#it was a pre-reading assignment for Much Ado About Nothing

[polaraaace]

Just had an intense and visceral flashback to a 10th grade English assignment where we had to describe our ideal partner and attach a picture of our celebrity crush and I remember being so uncomfortable and confused like “what the—? People actually have celebrity crushes? That’s a real thing and not a joke? The hell???” So I arbitrarily chose a saber fencer who I was trying to model my form after at the time, but then I panicked and decided my extollation of his virtues didn’t seem convincingly smitten so I just didn’t complete that part of the assignment and accepted that I would get a 70% (which was basically equivalent to committing murder in the eyes of 15-year-old honors student Quin.) I did get an A somehow but my takeaways looking back are 1) what kind of person assigns that to a bunch of 15-year-olds? and 2) I really should have recognized my own asexuality a lot sooner

[ravenbell-exchange]

Here come the prompts!

These are for all of us to use, so please feel free to peruse, reblog, explore, comment, and be generally delightful. Everyone will be receiving their assigned prompts later today, but remember that we are writing two stories each: one from the assigned prompts, and one from this list. You are free to pick anything apart from stuff you yourself prompted. There haven’t been any Dear Author letters I’ve spotted so far, so I’ve included some additional crossover prompts from people here, just for ease of reference. You absolutely don’t have to pick them - there’s just there in case you want them!

If you didn’t sign up for this challenge, but want to use any of the prompts below to write a fic – go for it! As long as you make sure to credit where you got the prompt from, you are very welcome to play with us.

Now, without further ado:

1.

Url: @autobot

Prompt 1: Sports AU: Bellamy and Raven flirt while their respective teams yell at them to get their head in the game.

Prompt 2: Delinquent Winter: It's snowing, so the delinquents decide to start a snowball fight. Raven and Bellamy really go at each other. Bellamy ends up getting a cut on his lip from an icy snowball, and Raven decides to remedy that with a kiss.

Prompt 3: Season 7: This is pretty vague but just anything with the relationship Bellamy/Raven/Doucette, with Bellamy having had separate relationships with the other two in the past.

Prompt 4 (optional variation on 1): HP AU: Bellamy and Raven flirt while their respective Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Quidditch teams yell at them to get their head in the game.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Momma didn't raise no wussy "N/A"

Also: Have seen all 7 seasons.

2.

Url: @growlereish

Prompt 1: post mount weather road trip. monty, miller, lincoln, gina, octavia, harper welcome to come too. maybe they find a bunch of cars and the delinquents take off into the sunset together. maybe it's just bellamy and raven exploring the world together.

Prompt 2: au where they're on a sports team together. any sport, the sport is not important, it's about the Team As Family and the Narratives

Prompt 3: fantasy au or canon + fantasy elements

Prompt 4: relationship negotiation / exploration

Prompt 5: anything from the expansive list of likes on my dear creator letter: https://growlery.dreamwidth.org/11097.html

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: somnophilia; humiliation, especially as a kink; d/s that's about punishment; discussion of diets/nutrition plans/exercise regimens/body maintenance/weight management/etc

Also: Have seen up to + including 3x08

3.

Url: @kinetic-elaboration​

Prompt 1: High school AU: Bellamy and Raven are exes, but Raven is still good friends with Octavia, so they still see each other all the time

Prompt 2: Bellamy/Raven/Gina negotiating/figuring out a poly relationship in Arkadia pre-S3

Prompt 3: Braven + First real, heavy snow on the ground (canon or canon-divergent AU)

Prompt 4: Librarian!Bellamy and Mechanic!Raven

Prompt 5: Modern AU: Bellamy, Raven, and author's choice other delinquents living in a cramped apartment together; Raven and Bellamy are either struggling with UST or in a secret relationship or FWB arrangement

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: pregnancy/kid fic of any sort; side/background Minty, Marper, or Clexa; explicit sex (implied/fade to black/generically described is ok); character bashing of any kind

Also: Have seen season 1-4 (really do not want to write/read anything related to the timeskip on, please!).  I'm not really into the Grounders generally; I love the delinquents; I headcanon Raven as bisexual but Bellamy as straight.

4.

Url: @justbecauseyoubelievesomething​

Prompt 1: Sci-fi/Space AU where Bellamy and Raven serve on the same ship; (fr)enemies to lovers with lots of angst along the way! Time loop/travel or interdimensional travel shenanigans would be appreciated as well!

Prompt 2: Dark Fairytale/Fantasy AU; very dark, stormy, foresty vibes; one of them is some sort of mythical creature, maybe even ruler of other mythical creatures; dark forbidden romance; for lots of bonus angst, one of them can be a magical creature hunter and reveal themselves at the end!

Prompt 3: Canonverse Ark AU; Bellamy and Raven meet as adults on the Ark because they both join the same secret revolutionary group planning to overthrow Alpha Station; other Delinquents can definitely make appearances!

Prompt 4: Modern AU; one of the two is driving through a small town trying to get home for Christmas when their car breaks down and they are forced to take it to the town's only mechanic; they snark at each other before the mechanic invites the stranded party to Christmas dinner; found family; fluff; basically you're typical Hallmark-esque set-up.

Prompt 5: Any setting! Bellamy and Raven are rivals in some sort of extreme sport (or if set in canonverse can be something like spacewalking). They're constantly pushing each other to their limits trying to beat each other, until Raven permanently injures her leg. She becomes very bitter during her recovery until she realizes that Bellamy isn't competing anymore and confronts him. Maybe feelings come out right away or maybe it takes them a while to get around to realizing it, but lots of angst and hurt/comfort during the build-up!

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Explicit smut; pregnancy/kid fic; incest; student/teacher; character bashing of any other characters

Also: Have seen seasons 1-6 and the first half of season 7.

5.

Url: @ravenbells

Prompt 1: Raven discovering and enjoying the fact that Bellamy is a huge history nerd (can be canon, modern or some kind of fantasy/sci-fi setting).

Prompt 2: Modern AU. Raven is sharing a flat with friends, but one of them has to move out because of Reasons, and Bellamy rents the freed up room. Doesn’t have to be set in the US if you don’t want to, I don’t care that it’s an American show.

Prompt 3: Grounder AU, but set in the past. Bellamy and Raven were children when the nukes that caused the Ark to stay in space for generations went off. Now they are they first generation of survivors who have to build a life in a world without technology.

Prompt 4: Steampunk AU. Can be traditional Victorian-aesthetic steampunk, but if you want to lift your visuals from any other time period, be my guest. I’m going to love anything you do.

Prompt 5: Bellamy and Raven are exes who get back together (can be canon or any AU setting you can imagine).

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Graphic violence

Also: Have only seen the first 2 seasons, please have mercy. If you want to incorporate the characters playing DnD into any of the stories, be my guest - just putting this in here because I know some people in the group love it (Bellamy would play a paladin, fight me), but if you’re not into this stuff, absolutely don’t feel obliged.

6.

Url: shortitude @ AO3

Prompt 1: Modern coffee-shop AU where they meet because both of them has a Specific Table they like to sit at and usually their schedules do not coincide, but then because of fate (someone's wi-fi broke, there's plumbing work happening at home, etc) they have to go to the coffee shop and their table is taken, as are all the others. Luckily, the traitor who took their Specific Table is willing to share it, just for today. (And then every day after.) Friends to Lovers is preferred over Instant Attraction in this one. Even open-ended works. (Please, no pandemic.)

Prompt 2: Canon-based AU: Give me cottagecore survival to replace the weird plots that happened to this show after s2. The idea of the Delinquents settling in a village, life moving on, peace being brokered, etc etc. In the middle of it all, Bellamy and Raven rely on each other to rebuild, and fall in love. A lot.

Prompt 3: Five times Bellamy tried to show his love for Raven and failed, and one time she finally got the point. Oblivious That People Might Love Her!Raven is my tragic and problematic fave. A bonus: competence kink. Acceptable: any form of AU; I am not a stickler for canon.

Prompt 4 (optional): Pacific Rim AU; veteran Jaeger pilot gets pulled back into action because of a need to pull off a last fight against the apocalypse/alien invasion, drifts unexpectedly with the supermouthy, supersmart, very capable engineer/mechanic. Add as many characters from The 100 as you'd like into this, but I am very much more into the wholesome survival of all of them than I am about everyone except Braven dying.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Bellarke content if the Braven content is just a way for Bellamy to "get over" Clarke, be it failed relationship or unrequited one.

Also: Have seen season 1 and Season 2 in full; vaguely familiar with STUFF about how they ended up in space, and nothing beyond that because I literally don't care.

[ofmymuses]

         welcome  to  PART  TWO  of  a  little  surprise  collab  ---  &  click  here  for  part  one  on @musehelping​ ‘s  blog  !  we  decided  it  would  be  a  great  idea  to  put  our  creative  minds  together  to  come  up  with  some  muse  ideas  that  are  connected  to  a  specific  fc  (  but  feel  free  to  use  &  take  inspiration  from  these  bios  and  match  them  with  any  fc  of  your  liking  ) !  these  are  also  some  ideas  for  anyone  who  is  interested  in  joining  our  new  appless  &  slasher-themed  group  MASKEDFM  but  aren’t  sure  of  what  type  of  character  to  bring.

so  without  further  ado,  here  are  a  total  of  05  different  character  ideas  making  a  total  of  11  all  together.

i just wanted to quickly note beforehand  ---  while there are gendered words used for each person, you can - by all means - change their gender expression !

01. Virginia Gardner.

Name: Cordelia Kelly

Age: Twenty-Two.

Major: Veterinary Science.

MBTI: ESFJ.

Hogwarts: Slytherin.

Enneagram: 2w3.

Astrology: Leo Sun-Libra Moon.

Cordelia was born into a family who wanted their little girl to be a spitting image of them: kind, ambitious, a born leader. She was taught empathy, resilience & accountability ( things they considered to make a good leader ) from the second she could understand them. Cordelia didn’t take no for an answer … well, from anyone aside from her parents. She was determined to be the best; to be the type of leader you see in movies & video games. Of course, there were some downsides to seeing herself as a leader. She often came across as rather bossy & rather shrewd; although, her parents didn’t see a problem with this.

In a lot of ways, Cordelia was glad her parents brought her up the way they did. She wasn’t afraid: when someone tried to tear her down, the words simply bounced off of her. Some family members feared she would let this get to her head -- meaning she would become malicious & let pride get to her head. But Cordelia was quite the opposite. She cared for others. She enjoyed every second she spent helping others. And with doing so, Cordelia actually found a great love for animals. One of her close friends was studying animals for an art assignment, which Cordelia found a bit strange but she offered help nonetheless. After the assignment was finished, she found herself longing to do more; to help more. It didn’t even matter how, honestly. Cordelia was excited to put her heart into something bigger.

High school passed very quickly for Miss. Busy Bee. It was a rather easy decision to go to school to study Veterinary Science. It put two of her favourite things together: helping others & animals. Cordelia, now growing up & moving on in her life, would surely miss her parents and hometown but she was looking forward to the exciting wonders that are to come.

                  *     *     *     *     *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *   *   *   *   *

02. Kiana Lede.

Name: Fiona Miller.

Age: Eighteen.

Major: Pre-Law.

MBTI: ESTJ.

Hogwarts: Slytherin.

Enneagram: 2w4

Astrology: Capricorn Sun-Aries Moon.

Fiona came out of her mother living her best life. Sure, it wasn’t always perfect; with the pressure of having a rather well-known brother in the picture & feeling left within his shadows most of the time. The sadness that grew because of this only fueled her to do better; her hardworking nature came in handy. And so, instead of paying mind to her brother and his achievements -- which were always seemingly better than hers -- she dove into the things she deeply enjoyed; ignoring any and all remarks that came from her family.

Fiona seemed to blossom after this. She’d spent so much of her energy worrying about being the better sibling that she had lost herself. And for the first time in a long time, Fiona felt like herself. She began watching true crime documentaries behind her parents’ back because she knew they would never allow such awful videos to be seen by her. Fiona was quickly fascinated with the likes of true crime and serial killers. Strange, she knew. But she spent most of her time wondering why, how, who?

When she originally started watching the documentaries, Fiona never imagined it would have such an impact on her life. Fresh outta high school and she was already diving head first into her college application. She was ready to learn. To defend. She was ready to make a change to anyone who never got the time of day.

                   *      *      *      *       *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *    *    *    *    *

03. Jack Mulhern.

trigger warning : mentions of murder & death.

Name: Leo Gallagher. 

Age: Nineteen.

Major: Criminal Justice.

MBTI: ESTP.

Hogwarts: Gryffindor.

Enneagram: 8w9.

Astrology: Aries Sun-Aries Moon.

Leo was born into tragedy. His very birth was one, some might say. With distant parents who had too many kids to care for and not enough love to spread around. And while most family members thought this lack of affection would do more bad than good for him -- he proved them wrong. Leo didn’t want anyone to feel the way he did and so, he did everything in his power to spread love, nurture and affection where he could. Not only did it make him feel good but a lot of the times, he got love in return.

( tw ) It was when Leo was 17, did things change. There was a death in his area of a young woman who was just starting to spread her wings. He was reminded a lot of himself while reading the article about her. Leo was completely heartbroken for the woman and her loved ones. And it only got worse when the trial came around. The police were completely oblivious. The judge was completely oblivious. One family was sent home free of any guilt or remorse and the other was left at a loss for words; Leo wasn’t having any of it. But he knew very well that he had no power to do much of anything as it was.

With anger fueling him, Leo knew what he wanted to do for a living. He wanted to give justice to those who the police have failed. And in doing so, he would not only be doing what he loved -- helping & ensuring others are cared for -- but he would also be doing good. Leo didn’t want another family to have to go home and wonder what could’ve been.

                  *     *     *     *     *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *   *   *   *   *

04. Maxence Danet-Fauvel.

Name: Alex Dumont

Age: Twenty-Two.

Major: Fine Art.

MBTI: INFP.

Hogwarts: Ravenclaw..

Enneagram: 9w1.

Astrology: Pisces Sun-Aquarius Moon.

A man of few words since the day he was born. No one really knows why he doesn’t take a particular interest in speaking unless he needs to. It stirred up quite the concern from his parents as he was growing and developing but they realized there was nothing “wrong” with him -- Alex just simply didn’t want to talk. This made it rather hard to make friends in school;  people often thought he was weird or rude for not engaging in conversation. & don’t even start with the teachers. He’d been on every one of their bad sides at least once because he didn’t participate in class discussions.

His parents never forced him to speak. Or to do anything for that matter. Alex was their miracle baby; with him showing up after years of trying & nearly giving up. They encouraged him from the sidelines -- becoming his number 1 fans. The encouragement they shared with him pushed him to tell them about his love for art. For creating. Alex found a great love for art when searching around his grandparents house for something to do  &  found his grandmother’s art kit. She eventually gifted it to him which only made the passion grow. This was a bit of an issue though. He’d become even more introverted -- only getting out of his house if absolutely necessary.

Alex met his best friend at a school art exhibit. She tried sparking up a conversation but realized that he wasn’t much of a talker. And instead of using words, decided to use other ways of communicating to him. She would sent him artwork, letters, poetry. It took a few weeks but Alex finally came out of his shell a little bit. His best friend helped him get out more; see the world & meet new people. They got so close that they promised to apply for the same college.

                 *    *    *    *    *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *  *  *  *  *

05. Bruna Marquezine.

Name: Gabriela Santos.

Age: Twenty-Two.

Major: Elementary Education.

MBTI: ISFJ.

Hogwarts: Hufflepuff.

Enneagram: 4w3.

Astrology: Cancer Sun-Virgo Moon. 

Having been born to two business-people, Gabriela found herself alone a lot of the time. She considered her nanny to be her caretaker more than her own parents. And with her parents being away so often, they thought it’d be best for Gabriela to be homeschooled -- not by them, but by the nanny. She looked up to her nanny more than anyone; more than her parents, though she’d never admit to it. It broke her heart knowing she would come home from school with no mommy or daddy waiting for a hug. They didn’t leave as much as a text either.

Some days Gabriela felt like her parents forgot about her. And then they would come home for two nights, spark hope in the girl that they wouldn’t leave, travel back to their business partners and the cycle would begin again. Her nanny, who had grown to love Gabriela as her own, felt hopeless to do anything. What could she do? Tell her parents to quit their job and act like actual parents? And so, knowing she could only care for and tend to Gabriela’s needs, the nanny tried her best to be there for the child. To laugh, to cry, to hold her whenever needed. Gabriela’s parents were never home but she was not left unloved.

When Gabriela was 18, the news came to her like a bullet to the heart. Her nanny, aged 81, had passed away. She was left heartbroken. She had spent a lot of time on her own; figuring things out. And when Gabriela had finally come out of grieving, she knew what she was going to do. To honor her nanny --- she was going to major in elementary education. Gabriela was going to be the person kids with parents like hers could look up to. And to her surprise, she found joy in it while doing her studies. Bonus!

[thewookieruns]

Getting to Know Your OC

I was tagged by @lookbluesoup to give a bit of an infographic of sorts on my OC, so here I am! I tag @whathisbunnysthinking, @marvilus73, @xxatombombbabyxx​, and @tea-petty to write a little bit about their OCs, as well as anyone else who reads this!

(DISCLAIMER: I’m one of those people who bases their OC HEAVILY on themselves... so somethings are true, others, not so much!)  So, without further ado, here we go!

Name: Erich Richardson

Age: 25 at the time of the Great War

Species: Human, of German, Irish, and Scandinavian descent

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Title(s): Captain in the Army Pre-War, General of the Commonwealth Minutemen, Agent “Fixer”, Sentinel of the Brotherhood of Steel, father

Physical Description

Height: 5′ 10.5″ // 1.52 m

Eyes: Amber brown. Appears more gold in the sunlight

Skin: Olive skin tone. Like, he doesn’t burn very easily and stays fairly tan year-round.

Weight: 165 lbs // 72.6 kg

Physical Build: Well-built. More on that later

Family

Father - Bruce Richardson. Military man, retired Air Force pilot

Mother - Hannah Sullivan. Educator, retired professor of Mathematics (Utah Institute of Technology and Agriculture [UITA])

Siblings (All Younger)

Rebekah Richardson. Twin sister, younger by 7 minutes. Mechanical engineer assigned to Project: Liberty Prime. Killed in the Great War

Hunter Richardson. MIA, presumed POW/KIA during Chinese Invasion of Anchorage

Andrew Richardson. Senior at Lake Tahoe Technical High School. Status unknown

Other family: Honest confession, the Richardson family is Mormon. The extended family is incredibly huge haha

Pets: One incredibly loyal mutt named Howard

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. (post Nuclear Option) *I totally forget what his starting stats were...*

S - 6

P - 8

E - 7

C  - 8

I - 9

A - 8

L - 7

This stats net him a respectable 7.51 on the (ahem) canon scoring scale.

Skills

Endurance: While his endurance stat might suggest otherwise, Erich can go the distance. He was a cross-country athlete, allowing him to cover great distances rapidly.

Decent singer, and can play an instrument or two

Pretty handy. Can create/build anything, provided he has a set of plans and the resources to. This comes from his degree in engineering from UTIA. 

Decent shot. He’s no Hawkeye, but he can shoot well enough to take the head off of any raider within a half-mile radius

Training in the Scouting program and military make him a fair jack-of-all-trades kinda guy

Hobbies

Running: as a former athlete, running is a way Erich uses to keep himself ready for anything the Commonwealth has to throw at him, as well as being able to help sort out the issues that come with living in the post apocalypse. One of his crazy dreams is to be able to run the old Boston Marathon course without being attacked by ghouls, mutants, etc.

Swapping stories with Nick Valentine and reminiscing about pre-War establishments. Baseball is one of the more popular topics

Helping Piper around their house on Spectacle Island. While it is a bit removed from everything, they both agreed it was the safest place aside from the Prydwen, the Castle, or Sanctuary to raise their son.

Spending time with Shaun. While it’s not exactly how he pictured getting to raise his son, Erich loves the opportunity. Tinkering, playing catch, and cooking dinner are some of their favorite hobbies

Singing with the songs on DCR (to the eternal embarrassment of Piper and Shaun)

Tinkering with his armor or weapons, always trying to find the best way to make them more efficient

Traits, both + and -

(+) Loyal to a fault. Once friendship and trust had been earned, Erich will go out of his way to make sure that nothing bad happens to his friends. It pains him to have to destroy some of his friends in order to help secure the Commonwealth

(-) Overly ambitious. He’s way to willing to rush headfirst into a problem, even if that isn’t the best idea for the situation at hand

(-) Struggles with self-worth. A lot of how he identified himself was stripped away the day he went on ice, and he now has to try and find out who he is again in the Commonwealth

(+) Willing to help anyone. He will drop whatever he is doing if someone comes to him with a problem

(+)(-) He tends to be a really good listener, and will shoulder any issues his friends have, even if it is at the expense of his own mental health.

