#like it didn't really matter much he wasn't much of a threat but dude it was cool and that's all that matters

[retro-system]

BOWSER JR'S PAINTINGS IN THE CREDITS OF BOWSERS FURY WAAAARFGHHH o(-(

[running-with-kn1ves]

MASKED INTRUDER PT 3 I BEGGGGG, ugh, clingy inexperienced yandere + language barrier + overeager and aggressive + needy needy needy, He is perfect! Honestly i had a spiral and came straight here to read my comfort fics and i forgot how much i loved that one 🥺 leooooo

A/N: Still not sure what I should do about Leo's origins; I've had some thoughts but nothing really planned out. Anyway thank you lots anon!

Here's Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 Word count: 2400

TW: Possessiveness, jealousy, threats of murder, razor blades, average creepy dude living in your walls behavior

Synopsis: An unexpected guest comes over, causing chaos to ensue.

The sensation of soap under your fingernails and warm water running down your forearms was one of comfort that you openly welcomed. You couldn't remember the last time you took a bath, and you could hardly count this bathing of your 'roommate' as a bath of your own.

But with your shirt soaked and your forehead damp, you finally had what could be mildly considered a clean version of Leo.

He begrudgingly sat on the cool tile floor, allowing you to ruffle his hair with a bath towel (which was really a poor attempt to manage the mess of loose, lengthy curls on his scalp.) He needed a haircut for sure, but you couldn't muster up the courage to put the scissors to his head. 

Getting him out of the house to an haircut appointment would never happen. To say he was agoraphobic was a complete understatement-- he abhorred the outside world. You sometimes think about what would've happened If you hadn't taken pity on him, allowing him to continue to find refuge in your tiny home. Or, was it perhaps he was allowing you? Until, he found that you wouldn't suffice as a worthy roomate any longer, disposing of you like he could've done to whoever originally owned this home. The mystery surrounding his origin that he seemed to completely ignore answering on still made you… cautious.  

He still felt like an extension of the house; the smell of its creaky, rotting walls, still always clinging to him-- even now, after you scrubbed him down from head to toe twice. 

You grunted as you roughly tugged his head back and forth to rub the remaining water away. Unfortunately, that left you with a frizzy Leo with more hair spun out of control than you knew what to do with. 

He blindly searched for the towel behind him without turning his head, yanking it away when he felt it in his fingers. 

"Do it myself…" he mumbled croakily, like a rusted music box. 

"Alright." You said, slightly offended. You held your hands in front of you dramatically, watching Leo wrap himself with the towel.

He looked so frail like this, on the bathroom floor with his knees pulled up to his chest. His scrawny frame hardly gave him any weight either, even if he was above six foot. You wondered if he really could hurt you, if-- he ever had the urge, to stab you with the rusty razor blade you watched him grip after he came out of the walls once company left. 

How long would it be? Until he snapped,  until one argument was just too much, and you were no longer his favorite person in the world. Tonight was one of those nights, where you imagined yourself bleeding out on the floor, Leo standing above you with that blade, or perhaps a knife from the kitchen-- the one you noticed had gone missing a few days prior.

Your fear wasn't out of place despite how many times you tried to rationalize how stupid it was. 

Several hours earlier, before Leo was as clean as he was now, you had a guest over. 

It was an old university friend, a guy you met in your first year during some odd end prerequisite or math class-- You couldn't remember. But it didn't matter, at least not to Leo. 

The moment the "intruder" sat down, you heard Leo's presence shift behind him. You could see his black eyes peering in and out of the holes in the dining room, sounds of his sporadic shuffling echoing throughout the house. You cringed everytime your friend looked up and around himself in confusion, curious of the noise. 

"It's just rats," you cover, kicking the wall behind you with a force that should've knocked down the drywall. The sound of Leo letting out a thump of retaliation nearly made your smile crack.

 You had rescued your university pal several times over the course of that night, finding the dead bugs in his drink before he could've noticed, and shutting Leo back into his hiding spots anytime you saw his hand or leg peek through, when he occasionally got the courage to try and dispose of the 'threat.'

It wasn't until your guest had asked to use the bathroom however, that Leo managed to gain a win. Cursing and yelling from the locked door made you panic, the few minutes of silence in the living room having seemingly tricked you of peace. You should’ve known that silence never meant a good thing. 

Sprinting to the bathroom, you got there in time to find your old friend covered head to do in dust and dirt, the bathroom vent still emitting a cloud of grey. Dust fell from the vent, spraying with the blow of the air conditioning. 

"Stop!" You screamed, kicking the back of the bathroom wall multiple times in retaliation. The dust immediately lessened, flecks still falling into your hair. You grunted and cursed, seeing the disaster your bathroom had become and the filth your friend was left in. 

It was safe to say you escorted him quickly out thereafter, blaming the “malfunction” on your worse for wear vent ducts. His confused expression lingered as you walked him out the door. Your horrible cover ups had you questioning whether or not he was convinced but thankfully there seemed to be some sort of unspoken understanding-- maybe he knew you had to be going through something from how odd your behavior was all night-- or maybe it was just misplaced pity.

 Either way, you were relieved to watch him exit the door with a washcloth you knew you’d never get back, telling him to be safe on his way home with a wry smile. 

Shutting that door was the biggest relief ever. The last person you'd want to know about your odd roomate situation was one of the few people in the world who had preconceived standards of you. 

You had never worried about Leo when you had groups of friends over; he never dared to leave from his hiding spot when more than one foreign person entered the house. But this time, it had been a single unknown entity, and a male one at that. You felt the realization hit you directly in the gut as your back laid against that cool wooden door, the sounds of Leo leaving one of his more trickier, less clean hiding spots echoing in the house.

"Leo?" You called out, a slight inflection of annoyance in your voice. 

You watched him crawl out of the large vent in your hallway, the metal grate coming off as two dirty hands forced it to the floor. Leo shimmied his way out of the tiny crawlspace, clouds of dirt coming with him as his legs finally came free. 

Scrambling up, the male blew dust out of his mouth, wobbly getting to his feet. With a sly glare and a satisfied expression, Leo looked towards to you silently; smugly. 

Pinching his ear and dragging him to the bathtub had been your first approach at reprimanding him; but it had done nothing to deter him. Leos silentness and resentful, pouting face left you to scold a brick wall, his rigidness extending to his body's heavy limbs and sluggish pace. 

Even now while slowly rubbing the towel back and forth on his scalp, his face turned away defiantly. 

A quiet moment passed as you watched him scrub himself dry. 

"I just… I don't understand why you have to act this way." 

Leo stopped. His head had been hanging low, thin wrists resting on his knees as water droplets rolled down the ends of his hair. His hand-me-down stretched pajamas covered his chest and thighs. You never thought an old pair of basketball shorts and a faded grey shirt would look so good on him, but you couldn't help to linger on his fingers and the curve of his neck muscles. 

Without warning Leo stood up, pushing off the ground with one hand as he held the towel loosely in the other. 

"What're you doing?" You question.

He wouldn't face you; his mask prosthetic was left on the edge of the tub, and without it-- well, it was impossible to make eye contact with him.

Leo reached for the light witch next to the shut bathroom door, flipping it without a word.

As soon as you saw him pull the light switch the color drained from your face. 

You didn't speak, waiting in the dark to see what Leo's next move would be. Maybe he hid that Razor blade somewhere in his clothes, and was aiming it at you right this second. 

"If you're gonna--"

"Shh." A voice hushed. 

The warmth of flesh was pressed against your lips. It was a finger; hot breath fanned above you,  the finger on your lips turning to a hand that cupped your cheek. Your face was held so securely, being tipped upwards as he stood leering above you. The bathroom was quiet save for the dripping of the bath pipe, and Leo's heavy breathing. 

Leo reached for you, awkwardly climbing atop your lap. He stumbled at first, but the way he curled his arms around your back, you felt like you couldn't let him go.

His nose nestled into the crook of your neck, crumpling into you like an animal looking for warmth. 

"I don't share…Don't like it.." he mumbled.

"What?"

"Things, my things.." He started, the sounds of his labored breaths hitting your ear. "Don't like it when… strangers touch… my things."

"Wai--Leo!" 

You couldn't help but search for his eyes in the dark, doing a happy little wiggle with him in your arms.

"Your voice has improved so much!" You beamed. He hadn’t spoken since the incident, and before that-- well, it took a lot to get him where he was.

“See, I knew pushing you would pay off.” You beamed, gloating in the feeling of success after remembering all the painful vocabulary lessons and hours of his stubborn behavior when you refused to answer his nonverbal pleads. 

Leo’s quietness as you pinched his ear beneath his fluff of loose curls gave you time to snap back to reality-- remembering the words he just spoke. Leo basked in the praise, gripping onto your damp shirt as he ignored your change in expression. 

The obvious possessiveness made you nearly cringe; this is exactly what you were trying to avoid. 

“But Leo, I’m not just yours- I’m everybody’s. There are other people my time has to be shared with--”

You were cut off with the flick of an all too familiar razor blade, twirling in Leos fingers.

“Then….I’ll kill them.” 

“....Kill?”

Leo leaned up, bringing his face closer to yours than he’d ever done before.

“I… wanna kill. Him. Kill….all of them..” His eyes were wide in the dark, and you could see the faint outline of the scars running down his face. You stared hard into his eyes, witnessing the fear and paranoia in them. “They’ll take.. You away. He will.” His throat was getting raspier, more raw. 

“Leo, you know you can’t say things like that..” You softened. He sounded so small, you could hardly believe his words. But in the back of your mind, alarm bells and bright red warning signs were going off. 

You reached for his face, hoping to hold it in your hands, feel the warmth of his skin. But Leo stopped you, holding your wrists. He rejected you from touching his face, again; had things truly changed? Had you made any progress with him?

And like clockwork, Leo reached for his mask, by the bathtub, sitting comfortably on your lap as he faced you. 

He adjusted the prosthetic on his face, resting it snugly as the back clipped. 

“You really wanna stop me from kissing you that badly?” You joked. 

But then the mask was lifted, just slightly, as Leos lips came closer for yours. Now that you brought the idea up, he wouldn’t let it go. 

“Kiss..” He mumbled, trying to reach for your face.

“Ah ah,” You waved a finger at him. “Don’t think I’m going soft after what you just said.” Leo let you push your two fingers against his lips, puckering them. “We’ve talked about this; what did I say?”

“Killing is….it is,” 

“It’s wrong, Leo.” 

