#maybe it’s just a cat. but maybe it’s indicative of a much larger issue.

[official-lucifers-child]

it’s so indicative of some peoples’ views of disabled people (and disabilities in general) that they’ll think their PETS are faking a disability. i just saw a video (tiktok of course) where the creator said “every time i start to think my cat is faking his blindness, he does something like this” and the video was of a cat trying to get down from a low shelf. he was unable to reach out and feel the floor with his paws, so was extraordinarily hesitant to jump down. and i had a moment of “aw poor kitty” and immediately followed by the thought: “why the fuck would anyone think a CAT was faking BLINDNESS?”

it’s completely nonsensical, right? how could a cat fake any disability? the vets diagnosed the cat with blindness for a reason. and why? why would a cat fake blindness? for what purpose would a CAT have to fake blindness? it’s a cat. IT IS A LITERAL CAT.

and then i realised that the creator of the video was projecting their beliefs regarding disabled humans onto their cat. clearly, they must believe that at least some disabled people are “faking it” and therefore their cat must be “faking it” too. i can only imagine that the cat has adapted to his blindness and is able to navigate well enough that it can appear as though the cat can see, similarly to how blind people learn their house/workplace/etc so well that they can navigate without the aid of a cane or other assistance.

and obviously that means that the cat (and, therefore, disabled people) must be faking it.

[sundemonlord]

Black Sheep Punching Bag

No story exists in a vacuum.

My existence and experiences are interconnected with others'.

I've lived at least three lifetimes. Much of my life is a blur. I only remember the interesting, the painful, the particularly beautiful.

There are some odd days I remember, yes.

I often tell people my memory is bad. That I don't remember. Because I don't remember anything "not important".

That's just not how my brain works. I don't consciously remember most things. I remember so much, though.

Autism, trauma, alcoholism for a decade, self medicating, meditation, and a lot of Life. Not to mention 8 concussions. The first and the last being moderate to severe.

Almost dying a half dozen times. Like, near misses with certain Death.

There's a lot in my brain. A lot about a lot of different things.

So there are many things I remember. But my life? Not so much.

I know that's ... not good. It could be indicative of anything. But I've already stated the myriad things which I'm definitely aware of -- so let's leave it at that.

...

What was my first memory?

I think it really was that paranormal experience.

I was 3 years old. I was in a forest. It was very green. It must've been spring time because it was comfortable.

We -- my mother and someone else (I'm not sure who) -- were just walking around the forest.

That was the dream.

And I remember, I remember later experiencing the dream. I remember walking around that forest, while I was awake, and experiencing deja vu for the first time.

This is one of my most vivid memories. And it is blurry now, as it should be.

...

Another vivid memory, which was too long ago for me to place..

My brother and I were young. Too young to be alone, I think.

I ended up calling 911 and asking where our mom was.

I remember us being in a sort of... penthouse. We were high up, it was an open floor plan. Even now, I can recall the furniture and space being nice. The windows were huge.

I think I knew my mom was in night classes.

***She'd eventually drop out for us and become a paralegal.

...

We're a bit older, but not teenagers. We were living in a larger house. Maybe it was our grandmothers. Maybe.

We had a lot of pets.

Duchess was a part wolf, german shepherd, and akita. She was gifted to me from a teacher. I'm not sure exactly how this came about. But I remember meeting both of her parents.

We had birds, cats, hermit crabs, even a turtle, and fish.

We had a step father named Daryl who was a vietnam vet. He was black, much older than my mother (by more than a decade), but also much more stable mentally. He was physically built like an Olympian -- 6'4'' and 200lbs of muscle. Even at the age of 50+ years he could swing us around on his arms and pick us up with ease.

***I would later have anger issues that would lead me to hurt her (Duchess) and the animals we owned.

But by that time, I would've have seen enough physical and emotional abuse/neglect by my family that no one thought anything of it.***

I remember when Duchess ran away one time. Maybe it was the first or second time. She was.. a teenager, I think. She'd gotten hit by a car and run very very far away, in shock.

I remember trying to find her on my own and getting lost.

I cannot remember much clearly, after that.

Not now.

...

Frightening Nightmare with Red Cap Gnome

...

Barclay Elementary

I remember being in elementary school. This was around the time I became aware and uncomfortable with being perceived as a girl. This was the same time I convinced my mom to let me wear boys clothes.

But it was not yet.

At this time, my mother was with a younger dark skinned man named Kevin. He was verbally and physically abusive to all of us.

Daryl was no longer around, though he was in contact.

To be cont.

[mg549]

rainbow high but they each have distinct and varying styles

hi im putting my Disscusion under the post cause ik lots of ppl just wanna rb the art but also i have Thoughts

-ruby’s style is the strongest in the series imo. they designed a butch lesbian and nobody told them ig. my only slight change was giving her cowboy boots cause if shes from “the country” then she should... actually... look like shes from the country. maybe its just cause i grew up in nc but i would love some southern rep from a character where being from the south isnt their whole Personality. anyways i think she should wear western style button downs is all im trying to say

-bella... her style is ALL over the place. since she is a set designer i wanted to make her a theatre kid!!! her style is somewhere in the 40s/50s zone of vintage inspired so that way she has a definite Range of styles and silhouettes to choose from! im a sucker for the new look bc its so Shapes but i could also see her pulling off some long wool circle skirts and peasant top blouses! i also gave her some hearing aids and braces which you can probably only see if you zoom in dhjnf

-poppy got the biggest design overhaul of anyone. i kept the butterfly theme and nothing else fbhdjd. since her music has some definite funk energies i wanted to give her a 70s inspired look with some glam platforms and denim overalls! i think we deserve bellbottom pantsuit poppy. i also changed her hair bc literally the rh main cast all have practically IDENTICAL hair styles save for the direction theyre parted in. i wanted to give her those anime butterfly headphones but toned down slightly hdsjdnd oh and! shes also wearing glasses bc once again we get a whole cast of characters and not one of them is wearing glasses like smh literally like half of all ppl wear glasses?? anyways in terms of personality i wanted to keep her bubbly but instead of just making music thru like Divine Inspiration i think she should take a more realistic and nuanced approach!! show her nerding out abt music theory and talking about the themes her pieces represent and the stories they tell

-sunny’s design is Mostly the same! her hair is slightly changed, i wanted it to match the cover she drew for winnerz! i also made the rainbows on her outfit pride flag colors, and gave her some button pins on her jacket! every Token Anime Kid ive ever met has buttons plastered all over their bags and jackets and its a nice touch that gives her some more Character i feel

-jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaade. jade. i wish she had kept her dark lipstick. and also that she wasnt just billie eilish. and that she was the token goth of the group. her stitched up shirt is inspired by a shirt i wore in high school! it was from the 90s and SUPER beat up to the point where it was literally disintegrating so i just sewed up any new holes that would form with contrasting thread it was a Look. i hc her as wearing contacts bc when she tried wearing glasses she got upset that she couldnt show off her makeup as much gvhbnf! i also gave her a spider necklace bc i think she should still like spiders BUT i HATE the jokes abt “therapy tarantulas” bc only dogs and like 10 horses can actually be service animals and the whole thing w people lying about their untrained dogs/cats (or worse, exotic animals that they should not even own) being service/therapy/emotional support animals just so they can bring them in public is!! Really Bad!! and it hurts people who actually do need service dogs bc untrained dogs are well. untrained and set a bad example for how service animals will actually act! and owners who print out fake certifications also make it harder for disabled ppl bc it leads to store owners thinking that theres some sort of paper they can ask the owner to flash to prove the service dog is trained when that. is not actually true and theres no such thing as an actual certificate for this. if a service dog company offers a certificate/card/whatever to show authority it is specifically for disabled people to do when faced with this issue and has no actual official meaning. and ANOTHER thing that bothers me abt this joke is that.. Therapy For What? it would be really cool to see a canonically mentally ill character as a protagonist for a doll line! it would be fantastic to see them opening up that conversation for neurodivergent kids and their parents! but we have no indication for that at All just haha funy therapy spider :| anyways jade is an nd lesbian my canon now

-skyler is punk now! shes a fashion major and i think it would be a really interesting character to explore, someone who is shy but dresses really flashy and tough! i also changed her theme material from denim to the blue leather she wears at the party bc im biased towards alt fashion. her hair was really fun to design, with a big Cloud of Fluff at the top and long braids underneath bc get it!! its Rain Cloud Shaped :] i dont have much else to say bc this design is def in my Comfort Zone of styles. anyways we stan andershaw here they literally are in love

-vi vi! i didnt change much bc i dooooooont really know that much about influencer/mainstream fashion tbqh... i Did give her That One Halter Top Style that literally 2 other of the main characters are both wearing instead of a loose 1 piece dress tho. i also decided she should be into holographic fabric bc its very Sleek and Future Is Now and Influencercore. i also think the sleek tight fitting holo shirt/skirt is a good contrast to Big Fluffy Fur Jacket. she also has a prosthetic leg idk i just thought it would be a good Touch 

overall rh def has some MAJOR problems with diversity in all aspects and it shows in their fashion design as well! if you put the characters in black and white save for a few patterned pieces they would all be interchangeable and i honestly think that its representative of the larger problem! maybe i do follow the monster high design philosophy that every piece should only make sense on the character its from, but the fact that they cant even diversify FASHION despite it being a Fashion Doll Brand really Says It All.

[emsartwork]

i forgot to add: how do design ????!?!??????

So I’m not expert but this is how I think of character design! (also sry if you were asking about clothing/outfit design thats a little different)

under the cut because this is long im so sorry

So in my opinion there are three really important aspects for character design!

AESTHETIC: obviously everybody’s aesthetic is different, but this is more about what vibe the character has, what makes them THEM design wise. 

INTENTION: who is the character supposed to be? this can range from their personality, their back story, their occupation, or their role in the story, but the design need to fit that intention.

COHESION: does the design go well together? or do certain aspects clash too much? obviously you can have disjointed parts of a character design, and if those serve a purpose then thats fine, but if its so disjointed its distracting from the character as a whole you might need to tweak things. 

AESTHETIC: the contrasting part of the design (white flowers in dark hair, dark trim on dress, and dark shoes) provide interest to the eye. The mixing of round and sharp shapes also keeps the design from feeling “boring” even though its relatively simple. 

INTENTION: so what role would this little doodle character have? according to her design elements, shes cute and friendly with her round shapes (bouncy balls, babies, etc), but could have a sharp/fast/active or even dangerous edge to her with the triangles (arrows, knives etc). of course the design doesn’t limit her possible roles. She could be a bubbly younger sister who teases the older protagonist, or maybe she’s the villain hiding in plain sight. the shape this character design doesn’t really have is squares(think bricks and rocks), which communicates that she might not be really strong, steady, or reliable. 

COHESION: repeating the curves across her whole design builds cohesion, it communicates that “yes, these are all part of the same character”, it also allows the eye to “rest” on a familiar shape or line. 

NOW LETS LOOK AT SOME DESIGNS

(Boku no Hero Academia) so both of these characters are super heroes, but have vastly different design elements. so lets analyze them.

OCHAKO(the pink one) is all rounds, with a few pointed shapes in hair mostly, but a little on her costume as well. Her personality is cute, bubbly, and friendly which perfectly suits her soft and bouncy design. Howevre she also has a very slight edge to her, which is seen her determination and drive to improve herself over the course of the anime. 

KIRISHIMA(the red one) at first glance, seems to be super pointy!! shapes that are usually seen on villains or really dangerous characters, but while he IS sharp(literally sometimes) and sometimes aggressive, he is also made of squares, which perfectly suits his loyal “i gotchu bro” attitude towards most of the other characters in the anime.  

ISSUE AREAS: so the only problems i have with Ochako and Kirishima’s designs is that their costumes each have one area that clashes a little too much for my taste. With Ochako, the belt over the color blocking stripes down her crotch are......questionable taste wise. I think the design would be better if the pink chest ended above the belt in a shallow v. not only would this mirror the triangle aspects of her hair, it would fit the belt outline, and continue the trend her costume has of being “grounded” or “heavy”. Kirishima has those.... gears??? around his shoulders??? and while the gear teeth are technically squares, the gear shape itself is a circle, which is a shape that isn’t present anywhere else in his design. I think changing the gears to something similar to his boots or his mask/headgear would create a more cohesive design(also the gears just look hard to move in)

These two characters are presented as individuals so their costumes don’t have to match at all even though they are still seen as “connected” because of the art style for the face, hair, and body. 

In a group giving the outfits cohesive motifs is an easy way to present a strong team image! In Yuki Yuna is a Hero, the girls all have colored lines(usually princess seam placement), armor or fabric hip accents, covered arms, and similar flower shapes in their hair. The Aesthetic of each girl is strong in a monochrome signature color, but not over whelming as the black+white connects them even in color so they aren’t out of place. 

Speaking of color! if your characters are all similar looking (like same body for all of them) you can communicate their personality and aesthetic just with color! (only gonna talk about a few of the ponies) Pinkie Pie (the really pink one) is energetic and playful, so her color scheme is a variation of the primary colors(happy, child like), and have one of the more saturated colors(high energy, intense) of these characters in a large quantity. Apple Jack (the orange one) is a down to earth farm girl, and her color palette is accordingly, mostly earth tones, its also warm analogous colors, which makes her appear un-complicated and warm personality wise. the pop of red is a nice touch to add interest, but notice that its uses sparingly in her cutie mark and tail accessory. Rarity on the other hand is elegant and fussy, her high contrast scheme of white and dark blue/purples gives her more visual interest and is something that makes her appear more “complex” in addition to the gradient thats included in her hair. the colors are also all cool colors, bringing to mind cool glass or water which both have connotations of grace and beauty.

however all the characters here are unified by their colors being on the pastel side, which is also important for a cohesive cast.

another, short, note on color; making the color/line/shading of your figure different from the background can help them stand out, this is used ESPECIALLY in children’s media, but can be applied to any illustration or animation as needed.

Color can also help your characters “read” quickly on screen, the powerpuff girls are a prime example, of having a distinct color blocking and silhouette. even the color blobs at the top and my crappy hand silhouettes STILL read as the characters despite being broken down into abstract elements. I also really enjoy the thick outline in the powerpuff girls, it really makes the characters pop to the foreground even though they have pretty simple designs and are often in a colorful setting.

Also, for a lot of animation, silhouette is INCREDIBLY important for your characters, some designers sketch silhouettes and then design the particulars its so important to nail the shape. These examples from Coraline are some of my favorites (though Laika wins in my heart every time no matter what lmao) because the simple shapes are SO CLEAR and indicative of the character, you literally don’t need to have watched the movie to know these are each different characters with different personalities and roles. 

silhouette can also help tell the story. In Kubo and the two strings (another Laika film) the above three characters are sisters. One has chosen to leave her home in the heavens to live on earth, and the other two stay in their roles as “heavenly” warriors. This is even shown through their designs, the two sisters are weighted on top and their cloaks don’t even touch the ground, while the first woman has trailing, heavy sleeves, hair, and robes all grounding her and emphasizing her connection with the earth.

another example of shape/silhouette reflecting the story, In The Croods, the family of cavemen are for the most part very top heavy, with large torsos and arms, usually in a more hunched over position, while the newcomer, Guy, is bottom heavy with thin arms and stands more upright. In the plot, the family represents the old ways, the strength and rules that have helped them survive, they look like very stereotypical “cavemen”, while Guy resembles the modern man, and appropriately is associated with new ideas and forward thinking.

MORE SHAPES, in DC super hero girls each girl has a distinct personality emulated by her shape language. Zatana is dramatic curves and edges, Super girl is hard, straight edges against curves, giving her a solid muscular shape. Wonder Woman, though also strong, is taller and leaner, lending to a confident leader type. Green Lantern is slim, her lines all flow into each other giving her a go with the flow look. Bumble Bee is, of course, tiny, but her boots and gauntlets add weight and strength to her otherwise small frame. Batgirl is lanky and has a lot of pointed style lines, reminding the viewer of a skinny cat (ironic what with cat woman i know) or weasel which mirrors her preferred “sneaky” crime fighting style.  (also yes this was just an excuse for me to gush abt how much i love the dcshg designs shut up)

so in my opinion, Cartoon Saloon’s The Secret of Kells is PERFECT in aesthetic, intention, and cohesion. Kells focuses very strongly on creating silhouette WITHIN the larger figure shape via color and line, most of the characters pictured here have no neck, the one who does, Brendan, is the main character and the use of negative space that cuts into his shape is used to draw attention to him. Kells is also very strongly inspired by Medieval Illuminated manuscripts (namely, the book of kells lmao). The characters still manage to stand out against outrageously detailed backgrounds via their simple shapes and strong color blocking. 

Aisling, a secondary but very important character, is not human, and has a totally different shape language from the rest of the characters. She is thin and pointy, while most of the others are round or square. Aisling also has the most negative space making up her silhouette, compare the triangles made by her arms and legs in the above picture to the figures in the first image where everybody’s body is self contained with no negative space. She is also very different color wise, very pale and cool colored, as opposed to the warm saturated colors of the human characters. (yes this was another excuse to gush abt one of my fave pieces of media deal with it)

hopefully that wasn’t too rambley and actually helps? if yall have more specific design questions lemma know lol

[sepublic]

Campfire, Canyon of the Golden Winged Snakes, Hey Ho Whoa!

           AMELIA IS BACK BABY!!!

           Let me tell you, when I first saw her, I had to do a double-take… Like the way the characters just so casually passed her, I blinked and was like- Wait, was what Amelia?!? And then I realized it was, and I just… WHAT!

