#man i can't believe the game is already a year old again... and last year around this time we actually had nice weather lmfao

[silentscrying]

🏀 buzzer beater | chapter SEVEN.

nba!gojo x manager!reader

summary: you thought you'd gotten rid of arrogant NBA star satoru gojo when he left the curses after your first year in basketball management. but when your contract is up three years later, you find yourself working with him once again as the manager for the sorcerers. as you navigate playoff season alongside long-time friend ieiri shoko and the sorcerers' insufferable star player, you start to realize his sudden departure from the curses may not have been what it seemed, and maybe gojo isn't exactly the person (or player) you thought he was, either.

warnings: language, so many character cameos, denial is a river in egypt, chaos. || sfw. 2.4k words.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE Utahime's not in this welcome party," Gojo grumbles as you descend the steps off the jet. You just snort, and then Yuji skips the last three steps and starts running across the tarmac. Nitta, despite your insistence that she didn't need to, has met you at the airport along with two of the Samurai players.

“Christ,” you say as Yuji drops his bag on the ground, leaving it unattended.

“Choso!” he shouts, practically leaping onto the player on Nitta’s right. The taller man has a mess of brown hair wrangled into space buns, and he ruffles Yuji’s hair when he sets him down.

“Good to see you before we beat your ass.”

The man beside Choso opens his arms expectantly. “No love for your brother?”

“Todo.” Choso crosses his arms. “I’m actually his brother.”

“Half,” Todo retorts.

“Half is more than you.”

“We’re bonded by the college oath,” Todo says solemnly, pulling Yuji into a hug.

“Kari!” you yell, and she grins and meets you halfway. “Oh my god. It’s been too long.”

Akari Nitta, your small forward in college and also your senior year roommate. “I missed you,” she says as she pulls you into a hug. “How’re the Sorcerers? You like it there, they treat you well?”

“Good, yeah. I’m happy,” you say, honestly. “You?”

Akari’s been with the Samurai for four consecutive seasons now, and you already know she has no intention of leaving. She loves it there, loves the team, and you can’t deny how excited you are for this round of the competition.

It’s the best kind of game, you think, when the teams are evenly matched and actually respect one another. But you’re still worried—the issue now isn’t that they’ll play dirty, like the Phantoms. It’s that they’re good. Really good.

“Nitta,” Kento greets, holding out a hand. “Good to see you.” He glances over her shoulder, at where Yuji is talking animatedly with Choso and Todo.

“You too, Nanami.” Nitta follows his gaze and chuckles. “Haibara’s wrangling the rest of them at practice. I said family only, and then Todo basically forced himself into the car. At some point it’s just easier not to fight him.” Kento chuckles and nods at Nitta before falling back in with the rest of the team.

Haibara played for the Sorcerers before getting traded a couple of years back. You don’t know him personally, but you know your team is very fond of him. Ieiri catches up with you and strikes up a conversation with Nitta, and the three of you follow the team through a wide hangar and to the line of vehicles waiting outside.

“Still think you should’ve stayed with me,” Akari tells you as you board the bus that’s taking you and the team to the hotel.

You grin. “It’d be preferable. But I have to babysit.” She laughs and squeezes you on the shoulder before pulling Choso and Todo away from Yuji, herding them back into the car to get back to their own team.

You watch the old city go by through the bus window, thankful you don’t have to try to navigate driving the streets of Savannah yourself during rush hour. The scattered horse-drawn carriages and swarms of warm-weather tourists punctuate every street corner, and though it’s nowhere near the same extent as the chaos of New York, you don’t envy the ones who have to focus on the roads instead of the river, running silvery-blue in the evening light.

Gojo briefly tries to sing again in the back of the bus, and he only gets as far as “concrete jung—” before somebody silences him with a thud that you assume is a backpack, if his offended squawk is anything to go by.

"What part of this place looks like concrete to you?" Megumi asks dryly.

Even the day before the game, you see Samurai jerseys and hats dotting the sidewalks, a few flags hung in the doorways of shops.

First seed, you think, staring out the window at the slowly darkening streets. You hope the team can pull through.

—

Iori Utahime is looking at Gojo like she’s going to castrate him on the spot.

“Utahiiiime!” he sings. “It’s been so long!”

“Not long enough,” she says, crossing her arms and turning up her chin. Long, purple-streaked hair falls past her shoulders, the back tied up in a bow you’ve never seen her without. “Any chance you’re less of a menace than you used to be?”

“No,” says a voice from behind you, and you’ve never seen a person’s entire countenance shift so quickly as Utahime catches sight of Ieiri and immediately breaks into a grin. She sprints toward her, launching into her arms.

“Shoko!” she shrieks, and Ieiri laughs and wraps her arms around her. “I missed you!”

“Utahime,” she says warmly. “How’ve you been?”

They launch into conversation—or, Utahime launches into conversation while Ieiri smiles pleasantly and nods along—and Gojo is forced to abandon his quest to annoy Utahime in favor of actually doing his job and playing basketball.

“She just doesn’t get me like you do,” he whispers on his way past.

“I don’t get you,” you retort, but he’s already gone.

The atmosphere in the Samurai stadium is entirely different than the rest of the games you’ve been to—this is a rivalry, sure, but a friendly one. Players greet each other across the court, the boys ecstatic to be reunited with Haibara, and the fans seem to be aware of the connections across the two teams. There’s significantly less hostility than you’ve gotten used to as the Sorcerers are introduced.

You catch a glimpse of blue hair in the front row of the home side and realize Kasumi Miwa is here. She’s already attracting quite a bit of attention, a massively successful WNBA player herself. You played with her in college, too, but you know she’s here for their point guard, Kokichi Muta.

Gojo stands at center court, ready to take the tip-off against Noritoshi, the other Kamo on the Samurai. You don’t remember quite how he’s related to Choso, but it’s amusing just how intertwined all the players on the court are right now.

For a second you think Kamo’s going to win the tip-off, but Gojo’s arm shoots up out of nowhere and then he’s running with the ball. He darts around Kamo and passes to Yuji, and the Sorcerers are 2-0 within the first thirty seconds of the game.

And then Haibara gets one in, and they’re tied. And then Gojo nails a three-pointer. And then Choso does, too.

Your neck is starting to hurt from how much you’re snapping it back and forth, both ends of the court in constant play as the advantage shifts every other minute. Megumi isn’t starting today, and you can feel his anxiety even from your place near the hall doors.

This game is insane.

Toward the end of the first quarter, Megumi subs in for Toge, and the second he hits the court he plays as if he never left. Kento lobs the ball his way and Megumi scores another three, and then Ino slips by Todo and leaps, fingers almost touching the hoop as the ball slams in.

It’s one of the tightest games you’ve seen in a long time. They’re always within five points of one another, back and forth, back and forth. The Sorcerers are leading at halftime by two, but it’s not a lead anyone is confident in.

While the team is back in the locker room, you slip over to the home side to talk to Kasumi. She grins and tugs you into a hug. “Alley-oop!”

You laugh, the stupid nickname so familiar falling from her lips. “Kasumi!” You pull back and smile. “How’re the Shadows? Do you love it? You fucking killed it this last season.”

She flushes a little, never having been big on accepting compliments. “Ah, I’ve got a great team.”

You arch a brow. “And they’re lucky to have you.” Taking mercy on her, you switch the subject. “So things with Kokichi are going well.”

She gets that dreamy look in her eyes, and you decide Kasumi and Muta are maybe the only couple you’ll accept being this fucking sappy all the time. They’ve been together since your senior year of college, and you’re pretty sure the basketball gods made them for each other.

“I think he’s gonna propose soon,” Kasumi whispers, and you have to clamp a hand over your mouth to stifle a squeal.

“Kasumi,” you gasp.

She giggles. “Don’t say anything. He just can’t keep secrets from me. He’s not slick.”

You mime zipping your mouth and tossing the key, and she pretends to unzip it as she asks, “What about you? How are things in the Southeast?”

“Hot,” you say. “Humid. Busy. But good.”

“And Gojo?”

You blink. “Gojo?”

“Uh, y’know, star player, six three, easy on the eyes?” She raises her eyebrows like she knows something, and the implications hit you all at once.

“Oh my god, Kasumi.”

She blinks innocently. “Reunited after three long, long years. No romanticism in that?”

“We work together,” you hiss, which feels like a gross understatement. “And he’s…”

She raises a brow, waiting. You can feel the heat creeping to your cheeks. It’s such a ridiculous notion that you don’t even have a proper response.

“I honestly think he just became tolerable,” you say. “God, I wouldn’t date—”

“Oh, you say that now,” she says, a smug curve to her lips.

“What does that—”

“Oh, look at the time.” You follow Kasumi’s gaze to where the players have started filing back into the gym. “Back to your coworker, you.”

“Kasumi Miwa—”

“I love you too!” she beams. “Good to see you. Really.”

Rolling your eyes, you wave your left hand at her, pointing discreetly at your ring finger as you retreat across the gym. You watch as the bright red returns to her cheeks and return her smug grin from earlier.

God. Easy on the eyes.

It’s not like Gojo’s not attractive. Girls fawn over him and you can understand why, objectively. Tall, strong, all lean muscle, those stupidly bright blue eyes and whiter-than-white hair. But he’s one of those guys who’s just hot until he opens his mouth.

Even if he hasn’t been quite as annoying lately, the natural progression of a conversation about Kasumi’s soon-to-be-fiancé should not be to start talking about Satoru Gojo.

On the sidelines, he winks at you, and your roll your eyes but have to turn away before he sees the heat rising to your cheeks. Not helping right after Kasumi decided to put those thoughts in your head.

Fucking hell. What’s wrong with you?

You shake off the encounter as the game starts back up. You might’ve had the lead before the half, but the Samurai come back strong. Very strong. Todo is impossible to get around, he’s everywhere at once, and Muta is making shots from insane distances while Choso just keeps dunking. The disadvantage to having played with Haibara is that he knows the way the team plays, and he seems to have relayed whatever tips he can to his teammates.

But it goes both ways. Kento knows every shot Haibara will take before it happens, and Yuji and Todo are so tuned into each other’s movements that they can’t get the jump on the other.

It’s insane and it’s stressful but it’s damn good basketball. With damn good people, too. Yuta gets knocked down and Todo helps him back up. Choso keeps making faces at Yuji across the court. When Choso dunks right over Ino, you even hear Gojo let out a low whistle of appreciation for the shot.

When the buzzer signals the game’s end, the Sorcerers have lost by three. Muta scored the winning shot, and after the game is called he runs right off the court to sweep Kasumi up in a hug. Across the court, you see Gojo terrorizing Utahime again, Kento bumping fists with Haibara, Choso and Todo crowding Yuji as Megumi watches in amusement.

Nobara sighs as she looks up at the scoreboard. 81-78.

God, it was close. Really, really close.

It’s one game, you tell yourself. They can swing it. They’ve got time.

The mood after the game is a weird mixture of excited and tense—the guys knew they were walking into a match with a better ranked team, but now they’re feeling it. It’s the hardest they’ve had to play in a while, and Yaga and Kusakabe are talking strategy before they even hit the locker room.

You get back to your hotel room late, another night of emails and scheduling and a too-bright screen, and when you get back, Ieiri is smirking at you.

“What?”

She nods to your bed. “Had a visitor a while ago.”

