself, readying for a strong spike towards her head, she didn’t know much about you but she knew you didn’t miss. 

as you jumped up, your arm swung back furiously but as your hand came in contact with the ball, you hit it lightly, barely tipping it over the edge of the net. ellie’s team was caught off-guard, missing the ball and letting it fall to the floor. ellie bit her bottom lip in frustration, resetting her stance and glaring at you up and down. your uniform was form-fitting, of course your black shirt standing out among your teammates making it all the more easy for her. you didn’t meet ellie’s gaze once while your team celebrated their small victory and that upset her more than if you had.

there had been times during previous games that you two had gotten in arguments across the court, resulting in sitting out for the rest of the game. “you did that on purpose!” ellie would shout, her finger pointed directly at you accusingly, stepping towards the net. “only because you did it first!” you would scream back, your teammate holding you back from approaching the net while ellie egged you on, shouting obscenities that you so kindly returned to her.

 it was always childish arguments like this, and your teammates could feel the tension building on the court as the game went on, everyone was competitive but you and ellie took it to another level that made people uncomfortable. “pretentious bit–” ellie’s coach would approach her, cutting her off in fear of being disqualified. “oh, i'm pretentious?” you would bypass your team, walking up to the net furious. “you’re a fuc–” your team pulled you back and kept you quiet for the same reasons. 

nearing the end of the game, ellie was sweating hard, her auburn hair sticking to her forehead from the hot gym. she watched as you readied yourself, your arms moving up swiftly and you flicked your head to the side to remove the hair that was plaguing your face. she was staring for a little too long, stuck in some kind of haze, her ears rang and her vision went fuzzy. her teammates moved in a blur around her as the ball landed on her side of the court and she snapped her head, regaining her focus quickly, moving her hands to set the ball. it fell short and ellie threw herself forward on her stomach to reach it. she managed to bounce it but not anywhere near where she had to, her teammate fell short to get it and it fell to the ground. 

ellie cursed under her breath, bringing herself to her feet. she earned a look from her teammate beside her and she shrugged, annoyed. a dangerous look plastered on her face she scanned through the net for the black shirt. she spotted you fist-bumping the girl next to you and as if you felt ellie’s eyes on you, your head turned caughting her gaze. you smirked, a confident gaze settling over your eyes that ellie could see from afar. her tongue pressed against her cheek, trying to keep her cool like her coach instructed her to do. but as you two stared into each other you mouthed a steady, “scared yet?” a dumb look on your face as you mocked her. 

ellie bubbled over, her hands balled at her fists and she stormed up to the net. her cheeks were on fire and her chest felt extraordinarily heavy. her coach was on his feet, but he couldn’t reach ellie in time before she opened her mouth. “you know what? fuck you!” she shouted, making sure you heard her. 

you did, loud and clear. you practically fought your teammates to get to the net, only a few feet separating the two of you. your chest was heaving between the anger that filled you and the game you’ve been playing. ellie’s white libero shirt piercing your eyes compared to her team's mutual black shirts. “i didn’t do anything you didn’t fuckin’ do!” you yelled back with such aggression that it made your voice hoarse. 

you watched as ellie’s coach grabbed her arm but she didn’t break eye contact with you, her hateful stare intensifying. her coach dragged her away and you turned, your heart beating even faster than before. “you’re out of the game, williams!” her coach tells her sternly, ellie tried to rebut but he told her to sit on the bench. she groaned, rolling her eyes and sitting down with a huff. 

you watched as this happened a small smile crept onto your lips as she sat down, ellie never looking in your direction. your head turns to your coach who is approaching you. “you too, go!” the coach says with conviction, pointing his finger to the bench on your side of the court. your smile disappeared within an instant. 

“i didn’t say anything!” you try to defend yourself, but your coach just shakes his head and repeats for you to leave as well. you throw yourself onto the seat, not daring to look at ellie for the rest of the game, and ellie avoids your gaze too.

the game didn't last much longer, within thirty minutes everyone was loaded on the buses to head back to their campuses. as ellie’s team waited for a few more people to show up on the bus, she sat in her seat to go home, wanting to desperately just forget this whole day so far despite her team ending up winning – just without her. the panging feeling of her bladder became too strong to ignore anymore and the bus ride back was over an hour. as her team celebrated from the seats, she snuck by and off the bus back into the building where they had just played. 

she practically ran down the hallways to the nearest bathroom, pushing the door open and going straight to relieve herself. she heard someone in the stall beside her, it didn’t bother her until she was washing her hands and you came out of the stall. you stared at her in the mirror while approaching the sink next to her, remaining quiet.

you were wearing a large gray hoodie, similar to one that ellie has tucked in her closet somewhere. your hoodie came down below your shorts, hiding them. ellie felt strange seeing you this way, your usual hard exterior being present in your uniform. but looking at you now, all comfortable and sleepy, ellie felt a pang in her chest and before she could stop herself her mouth opened. 

“sorry ‘bout that.” she spoke calmly, even though her stomach was turning over inside of her. you glanced at her, her usual black shirt replaced with a gray windbreaker and black sweatpants though her hair remained in the same half up half down style, her demeanor felt different but with your team losing, especially since you couldn’t even do anything, you were still angry. 

“sure,” was all you said in response, turning back to the sink to finish washing your hands. ellies expression hardened, her arms crossing over her chest. 

“really? you can’t just accept my apology?” her voice raised in defense, pivoting her body towards you. 

“i don’t wanna,” you said, keeping your gaze on your hands in the sink, over washing your hands by a mile. 

ellie shoved your shoulder, not hard but enough to make you look at her. “fuck you, dude!” 

you shoved her back, your face growing hot because of her yet again. “no, fuck you, dude!” you mocked, your patience going thin and your heartbeat rising in your chest, heaving you pointed a finger in her face, continuing your rant. “you’re too fucking competitive.” 

ellie scoffs and reaches up to grab your hand, lowering it down between you two. her breathing was getting aggressive with her anger, she moved her face closer to yours, not letting go of you. “me? have you met you!” she all but shouted in your face. you noticed just how close she was to you, breathing heavy and a daring look in her eyes. butterflies erupted in your stomach instantly, feeling so much anger towards the girl in front of you it felt overwhelming but this time you felt it between your legs. ellie could see your chest pounding up and down with force and in a weak moment she glanced at your lips. 

when her eyes darted back to yours she found them bouncing between her eyes and parted lips. without thinking she quickly let go of your hands and brought them up to your face, pulling you into a deep, messy kiss. 

the kiss intensified as your hands found her hair in a frenzy and you both exhaled through your noses loudly. ellies hands left your face, wrapping around your back to pull you against her. your body smashed into hers as she parted your lips with her tongue, slipping it in roughly. for a reason unbeknownst to you, you rolled your body on hers and ellie grunted into your mouth, though it sounded like she was stifling a moan. 

she pushed your back to the wall, her tongue still flicking around your mouth furiously. her hands roamed your body, slipping beneath your sweatshirt. her warm hands planted themselves firmly around your figure as your fingers still danced in her hair. ellie bit your bottom lip softly, resulting in a moan escaping from your mouth and she gripped down on your skin. 

the sound of the traditional goodbye honks from the buses separated the two of you fast. you looked to ellie with an unreadable expression who forced her eyes to be anywhere but on you. the realization slowly hit you and you jump past her. ellie turns her body, watching you run out of the bathroom and into the hallway. it only came to her then that the buses were leaving and she cursed before running after you. 

you exited the main doors, throwing them open and not bothering to hold them for ellie who smashed through them only a few seconds after you. ellie came up beside you, panting from all the exertion and watched as the buses turned onto the street, leaving the both of you alone. “all my stuff is in my seat, fuck!” ellie remarked, her voice rising ever so slightly. 

you sigh beside her, your tone filled with anger, “me fucking too.”

part two

[mc-lukanette]

"I can't believe you," Marinette huffed, pouting and gently cleaning the dirt from Luka's arm.

He frowned sympathetically. "Marinette..."

She didn't respond, shaking with emotion on all the bruises and marks left on him. She knew it wasn't serious and it wasn't like it was his fault. She wasn't angry with him either, just confused.

Did all this really happen over pizza of all things?

She only really knew what he'd told her. Apparently, he'd been working at his part-time job and an adult thought they could just "take the pizza off his hands." Maybe they were in a bad mood, or they simply thought they could take advantage of a teenager, but Luka had gotten knocked off his bike and a scuffle ensued when he refused.