Favorite kit

Weapons

Anti-materiel rifle

Deadeye combat rifle

Penetrating combat shotgun

Righteous Authority

Steadfast Western revolver

2076 World Series baseball bat

frag grenades

Armor/Clothing

Auto Stim Studded Leather Left Leg

Chameleon Polymer Combat Armor Chest Piece

Commando Helmet/Militia Hat

Fortifying Microcarbon Synth Right Arm

Military Backpack - Medic w/ Sleeping Bag

Patrolman Sunglasses

Sprinter’s Studded Leather Right Leg

Vault 111 Jumpsuit

Wedding ring

X-02 Power armor

Well, I think that’s the big stuff. By all means, don’t be afraid to ask more! I love sharing about my Sole!

[silly-nonny-fics-are-for-fandoms]

Ski trips

Bakukami week, Day 8 (Part one) : Snow @officialbakukamiweek Summary: Class 1-A is invited on a winter trip to a ski lodge when Kaminari and Bakugo get trapped in a cave due to a small avalanche, and the class searches desperately to find them. Meanwhile, the pair are forced to talk about their feelings to get along without damage, and finding ways to keep warm together. Read on AO3 Small note: If you’ve been following my Bakukami week entries, you’ll know I like to post them close together. Bc today has 11 fics I can’t without being at risk for being marked as a spam blog so there will be larger gaps. Also 6k+

Skiing wasn't something the class of 1-A usually would associate with hero training if everyone had been entirely honest. Other than forcing them to use their quirks in the snow, which they could do at home thank you very much, there wasn't a point. Even Aizawa admitted as such.

"We're going on this trip because the principal is sending us, no other reasons. It's privately owned by UA, so you can't find it on a map, and don't bring your costumes. Some of you have been approved to bring some gear, but that is all." He'd explained, after telling them about the trip. They'd be going to a hot spring resort in the mountains and would need to take a plane to get there. Not a bus. He'd also told them there'd be a hot spring bath they could soak in and games in the rooms, which would be assigned the day before departure. No swapping roommates, under any circumstances. For some, this was an easy rule to follow, but for others, things wouldn't be so easy.

Such is the fate of Kaminari Denki, a useless bisexual with a heart filled with dreams of a Shakespearean romance. No, not that one, more like As you Like it, A Midsummer Night's Dream or his favorite, Much Ado About Nothing. A hopeless romantic at heart, he could sing about it in sonnets with expressive iambic pentameter. If he could attain such a love in which to express properly, of course.  

If only the person whom he crushed heaviest on didn't hate everything about romance, from Valentine's cards to things like cuddling and holding hands. In fact, he'd once heard Bakugo during a classic lit class assignment tell him how absolutely stupid romance books were. Still, a guy could hope, right?

Maybe this trip would be a good experience, a chance for them to get closer, especially if they were going to possibly be roommates!

"Oh no, Denki's got his thinking face on!" Ashido chimed, once they had returned to the dorms after school.

"Don't break yourself," Jirou shrugged, immediately on her way to her dorm room for some quality jamming sessions. Too much time with idiots.

Kaminari didn't say anything, truly, too lost in his thoughts to do so. What would he need for the trip? Well, that depended on who he was rooming with. The list would be in the common room, or so Aizawa said, and most of the class had already crammed around it. Some were cheering, like Midoriya about being with Shinsou, Sato with Kouda and Iida smiling with his pairing of Shoji. Others were already grouping, such as Aoyama and Tokoyami, who's personalities bounced off of one another as well as their quirks. Kaminari didn't have the heart to go over and see who he was rooming with, too deep in thought as he made a list of what he would need, missing Bakugo walking over to him with a scowl.

"Oi, you're with Shitty Hair. Don't infect him with your idiocy." He growled, snapping Kaminari out of his thoughts.

"O-oh? Am I with Kirishima? What about you, who are you rooming with?" Kaminari asked, his face red as he stumbled over his words. What? When the object of your current stupid crush is in front of you, looking as hot as Bakugo does all the time, then anyone would react the same way!

"I'm with Soy Sauce. Got a problem?" Bakugo glared at the other blonde, who shook his head indignantly. When Bakugo left, Kaminari running up to Kirishima; the only other person who knew--Who are we kidding everyone except Bakugo knew--About his crush.

"Eiji-" Kaminari said, holding onto the redhead's sleeve to help ground himself. Kirishima raised an eyebrow, wanting to laugh at his antics, yet also knowing the common room wasn't the place to do so.

"C'mon, let's go to your room to talk." Kirishima chuckled, Kaminari nodding with a bright red face. They made their way to the third floor, the electric blonde jumping onto his bed and covering himself with the blankets, hiding his face in the pillow.

"He's so hot- Oh my god he's so hot and he actually cares- Wait he called me an idiot what am I saying- But oh man the look on his face!"

Kirishima took his seat at the desk, letting the excitement and energy wear off. "Mind if I change, man? You snatched one of my shirts, so-" He said, seeing a thumbs up emerge from the blanket roll.

"Oh my god, what am I going to do, Eiji? He's gonna notice eventually, or I'm gonna burst!" Kaminari whined, his voice muffled by the pillow.

"What are you going to do? Man, you're gonna tell him! Pull yourself together and tell him! Fight your feelings! Win! Come out on top!"

"You sound like a movie character- But yeah! I'll just tell him! One problem, how the heck do I do that?!"

"You just do it, dude! Tell him straight out, 'Hey, Bakugo, I like you!' How hard is that?"

"Eiji, my dude, I love you but-"

"I'm but a humble, somewhat functional gay and you are a disaster, useless bisexual. I'm aware."

"I was gonna say you've got experience and I am a blithering idiot, but that works too."

Kirishima bust out laughing, his t-shirt in hand as Kaminari emerged from the blanket burrito he'd made, locking eyes with a grin. "Wanna go do some pre-trip shopping? I need a new jacket before we leave,"

"Yeah, some gloves wouldn't hurt either. Mine kept ripping." Kirishima smiled, his dazzling smile blinding the blonde, who blocked his eyes with his arms.

"Nooooo, it's too bright! Too hot! I'm melting!"

"C'mon, bro, you don't melt. Bakugo would've melted you a long time ago." Kirishima snickered, blocking the pillow thrown at his face.

Honestly, being seated next to Bakugo on the ride up could have been worse. Kaminari had been approved to bring his communicator in case of an emergency, and Bakugo was allowed his gloves and jacket from his costume. Those were the only equipment passes he knew of, but he hadn't bothered to ask. They spent their time, mostly, listening to their own music and ignoring each other, with Kaminari chatting with Kirishima and Ashido in front of him, and Sero and Jirou behind. As much as it pained him to admit, Bakugo didn't seem interested in things, watching instead as the fall leaves of Musutafu turned to light snowfall of the mountains. The air had chilled, Tsuyu only awake by the layers and layers of warm clothes she wore and Todoroki next to her.

Things were quiet with the class, Kirishima leaning over and whispering, "Did'ya do it yet? Did you tell him?" with a grin.

"No, not. Uh. Not yet." He responded, sitting back with a blush, glancing at Bakugo who wasn't paying attention.

"C'mon, man, you gotta tell him before the trip is over! Plus ultra, yeah?" Kirishima lowered his voice, knowing that if anyone overheard him uttering the last sentence it would amount in yelling which Aizawa would now be able to handle. Not today, not with the three day weekend they had ahead.

"You can't honestly believe this isn't training too, right?" Kaminari raised an eyebrow, "There's not gonna be any free time if Mr. Aizawa has his way."

"Can he do that?" Ashido whined, interrupting their conversation.

"Anything can be a training experience," Sero sighed, his grin shaking a bit at the thought.

"Well, we can stay positive and try not to think about it! Right Bakugo?" Kirishima grinned at the way Kaminari's face bloomed red, Bakugo only looking away from the window to glare and scoff at them. Honestly, Kaminari wasn't sure he was going to survive the trip, because hello aloof Bakugo, meet the love-struck Kaminari.

The mountain was really, really tall. Okay, maybe that's why it was called a mountain, from the Vulgar Latin 'montanea', but why did the word come from that? Why montanea? Why?

Kaminari had to stop his train of thought before it went off the deep end because there was a hot guy next to him who tried to talk to him and he was thinking about mountains. Well, the origin of the word-- No! Not again!

He frantically shook his head to attempt to stay focused, tapping on his leg in assistance. His fidget toy had, unfortunately, been left on his bed at the dorms. He'd been thinking about skiing and snowboarding, and the idea to bring the thing which helped him focus wasn't once which struck him.

"Oi, dumbass!" Bakugo yelled, snapping his gloved fingers twice in front of Kaminari's face.

"I'm here!" Kaminari said, the cold nipping at his exposed face and nose. They'd only been at the resort for a few hours, and most of the class had decided it was too late to go out to the slopes at this hour. At the time, Kaminari was about to agree, until Bakugo got up and announced he was heading to the slopes to snowboard a bit before bed. The look on Kirishima's face had been priceless, even as Aizawa warned them to stick to the trails and make sure they had their phones on them in case of an emergency and stick together in pairs of at least two or more.

Of course, only a few others joined them. Yaoyorozu, Tokoyami, Todoroki, and Uraraka. Everyone else, wisely, stayed inside. The wind was picking up, snow blustering around them.

"Right, like fuck you are. Everyone else has already started heading down, let's go!" Bakugo glared defensively, and Kaminari nodded. They put their goggles on, the path illuminated by the lampposts along the treeline.

With Kaminari's lack of experience in skiing and his diminishing vision in the snow, it wasn't likely that he would make it down as fast as Bakugo, nor with as much precision. After all, Bakugo was the best at everything. He managed to make wearing a helmet look cool, even.

It felt faster than they were actually going, instead of the realistic twenty or thirty it felt like sixty or a hundred, wind slamming against their faces and snow barreling down upon them. The tail end of Bakugo's run, flurries coming from his bright orange snowboard, continued to block Kaminari's vision so he had to stop, leaning to the right to pull a full halt, veering off the path without realizing and yelling as he tumbled to the ground, back crashing against the packed snow. His legs pulled in towards his chest as pain crashed through him, arms coming up to protect his face.

He wasn't supposed to let either of those things happen, he knew, but he couldn't think at the moment as he came to a stop, thoughts garbled and head spinning.

Distantly, someone called out to him, gruff and annoyed, but he couldn't figure out who said it and what had happened. All Kaminari knew was that it was cold, dark, and he wanted nothing more than to lay there and get his breath back.

"Oi, wake up! Don't fucking die on me!" The voice called, and Kaminari looked up from the snow he'd faceplanted in to see Bakugo standing next to him, having unclipped one of his boots from the lock for stability in the snow. His arms were crossed, the scratchy sounding fabric of his black and orange jacket and snow pants the only thing which let him know which direction to look. He must have tumbled far away, considering how the light from the slope was distant.

"I'm not dead..." Kaminari said, pushing himself up from the snow with a wince. His wrists tingled, nothing too bad but enough to let him know something was wrong if he'd paid attention. Now in a kneeling position, he sunk into the cold whiteness, Bakugo staring him down.

"Right. C'mon, unclip, we're walking back to the stupid path." Bakugo said with a hiss, Kaminari's bright smile a perfect opposite response as he followed directions, unclipping one of his snowboard boots-- He should be able to feel his toes, right?

"Do you have any idea how fucking lucky you are, dunce face?" Bakugo hissed, staring beyond the other blonde.

"I didn't break anything or hit a tree, so I'd say I'm pretty lucky!" Kaminari chuckled, his words slightly slurred.

"Turn around! Fucking idiot!"

Behind him, ten or so feet away, was a cliff of dark nothingness. Kaminari gulped, nodding and hurrying to unclip himself.

As soon as one of his feet was free, a rumbling came from behind them, and the ground shook, Bakugo taking action before Kaminari even realized what was going on. He unclipped his other boot quickly, telling the other blonde to do the same before grabbing him, a forceful wave of snow plummeting them down the chasm, off the cliff.

"Hey, has anyone seen Kaminari and Bakugo?" Kirishima asked, sometime around midnight, "Kaminari never came to bed, man." He looked out around the room where Sero, Uraraka, Todoroki, and Midoriya were playing cards, though it looked as if Midoriya was about to fall asleep on Todoroki's left. They glanced up at him, and Uraraka seemed contemplative.

"I've been out here the whole time, dude, I wouldn't know if they came back." Sero shrugged.

"Now that you mention it, Kirishima, Bakugo did say that he wanted to do a few runs before coming back. I'm sure everything's fine!" Uraraka cheered, putting a card down and saying something about hearts having been broken.

"Kacchan is always in bed early," Midoriya mumbled, sleepily nuzzling against Todoroki. Was he even playing cards?

"I never saw them reach the bottom," Todoroki said, seeing Sero having played the ace of spades and playing the queen of spades, to Sero's extreme anguish.

Four pairs of eyes set themselves upon the candy cane haired teenager.

"You never saw them reach the bottom!?" Kirishima exclaimed in tandem with a now very much awake Midoriya.

"Shou, that's the kind of thing you tell people!"

"Uh, we should probably tell Mr. Aizawa..." Sero suggested, looking nervously around the table. "They could've gotten into an accident or something."

"But Kaminari has his communicator, and they have their phones!"

Todoroki pulled his phone out of his pocket, dialing Kaminari quickly and receiving an immediate voice mail.

"Don't call Denki; for someone with an electrical quirk, his phone is never charged." Sero sighed, patting Kirishima's back to keep him from hyperventilating. Last time something like this happened, well, was back with Kamino.

"Oh my god villains might've- We gotta find them!!" Kirishima said, eyes wide and panic flooding his body.

"Call Bakugo first, Kiri, we have to stay calm," Sero said, patting the de-spiked red hair of his friend. Midoriya and Uraraka were attempting to explain why someone not coming down a hill when they were supposed to be was something to report to an oblivious Todoroki. Normally, this would be something amusing, yet it only served to heighten their anxiety as Kirishima shakily pulled out his phone and dialed Bakugo.

One ring.

Two.

Three.

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep... "You've reached Bakugo Katsuki. Fuck off or call back some other time."

"Get Aizawa. Now."

Waking up in darkness was never the best thing in Kaminari's mind. It meant that it was too early for the sun to be out and therefore he shouldn't be either. Really, how hard is that to understand? So, when he woke up and everything was dark, despite the stinging of his wrists, back, and legs, he tried to go right back to sleep. The bitter cold nipped at his face and wet clothes, his pulse quickening, and Kaminari had a hard time keeping himself from sparking. Cold tended to cause electricity to go berzerk.

"Kaminari," Bakugo said to the other shivering teen, the space in the cave not allowing for much room away.

Golden eyes opened again to see him, palm lightly sparkling and allowing light to fill the space again.

"Yeah...? Where are we..?"

"We're in a cave at the bottom of the cliff. I dragged your ass here, the storm picked up."

Ah, that's why he was soaked. The avalanche.

"Right..." Kaminari sighed, sitting up and shivering as a wind blustered into their space.

"Both our phones are fucked, where's your transmitter?" Bakugo asked, crossing his legs and leaning forward, keeping up the low light.

"It's my earmuffs," Kaminari reached up to his hat, hissing with the movement of his wrist. He mostly ignored it, pressing his numb, gloved hand to the electronic device, but it wouldn't turn on. Kaminari made a confused noise, trying to activate his quirk properly but for some reason, couldn't discharge.

"Something up?"

"Yeah, I can't... My quirk isn't working right."

"Fucking great. Probably 'cause of the shitty cold."

Kaminari couldn't argue, keeping to his side of the cave. He was alone, with his crush, and Bakugo knew better than to explode in this situation. How the hell is he gonna function through this without confessing?

"Hey, Bakugo?" Kaminari said, "How long do you think you can keep the light up?"

"A few hours, in the cold. The gloves help, but it's not great."

"I can take over the light if you need a break?"

"Fuck off!"

"Do you think they're looking for us?"

"They probably haven't even noticed we're not there. Get your damn quirk in order." Kaminari scootched closer, Bakugo glaring at him. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

"It's cold..." Kaminari pouted, his gloved hands reaching out to the other teen.

"That's what happens when it snows, why are you touching me?"

"Because it's really tight in here, so if I move, I touch you."

"Why..." Bakugo growled, the light increasing from his hand as it twitched, crackling becoming louder and heat radiating off of it.

"Why what?" Kaminari didn't fall back, even daring to get closer to his crush with a bright red face.

"Why are you so fucking nice?! Why do you want to be near me?! What the hell do you gain from it?!" Bakugo exclaimed, ferocity lacing his words in every sense. Kaminari blinked twice, head tilted as another gust of wind blew into the cave, freezing him to his core with a shiver.

"I don't g-gain anything..." He said, "Just a... uh... A friend."

"And why in the ever loving fuck would you want to be my friend?!"

Kaminari grinned, a heart-stopping smile which made Bakugo twitch, red rising to his cheeks and a large boom emanating from his hand.

"Because you're not as scary as everyone thinks. You're actually nice, kind funny, passionate about everything you do and say. It's. Uh." Suddenly, Kaminari's face got redder, and he fell back to cover his face, static causing his hair to fly up on end. It was pretty cute, or so Bakugo thought, but it wasn't the point.

"It's what?! God, speak up!"

Kaminari mumbled, shaking his head.

"Fucking- Kaminari!"

Another shake, more shivering.

"Denki Kaminari, answer me!"

"It's one of the reasons I like you, you- You ass!" Kaminari pulled his hands off his face, tears brimming amber eyes, and Bakugo's heart cracked. His quirk stopped. The light faded, and they were left in darkness and the sound of the wind.

"Alright, everyone!" Aizawa yelled, "Split up into groups, don't go anywhere dangerous without a teacher and keep your cell phones on! We're search and rescuing; once you find them, alert those nearby! Do not act on your own under any circumstances and keep your lights on!"

The class, as a whole, agreed and set off in their different assigned directions.  

"I hope they're okay," Kirishima worried, his red skis a stark contrast against the white powder.

"They'll be fine, Kiri." Ashido soothed, her smile brighter than it had a usual right to be. She was great at making people around her happy, even in perilous situations. "Besides, wasn't Kami kinda right?"

"Huh?"

"It did turn into training!" Sero interrupted, his smile and positive attitude a balm for anxiety. Kirishima couldn't help but laugh through his worries.

"If you're calling this training, then pay attention!!" Aizawa zoomed past them, faster than they had ever seen, expertly making his way through the treelines.

"Uh."

"Yeah, let's... Let's go..."

"That's what I've been trying to do!"

"Kirishima don't go jumping towards any cliffs!"

"Sero, grab him!"

"On it!"

"Our friends are in danger!!"

"We're kind of a mess, aren't we?"

"I mean we've known this since day one but yeah, we're a mess,"

"Let me go!"

"Holy shit Sero- He's actually dragging you like a dogsled!"

"We gotta chill out and keep rational heads, Kiri!"

"You really just said that to Kirishima of all people?"

If anyone had been around to witness such acts, they might have assumed this was the result of being without Bakugo, but no. No. These actions perfectly recreated the Bakusquad, especially as they planned to cuddle the crap out of the two once they found them.

"You... Like me?" Bakugo said, his voice a mere whisper above the roaring wind.

"Y... Yeah, I do. I-I have for a while, now." Kaminari's breath came in puffs, wavering as he lost feeling in his hands and trust in his vision, shaking and pulling in on himself to stay warm. Unlike his partner, his jacket didn't work as well as an insulator and at keeping him warm.

"I don't fucking get it- Why would you like me?!" Bakugo growled into the darkness, which slowly became illuminated by the electricity bouncing off of Kaminari. He couldn't focus it, instead, it spread around him and flowed freely, faster than ever because of the cold. It licked at the walls, buzzing and dropping the temperature around the shaking blonde.

"You... I..." Kaminari's vision blurred, slowly and he swayed, attempting to focus in on the other. "I just do." He whispered, lost to the winds as he fell forward, shaking wildly and losing feeling.

Bakugo's cracked heart shattered.

He reached forward to pull Kaminari against himself, the cold penetrating the generated heat by the jacket. "Holy shit, you're frozen..." Bakugo said, wrapping his arms around the shivering teen's form to assist in keeping him warm. Kaminari was barely present, curling up into a fetal position, clinging to Bakugo's jacket. Everything about him was warm, a blessing against the night air.

"You're going to be okay, Sparky," Bakugo grumbled, one of his hands finding a place against Kaminari's head, stroking through his hair. They'd probably be stuck for a while, but at least they could stay decently warm. "Keep talking."

"A... Ab-abo-about?" Kaminari's teeth chattered, all feeling in his hands, feet, and face being lost.

"Why the fuck do you like me? There are people like Kirishima who fit you better."

"Beca-because. Y-you're... you. You're l-loud, g-g-good-d, the. The best. Hot. Fun-funny-y, honest-t..." Bakugo hummed, the rumbling enough to keep Kaminari focused on the moment. "I'm- Surprised... You haven't. Reje-rejected me."

Bakugo shrugged, "Don't fucking feel like it. Don't shut up."

