#just went with canon connections to make it easier

[dollfacefantasy]

I WANNA BE YOURS ♡

pairing: logan howlett x puppy-hybrid!fem!reader

summary: logan finds you, a special kind of mutant, out on a mission. when he takes in this puppy girl, you quickly forms a bond to him. he tries to tell himself he doesn't like his new shadow or want the attention, but it gets harder to deny as the two of you grow closer.

cw: nsfw (18+), smut, p in v, oral sex (f receiving), hybrids, breeding kink, praise kink, dumbification, fluff, canon-typical violence, blood, nightmares

a/n: thank you so much to @gor3-hound and @nexysworld for beta reading <33

Adamantium strains against the skin between Logan's knuckles as his fists collide with his opponents' bodies. His claws beg to come out, to slice through his own skin and into the men he's striking. Despite causing himself pain, it would make this little struggle easier.

Regardless, he reigns in the urge and continues to fight without them. He didn't need them yet. Having a skeleton of impenetrable metal served as the only weapon he needed for right now. These guys taking him on weren't anything special, simple lackeys hired to protect a facility they didn't even understand the operation of.

His unpierced knuckles land a few strikes to one's abdomen, and he pops the other's face with his elbow. He whips his forearm around and slams the first to the ground in a finishing blow. The other man comes crashing down close behind after he connects his fist with the center of his face.

He looks at both of them crumpled up and unconscious on the ground, shaking off the adrenaline from the scuffle with a few rolls of his shoulders. He swipes the set of keys that hang off the belt of one who went down first and reconvenes with the rest of the team at the point of entrance to the next part of this warehouse.

"Did you find a way to open the doors?" Storm asks him. The white-haired woman struts beside him to the large cement doors at the end of the hallway.

Logan holds up the set of metallic keys, giving them a little jingle as his answer.

"Wow, and without shedding any blood. Impressive," Cyclops mocks from behind. Him and Jean walk a couple paces to the back of him, their eyes scanning for any potential hindrances to the mission.

"Night's not over yet, bub."

The four of them reach the door, and fortunately, it only takes a few tests to determine which key is meant for this lock. Before either Logan or Storm can push the barrier open, the door swings back under the force of Jean's telepathy.

They head inside but brace themselves for what they might see. This mission came about after the professor discovered that this building was being used as some kind of location to traffic mutants. The team had dealt with cases like this before, and they were never pretty. Often, the victims were young and struggling, picked up off the street or gathered from false mutant shelters to be sold into a life of experimentation or fetishization.

Upon first glance, this section of the building holds nothing new. The room isn't large in comparison to the others before it and looks more like a connector between the last hallway and another one. It's dark, not much light to get a good look at anything that could be hiding away.

Storm is eager to keep moving along and guides them towards the entrance to the next hallway. His other two teammates overtake him as well and follow behind her.

"I'm gonna sniff around here for a minute. I'll be right behind you," Logan says and waves them forward.

The two women spare him a skeptic glance, but Scott couldn't be more eager to part from him. They head off in the other direction, leaving Logan alone in the quiet between these four walls.

He just wanted to be sure there was nothing here, whether it be something he could help or something meaning to do them harm. Though he kind of hoped it was the latter. He never felt very good at the 'saving' part of being on this team. Let him go in a room full of threats, and he was guaranteed to be successful. He'd take every last one down in record time and not even have to think twice about it. But give him one person to comfort and tell that everything is gonna be ok, and that would have him breaking a sweat. It's not that he couldn't do it; he simply had to work at it. He didn't have to work at being a weapon.

Treading over the pavement cautiously, Logan's eyes sweep over the few vacant shelves and lonely crates. The room truly seemed unoccupied. He could probably only justify a few more feet before having to go join the rest of the team. But then he sees it.

A cage towards the back of the room, a tarp over the top. It sat near a smaller door he hadn't noticed before. He wasn't too concerned with going in just yet. First he wanted to see if anything was confined behind those thin black bars.

It was larger than a simple pet kennel but too small to give the impression that held anything monstrous. He walks closer to it. No sound came from it nor could he see any movement, but his curiosity had been triggered. He had to know why this thing had been secluded.

Once he's close enough, he crouches down and pushes away the rough white material draped over it. His fingers undo the latch and open the door so he could get a better look inside.

He peers in and is met with a pair of eyes staring back at him out of the darkness. His first instinct is to back up and get into a defensive position, but whatever's inside doesn't give him the chance.

You lunge at him and knock him flat onto his back.

He hits the cement with a grunt, and his claws cry out to him again. He could easily unsheathe them and tear whatever you were to shreds. But before he does this, he realizes that this isn't an attack. He's not in any kind of pain. In fact, nothing is really happening to him. All you were doing was... sniffing him?

He could hear your rapid inhales and exhales as your nose trailed along the collar of his white tank top. Straining his neck back as much as he can, he finally gets a good look at you. You were human - smaller than most with wide, curious eyes - but you also had floppy ears erupting from your scalp and a long tail coming from your backside that was whipping back and forth.

Even with all the different kinds of mutants he'd seen, he couldn't help thinking this was bizarre at first glance. He knew it was possible for mutations to express physically even though most were internal. For god's sake he had literal claws and knew multiple people who were straight up blue. But he'd never seen anything like this.

You looked like just a mix of canine and human. In honesty, you were pretty cute. You didn't look like the type of thing someone would shout 'freak' at from across the street. Hybrid was probably a more accurate descriptor than mutant. Either way, he didn't want you on top of him.

"Quit it," he growls before grabbing your waist and pushing you off. Based on the fact that you weren't attacking, he assumes you're a victim rather than a perpetrator. He rises to his feet to stand above you, ready to fight just in case. "What the hell are you supposed to be?"

You sit there, tail still wagging despite his rough temperament. Your eyes have that gleam that likens your appearance to a puppy even more than your ears or tail do. He realizes you might not be able to talk or something, but he doesn't get too far with that thought before you speak.

"A mutant. Like you."

His eyes narrow.

"Yeah? How do you know I'm a mutant?" he asks. He hadn't shown you his claws and you hadn't seen his skin magically stitch itself back together. Maybe you were on the other side of this mission.

"I can smell it," you answer.

That makes his eyebrow slowly raise. "Smell it?" he says.

You nod. "Mutants smell different than humans," you say.

You rise to your feet and stand next to him. Leaning in again, you smell his arm. Your head moves down his bicep and to his elbow and forearm. He pulls his limb away with a scowl, but you'd already had a chance to register the scent that'd caught your attention.

"You smell metallic too," you say.

So your canine traits weren't just physical. Logan knew you weren't lying, having an enhanced olfaction himself. He'd just never met someone else who also had that ability.

"Your mutation is basically just being an overgrown dog then?" he asks with a bemused expression, "You like playing fetch? Want me to call you a good girl?"

You can't help the automatic twitch in your tail when you hear that phrase, but your expression darkens as if a storm cloud had formed inches above those folded ears. 

"I'm not a dog. If I'm a dog, are you like a robot since you have metal in you?" you huff and cross your arms.

A sharp puff of air comes from his nostrils at your attempted retort. "Robot isn't exactly what they call me."

You grumble and roll your eyes. Your tail had gone still behind you and hung between your legs.

He continues to stare down at you, trying to decide what to do next. Even though you were a mutant, you didn't seem to be a fighter or have any skills that would be useful in combat. He wasn't just going to leave you here, but he didn't know how big a risk it would be to let you tag along.

"What are you doing here? Did someone lock you in that cage, or is that just where you spend your free time?" he asks.

"Someone took me and locked me in there," you say, your pout deepening.

"For how long?"

You shrug. Logan has the urge to roll his eyes just as you did, but he can tell your lack of knowledge is genuine.

"You don't know how long you were in there?" he prompts.

"No. Maybe like... a couple weeks or something. I don't know. It's hard to keep track."

Of course. Just like a puppy, you had a poor concept of time. He shakes his head and rubs his hand over his face. It did look like you'd been captive for a few weeks. You weren't in the best shape and had bruises littering your body. Your clothes were dirty and torn at the hems. As annoying as he found you in the few minutes he'd known you, he knew you didn't deserve this treatment. Locking a cute little thing like you in a cage was plain cruelty.

"Alright. Well what's your name? I'm Logan," he sighs.

You tell him, but just as the last syllable leaves your lips, footsteps burst into the room from the direction of the hallway.

Scott and Jean round the corner, clearly looking for their teammate. Logan turns around to see the new arrivals and relaxes when he recognizes the man in the visor and the redhead beside him. 

"There you are. We thought you took off or something," Scott mocks casually.

He opens his mouth to respond, but the words dissolve when he feels a thud against his back. 

You don’t recognize the people who'd just shown up, so you hide yourself behind the man who found you. Pressing yourself against his back, you cautiously tilt your head to his side to peek at Scott and Jean. Your fingers clutch the fabric of Logan's tank top so tight they threaten to poke little holes in the ribbed material.

"What- what are you doing?" he grunts and tries to look over his shoulder at you. The way you were latched onto him prevented him from turning around fully. He lifts one of his arms to see your eyes scoping out the potential danger in front of him.

"Get- C'mon get off. They're not gonna hurt you," he continues, brushing you off by reaching back and lightly tugging your hair.

You stumble to the side, and he manages to grab your shoulders and walk you in front of him. He holds you there, presenting you to Scott and Jean. The way your ears pin back to your head makes him feel a little guilty about making you confront the strangers so directly, but they weren't gonna do anything to you. Assuming they were gonna rescue you and take you back to Xavier's, you'd have to get used to prying eyes and meeting new people.

Both Scott and Jean look at you curiously, Jean with less confusion than Scott. Clearly, he had a similar thought process to Logan while the woman next to him could sense that you were a mutant and what your abilities were.

"I found her in that cage back there," he explains.

The two of them nod. They take a few more moments to simply observe you before they move closer and ask for your name. You give it just like you had to Logan. They nod again and then begin running through a similar routine of questions. Theirs are more detailed though and manage to coax more information out of you.

Your responses give them a quick little rundown of you. You fit the profile of the people they usually found on these missions. You're young, early 20s, struggling because getting a job was nearly impossible with your ears and tail. You had no family. They'd given you up after your mutation began to manifest. Everyone thinks puppies are cute, but apparently, no one wanted a human child that shared features with them. You'd been taken from the shelter you were staying at like most others who found themselves in this situation.

As you answer each one posed to you, Logan feels you subtly sinking back against him. Your back meets his abdomen like two magnets slowly being pulled together. Despite the annoyed look on his face, he doesn't say anything or pull away.

When the brief interrogation comes to a close, Scott relays to Logan that they had found other victims in another part of the facility. Storm was with them now, guiding them to the extraction point where they'd be taken to safety. The four of you just had to follow along.

Scott and Jean lead the way. Logan follows behind and you trot along beside him. He notices you're staying close to him in particular.

"Did the guys who took you say anything else about why they wanted you?" he asks. The fact that you were kept separate was still lingering in his mind. To him it didn't mean anything good.

You shrug and look up at him. "They didn't really talk to me that much unless they were being mean or spitting at me. Or kicking the cage," you say.

You say it like it's casual, but he can tell it hurts. He knows how it feels to an extent. All mutants do. Not many people will openly talk shit about a guy with metal claws, but the sentiment is still there. The idea that you're inferior. That something is wrong with you. That you don't belong in this life.

He just nods, not knowing much else to offer as comfort. "Did you ever overhear them talking about you? Any reason they wouldn't have put you with the others?"

"I think they wanted to figure out if there was more of me. Or if they could make anymore at least," you say after taking a moment to think, "Cause you know. Guys like the whole puppy thing. Makes me worth more I guess."

He cringes at the ugly picture you paint with those words.

The group of you continues walking, footsteps being the only sound in the hallway. Your tail had started wagging again which makes him feel a little better about not offering anything in terms of reassurance. But when you reach the room where the other victims had been, your tail comes to a halt and droops between your legs.

A party of men is spread throughout the area. They walk around scanning the now empty space, visibly incensed at their captives being freed. You slide yourself against Logan's back again, but you don't try to peek at them like you did with Scott and Jean. It doesn't take much to figure out that these are the ones who kept you in that cage.

They hear the team and you approaching and turn to face you. Despite your efforts to hide, they spot you before you're completely concealed behind the bulk of Logan's muscular frame. The one closest scowls at your attempt.

"I'm guessing the three of you know what happened to the things we had in here?" he says, sarcasm lacing each word.

"You could say that. And those people are long gone by now, so it's probably best you move on," Scott answers. His fingers rise to his temple in preparation to operate his visor.

The men don't seem to be threatened. The amalgamation of them tightens, forming a more crowded cluster.

"Yeah, you're probably right. But you're not leaving with that one," the same one says and gestures to you hiding, "She stays here."

"Not gonna happen, bub," Logan responds so quickly it surprises even himself.

His teammates also look interested in his seeming budding attachment to you, but they know better than to squabble in front of adversaries.

You are the only one the words don't strike in any sort of way, but that's because you didn't totally hear them. You're too busy trembling, hoping with everything you had that Logan wouldn't force you in front of him again and then kick you into the group of guys.

But obviously, that doesn't happen. There's more arguing that you don't hear because you choose to tune it out. You can sense Logan becoming more agitated and the air around everyone becoming more tense. Your body grows more rigid, your ears glued back to your scalp. You just want this to be over.

As these thoughts whirl through your mind, the arguing comes to a head, and Logan launches away from you. You feel naked without his large body shielding yours. 

Scott and Jean aid him. Your first inclination is to turn the other direction and just try to stay out of the way. You weren't confident in your combat skills. If you could seriously fight, you probably wouldn't have gotten snatched up. You didn't want to be the reason any of these people who were trying to help you got hurt.

But then you see someone coming up behind Logan brandishing a knife. It's out of your control, the way your muscles go taut and your lip curls back. You'd only ever been in a real fight once before in your life, and you don't remember feeling this vicious. You spring up behind the man, finding where his shoulder meets his neck and biting down hard.

The cries of agony and grunts of anger seem to go on forever. The smell of blood invades your nostrils as you deal with your target. He'd fallen to the floor when your teeth sunk into his flesh. You feel him thrashing underneath you as you rip and tear, but you don't stop until he's gone still. You then pull off and wipe your mouth, twisting around to sit on the abdomen of your incapacitated enemy.

Logan also had no difficulty dealing with the men coming at him. There were just more of them, so he took a little longer. After one last thud of a body crumpling to the floor, only heavy breathing sounds through the warehouse.

Jean and Scott seem fine. They stand there checking each other over, and you see them share a brief kiss. You glance over towards Logan next and decide to return to his side.

He's alone. The sounds of panting are mostly coming from him. His body glistens, muscles lightly coated in perspiration. His scent is stronger to you now, and it only grows more overwhelming as you approach him. Men lie at his feet with pools of blood around them, presumably the same crimson liquid that stains his hands, wrists, and forearms in streaks.

You make your next move without thinking. Coming up to his side, trying in vain to avoid getting your ratty socks soaked with blood, you press your cheek against his bicep and snake your arms around his.

He then looks down at you. His eyebrows raise at the blood that coats your mouth and chin and trails down your shirt. You hadn't seemed like any type of predator before. Your presence was more akin to a puppy that'd be torn apart by wolves than anything that could do anyone harm.

"How'd you do that?" he asks.

Your finger rises and hooks under your upper lip, pulling it back to reveal your canines, sharper than a normal person's.

He nods and watches you with some mixture of curiosity, irritation, and fondness.

"Pretty good," he says simply.

You beam at the praise, blood-stained lips parting into a wide smile. He feels your tail wag harder and brush against the back of his leg.

The touch is nice. It makes him more conscious of the way you're still holding onto him, your hand curled around his muscle and your hip against his. He's not sure what it is. A silent thank you, a note of understanding, or a pledge of loyalty.

But he doesn't need a thank you, someone to understand him or devote themself to him. He's just doing what he's supposed to.

He slides his arm out of your clutches and gently pats you on the head.

"C'mon, let's get going," he says and starts walking towards the exit.

You trot wordlessly behind him, which he's grateful for. But more than that, he's just happy Scott didn't have anything to say about your sudden bond to him.

Once the jet picked you up from the extraction point, the trip back to the school was a breeze. You mostly keep to yourself while trying to stick close to Logan. He sits you next to him and cleans up your face, but you sleep for most of the actual traveling time to the destination.

You hadn't realized how tired you were until the seat hit your back and the buckles of the seat belt latched over your chest. With that manifestation of security, your eyes began drooping and your head was drifting to your shoulder like it was your center of gravity.

Logan's voice is what wakes you up. It's unclear to you how much time has passed, but that doesn't bother you. You feel him gently jostling you before unbuckling the straps across your chest. He calls your name a few times until your bleary eyes open and focus on his face.

"There you are," he says, "C'mon. We're here."

You still watch him without saying a word. Your hand rubs over your face to try and pull yourself closer to being awake. He watches you before offering his hand.

"I'm not carrying you, so you need to get up," he says in a tone you were becoming familiar with. It sounded irritated but not directly at you. Like this man was just in a constant state of being pissy about something.

You take the offer regardless and let him pull you to your feet. The two of you exit the jet together, him helping you out to ensure you don't trip on the gap between the ramp and the ground.

Once you're out, your eyes widen. You expected a boarding school to be pretty fancy, but this was nicer than any place you'd ever been. The walls stretched up the sky, crafted with bricks and decorated with large glass windows. The path there was paved and bordered with kept plants. You could see beyond that though. The large expanse of the property. So much space to run and do things.

Logan watches your reaction with amusement. "It's a lot to take in when you first get here," he says.

You nod, and your eyes continue to dart around and absorb the sight of everything. Storm and Jean lead the others who were saved off to another part of the building to be reunited with their families or taken back to their lives or even given verifiable resources. But you don't want to go with them.

You grab Logan's hand and look up at him, shaking your head.

His first reaction is to try and pull his hand free of you, but you have a tighter grip than expected. "What? What's the matter?" he asks you while still trying worm his hand out of your finger's lock.

You don't know how to articulate it because what you want is very simple. You want to stay with him. You want to stay here. You don't want to go back out to the world where people point and laugh at you or turn you away from everything. You just don't know how to say that without it seeming weird.

Luckily for you, Scott gives you a bit of help. You're not sure if that's his intention or not, but either way, you're grateful for the help.

"Maybe we should take her to the Professor. He might want to see about her mutation or ask her about that stuff back there," he tells Logan. You can tell from the way Scott speaks that he doesn't really like him too much.

Logan thinks about it for a moment before nodding. Before leading you there, he uses his other hand to pry your fingers off of him. You frown at the loss of connection and shoot him a glare. That brings an actual smile to his face.

"Follow along, pup. Don't need you getting lost," he says as he turns to guide you down the halls of the school.

The sun hadn't even risen, so not too many people occupied the common rooms. You catch sight of a few. They stare back at you, but unlike what you're used to, they don't look at you with disdain or mocking. It's simple, innocent curiosity. The only thing that seems to worry them is the bright red stain going down the front of your shirt.

