#it was not a good story btw like the writing was really bad due to how fast I wrote it

[scribe-cas]

Made a post about my tag list only to be faced with the most beautiful tags to ever exist

he's just that babygirl. like cmon really look at him.

that man is too dumb of ass to do any real harm and we all know it

@rbbess110

[punch-love]

have u ever participated in nanowrimo?

Not only have I participated but I wrote 90% of my book in one day because someone said I wouldn’t be able to do it. I’d never do it again though - writing that much in twenty-four hours truly was all I could ever need from the experience.

[neoanedotheart]

Lazy thing i wanted to do!!! they're just silly :3

I think dave is a pretty princess and John is awkward

I'll be yapping below

I believe that Dave texts John right after he gets his ass handed to him DAILY. It usually plays out like this where they banter and Dave never really goes through the extent of explaining what thoroughly happens to him so John lives in forever ignorant bliss. And this leads Dave to feel like there's more of disconnect because he first of all doesn't really know how to articulate his feelings and second abuse doesn't seem like abuse to the victim. So he goes about everyday unknowingly yearning to be saved by someone greater than him, which is why I put the snow white reference at the end hehe.

Snow white as a fairy tale is extremely cliche, you got the prince in shining armor showing up conveniently on a horse and saving the girl. There's always this hierarchy placed upon the story where the damsel in distress is saved by a man, that man being portrayed as a greater being.

And with John taking place as the prince in this context paints him as this greater being. And I feel like a part of Dave envies and despises John for being this way, for being "perfect" or in a way. Greater than him.

The thing is in the original snow white story she's unconscious, that's undesirable. But it adds to the desperation of wanting to be saved, shining a better looking light on a person who isn't really there for reasons you want them to be. However John is a sincere person, it's more so the lack of communication or true understanding of one another that leads to this rift, this belief that John isn't there for Dave because he loves him, but because he's his friend and it's John's duty as a friend to save him. Which also brings me to the last line where Dave never corrects himself, and how he insinuates that he'll be unconscious due to being placed in a glass coffin much like snow white was when she was poisoned. He's at this stage where he doesn't want to be saved by an outer source, a greater person than him. He wants to be saved by himself he wants to prove worthy, but then conflicting within his mind is also this idea he isn't good enough to. We all know that Dave believes he isn't a hero and explicitly states John is the hero multiple times throughout homestuck. So he stays waiting.

John however, refers to Dave as Cinderella, Cinderella gets abused and put through plenty of torture from her step sisters and is saved through marriage of some person she just met. There's still this base line of being saved by man however there's this more mutual understanding of what they're getting into, a similar yearn for one another. Though he never caught her name he was still willing to find her, the real her. Which is John in this case, he probably understands he's missing something in the big picture but can never find out what and the best he can do is hope that the other half still held on to what they once were and was willing to share.

This is a pre-sburb interaction btw they're just unknowingly foreshadowing a shit ton.

Sorry if there's like bad shitty writing in here, I'm rambling and it's like almost midnight hehe

[singmyaubade]

in love with my bullies

warning: mentions of smut : throatfucking, p in v bullying, and cursing

sypnosis : the marauders bullied you, tortured you. what will happen when you finally stick up for yourself?

dark!poly!marauders x female!reader

pacing is horrible in this story, ik but i was writing it while listening to music LMAO. did not proofread btw..

once again, here you were.

washing green slime gunk out of your hair in the abandoned bathrooms due to another marauders prank that was only towards you.

somehow their pranks always involved washing something out.

you tried your best to not be bothered or even show any sign of disdain in your face but this had really pissed you off.

it was relentless.

everyday, every hour, every minute, every second. the marauders would continue to bully you for no reason other than you being a slytherin.

but you would think that since there are so many slytherins, you wouldn't be top pick. you were quiet, kept to yourself, and never tried to go noticed in a huge crowd.

yet all the marauders did was pick you out and torture you.

the only one that showed you mercy was peter, he usually hung out with his girlfriend and never paid you much attention.

you thought it would be remus since he had a reputation for being mature and kind-hearted but even he showed you no mercy.

it's not like you could ask for any help, you didn't have a lot of friends that could help and even though you were a pureblood, the pureblood slytherins didn't accept you because of you family not helping the dark lord.

it wasn't easy.

and even though you tried to reason with them, they refused due to the fact you believed in 'blood supremacy' and you thought muggles 'deserved hell' which was complete rumors and you didn't believe that at all.

and now it was time to go back to class and the slimy substance had yet to disappear on your head. you then tried several spells in order to get it out of your hair and one had worked, getting whatever you couldn't.

you performed a drying spell before exiting out of the bathroom. you stepped out to see three out of the four marauders laying on the left of the wall with a smirk embroided on their face.

you scoffed, trying to move elsewhere.

"was that a scoff i heard?" james asked, stepping towards you with intimidation.

you never tried to look scared but you could tell it was painted all over your face.

"just let me go." you said, whimpering a little.

"aww," sirius stood in front of you, "are you gonna cry?" he asked, mocking you.

"i think she is." james replied in the same tone.

you looked over to remus who was looking at the entire situation with a look of entertainment and interest.

"fuck you." you spat, stepping face to face with james.

"don't say something you'll regret." he responded in a dark tone as you moved to step backwards but sirius was suddenly behind you.

you tried to carry a strong look on your face but they could tell you were easily intimidated.

"if you wanna go so bad," remus stood off of the wall and toward you, "all you have to say is please." his pointer finger holding up your chin.

you knew you wouldn't be able to move without doing as he asked.

"please," you whispered, locking in his eye contact, eyes watering.

"please what?" remus asked.

"please let me go." you said.

"good girl," he complimented, "that's all you had to say."

"you just have to be good, bunny." sirius whispered in your ear, feeling his hot breath down your neck, hand holding your waist.

in this moment, you were glad this was an abandoned hallway.

the worst part was, you wanted sirius to touch you more, aching for relief in your core.

you couldn't stop the butterflies in your belly nor the vibration in your entire body, it was as if you could feel all of your sense ten times more especially in your cunt.

your eyes were even getting blurry as if you were stuck in a trance.

you suddenly snapped back to reality to realize there was nobody around you, remus's eye contact, sirius's hand on your shoulder and james's stern tone, all gone.

it was all as if you had imagined it and the only thing that argued with that was the vibration throughout your body.

you had decided to take the rest of the day off, going to your dorm.

you entered your dorm to see your best friend, riley.

"i looked for you everywhere!" riley yelled, hugging you, "i gave them each a piece of my mind before i went to look for you." she looked into your eyes.

"it's fine riles, you know they are assholes." you said, half smiling.

"i'll kill them if you want me to, seriously," she said, knowing she wasn't joking.

you laughed it off, going to fix your bed.

"soooo," riley said, "there's a party tonight."

"where?" you asked.

a moment passed, "gryffindor."

you rolled your eyes, "no."

"cmon y/n!" she sat on your bed, "you can not let your fear of the marauders stop you from going to a party?"

"that's not it!" you said, still fluffing your pillow, "slytherin's aren't allowed at gryffindor parties."

"im pretty sure that rule only applies to the malfoys, dolohovs, blacks, and every dark lord supporter," riley said.

"they still hate me." you replied.

"only the marauders," she convinced.

"and they run that house," you argued.

"no they don't, most people think they are irritating." riley said factually.

"please don't make me go." you groaned.

"for me, please." riley pouted.

"don't do the puppy dog eyes," you groaned as she continued doing it, "fine, i'll go." you said, riley yelling excitingly and smothering you.

"can i still wear this?" you asked through her screaming.

she stopped and looked at you in disappointment, "y/n, i know i am not best friends with a vulture."

you giggled as riley went to her closet and picked out a red dress that was a little too short for your liking.

"this will hug your shape perfectly!" riley squeaked and went inside the bathroom before you could even give a response.

after a couple hours, you and riley were both finally done getting ready. she looked at you in total shock, "y/n, you look so fucking hot right now. and i mean that in the gayest way possible." her mouth open.

your entire face turned blush pink, "not too bad yourself riley." you laughed.

"let's go." riley suddenly rushed, grabbing your hand, practically dragging you to the gryffindor common room.

you couldn't hear anything from outside but you guessed it was a silencing charm.

you heard riley mutter the password before the dark opened and you saw students from each house having the time of their lives and the music was outrageously blasting.

riley grabbed your hand, dragging you through as the door closed.

you looked around to see if you could spot any of the marauders, only finding peter dancing with his girlfriend.

it was like you were a bunny in a room with foxes that you couldn't distinguish.

"let's dance!" riley shouted, making you look at her.

you shook your head but riley rolled her eyes and dragged you on the dance floor.

she started dancing but it's like she could feel your awkwardness as she grabbed your hips, moving your body with hers to the rythym.

eventually, you decided to just let go and try to enjoy yourself.

after about two or three songs, you had told riley that you were going to get a drink and asked if she wanted any but she was already making out with a hufflepuff girl and only swatted her hand.

you laughed, moving over to the drinks table.

you poured yourself some firewhisky when you felt someone roughly grab your wrist.

you turned around to see three of the marauders with james having a hold of your wrist to which you scoffed, yanking your wrist back.

"can you guys seriously fuck off for one night?" you sighed.

"have you forgotten yourself?" remus genuinely asked.

this was the night to stick up for yourself.

"have you?" you argued, "you all are fucking pathetic," you laughed humorlessly to which you could feel their anger radiating onto you, "i pray for the poor bastards who end up being your children if you all can even have any when your too busy sucking eachothers cocks," you insulted, "but if you don't me, i am going to go bed because you have unfortunately ruined this party for me." you shoved past them harshly, leaving the common room.

adrenaline was bouncing off of you, a new high you had never felt before. you were even partly turned on by the whole encounter.

you were even surprised they had let you pass

you speedwalked through the hallway in victory, you felt like you had finally won, that you had finally got a one up off of them.

you had yet to realize that the hallways were dark with a little bit of moonlight pouring through and you couldn't navigate your way due to you leaving your wand in your dorm.

you went to turn back to the common room but bumped into a hard surface to which you looked up to see remus lupin.

your heart skipped a beat as he roughly put his hand around your neck, shoving you into a wall. he was squeezing not enough for you to go unconcious but enough for you to not be able to take full breaths.

"what happened to your voice sweetheart?" he said as you croaked, "what happened to that dirty mouth?" you tried slapping off his hand but he only pushed you further into the wall.

you looked to both of your sides to see james and sirius.

"what do you think boys?" remus asked, "think she deserves to be punished?"

your eyes opened wider as you tried to make a sound but it came out in little squeaks.

"i think she does moony, i think we have given her too much freedom." sirius responded.

"yeah, i think we might have to fuck her into obedience." james said, inching closer.

even you couldn't stop the wet patch in your panties.

