#ive been looking for that top panel for so long

[cocogum]

The Great Wave - Chapter 1 Review

‼️ SPOILERS FOR THE CHAPTER ‼️

Warning(s): mature themes, descriptive language, proceed with caution.

Before I start, I'd like to say that I initially added a lot more to this, but since tumblr had to censor it, I had to level it down a little...

I guess I just got carried away with it because of yumalia lol

So yeah...hope tumblr doesn't flag this again....

Alright everyone you know the drill.

LET’S ALL GET IT OUT OF OUR SYSTEMS AND GO CRAZY OVER HOW THESE TWO FUCKED SO MANY TIMES‼️‼️‼️‼️

Good job you two honestly I’m so happy these two got to have fun together like this 🥰🥰

Like no joke the first time I started to read the first chapter, of all the ways I thought it would start, I DIDN’T THINK THEY’D BE FUCKING I legit thought I was interrupting them my god-

I was so SHOCKED wtf??????!!!!

Like yes but what????

Ankama wasn’t kidding when they said they’d go mature mode and INSTANTLY cram in adult themes. The unexpected (but still warned) change was so sudden that that’s how you know Ankama has been keeping themselves tamed in the seasons because they couldn’t pull this shit off so easily like Japan.

Now let’s analyze the first thing that’s in the very first chapter.

The s** 👹👹

Okay I know how laughably this sounds because the FIRST THING in the first volume that we get to see is Yugo and Amalia’s private time.

And I’m not ashamed of loving it. Even now I still can’t believe that this can literally be considered soft corn. I won’t be surprised if more than half of the chapter ended up on that infamous site 💀(if u know, u know)

By the way I love how Amalia’s hair grew cuz I was starting to get sick of seeing her with a short ponytail all the time AND I LOVE HOW WE FINALLY SEE HER UNTYING HER HAIR CUZ MAN ITS BEEN SO LONG SINCE IVE SEEN HER LET HER HAIR OUT

But their private moment(s) really made us understand just how much they care for one another. The way that they are sleeping together NAKED like this so comfortably too confirms that they have done these kinds of activities before.

The ambiance and the colors truly encapsulate the tranquility and peacefulness they both share in this moment. You can even feel the sunshine’s rays touching your skin.

AND I’M ALL HERE FOR IT. They genuinely look so cute and in love together like that I just wanna tear that blanket away and dhskdkfkksskskkdksksd.

If anyone is wondering why Yugo still keeps the dofus on him, it’s because the dragon, Rodalström, that Armand defeated is still alive. A necrome can never truly die so Yugo has to essentially keep the dofus on him at all times just in case the dragon would set free someday (i feel so bad for Qilby due to this decision…dude is the only one between his siblings who can hear these two banging💀)

While looking through these same pages over and over again (I still haven’t stopped), I began to seriously wonder what kind of positions they would do together.

We’ve seen two particular positions they have used in this chapter and it was the “lotus” position and the “woman on top” position.

These are very accurate positions for these two mainly because of the level of intimacy it provides. It’s not rough, extravagant, or even too lewd. It’s simply just right.

They are so intimate with one another that they even hug while keeping the pace. And I think it is wonderful to see these two just being happy and satisfied in each other’s arms like this.

It's such a sweet moment for these two that you really can't look away (i'm definitely not saying this to justify why I keep overfixating these panels). You can even see Yugo choosing to keep his eyes open during it all just to look at Amalia enjoying it.

My guy clearly loves the view please!! 😫😫😫

You don't think seeing her liking it makes him even more excited righ-

Some parts during their intimate moment had their arms, which were groping A LOT of things, somewhat censored by the blankets they still had on each other. So, to have a clearer view of what happened under the sheets, I decided to outline their covered arms to give you an idea of where those hands went.

At the very beginning, Yugo is woken up by Amalia kissing his cheek. But after that, his body looks much more awake when we see a panel of Amalia's hand under the covers reaching for something. This immediately makes Yugo wide awake, to the point where he's already sweating a bit and blushing very hard as he says, "You're...tireless!"

After some outlining made by yours truly, it was painfully obvious where Amalia was reaching for and- DEBHUHUFUWHYUHFUYHUWUEFHUWHFUEFHUEWH

GURL STOP OMG SHE'S TOO BOLD I CAN'T WITH HER I LOVE HER OMG SHE KNOWS WHERE TO REACH YES DO IT WAKE HIM UP!!!!

The fact that she instantly knew what to do when she wasn't getting enough attention from him after that cheek kiss alone sends me 😭😭

But it's not like Yugo's the innocent one here for not trying anything. On the contrary, HE'S TOUCHING HER TOO.

THAT GUY KNOWS WHAT'S BEST TO GRAB.

He's a man after all, so what'd you expect lol

He KNOWS that her ass is THICK, SO WHY WOULD HE NOT TOUCH ONE OF HER BEST ASSETS!?!?!?

You can tell these two obviously do more than just two “sleeping” positions, but since they were messing around in the morning, I can give them a pass for being sweet and tender with each other at this moment, just this once. They must've done A LOT more yesterday night since Yugo did say she was tireless as soon as he woke up. These two are adventurers at heart, so why wouldn't they explore each other more thoroughly-

Given that we’ve only seen the "lotus," the "woman on top," and a simple embrace, I would like to suggest a few more positions that would suit them well. These recommended positions are so accurate to them and reflect their dynamic that I wouldn’t be surprised if they have done these before (or will eventually 👀).

While nitpicking every single panel of their “morning routine” I learned two things thanks to this start:

1) Yugo’s a bottom but is able to switch.

2) Amalia is insatiable in bed. Girl is hungry HUNGRY. Because judging from how Yugo and her were fully naked and laying in bed in the beginning, that means they had finished screwing with each other a while ago BEFORE AMALIA JUST JUMPS BACK INTO IT. SHE’S LITERALLY TIRING OUT A DEMIGOD ALIEN JUST FROM GROPING AND TAKING HIM-

If a scene like this wasn’t what I thought would happen at the beginning of the first chapter, then Amalia getting choked to death had definitely thrown me off guard. Like many other readers, I already knew that this wasn’t actually real and was only happening in Yugo’s head but it still felt very off-putting to see her struggling to breathe. The way Yugo panicked and tried to help only for him to scream and cry when he realized she was on the verge of dying was powerful.

And that’s when we find the anomaly in this chapter.

The dragon that appeared in Yugo’s head.

I initially expected Toross to be the one tormenting Yugo but I guess it ended up being this dragon.

The dragon figure seems to feel severe hatred for Yugo for all the calamities he let happen in the World of Twelve and how he seems to be living a good life at the moment while having the six primordial eliatrope Dofus and the Eliasphere in his possession.

The theories immediately started flooding in on who this dragon could possibly be and here’s what people came up with:

A) The dragon is one of the six primordial dragons from the World of Twelve named Grougalorasalar.

He’s the guardian of the Eben dofus and used to have been sealed in Joris during the Dofus era. Some have theorized this dragon to be him because of how physically similar they look.

Although he looks identical, there is no logical reasoning to support his hostility towards Yugo, let alone his ability to infiltrate his mind. Furthermore, the way he acts and thinks around Yugo, assuming it is actually him, is illogical given his involvement in Ogrest's rampage.

B) This dragon is, in actuality, Draconiros, the dragon of dreams.

His job is to govern the dreams and nightmares of the twelvians. People suspect he might have taken the form of Grougalorasalar while talking to Yugo.

Despite never meeting Yugo, he could have watched over the twelvians through their dreams. This means that he might have seen Oropo's dreams, as well as Yugo's own, giving him insight into Yugo's future actions and indirectly caused consequences. If true, this theory would explain why he holds a grudge against Yugo. It currently stands as the most compelling theory among all others.

C) The Great Dragon. Yugo’s father could be the one able to invade his mind and blame him for all sorts of things.

It's hard to ignore the fact that the Great Dragon appears to have been absent during some of the biggest catastrophes in the Krosmoz. Despite countless calamities happening all around the world, the Great Dragon seemed to have done nothing to prevent them, nor did he even show up to witness them. This is why his presence felt non-existent in the world. If he doesn't care about the world, why would he have any interest in what Yugo has done?

D) Osamodas himself could be the one speaking to Yugo while taking the form of Grougalorasalar.

It's worth considering that Yugo may face blame from the god of beasts. Additionally, it's intriguing to note that the osamodas race will play a significant role later on. This is evident from Aurora and her family's return to the Sadida kingdom.

So far, these are the only theories out there that we have for this dragon. That, and the fact that it might as well be a whole new character that we haven’t seen before.

The thing that truly makes this interaction between Yugo and the unknown dragon feel severe is the fact that the dragon tells him that despite sharing dragon blood, he truly detests him.

Imagine having to know that a millennial dragon hates you despite sharing the same blood.

Of course, the interaction couldn’t have stayed for very long because Amalia immediately interrupted it by screaming Yugo’s name. Yugo looks completely out of it, huddled up and shaking in fear. I understand that he saw what could be a future threat but this whole situation must’ve looked so off-putting from Amalia’s perspective: they were fucking, they started levitating because of the six eliatrope Dofus residing in him, and then they both suddenly fell on the floor and she saw Yugo curled up and crying, freaking the fuck out.

Amalia doesn’t understand but she still goes to him and immediately tries to calm him down by embracing him. But despite everything he’s seen and the fact that he interacted with a mysterious dangerous beast, the first thing that Yugo says amidst his crying is: “I thought I lost you…”

Look at the sheer terror in his eyes.

He genuinely looks like he thought he lost everything at this very moment. His body is shaking and is still processing what he just saw and heard.

He even APOLOGIZES to her, thinking that seeing her dying in his arms was somehow his fault.

Her life is such a huge priority for him that that’s immediately the first thing he’s afraid he’ll lose the most.

That’s when Amalia suddenly says the words: “Calm down, it was just a dream.”

…

A dream??

You mean to tell me that this whole time, Yugo was sleeping?

So this whole “wrestling” scene never happened?

I believe there’s been some kind of misunderstanding when we first read this chapter.

I feel like we thought Yugo and Amalia had been messing with each other in the morning and that’s when Yugo suddenly received a flash of imagery and words from the unknown dragon before Amalia snapped him out of it and that’s how they ended up on the floor together.

But it turns out that wasn’t technically what happened.

Because if this intimate scene was real, then why would Amalia say he had dreamt?

I believe this is what actually happened:

Yugo and Amalia were peacefully sleeping together after spending the night awake (because what do you think a fully naked couple does in bed). When morning arose, that’s when Yugo started having a wet dream of Amalia and him getting in on again and right when things were starting to get better for Yugo, the dream started to twist itself and change out of its own will, forcing the one good thing about the dream to leave, which was Amalia, by making her choke to death to finally reveal the dragon. The dragon haunts his mind and spills his hateful thoughts to the eliatrope causing him to suffer alone until Amalia snaps him awake and manages to unknowingly free him from the torment. Yugo must’ve fallen on the floor while having the nightmare and Amalia simply got down from the bed to wake him up.

(this still doesn’t change the things I said about the types of positions they have, how Amalia has her own nicknames for Yugo like ‘little princess’, and how Amalia is in bed though because dreams often depict and copy real-life behaviors from the mind of the person dreaming. it’s actually funny that Yugo had a WET DREAM about Amalia and him. despite getting so much action with her, his mind doesn’t leave her alone lol)

When she regards his shaking form that it was only a dream, however, Yugo insists how real it felt. That’s when he decides to stand up and claim he needs some air to think. The fact that he has said the same thing back in Season 4 Episode 1 when he had Oropo in his head, shows how his insistence of wanting to be alone after getting scarred, has become a pattern.

Amalia understandably (and predictably) gets angry at Yugo for leaving but her behavior also raises a few questions. Does this mean she’s angry that he wants to be alone every time he gets nightmares? Does he receive incessant nightmares on some nights? If that’s the case, then how often does this keep occurring? Or is this the first time he does this? Is she angry because he tends to quickly leave when he thinks he needs to deal with something on his own like how he did in Seasons 2 and 4?

Regardless of what the case may be, Amalia doesn’t waste time and immediately dresses herself up with her vines like a boss ass Queen just look at how refined and elegant she looks while changing✨✨ I love her so much 💕💕

Also vinillain noticed how these two dumbasses don’t HAVE ANY BEDROOM DOORS. How do they actually get any privacy if their bedroom has a huge ass hole with no door?? It’s so bare that it doesn’t even have a curtain to cover the front of their room!! Like did these two not realize that literally anyone can just get right in their room? I get that they’re royals so they would know that no one would be this dumb enough to simply get in like that but the entrance of the room is so big and wide that anyone can just pass through it and be able to see their bed from where they’re standing!! You can even see the bed frame right there in just that panel for crying out loud!! I get that the sadidas are a pretty open race BUT THEY’RE NOT THAT OPEN TO EACH OTHER-

Besides this stupid choice of not having any doors, I love how the kingdom made a few adjustments to the throne room because they initially only had one seat. Even when Armand was king, there was still one place. Aurora had to sit in a small space next to him lol. Note that Aurora used to sit on the right side like how Yugo has to do now.

I already talked about this to vinillain but I told them that because of how the throne was arranged when it got split into two, I feel like the ones who sit on the right are the ones who come from other kingdoms aka if they’re from another race. I believe that the reason why the throne had only been one seat in Seasons 1, 2, and the ovas, was because the only ruler at the time was King Oakheart. The ruling seat might have also been divided in two when the queen was still alive. Amalia might as well have simply chosen to sit in Armand’s place because it used to be his which would be cute if that was the case.

I like to think that Yugo deserves sitting in Aurora’s place because he’s submissive-

Speaking of Armand, the mural wall that Amalia made the artist make was such a wonderful decision. She really did love her brother despite the many quarrels they used to have.

This man entered the legend ❤️

After the interaction between Amalia and the painter, I noticed the royal advisor (or so I think) about to approach Amalia with something to discuss. Despite not having entered the throne room yet to listen to her people's grievances, the advisor seems to have something confidential to share with her, as he didn't choose to wait until she got there. Although we don't know what that "something" could be, Amalia immediately stops him, explaining that she just got out of bed and needs time to process everything.

I think we'll see what that 'something' could be about in the next chapter, though. Looking at the crowd awaiting Yugo and Amalia in the throne room to discuss their business with them, I have a strong feeling some of those problems would involve the elite eliatropes.

