#like I think she's supposed to be more of a Going Against the Grain kind of character and she has the whole Thief thing going on

[kiwipineappleparasol]

I just saw your post on beating aai1 and first of all, congrats on getting thru turnabout ablaze because that is a hell of a slow case. It'd be so much better if it wasn't such a slog, but it just keeps dragging on forever so kudos for getting thru it lol

AAI2 is a LOT better though. Like the first game was good for introducing Lang and Kay but the second game really knocks it out of the park imo, I think you'd enjoy it

First off: Hello 👋 And Second off: Thank You that Case was So Bad It had absolutely no right to be as long as it was They should have cut out Like... at least a good third of it.

(The Point where there were like a Dozen characters in the room and they were all there literally arguing about Hot Dogs when it's supposed to be the Climax or something seems pretty emblematic of this case's Nonsense lmao)

Lang was the only saving grace of Turnabout Ablaze for me . The only time I felt Anything aside from Annoyance or Boredom was when he was onscreen lmao . I like his silly Wolf Roleplay and how he's just a Good Boss who cares about his employees and their Birthdays 🎂 (So I'm Glad he comes back in the Future)

I hope Kay actually… Does Things, in the second game. Because to me, she just kind of ended up becoming Edgeworth's cheerleader? (especially during Turnabout Ablaze) Which I Was Not a fan of . I Guess I wished they made her more ... Robin Hood-like? For lack of a better term? And that she acted More of her own Accord. (And Actually Stole things instead of just Talking about it)

(Desperately hoping Edgeworth becomes more bearable in the second game though. I could not Stand him here Whatsoever although that may be a Hot Take 👻)

[augustjustice]

🪱Wiggly Worm Wednesday 🪱

Thank you so much for tagging me @formosusiniquis and @sidekick-hero 💛🖤It's been ages, but I finally have some down time and some thoughts to share!

Transcribed and expanded upon from an idea I discussed with @inkfowl on discord a while ago, this one is always kind of burning at the back of my brain:

Steddie soulmate AU where Steve and Eddie are not each other's soulmates.

Like, maybe Steve's romantic soulmate is Nancy (because of course Robin will always be his true platonic soulmate), but Nancy, being someone who goes against the grain and doesn't want the system to dictate to her who she is, will be, or will be with, already rejected Steve for Jonathan in the earlier seasons. She didn't want to end up trapped in a loveless soulmate marriage by her parents, and she felt called to Jonathan soulmate bond be damned.

Like in canon, Steve was deeply heartbroken at the time when it happened, always being a romantic who wanted to find the one true person he was destined to be with forever. But because he did truly care about Nancy, he let her go, didn't want to stand in the way of her true happiness. And by the time Season 4 rolls around, his own feelings have developed into a healthy friendship with Nancy, having truly moved on the way he told Robin he was in the bathroom confession, and at that point he honestly wouldn't want to go back to the way things were before. Even though he's sad it isn't destined to happen the way it does in all the rom-coms and fairytales, he still wants real romantic love (Robin and the kids more than fulfill the share of platonic and familial love he's looking for, in a way his parents never managed to) and hasn't given up on finding it.

So then the S4 shenanigans happen, Steve officially meets Eddie the DM the kids keep raving about, and falls for him pretty fast even while they're still trying to sort out all the carnage with Vecna.

At first, Eddie keeps pushing Steve in Nancy's direction, because from his perspective, they're soul mates, and it's so clear there's feelings still lingering there. Plus, they'd obviously be a badass perfect couple, just look at them. (And if that's the perfect excuse Eddie tells himself to keep from getting too tangled up in his own feelings, well that's a secret for him and no one else.)

But even in the aftermath of the Upside Down shenanigans, Steve and Nancy still don't get back together, and Steve is insistent that they're just friends, managing to convince Eddie that he's being sincere. So, something tentatively starts to build between them. Nothing officially romantic, yet, but they're slowly working their way up to it, flirting and feeling each other out.

And sure, they shouldn't make sense on paper--in the larger scheme of the universe, they don't, allegedly, given the lack of soulmate mark binding them together. But besides just genuine attraction, everything that happened has bonded them together, and they genuinely feel safe together, able to open in ways they can't even with some of their closest friends. They might not have many surface things in common like shared hobbies and interests, but when it comes to the things they both think actually matters, they have a lot in common--like their protectiveness over the kids, a shared inherent silliness, etc. They make each other laugh, they comfort each other on bad nights when the nightmares keep them up. It seems only a matter of time before the tension overwhelms them and they collide together, finally make it official the way Robin is impatiently waiting on them too.

...But then Eddie's own soulmate waltzes into the picture.

Steve finds himself heart-broken all over again, because he's always the second choice. And how the hell is he supposed to compete with Eddie's actual, honest-to-god soulmate? Especially when the guy is just perfect for him--completely into metal, a nonconformist, knows and likes all the songs that Eddie likes. The guy is even hot which pisses Steve the hell off. But he tries to hide it, do what he did for Nancy and push his feelings aside as he encourages Eddie to take his shot with the guy like a good friend would. Because if he really cares about Eddie, then he should just be happy for him, right? He's getting the shot Steve never did.

Robin insists, from the outside looking in, that Eddie seems a lot more conflicted than Steve is willing to see. Confused and hurt at first when Steve pulls away. Going on dates with the guy only after Steve seems so insistent that he give him a chance, telling him he should be excited because It's your honest to god soulmate, dude!

But even as he tries to be supportive, Steve's jealousy keeps bubbling up. Things eventually come to a head in an argument.

"I don't care why you care so much anyway, Harrington! Now's your perfect chance to swoop in--you've got Miss Perfect Nancy Wheeler out there just waiting for you to get your shit together, stop 'experimenting,' and finally go back to her!"

"Newsflash, Eddie! I already told you, I'm not in love with Nancy. And besides, it wouldn't matter even if I was, since I'm her second choice, just like with you, just like--with everybody!"

And then Steve presses an arm over his face to hide his tears, but Eddie catches his wrist and tugs it down.

“Yeah, except, that's where you're wrong, Stevie boy,” he says, cupping Steve’s face in his hands and brushing away his tears with his thumbs, “because you're not. My second choice. Some stupid ass birthmark can’t tell me shit. I don’t want him, I don’t want anyone else, Stevie. Just you."

And then they get an epic, tearful kiss, and Eddie makes some crack about how it's super conformist to end up with your soulmate, anyway, not a very metal thing to do, and Steve lets out a watery laugh in the crook of his neck and then kisses him to shut him up.

Eddie tells Steve all about how he misses his and Steve's silly arguments, and finds it boring that his soulmate and he always seem to agree on things, because where's the fun in that? There's no real spark. None of the push-and-pull he gets when exposing Steve to his interests and the times Steve actually gets into it. Or the delighted confusion when Steve tries to get him into something new and Eddie realizes he actually does like it, or even when he doesn't, seeing Steve enjoy it is enough to make him go from disgust to fond tolerance. And Steve admits he missed it all too, so much, even the metal songs Eddie forced him to listen to that Steve hates he's been playing on a loop while he wallows.

"I want this," Eddie tells him, kissing the tear tracks from Steve's face, "you're here, Stevie, and you're real, and this feels more right than anything else ever has. So, whaddya say, big boy? Will you have me?"

"You're my first pick, Eds," Steve admits, smiling softly, "there's nobody else I'd rather have on my team but you."

Then Eddie complains about Steve marring his love confession with a sports metaphor, and how it's not even true, anyway, because he knows Robin is actually Steve's first draft or whatever. Steve teases him about picking up sports lingo before shutting him up the best way he knows how--with his lips.

And they of course live happily ever after making their own love work, building it together. Even if it doesn't makes sense on paper, even if it's not predestined, they picked it and its theirs. At the end of the day, as far as they're concerned--that's all that really matters.

I'm no pressure tagging @tinytalkingtina @griefabyss69 @wheneverfeasible @thefreakandthehair @ataliagold and anyone else who sees this and would like to join in!

[tallulah477]

Forbidden Late Night Rendezvous

Neteyam x Fem!Metkayina!Reader

Word Count: 974

A/N: For more about how I picture alien genitalia, see here.

CW:// AgedUp!Neteyam, P in V, Ass Smacking, Sorta Cheating (Reader is promised to another person), Creampie, Alien Genitalia, Knotting

It’s forbidden. You can’t do this with him. 

“Neteyam,” You whimper as he shoves you down harder, your cheek pressing into the rough sand. 

If your mother found out that this is where you come during your late night walks, she would skin you alive and feed you to one of the tsuraks. Your father would be heartbroken, his precious daughter sullied by a Sully - one of the very people he allowed refuge to in their time of need out of the goodness of his own heart. 

Your father’s pained expression and your mother’s angry eyes flash in your mind, threatening to roost there and coil guilt around your heart for betraying them like this. They have a mate picked out for you already. 

Kahoke - a fine hunter. Strong and noble and an invaluable member of the Metkayina. He would make a good mate. He’d be kind and take care of you. Be loyal.

And here you are betraying him. 

Your parents and Kahoke fly out of your mind as fast as the gasp rips from your throat. Neteyam’s hand lands on your ass, the sharp smack of bare skin on bare skin echoing down the empty shoreline. Your hips push back against him harder, ass shaking and begging for another smack that he happily delivers and the sting makes your cunt clench greedily around his cock. 

“Be loud for me, y/n,” He tells you through his grunts, hips snapping against your tender ass. “No one is here. You can moan all you want.”

His demanding tone makes your neglected clit throb even harder and his hands feel like scorching fire on your skin where he has you pinned down, one hand on your hip and the other curled around the back of your neck. His tail curls around his body to wrap around your thigh - yet another action to keep you in your place underneath him. 

Your hands fist into the cold sand, searching for security but finding none when all of the tiny grains just slip right through your fingers. You can’t find any leverage as Neteyam thrusts into you with powerful strokes, grunting and groaning from behind you as he fucks you against the shore of the small secluded beach that had once been your safe haven. 

Neteyam takes it over now and makes it your place - together. You can’t find it in your heart to mind. 

He fills you up so perfectly, stretching you out on his cock and bullying your insides with the barbs on his shaft. The feeling of him inside you makes your brain melt, your arms limp at your sides as your mouth hangs open in a permanent silent scream. You know your drool is making wet spots on the sand. 

“You feel so good wrapped around me,” He moans, cock throbbing between your slick walls. “So perfect for me, yawne.”

You whine. “We shouldn’t–AH!” 