"i think that's what she wants, i mean let me check." remus said as confusion painted your face.

you felt him raise your dress up, hand now in your panties as you moaned.

"she's soaking wet," remus scoffed, "turns out to be a little slut after all."

you felt remus start rubbing your clit as you moaned more, his grip on your neck never softening.

you and remus staring at each other as james whispered something in his ear and he nodded.

he suddenly took his hand out of your panties, your entirety angry at his lack of letting you release.

he put your hands behind your back, leading you somewhere you couldn't figure out. there was a haze in your eyes that made it impossible for you to see a thing.

you heard a door close as you looked around, it was james's prefect dorm.

before you could grasp onto your reality, james put his mouth onto yours, bruising your lips as you moaned into his mouth.

you tried catching your breath but james was relentless, not letting you go.

you could feel sirius behind you, sucking hickeys onto your neck, knowing it would leave spots.

you couldn't even spot remus in the room due to all of the pleasure you felt.

sirius was unzipping your dress, letting it fall onto the ground. james was working your bra, letting it fall to the ground as he nibbled on your nipple.

sirius pulled your panties down, lifting your legs out of them.

suddenly, they both stopped touching you which made you whimper.

"on your knees bunny." sirius instructed as you obeyed almost immediately.

remus came into view, stepping in front of you.

"are you gonna suck my cock nice bunny?" remus asked, tipping your head up to look at him using his pointer finger.

you nodded immediately.

"good girl." he complimented which sent you into orbit.

he stroked his cock in his pants, bringing it out. his cock sprung up out of his boxers, pre-cum leaking off of his tip.

you licked stripes onto his tip causing him to groan.

"don't tease bunny." he moaned which caused you took his entirety into your mouth, gagging. he ponytailed your hair from going into your face using his hand.

you were still looking up at him as he threw his head back in pleasure, "so fucking good bunny," he praised you which sent tingles in your cunt, "sucks cock like a fucking champ,"

you looked over to see james and sirius jerking off to the sight in front of them.

before he could come, remus pulled you off of his cock, standing you up.

he took off his boxers fully, laying on the bed, reaching for you to climb on top of him.

you put your knees on the side of his hips as he stroked himself a bit and aligned himself up to your cunt.

you sank down on his cock with a moan, trying to fully adjust yourself. both of his hands were on your hips, speeding you up slowly.

you felt a mouth on your neck, sucking. the pleasure hitting you rapidly.

suddenly, remus pulled your head down to kiss you, his hand gripped on your neck while roughly fucking you.

you felt someone prodding into your ass before slipping inside. you moaned loudly into remus's mouth.

"bunny, don't tense." james said and you knew he was the one prodding. he went slowly but every time he went in, you sank down on remus's cock which made immediate pleasure shoot inside of you.

"you feel so fucking good," remus complimented, sucking harsh bruises onto your skin.

"so fucking good." james murmured.

both of their words praising you made you almost come on sight.

you were so cock drunk, babbling about how close you were. your eyes were watering due to the amount of pleasure you were receiving.

what made you crazier was sirius putting your mouth on his cock, throat fucking you while your eyes rolled to the back of your head.

your spit dribbling off of your chin as tears rained on your cheeks.

remus sucked on your nipple as your eyes rolled to the back of your head.

their words muffled in your eyes.

remus and james had both cum inside of you which caused your first orgasm, moaning loudly, barely able to see due to the pleasure you were recieving.

sirius pulled out of your mouth as you gasped for air, throat being a bit hoarse.

james pulled out of you, delivering a kiss to your neck as a thank you.

your chest dropped to remus's chest as he pet your hair and praised you, "come one more time for me bunny?"

you babbled something while nodding your head which gave sirius permission to slide into your ass.

remus continued holding your head, eyes on his, admiring you.

"i love you bunny." he said before kissing you but this time more softly and delicately.

remus didn't give you the choice whether to say it back or not but you didn't know if he was being genuine or not.

sirius continued pounding into you but you were only able to whimper based on how cock drunk you were.

he praised you, telling you how good you were while remus massaged your puffy clit.

sirius came soon with you as your entire body felt exhausted. remus pulled you off of him as james grabbed a wet towel and wiped your legs and mouth. you winced as he brushed your clit, being hyper sensitive.

remus laid you down into james's bed, putting the blanket over you, kissing your head as you closed your eyes.

you didn't know what you were sure,

that you were in love with your bullies.

[sasaranurude]

Okay. I've been playing Tokyo Debunker today, since the release happened to catch me on a day when all I'd planned to do was write fanfiction. I just finished reading the game story prologue (it was longer than expected!), so here's a review type post. If you're reading this post not having seen a single thing about this game: it's a story-based joseimuke gacha mobile game that just released globally today. It's about a girl who suddenly finds herself attending a magic school and mingling with elite, superhuman students known as ghouls. If you look in the tumblr tag for the game you'll see what appears to be a completely different game from 2019 or so: they retooled it completely midway through development, changing just about everything about it due to "escalating competition within the gaming industry."

I'll talk about how this looks like a blatant twst clone at the end.

Starting with the positive: The story is charming. I enjoyed it thoroughly the entire time and am excited to read more. The mix between visual novel segments and motion comics was really nice--it broke things up and added a lot of oomph to the action or atmospheric scenes that visual novels generally lack. I like the art in the comic parts a lot. the live2d in the visual novel parts is... passable. Tone-wise, I think the story was a little bit all over the place and would like to see more of the horror that it opened on, but I didn't mind the comedic direction it went in either. The translation is completely seamless. The characters so far all have unique voices and are just super fun and cute. Of the ones who've had larger roles in the story so far, there's not a single one I dislike. It's all fully voiced in Japanese and the acting is solid. (I don't recognize any voices, and can't seem to find any seiyuu credits, so it seems they're not big names, but they deliver nonetheless.) Kaito in particular I found I was laughing at his lines a ton, both the voicing and the writing.

He's looking for a girlfriend btw. Spreading the word.

The problem is like. The gameplay is the worst dark-pattern microtransaction-riddled bullshit I've ever seen. Hundred passive timers going at all times. Fifty different item-currencies. Trying to get you to spend absurd amounts of real world money at every turn. There's like five different indicators that take you to various real-money shop items that I don't know how to dismiss the indicator, I guess you just have to spend money, wtaf. Bajillion different interlocking systems mean you have zero sense of relative value of all the different item-currencies. I did over the course of the day get enough diamonds for one ten-pull, which I haven't used yet. Buying enough diamonds for a ten-pull costs a bit under $60 (presumably USD, but there's a chance the interface is automatically making that CAD for me--not gonna spend the money to check lmfao), with an SSR rate of 1%. BULLSHIIIIIT.

There's like a goddamn thousand-word essay explaining the dozen different types of character upgrades and equippables and equippables for the equippables!! Bad! Bad game design! That's just overcomplicating bullshit to trick people into thinking they're doing something other than clicking button to make number go up! That is not gameplay!

In terms of the actual gameplay, there is none. The battle system is full auto. There might be teambuilding, but from what I've seen so far, most of that consists of hoping you pull good cards from gacha and then clicking button to make number go up. There's occasional rhythm segments but there's no original music, it's just remixes of public domain classical music lmao. I'd describe the rhythm gameplay as "at least more engaging than twisted wonderland's," which is not a high bar

At least there's a cat in the rhythm bit.

And like, ok, I gotta remark on how derivative it is. Like I mentioned in my post earlier, this game is unabashedly aping twisted wonderland's setting and aesthetic. (That said, most of the stuff it steals from twst is magic school stuff that twst also basically stole from Harry Potter, so...?) However, it isn't exactly like twst: in this one, the characters say fuck a lot and bleed all over the place and do violence. Basically, the tone is a fair bit more adult than twst's kid-friendly vibe. (Not, like, adult adult, and I probably wouldn't even call it dark--it's still rated Teen lol. Just more adult than twst.)

Rather than just being students at magic school, the ghouls also go out into the mundane world to go on missions where they fight and investigate monsters and cryptids. Honestly, the magic school setting feels pretty tacked-on. The things that are enjoyable about this would've been just as enjoyable in about any other setting--you can tell this whole aspect was a late trend-chasing addition, lmao. So, yeah, it's blatantly copying twst to try to steal some players, but... Eh, I found myself not caring that much. Someone more (or less) into twst than me may find it grating.

Character-wise, eh, sure, yeah, they're a bit derivative in that aspect too, but it's a joseimuke game, the characters are always derivative. Thus far the writing & execution has been solid enough that I didn't care if they were tropey. If I were to compare it to something else, I'd say the relationship between the protagonist and the ghouls feels more like that of the sage and wizards in mahoyaku than anything from twst. There's some mystery in exactly what "ghouls" are and their place in this world that has me intrigued and wanting to know more about this setting and how each of the characters feels about it. I have a bad habit of getting my hopes up for stories that put big ideas on the table and then being disappointed when they don't follow through in a way that lives up to my expectations, though.

So, my final verdict: I kind of just hope someone uploads all the story segments right onto youtube so nobody has to deal with the dogshit predatory game to get the genuinely decent story lol. Give it a play just for the story if you have faith in your ability to resist dark patterns. Avoid at all costs if you know you're vulnerable to gacha, microtransactions, or timesinks.

[meo-eiru]

Sooo... I thought of some random idea as a 'what if.' That 'what if' being what if the human/darling Silas found was a child instead? Of course,then he wouldn't be attracted to them in any way since that'd be icky- But I do imagine it to be rather interesting! So here's a lil story I made for it,if you don't mind^^ (just gave the child a name to make it easy): Daisy was hiking with her family on a decently high cliff above the forest,but not high enough to be labeled as drastic. Although it'd happen that Daisy got too curious for her own good and wandered too close to the edge,thus falling and ending herself up in the woods. She survived the fall by landing on some bushes that helped break her fall somewhat,but she hit her head pretty bad on the way down and due to that she cannot remember who she was with before nor how she got here. She wandered and wandered through the woods while the side of her head bled,eventually she grew tired and sat down under a tree only to momentarily hear a gasp. As she looked up she some man who pointy ears and who stood at about 250cm tall. Daisy herself was shocked to see someone so tall,the person themselves who is Silas- was also shocked to a) see a human and b) such a young and small one at that! Although he'd soon notice the cut on her head and approach,picking her up. Daisy got spooked at first but calmed down with his reassurance and then he asked what happened. She says she fell but when he asked from where,she cannot remember. Silas decides to take the child back to his house in the elven village to patch her up. After doing so,he decides that the child will stay with him from now on. P.S love your writing btw,I find it rather intriguing with the dynamics you create!

Aww this was so cute🥰

I personally don’t really want Silas to end up with an actual child because the reason the original darling can handle him to some extent is because they are a mature adult aware of what he’s doing is wrong and can protect their mental health to some extent no matter how much Silas messes up.