“Its.. wrong.” He whined, bringing your other hand to his chest. He didn’t want it to be wrong, he wanted you to let him run wild and do what he knew he needed to do--”

“Promise me, Leo.” You pulled your hand slightly away. “Promise me you won’t.. Hurt anyone. Okay?”

He went quiet, letting a small grunt out as you kept pulling away the longer he stayed quiet. 

“Say it.”

“Fine… okay.” He croaked. 

You went limp and let him hold you close to him, his face leaning close as he looked for your approval. 

“Kiss..?” He mumbled again, following where your head turned to catch your lips. 

“Only because you’re finally being good..” You let him grab your chin like a cat pawing at you, his other hand nestled into your hair. “But you really don’t deserve this, especially after toni--”

You were cut off with a hungry lick, Leo’s mouth twisting against yours as the mask bumped against your nose. He lifted it just a bit higher, concealing only half of his face as he leaned deeper into you. His mouth was as warm as usual, but you could feel his warn down jealousy still through the rush of his lips.You wondered if you should really be rewarding him now after all he tried to pull. 

 A guttural purr released from his throat when he broke free from your mouth with a huff, running his hand down your back. He tried to pull your hair out of your face with his free hand, leaning for another kiss. 

“Wait Leo,” You put a hand in front of your lips, the other out with your palm up. “Give it to me first.”

Leo let out a dramatic sigh. He sat for a moment, stubbornly waiting to see if you’d really push him or let it go. 

“Come on now,” You beckoned with your hand. 

Huffing with frustration, Leo took as slow as possible to pull the razor blade from his pants.

[hazbinhazmeinachokehold]

Sorry if I’m a bother, if that’s the case feel free to skip over this one.

I freaking loved it! I’m now inspired to draw Sam with the overlords now! If it’s not too much trouble could I ask for Zestial, Charlie and the rest of the hotel’s reactions to Sam?

(Ooo!😳 what if for Angel’s it’s Valentino who tries to hurt him?! That could get messy!)

A/n: Nah dude you're fine! Though I don't write for Zestial (not that that's your fault I keep forgetting to put that in the rules.)

Warnings (?): nothing major happens but Val's here so warning for abuse. Also, Alastor is hurt in Husk's part and Val is hurt in Angel's part, it's nothing graphic but if you don't want to read about that skip those parts.

!!!not proofread!!!

Charlie: Just as cuddly as you! Gladly accepts any candy from you. She ends up getting candy from the hotel for you. Let's you tag along if it's safe (or at least what she assumes you can handle.) Despite being the princess of Hell it's a known fact that she's a pushover and usually refuses to use her powers. So it's not that much of a surprise when someone attacks her. What is a surprise is how you react. I'm going to be honest, she is at least a little scared of you now. Though she's pretty sure you'd only attack people when they hurt your friends. We’re about 80% sure they're harmless.

Vaggie: She ain't too keen on cuddles, but isn't totally against it. She's not great with kids when they're just chilling so she doesn't know what to do. Also, she isn't one for sweets but appreciates the gesture. You remind her of Charlie in a weird way (but like platonic obviously.) Vaggie got some crayons for today's bonding activity when some random sinner attacked Vaggie. Before Vaggie could defend herself the sinner was ripped off of her. She just stared dumbfounded as you took care of the sinner. Well, there goes her thinking you're like Charlie. I mean sure you seemed sweet when somebody attacked a person you liked. You became terrifying and did anything to defend them- wait never mind you're more like Charlie now.

Angel Dust: Kinda creeped out by you before you do anything tbh. You follow him around nearly everywhere and keep offering him candy, despite barely knowing each other. But he understands you're a kid and may have a hard time showing you care, but he sets a ground rule: NEVER follow him to work. It's not a place for kids to be, and you followed that! Valentino just couldn't keep his hands off Angel even out of the studio. You too were just at a park, it was night so no one was really around. Until Valentino spotted Angel, you didn't hear any of the words that were said between them. But you did see Valentino hit Angel and that was the end of that. Seeing you almost kill Valentino was horrifying but also very cathartic. After the initial shock wears off you get about 20 bags of candy and however much cuddle time you want.

Husk: He's pretty blunt about finding you off-putting. But you don't seem to care and still follow him around like a lost puppy. The fact that him insulting you didn't sour your opinion of him even a little bit concerns him. So he starts to look after you. Not because he cares about you! Just because it'd be messed up to let a kid get manipulated no matter who they are. He totally cares about you. He gives chocolate milk or any sweet drink you like at the bar. One day Husk decided to stand up to Alastor which seemed to be a huge mistake on Husk's part. It would have been if it wasn't for you walking in on the scene. The threats were made good on. Just towards Alastor instead of him doing them. Husk is a little shaken up but hey he's probably free now. Gets you any candy you want and shows you a shit ton of card tricks.

Niffty: Tbh I don't have much to say about her. She finds you interesting but doesn't give you much thought. Though eventually when you protect her she returns your affection. Because you are scary and small which are both things she is.

Sir Pentious: (this is while he's in hell btw) Not great with kids. Like I don't think the egg bois are kids but even if they are the only experience he has with kids is his minions. But he does try! He does care for kids. He'll get you candy and cuddle if you want. He used to try to take over territories a lot. He always failed but he still made a lot of enemies that way. So when one of them finds him and tries to hurt him while you're around? I mean if he still wants that territory he can definitely take it now. To be honest I think he'd find you cool, even if you're more than a little scary.

[gleefultogo]

page 893 & 894

Alright. so can't ignore the elephant in the room. but what the actual fuck where these two latest pages? First of all the most down played and terrible explanation on why your quote on quote father is "damaged" like i'm sorry but ronja's daughters are gonna be young adults very soon at some point and she had't told them about ranach yet? like girl what were you waiting on. this entire convo was long overdue and kique rushed it so fast and swept it under the rug to get it over with, it's so poorly executed. fucking vandi, kargo and ferah could 100% vouch for her explanation on why he's so terrible. cause no rogio doesn't count, he enabled his actions and did stuff for him. he's just as bad and their relationship wasn't toxic unless proved. I wouldn't trust rogio as my damn uncle as far as I can throw him. again fuck that guy lol. but anyways, vandi is technically their grandmother now, this entire convo should of at least been a decent amount of pages maybe 4 at most instead of just saying "oh he killed people" like he did way more then "kill" he raped and should have an eye awakening of the past tribe living and how he manipulated their own mother. naeva's reaction is bit bratty when I first read this page, and honestly I thought she was stupid. as she rather listen to her own morals then her mothers over a father she never met, it doesn't matter as he has never been around in their lives for her to give a shit about him. also how is naeva gonna know its her father? does her mother have a fucking picture of him somewhere? she never stated his color or anything specific about his character appearance. since these dogs are apparently clearly aware of color and markings. though in a small degree, i kinda agree how she is reacting? she's still being a bit of a bitch honestly. but because her own mother refused to give her a detailed explanation and have her daughters truly understand why he's a "big threat". i feel like she could of easily said their father died or something if it mattered that much to her that she doesn't want her daughters to truly end up seeking him. I just feel, now that we might have this anti child turning evil motive that doesn't really make sense? there's really no real reason for them to switch sides and betray their mother if that's a possibility other than to just appease ranach since he can manipulate thats about it. it'll just be for dramatic useless tension. anyways... so instead of ronja being a parent and not going after her own daughter to try and talk some sense into her as this is a vulnerable topic for both of them now. instead we get the worst and dumbest transition in the next page. its night time now and what does ronja do? well instead of again reaching out to her daughter. deer dog pops up into her tent and well they basically have sex. we are once given the cycle that sex cures everything and holy shit i don't know how she can be in the mood for that. like omg just talk about your problems for once without fucking each other. also idk what deer dog means by "tender soul" my dude you barely been around her kids, every-time you were on screen you were either by ronja or standing in the background. I doubt you know what her daughter is like and just exactly know how she'd react. but honestly if naeva sneaks off or goes searching for her father. gotta say it's ronja's fault at that point cause she didn't give a care enough about her own daughters safety and rather get bonded. also off topic kinda, but I keep seeing people claim that naeva as the "black pup" is it just me? I don't see her as black in color, unless my eye sight is really bad and I dont know it. but I honestly have been confused by it. I'd consider her dark toned comapared to her sisters. but not black color wise.

[capricornsims]

Some headcanons featuring screenshots from my Sims 3 Strangetown game.

PT9 and Jenny met in 1985. Based on the Sims 2 memories, she found him drowning in the pool since he dived head-first into the shallow end. While everyone was running away in fear - she rescued him and fell in love at first sight. PT9 vowed loyalty to his savior and gifted her with knowledge about Sixam.

Jenny and Lyla were roommates until she married Buzz Grunt. She doesn't get Jenny's attraction to PT9 but she was supportive. Meanwhile, Jenny tried her hardest to break up Lyla and Buzz because she deserved so much better!

The Curious Brothers were forced to cut contact with Jenny since she 'betrayed' their father by marrying PT9 ( valid honestly - thinking about it makes my head hurt )

Pascal having Tycho brought the family back together.

5. Glarn was an emotionally absent father who paid no attention to his kids. Pascal was Glarn's favorite which was why he went to private school. He was also responsible for looking after his younger brothers when they moved out.

6. Pascal is " Well achually" incarnate. He loves to talk about theories and science. Aliens and Astro physics are his hyper fixation

7. Vidcund and Lazlo spend their time joking about how Pascal takes himself way too seriously. They were best friends throughout school and Vidcund was the one who helped Lazlo get his degree.

8. Lazlo is a genius, he passed school with no effort because he was just that smart. Glarn didn't see his genius because he was too busy scolding him for being messy.

9. Lazlo takes Vidcund out to hang out with his friends and works overtime trying to set him up on dates so he can get over Circe.

10. The Curious Brothers weren't that close - and often butted heads but since Tycho was born they are closer than ever. ( UNTIL VIDUND SOLD TYCHO)

11. I know Vidcund was mind-controlled, but imagine if he wasn't. He's in serious debt and these blue aliens offered him like a billion dollars if he sold his nephew. The Dudes in Black wanted to run experiments on him idk.

12. Pascal never really recovered after his kid was stolen and was overly protective of Tycho. Tycho grew up anxious because of the overarching threat of being kidnapped again.

13. Olive Specter is not a serial killer (allegedly) - she just has really bad luck, but she kept up the bit so people would leave her alone! She is really superstitious because she's connected to the supernatural. She makes good luck charms and ensures that Ophelia is really cautious and wears all her charms.

