#it looks so weird with the c now!

[kumeko]

A/N: For the Gravity Between Us Vol 2! These two are so awkward with each other, I just want to shove them in a closet to sort it all out.

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Someone knocked on the door. Ochaco jerked her head up at the sound, tearing her attention away from the book in her hand. It sat heavily on her lap, her finger still marking the paragraph she’d been reading. Around her, her office was as messy as ever. Her notes lay scattered across the floor, magical tools abandoned and forgotten in odd corners, and there were at least three different mugs of coffee perched on various pieces of furniture.

Another knock reminded her of just why she’d looked up. “C-coming!” she yelped as she sprang off her chair, her thick tome falling to her feet with a loud thud. She winced.

Through the wooden door, rand a familiar, muffled voice: “Are you okay?”

Izuku.

Ochaco tried and failed to tamp down her blush. It was just Izuku’s voice. It was an ordinary question. She hadn’t even seen him yet. Yet, for the life of her, she couldn’t help but react to it.

This crush was starting to get out of control.

“Yeah!” she shouted, praying he couldn’t hear the blush in her tone. Stumbling to the door, she pressed her cheek against the cool, firm surface, hoping it’d get rid of the red. Her heart beat like a drum. She breathed in. She breathed out.

And then, as calm as she was going to get, she opened the door with a wide smile. “I’m fine! But if you’re here…did you get injured again?”

A sheepish Izuku filled her sight. As usual, he still had some of his armour on. He must have rushed here straight from practice. It’d actually be stranger if he hadn’t; almost all of his training bouts ended in injuries. He got injured so often that her office was considered the third most likely place to find Izuku, right after the stables and the training grounds.

“Well…” Izuku rubbed his neck, embarrassed. He held up his right arm. His white sleeve was rolled up, revealing a series of cuts and bruises encircling his skin. “Just a little bit.”

Ochaco paled. Izuku always surprised her, in the best and worst of ways, and she didn’t think she’d ever get used to his training injuries. She reached for him, trying to tamp down on that little spike of nerves she got whenever Izuku was injured. How was he always so calm when he was hurt? “Oh my god.”

“It looks worse than it feels,” Izuku added, smiling nervously. Despite his words, she could make out a thin sheen of sweat on his brow, the slight wince as he lowered his arm, the way his jaw tightened as he breathed. The only good thing was that the cuts weren’t bleeding anymore, though red stained his shirt and smeared his skin.

Ochaco gritted her teeth. Pull yourself together! She had been training as an apprentice mage for a year, had been treating Izuku for months. This wasn’t the time to panic. “That’s an understatement!”

She stepped aside, ushering him in. Quickly, she cleared a spot for him to sit. Izuku knew the drill by now and promptly plopped down on the chair. As he unbuttoned his shirt, he apologized. “Sorry about this.”

“It’s not your fault you got hurt…” Ochaco trailed off before eyeing him suspiciously. This wouldn’t be the first time he’d overworked himself. “It’s not, right?”

He didn’t look her in the eye. His voice was guilt-ridden. “I…I’m not sure.”

She covered her face with a hand. There was a reason the head mage had stopped taking care of Izuku’s training injuries. There was a reason it had all been relegated to her. The man always came in once a week looking like he’d lost a fight. And that was a good week. “You’re not sure.”

“I…well…” Izuku scratched his cheek as he struggled to find the words. “I kinda got a new blessing, and I was trying to use it.”

Her head snapped up. “Another new blessing?”

“Yeah…” He averted his gaze as he shrugged. “It just came to me.”

Ochaco doubted that. The god’s blessings were usually limited to one per person. Few people unlocked theirs after childhood, fewer still that had multiple blessings. Yet Izuku had not just one, but three, and all gained after he’d joined the knights just last year. Even the great hero, the Almighty Sir Toshinori, only had one blessing.

He was hiding something. This was more than just being a late bloomer. Even if he hadn’t been a terrible liar, she’d have known that. Something in her ached at the thought—did he not trust her? Did he think she couldn’t handle it? Her lips parted to ask, but she forced the questions back down.