He cuts off your protest with another sharp smack to your ass, the skin under his hand tingling and warm against his palm. 

“Shut up,” He growls. “Don’t think. Just feel.”

You can feel the large ball of his knot bumping against your entrance and a whimper claws at your throat as you subconsciously press back against it. You shouldn’t let him knot you. The meaning of it is too intense. The risk it poses to everything  - everything that you’ve built for yourself and the life you're supposed to have is too much to allow. 

“That’s it, paskalin. Gonna take my knot like a good girl?”

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” You whine, but it’s all in vain. You know it and he knows it. 

You’re going to take his knot because you both want you to - betrayals, forbidden rendezvous, and right and wrong be damned. 

Your words still make him angry though, jealousy evident, and he punishes you by grabbing a handful of your loose hair, dragging your head back as far as you can take it as he pushes his knot inside your greedy cunt. You cry out as he shoves his hips against your ass, the knot slipping inside your dripping hole as it clenches around him, desperate to keep him inside your warmth as if pushing him out was even an option. 

“Fuck, Neteyam!” You scream.

Neteyam hisses at you in warning, his tail tightening into a death grip around your thigh as his hand sneaks down to rub quick circles on your swollen clit. “Shut the fuck up and cum for me,”

The feel of him stretching you out, locked and held hostage on his knot, and the skilled pressure of his long fingers on your sensitive clit are your undoing. Your eyes roll back into your head as you cum, moaning and body shaking as it tries to jerk away in the midst of the overwhelming pleasure coursing through your veins. But Neteyam keeps you still, pinning you against the sand as he drags every ounce of your orgasm out of you. 

Distantly, through your pleasured haze, you can hear Neteyam’s own groans of satisfaction. His cock throbs, the knot just locked inside the rim of your entrance swelling and growing even more as he cums inside you. The warmth of his release coats your insides, and it feels both just as damning and satisfying as it truly is. 

It’s only then that Neteyam releases you from your pinned place underneath him. Carefully, he maneuvers you until you’re both on your side and he wraps his arms around your shaking form, holding you close in his protective embrace. 

“You did so good, yawne,” He tells you. 

You don’t respond, the guilt already crawling back like it always does despite how good it feels to be in his arms. 

It’s forbidden. You shouldn’t do it. But you know you’re going to keep doing it anyway. 

[gojos-thot-patrol]

Now Loading...

Starring: Frat boy! Sukuna and a (possibly) pregnant reader

Synopsis: Funny how something as small as a grain of rice can cause a shift so massive in so many lives. Deny all he wants, you're having a baby and now Ryomen has to comes to terms with being a young dad. While it can be read on it's own, this is also part of the Frat Boy Au, which you can read here!

Content Warnings: a pregnancy scare, other than that, it's mostly fluff ;)

(Also, if yall want a song to go with the fic: New Mistakes by Jellyfish inspired it)

You had experienced time slowing down before. It slowed down as you walked across the stage for your high school graduation. It had slowed down again when you got your acceptance letter to college. It slowed down the first time you saw your now boyfriend, and when you met his mom for the first time. But it had never been slower than it was now, as you sat on your bed, staring at the Clearblue pregnancy test in your hand.

“Well, what’s it say?!” You roommate, Mei Mei, asked- arguably more nervous than you were. She knew Ryomen was bad news, but she didn’t think he was this fucking bad. She moved to try and take the test from your hand, only for Shoko to slap her shoulder.

“Stop making a bad situation worse Mei.” Shoko growled, irritated from not being able to light a cigarette during this high stress situation.

“Two lines…” You mumbled, not looking up from the stick, “Two lines, what does two lines mean!?” Their expressions told you everything you needed to know. Panic filled you as you dropped the test and grabbed a pillow to scream into. God, how could you have let this happen?! Your period was only a few days late, you had taken the test mostly to put Mei Mei at ease. You didn’t know if you were happy you took it or not anymore.

“It’s okay Y/n, we’ll figure this out.” Shoko sighed as she rubbed your back, failing to hide the disappointment in her voice.

“How am I supposed to tell him?!” You panicked as you ripped your head up from the pillow, “How do you tell someone you ruined there life?!”

“You ruined his life?!” Mei Mei scoffed in disbelief at the assertion, “You should be asking him how the hell he plans to make this up to you! He ruined your life!”

“Nobody's life is ruined!” Shoko snapped at the both of you. “It’s a baby not cancer, Jesus fucking Christ. And it’s not like you don’t have options. You’re the one in control here Y/n, whatever you want to happen will happen.” She said, motherly assurance uncharacteristically thick in her tone. It did make you feel a little bit better about the situation. You weren’t absolutely powerless here.

And it wasn’t like you were against being a mother. Quite the contrary, you liked the idea. Of course, you never thought it would be this soon in your life, but…the universe had a funny way of handling things. And if you were going to have a baby, you didn’t think you could have picked a better guy than Ryomen. He was loving, and kind, not to mention the fact he was guaranteed a good job out of college. But, you also knew that he was beyond nervous about being a dad one day, terrified by the notion of becoming his own father.

“I need to talk to Ryomen.” You sighed. 

🍼🍼🍼

“Dude, In what world does a theoretical physicist need to know about the themes of The Metamorphosis, so a dude becomes a bug, so wh-”

“Hey, shut up Y/n just texted me.” Ryomen cut Satoru off as he checked his phone, the buzzing alerting him to a notification. They were sitting next to each other on the couch, venting about classes they hated. Sugruru was sitting on the arm of the couch closest to Satoru, and Nanami taking up an entire love seat across from them as he played on his own phone. It was a relief to have an excuse to end this conversation really. Ryomen did not have it in him to try and listen to his frat brother straight up misunderstand classic literature for the millionth time.

“And you couldn’t wait to answer it until I finished my sen-”

“No, Y/n texted.” Ryomen said without looking up from his phone, but trusting his tone got across his annoyance. Satoru knew you took precedence, Ryomen didn't know why he was acting like you didn’t all of the sudden.

“And she couldn't wait for two-”

“Are you still talking?” Ryomen snapped. Satoru let out an irritated grumble, frustrated he couldn’t go on his (ill informed) rant about how classic American literature, and literature in general, was useless. “Y/n wants to come over.” Ryomen informed his frat brothers. “Like, now.”

“What’s up with Y/n?” Suguru asked from his spot on the arm of couch, deciding it was safe to enter the conversation now that there was no hope of Satoru going on his rant.

“No clue, she just says we need to talk.” He grumbled softly as he typed on his phone. It wasn’t like you to be this cagey about anything, and he would be lying if he said it didn’t concern him at least a little.

“Dude, shes gonna break up with you.” Satoru's mouth moved faster than his brain did, and for it he got a swift elbow to the stomach. 

“No she’s not.” Ryomen hissed. “She just wants to talk.”

“It’s probably to make plans for fall break, I wouldn’t worry too much about it.” Nanami said, quickly getting irritated with all the arguing. 

“Yeah, the dorms close in, what, like two weeks?” Suguru confirmed, “She’s probably gonna ask to stay with your family so she doesn't have to fly back to her own.”

“You’re probably right.” Ryomen took a deep breath to try and calm himself down. That made sense. You got along great with his mom and brother, and your own family basically not at all. It tracked that you would rather drive a few hours and spend a week with people you liked than fly out to people you didn’t. Yeah, that made sense. Yeah.

So why did he still feel so anxious?

🍼🍼🍼

Ryomen had never been more convinced that you were going to leave him than he was now. As you sat across from him on the bed, starring at your fidgeting hands as if they held the secrets to the universe. Something was palpably wrong, he could feel it hanging in a thick veil between the two of you. He didn’t know if he should reach beyond it to hold you, or give you your space and let you come to him. He settled on nervously picking at his nails.

“So, uh, you wanted to talk?” He asked.

“Yeah, I, uh..I’m just trying to think of how to say this.” You muttered. He felt the color drain from his life when you said that. What did he do? Was it about Amy- or whatever the fuck her name was? That was a month ago now, surly it wasn’t that. Was it someone else? That thought made Ryomen realize that actually, he was capable of murder. 

He could feel his jaw clench at the thought of you with another man, white hot rage filling his hands and emotions while images of you with a stranger flashed in his head against his will. What the fuck did that asshole have that he didn’t? What made them think they were worthy of your smile, of your laugh, of you? Who did they think they were?

“Ryomen, I’m pregnant.”

“He’ll never love you like I do.” There was a thick silence of a different variety as they two of you spoke over each other, both of you trying to process what the other said.

“A-are you saying the…baby won’t love me?” You weren’t offended, you were just confused.

“You’re fucking pregnant?” Ryomen could feel his entire world shifting in real time. Thank god you weren’t leaving, but…Pregnant?

“Yeah, that’s what I said, what did You say?” You questioned again, trying to figure out where the fuck that came from. Of all the things you expected him to say, it wasn’t whatever he said.

“It doesn’t really matter what I said, forget I said anything, how long have you known?” He asked, finally pushing past the veil to wrap his arms around you. 

“Like…maybe thirty minuets?” You sighed, rubbing your face as the stress came back. “My period was a week late, so…I took a test, and well…Baby.” You still weren’t sure this was all real.

Ryomen felt the world freeze around him as reality took hold. A dad? He couldn’t be a fucking dad. He was in his fucking twenties, he still had two years left until he graduated, he couldn’t be a dad yet! He thought about his own father, who buckled under the pressure and ran off the moment things got hard. What if he inherited that kind of cowardice? Hell, he didn’t even have the spine to tell his dad to fuck off when he came back in his life after eleven years of radio silence just to completely take control of his future, how the fuck was he supposed to raise a child?!

“Babygirl, that’s amazing!” He smiled, pulling you into his lap and kissing your forehead, “You’re going to be an amazing mom.”

“You think so?” You whispered, taking some comfort in his confidence, It eased your own fear about the uncertain future. 

“Of course I do.” He assured you with the grin that got you into this mess in the first place. Ryomen was fucking petrified of what came next, and he could tell you were too. To him, easing your fear was the most important thing. He could have his own freak out later, right now he needed to be here for you. 

And his words did the trick. Slowly you could feel the tension melting from your shoulders as it settled in that he wasn’t mad, and you weren’t in this alone. “God, I was so scared you where going to leave.” You confessed, feeling the tears pool in the corner of your eyes. His arms tightened around you, holding you like he feared you might be the one to run.