"Why...?"

"When you talk, you're less likely to pass out. Keep talking."

But Kaminari didn't say anything, his face bright red from both the cod and embarrassment. "I'm here..."

"You can ramble on and on any other time, but not now? That's a load of shit."

A small, weak chuckle pulled from Kaminari's lungs, coming out in small visible puffs as his electricity swarmed around them.

"I. I can. Try contacting..?"

"Do it."

"I can't f-feel my hands..."

Bakugo tightened his grip on Kaminari, only to let go a moment later and start unzipping the smaller blonde's jacket, much to his embarrassment. "Wh-Wha-?!" Kaminari blushed, attempting to shove him off, but the soaking wet clothing was quickly shed, set off to the side. Kaminari's shivering increased, mumbling something about actually trying to kill him until he saw Bakugo also unzipping his own jacket in the dim light.

Once more he was yanked against Bakugo's chest, this time the only thing separating his face from the skin being a black turtleneck. Warmth enveloped him, the rather large coat now being shared between the two. Kaminari felt his brain frying itself, too embarrassed to think properly. What was he supposed to do?

"Warm up; we're not dying here. I've got questions for you, shitface." Bakugo growled, but Kaminari could feel his rapid heartbeat against his face. Holy shit, this is heaven. He was in heaven. Cold heaven, but nonetheless. Tingling spread across his fingers, feeling returning as his temperature evened out. Of course, he still couldn't feel his toes, but it was better than nothing. Everything was warm, fuzzy even, between the blondes. Bakugo was calm under pressure, could make a quick judgment and be one hundred percent sure it was the right choice, and Kaminari found himself falling for him all over again. Stupid heart, this was life or death!

He carefully reached up to his transmitter, biting his lip slightly. There's not a lot of steps in calling someone with it, he'd programmed all his classmate's numbers into the device, but what they needed was a pro or someone with a quirk related to heat.

"Who do I call?" Kaminari asked, unable to look up at Bakugo due to the collar of the coat.

"Either Half-n-half or Aizawa, they're our best bet. We're snowed in, so make the most  of it." Bakugo's voice was more gentle than he could ever recall it being, which sent a wave of warmth spreading throughout his cold body.

Kaminari focused on sending power to his electronic, static filling his ears before the sound of ringing.

"Calling Mr. Aizawa..." He mumbled, hoping the cave wouldn't interfere too much. He could feel Bakugo getting colder, the jacket being meant for one person and not two.

Their teacher picked up immediately, wind whipping in the distance.

"Kaminari? Where are you two?" Aizawa said, his voice calm and even despite the storm.

"At the bottom of the cliff, off of... Uh..."

"Delta," Bakugo provided the name of the slope, Kaminari repeating for clarity.

"Alright; any wounds?"

"N-No, sir. It's just really cold..."

"Stay on the line, Kaminari. Bakugo's jacket can keep you both warm, according to its specs, so huddle up together so no one catches hypothermia."

"Already doing that, sir... We're in a cave, it's snowed in."

"We'll be there soon- Todoroki! You're with me!" Aizawa called to their fellow student, and Kaminari focused on keeping the line open and active.

"How's Bakugo?" Aizawa asked, and despite the increased heart rate, Bakugo seemed fine. Burning like a furnace, yes, but fine.

"I think he's alright. He's warm," Bakugo's grumbling was minute, a gust of wind chilling the two again before the heater activated again.

"Right... Okay, it's going to be-"

The line cut out, Kaminari groaning. Why now?

"Call ended..." Kaminari said, Bakugo doing his best to keep them both warm. Kaminari was still wet, his shirt and pants having soaked through in the initial fall even with the layers, which wasn't conducive to having to spend time in the frozen night air. Kaminari could feel sleep calling him, but the cold kept him awake forcefully.

"Don't you dare fall asleep on me," Bakugo whispered, his voice shaking with the new chill. He couldn't keep them both warm, and the snow was piling up in the darkness. Nothing could be seen, only felt in this cramped space. If he blew open the snow barrier, then Aizawa could find them easier, but it would expose them to the brunt of the wind's force and bitterness. He couldn't risk it. A mumble came from the smaller teen, shaking and shivering again, and before he knew it Bakugo found himself curling around Kaminari, attempting to wrap him in as much warmth as he could. He could stay warm on his own, his temperature naturally ran a little high, but Kaminari couldn't. Not only was he smaller, but he was less accustomed to the cold.

The only thing they could hope was that they'd be found before it became too late.

Getting to the bottom of the cliff wasn't the issue, really. The issue with finding them was Kaminari's signal had been cut off, and his idiotic friend group had followed Todoroki once called by their teacher.

Why he allowed them to go, he didn't understand, nor did he attempt to. His class worked how it wanted to work, no more and no less.

"Be careful going down. Kirishima, you can't jump off the cliff to save time." Aizawa sighed, the path they had to make it down a slightly difficult one, but one he knew they could handle since they'd traded in Skis and Snowboards for snowshoes. He'd already sent out a mass text to the class, telling them to head back to the lodge and wait for further instructions. Their lord and savior, All Might, only knew if they'd actually obeyed.

"Yessir!" Kirishima said, tape hanging off of his arms from Sero's forcefully holding him back.

"Alright, we're going down carefully. Todoroki, you take the lead, and I'll go down last. Single file, children."

Honestly, Aizawa had planned on a calm, relaxing trip. But there was an old adage he'd heard, which seemed to follow his life perfectly. 'Tell God your plans, and hear Him laugh.' Why? His class was filled with problem children, of course.

He watched as Todoroki lit their way down, slowly making their way through the trees and snow, which crunched beneath them louder than it had any right to be.

"How are you not cold, Todoroki?" Ashido asked, her eyes trained on the fire coming from the other teen's hand.

"Dude, his quirk is part ice!" Sero grinned, Kirishima nodding despite his worried expression. He really wanted to run in ahead, but he'd learned it would accomplish nothing to go in on his own.

"I guess I'm just used to it. Aren't you all cold?" Todoroki offered, his monotone voice smooth as ever. He certainly earned his place of the ice queen of class 1-A.

"Not really," Kirishima shrugged.

"Kinda?" Ashido glanced around, "It's spooky, so chills, but not that cold."

"I think you broke my ability to feel the cold back at the sports festival." Sero awkwardly chuckled.

"I'd say that was a nice try at humor," Todoroki said, face deadpan as ever, "But it's actually just sad."

"OHHHHHH HE'S GOT JOKES!" Ashido laughed, and even Kirishima couldn't help but chuckle. Sero, however, was not amused. He stared ahead their path as they got closer and closer to the bottom, unsure of how exactly to feel about the situation.

Aizawa wondered why he couldn't find a moment of peace in his life and had to interrupt their raucous merriment.

"When we get to the bottom, you're all going to spread out to cover more ground, understand?"

They looked up at him, and though he knew this wasn't as urgent as it should be treated due to the lack of proper authority around, he could see their urge to run ahead. The four nodded, and Aizawa sighed.

"Once you find them, Todoroki's going to melt the snow so we can get them back up to the lodge. Afterward, leave them alone and Delta will be off limits."

"B-Bakugo?" Kaminari said, shaking and scared after losing feeling in his legs.

"What?" The ashy blonde hissed, his hands trembling as he held onto the freezing teen.

"Let me g-go. Your jacket isn't meant to heat tw-two people... Hah..." If he cried, the tears would freeze along the snowflakes stuck to his eyelashes.

"No way in hell, S-Sparky."

"You'll lose-"

"Fucking hell, it... It isn't... If you..."

As the cold settled into their bodies, thinking got harder and harder. Kaminari was used to the idea of not thinking, only acting, and slipped out of the jacket and started zipping it back up to help preserve some of Bakugo's heat despite his protests.

"I'll be okay," Kaminari whispered with chapped lips, not leaving the hold Bakugo had on him. He knew he was lying, and his self-preservation be damned, but he found himself whispering, "Wh-when in love, you do... stupid things, ye-yeah?"

The only thing lighting up their dark space was the electricity coming off of him, but it was enough for him to properly do up the covering buttons on the hero's jacket. Bakugo was more important to be alright.

"Fuck you-" Bakugo chattered out, pulling Kaminari as close as he could and rubbing his gloved hands over the shivering teen's body to create friction, helping to keep them warm. Would they make it? The temperature was dropping by the second and Kaminari's vision was blurring as his quirk weakened. Dark spots, which appeared in his vision before his jacket had been stripped from him, grew steadily bigger the more time passed. Everything was fuzzy, unsure and blurry in shadows.

A warmth washed over him, from the inside out, as something was whispered amongst the cave. He didn't know what had been said, nor what was held behind it, yet it warmed every inch of his being.  

As if he were underwater, he heard Bakugo yelling something and felt the warmth of his hand leave, a bright light to his left and muffled explosions. He couldn't even shiver any more, the electricity in his body shutting down like a dead body. Kaminari felt warm arms wrap around him once more, a red light coming into their dark cave and plummeted into nothingness.

Something heavy and warm surrounded him. Soft, too. Fingers carded through his hair, brushing heatedly against his scalp.

"I can tell you're awake, idiot." A gruff voice said, but Kaminari snuggled into the blankets with a whine and wiggled slightly to ignore it. He could finally feel his feet again, let him be. "C'mon, you've gotta be hungry." The voice said again, and the hand on his head left to shake his shoulder.

"Mnnn... No. It's warm..." He said, and there was a new voice.

"You're awake! Man, we didn't know how long you'd be out!" It called, and a new weight piled on top of him, forcing the air out of his lungs.

"Oi, Kirishima, don't fucking kill him!"

Kaminari peeked open his eyes to find Kirishima sprawled out overtop of him and Bakugo sitting next to him, once more running his fingers through the black and blonde bangs of Kaminari's hair.

"Hey," Kaminari said, voice scratchy and tired. Honestly, he felt like a million bricks had crashed onto him. Kirishima got up, grinning with tears in his eyes.

"You both are not allowed to leave our sight on trips anymore! Something always happens to Bakugo and this time he dragged Kaminari too!"

"And who the fuck are you to decide this shit?!" Bakugo glared, and Kaminari winced slightly. Everything was still slightly chilly, now that he was out of the blankets.

"Your manly best friend!" Kirishima chuckled, Bakugo smirking in a near laugh before kicking him out of the recovery room.

"You doing alright?" Kaminari asked, attempting to pull himself into a sitting position but finding his arms too weak. Bakugo stopped running his fingers through Kaminari's hair to help him, and pull him once more to his chest. 'Third time's the charm,' a small voice echoed in the back of the stupefied blonde.

"I'm fine, now it's warmer."

"H... How long have we been back?"

"Well, it's two in the afternoon, dumbass, so do the math."

Kaminari blinked twice, hearing and feeling as Bakugo's pulse picked up.

"You're embarrassed," He pointed out, looking up at the other blonde with a confused smile.

"Fuck off!"

"If this is your way of rejecting me now that we're not in peril, it's a really weird way of doing it."

Bakugo's pulse skyrocketed, hands twitched and he looked away from him. "I'm not rejecting you, Sparky..."

Kaminari wasn't the smartest person in the world, but he was pretty sure being told he wasn't being rejected meant his feelings were either accepted or reciprocated. Could it be true? Possibly?

"I don't understand why someone as fucking cute- Like you or- Holy shit this is fucking hard to say. Look, Sparky." Bakugo sighed, taking a minute to keep himself from exploding as he looked anywhere but Kaminari's face, "Someone like you, and someone like me, we don't work together. You could have anyone in our damn school with a smile, and you pick me? Why? But why the fuck does seeing you with someone else makes me wanna punch the wall in? I don't get it!!" He yelled out, his temper getting the better of him.

"When you said you fucking- That you liked me," He spat out the word as if it were disgusting, "I don't even know what I fucking felt. Since the fucking licensing exam, every time I see you, the only thing I can think to do is push you against a wall! What the hell does that even mean?! Argh!" The grip on the back of Kaminari's blue sweater tightened, "Mother of fuck! And last night. Last fucking night. It just all came out! Holy fuck I actually... Don't fucking laugh, you idiot blonde, stupid lightning bug-"

"Lightning bug? Aww, it's a bit early for pet names-"

"FUCK YOU!!!" Bakugo screeched, his emotions having bubbled up and boiled over long ago.

"D-do you wanna?" Kaminari asked, face red in embarrassment. The situation was only slowly sinking in for him. Bakugo liked him back? Or, at least, if he didn't like him, had feelings of lust and jealousy. He could work with that.

"Not at the moment-!"

Kaminari squirmed, trying to escape the hold Bakugo had on him but his body was still weak from the exposure time to the snow. "Lemme go-" He mumbled, summoning a small amount of electricity to force Bakugo to let him go with a hiss. He fell back, shakily supporting himself as Bakugo stared down at him with angry and confused red eyes.

"I don't know what you're feeling, exactly..." Kaminari swallowed, nervously looking around the room, "But. I know that I like you. And last night was kinda romantic? In a Shakespearean kinda way? So, uh, even. Even if you don't wanna be with-"

"Fucking fuck, Sparky!" Bakugo interrupted, his voice a mere growl above actually speaking, "Whatever this is, it's not stopping me from becoming the number one. Got it? We can do shit, call it whatever the fuck you want, but if it comes down to advancing or you, I'm leaving you behind; so keep up."

Kaminari knew that was as close to a proper confession, and to being asked out, as Bakugo got so he surged forward with an unknown strength and kissed him.

Outside, yelling could be heard, and the remaining members of the Bakusquad sat in relative silence, pondering one single question.

"Since when is nearly dying romantic?" They whispered simultaneously, questioning how much damage the snow had done to their friends' sanity.

[greetingsfromeboncreek]

In my defense, I was literally asked.

So, I have actually been asked about my LGBTQ+ headcanons for Suppression. I shall now recite from my massive, ancient textb- ok no, I’m kidding, Iggy was my most detailed one, but here’s some others I’ve been kicking around under the cut:

So first and foremost, I want to be clear: There doesn’t have to be a REASON to make someone gay or transgender of asexual or whatever. There is no reason for these things in real life after all, people just are. You can be a rocket scientist or a wrestler or a pigeon breeder and just happen to be someone who was assigned a different gender at birth as well. It happens. That’s not to say that there isn’t a culture and some common trends that go along with it, but the point I’m trying to make is that just because I’m noting my favorite characters to think these sorts of things about here, you could literally make ANYONE LGBT. There’s no checkboxes you have to tick before you get your lesbian license.

...but if there was, Sam would have like 3 of them.

ANYWAY so yeah that’s the first one: 1. Everyone is gay and transgender. All of them. All at the same time. Figure it out.

Also, even if any of these WERE canon, I wouldn’t expect it to come up very often either? Suppression is a very action based comic, I don’t think there’s a lot of downtime for characters to be like “ANYWAY, I’m going on a date with ANOTHER GUY this Wednesday because that’s HOW I ROLL.” Because that would be. Weird. Still, sometimes an offhand mention can go a long way.

To organize this a little bit better though, I’m going to split it into “Characters who I think could or should be X, Y, and/or Z” and “Characters where I wouldn’t do that unless a lot of effort was put into pulling it off well.” Personal dos and don’ts, pretty much.

For characters who I think are or could be LGBT, well, like I said, it’s fun to imagine just about anyone, and I think making a character some type of LGBT can add a really fun element to someone that ordinarily would be a little bit boring. In this case though, I’m expressing only my thoughts on the ones that either have some sort of written element that could be taken as supporting my headcanon, or ones where I think it would play well with their pre-established traits and desires. So, without further ado:

1. Samantha Wight is a lesbian, in both continuities but ESPECIALLY the reboot, god. I think this one is most obvious when you compare the version of her that existed in the preboot timeline in comparison to the reboot. And for that, I’ve got to talk about the Wights a bit, or at least as how they were in the preboot. 

They come off to me as… well, deeply repressed, unhappy, and (let’s be honest, most likely) very conservative people. They all want something out of life and want to be proud of themselves and their family, but are so deadlocked in trying to “maintain the family tradition and honor” and whatnot that they end up dragging each other back down into that depressive pit. There’s plenty of examples of this; Alaster is very proud of being a Wight and their traditions of burning and pillaging, but hates what his family has become and how they treat each other. He tries very hard to be a good role model for his younger relatives even though he’s unable to get out from under his father’s thumb himself. Meredith is incredibly enthusiastic (and gifted!) about her family’s magic traditions and history but is constantly facing snotty, belittling remarks about how airheaded she is from Samantha. In addition, it’s clear her dad and uncle don’t understand her in the slightest, let alone have a shred of respect for her (or if they do, it's for her use as a resource or tool and not as a person with her own merits). Jericho thinks the Wights are already great, but is increasingly frustrated with the fact that his beliefs mean absolutely nothing in the wider world and he doesn’t actually have the power to do anything about it. Heck, even Arthur had a line that implied a LOT about how he and Max were raised- how he didn’t really want to be a necromancer, but picked it so he could “get out of what Dad had (Max) doing”. It gives off the impression that no matter how powerful a Wight you are, your life gets set in stone at birth and you aren’t changing it, no matter how hard you try, and those traditional roles are HARSH. I wouldn’t be surprised if Alaster wasn’t the only Wight that got quietly offed when they stepped out of line, that’s for sure. 

Needless to say, I would imagine it would be pretty much impossible to come out as anything in that sort of environment… provided that you managed to get out enough to learn about that stuff to start with. And Sam definitely appears to be one of the worst victims of this. She died really young. While Meredith and Alaster might have gotten to go to a public school or at least hit the mall every once in a while, she probably spent every second since the day she died locked up in the mansion because… well, zombies aren’t supposed to exist. Unable to go anywhere, do anything of value, make any friends… it’s really no wonder her nihilism cranked up to 11 in just a decade or so. Not to mention (especially in comparison to the reboot), there’s no way she can buy her own clothes, so she’s literally just a Wight themed dress up doll. She has the Wight family logos literally all over her- bones in her dress, the skull on her head and shoes, a Wight crest on her necklace, most of them oversized for her stature. Literally weighing her down in a poofy dress that makes her look adorable instead of practical. Heck, she’s even drawn in a way depicts how she’s had her agency removed. She’s a Wight, so she definitely HAS the sharp pointy teeth, and yet unlike everyone else in her family you barely ever see them. (If at all- I’m pretty sure you don’t, but I’m not going to go through every page she appears to check.) She’s literally defanged and weighed down by family expectations. It’s no wonder she lashes out at Meredith, who is capable of actually expressing herself to a degree. 

(Also, a smaller side headcanon- I’ve noticed that while the red eyed fangy icon is the Wight family crest, those simplified skulls on Samantha and Meredith’s heads appear a lot as well. I like to think that those were the family crest of Nora’s now extinct bloodline from when she married into the Adigard family. Even though they aren’t the official Wight crest, they’re now considered a sort of secondary crest that’s still carried around out of respect to the maternal lineage, which is why you see it more prominently on the women of the family as well. Is there any textual support for this? No, none, but it’s still fun to think about.)

SO YEAH, Sam in the reboot, wow. Goes by a (notably more gender neutral) nickname instead of the longer and more formal “Samantha”, with her clothing following. Jeans and a t-shirt. Square glasses. Very short hair. The family symbols are now not dragging her down, but smaller accents that she wears to go with her outfit instead of defining it. She’s finally free! She has a job she likes. She takes pride in her skills. She has a favorite sandwich spot and a college education and friends. ...And like, maybe a girlfriend? It would be nice. This is admittedly because her style of hair and dress is… well. Kinda butch. But like I’ve mentioned before, physical appearance is one of the last indicators I like to go for with this. Instead, I prefer to look at it in terms of her personality- outside of the deathgrip of outdated family tradition, Sam can afford to be herself more, and yeah, maybe that involves dating folks with the same gender and wearing blue jeans. This is also kinda supported to a degree by how her siblings haven’t changed that much since the old timeline. Merry’s outfit is pretty much the exact same. Jericho doesn’t have the biohazard suit, but his new outfit still kinda evokes it in the hat, long coat, and boots. He still seems to prefer the same styles, at least. Alaster is pretty different, but that’s more because he’s wearing a uniform more than anything, and with the bandages it’s clear he’s still putting his own personal spin on it. Sam is COMPLETELY different, and it’s a change for the better and happier. So yeah. It would be really fitting if part of that new access to personal freedom was in getting to explore her sexuality as well, and eventually settling down into being a lesbian. It would be a happy ending to Samantha’s story, even Sam’s is only getting started.

2. Arrie is bisexual! What? Who do you think it is that Sam’s dating? But yeah, I ship them pretty hard. Like Sam, Arrie has some pretty big personality differences between her preboot self and current self, Parrios vs. Tinderbolt. Old Arrie seemed to be well versed in politics, able to negotiate and take charge easily even if she was a bit overly formal and her interpersonal skills weren’t QUITE up to snuff. That’s not to say that she couldn’t have been bi, but I also didn’t read her as vibing with anyone all that well. 