You follow her gaze to a folded pile of blue and green fabric on the end of your bed, a note on top of it. “Oh my god.”

You know what that is. You’d know it from a mile away, because you wrote the renewal contract for it, because it’s been scattered throughout the stands at home games, because you’ve approved ads and worked on shoot screenings with Nobara.

The shirt is soft in your hands, and you pick up the note, scrawled on a piece of paper torn from the hotel notepad.

figured our star manager deserved free star merch, right? you’re welcome!!!!!!

His handwriting is messy and slanted, the line of exclamation points nearing horizontal toward the right edge of the page. It’s so incredibly boyish you have to stifle a laugh, and in place of a signature Gojo has doodled his own face in the corner: a little circle with spiked up hair and a black headband, tugged over his eyes like a blindfold. Probably because he didn’t want to deal with drawing eyes, you think.

The shirt’s in your size, a long-sleeve that starts out blue and washes into a light green in a vertical gradient. LIMITLESS is printed across it in a thin sans serif, a Nike swoosh twisted into an infinity sign above the T.

“Idiot,” you mutter. Star merch. Arrogant idiot who sneaks into hotel rooms to leave his own merch and assumes you want it. Actually, he probably knows you don’t. That’s why he didn’t give it to you in person. That makes it worse. He’s just taunting you in his typical Gojo way.

You toss the shirt into your bag and slide the note into your laptop case, not seeing a recycling bin. Ieiri chuckles, and you look up at sharply. “What?”

She holds her hands up, palms out in surrender. “I didn’t say anything.”

When you try to fall asleep, staring at the shadowed popcorn ceiling, you’re reeling. Kasumi’s words pinball around your skull like it’s an echo chamber. The Limitless shirt sits heavy in your bag against the wall. Gojo winks in your mind’s eye. You feel his hand curled over yours, pen in your fist.

You hope you don’t dream.

directory. || prev. || next.

jjk taglist open: just send me a message!

@shutuppeter @mikikkoo @reactwithjan @theclassbookworm @lilactaro

[zeondraws]

Fellas, year is almost overrrr and it feels kinda surreal what I went through to reach this point.

I may feel nauseous rn but...! Today was a good day, my friends family and other relatives of her came today. I showed them my budgie too, he may be getting blind but people were able to hold him on their hands.

I haven't felt such joy in a while, I don't know how to put it. I remember the first years when I stayed at my friend's place around Christmas or so. It was fun but I was still dealing with other stuff that stressed me out. Especially last december was extremely stressful for me.. I mentioned it in another post? I think?

I unpacked some presents I got today. There was one special present in it, where I still can't believe of owning it.

!!! SWTD themed Christmas Jumper! Like?? Wow!! Still bewildered that one got sent to me, I mean this game is so much fun and I'm so darn obsessed analysing every detail of it whenever I can.

I literally played through it again on my PlayStation, I usually don't play such games multiple times but this one? It just hit me the moment I saw a Let's play of it. The first one I saw was from IGP, I really enjoyed him playing it, even tho Rennick JUMPSCARED me the first time I saw that scene.

First few times playing this game I got nightmares from Gibbo or my heart was racing while I ran away from Rennick. I don't know why, Gibbo's sentences haunted me so much. The pain in his voice was unbearable. (Same with O'Conner)

Trots still gives me the creeps, like he just has that aura on him. However, jumping over Trots is also very funny. And Muir's level I can now play in my sleep. I think 1/3 of my hours shown on steam is just me messing with Muir. It's currently at 154 hours played.

And Roper... my beloved *shakes my fists* poor wee man. He did nothing wrooonggggg. Sobs loudly. Foaming at the mouth and hoping there is more lore of him in the artbook. The wait will soon be over. I'm so excited.

But... I just wanna say thank you again to the devs and publishers for this awesome game. It very much helped me be able to get through the day for months. Considering it came out when I was still in a bad work environment, constantly getting bullied. I kept rewatching Playthroughs to stay calm.

I think I related to Caz a lot too, even if everything was basically falling apart around him, he kept going. Ofc he sadly couldn't get a happy ending in the end. But I just try to remember to keep going. Even if I needed to endure my old job for a bit longer, until my new job started.

It bring me so much joy being able to learn more about the gaming industry and the programs used to make such games. And ofc datamining the game and looking at every little detail. May it be the smallest thing such as a file called "CazYeet" or finding an entire unused level that was scrapped. Or even Muir's hit by prop sounds! My eyes WIDENED when I heard them.

I sometimes check artstation on multiple occasions, just to see if something new popped up. And whenever it does, I do a little mental happy dance.

(Petition to make an april fools update where the hit by prop sounds are enabled/JOKE)

Maybe one day I can finally switch over to the entertainment industry, but I need to teach myself so much first. I still wanna go to art school so badlyyyyy. I can already see I won't feel ready enough until I'm 30 or so. Although I'm going to be 23 in 2 days- I still have to practice so many skillsets ajshajsjaksnaksnksks *explodes* but I shall avoid spiralling in my thoughts.

I think I appreciate games so much more now, I still want to try out a bunch of them. But I firstly have to work on some swtd related projects. I'm definitely planning on making a big analysis video next year, which sounds terrifying, I need to practice talking in recordings first. ;a; But I can't forget to visit events too, I need to try out so much stuff;;;;

Okay before I ramble on endlessly... Just, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

@thechineseroom-brighton @wearesecretmode

I hope it's okay if I tag, I know I talk like a river at times, but since I'm a very emotional human being I usually like sharing my thoughts.

I wish the the fandom and devs a Merry Christmas and a great start to the New Year. May everyone heal from past wounds and form new positive memories.

Have this drawing of my OC Kirsten holding bird Roper in his arms.

[betterthanyalls]

Cheese I can't remember if you already did something like this so if u have feel free to ignore or just be like "erm I already did this actually🤓" but

TQuesters x fem/GN! reader (can either be platonic or x various, your choice) and it's just them all spending Christmas together in Modi's kingdom (or wherever this takes place idk) sitting by the fireplace or decorating the Christmas tree n allat, and y/n is like "damn I can't believe it's been this long" and it's just overall a very warm, cozy yet bittersweet nostalgia kinda thing as y/n thinks about all of their past adventures with all of her toon friends that they've made ever since this whole thing started ^^"

Once again don't feel pressured to do this especially if you've already done something similar and my dumbahh just forgot about it lol

YES YES YES ok so i mayyyy have gotten off track here BUT I HOPE ITS OK ALSO THANK YOU THIS WAS SO FUN TO MAKE AND MERRY CHRISTMAS GUYS if you celebrate it :) I HAD SUCH A GREAT CHRISTMAS AND I HOPE YOU ALL DID TOO THIS IS THE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL Taglist @cherryinsalemverse

Masterlist

Winter Wonders

Various x Reader

Toon Quest ~ Oneshot ~ Christmas Special Words: 2.9K Published: 12-25-2024

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You should’ve stopped when you could,” Bendy hissed with utter malice.

“Bendy… please. You don't have to do this,” the human girl pleaded desperately, trying to make her friend see the truth.

“You brought this on yourself.”

And with those words, the ink demon struck.

Plus four.

“I win,” Bendy grinned, laying down the +4 Wild card as his last turn.

“NOOOOO,” Y/n wailed, falling backwards from her cross-legged position on the hardwood flooring of the palace.

Their companions cheered at the game finally being won. Playing Uno with four humans and seven toons took quite a while. Meek and Don were sitting next to Ruck, who refused to play, on a couch with Felix on the other side. Cuphead sat with Mugman beside Y/n on the floor together. Bendy sat with Lucy next to him on the floor across from Y/n. Behind him, Oswald, Donald, and Panchito were distracted in their own conversations.

“You played horribly. Who taught you?” Ruck piped up from his seat. Although he ridiculed the teenager, there was no true irritation in his tone, but a smirk on the man’s lips. 

“Oh, shut up, old man. You didn’t even play,” Y/n complained playfully with a grin.

“I would beat you all; that’s why I didn’t play. It would’ve been too easy to win,” Ruck shrugged, leaning back into the couch.

Right as Y/n sat up, Lucy perked up with an idea.

“How about we all go into town? The winter festivities are taking place today!” Lucy clapped her hands in excitement. 

~~~

“How many festivals does this place have?” Cuphead muttered in awe, looking around at the seemingly transformed town.

Strung lights decorated every pillar, windowsill, gutter, and more. A grand tree stood up sturdy in the center of the town square, snow lying gently on its evergreen branches. Or, assumed evergreen. With how foreign the land was, it could be almost anything. Anyways, ornaments and even more lights were hung carefully into the flooding greens and whites of the flora. A bright, glimmering star sat on top of the fern, giving off a radiating glow.

Honestly, it was pure magic how the world was still visible as if the town wasn’t a current replica of the sun's brightness.

“You do this every year?” Oswald asked, wincing every now and then at the flashing bulbs.

“Yup! Each year the kingdom comes together to celebrate. It’s a breathtaking experience,” Lucy grinned, her smile almost as bright as the fluorescents. Did they even have fluorescent lights here? What made these things light up? Oh well, no worries about that thought.

“Ruck would have a heart attack if he saw all this,” Y/n muttered to Donald, who held back his own laughs. Ruck, Meek, and Don had all stayed back at the castle like normal.

“Go explore! Oh, the kingdom will adore having you all here!” Lucy chirped, having an arm wrapped around Bendy’s and strolling off. The ink toon didn’t seem to even want to leave the princess. 

Cuphead cheered at the idea of freedom and instantly bolted, Mugman in tow to keep his brother safe. 

“I don’t know how successful Mugman will be at keeping his brother safe,” Felix sighed with an amused smile, following the cups.

Donald had also already left beforehand when Lucy mentioned boat painting, dragging Panchito with him. This left Oswald and Y/n together, just like the last festival.

“This seems familiar,” Oswald joked, referencing the Namahadi Festival. Y/n smiled at the comparison. 

“Let’s hope we don’t meet Stinks this time,” she laughed softly as they both began their trek. A soft blanket of snow covered the ground, but there wasn’t a chill in the air.

The sound of bells jingling broke through their conversation. In front of the duo, an ivory horse was trotting along with a green wreath around its neck. Behind the steed, a sleigh was being pulled with an old toon holding the reins above. A sign hung on the side of the sleigh’s door reading ‘Free Sleigh Rides.’

Oswald and Y/n turned to each other with similar smiles.

“I think we’ve just found our first activity,” the rabbit offered.

~~~

The sleigh ride took them on a trail through the forest, allowing the toon and human great scenery. All seemed perfect— 

WHOOSH

A snowball flew between Oswald and Y/n, hitting the driver square in his head and knocking him off the sleigh. The sudden movement jostled the reins of the horse, frightening the beast.

In an instant, with no hesitation, the horse took off, dragging the duo behind it. 

Oswald and Y/n grabbed each other without a second thought, screaming in terror as the horse weaved through trees and around bends. The sleigh tipped side to side, threatening to flip over any second.

“THE REINS!!” Oswald shouted over the rushing wind.

“WHAT?”

Before Oswald could explain, the horse took another turn, speeding towards a young girl walking down the trails. Instinctively, Y/n jumped forwards and grabbed the whipping reins, managing to move the horse in another direction. Yet their speed never slowed.