We can even see how the mood in the throne room looked very tense between the sadidas and the eliatropes. Some of the sadidas looked perturbed, and there's a good chance they're acting this way because of the eliatropes. Not only that, but the eliatrope kids looked super uncomfortable because of the tension going on. Even a sadida was eyeing an eliatrope in a pretty judgemental way (you can see it on the right panel).

They were all waiting for Amalia and Yugo so they could speak about their problems to the two royals so I wouldn't be surprised if some problems would be about the eliatropes staying.

I understand that when we last saw the sadidas, they were pretty much okay fighting alongside the eliatropes during the war against the necromes. But that was because it was a war. They were extremely short-handed, so they were perfectly fine with having them by their side. But now that the war is over, it's possible that many of them feel a bit awkward having to share their lands with eliatropes. Imagine living on these lands since the dawn of time and you suddenly have to live with people who are not even from your planet one day.

In short, Yugo and Amalia should get more intimate moments, the dragon in the dream has a good chance of being Draconiros, Yugo should stop dealing with his problems on his own, Armand is a chad, the two royal seats scream power couple goals, I need that sadida and eliatrope drama, and I’m waiting on what the advisor has to say.

@geekgirles @onyichii

[super-ion]

The Voyages of the Padua

Chapter 4

(1, 2, 3 | next)

The second time in her life that she woke up was significantly gentler than the first.

For one, she was warm. At some point, she had acquired a blanket. It was rough and scratchy where it touched bare skin, but it provided comforting weight on her body.

For another, she seemed to be surrounded by all manner of whispering noises. Clicks and beeps and hisses and a distant bass hum that she could feel more than hear. They were good noises. As long as those noises were going, it meant the ship was alive.

Ship…

Her eyes snapped open and she sat up with a gasp.

She was in what appeared to be a small cramped med bay. Most of the paneling was white with a high contrast red stripe around eye level. Well, white was a bit of a stretch, most of the paint was chipped and worn, with the most egregious damage painted over with what she assumed was available at the time.

Shoved into one nook was a collection of apparatus, all folded up, bearing the label “Auto-doc”. It was the sort of generic medical robot that could be found on most starships too small to have a dedicated medical team. The only difference here was that someone had glued a pair of googly eyes on it.

The mattress underneath her crackled as she shifted her weight around to get a better look of the room. Not very comfortable, likely waterproof.

“Good morning, sleepy head!”

She yelped and toppled out of the bed.

Something tugged painfully - an IV line plugged into the port on her arm. Except hadn't she been forced to bite that one off?

Panic flared. It was attached to her. She needed it out. She needed to…

“Hey! Whoa! If you break that, you gotta pay for it! Also, please don't break yourself!”

The disembodied voice cut through her panic. This wasn't the Eosphorus. She wasn't waking up alone this time.

“You good there?” the voice asked.

She let out a breath and disengaged the port with slightly shaking hands. Unlike before, it slid out easily and she dropped it on the bed.

“Yeah, I think so…” she replied.

She looked up to see someone floating in mid air. No, not floating, it was a projection on a sheet of plex, one of those holographic displays that created the illusion of space. She noted the black strip on top of the plex that probably housed cameras and microphones and whatever else was needed for this interaction.

The person was watching her with an expression of intense, playful curiosity. Wild bushy hair framed a round youthful face and an oversized pink sweater obscured most of her body except where sparkly leggings poked out.

“Um… hello?” the woman said.

“Hi! I'm Ria!” the hologram replied with an impish grin. “I use she/her usually, but anything’s good.”

Ria, or the image of Ria, stood up straight and offered a hand to shake in a show of mock solemnity.

She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. Obviously she couldn't shake, seeing as Ria was technically a two dimensional projection of a virtual being. She settled for an awkward wave.

“I don't know what my name is,” she admitted.

“Huh… auto-doc did say there were some anomalous readings in that brainpan of yours. I really thought you might be a Cassidy, seeing as your jumpsuit says Cassidy right there on that patch there.”

She glanced down at the patch.

“Oh… this isn't mine. I'm just borrowing it… I'm sorry, what do you mean, anomalous readings?”

“Ooooh… yeeeeaaaah,” Ria let out in a long breath before sucking on her teeth. “I'm not really qualified to discuss medical diagnoses. You're gunna have to take it up with Aela, but she's defragging right now. The drift kinda scrambles her up for a bit, takes her platform a while to recover.”

That answered exactly zero questions and raised so many more… which in all fairness was about on par with her short life so far.

“So, if you're not Cassidy, who are you?” Ria demanded. “I mean, you literally just said you don’t know, but that just means you can be whoever you want. We gotta call you something... I mean, going around referring to you as “mystery woman” or whatever would probably get tiring after a while, you know?”

“Oh… I guess not,” she replied.

Ria was watching her expectantly. Oh, did Ria want an answer right now? She felt a sudden intense pressure to get a good grade in self actualization, something both normal to want and possible to achieve.

The seconds dragged out in awkward silence as her mind raced. She needed to say something, anything.

“Uh… call me... Cass?"

"Cass? As in short for Cassidy?"

"Yes... I mean no... I mean sort of. Maybe," Cass replied.

“Alright, Cass it is!” Ria replied clapping her hands in excitement. “Oh, by the way, all your stuff is over there.”

Ria gestured to a duffle bag in the corner of the room. Cass stared at it for a long moment before finally recognizing it. Somewhere between terrifying creatures and security androids, she had lost track of it. By all accounts, it should still be back on the Eosphorus… unless someone picked it up and carried it here? Who or why she didn't know.

“Tre wanted to ransack it and see if there was anything valuable inside,” Ria explained, “but Mina wouldn't let them. Whatcha got in there? Is it gold?”

Well, that answered a who… maybe. But it didn't exactly provide a why. But then, why had she packed it full of things in the first place?

Cass approached the bag and pulled the zipper open, letting out a tiny relieved sigh at the sight of the teddy bear and everything else.

“Awwwww,” Ria gushed. “That's so cute!”

Cass glanced back at her to see an exact copy of the teddy bear clutched in Ria's arms. How has she…? Oh right, hologram.

“Can I keep this copy?” Ria asked, holding out the holographic version. “I mean, you're allowed to say no. I don't want to make things weird or anything. People sometimes get weird about personal stuff like this.”

“Yeah, sure,” Cass replied tentatively. “Hey… um…”

She wasn't sure how to ask this next question politely.

“Are you… I mean… why are you…?”

Ria let out an affronted gasp.

“Cassidy! You can't just ask someone why they're a hologram!”

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean-”

Ria burst into laughter.

“Your face! Oh my gosh! No, it's cool. I'm the ship AI. Well... sort of. My official primary function is navigation. I'm not technically integrated with the Padua, but I interface with a lot of her lower systems. She's really friendly, like a big fluffy dog.”

Cass looked around the room, trying to imagine the starship as a large friendly dog.

“Hey, so…” Ria said. “Please don't take this the wrong way, but you really look like you could use a shower. Do you want a shower?”

Cass very much did want a shower.

Unfortunately the shower booth that sat across the hall from the med bay was nearly as tight as the cryo tube and the reality of being trapped in a tight wet space somewhat soured the experience.

Aside from that, the water was warm and it was still quite literally the most luxuriant experience of her life.

At least until she discovered the small patch of shaved hair at the base of her neck, and the slightly raised edge of a surgical scar that had been hastily cauterized shut. It was fresh… or had been fresh whenever Cass went into the cryo pod. She still didn't even know how long ago that had been. Days? Years? Longer?

“Anomalous readings,” Ria had said. Someone had clearly been inside her head, relatively recently in terms of biological time.

She didn't even realize she was crying until the water shut off abruptly at the end of her allotment and she found herself leaning her head against the tile, shoulders shaking slightly from the emotion.

She couldn't remember anything. That fact had been more of an abstract academic fact while the wake up drugs swirled around in her bloodstream, when staying alive and reaching safety was the only thing that mattered. Now the reality of her situation hit her full on, bringing a profound sense of loss.

She depressed the dryer mechanism and closed her eyes as assorted vents blasted her with warm air from all directions.

She was alive. She was safe (probably).

As the dry cycle wound to a finish, she opened her eyes and once again, she found herself on a strange ship, staring at a reflection that she didn't recognize. She looked better, slightly less haggard and the self inflicted scratches were healing. The cheeks were still sunken and the eyes still ringed by dark circles.

She needed a meal or three and a proper night's sleep.

And she needed answers... if there ever were any. What if there weren't? Or what if there were and she didn't like them?

The face in the mirror looked even more bewildered and lost than before if that was possible.

Maybe Ria had been right and she really could be anyone she wanted.

“Well,” she told her reflection with a weak smile. “I guess it's time to figure out who Cass is.”

[thecameronchronicles]

The Flirt

TW: Smut. Language. Dom!Topper. Public sex.

SUMMARY: Your best friend Topper makes his feelings for you well known. 

WORD COUNT: 1800

REQUESTED

a-dorkier-book-keeper asked:

Could you pleaseee do something for bestfriend!Topper, where Topper gets jealous over Rafe flirting with you and decides to make it clear to you and his friend exactly who you belong to? Oh my GOSH Topper is just so hot lol

 Thank you for allowing me to send in a request! I love your work!

 Thanks 😊

*I FEEL LIKE IT HAS BEEN TOO LONG SINCE IVE GOTTEN A REQUEST FOR TOPPER SO ABSOLUTELY!

The Flirt

He had been forced to watch you this way for the last two hours. Not to mention the last collection of times you’d arrived at any Kook party to find Rafe using it as an excuse to test your interest in him. Even if it had been harmless flirtations, Topper’s eyes read into every action you made to his friend. Those actions he had fantasized as having been directed to him. Every last one. Everything from the innocuous laugh and illumination of your wide eyes to the more sultry traces made of your fingers across Rafe's impressive physique. It drove him to clench his jaw from across the party. Every former set of circumstances identical to this had amounted to this. But it would be the last time in which he would do so without acting on it. 

"Oh Top, we were just talking about your last competition!" You teased, knowing he loathed discussing the placement he made in contrast to what he could have had. All because he had been distracted by you in that bathing suit, its color having recently become his favorite. 

"If that's any way you guide your hips man, any girl is in for a massive disappointment." You believed you were close enough with Topper to laugh along with such jokes and only being forced to endure a look of annoyance and eventual dismissal. After all, you'd been friends long enough to not even think twice to take a second glance. But as you saw him nearly fuming now, you realized you had miscalculated your emotional proximity. 

"Sorry man," Rafe teased before your arm was taken by Topper as he led you to the side of his estate. Ivy lined the corner of the house just enough to conceal you as he pushed you to the paneling making up its exterior. 

"Top-" You were completely taken back by the rush made of his lips to yours. The pressure of his body constricted any attempt to breathe, bit that it was even possible by the way he pinned you beneath him. Once you reciprocated his kiss, he moved his hands from the rest beside his house to your hips, and higher still. He continued that climb until they fisted your loose beach waves constructed for this very event. The party. 

"Someone could see us-"

"I hope so. Because I've wanted this so fucking long and it's about time I did something about it, don't you think?" You bit your bottom lip, slowly nodding as he turned you away from him. 

"I am going to make it crystal fucking clear that you only need me." As your hand came behind you to try and wrap around his neck as a rest, he forced it stationary to the wall before you. 

"You've had your fun getting everyone's attention. But now you have all mine. And youre gonna listen like a good girl unless you wanna be fucked like a bad one." You wiggled against him, instigating disobedience as he scoffed. A harsh grip through your hair bent you back to face him. His lips just teased your own as you were kept here, unable to kiss him. 

"But first…you're gonna make it clear that you want me." He ran his dominant hand to your breast. 

"Mmm…" He groaned as you moaned to his fondling. Reaching beneath your suit and to your nipple, he twisted the pebble hardened by him. 

"You like this, hmm? Just imagine what these fingers are gonna do inside of you…"

"Please…" You pleaded. The visions you'd erected when alone had already been forgotten in contrast to this. 

"I've always wanted to know what you sounded like when you came. And I intend to find out…just not yet." He withdrew his touch and turned you to him again. 

"You sure you want this? Because once you come over my cock or on my face…even my fingers, it means you're mine."

"Yes, Topper…please…" He breathed out a short exhale of relief before sliding his hand over your stomach and into your shorts. 

"Fuck…you this wet already?"

"I could've come just by you doing that to my chest…"

"You've gotta learn some self control because you're gonna be spent before I even fuck you…I wanna touch you everywhere I've always wanted…" His hand came to your jaw as you were forced to face him once more. 

"Because you're mine and I'm just taking stock in what's mine " You bobbed your head in agreement as his fingers slipped inside of your panties. Your slick welcomed him, offering an ease path between your nether lips as he smirked in approval. 

"You want it, don't you baby? You're so fucking soaked for me…"

"Dripping…" You corrected as his brows raised. 

"And sweet…" He added once neglecting your core and sucking you off of his fingertips. 

"Please, Topper." He tightened his grip to the back of your neck. 

"I think we need to establish that all of this is for me…" He imprinted a firm slap to your ass. 

"I think we need to make sure," His middle finger began to run around your opening, the thick digit bending precisely to your g-spot after only a moment's analysis. 

"Topper!"

"Shit, you're already so close…"

"I've wanted you to touch me like this for so long…" 

"I can tell. You're wet like a fucking virgin. And I know very well you're not because we sat for hours talking about how he didn't know how to touch you-"

Your moaning interrupted him as he would add a second finger. 

"But I do, don't I?" 

"Yes! Oh my god, yes!"

"Better than that pogue?"

"Better than anyone!"

"That's it baby, tell em for me…tell them how good my fingers feel…how badly you wanna ride them until you come…unless you don't want to-"

"No! I do! Please, Top! Fuuuuck!" You rode into his hand as he nodded. 

"Oh God, you sound so good for me…you want it real bad…"

"I need it! I'm so close! Too, I'm gonna come!" 

"Yes…you are…" He groaned into your ear as your eyes pulled into a roll. The force of an orgasm rushing towards you sent your body to shiver between his arms. 

"But not yet." Before you could berate him, you were turned to face him again. His fingers pulled down the straps to your top, revealing your breasts entirely to him. His lips touched every inch of skin made newly visible to him as you voiced your approval in a combination of his name and your moans. 

"I need you to touch me…I've never been this hard in my entire life…" 

Your hand was quick to appease him but he took hold of your wrist. 

"With your throat. All the way in the very back. Show me you’re willing to be uncomfortable for me…willing to cry…" Your eyes shot to the direction of the party set just beyond the corner. 

"If they haven't heard you by now, babe, I think you're okay…besides, my cock's about to make you real quiet…." He saw the hesitance still spread over your expression. 