Not to turn this into a massive shipping discussion (as that’s not really the topic I’m trying to cover here), but I saw her most interesting potential romantic foils as Trevor and Sally… but neither of them were very likely in practice. She and Trevor were good friends but the last time they spoke in the comic he stuck his own foot in his mouth with her and they never got the opportunity to work things out after that (and even then, there was no sort of… spark implying that they would make each other better as a couple. Seriously, just friends.), which leaves that ship on a particularly sour note. And while she and Sally were FANTASTIC counterparts to each other (rough and tumble demon girl and overly formal and technical elf princess? Sally getting her to slowly loosen up and have fun with it a bit while also reminding her how much her one liners suck? Arrie coming to impress her and earn her respect with fancy spellwork? Hell yeah.), but they only spent maybe an hour tops with each other and didn’t have any opportunity for deeper conversation. Also, that would mean that Sally and Bael wouldn’t be a thing and I refuse to break that couple up.

But Arrie in the reboot? Oh man. Her social awkwardness and getting stuck on details have really been dialed up now that she’s essentially been raised in a classroom and in private study instead of being trained as a politician and dignitary.  She’s no longer a princess, but a magic computer programmer. She’s anxious, stubborn, and definitely has a lot of room to grow. But, that’s where Sam comes in. They’ve known each other since they were little- they definitely know each other’s baggage and have accepted it. They know each other’s hopes and dreams. They spend a ton of time with each other. And yeah, they bring out the best in each other. Sam gets Arrie to leave her room once in a while, and Arrie’s attention to detail means she no doubt always listens to Sam complain long after anyone else would have tuned it out. And yes, you could easily interpret this as mere best friend territory, but wouldn’t it be interesting if it was something more? After all, Sam is really touchy-feely with Arrie even though she’s normally standoffish. She drapes herself all over Arrie in the early pages of the comic, and Arrie barely blinks. Sam threatens to drag her and Arrie is suddenly done with her work, but they’re both smiling about it. Similarly, when Arrie finally pries Sam off of her with magic, Sam just lets Arrie toss her around midair even though they both know she could use it offensively (which Arrie does when tussling with Sally later.). But they both know Arrie would never do that- they trust each other implicitly. Again, could just be friendship, but it’s not difficult to read into it and see a bit more intimacy than that. Additionally, it would really be neat to see them together just from an angle of “Their families used to be bitter enemies, but… well, not for these two, I guess.”

Also, it’s really funny to imagine a copy of that first scene but Sam’s in fancy clothing trying to drag Arrie to their anniversary dinner. For god’s sake Arrie, you’re already in the dress. The runes look FINE. You’re going to miss your reservation, get UP.

(And on another headcanon side-note- If I was going to cosplay as anyone in the comic, it would 100% be Arrie, if just because I have blonde hair and blue eyes and none of her outfits look too crazy to sew and it's not that hard to find elf ears online. With current circumstances though, I don’t think I’ll be doing anything like that any time soon.)

3. Charlie is agender or genderfluid, at least in the preboot timeline. This is less “it just feels right” and more “this is probably the inevitable conclusion of having hundreds of souls with conflicting gender identities stuffed into one body.” He is made up of boys, girls, and people who never got to have enough of a personal identity to make a decision about that sort of thing. Just a big bag of angry ghosts. Considering what happens in the approximate… like… what, six to nine months or so? That he gets to exist, I don’t think he really thought about what gender he was all that hard and probably only went with “he” because that’s what everyone who met him assumed he was. Which, let’s be honest, he’s canonically very emaciated, has long, probably matted hair, and probably has heavily stunted growth due to his upbringing- I think it would actually be pretty hard to figure him out on first glance. I’ve just noticed that people tend to default to “this is a dude” if they don’t know right away. If he had time to think about it though, I think he either a. Honestly would not give a crap, or b. Would just switch his pronouns around depending on how he was feeling that day. Heck, while “Charles” is definitely a guy’s name, I’ve definitely seen “Charlie” used for both. So he wouldn’t even have to change anything there. Still, if you asked him what he identifies as, his answer would probably something like “An Avatar Of Vengeance”, which, while accurate, isn’t the answer most people are looking for. (He knows this. He does it on purpose.) That being said though, I still have no clue what reboot Charlie’s deal is or how many souls he’s got stuffed up in there, but hey! Like I said, anyone can be anything so who’s to say Charlie ISN’T still genderfluid in the current timeline? Could have just been a “dude” day when we met him the first time around.

4. Junior is genderfluid! Or, well, would have been in the future. This just feels like a logical progression of the worldview Junior had going. He seemed very into transhumanism and just changing yourself to who you want to be instead of sitting there and waiting for it. I certainly can’t imagine him going “Hm yes. I have all these options, but I think I’m just going to stick with being a Regular Dude until the day I die.” when he was so gung-ho about getting his hands chopped off and replaced with giant claws. Therefore I could see a “I think, therefore I am.” sort of philosophy with regards to his gender developing as he gets older. “I think I want to be a girl today, so I am a girl! That’s all there is to it!” Unfortunately, considering he was being raised to be a weapon (or at least a lab rat) of some sort, I don’t know how much his identity would be respected, but I’d imagine there’s at least one or two people in his life that would nod and swap over to what he was feeling that day. 

5. Lexi as a nonbinary woman. To explain a little bit, most people who imagine nonbinary genders for the first time think of gender as a slider with “dude” on the left side and “lady” on the right side with nonbinary genders somewhere in the middle. And for some people, that’s how they feel… but for others, its not that simple, with their gender being somewhere “off the grid” so to speak, or aligning themselves with one gender but… not.. QUITE all the way with it, or picking and choosing the parts of it they like, etc. So a girl or a guy, but… a nonbinary girl or guy. I could see Lexi as this, using she/her pronouns or they/them pronouns, just kind of being blase about it. 

I talked about the Wight’s general culture a little bit and how it came off to me, but not Thal’nasia’s. To put it simply, I don’t think Thal’nasia is NEARLY as bad as the Wights, but I do think it has its own troubles. Between Trevor’s comments about how the humans shouldn’t trust anyone (which is probably in reference to the politicians, but it also implies a “the walls have ears” sort of vibe for the kingdom in general) and the fact that the elves are several years behind human culture in general, I could imagine being different in this way wouldn’t be… necessarily frowned upon, but there would certainly be a lot of gossip. Not to mention, it’s not like anyone who lives there can just move away if coming out doesn’t go so well. So I’d imagine things would be a little awkward for anyone who’s off the beaten track in terms of gender identity or sexuality, getting a lot of gritted teeth smiles and hesitant “Uh-huhs”. And then getting a lot of whispers and giggles as soon as their back is turned.

With that in mind, I think Lexi would have some trouble getting people to take her seriously, but in some ways I think this meshes well with what we saw of her in the preboot setting. She’s already a pretty counterculture person, working in a store that explicitly sells things that are edgy or in poor taste. And she’s already used to secluding herself to a degree, considering that she had been able to hide her plague markings for a while by the time we saw her for the first time. So for people she doesn’t know too well, I could see her introducing her gender in a half-joking manner similar to how she runs her shop in general, and gauging their reaction to see if they’re cool about it or not, at which point she’d either double down on the edgy performance or relax a bit.

6. Cerene is polyamorous! This one’s mostly for fun, and mostly because it was implied that Cerene had to pick either Morris or Charlie, and… why not both? Neither Morris nor Charlie seemed to dislike each other, and neither seem like the jealous type. Morris is super chill and reasonable, and as I already mentioned up in #3 I really don’t think Charlie’s the kind to care about traditional relationships. And who’s to say they wouldn’t like each other as well? Not to mention Cerene’s certainly capable of splitting her attention and dedicating the time needed to maintain a relationship that’s… bigger than most peoples’. I’m just saying, if anyone could make a polycule work, it’s probably Cerene with her insane networking skills. Bael’s downplaying her skills by just assuming she sleeps around a lot. Oh no- she’s asking multiple people about their day, keeping notes of their personal preferences and wants for birthday gift reasons, and plotting out multiple sweet date ideas to take place simultaneously. She has this shit ORGANIZED. There is a day planner. Also she gets to bang a lot but that’s, like, secondary.

7. James Narron is gay? Perhaps? Granted we only barely know him, but still. He seems like a nice guy with a tendency to scoop up and mentor outcast children. Perhaps due to a history of being a bit of an outcast himself? Not enough to damage his career- he’s still head of the scholar’s society after all- but something that makes him feel a little different in the crowd. I just think it would be neat!

8. Mara is a trans girl. This one’s a bit harder to explain, and considering I have no idea how she’s translated over to the reboot timeline (if at all, seeing as the circumstances of her backstory and personality have been completely erased.) Buuut I think this meshes well with her once you take into account her various motivations. She’s determined to be taken seriously. People try to brush her off due to being very young and not mentally fit for the position due to the whole “child soldier” thing. So she’s used to people not taking her seriously at best and at worst finding the fact that she’s in her hard-earned position at all to be disgusting. Not to mention that folks don’t exactly trust the red army to start with. This… surprisingly parallels a lot of what transwomen have to go through, both being taken seriously as real women and as not being seen as a “threat”. This is probably even harder for younger trans girls who no doubt constantly get the “Okay, but can you really be SURE at your age?” treatment. 

You could also link this, surprisingly, into her hairstyle. Mara has boxy cut bangs in the front, but has a long twist braid in the back, far longer than most other characters in the comic. You could argue its a sense of personal style, but there’s a reason people in the military cut their hair so short (and even women in the military keep theirs in tight buns.). So you could handwave it as “it helps differentiate the character and looks like a vine, which is her whole shtick.”, which is a completely valid reading! But it’s known that a lot of trans women grow their hair out as a point of pride in transitioning, and its heartbreaking if they have to get it cut off again. So while it might be more convenient and strategic for Mara to cut her hair, she could also have a very good reason for keeping it as long as possible,

9. Dr. Grenner is bisexual. Or just questioning? Something like that? This has zero textual support and is just kind of fun to think about in terms of the personal conflict it would bring up for him. First and foremost- not everyone figures out that they’re LGBT right away. It’s not a “kids these days” sort of thing, anyone can learn something new about themselves at any time. It would be nice to see a character that has this experience, just for fun and interest! That being said, Grenner as we know him would be an interesting choice for this, considering that until very recently in the preboot’s storyline, he was likely happily married to a woman. (I mean. Iggy had to come from SOMEWHERE, and I doubt he was plucked out of a cabbage patch.) And it ended… badly. 

As a result, I could see him being really conflicted due to his grief and the fact that he’s now single for the first time in decades. And, well. Santris is the only guy who really seems to stop and have any in depth conversations with him who isn’t a coworker or a patient. (Also, he’s kinda pretty. And Grenner finds that he can’t really stop looking at his eyes? That’s. Weird. Hm.) This leads into mental conflict between “It’s fine! Plenty of people figure this out at your age, and let’s be honest, there WERE some signs for it back when you were in college.” and “This isn’t anything, you’re still heavily grieving and you have a monster living in the back of your head and you’re heavily projecting onto the one person that actually treats you like a person. Get ahold of yourself.” Which one is it? Well, that’s what storytelling is for, you figure it out. But I could easily imagine himself just sitting there and psychoanalyzing himself endlessly to try and keep the issue at arms length, treating himself like a patient to avoid having to confront the emotional reality of his grief, guilt, and weird crush.

Not sure how Santris would feel about all of this because who even knows what that guy thinks, but I’m pretty sure he would definitely notice. And maybe milk it just a little bit so he doesn’t have to stretch and grab things on tall shelves anymore. Or pull out his own chair. Or make his own coffee. It’s a nice change of pace.

Is this piling too much on poor Grenner when he’s already such a guilt driven person? Yeah, probably. But what is fiction but a chance to torment fictional people with weird crises about their sexuality.

10. The old Wights? Are probably a lot of things? I’m not necessarily referring to the old Wights we’ve seen already, just the culture and atmosphere for the old clan in general. I definitely noticed how the old Wights and Adigards definitely don’t have the same culture as the new ones. There’s no need to prove themselves to be great- they ARE the greatness that the modern Wights are trying to live up to. So there’s not as much of an issue with trying to “fit in”. They’re the ones setting the standard to start with. Not to mention the old Wights are so far modified from their original human bodies already, does it really matter what they identify as after a certain point? That guy has 50 arms with flesh ripping claws and you’re saying he’s not a guy because there’s also a set of boobs involved? How do you know he didn’t put those on himself anyway? Let’s be honest, most people are going to refer to you as “OH GOD, WHY WON’T IT DIE!” anyway. Might as well call yourself whatever you want.

There’s also at least a little bit of historical support to this as well. The old Wights are vikings, or at least rather viking-inspired. In comparison to a lot of peoples that were living at the same time, vikings were surprisingly chill? It’s pretty well known that viking women could own property and demand divorces, etc. Who’s to say the Adigard family couldn’t take that an extra step further? 

And then there’s the characters I WOULDN’T make a particular thing, whether it REALLY doesn’t make sense for them story-wise, or would just be stumbling into a bad stereotype for a particular group. I don’t think it’s impossible, but you’d definitely need to have more members OF that group in the story to make it clear that that’s just what that particular CHARACTER is like, and not an assumption of what that group of PEOPLE is like.

1. It could look bad if Sally was a transwoman. Don’t get me wrong- I love Sally a LOT. Like, SO much. Her personality is so much fun and I just love big, kinda dumb brawler characters. She has interesting twists to her personality (like how she loves being strong and having cool powers but is also aware that she didn’t use to be quite this aggressive and violent and finds it difficult to know where the line is and know when to stop.) and makes an excellent foil to the characters that have a tendency to ramble on. But… let’s be honest, having the explicitly beefy, aggressive female character be the only transgender woman would be a really bad look. Trans women are very frequently under a large amount of scrutiny for how they present themselves, and overly muscled and aggressive individuals are one of the negative stereotypes for that group. Does that mean I think Sally is a bad character? No, absolutely not! I’m aware she has depth, and for a cisgender woman I think her power set is a breath of fresh air. God knows I’d love to have the ability to throw someone across a city block when a guy’s been following me for a little too long when I’m walking home at 2 am. But I do think that, in the absence of other trans women, making her transgender would be choice made in poor taste as it hews too close to stereotypes that have been made to insult and belittle these women.

2. Max and Arthur as… well, anything. This is in regards to the preboot setting. We have known Arthur for literally one page in the reboot and he’s already clearly pretty different from the old version of him so I’m withholding all judgement there. Still, this one’s a little harder to explain. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of a young Maxwell feeling absolutely nothing for all of the girls dragged in front of him as potential suitors and eventually picking one for no reason other than “Dad liked her”. Max assuming its normal to feel this way because being asexual isn’t an option when it’s your literal job to carry on the family bloodline. I like the idea of Arthur waking up from an accidental nap in front of the TV to find that it’s moved on to some sort of documentary about trans women and how relieved they felt to be able to reflect on the outside how they felt on the inside and sits there watching it blithely for a little bit too long before he identifies that feeling in his chest as something close to pain and scrambles for the remote a little too fast while grumbling something about kids these days ruining their bodies for shits and giggles. (Hey remember how I mentioned that those skull motifs are usually only worn by girls? I say usually because Arthur is the only dude who wears them. Funny, that.)

It could definitely be interesting to interpret them as something else, but… I think it would have to be in an AU or timeline just to the left where they’re. Mmmmore tolerable as people. Look let’s be honest, in the original Suppression timeline, Max and Arthur are some of the biggest… well, evil people we see. The younger Wights have their sympathetic traits (or are just hilariously outmatched such that they aren’t really a threat. Sorry Jericho.). Grenner wasn’t even trying to be a villain. Kolt is creepy as hell and I try to forget he exists. William… isn’t really traditionally sapient, it’s hard to hate an evil Siri. We don’t know much about Santris, and we were really only getting started on Maggie and Bartleby. But Max and Arthur kill innocent people, kill their kids, kill each other because they’re canonically selfish, miserable people. If you wanted to redeem either, they’d have to be… well, not those people. So like I said, you’d need a different version of canon.

This is because, well. While I’m sure there are evil people that are… let’s pick one and say gay. 1. Gay-coding villains is a well known negative stereotype. And 2. Saying that people who are against LGBT rights in real life are totally just repressed gay people is both harmful and… idk, annoying. For point one, there’s plenty of villains where they’re presented with traits associated with LGBT individuals. Think how Ursula in The Little Mermaid was based on a drag queen, Scar in The Lion King is a sort of effeminate gay stereotype, Raoul Silva in Skyfall and his… weird homoeroticism. Don’t ask me why those were the first three examples that came to mind. In and of itself, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Everyone loves Disney villains, they’re the most fun characters! But in settings where they’re the ONLY characters that are LGBT, it suddenly creates the stereotype that… all LGBT people are inherently evil, deviant, or corrupt in some way. Which is a nasty thing to say. For a lot of the other villains, it could be fun! But these two are just so unavoidably (if amusingly) awful that it feels… weird to pin this stuff on them.

Which leads me into the second point. It’s fun to poke fun at say… a pastor saying all gay people are going to hell by going “Man, he has sure been talking about gay guys and their gay sex for a really long time huh? Makes you wonder, huh?” Because unfortunately at the end of the day… statistically, they aren’t. They just want to hurt those people (or “help” them in their own minds but again, let’s be real here.) And even if they ARE, they’re doing so much damage that it’s hard to feel sorry for them. It feels similar to my own experiences where I’d be bullied by a guy at school and the adults around me would be like “Oh don’t worry, he just has a crush on you!” Great! Awesome! That helps me out a LOT and makes me feel so much better. Really unrips up the homework he stole from me. That’s definitely a behavior we should be encouraging in guys too. Just fantastic. Yeah, I don’t think that mindset really helps anyone, and frankly feels like it would be a shallow addition to these guys.

And let’s be honest, with these two it feels like part of the fun that they’re so irredeemably awful because when they lose it feels just that much better. It was so, SO funny watching Max get squished by a demon falling several stories, or watching Sally deck Arthur in the face and Arrie blind him temporarily. It was fitting watching Arthur drink Max’s phylactery, wrapping up both of their character arcs as selfish people who inevitably only had each other but couldn’t even trust each other- and shouldn’t have. And then Sin Arthur got thrown around like a ragdoll by King Law like five minutes later. It was GREAT. If it turns out that deep down they felt differently but didn’t feel like they could say or do anything about it, it would make them more sympathetic and thus make me feel… well, worse about watching them get beat down on. Which would inevitably make those moments I mentioned fall a little flat. 

So, uhm. Yeah. I think that’s everything? Just about everything? Holy crap, I was NOT expecting to write this much. Maybe a few notes for each character, but nothing huge. And it did get huge, that’s. That’s a LOT of words. I’d apologize, but I’m not THAT sorry about it- it was really nice to get the opportunity to put to words some of the feelings I’ve been having on this stuff for a while.

[emma-swan]

love, emma [4/5]

summary: boy/girl friendships can be quite complicated sometimes—especially when said boy’s in love with said girl and and the whole world seems to know about it but her. a modern day young captain swan au, loosely based off love, rosie.

note: i honestly have no words. none at all. it’s been a year and a half, almost, since i last updated this. i don’t even know what to say about the muse, but i will say that the last chapter’s already planned! so just a bit more to go. a million and one special thanks go out to @ive-always-been-a-pirate who has been my constant cheerleader when it comes to this. this one’s for you, honestly. happy christmas, valetine’s day, and birthday. ten years later, right @optomisticgirl? without further ado, enjoy! feel free to reblog and add tags or comments, as i’ll read them all, both here and on the other websites!

jump back: [one] | [two] | [three]

also on: [ao3] | [ff.net]

As the post-Christmas/pre-New Year’s Eve snowfall begins to pick up with the wind, covering the bottom edges of the window of the hospital room, a red-headed nurse continues her morning rounds.

Checking the numbers on the machine, she writes them down with frown. The numbers read the same as they have for the last couple of days, with no sign of change.

"It'd be nice to see your eyes one of these days." She walks over to the other side of his bed to look over the other machines.

"Oh, I should introduce myself!” She points to the name tag on her scrubs. “Ariel," she says softly. "That's my name. We should be on first name basis considering you're the first patient I see when I make my way around this place."

They switched the rotations two days before Christmas and while many nurses usually weren’t a fan of the comatose patients, Ariel didn’t mind.

Sure, the constant beeping of the machines, the whirring and hisses from the ventilator are enough to drive anyone mad on a day to day basis but if the loved ones of the patients can put up with it when they visit, so can she.

She’s in the midst of scribbling down a few notes, some for the doctor, some for herself, when the door flies open. In walks a woman, flustered at the sight of her.

“Hi,” she says, extending her hand out to the visitor. “Ariel. Mr. Jones’s new nurse.”

“You can call him Liam,” the woman says, giving Ariel’s hand a quick shake. “He’d prefer it.”

Ariel nods, jotting that down for herself. She can see the hesitancy in her stance clear as day. Quickly excusing herself, she drops her charts down and bids Liam and the woman a farewell.