How adults were somehow less mature than half of the teenagers she knew, she had no idea.

Nevertheless, Luka was decently fit (he could lift an entire Marinette when ice skating and rode his bike around everywhere, after all) so he managed well enough, eventually ending up in Marinette's room. She'd forced him to sit on the chaise lounge despite his concerns about getting it dirty, his hoodie and jacket discarded so she could properly tend to him. His Jagged Stone t-shirt was sleeveless and allowed her easy access to his shoulders.

She glared, inspecting his arm once more to be certain it was clean, then got up and sat on his other side to inspect the opposite arm. Being clumsy, she'd gotten many injuries over the course of her life and thus was basically an expert at first aid. The fact that it was Luka she was tending to made her even more determined to do it right; she might've gotten a little lazy with it if she'd been doing it for herself.

"I'm sorry," he said genuinely. "I hate worrying you."

She shot him a look, but it crumbled at the sadness in his eyes. Sighing, she held his arm a little closer than necessary and retorted, "No, it's okay. I probably worry you all the time too." With a dramatic flair, she added, "So we're even."

He gave her that lopsided smile that always seemed reserved just for her, then let her continue in pleasant silence. Marinette, staring at his upper arm, noted that she'd never actually seen it before due to how often he wore hoodies and jackets. Just as she'd imagined, there was a bit of muscle there, and she wondered if she might've seen it if she'd gone below deck when she visited Juleka at the Liberty one night. Perhaps he would've been in his pajamas, and—

Marinette cleared her throat, forcing the thought out of her head. Catching his curious gaze, she hurried to say, "I-it's nothing. You're toned, that's all."

Her face flushed at the Freudian slip, but Luka took it in stride. With a tilt of his head, he asked playfully, "Because I like music?"

He'd known exactly what she meant, yet gave her an out. She squeezed her eyes shut, blushing deeper as her mind screamed, You're too good for me!

"Anyway," she carried on as casually as she could. She searched lower on his body and experimentally prodded at his ribcage, which she'd been planning on doing before but now served the purpose of an excuse not to make eye contact with him. "Does it hurt here?"

Bless him, he went along with it. "No."

She poked lower at his stomach. "Here?"

"No."

She peeked through the rips of his shirt just to be sure, but thankfully didn't see anything concerning. "What about over here?"

She gently pressed her fingers into his side and felt him tense, a startled hiss coming out of him. Carefully, she lifted his shirt and winced at the sight of the bruise forming there.

"Does it hurt normally?" she asked, trying to delicately feel around the bruise to confirm that nothing was actually damaged. Everything felt okay, but he took a sharp intake of breath like it wasn't. She looked up, surprised. "S-sorry! Was my hand cold?"

"Don't worry," he assured oddly quickly. His cheeks were a light shade of pink. "It's nice."

"Oh."

She turned to her phone briefly to text her parents about getting an ice pack from the freezer whenever they had a moment to spare, then set it aside to focus on Luka again. Figuring it was better than nothing, she kept his shirt raised and slid the back of her fingers along the bruising, appointing herself as a substitute for the time being. He shivered at the contact, but didn't complain.

They both weren't looking at each other now. She thought she'd gotten rid of her blush, but the mood in the room brought it back.

"Ah, so... were you that worried about your boss?" she asked, because the topic of the day appeared to be changing topics.

"Hm?"

She let the shirt fall, only supported by her fingers against his side, so she could grab his forearm and turn it over. Eyeing the place that'd clearly been scuffed when he caught himself against the pavement, she pointed out, "You could've handed the pizza over; it wouldn't have been that big of a deal." She paused, thinking it over. "Unless—maybe you were delivering to a really poor family? And that pizza was the only food they were going to get that day?"

It sounded like something Luka would do, so she was already worrying over the fictional financially-challenged family she'd just made up in her head.

He chuckled. "No, it wasn't like that. My boss was upset about me getting beat up, but they would've had to take it out of my paycheck if I didn't deliver anything."

"But was it worth it?" She tried not to sound like she was scolding him. "Are you saving up for something?"

He didn't respond right away and she dared a peek at his face. Though his head was turned away from her, she could almost see the debate going on in his head over whether or not he should say anything.

"Luka?" she called, wondering if this involved a surprise of some sort. "Is it about someone's birthday or something? I won't tell—"

"Next week," he finally answered. The idea of her getting the wrong impression must've stirred him into action.

She blinked. "What about next..."

She trailed off as it clicked. While she didn't have extensive knowledge of Luka's schedule, she did know that Luka hadn't had plans next week aside from one thing, as they'd chosen that week together because neither of them had plans otherwise. They'd set up a big day together to just have for themselves: a trip to the aquarium, going to the cinema for a movie, picking a random place they'd never been to eat, and so much more that she couldn't even remember in her state of shock.

"We promised to split the cost," Luka confirmed, aware that she'd already come to the correct conclusion. "I wanted to make sure I had as much as possible, just in case."

Her mouth dropped open, heart wrenching while simultaneously picking up in pace. He knew - must've known - that she wouldn't have cared if he came up a little short. She would've been more relieved that he'd avoided a physical confrontation.

But it'd been important to him to have money he could spend on her, on the two of them together. Perhaps it was just how he felt, or some standard he was holding himself to even if he wasn't aware of it.

Her hands shot up, one to grasp at the strap of his shirt closest to her and the other at his face to turn his head towards her.

"Ah." He grimaced. "You didn't do anything wrong, Marinette. I was the one who—"

She pulled him in and kissed him with a vengeance. She kissed him for all the kindness he'd given her, all the time they'd spent together, how utterly stupid he could be around her while thinking that it was normal, and also because she desperately, deeply wanted to. He stayed frozen the whole time, entirely unlike the calm, melodic movements everyone knew him for.

There was a loud "popping" noise when she broke away from him, out of breath and face feeling hot enough that she thought she might start sweating. Her grip on Luka's shirt had been so tight that her nails left tiny impressions in her palms as she let go, the wrinkled strap falling loosely off his shoulder.

Luka was wide-eyed, staring unblinkingly at her.

"D...don't do that ever again. You're too precious to me," she murmured, the situation slowly catching up with her. She had to metaphorically drag the embarrassment out from the back of her mind or risk being totally lost to the euphoria of kissing the boy she loved. The words may have left a vague implication that he belonged to her and she didn't want anyone so much as laying a hand on him, but she didn't take it back or clarify any further.

Barely remembering to breathe, she tore her attention from him to his lap. She could only hope that he wouldn't be upset in any way. "I-I should, um... check here too. Pull your pant legs up."

She reached a tender hand out to touch his thigh, but Luka's hand was suddenly on her wrist, keeping it in place. She jumped, initially anxious, but noticed that his grip wasn't so tight as to hurt her.

"You don't have to do that," he said. Given the situation, it sounded like an odd thing to say.

"W-what?"

She met his gaze, confused, and saw in his eyes that he wasn't the least bit upset. In fact, his eyes were gleaming, his body turning towards her and his face closing the distance she made. She watched with captivated eyes and he raised her hand up, kissing her palm where the impression of her nails had been.

Somehow, she heard his voice over the pounding in her ears, soft and loving as he whispered, "You already kissed me better."

In a perfect mirroring of what she'd done a few seconds ago, his other hand cupped her cheek and pulled her back in. It brought their lips together once again and she melted, needing no further explanation to understand. She leaned back intentionally to fall back on the chaise lounge and let him on top of her mid-kiss, not wanting to risk the tempting urge to climb onto his lap when his legs might be hurt.

She couldn't bring herself to care if her parents showed up right then with an ice pack. The tiny part of her mind that could focus on anything but the kiss was too busy planning out a few extra "events" for next week.

[nanowrimo]

5 Essential Tips for Mastering Scene Writing in Your Novel

There's many parts involved when writing a scene. Knowing how these different pieces work together may help you move forward in your novel. NaNo Participant Amy de la Force offers some tips on brushing up your scene writing knowledge. Scenes are the building blocks of a novel, the stages where characters spring to life, conflicts brew and emotions run high. Mastering the art of scene writing is crucial for any aspiring writer, especially in the lead-up to NaNoWriMo. But what is a scene, and how do you effectively craft one? 

What is a Scene? 