"Are you not mine anymore?"

"I am!"

"Then show me how well you take my cock behind that pretty smile…that way I know how much you can take." You offered a narrowing of a vixen's stare before teasing his lips. 

"I can take all of you." You believed you'd gotten the last word, a smile of victory wide across your face. A sudden pull of your hair corrected this. 

"Prove it." You accepted the challenge by taking him to your reservation. The natural retching of your body was quickly denied by your furthering endeavors as he nodded. 

The grip on the back of your head made you mobile to him, he pulled you to rest at the wall as he bowed over you. 

"Fuck…you're so good…just like that ..shit…" He growled in sporadic breaths as he was reaching his orgasmic pinnacle embarrassingly swiftly. One more swipe of your tongue and you would be forced to swallow him. Because of that, he stopped you. Just long enough to make you look up at him. 

"Look at me." He demanded as he caught the luminescence of the tears on your cheeks only enhancing your beauty. 

"Stand up."

"But I'm not done." You began to lean to his cock again, only able to wrap your hand around his shaft before he lifted you effortlessly over him. 

"My turn." He explained before sinking you down onto him. Years of sexual tension and thorough foreplay would subject you both to this unwavering pleasure. Slack jaws mirroring each other as he groaned to how you clenched around him. 

"If you're quiet for even a second after I start fucking you, you'll finishing me off while doing so with your fingers…all while everyone wishes they were us…"

"Topper!" 

"Scream for me, baby…God knows you want to." Your body arched immediately to the depth he took inside of you. Even if you wished to be silent, you simply couldn't. His hands to your breasts or ass, eating into your skin, had been too primal. The way he breathed against your perspiring but trembling figure was too erotic. And the way he guided you to rise and crash over his aching cock brought the same pleasure to you that granted him. 

"Topper! I'm gonna come! I'm gonna fucking come!"

"For me?" He chuckled. 

"Yes! For you!" You cried. 

"Who?"

"TOPPER!!!!" You expelled yourself over him. His cock and thighs, drenched by you. 

"Holy shit…" 

"I'm sorry…your shorts-" he took his hand to your face. 

"Look better stained with your cum…" You bit your bottom lip as he continued into you. 

"Just a bit more, baby. I know you're sensitive…but your taking me so fucking well…shit! I'm not gonna last!"

"Come for me! Please!" Your nails embedded into his shoulders before you felt him tense and release himself inside of you. You were perfect for him. Breathless. Spent. His. The only three things he set out to achieve once pulling you away.

"Now go back to Rafe and show him you're mine." As he set you back to your feet, you couldn't hide your grin. 

"What?"

"You know I'm not interested in Rafe, right?"

"I hope not now."

"I only ever wanted your attention, Top."

"Well you've got it. All of it."

TAGLIST: @hopebaker @iovdrew @penny4yourthoughts @magnificantmermaid @pickingviolets @lovedetlost @trikigirl271 @maybankslover @slut4starkey @slvtherinseeker @obxiskewl @bluesongbird @slut-era @ailee-celeste @camilynn @sweetestdesire @onmykneesforrafe @drews1love @phildunphyisadilf

MASTERLIST

TOPPER THORNTON MASTERLIST

[ruiniel]

Remember

Fandom: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

Pairing: Kokushibō x fem!Reader/Kokushibō's wife

Count: 2.7K

Rating: 🔞

Chapter Tags & Warnings: Sengoku era flashbacks, Reincarnation, Codependency, References to childbirth but nothing graphic, Obscure childrearing practices, References to marechi blood, POV Second Person, POV Tsugikuni Michikatsu, blood drinking, dub-con elements veering into non-con, you see how this just keeps getting worse

Part I - Part II - Part III - Part V - Part VI - Part VII - Part VIII - Part IX

On AO3

IV.

There’s never been a waver in his step, not quite like this. The breaths he takes are plentiful yet not enough, and the way to the chamber feels like an ever-lengthening corridor, swallowing the destination even as he strides across it. 

He’d heard you, by all the gods he did: on his way to the village, and on his way back during those long hours, the whimpers and low sobs as you tried to keep silent for the sake of bravery more wretched as time passed. 

Incredible, how joy can flourish from hardship. The midwife appears, bows after she closes the sliding wall with small, nervous fingers. “Michikatsu-sama.”

“Sumi, how is she? How are—they?”

“All is well,” the woman says, as calm as only one experienced with this process can be. “I’ve left Yuwa to keep watch over her.”

“... to keep watch? What for?” 

“Yes, Michikatsu-sama, for the seven days after the birth it is good for one to not fall too deeply into sleep, and we must help—”

What? If an exhausted soldier has survived a heavy battle, rest is paramount to regaining their strength. Why would a new, weakened mother be denied this vital need? 

“That makes little sense to me, Sumi.” He tries to be kind, he does: he is grateful for the dutiful care they’ve all displayed towards you and more relieved than he’s been in years. “You should have asked.”

The midwife’s eyes are set on the ground, the quirk to her lip hinting at a differing view; but she keeps her peace, nodding and moving aside to make space. 

His hand has been steadier when gaining access into this room before, true, and what Michikatsu finds as he enters helps little in alleviating the condition.

Yuwa sustains you, propped up against rolled-up quilts, appearing so spent it tears at him. Clutched at your breast like a dragon’s egg is a bundle, a tiny thing he can’t even see properly, partly shielded by the fall of your hair. His mouth opens, then closes. You must not have heard him, your eyes half-closed, a sheen on your skin even after the women washed and changed you. 

“Yuwa… leave us,” Michikatsu says, and at his voice your expression livens, your gaze set on him as he slides the panel closed. A smile brightens your weary face. 

The girl, who also looks tired, furrows her brows and bows low. “My lord? I was assigned by Sumi-sama…”

“No longer.” He shuffles close, unable to keep his eyes off your face, your chest, your–face–the tiny paw-like limb resting against your skin— “I will watch her tonight. You may retire.”

Once alone, Michikatsu nears and carefully drapes himself at your side, caressing your hair, kissing the top of your head. The paw moves, stirring a beat as silent as a butterfly wing.

“He’s…”

“Yours.” 

Michikatsu smiles at the tint of humor in your voice—he probably looks as lost as he feels, then, so he clings to you, worn by this unfamiliar whirlwind of emotion. You shift, making yourself more comfortable against his shoulder.

“I’m here.”

“I know.”

“I’ll be here every night.” His thumb grazes the hand holding your child to your breast. 

Your eyes close, your sigh warm against his neck. “I know.”

You glance briefly at the priest, met with his soft smile. He’s easy to speak to, and despite being skeptical you decided to return and see if he did find any written knowledge on the nature of your abnormal experience. You can’t help but yawn every few minutes, your eyes on the old scroll unfurled on his small desk. Your sleep has been terrible the night before, with vivid dreams of peculiar nature flowing one after the other. You barely remember most of it and woke with the weariness of having run an entire day. Work at the factory left its mark as well, but still, you want to get this over with. 

“A sleepless night?” 

His voice is as warm and soothing as summer rain after a drought. “I’ve been having… intense dreams lately.”

“Oh?” 

He seems genuinely interested, and you want to tell him more—you want to tell him everything, and yet… “It’s nothing, just… gibberish. It’s nothing.”

His striking eyes are on you, their pupils darkly set in the middle of his bright irises. “Either way, I have unfortunately found nothing to fit your description. But,” he raises an elegant finger, sighs, then taps it against his desk. “Nevermind. You would not believe it.”

“... what? After what I’ve seen, I… I admit my views of the possible have been amended, if only a little. I’m willing to hear it, if you would share.”

“I see… well, simply put, Mrs, the notion I am referring to is the existence of other creatures aside from ghosts… people would refer to them as demons.”

He was right. You do have trouble believing this. But well… “That’s indeed not something easy to grasp. I've always treated this, all of this, as folklore.”

“I’ve never heard of an encounter myself, but there are rumors… unexplained deaths and disappearances, people speaking of secret organizations dealing with dangerous things lurking in the night… Oh well,” the priest waves a hand, his reassuring voice a contrast to his words. “It might only be people’s rich imagination. We do have plenty of that, don’t we?”

You smile, rising to your feet. “Thank you for trying.” The disappearances you’d heard of, another reason you avoided traveling at night alone. It had been so ever since—... You shake off the memory. 

“Of course, any time,” he bows. “If anything else happens, you will always find me here.”

You’re grateful, walking with him to the gates outside, where a clear night has settled. After saying your farewells, your tired body announces itself, craving rest. 

There’s no other option but to head out, making a point of reaching your home as fast as possible. 

Maybe you’re overthinking all of this, maybe you simply are exhausted and your mind conjures images like living dreams. You’ve read about such fancies befalling people, but then you remember: the inexplicable need to be close to him, the pressure on your lips that last time you saw… him? It? 

Setting your desk to chop vegetables for dinner, the trail of your thoughts tapers away into mundane worries to the dull repetitive sounds and motions of your cutting knife.

The silence is broken so unexpectedly, your hand slips. “AH!” You stare absently at the thin trickle of blood seeping from the cut on your finger, your hearing caught on the sounds of a… flute?

What’s more, you know that sound. You’ve heard it before, so many times it tugs at your chest. You grab a cloth and press it to the cut as you hurry outside, thinking your hearing might be playing tricks, which says little about your deteriorating state of mind. 

But instead, you see…

“You!”

He’s propped with his shoulder against a pine tree, playing a tune you’ve never heard before and yet feels painfully familiar.

When you speak, he ceases to play, raising his gaze to you—those unnerving eyes of intense red and gold able to see beyond your skin, or so it feels. “Why… why have you appeared?” The priest’s words ring in your mind. 

He rights himself, nearing you silently in a sure glide. He extends a hand and you realize, he’s offering you your flute. 

“You had left it, by the bench, last time. It was still there.”

You press a hand to your mouth, thankfully taking the object from him. His skin feels so cold, impossibly cold. “Well… you… play well.”

He says nothing, watching you with that eerie stillness that sets your nerves on edge. Demon?

“Why are you here again?”

He glances away for a moment. He looks rather dignified, comes the thought. He faces you beneath the yellow, artificial lamplight. Shadows play on his unusual features like living tentacles. “I’d like to speak, if…”

His voice is cut abruptly, as though an invisible hand took him by the throat. His gaze roams all over you as if seeking something, settling on the piece of cloth wrapped around your finger. 

“Speak… to me?” And like having icy water poured down your back you remember how your last meeting ended, and shame warms your face. What had gotten into you, then, anyway? How could anyone have been taken by such thoughts and in relation to him no less? 

He had good reasoning… it was foolish of me. When no other word leaves his mouth, you cross your arms at your chest, tucking your hands around your body.  “Oh, I cut myself. It’s not deep.” But the oddest thing: he won’t react.

“You’re bleeding.”

What a strange concern to insist upon. He looks different, the lashes of those kanji-adorned eyes heavier, as though fallen under a trance. “Is… is something the matter?” 

“... no.” His chest rises, then falls in a deep breath. “I do not have an answer.”

Your confusion has reached such critical levels, you find yourself wanting to shake him. “About what?”

“Your question. Last time.”

You think, replaying the moment…. Why do you keep coming here?

“I see.”

“But…” he pauses again and swallows thickly. “But I can share other truths, and a warning.”

You don’t seem fazed, and he carries on despite the weakness in his knees and the thundering of his own blood in his veins. The moment he felt the scent, he knew it for what it was and now he is fiercely, desperately hungry. 

He ought to—

No.

Flee from you? That happened once before; never again. 

Instead, he takes another step towards you. The craving shivers through him like fissures of desire. Focus, you are stronger; you have been, for a long time. 

“Demons… a reality…” Your voice holds incredulity after he's shared with you the forbidden knowledge, but your features—alarmingly—show curiosity more than any other emotion. 

“You see, the priest was not lying.” Now standing inside, he slowly takes hold of your injured hand, a strange emotion snuffed fast when you let him, so trustingly. He places your palm on his chest, “Am I not real?”

“You feel real,” you murmur. Your hand is warm, heated with your blood.  “You have a pulse, a quickened one.”

Upper Rank One forces himself still, the smell of that rare blood like a shield around you. He loathes it; he wants it. “The priest… is not human.” Doma knows what he's doing, and manipulation is his crown tactic after all. “And neither am I.” 

He expects disbelief to change your face, or at the very least for you to draw back in a burst of human survival instinct. 

You do neither. If anything, you feel closer, weaving with this situation like a moth in spidersilk. A situation he failed to retreat from, reopening a wound he still cannot locate. And that, well, that is infuriating.

No matter. Once he’s finished, your doe-eyed thrill will surely fade.

“You're not human,” you repeat, now studying his features with intense focus: his eyes, the letters engraved in them. The sight might make others flee as it has before, but you seem to take it in stride. You linger on the flame-like mark adorning his jaw, snaking down his throat as your hand feels the fabric of his kimono between curious fingers. 

“I would…” This closeness fuels a need so selfish he must steel himself to speak without a slur to his voice. “... not return to that temple if you value your life at all.” Your body warmth is like a furnace, closer, not close enough. 

You frown. “You mean to say, the charming priest so many people trust and take refuge in... has ill intent?”

He nods. “The beings you call 'demons'… they need flesh and blood to thrive. Human.” His clawed fingers circle your wrist, removing your hand from him. 

“And, you…” 

“I have consumed many across hundreds of years.” The blunt truth is always the best way. Nowadays, he rarely indulges. The potent blood of that man flows through him as if he’d been turned yesterday. But that changes nothing of the past. “Now do you understand…” 

“I do. I try… but somehow, even if I don’t even know your name, I don’t quite believe you’d hurt me.” You pause. “... is something the matter with you…?”

Are you immune to all sense? You must be. You’re staring at him with no fear, your pulse still beating against his palm—he’s not released your wrist, as if drunk on all the wine he could not drink for centuries. 

"Is that what it is?... Is that the reason you’re trembling? Are you hungry?” 

Your question and the awareness in your eyes as you ask it surprises him. And he realizes, that he is indeed not mastering his body as before. “No, I’m…” 

He would never tell you, would he? Giving anyone a tactical advantage against you is always a bad decision, leading to many downfalls. Your rare blood spilling makes him weak, like he could fall into the sun and die singed by its heat, uncaring of all existence, of the mission given to him by the only one stronger than he, the regrets he’s forgotten and the ones he cannot; a hateful state of being, and one he must shed as soon as possible. But, how?

You near him even more, your head tilting to meet his eyes. “Forgive me for being so forward last time.”