The way the woman quickly reaches for Liam’s hand and sits down on the edge of the bed isn’t lost to her at all.

-

Henry finds out first.

He doesn't know how but he finds this out after his visit to Liam, three days after receiving the letter, when he spots the young boy yelling at his mother while she stands there, near tears. He was certain he was careful to hide the letter from Emma. He should have known that hiding it from Emma didn’t mean he’d be able to hide it from Henry.

(In hindsight, he should have carried that letter with him, even if it felt like the heaviest weight imaginable.)

“You wanted to push grandma away before and now you want to push Killian away!”

“Hey!” Killian interjects, shutting the door behind him. He approaches them, stopping just a few paces away from Henry. “Now, you know that's no way to speak to your mother, lad.”

“So you want to leave us? Leave me?”

He doesn't know what's more heartbreaking: Henry looking up at him with those big expressive eyes, about to cry, or Emma standing behind him, hand covering her mouth as she silently cries.

(Both. They both break his heart, because a stupid, impulsive decision and its consequences are tearing his family apart.)

“Of course not, Henry.” He crouches down, level with him, placing his hands on his arms. “But sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do. This is one of them.”

Henry rips his arms away from his hold with a furrow of his brows and a shake of his head before running up the stairs. He doesn't flinch until he hears the sound of a door slamming upstairs.

“Emma,” he begins to say, standing up.

She holds a hand up and shakes her head.

“Don't. I can't. Not right now,” she says. “I need some air. Just...watch him. It's the least you can do before you go.”

She grabs her coat from the hook and heads out, slamming the front door on her way out.

(He deserves that. Scratch that. He deserves everything and more coming his way.)

-

Ariel throws her hair over her shoulder, scribbling down a few numbers on some lines, a few notes below.

Nothing changes. Nothing has changed since she's been assigned to Liam Jones. They’ll probably think she's lost her mind for talking to a comatose patient, but sometimes she swears he can hear her.

She has to remind herself they’re called Christmas miracles and not New Year’s Eve miracles.

“Your brother stopped by today,” she says, adjusting the book left behind yesterday. “I didn't mean to eavesdrop but he said something about a long departure. Vacation maybe?”

She flips the book open to the front cover, seeing the shaky letters of a child spelling out ‘PROPERTY OF HENRY SWAN’. That answers yesterday’s question.

“You also had another visitor today. She and your brother bumped into each other in the hall,” she continues, holding the chart against her chest. “Does your brother know you're involved with her?”

She swears she hears a brief switch in his heart rhythm, but by the time she makes her way around to check for fluctuations, it's gone. The history shows nothing, either.

“I'll be back tomorrow. You'd better have an interesting story to share, too,” Ariel says. She reaches down and gives his arm a squeeze before walking out of the room and onto the next one.

-

The days pass much too quickly for their liking. With each new morning after Christmas, they’re reminded of the fewer ones they have left together before his departure. She hasn’t banished him off to the couch yet, both having agreed to act at least somewhat normal for Henry’s sake. After all, they wanted him as unaffected by this as possible.

(She doesn’t see how that’s likely considering he found the letter, but that’s neither here nor there right now.)

They fall asleep with enough room for Henry between them and awake with just the same. It isn’t until the morning of New Year’s Eve when she wakes up in his arms, limbs tangled together, and doesn’t make an effort to move.

“You’re awake,” he says, chest rumbling against her cheek as he speaks.

“So are you.”

His hand snakes its way into her hair, fingers giving a gentle tug as he tilts her head up to his. Her fingers at his back tighten on his shirt, breath caught in her throat as his lips near hers. She only blinks, eyes glancing down to his lips then back up at his own, before he kisses her.

She stills, ready to protest about morning breath and other things, but when he pulls away and looks down at her, it all seems so trivial in the grand scheme of things. So she tugs him forward again, hand at the nape of his neck as she crashes her lips onto his.

He nudges her onto her back, tongue moving against hers in a way that has her feeling like this is more than just a few days of pent up frustrations—like this might be goodbye. Her head’s still spinning when he sits up, reaching behind him to tug his shirt off.

“The door,” Emma says, trying to catch her breath.

Killian shakes his head. “It’s fine. Everyone’s still asleep.”

He swallows her protests with his mouth, lips on hers once more. His fingers only reach underneath her shirt, skim along her ribs, before their door’s thrown open. They jump apart, Emma holding the blanket up to her chest as Killian hides underneath.

“Uh, what are you guys doing?” Henry asks as he stands by the door.

“We were…” Killian begins to say.

Emma quickly adds an, “About to make coffee.”

Henry raises an eyebrow that’s so clearly Killian, making Emma’s heart race then and there 

“Well, don’t bother,” the boy says, hand still on the doorknob. “Grandma’s making some downstairs. She sent me to get you two for breakfast.”

“We’ll be right down, lad.”

He offers them another weird look before heading out and shutting the door behind him 

So much for everyone being asleep, Emma thinks as she glances over at Killian. He hesitates for a moment before relaxing into the mattress. There’s a smile on his face for a split second before it slowly fades.

It only takes a moment for the smile on her face to fade too, as the morning, the day, and his impending departure all seem to dawn on her, too.

It’s no better when they arrive downstairs. Ingrid quickly sends them both off on errands, last minute things that need to be bought or picked up before the new year arrives. While the time out of the house, together, would have lifted their moods, the air remains thick with the realization that they may not have this come next year.

(Henry opting to stay home brings back the pain once more.)

-

Potlucks held at a diner don’t make so much sense, except when it’s the only place big enough to house everyone Ruby and Granny have invited. It’s not the first time Emma, Henry, Ingrid and Elsa spend at the diner, ringing in the new year.

It is the first time, in quite a long time, that they’re not joined by the elder Jones brother but by the younger.

He figured the normalcy of the last few days would have carried through until tonight. He figures, after his second glass of rum by the counter, that he shouldn’t have assumed such things. The moment Emma stepped through those diner doors, she had gravitated toward Graham and Ruby.

If it weren’t for David keeping him company, he would have done something to stop the twitch in his jaw.

He tries not to look over at her all night, truly plans on allowing her to continue avoiding him until the sun comes up, but he cracks when the countdown to midnight starts. He sees the way she slips away from the crowds as couples gather together, readying for the midnight kiss 

Ten.

He picks up his glass.

Nine.

He knocks back whatever’s left, eyes never leaving hers.

Eight.

Oh God, that shouldn’t still burn.

Seven.

He places the glass back down.

Six.

He gets up from his stool.

Five. 

They make eye contact.

Four.

He walks over to her.

Three.

He licks his lips.

Two.

He grabs onto her waist.

One.

He kisses her.

Happy New Year!

Everything else falls away the minute their lips touch. The letter, the anger, the avoidance all seem like things of the past as he pulls her closer to him. Her hands come up, both resting on his chest. He expects her to push her away, to break their little bubble, but she does the opposite.

She grabs onto the jacket he had slipped on a while ago, when he had thought about just leaving before midnight came, and pulls him closer to deepen the kiss. He’s pretty sure he moans at the feeling of her tongue finding his but he can’t seem to care when she’s still here in front of him and they still have some time left. 

Except, even that time’s cut short. Someone coughs, loudly, and has them jumping away from each other like they’ve been burned. Emma doesn’t wait for everyone’s reactions or from word from Killian or anything. She simply pulls away from him and heads to the back, away from the whispers that begin in the wake of their actions.

He, once again, ends up alone.

-

Emma and Killian stand outside Liam’s door as Henry sits inside, storybook open in his lap. While she didn't wish to be here today—it's the day before Killian leaves and ever since the New Year’s Eve midnight kiss, she's been avoiding him like the first time he left—Killian insisted on letting an overly eager Henry tag along.

Neither one of them thought that would mean getting kicked out of the room because Henry has “important things to discuss” with his comatose uncle. His voice carries out the still opened door, talks of fairytale characters and true love and happy endings making her chest ache.

She won't get any of that, because her real world happy ending and true love happen stands before her, ready to leave in twenty-four hours, unsure of when he’ll return.

“I think that makes you Captain Hook’s brother,” Henry’s voice carries, followed by the sound of pages being flipped. “Except he’s dead and you're just asleep. So maybe you aren't.”

Emma crosses her arms and leans against the wall on one side of the door. She glances over at Killian, position mimicking her own, and can't help but shake her head at the small grin appearing on his face. Ever since Henry had taken to storytelling and this book, he's always compared them to characters in it. Emma always told him otherwise; a story without Henry in it was not one with her happy ending.

Killian? Well, Killian probably enjoyed being compared to Captain Hook, of all people. All she got was the lost Swan Princess.

“I asked my mom once if maybe we were cursed, like the people in this book,” Henry says softly. “She said no, because she has me and Da—Killian. And cursed people aren't happy like she is.”

She casts her eyes down to the floor, feeling the blush start to creep up her cheeks at that. She remembers exactly when she said that: when she felt like her family was finally complete.

“Was happy, I guess. Because now he’s leaving us. Me.”

She doesn't register Killian’s presence until she opens her eyes and looks down at the boots against her own, toe to toe. His hands are warm as they cup her face, tilting his head up to hers. She sees the tear slip from his eye and knows this is killing him just as much as it’s killing them.

“Please don't leave me, too,” Henry says.

She grips his henley tight, afraid of what her hands might do if she lets go in that moment. He doesn't seem to be, because milliseconds later he presses his forehead against hers, noses brushing. If she inches forward she knows they’ll kiss and it won't be like last time because the anger’s morphed into hurt and she’ll take what she can get at this point.

Their lips only brush against one another’s before Henry’s frantically shouting for both of them, causing them to jump apart. Killian grips her hand and tugs her into the room with him, stopping still at the sight before him.

“Killian! What are you—” she begins to say but falls silent when the sight catches up with her too.

There, before them, stands a shocked Henry, held in place. That thing keeping him in place?

Liam’s hand on his arm.

“Everything okay in here?” Ariel asks, appearing behind them by the door. She takes one look at the stunned family before she looks over at the man in the hospital bed and her eyes widen.

“Oh.”

(Except that last voice doesn't belong to Ariel at all.)

-

If you were to tell Killian this morning that—on his last day in town—he’d be mediating his comatose brother’s love life, he’d laugh at you. Yet, here he sits, inside his brother’s hospital room, talking to Tink of all people.

(It’s a shame that of all nicknames she’s had over the years, this one stuck most of all.)

She’s explained it, twice, and still Killian doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand why she feels obligated to visit so often; what the phone call—just before his accident—between the two of them means; how Elsa’s been making her own regular visits here, too, and the two have yet to bump into one another, nevermind Elsa never mentioning being on the outs with his brother.

Emma only shifts in her seat, watching the conversation unfold. She had offered to step out of the room, but one quick look from Killian and she knew he couldn’t be left alone. Not with this. After all, Tink’s been her friend since she first walked into town and Killian’s known her for what seems like forever.

Maybe that’s why neither of them can quite process the story of Elsa and Tink and the comatose man there before them 

“So you’re dating my brother?” Killian asks for the third time this afternoon 

“No!” Tink quickly says. She opens her mouth to speak then shuts it, shaking her head. She takes a moment to compose herself, to find the right words, before she crosses her arms over her chest. “It’s complicated. Just...not the kind you think.”

Ariel could only keep Henry away for so long, it seems. Before Killian can ask another question, the two of them return from their trip to the cafeteria downstairs. He carries a small covered cup with him, and with the way he happily drinks it she’s certain it’s the hot chocolate he had been craving since this morning.

“Are we leaving yet?” he asks, making his way over to Emma.

“Right now,” Killian says, answering for her. He doesn’t wait for Tink to say anything, doesn’t say anything to Ariel either as he gathers Henry’s book and leads the boy out of the hospital room.

Emma only offers the two of them an apologetic look before she follows them out and down the hall. His silent demeanor continues as they step into the elevator so she opts for silently standing there, giving him his space; a quick glimpse at him and she’d be able to spot the clenched jaw, the emotions that swirl inside of him because of everything.

Him leaving. 

(His doing.)

The uncertainty of them going forward.

(His fault.)

Liam still in a coma.

(While not directly his fault, he’ll still take that blame on, too.)

He holds Henry a bit closer as they ride the elevator down; the young boy, for the most part, silently sips his hot chocolate as he leans against Killian. He finds comfort in knowing he hasn’t pulled away from him.

-

For one split moment, he forgets about it all. He forgets that he’s leaving in the morning, that he’s well on his way to splitting up his family, and that there’s nothing he can do to stop this.

As he steps back into their room, teeth brushed and face washed, he spots Emma curled up in bed. He wonders, briefly, if he should take the couch tonight, but her outstretched hand immediately answers that question.

“Thought you were asleep,” he says, settling into bed next to her.

She shakes her head before she rests her head against his chest. “Can’t sleep.”

It’s not long before their legs are tangled together, Killian’s arms wrapped around her as her head finds the crook of his neck. His heart’s racing, he can hear it, but she doesn’t seem to mind.

A small voice jolts them both from their peace. Emma lifts her head up just as Killian does, both of them spotting Henry by the door. He moves first, shifting the blanket out of the way as she waves him over.

He settles between them, resting his head against Killian’s chest as he grabs Emma’s arm and wraps it around him.

“Love, I—” he begins to say, but she just shakes her head.

“Don’t,” she tells him. “Let’s just enjoy this. Please.”

“Okay.”

He drops a kiss atop Henry’s head before sleep claims them all.

-

Saying he leaves like a thief in the night would be too kind, too poetic, too peaceful.

He leaves like a tornado leaving a path of destruction in its wake.

He spends the morning before his flight shoving articles of clothing haphazardly into his bag—though it’s not like he needs many.

Whatever happiness they experienced last night was fleeting at best. Henry ran off to his room the moment he awoke and hasn't uttered a word since he asked Ingrid for more cinnamon on his cocoa.

Killian doesn't need the reminder of his own kid not wanting to spend time with him to know he's messed up—badly.

The car ride to the airport’s spent in silence, Killian having said his goodbyes to Ingrid at the house before she left for the ice cream shop, leaving him with the two people he never expected to disappoint showing their complete, well, disappointment in him all the way there.

He expects her to just drop him off and drive away, knowing it’s what he’d deserve after all of this anyway. Still, Emma Swan proves just how much better she is than him. She parks and tells Henry to watch his step as he gets out, both of them planning on walking him inside.

Henry reaches for his hand the minute he hops out of the car, eyes unable to lift themselves from the ground. He almost breaks down then and there at the thought of leaving them and the realization that he doesn't deserve two kind people as them.

“You have your boarding pass?” Emma asks, stopping by the start of the security line.

Killian nods, waving his phone. “In here.”

“Passport?”

He nods, patting at the duffel bag on his side as Henry’s hand tightens around his own.

“So I guess this is it.”

(Little does he know those words will come to refer to more than just his departure.)

Before he can think about the line he’s to join soon, before the thoughts of his stupidity, his impulsivity come racing back into his mind, Emma grabs his jacket and pulls him to her. She presses one final kiss against his lips before pulling away to rest her forehead against his.

“Come back to me,” she whispers. He drops a kiss against her forehead, blinking back the tears that won’t seem to go away. 

The small tug on his hand brings him back to the airport, seeming to thrust him back into the fact that he’s leaving now. Crouching down, he drops a kiss against Henry’s cheek before enveloping the boy in his arms.

“Be good for your mum, you hear me?” he whispers, smiling once he feels Henry nod against his shoulder. “I’ll write and call as often as I can.”

“You promise?” Henry asks, pulling away. Killian nods, pressing another kiss against his forehead before he stands up.

Emma wipes her eyes, pointing to the security line. “Go. Before you miss your flight.”

He nods, leaning over to drop one last kiss against her lips. He watches as Henry slips over to her side, grabbing onto her hand so tightly his knuckles turn white.

And when he disappears into the crowd of people, they do too.

-

Months pass before they hear from him.

 He calls, briefly wishing Henry a happy birthday despite the actual date being a week or so away. He’ll be stationed somewhere far away, he tells them, but promises to send Henry a birthday card when the day arrives.

The day arrives but the card doesn’t; neither does a phone call.

At least, not one from him.

The frantic yet happy voice from the hospital letting them know that Liam’s regained the ability to breathe on his own again provides them with a bit of good news.

-

“Kid, get your feet off the bed,” Emma scolds, returning back to the hospital room with a jello cup and a small cupcake, courtesy of Ariel over at the nurses’ station. She drops both on the table above Liam’s bed, sliding it over to Henry.

Henry groans, shifting his feet off the edge of Liam’s bed before he turns his attention back to the book in his lap. 

Sure, spending the day visiting your not-as-comatose-not-quite-brother-in-law wasn’t the ideal way to pass the time on your day off, but if your kid asks to spend the day with his third favorite person the day after his birthday, who is she to deny him that request?

She knows it won’t make up for the fact that they spent the day hovering over her cell phone, waiting for a call from Killian that never came, but she hopes it’ll help. From the way he’s deflected any and all talk about him, she doesn’t think it will.

“If you’re not going to eat your cupcake, I’ll gladly take it off your hands,” she says, reaching for it once more. Henry simply narrows his eyes up at her, causing her to hold her hands up in surrender before she takes the vacant seat on the opposite side of Liam’s bed.

The man has a bit of color to him, now that he can breathe without the ventilator, but the fact that he hasn’t woken up yet worries them a bit. Sure, the doctors say that’s all normal and to be expected, but that hasn’t stopped them all from worrying that day won’t come.

Emma reaches for the remote atop the table, flipping through the channels until something catches her eye.

“Hey, look,” she says, pointing to the screen. “That looks like one of the boats Killian told us about, doesn’t it?”

“It’s not a boat, mom,” Henry says, looking up from his book. “It’s a—”

“Ship.”

Her eyes widen at the foreign voice, hoarse and raspy and evident of the lack of use in so long.

“It’s a ship.”

Henry slams his book shut, all but falling out of the chair as he steps closer to the bed, closer to the man stirring awake.

“Ariel!” Emma calls out, thumb frantically pressing the red button next to his bed. “Ariel, get in here!”

As the redhead enters the room, she stops, hand flying over her mouth in shock. Emma follows her gaze, not to the man on the bed but to the television screen where a new ship graces their screens and a familiar face scroll appears.

She freezes, eyes scanning the headline just above the red BREAKING NEWS bulletin.

EXPLOSION ON USS ROGERS DURING HOSTAGE SITUATION. CAPT. NEMO AND LT. K. JONES CONFIRMED STILL ON BOARD. 

to be continued...

tagging a few friends: @ive-always-been-a-pirate, @optomisticgirl, @lesliesbknope, @swankkat, @captainswanouat, @captainstudmuffin, @hookedoncaptswan, @hook-come-back-to-me, @swanemma, @sherifffjones, @shady-swan-jones, @timeless-love-story, @spartanguard, @swanemma and i don’t know who else to tag, and if i’ve forgotten to tag you i apologize but let me know for the next update and i will definitely tag you!

[claire-tessa-blog]

Slimesquest!! Chapter One

So after finishing up the first chapter I realised how fun it was to write and didn’t understand why I stopped for the longest time, to those of you who read this, have a cookie, doubt most people will though~ Still without further ado, I give you, Slimesquest!!

                                                Level 0:Human

“Jesus Christ, how long do we have to wait?” A disgruntled voice echoed in the room, all eyes turning back to see a man impatiently tapping his feet. The young woman in front of him simply continued to look around the lobby bored, she had been to the local GameGo so many times she couldn’t even feign interest in the stock. In her own impatience she gazed down to her wrist, checking her watch, 12:33, it had officially been over thirty minutes since they could all pick up their copy of Reldor Online, the launch party being the reason the crowded store was even still open this late. She sighed as she thought back to the action packed and elegant trailer for the new mmo, that had only been announced a month prior to it’s release date, a odd way to market a game for sure.

The room went back to it’s quiet murmur between the groups who came together as the line slugged forwards, time seeming to crawl by as each transaction was handled. By the time the woman got to the front another hour had passed. Sliding her wallet out of a hoodie pocket she bought her copy and turned around to leave, catching the hopeful face of the man who had previously shouted. That lasted all of about fifteen seconds before the cashier informed him, “Sorry sold out.” The woman had to hold back the biggest laugh as she hurried out of the room while the angry man fumed and raged, demanding compensation for all his wasted time, but she didn’t hear the rest.

The winter’s air was brisk as she was exposed to it once again, quickly walking back towards her home, hands clutching the bulky box that contained the new game, the fact that the game itself only came in physical copies in this day and age strangely resurfacing before being buried under her own thoughts once more. She shuffled through the dimly lit sidewalk until she reached her apartment building and ascended, looking forwards to getting back to her quiet home, eager to play the game that had been hyped up so much in the past month, between the trailers on websites and television, to the incredibly positive pre-reviews.