With her upper half leaning over the driver's seat and her legs still in the sleigh, Y/n tried her best to slow the horse, but to no avail. They were riding straight into town. Oswald pushed the human to the front seats before hopping up next to her himself. He grabbed the reins with her, attempting to help steer.

“WHERE’S YOUR LUCK?” Y/n yelled above the galloping animal.

“I DON’T KNOW,” was all Oswald could spit out. The horse whipped its neck round and round to shake the reins off, only making the two drivers get flung more. 

Finally the sleigh arrived back in town, but not in the way that anyone would’ve liked. Oswald and Y/n were speeding down the streets, screaming in pure terror as they narrowly missed dozens of civilians. As they raced through crowds, Y/n turned to her right just in time to make eye contact with their other companions, who were staring in pure confusion and horror.

The human’s focus quickly changed when Oswald yelled again.

“WALL!”

Sure enough, directly in front of them was a brick wall. The horse wasn’t slowing down either. With only a few feet before collision, the animal took another turn. The sleigh tipped until it was practically perpendicular with the ground. Y/n and Oswald managed to stay on as the vehicle slammed back down properly with even more speed. 

Before any other words could be uttered, the horse whipped its direction around at full speed, causing both toon and human to fly out of the sleigh. Y/n managed to land face first in a large pile of snow, covering herself completely. Oswald, ironically, was not so lucky as he got stuck in the low-hanging branches of a tree.

The rabbit groaned in pain with stars dancing around his head and ears, leaning his head back slightly into the trunk. Bad move.

Without warning, the branches snapped, making him fall down into the snow, next to Y/n.

Y/n finally managed to pull herself from the frigid substance, turning to look at Oswald with a small pile of snow on top of her head. The toon was in the same predicament, looking to Y/n with snow covering his face. 

At an irritatingly slow pace, the snow slid down his face with Y/n laughing at the scene. 

“Are—haha—are you alright?” Y/n asked between her chuckles.

“Just perfect,” Oswald grumbled, though a smile formed on his lips.

“What happened?!” The familiar voice of their favorite cat cut their discussion short. Looking up from where they both still sat in the snow, Oswald and Y/n watched their friends come rushing over.

“A horse went rogue on us,” Y/n shrugged, making Felix give her an incredulous look before putting his hand out for her to grab. The human stood up, brushing the extra snow from her clothes with a shiver. She looked over to Oswald, who was helped up by Panchito.

“You two aren’t allowed to go together alone again. Something always happens,” Bendy scolded, making Y/n and Oswald share a glance. Lucy, who was still hanging on his arm, nodded in agreement, looking Y/n up and down to see if there were any injuries. 

“Fine,” Y/n agreed, though she wasn’t too hung up on it. Her and Oswald would find ways to hang out no matter what.

“There was an ice sculpture walk-through nearby,” Mugman pointed out. “You could come with Felix and me, Y/n.”

Y/n debated the idea in her mind, but realizing she didn’t have many other options, she agreed.

“Alright, let’s go,” the human nodded gratefully. 

The trio waved goodbye to the rest of their group before walking towards the sculpture section of the festival.

~~~

“There is absolutely no way they made this by hand.” Y/n raised an eyebrow at an ice sculpture. It depicted an almost realistic Christmas tree, ornaments, lights, the star, everything. 

“Hey, look at that one!” Mugman pointed to a nearby ice statue. It was Y/n. If it wasn’t a blue hue and made of frozen water, that sculpture would’ve looked identical to Y/n.

“What are they feeding these people?!” Y/n exclaimed, looking closely at every detail the carver made. They made the ice look like the genuine fabric of her clothes. 

Felix didn’t even seem to have an explanation like usual. Instead, he was looking at a different form of ice. Following his gaze, the human saw an ice model of their group.

“This is insane,” Y/n muttered in awe.

The trio continued walking around, finding a small game to replicate the poses themselves.

The trio took photos and laughed at each other’s postures.

There were a few different scenes, like Y/n balancing on Mugman’s shoulders, Felix doing a handstand on top of Y/n’s hands as she held the cat up, or Felix holding Mugman up in the Dirty Dancing pose.

No matter what, the three companions had a blast. 

After a while and finishing their walk-through, they decided to leave the ice sculpture area. It wasn’t long before Panchito and Donald appeared behind Y/n. Felix and Mugman were in their own discussion, too distracted to notice.

Before any conversation could be uttered, Panchito dragged Y/n away quickly with a grin.

“Wh- Panchito?” Y/n asked once they were away from the two nerds.

“Lo siento, querida. We need three people for sledding, and we couldn’t find anyone else,” Panchito explained quickly, still dragging Y/n along with Donald next to him.

“Sledding?” Y/n tilted her head quizzically. Her question was answered as soon as Panchito let her go. Standing above a really steep drop, the three arrived at a sledding post with big tubes. A sign nearby read, ‘Three Persons Per Tube.’

“I see,” Y/n nodded with a smile.

Looking at the line, the three noticed how long it truly was and how slow it was. After waiting for a few minutes without the line even moving, the trio began to get antsy.

“What if we just go?” Donald suggested.

“Leaving would be boring,” Y/n pointed out, inferring that’s what he meant.

“No, not leaving the place. But the line. We can easily slip up there,” Donald explained, making Panchito get excited.

“Like spies!” The rooster beamed.

Y/n was a little weary about cutting. But her opinion quickly changed when she saw an empty tube not too far ahead.

“Fine, but we got to be quick,” she agreed. Looking around cautiously, the trio made a full sprint towards the free tube. Jumping onto it, the three sighed in relief when no one said anything to them. 

Y/n and the toons settled inside the tube before spotting a note on the side. ‘Follow the instructions given by the operator. Death is avoidable.’

Y/n turned to her friends slowly. 

“There are instructions?”

But before any of them could try to get help from the operator, the tube tipped forwards and began to slowly glide towards the edge of the hill.

“Death?!” Donald quacked, finally finished with reading the warning.

Opposite to his companions, Panchito merely cheered in excitement as the tube reached the edge. His cheers turned into disappointment when the inflatable vehicle came to a stop. 

Y/n and Donald sighed in relief.

“That was—” Donald couldn’t finish his sentence as the air-filled sled fell at full speed down the snowy hill. 

Screams filled the air, challenging the volume of the rushing wind. Since they chose a random tube, the three weren’t even on the proper path for sledding. 

“AAAAAAAAA” “WOOOOOO”

Two very different emotions were held by the three beings. 

Racing past civilians and objects, the sled was spinning in circles while still going down.

A giant stone was placed in the direction of their path. Without giving them a chance to panic, the tube hit the rock and was launched into the air. Their screams were suffocated by the vigorous winds. 

Looking down to where they’d land, Y/n got a split-second view of a certain skunk before hitting him head-on with the sled. Stinks fell into the snow with a yelp, lifting his head above to scream at the already speeding away sled.

“VENDOLEZ, YOU PIECE OF—” His screams turned into his native language, but the trio was too far from hearing range as they blasted through groups of people.

It wasn’t long before they finally slowed to a stop at the bottom of the hill. 

Panchito got out of the tube happily, like he did this all the time. Y/n and Donald were stunned for a moment. 

“We just hit Stinks with a sled,” Y/n murmured in shock before a large grin broke out onto her lips.

She got up, and Panchito grabbed her hands, dancing around excitedly at all the adrenaline. Y/n laughed and jumped with him as Donald stumbled out of the sled and threw up off to the side. 

When they all calmed down, another voice broke their joy.

“VENDOLEZ, I’M GOING TO MURDER YOU.”

Stinks was roughly 100 feet away with his friends, all radiating pure malice and hatred. 

Without waiting for her friends, Y/n turned and took off running. 

She heard her rival and his gang pushing through the other civilians, chasing her with no hesitation. Y/n managed to take too many turns for them to keep up, losing the hunting toons in a large crowd.

Y/n grinned behind her before running straight into another body. 

“Y/n?”

Y/n backed up and saw she ran right into Bendy.

“What are you running from?” The ink demon asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Stinks,” the human shrugged like it was a usual thing now. 

Bendy just nodded, understanding the situation quickly. 

“Well, Lucy just left to go meet her father again. So I have some free time; wanna go explore?” Bendy filled her in before his offer.

Y/n had literally nothing better to do than hide from Stinks, so she nodded to go along with her friend.

“So, any ideas on where to go?” Y/n asked as they began walking together.

“There was a light walk-through not too far from here,” Bendy told her.

“Then let’s go.”

~~~

It didn’t take long for the toon and human to reach the light walk-through, only to be met with a familiar ceramic.

“Heya, doll, Bendy,” Cuphead greeted excitedly. Bendy wanted to scoff but didn’t say anything.

“Hey Cuphead, we were just going to walk through. Do you want to come with?” Y/n offered. Bendy had the all-too-well-known urge to strangle his companion for the offer.

“Sure!’ Cuphead bounded next to them.

The trio walked for a bit. Cuphead tried to put an arm around Bendy, only for the ink demon to shove the dish away and into a bush. The inky toon grinned at Cuphead’s fallen form.

A little further in and towards the end, Cuphead and Bendy were walking behind Y/n. The toons were roughhousing without her noticing. Just as Bendy was about to push Cuphead to the ground, he got distracted.

Cuphead got out of the position and prepared to push Bendy in return, only to follow his teammate's gaze.

Y/n stood with her back to them, watching the colored lights twinkle. The illumination lit up her features as she turned back to look at the boys with a smile. Her eyes shone bright in the setting, radiance and glory emanating from her expression. 

Cuphead felt his entire being melt at the sight. Bendy was in a similar situation. Y/n had no mark of a warrior now but a goddess.

With what felt like eons but was only seconds, Bendy tore his gaze away and cleared his throat while nudging Cuphead.