He lingers like that, watching the pulse at your throat leaping like butterflies trapped beneath your skin. “There is nothing to forgive.”

“Do you need it? Will you have it, if it helps you?” You’re pointing at a large vein in your forearm. 

What an unbelievable, ludicrous turn. “You would… give of your blood to me? Freely?”

His throat aches, the need to feed stronger than it has ever been in recent memory. The fear he hadn’t sensed in you before is present now, its trembling aura rippling around your spirit. He wishes he could feel sympathy, to retreat, and he knows you’d be dead by his hand if he wished it, and still…

You nod, breathing deeply. “A settling of scores. You saved my life, back then. So, consider it… an offering? All debts are paid.”

“There is no… debt.” What a strange being you are; what a foolish one, he thinks, drawing nearer, his gaze locked on yours. If this were a battle, this faltering balance would cost him.

“There is.” Your voice is tinged with uncertainty. 

“It will hurt.”

You nod as though to say, ‘I accept that’. 

Your face, your damned face… he’s seen these features before, he knows this determination. But the memories jumble and merge with one another, the hundreds of years having churned them until their dust is scattered over his mind with little meaning. You’re close enough to touch, close enough…

In a breath, his hands are iron bands around your wrists; he slams you into his body so strongly you gasp, arms crushing you close, head tilting to inhale the skin at your neck.

“Wh—”

His fangs dig deep, closing on tender flesh.

Your heart rages against his chest; you writhe as he drinks and drinks, the taste of life drowning his reason with brutal, unyielding force. He does not hold back, wants you to know and feel the enormity of what this means. Here… this is what you agreed to… will you be as brave next time?

You might have whimpered, you might have wept. Words barely reach him; weakly, you squirm against him, the pleas to release you smothered by a delectable rush infusing every cell in his body. If anything, it spikes the thrill. 

“A moment longer... Hisa… a moment…”

A name, foreign yet known to him. He finally ends his feeding as the tension in your limbs eases, blood-stained lips gliding along your jaw, the grip on you slackening; when he feels your body softening against him he lifts you in his arms, turning to gaze around your household. 

You’ve fallen unconscious, eyes closed, your head lolling to one side. “I warned you it would hurt,” he murmurs, kneeling and laying you on the futon in what looks like the sleeping chamber. 

The taste of your blood is sweet on his lips, searing down his throat and lapping like languid flames at his insides. 

The blood… then, this is the reason. The reason why he kept returning here, rather than retreating alone anywhere he deemed. Why do threads of confusion cut him when he looks at you now, lying there motionless, your breaths heavy?

No, no ... That is not the reason. He should drink you dry and end this wallowing. He’s always known or predicted all the variables in a situation to tilt things in his favor, except for now.

You groan softly as he stares into nothing, and that stirs an uncomfortable urge to remain by your side. The demon reaches, smoothing strands of hair away from your wet forehead. He should drink you dry, yes. But he won’t, and neither will anyone else.

Part V

[luperpla]

i wanna gab about preshading and how ive been doing it lately. trying to type longer guides on patreon and HV but let's try a quick and dirty version here and see if that helps me get those posts together better. as far as tools used for this, i use an iwata hp-cs and hp-ch (which are .3 and .2mm nozzle airbrushes respectively) along with gaianotes paints for painting gunpla. proper ppe (nitrile gloves, a well fitting respirator and a spraybooth that moves enough air) are a must when working with lacquers. dont give yourself lung or liver cancer for plamo plskthx. pics are from a mixture of the mg sazabi's WIP and some test junk i was doing with the hguc sinanju.

step 1: primer yer part i like to use colored primers cause it really ups the saturation on the paint you use on it. pink for reds/oranges/yellows, blue for purple/blues, grey or white for whites/greys

step 2: mix your preshade color ymmv on these but personally i like using a darker shade of the main color to do the shading by adding a complimentary color to it. for example, for these parts i mixed brown in to the custom orange color i made. you can use whatever you want though. some folks like using black as a preshade and that's ok! i preshade my orange-yellow paints with pure orange, and blues with either a darker blue or blue with some purple/black mixed in. to goal is to compliment/blend a bit with the color that's going on top.

step 3: go around the edges and panel lines with your dark color, leaving room to fill in with your main paint. hope your hand is steady and your paints are mixed/thinned well! very carefully, go around the part and darken up the edges/panel lines/underside of your parts. i shade anywhere where the "light" might darken up on a real world object but i can't speak to how accurate of a sentiment that is, if that makes sense? it's just what looks 'right' to my eye to do it this way. but the part that's shaded above should serve as a good indicator. here are a few other parts pre-filling in:

i do this this way for three reasons: first and second, im lazy and cheap. i don't want to waste time and paint coating the entire part when i'm just gonna cover it up anyway. third, if i coat the entire part in the preshade color that's going to have an effect on the main color that's going on top. mainly, it's going to make it darker. i don't want that so i landed on shading stuff this way.

step 4: fill in your main color okay so i always do a shitty job taking pictures of this step (that's why there are no sazabi pictures here) but once you have the edges and stuff painted now it's time to take your main color and fill in the primer-spaces. don't go over your preshade lines, just get as close as you can to that line. it's fine if you hit the edge a little, after all this is the topmost layer of color. even if it doesn't turn out perfect, just work with the wabisabi of the whole thing. embrace the shading not being perfectly uniform. after all, things in real life have degrees of variance.

take your time, work with a psi around ~12-15, thin your paints well, and be very gentle on the trigger. i work really really close to the part for this step and have to be very careful to avoid splattering or overspraying. this is probably???? one of the trickier parts of this??? i don't know. when you've been doing this for so long your definition of that sorta changes. if you need extra help, look in to something to help steady your arm/hand while doing this part.

step 5: blending okay, so you've got your shading down, you filled in the rest of the space with the main color and it's feelin pretty good. but. there's one more step. get a little distance from your part and give the whole thing the lightest coat you can manage. the goal is to blend the primary color and shading layer together with one or two very light coats of paint. i'm not trying to cover up the preshading, i just want a very thin layer of the main color to harmonize everything.

see how the preshading isn't so stark now that we've given it those final two coats? i think this is the key to bringing the shading and main layers together. everything feels nice and "finished" now. from here, gloss coat the parts for panel lining and decals or flat coat (or whatever finish you wanna use) it if it's not getting any of those.

and...that's pretty much it. as an aside, glossy finishes tend to make the colors appear darker and flatcoats tend to look lighter but that could just be my eyes being weird.

and uhh....yeah. thanks for coming to my gunpla talk.

[thewitcheswitch89]

The Witches Image

Papa Emeritus IV- Part 1

Authors Note: its my Fist Ghost fanfic. Please give me construtive criticism.

you can also read it on:

Min Heyoka (@TheWitcheswitch89) - Wattpad

"A warm welcome, sister!". An older woman in her 60s approached me with her arms wide open. I tried to smile, even though I didn't feel like it.

I hadn't actually intended to change convent. However, Abbess Blake had left me no choice. I had been summoned to her office three days ago to tell me that I was in higher vocations and needed more intensive guidance to find my right path. And for that it would be necessary to transfer me. Sister Imperator would be the perfect person for that.

When I asked if it was really necessary and if I could just sign up for more courses, all I got was a blunt "Don't question Lucifer's decisions, my child!". I had barely had time to say goodbye before my bags were packed, the flight booked and I was here. A new member of the unholy church Emeritus. I didn't care what privilege I was given. I would have liked to stay there with my friends, my teachers. But this decision was not given to me.

Nervously, I clenched my fingers in my pocket. Sister Imperator was a slim, good-looking woman. Her blonde hair, streaked with gray, was pinned up in a loose bun. In her black blazer, suit trousers and red pumps, she looked a little intimidating.

"It's great that you're finally here!" she beamed when she reached me. Her voice echoed in the empty crypt. 

"Thank you for letting me be here, sister," I replied. Not convinced of my gratitude. Her eyes briefly scrutinized me from top to bottom with a disparaging look. I immediately became afraid that she had noticed. No matter how hard I tried, you could see everything in my face, like an open book. Her gaze lingered on my Doc Martens, which were long past their prime. I was immediately annoyed that I hadn't worn something more formal. First impressions counted here. Even though I didn't want to be here, I had to accept the idea now. The formal smile that didn't reach her eyes didn't leave her lips as she pierced me with her gaze.

"Abbess Blake didn't promise too much when she recommended you to me," her voice broke the uncomfortable silence. "But let us go to my office, Sister! Surely you don't mind a cup of tea?...Leave your luggage here, one of the ghouls will take care of it!".

She turned on her heel and stomped off down the corridor. As I hurried to keep up with her, I couldn't get her remark out of my head.  ...'Abbess Blake didn't promise too much'...What had she said to her?

She steered purposefully towards a tall double door that led from the entrance hall into a darker and narrower corridor. Fine wood paneling adorned the walls. The floor was covered with dark red carpet. The light refracted through the high stained glass windows, giving the corridor an almost magical feel.

. High wooden doors lined the corridor, golden signs were attached to each one. As I walked past, I caught a glimpse of the names. "Primo", "Secondo", "Terzo", "Papa Emeritus 4" and "Nihil".

"Here we are!" She let me enter first and I was amazed. Her office was huge, a wide fireplace, dark shelves, armchairs upholstered in heavy red velvet, high windows with heavy white curtains draped around them. Paintings of every emeritus on the wall. If it looked so grand here, what did Papa's office look like?

"Have a seat!" She closed the door and went to her desk, which was in the middle of the room. I took a seat opposite her.

"Please bring me tea for two," she said into her phone, hung up and turned to me.

"Welcome again, sister! I hope your journey was pleasant?" She folded her hands on the table with a smile.

"Yes... thank you!" I replied. "Even if everything had to happen pretty quickly!". Sister Imperator nodded sympathetically and furrowed her brow.

"Sometimes there's no other way...you have to act before the child has fallen into the well...Abbess Blake seemed very worried when she contacted me. Concerned for you...and your faith in our unholy church!" She leaned in my direction, sighing. "She told me that she feared that you might leave your path to Lucifer!".

I swallowed hard against the lump in my throat. What did that mean? I had done everything that had been asked of me. I had taken part in every mass, every ritual and every festival. Hadn't that been enough? I hadn't refused ... well ... except for one particular thing. But that couldn't be the reason for the transfer...not because I...

At that moment, there was a knock at the door and a sister dressed in the habit of the Order entered, a tray with a teapot and two cups in her hand.

"Your tea, Sister Imperator!" she said and placed the tray on a small table next to the desk.

"Thank you my dear!" Sister Imperator rose to fill the cups with hot tea, while the young woman turned to me, winked with a smile and left the room.

Sister handed me one of the fine porcelain cups and sat down again, sighing. Was she expecting an answer now? I awkwardly put my cup down and cleared my throat to say something, but she beat me to it.

"I offered Abbess Blake to put you back on the right path... The way she raved about your talents, I think you will find your way with us very quickly!". She sipped her tea and continued: "I understand you were active in book illumination and translations of holy scriptures?". Sipping my tea, I looked at her with wide eyes. Should I answer now?

"Yes!" I replied, burning my tongue.

"That's excellent, sister! We've been looking for someone to write down our unholy father's masses for posterity for a long time!" She took an almost exuberant sip of tea. "That will be your task now, my dear!".

"It's a...great honor, Sister Imperator," I grinned. To be honest, I felt a little overwhelmed. After all, it was a big job and a lot could go wrong.

Another knock made me flinch briefly.

"Come in!" she called, still grinning. I took another sip of tea and tried to get used to the idea of my new task.

"Sorry to disturb you, sister! But you wanted to see me?" a male voice with a heavy Italian accent said hesitantly.

"Come in, my dear!" She stood up. I hesitantly put my cup down and stood up.

"I would like to introduce you to our new member... Sister Lia!".

My gaze met his exactly. One green and one white eye. Black make-up adorned his eyes and his upper lip.

"Papa!" I said. The corners of his mouth twisted into a grin. While I couldn't help but stare into his eyes. Minutes seemed to pass, even if it was only a few seconds. I couldn't tear myself away from his gaze. It almost seemed as if his white eyes were shining. The corner of his mouth pulled upwards. He was a head taller than me. His hair was combed back and his hands were in black leather gloves. His black suit was tightly tailored. I blinked and immediately felt ashamed of my stare.

"Benvenuta sorella Lia!" he said, taking my hand and pressing a kiss to the back of my hand. I felt a tingling sensation where his lips had touched my skin. He didn't take his eyes off me during the kiss. The warmth rose in my cheeks.

Fortunately, Sister Imperator interrupted the tension between me and him with her voice. I had a moment to catch my breath as he turned his attention away from me. Sister took a seat behind her desk, grinning broadly, let her eyes dart briefly to me and nodded to Copia, who took a seat next to me.

"Sister Lia... will take care of the transcripts of your masses in future! It's important to record them for posterity so that faith in our unholy church is deepened even more!".

"Meraviglioso!" laughed Copia in Italian. "What an enrichment!". He gave me a look, which I answered with an embarrassed smile. My cheeks were burning. Lucifer ... I had to pull myself together.

"I've long been of the opinion that you need an...assistant! Sister Lia will certainly be able to do some of the work for you. Isn't that right, sister?"

Without stopping it, my features slipped and all I did was stare at her with wide eyes. She was expecting an answer, but I was so caught off guard that I only managed a hesitant "Yes?". Copia next to me cleared his throat, which drew Sister's attention to him.

"Eh...maybe we should give Sister Lia time to arrive first!" he patted my hand and winked at me.

"Yes, of course you're right!" she sighed, before turning back to me. Her gaze was almost empathetic. " Take your time today and we will talk tomorrow about the admission ritual. Then we'll discuss more concrete things!". More concrete? What else was coming?

Sister Imperator pressed a button and a short time later there was a knock at the door and the sister who had brought us tea earlier entered. I had been staring at my hands the whole time, not only because I didn't know what was happening to me, but also to avoid Copia's worried look that he was giving me. I felt bad, I didn't want him to think it was directed at him.

This day seemed to have one surprise after another in store for me.

"Sister Magret, accompany Sister Lia to her room!".

[athenodora-sulpicia-writer]

The Clairvoyant's White Witch- Part 2

A/N: This is part two to my Vanessa Ives story, I hope you all like it as much as the first part, it’s a bit slow but definitely sweet.

Warning(s): None

I saw the fear wash over Vanessa, the way she stiffened at my words and suddenly, regardless of how close we sat, I know felt a thousand miles away from her.