           I was a bit afraid we wouldn’t see her, but it seems that she’s our NEW fourth companion, to replace Tuba… RIP to Tuba, you had a good funeral, and given the trajectory this season is going as of now, we… Really won’t see you again, huh?

           Screw you Simon.

           We’ve gotten SO many fascinating revelations in these three episodes… I can’t say I’m surprised at all that Amelia, or at least the revelation of her, would return to help Grace (and maybe Simon) resolve her issues! That was a very neat twist with the massive pile of numbers actually indicating it was AMELIA and her monumental issues, not the Apex! Very clever of the writing team to have us heading towards her the entire time, though it makes me wonder when we’ll get back to the Apex given how we only have TWO episodes left…!

           What’s interesting is that according to Amelia, there’s ‘corrupted code’ in some cars, and apparently this refers to any cars that SHE made while trying to figure out the perfect world? Amelia mentions ‘quarantining’ them, and One-One wants them gone as well… Given what Amelia says about ���ejecting’ cars, does that mean they’re all transported to the very end of the Infinity Train, and just… thrown off?

           Are there a bunch of cars strewn about somewhere in the wasteland, is there even an END to this Infinity Train??? Or are they all just lumped together and some sort of force-field is placed around them, or some other barrier, to keep the corrupt code from –presumably- infecting the other cars around them?

           It is a bit weird to see One-One insist on getting rid of those cars, though… I hope the denizens inside are okay, especially those corgis! Given his lesson with Tulip about not blaming himself worked, I feel like this is contrary to what he’d learned? Or is he simply allowing those worlds to exist, and remain ‘weird’, while still fixing the corrupted code so it doesn’t spread and disrupt the world of other cars who have their own thing going on? Regardless, as Amelia said… it seems One-One is still working on his issue of viewing passengers as ‘numbers’ to fix, like the cogs of a machine! It seems he’s at least TRYING to be more personable, but, well…

           It seems that Amelia is still working on that sound-motif she’s always had, which is pretty neat! She mentions a ‘pulse’, so I presume it’s sent out from the engine, and when it scans an ‘anomaly’ (AKA anything with corrupted code, including stuff and denizens from the unfinished cars) they’re ejected… Given Amelia mentioning having to quarantine Hazel soon, I imagine this pulse heads out every now and then? Shouldn’t one pulse alone have done the trick, or is there a certain range to them and Amelia has to travel through the cars and activate the pulse from her location, to allow maximum effect?

           Anyhow, Amelia! You know, I mused that Episode 7 of this season would introduce the Book 4 protagonist, given how our previous Episode 7’s worked… Each one established the general idea/setting for our protagonist, as well as a formal introduction! The Chrome Car told us about Lake and her deal with wanting to be her own person, escaping the Flecs… The Mall Car established the Apex and properly introduced us to Simon and Grace…

           So… maybe The Canyon of the Golden Winged Snakes Car re-introduces us to Amelia, while establishing the conflict of the next Book; Fixing the corrupted cars! This is just speculation on my part, of course…

           Back to Amelia, I guess I shouldn’t be all-too surprised that she’s still kind of a jerk, what with the way she just… steamrolls over what Hazel has to say to ‘correct’ her with the proper facts, and whatnot! I’m a little glad, because it doesn’t completely forget that she still has a bigger number than Simon or Grace by FAR… But also upset, because c’mon Amelia, Hazel is a freaking kid! I know you’re trying to erase multiple decades’ of past sins and mistakes, but she doesn’t know!

           I also like seeing her just trash-talk Simon and calling him a child, especially since we know that he and Grace are only eighteen thanks to the Reddit AMA by Owen Dennis… Even if Simon were physically older, mentally he really isn’t! Granted I guess I can’t blame him for THAT, though I can blame him for Tuba’s death…

           I remember when the writers discussed juggling multiple characters, so after seeing Tuba die, I was wondering what was really the point… But I see now! It’s because they ALSO have to handle Amelia as well! And dang, she’s still remarkably callous… She doesn’t remember Grace at all and doesn’t even seem remotely interested… And upon hearing that a cult was started in her honor, she just does NOT care! It really shows that Amelia still has a LOT to work on, that just fixing the broken cars isn’t enough for her…

           It was a bit weird to have our main trio just pass by this obvious, fellow passenger, and just totally ignore them… But given Grace’s rule about ‘not trusting adult passengers’, I guess I’m not surprised? I have to wonder when it was made, and how young she was when it was established; If Grace was a kid and that was part of her apprehension towards adults, and/or they were actually trying to get their numbers down, so she saw them as ‘deceitful’ or whatever! Coupled with adults being less likely to fall for the Apex’s propaganda, and it makes sense…

           What’s really fascinating is that One-One doesn’t even know about the Apex, according to Amelia! Which, given the implied length of the Infinity Train, it really says a lot about how much stuff could’ve happened, completely independent from one another! It almost seems like fate that Simon and Grace encountered so many kids and brought them together… Whereas Tulip didn’t encounter ANY passengers, sans Amelia, on her journey!

           (Well, there was that ONE dude in the next car over who immediately got sent back home. And she was only there for five months, but still!)

           I feel this low-key ties back to what I discussed earlier, about One-One being an ‘ends justifies the means’ sort of person; That the situation with the denizens is less a matter of them dying, and more about what that says about the Apex passengers as people! Of course, he doesn’t even KNOW about them, which honestly blows my mind… He really IS disconnected, huh? I guess Tulip helped make a dent in his metal head, but there’s still a lot of work to go… You know, Amelia’s criticism of One-One seeing passengers as just ‘numbers’ reminds me of what some other fans brought up, on the idea of if whether or not issues can actually be quantified like that!

           Given what Owen said about the train also being wrong sometimes, and I have to wonder if this will be resolved by the end of Book 3… or perhaps Book 4, assuming we get it! Yeah, most of the team has been laid off and the viewings are low, so SERIOUSLY- WATCH on HBO Max, spend actual money on this thing if you want it around because you’re LITERALLY paying for Book 4’s production by this point people! And spread the word!

           Anyhow, looks like other fans were right- Hazel IS a failed creation of Amelia, in this case her attempt to recreate Alrick… Although she implies that Hazel is more than just a ‘clone’ of him, is this referring to Hazel being a little girl, or something else entirely? Is the implication that Hazel would’ve been her and Alrick’s child, because uh… Amelia and Alrick are white. She also mentions a ‘handkerchief’, so what’s THAT about…?! Did she just toss one aside and it glitched into Hazel…?

           Hazel is taking this about as well as you’d expect a child, and I’m wondering if Grace suddenly turning around and calling her ‘null’, only to ask to stay overnight… Means that she has a plan to ditch Simon and hang out with Hazel and Amelia, for the rest of her life? Either way, Simon is apparently taking her ‘betrayal’ to heart… That, or he’s expressing genuine remorse at seeing what he did to Hazel, but probably not. Honestly, the way his character is going it seems like he may go off the deep end…

           OR, maybe not! Because we get some more development on him and THE CAT… Samantha! That’s right, an actual name! I guess I’m not shocked that ‘Samantha’ managed to smuggle some tiny One-Ones out of the Tape Car, and even a miniature player as well! I have to wonder how she finds her stuff, honestly… Considering how vast the Infinity Train is, it’s not out of the question for people to go entire months without encountering others! It’s actually kind of a miracle of fate that The Cat has encountered so many passengers, over and over, across this show…! Given the possibility aired by Mace about some characters being ‘destined’ by the Infinity Train, and I’ve got to wonder…

           It’s interesting that even when Simon is taking his rage out physically, he NEVER goes for The Cat… and she knows this, no less! Not once is she ever scared for her life, instead she’s more concerned for what this has to say about Simon! It’s complicated, all right, and apparently all we know for now is that The Cat accidentally left Simon behind, and ultimately stuck with her choice to prioritize herself! It’s interesting, the idea that even if Simon and The Cat have a better understanding as to why the other did what they did, they won’t ever really ‘forgive’ one another, or reconcile- Just go their separate paths, for now and likely eternity…

           Simon is of course getting mad at Grace for not talking to him and is confused by her changing her mind! A confrontation between the two is inevitable in our last two episodes, and given how we haven’t seen Grace’s number at all… It’s probably low. I can see the two reuniting with the Apex at the end, only for Simon to invoke his larger number to turn them on Grace… Or try to head back to the Apex to do exactly that!

           Still, given how the show is still making the point to delve into his perspective and trauma, and how he STILL won’t harm The Cat… I have to wonder if the season really will end with Grace leaving the Infinity Train, and Simon staying behind to fix his own issues? Of course, what about Hazel… We know she’s a denizen for sure so she can’t leave, right? Unless her fake number can fool One-One… Speaking of which, was Amelia’s number at 337 when she first arrived? Because that seems a bit small for someone who had otherwise hijacked the Infinity Train by then and was making unfinished worlds…

           Back to Amelia, if Simon doesn’t help… I wonder if Book 3 will end with HER taking lead of the Apex and leading them down a new path? It’d be ironic given how she mentioned about not being great with kids, and tie back to her penance… Or, maybe Grace will continue to live with the Apex and help! Maybe Simon will join Amelia… Who knows? Personally I’m fixated on the fact that Amelia just UTTERLY outclasses Simon… I expressed previous appreciation at Tuba being able to defend herself, until you know what…

           But given how Amelia is a lot more savvy, jaded, and cynical about this sort of situation; I think she’s probably safe for now! It’d feel a bit unresolved for Simon to get HER killed off too…

           Overall, a fascinating turn of events, and I can get a good sense of why the episodes were clustered the way they were together, to be released separately! Each does its own little arc… The first one establishing the mood and having Tuba, only for her to die! Then the next one involving Amelia and the fall-out of the Hazel revelation… And the last two episodes will be THE finale, just like it’s traditionally been in the past! I can’t wait to see what happens next…

[goldandbluesmiles]

Another Lovely Family

Summary: The Batfam get interesting visitors from another reality.

Ao3  This is part of my batfam Flufftober 2020

Note: I have no idea what this is. It just kinda spiraled out of control. But I hope you guys still like it.

Sorry for Barbara fans, she's kinda not here. I couldn't really find a way to put her in here.

Also, the Chinese folk creatures mentioned were the fox spirit aka the nine-tailed fox. They are depicted as being both a good omen or bad omen depending on the literature. The second one was a Huan Cat. Its pelt was said to contain medicine for certain illnesses and some believed they scared away bad luck.

Their patrol had been peaceful that night, and the whole family ended it in the cave, laughing and joking as they stripped out of their suits and weapons. Bruce was watching over them with his ever stoic gaze but Tim could spot the small smile on his face.

So, that was exactly when everything went to shit.

There was a sudden rumble that shook the cave, making everyone reach for the nearest support. A blinding flash and then a portal-like circle appeared at the top of the cave. Through it fell...Tim didn't know how to really describe the really spikey creature.

And then another larger creature fell through.

They were both scaly and covered in patches of clothing. They seemed to have some humanoid feature but they seemed to be a little twisted. There were horns in their heads, wings at their backs and Tim could tell that the little one's irises were silted, like a reptile's eyes.

Tim pulled out his staff, beside him Jason clicked off the safety of his gun, everyone around the cave also took up their weapons.

The bigger one didn't seem to be moving but the smaller, about four feet tall, started to flap its wings and dart around, making a whining and screeching sound but stayed close to the bigger body.

Dick tried to get closer but the little thing lashed out and cut his cheek. Jason instantly straightened his gun but Cassandra moved in front of them.

"Stop!" she ordered

Everyone stopped, even the little creature, though it kept up its whining and chattering, slowly flapping its wings.

"Cass what is it?" asked Bruce

"Damian," she said

It surprised them, but Tim noticed that the little creature stilled at the name.

Cass turned toward the small thing, holding her and up and moving slowly. The little thing slowly backed away but seemed to be calm.

"Damian," said Cass again

The small thing tilted its head to the side, as if curious.

"Your name," said Cass, "Damian,"

After a moment, the creature nodded and chattered softly.

"You understand me?" asked Cassandra

It nodded again.

"Cassandra," said Damian, "What are you-"

"Look," she said softly, "Look close,"

Tim followed her instructions and closely looked at the face of the little thing. At a closer peek, their features were more clear, the green eyes, high cheekbones, and dark hair- It was eerily similar to their Damian's.

"You know," said Stephanie, "I can kinda see it,"

Cassandra nodded and turned back to the other Damian.

"We have Damian too," said Cassandra, "We call you D, Okay?"

The other Damian waited a few moments and then nodded.

"Good," said Cass, and she pointed at the bigger body, "Family?"

D nodded again, this time chattering in what Tim thought might be distress.

"We help," said Cass, "Okay. Turn them over to see,"

D nodded one again.

Dick and Steph stepped forward to help her flip the person gently. Unlike D, the features of this one were more clearer.

"Talia," whispered Bruce

Tim had to agree. Long hair, the same lips, same structure under swirls of silver that matched her son. The horns were bigger and straighter than D's and her hands had claw-like nails but the resemblance to their world's Talia was there.

"Mother?" Cass asked D

D nodded vigorously and chattered, pointing at Talia's side.

"Hurt?" asked Cass

D once again pointed at the same place.

"Can we check?" asked Cass

Once she got affirmative, Cass gently moved the cloth there. Their skin was bare at the back and stomach area but there seemed to be some scale-like things covering the sides. The scales were twisted in one area, almost pushed into the skin, and covered in silvery goo.

"Blood?" asked Cass

D nodded.

"We need to figure out a way to help and I don't think we can do it alone," said Bruce, watching as Cass talked some more with D, "I certainly don't want to try in case we make it worse,"

"So?" asked Jason, "We could reach out to some allies but who would know about something like this?"

'Well," said Bruce, "I don't like the man, but Constantine has travelled to other realities, we could get a few trusted biologists in here to take look. We could call Zatanna and Manhunter to see if they can establish a line of communication with the child,"

"The child?" asked Damian

"Yes, Damian," said Bruce, "From his behaviour and the comparison to the fully grown mother, it is obvious that he is a child. Though I'm not sure about the 'he' part. They don't seem to be human,"

"Anyway," continued Bruce, "Make those calls. I'm going to go explain this to Alfred,"

xxx

"So what is this?" asked Dick

Constantine glance from the Talia on the table to little D sitting with Cassandra at the end of the bed.

"I've never seen anything like this before, mate," said Constantine, "But there are worlds out there where some of us normals humans are metas. I mean there was one where you were born under the sea. There are some realities where humans evolved differently. I dunno mate, I've never seen anything like it and since the little one isn't talking, can't know for sure,"

"And from the looks of it, the scales have gone into her skin, a stark contrast to the other scales that are standing and parallel to her body. I'm sure they need to be pulled out but I don't know how to do that since I can't know how her anatomy works or even which organ is which. Not to mention I don't know how to verify if she's coding or not. Right now, the only indication that she's alive is that her stomach seems to be moving up and down and there is air coming out of her nose indicating breathing,"

"We could put her in a magical coma," said Zatanna, "It would slow everything down, including any wound she has. It's is our best bet,"

D was listening to them and let out a soft chatter.

Cassandra turned to him, "Okay,"

He looked at Zatanna for a long moment and then nodded.

"Okay," said Zatanna, "Here goes,"

xxx

Once the spell was done, D came to sit by his mother and curled up on her good side. He stayed like that for the next several hours, ignoring any of Cass's attempts to interact with him.

Watching him made something in Jason's heart, reminded him of the many times he had curled up against his own mom, until the day he had woken up to the feel of her cold dead body.

Ignoring that train of thought, he focused on another issue from his alley days.

"He's been here almost twelve hours, right?" he asked Bruce, "He should have been given something to eat by now,"

"When we checked Talia, we noticed that her teeth resembled a carnivore's," said Bruce, "I asked Alfred to get some meat options, cooked and raw. But he's also making a vegetarian meal, just in case,"

"Good," said Jason, still watching the little one, "He's so small,"

"I know," said Bruce, "And we have no idea how to get them home,"

"Have you been able to get the Martians here yet?" asked Jason

"No. They're still not available and Zatanna couldn't do anything,"

"And that also only works if Damian knows how to get back. The only reason our Damian is this resourceful is that he was trained by the league. Who knows how this little guy was trained to what tech they have on their side,"

"I know it's a lot of variables," said Bruce, "But we have to take it one step at a time. First food,"

"Right," said Jason, going back to gazing at D.

Bruce stopped looking at the reports he was going through and turned toward Jason.

"Jay, are you alright?"

Jason startled.

"Yeah. Yeah. Just...you know. Reminded me of...yeah,"

Bruce glanced at D and nodded in understanding.

"Why don't you bring him the food down in a little bit?"

"Me?" asked Jason, pointing at himself, "Is that a good idea?"

"Why not?" said Bruce, standing up and gathering his papers, "You're good with kids and you're good with food,"

"But..."

"Come on, Jay," said Bruce, "It'll give Cass a break and you can explain to the little one about the different options,"

"If you're sure," said Jason

"Of course I am, Jay," said Bruce, "I'm gonna go check on our Damian,"

"Okay,"

xxx

Half an hour later, Jason came downstairs holding a tray. Cass looked at him and smiled, vacating her seat beside Talia's bed. She kissed his cheek before making her way up the stairs.

Jason sat down and put the tray on a nearby table.

"Hey, D," said Jason softly.

Damian stayed turned away from him but Jason saw his wing twitch.

"So, it's a little afternoon now, which mean that you should probably eat something,"

Another twitch.

"Now, I don't know how much you need to eat or what you even like but we guessed a bit and I have some things here that you can choose from,"

Damian didn't have any response this time.