Inside the room had been an older guy in a wheelchair. The professor talked the nicest out of all the men you'd been around today. When he looked at you, you felt like he understood you. He didn't even seem perplexed like Scott or Logan had. He'd merely said you were "interesting."

He talked to you for a while. He asked similar questions similar to the ones you already answered, but the third round of them got even deeper than the last two. Once he revealed that he could enter your thoughts if he wanted, that made a lot of sense.

Though he didn't really need his ability to understand you. Your experiences were written all over your face, practically sewn into the seams of your clothes.

He could see how, like every mutant, you led a life dominated by rejection. But in a different way than most others of your kind, you were vaguely familiar. Seeing someone with a tongue ten feet long or with blue skin or claws was jarring. It was weird.

But you - you look like a cute puppy. You walk the line between disturbing and endearing.

Charles can also see how you long for belonging even deeper than most. It's as if your mutation gives you the drive to seek out affection, for someone to devote yourself to. He can tell this by the way you linger around Logan.

If he moved an inch, you followed in the same direction. If he looked away, your eyes followed along. You were only settled if he was looking at you, not in danger of leaving your vicinity.

After talking to you for a while, hearing about your abilities and getting to understand your personality, he offers to let you stay at the school. He tells you it might be beneficial for you, and if you don't like it, you're welcome to leave anytime. It's only meant to give you a chance to understand your gifts and learn to control them and use them for good.

Of course, you accept. It wasn't even a question.

"Wonderful. Scott, show her to the extra rooms she can stay in and the shower so she can clean up a bit," Charles says. He watches as your eyes flit to Logan and then Scott. He also sees Scott's uncertainty as to why he was given this job.

But he nods and gestures for you to follow him, which you reluctantly do.

You trail him silently up the stairs, and he gives you a little guide to where everything is. He gestures at the direction of the student wing and the staff wing and then takes you to the latter. He points out the different bedrooms and grabs you a change of clothes on the way to the bathrooms.

He's nice to you. A little stiff, but he still smiles and laughs softly at quips he makes or your skeptical reactions to things. You want to ask him about his sunglasses, but you figure that'd be rude so you refrain. When he leaves you at the bathroom door, he tells you to just call if you need anything cause he's right down the hall.

Stepping inside, you peer around the expansive room. You'd never seen a bathroom so large. It was nice like everything else was in this place. The counter was spotless and smooth. The tile was sleek with a soft mat beneath your feet at the door and waiting for you in front of the shower.

You undress yourself quickly and turn on the water, waiting for it to heat before stepping inside. There's some products on the shelf inside that you use. You lather the soap on your hands and rub it over yourself fast. It felt really good, especially since you hadn't had a proper shower while being held captive. But you still work at a sped up pace. Although the novelty of everything had impressed you at first, you were beginning to yearn to be by Logan again. It wasn't a need that would make you lose control, just a little itch like a bug crawling up the path of your veins.

Downstairs, Charles kept Logan behind in his office so the two could talk. They briefly recap the mission before moving to the subject that was the true reason for the extended conversation.

"It seems she's quite taken with you," the older man starts simply.

"I guess," Logan responds, his voice unamused with the idea.

Charles huffs out a laugh and shakes his head. He goes to say something else, but the other man carries on the conversation himself.

"She'll get over it. She's like a little duck following around the first person she sees," he says and crosses his arms.

"I think you underestimate her intelligence, Logan. She's not a helpless animal-"

"I know that," he interjects quickly.

"She's one of us. She's formed an attachment to you for whatever reason. I would like her to stay here for at least for a little while to examine the traits of her mutation. I've never seen any that so closely mimic an already existing animal," he explains, "But I want to know that you're ok with that."

Logan scoffs. "Why wouldn't I be? That doesn't have anything to do with me."

"While she's here, she's most likely going to want to be around you. I just wanted to make sure that's not something you're wholly uncomfortable with."

"Please. I can handle it," he dismisses.

Charles watches him, ever-entertained by how hard he tries to present the idea that he's unaffected. 

"If you say so," he says, "Just try not to scare off too quickly."

"I'll play nice," he says.

A few more words, and he's dismissed. He turns on his heel and heads out the same doors he entered. Just as he does, you glide down the stairs into his field of vision, tail wagging lazily behind you over the waistband of the sweats Scott gave you.

When you see him, it swishes a bit faster and your ears perk up. His eyes narrow.

"What are you doing down here? Didn't Scott show you where to go?" he asks.

You nod and prance down the remaining steps. Truthfully, you'd been seeking the man before your eyes, but you couldn't just say that.

"Am I not allowed to look around?" you ask.

His eyes remain hard on your face. "Aren't you tired? Mauling that guy didn't take anything out of you?"

A subtle pout forms on your lips, and you consider retreating back to the bedroom you'd been given. He clearly wasn't in the mood for you right now.

Logan sees the reaction his words brought on. He feels that little sliver of guilt shifting around inside him. Maybe his phrasing hadn't been the best... but then again why did he give a shit?

"How about we just get you back to bed? I'll show you around more tomorrow," he suggests.

You take what you can get and nod, your features slightly elevating at the form of peace he offers you. He retraces your steps up the stairs and down the hall with you on his heels. He spots the room Scott had picked for you. The door was ajar from how you'd left it to go find him.

He leads you inside but remains in the doorway himself. There really wasn't any reason to stay, so he should probably be leaving...

"Have you been here a long time?" you ask suddenly.

His eyes land on you again. You were perched on the end of your bed that was still fully made up, the comforter tucked in and everything.

"What?" he asks.

"Have you been here long? Scott said he's been here since he was a teenager," you say.

"Oh. No. Only a little while," he says. "I'm still pretty new here too."

That makes you happy, it's obvious from the hope that gleams in your eyes. "Are you like a teacher too? Or... something else?"

"What would that something else be?" he asks with a smirk, taking a few steps into the room with you, "Having a hard time picturing me teaching?"

"Well I just mean-" you try to justify before laughing a little, giving in, "Yeah. I can't really see it."

"Me neither. I'm not a teacher. I just help out sometimes," he says.

He walks even closer to you, causing your head to tilt up to look at him. Now you really looked like a puppy.

This close, he was all you could smell. You could see every individual hair on his forearm. It felt as though you could hear the strong beat of his heart. His eyes pierced into you from above, and you wondered if he was observing you in a similar manner.

"You gonna sleep on top of these blankets?" he asks.

The mention of something else besides him snaps you out of your little Logan-centric daze. You look around at the bedding and then back up at his head. The two styled points of dark hair look like he has two ears of his own mirroring yours.

"No. I'll fix them," you say and stand up to tug them free, "I don't need you to tuck me in."

"I wasn't offering to. I just don't want you getting up and trying to 'look around' again. Don't need you getting lost and wandering to my bed."

The idea brings heat to your cheeks and neck. It sounded nice for so many reasons. But the bed you had now outmatched the hard bottom of the cage you'd been sleeping on, so you weren't going to try and swing for more.

Once the comforter and sheets are peeled down, you climb back on the bed and sit against the pillows. There's a small pause. A puddle of silence pooling between the two of you. You don't know what else to ask, but you feel if you don't say anything he's gonna leave. So you pull out the first thing you can think of.

"What is your actual mutation?"

His brows rise with interest, and he closes the gap between you by sitting on the edge of your bed. Curiosity shines from his eyes onto you, silently questioning why you wanted to know.

"I know you're not actually a robot, but I can still smell the metal and stuff. What does it do?" you ask.

"The metal isn't my mutation," he says.

He raises his fist about a foot away from your face. His fingers are balled up tight against his hand. You cock your head, wondering what he's showing you.

Before you can ask any questions though, three shining metal claws emerge from between his knuckles. They come out slowly, a pace prolonged enough to be considered teasing. Your eyes widen at the sharp points and you scoot back, smooshing the pillows against your head board. All you can wonder is if he didn't take them out earlier or if you really had missed something so monumental.

His laugh rises in volume. "Relax, I'm not gonna cut you."

The claws come to a halt when fully extended. You wait just in case something else is going to happen, but nothing does. You bring your finger up and poke at the hard surface. They were so beautiful but unnatural too. You'd never seen anything like them.

"But I didn't see anywhere for them to come out?" you say softly.

He flexes his hand and extends his fingers, retracting the claws much quicker than they appeared.

"There is no place for them to come out of," he says and offers you his hand.

You frown at the little cuts the sharp rods left in their wake, but like little zippers, they close up. You blink at his hand. All evidence of his mutation was gone.

"So you can heal? And you have claws?" you say more to yourself than him, "Does it still hurt when they come out?"

He nods and watches you examine his hand.

Upon seeing his confirmation, you can't even help what you do next. You pull his limb a little closer and kiss each spot where a claw had emerged. Every phantom cut gets a soft smooch left where it would soon reappear.

"What are you doing?" Logan asks, her arm tensing up on instinct.

You glance at his face before releasing his hand. "Oh... sorry," you say and shrug sheepishly.

To your surprise, he doesn't scold or chastise you, doesn't get up to leave in a hurry. He simply pulls his hand back and gives you another look before saying good night.

"Get some good sleep. Like I said, I'll show you around tomorrow," he says.

You slip down in the bed, resting your head on the plush pillows and pulling the blanket up over your form. He heads out into the hallway, closing the door behind him.

A deep exhale leaves his lungs. He shakes some of that tension loose. What had he been doing? It almost felt like some different person had taken over him in there. Another version of himself that didn't have to be reminded to 'play nice.'

The few weeks you're supposed to stay at the school stretches out into a longer timeframe. It'd now been a few months since that day he found you in the cage and set you free. Though that month or so you'd spent locked up turned out to be worth it because you now had a place that made you happier than anywhere you'd lived before. You had a family.

You had Jean and Storm who were helping you train so you could one day go on missions with them. You had the Professor who taught you more about yourself than you had ever thought to ask. Scott was there too.

And of course, you had Logan.

Logan. As much as he tried to seem reluctant, to appear uncaring and nonchalant, he had grown to enjoy your company more with each passing day that you followed him like a shadow.

It was irritating at first. Before, he'd been able to drift through the school relatively unnoticed. Now, every single place he went, he was trailed by whoosh whoosh whoosh. The sound of your tail going back and forth. Anything he tried to do was accompanied by the feeling of two glimmering eyes trained on him. He'd tried to brush you off, but you didn't waver.

"Don't you have anything better to do than stalk me?" he'd ask, shooting a side eye your way.

"No," you'd respond.

"Well, find something."

"I don't wanna."

And who was he to argue with that?

In a way, the bond you seemed to have formed with him was flattering. It seemed like he could do anything, and you'd never view him as anything but the greatest creation to grace this earth. So he just lets you follow him around. He assumes after a while, you'll see him for what he is and lose interest, or you'll just grow bored of him and find something else to be the object of your obsession. Though so far that day hadn't come.

After a while of you always at his side, he started to cave and include you in his little routines.

One day he was doing sit ups at the foot of his bed while you sat nearby. His body rose and fell, abdomen kissing his thighs in regular intervals. But every time he came up, he found himself looking over at you.

"Hey, pup," he said, the nickname he developed for you coming out effortlessly, "C'mere for a second."

Your ears perked up. You weren't usually involved in what he was doing. You scoot over to him and kneel at his feet, awaiting a command. You could be so obedient sometimes it nearly made him feel guilty.

"You wanna help me with something?" he asked. As he expected, you nodded right away, so he continued, "Just hold my feet down. These only work if your feet stay flat. So just make sure they do."

You gave him another dutiful nod and got in position. Your hands held his feet down as he worked out just like he asked. Each time he came up off the ground, you looked at him with a big goofy smile.

That was just the first thing. From then on, the two of you actually did stuff together rather than just going about your things nearby one another. He'd help you train, and you'd help him clean Scott's bike when he finished using it.

Tonight, exhaustion aches in your bones after running around all day. On top of that, you'd had so much stuff to do yourself that you'd barely even seen Logan all day.

When the sun's finally down and the students have all retired to their bedrooms, you find him in the living room. He's leaned back into the couch, nursing a bottle of something. You assume it's not beer since you're at a school, but with how often he lamented about that limitation, you wouldn't put it past him to sneak one in.

You hop over the arm rest and curl up on the opposite side of the couch from him. He looks over at you, not displeased with your presence.

"There you are. I thought you finally got tired of me and found someone else to bother," he teases.

"I could never do that," you reply with the same playful cadence. You scoot a little closer. "I was just super busy today. The Professor was having me talk to some of the students, and then Scott needed me to grab something for him from the shed. It was really hard to find, so it took a while. Then I had to do my own training, and Jean made me try on some sizes for my suit..."

As you chatter on about your day, Logan finds himself nodding along, even occasionally reacting to what you say. He's not rolling his eyes or telling you to leave him alone. It's weird, but he can't say he wants to feel differently.

"Sounds like they're working you like a dog," he says when your story has reached an end.

Your face darkens like it had on the day he met you, shooting him a quick glare as a reminder not to say the forbidden d-word.

"Right, sorry," he corrects, "It just sounds like they're running you ragged. Don't let 'em work you too hard. Scott can get his own shit."

He still didn't understand your hang up about that word. He could call you pup, puppy, or any variation of that, and you'd react with nothing but joy. But utter d-o-g in your vicinity, and he felt like he was at risk of getting his throat chomped on. Luckily, it only takes his small apology for your normal demeanor to make its return.

"It's ok. I don't mind helping. I like having stuff to do," you say and shrug.

"I thought your 'stuff to do' was watching over me," he jokes and leans forward, placing his bottle down on the table.

You're not sure why, but you take that as an invitation to scoot even closer to him.

"I thought you wanted me to find better stuff to do."

"Fair," he chuckles, "Maybe this is one of those things where I'm not gonna realize I miss something until it's gone."

He brings his hand up from the back of the couch to massage the base of one of your ears. The soft fluff feels almost luxurious against the rough pads of his finger tips. He knew you loved the sensation. It had been an accidental discovery, something he did one time as a joke. But the way you melted into the touch had been more than just funny to him.

You lean into it now and nuzzle his palm.

"It was just one day. It's not like a permanent new routine."

"For now. Then soon enough, I'm gonna catch you trailing somebody else with hearts in your eyes," he says and gently tugs your ear.

You laugh at the tug and the stupid words. "You will not. Plus, I don't have hearts in my eyes for you."

"Oh really?" he teases. He leans in, his face hovering a couple inches away from yours. "I think I can see some now."

The two of you stay locked in a stare for a few lingering seconds. He'd never been this close to you before. You'd never heard his voice lower in that way, sounding almost desiring. Heat starts to crawl up from your belly through your chest to your neck. Before it can reach your cheeks, you turn your head to face the tv.

"Shut up," you huff, choosing to play the interaction off as a joke.

Out of the corner of your eye, you see his grin. He chuckles and his arm returns to its place behind you, above your shoulders. Quiet blooms between the two of you, kept from being total silence only by the hushed noises of the tv set across the room. It doesn't feel awkward though even with the sudden shyness he'd brought over you.

You angle yourself and lean in so that you're sitting against his side. No words come from him, he simply lowers his arm to sling around your shoulders and keep you there. His thumb idly pets back and forth over the smooth skin of your forearm.

The heat of his body radiates from his side and into you. Makes you feel safe and comfortable. Like you're where you're supposed to be. It's easy to sink into him further and tilt your head to rest on his chest. Before long, your eyes feel a little droopy. Blinking feels sticky, and your mind just wants to retreat to the soft embrace of sleep.

Logan can tell. He's not sure of the feeling this knowledge brings him. Pride? Contentment? Affection? Instead of thinking about it harder, he just pulls you a little closer and lets you drift off. He considers saying something, letting you know he doesn't mind and that you don't have to try and stay up. But nothing comes from him and the quiet continues.

He watches you slowly slip away. Your neck loses the wherewithal to stay upright, and your breaths soften, blowing in and out in a thoughtless rhythm.

The feeling that flows through him takes him by surprise. Pure endearment towards you, not a hint of anything else. He lets you sleep there for the next hour or so. When you're still out cold after that time has passed, he's unsure of his next move. He doesn't want to wake you and shatter the peace that had settled over the room, but he had to head to bed himself and wasn't going to leave you stranded on the couch in the common room.

The light of the tv glows across the two of you as he mulls over his options. When he finally decides, he grabs the remote and shuts the device off, cloaking the room in darkness, spare the distant blinking lights that could be seen through the windows. He rises from the cushions that had molded to cradle his weight, making sure to keep a hand on you to prevent you from slumping over.

This time he doesn't shake you or offer a hand. He reaches around and tucks an arm under your legs. His other supports you across your shoulder blades as he lifts you into his arms. He traverses the furniture with caution, making sure to avoid bumping into a stray corner or tripping on a catch in the rug. Then he moves up the stairs. Your limp body bounces with each step.

He nudges the door open to your bedroom and takes you inside. Your scent seemed to fill the entire room. Every time he took a breath, he got a lungful of the heady smell. Your bedroom was so you now. The way you'd decorated it and splashed your personality over every inch, it'd be hard to believe that just a few months ago it had been so sparse.

What had been a blank bed, covered only by a plain duvet and thin pillows, now held your extra fluffy cushions, a nest of blankets, and your steadily-growing collection of plushies. Trinkets lined your shelves and tables, and you even displayed a few posters over the walls. It was you, all around him.

He walks the few paces to the edge of the mattress before laying your body down on the foamy surface. He drapes a nearby blanket over your form. Even though he's technically accomplished what he meant to, he doesn't leave yet. He lingers like he can't seem to help doing around you.

You're still fast asleep, unaware of the change in locations. He watches a haphazard swallow move through your throat before you settle into the familiar setting.

He finds himself not wanting to go back to his room. He'd been at the school longer than you and never made his own so nice. Really, he didn't think he could make it as nice. But that was just because nothing about him was as nice as you.

When the resolve to leave finally surfaces in him, he reaches out and rubs the base of your ear.

"See you in the morning," he murmurs. Unlike before, the rest of what he wants to say doesn't get tangled up in his throat. "My little puppy girl."

That night won't leave your head for the next week. It almost feels like a dream. You'd woken up in your bed the next morning, assuming that's what it was. The undeniable change in location was the only thing that made your mind accept it as reality.

In the following days, things stayed the same for the most part, though you would have sworn, Logan acted a little less grumpy around you. Only by a microscopic degree, but enough for you to note the shift.

Nothing that big happens though. You don't even repeat the cuddling incident again. You kind of just assume that it was a one time thing. A nice experience, but not one to be repeated.

The memory of it floats through your mind often though. The pulse of his heart beating against your cheek, how you could hear it in your ear clear as day. Your stomach flutters at the thought of him actively pulling you closer, wanting you that close. You can feel your dedication to Logan blossoming into something more. It was already rooted so deep inside you that you didn't think it was possible, but you could feel it. The branches of reverence spreading in your chest and growing into something closer to adoration.

You could feel it now, sitting next to him on the bench in the school's spacious yard. He'd been tasked with watching some of the students for the afternoon, so of course, you tagged along. Shade speckled his face with alternating blotches of sunlight and gray. The stray beams of light made his eyes glow, and his hair shine all pretty. The sounds of the students practicing their abilities clouds the background of your focus, and they become even more distant when he suddenly turns to you.