An actual child wouldn’t be able to do that. And life with Silas isn’t just sunshine and rainbows, he’ll mess up the child’s physical and mental needs while thinking he’s doing a good job in his delusional mind. So while him finding a human child sounds like a cute scenario at first, in the long run (or short run in this case) things might get fucked up real bad real fast

[jjtheresidentbaby]

oh my goddd!!!! you have such good writing, i loved ur nat headcanons n the jj alphabet thingy:3

Now im curious about your nat!age regressior x van headcanons ? if u have any ofc!!! :D okai bye have a good day/nigt

-🌷

⋆˚ ౨ৎ ˖ ⋆.. caregiver!van & little!nat headcanons ˖ ᡣ𐭩 ⊹ ࣪ ౨ৎ ˚₊

tagging: @butchreg & @muttreg

eep the scrunklies!! I luv them soooo bad yall have no idea (oh and btw the jj alphabet wasn’t my post but just a post i reblogged!)

warnings: these all somehow became pre canon whoops

like mentioned in this post van calls nat ‘little rockstar’ which started because van was trying to come up with a nickname for nat but nat was vetoing every one of them until she said she wanted something “cool” and the idea hit van

when nat first starts regressing around van it’s kind of chaotic because van isn’t sure what she’s doing but she’s determined to help natalie the best she can

honestly if van just simply sat in the same room as nat when she was small without complaint that would be enough for nat (van ofc does more but nat isn’t nearly as worried as van is)

lots of movie nights together! van ofc loves movies but she starts to get really into the lore of random kids films so her & nat can discuss as they watch

also story times! nat loves a story before bed but she also asks for them while in the bath or coloring ect - van is always happy to come up with something for her!

at first neither of them are big cuddlers but eventually nat gets more comfortable and van is a physical person anyways so she welcomes them with open arms (literally)

even before the wilderness nat was never one for storms so on nights it was due to rain heavily or have thunder/lightning she’d spend the night at van’s and they’d build forts to sleep in and watch their favorite movies

van always ties nat’s hair back when she’s small or it’ll end up tangled to no end and/or in nat’s mouth

they have a secret handshake that natalie came up with while small but still likes to do when big

van gets sooooo protective over nat that it can sometimes take the other girls off guard since they don’t seem that close at first glance but they never question anything (and quickly learn to leave natalie alone when van is around)

nat doesn’t have many toys she plays with but she does have a handful of stuffed animals she likes to carry around with her

van keeps a small keychain of a stuffed dog on her backpack incase nat regresses at school and needs something to fidget with

van can’t cook but luckily for her all nat ever wants to eat while small is a grilled cheese or cereal

for a treat van will take nat to the local ice cream shop and get her one of those pre packaged snow comes while van gets an ice cream sandwich on chocolate chip cookies

they hold hands a lot and even in public nat won’t let go of van if she’s small - van’s gotten used to the stares and nat doesn’t notice them so van never says anything about it

at some point the girls from the team catch them holding hands and are very confused but don’t have any time to ask questions so everyone has their own theory about it (except tai who has been aware of nat’s regression & van being her caregiver for a while)

[kazuko-stuff]

Watching Ghibli movies with the batboys

**This is my first time writing for DC btw. Give me ideas for later ficus

Watching Ghibli movies with the Batboys

Dick Grayson

Enjoys watching movies with anyone really

Will enjoy watching Ghibli movies without a doubt

You introduce him to Castle in the Sky first to watch

He worries for Sheeta as she fell in the sky from the air ballon from her captures and pirates

Breathes in relief when her amulet helps her floats down and is found by Pazu

He is drawn to the world building of the story and relates to Pazu, in regards to his antics and willingness to protect Sheeta because she reminds him of you.

Is very curious about the lore of Laputa island after learning the story behind the mythical island and aetherium.

He finds the Dola’s pirate gang funny and is happy they are willing to help the two escape from Muska’s army.

Again he is amazed by the world building when he sees Laputa island and loves the detail of the robots.

Angry that Muska appears and how he abuses his powers and knowledge to hurt people

Is happy that Sheeta understands why the people of Laputa fled from the island and she and Pazu uses the amulet’s power to finish Muska once and for all

If you continue watching more ghibli movies, he will most likely buy a big Totoro plush for both of you to cuddle on

Would sing the Ponyo song to annoy his family and friends and to sing in the shower

Wants to visit Japan to see the places that were inspired by real life places

Admits the food is very mouthwatering and enjoys when the protagonist have meals with loved ones

Jason Todd

at first didn’t seem interested but you give big puppy eyes for him to give in

Was instantly amaze of the story telling of the movie and will geek of the world building due to how immersive the movies are

Will have a hard time having a picking a favorite due to good the storytelling is but if he has one favorite at of all it will be Spirited Away

He gets goosebumps when the spirit bathhouse town gets more active and worries on how Chihiro will get out and save her parents.

He likes to make analysis of the movies after watching them and watches analysis videos on YouTube.

Acknowledges that Yubaba and the other workers get on his nerves because it reminds him of his childhood.

Starts to find wonder the meaning behind Chihiro’s name being taken away and being changed to ‘Sen’ and her first meeting with Haku when she was very little

He notices how Chihiro has changed a lot from the beginning and how it reminds him of himself

He was cheering for Chihiro doing the scene when she was helping the river spirit get clean but wondered what that rice herb cake was for.

He cries at the scene when Haku comforts Chihiro when she was crying and eating onigiri because he knows she being through so much at her age just to save her loved ones

(Btw you made onigiri and bought konpeito)

Shock when Haku has a dragon form and was injured but was relieved when he managed to get healed due to the medicine she gotten from the river spirit

When he sees the bath workers blaming Sen for No-Face’s rampage, he grumbled how it was their fault for indulging and encouraging bad behavior, since he feels ‘No-Face’ is a blank state.

He admits Boh the baby is annoying but doesn’t blame him for being spoiled since his mom is at fault and enjoys that Haku had enough of Yubaba.

Feels at peace in the train scene

Likes Zeniba’s cottage due to how simple and comfy it is to live in.

It reminds him of Alfred and his aura

Happy tears when she and Haku reunited And when Chihiro remembers her first encounter with Haku and his original name

Admits he found Boh less annoying as he grows as a person and stands up for Chihiro against his mom.

Happy that Chihiro manages to save her parents but is sad that an adventures comes to an end

Likes to cook food based on the Ghibli movies since it always has a warm feeling and you're the taste tester.

If he has a stressful day, he likes to listen to ghibli music to remind himself being peace at oneself

Wants to go to a hot spring in Japan at one point

Tim Drake

Decides to watch after seeing hearing it from a group of friends and your big Totoro plush

Like the rest of the batfam, he enjoys the world building and the characters in the Ghibli movie

He would get the foreshadowing and enjoys watching analysis of the movies

He writes analysis and the message based of the symbolism and Japanese mythology

He knew Chihiro almost lost her identity when Yubaba stole her name and figured out what happened to Haku, after seeing the conditions of the bathhouse workers.

His favorite character is Howl from Howl's Moving Castle

He loves how all the characters in the movie are alive and likes the fire spirit

He enjoys how magical the scene was when Howl was flying in the sky with Sophie

He enjoys the banter between Sophie and Howl over hair products that cause his hair to change color

He loves Sophie’s new outfit at the end of the movie

Bought a necklace based off of Howl’s necklace and one time tried to cosplay as him to attend a con with him without his brothers knowing

His likes how steampunk is portrayed in the ghibli movies and enjoys learning more about Japanese culture and mythology

Would likely to go to ghibli events with you

Damian Wayne

after first thought it was going to be boring since he thinks it’s childish but immediately hooked up when he saw the animation of the movies

He decides to watch most of the movies with you when he is in house arrest from patrol

He likes Princess Mononoke movie and My Neighbor Totoro

He enjoys how San is a no-nonsense person and acknowledges she should fight back to defend her home

He somewhat wonders if Poison Ivy is like this because she just wants to defend the environment since San wants to protect the forest, seeing that she is angry at those who is destroying the environment

He secretly likes to watch My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo with you and his family

He loves the animals in the Ghibli movies

Wishes to ride Moro and wants a pet wolf along with a fish name Ponyo

Ponyo movie inspires him to clean up local beaches

He would want to ride the Catbus from Totoro

Buys ghibli plushies for his collection

He starts to paint background from the movies due to how beautiful they were

He would visit Japan to see the places that set the inspiration for the movie and the Ghibli cafe theme events

[emelinstriker]

Red Son ♤ Parental Guidance

Reader’s pregananant but only present towards the end btw

Now, I know DBK isn't actually a bad father. Like, we've all seen at least the scenes of him breaking out of the demon webs to get to him, as well as for example him catching his son after extracting the Samadhi Fire. Or even them just being generally wholesome as a family. Thing is, specific moments we see of DBK on his own where he cares about his son are only being seen by us, the viewer. Not his son. Red Son tries to impress his father just BECAUSE he thinks he needs to gain his father's love and attention. Which he technically already has. But he wouldn't fully understand that with the few encounters we've seen between him and his father. Which is why I'll be going off on the encounters we've seen of both. I love their general dynamic so much though hnfgnhfg

So i was like, 'what if I take the common insecurity about questioning if you'll be a good parent and add doubt on a grandparent's part to it?' So now is not only Red Son questioning shit, but also his dad in a mentioned way. And I really should start working more on stories where you're not married to the chosen character yet. I can't help it though, established married couples are easier to write hnfhngfggd

Also, I'm fully aware that I could keep the pronouns gender neutral on this one as well and just say you're afab, but I personally prefer using she/her pronouns when it comes to specifically pregnancy one-shots, so I'll be sticking with that.

ⓘ Reader is FEMALE

♤ ~ Comfort ~ ♤

Red Son was actually quite confident about his capabilities in your relationship. Ever since you both agreed on having a child, and after hearing that you were finally pregnant, this man was over the moon. He was already coming up with an idea for a nursery made up out of his mechanical creations.

However, you suggested a nursery with less mechanical components and more wood, like a regular nursery. You two ended up with the compromise of a regular nursery, but with an advanced safety and security system because your husband didn't trust those pathetic mortal safety measurements. And also to ensure that the nursery wouldn't catch on fire since it's located in a castle surrounded by basically anything that can easily burn wood.

The first months of your pregnancy went by pretty smoothly, actually. Despite feeling like shit more often and your husband gaining a bit more respect for female hormones(, mainly due to you scaring him with your mood swings), Red Son was taking great care of you.

Your parents were filled with joy, but only to an extent. They were still a bit concerned about you being married to, and having a child with, the son of the Demon Bull King. That didn't hinder them from showing up at your wedding and meeting your husband's family though.

Red Son wasn't as anxious about their presence as you were, but he was still a little concerned about their safety. He really didn't like the potential outcome of your parents getting killed off in front of you during their visit. So he made sure to tell his parents beforehand not to try anything on any of the human guests. They both seemed chill about it and a bit amused.