“I’m not going anywhere Babygirl, I promise,” He swore to you, kissing the top of your head, “Wherever you are, that’s were I’ll be. Right next to you and our baby.” His smile was so reassuring, for a second, you actually felt hopeful for the future. He pulled your face to his, and you melted into his kiss.

Ryomen laid with you in his bed, cuddling and talking softly until you finally passed out. He insisted on you staying the night with him, if for no other reason than he found comfort in having you near. He waited until he knew you were in a deep sleep, breathing softly and steadily. He kissed your cheek before he slipped out of bed, into the kitchen for a beer, then out to the balcony to drink it. He was leaning against the old wooden railing, running a hand through his hair as he tried to visualize what his future would look like now.

“So a baby, huh?” He nearly jumped out of his skin at Suguru's voice.

“Jesus fucking Christ, a warning Geto!” He hissed as he took a drink of the cheap beer, giving Suguru the side eye as he leaned next to him.

“Sorry, I’ll make sure to yell at the top of my lungs everywhere I go from now on.” Suguru chuckled softly.

“How do you know we’re having a baby?” Suguru grimaced a little at the pink haired mans question, knowing he got the information through unethical means.

“Satoru listened in on yours and Y/n conversation.” He said as if his ear wasn’t pressed up against the door too, “Sorry.”

“Mmm.” Ryomen groaned, not wanting to accept the apology, but acknowledging it none the less.

“So…whats the plan?” Suguru asked the question no one really wanted to ask, but everyone wanted the answer to.

“The plan is I’m going to be a dad, I guess.” Ryomen grumbled, not really use to the idea yet. He took another drink.

“Well, in that case, congratulations then!” Suguru smiled, taking the cheap beer from Ryomen’s hand and lifting it up, “To the new dad! You’ll do great.” He said as he took a drink.

“Gee, thanks you’re too kind.” Ryomen scoffed.

“Hey man, I’m serious.” Suguru insisted, “I think you’ll be a great dad, if for no other reason than cause your dad sucked. You have the perfect example of what not to do.”

“No I don’t.” Ryomen argued, stress edging into his tone against his will, “My dad wasn’t even there to show me what to not do, he was fucking gone! I have no idea what the hell I’m supposed to do!” His panic was getting the better of him. He took his beer back and took another drink.

“No one does.” Suguru chuckled, still as calm as ever. “You think this shit comes with a manual? No parent in the long history of parenting has ever known what they were doing. But, you’re worried about it. You’re worried about being a good dad. And that’s further than any shitty parent gets. Probably further than you’re dad got. It shows you care man. And besides, you’ll have Y/n with you. She’s going to be a fantastic mom. If shes got the patience to deal with us, a toddler will be a breeze.”

“I don’t know man. What if…what if I am just like my dad?” Ryomen muttered. He looked just like him. He was going to take over his business. Hell, after his dad forced him to be a business major, Ryomen even changed his last name back to his fathers. It made sense at the time, a Sukuna should be the one to take over the Sukuna family business. But, now? Now that he had to pass that last name on? He wasn’t sure he wanted it. “What if it’s just…in my blood to be my dad?”

Suguru actually laughed at that, hard enough to embarrass the man next to him. “Ryomen, being a shitty person is not genetic I assure you. If it was, Nanami would be a lot more insufferable. It’s not up to our parents to decide who we are as people, that for us to decide and us alone. You’re not your DNA sequencing, you’re the actions that you take and the choices that you make. Your father has no control over that.”

“I mean…yeah. I guess you’re right.” Ryomen muttered, taking another drink before handing the bottle back to Suguru. As cliche as it may have been to say, he was starting to feel better. Maybe he wasn't doomed to be his father. Maybe the Sukuna name wasn’t a death sentence.

“Of course I’m right.” Suguru grinned as he finished off the beer. “So what are you going to do now?” He asked.

“Now?” Ryomen sighed, “Now I need to go talk to my mom.”

🍼🍼🍼

It was a week before Ryomen found the time to make the drive home. A week that he spent attached to your hip. A week making sure you didn’t have to lift up a single thing, a week of threatening anyone who dared smoke around you, and a week of coming to terms with his new future. The two of you had spent the time researching doctors, and on baby forums looking for advice. He was relieved to admit, he kinda became fond of the idea of having a little baby running around. 

He started to imagine what they would look like, what they would sound like, and what their favorite color would be. Money wouldn’t be an issue once he took over Malevolent Shrine International, so he wasn’t worried about that. Honestly, you wouldn't have to work if you didn’t want to, and if you did want to he could afford child care. The two- No. The three of you were going to be okay. He hoped it would be only three.

He knocked on the door of his childhood home, having forgot his key and not being willing to go all the way back for it. Much to his dismay, Yuji answered the door. 

“Sorry, sign says no solicitors.” He said, quickly trying to close the door. Ryomen was fast to push against him, trying to get his body through the crack in the entry. 

“Open the door brat or I’m going to wipe your hard drive.” Ryomen threatened,

“College hasn’t changed you one bit, has it?” Yuji scoffed, sticking his tongue out at his brother. 

“It’s made me more prone to violence, wanna see?” Ryomen growled as he pushed against the door harder. Yuji stood firm though, an immovable object to Ryomen’s unstoppable force. 

“I’m going to tell Y/n you said that!” It was Yuji’s turn to threaten, “I’m also going to tell her that you beat me up! And you’re mean! And that you kick kittens!”

“Why you little-” Ryomen finally got his arm through the small space, almost getting a hand on his little brother before his mothers voice brought the entire show to a halt.

“Are you two Trying to break my door?!” She sounded exasperated, “Yuji, let your brother in!” The moment their mother got involved the boys remembered how to act, with Yuji calmly opening the door and Ryomen walking in like he wasn’t just trying to strangle his little sibling. 

“Hi Mom.” He said, smiling warmly as she came up and hugged him.

“Hi Honey,” She said, giving him a soft pat on the cheek. “Wheres Y/n? I made coffee.”

“She had a test today, she couldn’t make it.” He said. That was a lie. You were completely free, but, he didn't want you here for this conversation.

“Mmm, you know your ears turn red when you lie, right?” His mom laughed as she walked to the kitchen. He followed her with a roll of his eyes, sitting at the kitchen table.

“She was busy, alright?” He defended himself as his mom put a coffee cup in front of him, sitting across from him with her own.

“Sure. So what did you need to talk about sweetie?” She asked. Ryomen took a moment to really study his mom. She didn’t look so different from how he remembered her in his childhood. A few more wrinkles, a lot more gray hair, but still his mother none the less. He wondered how she felt when she realized she was having a baby.

“So, um…Y/n is…” He couldn’t make eye contact.

“Ryomen, don’t tell me you got that poor girl pregnant.” She gasped, putting down her mug and looking at him with demanding eyes. 

“Why would you jump to that?!” He tried to deflect.

“Then tell me she’s not.” She said, looking at him with a scowl that dared him to try and lie.

“....She is.” He sighed, taking a drink from his coffee to get away from her disappointed gaze.

“Sweet Jesus...” His mom sighed, closing her eyes and rubbing her forehead. Then she laughed a little, shaking her head with a soft smile she tried to hide behind her coffee cup.

“What?” He asked. She shook her head again.

“Nothing just…well, I guess I was around your age when I had you. A little younger. You can’t really be mad at the apple for not falling too far from the tree now, can you?” She chuckled softly, and it put Ryomen at ease. So she wasn’t going to eviscerate him. Good. 

“Yeah, well…Gotta honor some family traditions, am I right?” He tried to joke, only to be quickly shut up by his mothers disapproving glare. 

“So whats your plan big man?” She asked, “You’re not going to leave her alone with this, that’s for damn sure.”

“No mom, I couldn’t even imagine-”

“Good, cause I’ll choose Y/n over you every time.” She teased. 

“I know mom.” He smiled, “Good to know you like her, cause that makes this question a lot easier to ask.”

“Oh?” He really caught her attention now.

“I was wondering, do you know where Grandmas wedding ring is?” He bit his lip as he finally said it out loud. Even before you were pregnant, every time Ryomen imagined his future, it was always with you as his wife. He couldn’t conceive of a life without you by his side, now more so than ever. He was going to make things right, and unlike his own dad, he wasn’t going to wait for the second baby to do it. He knew he was on the right track when he saw his mothers proud smile.

“As a matter of a fact, I think I do. I think I know where some of your old baby clothes are too, hold on.”

🍼🍼🍼

“Ryo!” You smiled as he walked into the entry of the frat house, carrying a walmart bag of old baby clothes. You were down the stairs and in his arms in an instant, laughing happily as you jumped to him. He caught you with a grin, spinning you around before putting you back on the ground.

“I could get used to that.” He teased. You smiled and rolled your eyes playfully at him.

“I’m sure you could. Ryo, I have amazing news, I- wait, what’s in the bag?” You asked as your brain finally registered that there was something in his hand. 

“Oh, yeah!” He smiled excitedly as he put the bag on the coffee table, “Remember how I went to talk to my mom? She says hi by the way, but look! She still had some of mine and Yuji’s old baby clothes!” He said, pulling out a truly precious onesie, covered in stars and a rocket ship, followed by a red, blue, and yellow stripped jumper.

“Oh baby-” You sighed as you realized your good news might actually not be good news.

“I know it’s not a lot, and its all kinda old and used, but it’s a start, you know? Something to bring the baby home in.”  He said, putting the clothes down and wrapping his arms around your waist.

“Baby, I’m not pregnant.” You dropped that like a nuke. He blinked at you as he tried to process what you just said.

“Huh?”

“I’m not pregnant Ryomen, I’m sorry. I got my period.” You said, gently cupping his cheek. You did not expect a reaction like this at all. Confusion, sure, but not…disappointment?

“But I thought you took a test?” He asked, trying to catch up to reality.

“I did, but it must have been a false positive. Apparently that’s pretty common with my birth control.”

“Oh…” He wasn’t expecting to feel so upset about this either. Like the entire world he had build up in his mind was gone. He realized he was going to be mourning the death of someone who truly never existed, and felt so ridiculous about it. He didn’t realize he was tearing up until you brushed a tear off his cheek.

“I’m sorry Ryo…but, hey! Look on the bright side, we get to keep our twenties!” You chuckled softly, trying to lighten the mood. He smiled gently and nodded.

“You’re right it’s just…I don’t know. I kinda liked the idea of starting a family with you.” He confessed softly, an idea that would have made his skin crawl just a little over a year ago. You really did force him to grow up. You laughed a little more sincerely this time, and gave him a quick kiss.