But exhaustion was wearing heavy on her eyelids, her body was telling her to just flop on the cushion as she walked in the door and locked it behind her. “Just 5 minutes couldn’t hurt? She’d just do character creation and then play the next day.”, she mentally informed herself, sliding to her desktop and unpacking the rather over the top box. Looking over the ornate almost book shaped box she slid it apart and dug through all the various pre-order goodies and fished out the disc, shiny gold and gleaming under the light of the desk lamp.

Siding the disk into the drive she was amazed to see, that within seconds it had loaded up and was on a title screen. ‘What not even an install?‘ She thought to herself as she hovered over the ‘login’ button, clicking it excitedly. Unsurprisingly, the simplicity stopped there as a user agreement popped up. And just like everybody else she quickly scrolled the agreement downwards, to trick the system into thinking she had read it, and clicked accept. A new box popped up, asking if she was sure?

“What? Do you want me to play your game or not?” She said clicking yes once, twice, three times before she was allowed to move on. Wow that was just obnoxious, what would make them think they should program THAT in? Nevertheless she looked at the empty character screen and moused over the button labeled ‘Character Generation’. The button changing to have a small fairy like creature next to it when doing so. ‘Cute’, she thought as she clicked it and was treated to a screen of pure blackness.

She gazed at he blank light-less screen, “Did… did it crash?” She spoke aloud as she waiting as nothing happened, After a solid minute she reached for the controls, but they were unresponsive only, ‘Holy shit this just froze my system!’ she thought as she reached for the emergency power button. Just as her fingertip graced the hard plastic the screen began to move, a blinding light in the center before a small girl flew onto screen. Looking her over she was indeed that fairy from the button change, made sense.

Breathing out a sigh of relief that she didn’t need to nuke her computer to get it working again she slumped back in the desk chair as the fairy began to talk. “Hello there new user! And welcome to Reldor! I am Gen, the Character Generation Fairy, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance!” Came from her speakers as the fae seemed to be talking to her through the screen. “Voice acting isn’t bad, most MMO’s avoid that so that’s a plus.” The woman stated from her chair and leaning back to look at the ceiling for a second, before getting back to the cut-scene playing for her. Thankfully it went by fairly quickly, some brief explanation about the game's lore, events, maps, yada yada, hurry up already!

After the Whole roleplaying spiel finished Gen spoke up again, “You are now going to enter our state of the art character creation quiz!” What. She watched as what looked to be a bunch of personality quiz questions entered the screen, a whole page of them. “This test is to determine the best suited class and race for yourself, so that you will enjoy the game as much as you possibly can, so please try to answer it truthfully; you can not make any new characters in this game nor can you delete yours.” The fuck! What kind of bullshit game was that! What kind of game didn't let you choose your own race and class? Maybe it was one of those games that was a bit more free-form so that class choice meant less?

She looked at the questions, a lot of hypothetical and play-style questions. She sighed as she began to work her way through the questionnaire, finishing after a few solid minutes of work, yawning wide. She watched as the fairy floated around the screen, a loading symbol circling before the small woman piped up. “Test complete! Congratulations, the results are in! Your highest rated race is.. DRAGON!” As fiery letters popped up over her screen, blinding red flames flaring up.

Sitting there stunned for a second before a smile cracked on her face, “Seriously, I didn’t even know that was an option how coo-” She started talking to herself before the fairy character began to burst out laughing, tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry new user, that was a joke~” She stated through the laughter. Again, what the fuck. “Your real race is,” She started back up, “Human! Ehhh, how boring.” That last comment practically cut into her, but human wasn’t so bad.

After a second loading screen popped up the fairy once again started talking. “Unfortunately, All slots available for Human’s are taken, as a result you will be assigned the next most likely race.” Wait what! How in the hell do you run out of the human race in a video game, what did that even mean!! She fumed as the digital pixie was starting to infuriate her, hopefully all of the systems didn’t involve anything like her, And waiting as it calculated again. “The new results are in user, your race is now, Blorb!”

“Huh?” The woman shot forwards in her chair, looking as a picture of a round, gelatinous monster rolled on screen under the name ‘Blorb’ the words dripping with a slime like effect. She was about to just give up for the night and try again later, before the fairy piped up yet again, “All systems go, prepare for transfer new user!” The obnoxious brat spouted out, a stereotypical magic circle popping up on screen as the blank space went black. It was oddly soothing, watching the magical circle pulse and change colors, and the gamer felt her eyes growing even heavier than they were before, the last thing she remembered was the feeling of keys pressing into her face and the fairy's voice stating ‘Enjoy your journey through Reldor!’

[apocalypse-angel]

*crashes into this post like the Kool-Aid man*

DID SOMEBODY SAY THEY NEEDED F/F RECS??

Once & Future, Cori McCarthy and Amy Rose Capetta (who are gettin’ hitched IRL, queer power couple) -- a King Arthur retelling in space, in which absolutely everyone is queer. The heroine is an illegal immigrant named Ari, the most recent reincarnation of King Arthur, who is fighting Space Amazon alongside her beautiful bride, Gwen. It’s really funny and the romance is A+.

Nothing Happened by Molly Booth -- A retelling of Much Ado About Nothing set at summer camp. The “main” Beatrice / Benedick is M/F, but Claudio/Hero is now F/F and both “Claudia” and Hero are perspective characters. It fixes almost all of the issues I have with Shakespeare’s original, i.e. the slut shaming.

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand -- This one is as much a horror/thriller as it is a romance, so be warned. All three perspective characters are queer girls (ace, bi, and ??? probably lesbian, respectively) and two of them fall in love with each other. There is a monster and body horror and a murder mystery. I love it so much.

Girl Mans Up by M.E. Girard -- A butch girl struggles to get her conservative Portuguese family and her gamer bro friends to accept her as she is. Meanwhile, she starts dating the cute girl who works at GameStop. CW: There is an off-screen sexual assault in the first act of the book.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon -- This book is 884 pages long, but it is ONE, COMPLETE fantasy story. The main romance is between a mage spy and the foreign queen she is assigned to protect. There are other perspective characters, but it’s clear that the spy is the protagonist and the main focus of the plot. Also, DRAGONS!

The Afterward by E.K. Johnston -- After saving the world, a fellowship of lady knights disbands and tries to recover from the War. One of them learns to run a farm while desperately trying to figure out how to have a relationship with a prickly thief. If you wanted 100k of post-LotR f/f domestic fluff with a big scoop of hurt-comfort, this is your book.

Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins -- I HAVE NOT READ THIS ONE YET, however, it comes highly recommended from a trusted source. An American girl decides to go spend senior year at an elite boarding school in Scotland, only to wind up with a literal princess as a roommate. Enemies-to-lovers ensue.

It’s Not Like It’s A Secret by Misa Sugiura -- A Midwestern girl moves to Silicon Valley with her old-fashioned Japanese parents, experiences culture shock, falls in love with the cutest girl at school, discovers family secrets, and flirts through poetry. CW: The heroine is kind of ignorant about other PoC and cultures, and while she gets called out on it, some readers felt it wasn’t handled as well as it could have been. YMMV.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir -- This comes out in September, but if there is any book you pre-order on blind faith in your life, pre-order this one. It’s like if Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett decided to sit down and write a gothic space opera together. LESBIAN NECROMANCERS. IN SPACE. THERE’S ALSO FENCING. THE HEROINE IS THE BIGGEST DUMBEST JOCK AND I WOULD DIE FOR HER. (It’s also, like, crushingly funny. Like, I-shouldn’t-laugh-because-this-was-a-death-scene-but-the-prose-is-making-jokes funny.)

The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza by Shaun David Hutchinson -- I trust Shaun absolutely with teen girl characters and he has never disappointed me. The heroine is the product of a virgin birth and has been hearing voices all her life, and now she has weird healing powers that may or may not be causing the end of the world. The F/F romance is more central to the plot than the literal apocalypse.

PLEASE MESSAGE ME ANY TIME FOR MORE, THIS IS LITERALLY MY JOB!

Hm... I’ll Still Read It

I think I know the oneshot youre talkin abt but the sound mixing makes it really hard for me to listen, like, bg vs voices— I process maybe. 40% of what anyone says,

[ofravens-andwritingdesks]

Nothing So Well As You: Chapter One

Aka the Anderperry and Cheeks Theater AU I promised on my main and an excuse to write about the theater my friends and I actually spent a lot of time in during the festival of new works when I lived in Roanoke last year. It will go up on my AO3 one of these days I promise

Summary: Fresh out of college, playwright Todd Anderson moves to Roanoke, Virginia to be in the place to be for new plays. He enters is play Nothing So Well As You, a play on Shakespeare’s Much Ado, into the Roanoke Festival of New Works, never dreaming it will be chosen. And when it is, his world turns upside down. Especially once he meets the man playing his romantic lead….

Chapter One

It was a strange turn of events that caused Todd Anderson to move from his college town in Vermont down to Roanoke, Virginia. But mostly, it was the fact that his college advisor had told him that Roanoke was the place to be for playwrights trying to establish themselves. New York would come in time, when he was older and had some plays under his belt. But since he was just starting out, he wanted to be in Roanoke.

So when he graduated, he picked up his bags and moved. He got himself a decently paying job at a local publishing company. He was mostly doing organizational work, but he didn’t mind. The simple work meant that he could spend more time with his mind wandering so he could tweak his play and not get behind.

He had been writing and editing this play for over a year. It had been his senior thesis. John Keating, who had been Todd’s advisor at school, had only one real complaint about the boy: his perfectionism meant he never believed his writing was finished, and it would be his downfall in the professional world. Todd had never actually believed that until he was staring down the deadline for entries to be considered for the Roanoke Festival of New Works with a play he wasn’t one hundred percent satisfied with. In the end, he submitted it while also thinking of things he could have fixed. Promised he would fix if he got accepted. He didn’t think he would. Here he was, a nobody fresh out of college, being considered among writers who had been doing this for years if not their whole lives. No, he didn’t stand a chance.

So when he received an email from a Charlie Dalton, who informed him that he would be directing his play in the Festival of New Works and wanted to know how soon he could hold auditions, he nearly started crying in the middle of the office he was working in. When he could finally compose himself to tell the concerned middle aged women working with him why he looked so floored, they all cheered for him. They had already been planning on attending, but now they had all the more reason to.

So soon, Todd Anderson was sitting in a room at the Mill Mountain Theater, sitting behind a desk with the man who would be directing his play, waiting for people to file in for auditions.

Charlie had clearly been doing this for a while. He was at least familiar with the way things worked at this theater, as proven by his relaxed and almost arrogant attitude about the entire ordeal as he explained it to Todd. “Alright, so this shouldn’ take too long. I’ve already picked out all the behind the scenes guys, so you won’ have to worry about that. We always recruit from the local women’s college. They’ve got a great theater program, they’ll be a good asset to your play. Some’ll probably audition too, but I don’ see ‘em gettin’ more than ensemble.” He had a thick drawl, one that was unusual for the locals he had heard from around here. They weren’t so below the mason-dixon as to warrant the accent coming from his mouth.

“Where are you from?” Todd asked absentmindedly.

Charlie furrowed his eyebrows. “Georgia. Went to Virginia Tech, but spent most of my time here, despite the bitch of a drive. Can I start callin’ people in now?”

Todd felt so completely out of his element. He knew how theater worked, in theory. He had taken a couple of theater classes in order to better understand how to write plays. But he had never actually been on this side of it all. He had never imagined that he would actually get here. But Charlie clearly knew what he was doing and it made Todd feel like a complete idiot. He just nodded and Charlie started calling people in for their auditions.

It went smoothly, for the most part. Todd didn’t know how he would ever cast this play on his own. He could see so many of the people auditioning playing the parts he had written. But he supposed that was what Charlie was there for. He had an eye for these things. And Todd could tell when a person auditioning wasn’t going to get the part just by the way Charlie held himself. His body would stiffen ever so slightly if he didn’t like the acting choices a person was making. He managed to hold his tongue about it, but Todd felt bad that the person in front of him believed they had a chance.

Just after a girl with a curly bob left her audition, a tall boy walked in. Todd could have fallen out of his seat. The way he smiled at the two of them put all of the stage lights to shame. His brown hair was neatly put into place. He was wearing a deep blue sweater and khaki pants, but Todd could forgive the choice of pants for the sheer warmth the boy brought into the room. And he knew next to nothing about casting, but he couldn’t shake that the boy was exactly how he had pictured one of his characters while writing them

Charlie rolled his eyes, “Get out of here, Neil, you already know you’ve got the lead.”

Todd could hardly hide the excitement in him. So this was going to be his Quincy, the romantic lead for his play. Everything was falling into place.

The boy, Neil, shook his head. “I’m auditioning like everyone else, Charlie. If you don’t stop giving me leads without auditions, people are gonna start thinking I’m sleeping with you for parts.”

“So that’s not what you’re sleeping with me for?” Charlie teased, leaning forward.

Todd couldn’t explain why his heart sunk.

But Neil laughed. “You wish you were getting me.” He looked to Todd apologetically. “I’m sorry for him. He thinks he’s clever and witty, but really he’s just crass and annoying. You must be Mr. Anderson.”

Todd blushed. The boy standing in front of him couldn’t have been more than a year younger than him, if that. “T-There’s no need for the formality. Please, call me Todd.”

Neil grinned. “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Todd. Your play is a work of genius. I love how it subverts the typical Shakespearean tropes and–”

“Stop flirtin’ with the playwright and get on with your audition if you insist on havin’ one. This is why people are gon’ think you’re sleepin’ with directors and playwrights for parts,” Charlie interrupted. But the director looked more amused than anything.

Neil flushed a light pink, which was nothing in comparison to the crimson that was coloring Todd’s cheeks. The boy nodded and opened up his script. He started to read Quincy’s main soliloquy, and when he did, Todd could see why Charlie had picked him out quickly to play the lead. There was a melody in the way that he performed. It was obvious that he understood the character perfectly, and loved him. In short, he was perfect. And the playwright was completely blown away. He could have sat there for the rest of the day and listened to him recite lines. But after the soliloquy was over, Charlie sent him out of the room and reminded him that rehearsals started next week.

There were only three people after Neil who auditioned, and none of them were particularly remarkable. They weren’t bad, just nothing to write home about. When the last person left, Charlie turned to Todd.

“I’m gon’ be honest, I already have your cast list figured out. So unless you wanna make a case for any particular actor…”

Todd shook his head. “Uh, no, I trust your judgement. Quincy is the most important anyway, and you’ve got him…perfect.”

Charlie smiled. “When I read the play, I thought of Neil. I told Neil he had the part the day I was assigned your director.”

“How do you know each other?” Todd wanted to know everything there was to know about this magnificent man, every minutiae and detail of him.

Charlie leaned back in his chair. “Met at VT. He was pre-med, funnily enough. But halfway through his sophomore year, he told his dad to shove it where the sun don’ shine, and look where we are now. I like to think he got that from me.”

Todd nodded, chewing on the inside of his cheek. He flushed as the next question left his lips. “And you two arent…?”

Charlie just laughed. “Me and Neil? No way, he was just pullin’ my leg. Not my type, Neil. He’s too much of that sappy poet, hopeless romantic type. I ain’t lookin’ for that right now. Neil’s the kinda guy you bring home to Mom and Pop, settle down with. I’m the kinda guy they warn you ‘bout.” He offered Todd a wink, which made the playwright blush involuntarily. He chuckled like it was part of a game. “I’ll send out the cast and crew list tomorrow then. Rehearsals start next tuesday.” He offered his hand to shake. “Nice to meetcha, and I’m lookin’ forward to workin’ with you.”

Todd nodded and shook his hand before getting up and leaving the theater they were in. Upon exiting, he was immediately met by a curly-haired ginger with horn-rimmed glasses. “Oh! You must be Todd Anderson. Sorry to accost you like this. I’m Steven Meeks, I’ll be the stage manager for the play.” He spoke with an accent that told Todd that he was not from down south, but he couldn’t place just where.

Todd smiled. It was still so surreal to hear people talking about being on the crew for the play that he wrote. It was hard to believe that the play wasn’t just his anymore, that it belonged to other people too, that they could love it almost as much as he did.

“Nice to meet you, Steven. Have you met the director yet?”

The ginger rolled his eyes. “Please, just Meeks. And unfortunately. Charlie Dalton is the most most miserable person I’ll ever have the misfortune of working under. He thinks that Georgia accent and southern charm can get him whatever he wants. But I’m from Brooklyn and I’m not phased.”

“Brooklyn?” Todd asked, an eyebrow raised. “How’d you end up here, then? Guess I shouldn’t talk, being from Vermont.”

Meeks ran a hand through his curls, “I ask myself that question every goddamn day. Thought getting so far away from home would be nice. And the theater here is great, but I kind of can’t wait until I can go back up there. But anyway, just wanted to introduce myself. I’m sure you’ve got places to be. Nice to meet you, Todd.”

Todd smiled, “Likewise, Meeks.”

Todd made his way back to his tiny apartment just outside of Roanoke and flopped down on his couch. On the coffee table in front of him was the original, unedited copy of his play. It was hard to believe that his senior thesis had turned into all of this. It was hard to believe that in about two months time, people would be paying to see something he spent countless sleepless nights working on. And as he picked that original script up, he couldn’t help but feel like he had done something great.

[ravenbell-exchange]

Here come the prompts!

These are for all of us to use, so please feel free to peruse, reblog, explore, comment, and be generally delightful. Everyone will be receiving their assigned prompts later today, but remember that we are writing two stories each: one from the assigned prompts, and one from this list. You are free to pick anything apart from stuff you yourself prompted. All Dear Author letters that were published before now are linked below, but please do check the prompter’s blog just in case -- they might’ve posted a letter later on.

If you didn’t sign up for this challenge, but want to use any of the prompts below to write a fic -- go for it! As long as you make sure to credit where you got the prompt from, you are very welcome to play with us.

Now, without further ado:

1.

Url: @raiindust​

Dear Author letter: here

Prompt 1: ❝We won’t ever be holy, or galaxies or whatever else I’ve ever fucking written about. We are built upon too many ruins, but my god, some ruins are known as wonders of the world. And you’re mine.❞ Source: here Raven + Bellamy + at the edge of the world: setting off with a group on a post-apocalyptic road trip. Stumbling across a long abandoned city; deciding that it’s as good a place as any to begin anew.

Prompt 2: Raven + Bellamy + Grounder Alliance: Raven and Bell are chosen as emissaries of Skaikru to help develop relationships with the various Grounder clans, and spend the better part of (insert your preference of period of time here) moving and living between one, two or multiple clans.

Prompt 3: ❝You’re the girl I want to be slow dancing with at 2AM in my kitchen.❞ Source: here

Raven + Bellamy + things you said to me at 2AM: canon compliant, canon divergence, modern au. Raven and Bellamy have a lot of things to say, so why not say them to each other in the dead of night, when things are still.

Prompt 4: Raven + Bellamy + Modern AU.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Unnecessary angst, torture or heaping of awful things onto individual characters (so basically canon for my ray of sunshine Raven Reyes) is absolutely not a thing I want to see, hear and especially read. A light sprinkling of personal angst is absolutely fine, but anything more than a tablespoon and it hurts my soul. So character death is pretty much off the table as well.

Also: I tend to stay away from super heavy kinks, or anything that isn’t moderate smut then fade to black. Despite my issues with canon representations of these things, devaluing Octavia’s relationship to Bellamy, or Finn’s importance to Raven as a person are also things I don’t like to see. That being said, if your plot doesn’t call for it, also don’t feel the need to throw it in there for the sake of it.

2.

Url: @finnicks​

Dear Author letter: here

Prompt 1: i thought this time last year i'd be dead.

Prompt 2: you had so much to give, you thought I couldn’t see.

Prompt 3: here 

Prompt 4: shy

Prompt 5: i just want to stay here with you

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Super heavy kinks. Smut for the sake of smut. Character bashing - it's a little unnecessary. Ship bashing. Would prefer it if it's pure Raven/Bellamy, and if any side ships are merely sides/mentions. No AUs where they're in the modern world; I prefer it if it's an AU on canon. First person or second person.

Also: I've seen all seasons of the show, so I'm okay with any requests that point out a specific season.

3.

Url: @wells-jaha​

Dear Author letter: here

Prompt 1: An intimacy

had grown between us

like a forest around a castle.

- Louise Glück, excerpt of The Sword in the Stone

(taken from here)

Prompt 2: (Art) Heist AU

What I kind of want (a few examples):

1) In which Raven and her gang have been part of a series of heists all over the continent and Bellamy is the private detective/ police detective (if you really want to) set out to stop their next possible heist. But maybe he's impressed, maybe a little into her? Who knows!

2) In which Raven and Bellamy are part of different rival heist groups both set on the same object, naturally that means that they will clash somehow.

These are of course only examples, you can do whatever you want. It doesn't even have to be an art heist. I'm however kind of set on Bellamy and Raven being on different sides for this, so that it (hopefully) turn into to nice frenemy making out stuff.