A scene is a short period of time — in a set place — that moves the story forward with dramatic conflict that reveals character, generally through dialogue or action. Think of writing a scene as a mini-story with a beginning, middle and end, all contributing to the narrative. 

Why Scene Writing is Your Secret Weapon in Storytelling

Well-crafted scenes enhance your story to develop characters, advance the plot, and engage readers through tension and emotion. Whether you're writing a novel, short story or even non-fiction, scenes weave the threads of your story together.

Tip #1: Scenes vs. Sequels

According to university lecturer Dwight Swain in Techniques of the Selling Writer, narrative time can be broken down into not just scenes, but sequels. 

Scene

The 3 parts of a scene are:

Goal: The protagonist or point-of-view (POV) character’s objective at the start of the scene.

Conflict: For dramatic conflict, this is an equally strong combination of the character’s ‘want + obstacle’ to their goal. 

Disaster: When the obstacle wins, it forces the character’s hand to act, ratcheting up tension. 

Sequel 

Similarly, Swain’s sequels have 3 parts:

Reaction: This is the POV character’s emotional follow-up to the previous scene’s disaster. 

Dilemma: If the dramatic conflict is strong enough, each possible next step seems worse than anything the character has faced.  

Decision: The scene’s goal may still apply, but the choice of action to meet it will be difficult. 

Tip #2: Questions to Ask Yourself Before Writing a Scene

In Story Genius, story coach and ex–literary agent Lisa Cron lists 4 questions to guide you in scene writing:

What does my POV character go into the scene believing?

Why do they believe it?

What is my character’s goal in the scene?

What does my character expect will happen in this scene?

Tip #3: Writing Opening and Closing Scenes

Now that we know more about scene structure and character considerations, it’s time to open with a bang, or more to the point, a hook. Forget warming up and write a scene in the middle of the action or a conversation. Don’t forget to set the place and time with a vivid description or a little world-building. To end the scene, go for something that resolves the current tension, or a cliffhanger to make your scene or chapter ‘unputdownable’. 

Tip #4: Mastering Tension and Pacing 

A benefit to Swain’s scenes and sequels is that introspective sequels tend to balance the pace by slowing it, building tension. This pacing variation, which you can help by alternating dialogue with action or sentence lengths, offers readers the mental quiet space to rest and digest any action-packed scenes. 

Tip #5: Scene Writing for Emotional Impact

For writing a scene, the top tips from master editor Sol Stein in Stein on Writing are:

Fiction evokes emotion, so make a list of the emotion(s) you want readers to feel in your scenes and work to that list.

For editing, cut scenes that don’t serve a purpose (ideally, several purposes), or make you feel bored. If you are, your reader is too. 

Conclusion

From understanding the anatomy of a scene to writing your own, these tips will help elevate your scenes from good to unforgettable, so you can resonate with readers.

Amy de la Force is a YA and adult speculative fiction writer, alumna of Curtis Brown Creative's selective novel-writing program and Society of Authors member. The novel she’s querying longlisted for Voyage YA’s Spring First Chapters Contest in 2021. An Aussie expat, Amy lives in London. Check her out on Twitter, Bluesky, and on her website! Her books can be found on Amazon. Photo by cottonbro studio

[jisatsuwaifu]

Life is incredibly frustrating, stressful, and exhausting. Everyday I think “it’s okay, it’ll get better, try again tomorrow” but it just keeps proving me wrong. When I think things are getting better and I can finally relax, something else comes along and puts me right back into panic mode. It’s always something, there’s never a break. I never feel safe. All I do is complain about how sad or frustrated I am and I’m sure everyone around me is sick of hearing it. Which is fine, I wouldn’t want to be surrounded by misery when my life is good either or listen to a broken record when there’s much better music to be heard. I am my own responsibility, I shouldn’t rely on others.

My thoughts consume me. Not in a cutesy I’m just a girl cringe kind of way but in a “I need to go to sleep as soon as possible to prevent an accident” because I cannot trust my own head to comfort me but to only make scenarios worse or feed into my paranoia. I am not built to be left alone. I constantly feel like I’m too much and not enough. I’ve never felt more loved but also so alone in all my life. Everything is black and white there is no grey areas with my mind.

I just don’t think anyone knows or understands how thin I’m being stretched and how badly I’d just love for everything to stop and to be able to catch my breath. Just for a day. I’ve cried for help but I don’t think the one person I need help from genuinely hears me. I dont trust many people to begin with. There’s only so much a single person can take before it starts to cripple them. And I know I can be over dramatic and too emotional at times but this genuinely feels like the end, I can’t see past this point in my life. And the sad part is I do not know how I got here. Or this far to begin with. But I am so tired. It’s times like these I wish I had my mom back or even just a family to lean on and seek advice from, but I can’t even entertain my own sister long enough to talk on the phone with me. I don’t understand why I exist or what my purpose is if all I’ve ever been exposed to is pain and abandonment. There’s some aspects of my life that I know I serve a purpose for and want to make proud, I’m trying my hardest for that one thing. I just don’t want to cause anymore damage than I already have. I can’t be like my mother.

I just needed somewhere to vent, some outlet. It won’t change anything. I feel hopeless and empty again. I might just delete everything. I don’t know.

The best I can do right now is try again tomorrow.

( if you read all of this thanks for listening to my rant and I’m sorry I wasted your time when you could have been scrolling onto something cooler like tiddies or anime idk but ty anyways <3 )

[littleplantfreak]

Liar Liar - Sou Hayato

So this is the first part to a soulmate au that I wanted to try doing a series for. Just a small thing I'll definitely add to soon so here ya go!

AU prompt: You can't lie to your soulmate

SFW - not really anything to tag

“Are you three ready to order?” you ask, grabbing the pencil you shoved in your ponytail and wait for the boys to start.

“Ah I’ll have the number 5 with veggies, please.” The sweet orange-haired boy says as he points to his menu.

“Of course!” You turn your attention to the boy with the eye-patch. Is this a chuuni thing? Is there really no eye there? Did he lose it in an accident? It’s none of your business but everything about this boy screams different. Even the third boy with his hair two different colors seems somehow tamer. The one eye you can see is a deep mahogany and his tassel earrings sway when his head turns toward you.

“I’ll just have the green tea. I’m not on a diet.” He says, but his eyes widen slightly at the last part.

"Eh- Suo-san you said the other day you were on a diet! The orange haired boy cried, taking his notebook out and erasing something he'd written prior.

"It's a secret Nirei," Suo sends a tight-lipped smile back at him. "By the way," he turns to you again, "do you have any recommendations for my other friend? He's- what's your favorite thing from the menu?" Suo, eye-patch wearer who isn't on a diet, kicks his un-named friend in the shin before he can speak.

"Actually I hate the food here," you say bluntly, your sentence shocking yourself. That was NOT what you were going to say, and you can tell Suo knew that. How he knew that is something you'd very much like to ask but you were at work. You try saying something similar to what you intended to say a second ago, leaving your own opinion out of it to parrot what most would say the best meal was here. You look back and around to see if your manager heard, but to your relief everyone working was either on break or busy on the other side of the room.

"I already know what I want so can I order?" The third boy breaks you out of whatever weirdness just happened and you jot his order down before turning on your heel and heading to the kitchen. Walking back, you can hear Suo telling his friend he was rude to interrupt and his friend shoots back some response you can no longer hear.

The rest of the interactions with the group were normal enough as you tried to answer any questions vaguely. You catch Suo staring before they walked out the door to leave and found that he'd left contact info on a small page of the same paper the orange one, Nirei if you remember right, had in his notebook.

Pocketing it, you think back to your slip up earlier but eventually chalk it up to fatigue from work. It would be weird to text someone who left you their number...but he left if for that very purpose so saying hi couldn't hurt. He was kinda cute and you definitely want to find out what's behind that eye patch and IS he on a diet or not? While you're suddenly plagued by thoughts about a guy you just served tea to at work, Suo walks home wondering if tomorrow is too soon to come back to a restaurant whose food he also doesn't like.

(*Note Chunni is short for Chunnibyou which is slang for like...the type of kid who thinks they're a superhero and is super dramatic and embarrassing about it. Usually its just younger kids being delulu if y'all haven't heard the term before. Google is better at explaining it.)

[torchship-rpg]

Dev Diary 17 - Complex Dice Tests

We lied! Today was going to be about the meta-campaign mechanics, but we did a really cool system overhaul instead and we simply have to tell you about it.