“Sorry Ryo, if you want a family, you’re gonna have to upgrade from the girlfriend package to the wifey bundle.” You teased him. 

“Y/n!” Gojo yelled from up the stairs, “Nanami got tired of waiting for you, he un-paused the game!” You paled as you realized that Nanami was unfairly demolishing you at street fighter.

“Hey! That’s illegal!” You yelled as you ran up the stairs to try and salvage the round. Ryomen watched as you ran away, an unfamiliar fondness growing in his chest. Normally, he would have been unbelievably jealous you were hanging out with his friends- especially without him. Now though? He saw it as a good sign.

“Upgrade, huh?” He muttered, mostly to himself. His hand dropped into his pocket, clutching the ring box there. “Don’t worry Y/n. I plan on it.” He promised as he went up stairs to join you. 

[thekeeperof-thefandoms]

Headcanons of Lucifer watching his s/o and Charlie getting along and maybe even having a little musical note together I just know he'd be getting all teary eyed and shit seeing his baby girl having some form of mother figure or someone she can really look to for advice currently present in her life ❤️ Thanks sm hope u have a good day/night!

Absolutely!

I think at first the relationship between Charlie and anyone her dad dates is awkward because she's so nice and trying to be supportive and Lucifer's new s/o would be trying too hard to create that bond. But steadily, you two would find real things you have in common and begin spending time together.

I'm going to use myself for reference here, but I personally really like arts and crafts kind of stuff and am willing to listen to pretty much all genres of music as long as I like the beat/rhythm. So I imagine most of your bonding is done making posters for the hotel, doing crafts with the guests, and just in general vibing to music together.

Like, one suggested activity for the group is coloring because it's a good outlet and it becomes so popular you guys just have a permanent stack of coloring pages and books available with marker, pens, colored pencils, and you, Charlie, Lucifer, and Vaggie are all just coloring and talking, Lucifer's telling embarrassing stories about baby Charlie for you and Vaggie, and you share a few embarrassing stories of yourself to make Charlie feel better and the absolute relief on her face is palpable.

Charlie is nervous because some sinners critiqued her hotel, her appearance, how her dad had to bail her out in the fight against heaven and it's all just making her upset. And of course her dad and her girlfriend are gonna say stuff about how she's beautiful, the hotel is a wonderful idea, and she was so brave in that fight. And like, yeah you're dating her dad and you've been super nice so far, but when you sit down next to her and ask quietly, "Can I offer you some advice?"

"Please? I feel like I don't know what I'm doing."

You laugh, patting her shoulder. "You're young, Charlie, you're not supposed to have it all figured out. But one thing you can do, is decide not to let judgemental pricks get to you. Take every criticism with a grain of salt. Improve, adapt, and filter out bullshit. You can't make everyone happy, and you'll exhaust yourself if you try. So as long as you're happy and at the end of the day you can say you're proud of what you've done, that you tried....well, that should be enough, right?"

Charlie thinks about it and nods. There's a visible shift in her attitude. "Thanks, I needed to hear that....Do you think you could help me read through some of the reviews and stuff? I want to improve if there's any genuine issue that I can address and Dad and Vaggie are....a lot. They just keep trying to tell me everything is perfect."

"They're just trying to hype you up. They love you a lot, so naturally they want you to feel successful and excited. Come on, let's go make some big bowls of ice cream and read through those reviews using silly AI voices. It'll be hilarious."

You and Charlie head off to do just that, talkin and laughing, and neither one of you notices Lucifer absolutely melting into the floor from a few floors up, as he clings to the railing he was leaning against to ease drop. He's gonna need a few minutes to recover. He's crying happy tears. His little girl is grown up and getting along with his partner and they're spending time together and enjoying things together. You're giving her advice and offering her comfort and meeting Charlienat her level and he's just more convinced you're perfect.

He may or may not be ring shopping in the near future. Probably with Ozzie and Bee. They've always had good taste and will probably be thrilled to help him. And if Ozzie is also casually looking for a ring while they're out, well, Lucifer won't say anything.

[mousemannation]

Ben has literally liked transphobic posts by Vivek Ramaswamy. People like to uwu him for transphobia but he’s no better than Andrey. Just smarter for keeping it under wraps

DISCLAIMER: this is a long ass post im so sorry anon I kind of used this ask to talk about what I expect from players in general.

as i was writing that post i was like someone is definitely going to send me an anon about something problematic he did. this is no slight on u dear anon but let me explain why i still made the post.

on the most basic level, the post was hyperbolic, I think we all know this. Any sort of definitive statement like that is going to have exceptions. So my first reason to still make the post is that people will generally know to take it with a grain of salt.

The second reason is that I am not looking to sportspeople as beacons of morality. Whether our opinions align can and often does affect my support of them, but my support of them as an athlete is never a blanket support of them as a person. I don't know them and I almost certainly never will; i just like watching them hit a ball.

The third reason, and one that isn't always applicable but I'd say is extra applicable to someone like Ben is that I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm a generally forgiving person, which has its pros and cons, but it means im naturally inclined to see the best in people. Ben is young, he's my age actually, and he lives a life that i could never hope to imagine. All these athletes do. Is that an excuse for prejudice? No, but it gives me hope that that prejudice comes from a place of ignorance not hatred.

The last three incidents of player prejudice (at least that I know of) have been Andrey, Paula and now Ben although i have not personally seen proof of this. Two counts of transphobia and one of anti-asian racism. I'm trans and asian (not Chinese, which is worth mentioning since Paula's incident was ostensibly anti-chinese, but is also an act used indiscriminately against all Asians).

Maybe I should expect more, but I'm almost always operating on the basis that a celebrity would hatecrime me, intentionally or not. I'm never really surprised when it comes out that a player did something problematic. And in these specific instances they are prejudices against groups I am a part of (or sort of adjacent to, not that white people know the difference between East Asians and South East Asians lol).

I am still mad at Andrey for his transphobic remarks against Imane because they were rash, uninformed, and very public. But I also don't think he's a terrible person. He's done a lot of things I don't agree with, but I'm not personally totally blanking him from my support, just sort of toning it down.

I was never that mad at Paula for that photo, again, maybe I should have been but to me it never came off as hateful, just ignorant. I mean i don't think she would have let the photo be taken and posted if she'd done it with intentional prejudice. I know the post got deleted but I don't know if she ever officially apologised, I wasn't keeping up, but I do think she should have. To me, that was the action of a sheltered western european white woman who wouldn't recognise intersectionality if you hit her over the head with it.

Now on to the man in question. You say he liked posts by a transphobe. Liking a post can mean many things, and it doesn't always mean unequivocal support. Liking several posts does, admittedly, get a little murkier. But my relationship with celebrities does not and can not account for their private beliefs. If a famous person is a bigot but they never mention it anywhere and there's no way for me to know what am I supposed to do? Sure, for some the absence of word or action against prejudice is bad enough (and this is a totally valid position to take) but I must refer you back to point 2. I'm simply not expecting explicit social justice from professional athletes. Am I positively jubilant when they do engage with it? Of course! But these are people so far removed from regular society. They spend every waking hour either hitting a ball or thinking about hitting a ball. I follow them to watch them hit said ball. (It also feels pertinent to mention that i only speak English and many of these players do not have english as a mother tongue. I can't expect perfect nuanced conversations this way).

So. Ben liked some transphobic posts. Could he be transphobic? Maybe. But also maybe not. Or maybe with a couple conversations he could learn to not be. I can't affect that. What I can do is find him funny and nice enough in videos, and talented at tennis. I can recognise that he is young, and deals with a lot of racism himself, which I'd hope would make him more sympathetic to people experiencing other kinds of prejudice. I can decide to continue to support him. Despite what I said in my last post about him, you do not have to.

TLDR my support for a tennis player is not unequivocal support for them as a person

[daisy-daze17]

Omori Manga Thoughts cause it was uhhh

OK so like. The thing is I only got into the omori fandom in February of this year so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

1. I'm mostly a fan of the art style-- a lot of people said that Sunny always seems to have a panicked expression so it's hard to read into him, plus the characters look a lot younger than they're supposed to (Which I find odd). But other than that, I think it does a really good job representing the scarier parts with very abstract drawings of Mari/Something. They coloured it well and thank god did Kel's skintone right. There is one particular panel that I especially love:

So much detail and it captures the feeling of seeing faraway for the first time really well ^^

Some nitpicky positive thoughts:

Sunny could have looked more distinct from Omori because the only difference I see are their outfits. Maybe make Sunny's features softer and have less contrasting values so we can see an immediate difference.

I like how they did everyone's eyes-- Sunny/Omori's are just dull and black, and everyone else with dark eyes are shown to have a light in them. (Just a nice detail i appreciated)

I like how Omori is clearly less expressive compared to sunny, but I think Sunny could have benefitted from having more emotions than surprised/blushing.

2. The pacing was weird. like really fucking weird. The basic structure of the game Omori is: Omori is in whitespace -> Omori plus the gang (Hero, Aubrey and Kel) meet up with Basil and Mari in headspace -> everyone minus Mari goes to Basil's house and learn all the combat stuff along the way -> after fixing the photo album it suddenly shifts to basil in a panicked state before glitching you back into white space again. The moment when basil shifts the mood from calm to terrifying is REALLY important.

It forces the new tone on you very suddenly and also sets up a lot of mystery surrounding Mari when Basil can't finish what he was going to say about her. By now we know that something is very wrong and it has to do with Mari, but we don't know what.

The manga is kind of all over the place the whole time. First we see the christmas scene when Sunny gets his violin. But then Mari does her whole nightmare thing and we know somethings up from the first few pages. Next we wake up at night as Sunny in the real world... yet it shows the little "THREE DAYS LEFT" as well? At this point I was super confused because basically the entire nighttime sequence is shown through a sort of montage with Sunny's mom's voice message in the background before transitioning into the day when Kel first knocks on the door. A cool thing they did was parallel Kel's knocking with the creepy knocking we get from Mari Something. HOWEVER for reasons unknown they just completely cut out the fight against something on the stairs??

Something I was really excited about was seeing how they would integrate the combat into the manga. And they do it later with the Aubrey fight (more on that later), but not now? So now I'm wondering if they'll include Sunny's three fears that he has to overcome.