And once the news of a potential half-demon spawn spread around the family, Princess Iron Fan was extremely happy about finally having a grandchild. The Demon Bull King however...

Well, it wasn't the idea of a grandchild that was making him show a bit of disapproval. Rather it was his son's relationship with a mortal human that was rubbing him the wrong way. Not only did it feel wrong to him that a puny human with barely any strengths would join his family tree, but you would also die so much sooner than any of the demons.

An immortal being in love with a mortal one was a recipe for a tale ending in heartbreak and despair, after all.

At least Princess Iron Fan was already immortal when he met her. You on the other hand were a simple human craving for noodles...

Actually, that's what you were craving the most in recent times due to your hormones. And so, Red Son would be seen at Pigsy's Noodles a lot more, which was surprising to MK and the gang.

They didn't question it much at first because he said that he's just bringing the order to someone close to him and didn't want to have MK deliver it. However, as he came in more and more, the others started to notice that he would always say the same thing. And it started to feel like he was getting those noodles for someone a lot more closer to him than he claimed.

So naturally, the others got curious.

MK told Monkey King about the red demon's strange behavior and the simian decided to chill with the gang for a day and see for himself. Red Son came in at roughly the same time every other day and would order online. So it wouldn't be hard to catch him picking up the order.

And as suspected, his order came in around the same time as usual. While Pigsy was preparing the demon's order, the others were thinking of who the guy was delivering all that food to. It couldn't be his parents as they had their own food in the kitchen. They probably didn't even know about the noodle shop. It was actually quite weird in general that he would specifically get noodles from Pigsy's instead of just letting one of his Bull Clones cook noodles for free. There had to be a reason.

A little over half an hour later, the bull demon arrived at the shop to pick up his wife's usual order, when he noticed another familiar face's presence sitting by the counter today.

The simian in a rather poor disguise, at least in the red demon's opinion, gave him a lazy wave at his entrance. "Sup, Bull Son." The other demon rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms, approaching the counter.

"It's Red Son, you imbecile", he retorted with a scowl.

"Yeah yeah," Monkey King started as he used the same hand to wave dismissively. "Anyway, my buddies told me you come pick up noodles a lot recently. And I'd like to ask, why don't you just cook them up yourself in your kitchen?" Now it was the simian's turn to cross his arms as he turned towards his old friend's son.

Red Son huffed as he leaned across the counter to reach his order. "My wife asked for specifically noodles from this place. She said something about the quality here being incredible compared to what my family's kitchen offers." While talking, he opened the bag to check on the order as usual before nodding in approval.

The room went quiet and Red Son, confused, looked back up at everyone's surprised expressions.

"YOU'RE MARRIED??"

The group's shocked, and some excited, yells startled the fire user so much he almost dropped the bag that held your food. Once he recovered from their outbursts, he awkwardly coughed into his fist, a faint pink tint visible on his cheeks. "Uh, yeah, obviously. Did you guys not notice the ring I wear during any of the times I came here?!" He then put the bag he was holding back onto the counter before showing them the ring around his finger.

"Yer orderin' quite a lot of noodles for her, kid", Pigsy noted with a smirk. "Heh, I get that my cookin's great, but the amount yer usually orderin' for one person is... odd."

Red Son turned to face the pig with a prideful smirk of his own. "That's because she's eating for two and craves your noodles specifically. So you better feel honored that Red Son's wife even bothers asking for your cooking."

Silence.

...

" W H A T ? ? ?"

Red Son covered his ears this time before the group could potentially damage his hearing. Mei ran up to him and pulled him into a firm hug. "Why didn't you tell us?? THAT WOULD MAKE ME LIKE A FUTURE AUNT!" She then squealed in excitement. "RED BOY IS BECOMING A RED DAD!"

"Oh great, why not scream it louder and let the entire world hear about the news", he said sarcastically, trying to get out of her hold. But apparently Mei ignored the heavy sarcasm in his voice as she let go of him before proudly putting one arm around his shoulders.

She pulled out her phone from her pockets with a bright smile, "Great idea! I'll let my people know right away!"

But before she could turn on her livestream, Monkey King grabbed her wrist, stopping her in her tracks. He shook his head with a chuckle. "I don't think Bull Son over here would be comfortable with you showing off this moment to the whole world just yet. Besides," he started before turning to the other demon with a grin, "he hasn't even told us who his lucky lover is."

Mei's mouth shaped into an 'o' before slowly turning her head to face the now ticked off 'Red Boy'. She gave him an excited look he could easily read as 'Please tell us about her'. And so, rolling his eyes, he gave in because he knew the gang would keep pestering him about it if he just left.

He gave a brief description of you, how you two met, how you fell in love, as well as how you were faring these past months.

But there was one topic he seemed to be avoiding. And Sun Wukong knew.

"Quick question," he started as he crossed his arms again, "how did your parents react to your relationship?"

Red Son froze, his eyes widening just slightly, yet it was enough for the simian to take notice of. The Monkey King sighed as he shook his head. "Not all that positive, I guess."

The bull demon suddenly felt like avoiding eye contact while putting his hands in his pockets, leaning further back into the counter. "Tch, naturally."

MK's head perked up from the table at the chosen wording. "What do you mean 'naturally'? Is it normal in the Demon Bull Family to not be supportive of another's relationship?"

"It's not that", he responded as he took out one hand from his pockets to scratch his head a bit. "As I've already told you, my wife is a human. A mortal one at that. My mother was actually fine with the relationship, including the marriage. She was also extremely happy about getting a grandchild. My father on the other hand..."

He angrily looked down before sighing to avoid having another raging outburst over a simple memory. "Let's just say I'm having a hard time convincing him that this is my life and I chose to live with my lover's consequences of mortality myself. But, he did genuinely seem happy when I told him I'll be having my own child to raise soon. I guess his own fatherly senses decided to show up for once in a long while."

Tang hummed in thought. "To be honest, I'm quite surprised myself that you found a human lover, let alone one you wish to have a child with."

Red Son raised an annoyed eyebrow at the other man sitting on a stool. "What are you getting at?"

"It's just... surprising is all. After all, DBK himself wasn't the best role model as a father. Even in a lot of the stories of the past. Not only because he's been sealed away for so long, but also because we know what he's like with you in the current days", Tang pointed out, upsetting the already semi-heated demon.

"Are you implying that I'll be a bad father? Just because of my own father's past doings and constant absence in my past?" He stood strong for the first part, his ponytail turning halfway into flames for just a second. However, his walls started to slowly crack as the rest of his words left his mouth.

"Uh... I don't think Mr. Tang meant it like that exactly", Sandy's quiet yet rough voice commented from across the room as he raised one index finger. Tang nodded swiftly as he somewhat attempted to anxiously try gain distance between him and the demon... Which was very much difficult to achieve, considering he was on a stool without wheels. And aggressively jumping away from him would be too obvious. As such, all he could do was to lean back.

"There is a chance you might end up treating your child the same way your dad treats you", Monkey King added from his own seat. "After all, the saying 'like father, like son' can happen in certain scenarios."

They all noticed Red Son's hair starting to flare up in anger again, so MK decided to speak up before things could get out of hand. "W-Well, that doesn't necessarily mean it will happen! Right?" He then turned to his mentor, who simply shrugged in return, mumbling a small 'Dunno'.

"Why you little... HE WASN'T A BAD FATHER, OKAY?! Just because you can't comprehend how my family operates does not automatically mean-" He paused as something seemed to flash within his memory. "UGH!" His fist made contact the counter. It wasn't strong enough to leave any damage, which relieved Pigsy, but it still startled everyone except for the Monkey King. "I REFUSE TO DEAL WITH YOU PEASANTS RIGHT NOW!" Suddenly, his hair turned into a rather wild flame for a few seconds. The demon in red then forcefully took the bag of noodles and stormed off in a rage, slamming the shop's doors in the process.

The gang turned to the Monkey King with mixed expressions that ranged from 'Why did you have to say it like that?' to 'Could he actually become bad to his kid?' The retired hero just held his arms up in surrender, unsure of how to react. "What? I was just being honest", he said casually.

The shop owner rolled his eyes at the monkey. "Well, the noodles for sure are cold by now. But I guess the anger this guy produces at the moment might just be enough to heat 'em right back up."

What the gang wasn't aware of however was that Red Son's walls crumbled more and more the further he got away from the noodle shop. The doubt of being good enough as a father creeping in on his conscience. The demon grunted to try ignore the painful frustration building up within his chest, using his flames to transport himself back home.

Upon arrival, he decided to consult his mother about this matter. Just to... get advice.

Luckily, Princess Iron Fan was sitting by the dining table and was reading a book, until she noticed his entry. She placed a piece of paper as a bookmark between the pages she was reading before closing the book. "You seem troubled, son."

"...I'm actually just seeking insight, mother. A bit of guidance, if you will", he responded as he took a seat at the table, placing the bag of noodles in front of the seat next to him. At least his father wasn't here right now, so he wouldn't have to fear bringing up the topic as much. The black-haired woman hummed to signal him to continue.

He awkwardly coughed into his fist once again before finally popping the question. "Do you... Do you think I'd be a bad father to my unborn child?"

And just like the gang, his mother became quiet.

"...Okay, tell me who fed you this bullshit of a mindset."

That... was not the reaction he was expecting. Let alone hearing his mother curse, which she very rarely does. His eyes were wide open as his mouth was slightly agape. His mother wasn't joking either, he could tell by the raging fire in her eyes.

He shook his head quickly, flailing his arms around a little in panic. While he was upset with a certain monkey's phrasing, he did have a point on a fundamental level. "N-No, no, mother! Heh- It was just a civil conversation with some... friends about my marriage. At one point the topic came up of, uh, if I'll become more absent and negligent in raising my child like father-"

Princess Iron Fan slammed the book she was still holding onto the dining table, startling the young demon.

"Your father may have not been actively present your whole childhood, that is true. But, that did not stop him from loving you and caring about you." She sighed, crossing her arms and closing her eyes.

"If he didn't care about you, he would've just helped extract the Samadhi Fire from you without taking you back home. He would've disposed of you to make sure you would never become such a threat ever again."

"But he didn't", Red Son added, starting to connect the dots.

"Yes," she gave her son a worried glance, "so don't ever think he doesn't  care. He cares in his own way. And about being absent... Well, what could he even do when he was sealed away by that damned monkey." Her son scratched his head in thought.

She then gave him a warm smile. "You know, on the other hand... If you do need more parenting advice for when the child has already been born, you know where to find me. Because let's face it," she let out a small laugh at certain memories, "despite caring about you, your father truly sucked at actually taking care of you."

"What do you mean-"

She cut him off, giggling. "He set the kitchen on fire while heating up milk. He also somehow managed to lose one of your used diapers. I'm not joking when I say the smell came from practically everywhere." Red Son couldn't help but hold his face in his hands in embarrassment. Yet his mouth held a smile as he tried holding back his own laughter at the amusing story.