"You know your mother doesn't need food right now, because of the magical coma. But she needs you. They say people in comas, especially magical comas, can still feel and hear the people around them. How are you supposed to be here for her if you don't eat, huh? Maybe just a little?"

There were a few moments of silence, but then Damian turned around. His eyes seemed tired and hurt and made Jason's heartache.

"We have a few options. Vege's, cooked beef, pork and chicken. Same thing but raw too. Which one would you like,"

D pointed to the cooked meats, specifically at the beef. Jason handed him the plate and he started eating it as finger food, leaving the utensils behind on the tray. It reminded Jason of how some League members would eat.

There were a few minutes of silence and suddenly Jason had no idea why Bruce had sent him down, Dick was much better at these things.

Then he spotted a book sitting on his desk.

A little Princess.

"Hey," said Jason, "You know my dad would read to me whenever I was sick or injured and sometimes just because. Do you mind if I read something to you and your mother,"

D looked up and tilted his head sideways, a gesture they had come realize meant he was curious.

"Just a second," he said, getting up to get the book.

Jason came back and sat down, opening the book to its first page.

"Alright, Kiddo," said Jason, "Let's tell you the story of Sara Crewe,"

xxx

When Dick made his way down to the cave, it was with a tray of tea for Jason, a tradition that Alfred had brought to the family. D was still curled up against his mother and Jason seemed to be reading him Little Women. A copy of A Little Princess was sitting close by.

"Hey," whispered Dick as he came down, sitting the tray on a table, "How's it going,"

Damian chattered softly and Jason smiled, "D and I have been discussing characters,"

Dick smiled, "That's great guys. I brought you tea, Jay,"

"Thanks," said Jason, "I'll drink and read,"

Dick nodded and turned toward D.

"Hey, so I love listening to Jason too. Do you mind if I sit with you?"

D looked at him for a moment but the scooted a little, making his intention obvious. Carefully Dick sat himself down on the bed. the beds were big enough but Dick was still careful as to not touch Talia.

D seemed to have no such reservations and leaned against Dick's side. Jason raised his eyebrows at the action but kept reading. Eventually, soft snores started to emit from the little one and Dick looked over to see his eyes closed.

"I think he's asleep," whispered Dick

Jason nodded and closed the book, putting it away.

"Poor guy," murmured Dick, "In a world so different from his own,"

"Yeah," said Jason, "Seems to like you though,"

Dick smiled, "He didn't seem to hate you either, Jay,"

"Yeah," murmured Jason, "Do you think he has his own versions of us too. I mean the way he looks, his dad is probably their version of Bruce Wayne, right? Think the man adopted a slue of kids over there too,"

"I dunno," said Dick, "Maybe,"

Just the, D let out a small snort and twitched his wings.

"He's kinda adorable isn't he?" said Jason

"Yeah," said Dick, gently smoothing down D's hair, "I just hope we can get him home. And help his mom,"

"How's Dames taking it?" asked Jason

"He's alright but I know something's bugging him," said Dick, "But he seems more concerned about something regarding this little one than about any threat to him or to the family so that's some progress I guess,"

"Definitely progress," said Jason and then frowned, "What's the concern though?"

"No idea," said Dick, "Maybe he's just showing the inherent kid mentality, ya know, worrying about other small people,"

Jason snorted, "Yeah. Maybe,"

xxx

Half the bats ended up staying back from the patrol that day. Neither Jason nor Cass wanted to leave their guest and Tim stayed with them. D had been given dinner and seemed content to lay with his mom. Seeing this, Cass and Jason had taken to the sparring mats and Tim had started his work on the latest security update of the cave.

Tim was deep into it when he felt someone approach him. He turned to find D curiosity looking at the screen.

"Hey, Kiddo," said Tim, "Need something?"

D chattered and pointed at the screen, head tilted to the side.

"You want to know what I'm doing?" asked Tim

D chattered and nodded.

"Well," said Tim, "I'm trying to make our home safer for us. See these, here? This is the pattern for silent arms but Jason broke through them the other day just to prove a point to Bruce so now we're updating them. It usually ends up being my job but I don't mind. I like helping to keep my family safe,"

D started chattering excitedly, pointing at the screen, then at Tim and then at his wings. It took his doing it a few times for Tim to understand what he was trying to say.

"Are you saying that you have a Timothy too? And that he makes your home safe?"

D nodded with a huge smile on his face, excitedly flapping his wings.

"So you do have your own versions of us. Dick and Jason were wondering if your dad had adopted more kids too,"

D got quiet at that and Tim had no problem recognizing the sad and faraway look in his eyes.

"You must really miss them," he said softly

D chattered softly and nodded with his eyes down.

"I wish we could find a way to get you back. But there is nothing to read from the energy that brought you here and we can't really know anything until you tell us where exactly you're from. And we need the Martians for that. They'll be here tomorrow,"

D started chattering really fast after that, his wings flapping to the point where he was lifting off the ground.

"Hey. Hey," said Tim, "What's wrong? I'm sorry if I upset-"

D's chattering just got louder.

"I'm sorry," whispered Tim, "I'm sorry but I can't understand you,"

D let out a huff and landed back down, stomping his way back to the little corner they had set up for him and Talia. They had tried to get him upstairs but he had refused to leave his mother's side so Alfred and Jason had set up a temporary residence in a corner, separated by curtains.

"What happened?" asked Jason, running up to him, Cass right behind him.

"I dunno," murmured Tim, "We talked about his siblings and then I was saying how we were waiting on the Martians and he just got worked up and started to say something. I couldn't understand him,"

They looked over to D, who was still visible due to the curtains not being closed. He was sitting on the floor, gently rocking back and forth, almost in a trance.

"I'm gonna-" started Jason

Cassandra stopped him with a hand on his arm.

"No," she said, "Leave him,"

Trusting her judgement, Jason nodded and turned back toward Tim.

"I'm sure it was nothing. He's probably just getting a little frustrated you know. His mom's asleep, he's in another reality and no one here can understand him,"

"Yeah, I guess," said Tim, "I just wish there was more we could do,"

"Me too," murmured Cass, "Me too,"

xxx

It was the second day of their guests being in the cave that the Martians landed outside of it.

J'onn and M'gann came early in the morning and were introduced to D. Stephanie thought she saw recognition in his eyes.

"Hello, little one," said J'onn, kneeling in front of D, "I would like permission to from a mind link with you. I will not try to look into your memories, but I would like to understand what you are thinking and then translate your thoughts to our hosts here. Do you understand?"

D nodded and smiled up at J'onn, gently patting him on the cheek.

"Alright then," said J'onn, "Let's get started,"

J'onn locked eyes with D and they started to glow. Both him and D went oddly still, an odd sight that Stephanie had gotten used to when it came to the Marians' mind link.

Only a few moments into the link, D started to squirm, moving his hands and twitching his wings.

J'onn visibly stopped and looked down at D, "Is there something wrong, little one?"

D balled his hands into fists and shook his head, obviously trying to get them to stop. It didn't seem to help and the switching of his wings only got worse.

Beside her, Duke leaned in, "Does that look like what I think it looks like?"

"Maybe," murmured Stephanie, analyzing D's movements and thinking back to what Tim and Cass had said about his mannerism, "I think so,"

"Should I-"

Stephanie nodded, "Doesn't hurt to try,"

Bruce was just about to step up when Duke stood up.

"I have an idea," said Duke, "I'll be right with you,"

Duke jogged over to the cabinets and pulled out a couple of things and brought them over. He and Stephanie then explained them to D.

"See this," said Stephanie, holding op a plush penguin, "His name is Mr. Flappy. We sometimes hold him when we want to do something stressful. Would you like to hold him?"

D touched the soft toy and then nodded. Stephanie gave him the toy and he squeezed it, cooing in delight when it squeaked.

Duke smiled, "This is a weighted blanket. You can wrap this around yourself while J'onn makes a link,"

"And D," said Stephanie, "You don't have to be still, okay?"

D looked down at his feet but nodded. Stephanie took it as a win.

"Good," said Duke, "We're just gonna go over there,"

Both him and Stephanie turned back to go to their original spot and as they did, Stephanie spotted a proud smile on Bruce's face.

'Good job' mouthed Bruce.

Stephnie grinned and beside her, Duke did a thumbs up.

This time when J'onn tried to establish the mind link, D seemed noticeably calmer, rocking back and forth while wrapped in the blanket and holding the toy close.

"So, child," said J'onn, "Show me what happened,"

D closed his eyes and J'onn started to narrate.

"You were being chased and your mother tried to get both of you away. but she was- she was hurt, is that it? Yes, she was hurt so she miscalculated. I see. Do you know how we could get you home without waking your mother up?"

"Ah," said J'onn and opened his eyes.

"What?" asked Bruce

"Well," said J'onn, "It seems that D here believes that his family will find him. That's what he trying to tell young Timothy yesterday,"

"There's a difference between his family being to able to track him and him believing that they'll come for him," said Bruce

D let out an unholy screech at that, obviously offended.

"I think you pissed him off, B,"

Bruce turned to D, "I'm sorry, Kiddo. But we need to know,"

"May I?" M'gann asked D.

He scrutinized her for a minute but then nodded his consent.

M'gann started a mind link and began to ask her own questions.

"How are they going to find you?"

A few moments and then-

"Ah, I see," said M'gann, "According to D here, there are five people in the family that can travel through realities, including his mother. The others are his father, his brothers Jason and Richard and his sister Cassandra. They will most likely split into four groups. His Father and Aunt Kate. Jason and his outlaws. Richard, Selina and Timothy. Cassandra, Stephanie and his last brother, Duke. Alfred will be taking care of his baby sister Helena,"

"How do they track you, D?" asked Tim

"Hmm," said M'gann, "According to him, they have a link and can signal each other but D's is weak since he's young and his mon has to be conscious to send one. His family will look into other realities around and then make their way here. Apparently, they already have a system in place for if something like this happens,"

And then she snorted, "Something about his father being a bit paranoid,"

There were a few chuckles around the room while Bruce glowered at all of them.

"Anyway," said M'gann, "All that can be done here is that you take care of him and keep him safe,"

"Who was chasing you?" asked Jason

D frowned and looked around the cave, his gaze landed on the wall of blades and he pointed to ap articular one.

"That's my league blade," said Damian, and Stephanie noticed him stiffen, almost involuntarily.

Something was up with the kid.

"Were you being chased by Ra's?" asked Bruce

Damian nodded.

"I'm assuming he can't travel thought realities," said Bruce, "And no one in his loyal circle can either,"

D pointed to M'gann and she once again began the mind link.

"Hmm," she said, "No, Ra's can't travel. Interesting. It seems that the species in their reality are a bit different than most. Only D's kind and magic users can travel through realities and even then a very small percentage of those groups. Ra's and his followers are not included in this category. And even if he could find someone to do his bidding, it would be near impossible for them to find him since there is no link,"

"So only his family can track him," said Tim, "That's why Talia got them out of there. She was hurt and took the risk,"

"Brave of her," murmured Selina

D also chattered sadly.

Dick smiled and kneeled in from of him, "I'm sure your family will come soon, Kiddo,"

"Who do you think will get here first?" asked Tim

D tilted his head and then pointed at Jason.

"Jason, huh," said Duke, "Makes sense if you ask me,"

D giggled and leaned into Dick, a bit of the day's tension draining out of him.

"I have to leave now," said J'onn, "But M'gann will stay in case you need another mind link. Is that alright, D?"

D smiled and nodded, waving a small, clawed hand at M'gann.

J'onn smiled, "Lovely then,"

xxx

After lunch, Damian was sitting in his room and reading when someone knocked on his door.

"Come inside," he called out

It was Richard at the door.

"Hey Dames," he said, "Whatcha doing?"

Damian scooted over to make room for the man on his bed.

"Just a book," said Damian

"Hmm," said Richard, "You know, I've noticed that you haven't sent any time with our guest,"

"I'm not required to," he said shortly

"No," said Richard, "Of course not. But I'm just wondering if you're alright?"

"I'm fine," said Damian

"Dames-"

"I'm fine, Richard. I am not missing my mother. I am not worried about threats. I am not feeling sad. Or anything else your mind is coming up with right now. I am fine,"

"Okay," said Dick, giving his head a gently kiss, "Let me know if that changes, okay?"

"Fine," said Damian

Dick gave him another smiled and then left. Damian sighed and slumped down, not knowing how to explain to anyone what his actual worry was about.

Maybe he should spend more time with the other Damian. He could certainly alleviate some of his concerns this way.

Making up his mind, he grabbed some of his art supplies and made his way down to the cave. There, he found M'gann and Cassandra sitting and conversing with each other while D played with the plush toy Stephanie and Duke had given him.

Once the girls saw him, they both left while begging Alfred's cookies.

Damian sat down with D who looked at him curiously.

"I like drawing and painting," said Damian, "Do you mind if I draw you. I've never met someone with your features before. I think it would be interesting,"

D titled his head and then pointed at some of his paper followed by his fluid acrylics.

"You want to paint?" asked Damian

D nodded and looked at him with pleading eyes. Damian couldn't help the smile that came over his face.

"Alright, you paint. I'll draw you,"

He opened the paints for D and then went to grab a brush but noticed that the other boy had started painting with his claws.

"Well," Damian murmured, "That's one way to do it,"

Damian took his time sketching D, making sure he got all the details right. By the time he was done, a few hours had passed and it was almost time for dinner.

When he was finished, D showed him his painting and Damian had to say, he was impressed. And that was no easy feat.

While Damian had been drawing him in detail, D had used that paints to sketch out a few rough paintings. It wouldn't have worked usually but the material of D's claws had probably made it easier.

The first one was of Damian, showing him with his head down and bowed over a book. Next were three faces, One of D's mother, the other one obviously his father and a third that looked like Jason. He also had another painting of six figures flying in the distance. Another one that looked like a dragon from folklore.

"These are beautiful," said Damian, "Do you all live together? Your mother and father and your siblings?"

D nodded and Damian sighed in relief. A part of him had been afraid that Talia was taking D away from his family and that his father and siblings would cause a fight, hurting D the way Damian himself sometimes hurt.

Except, it didn't seem to be the case.

"That's wonderful," said Damian, "Do you want to see mine?"

D nodded and took the sketch, instantly squealing happily. His wings started flapping and he did a swoop around the cave, chattering happily as he clutched the drawing.

"You really like it, huh?"

D smiled and nodded.

"Well, you can keep it," said Damian, "As long as you let me draw another one that I can keep too,"

D nodded enthusiastically, smiling down at the sketch.

"Would you like to see more of mine?" asked Damian

D let out another whoop.

Damian grinned, "I'll take that as a yes,"

xxx

Bruce climbed down the stairs with Dick to get both Damian and D for dinner. They were hoping to coax their guest out of the cave to eat.

Once they got there, Bruce was surprised to find that both boys were sitting down and excitedly chattering. It didn't matter that Damian couldn't understand D, they still seemed to be able to communicate effectively, flipping through Damian's sketches that were kept down in the cave.

"Oh, hello Father. Richard," said Damian, as they came into view

D smiled and saved shyly.

"Boys," said Bruce, "We were just here for dinner,"

Damian turned to D, "Would you like to come upstairs this time?"

D shook his head and cast a glance at his mother, his eyes going dull and sad again.

Bruce frowned until an idea came to him.

"Dick," he said, "Tell Alfred we have a change of plans,"

And that was how they all ended up having dinner in the cave, picnic style.

After dinner D showed them sketches of his family. Everybody smiled and complimented as M'gann translated for D.

"Yes, apparently Jason is the scariest one of them but very sweet. Richard can do other most tricks in the air and Tim likes to fly at night. Cassandra is the fastest though. And Stephanie has the most unique wings because they are purple. And Duke lets him draw on his wings with glitter. Helena can't do much yet, she's just a baby,"

"So," said Jason, "Would you say that your dad is scarier than Jason or less?"

"Ah yes, " said Dick, "Ask the important questions why don't you?"

Jason shoved him before turning back to D, "So?"

M'gann laughed as she listened to whatever D was saying.

"According to D, his father is the pretty one of the family. A real charmer,"

Bruce smiled, "Well, that's not so bad then,"

"Pretty boy, Bruce," teased Stephanie

"Do you have an Alfred too?" asked Tim

D nodded and then picked up the picture of the dragon-like creature and held it up for everyone to see.

"He has silver features and this his 'other' form,"

"His other form is a dragon?" asked Jason

M'gann got a surprised look on her face, "Everyone in his reality has another form, which shows through their features. His family is what we call dragon, they pronounce it draagn. There are only a few of those around. Most of the populations are made of magic users and animal-shifters. Some other forms are sea creatures,"

"Wait!" said Duke suddenly, "I have an idea,"

He pulled out his phone and started to look for something. When he found it he held it out for everyone to see. Bruce scanned it and see that it was list of mythological creatures.

"Are any of these the 'other forms'?"

D nodded, pointing at a Nyad, a phoenix, a griffin, a pegasus, a jinn and even a chimera and some Chinese folk animals like the nine-tailed fox and the one-eyed cat with three tails.

"Wow," said Tim, "Could it be that our realities brushed each other and a lot of out folk animals are really just people and creatures from other realities,"

"Maybe," said Dick, "Some might have even gotten stuck here, hence the myths and stories,"

Everyone got quiet for a moment, trying to comprehend what this, if true, meant for their realities' history.

Eventually, Bruce decided to break the silence.

"I think it's time for bed for some people, especially if we're taking a break from patrol," said Bruce, sending a meaningful look to his two youngest sons. They had promised to him sleep earlier this week.