14. Ophelia has a serious anxiety disorder - partially because Olive raised her to be scared of everything for her own safety. She makes sure Johnny and Ripp don't go under ladders, cross poles, or step on cracks. She gets really stressed out when Ripp makes dark jokes.

15. Olive was a good mom until she was wrongly accused of being unstable which led to her baby being taken away. She tried to get him back but there were too many roadblocks and Nervous was already given away.

16. She loves the Grim Reaper and longs for the day she can see him again. Her partygoer job entails her going to funeral memorials.

17. Nervous met Annie Howell in foster care and they are really good friends to this day. He missed her because she was adopted by her older brother and left alone in the orphanage. 18. Nervous was a constant runaway and ended up in the Beaker's house as a teenager with the promise that he wouldn't have to go back to a group home. Unfortunate :(

19. I like how most people agree on how rude and not nice Nervous actually is. He's standoffish for good reason and gives Vidcund a lot of snark for being into Circe. He's chill with Lazlo though.

20. Nervous is the fun dad, and lets Tycho do whatever they want. Meanwhile, Pascal is pretty strict about his schooling ( which doesn't matter because Tycho has alien intelligence) and being safe. 21. Tycho grows up to follow in Pascal's astrophysics footsteps, mostly to build a ship and hunt down his Pollinator dad.

[jadeylovesmarvelxo]

Complicated

Eddie's Version. Part two 💕💕

Will be breaking this up into two parts, purely because I love the drama and wanna make Eddie suffer a lil bit ;)

Warnings: Angst, Eddie is painfully slow at realising his feelings. Wayne makes an appearance. Jealousy.

Don't copy, reuse or repost my work.

❤️

Eddie felt like an idiot. He couldnt believe the stupid shit he said to you. Him and Chrissy had gotten into another fight because he's been so fucking pissed off.

Pissed off at himself for what he said to you.

He doesn't understand what's wrong with him? Ever since he saw you with Steve, picturing you sleeping with him it's like there's some fucking monster inside of him.

"What does it matter to you who she sleeps with Eddie?" Chrissy had asked him after he had told her about your fight.

There was no answer he could come up with, Dustin told him point blank that he was a total douchebag.

"Dude, you do realise that you sound jealous right?" the little butthead told him like it was so obvious.

There was no way he was jealous. He was with Chrissy. He proclaimed that he wasn't and Dustin just rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Eddie, Steve told me what happened. It's like you've deemed him a threat because he's been with yn and you hate it"

Once again Eddie had no reply for that and decided to throw himself into apologising to you.

The next day he's at your door, nervous and kicking himself for being a douchebag. What if you didn't forgive him? You had evert right to tell him to fuck off.

Eddie hated the thought of you not being in his life, he adored you and needed to show you how much you meant to him.

You were beautiful to him, he hated that he made you feel so low, what the hell was he thinking? (He wasn't that was the point)

You open the door and look like you want to slam it in his face.

"I'm sorry, I'm so fucking sorry. I was a dickhead and I understand if you don't want to talk to me but I just had to tell you that"

The anger subsides from your features and you soften just a fraction.

"What you said really hurt" he swallows and you let him inside.

"I don't have any excuse princess. Just that I'm so very sorry, you're beautiful, the sweetest person I've ever met and I hate myself for hurting you"

He's barely slept and he's so tired but he had to see you.

"Just no more stupid shit Eddie please. I'm confused enough about this stuff with Steve as it is" he ignores the twinge in his chest at this.

"Do you like him?" he asks quietly and you sigh.

"He's my friend Eddie, hes a great guy. There's this spark between us but it's just physical because he still loves Nancy and I love... You freeze and trail off.

"You're in love with someone?" It's like his stomach bottoms out as he hears this and he fights to keep his tone casual.

"It doesn't matter. He doesn't feel the same way" You blurt out and frowns.

"Well then he's an idiot" he tells you gently and you look away flustered, the tension in the room ratcheting up.

"I'm making pizza. Wanna join me?" you ask and he jumps at the offer. Anything to get away from these thoughts racing through his mind.

❤️

You wish you hadn't come to this stupid party, Eddie was still acting a little weird and you had no idea what was going on in his head. Things were better than they were but still nowhere near what you two were usually like.

Yeah he had apologised profusely for what he said but what the hell was his deal with Steve in the first place? You were not here for it and wouldn't hesitate in calling him out.

Speaking of Steve you wish he was here. At least you would have someone to talk to, Chrissy had Eddie attached to her and you could barely get near him.

When you did see him for a few seconds here and there conversation was stilted.

To your delight Steve and Robin do show up to the party and that helps you relax.

"Who the fuck thought having a party in the woods was a good idea? After all the shit thats happened here?" Steve asks unamused.

You grin agreeing with him and hand out beers for him and Robin.

The sparks between you two were still there but he was right, he was still hung up on Nancy and you were hung up on Eddie.

If it happened again then it was strictly physical and nothing more.

Eddie meets your gaze and downs his drink, his eyes trailing over to Steve then you, he grabs another beer and stalks off and you groan.

What was his problem now? You attempt to follow him and get about half way there when you see Chrissy already by his side and tucked under his arm.

It feels like you've been sucker punched in the gut and you turn away. Unfortunately, Jason Carver is right beside you.

Fuck, you should have went home when you had the chance. He's drunk as hell and way too close to you for comfort.

"God it makes me sick watching Chrissy with that freak" He's unsteady on his feet and you cringe as you smell the alcohol on his breath.

"Don't call him that" you snap at him in no mood for his pity party and him being a shit about Eddie.

"Don't know why you aren't more upset though. Aren't you like in love with Munson or something?" this stops you in your tracks and you stare at Jason. How does he know that?

"I don't... I'm not" Jason cuts off your response and snorts.

"Babe come on? It's obvious. He's hardly going to look your way when he has Chrissy is he?" the way he says this so casually and cruel, it hurts like a bitch.

"Gee thanks" he misses your sarcastic tone and moves closer to you. He's so close you can barely move away. What the fuck?

"Hey, maybe we should hook up. That would show them" You gape at him and move away.

"No fucking way" your reaction causes you to sneer at him and he snorts at you.

"Whatever, doesn't stop the fact that you're never going to be Munson's type and you know it"

Jason walks away but the words linger in your mind, you hurry away having enough of this party.

Steve is at your side straight away, he notices your tears and nods over to Robin.

"What's wrong?" you shake your head and wipe the tears away.

"Nothing, just Jason being a dick" Robin joins you and Steve.

"Yeah, I'm thinking a movie night sounds good about now don't you?" she suggests and you nod in relief.

"Sounds perfect"

Before you leave Eddie jogs up to you looking concerned.

"What's wrong? You're leaving already?" he stiffens as he notices your tears and gently wipes them away. The gesture is sweet and it makes your skin tingle.

"Fine, I'm fine. Just Jason being his usual self. Gonna call it a night" he looks disappointed but nods.

"Kay, I'll come see you tomorrow?" you nod and walk, away, chancing a look back at Eddie who watching you go.

💕

Eddie finds himself driving to your house after the party, he doesn't know if your parents are home so he decided to do his usual routine of greeting you at your bedroom window.

It takes a minute for him to climb up onto the roof. He's about to knock when he hears you giggle and moan.

"Steve"

His blood runs cold and he scrambles away from your window. He nearly falls on his ass as he gets down and ends up kicking over your trashcan.

"Shit" he swears and makes attempts to make a hasty exit but you must have heard him because a minute later your at the door.

"Eddie?" you stand at the doorway in a hastily thrown on robe and his stomach sinks at the sight.

💕

"Are you okay? After earlier?" you ask him concerned and motion him to come in.

He does, his eyes linger on Steve's jacket and his jaw tightens.

"Steve's here" he comments and you can't figure out his tone.

"Yeah, we're friends. What is your problem with him right now? You've been getting on great the last few months"

He stubbornly looks away.

"Friends who've sleep together" he murmurs and you grow impatient.

"Why are you so fixated on that? Do you want the details? How many times he's made me fucking come? How good it feels" you snap.

It's like he comes undone at that point. His expression darkens, his eyes almost black and your body reacts to the sight, it's hot and you're pissed at yourself for thinking this because you're furious with Eddie.

"You know what? Fuck you Eddie. Come back and see me when you have a better attitude" you walk away from him and he gently grabs your arm.

"What?!'' he gazes at your for a second, his eyes trail down to your lips and you freeze.

The air is heavy with tension and he licks his lips, eyes flicking back to your gaze.

He comes to and backs away then he's out the door leaving you in shock. You make your way back upstairs and find Steve at the top of the stairs shaking his head.

"I don't know what his deal is" You reply helplessly and Steve softens.

"He does. He just wont admit it sweetheart. Come on, let's watch a film yeah? Not really in the mood anymore" You agree and follow Steve downstairs.

💕

Eddie slams the door to his bedroom shut, his heart is racing and all he can think is what you said about Steve.

Images of you with him race through his mind and he the pain in his heart triples at the thought of you and Steve together.

Steve making you come over and over again, those moans, you writhing under Steve and saying his name. He can't stand the thought of you with Steve.

He lets out a yell of annoyance and slumps on the bed. What the hell was wrong with him. He hated this.

Uncle Wayne comes into his room and sighs, looking to the door then Eddie.

"Thought you were out tonight boy? You have another fight with Chrissy?" he nods his head and Wayne sits beside him.

"You ever wonder if she's really the girl for you?" he stares at his uncle. Really thinks on the question and struggles to answer.

He hadn't been happy for a while now.

"I don't know anymore. Things have been tense for a long time and then there's yn"

Wayne knows something is going on with you and Eddie right now but he isn't privy to all the details. Naturally he's curious because the two of you are very close.

"What's happening with you two. You not hanging out tonight" Eddie slumps back on the bed and shakes his head.

"She's with Steve" he scowls and Wayne raises his eyebrow.

"Harrington? Those two are together now?" Eddie nods tightly.

"More casual. Of course she would want someone like Steve. He's rich and goodlooking, all the chicks dig him. I get it but I still think of her with him and I don't like it, I've said stupid shit" he swears.

Wayne smiles and realises what's up with his nephew.

"Give yourself a break son. We all do stupid shit when we're in love" he pats Eddie's arm and Eddie jolts up staring after his uncle.

Wayne thought he was in love with you but that was totally fucking impossible right?