"Haha! Anyway, you know just as well as I do not to take your father's big bad bull façade to heart. If anything, you should take this as a lesson." She trailed the outline of her book with her finger, seemingly lost in thought. "Simply appearing as a bad parent to others should not be of your concern. What matters is that you are there for your child when they need you the most, to help them grow up healthy. But It's also important to give them free range to roam and choose how they wish to spend their own time."

Princess Iron Fan clenched her fists. "Those friends you spoke to simply do not seem to understand that we're more than bull demons. We're a family. Your friends are not the ones responsible for raising your child, after all. Others may give you advice and suggestions, but the way they handle things does not necessarily mean it's the way for you to handle things."

Red Son glanced down at the book in front of his mother as he spoke. "I see..." He then slowly stood up from his seat before bowing just slightly in respect. "Thank you for your time, mother. I'm... glad to have you here to help me", he said softly, giving her an embarrassed smile. She gave an amused one in return.

He grabbed ahold of the bag once more, but was stopped before he could leave the table. "One more thing, son." He glanced over at his mother, confused. "You better heat up those noodles properly before you deliver them to your wife. I'm speaking from experience when I say you will be dealing with a different kind of demon if you serve those cold to her." She gave him a knowing wink.

Red Son grumbled a little to himself, also fully aware of what you were like when he didn't meet your craving's standards. After all, that was the side of you he was actually scared of. He picked up the bag, but then put his hands underneath it before using his abilities to heat it up slowly. The bull demon then made his way down the hall to your shared quarters with a sigh.

His mother's words echoed in his mind as his body moved on autopilot. To be honest, he was still somewhat doubting himself. But the knowledge of his own father being flawed in taking care of him, yet still helping with whatever he could was kind of inspiring. The demon was so deep in thought that he almost walked past your bedroom door. But your faint voice from the other side of the door caught his attention. Apparently you were on the phone, talking to someone.

Your husband entered the room and you looked over to him from where you lay on the bed, noticing him with your noodles in his hands. The smile you gave him made it all seem worth it. You told your mother that you would talk to her later before hanging up and putting your phone on your nightstand.

"Welcome back, honey! Took you a while to return", you greeted him as he walked over to the bed.

He sat down before pulling you a little closer so he could kiss your temple. "Sorry for keeping you waiting. I was being verbally held hostage by the people at the shop." Your husband then used the same hand that pulled you closer and placed it on your round belly. "...Do you want to eat on the bed or use the desk?"

You tapped your chin in thought, but he knew you were faking it. He already knew your answer. "Hm, the baby and I feel like staying in bed right now. But..." You put your own hand on top his, staring at him lovingly. "We also want you to stay here with us."

Red Son blushed with a little smirk before his doubts came back to haunt him once more, turning his smirk into a frown as he avoided eye contact. Of course, you took quick notice of his sudden change in behavior. "What's bothering you, honey?" He sighed, circling his thumb over your skin.

"...Do you think I would make a good enough father?"

You were dumbfounded. "What kind of question is that? Of course you would be!" Your free hand found its way to his cheek, forcing him to turn back to face you. "Listen, I wouldn't have agreed to have a child with you if you wouldn't be. I know you're gonna be incredible with the baby. So don't doubt yourself." You gave him a quick peck on the lips since he was already turned to you.

"And by the way," you started with a smile, "even if you end up struggling with taking care of the baby, I'm here with you. Taking care of a child takes team effort, be it from two parents, friends or family. It's also my child too, therefore it's part of my responsibility as well. As long as you keep trying, and want to try support the child, that automatically makes you a great dad by default."

"For what it's worth," you leaned in and kissed his cheek, "I know for a fact that you'll be an amazing dad."

Your comforting words weren't exactly surprising, but the words coming from you was what he really needed the most right now. He huffed with a smile as he gently pulled you in for a hug, making sure you weren't uncomfortable with the position. "I love you so, so much you don't even know."

Your own smile only became brighter. "I actually believe I do... 'Cause I love you just as much. But, now that this topic's over, the baby and I would like to eat-" Suddenly, you felt a slight bit of movement coming from your belly. You gasped in delight before grabbing one of your husband's hands and placing it back on top of your belly, confusing him.

"Wait, what's happening?" Red Son didn't know why you placed his hand there until he felt it. It was a tiny kick.

"I'd like to believe the baby heard your woes and is trying to tell you how awesome of a dad you are... Either that, or that it wants to beat you up until you no longer have any doubts that you can raise it well", you commented. Your husband couldn't help but let out a laugh as a few tears started to gather in his eyes from the joy and relief he felt. He gave your belly a quick kiss.

"Thanks, little flame... I promise to give parenthood my all", he said before he looked back at you, now filled with confidence.

You grinned at his sudden change in mood before leaning over to grab the bag of noodles. You took one good look inside the box before determining with a frown, "...It's cold."

"...Fucking shit, not again..."

> Link to Masterlist <

♡ Part 2

[sil-te-plait-tue-moi]

i wonder if u agree, but sometimes when i read old man rust x younger oc, it's weird to me picturing somebody in early/mid twenties bc, realistically, that would make the oc around his daughter's age, and i don't think rust can go for that. i say that as somebody who's 23, so i don't mean to exclude younger women or whatever. anyway, that's why i really like your oc bc she seems like an actual match for rust and not bc of age, but bc she's just the type of person i can see him falling for, i guess? like directly canonically in the series, so yeah, thank you for your work!!! but that got me wondering: when u started to write, did you have somebody in mind already and thought of how that sort of oc will work with rust, or did u ask urself what sort of person compliments rust best? sorry if this is too much trouble.

NOT TOO MUCH TROUBLE i think this is acc a super interesting ask!

my opinions below the cut…

⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

RIGHT so i wanna preface by saying EVERY SINGLE rust oc story ive read so far has meat to it, like the authors know their shit and they should get their due snaps and kudos

i think i read younger ofcs with like a pinch of salt in the sense that i know it’s a bit crazy — btw this is coming from someone who had a “relationship” with a much older man at the ripe age of 16 — but i think it’s still good to read

things we experience can be ugly and uncomfortable but it’s still real and a part of me appreciates like keeping it real 💀 this is going to sound a little femcel of me but let’s be honest, sex is about power and the dynamics of that power give intricacies to stories that make them interesting! rust is a man (😔) and have you ever seen that one study of like ages of women men find most attractive and it’s a consistent 20 even as men get to like 70

yeah

keeping it uncomfortably real but real nonetheless

true detective is southern gothic and what i love about southern gothic is that it doesn’t shy away from touching on the less palatable corners of human existence/nature/WHATever. do i see why a daughter woman child thing as a love interest to a middle aged man with a dead baby is off-putting? YES. do i still read things along those lines because it’s interesting? ALSO YES. because more often than not creators are self-aware and explore these topics with nuance, which i respect massively

now onto like the sort of second part of you ask, beautiful anon…

when writing The Idler Wheel, idk if i was thinking as deeply when creating an oc as i was fixated on the weirdness of rust and ocs like yearning 😭? for each other, and the fact that he felt anything at all was a massive woaaaahhh for them both. the way we experience / act on desire (not even sexual just any kind but actually maybe especially sexual) says so much about a person and i guess that’s the single point from which i branched out, and every other aspect of her came later

the reason she/oc is not like twenty is because, similar to what you said, i cannot picture 1995–2002 (around that time) rust with a youngYOUNGGGG woman becaaaause holy shit i think he’d just die, like out of sadness or hurt, i think he wouldn’t be able to look at her at all 💀

old dog rust on the other hand does not give a shit about doing what’s “right” imo if that makes sense, like he’s who he is and he feels what he feels and i think this version of rust would be much more receptive to a younger woman, even if it’s “wrong” because he literally just doesn’t care anymore

i think the only reason The Idler Wheel girl was able to sneak her way in around that time is because she’s grown and a part of his workplace and therefore she should be “safe”, no more than any of his coworkers. so he lets her in his space and he lets her bring him coffee and he lets her do him favours because she’s just like the others and he just has to tolerate her, just has to see her

but of course she’s not like his coworkers and he can’t place why he wants her so bad, only that he does, which is bad because she should be mundane and she should be nothing and yet unfortunately he wants to be her dog

does this answer your q or did i go off on a tangent

i love you anon 💕💕💕💕

[writing-for-life]

Nuance in (The Sandman) Fandom

Send me asks about everything Sandman-related!

I thought a lot over the past few days, partly prompted by discourse on here, partly due to a couple of “interesting” asks and messages I received (the type you don’t answer). I *think* they might have been prompted by engaging in discourse on topics like anti-blackness/racism, misogyny/sexism, TERF characters etc in The Sandman.

Fandoms are always getting super sensitive if someone shines a critical lens on their favourite works, authors and characters. So to make this clear (in case it isn’t already obvious from my brain-rot blog):

I love The Sandman. I love Neil Gaiman. I have an extremely soft spot for Dream (and Desire btw, who deserves a lot more character analysis than just being summed up as “villainous, sexy bitch”. One day, perhaps ;)).

I can read The Sandman and just get lost in the story, even after decades and many rereads. 

But I can also view it through a critical lens—these things aren’t mutually exclusive.

Not critical enough or too critical?

As fans, we can get trapped in certain thinking patterns, like:

“My blorbo can do no wrong”-syndrome 

“Characters with flaws are inherently problematic and imply authorial endorsement of those actions” 

“Characterisation and problematic subtext are one and the same” (aka overanalysing and looking for problems where there are none is the death of every story, but failing to see problematic patterns where they are clearly visible is a problem, too).

Don't say anything bad about my favourite character

I think this doesn’t need much further exploration. It’s not my personal way of looking at stories through permanently rose-tinted glasses (I always feel it stalls my experience, but my experience is not everyone else's). Some people prefer that type of escapism, and I’m good with that (although the downside is of course that by not willing to engage with issues, we can unwillingly perpetuate them). Live and let live, ship and let sail. But please, for the love of god: Don’t insult people via their inboxes or messages just because their opinions and preferences don’t align with yours. I’m not going to sugarcoat it or phrase it “nicely”: It’s infantile (and a form of bullying btw), end of.

How can you even like a character who's so horrible? And that author must be equally horrible, too

We have to separate flawed characters, even those who are written to be really problematic, from real-life endorsement of these actions. 

Author, narrator and character are three fundamentally different things, and don’t overlap as much as some people seem to think. 

We can write vile, despicable characters to make a point (for me, Thessaly was always a prime example for this, and I explained why here). We probably hate them as we write them. I don’t know what else to say, but this facet of writing seems to get more and more lost on people, and it’s a worry. Crying for sanitised characterisation is one step away from censorship. We explore what is problematic about people and humanity through story. That’s how we process and learn. It’s nothing new, but it becomes impossible if we can’t write flawed and even disgusting characters. 