He also noticed that D slumped down a bit and felt bad.

"You can come up too," Bruce told him

D shook his head and chattered softly, casting his gaze toward his mother.

"I can just sleep down here," said Damian

Bruce wondered if his kids would ever stop surprising him.

"Yeah!" said Dick, "Why don't we all just stay down here tonight?"

"Well," said Alfred, "These old bones are not made for this cave. However, you all can stay here if you prepare proper bedding,"

"I'll take care of it, Alfie," said Bruce

"Alright then," said Alfred, "I'll be heading up,"

Bruce waved to him and then turned toward his children.

"Alright, Jason and Tim bedding, Stephanie, M'gann and Cass pillows, Duke and Dick blankest ad everyone's plushes, Damian and D, you can set things up as they bring them downstairs,"

His kids nodded and scattered to get everything done.

Once everyone was sitting down, still quite awake, Bruce decided on a long proved tactic.

"Anyone want me to read anything?" asked Bruce

"I'm fine with whatever," said Jason

A few more murmured os assent followed. D raised on os his hands and chattered softly.

"D's wondering if you would finish the book Jason was reading to him yesterday,"

"Little Women," said Jason, "It's still on the table and put the bookmark in,"

Bruce smiled, "Little Women it is,"

xxx

Bruce was barely starting to stir awake when the cave rumbled in a familiar way and there was a flash of light.

He sat upright just in time for five figures to appear in the cave. D had also spotted them and was flapping his wings and flying among them. The figure at the head finally took his in their arms, gently hugging him close.

It seemed like D had been right after all. The figure could be no other than Jason Todd. And he was terrifying.

Twisted horns, double claws, slit eyes and big stature, all came to together to make a nightmarish figure. The way he was talking to his little brother negated the effect though.

Behind him stood what seemed to be his team. Kori and Bizzaro looked the same as they did in their universe while Artemis seemed to have a greyish tint to her skin and Roy had spirals of what seemed like fire all around his arms and legs.

"Huh," said Dick, "D was right,"

"Seems so," murmured Tim

Their guests finally seemed to be done with their greetings and the other Jason turned toward Talia's body and frowned. Tim instantly stepped up to explain.

"We had to-"

"A magical come," said Jason, voice a bit jarring and shocking

Tim instantly stopped and stared at him wide-eyed.

Jason turned back and frowned again.

"What?"

"Well- uh- I wasn't um-expecting to- well"

That was when Bruce decided to step in, "Sorry. What my son is trying to say is that we weren't expecting you to speak since D didn't. That's what we've been calling him,"

"And you're kinda terrifying," Tim rushed out

The other Jason let out a laugh, "Why, thank you. Also, we do talk, D is just nonverbal,"

Ah, that certainly explain ed some of the behaviour that they had just put to being anxious and different from them.

There was another rumble and bodies started to flash into the cave, the whole other family appearing altogether.

"Damian," called out one of them, separating themselves from the hoard.

It was the other Bruce Wayne

"Holy shit," muttered his Jason

Holy shit indeed.

Pretty did not begin to describe the other's appearance. He was wearing a tank top with pants that seemed to be painted, leaving little to the imagination. Slim with toned muscles, shimmery wings, sparkly blue slit irises and shimmery black swirls reaching for his cheekbones, the man was a thing to behold. His hair was waist length and had been braided loosely. His scales shone in the light of the cave and his claws seemed to be made of dense glittery obsidian and his horns were gold and black.

Once D was done with this father, he flew over to the rest of his family and the other Bruce turned toward them.

"Hi," he said softly

Bruce stepped up and held out his hand, "Lovely to meet you,"

Other Bruce gave him a bright smiled and shook his hand.

If Bruce was a lesser man, he would have been at the start of an inferiority complex at the moment.

Instead, he gestured at Talia.

"We have her in a magical coma," he told him

"I can see that," said other Bruce, "We'll take her back with us and take care of her once we get home,"

"So you're together?" asked Damian, "D, that's what we call other me, said you all lived together. Is that true?"

It struck Bruce then, the reason for Damian's odd behaviour. He thought D would be separated from his mother the way he had been separated from his. By the way some of his other children were shifting, they had realized it too.

The other Bruce merely smiled though, "Ah, yes. We are married. Just celebrated our fifteenth anniversary,"

"And who's Helena?" asked Tim, "We didn't recognize that name,"

"Oh she's mine and Selina's," he said, vaguely gesturing behind him, "Sel wanted a baby so I helped her out. We agreed that she would be raised as part of the family though she keeps her mother's name,"

"Ah," said Tim

A child half him and half Selina. While part of him was curious, another didn't want to know the outcome of that.

D came up to his father and said something softly.

"Anyway," said other Bruce, "Thank you for taking care of my family but we should be going now,"

"Of course," said Bruce

The other one went to get Talia and the rest of the family came up to thank them. Dick practically hugged all fo them, Tim was solemn and Cassandra kissed all their cheeks. Stephanie and Duke went around giving them fist bumps and high fives while Selina and Kate merely said a few words each.

"You have an Alfed too, right?" said Selina, "D wanted us to meet him too,"

And because Alfred was magic, he chose that moment to step out of the elevator.

The other family surrounded him, profusely thanking him or also taking care of their family members. Alfred, to his great credit, took it all in stride and responded accordingly.

Right before they were about to leave, D leaned up into Jason's ear and whispered something quietly.

Both Bruce and Jason turned back and knelt. Jason took out a block of what seemed like glass and blew into it until it was shipped into their bat symbol. Bruce made a gesture with his hands and there was a liquid sloshing in the glass replica.

They handed it to D and the little one ran over to hand it to them.

"He says it's a present," said M'gann, "The people in their reality bend metal. Some more than one. Some metals are bent by more than one kind but Mercury is bent by the draagn exclusively,"

"But isn't mercury poisonous to us?" said Tim

"Not that one," said Bruce, "You can take some out from the stopper at the bottom and test it but I believe you are fine to keep it, Think of it as a token of our thanks. Mercury is special to us or as we normally call it, Quicksilver,"

"Alright," said Bruce, "Thank you,"

The other family disappeared in a flash of light and all they were left with was an odd decor piece and a couple of sketches.

The glass bat symbol ended up sitting right in front of the huge penny.

xxx

In the evening right before patrol, Bruce found Damian standing in front of the bat and watching the liquid quicksilver slosh around as if it had a mind its own. Some kind of magic, surely.

"Father," murmured Damian

"Damian," answered Bruce

"They were a lovely family," said the young boy

"They were,"

A moment and then-

"We have a lovely family too," said Damian, "Even if I wish some things were different,"

"We do have a lovely family," said Bruce, kneeling down in front of his son, "But you are also allowed to wonder how things could have been different,"

"I miss her sometimes," said Damian, "I know she wasn't really fit to raise a child, not after everything grandfather put her through and certainly not without getting help first but she is my mother and I miss her sometimes,"

"I know," whispered Bruce, "Come here,"

Bruce tugged Damian close, enveloping him in his arms.

"I love you, baby,"

"I love you too, Father,"

[ask-de-writer]

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : Part 19 of 83 : World of Sea

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to World of Sea

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

Part 19 of 83

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2020

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users   of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may   reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information   remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in   my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical   compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

///////////////////////

Chapter 5: Strangers at the Gathering

The night before the Gathering was due to begin officially, two strange, large ships came up and hove to, about a half mile off from the anchorage.  They had arrived during the dark of the moons, and none had noted their coming.  With the dawn, none could miss the strangers.  

One was a monster by any definition.  All visible parts of the ship were jet-black.  It was pretty long, but several ships in the Naral fleet were longer.  What made it so big was that it had two three hundred foot hulls, with rakish shearwater bows.  The hulls were spanned from bows to sterns by a large flat expanse, perhaps two or three decks thick.  It was hard to tell at this distance.  There was a raised navigation bridge about forty feet back from the bows.  For masts it had three pairs of poles that were fastened together at the tops by spacious platforms and possibly a hundred feet tall.  They formed ‘A’ frames that spanned the ship from side to side.  There were no visible spars and the rigging, though present, seemed sparse.

Its companion was about two hundred and eighty feet long, also with twin hulls, but there, any similarity stopped.  Its hulls were unequal in size, the smaller one being fully eighty feet shorter.  Both hulls were narrow, almost knife like, and it had three masts, off the center-line of the craft, closer to the larger hull.  They seemed far too short.

Small boats were sailing in from the big ships.  They were twin hulled as well.

“Those ships are weird, and those little boats are weirder, too.  Never seen anything like ‘em,” said a sailor to anybody.  

Juris, the Longin’s Master Boat-builder, replied, “Catamarans they’re called.  They’ve been played with from time to time.  Fast aren’t they?  Never heard of making one as a ship, before, let alone two.”

By this time, the two boats were tying up at the floats.  Master Juris noted, without saying anything, that they were tied up with quick release knots.  Each crew formed a shield around one person from their boat.  

From the unequal hulled ship this person was a man of medium height, apparently the Captain.  He wore his black hair complexly braided. He had a loose shirt, tied at the waist by tails made for the purpose and snug trousers tucked into wide topped soft boots.  His crew wore variations on the theme.

From the larger ship, the individual was a woman whose red-brown hair was worn tied back in a fall.  She wore a loose shirt, similar to the other man’s but with a belt of large polished black overlapping scales, each decorated with an inlaid medallion of polished shell. Supported by the belt were a  flattish kit and a large but empty knife scabbard at her left hip and a long empty scabbard of strange design at her right.  Her loose pants bloused down and tucked into the tops of snug, calf high boots made of glittering green Lesser Sea Dragon hide.  A document case of tanned Strong Skin leather under her left arm, the lady simply reached up to one of the bollards the climbing net was secured to and pulled herself up to deck level with her right arm.  None of her crew seemed to notice her feat as they swarmed up the net.

The woman spoke to the gawkers in an accent full of lilting overtones, “Where do we find the ones in authority here?  We wish to present our credentials.”  Some of the people tore their eyes away from the visitor’s outlandish garb and pointed out the Council Pavilion.

Kurin, who was among the curious watchers, turned to Master Juris and said in surprise, “She must be as strong as Cat was.  Did you see how she just reached up to the raft rim and pulled herself up one handed until she could sit on the edge?”

“Yes,” he replied.  “She had that package of documents in her left hand. It was like she never even gave it a second thought.”

Roper said, “I noticed that all of the others used both hands to get up onto the raft.”  He paused and added untactfully, “I thought that Captains were supposed to be picked for brains.”

“Maybe she was,” Kurin shot back.  “Not everyone who’s strong is stupid.”

“You’re right,” replied Roper, abashed.  “Cat was strong and smart.”

Their men standing guard outside, the two Captains, for such they were, went inside the Council Pavilion.  Captain Sarfin of the Dorton, was seated at a writing table working on the agenda of the Council.  He was the leader of the Council again this Gathering.  He looked up and smiled.

“If you come in peace, then welcome to the Spring Gathering of the Naral fleet.”

Relief flooded the features of the two.  The woman spoke first again.  “I am Captain Sula Corin Dark Dragon, Commander of the Winternight ship Dark Dragon, come from and representing the Corlis fleet.  We do seek permission to conduct some business, but mainly, we are seeking information.”  She handed her document package to Sarfin, who examined it with interest, and made notes in his ledger.  

“I Captain Huld Barsan Soaring Bird of the Barant fleet am,” said the man, speaking clearly but with odd construction.  “Also information seeking I am.  Opportunity to trade welcome is.”

Catpain Sarfin noted, “I see that your one set of documents is for both ships.  That is unusual.”

Sula smiled easily and said, “The Barant fleet is unusual, and the Honored Huld is even more so.  The Barant fleet does not set much store on written credentials.  The existence of a ship is license enough.  From the day that we met, we have been what the Barant fleet call ‘Dragon Bonded.’  Mutual obligations have made our lives inseparable, save by fate.  Because of our Dragon Bond, the Corlis fleet issued those credentials.”

“Very sensible,” laughed Sarfin.  “Sometime, when I am not so busy, I would like to hear your tale.  For now, I will have the Anchorage Master assign your ships to berths close by each other.  Permission to trade goes with that.  There is a fee of five hundred glue blocks or fifty Strong Skins, or an equal value in other trade goods.  Also, you must sign the Gathering’s Log Book.”  He proffered a book, opened to a page, and a feather pen.  Sula took the pen and examined it, then handed it back.

She produced a writing case from her sash-belt and took out a  fine tipped brush and a pen made of springy bone.  She inked  the brush first and wrote a neat vertical line of strange characters.  Then she dipped her pen into the case’s ink well and began writing, neatly, without any blot.

She filled in her ship’s, name, principal officers and nature of her business.  At the top of the next page, Huld applied two stamps from his writing kit, selected a brush and signed his ship’s name after one stamp and his own name after the other in unusual characters that Captain Sarfin recognized as written Barant.  He put back the brush and took a pen like Sula’s to fill out the rest of the information in Common.

“If there should be a problem in making payment,” said Sarfin, examining the entries with interest, “I am sure that I can get the Council to reduce or waive the fee.  After all, you have come half-way around the world to be here.”

Sula smiled, “I think that there will be no problem with payment.  The Dark Dragon is a dedicated Predator Hunter.  We take Wing Ray, Strong Skin, Moon Flats, Lesser Dragons and Hags.  We also take all of the usual fish.”

“I help may need.  Cargo luxury is, nor valued yet.”

“Honored One, I shall cover it for you, until the market values your goods,” said Sula pressing her hands together and making a small bow.

“That is settled, then,” said Sarfin.  “Now, what information is it that has brought you both so far?”

“We are trying to find the truth of rumors that there was a Great Sea Dragon — Some say Iren and some Mecat — that stayed with a ship of a fleet.  So far, all that we have found are rumors.  Truly, we are about to give up.  We have traveled half around Sea with nothing to show for the trip but some exotic trade goods.”

Grinning broadly, Sarfin said, “Oh, the Dragons are real enough.  I saw them myself.  However, your best information will come from the crew of the Longin, particularly, their Purser, Alor, their Captain Mord, and especially the young girl Kurin, who keeps a toy booth in the market portion of the rafts.”

Sula and Huld looked at each other in delight.  

“We have found them!”

“Here Dragon knowledge!” their voices crossed each other.

Huld added thoughtfully, “Meditate I must on this event when to the Soaring Bird return I.”

“Yes,” Sula added matter-of-factly. “Will you request that one of your Captains carry word to the Corlis fleet when you do?”  With a curious small bow to her, Huld replied, “Done it shall be.”

Returning her attention to Captain Sarfin, Sula asked, “Does your custom or law allow my crew to carry their personal sidearms?  We normally carry both a large combat knife and a small ax.”  She indicated her empty scabbards.  “I will guarantee that any of my crew who come the Gathering hooded will not be armed.  That will limit their response to any attempt at baring their faces to unarmed combat.”

Captain Sarfin regarded Sula carefully and said, “Why would they fight over something like that?”

As Captain Sula, showing the first trace of nervousness that Captain Sarfin had seen in her, replied, “Winternight regards such an assault as worse than rape.  If the hooded Winternighters are armed, the odds are good that they will kill the assailant before they have time to think.  To be honest, I am not fully comfortable without my hood and I adopted onto the Dark Dragon at the start of the first Boren Current War.”

Captain Sarfin thought carefully and replied, “It is legal for your people to be armed because such an issue has never come up before.  Let your crew know that our law and custom will require a non-lethal and preferably non-injurious response.”

Sula smiled again and bobbed her head.  “I can do that.  It is the same in our host, the Corlis fleet.”

The far away rattle of a tocsin drum and the exotic, never before heard in the Naral fleet, calls of a bugle or trumpet caused everyone on the rafts or on shipboard to drop what they were doing and watch. Eight large pulling boats came out from between the bows of each ship and picked up cables dropped from bollards at the prows.  The big strangers began to move slowly toward their berths on the north side of the anchorage.  The drum and horn fell silent except for occasional tiny course corrections.

A spectator on the raft, close to Master Juris said, “They’re so slow that I could have walked that distance, up and down the deck, by now.”

“I’m sure that you could have,” Master Juris smiled.  “But pulling two thousand tons might slow you down just a mite.  That’s some fine piloting that you’re seeing.  They aren’t letting the load get away from them.  The real test will come in just a bit, when they pull up to the anchorage floats.”

Kurin joined them.  “Sorry that I’m late, but I knew the ships had to be slow and I had some toy customers.”

“What did you sell?” asked the spectator idly.

“One of my loom kits and a rope winder,” said Kurin.

Master Juris turned from watching the ships at that last.  “You mean that those things that you made at the suggestion of the fleet’s Craft Council last Gathering are already selling?  They’re expensive.”

“They are,” she said, putting her head in her hands in mock frustration. “The Masters are coming to see if I’ve made what they asked me to, back last Gathering.  The way they look the toys over is driving me as crazy as a mating paddle duck.  They can’t seem to put anything back the way it was.  The only consolation is that they return with other people and get them to buy.”

Just then drum and horn sounded, and all else was put aside to see what the strangers would do next.  It was unorthodox.  The pulling boats, that could now be seen to have a dozen oars each, darted back, between the hulls of each of the two monsters, under the massive decks that bridged them.  You could see the lines draw tight as the boats applied all the power at their command to stop the ships.  They slowed gradually and stopped — — — exactly at the floats.  One boat came out from under each ship, and attached its cable to the float.  A second, light line was cast down from above and tied to the end of the cable.  Each boat disappeared back between the hulls of the mother ship and did not emerge.