So next we find our boy (KEL!!!!!) and he is asking Sunny if he wants to come to Hobbies. I did find the dialogue here pretty awkward as Kel bounced back and forth in demeanor, but that's to be expected since Sunny isn't talking. (And I appreciate how he shows some kind of reaction to seeing one of his best friends after 4 years lol)

I mean compared to this when he just jumps straight into his hobbez idea without much reaction to actually seeing Sunny lol.

The most notable thing after this is the Aubrey confrontation with Basil and the other hooligans. I DONT KNOW WHY but they chose to not show the hooligans in that scene!! The hooligans are aubrey's little gang/posse who she hangs around with all the time and the people we always see when she's bullying Basil.

It's very important to note that Basil is talking to KIM here. He starts the conversation begging for her to tell Aubrey to give the photo album back. Aubrey is actively ignoring his attempts to get it back, with basil claiming "She won't listen to me."

In the manga she appears out of seemingly no where and proceeds to beat Basil directly with her bat. Prior to this we get no setup or explanation as to why Aubrey's attacking him or what the situation is. WORST OF ALL, It's only Aubrey alone attacking him and NOT her gang of the Hooligans. The hooligans are important in showing us just how isolated and ostracized from society Basil really is after Aubrey began bullying him. He literally has a whole gang of kids who call him a creep and attack him regularly. Here it seems like Aubrey is insane and is just beating him selfless for kicks. (not that I'm justifying Aubrey's behavior in the game, but the lack of context makes this situation even worse.)

I think It's also important to bring up how they switched around the order of events because in this situation, it's not working. We're supposed to first be introduced to younger Aubrey and Basil in headspace-- their younger counterparts. Aubrey is strong-willed and excitable and Basil is calm and kind. And most importantly-- they're VERY GOOD FRIENDS. So seeing Aubrey revealed to have been bullying him these past 4 years shocks the player and makes them understand how much things have really changed. Doing it the other way around will automatically villainize DW Aubrey since we already know what goes on in real life.

And then something interesting happens-- Sunny blacks out during the fight and returns to Headspace. This is SUPER weird as we've only ever seen Sunny go into headspace while sleeping, because it's an escape mechanism he uses to avoid The Truth. Does this mean he isn't aware he goes into headspace unwillingly sometimes? And what does this mean for the continuation of the real world story? Are we going to go through the entire Space Boy quest just to get back to that scene?

Anyway, I'm interested to see how they take it from here. Maybe they'll do a continuous switchover to the real world where they jump between it more frequently. But I question what that would mean for the timeline because the events of headspace happen in between the three days while Sunny is sleeping-- so he can't be in two places at the same time. Maybe they'll write more and more random ways for Sunny to black out to do this?? They defiantly are trying to take a step back from following the game exactly. I can't say I don't like it because I don't know how it'll turn out, so I'm excited for chapter 2!

[artbyblastweave]

As a big superhero guy, I have a question: Why do you think it's so common to show Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Hank Pym, Hank McCoy (ESPESCIALLY those last two) as, at best, morally ambiguous and at worst, downright awful in modern portrayals? Is it standard American anti-intellectualism, tied into our growing distrust of science and technology, or is it just that they seem kinda bland?

I don't think it's anti-intellectualism per se. For three of the four I think it's just a consequence of contemporary writers being Allowed To Notice And Unpack Things.

For Reed Richards, it's the result of fans and writers applying a level of scrutiny to early plots and character beats that weren't intended to stand up to any real level of scrutiny. He's a guy who got all his best friends horribly mutated by taking them up in an untested spacecraft. He's a guy who brainwashed a bunch of captured skrulls into thinking they were cows. He's a guy who keeps whipping up extremely specific technological solutions to the problem at hand, which never seem to trickle down to the consumer market- hence the "Reed Richards is Useless" trope. And he's gotta dodge and weave around patriarchal accusations vis a vis a lot of the casual sexism of early FF, where Sue had limited combat utility and was often in the mix as the Damsel-in-distress classic. And obviously excising the unconsidered sexism from the dynamic is the right way to go, but treating that early recklessness/ruthlessness/callousness seriously, as an actual personality flaw that he has, and has to work around, is significantly more interesting than just rewriting the character to not behave like that.

For Iron Man it's the result of people starting to take more seriously the moral implications of the fact that he's an arms dealer and a billionaire. (Apocryphally, Stan Lee did this to see if he could create a character who would be popular with his left-leaning audience despite being everything they hate ideologically, but I take this with a grain of salt.) Another element, I think, is that in preparation for the release of Iron Man, Marvel made him a headliner in Civil War in 2007; the nature of Civil War lent itself to him doing a lot of authoritarian bullshit, and said bullshit sort of set the bar for his capacity for extreme behavior when pressed. Put Iron Man in any situation, try to determine the extent he'll go to in order to resolve it, and you have to take into account that time he was sticking his colleagues in virtual-reality prisons on behalf of the government. A demonstrated willingness to do atrocities for what you think of as the greater good does add some flavor and tension, I have to give them that!

For Hank Pym, it's totally down to the midlife crisis arc from 1981, where he rebranded as Yellowjacket, got drummed out of the Avengers for using excessive force, and battered his wife Janet when she tried to. You know. Talk him out of building a robot to perform a false flag attack against the rest of the team to get back in their good graces. The whole arc was supposed to be a very deliberate tragedy about his mental breakdown but it kind of poisoned the well on the character and became the thing future writers endlessly relitigate, either doubling down on it (The Ultimates, Marvel Zombies) or trying to repudiate it (Mighty Avengers, Avengers Academy.) Even before that, though, he had a pointed loose-cannon mad scientist situation going on even in comparison to the others on this list- his debut was a Twighlight zone-style horror story where he nearly gets himself killed testing the shrinking formula, and he also created Ultron and nearly got everyone killed that way!

I have no idea what's going on with Hank McCoy. I don't think I want to know what's going on with Hank McCoy. Every time I turn my ear in the direction of that corner of the fandom these days, all I hear is screaming. Are you guys alright

[scaly-freaks]

im curious about the relationship between Alicient and Rhaenyra in your fic, it seems like Alicient is trying to save Rhaenyra and her boys, is it out of guilt? And what about Rhaenyra, how does she feels about Alicient now, is the power dynamic (her being a scorned princess and Alicient the most powerful woman in Westeros) stopping her from letting her true emotions show? This context of Rhaenyra losing the war and keeping her head is so underdeveloped yet it's so interesting and intriguing, thank you for exploring it

Aaahhh I just finished answering a comment on AO3 along this same vein! Coinky-dink!

Alicent is - plain and simple - massively in love with her princess still. In fact, Rhaenyra is currently in the same position as Amara, aka this pretty songbird trapped in a cage, being fed lovingly by the hands of her captor who she has complex feelings for (and vice versa). It's almost insane how much Aegon's life parallels Alicent's in this, because he claims to not understand why his mother would be so kind to the sister she helped usurp, but then he's kind to Amara despite making it very obvious her options outside of him are limited.

Rhaenyra definitely is conflicted about Alicent. She notices things like her soft red hair but labels it a taunt. She still remembers burning with jealousy when she found out her father visited Alicent every night after their wedding, and the hell it was to be aware of it. I think when Alicent visits, she's relieved to have another adult on her level to speak to, and she probably wants to give into the Stockholm Syndrome when the Dowager Queen is obviously tender with her (as much as she can be). But it might not be in her best interest to get close to Alicent again. Otto Hightower is still alive after all, and the king would happily go against his mother if it means spiting his sister some more; if anything, when Aegon realises Rhaenyra is opening up to Alicent again (thanks to the spies at Dragonstone) he'd probably shut his mother out of the small council. Currently, Alicent probably mentions things that happen in the small council to Rhaenyra without being asked, and that pipeline of information can be very useful (even if it's just supposedly mundane stuff a lot of the time, for instance grain shortages, or the threat of a plague).

Rhaenyra's figured out by now that her stony attitude keeps Aegon's attention fixed on her alone, to make her life a misery, but that lessens the attention that might fall on her boys (hunting down the Strongs, or taking away the two youngest). He hates her and she wants to keep reminding him of that so the others can go free.

I think she also is aware Aemond and Aegon aren't the bestest bros in all of Westeros (unlike Sunfyre and Aegon) so Rhaenyra could very well decide to sit back and wait for something to go down between them. If it does, she has two legitimate sons from Daemon who are still technically in the male line to the throne (Egg is currently 5th and Viserys is 6th, so it's really not that far considering how volatile dragon wars are and how suddenly infants can die - Jaehaerys is still at a very vulnerable age).

Despite it all, deep down, Rhaenyra knows Alicent better than anyone else currently alive (because how much does Otto truly know his own daughter when he can't even predict when she'll go against him). She still makes exceptions for her, decides that it isn't Alicent's choice to do this to her, that Alicent is still just the nervous, nail-biting, people-pleasing tender young girl she used to be. She's giving into the Stockholm to feel less lonely and return to the old warmth of her childhood companion that she used to know.

p.s. Alicent definitely chose to do all of this to her, to be a part of why Rhaenyra is currently in a cage, but that's the complex nature of the situation I suppose.

[cannibalisticskittles]

okay, having now seen it in context, i remain convinced that the 12 lovers thing is bullshit. most of this is bullshit, in fact.

i mean, arrogant as he is -- and as much as he does enjoy speaking of the attention he gets from supposed fans -- the idea goes against how.... genuinely touched he seems all throughout his the beginning of his romance. not that that means that it's impossible for it to be true, but that would be quite a lot of effort put into maintaining a persona as a sincere partner while also still being a bit (read: a lot) of a self-absorbed shithead. like if he doesn't feel the need to hide the shithead part, why would he feel like he would need to come across as loyal to you, unless that part is also not really an act? why would he feel that putting on an act like that would be worth the effort?

(plus, i mean, bro needs you to battle an ocean of robots with him before he feels like he can agree to date you. from a logistical standpoint, what the fuck is he going to get 12 other people to match that kind of zeal for battle??)

anyway, that part's less important. just because i take umbrage at certain characterization doesn't mean that characterization is necessarily inconsistent. people are complex, characters are complex, maybe it really was all just an act in his romance, whatever.

the more important part is the fact that he's absolutely lying about most of what he's saying in this scene, if not all of it. grace even says she can't definitively sniff out whether he's telling the truth or lying throughout this despite her knack for it, to the point where she usually knows which part of what someone is untrue.

and we very quickly learned that he was lying about at least part of what he says immediately -- we discover that he was the one writing telegrams to miguel before coming to sandrock, which completely nixes everything he's saying about being fooled by miguel. so yeah, technically "ooh, i have 12 lovers who i keep separate and ply with gifts" COULD be true, but it could not be the justification for why he's working with miguel in sandrock; he was already working with duvos well before arriving in town. it very much comes across as a ploy to get you and grace to think of miguel as the source of all the blame by relying on his Very Well Known Persona/Reputation to concoct what feels to him like a an excuse you'll accept

anyway, do you know which part i think has the highest chance of actually having a grain of truth in it? this shit.

i think he's genuinely down to be called big daddy love sponge.