"You're staring," he teases with that little smirk of his.

Your eyes flutter at the accusation. "No... I was not."

"Yeah you were. Even worse than usual."

"I just was thinking and zoned out," you defend, turning to face forward.

He hums in acknowledgement, obviously not believing your excuse. "Were you thinking about me?"

"You wish."

"I don't have to wish, puppy. You're not a very good liar."

You really weren't. Your tail swished with each beat of this little back and forth. Your ears pinned back to your head, folded over by the guilt of being caught. Everything you were feeling was made apparent by your supposed 'gifts.'

"Well whatever. Even if I was, it's none of your business," you say. A smile pulls at your lips. Your tells weren't solely from your mutation.

"If you say so," he taunts, one last jab before he returns his attention to the kids he was supposed to be supervising.

Nothing he said hinted at anything more than playful banter, but the way he spoke had them wrapped around your heart like unbreakable restraints. The way he said them made you feel like he wanted it this way. Wanted you to hear that smug cadence in your mind for the next few days. Maybe he found you entertaining. Maybe your emotions were a new game he discovered he liked to play with.

Hours later, you're curled up in your bed, by yourself as per usual. Everyone in the school had gone to bed, you and Logan had parted a while ago yourselves. 

Sleep weighs you down to the mattress, but your ears perk up automatically when they register a distant sound of distress. It's faint. If it happened alone, you would've just assumed it was part of your dream and not done anything else. But more follow it.

Your eyes crack open, still glazed with drowsiness as you come to. You listen for the sounds that disturbed you. For a moment, there's nothing. Just the gentle breeze outside your room and the crickets chirping in the cut grass in the yard.

Then it happens again. A normal person wouldn't be able to hear these sounds. They were reserved for you with your enhanced senses. It sounds like grunting and groaning though you can pick up the pained undertone of fear. The worst part of it to you is that immediately you know it's coming from Logan.

You swing your legs over the side of the bed, freeing them from the fleece warmth of your blankets. Padding out of the room, you cross the hall to his. You open the door in the specific way so that it doesn't creak and then shut it behind you. Your feet are gentle on the hardwood as they bring you closer to the source of the noise.

Once you're in, it's no mystery. Logan lays on his back in the center of his bed, shoulders twitching in agitation. He mumbles to himself, different words you can't make out. Your head cocks at the sight.

Approaching the side of his bed, you just watch him for a few more moments. When he doesn't wake up, you feel the urge to intervene. It felt wrong watching him suffer. Something pulled at your insides to help him.

You reach out and nudge his bicep. There's no effect. You do it a few more times but still nothing happens. Finally, you actually grip his shoulder and shake him gently, whispering into the darkness a simple "Logan."

That wakes him. No mistake about it. He gasps and snaps up. His claws come out from his hands without a second thought and slash at you. You hop back right away, tripping over your own feet and crashing onto the ground.

Your pulse thunders in your ears. The adrenaline coursing through you wasn't so much out of fear but rather confusion. Your mind was still a bit bogged by sleep itself, and at this moment, you're less concerned with Logan's reasoning and more so the logistics of a potential fight with him. Even though you had been training for the past several months, you had absolutely zero belief that you'd be able to beat him in a fight. Or even really compete for that matter.

Fortunately for you, it doesn't come to that. His eyes recognize you not long after his fists took the swing. You watch as his face morphs into a handful of different emotions in the span of about five seconds.

"I- what- how- I didn't-" he starts before getting a handle on his ability to speak, "I'm sorry."

Your body starts to come down from the brief high when it's clear he's not going to attack. You feel less wound up and let out a sigh. Your eyes remain inquisitive while gazing at him though. What did he dream about that made him freak out like that?

You guess it's not the best time to ask, so instead of pushing your luck, you push up off the ground and get your footing back. You step up to him at the edge of the bed and stand between his thighs. You plan on asking him if he's ok, but his arms reach out and yank you to his chest before you have the chance.

His hold is tight on you. The little half-hugs he'd given you a couple times before didn't compare at all. His arms were locked around you like they never intended to let go. You could hear him panting in your ear, and you could feel his heart thundering against both of your rib cages like it wanted to be released from its chamber.

"You're not hurt, are you?" he whispers.

You shake your head and wrap your arms around him too. The gesture relaxes him a lot, you can feel the tension seep away.

"Are you ok? I didn't mean to bother you, you just sounded like you needed help," you say at the same volume.

"You didn't bother me. I'm ok. I'm sorry. You don't have to worry about me like that."

His skin is warm and clammy against your own. You gently pat his back as some form of silent reassurance. Even if he wasn't as distraught as he had been a few minutes ago, you could tell the events that occurred were gnawing at him.

One of your hands drifts up, and you thread your fingers in his hair. It's like pulling a lever. He exhales deeply and pushes his face more against your neck.

"I'm sorry, pup," he murmurs.

You nuzzle the side of his head, and your heart nearly stops because he reciprocates this gesture with a few of the softest kisses you've ever felt, placed on your throat.

"I'd never hurt you on purpose. You know that."

You nod. Of course you knew that. And you would never say this to him out loud, but you felt so deeply for him, you weren't sure that your perception of him would have changed had his claws landed the strike on you.

Pulling back your head a little, you nudge his so you can see him. Both of your eyes connect for a moment before you lean in and kiss him. His lips are softer than you'd expected. His scent permeates your senses, but it's not one of booze or the brand of cigars he smokes. That's there, but your nostrils sense deeper. You could smell his essence. The way his blood runs hot as your tongue swipes into his mouth.

The kiss grows deeper. No words are said. Neither of you need them. Your fingers tighten on the dark locks of brown hair, and you climb into his lap. His hands land on your hips almost instantaneously. The only sounds between the two of you are sharp exhales and shallow inhales.

"What are you doing, bub?" he murmurs against your lips, breaking the silence. Despite his questions, he wasn't stopping you. Not at all. His fingers dig into your flesh and pull you a little closer.

"Wanna make you feel better. And show you that I know."

You weren't sure what you and Logan were after that night. Boyfriend-girlfriend, friends with benefits, or maybe simple companions. You didn't really care because regardless of the answer, you were happy.

Kissing was the only thing that transpired that night, but that was ok with you. It didn't dampen your outlook on your relationship with him in the slightest. You'd made out for a while, tangling up with each other and the sheets before he pulled back. He didn't want to go further when you both were coming down from all that emotion. And you agreed. You didn't need more. You felt elated from receiving that much affection in the first place. Your tail whacked against the mattress as you curled up to his side and put your head on his sternum to rest.

The next morning though, he had been ready for more. Once he fell back asleep, his dreams had been much more pleasant. He woke up stiff and aching for you, and you were more than happy to provide some relief.

You alleviated that throbbing between his legs multiple times that morning, and you'd been taking care of it at least once a day every day since then.

The team could tell something was going on between the two of you, a deeper bond than your initial affinity for Logan. You walked with a faster wag in your tail, and he seemed less jagged at the edges. Others were less likely to get cut now if they reached for him the wrong way.

Each of your steps also came with a small jingle now since Logan had given you his dog tags. You'd been lying against his side, basking in the afterglow of one of your escapades when he dangled the metal chain between the two of you.

"Want you to have these, pup," he rasped.

You'd looked at him with curiosity swimming in your eyes. Excitement mingled there too though.

He chuckled at the look before boosting your head so he could put them on you. 

"I know my pretty puppy doesn't want to wear a collar for me yet," he teased, getting a pout out of you, "I just want you to have something of mine. You don't even have to wear 'em if you don't want to."

You'd worn them every moment since he gave them to you. Wouldn't take them off for anything. The physical representation of your attachment stayed secured around your neck at all times. The way it made you feel had you thinking a collar would be a pretty nice next step.

It'd been just over a month since you became something more with him. Your tail zips back and forth as you clean up the training room, thinking all of this over. A little smile rests on your features too. Jean helps out nearby, laughing gently at your mood.

"You have it bad," she teases.

Your head turns, and you grin, exposing those elongated canines. Shrugging, you prance over to help her finish the area she was tidying up.

When the two of you get everything back into shape, you head out into the sleek hallway back towards the main part of the mansion. Your shoes squeak against the tile as you bound towards the doors.

Entering the primary floor from the rooms below always brought a bit of adjustment for your eyes. The lights downstairs shone bright, fluorescent white. Coming back to the soft lamps of the common rooms had you blinking while your pupils scanned the room for Logan.

You catch sight of him standing near the two large doors that acted as entrance to the school. Right now, you can only see him from behind, but you spot Charles next to him. It looks like they're talking to someone, though the former's bulky frame prevents you from seeing who.

Your legs carry you over to the pair. You come up on the side of Logan that Charles doesn't occupy. Tucking yourself under his arm, you look up at him first before your eyes land on the other person speaking.

The sight of her makes your head tilt to the side just the slightest. Every feature on her embodies beauty. Her red hair, similar to Jean's in color, sits slicked back on her head. Deep blue coats every inch of her body. Seductive yellow eyes flit between the two men she's conversing with, and now that you had appeared, they cast to you as well.

You'd seen her before around the mansion once or twice, and you didn't really trust her. She didn't seem like a bad person, but she worked opposite the team. Even though Logan had assured you she was just offering some information about a common goal, you didn't feel confident that Mystique's motives were of such pure intent.

Still, you don't interrupt the in-progress discussion. You stay quietly pressed to Logan's side, tail coasting against the back of his leg. He doesn't wrap his arm around you as tight as normal or rub between your ears like he often did, but he gives you a little pat on the shoulder to acknowledge your presence.

Mystique finishes listening to Charles' point before directing her full attention to you.

"I knew you all wore uniforms, but you two didn't tell me your team had a little mascot too."

You bristle at the comment but try to remain composed. You were better than a thoughtless animal that snapped at a little poke. Charles hadn't even noticed your presence. He looks over at you and realizes what Mystique's quip referred to. He introduces you briefly.

"She's new to the team and is still training, but she's not a mascot," he concludes.

"So more like a stray then? Cute. I never would have guessed you wanted a pet," she says to Logan.

Tension creeps up your spine, and you stand up straight, pulling away from Logan's side.

"I'm not his pet," you huff and look at her. Your pouty way of asserting yourself probably didn't do much to project the image of independence you wanted. "I'm-"

You go to continue, but she cuts you off.

"You really should teach your dog not to bark, Logan. It's not polite."

That sparks a small growl in your throat before you can shut it down. Her eyes widen in amusement which only makes it feel worse for you. The most humiliating part is that you know all of this is inauthentic. She's doing it for the purpose of riling you up, getting you upset and making you feel bad. You know this, but your reaction gets the better of you.

Before you can do anything regrettable, Logan's hand curls over your shoulder. He keeps you rooted where you stand, quelling the flames of conflict before they have a chance to spread.

"Back off," he says, quick and curt with Mystique. He turns to Charles next, still keeping his voice firm. "You don't need me to hear the rest of this. I think I'll let you wrap it up."

Charles nods, knowing it would be better for him to focus on removing you from the potentially volatile situation instead of being another observer for some intel.

Logan guides you away from them, hand moving from your shoulder to the back of your neck as he takes you upstairs. The anger inside you melts away with the growing distance between you and Mystique. Only the stain of embarrassment remained.

"I'm sorry," you say. Your words sound compressed, the weight of your shame hanging off them.

"Don't be. You didn't do anything wrong. She wanted you to get upset, so that's what she got."

The pair of you move through the rest of the hall without another word. You go into your room. Once the door is shut and it's just the two of you between the four walls, you stomp over to the bed and flop down onto the mattress.

Darkness clouds your vision while your face rests against the blankets. Your tail rests against your thigh limply. You hear him coming over and then feel his hand rubbing your leg near the lifeless appendage. The mattress dips as he sits next to you.

"C'mon. You're ok."

You shuffle around so your head is resting in his lap. "I looked pathetic."

He sighs. One of his hands rubs your back while the other pets your head. "You did not."

"Yeah I did."

"No. You didn't," he says, "You didn't do anything that bad. No one's gonna think less of you cause you got a little mad about someone talking shit to you."

You know he's right. Everyone here had an experience like that. It's how most of them ended up here, reacting even worse than you had. It still doesn't make you feel any less dumb. A deep exhale seeps from your lungs.

"I just don't understand why everyone looks at me like that. We all get it bad enough from humans, but then some of the others look down on me too. I'm the same as all of you. I don't say Mystique looks like a smurf cause she's blue, so I don't see why I have to get called a pet," you huff.

He smiles a little and scratches your ear, letting you vent.

"Even you guys looked at me different at first. I know you did. I'm not the only mutant with physical stuff. Why does it have to be a whole thing with me?"

"You're just a little different, bub. You confuse people, but it's not your fault. Nothing about you is less than any other mutant. Mystique doesn't even think that. She was trying to get under your skin."

"Yeah..." you say with a little dejection in your tone, "I still just wish people would treat me like normal. Or at least normal for a mutant."

"I know you do, baby," he hums and pats your arm.

By this point, you're far enough away from the harshness of what happened downstairs. You sit up and scoot closer to him crawling into his lap. He wraps his thick arms around you and rubs your back.

"There's my girl," he murmurs and pecks your temple.

You nuzzle him like a puppy seeking more affection from its owner. Your backside rests on his lap, your arms snug around his abdomen.

"I'm just curious though, pup. What's the big thing with being called dog? It's not that different than puppy," he says, a hint of caution in his voice. He figured now was as good a time as any to ask. He knew it was the main part of what Mystique said that set you off.

You don't react with anger or defensiveness which pleases him. Instead, you shrug.

"Cause. Puppy sounds cute. Dog is just so... bleh," you say, "It makes me sound like a gross animal that someone has to wrangle."

His eyebrow rises. You can see the amusement in his eyes, but he successfully kills his laugh before it leaves his throat.

"Mmm. Makes sense. Can't have anyone thinking you're gross."

"Exactly," you say and kiss his cheek, "You get it. I just... I don't wanna be your pet, I wanna be yours."

You breathe out the words and push yourself closer on his lap. He appeases your desire for less space and pulls you to his chest.

"You are mine. You don't have to worry about that," he says.

"And I still wanna be your little puppy."

He chuckles. His head ducks down to your neck to lay a few kisses there. One of his palms drifts down to gently knead the dough of your ass.

"You also are my little puppy. My little puppy that follows me everywhere. Mine to hold and love on. Mine to play with. Mine to deal with when she gets bratty."

The last word comes out teasing and brings a happy sound out of you. "I wasn't being bratty before. She started it," you say, playing along.

"Hmmm, you're right. Maybe fussy's a better word," he mutters and nips at the soft flesh of your neck.

"Nuh uh. I was being totally normal," you say and nudge at his face with your nose, getting a little squirmy on his lap.

He responds by flipping you over onto your back. The mattress creaks with the bout of pressure and a squeal leaves your throat. You can feel his length against your hip, half-hard already from how you had wiggled on his lap.

"Oh please," he says, "Why do you think I brought you up here? I can tell when my pup needs to calm down. And I know just how to do that, don't I?"

You whimper and nod. He grins before returning his lips to your neck. He nips a few love bites onto the delicate area, drawing little whines from you. His hands hold you in place and move with your body's wriggling. He gropes at your hips and waist, paws at your tits, and slides them around to massage your ass.

"Such a good girl. So responsive for me," he coos.

The condescending affection sends a pulse down to your clit, and your hips roll up to meet his. One of your legs hooks around his waist to pull his body closer.

"Logan. Don't tease," you pout.

Your whiny plea doesn't garner any sympathy from him though. He laughs against your neck and pulls back to smirk down at you.

"My little puppy needs to learn some patience. You think if you don't get my dick in seconds that it's teasing," he taunts.

You whine again and press your leg down on him. He doesn't make any move to pull his cock out though. One set of his fingers comes up to your jaw, directing your lips to an angle where his can land on yours. He kisses you nice and deep, swallowing up any bratty urges that were springing around inside your head. His tongue is warm and soft, gentle against yours.

Meanwhile, his freehand does start to slide down below. It travels beneath the waistband of your bottoms. His warm fingers glide over the plush skin of your pelvis and slot between your lower lips to find your swollen nub. He flicks at it, instantly getting a mewl from you.

You can feel his smug smile against your mouth, but you don't have much time to react to it before his middle finger starts swirling around your bud. Your leg releases his body as it squirms with your other on the mattress. You moan into his mouth and boost your hips into his touch, wanting more of that blissful friction.

"Sweet girl," he coos. The words are muffled by your skin, but you could pick those syllables out of any lineup. "That's your favorite spot, isn't it? Always gets you wriggling for me like a little puppy."

"Mhm," you whimper with a faint nod.

Your heels dig into the mattress to give you some leverage to push your hips up so he can tug your pants off. He takes the opportunity and flings them off the bed. With you bare to him like that, he leaves your lips and moves down. He pulls your top off next and smooches between your breasts and over your tummy before landing between your legs.

He kneels on the floor at the edge of the mattress. His hands hook around your thighs and pull you in his direction.

"C'mere, baby. Give me that puppy cunt. Gotta get it all wet, so it can take my cock."

With that, he buries his head between your thighs. You gasp and throw your head back. Your hands fly to his head to grab at the two dark points of hair.

Logan gives his all to the task of pleasuring you. Whether it was his cock or his mouth, you were never getting anything less than his best. That's obvious right now as he eats you out like it's all he has to live for. He laps at your poor little clit before sucking it into his mouth. It gets some good suction from his lips before he pulls away and licks a broad stripe over your cunt.

He prods his tongue at your entrance, pushing the soft appendage against your hole. You whine more, and he feels your heels dig into his back as they had the mattress. Little expletives float from your mouth into the air as you experience such a rush of euphoria.

"Taste so good, pup. So fuckin' sweet," he mumbles. His lips open and close over your pussy, making out with it.

You rock your hips back and forth, essentially humping his face. He groans and only works harder. Your cute reactions only spurred him on. He twists his tongue just how he'd learned you liked and uses the perfect amount of pressure to get you gushing for him. Your arousal begins to coat his chin, his dark facial hair glistening with your wetness.

"Nice and wet. I'm just gonna slide right in, huh baby?"

"Yeah," you pant. Your hips buck when his nose bumps your clit, but he keeps you held in place.

He kisses your clit before dragging his tongue over you anymore. The soft touch pulls a whimper from you. Your brain starts to get all muddled and hazy. The dreamy feeling always took over when he had you like this. He knows it's coming on too. He can tell by the sudden softening of your movements. You're less jerky and more fluid in how you fidget.

"Oh, that's it. I think my pretty puppy's ready for me," he says, voice smooth on your ears.

He wags his tongue over your little bundle of nerves a few more times before standing to undress himself. His shirt comes off first, dropped to the floor with your garments. His pants are next to go, crumpled on the ground and kicked off his ankles.

Crawling back on top of you, his larger figure boxes you in on the soft surface. His cock is fully hard by now, red and angry, leaking desire from the tip. He guides it to your center and rubs it through your soaked folds.

A soft grunt leaves him as your nectar coats his shaft and drips onto his balls a little too. He only slides it against you a couple times, not wanting to waste the stimulation humping when he could be nestled deep inside.