“Neatly done,” said Master Juris, ruffling Kurin’s hair.  “These folk are good seamen, whatever else they may be.”

Kurin and Master Juris were not the only ones to watch the strangers come to moorage.

“Luve, Somet’ing’s bot’ering ye.  Ye keep lookin’ at t’ose twa new ships,” Tanlin said softly to Barad.  Two of the Grandalor’s deck-hands were following her attentively.

“Aye,” said Barad urgently, knowing that they would be overheard.  “You have been reading in my bookshelf to familiarize yourself with our way of writing.  Think.  What ships do they remind you of?  They always worked as a pair.”

Tanlin bit a knuckle lightly as she concentrated.  “ — But t’e Boren Current Wars were ‘alf t’e world away an Gat'erin’s agone! — Still, t’ose masts are unique.  T’ay ‘as t’ be t’e Dark Dragon an’ t’e Soaring Bird!  Yer books say t’at t’ey ‘ave sunk more t’an t’irty ships in t’ose wars.  W’at are t’ey doin’ ‘ere, Oi wonder?”

TO BE CONTINUED

<==PREVIOUS   NEXT==>

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to World of Sea

[animepopheart]

Ranking Every Studio Ghibli Movie

Studio Ghibli's contribution to anime (and animation in general) cannot be understated. Founded by directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, and producer Toshio Suzuki, the studio has produced many of Japan's most hallowed films, movies that are both critically acclaimed and monsters at the box office. In 1996, Disney partnered with Studio Ghibli to bring their movies to North America, developing a new audience that has since come to age; now, Ghibli is as much a part of American childhood as Pixar and Dreamworks releases.

On Anime Pop Heart and @beneaththetangles, we are commemorating the studio with Ghibli Month all September long! I’m kicking things off by ranking Ghibli's twenty-one releases, plus Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, which is often honorarily included among the studio's slate, ranked from first to worst (including alternate viewpoints on a couple of the selections).

22. Tales from Earthsea

Miyazaki famously quarreled with his son, Goro, over the latter's ability to direct Tales from Earthsea, and indeeed, the final product feels like the result of a young man who was in over his head. The movie deserves its ignominious reputation, as it is inconsistent, poorly staged, and often terrible. It's a shame, too, for there are some strong elements to the film and enormous potential, with the outlines of an epic tale and compelling characters in Sparrowhawk and Cob (who are wonderfully dubbed by Timothy Dalton and Willem Dafoe, respectively)—it just never comes quite together and totally unravels at the end, resulting in the only bad film in Studio Ghibli's outstanding run.

21. The Cat Returns

Most Studio Ghibli films are family features, made for children. However, they still capture the imagination of youth and adults as well. The Cat Returns, the only "sequel" in Ghibli's film catalog, doesn't do the same however. It is purely for kids, and aside from flourishes here and there that speak of fantasy adventures and feature whimsical characters, fails to engage viewers of a certain age—maybe anyone older than about twelve. A neat companion piece to Whisper of the Heart, it's worth watching, showing to your children, and then giving away to parents who need better-than-average entertainment to busy their children.

20. Ocean Waves

At one time, Ocean Waves was considered a black eye in Ghibli's filmography, an overpriced television movie that wasn't all that good. In retrospect, the intial judgments were only partially right. Ocean Waves is very much a TV movie, melodramatic and small in scale. The animation, too, is sometimes shoddy, but more often than not it's far better than it has the right to be. Ocean Waves is lovingly made, and the characters are almost frustratingly sincere—and oh so early 90s. While on the lowest tier of the Ghibli scale, Ocean Waves is far better than a simple curiosity.

19. Arrietty

Like Poppy Hill before it, there's nothing terrifically wrong with Arrietty—it just lacks the magic of the great Studio Ghibli films, making it rather forgettable. It's also sometimes dull. While beautiful colors, a foreshadowing of the spectacular animation to come of Yonebayashi in Mary and the Witch's Flower, shine through in the film, and some of the action sequences are highly engaging, our hearts are never fully in it. Maybe that's because we lack a loving connection to many of the characters, particularly to the pensive Sho. A nice watch, but one that's lacking.

18. From Up on Poppy Hill

Much maligned for our lowest ranked movie, Goro Miyazaki returned from that entry with a stronger film, one that functions as an ode to historic preservation while presenting one of the studio's most lovely relationships—that is, until it gets a bit tricky, unfortunately begining to enter a zone unusual for Studio Ghibli, if standard fare for other anime. But that's a relatively minor issue in what's a perfectly lovely film that does well in evoking nostalgia in a movie that reminisces about the past and a Yokohama that no longer exists. Not every emotional moment hits as it should, but enough do to make the film Ghibli's best "date night" entry.

17. Pom Poko

Often criticized for being too over-bearing in its ecological message, Pom Poko's main issue instead is that it's meant to a collection of stories that to flow into one another, based on one group of tanukis' fight against urban development, but the movie doesn't feel cohesive, partly because there is no central protagonist. We only get to know each main tanuki so much, and none feel central to the tale—any could step in and play the necessary roles. Still, Pom Poko is unreservedly charming and often hilarious. It's also a peek into Japanese culture that we often don't get, a look at a country transforming in landscape and in values.

16. Ponyo

Why is Ponyo the low point of Miyazaki's output, the only film of his that doesn't attain the level of classic? It is wonderfully animated, bursting with energy and featuring a story that is never disingenuous and a heroine that is funny, cute, and breathtaking even. However, the film proved that Miyazaki was on a downward trajectory after Spirited Away. Repetition seen in Howl's Moving Castle was on full display in Ponyo, a new movie that too often feels like a rehash, featuring characters that other than the title heroine, fail to connect, and a story that is muddled and often just strange. Ponyo is a fun film and a better one after repeated viewings—the problem is that such defenses do not have to be made for any of Miyazaki's other works.

15. When Marnie Was There

The last feature film from Studio Ghibli to date is both quietly personal and a surprising risk. When Marnie Was There is the studio's first true mystery tale, and has a tone that's slightly haunting. The lead characters, also, are unusual for Ghibli—neither Anna nor Marnie are as embraceable as most of the heroines from Ghibli's past, but that seems be purposeful. What they demonstrate to us is not as much of "who we can be" but "who we are" and even so, how we can overcome. The creative energy of past Ghibli films is missing, but the replacement here by a surprising intimate tone in a modern setting is welcomed.

14. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

While this notoriously expensive film flopped at the box office, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya was well-received by critics, and for good reason. Adapting a famed folk tale, the film is animated in style befitting its origins, creating the sense that the viewer has fallen into a some traditional Japanese painting. But the movie is not as pastel as its colors indicate—the storytelling is bold. It doesn't sit in the past, instead feeling remarkably current in the fable of a princess imprisoned by seemingly everyone and everything, without ever feeling worn or heavy-handed. Mystical and fantastical elements are both woven into the foundation of the story and come alive in key moments, keeping the film compelling (for the most part) throughout its two hour+ run time.

13. Howl's Moving Castle

An underrated aspect of Studio Ghibli's brilliance is in how they often adapt already-beloved works. Adapted by the master, Howl's Moving Castle, based on the novel by Diana Wynne Jones, is gorgeously animated and bold in both design and character—Howl and Calcifer, particularly, are memorable (and give strong emotional weight to the tale). While it suffers in comparison to its predecessor, Spirited Away, by being a little unwieldy, it remains a classic and an example of how well Miyazaki can bring themes and plot points across subtly (think of the flashback of Howl) in a movie that's otherwise fierce and larger than life.

12. The Wind Rises

From conception, The Wind Rises was a challenging film—how do you tell the story of the man who designed a fighter essential to Japan's WWI efforts, and show him as a patriot and dreamer without excluding the crimes of the nation, or making a film that goes against Miyazaki's anti-war values? It's difficult to say if he succeeds, but the film itself is beautifully crafted. The supporting characters here are less important than in other works, so it's vital that the audience admires Jiro Horikoshi, and we do—his character and positivity make him easy to root for, and dream sequences in the film both flesh out his thought process and keep us captivated. Once believed to be Miyazaki's last film, if it had been, The Wind Rises would have been worthy of that designation.

11. My Neighbors the Yamadas

The oddball in Ghibli's filmography, My Neighbors the Yamadas is presented through half-a-dozen or more short stories in the style of comic strips come to life, with animation that matches. The magic in the film is that the Yamadas are as over-the-top as the movie's aesthetic is, yet maintain an authentic feel. Think of some of the most popular family sitcoms of the 1980s and 1990s, but with an addition those shows could not feature—fantastical sequences that break in without warning and bind the ties of family further. We may not want to live like the clumsy Yamadas, but the heart of the family will make you consider whether they're the ones who really have it all together.

10. Porco Rosso

Studio Ghibli films share animation styles and themes, but one can never say they lack in variety when it comes to story. The tale of Porco Rosso is of an ace pilot cursed into living as a pig—but not to worry! He is still adored by women as he flies fantastic missions while running from fascists, pirates, and fame-seeking assassins. Porco is gruff and unattractive, but both he and the tale are sweet, as what's already a compelling story of WWI aces and dogfights is buffeted by grief, romance, and two strong heroines of very different types and roles. Perhaps the film with the largest range of opinion among the Miyazaki classics, Porco Rosso is nonetheless fantastic, and require viewing if you haven't watched it already.

9. Whisper of the Heart

Ghibli's most unabashedly romantic film is one of its most formulaic, but still among its best. The debut film by Yoshifumi Kondō, Miyazaki and Takahata's proposed successor before he died just a few years after the movie's premiere, is at once encouraging while also refusing to shy away from the melancholy experienced by children—and adults, too—when one doesn't seem to have what it takes to become great. In joy and sadness, Whisper of the Heart lets the kids at the center of the film be kids. They are at times stubborn, silly, and immature, and by treating them that way, the movie never drifts into something banal (with the possible exception of the famously abrupt ending)—it's a lovely lesson in growing up and meeting challenges, and a personal favorite.

8. Kiki's Delivery Service

The charm of Kiki's Delivery Service is two-fold—in the setting, a northern European-style town that is alive, forcing the events of the story through its residents, cozy cafes, and early 20th-century transportion, and in Kiki's journey itself. Her community's tradition of sending of young witches to live by themselves at the age of thirteen sets the story in motion, and Miyazaki captures the spirit of a girl that age perfectly—in all its confusion, energy, enthusiasm, and difficulty. Kiki is not a subtle character, but her growth is. When she takes to the air for the finale, Kiki isn't experienced enough to know if she can save the day—and so we cheer when she realizes what the rest of us already know, what we've all experienced ourselves, that it takes time and failure to mold us into becoming the hero.

7. Castle in the Sky

Miyazaki created classic film after classic film for decades, in a streak that started with Lupin III and ended, I'd argue, with Howl's Moving Castle. Often forgotten among the wonders is Castle in the Sky, a steampunk entry that is a joyous adventure, akin to Treasure Island but developed for an audience of both boys and girls. Sumptuous cloudscapes fill the screen, as do colorful characters with meaty roles, including a group favored by Miyazaki—pirates (in this movie, air pirates led by Dola, an older female). Reflective of Miyazaki's ability to master genres, Castle in the Sky again crosses fantasy and sci-fi in perfect proportions, underscoring an uplifting tale with an apocalyptic story line.

6. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Unofficially part of of Ghibli's canon, the success of Nausicaa, based on Miyazaki's own manga and exploring the ecological, anti-war, and feminist themes for which the studio's future films would be noted, launched Studio Ghibli. Nausicaa herself remains one of the studio's most iconic and compelling heroines, a physically powerful and feminine hero who must grow into adulthood very quickly while putting aside deep flaws to offer salvation to her people and land. The beautiful landscapes speaks to the epic story, better fleshed out in the manga, while reminding us that Ghibli films are giants not only in animation, but in fantasy and sci-fi realms as well.

5. Only Yesterday

How do you create an animated film about a twenty-something woman that waxes nostalgia while on a trip to the countryside, and at the same time make it entertaining and accessible? It's not an easy task, but Only Yesterday accomplishes it fully. Taeko, the protagonist, explains, "I didn't intend for ten-year-old me to come on this trip, but somehow, once she showed up, she wouldn't leave me alone." We experience her nostalgia for and complicated feelings about the past through a family that's genuinely flawed, while experiencing her visit to relatives in the countryside in the present, a trip that is subtly life-altering, one that pushes her to consider who she is and who she wants to be. Oh, and the film also features one of anime's most wonderful endings, set to a cover of a now-classic love song.

4. Grave of the Fireflies

It's a testament to Miyazaki's stature that the first three Ghibli films on the list are all directed by him, and also to the supreme talent of the other directors that their films rise above some of his other tremendous work. Directed by Studio Ghibli co-founder, the legendary Isao Takahata, Grave of the Fireflies is the most painful and emotional movie in the canon; it is also one of the greatest war movies ever made, using animation to deftly explore the how war victimizes children. Opening and closing shots, both of which express the uncaring nature of bystanders (and by extension, the world) toward children cause us to wonder what we really feel about the world's most vulnerable population.

3. My Neighbor Totoro

It's often said that nothing really happens in My Neighbor Totoro—but that's part of the magic of the film. A child's movie in all ways, including in the action, which revolves around a sick mother, a move to a new house, and a lost child, the film finds its center in a magical being that never says a word (Totoro only growls), and about whom many theories abound. If Totoro is a figment of Satsuki and Mei's imaginations, he is then similar to Winnie the Pooh, a necessary presence in the lives of a child character (two of them, sisters, in this case) who is growing up in a difficult situation, not to adulthood, but to the next step in the journey of life.

2. Spirited Away

Miyazaki has retired and unretired several times—when did so following Princess Mononoke, he returned with what is often considered his magnum opus, Spirited Away. At once deeply Japanese and completely accessible, the movie takes viewers on one of the most remarkable visual journeys ever put to film, a feast that never relents through its entire run time. Perhaps underrated is Miyazaki's decision to move the action away from the bathhouse for much of the final act, a quiet last leg that is key to Chihiro's journey, as well as for many of Spirited Away's supporting characters. Absolutely deserving of all love and acclaim.

1. Princess Mononoke

Studio Ghibli's finest film is also perhaps its most surprising. Visceral, violent, and conflicting, Princess Mononoke is no easy tale to absorb. There is no "good guy," not in the traditional sense, as Miyazaki explores hist favored ecological theme but through the lens of humanity struggling to survive in a world where they are just surpassing nature, the beast gods and goddesses who had previously ruled. It is an epic in the vein of films from decades before with vibrant and complex characters, ground-breaking animation, and an English voice track that is second to none. The studio's most intricate work, Princess Mononoke requires multiple viewings to fully appreciate.

--

All Studio Ghibli movies are available for sale, including many in special collectible editions. We encourage you to go check them out!

[fanficsrusz]

Toothache - John Wick oneshot

A/n: so this was requested by @babymadz. Its kinda on the shorter side but its fluff. I hope you enjoyed it and im sorry if its not that good im kinda having some family issues at the moment so im not 100% commited to writing at the moment 😅

_________________________________________

Stepping in the shower, john let the hot stream of water wash over his body. Sighing he brushed his hands through his hair. John had taken some time off from his work and word had gotten out that he had become 'soft' because of a certain girl. Well girl was a term john used loosely, he would describe her as more of a God. He smiled thinking about her. Maybe he had gone a little soft because of her. Her name was y/n and for some reason unknown to him, she had fallen in love with him and accepted his marriage proposal more than two years ago. She was always kind and put others first despite the countless times john had told her to not forget about herself and to not let people abuse her. She had this glow about her that made anyone within a 5 mile radius get drawn to her. Her jokes were lame but kept john entertained for hours. She was beautiful on the inside and out.

He looked down at the gold wedding band on his finger and his smile grew even larger, this was the first time in a while he had truly been happy and it was all thanks to her.

Before he knew it the bathroom door slammed open, interrupting his train of thought. 'speak of the devil' john thought just before the shower curtain was drawn back abruptly and y/n stood there, her face red and stained with tears. John was shocked to see his normally smiley wife a crying mess. "Y/n? What happened? Who hurt you?" his voice was serious as jumped out of the shower so he could check over her body, looking for any indication that she had been hurt. Seeing nothing he was confused and so took in her appearance. Comfy shorts and one of John's old shirts. Her hair flowed loosely around her face, finished off with a bit of popcorn stuck to a strand and it soon became apparent as to what caused her to cry. "what movie was it this time?" he laughed and she just sobbed harder as she leant forward to hug him "marley and me" she said, well that's what john interpurated the sounds between cries to be. He laughed again as he leant down to rest his head on top of hers before giving her a small kiss. "y/n its only a film. No dog was killed for real" she pulled back and looked up at him through wet eyelashes before looking down at his naked form. She blushed instantly despite the fact that she had seen him naked thousands of times. John laughed at her actions before grabbing a towel and wrapping it around himself. "come on. We'll go watch a movie were no animals die" he began to lead her out towards to living room before leaving her to go get dressed.

A few minutes later and john came out seeing y/n sat on the floor looking through movies, all evidence of her previous crying session was gone and replaced with her usual smile. She stood up turning to him as she grabbed the popcorn that was placed on the table. Popping a piece in her mouth she walked towards john "babe, i thought we cou- OW"  she stopped halfway through her sentence as she grabbed her mouth in pain and john rushed over. "let me see" he asked opening her mouth blood slowly filling it. "looks like you've cracked a tooth. We have to go to the dentist" y/n stepped back shaking her head. "NO! Its ok i can just take so- OW" another wave of pain shocked her. John knew of her fear of the dentist and stepped forwards holding her shoulders "you have to go. I'll be right there with you holding your hand. It won't be that bad. I promise" he kissed her forehead before she sighed, '' I have no choice but to do it do i" she said carefully trying not to cause herself anymore more pain and john just pushed her towards the bedroom "nope. Go get dressed and i'll make an emergency appointment."