It was the words 'Witch' that had caused such fear, I wasn't idle minded, I knew what that word meant when the recipient understood the context behind it and clearly Miss Ive's did.

"Why now? You haven't plagued for all these weeks," She began to ask me, her voice hard a steel and I could tell when she said the word 'you' she didn't mean just me, she meant more than one person. "Was it to taunt me further? Distract me with Mina so that I'd forget you were there?"

Now she was standing and backing away from me, placing herself at the far end of the fire place, creating a distance to make herself feel safer.

"Miss Ives I assure you, that whatever creatures have plagued in the past, that I am not one of them. I am a White Witch not a nightwalker, I have no scars to show, I was born the way I am with the duty to help other and that's what I intend to do for you."

My tone was firm and assuring, I knew she'd only reason with me if I came a cross as such and though I remained in my previous position sat on the couch, It seemed that I may have been successful in making ravenette believe me, if only to a certain extent.

"How do I know this to be true, what proof do you have to show me for me to believe such a thing." Miss Ives had stepped out from behind the far end of the fireplace and in doing so had taken a step towards, though I began to wonder what proof I had that I could show her.

There wasn't much I could show her, not now, not at this hour. It was the nighttime and that was when Night Walkers thrived, I was more akin to a Day Walker and so my strength lay in the light of day, not in the darkness of night.

I sat there wondering what I could do, what I could possibly show her to prove that I had no ill intent but I need to think of something quickly, I could see how her patience was beginning to grow thin. The first thing that came to mind, was the birthmark I had on my right shoulder blade, a pair of angel wings, but that would take to long to show and even then I don't think Miss Ives would believe me.

What to do? I thought to myself until an idea finally came to me, there was one thing I could do at night, though began to worry that it wouldn't be enough to convince her but right now it would have to make do.

"Do have anything made of glass that's see through but not easily broken?" I then asked Miss Ives, using a careful tone so as not to push her to far.

Within a moment of contemplation she then cautiously began to walk away from the fireplace entirely and our of my line of site. I know though that she hadn't left the room as there was no sound of a door being opened and closed, which meant she hopefully grabbing what I request from behind.

Regardless of knowing that Miss Ives was still in the room I made no effort to move and turn around to find her exact location. I knew I didn't need to and for some peculiar reason I felt that I could trust her, more than I possibly should.

"Here!" She announced coming back over with an object in hand, before thrusting it out in front of me. I looked over the item before taking it making sure that it was what I needed and thankfully it was.

The ravenette had handed what exactly what I had described, it was a lantern with glass panels, a brass gold top and bottom, with little stars cut out from the top it. Yes, this would do perfectly.

"Just a word of caution Miss Ives, don't be frightened by what you see," I knew that I needn't say such a thing the intellectual woman but it was as if the sentence had been programmed into me and made it compulsory to say.

"Very little frightens me these days, Miss Damar," She spoke my name with a hint of venom as she folded her arms in front of chest waiting. I only hoped that once she saw that I was telling the truth, that the malice she had for me would become non-existent.

Then, as I knew that sentence would be my confirmation to begin, I opened the tiny glass door on the lantern and then held out my hand towards the fire. Before I did anything though I placed, the lantern down on a table that sat by me and then looking over to Miss Ives I smiled at her before I began.

With the hand that was outstretched towards the fire, I began to slowly curl my fingers back, urging an ember from the flame to come and play. It a moment but very quickly a small ember of fire no bigger than a gold ball, came floating out from the fire and towards my hand.

Once the ember of orange flame had come to rest on the palm of my hand, I looked up to where Miss Ives stood, her face showing little emotion though I could see the slight surprise in her eyes.

My gaze remained focus on Miss Ives as her's was on me and with the ember in my hand I placed it inside the little lantern with the stars and closed its small door.

"Miss Ives, will you come sit down please?" i asked her kindly, patting the spot next to me on the couch, my smile never faltering. She then looked at me as if to say that she didn't want to and that even still she didn't trust me. Though it seemed something in her had finally relented as she did eventually take up the offered seat.

"How is this supposed to prove anything?" She asked me skeptically, still keeping at least some distance between us on the couch.

"You know it does Miss Ives" I began to say, "Don't try and so say it doesn't, you know fully well that if I were a Night Walker Witch, that with that little ember this entire building would set a flame and you'd already be lost."

She knew that what i said was the truth and soon after she was able to ease the battle inside for her, I saw how her body relaxed and I then decided and I could have fun with her.

"Now come closer, this next bit is when the magic truly starts," I spoke to her excitedly, gesturing for her to come and sit closer to me so I could show her something truly magical.

Eagerness and excitement must have convinced her that it was alright as she was now sitting beside me, waiting for me to show her what I had promised.

with Miss Ives beside me, I gave her a final smile before swiftly twisting my wrist and hand, extinguishing the fireplace completely and now the only light in the room, was the little lantern and its ember.

Though how Vanessa flinched in her seat once the fire went out, didn't go unnoticed by me and to reassure her that she was safe, I shuffled closer to her side, our bodies now touching and with my right hand I began to brighten the ember.

I watched how transfixed Miss Ives was on the source of the light, that I couldn't have her missing out on the best part. "Miss Ives," I said quietly gently tapping her on the shoulder and then she turned to face me.

"Look up," And I pointed to the ceiling and she soon followed my gaze upwards.

I heard the audible gasp, at what she saw, first and then she said "It's beautiful," And I couldn't help but smile longingly and wantingly at her as she admired my handy work.

As what shone upon the ceiling weren't only the simply cut out of stars, but the entire universe cast out in an orange glow for all to see and Miss Ives had called it beautiful and yet the only beautiful thing I saw was her.

[nanistar]

Any advice on how to draw backgrounds? Gotten to the point in my art where im semi confident in drawing poses and expressions but backgrounds?? girl help i can only somewhat draw a tree

oh hell yeah i love backgrounds, ive been working on more interiors lately (when not overburdened by sbc work lol) but im assuming you're asking about nature so that's how im going to answer it as okay so: -first of all find yourself a good TEXTURED blending/smudging brush because it will save your life. i use these rock texture brushes from This Studio Ghibli pack, it's $6 and i HIGHLY recommend the whole pack because it's the main one i use for most of my bg foliage/grass ect and i love it dearly

-find references either in irl photos or other artist's work. if using another artist's work watch their speedpaints or look at what you like about their art style and techniques and steal it. im serious. obviously don't trace it and pass it off as something of your own but look at how they do the aspects you struggle with, and try to incorporate that

for me, that struggle is forest foliage because i have a hard time filling out the spaces without everything looking like same colored blobs, so i looked at how my buddy hannah mudshadow does bgs because she's really good at filling out a scene and making it look natural, and i noticed she uses a lot of abstract shapes instead of trying to render every leaf, so rather than doing my base work for bushes/trees with a leaf brush, i use a chunky scatter brush now and it looks really good, and then i can go and add some leaf brushes on top of that for more definition in areas that might catch light ect so that will give it the thick, bushy .. bush look without looking crowded or too shaped

-nature is messy as hell and things are never going to be perfectly shaped and toned unless you're drawing perfectly managed hedges or something. got some dirt brown on your green bush? those are dead leaves now. accidental weird texture on your tree? the bark is gone there, something ate it. bushes and trees have dead branches that just hang out there in them, grass grows long and sometimes a deer or whatever doesn't eat the whole patch so there's long uneven sprigs sticking up. petals fall off flowers. trees have huge webs of branches

-don't try to detail everything. make things further away more abstract and messy to give the illusion of detail. throw a gradient over it for some slight tone variation or something so it;s not completely flat but ppl are going to look at your subject and see the rest of it with the corner of their eyes, so you don;t need to fully render every flower in the field. here's some examples of that

the cactuses in the far BG are just V and Y shapes, the joshua tree in the middle distance is dark with some light blobs right on the edge where the needles would catch light.

this is from 2021 so be nice to me but as the flowers go back in the distance, i stop rendering their petals and start doing blue dots with white dots, and then even further away i just sorta blend blue and green together to give the illusion of a field of flowers.

-i dont know what your style is, but i personally hate using a ton of layers and tend to merge them as i go, but for the most part i draw every panel of SBC bg on the same 1 layer, going back to front (start with sky, mountain, bg grass, foreground grass and cactus, then go back and scatter foliage as necessary) and it keeps my stuff loser and i tend to get less precious about making things look perfect. i also work very fast because i am unironically really lazy at art and am desperate for shortcuts.

-oh yeah one more thing. assuming you draw cats, cats are SOOOOOO small in comparison to literally everything. as warrior artists i think our perspective gets a but confused sometimes (i am certainly guilty of this too!) and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this because sometimes that's just how you have to build your scenes, but it really makes me laugh when i see scenes of like, rusty jumping off his fence to go into the woods, but the fence is only a bit taller than him. so try to remember things are huge and cats are small as hell

na'ni's a huge cat, all things considered but look at her compared to my small aloe plant

or the cedar tree in my front yard.

absolutely microscopic. don't look at my slippers.

so yeah. i hope this helps, it's not so much a tutorial because i don't think i'm the best person for tutorials because honestly i dont know much and this is all stuff i've picked up on, like i dont know shit about composition or values or color theory but this is important stuff to keep in mind about the environments themselves. don't worry too hard about colors at first because you can always change it by adjusting your curves n stuff. or slap a filter on that bad boy. or dont. also pay attention to your horizon line because it helps angle the rest of your piece. but look up tutorials for that because i only started learning about it like a week ago

[basicallyjaywalker]

Screw-Up

I should be writing an essay, but brain is buzzing with Ivy and Ronin thoughts so have some banter for them ft. Ivy being a terrible mechanic

no proofing OR editing. enjoy unfiltered rook brain

Word Count: 640

"You're gonna strip those screws if you tighten 'em anymore."

Ivy looked up at Ronin from the small robot on their desk. She'd taken from a scrap heap outside Stiix's limits. It was a rusted piece of garbage, but cute. Plus, she saw the Borg Industries logo on it. Flipping this baby would net them a pretty penny.

Ronin stood against the wall of the pawn shop's back room, arms crossed. He'd been out looking for something too, "big score," he told her. By the looks of it, he either put it away already or wasn't able to grab it.

"I'm not tightening 'em, I'm loosening 'em," she muttered. What she didn't tell Ronin was that she'd been "loosening" these screws for almost fifteen minutes. The cursed things didn't wanna come out.

Ronin pushed off from the wall and walked over to her, standing at her side and watching her fiddle with a small Phillips head screwdriver and the back panel of the machine.

"What's the rule, Ives?" he asked.

"Righty tighty, lefty loosey."

"And what side am I on?"

"My left."

He shook his head. "Check your hands, write something in the air."

She rolled her eyes, but did so, frowning when her right hand almost collided with his face as she raised it.

"Shit."

"You've been turning it the wrong way. That's why you're tightening it... and stripping it."

Ivy muttered a few more curses and stood up. "Damn stupid machinery, this is why I stick to the scrolls..."

"Then you're gonna love what I brought home."

She turned to him. "What'd you get?"

A smirk pulled on his lips. "Well, I paid a little visit to the Library of Domu, took one of their special scrolls, written by a guy named 'Yang.' Supposedly, it's the only one of its kind."

"Not for long," Ivy grinned and ran out to the front of the shop, checking the disorganized shelves. There were a few scrolls she faked before, namely novelty pirate maps, scattered around. Ronin watched her sort and scan.

"It's not on any of those," he finally said.

Ivy stopped, turning to him. "Where is it then? You didn't bring it back to the office."

He nodded at an ugly vase in the corner. Ivy went over shooting him a curious look. Glancing inside, a rolled-up piece of aged paper stared back at her. She picked it up, unwrapping its old green ribbon tie and gingerly unfolding it. Her eyes darted around, taking in the details of old glyphs. She liked that they were glyphs. Pictures were easier to replicate than words.

She let out a low whistle. "Damn, Ronin. Who do you think would want this?"

"Anyone worth their salt who's studying old fighting methods would want a copy. The library itself would pay a fortune for the original. How quick do you think you could copy it?"

"Depends on how detailed. Exactly like this? Two days, tops, uninterrupted. One day, if you don't mind me taking creative liberties."

"We'll see how much demand we get after the news breaks."

"You sure no one's gonna wanna take it back?"

Ronin walked over and took the scroll from her, wrapping it back up and tucking it back in the vase. "Of course they do, that's why we hide it." He reached a hand up to ruffle her black hair, missing when she ducked away, laughing a little in triumph.

"Nice try. So, you gonna help me fix that robot up?"

"Sure, do you know what it's for?"

"No clue, but it's Borg-made. Figured even if I screwed it up, the scrap would be worth enough to make it work."

Ronin chuckled. "Well, let's see if the screws are messed up enough to warrant scrapping it." He clapped her shoulder and they walked back to the office.

[mzminola]

I saw the “well you’re not in the kitchen so you’re not baking me a cake” panel floating around fandom long before I ever got to the actual comic it’s in, and uh...

Guys. This is something Tim says when Ariana told him to wait in the living room while she “gets something ready” in her room. He has been sitting out there for half an hour asking Ari what’s going on, making more guesses, completely confused because she won’t tell him why or how long he has to wait for her.

Out of context, yeah, it looks sexist. In context I can see Tim saying the exact same thing to Sebastian Ives, or any of Tim’s friends to Tim. Fuck, man, I could see Tim down in the freaking Batcave blindfolded on top of a highwire for half an hour during training saying that to Bruce.

At worst, Tim is clueless fourteen year old who doesn’t realize what he just said to his girlfriend could come across as sexist when said to a gal instead of to a guy.

[gooopy]

Ive been scullypilled lately so im gonna dump all the art ive been making

[Image id: nine images of a character named scully, a butch lesbian with a short spiky mullet, lidded eyes, and a square face. The first image shows him in a white tshirt and grey sweatpants in a loose A-pose. He is smoking. Beside him is text stating 'fat but muscular, heavy lidded eyes. Wider nose. Hair is short on top but gets long in the back. Wears a white t-shirt and sweat pants and is often smoking. 5'11. Wears ratty beat up sneakers that are a bit too small for him. Hair is messy and a little greasy. Tan lines from wearing tshirts.'

Second image shows the same character in a tank top and a pair of boxers. He is shouting, sayong 'my tan lines arent even that bad!'

Third image is a simple four panel comic. First panel shows scully standing impatiently in a tank top and boxers, he has a toothbrush in one hand and toothpaste in another. He looks tored. The second panel shows him knocking on a door, saying 'hurry up!' And seeming irritated. Next panel shows him making pancakes, with a squirt bottle in one hand. The pancake in the pan is misshapen. The last panel has the pancake on a plate and scully looking proud, saying 'dog shaped pancake, pretty good huh?'