Fuck.

💕

[razzledazzlebeach]

I Don't understand the Negan Hype?

After Dead City was announced (which I, for the record, have not seen), many people have argued that if we watch TWD from Negan's perspective, we would think Rick's group were the villains. And that I do understand to an extent. Negan was hurting and guilty over his wife's death, and needed to find a way to survive, so he began to assert himself into the group he was in, eventually declaring himself as leader, just as Rick did in season 2, going as far as saying that it wasn't a democracy anymore.

()

Okay, so they both made themselves leaders for the greater good, I can vibe with that. It's the next bit where this argument gets lost on me. Obviously, they both begin to make calls for the group, and these decisions are where their likeness starts to disappear. Negan would kill and enslave people to show that he was a top dog, and nobody would defy him. Even if he was doing this for survival, it still seems super evil to me. He forced several women to "marry him" (ew) by threatening their lovers. For all Rick said about the group not being a democracy anymore, he still listened to the group and his family, he wasn't forcing them into anything, he just ignored suggestions he knew would get the people he cared about hurt. No matter what, survival in a world like TWD is going to be brutal. One of its biggest themes is that you literally can't avoid killing others (Which we saw with Morgan's entire character arc). But bashing people's skulls in with a baseball bat? really? And we know very well that Negan never actually felt any remorse about Glenn or Abraham, which he practically stated in black and white in S10 EP22. He genuinely thought it had to happen.

()

Another thing that comes up a lot is the mass killing of one of Negan's outposts. "Rick's groups murdered a bunch of people unprovoked just like Negan did." And yeah, those murders were very awful, especially since they had just met the people of Hilltop and had no actual encounters with the dude. They mostly just wanted the stuff Hilltop had to offer, while conveniently taking out a potential threat. Although it obviously wasn't a righteous or correct decision, they way they did it spoke volumes about their characters. They did it quickly and quietly when they were sleeping. But most importantly, even though they were killing those people on the pretext of survival, they still felt sick doing it. They had guilt and regret. They didn't show off or revel in the pain they were causing.

In seasons 10 - 11 he starts to become a likable character, I can see that, I just don't know how people overlook the fact that he hasn't really changed. We saw it when he admitted he felt no regret for Glenn and Abraham, and we saw that when he made Daryl get on his knees and put a gun to his head while admitting he missed the power he had. Of course, he let Daryl go, and saved Judith, and the dog, but a few redeeming acts does not change the contents of a character. That was never supposed to be a turning point for him.

(This next point is slightly out of the blue, sorry for the whiplash, Maggie was just really annoying me in S11)

As much as I dislike Negan, I know that Maggie had no right to expect him to save her on the train in S11. She had literally just told him she would be trying to kill him any chance she got, then was shocked when he didn't try and pull her up. THAT is what survival is, not bashing people's skulls in with glee.

Another point to make real quick, I don't think Negan was ever meant to be a "good" character. Before the apocalypse, he was literally cheating on his wife. Negan is an incredibly complex character and is so interesting to watch, there were many moments when he was loving and cared for others, and maybe he isn't pure evil, but he is still a terrible person, who shouldn't be forgiven.

Anyways, I really want to hear other's opinions on this, I genuinely want to understand him better, please don't take this maliciously or get heated!

Edit: it just occurred to me that Negan used such a classic abuser manipulation technique. Daryl punches Negan, Negan kills Glenn, tells the group they made him do it. "I'm not the bad guy okay?? You made me do this!"

[bonnieisaway]

A really good detail in Scissor Seven that I think not only is really good for world building but also gives the viewer a bit of a hint as to when shit is going down is the way they introduce other assassins, targets, or people trying to kill Seven.

Honest to Christ, can anyone tell me the names of the underpants guy or the bdsm grandma woman. The answer is probably not. I don't think they even have official names but they've been reoccurring characters in the background since season 1. And I think it's really cool they don't have names that are really talked about! Chicken Island is not that small and I think it's a good detail that while Seven knows a lot of people, he doesn't know them all well but regardless they fill his daily life and he cares for them just as much for their mere presence alone. But also in the episodes where they were targets, it's a good detail that they're hardly really named, it's just like, "my son" or "that guy over there" because in the grander scheme of things they pose no threat and they're just some fucking guy.

But on the flip side of this: there is damn near a whole catalogue of characters who were introduced by a name or title and got like, ten seconds of screen time! The entire time Seven is getting chased:

I mean, none of these five say a fucking word and never are talked about again! But they all have such detailed and gorgeous designs and unique and powerful fighting styles that are distinctively theirs. Not a single other character wields the weapon Wusheng does, Single Blade is just fucking cool and I cannot believe they designed and made such a stellar fucking fighting style for a two minute long chase scene, Li Hua is just fucking gorgeous and I love the way she cooperates with the others, and we never see them again! But it's also such a good detail that we don't! We don't need to! Obviously, anyone with a weapon that Seven passes in this point of time is going to pose a danger to him. But for the viewer, there's a significant difference than going "Oh fuck, who's this guy?" and going "OH FUCK, BEHEADING WUSHENG??????" It takes it a step further to illustrate them as these powerful and terrifying threats, and it doesn't even list their rankings on the list, cause what does that fucking matter? Look at them! They're fucking terrifying! I am going to instantly assume a motherfucker named Nightcrawler is fairly high on the list!!

And it's such a good, stark contrast from the other characters I mentioned who were arguably about as powerful or outsmarted Seven at the time but they were justifiably just some fuckin guy that wasn't meant to be intimidating at first sight because it was meant to be a shock and a little funny they overpowered him. And even after they did overpower him they were still just some dude who's there and that's so cool and it's not only such good worldbuilding and detail but it blends the difference between what being powerful meant on Chicken Island and for the current Seven and what being powerful means in Xuanwu and for who Seven used to be. I mean, look at these fucking five! These are five out of every damn killer in the nation chasing him! Imagine what the fuck else is there!

And this dude is such a perfect balance between the two as well - I mean, he's still arguably a threat, but he's unnamed and his outfit isn't as flashy as the others, but he still holds this significance and weight the others didn't because he had a memory of Seven he described. He's still obviously terrified and not that powerful, yet a threat and important!! I just!! It is so cool the way they introduce characters and present them to us!! Aaaaaa!!!

[sequencefairy]

Hi, I hope this is okay to ask. If not, totally okay! I am recently becoming comfortable with my attraction to women and bisexuality. However, I am also in a relationship with a cis man I care about and love very much. Can I ask about your journey and becoming comfortable with your sexuality within the context of your relationship?

Big question, I love it. Thank you for asking.

So, my partner and I have been together since I was 18, which was well before I really started interrogating my sexuality and what that meant for me. I grew up Catholic, with Conservative-leaning family, especially regarding social issues, so I never really knew there were options other than being straight.

Looking back, I definitely had some very intense friendships with girlfriends in highschool that probably should have clued me in earlier, but I didn't know it was an option and I liked boys just fine, so I figured everyone had girls they wanted to sit really close to and whose hair they wanted to touch, and clearly I enjoyed kissing boys, ergo I was straight.

When my partner and I moved in together in my third year of university, that was when I started to wonder about my sexuality and what being queer meant, especially as someone who was and continues to be in love with a cisgendered dude, and is generally monogamous. I looked at my attraction to women and my attraction to my partner, and looked at our relationship, wondering if I was missing something in it, and wondering if I wanted something he couldn't give me. I worried a lot about whether it was like, the seven year itch, or a quarter life crisis brought on by swapping majors in university and narrowly avoiding a nervous breakdown. I wondered if I was just imagining things, or if I was just being influenced by being around out, proud queer people on the regular as part of being a volunteer at the women's center on campus. I wondered if I should say anything, to anyone, or if I should just keep it to myself forever, suppressing the desires I realised I'd been feeling for such a long time, now. I wondered if my friends would still like me. I wondered if I would have to come out to my family. I wondered if my partner would leave me. I wondered if we would survive this revelation I was having about myself.

It was a scary thing to think about. I could lose someone I loved very much and who I knew loved me, and whose life was entwined with mine. But I also knew that he was a good person, and a kind person - I wouldn't have been with him otherwise, so I had to trust that he would see this not as a threat, but as a deepening of our intimacy and so, in the end, I decided I couldn't keep it to myself. I couldn't go on pretending I was something I wasn't.

It's been a journey, really - I had to come out to myself, and then to the people around me who mattered and who I needed to love all of me and not just the most public bits. I came out to my partner fairly early on, and it was a bit fraught! I was worried he'd not take it well - and initially, to be honest, it was a touchy thing between us! We've grown so much as a couple since then though, that now it's just a part of me that he accepts and celebrates and acknowledges.

I still, many years on, struggle with being queer enough because I'm passably straight, and don't outwardly 'Look Queer:tm:' so people just make assumptions. Even though I'm pretty loudly out online, I'm a little less out in real life. I work in a professional corporate setting, my parents are still Conservative, the community I live in is very rural, etc., which all adds up to not always feeling safe to be out and so I maintain my stealth mode a lot.

But, the crux of it all for me, is that my relationship is queer because I am in it. I am queer regardless of who I am or am not dating. I love my partner, and I intend to keep on loving him until we are old and grey and buried, and my being queer is just a part of me as the person who my partner loves. I fell in love with him before I was out to myself, and maybe, in another life, I'd have met a woman I loved first, or figured it out sooner, or or or - but I don't live those other lives, I live this one, and in it, I love him, and he loves me, and I'm queer, and that's enough.

Welcome to the journey, beloved. It's a lifelong one, and we all do it at our own pace. There's no right or wrong way to be queer, there's only the way you are.

[reallytiredartstudent]

I watched the movie a third time. Because I'm Very Normal about this movie and Not At All Obsessed.

And a thing i noticed this time (i don't think i will stop noticing things for a while lol) is how well they did things that other stories normally always lose me with?

.....okay that was very openended, this movie did so much what others didn't lol.

I'm talking about threat-escalation specifically though lol

Spoilers under cut.

Second parts of movies books series you name, often lose me the moment it goes from 'hey I'm new to this thing and damn i gotta save my friends' to 'hey let's go save the world'. Bc idk a lot of the time stories lose the part that actually made them interesting in that transition.

Also i just like the low-threat situations. I like friendly neigbhor hood spiderman that has to save one city and not the world. i like there to be consequences that can't be justified with 'well we all gonna die if we don't do this so it doesn't matter and nothing is on the table besides that'. I like it when the stakes are 'I need to somehow deafeat the villain, not die, keep my job, not jeopordize my relationship with my family/friends/partner etc and this is getting really complicated now'.