Within 20 minutes, y/n was laid down in the dreaded dentist chair and her hand nervously tapped on the arm rest as the dentist looked in her mouth. John placed a hand on her leg and rubbed it soothingly just as the dentist stepped back ready to give his diagnosis. "well it seems you have chipped a part of your wisdom tooth so we can just remove it for you today" he said it so calmly and y/n sat up tears in her eyes. "are you sure? Won't it hurt? Im-"

The dentist cut her off before she could ramble on with any more questions. "Mrs Wick, your husband has already told me about your fear and rest assured, you will only feel some mild pain for a day or two after the surgery. You would be completely anesthetized and will feel no pain, think of it more as a little nap. It will take no more than an hour" the dentist said it in such a way that y/n felt silly for even being scared and out of embarrassed just nodded as she agreed to go along with the procedure. "ok give me 5 minutes and i will get the anesthetist and we can begin" he smiled and walked out. Y/n laid down again as fear consumed her. John leaned down and kissed her deeply "y/n don't worry, i will be right here" to shaken to speak she just nodded again as she laid waiting for the torture begin.

An hour later and the dentist had called john back into the room where y/n had the surgery. "Mr Wick, everything went fine and she is perfectly alright however she will be a little out of it for the next couple of hours or so, so just watch out for her and make sure she takes her pain medication regularly" he lead john into the room where y/n sat talking to the nurse about something with a big grin on her face, her mouth stuffed full of wool. 'so far she seems normal' he thought but he was soon proven wrong. As y/n caught sight of john she grabbed the nurse and pulled her closer "you see this is my husband he's actually a secret ninja but but you cant tell no one" she pulled her finger to her lips making a shushing noise and john just laughed awkwardly hoping the nurse would just take it lightly and not think she was telling the truth and luckily she did. "she has quite the imagination" the nurse laughed and john nodded "you have no idea" he stepped forward and began to help y/n up "come on let's get you home." she reached out for his face like a child before she began to poke and pull it. "you're really good looking and i want to kiss you but my husband would kill you if he found out" she whispered and john laughed "well you are pretty special to him".

At this time, y/n attention span was the same as a toddler and she couldn't keep to one conversation the whole ride home. Once they were finally parked outside john helped her to the front door as she spoke gibberish about some fairy. He let go of her for one second to unlock the door before turning around to her. "ok lets get you t- y/n" as he turnt around, she was gone and he panicked "Y/N!" he shouted not being able to see her but then her laugh broke the silence and he followed it around the house and made his way to the garden where she sat playing with a stray cat. He walked over to her slowly and he could begin to hear her talking to the cat softly ".... I really love him mr kitty cat. He's the beeeessssssttttt. He's tall he's handsome he can kick people's asses and he's reallllly good in bed" john smiled and walked closer before crouching down next to her scaring the cat off. She looked up at him before smiling "Jooooohhhhnnnnnn there you are. I just wanted to tell you i love you and that i want to have the sex with you" she laughed and booped his nose. John looked dow. At her "as much as i would love to have the sex with you, you need to rest. Come on" he scooped her up and made his way inside before putting her in bed. After an hour of y/n talking nonsense and john just laughing at her, she finally fell asleep as john stroked her hair. Despit her swollen face and messy hair, she was still the most beautiful girl he had even seen. He smiled as he leaned down to kiss her forehead before slowly getting out of the bed, careful not to disturb her.

Five hours later and a groggy y/n staggered out of the bedroom holding her face. John looked up and smiled when he saw her "hey" he said and she just looked at him before making her way over and falling on top of him "my face hurts and im hungry" she mumbled hiding her face in his stomach as an attempt to hide from the pain. He stroked her hair and she looked up at him "thank you for looking after me. What can i do to repay you?" she hugged him and he just smiled. "being next to me is more than enough" he kissed her on the lips and she smiled " no seriously". John looked up and thought for a second before smirking. "well if i remember correctly a little someone called y/n promised to have the sex with me. That might be a good place to start" he laughed holding her cheeks in his hands and she sat up. "I said that?" john sat forward and kissed her gently before nodding "yep". It was her time to smirk "in that case i will have the sex with you as payment for you taking such good care of me" john smiled brightly but y/n just laid back down again "but maybe in a week or so because my face hurts to much" john laughed "cock block" he laughed as he stroked her hair slowly sending her back to sleep "youre too good for me. sweet dreams my favourite little toothache." he smiled relishing in the happiness that y/n had given him over the last few years and for many more years to come.

The end

_________________________________________

A/n: i hate the dentist so very very much....

[themockingcrows]

The Esteemed Guest Switch

Now that reveals happened and I’m leeching a wifi signal for a few minutes... time to crosspost this! Written for Polyswap 2019! Also available on my AO3 under the same name.

Ship: Rose/Dirk/Dave in all configurations.

This fic is VERY NSFW.

tags: Praise Kink, Pegging, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Oral Sex, Dom/sub, Polyamory, Threesome - F/M/M, Light Mommy Kink, Scratching, Spanking, Dirty Talk, Rope Bondage, Power Play, Trust, Rough Kissing, Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Established Relationship, Incest, Spitroasting, Breathplay, Femdom

While all three are in love, normally Rose and Dirk share Dave and keep interactions between themselves on more even ground. Both Strider and LaLonde love to be in charge and the idea of yielding isn't one that's come up between them thanks to Dave being the happiest sub in the world between their combined affections. Yet is it possible that Dirk could like more than he knows? Perhaps he and Dave aren't so different after all, at least with Rose calling the shots.

                                               - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

     Separately was how Dave was used to dealing with Rose and Dirk romantically. They were each a larger than life personality, and each wanted a certain amount of control that he was more than happy to give, especially behind closed doors where each of them wanted his undivided attention and focus. It hadn’t taken long for them to agree on the setup of spending plenty of time together as a group but dividing up the romantic side. Dave had more than enough affection to give in a lot of directions and needed just as much attention back to feel fulfilled and happy, sometimes far more than a single person would be capable of giving especially if they were busy or distracted with other important things. Between their schedules and the tides of their own needs and wants, the schedules just sort of formed naturally between the three of them. Dave was a planet traveling in a circle between Dirk’s star and Rose’s silvery moon.

    Maybe the fact that Rose and Dirk were so alike was what helped the trio function so well, one person leaving just as the next came over wanting someone to lay on and cuddle while they had their hair played with. Even in the bedroom they exuded similar methods, albeit with very different energies guiding their actions. They each had a firm hand and high expectations of him, each had similar desires though not always in a conventional sense. Rose was usually a solid presence who alternated between sweet and tender and putting Dave through his paces before giving a reward that tended to veer towards being allowed to eat her out or to actually fuck her, or getting to pick what she would be pegging him senseless with. Dirk was a little harder to nail down. The methods were there, but the energy was different. He couldn’t seem to make up his mind on what he wanted out of some of their encounters from the feel of the directions. The stern hand softened in the heat of the moment, and many times he wound up putting Dave through his paces as a service top or with any other number of rewards. The treats were easier to obtain: Dirk was never as rough as Rose was.

    Dave, being Dave, couldn’t help but bring it up by accident when they were all sprawled out on the sofa together half paying attention to a terrible movie that nobody had enough opinion about to summon the energy of pulling out the remote to click away from. He lay sprawled across both their laps like an overgrown cat, head on Rose’s thighs and legs resting over Dirk’s legs so one gloved hand rested leisurely on the curve of his hip and ass. A yarn ball gently twitched against the small of his back as Rose clacked her knitting needles steadily, eyes trained on the screen and fingers moving without much more than a second thought to where she was on the line numerically. It was too easy to fuck something this calm up, especially for someone with as much raw chaotic energy as Dave. One second he’d been chattering about the villain being a dumbass, then he’d made Top Energy joke, then a dom joke, and then just to fully stuff his foot into his mouth he just had to look back at Rose specifically to ask her if it was familiar.

    Not both of them.

    Not Dirk.

    Rose first and foremost. Rose alone.

    “Excuse me?” said Dirk, leaning forward and resting his folded arms on Dave’s legs with enough pressure to indicate it was meant to be a pinning maneuver, tipping his head to show that he was trying to meet his eye behind the dual layers of shades. Oh, no, there was no escaping from him now. “Think my name got dropped by accident back there, Dave.”

    “You may need to get your ears checked, Dirk, he wasn’t talking about you at all,” Rose offered with a helpful smirk, setting the knitting project to the back of the sofa safely before using both hands to stroke at Dave’s upper back and hair affectionately. “Dave was talking about tops and doms, an aficionado would be best to ask for verification.”

    Dave felt heat rising on his face and a chill run down his back at the tone of her voice. Dirk had bristled almost immediately, although it’d be hard for anyone to tell just from looking at him. He’d twitched briefly, tensed his jaw and relaxed it like a horse chewing at a bit while he contemplated just what angle to attack from. A challenge that blatant couldn’t be ignored, not from his own flesh and blood especially.

    This could not stand.

    “My ears are fine after all then. Though I wonder as to Dave’s taste and sense of refinement if he considers whatever you do to be the sign of a better dom.” His gloved hand slid to Dave’s thigh and kneaded like a steady massage, the squeeze possessive and the downward press continuing to cement the idea that Dave was meant to stay where he was.  It was familiar, the same heavier touch that would grasp his ass and hoist him up into position against a wall or pin him down on a mattress. It felt rougher now, purposeful without the tinge of lust that usually accompanied it, and entirely directed at Rose despite not being placed upon her body.

    “Whatever I do..?” she asked. Perfectly applied lipstick only served to accentuate the tug upwards at the edges of her mouth, lips full and pretty and absolutely petty in the moment. A cat with the biggest bowl of cream all for herself. They were playing hard ball already, and since Dirk was the opponent in the play fight Rose knew not to hold a single punch. Going for the throat was what would make it most fun. “Why Dirk, I guess it makes sense you wouldn’t understand what I do. A bottom desperately playing the part of a top can only do so much. After all, it’s all a front on your end isn’t it?”

    The room was silent enough that Dave was concerned that his family could hear his thoughts, or at least the pitch at which he was screaming them in his head. A long, unending stream of “ Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ” between his ears that neither rose nor fell, nor was affected by breath or the lack thereof. Jesus fucking tapdancing Christ this was why he never brought up bedroom bullshit when they were all in the same room. Well. Not entirely why. Mostly he never brought it up because aside from both already enjoying their power trips, they were both competitive to a fault and he didn’t want to deal with being stuck in the middle of their bullshit. It was so much easier for Dave to just be the happy sponge and savor the private time in each direction to the fullest rather than let the two of them puff up and posture at each other.

    There was love there, so much love, but it definitely had a mean streak to it. Honestly if they could just make out or fuck each other and get over it already it’d be for the better in Dave’s eyes. Cut through building tension in the quickest way possible, get to the core of the issue, and wake up on the other side in a tangled heap with a clearer head. Sometimes you just needed to fuck it out. However the same problem would no doubt arise, because of fucking course it would: who would top. Who would lead. Two doms enter a room, one walks out, and Dave already knew in his heart it’d be Rose doing the walking.

    At some point during his registering his internal monologue of toneless screams, both Dirk and Rose had begun staring at him, hoping for some kind of answer to a question he’d apparently missed. Fuck. Shit. Dave cleared his throat and curled himself a little tighter, knees lifting towards his stomach and gaze stubbornly shifting to the television screen once more.

    “Come again? Sorry, I wasn’t listenin’.”

    “Obviously,” Dirk said. “I don’t blame you though, most of it was bullshit.”

    “Spoken like a true bottom,” Rose crooned at him wickedly, savoring how he was actually frowning at her now instead of keeping a perfect poker face. He was showing the faintest of cracks, giving her directions on precisely how to tease him in ways that affected him, and Dave could already read the writing on the wall. He felt a cool hand slip beneath his shirt and stroke along the side of his ribs before reaching up towards his throat, clasping and applying just enough pressure to make him go entirely still for her out of habit. Dave felt his pulse grow hot against the expanse of her fingertips. “We were asking for your opinion on each of us, given your predisposition. If Dirk and I can’t agree about our roles, we can at least all agree with yours. You respond so well to both of us... But do you have a preference?”

    “Oh, fuck no, you are not pinnin’ that kinda pressure on me. If ya’ll wanna have beef with each other you can have as much Grade A premium as you want without draggin’ me into the thick of it,” Dave insisted as he decided to make a break for it, hands upon him or not. He shifted his weight and rolled off of his lovers legs like a log, thumping on the floor unevenly once Rose retracted her hand and scooting backwards on his ass to gain a bit of distance. The terrible movie droned on behind his head till he turned to click the damn thing off, wanting to be able to hear himself think more than he wanted to hear a half assed villain monologuing.

    “Easy, easy, we weren’t going to put you on the spot that seriously,” Dirk insisted as he stood up, dusting at his pants and the bottom edge of his shirt out of habit. Rose stood up at the same time and moved her knitting from the back of the couch to the side of it on the floor to keep it out of potential harm’s way. No sense in losing stitches after all. “It was more of a casual question.”

    “Man if you’re so curious what each other’s like in bed why not just do the routine?” Dave asked, bumping his fists together with a frustrated frown for emphasis. “Like. I can vouch if you really want me to, ya’ll are both fantastic. You’re just..”

    “Just what?” Dirk pressed.

    “..Different,” he explained. “Like. I can eat the same meal with the same recipe from two different places and it’ll be familiar but still different ‘cause it’s made by different people? Sometimes there’s extra touches and stuff thrown in on top of the familiar but that ain’t the point. My view’s gonna be pretty predictable and won’t make much of a difference ‘cause I ain’t choosin’ between you two even if you fuckin’ paid me to. Why not just cut out the middleman and just experience it.”

    Rose pursed her lips as if seriously considering the option, but Dirk seemed frustrated all over again.

    “That’ll defeat the entire point, Dave. You’re the one with experience of the both of us, if we dove in and did the top swap bullshit it’d prove nothing.”

    “You sound pretty sure of yourself,” Rose said suddenly. “Why not just do it then? I mean, what is there to lose? I love you and Dave equally, and I’d like to show you what I mean. It’d be an experience and then we’d be able to swap and see if there’s any other preferences. Perhaps even just pick up extra tricks we each could use. Think... sexy business meeting with our experienced sub and guest switch.”

    Dave flicked his gaze between Rose and Dirk several times, but he already knew what was happening without needing to see. She was so calm, so certain, prepared with logic and explanations aplenty even as Dirk was prepared to cross them with twenty more. They were staring each other down then, Rose smiling softly and Dirk stiff as a board with arguments on his lips unable to come out, playing a game of chess without needing to make a single movement. If he backed down or tried to insist she go first there were ways to argue it that would either circle back around or which would be logically sound and stand there only to make him sound like a bitch if he backed down. Dirk had dug the beginning of his own grave with his love of debate and choosing to go against the offspring that could give as good as she gave.

    The staredown finally ended as Dirk slowly exhaled and relaxed his posture, slipping his hands into his pockets to signal the dance had ended and he was relenting.

    “Fine. Example sub with guest switch. Ladies first?”

    “Oh, hardly,” Rose said as she closed the gap between them to press her fingertips against Dirk’s chest, smoothing the fabric upwards when she leaned closer to press her lips to his cheek. “I’d rather give you time to consider your counter examples. I’ve nothing to hide and I’m prepared, so I may as well take the riskier position since I brought the idea up in the first place. You know. So you could maybe stand a chance of impressing me, I mean.”

    Dirk lifted his chin subtly, ignoring the faint ghost of shadow left behind from the black coating Rose’s lips that now graced his skin. He wasn’t used to being challenged like this, not directly. Not on this level. He flicked his eyes away from Rose’s to look at Dave as he slowly stood up off the floor and dusted at his thighs out of habit, standing by at the ready without even needing to be told.

    ...Fuck, maybe this was actually going to be more of a challenge than anticipated.

    “Dave. Are you ready?” Rose asked as she pulled her hands free of Dirk’s body and turned open armed towards her brother, grin bright and cheerful as a Rose LaLonde smile could be. Dave, used to fucking a predator by this point in his life, nodded and moved to take his shirt off. “Ah ah. Nope. Not out here, I’m not interested in messing up the sofa or needing to pause to get supplies. My room instead. Shoo, both of you. And shades off once you get in there!”

    Stretching without a care in the world, Dave left their cluster and sauntered off for Rose’s room with Dirk bringing up the rear once he realized Rose wasn’t going to be walking at the same pace at all. She’d headed to the kitchen instead to rummage around for something or other that was supposedly important for this example session and would presumably be turning up shortly after them both.

    Rose’s room was painted a soft grayish lavender, more somber than pastel and well matched with the dark colored trappings and coverings she’d collected over the years. Her room was a mishmash of gothic aesthetics and geek chic with a pile of clean laundry adorning her floordrobe and a bra slung over her laptop which guarded several empty cans that ranged from coffee to energy drink to an orange soda she’d filched from Dirk days before and a few mugs that needed washing. The bed was made at least, and the floor more than clear enough to work with. Dave casually scooted a few stray things out of the floor just in case, kicking a few plushies and toeing shoes under the edge of her bed so the carpet was more inviting.