He brings his tip down to your hold and pushes it in. Your walls accept the familiar intrusion and he groans at the comfort of your velvet walls contracting around him. He pushes his length in all the way until he bottoms out.

Then, adjusting himself and gripping at your hips, he starts to thrust. The motions start as gentle rocks. Taps of his pelvis against your ass. You flutter around him. Moans leak from you, and he smiles at the obvious pleasure coursing through your body.

He fucks you deep, just how you always asked for it. You weren't concerned with whining for harder and deeper right now. This was enough. The feeling of his cock buried in you soothed you like nothing else. Your eyes roll back and puffs of air come from your nostrils.

"Fuck, honey. Feels like I can barely last with you," he grumbles.

"Can't even think when I'm with you," you babble.

Your arms come up to pull him closer, and he lets you. He presses his body into yours, in-turn, shoving his cock as far into you as physically possible. You cry out with the pressure. It was the best kind. Deep and satisfying. To the point that you can feel it in your tummy every time his belly pushes on yours.

"You may not be my dog, baby, but one day you're gonna be my perfect breeding bitch," he grunts.

Your jaw goes slack, eyes drooping with lust. Your head tilts back and he leans into yours more.

"Gonna have you full of me forever. Always gonna be mine."

You can't even respond. Your mind isn't coming up with any coherent response. All you can do is whimper and whine like the needy pup that you are.

"This is what you need sometimes, puppy. Need me to stretch you out on my cock. Get all those thoughts out of your head. Cause puppies don't have to think. Not when you have someone like me taking care of you."

Your thighs start quivering, a sign you were reaching your peak. He knows this and drills into you harder. His balls slap against you every time he pistons his hips. His heated skin rubs against yours. He occupies all your senses, overloading you with him.

"Logan... gotta... gonna cum," you whine.

"Then cum for me," he mumbles simply, "Cum all over my cock, and I'll be right behind you."

You nod. Your back arches up. It takes you a little more, but when you get there, you crash into the throes of release. A sharp yelp bursts from you. Your feet kick a little and your legs press against his sides in an attempt to shut him out.

You get so fucking tight when you cum. Your hole clenches around him, calling out to him to spill every drop of his seed inside your wanting orifice. He growls and drops his head in your neck. He feels it building between his hips. The pressure grows until he can't take it anymore. It snaps and the flood gates open.

He bites at your neck, not hard enough to break the skin but with enough need to leave a little mark. Hot, sticky cum shoots out of him in thick ropes. Warmth fills your insides and you feel like you're sinking into the mattress below you. Both of you are panting with the intensity of the high.

You've already come down by the time he's starting to. After he nuts, Logan tends to get a little sappy. His arms pull you in tighter and he pecks at your neck a few times more muttering something unintelligible about his baby puppy.

"So what do you think?" you ask and twirl into the room, showing off your new outfit.

It matched his. Black leather snug on your body, lined with the same gold on the seams of Logan's. The bold X that shown on his belt could be found on the zipper of your top, dangling against your chest.

He smiles at you, standing from the bed to walk over and get a better view.

"Looks pretty good," he says upon approaching, "Seems a little tight though. You got room for your tail in that thing?"

You laugh at his joke and spin around again, showing the back where the suit had accommodated for your tail to poke through. It whips back and forth before you turn to him again.

"Just perfect for you then," he says and pulls you close, patting your ass and kissing your forehead, "Look at you. An official member of the team."

You nod and struggle not to bounce all around the room with the excitement vibrating through your cells.

"We're gonna be like so totally cool together," you say.

"Yeah. Totally," he imitates affectionately. He cups your jaw, watching your cheeks squish in and your lips puff out. Leaning down, he puts his mouth on yours in a soft kiss. "You're gonna do great."

The words come out as a whisper against your lips. One of your canines slips over your bottom lip as you take it between your teeth. But the display of timidity only lasts a second.

"I know," you beam.

Locking your fingers around his palm, you drag him to the door and out into the hall. Your arm makes his swing as he walks along behind you. He rolls his eyes lovingly at your confident display, but he can't keep his gaze off your happy self. He lets you pull him without resistance.

Now it would be his turn to follow you.

[aingeal98]

I don't think Damian was insecure because Cassandra was a closer part of the family than he was, especially considering that at that point in time he was wasn't fully invested in being a part of the family as he is now (also lets be real, its not like Cass is the center of the family or anything.)

I think it was more of case of him putting her on a pedestal based on what he heard about her, since her reputation probably made her seem like the ideal version of himself that he was told to aspire to all his life, so he was probably hoping that she was similar to him in some way as a form of self-validation, but when he did meet her it probably made him feel very conflicted since she didn't live up to his exceptions.

So in his mind it probably started out like "I'm supposed to be perfect and Cassandra Cain is already perfect, so she's probably very similar to me and I need to aspire to be more like her, which would be easy since we're already very similar to each other" then when he did meet her it went on to become" "Wait that's Cassandra Cain? But she's nothing like me?! Does that mean I'm not perfect after all and everything I'm doing is wrong? No.....its her who is doing everything wrong" so him butting-heads with her was him grasping at straws since putting her down would be easier than for him to accept that what he was aspiring to become all this time was the wrong image and he didn't want to start from scratch by believing in a new version of the ideal him (which thankfully he did end up doing at the end, he just was unsure if it was really what he wanted for himself at that point.)

Either ways its crazy that this plot-line didn't have any follow ups and no writers tried to have interact with each other again in almost 15 years.

I half agree with this, because I do think that Damian would have put Cass on a pedestal before meeting her. And I feel like part of him would have felt betrayed when they did meet and instead of being someone he could relate to, she was chatting with Dick and Tim and connecting over their shared history. The framing in those panels from Gates of Gotham where the trio are strategising and Damian is sitting away from them watching feels very deliberate. But I do think insecurity plays a role in that. You came to a new country all alone to meet your father but now he's dead and you're stuck with a bunch of older people meant to be your siblings and here comes one who was trained from birth to fight as a league funded project and yet... She clicks with your other siblings more than you? I think it would for sure make Damian feel more insecure even if he wasn't fully invested in becoming a part of the family, and he'd almost feel irrationally betrayed by Cass for not living up to the version he had in his head that was meant to ease said insecurity over this new "family" of his instead of making it worse and making him feel even more alone.

I can definitely see that thought process you describe in his head though. He's a genius technically but he is only ten and if something is wrong then either he's the problem or Cass is the problem, no room yet for emotional complexity. And he refuses to be wrong (similar to a certain sister of his who refuses to lose shhh who said that) so he's just going to have to butt heads with Cass until everyone including her understands that he's right and she's wrong, simple!

We deserved so much more of them working together. Gates of Gotham was a great start and I love that it's forever canon that their first act of sibling bonding was blowing up the batboat together. But we deserved so much more.

[snake-spire]

My adhd brain keeps coming up with new ideas left and right to see what sticks in my head.

It seems to really, really, really like this TMA/Malevolent crossover so we’re gonna roll with it.

And to start this off is Hunt! Arthur and the Eye! John!

Close ups and Au story!

So the premise of this AU is essentially this:

(The lovecraftian gods are instead the Fears that can walk amongst mankind in some cases. But that doesn’t matter for the beginning of this story)

The Web has completed its ritual, with Kayne as the Fear. However the world is more akin to that of Season 5 of The Magnus Archives because Kayne is still connected to his old master (The Eye) not matter how hard he tries to fight it or deny it. So think if the Web and the Eye had a baby in the vibes, a fucked up baby but a baby nonetheless.

But also think that the Dreamlands and the normal world have been merged. Mainly because I want the Forest to be the domain of the Hunt. I hope I explained that in a way that makes sense.

Anyway, Arthur. Oh boy oh boy.

I have always imagined Arthur as the Hunt, mainly because of Larson in canon so I kind of rolled with that. He tries to hold off on his instincts as much as possible (usually lasting about a week or so before he has to Hunt) so he has some control.

I went with this weasel ish design for his monster form but he turned out a bit more fox-esque but I don’t really mind it. It adds to the monster a bit.

For John, I just wanted him to be much simpler and the opposite of how I like to draw him so he’s just the Eyes for Arthur. And since Arthur is a bit more complex of a design, having just like a shadow was so much easier to vibe with.

I plan on drawing the entire cast that would pop up in this au. I’m currently working on Kayne next and he’s such a little freak. I love him.

[crystalandrose]

So my idea for my version of evil ford is that his timeline splits at the science fair incident. This ford was paranoid enough to know stanley would somehow fuck up his chance, so he fixes the machine and takes the toffee peanut bag as evidence (maybe he also pulls security footage). So ford makes it into his college and stan gets punished (but not kicked out). Stanley runs away of his own volition due to the anger at ford leaving him behind and also ratting him out to their parents. Stan partly wants to prove hes just as good as his brother and also wants to prove it to himself.

This means Ford never met Fiddleford in college. Instead, after getting a lot more grant money than from Backupsmore, he goes to Gravity Falls and works alone. Eventually, after he makes the deal with bill, he realizes he doesnt have enough experience making computer things (sourcing parts and such) to do this alone (even if bill is helping him). So he puts an ad for a research assistant good with computers. Perhaps some of this extra grant money went towards pay, and Fiddleford took the opportunity. But having no real connection to Fiddleford, Ford is more up to use him as a tool to get what he wants. So when Bill says his use is up and its time to get rid of him, Ford obliges.

Maybe since he went to this fancy college he had an easier time making connections or doing schooling quicker. So this extra time means he spends more time in partnership with bill and the connections make it easier for him to make side money he can also funnel into the portal project.

This Ford also learns more about Bill's backstory because he connects more to Bill (disconnect from family, not feeling recognized, wanting a home with people that get him/etc). So this guy is more sympathetic and knows more about Bill's desires (create a nightmare realm). Maybe Ford rationalizes it as a good thing or thinks he can talk Bill out of some destruction, or maybe at this point he wants some revenge on the world himself. So hes still on board with the portal when Bill reveals its actual purpose.

However, maybe Stanley needs another place to sleep on the couch at and sees his brother in some headline or mentioned as an inventor for some product. Or his brother needs a test dummy that can speak for the portal so he calls him. Or maybe Ford wants to potentially say his last goodbyes before he goes into what he knows is potentially the end of earth.

Fight still happens, Ford wants Stanley to thank him for money hes sent the family, for not completely ostracizing him from the family after what he did, offering him a place to stay, idk. Ford fights him, Bill possesses Ford at some point as another try to prevent Ford from getting sucked into the portal. This freaks Stan out and he pushes him. Ford, holding journal 3 (which does not have pages ripped out), chucks it at stans head (not to help him but to literally hurt him). Stan is like "wtf did i just do" and shuts the portal down, reads through the journals and thinks Ford is unwillingly possessed by a demon and spends his days trying to get him back.

Ford and Bill are now stuck in the portal, going through dimensions trying to get back to Earth in order to reopen the portal and finish what they started. I think Stan is fully anti-cipher-ified, planning on killing bill as soon as he shows up again in order to save his brother. Im thinking this Dipper and Mabel got killed by zombies or something. So when Ford does get back, stan is there super unhinged and angry and somehow eventually kills bill, leaving no statue behind. Evil ford is like "wtf" and devastated, but keeps looking for a way to bring him back. Maybe this Bill, having not gained sympathy from the axolotl, decides hes not worth rehabilitation and so hes actually dead in this reality.

(Then "canon" bill opens up a reality rift and evil ford comes through, hoorah)

[doodlegirl1998]

You know...I think we should consider Shoto Todoroki a tragedy character. And I know you like him so this is not me bashing him. I'm not Hori.

I know it's easier blame all this on Hori's inability to write but...think this way: isn't tragic how shoto, who was abused by Einji, is buddy buddy with a mini Endy?

"bad writing" or ...Shoto is slipping in the Freudian slip. He hates his dad, his dad took his childhood from him...but he still hangs out with BK bc that's the only type of relationship he knows.

"he is Izu's friend" sigh. Not in canon. Yes we see small screens where he is nice but is politeness, not friendship. I like he went to Izu rescue in the stain arc (only him did it) but on the big scheme of things...that is nothing. Anyone with common sense would.

Bk is a character Shoto knows well.

And isn't tragedy you hang out with people who resemble your abuse in the vain hope of them being better?

"it's bad writing" sure. But it's also a tragedy bc Shoto is never really free from the abuse.

What Endy did to his family doesn't stop with an apology. It lingers and bet if we do get a sequel where "the A1 have kids like Boruto" Shoto will be a bad father, not like Endy...but he will be emotional distant.

Don't know...just have this thought how Shoto is so tragic.

No more tragic than Izu.

No one is winning here.

Hi @mikeellee 👋

Shoto is a tragic character.

I do see him as being genuine friends with Izuku. However, in my opinion, Shoto being friends with Bakugou is wildly OOC, especially considering Shoto's treatment of him at the start of the series.

You could make the argument that Shoto is acting out the trauma response 'fawn' in being Bakugou's friend (however that can be seen more in Izuku and would be more in character for Fuyumi to do since she does that with Endeavor - Shoto does not.)

I think this is all simply bad writing since Shotos behaviour doesnt fit with his previously established character.

Also, as you pointed out, Shoto is never truly free from the abuse - Bakugou parallels Endeavor, and Endeavor has elbowed his way into Shoto's life and overshadowed Shoto's narrative with his 'atonement'

If MHA gets a 'Boruto' style spin off (I pray it doesn't since Hori fumbled so hard with this OG series), Shoto being a parent that struggles to connect emotionally with his kids would make sense but he seems to be getting slightly better at that in MHA.

No one wins in MHA aside from Horis Golden Boy Bakugou.

[planet-crait]

Yeah, canon Peri and fanon Peri are more or less two completely separate characters. It's a real bummer because the concept of a godparent (particularly someone as famous as Peri) failing to empathize, support, or even get along with their godkid is really fascinating (and tragic) and I would have loved to see more fanworks exploring that.

Yes the fanon version of Peri that starts to connect with Dev too late and is desperately trying to fix things and get his first godkid back is a very fun concept. But we already kind of got that with Juandissimo and Remy. I feel like exploring the canon Peri and Dev combo would be a very unique concept to explore that we didn’t get in the canon show ever.

In the Og show we saw godparents and god kids tended to care about each other and bonded overall okay even if the bond between Cosmo Wanda and Timmy was considered different and weird, the concept of godparents and godkids bonding on some level wasn’t out of the ordinary.

Here however, we see a pair that isn’t bonding. They can’t seem to form a connection despite it seemingly being that Dev was eager to make a connection with Peri while Peri seemed disinterested in forming that bond and only saw Dev as a job nothing more.

Exploring the idea that Peri as an almost celebrity godkid feeling the pressure of the spotlight to be perfect so he keeps his first godkid at arms length despite him desperately needing to be close with some sort of adult figure and it causing a massive rift between them is fascinating.

Peri clearly is struggling with empathizing and connecting with his godkids, part of it seems to be he’s so focused on his “work” he can’t see that what for him is just work is an escape and chance at happiness of some kids. But another aspect that I also haven’t seen explored is the concept that I don’t think Peri can comprehend actually wanting and desperately seeking out a parent’s time and attention. From Peri’s perspective, he feels suffocated by his parents, he turned off his wands tracking because, as he put it, his parents are too clingy. They suffocate him with love and affection, so the concept of a parent being emotionally distant and neglectful is a foreign concept to him.

So I could see when they first met and after the camera fades to black Dev might get a little clingy, he’s lost his first and best friend and is starting on the path to realizing his dad will never love him and thus latches onto what feels like a gift from the universe itself to make things easier and that potentially sets off Peri and he pushes Dev away. It’s easy to see why both would react the way they do, while it also being the worst thing they both could do on a first impression. Obviously we don’t know if things went down this way, I’m just throwing out ideas based on what we see as their first meeting and when we see them next together.

Something went very wrong and based on these two characters I can see Dev initially coming off to “clingy” for Peri and making him panic and think of his parents too much and kind of trying to push him away causing Dev to completely shut down emotionally from being “rejected” once again in a very vulnerable moment. Either way things go from an exciting and hopeful meeting to a very tense and unhappy relationship.

Peri seems content to ditch Dev every chance he gets and is very inattentive to him and his needs and Dev has accepted Peri won’t be their for him when he needs it which unfortunately likely reminds him too much of his dad. I’ve said it a few times but I’ll say it again, I can see some similarities in Peri and Dale in both are very obsessed with their work and both think material things can make things better when they can’t always fix things. It further adds to the tragedy of them being paired as Godparent and Godkid and how ill suited they are for one another.

For a kid like Chester for example whose emotional needs are being well met overall and more has material needs that need to be met like having some food insecurity, a godparent like Peri would work just fine. He’s happy to grant wishes and a kid like Chester might just ask for material things to fill in what he’s missing to live comfortably.

For a kid like Dev though who can already get whatever he wants whenever he wants, he needs a pair more like Coswan who can connect and give love to a kid who is alone and hurting. It’s not the wish granting Dev needed or I think was even excited about, he just needed someone to care and not ditch him the second things got a little difficult with him.

The concept of a godparent terrible at empathizing and connecting with a kid whose only real need is a real connection is a very painful and interesting concept to explore, but Peri is kind of becoming the Tumblr sexy man and people aren’t necessarily interested in exploring him being wrong about something.

And thing that also makes this a fascinating dynamic to explore is this isn’t just Peri’s fault, he’s clearly being taught that rapid fire wish granting is how to be a good godparent, and thought if he just pushed for wishes and granted them enough it would somehow help Dev. Exploring how the fairy system isn’t properly set up to help kids like Dev who are deeply hurting and need companionship more then anything else adds a layer of pain and complexity to the entire situation which I think could be really fun (and tragic) to explore.

How we even got here is an interesting concept because we know the fairy council knows Timmy cared far more about the companionship from Cosmo and Wanda then the wish aspect, but somehow despite this they’ve seemingly moved away from connections and companionship and pushing wish granting solely which wouldn’t necessarily be what a lot of kids need.

I think I accidentally talked my way into a small fic idea. Dang it.

[drakoneve]

The Wolf Amongst Dragons

request: Can you pretty please do a daemon X reader where it's his niece who teases him about being super smitten with the reader BC she is a headstrong stark and makes a fool out of the court because she can. Perhaps she gets quite hurt in a battle that the king sends her and others out to fix. Basically it just ends up being fluffy where the reader knows his feelings and just soaks up the complete love he has. Like this boy has been knocked off his feet and he hates to admit it hehe 

pairing: daemon targaryen x y/n stark 

word count: 1k

warnings: canon typical violence, injured reader, blood

a/n: i tweaked this a little, hope you don’t mind!

You made a promise to yourself the day your older brother, Cregan, loaded you and your belongings into a carriage headed for the capital. Until this point you’d never stepped foot out of Winterfell, let alone were you prepared to move to the other side of the continent. Yet you had no choice. When the King of the Seven Kingdoms requests a Northern representative for the royal court, the Lord of Winterfell had no choice but to send his little sister.