The next image is drawn in yellow on a white background, showing scully dressed as heavy from team fortress two. He is holding a large gun and has a grin on his face as he shoots it. To the right you can see scullys back, standing facing a counter with sandwich ingredients on it. Theres text sayong ' makin sammiches forbthe whole team. (No mayo for scout. No tomatoes for engi. Toasted for pyro. Etc)

The next image shows a messy drawing of scully blushing, showing an edited screenshot that says 'i need a woman to hold me down and pick bullets out of me man'

The fifth image has a drawing of scully with messy long hair. He is sitting at a desk and we are looking at him from a high angle. Hes saying 'i got a feeling its gonna be a long winter'

The sixth image shows the outside of a window, looking in. Scully sits up in his bed, looking out the window at the viewer in his dark room. A caption says 'sometimes i think i hear a dog outside. Panting like its thirsty. Or tired. Think its just a stray. Not eatin the food i set out though.'

The next image shows scully head on. His hair is normal and he has a large grin-like grimace on his face. Hes sweating. A caption says 'Sally 'scully' hooper. Heavy weapons. Age 34'

The last image is scully with a relaxed smile, a caption says 'woah had a dream i was in a psychological horror movie. Good thing im in a comedy game.' End id]

Scully my best friend scully i put him in tf2 because im normal. Bro is FUCKED UP!!!! He has a bloodlust. He cant talk to women. Hes a great cook. Hes worn nothing but tshirts for 20 years. Hes awesome

[ryndicate]

describe your moots in one word?

Oh shit here we go.

I scrolled down my following list so if we're moots and you're not here it's literally bc I probably don't believe you follow me bc I have set you on a pedestal of some kind. And if you're on here and we're not actually moots it's probably just because I really really like you and your blog 😅

@dark-mnjiro ~ psychic. Lee somehow knows what I like without me having to say anything, sends me manga panels that have me climbing walls when i’m on the cusp of zoning from boredom, and introduces me to characters that turn me into some kind of feral territorial creature howling to the gods about my love for a character ive literally seen two pics of. We went from non interactive moots not knowing each other to talking all the time on discord within a few conversations and now im like what would I do without this friendship? 

@knchins ~ supportive! We haven't been moots very long at all but you've been kind to me and my writing manic keysmashes despite the short time, but thats the vibe I've gotten! And you are responsible to turning my mind toward spoiled Reo brainrot, i dont think i will ever thank you enough for Renunion hehehe

@boosyboo9206 ~ safe. It's really easy to talk back and forth with you and i love the way my heart flutters when send me puppy pics and art of my favorite pairings because that alone tells me that you’re thoughful enough to be thinking of me, and I’m so grateful that you don't judge me for being so awful with communication lol.

@kingkatsuki / @kingkunigami ~ assertive. its like jo really has her own brand and always just seems so unshakable, has the patience to respond to the constant stream of blank blogs asking why they’ve been blocked like its not obvious already. i love knowing when i go to her blog that im going to see her being herself. on top of her fabulous writing of course, im on her blog more than its healthy to admit.

@killsaki ~ real. Every time i’m scrolling their blog i find something to either cackle or bite my fist about. Dal is my favorite blog for unfiltered thoughts about their faves and just their life in general. if we met in real life im dead certain they’d be a friend i could count on to call me on my bullshit

@cyancherub ~ vibrant. Everything cass does is done brightly with all of her love. Her interactions with her followers are so lovely and its easy to see how much she enjoys hearing from everyone. And I can trust her to put her whole pussy into any of her fixations, and her fixations are ~top~ tier. While you were sleeping is still easily my favorite thing she’s ever written, ive read it through like 4x and it still leaves me breathless with its characterizations, the descriptions that im not sure she was even breathing as she wrote them, the energy is so wild and intense, and yet how well thought out everything is on top of it! 

@iwaasfairy ~ talentedddd. Fairy is either making me wet with her writing or leaving me soaked with her art, living the life of being amazing at more than one creative outlet. I thank the universe that we’re friends and that she trusts me enough to send me the snippets that she’s working on and letting me howl at her in discord about how awesome her shit is. I get some of the first looks and I’m damn proud of that hehehe.

[surgeonmommy]

hi, doc … you emailed me about our next appointment, and that it’ll entail some “light electro stimuli” … that’ll hurt, won’t it? it’s.. its not really that necessary, right, doctor?

patient signature: 0nm4

Good afternoon, 0nm4. I understand your concerns regarding electro-stim therapy, but I think it will benefit you. People report light pain, but mostly light tingling. No need to worry.

I think that given your current condition and the stage it's at, we should begin right away and keep a close eye on you.



(trying something new, read more under the cut)

The room is kept cold. For the patients it was rather unfortunate, freezing and sterile metal on bare backsides... no that just won't do, will it?

Quietly, the doctor comes in, watching as you adjust your gown. So embarrassing for you, 0nm4, it's so short and thin... you tug one way and it exposes the other.

That's not my main concern today, unfortunately.

Once the formalities are out of the way, a little check-up is due. A warm gloved hand caressing your brittle skin is more than enough to make you flush. It's amusing.. I don't need to slip my hand under your gown, squeeze your thigh, but I do it just to get a rise out of you. "The muscle is feeling good here.." mutters the doctor, and he's close enough that you can feel his warm breath.

Everything about the doctor is so much warmer than you. Cold and frail, you blindly trust whatever the doctor says. Like the runt of the litter... you desperately look for anyone and anything to cling to.

The constant praise and feeling useful kept you close. Sometimes so close that you're clipped to the doctor's belt, padded elbows struggling to keep up with his long strides across the linoleum.

So suddenly, the exam ends with a click of a collar around your neck. Oh 0nm4, how stupid of you...

"Follow me, we have a room set up for you." All the doctor does to signal in case you weren't paying attention is a short 'come here' gesture with his fingers.

Your eyes adjust to the room, hardly lit at all. There's a cushioned table surrounded by machines, and you can only imagine what they're for. Surely you don't have to be hooked up to all of these for the therapy? That's too much...

All of the observation windows have been darkened except one, where a small panel of doctors and one other patient sits. To them, you're the main attraction.

It hurts when the doctor inserts your IV. You can feel it beneath the skin, like a bruised vein.

He doesn't even tell you what he's pumping into you, not that you'd understand the importance anyway. When he slips a silicon gag into your mouth you flush and protest to absolutely no avail. As soon as your hands come up to grab at it, the doctor grabs them and straps them to the bed.

You feel helpless.

You don't bother trying to kick. You remember how the doctor gets.

Slowly, you watch the doctor pace by the machines, fixing them up to the right setting and preparing them for use. One of them you recognize as your heart monitor. Very easily you can tell it's your very own because of the bite marks on the protective plastic shell. Oh, you miss when the doctor would just drug you. Ketamine sounds so much nicer than electro therapy... never in your life did you think you'd look back fondly on being drugged and raped, but at least then you'd feel good.

If you closed your eyes you could certainly pretend. As the doctor unbuttons the top of your gown, you think of his hands trailing down... roughly grabbing at your skin. The thought alone makes you excited. As embarrassing as it is, you think the doctor notices too, from the light chuckle you hear.

Instead of anything you had wanted at all, you get sticky cold pads attached to your chest, making your face scrunch in discomfort. Making no effort to re-button your gown, he places them farther up on your neck, and then several on the shaved parts of your head. Dread bubbles up in your stomach.

Before the doctor does anything else, he leaves the room. It feels like forever before he comes back in with a camcorder, tripod, and an old TV on wheels. When he puts the first VHS in, you can't understand it. Lights are flashing too bright, making your tongue fuzzy, and the voices were too fast- serving to further your disorientation.

All the stimuli is so overwhelming that you don't notice the camera set up to face you. Don't notice the electricity pulsing gently through you. So generous of the good doctor to start out low and slow for you.

Over the next hour he ramps it up, whilst also changing the tapes as needed.

To you, this was like hell. No indication of how long it had been, how much more will happen. How long until it became unbearable? Already it was too much, so strong now that it sent painful currents through your body. Left you hardly able to think. Suddenly you understood why the doctor gagged you. As the doctor amped up the voltage again you screamed, arching off the table as much as your restraints would allow and biting the gag so hard that you felt like your teeth would shatter. That'd be the very least of your worries though. The doctor wasn't even pleasuring you, nor himself today, a testament to how much he was focusing.

Two hours had passed unbeknownst to you, when you started feeling different. Through your whole body you felt tingly, and it was so much harder to even think. So much was happening that you didn't realize your stomach was slick with several loads of cum, and your cock was still weeping. All you could do was scream and drool, maybe writhe around if you had the extra energy.

After what felt like forever it all stopped. So kindly the doctor unstraps you and lets you stumble to the floor. Like a weak baby deer you scramble to your knees, looking up confused. There's nothing in your head anymore, even if just for a few hours. Your mouth opens, tongue slipping out from under the bit gag. With it comes so much drool, the doctor wastes no more time and undoes the gag. It's hard to tell if you can even register the cock in your mouth, and oh, 0nm4, as usual your mouth is so warm and perfect. Oh and so easy to facefuck now, not a single ounce of struggle left in you. The doctor grabs the camcorder off the tripod and films you. Up close and personal, drooling and so fucking stupid... maybe I'll let you hold the camera and film yourself. Of course on to the biggest test so far, gripping the back of your head and pushing you all the way down on his cock.. watching you gag and struggle but not pull off. Such a good boy, it seems like the electro therapy was a perfect success. Brutally facefucking you until he cums all over your face, not giving you any time to recover before he pushes you onto the floor and presses a foot to your cock. It's amazing you're even still hard, 0nm4. Lets see.. how much longer can you go? Can you cum like this, a brain-dead fucking idiot writhing on the floor like filth? Coated in sweat and cum already, lets just add to the mess, don't you think? You should be crying, too. Begging for whatever you can get. But you can't speak, babbling and slurring anything you can. Is this positive attention to you? Are you that fucked up and desperate? You've become a gimp, a patient, a test subject, a dog. You've become what you wanted in the first place, no need to be so scared anymore.

And when we pump you full of meds to forget, we can do this all over again. Isn't that just perfect?

I love you 0nm4, I love you and that love is going to destroy us both.

no romantic tags. no self insert. for u-0nm4-yk00.

[meikostan]

OK finally watching oshi no ko anime, it turns out all i needed was to go outside for like an hour and im normal again

my thoughts under the cut (writing as i watch) (long) (lots of thoughts) (beautiful and true?) (manga reader) (don't read if anime only) (spoilers) (seriously) (i talk alot) (lots of thoughts)

at this point i've reread oshi no ko enough times that even if i didnt already know japanese i could probably make it without the subs SDJLF but its so cool to see lines and panels that im so familiar with brought to life!! i also liked goro's death scene, especially the way they used static and cut between shots. i keep on pulling out my physical copies of onk (well mostly vol 1) and pointing at my screen and the corresponding part of the book like

2. AIIIII little known fact about me is that ai is genuinely my favorite character... WHICH SUCKS BECAUSE SHE DIES IN THE FIRST VOLUME. seriously we only ever get to see her after this when a. her name or demeanor is invoked by another character b. aqua has his numerous mental breakdowns or c. flashbacks (including but not limited to aqua's mental breakdowns). i am always down for ai content!!!

3. its so much easier to ignore the weird vaguely sexual stuff from their babyhood because i know the rest of the series is normal and cool and not into that sort of stuff👍

4. speaking of normal yayayay it's aqua back when he was actually normal and not "normal" :D like he is just a baby. do you think now that oshi no ko is popular people will get into internet arguments about whether you can ethically have aqua as your favorite character post-normalification. actually wait this may already have been happening in the dark depths of some discord server out there.. but i dont use discord so im blissfully unaware

5. OH i dont think ive seen all of the OG b komachi before? or at least not in high detail. epic!

6. infant ruby telling people on the internet "kys" before age 2... truly a model twitter user

7. not gonna lie i havent really ever liked the way babies are drawn here (including manga)... idk their heads just look way too big like adult heads drawn on toddler bodies then ""cutified"". but this is a personal gripe

8. do you think because of infantile amnesia the twins forgot about the whole pretending to be amaterasu moment. do you think miyako still remembers. can you imagine being the foster mother of two kids who you believe to be gods sent to earth. do you think she remembers that she was "charged by the gods with keeping ai's secret" and then aqua. you know.

9. imagine: you married the ceo of a mid production company because you want to date hot men. there are no hot men in sight. you have to watch over one of the idol's twin infant babies. they reveal to you that they are divine messengers of god and also they can speak normally. there are no hot men in sight. you tend to their every need because you don't want divine retribution. you explain the intricacies of the idol industry in detail every couple of days when they complain about the injustices of the world. there are no hot men in sight. you become their foster mom after they witness the traumatic death of their mother, whose secrets you where charged with keeping safe. at least 12 years pass. they never mention any of this again. you manage the idol group one of them is in. there are still no hot men in sight. your name is miyako. every day you wake up.

10. i like how gotanda gives his business card to a toddler. whats he gonna do, call you on his fisher price dial phone? well actually nevermind aqua is probably the only other toddler (alongside ruby) who could make use of a business card

11. KANAA LETS FUCKING GOOOOO but also nothing will ever top 'lick a lying snitch/flick a crying switch'...... nothing ever... :( also taking the opportunity now to say ive always found it hilarious she assumed 'aqua' is his stage name and not his actual legal name, that's how ridiculous it is DSKLFJ

12. sobbing at the ruby ai dance... dont even have that many words i just really like it.. do you guys think ai was thinking about her own mom [& abuse/lack of relationship thereof]? not even just in this scene but in her more serious moments when she's thinking about her kids it's like "i want to make millions so they can go to the nicest schools and have the nicest things" "i want my daughter to dance freely and happily and i will support her in this" which ig can also be excused as 'thats just what a normal parent wants' but idk i like taking into consideration her own past and lack of parental support when looking at the way she tries to raise her children (not that she exactly got a chance to, even while still alive)

13. also i realized at this point that ep 1 is like an hour long not just because of the whole 'we gotta make sure no one drops this before the reveal that shows what this story's actually gonna be about', but also because it would be kinda awkward to have cut any of these scenes out? or not like out completely but like from each other. like if we had ended ep 1 at for example where they do their silly baby dance and go twitter viral (chapter 5 aka the midpoint of vol 1). that wouldve been terrible. but we can't cut it any earlier, or any later. ai's death feels like the natural conclusion to this problem. also i can't really see much of the other sections being stretched out to fit a full episode length being done very well. having ep 1 be a full 90 minutes lets them be as long as they need to be, aka a 1:1 adaptation of the manga.