Basically, we overhauled a part of our dice system in a pretty major way. It’s involved some fairly dramatic changes to how rolls are done, though all the other systems we’ve created plug pretty seamlessly into it (and as we’ve integrated it, it’s actually let us effectively cut systems now that they’re covered automatically by the new system). It’s one of the deftest bits of game design we’ve ever done and we gotta brag about it.

Development of the Previous System

One of the things that has been a problem for Torchship for a long while is that it wanted to be a dice pool system (roll X dice, looking for Y amount of Z+ results), which doesn’t just have binary pass-failure outcomes. We wanted players to feel competent in their fields, but we also needed there to be interesting difficulties and complications so that stories aren’t just a stateful progression of experts effortlessly performing the tasks they’re experts in.

This is surprisingly difficult!

Nailing down exactly how it would work has gone through about a half-a-dozen iterations, all of which always felt like hacky temporary solutions. The version we came up with before this, which the game has been using for about a year, involved two thresholds on each roll; a “Difficulty” to do the thing, and a “Complexity” tacked onto it that you had to reach to do it without any extra problems.

This served the purpose, but its various incarnations slowed the game down a lot more than it should have, and put too much stress on the GM to work out what these two targets would be and how complications would emerge from it. It was a clunky solution which required a lot of experience to use properly, functioning just well enough to build systems around without ever being stellar on its own.

It Must be Tuesday

While working on Must be Tuesday: Revived Edition, which uses a similar dice pool system, my wonderful editor Lexie came up with a really clever system while we were working out the dice odds. In that game, you have a “Skill” target from 6+ to 3+ with a variable dice pool and a number of Successes needed. 

Our partial successes there comes from a concept of ‘Scrapes’; dice which are 4+, but don’t meet your Skill target. If you reach the number of Successes you need when you add your Scrapes to your rolls meeting your Skill, you get a partial success! Brilliant, isn’t it? That means everyone has a chance to get by on even hard checks using their worst skills, but it’s never easy.

When we poked at Torchship stuff after testing that system out, we found ourselves wondering if something similar wouldn’t fit here as well. It wouldn’t translate 1-1; Must be Tuesday is about teenagers fighting monsters in a horror/comedy setup, where nobody is doing anything really complicated, and even the people who are the best at things are still only as good at it as, you know, teenagers. It’s not a good tone fit, but it inspired the system we used.

Complexity Certs & Complications

The solution we came up with, which we are so proud of we bumped a whole dev diary for it, is the idea of Complexity Certs.

Basically, we’ve ditched the previous Complexity target from before. Your dice Test just has a single, easily determined Difficulty. In ideal circumstances, you roll a number of dice determined by the tool you’re using, needing to get results over your Cert target. Get as many of those as the Difficulty, you succeed, otherwise you fail. Simple binary outcome to a simple problem.

But you’re playing cosmonauts. You know, you boldly go places you probably shouldn’t. You don’t face simple problems.

When the GM calls for a roll, they can tack on Complexity Certs in accordance to the situation you’re facing. Essentially, they’re saying this roll is a test not just of the ‘Primary Cert’ that determines if you pass or fail, but it’s also a test of some extra skills that have come up because of the number of moving parts involved in the situation.

So while you still only have one Difficulty, you need to meet that difficulty using multiple dice targets to succeed without qualifiers. If you just meet the difficulty on your Primary Cert, but not the Complexity Certs, then the GM can hit you with a Complication that can emerge naturally from the Cert in question. Conversely, you could end up in a situation where you have a better value on your Complexity Cert than the primary, so you could fail, but avert other disasters.

Or you could fail at both, and now you have two problems!

This system elegantly compresses a bunch of things the system needed to do into one quick judgement call by the GM in the moment. We don’t need to have specific penalties for working remotely through a robot, working in a spacesuit, or doing things in low gravity; the GM can just add the Drone Operator, EVA, or Cosmonaut Certs to the Test as Complexity Certs. There’s no limit to the number of Complexity Certs that can get added either, so you can sum up really complex situations with a single roll.

It also made the game’s group test mechanics much simpler and more impactful. Helping can be a complex game design challenge; you want people to be able to give each other a hand, but you need to make sure people can’t simply do it on every single roll to avoid slowdown and the trivialization of gameplay challenges. The way Help works now is allowing you to lend a friend one of your Certs to take on a Complexity Cert, basically monitoring a potential problem for them while they focus on the main task. 

As you get XP for Helping or being Helped on Checks where somebody is rolling with a higher Cert than you, you might want to point out potential problems with people’s plans that relate to your expertise as they come up so you can be the one to solve them. It also means that the presence of a Complexity Cert acts as a prompt for characters to step in and help one another out, and rewards a properly multi-disciplinary crew working together to tackle complex problems. 

You know. Like… like a Star Trek.

Examples

The example we use in the game rules is as follows.

Let’s say you are at a shooting range with your laser pistol, and you want to shoot a target. That’s a straightforward Sharpshooter Cert test. You either hit the target or you don’t. Easy!

But let’s say you’re doing the same thing but in a combat situation where you might get hit in return. The GM can (and is encouraged to) add the Soldier Cert as a Complexity Cert to the roll; Soldier is the Cert that covers tactics, movements, and the use of cover, so if your dice meet the difficulty using your Sharpshooter target, but don’t from your Soldier target, then you probably hit the target but exposed yourself to danger in the process.

Suddenly, we can see the difference between an Olympic target shooter and an infantryman.

Or let’s say you’re a guard posted in a reactor room; if you are doing some shooting there, the GM could throw in Damage Controller as a Complexity Cert to represent the chances of you breaking something vital in the antimatter reactor by throwing lasers everywhere. Suddenly, you have a really good reason to cross-train your guards in engineering skills, at least enough that they know not to shoot the matter/antimatter exchangers.

Or maybe you’re trying to incapacitate an unfamiliar alien creature without killing it; the GM could add Life Scientist. What if you’re doing it in a spacesuit? Add EVA. Knocking out a piece of machinery? Add Technician. Aiming a remote turret instead of doing it yourself? Drone Operator.

Which means you could, conceivably, be in a spacesuit operating a tablet controlling a gun drone non-lethally shooting a strange device on a strange alien in a combat situation inside an engine room… and it all happens with one roll and no need for infinitely stacking penalties.

Knock-On Changes

The biggest knock-on change this has caused is a need for finer gradation between Certs so that the differences come up more often and are less severe. For that reason, we moved the game to d10 pools from d6s; yes, this was an enormously annoying change to make through our draft, and we’re still working out how to rebalance advancement through it. It also means we have to do yet another pass through the Traits, which we were midway through… oh well! 

(We have a cool new lever that’s come out of, actually; we can have Traits just make Complexity Certs just not count in appropriate circumstances. Freefaller characters get to ignore 0g penalties, for example, which includes adding Cosmonaut as a Complexity Cert to a lot of rolls). 

I’ve submitted Torchship to Metatopia again this year, and I’m really looking forward to running it on the other side of a year of rewrites and de-heartbreakerification. I’m confident it’ll go much better this time around. 

Anyway, next Dev Diary will be about the Zinovians, and then we’ll do the meta-campaign mechanics. Unless something even cooler comes up.

[thequietkid-moonie]

Celebrating S/O's birthday

[ HEADCANONS ] [ 9S, Tamaki, Marin, Link ]

[ NieR Automata ] [ Ouran High School Host Club ] [ My Dress-Up Darling ] [ Skyword Sword ]

This a special birthday gift for my special cutie friend <3333 it was make with love, Sugar, flowers and ton of flowers! Hope you like it my cutie V-chan!!!