When you finally arrived at the Red Keep you were meet with by King Viserys, his wife Queen Aemma, their daughter Princess Rhaenyra, and the king’s brother Prince Daemon. The Kingsguard stood tall in gleaming armor in full force surrounding the royal family, who was also accompanied by their personal staff.

“Lady Stark!” King Viserys cheers as he opens his arms in greeting. “We are honored to welcome you to the Red Keep! I hope your travels went smoothly?”

“Thank you, your Grace,” you answered as you bowed respectively. “The Kingsroad is fine, your Grace. It’s more the climate that’s concerning me. i’m not yet used to such... conditions, to say the least.”

Queen Aemma steps forward, “I’m sure you’ll adjust before you know it. Please, allow me to show you to your chambers.”

The queen was gracious enough to accompany you not only to your chambers, but she then took you on a tour of the palace. She began with the throne room, then took you out to the royal gardens where she took you to the Godswood. Having a weirwood tree right here in the Red Keep made you breath easier. At least this place had some trace of the North. Being so far from home unnerved you deeply, but in this place you could feel a connection to home.

Over the next few days you attended Small Council meetings where you watched from the sidelines. King Viserys assured you would have a seat on the council soon enough, but others suggested you have an ‘adjustment period’ of sorts. You scoffed at the idea but still took your seat outside the council table.

Being separated from the council, however, was not enough to restrain you from calling Otto Hightower a ‘spoiled southern cunt’ for suggesting Daemon send members of the City Watch into Flea Bottom to reprimand those who are already fighting to survive. During these meetings you happened to catch the violet eyes of the rogue prince, who had yet to make your acquaintance. 

Not long after your arrival in Winterfell, King Viserys announced that Queen Aemma is with child once more, and the palace went into a mode of celebrations. A feast had been prepared and the throne room transformed into a dining hall with room for dancing. 

Most everyone had finished their meals and began mingling and dancing their way around the room, but your attention focused mainly on the many molten swords of the Iron Throne. You had to admit the sight of the royal seat of Westeros was quite an intimidating sight.

Something inside told you to take a step towards the throne, and so you did. You stopped when you approached the first line of molten swords and reached out to trail your fingers lightly across the hilt. 

“I’d be careful if I were you,” Daemon advised teasingly as he came up on your right side. “My brother does not take kindly to those who yearn for his precious throne.”

“I merely grazed the hilt of one measly sword,” you refuted. “I did not sit my arse upon it and call myself the queen. Nor do I want to.”

“Truthfully?” he inquires, a look of curiosity upon his face. You take the moment to take in the sight of him, and you cannot deny he’s an incredibly handsome  man. Like the rest of his Targaryen ancestors, Daemon is beautifully crafted by the Gods of Old Valyria— blessed with silver blond hair and lilac eyes. 

You nod and look back up to the throne. “I could think of nothing worse,” you admit. “To live my life upon this ghastly thing and have to sit through endless bore-me-to-death Small Council meetings? Sounds miserable to me.”

With that you excuse yourself respectively to retire for the evening. You make quick rounds to the other members of the royal family to excuse yourself for the night totally unaware of how Daemon’s eyes are following you the whole time. He watches as you begin with his brother and sister in law, before finding Rhaenyra (who’s in the middle of the dancefloor with Alicent) and saying goodnight to her, too.

He laughs to himself when Rhaenyra and Alicent each take one of your hands and pulls you around in circles with them, as if trying to convince you to stay with them just a bit longer. He doesn’t want to admit it to himself, but his heart beats harder at the sight of your dark gray satin skirts flow around you while you twirl, at the smile on your face as you laugh with his niece and her friend.

Eventually you pull away from the girls before officially making your way out of the throne room and away from the chaos. 

✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧ ✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧ ✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧ ✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧ 

Several months had passed since the death of Queen Aemma and Prince Baelon, and war had begun in the Stepstones just as Corlys Velaryon warned King Viserys and the eternity of the Small Council. Still Viserys refused to step in as king and help the Lord of Driftmark defeat the Triarchy once and for all. After the king rejected Corlys’ offer of Laena’s hand in marriage and instead married Alicent Hightower, the seasnake took off to fight in the Stepstones. It wasn’t long after that that Daemon joined Corlys in his war efforts.

You stayed in the Keep for awhile, trying to convince Viserys to aid Corlys and Daemon in their efforts of holding the Stepstones to no avail. Viserys had allowed you to take a seat on the council while Corlys and Daemon were gone, and each time you tried to plead with the king to see reason Otto Hightower would weasel his way in the king’s ear against you. 

So you decided to go to the Stepstones yourself, naturally. You recruited Ser Harwin Strong to accompany you once he swore on his honor he would not say a word of your plan to anyone until his safe return to King’s Landing. 

You and Harwin arrived on the shores of the Stepstones in time to rush to Daemon’s side as he was overrun by members of the Triarchy. You wore the armor your father had gifted you after many years of insisting on joining your brother Cregan on the battlefield with the Stark bannermen. 

Vaemond Velaryon scoffed at your arrival and insisted Corlys send you away. Daemon stepped forward, piercing Vaemond with his furious lilac gaze. 

“Put your cocks away, boys,” you tease, unimpressed. “We’ve a war to win, do we not?”

You joined the war torn men around the large table set up with the maps of the battlefields. Conversation continued back and forth as the lot of you tried to come up with a plan to take down the Crab Feeder and Triarchy. Laenor’s plan of sending Daemon to the Crab Feeder as a scapegoat of false hope only for both Caraxes and Seasmoke to burn the Triarchy men alive. 

For the most part everything went as planned, until you jained Daemon’s side as he was ambushed, unarmed, by a circle of the enemy. You’d jumped into the fight, effectively taking out several Triarchy soldiers before tossing a sword Daemon’s way. He showed his thanks by slaying the rest of the men with you, but not before one of them slashed you in the side, leaving a bloody gash on the side of your thigh.

“Fuck!” you yell as you clutch your leg, losing your balance and hitting the ground. Blood streamed down your leg in a slow, but steady, flow. Daemon joined your side in a flash, ripping the white flag he’d had to feign surrenderance to tie the cloth as tight as he could above the gash in your thigh.

The battle continued around you though for the most part Caraxes’ and Seasmoke’s flame had discouraged most of what was left of the Triarchy. With Daemon’s aid you were able to safely make it back to the shore where you’d first arrived to be treated by the healers available.

Daemon stayed by your side through the stitching and even went as far as to hold your hand and offer sweet words as comfort. You were grateful for him, this way you had something else to focus on other than the pain. And if you needed an alternative to keep your mind busy, there was no better pick than Daemon.

His silvery white hair fell around his face perfectly despite being slightly matted with sweat and blood. He’d always been handsome, that you couldn’t deny, but seeing this softer side to him made him even more so in your eyes. It’s no secret Daemon is a troublemaker, and you should probably keep your distance, but after this how could you?

Long after the battle was over Daemon was crowned King of the Stepstones and the Narrow Sea. He’d cut his infamous long hair short, and it suited him. Sometimes little wisps of silver hair would fall down into his face and you had to remind yourself to breathe at the sight.

Your relationship with Daemon changed after the war in the Stepstones. Whereas before the war you would avoid Daemon in court, you now sought him out. Not that you had too, because he often would join your side in Small Council meetings or invite you out to the training yards.

Tonight however, you opted to stay in your chambers.

You’d already stripped down to your nightclothes when a knock came from the other side of your chamber doors.

“Come in.” you called.

The doors open and Daemon entered, dismissing your guards. They looked to you before leaving once they had your reassurance.

Daemon didn’t hesitate to step right up to you. “Forgive me for the hour, my lady, but I’ve found myself in a situation I am quite unfamiliar with and it seems you are the only one who can help me.”

“Oh?” You tilted your head, trying to ignore the fluttering of your heart. “How am I supposed to be of aid?”

“Be mine,” he responds quickly with confidence. “I must confess from the day you arrived here in the Keep I’ve been quite taken with you. And the day you rode onto the shores of the Stepstones, I knew I could not live without you by my side—”

You reached your hands out to cup either side of his face. “Daemon, do not jest. I’m afraid my heart could not take it.”

A genuine smile breaks out across his lips. “I would never,” Daemon insists. “I’ve felt this way for a long time, my little wolf.”

Daemon’s hands fall to your waist as he pulls you into his body, leaning down to kiss you firmly. You pulled away and kissed his forehead before resting your own against his. 

“Come to bed, Daemon,” you purr and pull away towards the bed.

He laughs and smiles down at you. “As you wish, little wolf.”

[krashlite]

Again, if you found this before the Start Post or TIES’ post, go back and read! I’m going through and analyzing the matching wounds for each LimL alliance

Continuing off of TIES’ section; they all had a shaky past with Bdubs, so it’s really no surprise they ended up in conflict with the Clockers

But speaking of the Clockers, let’s look at them next. For the Clockers, all three of them have issues with day 1 crews, on how they focus on this randomized group above all else. Except they have different issues regarding it

There was a lot of Bdubs slander in the TIES section so let’s start with him. I’ve already mentioned that he’s very headstrong, but he Is well meaning. For the Crastle, he was acting in defense of Cleo and everyone who sought shelter in their walls. For the snow fort, he was acting in defense of Etho, seeing team BEST as a conduit for this. In DL he poured his heart and soul into his alliance with Impulse. The connection with these three is also shown symbolically- remember, it’s canon that he was married to all three in their respective seasons! His loyalties lay with them above all else, and everything he did was always done For Them

(And yes, the marriage thing makes it Hella Weird with LimL introducing family dynamics. Personally, I go chronologically with things. If the marriage was introduced Before the family dynamics, the marriage is what I go with. If the family dynamics were introduced Before the marriage, the family dynamics are what I go with. It’s not perfect, especially with SL calling back to LimL, but moving on)

But with him pouring everything into defending his One Person, he has a bad habit of either disregarding or outright hurting other allies. In his mind, once they’ve become a threat, they will always Be a threat to him and his One Person.

In 3L, I would argue the firing squad wasn’t about the helmet, but about Dare to Flare, the deadly minigame Tango had set up as a loophole for murder. Bdubs thought the lesson would be learned and Tango would just. Go back to being their ally, but he didn’t see that he’d just pushed Tango away. Bdubs was also quick to catch that Impulse was playing all sides, losing his trust in him even as Cleo wanted to keep Impulse as a double agent.

Bdubs went along with it for her, the same way he went along with other alliances that Cleo had decided to negotiate. But when Cleo was gone before him, he was completely lost! The moments after Cleo’s death are honestly HARROWING from Bdubs’s point of view. One moment they’re talking, the next Cleo is attacking Ren and is struck down. Bdubs is surrounded, he is alone, and is made to understand that nobody is coming to save him, not even Impulse, who was present for this! I think a part of him blames Impulse specifically for Cleo’s death, with Impulse failing to act against Dogwarts in that moment. It’s irrational as hell but that’s where he’s at. Impulse was playing all sides and, in Bdubs’ mind, had just cost him the One Person Bdubs truly cared about

So again, OF COURSE he turned on Impulse!! He had zero reason to trust him!!

In LL things got oh so much more complicated. I don’t think Bdubs ever intended to be a part of a larger group, he only intended to be with Etho. So he was Mainly tolerating Tango and Skizz so long as 1) they helped the overall group and 2) Etho wanted to stay. Except Tango and Skizz were clumsy on missions and had issues communicating with him and Etho, who were very close and had an easier time planning and communicating. Etho’s lighthearted jabs at this turned sharper through Bdubs’ comments and actions. I think Bdubs was frustrated with being put in the same situation he was in last season- having to stay with an alliance he Did Not Want for the sake of his One Person, and his comments/actions reflect that

He was willing to see them die and use them for Lives for the overall group, but he wasn’t willing to let Etho go down- which is again seen in the Wither fight. It’s also seen in his final death, with him turning on his fellow Reds since he thought it meant he could make it back to Etho’s side

Then in DL, he doesn’t learn his lesson! He only doubles down, making it clear to Impulse where his loyalties lie. Bdubs Only Cares About Impulse, and they’re more than willing to watch the world burn as a unit. Bdubs wanting them to be home wreckers also serves as him putting his foot down- refusing to be a part of alliances he doesn’t like. I don’t think they had any allies this season aside from one another, which honestly worked perfectly for them in DL!! Bdubs was able to fulfill a role that came naturally to him and Impulse didn’t have to worry about the stress of maintaining a larger group

And it’s because they worked so well together that Bdubs can’t wrap his head around the idea that He Killed Impulse. Bdubs knows that he would never, EVER, do something like that to his One Person, so Impulse asking for an apology in LimL comes as a complete shock to him.

And I think it’s something that affects LimL for him as a whole, but also ties back to the setting. Again, it’s made clear that Nobody is surviving this, so it would be pointless for Bdubs to act in defense of his One Person. With him being unable to focus on this as his motivation, he’s forced to focus on a group, on the Clockers (HOWEVER he still has his devastating connection to Etho and that’s not going away anytime soon). This also forces him to confront the issues that caused previous teams to fail

And I’d argue Cleo’s in a very similar spot as him

Cleo’s loyalties had always been her day 1 crew, with her standing by them regardless of what happened. They belonged to the group and the group belonged to them as equals. If the ship was going down, then goddamnit Cleo would go down with it, which is especially seen in 3L with her attacking Ren. Cleo wanted to be done with this war and this entire conflict and thought that if they just struck now, if they just killed Ren, their issues would be over. Remember, the Crastle’s main conflict was regarding Dogwarts! Cleo didn’t know who to trust because Impulse was always acting all buddy-buddy with the red banners and Tango was off doing his own thing.

I think this is also why Cleo ran off to Scott as a backup alliance before then- Scott presents himself as being a safe person, someone who stays out of conflict but defends himself when needed. Cleo needed that backup alliance for reassurance, since it was clear that Bdubs was likely going to die before her. Not only that but the aforementioned trust issues with the rest of her party. (And yes! This is a contradiction of them “going down with the ship,” we call that a Character Flaw)

Except that plan falls through when Scott dies, by Ren’s hand no less, and Cleo’s right back in the scenario they’d been in before. They’re right back to wondering when the other shoe was going to drop

So them attacking Ren was a moment of frustration, wanting clarity and lashing out against the source of her problems; Ren

Except this act is what did Cleo in, and she never really got to see where any of them stood. Well, except for Bdubs but I already discussed him At Length

LL was again, an ENTIRE mess for Cleo. The whole gimmick in LL was there to make people distrust the people around them, and BOY HOWDY did Cleo distrust people! She was never fully sold on the Fairy Fort but thought that if they just stayed together, then they’d be able to defend each other- strength in numbers! Really, BigB was the only person that Cleo fully trusted, with them having their own separate base together and Cleo going to BigB when she didn’t trust the rest of the group.

Again, she values her day 1 ally above all else, and in this season that was BigB. They stood together as equals, even with Lizzie and Ren at their side.

Which makes it all the more heartbreaking when BigB turned on her, because she would never, EVER do the same to him. They were equals, it was them against the world and BigB had just gone against that bond. Cleo also refuses to emphasize with his perspective because of the fact that BigB had AMPLE opportunity to tell Cleo he was cursed, but he just Didn’t. She trusted him, she trusted the fort, and she would never make that same mistake twice

Cleo once again retreated to Scott. He and Pearl welcomed her with open arms and provided what stability they could for her, considering Cleo was flirting with death every other episode. They also helped Cleo get her revenge, making it abundantly clear that they stood With Her. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, both of them told her when they were the boogeyman. There were Zero secrets between the three of them and Cleo was never given a reason to question their loyalty. Communication is key!

And here’s where things flip. Cleo goes from supporting her day 1 crew above all else, to the understanding that a day 1 crew isn’t a guarantee. Said crew has only ever caused her problems, and Cleo only ever found stability with her second option

So when DL rolls around, Cleo’s left in a weird spot. Their day 1 ally is the one person who was ever stable for them, Scott, with her designated ally, Martyn, causing problems right off the bat. Except Martyn isn’t the only one that brings trouble for them, with Pearl being a near constant threat to her and Scott. Both her first option, And her backup are causing problems. So now it’s not a question of who’s loyal to her, but who she wants to align herself with.

And Cleo Doesn’t Know. She stays with Scott for the most part, but is also willing to hear Martyn out as he makes a fool of himself trying to get her back. But I think the main thing that draws Cleo back to Martyn is the fact that they’re linked- that if Martyn hurts her, he hurts himself. That’s a reassurance Cleo doesn’t get with Scott as an ally, and ultimately what drives their decision to turn against Scott in the finale

So in case you didn’t catch it- the similarity for Bdubs and Cleo is specific to their tie to their One Person/day 1 alliance. They’re willing to do Everything for this person/group but are consistently either harmed or causing harm through that connection. For Cleo it causes her to be paranoid but for Bdubs it makes him double down on that loyalty. They end up balancing each other out in LimL, but what about Scar?

For Scar, he ONLY has his day 1 ally and no one else. This was quickly established for him in 3L, with Grian being the only person to consistently stand by him. Scar didn’t see this as a part of their agreement, he saw this as a decision Grian made over and over again. This is even expressed in his speech at the end of 3L, with Scar offering his life to Grian in return for everything he’d done to keep Scar alive. They started out together, and they would ultimately die together. And, most importantly, Scar didn’t have anyone else to turn to. It was made abundantly clear that nobody else would take him in, both with Grian being the only person to attempt an alliance at the start and with Scar being put on his red name so early on. Scar ultimately decides that if people aren’t with him through fate, they will never stand by him, and he’s fine with it! At first

Scar goes into LL with the same expectation, that his team would stay together until the bitter end and everyone else is against him. Except Joel is extremely quick to go down to red, an alliance that Scar is never really able to salvage. This leaves Scar alone, and he accepts this as an immediate Fact. He doesn’t see the point in reaching out to anyone, opting instead for scams and empty threats, the same tactic that worked so well for him last time.

And that sort of becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, with him turning away potential allies through his actions. He thought he’d end up alone and created a scenario where he Was Alone. Really, this only serves to reinforce the idea that he will always end up on his own

Enter; DL

This season HEAVILY reinforced his previous mindset, but it also gave him a reason to fight against it. Scar didn’t Have a day 1 alliance, he was fully willing to base alone and to be without a soulmate. Except Grian comes along to drag him into an alliance

And this mirrors 3L to a T but it ALSO flips their dynamic. Grian wasn’t following Scar’s lead, Scar was following his. From his perspective, Scar was the one doing whatever he could to maintain them, and Grian was the one endangering himself. Again, this is opposed to 3L when Scar was endangering himself and Grian was doing everything he could to maintain them

Except Grian does nothing but sabotage their relationship. I think the flipped roles here kind of forces Scar to realize “oh, I’m not destined to be alone, I push people away.” But there’s also an added layer on top of that- Grian doesn’t respect him.