14. oh boy chapter 9 time

15. i don't have anything to say about ai's outlook that has not already been said but this is the scene that made her my favorite character. not being able to tell at what point your lies become reality.. not really knowing if you've ever loved or been loved truly because your entire concept of 'love' was based off insincerity necessary for survival.. and now not ever being given the chance to explore what 'real love' means to you. FUCK

16. aww i love all these little family moments they added! very cute ^_^

17. yayy go kids get traumatized ^_^ also for some reason i remember the stalker as having really light hair o-0 fascinating. i remembered his name though!! just like ai fr

18. speaking of hair i also did not realize saitou was blond i thought he had brown hair..

19. hey the bandana (? i forget the word) guy holding the ai fan sign during the news montage is from one of the intros to the vol 1 chapters where hes like 'oh yeah i wonder where those dancing babies are now'!

20. another part of that montage shows a house with a wii in it, which came out november 19 2006. characters are shown using twitter which started earlier that same year; it was a pretty popular website even in 2008, but the mobile app only became a thing in like 2010. i'm seeing a mix of flip phones and smart phones so this has gotta take place sometime around 2010. it's kinda difficult to tell exactly what age the twins are in the main story because like the first page of vol 2 has ruby listing her age as 14, but - and the proof is not at my finger tips rn - i swear to god they're like 16 at this point. i have legitimate reasons to believe this but i need to grab exact proof adding to that we also have 15 years of lies, which if im remembering right would be referring to the twins age? i was trying to logic out exactly what year oshi no ko takes place in even though i already know the answer is 'in the modern day' but anyway yeah i'll just finish my episode and move on

21. THE IPHONE RUBY IS HOLDNIG HAS A HEADPHONE JACK. i want so badly to say that's an iphone 4 but there's like a separation between that and the power button. i also dont have an iphone 4 with me so i cant check it irl :( but anyway the iphone 4 was released in 2010, meaning the evidence is piling up for this part of the story taking place some time around 2010. or maybe i'm looking too deeply into this and should go back to actually watching the episode.

22. this is reminding me i was gonna write a fic specifically about this time period where the twins go to therapy and have to adjust to life without ai, having miyako graduate from fake mom to actual mom, aqua faking being fully recovered from the incident so he'd be released from therapy (fic concept was inspired from him stating this in like vol 6), etc. i never did because i spent like 3 hours researching play therapy and never got anywhere with it.. but maybe...

23. THE KIDS HAVING TO WATCH HER FUNERAL THROUGH THE FUCKING CAR WINDOW... I'M GOING TO KILL MYSELF

24. YESS AQUA NORMALIFICATION COMPLETE

25. AM I INSANE OR IS THAT AKANE? HER HAIR COLOR IS THE SAME BUT IT'S SO SHORT

26. MEM!!!!

27. AHHH POST CREDITS AI MAKING HER VIDEO FOR THE TWINS "i don't think i'll still be an idol by then" YEAH BUT AT WHAT COST 😭

FINAL THOUGHTS: i liked it alot ^_^ i dont really watch that much anime anymore (not that i watched an incredible amount before, but i am familiar with it) but i really liked this. i think they did a very good job of adapting the first volume! i know the rest of the episodes will be not-film length which does make me a bit sad because i think it would work out well, or at least not badly, if they were. it does also make me really excited for the future, seriously i will actually explode when i see the theater arc in full. cannot wait to see aqua mental breakdowns and ruby evil arc and and and and

the only thing i would've liked is if they could somehow have found a way to incorporate the pre-chapter intro scenes from the manga where they're talking about 15 years of lies, interviews with their pre-school teacher, etc. though both the pre-school teacher and the aforementioned bandana guy appear which may have been their way of doing it? like adding a fun detail for obsessives like myself to point at like 'my god it's those guys from exactly 2 panels in the manga'

tumblr ate my post and erased everything up to #2 while i was writing it and i was about to flip but it turns out that it automatically saves posts while youre writing them now and it was in my drafts safe and sound soooo crisis averted ^_^ anyway those were my thoughts on ep 1

[sleevesareforlosers]

danny hi!!!! are u working on any projects rn and if so. can we see them 👀

HELLO matt sorry for the delay! Im workin on a few projects rn but i am a LITTLE low on photos so bear with me

the MOST RECENT thing ive started on is a cloak for @pollackpatrol which i don't have any pictures of rn unfortunately but im sure some will exist once im a little further along with it! currently waiting for the bias stretch to sort itself out lol

and then I got into the fabric for it today but i drafted the pattern a few weeks ago and i am making myself a pair of pants! i've been dreaming about these guys for almost a year theyre my take on a pair of 'farmer pants' i made for a production of the crucible last year and im using some nice grey wool flannel that I had leftover from one of my historical petticoats. enjoy the sole unfocused photo of them that i have so far

[ID. A soft-focused photo of the front panel of a pair of pants. There is an open box pleat basted down at the waistline, and a finished hip pocket along the (eventual) side seam. The fabric edges are pinked, rather than cut smooth and it is a medium grey, brushed and slightly fuzzy. End ID.]

and THEN i've been slowly knitting up THIS hood (ravelry link) with this GORGEOUS blue wool ive had for a few years. its nice to have a project that I can just kinda pick away at with no pressure, we're currently not speaking because i messed up a row and dont want to rip it back skdjfsh. lace knitting is NOT really my strong suit yet but its coming a lot easier than I expected and ough. look at her

[ID. An unfinished panel of knitting, roughly eight inches long so far. It is knitted in a lace pattern with a slightly feathery appearance, with a fine yarn that variegates between light and medium shades of blue. The bottom half of the knitting has a scalloped edge and is gathered slightly into the flat top portion. End ID.]

aaaaand im also gathering the fabric for uh... four different quilts and i have a pattern (ravelry link) and needles i need to suck up and buy for a DIFFERENT knitting project that im gonna make FIRST in some variegated green cotton i have and if i like it im gonna make another in purple for the fall out boy show.

so LOTS OF PROJECTS!! hope this was interesting to read and that you're doing well!

[concealeddarkness13]

Fire and Steel (Speedrunning Therapy) Part 3

Content warning for alcohol. Yes! I’m still actually writing this! Just as a reminder, this is an AU where Chess goes to @drabbleitout’s world of Time Borrowed! I actually wrote part 3 and 4 hoping to put them in one part, but the wordcount got too high. About 4,600 words for this part! And it might end a bit abruptly, but I’ll be posting part 4 right after this!

Part 1, part 2

Tagging: @ratracechronicler, @maple-writes, @pen-of-roses, and @for-fuchs-sake (just in case you’d like to see this!)

I smiled at the sight of the bar as Garnet and Valetta finished up a conversation in the front. Valetta snickered. “Take it easy, I’m not gonna do anything weird.”

“Yeah, I’ve known you long enough to know better than that.” Garnet stopped the car. “Alright, we’re here. Everybody out.”

I kept staring at the bar as I got out of the car. I had never been to such a cool bar! I had always had to go to the more underground bars, where people wouldn’t care that I had prosthetics from the experiments. “This looks like a nice place!” Wait, what if I didn’t even recognize any of the alcohol? Fuck.

“Well, of course,” Valetta said as she put on a different jacket. A leather one. My cheeks got hot as she gave me a playful jab on my shoulder. I still wasn’t used to the friendly touch. “We gotta show off a little bit. Only the best of the best for our guests. Crowds your thing? Downstairs usually gets pretty packed. I personally like the view up top.”

“Christ,” Garnet muttered, wrapping an arm around Beau’s shoulders. Oh. I was pretty sure who Beau was interested in now. “You’re probably driving tonight.”

“I figured.”

Valetta looked over at me excitedly, motioning me along. “So, what do you think? Upstairs? Downstairs?” She was shorter than me, and that made my cheeks burn worse. I was a sucker for height differences—either way.

“Upstairs. I enjoy open air more than enclosed spaces.”

“Same.” Valetta grabbed my hand at the entrance and pulled me inside, past the crowd and upstairs after waving and pointing upstairs to the bartender. I could barely take in the bar before she pulled me upstairs, but it looked bright and lively. The atmosphere wasn’t so oppressive, but that was just because I knew people shouldn’t judge me for my prosthetics. When we got to the top of the stairs, she glanced back at me, flashing me a smile, and my eyes wandered to her lips. Damn. She was so pretty.

She opened the door to the roof, and it was so nice! There weren’t many people up here, but there was another smaller bar up here and beautiful strings of lights and fake grass. There was an awning overhead, with a few stained glass panels that also seemed to double as heaters. This was amazing! Valetta glanced at me. “Not too cold, is it?”

I shook my head. “I should be fine. But if I get too cold, you’re hot enough to keep me warm.” Shit. My cheeks burned even worse.

“That’s right, I gotchu babe.” Valetta laughed as Garnet slipped past her. They pushed some tables together for everyone near the edge of the roof, so we could still see the view well. I kept watching the city as colorful lights started lighting up the skyline.

Valetta pulled a chair out for me. “Alright, know what you want? I can grab it for you.”

Garnet sat down in a different chair. “Whiskey sour.”

“I was talking to Chess.” She laughed as Beau grabbed a menu and showed it to me. I looked over it quickly, but I didn’t recognize any of the names. Shit. “You should be taking drink orders.”

“A-ha, no, this was your idea.” Garnet grinned at her.

This one sounded like straight alcohol, which would be nice, and it wasn’t too expensive. “A whiskey sounds good.”

“Good call. Beau, want anything?”

“I was going to get a mug of hot water.” He grimaced but Valetta waved it off.

“I got you, bo-bo.” She headed to the bar as Ryker, Lora, and Ives arrived. She glanced over at them. “You better order before you sit down because you missed your chance.” Ives continued over to the table while the others waited to order at the bar.

He looked over at me especially. “I’m glad you made it safely.”

I had been looking over the menu, having no fucking idea what a burger or chicken was. But when I looked up, my cheeks burned all over again. He was gorgeous. I stuttered a bit before I could get the words out. “Yeah. I’m…I’m glad you did too.”

“I know how to drive,” Garnet muttered.

“If you’re concerned about the price of items, know that they honor a discount for first responders.” Ives sat down across from Chess. “Everyone always has great things to say about this place. So, please take your time in deciding what you want.”

“Yeah, no one is in a hurry,” Beau added. “We’ll probably be here for quite awhile. So don’t rush. I know it might be…different.”

I nodded, finally tearing my eyes away from Ives. Fuck. I still had no damn idea what anything was. “What do you like here?” I directed the question to anyone.

“The steaks are great, if that’s your thing,” Garnet said. “Sandwiches are a good route too. But I get the ceviche tacos, can’t go wrong there.”

“Everyone knows the fried chicken is where it’s at.” Valetta returned with drinks. “Though, if meat isn’t your thing, they have some killer vegan burgers.” She took a sip from Garnet’s drink before giving it to him. “Waitress tax.” She then handed the hot water to Beau, who clutched it in both of his hands.

“Burgers, hands down.” Ryker followed soon after, sitting beside Ives. “But it’s hard to go wrong.”

I glanced at the menu and took into account what everyone said, and I knew Garnet the best, and the picture of a steak did look really good, so I nodded. “A steak sounds good. Thank you.”

“Ives, did you get any help today with that configuration issue?” Lora asked. “They had you in there awhile.”

“Yes. The problem ended up being my rifle. It was a process of trial and error. Although I had no errors, the Auditors like to double check everything to be sure.”

“Does that mean you get to skip next week’s audits?” Ryker peered over the rim of his drink but scowled when Ives shook his head. “I dunno how you don’t throw them through the window sometimes.” Beau seemed to get smaller, clutching his mug closer. I was going to fucking punch any Auditor I found.

“You guys should’ve seen Chess with Niner,” Valetta interrupted. “She took to her like a fish to water. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Niner go into puppy mode so fast!”

Niner had been so good. And Valetta sounded like she was trying to distract them, and I wanted to test the waters to see if I could tell them that I wasn’t from this world, so might as well slip a hint in there. I looked up at Ives. “Yes, she was really sweet. I wanted to thank you again for letting me be with her. I admittedly have never seen a dog before, so it was a wonderful experience.”

The table got quiet until everyone exclaimed about me never seeing a dog in some way or another. Ryker leaned forward, looking at me. “Are you serious?”

I nodded. “There aren’t any dogs where I come from.”

“Oh, honey, you’re missing out.” Valetta patted my hand.

“In that case, I’m glad Niner was a good introduction.” Ives nodded. “I know not everyone is comfortable around dogs, but you’re very welcome. I’m sure Niner would appreciate seeing you again.” He kept eye contact as Lora started talking.

“Like, I know Niner is, well, Niner, but she just looks so real. Dogs are scary.”

“Do you have any pets at home?” Ryker asked. “Horses? Hamsters? Snakes?” Valetta shuddered at the last animal.

I shook my head. “Um. I don’t have a home. And what are horses?”

“She travels a lot,” Valetta said.

“But like, where are you from then? I can’t imagine a place that doesn’t have dogs or horses.” Lora set her drink down.

I swallowed hard, but they were nice, and I didn’t want to keep it from them if I didn’t have to. I glanced at Beau, and he nodded a little. “Well, um, I don’t think I’m from this world. I don’t recognize anything, and it’s a lot different from what I know.”

Everyone got quiet again, and no one moved. Garnet spoke up before anyone else. “Okay, so I know it sounds crazy,” he dropped his voice as Ryker looked over at him. “Don’t start that. She’s telling the truth.”

Ives nodded. “She is.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Valetta sat back. “What do you mean another world? Like another planet? A-another timeline?” Her mouth fell open. “Like when we all thought the world ended in 2012? And things got so stupid bad we were sure we were on the dark timeline. Are you from the bad timeline??”

“I’m thinking like another universe kinda thing,” Garnet whispered. “And is that really that strange considering a few years ago we had a literal alien living on our planet?”

“An entire universe without dogs??” Valetta hissed.

I nodded. It really was a tragedy. “Yeah, probably another universe. I don’t know how I got here.”

“What’s the last thing you remember before you got here?” Lora asked. They all leaned closer to me, and I shrank down a little at the attention.

“I was hungry and huddled in an alley, hiding from some…law enforcement who wanted to hurt me. And then I blinked and I was standing outside this city.”

“Oh honey,” Valetta reached over to hold my hands, and I welcomed the touch.