9S

Something like birthday isn't really common for the androids, they are made just to serve the purpose of YoRHa, they are just instructed with all the aknowledge they need to fullfil the role they recived, nothing more nothing less

Even so that have never stoped 9S from being curious about the humanity, so having a human partner is a win win situation for him, always willing to heard all the stories you are willing to share with him about humans

Thats how he ended up knowing about birthdays, he may already know a little bit but with your help he will finally be able to understand the full concept and even getting to know how common is for humans to celebrate it, and he actually love it! 9S thinks that celebrating a birthday is a way to show a person how much you are happy to know them since you are celebrating that they were born in the first place

9S loves learning anything but learning about birthdays is more special for him, and he totally think that it would be amazing to be able to celebrate your birthday with you (he may don't say it out loud for feeling a little bit shy, and if he does he most likely get all flustered and will try to come up with a excuse but not denying that he wants to do it)

9S will ask you all he can until his heart is content about how it is a birthday celebration, paying close attention to everything you say and making some mental notes about what he has and wants to do to celebrate your birthday (and he tries to keep it as a secret, he want it to be a surprise for you, even if at the end isn't a surprise party since he will probably ask for your help, he still want to make a surprise what he is planning to do, so he won't say anything about it until he has enough things prepare), he tries to be discreet and covering up his questions as his usual curiousity

One thing that 9S will do is ask your help to recreate a calendar like the one humans used to use just to be able to mark your birthday and others festivities you tell him about (if you decide to add one day as his birthday too 9S will be quite flattered, taking a moment to just be embarrassed but excited before shyly agreeding)

Even in the conditions the world are on 9S does his hardest to find things that could be of use for a birthday party, asking indirect help the the androids of the resistance camp and his other friends (just because this is something he wants to share with you and you alone, at least the first time, maybe later you can celebrate your birthday with everyone else), he is so focused on trying to make a good party for you that 2B is also helping him because of how distracted he is by it

9S will love to make your birthday celebration for just the two of you, but if he knows that it will make you happy then he will then take into consideration all the other androids (but will stress himself a little because now he has to explain what he is doing to everyone), 9S is trying really hard to make everything perfect because he doesn't want to disappoint or even upset you because this may not be the best party you could have (but he tries to don't show you how nervous he is)

At the end, you being happy makes all it worthy, he still feel a little sad about not being able to make a birthday party as amazing as it could be made by the other humans but if you are happy he is happy, besides he has being able to express his inmense feeling of happiness and gratitude for having you in his life so at least the party have fullfil its purpose

Tamaki Suoh

Tamaki tent to be loud, dramatic and even exaggerated and he is even more when it comes to the love he has for his partner, he is loving and caring and there is not even the slighest doubt of how much he loves you because Tamaki can't not express his love in diferent ways, be by words, actions or gifts (normally not much with physical affection just because he gets quite shy)

Tamaki will not waist any chance to be able to show you off and express how much he loves you, any kind of celebration is good for him so is sure to say that Tamaki will make a big deal out of your birthday. Even when he seems to use this kind of special day as a simple excuse to show off and spoil you, the reality is that is not like that, Tamaki is really caring and loving, he considere you his whole world, just as important and meaningful as the host club, so if he makes a big deal out of this celebrations is because he wants to show you how important and special you are for him, just as great and exaggerated are his celebration are his feeling too

He may have some few problems with his family and his birthday but that won't stop him from doing what he wants, he knows what it is to don't be appreciated or even not wanted and he doesn't want that for you, so he wil make sure to express it on the celebration of your birthday

He makes sure to have enough reminders to don't forget when it is your birthday (even if you don't mind much or even don't like much celebrating your birthday he won't forgive himself if he forgets it), and just as the day get closer he start planing everything for the inmense party, Tamaki even involves the rest of the host club to help him organize the best party that you've never imagined

His plans are to make a really big party, inviting all your friends and the host club (and whoever is important in your life, he will know who to invite somehow), even if there are just a few people he will still make a really big party, full of things that are just your style, pleasent the the view and gracefuly matching, elegant and beautiful. The party is almost obligatory for him, so there will be no shortage of gifts from his part, he tries really hard on think on things that you will really like and love (he is willing to give you exactly what you want, and since is your birthday you have the excuse to ask whatever you want even him tells you that you can take advantage of the special occasion)

Tamaki wants to make the party a surprise for you, but knowing him (and probably the twins being mischievous) it wont be dificult to get to know what he is planing, he will be quite frustrated and upset if you get to know about the party but will promise you that the party will be really amazing! (just wants to keep as a surprise what will be on the party, and will do puppy eyes to prevent you from asking more details, he doesn't want his plans be ruined)

But if the case is that you don't want a big party and will prefer something calmer or even just spend time with him then he feels like his whole world is crashing down, he had an inmense and perfect plan and now is all ruined! although, he doesn't blame you, you are his precious lover and wants nothing but your happiness, and if a big party will make you uncomfortable then there isn't going to be any big party, the problem comes when he anxiously walks back and forth trying to come up with a whole new plan, a smaller and simpler that still express his inmense and undying love for you, it will take him a while to get out of his depresive state come up with a plan but once he does he will not waste time and start to work on it (with the host club help, of course)

Not matter how things turn out at the end the important is that you are happy and that Tamaki is able to express how much he loves you

Marin Kitagawa

Marin is completely loving and entusiast about her relationship with you, she loves showing her amazing partner and is as if she can't just not talk about you with her friends, there is not even the slighest doubt about how much she loves you. As well, even when is quite obvious that you two are in a relationship, Marin is totally the type if person who is the best friend of her partner, so your relationship constantly goes from the romance to the joy and siliness of a friendship

For Marin being expressive and telling what it is on her minds is just part of her nature and she doesn't see anything bad on doing it, but even when she is constantly reminding you how much she loves you (directly and indirectly) she likes to take seriously and make special things for special dates, such as Valentine's Day, anniversaries, celebrations and, of course, birthdays

Marin thinks that a birthday is a really special event and has to be celebrated! She finds it so important and is so excited by it that she has it marked in her calendar and even has reminders in her phone so she won't forget about this important day for any reason

Marin is so excited by the idea of celebrating your birthday with you that she has a lot of diferent plans about what you two could do even before the day is close! She end up daydreaming about a perfect and beautiful date so much that she just end up flustered and excited, just wishing that your birthday came already!

When the day is finally coming close Marin is completely excited and it is obvious, she wants to organizate a big party for you, inviting your and her friends to celebrate, making sure the party is full of things you love! Marin is so excited that it is even a miracule that she is able to keep it as a secret from you (she wanted to make a surprise party but it is quite obvious what she is planning, so the surprise comes with what she is planning for the party). However, if you prefer to don't have a party and rather prefer to just celebrate it with her then she'll happily plan a special date for you two, making sure to make a plan for all the day where is just you and her

Even if you don't like much celebrating your birthday or doesn't give much importance Marin does because, for her, it represents a really important day for you (is the day you born some years ago after all!) and is one day that she can use to remind you how important you are for her and how much she loves you! and, honestly, her entusiasm and excitment can be quite contagious so you may just end up waiting for the day as excited as her

For her what she planned to do to celebrate (a party or a special date) is something completely apart of the birthday gift, so she will also spend some time thinking on something she can get for you, she want it to be special and personal so she will think really hard on what to get you, she'll probably will try to ask you about what could be the perfect birthday gift (she tries to ask discreetly but is quite obvious what she is trying to do)

At the end of the day, despite her big plans and efforts, what Marin really wants is to make you feel loved and appreciated on your birthday, wants to be able to make you genuinely happy, she doesn't even expect it in return on her birthday she just wants to be able to see you happy, and if you are happy then all her efforts make it worthwhile

Link

Link is a really caring and loving boyfriend, and despite being easily flustered by the romantic stuff he still is the type of person that is best friends with his partner. There is not even the slighest doubt on what Link feels for you for the loving and adoring way he always looks at you

Link loves spending time with you and is a little clingy, he just love you too much to hide it, and, honestly, knowing that your birthday is close makes him quite excited because he finds it like a perfect excuse to be as clingy and loving as he wants (and don't feels like he is being too much or even embarrassed) because he wants to show you how much he loves you

Honestly, Link doesn't really think on making a big deal out of your birthday but he does want to celebrate, so he may just up to have a special date where is just the two of you doing what you want to do. Link knows he wants to do something special but he doesn't really knows what to do, so he may just end up asking Zelda for some advice wich end up helping him a lot (although, she tease him a little because of it before giving him the advice and wishing him the best)

For Link, the best plan is to just have a romantic date you two, but if you want something else, like a big party, or your friends/family are already planning something for you then he will offer his help with that plan, as long as he is with you and you are happy he is happy

Even if there are others plans he still will continue with his plan of as special date, he will just make it other day (maybe a few days after your birthday but is still to celebrate you). The whole date he is planning is going to be full of activities he knows you like, this is your day after all, so why not just do what makes you happy?