She didn’t want to pry. And there was something more important to deal with right now. Ochaco grabbed a jar of ink and her paintbrush. After dragging a stool closer to his seat, she sat down across from him. “You’re overworking yourself.”

“Not really.” He carefully pulled off his shirt, revealing a toned chest. Scattered across his skin were the remnants of other long-healed injuries. “I’m just starting as a knight and everyone else is miles ahead. I have to catch up.”

Ochaco stared at the murky black ink. The hardest part of taking care of him was sitting across from all of that and trying not to react. Forcing her hand to move, she dipped the brush in the ink and shifted her focus back to him. And his very, very attractive muscles. “You’re…you’re still overworking yourself. You need to rest sometimes.”

Good. Her voice didn’t come out weird. Her hand remained steady as she started to paint runes on his skin. Good. Good.

Izuku breathed in sharply. “I rest,” he replied, sounding oddly squeaky and strangled. His body stiffened.

Ochaco peeked up. Red dusted his cheeks—that was new. He had never reacted like that before. She’d have to ask him later about it. Hopefully, it didn’t have anything to do with her brush; at her skill level, she needed to draw these runes in order to heal. “You don’t,” she replied as she returned to her work.

“I do,” he protested.

“Not enough,” she disagreed firmly. She met his eyes with a hard glare. “Don’t lie.”

“That’s…sorry. I’ll do better.” Izuku coughed, clearing his throat. It still sounded unnaturally high. “Um…how’s your training?”

Ochaco chuckled as she sat back, setting aside the paint. “Well,” she drawled with a teasing smirk. “I’m really good at healing now.”

“Wh—” Izuku froze as he understood the implication of her words. He flushed, the red spreading all the way to his neck. “Sorry.”

She giggled. Part of her wanted to tease him more. Ochaco rested her palms on his chest and closed her eyes. “Maybe I should specialize in it. There’re too many spells to learn otherwise. I can’t memorize all the runes.”

Power welled up within her and flowed out of her fingertips, jumping to each of the runes like lightning rods. It left her with an oddly gentle, bubbly feeling. If only her attack magic worked just as well.

“I know you can do it,” Izuku reassured, and she almost opened her eyes at the sudden praise. “I’ve seen how hard you work.”

I’ve watched you too. The words remained locked in her chest. Part of her was afraid of ruining the careful balance they’d achieved. Another part of her was just afraid of rejection. She’d spent so long looking at him, she didn’t know where else to turn.

But if she stayed like this, nothing would change. Ochaco pulled away and clasped her hands in her lap. Steeling herself, she asked, “This Saturday, you’re off, right?”

“Saturday?” Izuku bit his lip as he pulled on and buttoned his shirt. After mulling it over, he nodded. “Yeah, there’s no training.”

“Do you have any plans?” She swallowed nervously. This was it. This was the question she’d been wanting to ask for months.

“Not exactly…” He crossed his arms, thinking about it. “I mean, I could train—”

“No. Training.” Ochaco ground her teeth, shooting him a glare. Exhaling softly, she fiddled with her fingers. “There was this field I told you about, remember? The one with the herbs? I was…thinking of going there and—and do you want to come with?”

Izuku stared at her blankly. When his silence became almost unbearable and she was just about to poke him, he sat up straighter and nodded. “S-sure. You wanted to collect those herbs for a while, right?”

“Y-yeah.” That wasn’t quite what she meant, and she felt both disappointed and elated. “So you’ll come?”

He gave her a thumbs up. “Definitely!”

It wasn’t what she had intended, but it was still a date of sorts. Ochaco smiled brightly. It was a step forward, and she’d take it.

[chiropteracupola]

He’s red and he’s white and he’s green and he’s grey / My bonny young dragon, come hither away...

Keith Windham and Nuntius, out of Luzula's stunning Flight of the Heron/Temeraire crossover fic 'The Flight of Dragons.'