“Well, I believe the others are waiting for us at the castle now,” Bendy excused.

~~~

Laughter and chattering arose from a candlelit room. At a long dining table sat six humans and seven toons, all eating and talking joyously.

Y/n was telling Ruck all about her day and everything they did, including driving a runaway sleigh and hitting Stinks with a sled. The older man smiled at his great-niece, ruffling her hair in admiration. 

Everything was great once again. No worries, no terror, no adrenaline. Just one big family bond holding differing people together.

A loud bang sounded, making every being look at the windows instantly. Outside, crackling in the sky, fireworks rained down. Slowly, some of the group made their way to the windows to watch the celebrations light up the night sky.

Nothing could break this moment of harmony. 

Merry Christmas.

[mi-rae07]

Song Mingi : Blood And Bones

Pairing : Song Mingi (Ateez) and named character (Jung Miyeon)

__________________

Synopsis : Miyeon is an underground boxer, her life revolves around blood and violence while Mingi is the CEO of a tech company, his life revolves around diploma and professionalism.

They're in a relationship, and has been for a year but mingi still cannot get used to seeing miyeon beat people up to the point where they have to be taken to the hospital and miyeon seems to give more importance to WWE matches than their dates. Will Mingi finally have enough?

____________________

A/n : Just a small light-hearted fic after the last one because I supposed I needed it.

_____________________

Miyeon : you think you're any better than me you wench?

That was the last thing miyeon said before punching her opponent right in the face, making her fall to the arena floor as she coughed up blood. The crowd around screamed, making miyeon smirk in victory as the referee counted

??? : ONE! TWO! THREE AND WE HAVE A WINNER!

The referee raised miyeon's arm as the crowd clapped and screamed for her, making her feel good all over again. This was all she wanted, the feeling of winning the screams of her crowd. This, made the pain all worth it.

Miyeon smirked and looked towards the front row as she noticed her boyfriend just staring at her, his eyes unreadable. He got up as he noticed her stare and just walked out, making miyeon sigh. She was going to have to go out after him.

Soon the congratulations and pats in the back were all over as miyeon rushed out of the hall without bothering to even grab her trophy, finding her boyfriend more important.

Miyeon : mingi!

Miyeon rushed up to mingi who was leaning against the stone wall right outside the hall, his breathing heavy as miyeon said excitedly

Miyeon : did you see my win! Wasn't it-

Mingi : I did see your win, miyeon, and I also saw your opponent being taken to the hospital in a stretcher, bruised and bloodied. Something you caused.

Miyeon rolled her eyes at his words as she said

Miyeon : this is underground boxing, mingi. I have to cause that to her to win, and I have to win to earn money.

Mingi : don't I already make enough money for us?

Miyeon stared at mingi's Aston Martin that was parked a few feet away from them, her rusty old Swift next to it a complete contrast.

Miyeon : money for you, yes. For us, well we don’t know how long that will last. You can leave the next second and I'll be left with nothing. I've told you before, mingi, that I will not make the mistake of sacrificing my career for a man, even you.

Mingi : career? You're a business graduate, miyeon, you had so many other job options and you chose this. This…pathetic game of violence that always ends in blood.

Miyeon : are you questioning my career choices right now, song mingi?

Mingi paused as miyeon scoffed in anger and said

Miyeon : my life is mine to choose, mingi, you are just a part of it and not the whole life. I can live without you as well so do not overstep your boundaries.

Mingi : miyeon I just-

Miyeon : no you keep doing this, don't you? Do I come into your company and ask you to quit it to go work as a boxer? Disrespect the work that you do for a living? No. So you don't get to do that with me either.

Mingi : I just don't want you hurt-

Miyeon : aww, how cute of you. Mingi you met me when I was a boxer, you fell in love with me despite all the blood and broken bones. And now you're trying to change me?

Mingi : I was just…I was just scared. It won't happen again.

Miyeon chuckled, rolling her eyes as she said

Miyeon : that's the 5th time you're saying that mingi. If you can't handle me, then leave and find some girl that runs a fucking florist shop.

Miyeon turned and was about to walk towards the hall again when mingi held her arm, turning her around before saying

Mingi : I'm sorry, I promise it won't happen again.

Miyeon stared at mingi, not really believing him. He let out a breath as he leaned forward, holding her blood smeared cheek before kissing it. He could taste the blood on his lips, but the love he had for her measured far more than his dislike for blood.

Mingi : I love you, I just didn't want to see you hurt that's all. I won't try and change you, miyeon, your life is yours.

Miyeon leaned forward and kissed mingi, pushing him into a secluded corner wall before kissing him harder. Mingi groaned as he tangled his hand in miyeon's hair, tugging it as she pulled back and stared at him with hazy eyes before saying

Miyeon : be glad you have a pretty face too good to be ruined.

Mingi smiled as miyeon ran her thumb along his lips with a smirk before whispering

Miyeon : or I would've let you go a long time ago for so much as talking against me.

_______________________________

A week later :

Mingi : um miyeon?

Miyeon hummed, leaning back against the sofa as her eyes were still trained on the WWE boxing match playing on TV. She had been at this for hours now and mingi now wondered whether she'd forgotten about the date they had in the evening. Mingi had kept himself from reminding her thinking it would anger her if he interfered in between. But there was only 15 minutes left to leave and miyeon was still eating chips on the couch.

Mingi : we…we have a date.

Miyeon : mm, when?

Mingi blinked his eyes as miyeon still kept her focus on the match

Mingi : within 15 minutes?

Miyeon paused, now turning to face mingi as she asked

Miyeon : wait, 15…oh shit!

Mingi's heart dropped at the genuine surprise on miyeon's face as he said in a low voice

Mingi : you forgot about it.

Miyeon : oh, min I'm so sorry I just-

Mingi : no it's fine, forget about it.

Mingi took off his suit jacket before throwing it into the laundry, walking towards their room without a word. Miyeon sighed as she got up from the sofa, picking up the suit jacket before rushing behind mingi

Miyeon : mingi-ah, I'll get ready right now.

Mingi : don't bother, I'm cancelling.

Miyeon let out a breath as she followed behind mingi into their room before saying in a hurried voice

Miyeon : I was just too focused on the match it slipped my mind-

Mingi : oh yeah, just like how everything about me just 'slips your mind'.

Miyeon let out an exasperated breath as mingi sat back on their bed, untying his shoelaces as he said

Mingi : have you ever had me forget a date, miyeon? A birthday? An anniversary?

Miyeon sighed as she kneeled on the floor next to mingi before trying to hold mingi's hand. He shook his head, taking his hand away. Miyeon held it again, shaking her head as she said

Miyeon : look at me.

Mingi : I don't want to.

Miyeon knew how mingi was when he was about to cry, and this was it. She held his cheek before turning him to face her as she said

Miyeon : min, I'm so sorry. I'll get ready real quick and we can go out okay? I'll even pay for the entire date to make up for it, hmm?

Miyeon knew mingi would've picked a high end restaurant for dinner and her budget definitely wouldn't cover it. But even if she had to take a loan out she was going to pay for it.

Mingi : no it's okay, you can go back to your match.

Mingi's voice wavered in the end as he pressed his lips together, looking away. Miyeon's eyes softened as she leaned forward and kissed mingi before pulling back and said

Miyeon : baby, please. I know I made a mistake and I'm sorry for it, aren't I? I'll make up for it and it won't happen again, I promise.

A tear fell down mingi's eyes as he said

Mingi : but I feel so small in your life, miyeon.

Miyeon stared at mingi as his face contorted into that of pain as he said shakily

Mingi : I know I'm only a part of your life but am I really such a small part? You give more importance to a match than me, miyeon. I just…I just want some attention-

Mingi cut himself off with a sob as miyeon hugged him, nuzzling her face into his neck before saying

Miyeon : you are a big part of my life mingi, I promise. I make as much money as I can for you, so I can buy you the things you buy for me. I want a future with you, a family some day even. I swear it's not like I don't love you, I do. I know I'm not doing a good job showing it but I'll get better, hmm?

Mingi stared at miyeon as she pulled back and wiped his tears away with the pad of her thumbs, kissing both his eyes as she whispered

Miyeon : I'll get better. Won't you forgive me, baby?

Mingi sniffled, nodding as he said

Mingi : okay, but only if you promise me ice-cream for the next week.

Miyeon chuckled with teary eyes, kissing mingi's cheek as she said

Miyeon : anything for my baby boy. Now, I'll go get ready!

Miyeon rushed towards her closet as she said loudly

Miyeon : and wear that suit, you look very sexy in it.

Mingi chuckled as miyeon skipped into the closet to change excitedly. He put the suit on as he sighed and whispered

Mingi : still won't match up to your muscles.

_________________________________

[captain-hawks]

HIIIIIIIIIIII im so glad you liked my ask about poly!olisae & spanish pick up lines (that was the first time I have ever sent in an ask on this app so your response made me giddy (part of my new years resolution to be more active/give back in fandom spaces))

Anywhooo i do have another concept of poly!olisae but it has a long set up so I'll send that in some time later (hee hee)

BUTTTT to not leave you hanging here is shorter concept (*note nvm i got too into it, it's long as fuck and very minimal editing bc i just wrote it as i went but enjoy 🫶)

Oliver on a double date with Sendo at an amusement park. It was going well enough (would be better if it was a waterpark but alas it's autumn). Winning a teddy bear from the high striker game (the one where u hit the bell by slamming a hammer) for his date (he definitely flexed before hitting it), Sendo pretending he isn't scared of rollercoasters, his date clinging onto him during the haunted house, yelling at the scammer at the ball toss.

That is until he sees you, an old "hook up" of his. Back when he wasn't as much of a super star and his dating life was even messier than it is now. When he wasn't as good at cutting things off when things got too "personal". A time he was stupid enough to believe if he tried it could last.

And he did try, you were his longest relationship. However when things got a bit rough he bounced. I mean why spoil something sweet by ending it on a sour note? It was better to leave no note at all. He is smart enough to know he was too stupid to do anything about it back.

And well, he must be really fucking stupid because here you are standing next to a fucking petzel stand, with a kid.

Now listen, he may have borderline flunked mathematics but he could do basic addition. Like that fact the kid looks about the same age as when he ghosted you (and how you + him = three?).

He looks so much like you, the hair color, the eyes, and the facial features he caught before you two turned to order. And really he's glad, hopes the kid doesn't take after him at all. But still. Fuck. He always knew with the amount he gets around that it's not unlikely he would ever have a kid but he didn't expect you to be the mother.

"Capt you good man?"

He looks back to Sendo and their dates (why did he have to witness this while on a date? He was supposed to have fun and relax after the stressful season). He didn't do as good of a job as he could have but he put on an easy smile and stood a bit straighter (like he didn't want to bolt to you, like he hadn't seen a ghost or rather the opposite bc you two made a life together).

"Yeah, I'm all good."

"Let's go to the ferris wheel then!" His date (fuck he can't remember her name, how can he when he's remembering everything about you?) said while holding his arm.

"Okay." He looks back to you but you're already gone.

It was only days later did he see you again. It wasn't a coincidence because he had spent what should be his off season to relax feverishly looking for you, instagram, ur mom's facebook, even linkedin. And well he didn't want to just show up to your workplace but he didn't know what else to do. His thoughts racing about fatherhood. He liked the idea but it's so different than being a mentor or a captain. This well, doesn't necessarily make him regret leaving because he wouldn't have been a good father. Maybe he still wouldn't now but ...

When he walked in he found you instantly, instinctively. You look so much the same yet older. Which should be fucking obvious but you have a glow about you, one you get from living life and flourishing. Said glow instantaneous dims when you see him, recognize him. How could you not? When he left it was an absolute shitshow for you. Without a word, no last message, no note. It was only when you saw him on TV did things break into place. He was alive and well, but left you behind. After the catastrophic episode you had of eating ice cream, binging reality tv, and screaming in karaoke rooms you got over it, life moves forward. You had cut out what remained of him in your life with a surgeon's precision and just tried to wish him well on his career, his dream, as you tried to live yours.