Link will actually be good at hiding his plans, somehow he managed to keep it as a secret to surprised you without making you feel like he had completely forgot your birthday

If you are someone who prefers to don't make a big deal out of your birthday or doesn't really care about that day then Link is going to respect your wishes! he will still make a special date but is a simple one, just being you two enjoying your company

No matter if there is a big party or just a simple date, Link will like to give you a gift in any case, he just thinks your birthday is special because it represents your life and your pass on time, so he doesn't want to let the day be forgotten and he wants to give you a meaningful gift, so it may be something you really wanted or probably even something homemade, something he did that has a lot of meaning for you two

Although, if it happens to be that you two celebrate your birthday when being under the sea of clouds then is more likely that he will plan a date to visit and explore the most beautiful place he have visited during his journey (in this case he will be pretty excited and will drag you somewhere safe, but if there are danger he will make sure to keep you safe, even if you can defend yourself he insist on doing it himself)

Even if the case is that your birthday happens to be when he is too busy with doing something crucial in his journey or even close to fight against demise he still will take at least a moment to sit down and relax with you, wishing you the best and giving you a small gift (like maybe a flower) along with the promise to return safe and sound to you and even make it up once he manage to fullfil his duty

[doukeshi-kun]

𝙙𝙖𝙙!𝙣𝙞𝙠𝙤𝙡𝙖𝙞 + 𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢

content ⨳ fluff, family scenario, fem!reader, oc kids: yuri (first son), mari (second daughter), karol (little gremlin)

notes ⨳ dedicated for homies in discord and especially @quansoda! we love dad nikolai and bsd dads agenda ehe ❤️ p/s, you're also the baby mama and this might seem unpolished and all lol im tryna escape the burnt-out

“Alright, kids. Who wants ice cream?”

“Me!” “Me.”

Yuri and Mari who are sitting at the back immediately raise their arms. Karol on the other hand is sleeping on your lap. He almost cries because he doesn't like sitting in the middle of the back seat. So you prompted to settle him down on your lap instead and now he's oddly sleeping peacefully despite the nauseous drive — uh, only Yuri is nauseous.

“We're gonna get ice cream?” you ask your husband who has been driving the car for almost an hour and a half now. The journey still has around three hours to go.

Nikolai grins. “Yurochka looks too fatigued,” he says slowly, just so his first son won't hear him. You try to get a peek at Yuri who sits behind you but your movement is limited since Karol is sleeping.

“Yuri, do you want water?” you ask.

“It's okay, mom...” you hear his voice. He tries to make himself sound like everything is fine but you and Nikolai can clearly tell he feels nauseous because of the ride.

Within five minutes, Nikolai stops by a rest and service area, complete with many open premises and petrol stations. The rest stop is not crowded with people, so he finds parking just quickly.

“Mama...” Karol shifts in your lap as he wakes up. You smile and pat his back.

“We're gonna get ice cream, Karol,” you say and his eyes gleam almost immediately. He hugs you and tries to open the car door in excitement.

“Kuh-kream! Ice cream!”

“Okay, okay! Don't run, Karol— Oh my Goodness!”

Leaving you dealing with the chaotic little gremlin — he actually opens the door and almost falls face down first — Nikolai goes to open the back seat door. He helps Mari to get out, as well as Yuri.

Nikolai crouches in front of Mari, fixing her blouse and ponytail, as well as her glittering purple pouch sling on her body. Yuri is just standing close to him, keeping an eye on you and Karol who are in minor chaos.

“Yurochka.”

Yuri turns to his dad and Nikolai grins at him before he brushes Yuri's hair, purposely messing it just to have Yuri pushes his hand away. “You good, Yurochka?” he asks and Yuri flashes him a regretful look. Yuri shakes his head and Nikolai nods. He reaches to Yuri's hair again, now styling it like a government secretary's hairstyle, which makes Yuri sighs at his dad's teasing.

“After this stop, you will sit at the front, 'kay?”

“What about mom?” Yuri asks. Coincidentally, you and Karol finally get to the three, with Karol hopping joyfully. Your face looks like you just overcame a war. Yuri huffs and smacks the back of Karol's head lightly.

“Ack!”

“Behave.”

“Behave!” Mari points her finger at Karol, supporting her brother but the youngest clenches his tiny cheeky fist before he bites Mari's finger. “Waaa!”

You pull Karol back and Nikolai gets to Mari. You sigh when Karol just giggling like some sort of villain character in one of his cartoons. You look at Nikolai. “He's very like you.”

“What? Darling, that's very offensive!” Nikolai clutches his chest, seeming to be offended by your remarks. Yuri scrunches his nose, seeing his dramatic dad. Without even saying anything, Nikolai knows Yuri is judging him very hard right now.

With Mari holding Nikolai's hand, Karol in his arm and Yuri holding your hand, all of you walk to the rest stop. Nikolai leads you to a cafe that serves waffles, ice cream and some drinks. You find a table just enough for your family of five near the window.

“What do you want to eat, kids?” Nikolai asks before he hooks his sunglasses on the collar of his shirt.

“The pink ice cream!” Mari says, giving Nikolai a fake pink card to him — as if she's paying.

“The choco waffle with vanilla ice cream,” Yuri says after he looks at the menu board at the counter.

“I'll take whatever you take,” you reply as you are braiding Mari's hair.

“Aaa... kreammm!” Karol.

Nikolai nods as Karol makes a biting gesture with his hands on Nikolai's hand — acting as if his fingers are dinosaurs' teeth. He twirls Mari's 'credit' card in his fingers as he looks at the menu. Swaying his hand gently from Karol, he walks to the counter to order. Having nothing to bother, Karol repeats the action at Yuri's arm instead.

“Mom,” Yuri calls you who are accessorising Mari's hair with pins and ribbons. You hum, looking at him. He is just letting Karol play with his arm. “Dad says he wants me to sit at the front...”

“Oh. Sure, Yuri. You can sit at the front.”

“But...”

“Yuri, you don't feel good sitting at the back, right? So, sit at the front later. Besides, dad can look after you. Or me, if I'm driving after this.” you say softly. Yuri looks at you and nods — he always listens to you the most.

Mari looks at her brother and raises her body on the table. “Yurochka, are you sick?” she asks, concerned. She reaches to Yuri to feel his forehead but ends up palming his face instead.

“No! I'm not sick.” Yuri moves Mari's hand, pouting.

Several minutes later, Nikolai returns with a tray of two plates of waffles, three drinks and two ice cream. Mari and Karol are quick to reach their ice cream and Yuri knows well to sit beside you so he can enjoy his choco waffles to himself. Nikolai gets both of you the same coffee and a plate of waffles to share.

“Pa! Naaaa!” Karol tries to feed Nikolai his chocolate ice cream which Nikolai gladly opens his mouth to, only for the spoon to land at the corner of his lips, smearing some chocolate.

You chuckle when Nikolai looks at Karol with a judging face. He turns to you, pouting. “What are you laughing at? Clean me.” he shakes your arm, making you chuckle more.

“Aren't you too old to not be able to clean yourself?” you tease, wiping the ice cream with your thumb. Nikolai snickers as he licks your thumb shortly, just fast enough that the kids do not even notice — but you notice.

“Tsk. Playful,” you grumble, shyly. Before you can pull away, Nikolai grabs your wrist, kissing it before he rests his cheek on your hand.

“I'm tired...” he mumbles. Since you two are sitting side by side at the round table, it allows you to talk with Nikolai personally. You look at your husband and it's clear that he is quite tired of driving — also adding with how he came home late the night before the journey, he oughts to get some sleep.

“I'll drive later. You, sit at the back and take care of Karol and Mari,” you say tenderly, leaning forward to kiss his cheek. Nikolai smiles at the kiss, laughing softly — his laugh is just contagious, even if it's short and simple, and that's what makes you love to be around him. He makes you smile too easily too.

Not to mention, his voice is just the best.

“Mari is easy to take care of. My hardship begins when Karol wants to slop on my head like a koala to sleep.” Nikolai comments as he takes a piece of small waffles from the plate and feeds it to you.

“Well, if I'm a koala, I want to sleep on your head too,” you say before you reach his hair, brushing your hand against his white soft locks. “Soft... fluffy... and fragrant.” you tighten your hold on him, trailing your hands to his cheeks, squishing him as you glimmer with apparent happiness in your face.

“My husband is so cute.”