Face value…

Since I’m mostly in The Sandman fandom, I often read that its ending is hopeless, and that’s supposedly the entire message. 

It is agonisingly sad, yes. But is it truly hopeless? I personally see it as quite the opposite, but of course that’s my opinion, coloured by my life experiences.

I also get that show-only fans often haven’t read the comics, or at least not the whole arc. And as such, their outlook from what they’ve seen so far (and choose to focus on) has to be different by default. I also understand that many people are quite new to the comics, even if they have read them in their entirety. I’ve sat with them for 30 years, and I still find new things on every reread (and I read it more times than anyone should 🙈), and I still don’t feel like I’ve understood it all. Perhaps because I still haven’t fully understood myself (and it’s unlikely I ever will). If there’s one thing The Sandman isn’t, it’s one-dimensional and easy to grasp in its whole depth.

I just wrote a ginormous meta on it, if you’re interested, it’s here:

Subtext, (not so) glorious subtext

This is where it gets complicated:

We shouldn’t mix up characterisation and story subtext. Overanalysing every line to death will always make us find something that’s “problematic”, when it really isn’t in the wider context of the story.

Zooming in is NOT always a good thing. Sometimes, we actually need to zoom out. 

But subtext *can be* (accidentally) problematic. Even in stories we love. And none of this negates what I previously wrote.

Stories have real-life implications of sorts, and we need to be able to talk about it. That’s where those slightly flabbergasting, hostile inbox messages come in, and I want to expand on that "topic of contention" a bit:

Neil himself confirmed that the Endless basically warp reality, and that this is why, after Dream’s failed relationship with Nada, many black women in his vicinity suffer terrible fates (Ruby and Carla in particular). And that this spell is only broken when he dies, and that it is the reason why Gwen doesn’t suffer the same fate. And said Gwen then gets used as a plot device to basically absolve Hob (who canonically really is a problematic character, whether show-only fans like it or not) from his slaver past. Once again, very clearly: No one is making this up. Neil confirmed it (for the comics, and that was over 20 years ago. It remains to be seen if his stance has changed as we move into that arc in the TV show).

I don't think it is correct to imply that Dream as a character is racist (I've read that, too) because he logically can’t be. He holds *all* the collective unconscious. He is also, strictly speaking, not white. He is everything and nothing, and he shows up in many different ethnicities throughout the whole arc, depending on who looks at him. But Neil played with a subtext here (reality warping due to a bad relationship which then affects everyone with similar physical traits) that will read very differently to a black person than it reads to a white person, and we have to understand why that is an *extremely* slippery slope.

Plus, we are supposed to see Hob, who *was* a racist at some point (you can’t not be if you’re a slave-trader—it’s impossible by default) as redeemed. And yes, he *does* regret deeply, good for him (and if I were saying this aloud, you would hear the sarcasm in my voice, because it is indeed all about him. We are to sympathise/empathise with him and his character growth while there isn’t much mention of the people he maltreated). But also: it was a black woman who basically forgave him (with dialogue that personally makes me cringe). And that black woman who offers forgiveness is not truly a black woman—she is a character written by a white man. And as much as author and character are not the same (see above), there is an inherent sensitivity in that power imbalance that we can't brush under the carpet.

I don’t think Neil is racist. Probably quite the opposite, and I can even see that his intentions were good from a storytelling point of view. BUT intention and impact are two fundamentally different things, and telling the story this way (comic version) betrays blindspots only white people have. Just like women have blindspots when they tell stories about men, and men have blindspots when they tell stories about women (and there are a few of those in The Sandman, too). And and and…

As storytellers, we can’t always speak from lived experience. It’s impossible. And that also means we occasionally make mistakes that look bad in hindsight, even if our intentions were good.

I guess the proof is in the pudding: What do we do when people who *have* that lived experience tell us it looks bad? If they inform us why it is hurtful, plays into old stereotypes etc?

Are we willing to listen and yield (both are the foundations of allyship btw), or are we insisting that our viewpoint as someone *without* lived experience is right? That lived experience extends to all lived experiences (sex/gender, sexual orientation, age...), and from all we’ve heard from Neil so far, it seems important to him to rewrite what he sees differently today. Whether they’ll always get it right for the show—we’ll see. At the moment, it looks a lot better than in the comics, and certain issues are already being handled with a lot more sensitivity, but a few problems remain.

Pushing back on criticism that comes from people with lived experience is problematic—I’d encourage us to think about what it looks like if a white majority in the fandom is basically saying that the opinions of POC are essentially “overreactions” (and yes, that happened).

It’s complicated. The Sandman was written in a different time, and I think we have to distinguish between things that weren’t really problematic at the time but have aged poorly (again, Thessaly springs to mind, and I have lived experience as a queer person during that time, so I can see it in context while at the same time acknowledging that I would make changes to bring it to the present day), and things that were always a problem due to blindspots. They were a problem in 1990, and if they don’t get changed, they are still a problem today.

This fandom is generally so much more open and nicer than others I know. But that doesn’t mean it’s infallible, because it’s full of humans. 

Nuance is sorely needed, in both story interpretation and interaction between said humans.

[nogenderbee]

Hii Bee!! (⁠ﾉ⁠◕ᴗ◕⁠)⁠ﾉ*✧

May I request the pjsk boys with a reader who has low stamina and is really bad at any kinds of sports; then on one day during PE lesson, the teacher demanded the reader's class(imagine the pjsk boys are in the same class as the reader)to run 5 laps around the school playground non-stop(means that stopping or walking to catch on some air for even 1 second aren't allowed, or else punishments like running 1 more lap are given)as a warm-up, the reader barely made it in the end due to their low stamina, not to mention that the playground is quite huge, it's about 200-300m for only 1 single lap; therefore, how would the pjsk boys help and comfort the reader afterwards(EG: giving the reader some small praises, handing the reader their own water bottle to drink since the reader's throat was burning like hell, being a wall for the reader to lean on since the reader's legs were super sore, etc)?

This is again my own experience at school rn, every PE lessons are litteral very exhausting hell to me, I hate PE lessons ngl. Btw, this idea popped up into my mind when I was running the 5 laps during PE lessons today, it was kinda silly of me to imagine the pjsk boys cheering for me whilst doing so just for comfort, lol. (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠)|||

If you decided to write this request, thank you so much for doing so! Have an awesome day/afternoon/night, Bee! ♡⊂⁠(^ω^)⁠つ♡

Hello! And of course! I honestly relate so it was pretty nice to write~ Anyway, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did ^^

Akito, Toya, Tsukasa, Rui with reader who's low stamina

TagList: @bleachtheidiot @yulikesminori @miya-akane @coffeeykhs @alicewinter @indi-has-fallen @vodka-glrl

⊱ when task was given, Akito probably argued with teacher a bit. Not necessarily with anger in angry tone but he tried to get at least one lap less! If he succeeds then good for you and he'll definitely be proud for a long time! If not, you only heard him mutter few curses while passing you

"That... ugh... well whatever, I tried. Don't worry tho, we'll get it."

⊱ during running, he probably kept you company or ran a little bit beside you to hopefully make it a bit better for you but he won't admit to it

⊱ he also wanted to make sure no oke throws their few cents about your low stamina so he was usually passing everyone that passed by you

⊱ he won't talk with you and will tell you to not talk yourself as to not get tired too quickly, but he may start telling you few stories when he sees you're out of it

⊱ and when it's finally over, he'll pat your shoulder and give you your or if you forgot yours then he'll give you his water bottle

"Hey, good job there. It was one of a hella big step. How about we go for pancakes after school, hm?"

⊱ Toya immidietly knew you'll struggle theoguh this task and he hated the thought of it... so of course he decided to stay close to you if you won't mind

⊱ he also tells you to run slowly and in your own peace, after all there's no tempo in which you need to run, you just can't stop

"We can run slowly. Task is to run set number of laps, not to run at specific peace."

⊱ during running, he'll drop small compliment every loop or maybe even a bit more often sometimes

⊱ he's not good at talking so he'll just run about next to you and make sure you won't faint on spot next to him

⊱ as soon as you finish 5 laps, he'll just pick you up and carry you to the closest bench where he passes you water bottle

"You did really great job, Y/N. I knew you could do this."

⊱ after school, he probably offers to carry you either way at least for few minutes to make sure your legs won't hurt too bad tomorrow

⊱ let's be honest, Tsukasa is the type to make whole drama to teacher about it and put on his acting skills for a challange if it means he can make your life a bit better

⊱ but when his plan fails... he thinks of many ways to make it better for you... and that's when he finds the moment when teacher turns around and immidietly takes you ok piggy back ride so you can have at least one lap less!

"Listener quick! We have a second so jump on my back and I'll carry you for at least a lap!"

⊱ but if you're running on your own and there's no way for teacher to turn around, he'll literally give you the best motivating lines he could think of on the spot

⊱ and when you're finally done, you can be sure he'll literally carry you bridal style while absolutely spoiling you with compliments

"My star! That was truly magnificent show! I believe we should celebrate our victory in our favorite spot!"

⊱ and after classes, he's literally ready to carry you for the whole day just to make it a bit easier for you after this big step

⊱ Rui just knew how much you didn't wanted to go through this so of course he tied convincing you to make up some excuse if you don't want to participate in those classes

⊱ bur if it doesn't work and you have to go through this classes, he'll try to be there and cheee you up!

⊱ he also makes few notes to himself and will definitely try to taking of some inventing that could help you with this problem

"Hmm... if I make something similar to my invention 0084 but adjust- oh don't worry, I was just lost in my thoughts for a second there!"

⊱ after you did it, he'll gently pat your shoulder and compliment how well you did there, just to ask if you want some cold water since he'll go drop by shop really quick

⊱ but overally, he's just there assuring you that you did really good job!

"You did amazing job there, darling. You don't know how proud of you I am~"

⊱ be prepared because on next day you may or may not receive new invention of his~

❉⊱•═•⊰❉⊱•═•⊰❉⊱•═•⊰❉⊱•═•⊰❉⊱•═•⊰❉⊱•═•⊰❉

[kazzsk2]

Hello there!

tw long sentences and ask(just in case<':) )

Just found out about your account and your sacrifice ressurection au and I just love it.

But there are some parts I didn't really get so it would be great to hear more about the au. The lack of understanding could be due my bad knowledge of English so sorry in advence if you had revealed information, that I'm asking now, before.

The main questions are about the first part of your story. I haven't played cotl, just heard the lore from tumblr, but still, how much of original game is included in your au? Was there a fight between Narinder and the Lamb like in og? What relationships between Narinder and his siblings?

In one of your comic Lamb says that he resurrected the Bishops from purgatory, if I remember correctly. Is this was after Lamb sacrificed themselves to Narinder or before? Is this was Lamb or Narinder idea to bring them back?