[andy-clutterbuck]

[sashabarkovonly]

GOD HE MAKES SO WEAK - 😫

[howldean]

should i actually commit to buzzing my hair

[thats-a-lot-of-cortisol]

This big boy took almost 14 hours (!!) which I think is about the longest I've spent on an art piece

[unproduciblesmackdown]

what in the. see this is why it's a good thing that multiplayer videogames especially are about having fun & being yourself like what do you mean disguised spies automatically had the speed of the disguise's class & everyone's like yea if i wasn't always going for the scout disguise i'd kill myself right now. i'd be like haha can't catch Me out supposedly the extra slow or extra fast class >:) i am a harmless engineer

[mariocki]

New Scotland Yard: The Come Back (1.2, LWT, 1972)

"This wasn't a sudden impulse. It was deliberate and calculated. He had to break in to get at the old man, and then - well, you saw what he did to him. I don't know if he's a psycho or not, but I do know he's a sadist and I know what treatment I'd hand out."

"Yeah, I can guess."

"It's the only way."

"You've a right to your opinion, just don't try and convert me."

"I wouldn't dream of it, I know what you think."

"I think it's just as well your job ends when we catch him."

[itsamenickname]

Also, just a little heads up for y'all: I will most likely not be very active on Tumblr today due to wanting to avoid any potential spoilers for the Mario movie before I see it later tonight.

[chiropteracupola]

Who Accumulated All This Fuckin Shite Ribbon (it was me)

[andy-clutterbuck]

[asvidema]

so i keep fly screens on my windows especially last years since i adopted my cats, because i live on the fourth floor of a building and i can't stomach the possibility of them getting scared and falling down

i open the window sometimes to improve airflow but also to let the cats look outside better and have fun looking at birds flying by

basically there's a hole between my bed and my bedroom window, where the cats like to fall in and play chase

i'm studying and my head forgot that i do keep the fly nets on at all times when the cats are around

melissa was looking outside the window with her paws on the frame and then decided to jump down the hole with a seamless jump

i thought she fell down the window

i lost several years of life by fear alone

[iri-vail]

i love video games i really really really do but lately they have been testing me

[synthetic-sonata]

'bad financial decisions' is my middle name

[thats-a-lot-of-cortisol]

2 & 3 from section 1 for peri and 7 from whichever section has a more interesting #7 for diodore -moss

oooh these are fun ones!

2. Describe their tent set-up (outside and inside) (Peri)

I think Peri's tent is constructed similarly to Gale and Astarion's (boxy, fabric walls, little covered area outside). Deep blue fabric w/ golden astronomical embroidery, mostly the sort of thing you see on star maps. Little golden tassles around the edges of the tarp (?) and the doorframe. He'd have a small, circular, dark wood side table short enough that you can use it sitting on the ground, and a dark blue pillow next to it; there would be some parchment and a bronze miniature astrolabe on the table. The inside would be just. full to the brim with the gaudiest night-sky-themed pillows you've ever seen. No bedroll, no palette, just a nest that would put those cube pits in trampoline parks to shame. There would be two bird perches for his familiar Medani: one taller one next to his tent and one shorter one under the overhang. The shorter one would have a crow-sized bow-tie hanging from it. Rugs on rugs on the outside area ofc. 3. What would their character quest be titled? Why? (Peri)

This is a hard one! His tav ending involves taking over the Waterdeep arm of the Harpers, so I think his arc would have something to do with that. He'd be pretty bitter about being dropped into another near-apocalyptic mess when dealing with the last one a few years prior was supposed to be a one-time thing. Something-something ptsd in a world that doesn't have the words for that yet, something-something 'once a hero always a hero', something-something the weight of responsibility...he's a planeswalker so I think part of it would be whether he decides to stay on Toril long-term and directly help rebuild the Waterdeep Harpers or if he continues to run travel around afterwards, so maybe The Far Traveller/The Far Walker?

Harpson/Fae-son are also potential options. "Fae-son" nods to him being a changeling without it being super obvious (like Astarion's "The Pale Elf"). It would also mimic his backstory reveals from RoT ("oh he's not 'from here' so, like, the Feywild" -> "OH he's not from here"). 7. Describe their arc. How would a player help resolve it? What choices can be made? Can your Tav be turned down a dark path, or pulled to a lighter one? (Diodore)