    “This is so stupid.. Is she doing this on purpose?” Dirk asked.

    “Doin’ what.”

    “Half assing presentation,” Dirk said. “This just feels sloppy. I mean, the room isn’t even clean.”

    “As if yours ever is.”

    “...That’s not the point, it’d be spotless if it was for proving something.”

    “Spite fuels you cleanin’ your shit up, huh?” Dave asked as he took a seat on Rose’s bed and flopped backwards. He took his shades off and folded them to tuck on the bedside table before lifting a brow at Dirk. “How much spite would it take to fill the dishwasher once in a while.”

    “Dave.”

    “Or vacuum or somethin’?”

    “Dave.”

    “If Rose shoves enough spite up your lubed ass will you suddenly go all ‘50s housewife with the pearls and the heels and the casserole dishes? I dunno man it could be a look, borrow some shit from Jane, get a manicure, stop bein’ a fuckin’ gremlin for ten whole seconds-”

    “Is this just a game to you??”

    “No and yeah.”

    “You don’t get both, which is it.”

    Dave sighed and pressed his hands to his face before slipping one off so he could pat the mattress beside himself as a signal for Dirk to sit down and join him.

    “Look. I’m poking fun at you because you’re bein’ a dick about this. It’s sex. It’s supposed to be fun. If you go in fighting you’re gonna have a shit time and act like it’ll prove your point when really all it proves is you’re a bitch who can’t let people have nice things.” Dave frowned at him when Dirk opened his mouth to retort. “Hey. No. No, right off the bat. I’d be sayin’ this to Rose too if she was gonna turn up to your turn being a bitch too. Just give it a fair shot, okay? Fair as you’d want anyone to give you.”

    “I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to do the puppy dog eyes when you’re trying to convince me to be a good little boy in this weird ass scenario, Dave. I wouldn’t even be doing this if not for you,” he said as he took off his shades, setting them by Dave’s with a sigh.

    “Yeah?”

    “Yep. I’m not expecting to be impressed. Rose is every bit myself as I’m her in some ways, so I’m expecting something I suppose, but one thing I’m sure is you were telling the truth before about enjoying yourself with both of us.” He smirked. “I’ll get to see you getting wrecked without having to lift a single finger.”

    “Voyeurism. Lazy voyeurism.”

    “Said as if you’re surprised. Dave, how well do you know me?” Dirk asked as he reached an arm out to catch Dave’s torso, tugging him closer for a squeeze.

    Dave hummed, stone faced as he was hugged, apparently lost in thought. “Y’know I thought I knew you really well but I just realized I dunno how a cuck joke in its natural habitat’d fly with you, so I guess we’re good as strangers.”

    Dirk snorted a soft laugh near his ear that made his chest warm, and it hit home just how they were positioned. Close together, holding on like climbing vines to one another on a soft topped bed with what promised to be great sex on the horizon. Dave held still for a moment, another heartbeat, a third, before lifting his chin up to kiss him square on the mouth. Their lips parted before rejoining a second time, but by the third it was growing hungrier. Dirk slipped his hand up beneath Dave’s shirt and shifted to roll him to his back as Dave slicked his fingers up into Dirk’s hair and tugged gently. They parted and came together in the heat of the moment several times more, unheeding of their feminine surroundings ‘til the room’s owner joined them in the room quietly to watch.

    Rose smiled at the tangle of lanky limbs on her bed and quietly walked over to her desk to pull out the computer chair, spinning it so it faced the bed. A wine glass was settled on the closed laptop lid rather than risk making noise by disturbing any of the debris she kept putting off cleaning up, bra deposited on the floor out of the way. Sinking down into the chair she adjusted her grip on the chilled bottle she held and slipped a corkscrew into the stopper, gently swirling it down into the pithy cork till it was firmly stuck in place. Another turn of her wrist and the bottle was slipped easily against her side, steadying her grip with the arms of the corkscrew before giving it a hard yank to free the cork with a pop. The way the boys scrambled in surprise and sat up looking around like two teens whose parents just opened the front door an hour early was absolutely precious.

    “Eager, huh? The way you were talking just a bit ago made me wonder how interested you really were in following through with this,” she said as she poured a bit of the soft pink liquid into the glass. The bottle was set beneath the desk where it wouldn’t potentially be overturned by mistake before she swirled her cup. “Dave, go tidy yourself up and get ready real quick. Dirk can go after you’re done.”

    “All off or..?” Dave asked as he rested on his elbows, waiting for Dirk to crawl off of him the rest of the way before rising to his feet. The way he had to adjust his jeans to relieve the pressure was as attractive as the flush that had settled onto his cheeks.

    “All off this time,” said Rose as she took a sip. “Thank you for asking. Run along now.”

    Dirk steadily knee walked backwards till Dave could slip free, leaving him to sit on his feet in silence on the mattress once he and Rose were alone. No music. No sound but breathing and the occasional sounds from the bathroom as Dave did as he’d been told. Orange eyes glanced over to stare for a few moments, waiting for some kind of a clue, some sign he wasn’t picking up on. Rose gave him nothing but burning eyes beneath relaxed lids and the gentle curve of her lips.

    “So. You’ve got this all planned?”

    “Mhmm. I admit I thought you two might last a little longer before nearly fucking on my bed, but with how much tension there was in the air just before this it’s my own fault for not assuming you’d do just that.” She took another sip of her drink before humming. “Was it just a moment of passion, or were you subtly snubbing me by doing that before I could even begin?”

    “Moment of passion brought on by a cuck joke,” he said with a straight face. The laugh he got in reply was a nice reminder that Rose was human, was still herself, was still playful underneath the flashes of dark flirting she’d done just earlier. “So. What are the ground rules here, for what’s going to happen.”

    “Straight forward, the same rules I use for Dave. I expect you to follow them, including the rule about tapping out if you need to,” she said, gesturing with her free hand as she spoke. “Traffic signals work best with us so that’s what I think would be best to stick with. Familiar, clear cut. The safe word is Puppets.”

    “....Puppets,” Dirk repeated. “Why the fuck is that the safe word.”

    “Because unlike you, at least from what I can gather based on your surprise, Dave isn’t the type to be waxing poetic about plush puppet ass while getting hammered by something large enough to make English an even more difficult language to grasp.”

    Dirk glowered like a wet cat and he felt the air spark between them again, acutely aware of the shifting pawn between them in play and just how much was weighing it down. There wasn’t much to really lose here. It wasn’t like a true gamble, they’d all be winning. It’d just be his pride that was bruised if Rose proved all the points he was becoming more and more certain she was wanting to not only prove but polish and place on the mantle for future generations to admire after it’d been cast in bronze.

    LaLondes.

    “Right,” he allowed. “What else, then. Give me the run down.”

    “Once Dave gets back you’ll be going to do the same thing he’s doing right now. Clean out, clean up, leave the clothes behind. We’ll hop right into it once you get back and we’re on the same page as far as preparations go. Dave’s example sub, and you’ll be following suit: namely by following instructions. ...At least to start with.”

    “How long do I need to follow instructions till the free will kicks in.”

    “Oh there’ll be wiggle room, relax,” she said as she took another sip. “Would you like some of this now? Or after you’re naked. Dave’ll have some too. I’d hate for you to be the odd one out because of a miscommunication simple as ‘hey do you want some of this sweet booze I’ve got or nah’.”

    “Do you normally drink when you do this?” Dirk asked, resting back on his hands to strike what he was fairly certain was a casual pose. “Considering how often we swap around that’d make for a lot more alcohol than I thought was ever in the house at the same time, or a lot of stealth liquor store runs.”

    “Hah. No, I don’t normally drink before sex. This is more of a special occasion than anything,” she explained. The glass was mostly empty now. Rose took a breath before tipping her head back and finishing the last few sips worth, then sat the glass back atop her laptop. She didn’t refill it right away, instead crossing her legs and settling her hands almost primly in her lap as if waiting for another question to float her way.

    Dirk watched the smooth lines of her legs intertwine, watched how her body curled to itself. It was a bit different than earlier when she was looking ready to eat him alive, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Was it the alcohol? No, she’d literally just drank it, there was no way it’d be affecting anything yet. It wasn’t enough to be hesitancy like fear. The uncertainty was almost enough to piss him off all over again, being given a rubix cube of bullshit when he was already dealing with the task at hand, but there wasn’t a chance to fret over it much. He heard the sound of the bathroom door clicking open down the hall and the creak of the floor as Dave made his way back.

    Practiced, poised looking steps took effect as soon as Dave crossed the threshold of Rose’s room, chin lifted and shoulders back instead of the usual slouch he relaxed into. This was a fairly practiced routine, or at least a habit that had been encouraged enough that it was second nature. He didn’t go to sit on the bed with Dirk once more, though it was pretty clear Dirk wanted to get his hands back on him, especially now that the clothes were out of the way and the half hard bit of dick was just sitting there like a present in full view. Dave headed towards the desk and the chair Rose was settled in, slipped down to his knees in front of hers, and leaned forward to rest his head on her lap like the overgrown lap dog he was at heart. She rewarded him with a few gentle strokes at his hair and down his back before looking up at Dirk, fonder, softer. She always loved the beginning, especially when Dave remembered things without even needing to be reminded.

    He worked so hard to do things right and to make her happy, to impress her. How could she not love that? Love him?

    “Your turn, Dirk. Same as we discussed,” she said before looking back down towards Dave, smile remaining soft as he tipped his head to chase the pressure of her fingers and nails so she’d keep stroking and scratching and petting in the best feeling spots. “We’ll be right here waiting for you to get back.”

    Dirk felt a little better for having seen that tenderness. Rose was gorgeous when she was all thorns and wit coming for his throat, but the gentler side was mesmerizing. The realization that there was a higher than zero percent chance that he’d wind up with her softly cooing and stroking at his hair same as she was to Dave right now made something flip in his stomach that, frankly, needed to fuck off. This wasn’t how bets were won and points were made. There was always time for being coddled and rewarded and praised in the future, when his pride wasn’t on the line. Fuck being a good little boy. He needed to be a good little switch, no matter how brief of a time he was meant to be one to prove this point.

    Tidying himself up was simple and straightforward once he reached the bathroom, no stranger to this kind of prep before play. Leaving behind the clothes to do the walk of shame to the bedroom instead of being able to saunter in with a plan in mind and the full attention of a really attractive man on his bed was a hell of a change though. He spent more than a little time looking into the mirror and fussing with hair that didn’t need fussing with, blowing time before finally giving in to fate and heading back to the hallway. Well. At least he’d gone flacci-

    ...Traitor.

    Fucking traitor of a dick.

    Of all the times to beg to be flaccid, why did it have to be now that he was pretty sure he was rolling from a halfie into an erection that would let him fuck a building. Maybe nobody’d point it out if he didn’t, give him the benefit of that.

    “I was starting to wonder if you’d chickened out,” Rose said the second he’d entered the room, making him stop and slouch before he caught himself. “Or gotten lost at least. Is that for both of us or just me?” she asked as she gestured for him to come over as well. Dave scooted an inch or two to the side before returning his head lazily to where it had been before to avoid missing a thing.

    “Both I guess. Take it as proof of my investment in this situation as opposed to any hint of me trying to sabotage anything,” Dirk said as he knelt down beside Dave and warily rested his chin on Rose’s lap.

    She wasted no time in laying a hand on him, gently stroking his hair back several times before applying more pressure with her fingertips at pressure points alongside his jaw and temple. It was like a one handed massage ranging from his head to his neck, and the longer it lasted the more Dirk was understanding why Dave seemed so happy to drop down and get his own. Every stroke was accompanied with soft murmuring in Rose’s warm voice. Gentle. Loving. Familiar but maternal in a way Dirk was unfamiliar with. Though tense at first there was no way to resist for long, not with Rose’s soothing movements and the warmth of Dave’s bare flesh against his side and his breath near his cheek.

    The soporific effects of a good petting were nearly enough to lul Dirk to a doze despite sitting seiza, leaving him to languidly lift his head when soft fingers beneath his chin lifted upwards. Rose smiled at both of them and nodded.

    “Good. You’re both doing amazing.. Are you ready to really start?”

    Dave hummed and stretched in place before nodding, eyes half closed. Dirk just watched her quietly, wondering how things would proceed. This was already extremely different from how he did things. ...If this was the intro, what was the aftercare like? Would they go hard enough to need aftercare? No, that was a stupid question, aftercare was important and he knew Rose was more than qualified to know something that basic.

    “Great. Dave, go get on the foot of the bed for me. Dirk, stand to the side and keep your hands to yourself,” she said in a sterner voice than the soft murmurings of moments before. When both had risen to do her bidding, Rose stood and rummaged beneath her bed for a flat storage box and slid the lid off. Along essential tools like lube and some massage oil rested handcuffs and a fairly new looking gag, a few lengths of silky black rope in neatly coiled loops, a well maintained strapon rig and several covered sizes and shapes of toys that would attach and several that would not. Dirk eyed the box closely for a moment before deciding the more interesting feature in the room was Dave settled on the bed spread with his gangly legs parted and a cocky grin on his face the second he caught him staring, a hand snaking down to grasp his dick and give it a playful jiggle.

    “Hands off yourself, Dave,” Rose said without even looking up. Her tone was sharp, stern, not to be argued with as she picked up one of the lengths of rope and settled a second one like an overly large bracelet on her wrist. Instantly Dave pulled his hand back and sighed.

    “Yes’m.”

    Rope in hand, Rose rounded on Dirk and lifted the first loop in display as she unfurled the end of it, wanting him to be aware of what was coming his direction. “Turn around and cross your wrists. You’ll be that way for a while, so pick a comfortable position. Traffic lights like we said before. If it’s really intense red suddenly and you need out immediately, I’ve got scissors.”

    No sooner had Dirk sighed and turned around, Rose had begun to slide the rope around his wrists and criss crossed up his arms. The silky cord slipped over the front of his throat before easing back down like a spiders web to cross his upper arms and chest. He hated to admit it, but her interlacing knot work was intricate and functionally attractive on top of being quickly applied. How often was Dave tied up for her to be this quick with it? He bent occasionally without needing to be asked so she could reach easier, straightening at the right times to ensure the ropes weren’t tight at an improper angle.

    “They feel a lil loose,” Dirk said when she’d begun unlooping and feeding in the second cord set, wiggling his arms for emphasis. “Not like it’ll fall off but.. I mean, if you want me to just keep my arms still it’ll work just fine. Could stand to be tighter and be plenty comfortable.”

    “I didn’t ask your opinion on my work, but it’s good to know you’re comfortable. Planning on fighting me?” she asked playfully as she tied a few knots, playing over the lacing along his back and sides. “Get on your knees.”

    Another twitch of his dick kept the early erection from flagging, though Dirk wasn’t sure if it was from the tone of Rose’s voice or the way Dave was biting his lip while staring at him. Dirk sank down to his knees on the carpet, tantalizingly close to Dave’s parted legs as it was before he felt something shift behind him. Rose pressed her foot squarely in the center of Dirk’s back and pulled the rope sharply, forcing him forward against Dave’s cock as the intertwined ropes cinched more firmly in place. He grunted and wiggled his fingers before testing the rest of his arms. No luck, he was stuck tight but fairly comfortably in place.

    “Hands gonna go numb?” she asked. “I can loosen if it’s too tight.”

    Dirk grunted and lifted his head up, though Dave didn’t budge an inch, practically glued in place once a soft cheek was against his junk. It was a good look for Dirk, tied up and in prime position to get his mouth busy at the barest word. He turned his head unprompted to nuzzle Dave’s length while he was there, loving being the cause of the twitch in his muscles and the shaky inhale of breath. Same as he would when spending a night with him. Christ he was responsive, already keyed up and ready to go, eager as—

    Slim fingers threaded into his hair and tugged to force his head back far enough to look clearly into the soft purple of Rose’s eyes set deep in the crisp black eyeliner. She tucked a strand of hair behind her own ear before doing the same motion to Dirk’s bangs, fingers stroking along the flesh of his jaw and throat afterwards in a clearly possessive gesture that was the same maternal petting from earlier with the horny switch cranked to high. He caught himself wanting… more. He wanted her to dig her fingernails into his throat, wanted her to look at him with those same calculating eyes and step on him. It was a peculiar sensation considering normally those thoughts only crept into his mind further along in the heat of the moment with a partner.

    “I’d like an answer, Dirk. Are the ropes too tight. We can’t really go ahead with anything if you’re keeping secrets from me so early.. I might need to just make you watch instead,” she said, giving a harder yank to his hair when he started to frown at her. “I’ll give you a few more chances to be a good boy for me.”

    “Yeah, they’re fine. Sorry,” Dirk said before the apology really registered. Rose grinned impishly and leaned down further, keeping his head firmly in place before kissing him. He could feel the soft squidge of lipstick, and knew that no doubt he was wearing another ghost on his mouth. The warmth of her tongue probed at his lips briefly before she pulled away and licked her lips appreciatively.

    “Good. We’re back on the right track then,” she said as she released him and headed back to the desk. Rose pulled the bottle up from the ground and poured another glass of the pink wine before replacing it down out of kick range. Before taking her seat again she removed her top, revealing the black lace that covered each breast when she turned around proper once more and crossed her legs in front of herself. “You were on the right track before that interruption. I want you to get Dave plenty warmed up. Don’t get him off, but get him close. No hands obviously... There’s a nice reward for doing well.”

    Lifting a brow Dirk glanced over to Dave who had briefly closed his knees before looking back to Rose. She took a small sip of the wine and smiled, keeping the glass in hand before giving a cheers gesture.