Squishing his face so his lips would pucker, you take a quick chance to peck his lips before releasing him. Nikolai's face is completely basked in a crimson hue, flustered by your aggressive affection. It's often him who does that to you, so receiving it himself makes him feel giddy inside.

“I love you too...” Nikolai says, slow enough only for you to hear. He cannot help himself from smiling and shifting in his chair like he just met his first crush. The sweet waffle cannot make him forget about the sweet short kiss of yours and the warm coffee cannot calm the fluttering butterflies in his stomach.

“Ugh, adults.” Yuri grunts.

“Shush, Yurochka. You can't even cut a potato.”

©doukeshi-kun 2023 — do not copy, plagiarize and repost my works to any platform, more @cherikolya

if you like my works, consider buy me a ko-fi!

[physalian]

Exposition 2: Naming New Characters

This post is brought to you by one of the worst line deliveries in the history of Supernatural: Sam’s reveal of Ruby 2.0 in “Lazarus Rising”. Also a companion post to not playing The Pronoun Game.

—

Introducing new characters to a scene and figuring out the precise moment to announce their name without sounding clunky can be very tricky. So let’s break it down into three scenarios:

Name is known by the narrator to be given in narration

Name is either known by the narrator, to be given in dialogue, or known by another character

Name is not known to anyone in the scene but the new character

Scenario 1: Name via narration

Personally I don’t have any problem whatsoever with: “This is character, they do X.” It’s quick, inoffensive, and doesn’t need to get convoluted and over complicated.

Now, if this is meant to be a reveal to the audience, you’ll have to play the Pronoun Game for a bit until you pull the trigger (so long as it is motivated and reflects back on the characters and isn’t just because the author is bad at suspense), but I’d recommend reworking the scene so your narrator discovers this information with the reader for the lowest risk of confusing your audience.

Generally I think if you introduce a new character into a scene via epithet, then in the next paragraph have the narrator use their name, I think the audience is smart enough to pick up on: “new entity has arrived on stage = unfamiliar name must belong to them” so you can even skip the exposition tag entirely.

The cook returned from the dining room, freshly traumatized by a wild Karen. Tyler took a breath, steadied themselves, and resumed their station.

Scenario 2: Name via other character, or dialogue

This is the aforementioned Supernatural blunder. There doesn’t appear to be a clip for this specific scene on YouTube so the moment in question:

Ruby: [Walks in through the back door] “Getting pretty slick there, Sam. Better all the time.” Sam: [Sighs, and contemplates all his life choices that led to this moment] “What the hell’s going on around here, Ruby?” [Pause for dramatic effect and damn-near looks into the camera]

Ruby’s “Sam” is delivered seamlessly and is flavored with some dry wit, in character for Ruby.

Sam, on the other hand, not only pauses before saying her name, but emphasizes her name in a completely unnatural way. I didn't do it justice here explaining how clunky this is, just trust me.

Nothing sounds or reads quite so juvenile like awkwardly tacking on a new character’s name to dialogue when no real person would talk like that. The line serves purely as exposition and it’s glaringly obvious and uncreative?

How to fix? As I said in my other exposition post: Make it motivated. Have the name reveal come with either inflection, tonality, or dual purpose so it’s not just exposition.

Meaning:

Have speaker be trying to get the person’s attention, and call their name

Have the speaker admonish the person, using their name

If this is a happy reunion, have the speaker excitedly exclaim the name

If this is a bad reunion, have the speaker mutter, growl, whisper, or grumble the name

If this is a surprise reunion, have them speak the name like a question

Have the speaker use a nickname the new character doesn’t like, prompting a correction to their real name

Have the speaker blank, prompting the new character to supply it, while offended that they forgot

Have the known character introduce the new character after a few exchanges that isolate the narrator, prompting an explanation a la “Sorry, this is X, they’ve been my friend for years.”

Scenario 3: Name via new character

Very similar to above with the same advice: Make it motivated and double as clueing us in on something either about the new character, or about the characters’ relationship with the scene, or how they see themselves, or how they expect this meeting to go.

If they’re bold, sassy, or snarky, they introduce themselves like they expect their audience to be impressed

Or, if they expect that name to already be known, and are surprised or irritated that they must introduce themselves

Straight up, have someone ask them who they are if they’re not supposed to be there

Or have someone ask them in a social faux pas, blurting out the question and then being embarrassed by doing so

Have the asker be rude, demanding an introduction where it might otherwise not be appropriate

Have them introduce themselves with uncertainty, if they’re shy or unsure about where they’re supposed to be

You get the idea? Whatever it be, make it be in character, and you’ll pull double-duty (as most exposition should) both naming your character and immediately establishing a relationship between your characters.

Scenario 4: When plot demands you must wait

Bonus! This happens when asking for a name would ruin the pacing and be wildly out of place in whatever’s happening (like mid-fight scene), or the narrator is unable to ask for plot reasons.

In which case, this still can pull double-duty by having your narrator come up with their own way of identifying the person: maybe they come up with a cute or insulting nickname, or a unique feature stands out that they’re jealous they don’t have, or there’s an identifiable piece of clothing or uniform to call them by their profession (works well for a group of distinct unknowns), or they’re acting in a suspicious fashion and can be labeled with a derogatory adjective.

At which point, narrator can either sleuth out their name themselves or it falls into one of the previous three scenarios.

Point being, once again, you are establishing a relationship between these two characters as soon as they’re on page together. Your exposition is pulling double-duty.

[very-straight-blog]

In light of that wonderful expo, which gave us so much TGC content, can I just say that Aegon's "I've done everything you ask me to... and I try so... I try so hard, but it will never be enough" line would've hit harder (TGC's acting was so fucking good tho) if hotd would bother to show us scenes (just flashbacks, literally anything) of a young Aegon doing anything, from his studies to his training and showing off his talents/knowledge by trying to interact with Viserys and doing anything to get his attention but seeing/realizing that Viserys was never interested in him no matter what which would kick off his spiral to alcoholism and the frequent ventures to flea bottom (and finally see his book traits of being a sullen boy) and eventually becoming lazy. Instead, they included some dumb af scenes that serve no purpose other than shock factor or trying so hard to be got. They were so allergic to giving/having sympathetic scenes for the greens that some even hated the idea of Aemond being bullied instead of being the bully. Like, I laughed at the praise the show gets when it clearly suffers from so much "telling everything to the audience" instead of letting the audience come to a conclusion by describing the events and actions. BUT, then again, seeing as most of the reaction to Alicent being maritally raped, Aemond being bullied, Aemond claiming Vhagar (and literally losing an eye), and Alicent snapping in Driftmark was clearly so different, never mind lmao. But, that's just my opinion lmao. Sorry for the rant, I've been thinking about it lately but do get ready, just in case some get pissed at this lmao.

Feel you! I even had a big post on this topic - here. I won't repeat myself, but yes - there's a huge problem in the series with describing things instead of showing them. If we talk about Aegon - literally everything we know about him - we know from his words or the words of other people, and this is very annoying, especially considering the difference between what others say about him and how we see Aegon on the screen. Tom plays a depressed alcoholic with mommy issues, who makes vulgar jokes and has some dildos on the bedside table. This is his maximum. We're even shown his disgust at the sight of cruelty - I wrote about it here. However, other characters describe him as a rapist prone to sadism. What? Who wrote this script? I think about it quite often and I get terribly angry every time. Aegon was an amazing character in the book - interesting, dramatic, but in the series all the positive qualities were taken away from him, even in those scenes that we see - like the fact that he wants to escape, while in the book he agreed to accept the crown to protect his family. It's all incredibly frustrating.

[cherlawa-panna]

The interesting case of Barney Barton's name

Let's focus on a bizarre mystery in the Clint Barton universe (even though it's not really a mystery). And no, I'm not talking about why Clint is portrayed as a loser in the latest comics.

I'm talking about the the biggest idiot in Clint's life. His brother, Barney Barton. And based on the title, you can probably guess the topic of focus: about his name, duh.

To be fair, if you're not deeply into his lore or Clint Barton's family lore, you might not think his name is a mystery. You might assume his parents just didn't love him enough and named him Barney. Easy thing, right? Nope. Wrong.

Many people don't know this, and I don't blame them, but this bastard actually has a different name.

Please give a round of applause for: Charles Bernard Barton!

Yes, it's on his tombstone. And I bet he would rather be in his grave right now instead of being alive, but unfortunately, he didn't have much choice <3.