Buckle up because we're in for a long one here. I've thought about Dora's story arc a lot because she's the first of my tavs that I truly made for the game while having full control over her backstory, etc. (versus Corentin, who had their arc baked into the story as a durge). Dora's a paladin of Corellon (oath of ancients) and her story arc as a companion would have to do with whether or not she should accept capital-r-Redemption, the process by which a drow can be truly "freed" from Lolth and rejoin the ranks of the rest of elven society. It involves all of the Redeemed drow's memories being erased and them being reincarnated as a surface elf. The implication seems to be that without that, regardless of a drow's actions, they'd be thrown back to Lolth when they die? Or at least that their eternal fate is unknown (which is the way I prefer to think of it for. personal reasons). Under normal circumstances, Dora would be a long way from Redemption being presented to her at all (she's not even 200 yet and has only been on the surface for a couple decades), but like with the other gods' Chosen among the companions, near-apocalyptic circumstances tend to speed up those sorts of things.

Of course, you'd have the themes of faith & relationship with deity when they're all unequivocally real and are also mostly all assholes; maintaining or breaking generational cycles; facing the unknown; morality when none of your choices are "good" (and how that interacts with morality vs self preservation); power vs freedom; identity outside of the people who made you; etc. The choice would first be presented to her sometime in late Act I/early Act II, likely the first long rest after the group resurfaces from the Underdark and you've probably gotten some of her backstory already. I have no idea how Larian would have characterized Corellon, but he's considered one of the more benevolent/open-minded deities iirc, which could be interesting to see contrasted with Mystra, Vlaa'kith, and Shar. How much that open-mindedness would extend to a drow, even one who has been a faithful follower even before she escaped to the Surface (and who inherited that faith from her father), is unclear. At the beginning of the game she would be leaning towards accepting Redemption, despite her own misgivings about whether or not she would still be her in that case.

Her final decision (at the ending pier scene) would depend on the relationship she has with the PC and the other companions. Her best ending, imo, would be her not accepting Redemption but continuing to be a force for good. If she has a good relationship with the PC, she would have something to lose. I think seeing the House of Mourning would affect her too. After all, the thing Corellon is offering to her as a way to find peace is the same thing the Sharrans are using as a way to manipulate and control others.

She's viscerally aware of how she was socialized and very actively chooses "good", so pushing her towards a darker path would be incredibly difficult but not impossible. If you side with the goblins she'll leave immediately, and turn on you if she's in your party when you attack the grove. But if you decide to try and control the cult in Act II, depending on your over-all actions before then and how you've interacted with her, you could disillusion her to the point of convincing her to break her oath. That path would entail convincing her that controlling the cult is actually the best idea. I'm sure there would be other times that her oath could break that wouldn't necessarily lock her into an "evil" path, especially with how Oathbreakers are handled in the game. Knocking out Minthara instead of killing her outright and letting Auntie Ethel go in Act I instead of killing her are two things that come to mind.

If she doesn't choose Redemption she would be at the epilogue party, of course. I'm a bit undecided on what would happen if she does choose Redemption. She may not be there at all, w/ Jaheira, Halsin, Minthara, and/or Astarion mentioning running into her in her new, reincarnated state. Or she would be there, confused, and mention how the PC seems familiar in a way she can't quite place. In that case, she would ask them how they know each other and mention something about feeling a twinge of grief looking at everyone, but that she doesn't know why she feels that way. It would be up to the PC how much they tell her (if they tell her anything at all).

[unproduciblesmackdown]

billions also comedy gold presenting winston as a scapegoat for abuse culture fans when it's like but hey it can't be actual scapegoating if you Enjoy It or consider it Justified or experience Reassurance from Its Opportunity For A Group Cohesion Substitute For A Cohesion Based On An Inherent Equal Degree Of Belonging, The Absence Of Which Allows For, Encourages, Reinforces, & Rewards Scapegoating

it can't be Bullying if someone's Weird or you Just Don't Personally Like Them or Nobody's Actually Stopping You, Maybe At Least If They Don't See Too Much Of It, Maybe Others Are Supporting It

it can't be Abuse if you're just doing things Normally or are Following Rules or Aren't Feeling Malicious And Aren't Getting Divine Revelations Otherwise and probably it's just that a lot of abnormal people are being whiny &/or unfair &/or the Real malicious ones. kinda just like how that scapegoat is the real person ruining everything and really just forcing you to treat them like this