I’ve mentioned that little tidbit in other posts, but Scar really isn’t respected this season! 3L he was respected as a threat, LL he lost that respect through the travelling salesman bit, and DL puts him in a weird spot. He’s respected as a Loose Cannon but isn’t respected as his own person- as in people have a reason to be wary of him but don’t consider his opinions on plans and other things

So going into LimL, Scar’s fully expecting the same treatment and is more or less blindsided by how supportive the Clockers were. His day 1 crew stuck with him!! Not day 1 Ally, day 1 CREW. He finally had a group that stood with him

Somewhat unrelated but I think it’s also important to note that Scar doesn’t expect to survive in Any season. He’s operating under the assumption that death is imminent, wanting to live a life of fun and luxury in what time he still has. In other words, he’s staring with the worldview that’s taught in LimL!! It’s challenged repeatedly but keeps getting reinforced

But to recap; the three of them value their day 1 ally above all else, and are lost without said ally. Bdubs doesn’t know what to do with himself if he doesn’t have his One Person, Cleo becomes paranoid if their day 1 ally is distrustful, and Scar typically doesn’t form connections with Anyone if he doesn’t have a day 1 ally.

But on top of that, Bdubs and Scar are usually following in their teams. Bdubs is headstrong, but ultimately lives to support his One Person. Scar comes up with plans, but doesn’t necessarily want to be in a leadership position. Cleo, on the other hand, does very well in leadership positions because it gives her more control over what’s going on around her. Leading takes away the unpredictability that would come with following

Bdubs and Scar need direction and Cleo’s able to give that to them. While at the same time, Cleo’s learning to be more comfortable with unpredictability. They have! Two loose cannons! But Cleo knows they’re unpredictable and is better equipped to manage that “threat”

Really, together the three of them are able to confront how closed off they are, allowing themselves to trust one another. And this trust is tested!! Especially with Bdubs maintaining a connection with Etho, who’s on another team entirely. AND THAT IS!! SO IMPORTANT FOR BDUBS because he’s forced into a position where he has to realize the harm he’s caused

Looping back around to TIES, basically that entire team had previous issues with him!! They stay at odds with one another because Bdubs refuses to acknowledge he did anything wrong. No he never reconciled with them, but he did start to confront his own issues. He doesn’t single anyone out as a danger, he spends so much time proving he’s loyal to the Clockers that he never falls back on paranoia

Then in Scar’s case, he’s both allowed to be dangerous and respected as a part of the group. NOT ONLY THAT but other alliances respect him! He isn’t constantly running around trying to prove he’s worth people’s respect, it’s just automatically granted to him

I don’t have a neat way to close this off, but something something accepting danger and learning to trust regardless of that danger

Start Post | TIES | Bad Boys

[nobodysdaydreams]

More Hatchetverse Theory: Sycamore High and the Timberwolves are connected to the Hatchetmen and the Tree-People

Starkid's Hatchetverse has retriggered my hyperfixation, and by golly if you think I'm not gonna share every unhinged theory...you're wrong. I’ll tag them “#hatchetverse theory” to make it easier. So let's dive in.

One thing I haven't seen anyone talking about is the fact that, based on what we know about canon, Sycamore High School likely shouldn't exist.

Hatchetfield is a "tiny town". There doesn't seem to be a reason for them to have two high schools, especially when Sycamore seems to not even have enough staff and students for most extra curriculars and programs (in TGWDLM, Paul mentions they don't have a theater program).

So why does Sycamore High School exist? Well, one thing I noticed was that SYCAMORE High as well as its mascot, the TIMBERwolves, have tree related pun names. And what a coincidence, trees happened to be big in the hatchetfield universe, particularly when it comes to the hatchetmen and their hatred of the LIB and magic/“the gift” in general. They did plant a forest of magic tree people after all. And, since they hate the LIB so much, they likely wouldn't want their children attending high school at one of the black altar locations, which just so happens to be Hatchetfield High. That gives them a motivation to build an alternative school.

Sounds like a pretty solid theory to me, but then there's also the fact that the residents also seem to have an odd attitude towards Sycamore High. It's not hated by Hatchetfield High with the same level of hatred they give the Clivesdale Chemists, but they still don't like Sycamore, and the students hate the idea of transferring there. Which seems odd. You'd think it would be the other way around since Hatchetfield High is the school with the black altar. Unless being around a black altar makes the students hate Sycamore, and I could probably do a whole different rant on how the LIB's influence is messing with the perceptions and behavior of the people of Hatchetfield, particularly at the altar locations or when someone uses or has used the black book, but maybe I'll save that for later.

However, if you really wanted to take this theory to the extreme, it could be part of the reason why Paul "doesn't like musicals." Musicals and music are the primary way Pokey expands his influence in Hatchetfield, at least in TGWDLM. That might be one of the reasons Sycamore doesn't have a choir or theater program: not just due to lack of students, but strategically to keep Pokey's influence out. Paul went to Sycamore High, which isn't a black altar (and indeed, might even be designed to counteract or resist the LIB), therefore he's more put off by music and musical performances in Hatchetfield, though he doesn't really know why.

I also suspect this isn't the only instance where the name of locations around town have significance. This has already been seen several times, particularly with the black altar locations.

For example:

The Starlight Theater: has a star theme similar to "the Church of the Starry Children"

CCRP (COVEN Communication Research and Power): Literally has the word "Coven" in it.

Lakeside Mall: Used to be the old mill (which would be located near water, also "mall" and "mill" are one letter off).

And trust me, I have my theories about Clivesdale as well, but again, maybe that one is better for another time.

I hope you enjoy Starkid fandom!

[ar3s-r4t-qu33n]

Johnny's Bluffing

CW for discussion of potential sexual assault, toxic/unhealthy relationships, stalking, obsession, and, of course, murder and cannibalism. Nothing like, too crazy I think? But especially this one section on sexual assault, it's brief but separated out so it's quite easy to skip if that makes folks uncomfortable.

Hi I am currently in a really bad insomnia cycle and as such haven't slept so I'm sure I'm gonna have missed something that immediately prove me wrong, but here we go:

I don't think that certain members of the Family know that Maria is alive, and especially Nancy. This theory sort of delves into a lot of different stuff, I wrote and rewrote this a fair bit and idk, this is what I ended up with. It's a lot of my personal interpretation of both the written text and the way lines are delivered, as well as my own analyses on characters and how I personally think the timeline of events went (Danny and Virginia dying before the gang even show up in Newt, Maria being the 'Definitive Final Girl' and surviving to the very end, but never getting to escape the Slaughters/Johnny. That isn't to say that she dies, but Sally is the first and only person to escape until Stretch if she is canon to this timeline now that Choptop is on his way) so idk, I hope you like what I've been thinking about I guess?

Nancy and Drayton both have several voice lines that refer to Maria being in the past tense. So does Johnny, but my theory here is that he is playing into this line of thought so they don’t realise that he is still keeping her.

I will source my way of hearing all of the voice lines at the end.

Starting with Nancy, she has several;

‘It didn’t have to be this way, you know? You just had to come looking for that floosy of yours, didn’t you?’

‘Your little friend had it coming. Looking at my Johnny that way- he’s a sweet boy!’

‘You ever hear the saying murder starts in the heart? … I think my Johnny liked that girl…’

The first two are obviously extremely defensive over Johnny and are meant to taunt the other Victims over Maria’s ‘death’. The last one, however, feels almost like a realisation. This line has confused me for a long time, because it sounds like two different once spliced together, but they are, in fact, connected. This is the only time that Nancy ever speaks about Maria in any other way than pure disgust and defensiveness. Another interesting thing about Nancy is that she does not hate her husbands. She murdered all three of them, none of them were able to give her a baby of her own, and yet she defends them from Sissy, she keeps them all in her basement man cave, and even when talking to Hands, she’s apologetic about Harold to him. She still holds a fondness for them, it seems, and I feel like maybe this is what makes her finally realise that Johnny actually, truly loves Maria. For Nancy, she loves people to death, and that type of love extends to Johnny, too. Sure, he’s still alive, and could easily kill her now, but she permanently scarred his face when he tried to leave her. I don’t believe that Nancy isn’t above murdering Johnny to keep him with her, and I think this admittance leads to her realising that Johnny actually did love Maria. Of course, she can’t say ‘love’, that’s a bit too far, but at the very least, she will acknowledge that he likes her, and these days, Johnny doesn’t seem to like anyone, not even her. It’s also interesting to note that she says this after losing sight of a victim she was chasing. She says herself that she hasn’t hunted like this in a while, it seems as if physically chasing people down to kill them is making her reminisce on her feelings about murder and love in a way.

But all of that to say, she believes Maria is dead. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, she’s dead now, and maybe she plans to talk to Johnny about it later, maybe not apologise, but try and make it easier on him now that she’s realised just how much she meant to him.

Then we’ve got Cookie.

‘Look, I’m sorry about your friend… but… I’m afraid you done landed square dab in the shithouse!’

‘We didn’t have much choice! Couldn’t let Johnny spring no lovechild around here. It ain’t personal! Now get back here!’

There is obviously a lot less here, the former being Cook or Drayton’s more humble, car salesman type approach to everything, apologising sincerely that their friend had to die… but now so do they, so how sorry can he be, really?

The second is far more interesting. I’m still sort of working out the kinks with what I think on all this, but it implies not only that the whole family knew about Johnny’s feelings for Maria, but that there was a worry about something more than just his feelings. A genuine attachment, the possibility for a child.

Now, one thing I wanna throw in real quick is that a lot of people think Johnny assaulted Maria once he kidnapped her. And I personally don’t think that that is true. And it’s more than just ‘noooo not my pookie he would never!’, I feel as though Johnny’s feelings for Maria are beyond sexual, or beyond purely sexual. I’m not gonna get super into it because I wanna make a whole post about just their relationship, but in short, Johnny knows he’s hot shit. He knows women love him and men do too, and he uses that all the time to lure people to their deaths. Maybe he fucks them first, then kills them, who knows. But this is a man who is used to being sexualised and uses it to his advantage, like a reverse femme fatale, almost. A lot of his lines are sexually charged and he speaks seductively low at times, even flirting on the odd occasion. However, Maria is in love with Danny and is a sweet girl in the seventies. There is no way she’s heading off to knock boots with the pretty boy at the bar no matter how charming, persistent, helpful… always somehow exactly where she needs him to be… is. She’s kind, she’s sweet, she brings out the best in people, we know this about her. And when there’s no sex, when it’s not about fucking them and killing them… Johnny has no choice but to fall completely head over heels for her. It’s no surprise that the day she’s heading out of town, maybe to go back to see her boyfriend, that is when her car breaks down. Johnny’s oil stained gloves, the fact that he’s designed to look like he helps at a gas station, his friendship with Uncle Hands, the fact he lives in a junk yard? This man knows mechanics. He knows cars. And he is definitely not above tampering with an already busted old car to ensure it stops before she can get away from him. It’s just his luck that she happens to break down by his family’s land. All this to say, I don’t think Johnny assaults Maria once he has her. Not only because that would be a lot, like, in general, for this game to go from goofy cannibals to sexual assault by one of the game’s most beloved characters to one of the game’s most beloved characters, but because I don’t think Johnny is the type. He’s pretty and charming enough that people want him, he doesn’t have to take it, he earns it. And he wants Maria to give it to him, for him to earn it because she wants him. He likely spends his time down there with her trying to get her to fall for him and forget about Danny. He wants her to want him. Or at least, this is my personal interpretation.

Maybe she does begin to fall or maybe Drayton’s complete lack of any and all sexual knowledge just makes him think they’re already going to pound town, but he was worried about a baby. That’s something I wanna explore in the future, why he’s so worried about Johnny and Maria having a baby, but moving on; again, Drayton is seemingly fully convinced that Maria is dead.

For Johnny I wanna take his lines one at a time, but it is important to note that I think some of these lines are referring to someone else and not Maria, but also some of these are in present tense, he either slips up or sometimes on purpose mentions things that could hint to her being alive to the Victims.

‘You wanna know how your friend died!? … I can show you!’

‘Your little friend put up a better fight than this… come on! Make it interesting, will you!?”

Pure just bluffing to get them angry and scared. It could also be referring to Danny but more on that a different time.

‘That’s what I get for taking it easy on them. Time for them to join that little friend of theirs…’

‘You’re gonna look real nice next to that friend of yours…’

Again, if my belief that Danny not only went to Nancy’s a lot earlier than the others is true and that he has been dead for a good few days before the gang shows up, then this is absolutely about him, not Maria.

‘You kinda remind me of your little friend’

To Ana about Maria, obviously, and comes across as quite flirtatious. He’s figured out that not only does Maria have a sister (if she never told him), but that Ana has no intentions of leaving there without her. I interpret this as Johnny taunting her, making her his new priority to get rid of. I said he loved Maria, I never said he loved her in a healthy way, alight? This is The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, not the Notebook (never seen that movie)

‘You should have never came here looking for that girl!’

I don’t need to explain. Pure possessive Johnny in his raw form.

And finally, the infamous;

‘You know… I was actually kinda fond of that girl, I-I didn’t really wanna hurt her… but… family first, you know?’

Johnny is an agitator. Almost all of his lines are trying to fuck with the victims, playing with his food. Egging them on to hit him, teasing them about being too slow, the way he calls after them as he hunts them down, he wants to see them upset and charged, he wants a good fight, he wants to feel something. The main part of this line is just that, I think; he wants them to believe that even though he cared about Maria, he fucking killed her. He wants them to be angry, to fight him, to hurt him. The end is guilty. Incredibly guilty sounding, and I don’t think that’s out of a guilt for killing her, since… well, Maria is alive and kicking. But more a guilt about his family in general. ‘Family first, you know?’ he’s almost saying it so himself, as if that’s what he should think, what he should be doing. But he is actively betraying them and knows that once everything blows over, he’s going to keep on betraying them for every day he keeps Maria alive. And he also knows that even if he feels all of this guilt, he will do it anyway because he loves her, and he can’t let his family have her. She is the only person who is truly his, who represents what life could have given him. I have another analysis I made on TikTok that I’ll repost here soon, but it essentially goes like this; Johnny and Danny really aren’t too different. Scrappy orphans who are good with mechanics. Except Danny got to go to college, travel freely, meet the girl of his dreams, and Johnny is forced to be someone he doesn’t want to be. He isn’t not a killer, but he also could have not been a killer. Maria is everything he has not been allowed to have; naivety, kindness, softness. And now that he has her, and once everyone else is out of the way, he has no intentions of letting that go.

So he is pretending that she is dead. And for now, it is working. I have a feeling in the canon story of the game, the victims stumble upon her somewhere once they’ve already caused enough trouble for the family, and then all bets are off. Once they find out she’s still alive, it’s a new game for Johnny, a choice; does he kill her, make his mother proud and live the only life he knows because even if he leaves, he knows he can’t be any better? Or does he take her away and try, try to be a different man in the softness of her love?

Rush Week could be the result of either of those. Either he kills her, and becomes an even worse, even colder killer, now able to handle a situation like in the game completely on his own, or he takes her away to start a new life and just couldn’t stop the urges; the Bad Man needs to feed. He stays late after work or pretends he has a night shift and gets his fill on blood and chaos before stumbling home, washing it all off, and returning to Maria’s (definitely traumatised at this point from seeing her friends and sister murdered (don’t worry about Danny I’ve got thoughts on him shhh) in front of her and ‘rescued’ by Johnny) arms.

That was a lot... Please tell me what y'all think on this, again, a lot of my personal interpretation on a lot of things, but isn't that what art is for?

Sources for the voice lines:

Texas Chain Saw Massacre Game - Johnny All Voice Lines (youtube.com)

Texas Chain Saw Massacre Game - Black Nancy All Voice Lines - YouTube

Texas Chain Saw Massacre Game - Johnny All Voice Lines (youtube.com)

Promised I'd tag @bloodfeeder when I finished this so here ya go!! :)

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

Our Darkest Hour: Final Part

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.5k

Summary: Rolling blackouts cause a serial killer to rape and murder his victims. He taunts the police and even brings Derek into it. The public has dubbed him the Prince of Darkness. Meanwhile Frank is livid that you didn't stay in jail so if he can't get rid of you that way, the only way to do it is to kill you.

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Season Five Masterlist

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them.

x

This is the first lead you can use, but Matt doesn't remember. The only thing that will help him now is a cognitive interview that you'll give him. Whatever he says, it'll help you connect to his energy so you can picture what he is saying. You might see something that he might not remember. Matt needs a few minutes to get himself together before agreeing to do whatever needs to be done. You take him to an empty office so it's just the two of you.

"This is crazy," he scoffs.

"This guy is taunting you. He left a young boy alive and now a baby. He wants you to know it's him."

"How could I not know?"

"You did. Deep down, but you went through a major trauma as a kid. You believed the story because it was easier. I'm the Queen of believing fake stories just to avoid the real ones. Trust me."

"So, what? You want to make me remember what really happened? Come on, it was twenty-six years ago. What good is that gonna do?"

"You don't have to if you don't want to, but I think it'll help."

Matt sighs and sits down in front of you.

"Is this, you know, like, hypnosis or something?"

"No," you chuckle. "Grab my hand." He does. "I'm what's called a psychic. Believe it or not, but I connect with people's energies. They love to tell stories and I love to listen to them. I'm going to try and trigger some memories by walking you through what happened that night. I'll do the rest."

"Okay. Should I close my eyes?"

"If you want to. I just want you to relax."

"Okay."

Matt takes a deep breath and you close your eyes to concentrate.

"Here we go. It was July so it was hot. Were the windows open?"

"Yeah, and there was a breeze."

"That's good. What do you hear?"

"Nothing. My grandfather woke me up, and he told me about the accident."

"Okay, back up. Slow down. You said there was a breeze. What did you smell?"

"Seriously?" Matt sighs.

You open your eyes. "Matt, I need you to try, okay? Humor me." He nods and you close your eyes. "What did you smell?"

"Uh, I don't know. I smelled the ocean. Hmm. My mother's perfume. Cigarettes?" He's unsure because he's just unlocked a new memory of that night. "This is weird. I smell cigarettes."

"Did your grandfather smoke?"

"Never."

"Come on, think. Who was it?"

Matt's energy finally paints you a picture of that night. He's in his bedroom with the window open. The breeze is softly making the white curtains move. He turns away from the window and when he turns back, the unsub is inside his room. You can't see much because of how dark it is so you can't see any defining features. He leans down toward Matt and mouths something you can't hear.

"He said, 'Hello there.'"

"That was his first message. What is he doing?"

The unsub grabs Matt and begins dragging him through the house. He takes him to his parent's bedroom and shoves him in the closet.

"He's dragging me. I hear my baby sister crying. I hear my Daddy. He's... he's yelling. He killed my dad. I can't see his face."

You see what Matt would have been seeing through the slats of the closet door. His father is lying in a pool of his own blood on the bed and his mother is tied facing the closet door. You can see tears rolling down her cheeks as she pleads for her life. Everything you're seeing, Matt is seeing. He looks down and sees his baby sister lying on the closet floor staring up at him. The unsub rapes and kills his mother but he looks away from it all.

"It's too dark. She's begging him. I can't... I couldn't see. I just... I'm sorry. I couldn't."

You open your eyes and let go of his hand.

"That's enough. You did really well for your first cognitive interview. Come on, let's go back."

You open the door and see your team standing outside looking at you and Matt. He's sad about his parents but that happened a long time ago. All he cares about is now and how he's going to stop it.