But this movie did smth really really interesting by yeah, raising the stakes, but also like. not. It wasn't a thing of 'hey we need to create more tension to show how Serious everything is now and because last time we saved the city lets now save the world'. The threat from the first movie? It just never went away. We just didn't know it.

Like, the first movie was 'let's not destroy the multiverse' and the second movie also has the general theme of 'gotta stop the destruction of the multiverse', but also Miles primary worry is 'gotta save my father'.

Which is the opposite of what normally happens. The threat Miles specifically worries about isn't the destruction of the multiverse. It's his father death. In a way the stakes have been at same time been held up, upped and lowered.

Held up, because 'the multiverse is dying' is still very much a thing.

Upped bc there's a frame in Miles vision about the Spot where like most of the spiders lie dead to the feet of Spot (maybe) implying that even if Miles did defeat him it could lead to all the multiverse being without spiders.

i need to get my hands on that movie so i can actually show what i mean instead of always relaying on my memory lol

Lowered, because Miles main priority currently is his dad. One person. (not that he doesn't want to save them all, but his father is like. A main priorty that nobody else has) and a lot of the time sacrficing ppl for the good of the world is a Thing that i simply don't like in stories, because it often contradicts the original message from 'saving one person is important' and makes it too large-scale and suddenly it is okay that people die, because the world is at stake and nothing matters.

In the same lane, a good part of the movie wasn't a epic battle against a invulernable being. It showed Gwen doing her usual job, Miles doing his usual life (the mf pigeons he avoided to get in his room lol, love to see you growing my dude) and even in the Spidersociety there had been just. Business as usual. Until they all tried to catch one fiveteen year old Spiderling and failed. (That was so good. It was so good. Miley my boy, that was epic)

(Is there any indication for how long the spidersociety exists, actually? Did it really only start after the collider incident in Miles world? gonna have to keep an eye out for that, bc if yes that means that Miguel has one hell of a year or two behind him)

And in the midst of all of that the movie never lost their jokes. It was dramatic and tragic and i laughed tears. The whole theater collectively snorted at scences, winced in sympathy and had a collective outrage at the cliffhanger. A lot of the time when things get serious, get tragic, stories become to heavy and the few light hearted scenes tend to feel forced. But this movie was like. yeah. We're up against the destruction of the multiverse, but Mayday also needs to take a crap and not even Miguel is going to get away from that no matter how stone faced he remains in the combined force of Peter B., Hobie and Mayday.

Another part of the Dramatic Doom Trap has been so easily sidestepped by the movie like its. easy. (It's not. It's really not. I can not emphatize enough how well made this movie is and how often it takes easy traps to fall into in modern media and just bounces around them like they mean nothing.) The threats faced are all consequnces of actions. It's very directly related to decisions that have been made, some by our heroes, others by our bad guys. And therefore the threats are directly tied to the future decisions of the characters. Their internal struggles are not a B-Plot, not a side story. Not a 'oh we remembered that you were teenagers so you have to worry about the destruction of the world and your crush to keep it #relateable' . It's interwined with the main story line, in a way it IS the main story line.

Miles struggle with who he is and who he wants to be is evident in all the layers of his life. In the way he interacts with his parents, his decisions about his future (the whole scene in the counselors office?), the way he treats his villains (cracking jokes about Spot, then the whole thing about 'villain of the week'), his struggle between being Miles, son of his parents, and Miles, the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and how no one truly knows who he really is, the way how this inner conflict comes to a climax against all the other spider-people, how the 'Imma do my own thing' is the answer to a lot of his 'side-struggles' but also directly tied to the very heavy and big question of 'destruction of the multi-verse'.

Gwen's struggle with her father about what is right and what is not is in a way the same struggle she has with the spider ppl about what is right and what is wrong, just on another level and the other side of the coin. The same issues that make her unable to find a band makes her unable to ask for help with the whole Spot-situation at the beginning. The same struggle about right or wrong in combination of her inability to trust, rules/canon or gut feeling, makes it that she doesn't talk to Miles about what is going on, kickstarting a lot of the plot just as much as Miles actions did in the first movie. Her decision, resolving of her struggle, to talk and to take things into her own hands is the same for her band and for her to gather ppl to help Miles, to go against the 'rules'.

(I mean 'creating my own band' is a pretty nifty metaphor for 'following my own rules'/parallel to Miles 'i create my own story')

(Do i even need to mention Hobie here again and how he was the literal embodiment of the whole thing?)

My point is, Miles is not just about to rewrite the rules of the multiverse because that's what the story needs, Gwen isn't just gathering allies because it's very convnient to have support for Miles, both things are direct results of their struggles throughout the whole movie (and the one before that). And that makes it so damn interesting to watch.

Btw shoutout to my friend that i dragged along, that hadn't even seen a trailer and came out of this thing shell shocked and looking like they weren't fully in this world yet (understandable) just to have me vibrating out of my skin next to them finally able to talk about all the things and parallels and theroies that currently dictate my entire exsistence and never complaining once about but only suggesting that we should do cosplay about it. (Neither of us has ever done cosplay).

[tokiro07]

Cipher Academy ch.40 thoughts

[Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow]

NOT KASURI!!!

WE WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE TOSHUSAI OR YUGATA CUT THEIR HAIR TO BE OUR MEDAKA, BUT NOW KASURI GOT RID OF HER BANGS TO BECOME THE TSURUBAMI!!!

Oh, fun little coinkydink, though, much like in this week's Undead Unluck, we're getting a little lesson in character design here: the same way that UU's Rip has a mole under his eye to denote who he is when wearing full surgical gear, we can tell retroactively that Kasuri was designed with a choker specifically so we could identify her once she lost her bangs, as she is pretty much completely unrecognizable without them

Onto the chapter itself, as usual, I am a clown who doesn't voice the thoughts that are actually correct. My immediate thought last week when Iroha said there was someone he wanted to convince was Kasuri, as she was his first friend and she hadn't gotten to contribute much to the story the entire time, so it was weird to me that she wasn't going to be a part of this arc either

The reason I eliminated her as a possibility was because of how Iroha worded his statement, specifically implying he meant someone not in the room. This of course was a rookie mistake, as of course Nisio was going to turn it around like that. That's like the most Nisio Isin thing he's done this entire series, and this is the same chapter he had a girl cut her hair!!!

Funny to consider in retrospect though that Kasuri is not in fact the first girl to get a Nisio haircut; that honor technically goes to Yukako, who we learned about 15 chapters ago now used to have long hair, but that was off-screen, so we didn't count it

I do like this moment for Kasuri, as she made it pretty clear from the get that she had no ambition or self-worth, so her coming to understand that she does have value based on the fact that Iroha wants her around is a nice bit of development for her character, even if we haven't gotten to see how down on herself she really is aside from this scene and her introduction. I would have liked to have it fleshed out a bit more thoroughly, but with the ever-present threat of cancelation, I can't say I don't understand why her character specifically might be a little truncated

I also enjoy that Iroha actively wants Kasuri by his side above the rest of his classmates since she's literally the first friend he made here. Sure, he was on friendly terms with Kogoe first, but regardless of what his thoughts were going in, he definitely knows by now that she's not just backing him because she thinks he's a cool dude. Kasuri, though, was on nickname basis in basically no time at all. They clearly have a level of trust and familiarity that's completely incomparable to everyone else, even considering how shockingly thirsty he is for the other three CLP candidates, so I'm excited to get to see that explored more in the coming arc. Hopefully I'll get to go into more detail on their relationship myself soon, but we'll see

I'm not going to speculate on who the other four teammates are going to be since we don't have much of anything to go on and there's such a high chance of me being wrong, but I won't be surprised if it's basically all girls we haven't spent any time with before, nor will I be surprised if all of them turn out to basically be red-herring characters who were never meant to matter either. Since Kasuri seems to have some kind of sapphic obsession with Botayama, I'm kind of hoping she'll get to come along, but I'm starting to think she might be a gag character, so perhaps not

I'm also not going to speculate too deep into which choice Iroha will make about who he's going to meet with, since both make perfect sense for his character. He's either going to prioritize helping someone in immediate danger, justifying it as what his friend would do or something to that effect, or he's going to prioritize helping his friend, as he can't abandon a friend in need or something like that. In the end, he's undoubtedly going to get to have his cake and eat it too somehow, since these are both plot points that we'll need to address sooner or later, but these specific avenues to reaching those plot points may well be eliminated in the short-term depending on his choices now

Once he makes his choice, I'll probably have a lot more to say on the topic, either based on the explanation he gives or the lack thereof, but for now, it's not at all clear what path he's going to take, so we'll just have to wait and see

[jennawynn]

Discovery Season 1 Episode 9-

Episode 9-

Listen, you never plan to retire or to tell your husband you're going to be able to do whatever he wants after this one last mission/jump. That's when things go wrong.

Time travel or alternate universe? Find out next time!

Episode 10-

Time for a character roundup! on the axes of interesting and likeability...

Lorca- Interesting character if a little cliche, unlikeable. 9/10

Burnham- Interesting character, likeable. 10/10

Saru- Interesting, undecided. 7/10

Tyler- I don't think I like him much. 5/10

Tilly- Not particularly interesting, but likeable and relatable. 10/10

Georgiou- Interesting, likeable, badass, but -1 point for being dead. 99/10

Admiral- Not particularly interesting yet, but has potential. Undecided. 6/10

It's interesting that they have evasive maneuver patterns... It seems like a waste of a good pilot's instincts. The way that the captain has to decide which pattern to use, relay it to the pilot, the pilot has to recall what motions to take for that pattern, and then enact it feels like it would take precious seconds that might be better used in a "It doesn't matter what you do as long as you do something" reaction.

Alternate universe it is!

Michael's hair is always excellent.

Man I knew there was something still shady about Tyler. Fuckin Manchurian Candidate. Dude is not ready to be doing any of what he's trying to do. "I need you to trust me." No. You can't trust yourself, how are you going to expect anyone else to trust you? Tyler and Lorca both, man. Making decisions to protect themselves that can (and certainly will) put others in danger.

Hey Terran Empire, that's the same as the Enterprise's alternate universe.

Hah Tilly's captain. Talk as little as possible. That might be a problem.

And then Lorca does a Scottish voice for the Engineer. :joy: that a Scotty reference?