"Hey Meg I'm gonna take my break right now." You say as you don't remove your eyes on him. Like pins in a taxidermy butterfly. You don't say anything as you walk past him into the alley next door as he silently follows.

He still as silent when you take out a cigarette and light. If you're gonna have to deal with him you're would need something stronger but you're on the clock.

"What," you ask as you exhale in his face (petty i know)

"When did you start smoking?"

"Since when did you care about my health?"

"Since you became a mother." You freeze because where the fuck did he get this type of attitude?

"Excuse me?"

"He looks a lot like you which is for the better really." He paused, he felt so out of his element like he was grasping for straws to turn into gold. "Were you ever gonna tell me?" It was selfish of him to expect you to reach out when he was the one that left without a trace (maybe he wouldn't even have responded if you did).

He expected you to maybe freeze again, or scream at him to stay away from you and your son and how he has no right but all you do is laugh. Laugh in a way that doesn't fit how he remembers you, softer and sweet. No this laugh it's the kind a devil would have at a human's self fulfilling misery. It's big and hallow, you might even be crying.

"You saying we had a fucking kid? You ghosting me may have hurt but don't flatter yourself into thinking it caused me to black out for nine months and give birth." You really should have skipped work today you think as you take another drag.

"I saw you. At the amusement park with him." Now this caused you to sober for a moment. A bit of clarity in this absurd feverish day. Only for you to laugh harder. You hunch forward, bellowing with laughter and almost burn your thigh with your cigarette.

Oliver stands there what feels like an uncomfortable forever as he waits until you stop. Really he doesn't know what the fuck to do because he was already lost before seeing you and you might as well have put him in a labyrinth now.

You slow down as you try to catch your breath but start laughing again because this shit is so fucking insane. It's probably minutes when you can even attempt to speak without being interrupted by your own laugh. You try to take another drag of your cigarette before realizes it's out and stomp on it while clearing your throat.

"The kid you saw with me," you stare directly up into his eyes while you still try not to laugh, your eyes watering again. "That was my nephew."

Oh. Oh.

Oliver was gonna die. He was gonna have a stroke from all the partying and being hit back to back with the realization he was a father and he actually isn't.

"You even went to his baby shower with me y'know."

He sort of remembers going to that. It was near the end of your relationship, he must have already been checked out by then. Yet he vaguely remembers seeing you so excited then, like it would be something you two would do down the line (before he fucked it up by leaving trying ti prevent a bigger fuck up). Yet now maybe he was the one excited because instead of relief he feels dissapointed? He hadn't had much time to process anything really, only that he needed to see you.

"God, I can't believe you thought we had a kid." Your face flickering at the possible implications of why he was here. You give him a look, like it'll be the last one. "Why did you come? What did you want?" You measure him, against himself. Seeing what could have changed. (He's a bit taller and more built but did he grow at all?)

"...I don't know." And it's the truth. That's what scares him so fucking much. That's he's uncertain but he's still being honest with you. You purse your lips because really you didn't expect any other answer.

"If that's all I have to get back to work." And as you turn he grabs your arm. You stay there for a moment, giving him the grace to say something but when the moments gone you tug your arm away.

He's never felt so distraught because he's got so many thoughts but nothing to say. He feels so out of it, this is how you always made him feel. Why he was drawn to you but also why he left because it started to feel less fun and more real, vulnerable. He felt vulnerable when he saw you first and when he came here. Even though you laughed at him and he was horrifyingly wrong he still wants to be just a bit vulnerable with you. Yet his fucking mouth won't say anything.

And he just let's you go, without a word from him. This time it's you that's walking away.

You take a breath than open the door and close it behind you without a look back. He stares at it for what feels like an embarrassing amount of time before it opens again.

Its not you but your coworker who walks to him.

"Can you move over? You're in the spot the cameras don't see." She says while taking out a cigarette. He does so a bit sluggish for a pro athlete. She takes a drag before she looks him up and down. She takes out a slip of paper, a note.

"Here, she told me to give this to you if you still hang around." He gingerly takes it and opens it. It's a phone number.

"Also no loitering." He leaves note clutched in hand.

(Also could I be 🪼 anon?)

🪼 nonnie!! i'm so honoured to have been your first ask. it's always hard to put yourself out there and start interacting. but i hope you continue to do so<3! i am ALWAYS~ here for more poly!olisae thoughts.

okay now let's settle in for this oliver concept i'm reADY. live reacts below.

oliver winning something from the high striker game of course. when his dating life was even MESSIER oliver ugh. his longest relationship!!! oh no this man is doing MATH right now. his brain is working overtime. IS HE IN HIS DEADBEAT DAD ERA.

"he hopes the kid doesn't take after him" 😭. LIKE HE DIDN'T WANT TO BOLT TO YOUUU. he can't even remember his date's name i'm screaming. pls man is scouring the internet for you. oliver just absolutely Going Through It trying to decide if he would be a good dad. the glow dims when you see him i'm imagining a record scratch moment.

DON'T FLATTER YOURSELF adlkfjasldfkasf. oliver's talking himself deeper and deeper into a hole i'm dying. YOUR NEPHEW. HE WENT TO THE BABY SHOWERRRRRRR oliver babygirl you are so dumb<3 "she told me to give this to you if you still hang out" WAHHHHHHHH

this was such a fun rollercoaster concept (and so FITTING for oliver). thank you so much for sharing nonnie!!!!

[jasontoddsdarling]

barbecue day (feat damian)

— aurora todd verse

"Well it's not."

"It is, Todd. I know it's kind of hard for you to understand, but it is."

"It's not—"

She is in the kitchen, cutting some condiments for some sambal to go along with chicken thighs and tomahawk steaks that Jason is currently roasted over portable grills in backyard.

But he's apparently bickering with Damian—who is visiting from his university's summer break, who's helping here and there but mostly supervising Aurora, which she has provided with entertainment in the form of her inflatable pool and her baby toys.

The thing is, they've been bickering for like ten minutes straight. She's pretty sure their closest neighbor know what they are arguing about already—meanwhile she only caught something about latest episode of some sci-fi show and latest video game update because she was chopping garlic with her new chopper and it drown their voices for her.

She needs to make sure that they get along.

And oh, how she has an idea.

As she wash her hands, she can hear them becoming more louder.

When she is finally opened the kitchen door towards the backyard, she finds out Jason's making gesture with his free hand and his other gripping kitchen tongs and Damian, which is inside Rora's inflatable balloon, making gestures with his hands holding some of her baby girl's toys.

If this isn't comical.

She clears her throat.

"Jay."

Jason instantly stops talking and Damian too—but not without drawing out his last syllables.

Damian immediately sits down on inside the pool.

"Yeah, sweetheart?"

Jason is back facing the grill, flipping some of the chicken thighs. You want to roll your eyes in affection.

"I need you and Damian to buy me some Thai chili and lemongrass."

"I thought we already have all the ingredients."

"Well, we actually were underestimating the need of several sambals."

Jason basically can't say no to her request, so he just drops the kitchen tongs and cleans his hands on the nearby outdoor faucet. Then, he picks up Rora from inside the pool.

Damian gets up, eyeing the grill—probably about to take over Jason's work. But she claps her hand seemingly to surprise her brother-in-law.

"Damian, why don't you go with Jay and Rora? I can handle the grill."

"How much she said she needs the lemongrass again?"

Damian asks when they're at the last traffic light before the grocery store. He's the one driving. Jason's shotgunning and Rora is on her baby chair on the backseat.

"Five stalks, but she also said just pick one plastic wrap building."

"And—"

"Ten ounces."

"Ons!"

Rora mimics, which surprised Damian.

"Thank you, Rora."

When it's green, he starts talking again—while Jason is currently turning to face Rora, giving her grubby little hands her a baby biscuit.

"I cannot believe she's your spawn, Todd."

"Me neither."

Jason looks ahead—back to the street in front of them afterwards, but Damian can see from the corner of his eye that he sports a fondly smile because they're talking about his niece.

"I actually think she acts more like her mom and the biggest evidence that she's yours is because she literally have your eye color, which is improbable for it to come from her mom's genetics because her eyes are dark and her heritage; but now I can see that she behaves like you, too."

Jason definitely isn't prepared to hear his little brother saying all of that, but he turns his head to the

"Really?"

"Yup. Believe me or not, before we were bickering—which I am sure why your wife sent us away, if you haven't noticed yet—I was inspecting how you and Rora interacts."

"Of course you did."

Damian dismisses his older brother.

"And from that, I can see that she's your mini you. I mean, she's obviously her mom's mini me, but it's not without you."

"That's genuinely the nicest thing you said to me today, little brother, and I appreciate that."

The twenty-one years old man shrugs.

"Don't thank me. I was just saying facts. Anyway, we're here."

Damian stops the engine and opens his car door. He goes to the backseat door to release and hoist Rora from her seat.

Jason definitely can see his smile before opening his own door, though.

"What's this sambal called again?"

Damian points his fork at the chopped herbs and Thai chili bowl of sambal.

They already finished cooking and are sitting together in a round backyard dinner table.

"Matah. M-a-t-a-h."

"Matah," Damian nods, "it's so fresh and fragrant from the kaffir lime leaves and the lemongrass. I like it. It's unlike anything I have ever tried."

"We can put it in a jar if you want to have some when you're going back to to uni, right, Jay?"

"Of course. You should send him your recipe too, so if he runs out he can make it himself. It's quite easy to make."

"Thank you."

Damian smiles gratefully at her and Jason. She almost cannot believe these two were bickering like teenage boys awhile ago. That's just what being siblings like, she guesses.

"Easy! Uncy!" Rora giggles. She's perches on her baby high chair beside her mom and face to face with Damian. Her little fingers holding a piece of cucumber that she's chewing.

(She is pleased she picks up "uncle" when she's talking to Damian)

"Thank you, little Rora."

mariea's notes: another writing out of aurora todd universe. randomly, "cannot believe she's your spawn" line came into my mind and then the rest is history. i know this series(?) don't have much readers compared to my regular fluff or especially regular smut (lol) but i really love exploring the dynamics of this family throughout my writings. also, trying the third person now. probably going to stick to this. as always you can drop a request (any) or a question and thanks for reading <3

[ryuichirou]

Replies

Happy Saturday; a couple of short replies today.

Anonymous asked:

I sound dumb but on kofi I noticed that some of your drawings were labeled Fellow and Mob and there was one on Bluesky for Epel and Mob. Who or what or when is Mob? Is this the dude from Scott Pilgrim?

You are not dumb, Anon! No worries.

“Mob” is basically the same as “just random faceless guy/girl”. Here is a definition from this site:

In Japanese, モブ (short for モブキャラクター) refers to a character who plays a minor role in anime/manga/games.

Dorm students from TWST (the ones that aren’t our main characters) are technically all Mob, like Scarabia student B, Heartslabyul student A, etc. This term is also frequently used in doujins when a character is being paired with some rando, i.e. some pervy old man or just some faceless student. In case with Fellow and Epel it was a pervy old man...

But now I can’t stop thinking about Mobile sleeping around lol

Anonymous asked:

ryu i just wanted to let you know that your aot art still lives rent free in my mind specially the ereri ones you were such a visionary omg !!!! but your new drawings are just as beautiful <3

Oh my god, Ereri!

Thank you so much for your kindness, Anon! Hearing that it such a blast from the past, I can’t believe it’s been 3 years already… I am very excited to apply everything I’ve learned over these years art-wise to more Ereri stuff in the future (whenever it’ll be). So it’s great to hear that there are people who still remember us and our content with these two <3

I am very happy you like my new stuff as well, it means a lot!

Anonymous asked:

Was at a con last weekend and you were like every person's at the twst meetup favorite artist I'm not even kidding

No way… 😭 This is incredibly sweet, thank you very much!

In all honesty though, it really is very surprising, but amazing nonetheless. I am very happy to hear that. It’s hard to even imagine that I exist... irl? In other people’s lives? Idk how to put it.

Thank you for sharing, and I hope you (and everyone else) enjoyed the con.

Anonymous asked:

I wish I had an Idia dakimakura. No question just wanted to share my woes. I need to squeeze the life out of him :(

Honestly, I think a lot of lives would have been improved with an Idia dakimakura… He is very squeezable :”(

Anonymous asked:

I've been having the most intense Lilia/Idia thoughts lately and I just wanted to share them if you're interested.

Cause Idia and Lilia are gaming buddies, yeah?

And I just can't stop thinking about how if they were playing a game with comms, there could be other people there or not but having other people there makes it more fun, and Lilia just messing with Idia so hard.

Just saying the dirtiest stuff and Idia's on the other side of the comms blowing a fuse from all the stuff Lilia's saying.

And if there was people there and they heard that, then Idia would have to deal with the questions later and he'd blow a fuse again just out of embarrassment.

Maybe that's a strange thought to have, but I just wanted to share it cause why not?

LOL poor random people who have to play with these two fuckers! On the other hand, it’s probably very entertaining to listen to them lol

It’s also funny that Crimson Muscle seems to have kind of strict and mature, yet unexpectedly playful vibe, so the image in Idia’s head is very specific. But once they learn each other’s identity… maybe Lilia would start acting like his gremlin self more. He really could make Idia blow a fuse if he wanted to…

No matter what happens, people around them are going to think they’re dating lol

[savagewildnerness]

Well, here's my spare, cheap wee bow...

“I’d imagine friendship, conversation, intimacy that we could never have. In some magical and imaginary moment I would say: "But you see what I am," and this human being, in supreme spiritual understanding, would say: "Yes, I see. I understand.””

(One from Lestat, but for us all today! What does anyone want (at least at some subconscious level) but to been seen for all they are - the full, fathomless horror of our full-selves… and be loved & accepted as we are, in completeness��?)

Here’s more context:

"I did not say so, but I believed there was a grace in sleeping in the crypt. There was a romance to rising from the grave. I was in fact going to the very opposite extreme in that I had coffins made for myself in places where we lingered, and I slept not in the graveyard or the church, as was our most common custom, but in hiding places within the house.

I can't say that she didn't sometimes patiently listen to me when I told her these things. She listened when I described to her the great works of art I had seen in the Vatican museum, or the chorus I had heard in the cathedral, or the dreams I had in the last hour before rising, dreams that seemed to be sparked by the thoughts of mortals passing my lair. But maybe she was watching my lips move. Who could possibly tell? And then she was gone again without explanation, and I walked the streets alone, whispering aloud to Marius and writing to him the long, long messages that took the whole night sometimes to complete.

What did I want of her, that she be more human, that she be like me? Armand's predictions obsessed me. And how could she not think of them? She must have known what was happening, that we were growing ever farther apart, that my heart was breaking and I had too much pride to say it to her.

"Please, Gabrielle, I cannot endure the loneliness! Stay with me."

By the time we left Italy I was playing dangerous little games with mortals. I'd see a man, or a woman -- a human being who looked perfect to me spiritually --  and I would follow the human about. Maybe for a week I'd do this, then a month, sometimes even longer than that. I'd fall in love with the being. I'd imagine friendship, conversation, intimacy that we could never have. In some magical and imaginary moment I would say: "But you see what I am," and this human being, in supreme spiritual understanding, would say: "Yes, I see. I understand."

Nonsense, really. Very like the fairy tale where the princess gives her selfless love to the prince who is enchanted and he is himself again and the monster no more. Only in this dark fairy tale I would pass right into my mortal lover. We would become one being, and I would be flesh and blood again.

Lovely idea, that. Only I began to think more and more of Armand's warnings, that I'd work the Dark Trick again for the same reasons I'd done it before. And I stopped playing the game altogether. I merely went hunting with all the old vengeance and cruelty, and it wasn't merely the evildoer I brought down.

In the city of Athens I wrote the following message to Marius:

"I do not know why I go on. I do not search for truth. I do not believe in it. I hope for no ancient secrets from you, whatever they may be. But I believe in something. Maybe simply in the beauty of the world through which I wander or in the will to live itself. This gift was given to me too early. It was given for no good reason. And already at the age of thirty mortal years, I have some understanding as to why so many of our kind have wasted it, given it up. Yet I continue. And I search for you.""

Redolent of Lestat with Louis, later... right?

[roseofithaca]

"What are you doing here, Dutch?"

"Same as you, I suppose." (RDR2)

"You're just like me, John. You can't change who you are." (RDR1)

Okay I'm currently hyperfixated on these boys and I gotta talk about how fascinating this relationship is.

Because while Dutch and Arthur's relationship is heartbreaking, there's something even more crushing about Dutch and John over the course of both games.

To start we're told by both Arthur and Bill that John is the "favorite", that he's "Dutch's pet", "the golden boy", even Micah brings it up in chapter six. Part of Arthur's bitterness over John's return is how cool Dutch seemed to be about it, how he was welcomed back with open arms. However nearly all the interactions we see (or rather Arthur sees) between Dutch and John are very tense and grow more heated over the game until they're outright screaming at each other - and of course things get as bad as they can be in rdr1. But how I imagine things used to be, pre-Blackwater or pre-John's gap year, was Dutch did dote on John and John worshipped him in return. John seems to have been found the youngest that we know of, twelve years old, so he was as much of a child as can be, which allowed Dutch to mold him into a younger version of himself, whereas Arthur was clearly more Hosea's son. Dutch taught John to sound smart without really saying anything, while Arthur learned from Hosea to be smarter than he appeared. To compare the two, I think Arthur was Dutch's joy (the mirror of his best friend, his first son) but John was his pride (his own reflection). It's very typical narcissist parent behavior to latch onto the youngest or one that most resembles you most as they're the most obvious extension of yourself. And for as long as John obeyed and adored Dutch, that fuelled his own ego - fitting then how Dutch's mental decline runs in parallel to John drifting away and learning to be his own person, a father in his own right, and seeing who Dutch is without rose tinted glasses. And the stronger John gets, the more Dutch feels threatened, like when he accuses John of "wanting to be the General". Dutch is a loving granddad to Jack and caring to Abigail, encouraging John to be a good father, but not if it means they become more important than the gang (ie Him). I also think a lot of the insults Dutch hurls at John later on are things he could be partly saying about himself, how he doesn't have the grit, how he's always been weak or blind. The more Dutch fails, the more he targets John as a punching bag for his own failures, to the point of wanting to leave him to rot as he admits in one hidden BH scene.

Side note, this also feeds into his resentment of Arthur, firstly of also no longer being a yes man, but Dutch also notes how much Arthur sounds like Hosea - except Dutch was ignoring Hosea right from the start of the game, even if he did help keep Dutch grounded to some sense of reality, Arthur is a reminder of Dutch's recent loss and also insulted at the idea of Arthur replacing Hosea - that's not Arthur's job, in his mind, it's just to be his big scary grunt. Once he's becoming weaker, he doesn't see the purpose in having Arthur around if he's just going to question and possibly (if he believes Micah) betray him. And he writes Arthur off as dead anyway once he starts getting sick, he already lost Hosea, he's not putting himself through that again so it's easy to just leave him for dead. But despite all that, Arthur still loves Dutch enough to ride back and try one last time to convince his "father" that Micah is out to get him, he even spends his last breaths begging him to see sense - not for his own sake, but the man who raised him.

But with John it's a different, more raw tragedy that Dutch's self-loathing and insanity grow in their time apart, despite both clearly having had Arthur's shadow hanging over them, eventually pushing them to the exact same destination on the exact same day with the exact same purpose - to kill Micah. John has been haunted by guilt that Arthur had to sacrifice himself for him, while Dutch has been haunted by (imo) the guilt of leaving Arthur to die as well as allowing Micah to manipulate him. But both men are also not killing "for Arthur's sake" here, more their own, as they both know Arthur didn't agree with revenge. But they do it to try to ease their own consciences. For John it works, for Dutch it just sends him off into isolation and his eventual fate.

And the saddest thing is, John thanks him. Even after everything Dutch did to him and Abigail, he makes an attempt to reach out. There was a brief glimpse from John of the boy who loved his adoptive father, but Dutch's ice cold stare and silence remind them they can never go back to what was. And John let's him go. But this moment seems to change something in John's perspective, as earlier he had always said he believed Dutch had been hiding who he was the whole time, but by the time of RDR1 he's saying similar things as Sadie that Dutch was a good man who "went insane". He now wants to believe that there was a part of Dutch that cared, long ago, but it's now gone.

The Dutch that John eventually has to hunt down is different than the one he last saw on Mount Hagen, the one who admitted that he didn't have much to say anymore, the man who still cared enough to spare John and leave him the Blackwater money. Dutch is now a complete bloodthirsty monster who kills for sport, who openly calls Abigail a whore and Jack a whore's son - the same boy he once doted on, found a puppy with, that he rode into hell for. His disgust for John, his boy, working for the government, being the "rat" he feared him to be, is enough to get him to not hold back on shooting him anymore, but I also can't help but think most of his words are egging John on to get him. "You'll have to kill me, John!" he yells. But when it comes to just the two of them, both on a mountain yet again, they both put away their guns. It's the closest thing we get in the first game to a hint of their past relationship, of father and son, rather than adversaries. John's name, his "golden boy's" name, is the last thing to leave Dutch's lips before he falls. The speech the same one he said with Arthur at his side. As insane as he was, he spent those last moments thinking of his sons, and possibly Hosea too, before he fell, how he wasn't able to fight his own cowardly nature to do right by them, you can't change my mind.

And while John would never talk about it openly, its just awful to think how this man had to watch the father he loved and who doted on him back, to slowly become a monster, to hating each other, trying to kill each other, then to see a glimpse of what was but being unable to save him. It also adds context to his own behavior to Jack, how he tries to be a doting father but doesn't discourage him too much from having his own interests, as much as they confuse him.

And then, the final nail in this angst coffin, walking out to face his own death knowing Dutch was right, that they did just find another monster to come for.

[sazzujazzu]

Hello, as the days count down and the Bad Batch finale draws closer, may I show to the fine folks of tumblr my first Star Wars OC in 20 years, created thanks to this show? 😃

Too bad, I'm showing them anyway 😊 somberly chilling while listening to their bestie talk.

Please excuse the poor background (I got lazy) and half-finished Tech (I got sad)

there's, uh, a big mess of words under the image because I wanted to put into words the importance this show has for me, and I am bad at doing so.

I want to get some thoughts off my chest, because I have no one in my day-to-day life who cares about the animated Star Wars shows, and especially the Bad Batch. (well, other than my mom, but I don't want to bore her with my rambling too much. she already banned star wars from me once, i won't let that happen again lol)

I can't stop thinking how much I don't want Bad Batch to end.

This show has been so dear to me. I can't remember the last time I've loved something this much.

Before the second season started, I had an artistic block that had lasted way too long. Anything I drew or wrote, mostly turned out a horrible mess after staring at a blank page for hours and hours, if I ever managed to create anything at all. For someone who tends to draw whenever their hands aren't otherwise busy (aka all the damn time), such a block weighed down on my mental health.