"Why is he doing this?" Matt asks with a sigh.

"He keeps a survivor so that they'll never forget him but with you, it goes beyond that, because he believes he turned you into the city's hero. If your parents weren't killed, you might not have become a detective."

"How would he know that? It's not like he stayed in LA He's been all over the country."

"The press has talked about your history. He's not a part of it, and he wants that recognition. He wants everyone to know what he's done to you."

"How's he gonna do that?"

Hotch looks down at Matt's desk and sees a picture of him with a young girl.

"Is that your daughter? Where is she?"

"She's with my sister at my house."

Matt tries his sister but she won't answer. He and Derek immediately head over there by themselves but Ellie and Kristin aren't home. The entire house is dark and eerily quiet. The only thing left behind on Matt's bed is a newspaper with the headline "DETECTIVE MATT SPICER: A View of the Man Behind the Shield". If Matt's sister and daughter aren't at his house, they might be at her house so that's where Matt and Derek head next.

"Ellie is gone. So is his sister," Derek says once he got you on the phone.

"Are they on their way to the station?"

"No. The car's still here and the power's cut. The unsub was definitely here."

"Where are you going?" Hotch asks.

"We're gonna try his sister's place. This guy needs privacy. He didn't leave them here for us to find which means he took them somewhere."

"What's her address?"

"1720 Sheridan Drive."

"We'll meet you there," you say and hang up.

"You know, I don't even know if we're gonna find him there," Matt says as Derek drives.

Something comes over Derek.

"You know what? We won't. This is about you. There's no history at your sister's place. He probably took them to Santa Monica to your old house."

Derek tries to text you but isn't getting service. Every single light in this town and neighboring towns goes out because of the forced blackout. The power grid got overwhelmed and shorted out, making it very difficult for Derek to send a text or call someone. You, Hotch, and Emily are in a car heading for Kristin's house but you can't get very far because you're in traffic. You take out your phone and call Spencer who is back at the station with the rest of the team and Adam.

"Spencer, we're stuck in traffic. All the lights are out."

"Yeah, it's out here, too. We're working off generators. Pretty sure it's citywide."

Your phone beeps signaling you have another call.

"I have Derek on the other line. We're going to meet him at Kristin's house."

"We should get over there," you hear Rossi say.

"With a population of eight million people, it's only a matter of time before the cell phone reception goes--"

The line is immediately cut. It's the damn power grid. No reception is going through right now.

"Shit. Spencer?" You take the phone away from your ear. "Call got cut. We're on our own out here."

Derek and Matt get to his old house in Santa Monica right as the blackout starts happening. Derek parked outside of the dark and quiet house. Matt is eager to get inside but Derek isn't.

"Spicer, we really should be waiting for backup."

"We don't have time. There's a door around the back. I'll check that."

Matt gets out of the car and rushes up the driveway with Derek following behind him. Matt runs around the house while Derek stays in the front. The front door is left open slightly so Derek pushes it open and steps inside. As soon as he walks in, there is a man on the floor with blood on his head. Derek keeps his gun up but kneels down to check if the man is alive. He's not.

Derek steps over him and continues to search the dark house. Room after room. Nothing and no one is in there. He comes to the back bedroom and sees Ellie and Kristin on the bed huddled together in fear. Kristin has her wrist tied to her ankles with duct tape, and blood is coming out of her nose. Ellie isn't tied at all but she won't leave her aunt's side.

"Where is he?" Derek asks.

Just then someone hits him over the head with a gun and he crumbles to the ground. Matt walks into the house through the back and gets all sorts of memories that he didn't know he had. He continues to the back bedroom where he finds Derek on the ground, knocked out. His wrists and ankles are duct taped, performed by Ellie. Kristin is still on the bed in the same position as when Derek saw her. Ellie is in the unsub's arms with his arm wrapped around her throat and a gun is in his other hand pressed into Ellie's side.

"Matt!"

"Daddy! Help!"

Matt raises his gun at the unsub.

"Drop it!"

"You first. Drop the gun!"

"Please, Daddy, listen to him. Don't let him hurt me," Ellie cries.

Derek groans and comes to. He looks at Matt with wide eyes.

"Spicer, don't do it. He doesn't kill children. You know that!"

"Are you sure about that? Just put it down, Matt. Put the gun down or she dies."

"Don't give in to him, man. He's not gonna hurt you unless you surrender. Don't do it!"

"Drop the gun!" the unsub yells.

"Please. Daddy, he's squeezing me." The unsub tightens his grip on her neck. "I can't... I can't breathe."

"Matt, drop the gun!" Kristin pleads.

"If you put that gun down, you lose. He will kill you. Look at him. He's nothing but a coward!" Derek shouts.

The unsub quickly kicks Derek in the face and goes back to hiding behind Ellie.

"Daddy, it hurts!"

"Okay! Okay!"

Matt tosses his gun to the side and Derek all but stays calm.

"No! No! No! Pick it up! Pick the gun up, Spicer!"

Matt raises his hands in surrender to show he's not a threat to the unsub. The unsub sees this opportunity and shoves Ellie away from him. She runs over to Kristin and cowers next to her side.

"On your knees," the unsub glares.

"No! Don't do it!!" Derek yells but Matt looks like he is going to do it.

"That's a good boy," the unsub grins with disgusting yellow teeth.

"Matt!" Kristin pleads.

"Your sister grew up real pretty. The last time I saw her, she was just an itty-bitty thing. Not as good as your mom, though. She squirmed too much," he grins.

"Go to hell," Kristin bites with poison.

Matt yells and charges at the unsub but the unsub overtakes him and shoves him to the ground.

"Get up! Get up!" Matt gets on his knees and looks at the unsub. "Do you think they'll remember me now?"

The unsub points a gun to Matt's chest but he doesn't pull the trigger yet.

"Daddy!"

"You've destroyed me. Is that what you want to hear?" Matt asks.

"Well, it's better."

Matt looks at Derek knowing he isn't going to survive the night.

"Promise me she'll be okay, Morgan."

"Go ahead, promise him," the unsub says when Derek doesn't.

"Do it and promise him!" Kristin yells.

"Promise me, Morgan!"

"Okay! Okay! I promise."

Matt takes a shallow breath and looks at his family.

"I love you, Ellie and Kristin."

The unsub shoots Matt in the chest and he goes down immediately.

"No! Daddy!!"

"No! Spicer!" Derek gasps.

The unsub kicks Derek in the face again, harder this time. Kristin and Ellie cry for the loss of their loved one but the unsub isn't done with them yet.

"What is wrong with you?!" Kristin yells at the unsub.

He grabs Ellie and hauls her to his feet. Kristin tries to fight but she can't do much with her wrists tied to her ankles.

"Oh, God, no! Please! No, no! Take me, please. Please take me instead! Please!" she pleads.

"I don't usually take much to kids. But this one's... just... special," he grins.

"We will find you, you sick son of a bitch," Derek glares angrily from the floor.

"Is that another promise?" he smirks.

He drags Ellie away who is crying and screaming for someone to come save her.

"I will find you!" Derek screams.

You're nervously tapping your hand against your thigh when you suddenly get a splitting headache. It hurts so much that you have to get out of the car to keep yourself moving. The traffic isn't going anywhere so there is no worry that Hotch is going to drive off.

"What is it? Are you okay?" Emily asks through the open window.

You grip the car and cry out in pain. It's like something is hitting you in your face multiple times. An image of Derek flashes through your mind, and you look at Hotch and Emily with tears.

"It's Derek. He's in trouble."

Frank has had it up to here with your antics and your bullshit. Nothing he does is working so there is nothing left to do but one thing. Frank storms into his house and slams the door shut behind him which scares some of his kids into hiding. He doesn't pay them much mind. He never really liked the bastards.

Clarissa comes out of the kitchen to see Frank storming up the stairs to their bedroom. She tosses the rag in her hands onto the counter before following her husband up the stairs.

"Frank? What's wrong?" She walks into the bedroom and sees Frank pulling a duffel bag out from underneath their bed. "Frank?" Frank slams down the bag onto the bed and opens it. He takes out weapon after weapon, checking them and laying them down on the bed as if he's unsure of which one he wants--guns, knives, a saw, and an axe. "Where did you get all of those?" He doesn't answer. "Frank!"

"I won them in a poker game." He looks behind him and sees the bitch face she's giving him. "Fine. Rob owes me."

"What are you going to do with all of them?"

Frank grabs an MK46 and checks to make sure all the bullets are in there, ready to go. He sets that inside the bag and moves on to the next one. An AK-47, a TT-33, a Type 14, two long knives, and an axe go into the duffel bag next. Frank zips it up and slings the bag over his shoulder.

"Put those away."

"Frank, where are you going?"

"The bitch won't stay down," Frank says angrily. "Prison won't work. All that's left there to do is kill her, her boyfriend, and everyone she loves."

"Frank, are you sure about this? What about--"

"I don't care about the past!!" he yells in her face. He sees the scared look on Clarissa's face so he takes two deep breaths to calm himself. "She's overstayed her welcome. I should have killed her when I had the chance."

Frank slams the bedroom door and the front door when he leaves. He should have never relied on anyone to do his damn job. What's the saying? If you want something done right, do it yourself? Well, he's gonna and he's gonna make it hurt.

x

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​​​​​​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

[inkegg]

Emperor x Tavflayer post game headcanons

Some Canon-divergent headcanons ahead just bc the epilogue didn't make sense in some regards!

Turning into a mindflayer grants Tav some clarity into how the Emperor had truly felt about them before ceremorphosis. Everything around them feels much smaller, and the affection Tav feels for their companions is closer to the feeling one would get for a wounded animal. Pity mixed with love. However the connection with the Emperor is now deepened into a higher understanding.

The Emperor wanted Tav to transform because he desperately wanted to share their connection on this higher level. He wanted them to be true equals and to not settle for an animalistic need for companionship.

The new dynamic between them will have growing pains. Though they are closer to being on equal footing, the Emperor will still have much to assist Tav with as they get used to being an illithid.

Illithid Tav will have the unique experience of developing outside of a colony. This will allow them to experience a larger range of emotions compared to most illithids. They will be able to relate easier to non illithids and express themselves differently than most. It is endearing but will cause friction at times with the Emperor as they were brought up differently.

The Emperor will treat Tavs ceremorphosis with upmost care. He finds himself responsible for Tav and wishes to make their transition more comfortable as he was not allowed the same. He wants things to be different for Tav because for him he was changed against his will and was partially brought up in the cold emotionally stunted illithid society. He then had to fend for himself and teach himself how to build connections. He has the opportunity now to make things better for Tav and make an example of what can be done for illithids outside of a restrictive colony.

The Emperor and Tav would not spend time apart for at least a year after ceremorphosis. The whole process would make Tav reliant on him. The Emperor, knowing how jarring everything is, wouldn't trust Tav to be alone.

The Emperor would've went with Tav to the epilogue party as they had just barely spent time in their new form. He would need to be there to support them to prevent Tav from accidentally eating anyone.......

Their relationship can only vaguely be understood by those around them. A lot of their affection towards eachother goes unspoken. Each of them act like a beacon that's constantly sending waves of adoration. Nothing needs to be said when you're always feeling loved.

When things are good, they're great, but when disagreements arise, illithid tendencies for control and personal fulfillment get in the way of normal conflict resolution. Arguments can easily become the problem of all of Baldurs Gate if the two of them dig their heels in. And as Tav gets more skilled and matures with their illithid powers, more arguments will occur, until the Emperor can make peace with the fact that they've grown out of the need for a mentor and have become a TRUE partner.

[peapodbond]

I'm going to hit Tim Minear with a calendar.

Okay, so, first of all. I'm a Teen Wolf fan. I'm used to wonky timelines. (Lydia had two canonical birthdays!) And 9-1-1 did get a little wonky! There are references that contradict each other all time, but since there is no set 'length' of time that each episode covers, maybe they do all work together. Could go either way!

But. For real. Abby? Seriously?

I have indulged in the Abby and Tommy jokes before. It is, objectively, hilarious to imagine.

But the math just is not mathing with what was given as their backstory.

2018: Buck is working at the 118, done his probie spot?? (in 1×2, Buck says he's been on the job for six months), and meets Abby.

2017: Abby and 'Tommy' break up. (as per her voiceovers)

2015-2017: Abby and 'Tommy' were engaged (as per Tommy saying they were engaged for two years)

?? - 2017: Abby and Tommy were dating. I have to assume it was at least six months? So at minimum, they were together for 2.5 years.

Let's recap! Chim came to the 118 in 2005. Hen came to the 118 in 2010 (there is some fun Twilight math involved, ask me about that sometime). Bobby shows up before Buck (in 1×5, Hen says he's been there for a year so it would have been six months before Buck, but Bobby Begins Again gets loosey-goosey with the time and it ~seems~ in that episode as though he went straight from Minnesota to LA after his family died and he got sober the first time, and the title cards in that episode say the fire happened in 2014. I don't really believe that he was at loose ends and drinking for two years. At that point in time he would have decided that the sooner he got back to work the sooner he could save 148 people and see his family again.)

Tommy, Hen, Chim and Sal were all friendly by the time that Bobby showed up. They made bets with each other, hung out after work, and razzed each other about stealing lunch money. This is a friendship that started shortly after Gerrard was removed (also 2010, because Hen was still a probie when the car accident happened) and continued until Sal and Tommy left the 118 in 2017.

You are telling me that Tommy managed to have a two and a half (minimum!) YEAR relationship, and that neither Chim nor Hen (nor Bobby!) met her, heard her name, and connected the dots when she started showing up with Buck?

Tommy, who was closeted and didn't feel safe coming out. Didn't mention his girlfriend slash fiancée so that people would stop asking about his relationship?

Not to mention that in Bobby Begins Again when they're all at the bar, Tommy mentions that being single is easier. So he's single! Which means that even with Abby waiting a year to hook up with the himbo the math doesn't math properly either.

And in Lou's interview with Decider he said that it was only decided recently that Abby and Tommy were going to be a thing.

Tim had seven years worth of timeline knowledge to figure that out. It feels like the length of the relationship was decided on so that Josh could give that (actually awesome) speech at dispatch.

(Also after hearing that 8×5 was written to be so good so that everyone would be even more upset in 8×6, it feels like it was just written to make it hurt even worse.)

So, it could have absolutely been written that they both dated Abby, but to be honest? It's more compelling if it had been earlier. When Chim is hired at the 118 Gerrard is asking Tommy when his girlfriend is coming to cook dinner - in 2005, fresh out of the army and DADT and faced with a boss that is homophobic, of course Tommy, at 21, would date a woman and go so far as to get engaged. And he and Chim, who were barely friends at that point, would not have been talking about their personal lives then. Of course, that would retcon the fact that 'Tommy ' and Abby had only broken up the year before the show started, but it would actually still work for the Patricia reference - Buck would have been much closer to Tommy's age when they would have dated, and Alzheimer's means that twenty years and twenty minutes can feel like the same amount of time away from you.

There. I made it make sense! And I didn't even have a team of writers and producers to guide me along the way.

[hanluex]

Okay I have some headcanons for Titans!Jason, Comics!Jason (as they have some differences) and some of them that could be applied for both versions. I am gonna let some of the last group here and please tell me what do you think about them. I would love to hear your oppinion! Sorry if it's too long 😅

It's a fact that he loves eather jackets, and I love to imagine that he would let his/o wear team when it's cold. Or maybe when he lefts for patroling and you need some comfort item to remind yourself that he will back at home safe

I think he has at least a couple of tattoos (I think is a popular headcanon among the fsndom actually 🤔). And all of them have deep meanings for him that only a few people know about

He is a baby when his s/o plays with his hair. His head resting on your lap, sleepy eyes and all his tough facade is gone. Sorry, not sorry 😌

Last one for now, it's known that he is so freaking touch-starved

Titans!Jason will show it by being really physically close and teasing the person he has a crush with

With Comics!Jason is a little bit different. His s/o is the one who needs to star the physical affection since he doesn't know how to explain when he needs a hug, a forehead kiss or just his hand being hold and when he will be with this face 🥹 the whole time without uttering a word

Lots of love, take care 🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼

🌕 Anon

i went so overboard with this one, gosh 😭 but i do hope my opinions regarding these hcs are entertaining! thank you as always for your messages, sweetheart! stay safe and take care 🥺💗

it's a fact that he loves leather jackets, and i love to imagine that he would let his s/o wear team when it's cold. or maybe when he lefts for patrolling and you need some comfort item to remind yourself that he will back at home safe

ahh omgomg this is definitely canon! like, it can be the middle of july where everyone is sweating buckets, but jason will still have this leather jacket on him JUST IN CASE you are feeling cold and need it 🥹

him giving you his leather jacket was actually how he first realized that he might have feelings for you (when you two were in the “friends” stage, perhaps?) when you mentioned you were cold or he happened to notice the goosebumps on your skin, he didn’t hesitate to take his jacket off and put it on you

this action just led him to think “why in the world would i ever do that?” 🤔 which would after a lot of thought give him the answer “well shit maybe i like them, that’s why” 😏 and from then onwards, it’s a fight between you and flirty!jason fr 😂

i think he has at least a couple of tattoos (i think is a popular headcanon among the fandom actually 🤔). and all of them have deep meanings for him that only a few people know about

ooh i never knew that! me personally, i don’t think anyone in the batfam would have any tattoos bc bruce would be on their asses if they ever got something that would make it easier for their identities to be compromised

but then again, this is jason … when has the boy ever listened? 😭 (actually, i so believe he is a rule-keeper through and through, maybe even more so than dick — he just doesn’t show it bc he wants to be cool)

although, i definitely think jason has a tattoo of the joker card where the joker is holding a bloodied crowbar. all his scars were gone when he came back from the pit, so he’d get this tattoo in remembrance of what happened to him and who did it and how 🥹 it’s not in a visible spot, but anyone who’d ever come across it would definitely be people close to him and would know it’s meaning upon a closer glance at the details of the tattoo

one that would be hidden in plain sight is a tiny tattoo of a sun on the side of his left ring finger. although it is a myth, jason likes to believe in the historical belief of vena amoris (vein of love) where there was said to be a vein in the left ring finger that is connected straight to the heart

the reason he has a tattoo of a sun on that finger would be bc of you. jason lived his entire life in darkness, he believes. all his thoughts clouded with darkness, not a speck of light even in his mind. but when he met you, everything changed. you were his light at the end of the tunnel, the one he’d run home to, the sun to his moon

he has the sun tattooed on his finger to remind him that you are the reason his heart is beating and the reason he is able to love 🥺💗

bonus: he'd always have a band-aid on that finger to cover his tattoo and bc of his "work" no one ever suspects the fact he always has a band-aid on that specific finger. one day when he was just relaxing with you, you'd note that the band-aid was coming off and would replace it for him, but upon taking it off, you'd see the tattoo and that'd be the day he tells you about it.

extra bonus: you end up getting a tattoo of a moon on the same finger, to signify that he is the moon to your sun 🥰

he is a baby when his s/o plays with his hair. his head resting on your lap, sleepy eyes and all his tough facade is gone. sorry, not sorry 😌

jason is absolute putty in your hands when you play with his hair. like you mentioned later on, bro is absolutely touch-starved, so simple touches like this make him just melt into your embrace

i like to believe it started off when you two were having a book date, where the two of you just chilled at home, reading books in comfortable silence. jason ended up changing his posture, asking if he could rest his head on your lap, to which you complied.