I like the way they actually show the tech that (as far as i know) got handwaved in other shows. The change of the Discovery's designation by robot, the synthesizing of uniforms and ranks. It makes it feel more scifi vs scifantasy.

Heh they specifically test for Manchurian/brainwashing stuff.

The weird half bob of Tilly's is... interesting.

Damn that was a line... "If you talked to me like that I would cut out your tongue and use it to lick my boots."

OH SHIT. That's not cool! You can't kill the gays.

I don't like the gender neutral 'sir' and I'm not really sure why.

Aww that was the guy I liked? Connor? I didn't recognize him :joy: I didn't actually look at him for long before he died the first time.

lol Tyler and Michael fucking while Lorca gets tortured. Way to make it quick, y'all.

Episode 11

Oh no... they're going to think that Stamets killed him :(

Is that Starfleet assigned/synthesized lingerie or is it Empire? :joy:

Sparing Saru from knowing his counterpart is a slave who waits on her in this universe. :sob:

(I just realized that where Enterprise was bloodless and nobody was Really Dead, I had no hesitation to believe Culbert was dead.)

They changed the way Andorians look (and sound) too?

I don't... I don't know if I don't like this thing with Tyler because he's not convincing? Or if I don't like the arc itself? I'm not sure.

Now that's an interesting moral quandary. The easy route is to let the Terrans execute him- he's a threat and a murderer. But is it 'right'?

UNBURY your gays.

Heh... I called that one. beam him out just in time to beam him aboard the Discovery. Oh nice, she got the chip out too! I didn't see that one coming.

Ha! The Emperor. I kinda figured (how could it not be if Burnham was captain of Shenzou and they wouldn't say who the emperor was), but man what a gut punch for her.

I forget where to put it now, but the Defiant... is that the one that the mirror!Enterprise found in that docking bay? The time fuckery ontop of the parallel universes has my head spinning, especially since I wasn't closely watching ENT.

Episode 12

I didn't like the mirrorverse episodes of Enterprise- they were both too dark for the show they were in and yet not dark enough to be believable.

I do like this arc, though. It feels like it has the right weight and other than the Tyler plot, it feels believable and consistent. The characters are interacting with the world in consistent, believable ways. Maybe it was because in Enterprise, we were watching actors in different characters?

Fixing Stamets and the only way home while also pretending to be a bloodthirsty captain is a lot of pressure for a cadet.

omg. Have my ganglia :joy:

idk why I forgot about what happened to Voq. I guess I assumed he died.

I was trying to figure out why they couldn't pick between turning Klingon into human or overlaying the Klingon personality into Tyler, but I guess I misunderstood. They overlaid TYLER ontop of the Klingon turned human. Man that's complicated.

How weird it must be to hear the man you loved died... from him.

UNBURY THAT GAY.

Ew- a father 'turned more'?

Oh what the fuck. Ok this one I didn't see coming. Wow. I'm impressed. His ruthlessness. His pulling the puppet strings of fate. The light sensitivity. It's rare that I don't have an inkling of a well-designed twist. Well played.

[malusrecord]

~"Jesus fuck dude, you scared me!" (for Jamesssssssssssssssss)

He couldn't deny the fact that he was just glad to HEAR ANOTHER PERSON'S VOICE even if she did sound...mad. Startled, maybe? What was she even doing rummaging around in a dilapidated place like this? What was he, for that matter? He'd hadn't found anything of use here.

"Sorry, I.....sorry." He really can't think of what to say and so James merely raises his hands in what he hopes is placating gesture coupled with him taking a step back towards the way he'd initially come. "I DIDN'T MEAN TO SCARE YOU. I heard...something...so I was just...coming to check it out." It wasn't a lie, per se, but it wasn't the full truth either, likewise James couldn't stop himself from glancing at the woman's shoes as he speaks: Sneakers. Soft, cheap things not unlike the kind he'd seen in droves once upon a time. The steps he'd heard thumping overhead sounded much, much, much heavier....

As if on cue the steps---thick and weighty, strong enough to dislodge a rather sizeable amount of dust from the slowly rotting wood overhead---sound above them, going back and forth with all the slowness of an eavesdropper planning their next move which makes James visibly tense. Whatever---or whoever---it was up there they KNEW THEY WERE BEING LISTENED TO. This threat of knowledge spurns him towards action and before he can fully contemplate it James reaches forward and grabs the woman's arm and tugs. Hard. "We have to get out of here. Right now." Soon they'd be moving across the room. Soon they'd be coming down the stairs. Soon they'd be running after them and--- "Come on...!"

[sacred-stanning]

Chapter 13 Part 4: Not all sword users are created equal

We start up our next turn by having Marisa attack an axe fighter from a forest tile. He has a hit rate of 2 against her, and this is what we want to see since she doesn't have much in the way of defense or HP.

Despite the 39% chance, Marisa doesn't crit. *Sigh*

Tana finishes off the cavalier, Cormag attacks the other cavalier and also doesn't crit. And then I have Franz finish off the axe fighter. If the guy had had a 1-range weapon, I might have left him in the hopes that he would see Marisa's low defense and attack her, but since he has a hand axe, he might prefer to attack someone else, so I just take him out.

(I probably still could have left him though. He wasn't really a threat.)

Also, here's Franz in his new form. I love the little horns on the horse armor!

On the right, Gerik gets attacked, and we get to see our first ally-unit mercenary.

Vanessa also gets attacked. I'm putting this here to show again what her deal is. She can only do 8 damage per hit, but the enemy only has 29 hit against her. She's just really fast, and that's it basically.

Also, here's Cormag getting a level up.

The next turn begins, and Lute destroys the left guy, while Gerik takes out the right one. Then I move Vanessa and Ephraim forward to take on the next incoming group.

Tana and Marisa team up against this cavalier to get Marisa another level.

...goddammit, Marisa

Everyone else moves up like this. I think Cormag was supposed to block Marisa from getting attacked, but I actually left the tile down and right from her unoccupied, so 2-range can still get her.

Enemy phase excitement!

I've always loved this pose that axe fighters hit when they attack in the GBA Fire Emblem games! It's so goofy!

Here's Ephraim being a cool dude and dodging.

And, yeah, remember that tile down and right from Marisa that I forgot to block off, well this javelin cavalier didn't forget.

Oh yes, and in addition to the enemies already here, we've got 3 pegasus knights appearing each turn at the bottom of the map. So here we're already on wave 2.

The funny thing is, they've been equipped with steel lances, which are like 13 weight, but they're still pegasus knights with only 5 con, so they lose 8 speed when they attack, bringing them all the way down to 2 attack speed, and unable to actually double anyone.

Tana and Cormag team up again and get rid of this cavalier.

And then I pray that Marisa finally gets a crit for once.

She does, finally, and she finishes off the guy on her own, which means that Moulder can come down and heal her instead of having to attack and finish the cavalier off, which was the plan if Marisa didn't crit at all and got hit.

Lastly, Seth takes out this armor so that he can go south on a solo mission to the village. None of the chumps down there, and none of the pegasus knights coming in are much of a threat to him.

I have Lute attack this guy from 1-range. He has a hand axe, so he can counter no matter what, and leaving her here means I can put Vanessa next to her while she attacks the cavalier so that Lute and Vanessa can gain support points, and Lute is now in range of that mage to the left, who I know is stupid enough to attack her.

The axe guy only has 26 hit against her, so she dodges his attack anyway.

I realize that Gerik hasn't met his client yet, so he says hi.

Next time: The storm rolls in!

(Selena's Thunderstorm tome, not the rain mechanic from FE7 thank god)

[snugglyporos]

Oh boy! A huge chance for me to say how Alan Moore ruined comics. (Before you start, he wasn't alone, Frank Miller and Neil Gaiman had a lot to do with it as well.)

Alan Moore is the archetype of a certain kind of transgressive person that got really big in the 1980s and 1990s: the sort that likes to crap over everything popular because they're convinced that if something is popular it's bad. These are the guys who gave rise to dudes like Zack Snyder two decades later. People whose lodestar is whether or not people think it's good.

Now, granted, this was pop culture then. It's tired and overdone now. And I would be remiss if I didn't talk about why Moore wrote things like Watchmen and From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, because unlike some authors, Moore has a point, even if I think it's a bad one, and I should engage with that point.

Moore wrote things like Watchmen because he wanted to kill his nostalgia. He specifically, very specifically, wanted to murder his nostalgia, and he wrote what he felt was the most un-comic like comic he could come up with, and that was Watchmen.

One of the things that Moore has expressed in many interviews is that he's never understood why people emulated Watchmen, because to him it was one big expression of his bad mood, and it was his, and liking Watchmen misses the point.

Watchmen is a comic wherein the main point is that you should not idolize people, that everyone who is at the top is in some way morally or ethically compromised, and you really shouldn't valorize those people who are morally uncompromising. People turned Rorschach into the baseline for what they think Batman should be, but that's entirely wrong. Rorschach is what Moore thinks of Superman. He's a morally uncompromising individual who is willing to put anyone and everything at risk if it means standing by his principles, and Moore hates this, and it drives him nuts that people valorize a comic wherein the explicit purpose is that there are no good guys.

Keep in mind, Rorschach is a man who believes that the truth should be spoken, even though he also knows that if he says the truth, there will be nuclear war and everyone will die. The entire purpose of Ozymandias' deception involving a giant alien squid is to unite the planet and steer it away from nuclear Armageddon, because he believes that if humanity doesn't have some kind of outside threat to unite against, real or imagined, that humanity is finished. And it's implied in the comic that he's correct in this assumption, because again, Watchmen is a comic where Nixon is essentially president for life.

The two moral choices in Watchmen are 'tell the world what happened and let them nuke each other, thus killing all of humanity' and 'choose to go along with Ozymandias' plan and create world peace based on a lie.'

And if your response is 'that's really dark and awful' congrats, you understand the world of watchmen, a series where Hooded Justice is a pedophile, the comedian is a rapist, and there is not a single character who is not in some way repugnant.

In From Hell, there's a hugely masturbatory scene where Jack the Ripper sees the future and yells about how fucking small and pointless he is, and about how they all live purposeless, boring, uninteresting lives, and for all that he did, none of it matters.

In League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Moore spends his time showing how 'heroes' are in the end, all terrible people, and that for all the talk of other people idolizing them, none of them are ever happy or good in reality.

Moore, you see, is very much about the disconnect between our perception of things and the reality of things; he's very much aghast that people have heroes and idols and that they worship at the feet of people who wouldn't give them the time of day.