[starzzmissthesun]

For marauders fandom:

Ships- Xeno/James, Evan/Lily, Sirius/Evan

Characters: Xeno (Lovegood), sybill (trelawney), and Emmeline (Vance)

Hmmmm.... These are like RARE PAIRS if I've ever seen em. (Also btw I'm not big on multi shipping purely cause I get real set on things😭, so this is DEF. biased) (also sorry because I do dis all of these ships😭but i DID say honest) (also please don't take this too seriously 🙏these are just to me, I don't care what other people ship)

so for xeno/James...i honestly don't even know how that dynamic would work. To me, they would just be in VERY different worlds. James is in the typical(and I hate to say the marauders are this) "class clown", overly loud, " popular ", very likeable and conventional group, and xeno is in with the outcast people, almost opposite. I see how that could be fun, but I personally think xeno would want someone who has similar thinking and eccentricity(‼️) as him, while James is more arrogant and would scoff towards it. Not to say he'd be rude to them, just finding it weird and talking about it with his friends. I also just think that's not the kind of group or person James would find interesting to start with. The only way I even see them meeting is because Peter (to me) is friends with Sybill and she's friends with xeno. Overall I'd rate it a 2/10, it's not BAD or anything, its not against the characters morals or completely unlikely, its just a VERY far reach for me, out of sight.

Evan/lily: I DO think the Evan(s) is really funny I have to admit😭 BUT I think the main aesthetic I've seen of them (and bartylily) is always very booktok-y of like, bad boy with angst falls for smart-snarky girl who also has angst, and I just can't get behind it. ESPECIALLY in canon because I think Evan was a pretty die hard DE and lily was muggleborn and fought so hard against it. And not in canon, I picture lily to want the typical home-y life, she wants to get a beautiful house, befriend the neighbors, have a classic wedding, have kids, get a nice job she loves, and with her highs and lows her life is beautiful. Meanwhile Evan is peak FREAK behaviour, will never live that kind of life lily would want. The thing I DO think they would have in common would be their curiosity and experiments. lily loved potions and was great at it, she wanted to undo things and see how they work to create something new. Evan likes to undo and figure things out for the destruction, he enjoys the process a million times more than the result unless the result is decay, unending destruction. Overall a 3.5/10, I see it, I get WHY people would like it, just doesn't work for me and my ideas of these characters.

Sirius/Evan:um...i don't even really see anything there for them? I suppose the rosiers and blacks grew up with eachother, but I can't see why Sirius would ever be interested in any of regulus' little friends. As an older sibling myself (and it's probably different for some) I could only ever see my sibling's friends as an extension of my sibling. I also think (especially in canon) Sirius would see Evan as someone SO adjacent to the rest of the Blacks and the Rosiers, and in my idea of Sirius, he would completely stray from and genuinely not have any interest in someone like that. And I think Evan would be bored of him, I think he would figure Sirius out real quick when they were kids and crave an enigmatic aspect to his partner. This one's a 1/10, I genuinely don't think they would even LIKE each other that much.

(Once again, take that with a grain of salt🙏)

Xeno... Xeno, xeno, xeno.... Being honest I love him sm. (Someone who has REALLY good xeno thoughts is @florsial , so if you want more constructed thoughts go there) He's very odd, not just weird airheaded way, but just Is. Like they are just. The peculiarness is not taught or learned or developed, he just popped out with a different way of being, his thoughts will forever be a mystery of how they appear. I really like the HC that they're Lucius' younger brother. Such a fancy family, his brother immediately fitting into the socialite he's meant to be, meanwhile xeno is outcasted. He just. Cant. Understand these people and what the whole purpose is. He carries this huge imagination that he looses himself in, dreams become prophesies, "what ifs?" become reality, anything they want will be true. And they back it up, too. He is prime example of conformation bias.

Sybill Trelawny! Shes very very sensitive, very sweet. But!!! She is judgey, very gossipy, especially when it comes to her practice, if you don't believe her get outta here!! She knows what she sees, she doesn't doubt herself after a past of ignoring her visions. Ultimately frazzled and anxious, constantly running back and forth from door to door, something's lost? She doesn't know! Shes very very smart and logical, just not in the typical way, she applies it to her interests only, not any of the other stuff since it would be just useless to her. Shes trained herself to be very very good at connecting the dots and figuring things out (whether they have substance or not).

And Emmeline Vance.. I gonna be honest I don't know much about her because I don't see much about her, just her name is mentioned. From what I gather, shes very smart and preppy, in the "popular" group. Her relationship with the Valkyries varies in different accounts, but I personally think between 1st-4th year her group and theirs did not like each other and were almost catty (typical middle school drama), but she eventually got closer with them, and they with her. I think her ship with Mary is really cute from what I've seen!

Anyways! Thanks for the ask!!!!!(despite my first half being VERY opinionated)

[freesidexjunkie]

Trouble

Small piece of durgetash drivel i wrote while a lil tipsy and feeling some kind of way about the Baldur's Mouth Gazette mission. Will upload to AO3 when i get better signal.

Gortash x f!Durge oc - AO3

Fluff, playing chicken with each other, manipulation, small threats. Pls enjoy 🥺

"Miss... Miss! You can't go–" That was all the guard got out before he found a dagger against his throat, silencing him to a whimper.

Gortash could, of course, hear this exchange going on outside of his office. He was debating how far he was going to let her go, to see how badly she wanted in. This was enough for now, he decided; he'd spare the poor guard. Flaming Fists weren't as replaceable with Orin prowling the streets.

"Let her in," he said, a hint of bemusement in his voice. After a moment, the door swung open violently. Maevris strolled leisurely to his desk, a measured smile on her face. Without the bloodstains and the shaking guard, one could almost mistake her for a person paying a pleasant social visit.

"Ah, my most efficient assassin! A pleasure. To what do I owe–" She dropped a stack of papers on his desk wordlessly, smiling at him with her blade still at her side.

A test print of the Baldur's Mouth Gazette lay on his desk, along with a letter in his hand. Not signed, of course, but recognizable to anyone who would care to notice. Warning! Dangerous Band of Adventurers Bring Absolutist Chaos to Our City! The paper cried out, with an unmistakably portrait of Mae and her band of misfits.

"I'm beginning to question the integrity of this alliance," she said coolly. "I wonder how this article could impact our... joint endeavor."

Gortash glanced over the newspaper and letter. "Tsk. Someone's been snooping. I didn't think the printing press was open to the public," he said with a half cocked smile.

"I'm remarkably tenacious," she said, "especially when threatened by men with feathered hats bigger than their sense. But, I suppose he's more useful to your plans than I am, if you're so ready to throw me to the wolves."

Her words dripped sweetly like honey, coating the malicious undertones as she twisted her dagger between her fingers. A subconscious habit that survived Orin's attack. He found the familiarity comforting, for a moment. "An insurance policy, my dear," he said, looking up at her, "until you were more certain where your allegiances lay."

"What an interesting way to win over my allegiance, then," she said as she perched herself on the corner of his desk.

Slander her name publicly, invent a reason for the Steel Watch to detain her. She would resist, of course, but they would be ordered to bring her in with non-lethal methods. Once she was declawed and separated from her traveling companions, Mae would certainly be much easier to talk to. She could be reasoned with, surely, without those do-gooders clinging to her. It wasn't a bad plan, if Ettvard had been more cautious.

"You know, you would have one advantage in this partnership, if you weren't so keen to throw it away," she said, looking down at him.

"Oh?" He said back with a lazy smile. He had missed their little sparring matches. "And what is that, dearest?"

"I don't have an opinion on you yet, one way or the other," she said, twirling her knife on its tip against the wooden desktop. "We might work well together, or we might not. I'm decidedly undecided, I suppose. But you do things like this, and it... tips the needle in the wrong direction." She lifted her blade up and brought it back down swiftly, stabbing the tip into the grain of the desk, all while keeping her face completely calm and measured.

He couldn't help but grin fully back up at her. A lovely display. "A thousand apologies, then," he said as he stood up and walked around the desk. "However, I do think I have at least one more advantage."

"And what's that?" She asked, feigning disinterest as she pulled her dagger from the desk and sheathed it at her side.

He came up behind her, barely a whisper away from her back. "I remember you better than you remember yourself," he whispered just above the skin of her neck before planting slow, delicate kisses trailing down the space just behind her ear.

She melted into the touch in spite of herself as an arm came to rest on her waist. Just as quickly as it came, the moment was over, as Gortash withdrew his touch and walked to a bookshelf. That momentary lapse of self control was all it took; the split second, involuntary movement of her body to his, and they both know where the balance of power was shifting in this battle. The smirk he had when he turned to face her, leaning against a shelf so cockily, said that he knew exactly what he was doing.

Two could play at that game. She hopped off of the desk corner and strolled over to him, stopping almost flush against his chest with her arms behind her back. Tilting her face up to his, with the most saccharine smile she could muster, she said, "so what is it that you want, then? Am I a partner, or a plaything?"

He grinned back down at her, eyes hooded, as he put a hand under her chin and brought her face inches from his. "I suppose that's up to you, dear," he said.

Mae stood on her tip toes and leaned in to whisper in his ear, hands on his shoulder for balance. "And how would I go about convincing you I'm more useful as your equal?" She purred.

He chuckled, and she felt it rumble through his chest under her hands. He put one arm lazily around her middle and leaned in to press a small kiss to the side of her head. "Not with such an obvious show of manipulation, pet." He teased before releasing his hold on her waist and walking back to his desk.

"As opposed to your very subtle manipulation?" She quipped back, disappointed but evidently not deterred. "You say you want to work together. Rule together. You string together all these pretty words to my face. I can't help but wonder if it's to distract me from the dagger you're planning to plunge into my back."

"Aren't daggers more your thing, Mae?" He replied as he sat at his desk again. She was already halfway across the room now.

"Give me one thing to trust. Anything. That's all I'm asking," she said as she approached his desk. "One reason to believe you're sincere."