the gesture happened naturally. you held your book with one day and didn’t know what to do with the other, so you just unconsciously played with his hair, the gesture taking him by surprise

from that day onwards, whenever he feels down or whenever you two are cuddling, he just silently grabs your hand, placing it over his head, wordlessly asking you to play with his hair

while on certain days you tease him for behaving like a cat  bc of his eagerness for you to play with his hair, on other days you realise he is just a six-foot bulky kid who needs loads of love and affection 🥹🥹

(he is 100% a black cat, don’t fight me 😤 — you are literally the golden retriever energy to his black cat energy)

last one for now, it's known that he is so freaking touch-starved

yes yes yes !! he is so bloody touch-starved, it’s not even funny 🥹😭

titans!jason will show it by being really physically close and teasing the person he has a crush with

titans!jason is touch-starved, knows it and will take the necessary steps to ensure he receives the affection he needs. like i said earlier, you are the golden retriever to his black cat, so you are very touchy with people

when you were friends (or crushing), jason had said something funny and you hit him on his shoulder as you laughed, before apologizing and patting him in the area you hit — that was it for him. you had him wrapped around your finger with that simple gesture; he was yours

jason would have to have his hands on you at all times when you are together. he just craves affection and proximity. like he needs that assurance that you are there with him and most of the time would want to touch you skin-to-skin (in a non-sexual way), probably his hands under your shirt, whatever he can touch, he will

titans!jason’s love language is definitely teasing! he'd love annoying you by poking you on your sides, just thriving off the reactions he’s getting from you; it’s his serotonin or dopamine — it just makes him so happy!

with comics!jason is a little bit different. his s/o is the one who needs to start the physical affection since he doesn't know how to explain when he needs a hug, a forehead kiss or just his hand being held and when he will be with this face 🥹 the whole time without uttering a word

comics!jason is a gentle giant teddy bear man when you get to know him, but until then, he has so many guards and walls up, it’ll put the pentagon to shame

he’s not used to affectionate touches bc every touch that has come his way usually meant physical harm to him. the first time he’d realise every touch isn’t always violent is when he accidentally hits and pushes you away when you touched him in an attempt to comfort him when he was mad

he’d feel very guilty later on, but you’d just laugh it off, joking around to get rid of the tense atmosphere. you knew he needed time, and time was what you’d give to him. from that day on, you’ll always announce your arrival and let him know you were going to touch him, or ask for affection which surprisingly enough he’d comply to

oh, you said you want a hug? this teddy bear will awkwardly wrap his arms around you as comfort, and you’d end up fixing his arms and posture to let him know how to hug you. he appreciates how patient you are with him and how willing you are to help him with his affectionate needs

once you two are in an established relationship, i think there’d be some codeword or look or just something that’d convey that jason needs to be held bc he has a difficult time in explaining when he needs physical affection

it wouldn’t even be intentional. it'd just be smth like the nickname “sunshine” that jason would use after a rough day or smth, and your reaction is to smother him with affection and from that day on, the word “sunshine” would become jason’s codeword for “i need affection from you, thank you very much”

[t00nyah]

t00nyah's Rain World AUs and OCs archive

so. i want to make navigating my ideas easier and encourage people learning more stuff about them! so this post here is meant to serve this purpose

Alternative Universes

i try my best to tag my aus with #rain world au

>1// HLL Apprentice AU AU, where Hunter finds a slugpup on their way to ascend and decides to bring it to safety first, ending up succumbing to the rot and not making it to the Depths. the pup, known as the Apprentice, ends up staying by their side and growing up in grief, waiting for it to let them move on to set on their own journey.

tag: #rw hll apprentice au

>2// Arti's Scavpup AU AU, where Artificer doesn't condone violence towards children because of their own pain, so something in them makes them save a scavenger pup from a vulture. as a bonus i decided to connect it with the idea of green pup surviving i had.

tag: #arti's scavpup au

>3// Moon Clinic AU a shitpost AU where Ruffles and Moon organize a clinic in Moon's remains to help those in need! lots of uncovered lore proceeded to sprout in my head then. in this AU, Gourmand, Rivulet and Watcher are clinic workers, while others are connected less directly, like Invenot, who just keeps getting in trouble so much that they always end up there!

tag: #moon clinic rw au

this AU has an ask blog dedicated to it! you can try to learn more lore through questions! :3

>4// Last resort explosive AU AU where Artificer's slugpups, Blast and Grenade, survive the Toll incident after being tossed away by their mother, losing her in process and being forced to survive on their own.

tag: #last resort explosive au

>5// Citizen Artificer AU i never posted anything about this AU, but in this AU Arti decides to retire and resides in Metropolis, ending up communicating with Five Pebbles in times of need. just a silly little au. there's also a version of it where Grenade lives and finds their mother, ending up living there with her.

tag: #citizen arti au (not used)

>6// 4siblings AU AU where Survivor/Pebble takes care of their four very young siblings: Flower(Monk), Night(Watcher) and Dragonfly(Hunter). they acknowledge that Dragonfly has an unknown sickness. in this AU Moon still gets revived, but a different slugcat was made for this purpose: Sofanthiel, or Inv, who ends up being the unluckiest slugcat.

tag: #4siblings au

>7// The Dragon Slayer now, this is not exactly an AU (nor OC), but it's a fanon interpretation of a canon character...yep! it's my take on the third sibling! in my interpretation they ended up losing parents to lizards and becoming an enemy to the scaly kind...taking a rather different path than their younger sibling.

tag: #rw dragon slayer

>8// Genetical Invpups AU AU where Grenade and Blast (Artificer's pups) and Lake and Windy (Gourmand's pups) are all biologically Invenot's pups, but they left both second parents after the pups appeared...for their own reasons.

tag: #genetical invpups au

Original Characters

this section is dedicated to my rain world ocs, which is, uh, quite a lot! i usually tag them as #rain world oc

there is a post with most of my characters, but this post is meant to have all of them and info about them! usually there's more info about them in posts linked with their names! (while writing i've realized some ocs have...very little lore i have vocalized on tumblr, so this ended up very, very long. i would appreciate it if you gave it all a read though! i explained a lot of unexplained lore here)

>1// The Friend(they/it) and Poppy(she/they/it) my slugcat sona! they went from being a lost pup named Firecracker to a slugcat who found joy in bonds with living creatures, giving themself name the Friend. one day they end up creating a daughter, Poppy, who made them realize they lacked slugcat company throughout their journey, which made them set on a new one - a journey that concludes with them finding new friends and establishing their own colony, taking an inside name the Matriarch (which isn't used as often as just Friend)

tags: #the friend rw oc #my puppy #poppy pup rw oc

>2// Eclipse of Sunrise(she/her), Eleven Stars Bringing Dawn(it/they), Celestial Magnificence(she/her), Three Pillars bathing in Sunshine(she/it), the Timejumper(they/it) further to the west(there's a map in the end of this post), an iterator called Celestial Magnificence resides. her superstructure was tied to beautiful Gardens, a system of ecosystems fabricated by the Ancients. a lot of unique flora and fauna could be found there, and quite some was dependant on light. then, mostly out of malice, another superstructure was built...practically on top of it all. with sunlight blocked, Celestial Gardens had to adapt and, to some extent, ended up mixing up and falling apart, straying from their initial structures. lime lizards were a huge part of the Gardens, and their light source being blocked made some stray in search of sunlight, while some became way more hostile after being in darkness for too long.

Three Pillars bathing in Sunshine is a lizard that made its way to upper part of CM's can and was ADORED by her when she accidentally ended up in her puppet room. Sunny ends up a messenger although lime lizards are not the best at climbing, making it challenging for her to reach for the main recipient - Eclipse of Sunrise.

unlike her creators, Eclipse of Sunrise was always fond of Celestial Magnificence. having knowledge of what she was like in her prime time, before she herself was built, makes EOS extremely bitter about not being able to witness her in her full glory. she is the whole reason the shade was thrown onto CM and the least she could do was create a strong bond with her.

Eleven Stars Bringing Dawn is a slugcat created by EOS for this entire purpose! it usually just chills on top of Eclipse. its special coat stores and produces light in the dark environment, making it slightly easier to go through the pitch black areas under its iterator's can.

The Timejumper is a slugcat with a supernatural ability to return to their previous cycle to benefit in current one, which proves itself useful in the unstable environment some of the Gardens have turned into.

tags: #eclipse of sunrise rw #eleven stars bringing dawn rw #celestial magnificence rw #sunny rw oc #the timejumper rw oc

>3// Lizard pack (White(they/it), Pink(they/it), Green(they/it), Blue(they/it)) Lizard pack is a small group of slugcats who descend from lineages of rapidly evolving slugcats to confuse predators with their camouflage! they are the first ones to get more lizard-like features. White acts as their pack's leader, being the oldest and most responsible one. Green is the chill guy of the group who sometimes seems to be inside their head. Pink is very curious about hunting techniques. Blue really likes trying to climb like real blue lizards do, being a goofball all the time.

tag: #lizard pack rw ocs

>4// The Anemone/Fifteen Anemones blooming in White Snows/The Reincarnated/The Alienated(they/she/it) phew...okay. Anemone is my main rain world oc. they have a lot going on with them.

they were initially an Ancient, bound by karma and confused about others' desire to ascend. the fear of being left behind forced them to try to ascend despite the stories of those who were left as echoes of the past. and, to their surprise, nothing that terrifying happened, except they did not escape the great cycle, no. they were reincarnated into a small slugcat, forced to survive with knowledge the world would not let them go away.

at first, they had a decent memory of their knowledge and even could recreate their craft as a small critter. but as time went on, as they tried ascending again and failed every time, their memories become foggier. in the Blizzard era, they cannot even remember who kept them bound for so long.

tag: #rw oc anemone

>5// Good Things Happen(they/them), Twenty Curses, Silver Bells(they/she/it/he), the Pursuer(he/they/it), Lantern(she/they/it), Coal(he/they/it) Good Things Happen is my silly iterator sona! i can't really say much about their personality, they're just a silly goober. they are tied to the Blooming Terrarium, a relatively small facility where they keep creatures they like. Twenty Curses, Silver Bells is a slugcat who had Rot developing in them ever since they were a pup, but they never ended up dying to it, mostly co-existing. Bells is GTH's favourite thing ever though! The Pursuer is a carnivorous slugcat that took features of centipedes in development. They are the oldest one in the Blooming Terrarium. Lantern is a young slugcat who chose to befriend the threat and share brain cells with a blue lizard! they are now inseparable! Coal was actually initially levzee's sona's slugpup from 'adopt a slugpup' event, but Good Things Happen now takes care of him. maybe one day they'll reunite, maybe not.

tags: #good things happen rw oc #twenty curses silver bells rw oc #the pursuer rw oc #lantern rw oc #coal rw oc

>6// Grasshopper(she/her), Leap(she/her) and Collector(he/him) a Scavenger tribe that went a long way from Metropolis after the tragedy struck their kind. they developed a special pearl language which is not their main meaning of communiation, but it definitely takes a very special place in their extremely local culture.

Grasshopper is seen by other scavengers as a very reliable friend! she is the only one to witness Artificer's slaughter unfold right before her eyes. she still wonders why the crimson raging slugcat only shot a glance at her and never enacted her rage onto her. Leap and Collector are siblings that were a little too young to remember what exactly happened that day, but they are very aware of the tragedy as they were taken outside the city because of it and Grasshopper doesn't let them forget what brought them to wilderness.

tags: #rw oc grasshopper #rw oc leap #rw oc collector

>7// Murk(he/him) while i don't use him that often, i love my lizard boy!

the Tenuous one, or Murk, is a white lizard whose camouflaging abilities never developed, which led to him adapting to it by becoming more aggressive and even quicker to catch prey.

tag: #murk rw oc

>8// Flashdrive(they/she/it) my rivsona! based on a personality quiz result.

Flashdrive is a slugcat made with a goal to store Five Pebbles' consciousness and transport it to a more suitable vessel or simply new can. they are a very silly slugcat and Pebbles' certainly doesn't appreciate this unwanted help after so many cycles of trying to solve the issues himself and giving up on it. Flashdrive and their iterator do not care though! she's committed to the goal. well, except for some times where their own desires overtake them, such as when they met a crimson slugcat named Beehive and fell for her immediately...

tags: #flashdrive scugsona #rivsona

>9// Frail Personal Savior(he/they) FPS is simply a joke character to complement my friend's oc named Alt+F4!

tag: #frail personal savior rw oc

>10// The Chatter (they/it) The Chatter is a parrot - subspecies of vulture - who developed empathy to its prey and now goes through mental struggle...and spontaniously transports slugpups between regions.

tag: #the chatter rw oc

>11// The Empath(she/he/they/it), The Colorist(she/they/it) and The Courageous One(he/it) those three are my addition to mushroom's #Scugshroom colony - Lion's Mane and Blood Tooth fungi based slugcats. the linked post explains them pretty well!

tags: #the empath rw oc #the colorist rw oc #strawberry rw oc

>12// Abyss(she/it) my white lizard plushie! she's just a baby, recently learned camouflaging, likes vibeogamez and write fanfiction of her favourite slugcats (psst it's monk and survivor and her otp is artihunter where she writes only fix-it where hunter doesn't have rot and arti's pups are alive)

tag: #abyss rw oc

>13// Neuron(he/they/it) and Siren(she/they/he/it) [WIP lore] slugpups sent by an iterator to help their kind reach enlightenment and ascend, known as 'the Prophets' in colonies and as 'the solution in testing' in some private iterators' conversation logs. of course they get babied by slugcats, since they ARE babies.

tags: #neuron pup rw oc #siren pup rw oc

>14// The Chromatic(she/it/they) a cuttlefish based slugcat i got from my friend! she's silly and has no lore but potentically lives in my Deserted Faraway region

tag: #the chromatic rw oc

that's it for now! thank you so much for reading this far! i really appreciate it :]

feel free to ask anything in my inbox or dms if you're interested

[topaz-witch-tea]

hiii, it's me again, thanks for spoiling us with your HC & AU as always 💖 💗

Anyway, I was curious, do you have any HC of what if Happy Family!AU meets with semi-cannon verse of RenJingHeng (that's still trying to bond with Yanqing despite their ✨Issues✨)?

I imagine it would be double the chaos since now they have TWO reckless, self-sacrificial, and insecure teen to watch over. That, and I want the HCQ to react to a what-if versions of themselves lolz. This could either go very well, or they just straight up start criticizing e/o method of parenting, and I can't make up my mind of which is better.

Hello!!! You're welcome, I enjoy writing these headcanons. 🥰

I do have HCs for this!!! I constantly compare the semi-cannon with the AU so I can differentiate their personalities and parenting styles.

I'll group them by character to make it easier.

Dan Feng- Dan Heng

They do not get along and Dan Feng started it. Dan Feng is very protective and doting to Yanqing.

He worries for Yanqing's wellbeing constantly and in his eyes, Dan Heng is neglectful and both Yanqing's should come home with him. Dan Heng's aloofness and his difficulties in connecting make Yanqing feel unsure of where he fits in RenJingHeng's new relationship.

To Dan Heng, Dan Feng's displays of affection contrast with his responsibility to the Vidyadhara, which leads Yanqing to make himself small so he doesn't stress out his father.

"How can you be okay with him going off like that? Getting possessed, sneaking off? He's practically skin and bones! Not to mention, you almost killed him. What kind of father are you?"

"You're one to talk to. Your son is so worried about disappointing you that he puts himself in harm's way constantly to prove himself!"

"Your's does the same!"

This ends with both of them crying and being very upset. Dan Feng has always struggled with emotions and can only communicate through words and acts of affection. Dan Heng is unsure how to communicate and care for Yanqing since he was never allowed to be a child and has no idea how to fit himself into the family dynamics.

Yingxing- Ren

They also do not get along and Ren is responsible for it.

Yingxing is very affectionate to Yanqing despite his strictness. Ren is not affectionate at all and approaches the relationship with a bit of teasing but also a constant state of "you are a child but are nothing like Silver Wolf, so I don't know how to communicate with you."

Yingxing sort of pities Ren since he sees Ren's marastruck fate as what could have happened to him if the Blessings of the Arbor went awry.

But this does not stop either of them from disliking each other. Unlike Dan Heng and Dan Feng, they do not engage with each other at all and instead actively ignore each other.

To Yingxing, Ren is confused and doesn't know how to interact with other people. However, his confusion creates more confusion for Yanqing, who believes that he is being pushed out of the family because of Canon! Jing Yuan is spending more time to incorporate Ren into his life.

To Ren though, Yingxing is a hypocrite. While Ren doesn't know how to interact with Yanqing, Yingxing is the same with his child. He doesn't understand why his child is sacrificial and reckless as if they weren't the traits he saw valued by his parents- their sacrificial and reckless actions in service to the Luofu.

AU! Jing Yuan - Canon! Jing Yuan

They get along pretty well since they are both very mellow people and their nature allows them to understand the other. Their time is spent comparing their respective sons. Hobbies? Favorite foods? Even habits as babies?

Some are similar like sword collecting but others are very different like AU! Yanqing prefers Vidyadhara seafood cuisine and spicy food over Canon! Yanqing prefers savory food from the Luofu and sweet treats like pudding and boba.

They also talk about their worries for their son. About how AU! Yanqing keeps throwing himself in danger to save his comrades even though his death would break his family's heart or how Canon! Yanqing keeps searching for stronger and stronger opponents in a relentless need to improve.

Jingliu

They don't talk at all. I don't see either of them seeing any merit in talking with each other. Instead, they communicate with their blades. To them, crossing blades with an opponent tells them what they need to know. The fight takes 30 minutes and by the end of it, both parties take their leave and stay silent for the rest of the day. If you asked the others, they could not tell you a single thing said during the fight. However, to the sword masters, they knew all they needed to know.

Baiheng

Well, she sort of dead in the canon so there isn't anything she can react to. She is, however, very sad that she passed and left Jing Yuan alone. even if her death was for a good cause.

AU! Yanqing- Canon! Yanqing

They talk about swords. That is honestly it. Their parents are fighting each other so they thought it would be best to avoid additional confrontation. They have also repressed a lot of their childhood insecurities so both of them are not exactly aware of the fact their behaviors are not the healthiest.

AU! Yanqing throws himself in the line of fire because he's seen his parents do it. He wants to protect the Luofu because his fathers spent so much time governing it and ensuring its peace and prosperity. But also, deep down, he wants to show that he is worthy of being their son.

Canon! Yanqing masters the sword not for glory, but to ease the general's burden. They do not call each other father and son even though both parties see each other that way. However, since things are never said, Yanqing believes Jing Yuan sees him as merely an apprentice rather than family. So now that Jing Yuan is bringing Dan Heng and Ren into his life, Yanqing is waiting for when he'll be served the eviction notice.

This was a really fun ask and I hope you enjoyed it!!! Please feel free to send more!