Don't feel bad if you didn't know this; his full name appears once and once only. It was shown in Hawkeye Vol. 3 and never mentioned again.

If you're like me, you probably have many questions. Why was his name mentioned only once? Why is his name Charles Bernard? Why is he ALWAYS called Barney? Why is his nickname based on his middle name instead of his first name? Why isn't he called Charlie or whatever????

Well, I'm going to answer every question you have—or at least I'll try!

We'll break this post into two parts: first, the real reason behind his name (from the author's perspective, but remember this is just my theory) and second, the fun reason I use in my fanon.

I'm dedicating it for @carcrash429 because I promised them Barney posts a long time ago but my depression didn't let me </3 I have more posts in my drafts so I'll public more soon. And for @hawkzeyes because they're my bestie.

Why Did the Authors Hurt Him with This Name?

The answer is quite simple. Barney was never supposed to have a significant role in Clint's story. Let me explain this. He first appeared in Avengers #64 (March, 1969) as a racketeer from the mob.

Look at him, the fancy criminal, with his own crew working for him. Even Egghead, a well-known villain bastard, wanted to work with him. He's a serious deal, guys; Barney must have held a high rank in the mob or whatever. Everything about him screams: a bad guy.

And despite all that, his sole purpose was to reveal Clint's name to us readers. And that's it, it was the only reason for his existence.

So, let's consider this from the author's perspective. We have a character who is a criminal, destined to die for the plot, just because we want to make Clint's name reveal more dramatic. He's suppose to be a bad guy who decided to change his ways before his tragic death, and in some way he serve as the other side of coin trope for Clint. What name should we give him? In this goofy comic with characters who look ridiculous—where even one of the villains is called Egghead—it's no surprise the authors would give him a stereotypical name.

If you don't know it: The name Barney is slang for "an angry argument." According to the Oxford dictionary, it's also defined as "a derogatory term for a man," originally meaning a worthless or contemptible man, but later used to describe an inept, unfashionable, or unattractive man, sometimes implying a loser.

In short: This name carries very bastard vibes.

I'm pretty sure they didn't pay much thought with naming him. They probably chose it quickly because it fits and that's it. And it sounds a bit like a nickname for a mobster (there is a real gangster from one of New York's crime families named Barney so yeah).

Barney remained Barney for a long time because he wasn't meant to be someone important like I said before —just a family member from Clint's backstory who was supposed to reveal Clint's name to us and make Clint angry for the plot.

But then came Hawkeye Vol. 3 where they decided, "Fuck it, let's un-barney your barney". And it turns out Barney isn't a very good name for someone like the Barney we see in Vol. 3. That's why they decided to give him a better name, making him seem more serious and fancy.

And now we have his name on the tombstone, and only on the tombstone. After that, Hawkeye Vol. 3 never refer to him as Charles and Bernard again. Even Barney's friend from the FBI calls him Barney in the letter to Clint for some goddamn reason.

The authors probably simply wanted to show, "Hey! He's a deep character with a serious name. He's more than just a goon from now because we need to give Clint more trauma."

You get that vibe, right? From now, Barney is just a nickname for Charles used by his friends, coworkers and family and that's it. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? And it should be, however something got very wrong. No one seems to use his real name. Everyone calls him Barney regardless of who they are, even those who should use his real name.

Like, in his freaking MEDICAL CHART in New Avengers (2010), they called him Barney Barton.

It's ridiculous. But why this happened? It's simple The authors simply doesn't know his name.

Those who wrote him later after Hawkeye: Blindspot didn't bother to check his previous appearances (which you can see by how they wrote him). This kind of thing is common in the comics industry. For instance, remember when in Hawkeye Vol. 4 they forgot that Clint was dating Jessica and accidentally made him cheat on her? Funny times.

The only reason Barney appeared in later comics as Trickshot after Hawkwey: Blindspot is because the authors wanted a villainous counterpart to Hawkeye and they didn't pay much attention to his character. They just wanted an evil Clint lmao

Barney's time as Trickshot was a weird chapter in his lore, where he became a very different character than he was before. He just became a loser copy of Hawkeye before the authors eventually forgot about his existence. Then, in Hawkeye Vol. 4, it was suddenly decided to bring Barney back without bothering to explain why he quit his villain work. Why? Because nobody really cares about him; he's just a side character and he was needed for the plot. That's why Barney is the most frustrating character I've ever liked—his personality and motives changes in every new comic. It's INSANE.

But not every author forgets the fact that his real name isn't Barney… though they still don't use his actual name correctly. In some comics with different Earths or in other media, they refer to him as Bernard.

(Secrets of the House of M #1 [Earth-58163])

Why? Perhaps because they want him to sound fancier or more serious. They likely didn't use his first name because those who are not into Hawkeye lore wouldn't know that Barney and Charles are the same person. It's that simple.

Which brings us to another question: WHY IS HIS FIRST NAME CHARLES????

To be fair? I don't know. I wish to know. I've tried to research it, but I've come up empty-handed. Maybe I'm not good in research.

I mean, people tends to have nicknames from their second name but it's still weird. We may never find out why they made him Charles Bernard and not Bernard Charles.

Why Did His Parents Hurt Him with This Name?

Alright, it's time for the fun part of this post: how I imagine the reasons behind his nickname in story-wise. Let's dig in, shall we?

First and foremost, it's important to note that his parents never called him Barney. Perhaps this is because flashbacks always focus on Clint alone. It's Clint Barton's world after all.

Their father referred to Barney as a brat in one issue, but that's the extent of their parents acknowledging Barney lmao.

And the only person in flashbacks from their early childhood who calls Charles by his nickname is Clint. So it's likely that his parents called him by his real name and the nickname came from Clint.

So we can assume it's a childhood nickname that carried into adulthood. But why Barney? You could assume that Clint just called him Barney because it sounds better than Charlie, but I like to complicate things. I have 2 (maybe 3) options I usually explore in my stories (which I've never published because I'm a coward, so you'll never read them).

1. There was a lot of Charles in their neighborhood.

Probably there were many other kids named Charles, and to avoid confusion, they started giving each Charles a nickname (because Charles is popular name, duh — it's #11 in Top Names Over the Last 100 Years). Which is a normal thing tbh. I had another kid with my name in school, and my friends gave me a nickname to avoid mixing us up too.

Maybe Barney's friends started calling him Barney, and Clint picked it up and started using it too.

2. There was another Charles in their family.

I like to write in my stories that he was named after his grandfather from his father's side, and to distinguish between them, they called Charles "Bernard." Clint became so accustomed to "Bernard" that he started calling him Barney. This nickname persisted even after their family stopped exist lmao.

Maybe he also had a cousin with the same name after their grandfather, and that could be another reason why he was called Bernard. I don't know why people name their children after their siblings' kids, but it happens sometimes.

3. BOTH

Do I need to even explain this? I always incorporate both of these headcanons in my stories. It began with family, as he was named after his grandparent so they called him Bernard, then his friends started calling him Barney. Easy story.

I imagine that he was also called Barney in the army/FBI, because there were too many Charles. And that's why his best buddy from Hawkeye Vol.3 calls him this way.

These reasons are also the same reasons why I believe he continues to be Barney and never Charles later in his life.

I'll borrow a bit from the canon, because there's one interesting thing here.

(I think it was from Thunderbolts issues but I don't remember now.)

He probably doesn't like his name. Yeah, I know this panel is probably about his name being Barney and him being bitter about it because it's a stupid name (because authors didn't bother to check older Hawkeye comics again). But I don't care. I'll do whatever I want with this panel and treat it as if he's bitter about his real name lmao.

Why is he bitter? Why doesn't he like his name? You can create any headcanon you want, but mine is simple: he was named after someone in his family, and he hates his family. Maybe this caused him to have a bad relationship with his name. Or his parents were the only one who called him Charles and he hated it because of that. And he would want to disconnect from his past and therefore uses Bernard.

He was called Barney for most of his life, so I think he usually tells people he is Bernard and not Charles. Or "Yeah, I'm Charles, but you can call me Barney". I also think that after the Trickshot fiasco, he changed his name to Bernard Barton (probably not legally because he's still a wanted criminal). And he did it in other universes (like in Earth-58163).

That's it. I hope it wasn't too messy. Remember, it's just my theories and headcanons so you can not agree with me if you want.