Prompt 3: And we fall through empty corridors

And we talk in useless metaphors

(Only cause we're lonley)

A Vague Prompt around the topic/theme Friends with Benefits with Ben Howard's Empty Corridors (Youtube Link Here) as inspiration. Can be canon compliant, doesn't have to be.

Prompt 4: Something about longing, about being in love, but never finding the right words, about circling each other for years and years, always missing the right time, always having the courage in the moment the other is in a relationship or not there. A horrible dance, Bellamy and Raven are caught in.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: daddy kink, gruesome death scenes, gore, a successful suicide

Also: my fandom blog is named wells-jaha, so guess which character I would like to see a) living b) as a friend/former partner of Bellamy or Raven?

i'm fine with Octavia being in the fanfiction, but either revise the whole character (make her like season 1) or deal critical with her actions.

I'm fine with a lot of stuff, but would prefer if the writer could tag: abuse, self harm, suicide, alcoholism (note: only use if a character has an alcohol problem, not if characters just drink alcohol)

4.

Url: @kinselllas​

Prompt 1: Raven's on a date waiting for Finn, and he takes so long to show up, Bellamy ends up sliding into his seat to take over so she doesn't feel stood up (could be taken in a few directions)

Prompt 2: Bellamy and Raven reunite at a wedding, slow dance, admit that maybe...deep down...there's always been something ;)

Prompt 3: Pre-series/Season 1 AU- Bellamy is the person Raven comes to the ground for.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: N/A

5.

Url: @ravenbells​

Dear Author Letter: here

Prompt 1: Modern AU with a proper millennial vibe. Think debt, lack of stability and shit jobs, but also strong political opinions, easy access to sex ed, social media. Let them negotiate boundaries, use sex toys, struggle with navigating both commitment and casual sex, change jobs and houses all the time. Obviously I’d like Bellamy and Raven to be front and center, but if you want to make them function within a group of family/friends (Octavia, Monty, Miller, Harper, Lincoln, whoever else you please), be my guest.

Prompt 2: The Ancient Rome AU I Deserve. I don’t really care how you place them. Republic? Early Empire? Late Empire? I am not the boss of you. Just let them be Romans.

Prompt 3: Canon-verse. Bellamy thinks of his body as a shield.

Prompt 4: Bellamy and Raven agree to have a casual, no-strings-attached relationship, except they both catch feelings embarrassingly quickly. You can make this canon or modern, I don’t really mind.

Prompt 5:  Canon-verse. Anything exploring parenthood. It can be a pregnancy scare, or an actual baby, or maybe just a conversation about sex/contraception that turns into Bellamy and Raven discussing their options.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Overly sugary view on parenthood; major character death; erasing Raven's disability.

Also: I have only seen the first 2 seasons, please have mercy on me.

6.

Url: @tentaclabia​  (shortitude on AO3)

Dear Author Letter: here

Prompt 1: (canon-ish) The one where they keep cuddling each other for no good reason, just casually in a snuggle pile talking about life and the future or the past, or just sleeping. Casual contact, casual offerings of comfort, and of course they mean so much more.

Prompt 2: (future!au or canon-deviation!au) There is a unanimous decision to explore more land, so it's Bellamy and Raven in a car, on a roadtrip, being at peace and exploring and feeding their curiosity and feeling free and happy. Also in  love.

Prompt 3: (once-upon-a-canon) The one where they talk about the elephant in the room: that time they had sex. (And how they'd totally do it again.)

Prompt 4: (the trashiest prompt) Raven is convinced that Bellamy has feelings for Clarke and is determined not to let history repeat herself when it comes to love. Bellamy is just confused and wonders how much more can he do save for write 'RAVEN REYES PLEASE LOVE ME' on his forehead for her to notice just who he's really pining for.

Prompt 5: (canon reinterpretation) Season 5, except Raven and Bellamy have been together for 4 and a half years and there's nothing that can tear them apart. Alternatively, what season 5 would look like, if they were.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: death. angst over death of parental figure (please don't). trauma and exploitation of trauma. torture. unhappy endings.

Also: I haven't mentioned it, but it goes without saying that I will be glad for all and any smutty content :)

 7.

Url: veritykims (twitter)

Prompt 1: Thieves AU: Any AU where Bell and Raven are both thieves of some kind (con artists, burglars, hackers, pickpockets). Favorites include Robin-Hood type criminals (think Leverage) and rivals trying to steal the same thing/con the same person (think Imposters); but any take is cool. I would absolutely love to see this set aboard the Ark in the canon verse, but other settings are cool too.

Prompt 2: Android AU: Any AU where Bell and/or Raven is an android! Contemporary settings are cool, but so is futurism. I would really like to see this as a canon divergency too, given that ALIE sort of gives us the basis for self-aware AIs. Up to you!

Prompt 3: Reincarnation AU: Any AU where Bell and Raven keep meeting across lifetimes. I really like the variation where one of the two is immortal for some reason (vampire, robot, demon, deity, etc.) and the other is either a human or a mortal supernatural creature; so that’s a safe bet; but I’m sure to love any take on this.

Prompt 4: Pirates AU: Historical pirates! Anything will be cool, but I’m a big fan of Raven as either Captain or Quartermaster, and Bell as an ex-navy soldier who heavily resents the Empire.

Prompt 5:  Other prompts (I can’t post a Dear Author so bear with me): Modern Holmes/Elementary AU. Professors at the same college AU. Queen Of The South AU. Any vigilante/superhero AU. Pride and Prejudice AU. Space pirates/space bounty hunters AU. Pacific Rim AU.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: No pregnancy or babies, but I’m cool with adopted children and teens. No AUs that erase Raven’s disability. No canon-compliant fic that portrays the Griffins, Octavia, Murphy or Finn in positive light (I would much rather they just don’t exist, at any rate). No abuse, no assault, no rape.

Also: I don’t mind canon compliant fic, but I haven’t watched in a couple seasons, so I only really know the characters and plots for s1, s2 and part of s3. I love Nathan, Wells, and Monty; as well as Lincoln, Jaha, Kane, Indra, Anya, Sinclair, Gina, Harper and Monroe; and I love seeing them integrated into stories. Big fan of Bell/Nathan and Bell/Wells as well as Bell/Wells/Raven and Gina/Raven/Bell, so if you wanna go for polya… And, JSYK, explicit stories are more than welcome!

8.

Url: @growlereish

Dear Author Letter: here

Prompt 1: gina/bellamy/raven - gina and bellamy are dating. raven is pining for both of them, but unbeknownst to her they're both also in love with her! somehow they all work this out and get together.

Prompt 2: bellamy/raven - post-breakup, learning how to be friends again.

Prompt 3: bellamy/raven - virgin!bellamy enlists his best friend raven to experiment with this whole sex thing. casually. but then both of them catch feelings.

Prompt 4: bellamy/raven - marriage of convenience which they are both determined will stay platonic. of course, it does not.

Prompt 5:  bellamy/raven - doing fun activities together and enjoying their life and being happy!! some sadness is also okay but i just want my kids to have a Good Day for once in their lives.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: kidfic, pregnancy, power imbalances

Also: pls warn for self-harm and coming out stories involving parents

9.

Url: @icouldnotsee

Prompt 1: Bellamy and/or Raven in political office, whether this be in a monarchy or a democracy. Bonus if there's a coup (that they're the subject of or that they're behind). Also bonus if one or both weren't expecting to be in power, but they were runner-up to someone else  and now are thrust into that position and must find their footing.

Prompt 2: Telepathy, where after getting sick with the disease that the Grounders sent to the 100 through Murphy, Bellamy develops the ability to hear thoughts but he can't hear Raven's. Of course, that's just the version of it that came to my mind, but anything with mind reading/telepathy is cool with me, canon or AU, any set up or situation.

Prompt 3: They meet in the Ark, either really young, after Bellamy becomes a guard, after Finn takes the fall for Raven's spacewalk, or after Bellamy's a janitor.

Prompt 4: Hurt/Comfort. I have no other specifications on this one, I just really love that trope.

Prompt 5: Angel/demon or angel/human or human/demon or angel/angel or demon/demon stuff! I love seeing that in stories and it'd be cool to see interactions with creatures beyond humanity.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: I'm rather not receive smut beyond it being implied. Also, I really would not like to see any infidelity or character bashing in the fic I receive.

Also: No nsfw content.

10.

Url: @laufire

Dear Author Letter: here

Prompt 1: Braven + Mythology AU. Specially if they’re still humans who get mixed up in some Gods Drama™

Prompt 2: Raven + her love for science. Preferably canon-verse. Can be gen or shippy.

Prompt 3: Braven Historical AU of your choosing.

Prompt 4: Post-s4 canon divergence: all the sex in space. Zero-G sex, kinky sex, healing emotional sex. Just. Sex.

Prompt 5:  Bellamy/Raven/Shaw – Canon Divergent AU: Different First Meeting (as in, Shaw meets Braven/the Space7 in a different way).

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Clarke written in any positive way. I don’t want them cheating on other people (poly ships are more than fine). Any rating works for me. No watersports, humiliation. I’m not really into Modern AUs or Soulmate AUs. And PLEASE don't erase Raven's disability.

11.

Url: @maybenowforeverlate

Prompt 1: Bellamy admiring Raven In Space. Raven on earth was already incredible, and that was her adapting to a new environment. but the environment she's from? in her fucking element??? i'm into it and so is Bellamy.  competence. kink.  

Prompt 2: "She could not remember, now, ever, feeling happy or sad. Only hungry. Only empty, and greedy, and insatiable. "

(Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless)

Raven centric, canon or AU.

Prompt 3: Raven being subtle about taking care of Bellamy. prefer a loose canon-verse, but can be modern AU or any type of AU.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: I do not know what's happening in the most recent season, and I would prefer any canon-verse/divergence to be from before Bellamy and co get back to Earth w/Raven in space.

12.

Url: @becketted

Prompt 1: The 100 are sent down to the ground but in batches of people, rather than all at the same time, Bellamy is among the first to go to earth, Raven among the last ones. When she arrives Bellamy is the one who has to show her the ropes on how earth and the Grounders work, he geeks out about both the plants/animals stuff and the bits of earth history he's discovered (so different from what they teach in the Ark!), while Raven uses her skills to help everybody face the structural challenges of living on the ground, Bellamy admires a lot, they fall in love, etc.

Prompt 2: 1960s AU where Raven is a mechanic and the Space Race inspires her to become an astronaut, her trials to become one, etc. Bellamy can be a geek working at NASA (national security staff?), a journalist covering Raven's amazing career, her supporting boyfriend, I don't mind, I just want Raven as a 1960s/70s astronaut. It doesn't have to be a super detailed AU, just the flavor of the era would do.

Prompt 3: Arranged marriage/marriage by lottery. It can be on the ground or in the Ark, I don't care, I just love this trope a lot, I just want them awkwardly sharing a bed and pining a lot.

Prompt 4: Pirates AU, because who doesn't want that? (Historical, but space pirates are okay too, as long as Raven and Bellamy do some swashbuckling)

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Pregnancy. Anything that involves Murphy in a positive light (Murphy being in the fic is fine, as long as the portrayal is negative). I will not read/write Kane/Abby stuff. Other characters are fine.

Also: I'm very partial to stories about the Grounders (both reading and writing them), they're my faves.

13.

Url: chll51 (AO3)

Prompt 1: It can be canon compliance or not but just something to do with this quote:

"I think we deserve a soft epilogue, my love. We are good people and we've suffered enough."

Prompt 2: modern AU: First day at a new job and the boss is Bellamy, who Raven has Hooked up with the night prior.

Prompt 3: high school reunion: need a date.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: I don't care much for smut but if it's fit with the story then sure. also, I have vanilla taste so I guess keep it like that.

[ao3feed-crowley]

not I for an angel

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2GcacRZ

by howlikeagod

A postponed Armageddon and a new assignment have brought Crowley and Aziraphale closer—and further apart—than ever. Newt and Anathema get tempted; Heaven and Hell play chess; the kids, it turns out, are alright.

Or: the Much Ado About Nothing AU absolutely no one asked for.

Words: 4077, Chapters: 1/5, Language: English

Fandoms: Good Omens (TV)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, M/M, Other

Characters: Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens), Anathema Device, Newton Pulsifer, Beelzebub (Good Omens), Gabriel (Good Omens), The Them (Good Omens)

Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Anathema Device/Newton Pulsifer

Additional Tags: Character Tags To Be Added - Freeform, Much Ado About Nothing, have you ever looked at a piece of media and thought ''but what if it was a queer miracle play''?, Miscommunication, Implied/Referenced Cheating, (sort of), plots and capers, Bastardizing Shakespeare, which is a pre-existing tag hell yes, egregious footnotes

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2GcacRZ

[gamingtipsandtrickshacks]

Revived Kickstarter Game Unsung Story Ending Pre-Production This Month; Reveals Lots of New Details

The story of Unsung Story (no pun intended) is quite painful for fans of the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. Announced in 2014 promising a grand return of Final Fantasy Tactics creator Yasumi Matsuno in 2015, the project was largely mismanaged by Playdek until Little Orbit stepped in to try and salvage the agonizing project last year.

Luckily, it seems that there may still be a happy ending to this whole mess, as Little Orbit has gone to work following Matsuno-san’s original design, and despite having to start from scratch to remove Playdek’s influence, progress is being shown.

In a Kickstarter update released today, Little Orbit Founder and CEO Matthew Scott announced that pre-production will end in April, which signifies a major development milestone. With the exception of art, everything is now “fairly well mapped out.” The art side is progressing more slowly, and the developer is going to keep working on concepts until they’re spot-on. In fact, the screenshots that you’ll see at the bottom of the post showcase only gameplay, with placeholder assets.

A Twitch stream showing the current build will happen later this month, alongside the first developer blog about the game.

The development team has completed the second draft of the design document, which is over 100-pages long. All of the twenty classes have been created, named, assigned skills and roles. Classes are split into four schools, Technology, Mana, Divine, and Nature. The initial class tree and progression has also been mapped.

So, without further ado, we get to take a look at the classes themselves:

Sellsword: Mercenaries unbound by specialty, Sellswords are useful in several areas, but are masters of none. This is one of two beginning classes, along with the Physician. The Sellsword is used to teach players a few basic mechanics for melee combat, but also touches on some more metagame functionality such as boosts. They use Short Swords & Shields.

Physician: The player begins the game with the Physician unlocked, but it serves to teach them more advanced mechanics, such as ranged attacks, the use of items and cross-class abilities. Even though they start off weak, Physicians are capable of combining their items to create new effects. This becomes especially important in the late-game, where advanced items can only be created by combining two lesser items. They use Slings.

Guardian: Guardians stay at the front of combat, defending key choke points and fortifying their allies from harm. Stalwart warriors that protect those they deem worth protecting (which, incidentally, can include themselves). They use Long Swords and Shields .

Archer: Archers are a simple but effective long-range attacker, capable of striking distant foes with ease. The backbone of any successful army. Archers are able to fire further from high ground, which allows them to out-range opposing Archers. This means the ideal situation for a Archer is to be on high ground, with friendly units fortifying them from melee enemies. They use Longbows.

Plague Weaver: These guys represent a power that humans would sooner choose to forget—rot, disease and decay. They are all about debuffing the opponent’s entire team from anywhere on the map. These debuffs are typically less likely to hit than one that’s focus-cast on a single target, but the added benefit of affecting multiple enemies at once can alleviate the risk.

Elementalist: Elementalists focus on magical power in its most pure and destructive form. They deal lots of damage to single-targets. They use Staves.

Sharpshooter: The Sharpshooter sports a unique tool—known as the Infusion Rifle. They use nearby tiles to infuse their rifle and fire bullets with specific effects.

Necromancer: Necromancers are masters of death, of others and of themselves. They utilize corpses and debuffs. Necromancers can regain Health and Focus from enemy corpses, make them explode and even raise them as minions. They use Scythes.

Spellbreaker: Spellbreakers are powerful anti-magic tanks, capable of absorbing magical damage. They should be paired up to protect allies that are vulnerable to magic attacks, or used to hunt down enemy magic users to end them quickly. They use Two-Handed Maces.

Cavalier: The Cavalier is a “civilized” tank class who focuses on avoiding damage. The rapiers they wield have naturally high weapon evasion stats, allowing them to easily parry incoming blows. They also have some options for moving other units around the battlefield. They use Rapiers.

Scout: The Scout infiltrates enemy lines, sneaking up on a vulnerable backline enemy and finishing them off before the enemy team can react. They’re also capable of stealing equipment, which makes them essential versus powerful units, such as some bosses. Stealing isn’t easy, but results in not only disarming the opponent, but giving the stolen equipment to the player’s party. They use Daggers.

Priest: Priests are zealous wielders of healing magic, able to appreciate the value of life and taking measures to ensure it is preserved. They are backline support casters, keeping their allies healed through combat. They use Rods.

Berserker: Powerful—and possibly insane—the Berserker is a powerhouse in melee combat. They lose their wits as readily as they take lives, so must be guided with a cautious hand. They like to get up close and personal, taking heavy hits and dealing them in return. The Berserker focuses on buffing himself, then using special abilities that benefit from those buffs to deal damage, debilitate foes and keep himself alive. They use One-Handed Axes.

Wildlord: Wildlords are capable of learning the abilities of monsters they encounter and wielding these strange powers to great effect. They focuse on using Monster Skills, which means they have a great variety of skills to use in combat. However, they lack a specific tactical focus, instead serving to fill in holes in the team. They use Glaives.

Saboteur: These guys should rush ahead of their team, place as many traps as possible and then retreating to safety. Once behind allied lines, they can pelt the enemy team with bombs, dealing decent ranged damage in an area. They use Hand Bombs.

Shadow: Shadows are the unspoken and unseen hand of fate. They operate by inflicting themselves with status effects, then passing them on to foes and finishing them off with Killing Blow. They use a Sickle and Chain.

Disciple: A Disciple is able to fight at close range, keeping his allies alive while dealing respectable damage. They have unusual ranges for all of their abilities, and are able to attack two squares away. They use Bo Staves.

Echo Knight: Echo Knights wield an unusual and incongruous power, warping the very fabric of space around themselves and their foes. They are able to move around the battlefield quickly and easily, ensuring they reach the best possible position to hold the enemy back. They use Two-Handed Swords.

Sword Speaker: These guys unite the arts of swordplay and spellcraft. Sword Speakers practice with all swords and have the ability to summon a magic version of any blade they have previously mastered.

Librarian: The Librarian focuses on speeding up the player team and slowing down the enemy team, allowing players to perform devastating attacks with much less risk of missing. If you’ve been following our forum updates, then you’ll know Librarians are part of the lore and are part of the core storyline. They use Tomes.

The development team has also worked on how stats are calculated under the hood, and how level progression influences them. Numbers might change during development, but the equations should be close to final. Below you can read a list of those stats:

Strength: determines physical damage with most weapons.

Intelligence: determines the power of most abilities and some weapons.

Speed: determines how frequently a unit acts.

Agility: partially determines evasion rates and partially determines the damage of Agility Weapons.

Health: determines how much damage a character can take before they’re killed.

Focus: determines how many spells a character can cast before needing to restore their Focus (our version of magic power).

Natural Strength: a character’s starting strength based on several factors.

Natural Intelligence: a character’s starting intelligence based on several factors.

Some work has been done on recruitment, with permadeath in mind (excluding story characters). Each recruitable unit will look different thanks to randomly-generated appearance.

Bubble maps for all levels have been designed, identifying the location, story character requirements, and primary objectives. Grey box layouts for each map are being worked on, which will facilitate playtesting.

For the sake of full disclosure, I, like many others, have backed this project back in 2014. While it’s natural to retain a level of skepticism, it’s obvious to me that Little Orbit is doing what it can to fulfill a promise made by others, with is nothing short of praiseworthy. Hopefully, they will be successful.

[colonialcolone]

Lasting Impressions, Part One

My old friend Johnny Hamlin recently posed the challenge to list ten albums that made a lasting impression on you as a teenager. The challenge? Try not to think too hard about the task at hand and list only one album per band/artist. Without further ado, here is part one of my list, covering ten albums I heard between 1993-1996 (eighth through tenth grades).

THIRTEEN: ‘93-’94

Pearl Jam “VS.” (released October 19, 1993). Though I was already familiar with PJ, having received their debut Ten on cassette in 1991, Vs. set afire an unbridled passion for this band that continues to this day. This set the record for the most copies of an album in its first week and was a huge step forward -- both musically and lyrically. I had a promo poster for this release with a negative space photo of Eddie Vedder performing live with the band -- it graced my wall in high school and college until it would hang no more; the borders long since eroded from years of hanging and re-hanging from paint to concrete block to bulletin board.

Dr. Dre “The Chronic” (released December 15, 1992). I only had this record because of my older brothers, one of whom was an avid listener of “gangster rap.” Oh the genres we assigned... This was a smack in the face -- the stories, language, and rhymes were unlike anything I had ever heard. My brothers liked it, so it had to be good! The ferocity of the language throughout this record is more than a little influential (for better or worse) on the more colorful “adult” language in my repertoire to this day. That is a direct result of listening to this album on headphones over and over. Besides, I cannot imagine my mom’s reaction had I listened to this over the speakers!