If Shamura was the one to give the idea of resurrection to Narinder in the first place why Narinder had to do it in secret? ...how he hid the bodies of the Lamb when he killed themself?

What was the Bishops reaction to resurrected Lamb?

That's the first that came to my mind but I'm sure there is more but it's late and my braincells are not really in the mood to work.

If my writing was so bad that you couldn't understand what I was asking about then take it as the cry to more au ramble. I need it to function okay for the next 5 days. Begging like Narinder to Lamb.

Btw can't wait for your another au posts:)

Good night!

Or morning, day or evening. Idk what timezome you are in.

Dude I'm so glad you like my au >:D, but yeah most of the prologue is the game. Narinder and the lamb do end up fighting in the game in a giant boss fight if you choose to keep the crown rather than giving it to him. After that, if you spare his life, you can get him to join your cult. Similar final boss fights happen against the other bishops to get them to join.

This is when I diverged off the game as after all of that, the lamb in my au sets up a sacrifice of themself after all of that to give the crown back to narinder and give him back his powers.

The relationship between narinder and his siblings was a bit strained at first (because they killed him and would've had him trapped for all of eternity basically) but this au takes places after they've made up to the best of their abilities and are somewhat regular siblings now.

It was shamura who suggested the idea first to narinder, but they regretted that as they realized that narinder was worse off mentally than they thought he was and narinder began to grow obsessed with the idea of bringing them back.

It got to the point that the both heket and shamura had began to monitor narinder when they could to prevent him from trying to resurrect the lamb as it wasn't doing neither of them good for him to keep trying. Of course, narinder had begun to do them in secret at night and by the time the others realized what he was doing, it was too late and he made the deal with lamb.

Heket was furious cuz she knew the lamb didn't want this and this extreme attachment narinder had to the lamb would just worsen now the lamb was back. Shamura & leshy both had the sentiment of "Oh well, at least narinder seems slightly better". Kallamar mostly felt guilty at not being able to stop narinder from resurrecting the lamb against their will, but he was relieved to see narinder happier at the lamb's presence.

Hope this all makes sense and sorry for any writing errors (I literally am eye blind to any spelling & grammar errors rn I've been typing so fast)

Edit: also I imagine that like he disintegrated the bodies of lamb after the failed resurrections

[gwensy]

U were in my dream advising me on which spider-Gwen comics to buy btw .

this is so fun im glad my pretentiousness carries over to dreams. well okaayyy if you wanna know what spider-gwen comics to read,

spider-gwen annual #1, written by Jason Latour, it's her first solo anywhere and a decent introduction to her character, it's a collection of short stories writted by Latour and illustrated by a gaggle of different artists. very awesome

spider-gwen vol 1 & spider-gwen vol 2, written by Jason Latour — her first actual comic run, the Latour runs are my absolute favorites and do the best jobs at writing her, to no surprise lol. i have alot of thoughts on both of these runs but out of every comic run gwen stacy-65 has gotten, these carry the best writing and themes of all of them. the art is Just Okay and the sitting in a tree issue with miles morales is both disgusting and a nightmare scenario, keep that in mind.

you could stop here! you could stop here and never touch the franchise again! you could! . if you really want more you Can read spider-gwen: the ghost-spider, (2018) & (2019) respectively, both written by Seanan Mcguire. these comics are really just okay and do a hell of alot to completely ignore and retcon loose ends from the Latour runs, her character is also significantly dampened and there's only a handful of issues from this run that I think stay true to who she is compared to the original runs. it also gets a little boring, ontop of having pretty nonsensical plotlines, (such as: peter parker just letting gwen stacy move to earth-616? johnny and sue storm blackmailing gwen stacy despite the fact that the entirety of new york city already tends to hate her and views her as a killer ? so why should she give a fuck ?). if you ignore all of the surface flaws within the Mcguire run it is an enjoyable read that I like mostly.

king in black: gwenom vs carnage, written by Seanan Mcguire. this one is a visually gorgeous comic and is one of the few (only? lol.) runs where we actually see a return of what I think is a properly characterized gwen stacy, along with color pallettes and themes that I think are compliant with what the Latour runs had going on. again, it does riff off some of the mistakes from the previous runs, but I still think this is a really good comic, and if anything worth reading for the artwork because its sooo incredibly done.

don't read spider-gwen: gwenverse, it's bad and essentially the same comic as spider-gwen: shadow clones, this comic is also bad but better then gwenverse so pick your poison i don't know. ghost-spider, written by Stephanie Phillips is godawful and seems to make a point to entirely destroy everything that the previous spider-gwen comics has built up. it's an annoying fucking read that eviscerates and ignores everything that gwen stacy-65 has gone through in the past ten years. the tva run is also bad and this is due to it using the Stephanie Phillips ghost-spider, amongst other reasons I guess this comic kind of just sucks in general.

the annuals (shelving the original Latour one) are also Just Okay, and sort of nonsensical and out of character sometimes, like the murderworld one. spider-gwen: smash is another comic that I'm really in the middle about, I think it has alot of issues in terms of it being a spider-gwen comic but if you like dazzler it's a fun read.

ok thats all meow

[bibibbon]

I started this with a silly joke about the best frenemies but we can take a lot here. I think.

Shiga never earned the respect of LoV...do you think he cares? Or LoV cares? Bc they follow his plans ...and from what I get...Shig is not noisy, so if they have a side hustle....shig is fine with with it "what a nice boss" not really!

This supposed side hustle could have been a problem for Shig ...and the fact he doesn't even asks what they do...is concerning, but even if we go "LoV wouldn't do anything to prevent Shig's insane dream to be true" it's also a huge leap hori wants us to take...regarding shig bc dude has no interaction or desire to know LoV. He manipulates them...and sure he give the sushi but it was more to manipulate them "you all did a good job, here take a reward" than anything

(btw that in itself is miles better than what Izu has. You say A1 has potential. I agree but as I mentioned many times...this potential is not in being nf IZU's friends. If I had to give friends to Izu ...I would make him befriend people who aren't from A1)

Shiga is a pretty incompetent leader. His goals and plans make no sense.

And as much I like dabi and I think his past is better, writing wise, than Shig...doesn't mean he is better. Bc I don't get what was Dabi's plan before joining LoV. What was he doing? Killing random people? Did Endy even cared?

Also if we go "it was essential for dabi to join LoV" ok...show us why. Bc the way I see dabi had no real plan, a goal yes but no plan. The video thing could have happened without LoV.

Sorry it's just ...dabi has some blank spaces and it leave me confuse me.

Shigarakis character and his whole substance/arc/development or whatever you want to call it is underdeveloped and very much lacking

In my opinion this is one of the reasons why we as readers can't say much. Before shigaraki dies his last words are dedicated to spinner and the league but we haven't seen Shigaraki really care for the leauge and grow into a reliable leader for the leauge. This in my opinion stems from horikoshi doing tell don't show instead of doing show and tell when it comes to his story.

Shigaraki as a character is never truly explored in depth. The MVA and overhaul arcs could of been great arcs for him by giving focus on his relationship with the league and izuku himself. After the kamino arc shigaraki should be in a somewhat tough position having left behind three members of the league some of the league members would feel vulnerable and may not trust shigaraki as he literally abandoned three team members!! Shigaraki also lost AFO at this point so he would be in a tough position without advice or anything really so the overhaul arc would help him to grow into the role of a leader and prove to the leauge that he can be trusted. He could do this by getting revenge on maganes death and all and he could use overhaul to learn more about the underground and izuku in general.

I would also have it so that it's Izuku that gets kidnapped in the training camp arc (not bakugo or have both izuku and bakugo be kidnapped) and that would establish a connection between the leauge and izuku even if it may start on a bad foot.

when it comes to the MVA arc the leagues loyaltly and shigaraki's loyalty is put to the test. We would get more bonding time with them and just see their overall other goals that may contradict with the league itself.

Shigarakis interest in Izuku doesn't disappear and he actually uses the MVA resources to actually reach out and get to know izuku or he tired to get to know more about izuku be all.

Dabi first joined the league due to the influence stain and had and in my opinion he also joined due to needing a place to crash and free food. His goal was to take down and kill enji but I guess during that he lost his true goal and ended up doing things to build his reputation as a villain (like burning people alive)

In the end I would very much change this and build up on the leauge of villains characters and explore their personality, goals and how these two things can contradict or compliment eachother which can cause conflict .

[chil-aglia]

Hiiiiiiii I was wondering if you could possibly try and write a Fluff/Oneshot Story for Niccolo and Giovanni?? Only if you want to btw, no pressure:

Fluff Prompt: First Date/First Kiss

Characters: Niccolo (My ROTTMNT Turtle OC) and Giovanni

Plot: This is basically about Niccolo and Giovanni having a first date (neither of them have dated before this), and they met each other on a dating app prior to their first date and they instantly clicked with each other, and after their successful first date they end up seeing each other more often and they eventually have their first kiss after a while of them seeing each other and their first kiss surprises the two of them at first but they’re fine with it obviously, and after that experience they officially start dating after they both realized that they have feelings for each other.

Also, here’s a quick snippet of Niccolo’s personality so that you can get an idea of how you want to write him for this story:

Hopefully I do your OC justice! Sorry if he is a bit out of character. I tried 😅

I’m sure this is obvious but Niccolo is not owned by me/isn't my OC and he belongs to @spookymoody928

Sorry for any grammar errors as well!

First time for everything

(Giovanni X OC!Niccolo)

——————————————————————————————————

Giovanni didn’t get dating, he never once thought about it until recently. It started out as a simple joke, with him and his family all watching some rom-com that Splinter picked out for movie night.

A scene where the two main characters kissing had Leo groaning, “Man, I wish I had someone like that.” He sighs dramatically, making the others all roll their eyes at his antics.

Giovanni lightly chuckled at him as he focused back on the movie. For some reason, he couldn’t help but think more about love and romance. His friends and family have talked about it before, and Giovanni never really gave his two cents into the topic, seeing as though he had no interest in dating.

But that was a long time ago, where he was still adjusting to the world. But now, he was better, he wasn’t paranoid, or jumpy and he didn’t have many nightmares.

So he was seeing the aspect of dating in a new life. And wow…he didn’t realise how lonely he kinda feels.

Since then, he had gone back and forth on getting a dating app on his phone. He would second guess himself, debating if it was worth it. He had overheard Donnie and Leo in the lair discussing how there was an actual dating app for Yokai’s.

So Giovanni mindlessly downloaded it. Now he just had to create his profile, but that was tough. He didn’t have pictures of his hobbies or even of himself, he didn’t think he was photogenic.

Leo probably had a few of him that would be fine to use. In fact, he was sure the slider sent him a few. He scrolls through old messages and picks out a few, mentally cringing at his appearance before putting them on his profile.