Well, then season two happened, and full-on gave me back my love for Star Wars, a love that had somewhat gone out over the last few years. Then, Plan 99 happened, and broke me because again my favorite character "died" (I'm in team Tech lives until I draw my last breath or until proven correct. That chocolate-eyed cutie-pie is alive nothing will convince me otherwise). Pretty much after finishing the episode and staring at a wall for another 30 minutes, I said "nope" and began writing.

I wrote for hours. I believe it's been well over a decade since I last wrote fanfiction, but here I was, creating a Star Wars oc, something I'd last done as a ten-year-old. And now, roughly a year later, I think I've written over a hundred pages of (very self-indulgent) fanfiction with the Batch, and with my oc that I've come to love.

And drawing, oh boy, have I been drawing!

(... Sure, I've mostly been drawing Tech, over and over again, to a point I once actually considered lying and saying "yeah that's my boyfriend haha!" to a man at my job last summer, when asked who it was that I was drawing for maybe fifth day in a row 😂 likely would've been a more acceptable excuse for someone my age. But, I mean... I just really love drawing him, not only because he is my favorite character of maybe all time, but because he is just so fun to draw! And most of all, at least I draw again!)

And it is all thanks to this wonderful show about a bunch of defective and effective copy-paste boys and their sister.

It's probably something many say, but I've always felt like a bit of an outsider. I've felt like I have no place; when I was a kid, my interests were very different from the other kids of [gender assigned at birth], and trying to play with them while inserting my own interests into the games, often didn't go so well. I was... kind of an odd child (although now, older and questionably wiser, knowing that I might actually be autistic, many things make more sense now. me kind of discovering this about myself is also partially thanks to Bad Batch)

Also, growing up trans/non-binary, while not even knowing what that is or having a word for it, didn't really do much to help with the feeling of "I'm different and an outsider because of it". Perhaps it was one more reason I fell in love with Clone Force 99, because I could see some of myself in them. Being different from the "regs".

I love this show, and these fictional people have become my family, and I am not ready to say goodbye to them.

Alright, weird pile of thoughts over. In case someone read all this, uh... thanks 😊

[respectthepetty]

I’m late. But obsessed with EarthMix and ONLY just finished Moonlight chicken and look, I will believe anything from these shows. Anything! A body swap, yea I’m game, time travel? Sure thing I’ll buy that.

But at no point. At any point, can they try and convince me that Earth is a 40 year old man. Like. Hunny no.

BUT they can convince me that if you show Mix’s Forehead. His Duality reaches another level.

Thank you for allowing me to ramble on your ask, with not an ask but more of a statement of feelings.

🙃

Anon, fair warning this is going to turn into a

Mama Gogo & Jojo Appreciation Post

I've written it plenty of times, but as a person who is always late, it doesn't matter that you're late as long as you show up. And obviously, you show up for the good stuff!

(I'm unsure about the comment about Mix's forehead. I don't understand it. It is very much my reading comprehension, not you, so I'm gonna moonwalk around it. Sorry.)

EarthMix did give us body swapping in Cupid's Last Wish and Magic of Zero: Zero Supporter, which I think is funny that their Cupid's Last Wish characters basically got a sponsored Our Skyy episode before A Tale of Thousand Stars did.

And I believed them as heartbroken best friends, Batman & Robin, in the New Jiew video.

So if their A Tale of Thousand Stars installment has time travel where the chief isn't playing someone already in his 30s, I would be delighted, but I know we can't get that on top of them looking adorable. We can only be so lucky!

But, like you stated, GMMTV trying to convince me that Earth is 40 when he JUST turned 29?! The audacity!

Especially when these children are older than him!

Off (32), Gun (turning 30 this year), Tul (30), and Max (turning 29 in a month).

That's the magic of film, but @dribs-and-drabbles had an entire post about how we want stories about older queers with older people acting in them! And you know what's shocking?!

THIS IS 40!!!!!!

Nat aka Chopper's dad from Never Let Me Go is 40. If he was good enough to play Chopper's daddy, then he is good enough to play a daddy, you feel me?!

First, I need everyone to watch Mama Gogo where that scene came from because it served nothing but looks every single episode, and it was written AND directed by the Jojo, who also put Nat in Never Let Me Go which he also directed.

If you like Earth, Jojo gave us treats. If you like Mike and Drake, Jojo had you. If you like 40-year-old daddies, Jojo fed you! GO LOOK AT THE POSTER!

And for the ladies who like ladies, THIS IS 42!

Once again, we have Jojo to thank for Sine looking fine in 3 Will Be Free.

So what I'm trying to say is as much as I love director Aof, who is beautiful and amazing, he stays aging up these boys, while Jojo appreciates the variety of actors' ages. Aof had First looking like a divorced dad of two with a mortgage and alimony due, when we all know that 24-year old is a precious baby boy who needs to stay hydrated because he cries so much.

Jojo would never do that! He is giving First a baseball bat and the rest of these 20-year old boys their slut era in Only Friends!

So if you want to see Earth be a 20-year old himbo, Jojo is the answer.

Jojo is always the answer.

[oodlyenough]

alright I'm finally playing turnabout succession and despite how many big reveals i'd already been spoiled for the case is still surprising me in parts and clearly going to be quite long so i thought i'd put some thoughts together now

I'm not-quite-finished the MASON system chapter so no spoilers plz

some general notes:

I knew Vera Misham existed but not really anything about her or her father so that whole first trial was fun

I can't believe the glass hand statue I've seen in fanart a million times is the world's least ergonomic nail polish bottle ?!?!? lmfaoo ... nothing like the feeling of sharp crystal fingertips digging into your palms while you apply a... clear topcoat ... okay

Ema popping up in court with a Kristoph impression just to fuck with Klavier is the funniest thing in the world I love her so much. #1 hater

extremely generous of the judicial system to let disbarred lawyer phoenix wright design and run the new thing lmfaoooo

god willing they'll give me a chance to say 'i've spent the last seven years building up an immunity to atroquinine'

troupe gramarye is fucked up man LMAO i mean i kind-of guessed but i didn't anticipate the levels of it and i think we've only scratched the surface so far

i knew the names 'zak gramarye' and 'shadi enigmar' from fandom and never in a million years would i have guessed which was the magician stage name and which was his birth certificate name

i'm not sure what i'm meant to be thinking of zak so far. they alternate a bit between him seeming to be at least something of a concerned father, popping back up to will stuff to trucy and wearing her locket etc ...and him being physically violent, abandoning her in the first place and scheming to ruin phoenix's life a second time for no reason. I was pretty sure the victim from 4-1 was trucy's dad, and at the time I wondered if his plan was to undermine Phoenix in order to take custody of Trucy again, but so far it seems like he was just ... being a dick? lmao. I dunno; case isn't over so presumably more of that will come to light

still a big fan of valant, he cracks me up idc if he shot that old man. the game is telling me there was friction bc he was in love with thalassa but it's too little too late when i've already decided he has a weird gay thing with zak and also canonically he is capable of impeccable thalassa drag, so

drew misham being like "i left my reclusive 12 year old alone with a strange adult to discuss crime. it's ok though bc she felt an immediate affinity for a man she describes as the devil and agrees to keep secrets for" sir what the fuck do you mean !!!!! rest in pieces honestly

actually when we hit the bit about 'well vera doesn't like many people but she liked him', i was like "she liked KRISTOPH???" and @nowwheresmynut was like "maybe it was one of the gramaryes since she's a stan" and i was like "oh that makes sense". but it doesn't. it was kristoph. Lmfao. child whisperer

the MASON system is so ??? lmao... why does my inventory carry over from past to present lmaooo. phoenix invented time travel (real) (not clickbait)

I was going to write a whole thing about the disbarment trial and the investigation portion but this post is already enormous so it might be its own thing. I have deeper thoughts about that stuff from like a... broader game/storytelling pov. I will say I knew there was a flashback trial but I did NOT know you got so many investigation portions as Phoenix what a nice surprise 😭😭😭 I miss him

[shinglescat]

With all its faults, i enjoyed the story of Stalker 2. It feels like home.

After 2nd pt, I grew to love Faust, easily one of the most memorable and iconic characters of the franchise. I still wish monolith and ex-monolith had more screentime besides being the go-to adversaries for exploration shootouts. The few quests they had are not enough, especially given the tragedy of Strider and his entire group. I'm still not over his death, he of all people in the franchise deserves better. The way he tried to shoot himself right after the Signal went off broke my heart. And the death scene, where he's free of monolith influence again, realizing he nearly killed Skif........................

Surprised by Korshunov, like super surprised. First time i did Varta-Varta-Strider-Strelok-Doctor (i also did permutations of the last two to see the three other endings), and this time I did Spark-Spark-Varta-Strelok-Doctor. I expected him to be a typical soldier bossman, someone who would betray me and who would try to off me, but nothing like that, and he actually respects Skif and does not consider him to be a meat on legs. He's very convincing, menacing but not evil, likable also. The "i can't even bury them" speech hit right in the heart - he's got his men at the top of his priorities, and it's a breath of fresh air to see a military man in a media to not think of his subordinates as of disposable.

Dalin Jr. is the same revelation. I thought he'd be a scumbag, a scientist without morals, another trickster, but nope, man with a heart of gold following after his not so good father. Feeling a bit guilty for not trusting him the entire time the first playthrough. I laughed my ass off during that one section at the institude where Korshunov casually watched Skif assault Dalin, as if it's a regular occurence at the place.

Scar is one big holy shit. I both love him and hate him. He's definitely not something i thought him to be from Clear Sky, but he's entertaining nonetheless. He is actually the ruthless and crazy motherfucker i believed Korshunov to be, with absolute fuck all about human lives. Proper terrorist. And his S2 story tying with CS - i can't help but pity him, groomed to be used as a modem by people with power.

Separate mention to Spark's Star. The guy had at most 10 minutes of screentime total, but he's got some real good chemistry with Skif.

Richter is a whole nother beast. He's like an autistic golder retriever puppy. Jesus, man, just kiss Skif already, you aren't gonna see him ever again anyway.

I swear, if the game was less depressing, Skif, Richer and Star could be boyfriends.

Strelok is everything i thought he'd be and would become. Definitely didn't disappoint, tho at one point i questioned where tf he got so much money hiring all those mercs lmao. He definitely had his brain scorched with an idea, but he's somehow still rational about everything else. Clever, stubborn in his ways, rigid, unable to see thru some subtler parts.

Really glad to meet Doctor proper after so many years. He's everything I expected him to be and more. What I didn't expect is him throwing heavy as fuck lines constantly, making me question every single step.

Degtyarov... had crininally little time after introduction. Certified badass tho.

Oh my god Agatha the bitch. This is the ruthless person I believed Dalin to be. The Varta ending is easily THE BAD one because of who she is, who she is serving and what their plans are, though not even remotely as depressing as Scar's. The old hag had my homie Korshunov follow her without any doubt. Ugh I wish there was a way to knock some sense into him....

For the Varta ending, Strelok literally says they're going to use the Thread project for something during that one infiltration mission with the TVs, but he doesn't know exactly what for. I followed Korshunov's reasoning and logic that the Zone is to be destroyed, but somehow, i disregarded Agatha completely. And then the ending hit me. Ye, the Zone is gone, but something far more sinister is in its place, with project X finished after so many years and its goals fulfilled. And those TVs at the end, being creepy. Nah, never picking that one again.