He looked at her for a moment, amusement and admiration dancing across his face as she sat back on his desk, this time right in front of his seat. "Alright," he said, "give me your hand."

She looked at him quizzically as he reached towards her right arm, but acquiesced all the same. He took it in both hands and turned it over, holding her forearm with one hand while tracing a scar across her wrist with the other. "I was there when you got this scar. It was in Mephistopheles' vault. You were trying to disarm a trap, and it triggered on you instead," he said, looking her deeply in the eyes. "I was the one who cleaned and bandaged it for you out." He took her arm and pressed his lips to the scar, not looking away from her eyes, silently relishing in the fact that she didn't pull away from the contact.

"Anyone could make up a story about a scar," she said quietly, still looking down at him.

Her words said she wasn't convinced, but he knew her tells and mannerisms. He had her right where he wanted, if he could keep going. "I know you prefer to sleep on your left side," he said, curling an arm around her waist. "You preferred to sleep facing me. So you could listen to my heart beat under my chest, you said."

"That doesn't..." He could hear her breath hitch just the slightest bit. "That didn't stop you from betraying me last time though, did it?" She asked quietly. It wasn't a challenge; her eyes were wide and sincere. Almost hurt. That small, veiled vulnerability. Only ever reserved for him, even still.

He stood to meet her gaze, wrapping one arm around her middle fully and cupping her face with the other as he brought it to his. "It didn't stop me from losing you," he said, his breath ghosting over her lips, "a fate I'm very keen to avoid you facing again."

"Unless it's at your hand, apparently," she replied, leaning into the embrace all the same. Just as touchstarved as always, it seemed. Just as eager as he felt.

"My hands can be much more gentle, love," he said, leaning against her forehead, "if you'd let them."

She kept her eyes locked on his, barely a hair's breadth from his face, searching his demeanor. She gave him a small smirk, and his own heart was the one doing little flips this time. "We'll see," she said playfully, before extricating herself from his grip in one fluid movement and walking towards the door. "Do tell your other friends to play nicer, in the mean time," she called over her shoulder as she left.

He smiled after her, long after she had left the room. She might not remember him, no. But that was certainly still his same Mae.

[inkdemonapologist]

BatDR: Joey's Final Scene is Weird (+ Ink Demon Audrey AU I Guess)

I'm sure I'm not the first person to have this thought but I keep thinking about it, so, some thoughts!! Grain of salt as always since I've mostly osmose'd the game through friends and cutscenes, so there may well be significant things I've missed.

In BatDR, the initial vibe is that Joey Drew has turned over a new leaf, and finally found a better person in himself as a father. It's a good direction for Joey -- rather than trying to be accepted by people who do not owe him forgiveness, instead moving forward and being better for someone new.

But... there's a lot of evidence that isn't quite true. Joey's response to letting go of his hatred for Henry wasn't to admit what he'd done or to end the cycle or even apologise, it was just.... to put an invented Allison Angel in there -- because of the existence of Allison, we know the hellish experience we see in BatIM is what Joey figured it was probably fine to leave Henry looping through after his supposed change of heart. And his imperfect attempts at creating a child apparently only get to see him as an uncle -- only his perfect, special Audrey is Good enough to call him "dad." Maybe Joey genuinely is a little better (it's a pretty low bar) and loves her with a sincerity and humility he wasn't able to find before, but... a decent part of that seems to be because she came out right, because she made him happy.

Thren described it as the "authentic Joey Drew experience" and I love that framing; we all KNOW everything he did in BatIM, everything he's responsible for -- but he's charming, and he loves the player character so much, and it seems like... he must be better! When Joey Drew likes you, Buddy tells us in DCTL, it's the best feeling in the world. And.... I don't think Joey's lying, it's just that loving Audrey (just Audrey) doesn't actually make him a kinder or better person.

One of the places that stands out to me the MOST is his final scene.

This scene is DELIGHTFUL on its own but becomes EXTREMELY WEIRD ONCE YOU PONDER ANY CONTEXT AT ALL -- Joey stands before the Ink Demon, his greatest failure to be kind to a "grinning thing" that once wandered Thomas Connor's office before being locked away in the infirmary, and refers to it as an "evil face" before telling Audrey that she's special, more special than those cartoons he once brought to life, that she's his greatest creation and his family whom he loves, and that they shouldn't dwell on the past. NO WONDER THE INK DEMON MURDERS HIM??? What must it be like to hear your creator tell someone else that they got all the love you were denied, that they were better, more important, and you're still a monster? JOEY YOUR SON IS RIGHT THERE HE CAN HEAR YOU

Part of me thinks this is REALLY GOOD. I'm honestly into the idea of Joey believing himself to be a changed man when he's still falling into old habits, and the idea of a narrative that seems on the surface to be a redemption, when closer inspection reveals it to be just, seeing Joey's biased story, is such an interesting idea? But, since the story itself doesn't really acknowledge it, just glossing over every point to the contrary with a more sincere-seeming emotional beat, it ends up feeling kinda discordant with the story we DO see. As if it were an accident. No one, not even the villains, calls Joey's change of heart into question -- when the Ink Demon pushes back, it's not with justified anger at being openly dissed, but just because the demon's Evil and Audrey has to fight back against it. The idea of Joey as an unreliable narrator of every one of his scenes in BatDR is conceptually cool, but emotionally jarring; I feel like I need an entire extra fic of Audrey coming to terms with the idea that her father really did love her, but maybe he wasn't actually a better or kinder person in the end (and what if Memory Joey could actually face his mistakes in a way her IRL father never managed to....).

But I wanna focus in on one odd other odd thing Joey says to Audrey.

This doesn't quite feel like it goes with what's happening to Audrey -- she has no real reason to be genuinely tempted by the Ink Demon or to believe that her past dooms her to this (Joey Maybe You're Projecting); she's just reasonably freaked out that a big monster subsumed her into himself. It sounds like it's a line from some other scene in a different story, one where Audrey has always been the ink demon and this statement would have some emotional weight.

AND MAN LIKE........ ACTUALLY THAT SURE WOULD SHIFT THE TONE OF THIS SCENE, HUH. Maybe that would actually be really good in a different way???? lets think about this

Joey regretted his actions and, just as Allison had seen the good in him, he sought the good in the Ink Demon -- no longer trying to force his perfect Bendy, but just to give it a choice to be something else. And after many many tries, he was able to give the demon a piece of his own soul, make the demon something almost human. That's Audrey. the ink demon can be trans as a treat

aUDREY HAS EVEN BETTER REASON TO BE ANGRY ABOUT THE REVEAL THAT SHE'S THE DEMON

The demon that exists in the cycle is, like Joey, a memory. It's literally a representation of the past, it speaks to Audrey because it's her own memories, and it starts to take over Audrey as a resurgence of her grudges and anger from when she WAS that creature. She has a reason to have conflicted feelings here.

All of Joey's exhortations to not let the past define you, telling Audrey "you don't have to be this" when she becomes one with the demon -- these suddenly actually apply to her instead of just Joey projecting his own baggage onto her. When he says that she's his family and that he loves her, in this version, it wouldn't be just because she's better than his other creations; it's reaffirming that a love he'd failed to show for a long, long time still applies even when she's big and weird and angry. That family is more important than perfection. It's a resolution, finally, to one of his biggest failures in BatIM.

It would change the scene tremendously; Joey could say a lot of the same things and it would have more genuine emotional weight because it's no longer him ignoring and dissing the ink demon in favour of this shiny new person who makes him feel a lot better about himself, but him specifically refuting how he'd felt before, and saying "I love you so very much" to someone who maybe... really needed to hear that, actually.

The struggle between Audrey and the Demon also becomes emotionally relevant -- it's her grappling with whether she's willing to reset things, or to fall into the same cycle of mistreatment.

Other potential benefits to this change:

Baby Bendy showing up at the end has weird vibes when you know that it's a form the Ink Demon was forced into as a prison, actively doesn't want to be in, and escapes whenever possible... but if the Ink Demon is a representation of Audrey's past resentment, it seems a little less troubling that he could become the cute cartoon once Audrey is at peace with who she is and how she came to be.

If Audrey explicitly has a piece of THE SOUL OF JOEY DREW within her, then there is an immediately intuitive reason why Wilson would need her in order to control the Ink Realm -- and also why she realises that it's hers to influence in the end. I think you could already sorta headcanon this with what we got, but with how important souls were in BatIM and DCTL, it'd be nice to have them come up again.

Anyway I think that's.... enough for this post. Some Joey thoughts and AN AUDREY AU I GUESS!!!

[a-strange-inkling]

Hellcheer AU Week: Mythology

(cw: referenced abuse, implied ed/starvation)

The minor goddess shivered when she felt his presence, when she felt the faint ghost memory of his touch sliding down the thin length of her neck, tentatively sweeping across her bare shoulders.

It couldn’t be…. She glanced up from her melancholy toils, from where she tended to the collapsing blooms that scattered the edge of the meadows. And there he stood in the pale, rosy twilight, hidden in the shadow of the columns that encircled her garden, his dark eyes soft with longing, watching her silently. A slow, nervous smile brightened his handsome face when she met his gaze. He had never ventured so close before, wandered so far from the gate that separated their worlds into her mother’s lands.

Exhilaration filled her lungs, her lips parting in wordless wonder and surprise. Blood coursing through her veins, she looked anxiously over her shoulder to the east to make sure her mother was still far enough away, out in the fields, watching over the bounty as the mortals harvested the abundant grain that fell from their sheaves like droplets of gold.

Seeing that they were safe from her fierce and scathing eyes, for the moment at least, she ran to him across the flush green earth, leaving a trail of small pearly white flowers in the wake of her steps.

“You shouldn’t be here,” she whispered as he enveloped her into him, gathering her up whole into his strong arms, lifting her feet so only her toes grazed the grass. He spun her around, clinging tightly to her small frame. She breathed him in, curling her fingers into the long dark waves of his hair, his warm embrace soothing the heartache that had throbbed so painfully in her chest all these days and nights without him. Oh what has happened to me? What have you done to me? She thought to herself, overwhelmed by that heady, addictive scent of smoke and amber that wafted off of him.

You’re all I think about.

“I was so worried… I had to see you.” he rasped gently, burying himself into her soft golden tresses. “You didn’t come back and I thought—”

“Forgive me, I couldn’t get away.” She felt hot tears stinging in the corner of her eyes, picturing him alone in their clearing, waiting for her in vain. During their early encounters in the forest, when he was no more than a kind stranger, she had told him not to wait for her longer than an hour’s time, for that meant she was unable to escape her mother unnoticed. “I’ve felt so awful, so...”