He didn’t really write a bio, just the basics like his age and how he resides in New York.

Last but not least was what gender he was looking for in a partner. Giovanni hums in thought, he didn’t have a preference, so he chose the both option. He was hesitant but gained the courage to activate his account and now…he was met with the world of dating.

-----

Giovanni surprisingly got a few matches, but when they chatted over text, he would feel as though he was forcing himself to actually seem interested. Nothing for him clicked and he then would ghost them. He felt bad about it, but he was never good at socialising in general.

He lays on his bed, turning on his side and swiping through the potential yokai’s he could chat with. A few times he got a few….explicit accounts that had him throwing his phone somewhere in his room due to shock, face blushing and heart pounding.

So he was a little cautious on who he swiped.

His fingers paused over a profile he came across, his eyes widening. It was another turtle, a guy, and from the looks of it, he was a soft-shell, though he didn’t look like Donnie. He had no battle shell, which made sense considering Donnie was probably the only mutant who had thought about it.

He had light pink/red marking on his face, which Giovanni instinctively touched his own markings, humming in curiosity. He wore a mask, very similar to Donnie’s, even having eyebrows.

Giovanni liked the jacket, and leg warmers this guy also had on.

He glanced over at his name.

Niccolo.

Giovanni had to admit he was quite attractive, he blushed softly and swiped to match with him. He hovered over the message board, unsure if he should say something first.

But to his surprise, Niccolo had spoken first. Greeting him. Giovanni followed up with his own greeting.

-----

Weeks had gone by, and Giovanni was on his phone non-stop. Every waking hour he was busy texting.

Busy texting Niccolo.

The two had immediately clicked with each other when they first spoke. Maybe because they were both turtles. Or they are the same age. Whatever the case, Giovanni had never been this close to a stranger before.

He couldn’t even address Niccolo as a stranger anymore.

They didn’t share much about their lives, only the basics. Like how Giovanni was the oldest of four younger turtles. Niccolo informs him that he’s adopted and that he was mutated, much like Giovanni who perked up at the information and told him he and his family were as well.

Quite a bit in common these two had.

Niccolo had then asked if Giovanni would be interested in going on a date with him this weekend. Making Giovanni halt in his tracks and bite his lips anxiously. He really wanted to meet Niccolo in person….but there was that deep fear of scaring him away due to his awkwardness or appearance that itched in his head.

Regardless, Giovanni agreed and they set the date for this Saturday.

It had Giovanni on edge the entire week, looking through websites on how to socialise on a date, should he get a present? That was probably too much for a first date.

Should he wear a suit? Ugh…Giovanni wasn’t a fan of wearing clothes.

What is he supposed to talk about? Maybe he can get away with not talking about himself if he asks questions for Niccolo.

He knew he was acting off, his family could tell and Mikey had even tried to pry information out of him a few times but Giovanni refused to tell them. He just knew that they would be interrogating him, asking all these overwhelming questions about Niccolo. He was afraid they’d judge him.

With a heavy sigh of inner battles, he tried to calm down, meditating on his bed…

-----

Saturday rolled into the week in a blink of an eye. Giovanni had snuck out of the lair, much to his guilt but his family would never let him leave by himself, especially after all the trauma he had gone through.

He loved them, and appreciated that they were protective. But Giovanni sometimes got annoyed with the constant shadowing. The babysitting, even though he’s the oldest.

Giovanni pushed the bitter thought in the back of his mind. Landing on a tall building rooftop he climbed up, the meeting spot for him and Niccolo.

He sighs, tapping his foot against the ground in anxiousness before pacing around. He kinda hoped that he wasn’t catfished.

“Giovanni?”

A voice spoke up from behind, making the yellow bellied slider jump up slightly like a startled cat and turn around.

Niccolo stood in all his glory, watching Giovanni with calculated eyes. Giovanni gulps, shaking his head to focus as he offers a tiny smile. “Hi…” He greeted, walking towards him. Niccolo watches in silence before he lets out his own small smile.

“Wow…sorry, it’s just…”

He placed a hand under his chin, circling Giovanni who stood still. “You’re like, attractive in person.” Niccolo informs with bashfulness, looking away shyly. Giovanni was shocked until he gave a soft chuckle.

“I could say the same about you.”

He mentally scolded himself, was Leo rubbing off on him? He did have to listen to Leo’s flirting attempts whenever he tried to score with someone and failed miserably.

Niccolo snorts slightly at the comment in amusement. “So, have you eaten lunch by any chance?” He questions and Giovanni shakes his head, blinking when Niccolo offers his hand to him.

“I know a place we can eat.”

Giovanni hesitated but grasped his hand before he led off the rooftop and down into the alleyway. He was led over to the familiar wall that can open up at a portal to enter the Hidden City.

Niccolo does the code and the wall opens, Giovanni being gently pulled through.

What he didn’t expect was to be brought to Run of the Mill pizza. “Hueso’s?” He uttered, which caught Niccolo’s attention, “You’ve been here before?” He asks and Giovanni nods. “My brothers like this place a lot…”

Niccolo hums in acknowledgement, “I get an employee discount. I work here.”

Giovanni choked on air, “You do?!” He gasps in surprise, noticing a little smirk on Niccolo who didn’t respond as he grabs a table, they sit down opposite of each other, picking up the menu.

“Pick whatever you want.”

“Oh, um…”

Giovanni scans through the menu, he simply points to a ham and cheese pizza. “Is this okay to get?” He asks, not wanting to spend too much. Niccolo nods before standing up.

“I’ll go order. I’ll be right back.”

-----

The date at first was awkward, but then it got rather comfortable.

Giovanni was laughing. Actually laughing whenever Niccolo told him a funny story about himself and what he’s experienced.

They had gotten to know more about each other as well. The fact that Niccolo was allergic to dairy, which Giovanni slightly panicked about when he brought pizza over to their table for him. But was assured that Hueso gave him gloves.

He also got something dairy free for himself which had Giovanni relax slightly.

Niccolo also knew Spanish, showing off what he knew, which had Giovanni amazed as he tried to copy the words, not understanding what they mean but he found it fun.

Giovanni also told him a bit about himself. Not the dark parts of his past, but he said he’s been through some…rough stuff in his life. He also explained that Giovanni helped his brothers in protecting New York.

They had gone out exploring more of the Hidden City, Niccolo showing Giovanni the best spots around, having the mutant look around with astonishment, especially when Niccolo showed him a large graffiti painting.

It had gotten late, which had the two shrouded by how much they spent together for a first date. “I should get home.” Giovanni muttered with a sheepish look, Niccolo hums in agreement.

“I’ll walk with you.”

“Ah, thanks…but I live in the sewers so….”

Niccolo blinks, tilting his head to the side. “So? I can still walk you home.” He assured, shrugging his shoulders. Giovanni gulps, taken aback as he softly sighs but doesn't argue with him, finding his company enjoyable nonetheless.

They leave the Hidden City, walking through alleyways before stopping at a manhole cover. “I can go from here. Thanks though for today.” Giovanni blushes, shy as he rubs the back of his neck.

“I liked spending time with you today…um, would you be interested in going out on more dates with me?”

Giovanni almost stumbled back from the question, perking up eagerly and nodding in excitement. “Yeah!”

He cringed at himself, calming down and speaking more softly. “Sorry, I mean yes. I would like that.” He replied, noticing Nicole chuckling. “It’s a date then.” He adds, helping Giovanni lift the manhole cover up, and observing the slider climb down a ladder.

“I’ll text you tonight?” Giovanni questions, looking up at his date. “I’ll be waiting.” Niccolo responded, closing the manhole cover and walking away. Giovanni stayed where he was for a moment before jumping down the ladder and walking back to the lair, arms comfortably crossed behind his head as he hums a random happy tune.

-----

Since their first date, the mutants have been going out more constantly, getting to know one another, having their fun and enjoying life with each other.

Giovanni’s friends and family finally realised what was making him so giddy lately, it came to a shock for everyone but they were also relieved that Giovanni found someone else outside the family and friends circle that he could go out with.

Splinter already demanded grandchildren from Giovanni who would quickly change the topic.

It had been about 2 or 3 months since Niccolo and Giovanni started going out. Giovanni didn’t know if he should label them as official, considering the only things they’ve done was hold hands, and even that took some time to accomplish.

The two were meeting out late tonight, Niccolo claiming he had a late shift at the restaurant, but Giovanni patiently waited for him to finish. Meeting each other on the same rooftop they first met for the first time.

It was chilly out, but Giovanni didn’t mind. He liked the chilly nights New York had to bring. He had sat down on the edge, dangling his legs over the building.

“Sorry I’m late.” Niccolo spoke out, reaching the rooftop and letting out an exhausted exhale, dragging himself over to Giovanni who turned to him with a light chortle.

“Busy over there?”

“Incredibly.”

Niccolo stood next to Giovanni before taking a seat beside him. Immediately he leaned his head onto Giovanni’s shoulder who didn’t mind and gently rubbed his knuckles against Niccolo’s thigh to comfort him.

“How was your day?” Niccolo side eyes as Giovanni hums in response. “Boring, I guess. Didn’t do much but stayed in the lair.” He explains, feeling a little guilty that he didn’t have a long and hard day like Niccolo did.

“Maybe I should sleep over some time. I wouldn’t mind spending my day doing nothing but being with you.”

Giovanni blushed at this, slowly nodding his head in agreement at the fantastic idea. Neither of them spoke, but the silence was comforting and warm.

The two turn their heads to look at each other. Unsure if one of them should speak, they had both subconsciously leaned in closer to each other.

Closing their eyes, they let the moment control them and they both connect their lips together.

But it only lasts for a few seconds before they both flinch away, staring at the other in obvious disbelief and bewilderment.

“U-uh—I’m sorry!” Giovanni yelps, quickly placing a hand over his mouth as he sweats and face turning red.

“Gio—“

“I’m sorry, I don’t know why I did that. I mean, I liked it, b-but—“

Giovanni stopped his ranting when Niccolo cupped his face and gave a stern but gentle look. “It’s fine…I liked it.”

“You…did?”

Niccolo only leans in again and gives a soft but welcoming kiss to Giovanni’s lips. He lingers the kiss before pulling away with a smile. “Course I did…”

Giovanni let out a sigh in relief, almost crying due to happiness as he nuzzled his head into the crook of Niccolo’s neck.

That night. When they shared their first kiss, it had lit up a fire in between them.

They both had made it official, telling everyone they knew that they were a couple. Which had caused a celebration for the couple, Splinter had tried to coax the two into giving him grandchildren, but was dragged away by Raph each time.

Leo and Donnie interrogated Niccolo whenever they saw him. Trying to appear as the intimidating younger brothers.

Mikey was the most ecstatic, giving them gifts. April did the same but was far more calmer and well, normal.

Regardless, Giovanni and Niccolo were both happy. And that’s all that mattered.