The Scar ending is easily the most depressing one. First Korshunov kills Richter, but then turns out that O-Soznanie is legit and exists in the subtle matter, and Dalin is ecstatic to finally be able to talk to his father. And then the O-Soz representative sends you to the generators, and it's surprisingly peaceful and not dangerous at all, rainbows everywhere, and you chill near the blue campfires under emissions with your now suddenly alive-but-not-really Richter and other dead homies from the subtle matter (Strider is suspiciously absent), and Richter shows you the way like a fucking disney princess. And you think, hey, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. WRONG. You get to the X-lab, and Scar is having a life crisis cuz his entire life in the Zone was a lie, his memories have been imprinted from another stalker, and he himself was programmed for this exact job, but then he comes thru and decides to go into the fish tank anyway. And then it's butterflies, poppies, unicorn farts everywhere, all dead people are alive, and Skif be having a grand time of his life chatting with homies.... UNTIL THE FUCKEN CAMERA SHIFTS, and turns out it's all in his head. Yeah no, never again.

The Strelok ending is probably a good one. Or at least neutral. He gives his reasoning, he tells everyone to fuck off, he prohibits exit and enter into the Zone, and he's now the entity guarding her like a loyal dog. The Zone supposedly (because let's face it, this balding mofo's in charge now) has no masters anymore, no one can abuse her ever again, but she's not free either. Tho it's kinda a weird one with him. He wanted the Zone gone, but now he put her under his own protectorate? I mean, it's been 10 years, a man can change, but... would be interesting to hear a more elaborate explaination than "she gave me a new life" or smth.

And then the Doctor ending. Some say it's a bad one, but I really do love it the most. I knew i wouldn't be able to kill him as Strelok wanted, and he gives very compelling arguments against Strelok's crusade... and you spare Doc, run to hide into the basement of his house from the emission... only to find more notes down there, talking about the O-Soz agents and him using them and scaners and alpha-artifacts for something... makes you question if he wasn't the mastermind behind all this. Maybe even his couriers were behind the explosion at Skif's khrushovka. Maybe it was a setup to bring an outsider to make his plan come true. And then, at the end, as the Zone finally frees herself of her shackles, expanding worldwide (i doubt it's an actual expansion, more like local anomalies appearing worldwide), Doc morphs into Faust and makes you question the entire Doctor's story. Was it Faust the whole time? Was he not killed by Skif? Is he a manifestation, an illusion? Was it Faust himself that is the mastermind behind all this? And then remember that reactivated monolith-Strider tried to kill doctor. Was it a coincidence? Was it a command to kill Doctor Kaymanov by O-Soz, was it a command by O-Soz to kill Faust while pretending to be Doctor because he's sorta gone rogue/against his original program, or was it a command by Faust himself to get Skif to trust the illusion?

And the awesome part is that all of the endings-related parties are right about their respective things.

This is the game narrative-wise I wanted Veilguard to be tbh. But here I am, left alone to geek out about stalker 2 instead. Oh and in this game they drop some serious lines, most notably Doctor, as I mentioned above. His "But how does one know the value of freedom if one has never been free?" hit me like a truck. Strider's monologue after his death about monolithians being puppets brings tears to the eyes.

Ugh, this makes me think what kinda ending woulda been if Strider was alive and still himself, if he went into the aquarium instead of everyone else.

Oh by the way, the Faust theme, 0:40 - 0:50, I swear I can hear "let me out". Not creepy at all, but checks out.

TL:DR i want more monolithian stuff, i want justice for my bestie Strider AND I want a romance-dating DLC because Richter and Star are definitely boyfriend materials for Skif lmao.

[sapphire-weapon]

A little outsider's rant to the EagleOne fandom... particularly you younger fans.

Y'all are really getting upset about your ship because Leon and Ashley possibly never being shown together again? After all that wonderful material you got in re4 remake? Guys, most ship survive on crumbs... and y'all had a pretty decent meal there!

Like!! At least she's fucking alive! Look at how strong Serrenedy is... and Luis is fucking dead! Doesn't stop them from writing a ton of fix it fics and AUs and what if scenarios.

You guys aren't Aeon! You don't need the fucking "kiss make canon and valid" mentality. YOUR SHIP IS FUCKING VALID AND GOOD!

"But... I wanna see them together..."

WRITE THE FIC THEN! DRAW THE FANART! MAKE THE EDITS!

"Oh, but I'm not very creative."

SHUT UP AND DO IT ANYWAY!

Flood the world with it! Show everyone what the ship means to you! You'll get better at it the more you practice!

And you know what? Maybe Leon and Ashley don't ever see each other again in canon... but maybe some of you get real good at writing and maybe someday, more original stories starring characters with their archetypes start showing up... and being together. All because y'all knew a good thing when you saw it.

So don't roll over and die so damn soon. Yes it fucking sucks possibly not seeing Ashley in the games again.

So keep her alive and present outside of them.

you know @godtier and i were actually talking about this earlier today, and it's this whole thing that's like

kind of like what leon is going through in my fic, where he thinks that it's worse to have had it and lost it, because he now knows how good it was for him and how good it made him feel and that he can't have it anymore -- so now, he wishes he'd never had it at all, because then he wouldn't have to mourn it.

like, serennedy fandom operates under no illusions. they know exactly how that connection started, progressed, and ended. same thing with metaltango fandom. and, being slash ships, they never expect to become canon anyway, because that's unfortunately not the world that we currently live in.

and then you have something like jilleon fandom, who never anticipates their ship becoming canon, so there's no reason for them to get super invested in how the canon portrays them, because the heart of that fandom has always been fanfiction to begin with.

but with eagleone fandom, it's like...

people feel like something is being taken away from them. especially the eagleone people who came into RE through RE4make. because they did have it. for that one game, they had this ship that meant so much to them and was clearly written to be taken as romantic...

... and then to learn, no actually, you don't get to have that?

that sucks. it feels like a breakup.

like, there's a big difference between old guard like me, who looks at it as: "holy fuck i can't believe we actually got this, are you kidding me????" because i understand just how shocking and unexpected it is, considering how the rest of the series goes -- and new fans who are going "wait, what do you mean she gets written out of the series?"

i went into RE4make already knowing that leon's character progresses into the future without ashley. and so i'm just delighted that they got to have what they had for the time that they had it.

new fans are coming in and seeing a canon romance and not understanding why someone would say that it won't be followed through with, because that runs antithetical to their personal experiences with the game.

and that's why i don't fucking feud with aeon fandom, man. i mean, other than the fact that i'm a 34 year old adult who has better things to do with my time than argue with teenagers about fictional relationships.

they're dicks, but i feel bad for them, because they're going through a breakup, too. and theirs is way harder than eagleone's is because the relationship lasted a lot longer. they've had this for so long, but now it's like "fuck you, pack your shit, we're over."

now, with that all being said

there's no excuse for either side of this to be fucking toxic the way that they've been, either. i get that you're disappointed and you need some time to mourn and it feels even shittier to have someone from the other team go "YOU NEVER ACTUALLY HAD THAT THING YOU'RE MOURNING IN THE FIRST PLACE" but like

basically just this

[usedpidemo]

honestly, after the last episode ended, this emotionally affected me more than I thought :(

I was born four years after his journey began, and by the time I was introduced to the magic of television, I had already grown attached to the Pokémon franchise with the games and trading cards. I was a little kid entering elementary when I began watching this 10 year old's journey. Growing up, I had a bootleg Johto DVD and a bootleg Kanto DVD, so I always rewatched the Indigo League and Master Quest to the point of scratching my discs. I never really kept up with him constantly after Diamond and Pearl, but I've kept track during the League tournaments, hoping, praying, that this is the one where he finally wins it.

Only to be disappointed again and again.

I was there for all of them—when his Charizard was a complete dick to Tobias to Kalos and everything else in between.

I always hated his loss to Richie and Harrison to the point where I deliberately refused to rewatch them cause it irked me to no end to watch the main character lose in his own show. Young me believed that the hero always ended up winning, but it also taught me that you can't always win, and that there's always going to be someone better than you.

But even so, I should continue pursuing and fighting for my goals, as he did.

Years passed, and I'm an adult now, getting ready to take on the next chapter of life. I've already watched many of my childhood heroes come and go, take their bows, and ride off into the sunset, but it always felt like Ash Ketchum was gonna be a constant as the franchise that birthed him to this day.

He was always there—until he wasn't.

And only now do I realize I relate more to him than I thought.

It's probably a bit silly for me to have this much sentimental attachment to an ageless protagonist for an average slice-of-life anime with the occasional shonen elements, but man, was Ash one of the most consistent figures in my life growing up. It was often a lonely one, my childhood, and when you're feeling like no one outside of family embraces you, you find comfort in the things you love, even if they aren't truly real.

I'm really happy he got the triumphant ending my childhood always wanted, but I also feel sad that it too, had to pass on eventually. That's growing up for you.

The story may be over, but the journey never ends.

So thank you, Ash Ketchum and Pikachu, for all the laughs, all the thrills, all the losses—everything. I was never there every step of the way, but you always were—and will always be—in my heart. You taught me the importance of hard work, ambition, perseverance, friendship, and to think outside the box, but mostly importantly, to keep fighting for your goals until you achieve them.

Thank you for the memories.

[yanderemeganekko]

Tag game thing because why not

Oh man, I think this is like, my whopping third or fourth original post made this year. I sometimes forget my presence here is noted by anyone because of how little I post haha- so thanks for @houkagokappa for tagging me :)

Tag 9 an amount of people you'd like to get to know better

3 ships: Gosh, the only thing I've properly shipped in the last good while has been OCs I've been making in a friend group with my boyfriend, so I have to dig pretty hard for this one. The latest one that pops to mind would probably be KazuScara. Maybe also Neuvillette/Wriothesley? I don't even know their ship names yet but it's been growing on me. And for good measure I gotta throw in KilluGon as a good oldie, that one is always gonna own my heart.

First ship ever: Sora/Riku, no joke. If I had any ships from before then I have no idea, since KH was one of the first things I got into when I got online as a wee 9(?)-year-old... would you believe me if I told you I never finished the game LOL (I promise I will someday).

Last song: Animal by Deco*27. I was working on a project earlier and wanted something lighthearted to listen to.

Last movie: I'm so terrible about watching movies, this one might actually be the first Spiderverse movie from last year. I meant to go watch a bunch of movies this summer, but then life happened, so...

Currently reading: Manga-wise, Hikaru ga shinda natsu, which I've been enjoying a ton. I've also tried to get into reading books again (with pretty middling results), so I got myself a collection of Holmes stories, and a Lovecraft collection, both which I've started.

Currently watching: Finally watching Ancient Magus Bride with some friends! I just haven't felt an itch for seasonal anime, or anime in general lately, although we did recently finish Psycho Pass with my boyfriend (I've already seen it, I just needed to show him because I knew he would enjoy it).

Currently consuming: Media, or food? If it's food, currently nothing, although I did make a (pretty wet) blueberry pie and gingerbread cookies for independence day.

Currently craving: Time with family, and a home-cooked meal made by someone else. Due to some pretty grim circumstance I'm not spending today with my family, and it's unlikely that will be the case for end-of-the-year holidays either. I've been really jealous of seeing everyone my age and even older get to be with their parents, especially since mine are all I have, family-wise... but I can't blame my misfortune on others, so I just try to make do and enjoy my time with friends.

I can't think of terribly many mutuals of mine (sorry if I forgot about you, I promise it's not you it's me) but off the top of my head, I'll just tag @spoofenshmirtz, @komaeeda and @lonery-w.