Alone. So horribly alone.

She swallowed thickly, trying to explain herself. “She—she knows something… She hasn’t let me out of her sight day or night, if not for the harvest she’d—”

He gently pulled away, but did not let go of her, palms pressed firmly against the small of her back as his gaze traveled over the length of her body before searching her eyes. Her vision misted over as she watched him study her. She knew she must look gaunt and thin to him. Weak. Ugly. His jaw locked up as his thick brows drew together, pushing back her hair that hung like a shroud over half of her face, going still when his eyes fell on the faint rouge marring her pale cheek.“…Did she do this?” he asked, his voice low and strained, reaching forward to brush his rough fingers over the inflamed skin as he studied it, making her wince. “Did she hurt you?”

“…I-I spoke out of turn.” she murmured nervously, the well overflowing, silvery tears spilling freely. “I shouldn’t have—”

“No,” he breathed, a shadow falling over his eyes as he lifted his palm, caressing her face tenderly between his hands, the calloused pads of his thumb wiping away her tears. “She should never.”

“She’s my mother.” she reminded him, her gaze falling.

“That’s no excuse!” he cried out, a rare anger flaring up inside him. “You are her daughter! She is supposed to nurture you, take care of you.”

“Please we must stay quiet— It doesn’t hurt, I promise, it’s nothing. Nothing.” she consoled, tugging desperately at his sleeve. “Please, please come away with me before she sees you.”

With a shallow, unsteady breath, he followed solemnly, letting her drag him further into the cover of the foliage that climbed and weaved along the white stone of the small temple that the mortals had built in her honor. She felt the weight of his heavy gaze upon her shoulders as she led him deep into the shelter of her garden, near the edge of the dark wood where first he found her lost, frightened… dying.

“Have you been sleeping better?”

“Yes…” she lied softly, feeling him entwine their fingers together as he came to walk beside her.

While his medicine, the otherworldly flower he has procured for her, had countered the venom that pulsed though her, quieted the ghoulish creature that resided in the darkest corners of her mind… a new restlessness now caused her to toss and turn beneath the stars in place of her nightmares. One that left a fevered burning beneath her skin, an aching emptiness deep within her body, her soul… a hunger she had never known before.

“Though, I’ve nearly run out of—” she paused when she turned to see a small vial filled with the dark tincture of aconitum in his hand.

She blinked up at him as he offered it to her silently, her sapphire eyes shining in the evening light. “Thank you.” she murmured gently, taking it carefully between her fingers, leaning back against the cold fluted marble that stretched above them.

Was this all he came for? She wondered in disappointment.

“You remember what I said?” he asked, drawing toward her as she examined it. What he’d given her was a blissful sleep in essence or a deadly poison in abundance. The purple plant that grew in the mountains of the netherworld, the bane of the wolf, absolutely forbidden in her realm.

“One drop in a shell of water.” she replied with a shy nod. “I remember.”

He nodded in return, looking a little relieved. “And never more… You haven’t seen him?”

He was the only one who knew of the demon who plagued her, who haunted her dreams, who took the form of her mother, sometimes her long lost father… but they were not themselves… they were twisted and decayed. Wasting.

She knew not his name, nor what he was nor from where he came. Only that he was a dark magician.

A weaver of visions.

“No, the wolfsbane wards him,” she answered quietly. “I can feel him lurking sometimes, but he can't seem to reach me… and when you’re near…” she hesitated as he stepped forward, her eyes falling shut dazedly when he pressed his brow against hers, closing in around her. Heat began to pool in the pit of her stomach.

“When I’m near…?”

“He’s gone.” she sighed, inclining her chin up toward him, wishing he’d come closer still. That he’d hold her, take her, make her his own beneath the heavens. “As though he never existed… It’s all gone. The pain… the loneliness.”

“You must—you must promise me then, promise to find me if he ever returns.” He whispered, his tone pleading, placing a firm hand along her waist, another caressing her cheek.

Her long pastel lashes fluttered as she opened her eyes, staring up at him, humbled by the unguarded adoration and agony that met her in his deep russet gaze. His thumb traced her bottom lip. “I can take you away from here, you know she has no power in my realm… I know it isn’t the surface, but you’d be safe there… with me.”

A faint, watery smile graced her delicate features. He sounded so nervous, so vulnerable. Like a boy. And she was powerless to stop herself from wandering into that impossible dream. Disappearing into the forest with him, finally free of her mother’s chains. “…you risk too much for me.” she told him quietly, looking down at her tiny white feet where hundreds of little crocuses had blossomed beneath her.

The world would burn if she went with him.

“For you,” he murmured gently as he bowed down, eyes lowering to her lips. “I’d risk everything.”

*

@hellcheer-au-week

And some more moodboards of this concept because I can’t stop, and I won’t stop lol

[just-antithings]

Re: ageism in "30yo playing teens" ask.

I think a part of it may be ageism, even if unintentional. Part of it sounds like not knowing much about casting, acting, the general business/industry. I don't know much about the workings of it either, so take what I say with a grain of salt, as I'm only repeating stuff I've heard from people working on movies and shows in one way or another.

Back before most of Tumblr turned against Buzzfeed and still shared a bunch of their videos and listicles, one was about showing pictures of the listicle writer's classmates as teenagers vs adults playing teens, and at the same time, there was a post going around showing Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson when they were 16 and 17 (the ages Katniss and Peeta were in the first book, iirc). People were saying how if 16/17yo actors had been cast, the horror of the book's setting would have showed through much more in the movie.

An issue that got brought up but never got as much traction as the OG posts was that in THG movies, there's a lot of physical demands for the actors. Even taking stunt workers into consideration, those demands would be harsher on a teenage body than one in their 20's.

Another issue, which anon had brought up was that when you're (general you) 20-30, physical changes are more subtle compared to, like, 15-25. So because of how long it can take to film everything and get the end product out to theatres/streaming/etc, especially for a series, some rewriting will likely be necessary to explain why 16yo character played by 16yo actor looks so different in movie 1 vs 17yo character played by now 19yo actor in movie 3.

I haven't watched much of the Unfortunate Events series on Netflix, but there was a joke to explain this between seasons, something like "It feels like we've been sitting on this bench for so long that Sunny* aged a whole year" (I don't remember the exact line).

*Sunny is the youngest of the three siblings and is supposed to be about infant/toddler. Iirc, she didn't start taking her first steps until partway through the book series.

And in Game of Thrones, I remember seeing articles when S1 finished airing, positing if any rewrites or rushing to film more would be needed, since characters like Sansa and Arya are young (14 and 10 respectively I think?), but they'd of course get older when their characters stay the same age longer than they do.

An issue I don't always see, though, is about Acting Experience. Acting is a skill, and like all skills, requires practice and experience. Yes, there are child and teenage actors that do very well and blow audiences away, but this is not the norm, just like it's not the norm for a 5yo to compose a minuet like Mozart did. And depending on the budget, the kind of vibe they're going for (in some media and genres, you can get away with not-great acting compared to others imo), etc, casting directors might prefer 30yo actors who can act well compared to teens who can't.

And this isn't even taking to account labor laws and problems there have been with kid actors, as that's a whole other thing and not one I feel like I can talk about, since that's something I know even less about compared to what I already said.

.

[rfaromance]

hello! I'm new to ur page, so i know ur taking time off for health reasons (get that rest bae take care of urself) but i was wondering if u could do a hc about how the RFA would react to a metalhead/heavy goth mc!! I've been playing the game again but it's weird being a heavy alternative enby and being compared to rika lmfao. thank u so much if u end up doing this one!! ♡

Yoosung is the one who immediately gets roasted for comparing you to Rika. "It's not about appearance!" he'd whine. "I don't even know what they look like beyond this profile picture!" Even when you're gushing about the latest release from your fave heavy metal band and going on your latest (valid) anti-capitalism rant, he would still be enamored. "It's their heart. They have a good heart that wants what's best for good people." Rika is a state of being, an ideal, a concept he has put on a pedestal to help him cope with his grief. He thinks the fact that you have more piercings than Rika is neat, actually, and may want your help the next time he touches up his roots.

Zen finds you to be a kindred spirit, of sorts. Someone who goes against the grain, against how society "expects" people to behave. Ever devoted to his friends, he may actually start acting overprotective! He knows he got into a lot of trouble as a teen, and he doesn't want you to make the same mistakes. You may have to gently remind him that just because you dress a certain way doesn't mean you act a certain way, and that stereotypes don't benefit anybody! (He quickly apologizes and goes back to being his usual self, but he will dote on you quite a bit.)

Jaehee of course is one of the people reprimanding Yoosung for comparing you to Rika. Some may think that someone as straight-laced as Jaehee, a top student and hard worker, may look down on alternative folks. On the contrary, she admires you! When growing up, she always worked herself to the bone and kept quiet, behaving in a way that wouldn't inconvenience her aunt & uncle. She actually wishes she could express herself more instead of just plowing through school and work to land a well-paying job, all in the name of "not being a burden." Maybe you can teach her how to be more comfortable with herself and her own wishes and desires, instead of following the path that she (and capitalism) thought was "best" for her.

707 thinks you're super cool. Genuinely. For starters, you're going to have him reflecting a lot on his own gender identity. He knows he loves dressing in women's clothes, but he also has days where he wants to be a strong & handsome man. The idea that he can be both or neither... Sorry, he's going to be having a Talk with his new nonbinary bestie. He's also going to want your help with his makeup. Oh, my goodness. He's going to look at the bands you're into and look at your own appearance and go, "Teach me eyeliner. I am begging. I will get on my knees and beg." Much like Zen, however, he will worry a bit. He knows you're a kind soul, but he also knows his agency (and others like it) are quick to prey upon those who feel they don't have a place in the world. "Don't answer any phone calls from strangers, you hear?" (As if you weren't led to the apartment by a mysterious text in the first place....)

Jumin is another one who people may expect to be judgmental or critical. Instead, he's fascinated. At first you may feel like a bit of a guinea pig or science experiment with the way he just flings questions at you, but it's his way of expressing his interest. Jumin is someone who doesn't openly talk about his interests because apparently, a perfect CEO-in-line isn't supposed to enjoy the nuances of dark magic, the supernatural, or reality shows where cats compete to see who can carry the heaviest fish. Your openness and unapologetically being yourself will catch his interest. He cares about you a lot.