If he rejects something, he rejects the idea that you should write just to write; your writing needs a point in his eyes, it should say something. The idea that writing, or comics for that matter, should just have stories of things happening is to him, anathema.

However, I would be somewhat remiss if I didn't discuss his critique of Tolkien, which is in some ways, entirely accurate, because Tolkien loves him some mythology and loves him some 'monarchy is best' iconography.

He's not wrong that Tolkien wrote stories about what he knew, which was the British Empire. In Middle Earth, the 'true king' is preferable to even the most lightly democratic of systems, and this system is decided by whoever can wield a sword correctly. Elves and Dwarves are openly, fiercely racist towards each other, and yet this is celebrated. In many ways, the whole complaint about 'is it racist for people to hate orcs in your fantasy story' goes right back to Tolkien. If you think Orcs are bad because they rape and pillage and murder things as a racial trait, you're both a racist and you're buying into what most fantasy stories use as their framework. As it turns out, moral absolutes such as good and evil result in bad things! who would have guessed!

I could also use this as a way to point out that Moore and his ilk are responding to things like Jack Kirby's Fourth World, which exists wholly in absolutes, and is also shit for a whole host of other reasons I won't get into here.

But, to circle the point around, Moore is unhappy that people love Rorschach because he's meant to be a horrible person, and he is. He's a character who believes it's better for everyone to die in hellfire than to lie to them, who gleefully tortures and murders people because in his view, things like 'rights' and 'innocence' don't exist. He's basically the same character that is played in every Death Wish movie, the uncompromising moral hero who believes that shooting lots of black people who are protected by the law is a good way to fix society. That's who Rorschach is.

People adoring him and turning him into an archetype is why we now have 'the goddamned batman' and why comics suck now. Alan Moore is a guy who released an idea into the world, and then watched everyone else pick it up and turn his message about not creating religions out of things into a religion.

He's a man who yelled 'don't idolize me!' to a crowd of people who immediately went and idolized him.

His bad mood is one of the main reasons comics suck now. He's one of the core reasons why comics turned away from an underlying idealism that is required for comics to work. Because without that, one has to ask why heroes exist at all, and why if everything is just going to get perpetually worse, why this isn't just a world of villains like in The Boys or anything written by Garth Ennis, a man who viciously detests superhero comics and anyone who likes them.

(side note, I find it deliciously ironic that Ennis, a man who used things like the Boys to crap all over superheroes and people who like them the same way he did with Kick-Ass, will forever be known primarily for his work on superhero comics.)

Alan Moore is a idiot.

[jplupine]

Feral Possession: Chapter 14

Beneath My Skin

Pairing: Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez x Wynter Hughes [Nonbinary OC] Word Count: ~3.7k WARNINGS: 18+ Minors/Ageless get blocked, Exophilia, Demon!Grimmjow, Feral Behavior, Grimmjow being a Terror, Threats of Bodily Harm, Mentions of Masturbation, Sexual Harassment

Summary: Grimmjow and Gary keep butting heads, and Wynter needs to wash the sheets. u-u

You can also read it on AO3!

Masterlist | Chapter 14: 

  It was getting dark by the time I pulled into the driveway. All of the paperwork, all of the questions, it took forever just to get out of that building. Unlocking the front door, I walked into the dark house and heard claws clicking my way.

  "Hey, Dagur." I smiled down at the dog wildly wagging his tail. Taking my shoes off, I had to lean back when Dagur shoved his nose in my face to sniff at me. Going through the house with the dog at my heels, I opened the back door to let him out.

  Glancing around, I noticed I had yet to see the demon. He hadn't been watching TV in the living room, wasn't snacking in the kitchen, and he wasn't in the yard either.

  "I'm home!" I called out in the dark house, but silence was the only answer. The longer the quiet dragged out, the more worried I became. Was Grimmjow hiding because he fucked shit up, or was he just being moody about me leaving without him?

  Checking the office, I saw he wasn't there either, and went to the basement. It was also empty, so I moved upstairs. The stairs softly creaked, and I saw that my bedroom door was closed. Opening the door, nothing was really out of place except for the blankets and pillows on my bed being tossed around.

  "Where the Hell is he?" I mumbled under my breath with my brows furrowed. I was about to look elsewhere, but a head bumped against mine from behind. Soft, warm breath hit the back of my neck, and I turned to see Grimmjow.

  He was in his human form with his hands shoved into his sweatpants pockets. He didn't look angry or upset, so I didn't know why he hadn't come out before now.

  "What's for dinner?" Grimmjow asked while looking down at me.

  "I honestly don't feel like cooking." Pulling out my phone, I checked the time. "How's pizza sound?"

  "'S good."

  "Cool. Did you have a bad dream?"

  "....What?" His brows furrowed.

  "My bed. I assumed you took a nap and wallered all over it." I pointed over my shoulder.

  "Oh. No. Couldn't get comfortable."

  "Oh, okay. So, what do you want for toppings?" I questioned while going down the hall with Grimmjow trailing after me.

  "Chicken."

  "Of course." I scoffed. "Wanna get some root beer too?"

  "Yeah." He replied, and I closed the back door after Dagur came back in.

  "All right. I'll order, then take a shower. You wanna find a movie to watch?"

  "Sure." Grimmjow bumped his head against mine again before heading to the living room. I didn't know why, but he'd been doing that quite a bit lately. I wasn't sure if the gentle headbutting was an Arrancar thing or feline. But with the power of the internet, I could look it up to see if it was a feline thing.

  That could wait, though. Food first.

  Sitting on the couch next to the demon, we were pigging out on pizza as the movie played on the TV. I still wasn't sure why Grimmjow chose to be in his human form, but by now I knew sometimes he just did things on a whim.

  Dagur was curled up on the cushion on the other side of Grimmjow, and the pizza box was halfway on the demon's lap and halfway on mine. By the time it was gone, the movie was nearing its end.

  "....What happened at the Soul Society?"

  "Uh, not much. Filled paperwork, got the third degree, and someone didn't believe my name was Wynter no matter how many times I said it was."

  "And you really didn't join them?"

  "No." I replied while taking the root beer from Grimmjow to take a drink. Handing it back, I raised my eyebrows. "Not that they didn't try even while I was there to recruit me. Just not my scene."

  "Really?"

  "Dude, I barely ever leave the house. They literally send the exorcists out on missions."

  "True." He scoffed.

  "However....I did find something out while I was there." I said while pulling out my phone. "You were right. About it not being a dog that caused my bike crash, I mean. The reason I haven't had problems with demons since then was Uncle Jordan actually did some magick crap on me. Something about making my soul essentially invisible to demons. They couldn't smell or sense my spiritual energy, but when Uncle Jordan died, the spell broke, which is why I now have problems with demons."

  "Makes sense. So he definitely knew about your power that entire time."

  "Yeah. My best guess on why he hid it was to keep me out of that life. The Soul Society takes in kids with enough power to become exorcists, but don't really do much for those with just enough to interest demons but not enough to weaponize. I mean, they'll save them if they're in danger, but that's it." I explained while looking up what I remembered on Grimmjow's headbutting.

  "Sounds about right. Those crusty fucks would leave you alone if there's nothing there for them to use."

  "Oh, that's funny." I muttered.

  "What?"

  "Sorry, just doing a bit of research." I smirked while waving my phone.

  "On?"

  "Headbutting."

  "....Why?" Grimmjow looked at me like I was stupid.

  "Because you keep doing it to me. Says here it's a way feline's scent or mark territory."

  "Oh." He crossed his arms while slightly tilting his head. "Well, your soul is mine."

  "Yeah, but that's not it." I looked at the demon as my brows rose with the amused expression on my face. "It's also a form of affection. Aw, Grimmjow, have you warmed up to me?" His eyebrows deeply furrowed as his eyes widened, and I saw his ears turning pink.

  "No, it's definitely just marking territory."

  "First the cuddling, now this? If I didn't know better, I'd say you're on the track to actually liking me. And that's funny, considering you want my soul."

  "I don't like you. You're annoying, and a pain in my ass!" He growled.

  "Aw, you like me." I teased while bumping his shoulder with mine. "You wanna be my friend, don't you? Look at that, big, bad demon cares about a mortal."

  "I don't!"

  "Your body language says otherwise. You've been headbutting me, what? The past few weeks now?" Pondering out loud, I saw the color deepening in Grimmjow's ears. "When did I get the first letter from the Soul Society?"

  "It's not fuckin' affection!" He growled.

  "Relax, tough guy. It's no different than the cuddling." Putting down my phone, I did begin to wonder if there was truth to it. Was Grimmjow actually softening up? Could a demon even 'soften up'?

  "Thanks for looking over this for me. I'd hate to turn crap in to my boss." Gary chuckled while leaning on my desk as I flipped through his printed-out work.

  "It's no problem. Looks fine so far."

  "So....blue boy at work?" Gary quirked up a brow at me.

  "No, just in his room."

  "Don't you think he should have found a place by now?"

  "He works odd hours, so it's hard for him to find time to look for a place."

  "What do you think happened to make him so angry?"

  "Huh?"

  "You know, why he always tries to piss people off. There's gotta be a reason for it. Think he was actually bullied a lot in school?" Gary scoffed, and I looked him in the eye.

  "You think something bad happened to him to make him like that?"

  "You think he just chose to be an asshole? Not to mention....bright blue hair?"

  "Gary, he didn't-"

  "My hair is natural, fucksticks." Grimmjow's voice came from the doorway of the office. "So stop talkin' shit."

  "Uh, dude. It's blue." Gary made a face, and the demon looked him dead in the eye with a glare before lifting up his shirt and pulling the waistband of his pants down. Grimmjow, to prove a point, showed off the trail of hair from his belly button all the way down to just above his penis.

  I covered my face while sighing. I mean, I guess I was glad he at least didn't just expose himself to Gary, but goodness.

  "....It's blue." Gary now sounded shocked. "How...."

  "Do you need to see more, or is this good enough?"

  "Don't you dare!" I snapped at Grimmjow, and he smirked.

  "You embarrassed?"

  "No, ass. You just don't go showing people your genitals. So no, he does not need to see more." Grimmjow dropped his shirt back down before strolling over to the desk. Out of habit, he pounced on the desk and crouched while looking at Gary.

  "Why were you two talking about me?"

  "Uh, no reason."

  "Say it to my face, shithead."

  "Okay, will you stop calling me names?"