Helmet “Meantime” (released June 23, 1992). I didn’t hear this record until 8th grade and looking back, it was quite a kick in the teeth. I guess you could classify these New York stalwarts as “alternative metal” but that does not seem to do this masterpiece any justice. It is noisy, chunky, “heavy” music with a backbone that sounded nothing like the hair metal that dominated the radio airwaves in the early 90′s. The riffage on ‘In the Meantime’ is crucial. Page Hamilton (the only original member still involved with current-day Helmet) sounded so angry! There was some serious Black Sabbath worship when Page yelled “ironhead!” near the end of that second song. Though I didn’t know it at the time, this could have been my gateway to hardcore music, though Sick of it All and -- much later -- Refused opened my ears to many more awesome bands...

Sepultura “Chaos A.D.” (released October 19, 1993). I purchased this record solely on the strength of its cover. “What the hell is going on in that drawing?” I thought, as I strolled the small aisles of the only record store I knew at the time -- Karma. “I bet this is something I should not be listening to...” ...so I bought it. Karma Records was about a 20 minute bike ride down Union Street to Westfield Boulevard, then through Cool Creek Park to the Village Park Shopping Center. I made the ride at least once every two weeks to buy new music, which explains where all of the money went that I made from delivering newspapers. These guys were from Brazil! They had long hair, but didn’t play butt metal! The photos and the artwork inside were insidious and controversial (for an 8th grader). Look, the heaviest record I’d heard to this point was probably Metallica’s Ride the Lightning or And Justice For All, so to hear this Brazilian thrash metal was a whole new experience. These guys became a staple on a radio show I ran for two years later on in high school.

Soundgarden “Superunknown” (released March 8, 1994). I am confident my early love for all things Seattle and grunge had everything to do with Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and this band. Badmotorfinger (1992) was not exactly accessible to a middle-schooler, but this album, released about five months before I started high school, was all the rage thanks to the strength of lead single “Black Hole Sun,” whose video graced MTV’s 120 Minutes (thank you Lewis Largent, and later, Matt Pinfield) and Alternative Nation, later exploded into the daytime rotation. The tracks that resonate with me are still ‘My Wave’ and ‘Head Down.’ This is mid-90′s grunge at its finest.

FOURTEEN: ‘94-’95

Slayer “Divine Intervention” (released September 27, 1994). I admit I am not as crucial as many of my metal-head friends who cut their teeth on Reign in Blood, South of Heaven or Seasons in the Abyss, but Divine Intervention was my introduction to thrash metal kings SLAYER. Look at that cover! The giant PARENTAL ADVISORY EXPLICIT CONTENT sticker probably stood out more so than did the weird skull and skeleton artwork. Rock Video Monthly featured the music video for the song ‘Dittohead’ and I bought the record shortly after burning up the rewind button on my VCR to watch the video over and over. This is not the best Slayer release, but it made the biggest impression at the time on a kid starting high school. I have yet to see Slayer perform live, still believing that even in my mid-30s I would die at one of their shows, this after hearing countless stories -- no doubt highly exaggerated -- about the brutality of the live crowds. If the crowds were anything like the video mentioned above, I should probably expect a lot of circle pits, chairs and hammers being thrown through panes of glass, and fists flying everywhere! Rest in Power, Jeff Hanneman.

Nine Inch Nails “The Downward Spiral” (released March 8, 1994). “Head Like a Hole” from the first NIN full length release had been burning up alternative radio airwaves for nearly five years, and even though I already had that record, The Downward Spiral stuck in my mind as more influential. This was definitely another “headphones only” release, especially after hearing Trent Reznor scream “God is dead...and no one cares!” on the song ‘Heresy.’ Yeah, this was not one to play around the parents. The video of their live performance of ‘Closer’ at Woodstock ‘94 is, to me, still the stuff of nightmares  -- Reznor coated in mud, synthesizers being played to the point of destruction -- but for me the songs that packed the most punch were ‘March of the Pigs’ and ‘The Becoming.’ The whole album shifts and morphs from aggressive to haunting to beautiful, yet is buried under the foreboding weight of Reznor’s subconscious; it still holds up over twenty years later.

Sick Of It All “Scratch The Surface” (released 1994). For a city kid transplanted to the suburbs north of Indianapolis, getting access to underground music in the pre-”Internet in every home” era was a near impossible task. You had to hope for an older friend with a car or someone who knew of a cool record store or a show in a basement or garage where one could be exposed to new sounds, people, and experiences. It could have been worse -- I could have been born or raised in nowhere Kansas or upper North Dakota! Enter Rock Video Monthly. I have them to thank for a welcome introduction to many of the bands who eventually led to my introduction to punk and hardcore music. Sick of it All were -- at the time -- brutal, uncompromising, New York City hardcore. This release, while admittedly not their best, struck a chord with me. I finally got to see them in late 1999 when they headlined a show at the Emerson Theater in Indianapolis. Their set was incredible, it was my first time in a TRUE circle pit, and to date it remains one of my fondest live show memories.

FIFTEEN: ‘95-’96

Quicksand “Manic Compression” (released February 28, 1995). I did not pick this up until over a year after its release, well after the first single ‘Thorn in My Side’ received heavy airplay. I have no idea what the radio station plays now, but WRZX 103.3FM (X103) was THE alternative station for Indianapolis and surrounding areas. At least until they started playing Creed. Quicksand, a group of ex-hardcore stalwarts (Gorilla Biscuits, Bold, Beyond, Youth of Today) branched out from their previous bands with short, clipped songs held together by chunky bass and nearly torn apart by the abrupt, sharp guitar work. ‘Backward’ and ‘Delusional’ are personal favorites here. Quicksand were way ahead of their time on this dark, almost depressing, release and it is a shame they were not properly recognized during their heyday.

Deftones “Adrenaline” (released October 3, 1995). Don’t let me fool you; I listened to a lot of bad music in high school, too (read: nu-metal). Deftones were lumped into that genre -- which now seems unfair given their longevity and how their sound has evolved -- at the same time Korn was getting bigger. Adrenaline was raw and had little focus, even if you were patient to listen past the last track for the “hidden” song. I had this on CD and a dubbed cassette copy, which later became stuck in my car’s tape player. For three months (right before I upgraded to a CD changer) this played seemingly every time I got in the car. I can still remember Scott Bender exclaiming (jokingly) “Dude, can we listen to something OTHER than Deftones?!?!” I have stuck with this band for over twenty years. I can remember being genuinely disappointed I had to bail on a trip to Cleveland to see them at Warped Tour ‘98. Looking back, that was probably a good decision!

/End part one.

[gamingtipsandtrickshacks]

Revived Kickstarter Game Unsung Story Ending Pre-Production This Month; Reveals Lots of New Details

The story of Unsung Story (no pun intended) is quite painful for fans of the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. Announced in 2014 promising a grand return of Final Fantasy Tactics creator Yasumi Matsuno in 2015, the project was largely mismanaged by Playdek until Little Orbit stepped in to try and salvage the agonizing project last year.

Luckily, it seems that there may still be a happy ending to this whole mess, as Little Orbit has gone to work following Matsuno-san’s original design, and despite having to start from scratch to remove Playdek’s influence, progress is being shown.

In a Kickstarter update released today, Little Orbit Founder and CEO Matthew Scott announced that pre-production will end in April, which signifies a major development milestone. With the exception of art, everything is now “fairly well mapped out.” The art side is progressing more slowly, and the developer is going to keep working on concepts until they’re spot-on. In fact, the screenshots that you’ll see at the bottom of the post showcase only gameplay, with placeholder assets.

A Twitch stream showing the current build will happen later this month, alongside the first developer blog about the game.

The development team has completed the second draft of the design document, which is over 100-pages long. All of the twenty classes have been created, named, assigned skills and roles. Classes are split into four schools, Technology, Mana, Divine, and Nature. The initial class tree and progression has also been mapped.

So, without further ado, we get to take a look at the classes themselves:

Sellsword: Mercenaries unbound by specialty, Sellswords are useful in several areas, but are masters of none. This is one of two beginning classes, along with the Physician. The Sellsword is used to teach players a few basic mechanics for melee combat, but also touches on some more metagame functionality such as boosts. They use Short Swords & Shields.

Physician: The player begins the game with the Physician unlocked, but it serves to teach them more advanced mechanics, such as ranged attacks, the use of items and cross-class abilities. Even though they start off weak, Physicians are capable of combining their items to create new effects. This becomes especially important in the late-game, where advanced items can only be created by combining two lesser items. They use Slings.

Guardian: Guardians stay at the front of combat, defending key choke points and fortifying their allies from harm. Stalwart warriors that protect those they deem worth protecting (which, incidentally, can include themselves). They use Long Swords and Shields .

Archer: Archers are a simple but effective long-range attacker, capable of striking distant foes with ease. The backbone of any successful army. Archers are able to fire further from high ground, which allows them to out-range opposing Archers. This means the ideal situation for a Archer is to be on high ground, with friendly units fortifying them from melee enemies. They use Longbows.

Plague Weaver: These guys represent a power that humans would sooner choose to forget—rot, disease and decay. They are all about debuffing the opponent’s entire team from anywhere on the map. These debuffs are typically less likely to hit than one that’s focus-cast on a single target, but the added benefit of affecting multiple enemies at once can alleviate the risk.

Elementalist: Elementalists focus on magical power in its most pure and destructive form. They deal lots of damage to single-targets. They use Staves.

Sharpshooter: The Sharpshooter sports a unique tool—known as the Infusion Rifle. They use nearby tiles to infuse their rifle and fire bullets with specific effects.

Necromancer: Necromancers are masters of death, of others and of themselves. They utilize corpses and debuffs. Necromancers can regain Health and Focus from enemy corpses, make them explode and even raise them as minions. They use Scythes.

Spellbreaker: Spellbreakers are powerful anti-magic tanks, capable of absorbing magical damage. They should be paired up to protect allies that are vulnerable to magic attacks, or used to hunt down enemy magic users to end them quickly. They use Two-Handed Maces.

Cavalier: The Cavalier is a “civilized” tank class who focuses on avoiding damage. The rapiers they wield have naturally high weapon evasion stats, allowing them to easily parry incoming blows. They also have some options for moving other units around the battlefield. They use Rapiers.

Scout: The Scout infiltrates enemy lines, sneaking up on a vulnerable backline enemy and finishing them off before the enemy team can react. They’re also capable of stealing equipment, which makes them essential versus powerful units, such as some bosses. Stealing isn’t easy, but results in not only disarming the opponent, but giving the stolen equipment to the player’s party. They use Daggers.

Priest: Priests are zealous wielders of healing magic, able to appreciate the value of life and taking measures to ensure it is preserved. They are backline support casters, keeping their allies healed through combat. They use Rods.

Berserker: Powerful—and possibly insane—the Berserker is a powerhouse in melee combat. They lose their wits as readily as they take lives, so must be guided with a cautious hand. They like to get up close and personal, taking heavy hits and dealing them in return. The Berserker focuses on buffing himself, then using special abilities that benefit from those buffs to deal damage, debilitate foes and keep himself alive. They use One-Handed Axes.

Wildlord: Wildlords are capable of learning the abilities of monsters they encounter and wielding these strange powers to great effect. They focuse on using Monster Skills, which means they have a great variety of skills to use in combat. However, they lack a specific tactical focus, instead serving to fill in holes in the team. They use Glaives.

Saboteur: These guys should rush ahead of their team, place as many traps as possible and then retreating to safety. Once behind allied lines, they can pelt the enemy team with bombs, dealing decent ranged damage in an area. They use Hand Bombs.

Shadow: Shadows are the unspoken and unseen hand of fate. They operate by inflicting themselves with status effects, then passing them on to foes and finishing them off with Killing Blow. They use a Sickle and Chain.

Disciple: A Disciple is able to fight at close range, keeping his allies alive while dealing respectable damage. They have unusual ranges for all of their abilities, and are able to attack two squares away. They use Bo Staves.

Echo Knight: Echo Knights wield an unusual and incongruous power, warping the very fabric of space around themselves and their foes. They are able to move around the battlefield quickly and easily, ensuring they reach the best possible position to hold the enemy back. They use Two-Handed Swords.

Sword Speaker: These guys unite the arts of swordplay and spellcraft. Sword Speakers practice with all swords and have the ability to summon a magic version of any blade they have previously mastered.

Librarian: The Librarian focuses on speeding up the player team and slowing down the enemy team, allowing players to perform devastating attacks with much less risk of missing. If you’ve been following our forum updates, then you’ll know Librarians are part of the lore and are part of the core storyline. They use Tomes.

The development team has also worked on how stats are calculated under the hood, and how level progression influences them. Numbers might change during development, but the equations should be close to final. Below you can read a list of those stats:

Strength: determines physical damage with most weapons.

Intelligence: determines the power of most abilities and some weapons.

Speed: determines how frequently a unit acts.

Agility: partially determines evasion rates and partially determines the damage of Agility Weapons.

Health: determines how much damage a character can take before they’re killed.

Focus: determines how many spells a character can cast before needing to restore their Focus (our version of magic power).

Natural Strength: a character’s starting strength based on several factors.

Natural Intelligence: a character’s starting intelligence based on several factors.

Some work has been done on recruitment, with permadeath in mind (excluding story characters). Each recruitable unit will look different thanks to randomly-generated appearance.

Bubble maps for all levels have been designed, identifying the location, story character requirements, and primary objectives. Grey box layouts for each map are being worked on, which will facilitate playtesting.

For the sake of full disclosure, I, like many others, have backed this project back in 2014. While it’s natural to retain a level of skepticism, it’s obvious to me that Little Orbit is doing what it can to fulfill a promise made by others, with is nothing short of praiseworthy. Hopefully, they will be successful.

[gamingtipsandtrickshacks]

Revived Kickstarter Game Unsung Story Ending Pre-Production This Month; Reveals Lots of New Details

The story of Unsung Story (no pun intended) is quite painful for fans of the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. Announced in 2014 promising a grand return of Final Fantasy Tactics creator Yasumi Matsuno in 2015, the project was largely mismanaged by Playdek until Little Orbit stepped in to try and salvage the agonizing project last year.

Luckily, it seems that there may still be a happy ending to this whole mess, as Little Orbit has gone to work following Matsuno-san’s original design, and despite having to start from scratch to remove Playdek’s influence, progress is being shown.

In a Kickstarter update released today, Little Orbit Founder and CEO Matthew Scott announced that pre-production will end in April, which signifies a major development milestone. With the exception of art, everything is now “fairly well mapped out.” The art side is progressing more slowly, and the developer is going to keep working on concepts until they’re spot-on. In fact, the screenshots that you’ll see at the bottom of the post showcase only gameplay, with placeholder assets.

A Twitch stream showing the current build will happen later this month, alongside the first developer blog about the game.

The development team has completed the second draft of the design document, which is over 100-pages long. All of the twenty classes have been created, named, assigned skills and roles. Classes are split into four schools, Technology, Mana, Divine, and Nature. The initial class tree and progression has also been mapped.

So, without further ado, we get to take a look at the classes themselves:

Sellsword: Mercenaries unbound by specialty, Sellswords are useful in several areas, but are masters of none. This is one of two beginning classes, along with the Physician. The Sellsword is used to teach players a few basic mechanics for melee combat, but also touches on some more metagame functionality such as boosts. They use Short Swords & Shields.

Physician: The player begins the game with the Physician unlocked, but it serves to teach them more advanced mechanics, such as ranged attacks, the use of items and cross-class abilities. Even though they start off weak, Physicians are capable of combining their items to create new effects. This becomes especially important in the late-game, where advanced items can only be created by combining two lesser items. They use Slings.

Guardian: Guardians stay at the front of combat, defending key choke points and fortifying their allies from harm. Stalwart warriors that protect those they deem worth protecting (which, incidentally, can include themselves). They use Long Swords and Shields .

Archer: Archers are a simple but effective long-range attacker, capable of striking distant foes with ease. The backbone of any successful army. Archers are able to fire further from high ground, which allows them to out-range opposing Archers. This means the ideal situation for a Archer is to be on high ground, with friendly units fortifying them from melee enemies. They use Longbows.

Plague Weaver: These guys represent a power that humans would sooner choose to forget—rot, disease and decay. They are all about debuffing the opponent’s entire team from anywhere on the map. These debuffs are typically less likely to hit than one that’s focus-cast on a single target, but the added benefit of affecting multiple enemies at once can alleviate the risk.

Elementalist: Elementalists focus on magical power in its most pure and destructive form. They deal lots of damage to single-targets. They use Staves.

Sharpshooter: The Sharpshooter sports a unique tool—known as the Infusion Rifle. They use nearby tiles to infuse their rifle and fire bullets with specific effects.

Necromancer: Necromancers are masters of death, of others and of themselves. They utilize corpses and debuffs. Necromancers can regain Health and Focus from enemy corpses, make them explode and even raise them as minions. They use Scythes.

Spellbreaker: Spellbreakers are powerful anti-magic tanks, capable of absorbing magical damage. They should be paired up to protect allies that are vulnerable to magic attacks, or used to hunt down enemy magic users to end them quickly. They use Two-Handed Maces.

Cavalier: The Cavalier is a “civilized” tank class who focuses on avoiding damage. The rapiers they wield have naturally high weapon evasion stats, allowing them to easily parry incoming blows. They also have some options for moving other units around the battlefield. They use Rapiers.

Scout: The Scout infiltrates enemy lines, sneaking up on a vulnerable backline enemy and finishing them off before the enemy team can react. They’re also capable of stealing equipment, which makes them essential versus powerful units, such as some bosses. Stealing isn’t easy, but results in not only disarming the opponent, but giving the stolen equipment to the player’s party. They use Daggers.

Priest: Priests are zealous wielders of healing magic, able to appreciate the value of life and taking measures to ensure it is preserved. They are backline support casters, keeping their allies healed through combat. They use Rods.

Berserker: Powerful—and possibly insane—the Berserker is a powerhouse in melee combat. They lose their wits as readily as they take lives, so must be guided with a cautious hand. They like to get up close and personal, taking heavy hits and dealing them in return. The Berserker focuses on buffing himself, then using special abilities that benefit from those buffs to deal damage, debilitate foes and keep himself alive. They use One-Handed Axes.

Wildlord: Wildlords are capable of learning the abilities of monsters they encounter and wielding these strange powers to great effect. They focuse on using Monster Skills, which means they have a great variety of skills to use in combat. However, they lack a specific tactical focus, instead serving to fill in holes in the team. They use Glaives.

Saboteur: These guys should rush ahead of their team, place as many traps as possible and then retreating to safety. Once behind allied lines, they can pelt the enemy team with bombs, dealing decent ranged damage in an area. They use Hand Bombs.

Shadow: Shadows are the unspoken and unseen hand of fate. They operate by inflicting themselves with status effects, then passing them on to foes and finishing them off with Killing Blow. They use a Sickle and Chain.

Disciple: A Disciple is able to fight at close range, keeping his allies alive while dealing respectable damage. They have unusual ranges for all of their abilities, and are able to attack two squares away. They use Bo Staves.

Echo Knight: Echo Knights wield an unusual and incongruous power, warping the very fabric of space around themselves and their foes. They are able to move around the battlefield quickly and easily, ensuring they reach the best possible position to hold the enemy back. They use Two-Handed Swords.

Sword Speaker: These guys unite the arts of swordplay and spellcraft. Sword Speakers practice with all swords and have the ability to summon a magic version of any blade they have previously mastered.

Librarian: The Librarian focuses on speeding up the player team and slowing down the enemy team, allowing players to perform devastating attacks with much less risk of missing. If you’ve been following our forum updates, then you’ll know Librarians are part of the lore and are part of the core storyline. They use Tomes.

The development team has also worked on how stats are calculated under the hood, and how level progression influences them. Numbers might change during development, but the equations should be close to final. Below you can read a list of those stats:

Strength: determines physical damage with most weapons.

Intelligence: determines the power of most abilities and some weapons.

Speed: determines how frequently a unit acts.

Agility: partially determines evasion rates and partially determines the damage of Agility Weapons.

Health: determines how much damage a character can take before they’re killed.

Focus: determines how many spells a character can cast before needing to restore their Focus (our version of magic power).

Natural Strength: a character’s starting strength based on several factors.

Natural Intelligence: a character’s starting intelligence based on several factors.

Some work has been done on recruitment, with permadeath in mind (excluding story characters). Each recruitable unit will look different thanks to randomly-generated appearance.

Bubble maps for all levels have been designed, identifying the location, story character requirements, and primary objectives. Grey box layouts for each map are being worked on, which will facilitate playtesting.

For the sake of full disclosure, I, like many others, have backed this project back in 2014. While it’s natural to retain a level of skepticism, it’s obvious to me that Little Orbit is doing what it can to fulfill a promise made by others, with is nothing short of praiseworthy. Hopefully, they will be successful.