“She’s been through a lot,” Beau said. “Law enforcement where she comes from is a lot different than what we do here. Garnet and I found her this morning.”

“It was a little bit of a process, but I’d put my career on it she’s telling the truth,” Garnet added.

“Her prosthetics don’t match any known catalog of make or models. And they’re far too advanced to be an underground operation.” Ives frowned, staring at my prosthetic hand. “Are you wanting to go back from where you came?”

I immediately shook my head. “No. I’m alone there, and because I was forced into experiments, which gave me my prosthetics, everyone else sees me as lesser and a monster. I didn’t know anyone could be as kind as you guys have been.” I ducked my head as tears blurred my vision. That sounded so fucking cheesy.

I quickly blinked away the tears as Lora got up, coming over to pull me into a hug. My cheeks burned as I ducked my head into her shoulder. She gave amazing hugs. “Absolutely! Who would want to go back to that! You poor girl! How can anyone do such a thing?”

“Well, you won’t be alone here.” Valetta soothed her thumb over my knuckles, and my cheeks burned worse. “You’ve got us.” Oh fuck, I might actually cry.

“Ryker?” Ives asked, and I looked up to see Ryker studying the table, his jaw working and brow pinched.

“We gotta keep her away from Auditors. Of anyone, they’ll notice her prosthetics aren’t from here and I doubt they’d be above trying any experiments. That’s not happening again.”

I couldn’t find any words as I started crying. They were all so nice.

Lora continued. “Well, there’s no way we’re leaving you out here on your own. She’s going to need somewhere to stay.”

“She might not be sure where she wants to stay, even if she wants to stay with any of us,” Garnet said. “She’s just now meeting everyone. Maybe she just needs some time over dinner, and we can see if maybe we need to get a hotel room if that’s more comfortable.”

“Yeah, and this is about celebrating, too,” Valetta said softly. “We can worry about all that later. Right now, let’s spoil you!”

I didn’t understand, but I decided to not question it as I pulled back from Lora’s hug and furiously wiped my eyes. “Thank you so much. You’re all amazing.” I sat back down, sniffling.

Lora returned to her seat as a waiter came and took our orders. I ordered the steak, like I had decided. After I was done, Beau gently placed a hand on my shoulder and smiled. “See, everything’s going to be okay.”

I smiled back and nodded. It would at least be better than on my world. “I’m fine staying at one of your places, if that’s okay.” I didn’t want to be alone again.

“That should be fine. That’s what I do! We’ve started a rotation so I spend a week at everyone’s house. Does that sound okay to you? Or do you think you rather stay at one place?”

“The rotation sounds nice.” There were so many gorgeous people in the squad, and I could spend the night with all of them. My cheeks burned at the thought.

“I’m at Garnet’s this week. Would you rather be on the same rotation with me, or maybe your won? And, you don’t have to start the rotation just yet, if you’re not comfortable to. If you rather get to know everyone better, that’s completely up to you.”

Well, that could get awkward if I flirted with one of them and convinced them to sleep with me and Beau was there. My cheeks burned worse at the thought, but it would be nice. “I’m comfortable with the rotation. Maybe on my own?”

“Okay, that sounds great!” He smiled. “Just about anyone is going to be happy to have you over, so take your time in deciding.”

I nodded and watched the others, my eyes especially lingering on Ives. He was especially gorgeous. And he had Niner. I could see Niner again tonight. Oh shit. I certainly wanted to go with him if I could see Niner again. Once the waiter left, I looked up. “What are horses though?”

Everyone laughed, grabbing out some devices. Ives spoke up first. “They’re a type of grass eating, four-legged mammal, that have been used throughout history as transportation, racing, or as an agricultural working hand. They range in sizes, but most are quite large.”

“They look like this.” Valetta passed down her device, and I stared at the beautiful creature. It was so big and huggable and beautiful!!! “Have anything like that where you’re from?”

I kept staring at the horse. “I don’t think so. There aren’t a lot of big animals in the enclosure though.”

“Enclosure? Like…like a zoo?” Valetta whispered.

Oh, shit. They didn’t have any damn clue what I was talking about. I bit my lip. “On my world there are other sentient species besides humans, and because humans were too violent, the other species threw all humans into a small walled space to keep them away from any other sentient species.”

“Other species? Have they always been there or did they invade?” Everyone was staring at me again, and I instinctively made myself smaller.

“Are there many humans where you come from?” Garnet asked.

“From what we know, they’ve been around as long as humans have. And yes, there are a lot of humans around. They’re the ones I’ve really had to worry about, since I’ve been in the enclosure as well.”

“Is that where you lived? In the enclosure?” Lora whispered. “How small is it? Like a country or more like a city?”

I nodded. “It’s more like a small country. Multiple cities, but kind of cramped with all the humans stuffed inside. And yes, I lived there. I didn’t stay in one city for too long.”

“Yeah, I could see how…Jeez, that’s terrible,” Valetta hissed, taking a drink.

“Well, I’m glad you’re here instead of there,” Ryker said. “And I don’t blame you for not wanting to go back.”

I nodded. “Thank you. Could you tell me a little more about this world? Like any other animals I should know about? And, honestly, I was never allowed to hold a job, so could you tell me more about how to go about getting one?”

“Oh, uh sure. Let’s see…where to start.”

“This is Featherfall, one of the first sustainable cities that popped up about twenty years ago. Nearly everything here makes or harnesses energy.” Garnet pointed to the stained glass above us, and I looked up too. Cool! “That’s solarglass, takes power from the sun and runs the rest of the building. A lot of other cities in the nation started doing it too, but ours is a little more advanced. And that’s why you see so much green everywhere. Roof and balcony gardens have been growing for years.”

“It’s pretty now, but it hasn’t always been,” Ryker interrupted. “A few decades ago, we were on the brink of running out of clean water. Nearly all plant life was dying off an humans were on their way too.”

“As far as getting a job, that shouldn’t be too hard,” Lora shrugged. “We can get you registered for a work permit, see about setting you up for citizenship. I had to do that a few years ago when I immigrated in. I doubt it would be anymore complicated for you. We’ll get you all set up.”

“And through all the red tape.” Valetta winked. “Do you know of something you might like to do? We can always browse through the net and see what we can find.”

My cheeks burned again. “Anything with animals? I really like them.”

“Oh, I bet we can definitely find something like that! I think you’d be really good at that.” She smiled. “And maybe this weekend we can explore the city, see what might catch your eye. I know off the top of my head there are plenty of shelters around, or, if you end up liking training, we might be able to get you into a program like that!”

I nodded, smiling a little. This was going to be great! I’d be able to get a job with animals! “I would like that. Animals are just so amazing.”

“I’ll ask around too and see what we might be able to find for you,” Ryker said. “I know a few people who work for animal rehabilitation places and see if maybe they have any ideas if they don’t have openings themselves.”

Ives nodded. “We have traditional k-9 units at the station whose trainers work for a third party company. They may have intern positions. But I think getting to know the city and what options are available would be best. Find what you enjoy and are comfortable with doing.”

They were all so amazing. “Yes, I’d love to get to know the city. It’s a lovely place already. But that all sounds wonderful. I can’t believe I’ll actually be able to have a job.” It sounded foolish, but I’d never had the chance to get a job.

“We need to take you out shopping,” Lora giggled, while Garnet rolled his eyes. “She’s going to need her own things.”

“I’ve got some spare clothes and stuff if you need ‘em in the meantime,” Valetta said. “You look like you could fit into them.” She pinched her straw between her teeth but grunted with a sudden jolt, glancing over at Garnet. My cheeks just got hotter.

“That and if she needs a toothbrush or if she wants her own soaps and accessories. She’s going to want her own things,” Lora added, perking as the waiter brought out plates and started handing them out.

I stared at the huge meal they set before me, and I couldn’t believe it. All this? Just for me? My mouth watered, but I ducked my head first. “I can’t pay any of you back yet. I’m sorry.”

Everyone started talking at once, trying to tell me that I didn’t have to worry about paying them back, but still. Why would anyone buy such a big meal for someone they barely knew? But I still couldn’t stop myself from starting to eat. It was so fucking amazing.

“You’re practically part of the team,” Ryker said. “And this is what we’re here to do, to look out for people. It wouldn’t be right if we expected you to pay us back.”

“If we expected payment, we wouldn’t offer.” Lora smiled.

“Let us make up for all the assholes back where you’re from,” Garnet said. Once all the plates were passed out, they started eating too, and it got quiet.

Beau watched me with a smile. “So? What do you think? Is it different than where you’re from?”

I was halfway through the steak by now, and I was finally filling my stomach. I’d actually feel full! “The food’s really good. I don’t usually have such fancy food. And…I still don’t understand why everyone’s so nice. Might not for a while.”

Ives nodded, and I frowned, just now noticing that Beau and Ives weren’t eating. Were they not able to? That wasn’t fair. “That’s alright, it took some time for me to understand it as well. But it’s understandable if this is an extreme change for you. We understand.”

“Ives was originally made for military operations,” Beau whispered. “He didn’t really have any socializing programs like I did. He had to learn it from everyone else, I think from everyone here, actually.”

“You’ll get used to it. Just take one day at a time, alright kid?” Ryker smiled at me.

I nodded but fell quiet, finishing up my meal as I thought about everything. They were all so nice, and I didn’t know what to do. Was there a way I could make it up to them? As I fell quiet, the others chatted around me, but I barely listened. I just could barely believe that such kind people existed.

Once everyone was basically finished, Valetta looked around. “Anyone want anything else? I might get another shot? G? Chess?” Garnet was slumped, looking like he might topple onto Beau. He just smirked and shook his head, and Valetta looked over at me.

I barely felt anything from the alcohol, so I nodded. “I’ll take another whiskey.”

Valetta pumped her fist in the air and headed over to the bar with an unbalanced skip. Everything was getting nice and dark now, and it still didn’t feel too cold. The jacket Garnet had given me was so warm.

Beau turned to me suddenly. “Don’t feel like you have to get up and come to work with whoever you stay with. You can rest and relax. We can always swing by and pick you up while on patrol. Everyone kinda gets up early, so don’t think that you have to.”

I didn’t want to be alone if I could help it, and anyway, I never slept in. “I’m a light sleeper, so I’ll wake up whenever someone else gets up. But if you’d rather me stay, I will.”

“Well, it’s…it’s up to you, really. We don’t want you to feel like you’re trapped.”

“Can do a ride-along.” Garnet leaned back to look at me. “Just hang out all day, whenever.” He waved at the air, and Beau whispered something to him. “Oh, yeah, I mean yinz could go see Mikki.”

“Oh, that’s true. But it’s only your first real day, so you can do whatever you like. Take your time.”

I shook my head. “It…really doesn’t matter to me.”

Valetta returned, and I took a large drink. She sat down, looking over at me. “So, how are you liking things so far? Whiskey helping any?”

I nodded. “It’s really good, and the food here is some of the best I’ve had.”

“Glad to hear it. I think you’ll really like things once you get to take a look around. Or after a good night’s sleep. Know you’ve got to be exhausted.”

I nodded again. “Yeah. I think I’ve had…six hours of sleep in the past seven days?”

“Whoo! Rock on,” Garnet cheered.

“Don’t listen to him, he’s an insomniac,” Beau scolded.

“Shit girl, you definitely need some sleep then. Like a week to recover.” Valetta took a sip from her glass and leaned on the table. “We’re gonna get you somewhere comfy to sleep tonight. Don’t you worry.”

I frowned. It wasn’t that bad, was it? “I guess I need to decide who I want to stay with?”

Valetta nodded. “Let’s see. Ryker has an apartment smack dab in the middle of down town, it’s never quiet.” Ryker opened his mouth to probably argue, but he closed his mouth and shrugged. “Lora has a house just on the edge of the suburbs, so there’s dogs barking all the time. Ives has an apartment like sixty floors off the ground. Garnet has an apartment on the far end of town, like good luck driving all the way out there.”

“Oh c’mon, it’s not that far.”

“And I’ve got a swank little apartment just a few blocks from the station. Very modern. Brand new bed.”

“Ives’s is new. I think he just finished furnishing it a month or so ago,” Beau said.

“Three weeks ago,” he corrected.

I paused. Valetta was gorgeous, but Ives was also gorgeous, and he had a dog. I bit my lip. “If it’s okay, I think I might want to start with Ives.” My cheeks burned. “Especially if Niner’s there. But if not, I’d still love to go.”

“I don’t think that would be a problem at all.” Ives nodded. “Niner will be there as well, which I hope may make your stay better.”

“Ryker, if you need me to, I can ride with Beau for a ride home if you’re taking Ives and Chess home,” Lora said. “That way it would be fewer stops for everyone, and if you need to leave sooner.”

“If that’s easier.” Ryker nodded, turning to me. “Please don’t feel rushed or that you have to stay out late. I usually save the late nights for the weekends, so we can go whenever you’re ready.”

I couldn’t help but smile when Ives mentioned Niner. This would be amazing. “It really doesn’t matter to me. I don’t want to mess up anything.”

“If you’re tired we can go ahead and head out.” Ryker leaned around to whisper. “Judging by how quickly Garnet’s sinking, he probably won’t be here much longer. So you’re not messing anything up.”

“I’m used to not having a lot of sleep, so please don’t leave on my behalf.”

“Look, I’m an old man. I rather leave sooner than later,” Ryker chuckled.

“We all know we can’t stay out late anyway,” Valetta snickered. “Last thing we need is the whole squad down and out during shift. Don’t feel bad. Trust me, this won’t be the last time we get to do this. You should go ahead and head out. Get a good night’s sleep. You’ve earned it, girl.”

I nodded, finishing up my whiskey and slumping a little. I was really fucking tired, honestly. “Okay. I give in.” I made sure to keep my voice lighthearted.

“No shame in the game.” Ryker finished his drink, standing up and tossing the keys to Ives. “If you want, drop me off at home bright-eyes and you two can use the car. I’ll call a rideshare to get to work.”

“Are you certain?” Ives watched him, but Ryker nodded.

Beau placed a hand on my shoulder. “Call me if you need anything. Although, I know Ives is going to take good care of you.”

I stood up and smiled at him. “Thanks. For everything. I will.” I glanced again at Garnet and remembered the connection they had. I leaned closer so I could whisper. “And we’ll have to decide on a date to meet up alone to really talk about who you’re interested in.”

Beau stood as well, laughing and hugging me. I hugged him tightly back. He was so comfortable. “Okay, we should do that. Try to get some good sleep, you’re safe here, I promise.”