  "No."

  "Now that's just being childish."

  "Says the one talkin' shit without the balls to say it to my face." Grimmjow lowly growled while flexing his hands like he had claws.

  "What's your problem? Why do you always gotta start shit?"

  "Well-" Grimmjow looked like he was going to insult Gary further, but I cut in by clearing my throat loudly.

  "Hello, yes, still here. You two wanna stop comparing and actually figure out why you two don't get along?"

  "Because he's an asshole!" They both said in unison while looking at me, then shot a glare at one another.

  "I'm an asshole? I've tried to be nothing but nice to you!" Gary pointed. "You know what? I'm beginning to think you're just jealous."

  "Jealous?" The demon snorted. "Of what?"

  "You have feelings for Wynter, don't you?" The demon and I both froze for a second, then Grimmjow burst into laughter.

  "You have no clue what's going on!"

  "Oh, really? Then tell me. Because from where I'm standing, you do have feelings for Wynter. Every time I come over, you're up Wynter's ass and snapping at me or literally anyone else that gets close to them."

  "Gary, it's not like that." I sighed. How would I explain that behavior without telling him about how Grimmjow wants my soul?

  "Seriously? You say there's nothing going on between you two, so why is he still here? Why does he act like a damn dog with a bone with you?"

  "Because he's protective. He was close to my uncle, who if you're forgetting, just passed a few months ago. He's still working through his grief, and I'm helping him." I lied, and Gary got a guilty look in his eye. I didn't want to lie, but this wasn't something I could be honest with. I just couldn't.

  "....Oh."

  "However, that doesn't give you an excuse to be a dick, either." I said while glancing at Grimmjow with a warning look. "Now, I'm busy with something, so could you let the dog out?"

  "Whatever." Grimmjow huffed before hopping off the desk. He shoved his hands into his pockets while walking out of the office.

  "How do you handle that?"

  "Give him a snack or something to fiddle with." I replied while flipping the page in the packet I was holding.

  "What is he, four?"

  "Try six." I popped off, but the joke would go right over Gary's head since he was completely unaware of the meaning. "And as for what you were saying earlier, if you think something happened to him to make him act the way he does, talk to him about it, not me."

  "Like he'd talk to me about it."

  "Then is it your business? You don't even like him." I questioned.

  "Well.... No, not really. But still, gotta wonder."

  "I know you mean well, however, he's working through things, and since you want nothing to do with him, it's better to just stay out of it. Who knows, maybe when he's done figuring things out, he won't be such a dick. You might get along then."

  "Doubtful." He made a face, and I shrugged.

  "Can piss-boy stop coming over? I'm tired of seeing his stupid face."

  "No, this is my house. I told you to stay in the room if you didn't want to see him." I said while unsheathing my katana.

  "But he even says the most annoying shit." Grimmjow grumbled, smacking his hands together before slowly pulling them apart as his own sword formed between his palms. "Don't you get exhausted listening to that crap?"

  "What crap?"

  "All of the crap."

  "I honestly don't get why you don't like him so much. At first, I could understand. But now? Come on, that's just a grudge at this point." Setting the sheath down, I took my stance in front of the demon. "Can't you cut the guy some slack?"

  "I'll cut him something."

  "Grimmjow."

  "What?!"

  "Come on now." I gave him a look and he clicked his tongue.

  "I don't see why you like him so much. He's boring and smells weird."

  "We've been friends since we were kids. And he's not boring, you just haven't given him the chance to get to know him."

  "I honestly don't want to." Grimmjow swung his sword at me in a downward motion, and I managed to act fast enough to block.

  "Do you seriously only give two shits about a person if they're strong or you want to fuck them?"

  "Yeah. He's neither." The sounds of our swords clanging against each other echoed in the yard.

  "You ever think you wouldn't be so lonely if you weren't that shallow?"

  "I'm not lonely."

  "You were so touch-starved that you acted like I'd slapped you when giving you basic affection. Now you literally make me give you affection."

  "I don't 'make' you."

  "Really? Putting my hand on your head, crawling up beside me, flopping down on me, even the damn headbutting. You crave contact, but you push everyone else away who could give you it. You act like humans are just ants at your feet, except you refuse to even sleep in a different bed than me." I blocked another attack while taking a step back. "Hell, the only time you talk positively about humans is when you talk about fucking them. There's more to us, and to life, than empty sex and bloodlust."

  "You think I don't know that?" He growled with his face close to mine as our katanas were crossed.

  "Then why keep acting that way?"

  "Because I don't know anything else, you little shit." Grimmjow added pressure to his sword to push me back a step. "I barely know half the shit going on inside my own head anymore."

  "What?" My brows furrowed as I dug my heels into the dirt to not be pushed back further.

  "You fucked everything up."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "I mean what I said. You got me thinking shit I don't even get or want to think about."

  "You ever wonder if asking me about what you don't understand might help? I do know more than you think. What is it, Grimmjow?" I questioned, while wondering if this was a genuine breakthrough with the demon having more human thoughts and feelings.

  "It's weakness."

  "You call me 'Little Rabbit', you really think I care about stupid shit like 'weakness'? Not to mention thoughts and feelings aren't weaknesses. It's just being." I grunted as I slid back a few inches in the grass.

  "Then tell me why the fuck it's happening if it's not weakness?! I can't keep sharp in this fucking place. I can't fight, I can't kill, I can't sink my fangs into anything!"

  "Well, tell me what it is first of all."

  "I don't know."

  "Describe it. If it's not coherent, just give what you can put words to."

  "....Heat. Burning beneath my skin, through my veins. It's not like the rage."

  "When do you feel that way?"

  "All the fucking time."

  "Okay, what else is there?"

  "The impulses. Those are the worst." Grimmjow's nose twitched into a snarl. "They're so fucking hard to control."

  "Since when did you try to control your impulses?"

  "I.... You tell me no. Over and over, you tell me no."

  "To?"

  "Touching you. I get these stupid fucking urges to touch you, but all you allow is the 'platonic cuddling'." He made a face while saying the last two words. "So I take it, but even then, they don't stop. I want to fuck you so damn bad, but I don't even know why I want to fuck you so badly. I've met souls with more power than you and it wasn't like this." Grimmjow explained.

  Oh, goodness. Was the demon getting sexually frustrated?

  "I just want to rip your fucking clothes off and touch your skin. I want to feel you, taste you, mark you. I want inside you, Wynter. I want it so badly it drives me nuts."

  "It sounds like you're actually pent up. Have you tried masturbating and see if that helps?" I asked while trying to keep a straight face. He seemed genuinely irritated, like it was seriously bugging him, but goodness, to say that to me so bluntly.

  "....What?"

  "Masturbating. You know, rubbing one out? Jerking off? If you're sexually pent up, you're going to want it more. You might be having those urges more so toward me since I'm the only one around." His eyes narrowed at me before he took a step back while holding his chin.

  "And that works?"

  "I mean....it helps."

  "We're done training for the day." He tossed up his other hand, and his sword turned to smoke.

  "Wha- We barely even started."

  "Too bad."

  "Where are you going?"

  "To jack off. I need this shit out of my system." He waved over his shoulder before going into the house. I just stood there with my mouth hanging open.

  "You have got to be kidding me." I muttered.

  Since training had been canceled, I was actually getting more work done now that I had a chance of peace and quiet. Dagur was curled up at my feet and napping, and Grimmjow....

  Well, he was still upstairs dealing with his urges.

  I just hoped this would actually work if what he'd told me was true. I mean, it sounded like he was just itching to pounce on me but was holding back due to lack of consent. Which, on another note, made me realize Grimmjow did have an odd sense of morals.

  He'd rip somebody apart with glee, probably even gnaw on their bones for the Hell of it, but he still held back his own sexual urges if consent wasn't given. Even so, he still seemed fine to grab someone's ass, or lick their face, regardless.

  And, perhaps, maybe some of his moodiness will ease off if this is what has been on his mind so much. There was no guarantee, so I'd just have to wait and see. But this also raised a few other questions like if Arrancar specifically didn't need to actually eat, didn't that imply the lack of genuine 'life'? Why was sex even a thing for them without procreation? Why even have genitals?

  And how could they have normal bodily functions if the need for food wasn't present? Grimmjow had pissed on Gary, but that meant his body, or projection at least, was able to process something he drank.

  Leaning back in my chair, I paused.

  No, the Arrancar did have a need to eat, just not in the same sense as humans. They were created through cannibalism, literally eating other souls and demons. So, even if their main food source was different, did that mean they retained the ability to process other regular foods from when they were still alive? That would also explain the genitals and desire for sex if that were the case.

  But if Grimmjow needed to eat souls, was he placating that need by eating human food instead? I was aware not everything concerning demons could be explained by logic or science, like their use of magick for instance, but I did want to at least figure out as much as possible. This would be easier with more Arrancar to compare with, but Grimmjow was the only one that couldn't kill me.

  He was also rather interesting if I was being honest. Despite his bloody history, he still enjoyed relaxing on the couch with a pizza or curling up with someone to sleep. What exactly was his drive for destruction? Or any of the other Arrancar? From the book, it looked like even the other Espada had specific drives, or motives, in what they did.

  For example, with Murcielago, the accounts of him showed a cold indifference, and he only fought when provoked, unlike Grimmjow. He was even ranked higher than Pantera but wasn't even half as violent. So, clearly, bloodlust wasn't the drive behind their actions across the board. They were varied, but I wouldn't know just how much without actually getting to know them.

  The damn book was lacking so much.

  "What are you doing?" I questioned as Grimmjow was holding my jaw to make me look at him. His brows were deeply furrowed, and his eyes narrowed as he was staring me down.

  "Seeing if it worked."

  "Please tell me you washed your hands before touching my face."

  "Wouldn't you like to know."

  "Grimmjow."

  "I did."

  "Oh, thank goodness."

  "It seems like it actually worked. I don't want to fuck you as badly as before. I mean, I still kinda do, but it's just the normal desire to."

  "....That's good?" What the Hell was I supposed to say to something like that?

  "You might want to wash your bedding though, Little Rabbit."

  "Wha- You did it in my bed?!" I smacked the demon on his chest.

  "Where else would I?"

  "There's other rooms! Bathrooms, even!"

  "Yeah, but your bed smells like you. If you're not gonna give me porn, I gotta have something."

  "Oh, I'll give you something!" I picked up the nearest thing to throw at Grimmjow, and he bolted while laughing before he could get hit.