    Well. No time like the present then. Giving as much of a shrug as he could while trussed up like a feisty piece of wild game, Dirk shuffled on his knees to line up again. Dave was a familiar taste on his tongue, a welcome string of an increasingly staccato heartbeat between his lips, soft skin and salt and the faintest smell of that weird body wash he used that reeked like overly sweet apple candy took a dip in some Red Hots. It was almost sweet on the back of his tongue as he sank down low, taking as much as he could, brushing pubes with his nose before pulling back to get some kind of a rhythm going.

    His plan was a simple but efficient one: go in fast and hard, then pull away and tease him half to death before diving back on him again. Barring any interruptions from Rose he should be an absolute fucking mess in short enough order. It may not be his turn to lead the show but this was a thing he’d done plenty of times in the past. Making Dave squirm was a favored past time in this house and he was honored that Rose had the foresight to let him keep this piece of it.

    Dirk was messy as he bobbed in place, saliva slicking along the surface of Dave’s cock as he rose and fell, making it all the easier for him to get real suction once he started to suckle. He heard a moan and felt another shudder, knees tensing at his shoulders and the ache of his own dick firmly rising to attention. Plenty of stimuli to let Dirk’s mind slip into a relaxed haze of hormones when it was tangled in with the reminder that they weren’t alone. The inability to reach up and fondle his balls or stroke Dave’s thigh was frustrating, as was fighting the angle of his dick a few times when suction broke or he wanted to lower down and taste him from another side, getting whapped on the nose with wet cock more than once. They were small stumbling blocks but far from enough to deter him from giving this his all.

    The softest squeak came from the chair as Rose moved behind him, but he couldn’t bother focusing on her at all, not when he was this invested in making Dave shiver. He wanted a moan, really. As many as he could get. The louder he could make Dave react the better he knew he was doing and the more invested Dave was since he wasn’t filtering noise by then. Another shuffle of cloth from out of sight, and Rose was suddenly making the bed dip as she sat at Dave’s side, only her underthings remaining on and in place now.

    Though he strained his ears to listen, Dirk couldn’t make out whatever was being whispered into Dave’s ear aside from it being several sentences that made him finally moan again and start to softly pant. Rose stroked at the flat expanse of Dave’s chest while she talked him through something before again giving the possessive gesture over his throat to tip his head back. When she offered the wine he drank, steady sips till the glass was nearly half gone and she was pulling it back again. When she spoke again it was loud enough for Dirk to hear as well.

    “I need to video you sometime, Dave. Both of you. You’d need to see this to appreciate it properly. You have this flush on you and you keep biting your lips and squirming every time his head goes down. Dirk,” she said with a grin, as she gently turned her body to face him more directly, ”you’re as good with a dick in your mouth as I knew you’d be... it’s quite fetching.”

    A leg unfurled from where it was resting with the other as she guided a bare foot towards his groin, pressing the ball of it flat against his shaft till it pressed firm against his stomach. The temperature difference alone almost made Dirk moan, but she didn’t let that fully sink in before starting to gently move in a rubbing gesture. It was pressure but not enough to be effective. It was a tease, and a damn good one considering any time Dirk opened his eyes to look up towards Dave, Rose was there in his view instead. Watching. Waiting. Judging his every reaction.

    Rose pressed down harder then, hard enough to hurt and make Dirk flinch and pull off Dave’s cock with a wet popping sound.

    “ Shit , knock it off.”

    She remained firmly in place and smiled, unimpressed.

    “Red? Yellow?”

    “ Green ,” he insisted with a grumble, diving back down onto Dave’s dick with renewed gusto as Rose started to move her leg up and down with the same intense pressing. It was a blend of painful and pleasurable, just enough to keep him on edge before she was gently easing off.

    “So stubborn. Well, if it’s too much I’ll stop once you say the word, but I admit I’m glad we’re continuing. Tapping out so early would skip the most fun parts and I’d not be able to keep looking at your eyes this clearly.”

    The second the discomfort stopped and he’d relaxed, Rose pressed her foot down firmly once more, grin turning to a smirk when Dirk flinched hard again. It wasn’t as if she’d stomped on him, but it was hard and sudden enough that he—

    He moaned.

    Christ a moan slipped out and Rose looked absolutely wicked as she held her pose, still as a statue before raising her leg higher to press against his chest, forcing Dirk off of where he’d been so intently suckling. To his surprise she came forward with the wine glass and offered him the remaining half.

    “So well behaved,” she cooed as she tipped the glass, sweet wine slipping into his mouth with just enough of an alcoholic burn to clear the savory taste from his mouth.

    Dave looked fit to burst already, fingers fisting in the sheets as he squirmed on his own time. No hands. No touching. He needed to wait and be patient but Jesus fucking Christ was it hard considering there was a guy he was severely attracted to that he wanted to jump on in one position or another at his feet and a woman he couldn’t stop gawking at in underwear that hugged her curves like a coastline pressing against him. He was too bi for this. Way. Way too bi for this. It wasn’t fucking fair .

    Rose retreated from the bed when the wine was drained, setting the glass atop her closed laptop once more before selecting another needed item. The familiar shape of a lube container, albeit a different brand than Dirk usually preferred, graced Rose’s hands when he could next see them.

    “Time to switch things up a bit. Dirk, I’m sure your knees could use a break. Come up here where Dave is and lay back,” she instructed. Dave shuffled to give up his position, before going to help brace Dirk as he rose as gracefully as someone this burdened by a boner could stand while bound with ropes. Which is to say as gracefully as a tranquilized cow till he caught his center of balance on his own past a certain height with Dave’s assistance. She was right, it was nice to get off his knees and restore circulation to his feet that he hadn’t quite been aware was slipping away by the minute while he worked Dave over. Even better was to stretch his back out on the soft mattress, carefully folding his hands instead of clenching into fists, taking a steady breath in and exhaling. A fingertip pressed at the underside of his dick, gently bobbling it in place till he glanced down as far as he could.

    “Dave. Straddle his middle and get to work on this for me, mm? Hips up so I can work,” she said with a smile. “Try to think ahead to what you’d like from the box afterwards.”

    Dave eyed the lube in her hand for about a half second before he was on Dirk’s waist, nearly a blur from how little convincing he needed. He braced himself on one bent arm before leaning down to take Dirk into his mouth, bumping the back of his own throat a few times before easing into it. His hips remained up as Rose instructed, dick remaining downwards to leave a cooling trail of precome in its wake from where the head briefly touched Dirk’s abdomen.

    Forget trying to be quiet, after the earlier teasing and the waiting, suddenly having eager warmth on him was more than welcome. Dirk dropped his head back and groaned low and heady, brows furrowing. He only opened his eyes again when the bed gave another well timed dip, Rose settling on her knees beside his head to fiddle with the lube. It seemed to be a new container judging from how she uncapped it and tore off the small amount of guard plastic over the opening with the tips of those sharp nails that Dirk wanted back on his neck again. When the cap was snapped back in place she reached an empty hand out to stroke the side of Dave’s hip.

    “You know, I’d originally intended for you to do this part of the job for me with your mouth, or at least the majority of it,” she said. The stroke turned rough, nails turning to leave a trail of stinging red behind, making Dave’s muscles tense and his muffled whine to appear over the sounds of soft wet slurps. “I don’t think you’d have minded. He’s quite a treat when he’s like this. I’m sure you know already, of course.. Can bend him to whatever whims you have and he folds like paper best he can.”

    The scratch ended near the middle of the back edge of Dave’s thigh before Rose stroked the roughed up line with the back of her knuckles. An unexpected pang of jealousy shot through Dirk as he watched those red welts appear.

    “I love him for how hard he works to make me happy. ...You though. You still need to impress me.”

    “What do you want to prove with this. If I’m bad at it, it just proves I’m not cut out to be a bottom. Like I said,” Dirk challenged.

    Rose pursed her lips as if frustrated he were missing an unstated point, then shook her head.

    “I don’t think that’s quite right. I’m not asking for you to be a god of sex, Dirk. I’m asking the same of you as I ask of Dave: compliance. The attempt. If you try your best and give your all, if you’re good for me, it shines through. If you half ass something or try to be spiteful, it shows through as well.”

    She stroked beneath his chin then before drawing her hand back down and trailing upwards again, dragging the edge of her fingernail up over his collarbone, up over his Adam’s apple, stopping right at the tip of his chin.

    “I like honesty too.. I want everyone happy as I make Dave,” she said. “If someone’s working hard to make me happy, then it’s my job to make sure they get satisfied as well. This is a two way street, remember?”

    “You’re preaching t-ahh… To the choir, Rose. I know all this already, this is normally my job remember?”

    Rose’s eyes narrowed just enough to make him question if they’d changed at all. The predator look was back with her smile, and when presented in tandem with Dave’s continued eager actions over his dick it was getting harder and harder to not respond just how she wanted to keep things happening.

    “Alright then. When you feel like talking later you can tell me everything,” she said. “No doubt you’ll be eager to talk again by the time you’re done.”

    “Done with what, just last? I can’t do much like…” Dirk trailed off as Rose sank back and hooked her thumbs into the edges of her panties, working them down and off before slinging a leg over Dirk’s face. She peered down at him and winked.

    “I’ve got some work to do now, but keep that thought in mind for later,” she urged as she scooted further down his face to line herself up. “Eat up for now. If you do well you’ll be getting what Dave gets afterward. I’d hate for you to wind up unsatisfied.”

    So that’s how she was going to be. She had to know. She knew and was doing this on purpose, stringing him along while knowing precisely what he wanted and choosing to ignore it. ...Or. Or she didn’t know? Which was it? Rose said she was going to prove she was the better dom somehow, but so far she was just proving how frustrating she could be. So be it then. Grunting, Dirk strained upwards a fraction to reach her easier, tracing his tongue along her clit a few times to tease and adjust to the new task.

    Eating pussy was fundamentally different from sucking a dick, especially at this angle. Rose did something that made Dave hum and breathe heavier around his cock again, knees shaking where they were pressed at his sides, making Dirk wish he could see more than Rose’s ass above him. She had to be opening him up, there’s nothing else she could be doing, prep work wasn’t anything mysterious or new when dicks had been mentioned and an ass was going to take something. However for some reason being unable to see yet being able to feel the progress, while being expected to keep his tongue and lips moving over Rose’s lower lips was a true test. Two bodies, two people he cared for, loved even, were resting atop him as if in their own world despite the distinct connection between the three of them. They were a mechanically functional ourboros of sex, and Dirk couldn’t give two shits that his shoulders felt like they were cramping a bit.

    Experimentally Dirk probed hard with his tongue before finding a good spot to suckle at, repeating the sucking the same as he had to Dave’s dick earlier over her clit, focusing with his tongue and lips as if he were drinking a thick milkshake through a boba straw. Rose tensed over him and rocked her hips, grinding against his face, forcing the back of his head down into the mattress. He had to time his breathing to avoid feeling claustrophobic beneath the warm mass of ass and thigh, but this was doable, especially once he started to get reactions like that out of her. Any reaction was good, but the ones he could feel twice as much were appealing; every time he made Rose feel good she seemed to get more intense with prepping Dave, who in turn went to town on his cock as if it were a quickly melting ice cream cone in the center of a heat wave.

    “Three fingers already? You’re such a slut,” Dirk heard through the thigh earmuffs he was wearing, and with it came the sharper sound of a hard slap. Dave flinched and jammed himself down so far on his cock that Dirk saw stars and stopped licking to gasp, though the reprieve was limited as Rose ground down on him again to make him re-start. “Three fingers for Dave and a reprimand for my previously well behaved chair if he doesn’t finish his dinner. Wow, I think you’d be able to take Asmodeus quite easily this time...”

    Asmodeus?

    Jesus fucking Christ, did Rose name her dicks?

    Another sharp slap sound, another moment of Dave swallowing around his dick, and Dirk could only think one thing in the haze of trying not to come too soon: a reprimand. That was intriguing. Would she even follow through on that threat? She didn’t seem unwilling to raise her hand now and then, and from the noise it had been strong enough to potentially leave some marks wherever the strike had connected with Dave’s body. Would he get any of that? Or was she not that type of dom.

    Wait, why the fuck was he wondering that. Even if she was, who cared? Why did he give two shits? He was just following Dave’s lead so she could prove her point and then he could prove his point in the near future as a love letter to just how incorrect she was about him.

    ...Though. It would be a bit of a waste to not experience everything Rose had to offer in such circumstances. Before he could reconsider the nagging sense of curiosity, Dirk probed as efficiently as he could and went still once more. He felt the nudge, the rutting against his nose and mouth, but the hopeful response of being threatened didn’t happen. Instead Rose suddenly lifted off his face and to the side, giving Dirk a deep breath of fresh air for the first time in a while. It felt cold on his face and down his throat, and the light of the room felt too bright.

    “Good, I’m glad you’re okay,” Rose said as she watched him. Her clean hand touched his face gently as it had before, stroking down his cheek and jaw. It was startling just how much it relaxed him, how soothed and comforted he felt. This was okay. This was nice, actually. He actually closed his eyes while she pet and stroked at his face, leaning subtly into her touch. “Do you have anything else to tell me before we move on?” she asked softly. “Dave’s pretty wound up now and I hate to keep him waiting for too long.”

    “Can I go ahead and pick one out?” Dave asked on cue, needing to keep his mind on absolutely anything but reaching down to rub one out. He could be patient. He could wait. But when he didn’t absolutely have to wait, when he could be a little whiny and get away with it? Why not take advantage of that. Rose only let him do it when she felt like letting him do it, and when she didn’t feel like it he still won anyway when being punished.

    Always winning made for a prettying freeing experience with Rose. It was easy to win with Dirk as well, but the feeling was just so different. Rose alternated the softness with the intensity purposefully, interweaving them as she pleased. Dirk aimed for hard and faltered, softening at occasionally crucial moments. Were it anyone but him would he do that? Or was this softness a Dave specific reaction for Dirk?

    “Yes, pick whichever one you want,” Rose said without looking up as Dave slid off the bed excited as a kid at Christmas to rifle through the options. “You’re picking for Dirk as well, so keep that in mind. Don’t challenge him too hard, I don’t feel like doing swaps between the two of you, I’d rather just stick with one. You’re the example today but you’re also really used to thi—.”

    “I’m not a fucking baby, Rose, it’s not like I’m a stranger to this kinda thing,” he interjected sharply enough that she slowed her hand to a halt and retracted it. Well shit, cuddle time over then. “Pick whichever you like best Dave. I can handle it.”

    Those purple eyes watched him, unblinking, studying him close enough that Dirk felt like they were probing into the side of his face. It was hard to blink, to look away. If he didn’t make eye contact in too long was he hiding? Was she waiting for a question? No, she was waiting for an answer to a question she’d asked twice now. What did he want?

    What did he want?

    Could she give him what he wanted, did he even know what he wanted?

    There’d been enough curve balls so far that it was confusing him and his own end goals. He’d be impressed if it wasn’t entirely frustrating. Maybe once they reached the climax of this entire affair it would feel more worthwhile.

    Dave rummaged and rustled till he whipped out a black bag with a white cord and slid it open to reveal the well made silicone toy it contained. ...Okay, maybe that was a little intimidating. He’d need some prep for sure if he was supposed to take it as well, but it wouldn’t be impossible, he’d taken larger before. The gentle curve cast in a deep gray was appealing and the way Rose grasped it with practiced ease was even more appealing, slipping it into place on the harness.

    “How are your arms,” she asked, pulling Dirk out of his head as she worked, Dave heeled at her side to kiss along her thigh and occasionally bite with gentle presses of those teeth he loved so much.

    “Kind of sore from laying on them,” he said. “Not numb of severe pain but.. Discomfort.”

    “Would you like up? Or untied?”

    “I can handle being tied longer,” Dirk insisted, not wanting to show weakness. Rose eyed him immediately to call his bluff, and he could tell she was trying to decide if this was a time to override his insistence that all was well or to roll with what he said. Apparently she rolled with it because she kept quiet as he continued to talk. “But I’d like up, yeah.”

    “Dave? Go ahead and play with Dirk for a second while I get this ready. You already know how to make him happy, have some free range while he gets upright,” she said with a wave of her hand before focusing on the harness and toy as if the mostly attached unit needed far more work than it appeared. This was an engineering issue. Did she want it in tandem with another toy? Something to rub against her clit or vibrate? Did she want to buzz Dave and Dirk while fucking them? She intended to fuck both of them, not just the one.

    Warm, familiar lips covered Dirk’s own within a few seconds as Dave bounced up atop him from the floor, holding either side of his face still to kiss him deeply, wet, open mouthed kisses that blended together and blurred their edges. Dirk could taste traces of himself on Dave’s tongue, and he knew for damn certain Dave could taste Rose. Somehow that just made it all the more delicious as they started to rock their bodies together, caught in the moment and bit of fencing till they heard Rose clear her throat.

    Ah, fuck. Right. His hands. That was what they were meant to be doing, getting pressure off of his hands and stopping the sense of trapped blood in his arms that had just begun. Dave pulled himself up and off just enough to scoot further back on Dirk’s legs before tugging him upwards by the ropes for another kiss as he settled on his lap. No complaints from Rose meant more heady kisses, more of Dave’s fingers in his hair and his teeth at his neck, more pressing their chests together like they wanted to crawl into each other’s skin somehow rather than be potentially pulled apart again. Every time Dave’s cock brushed his own it felt like lightning in his veins, and the sense of whiplash only grew ever stronger when he noticed Rose was pulling the harness on and into place to add the healthy sized appendage to herself firmly as she could. He saw a patch on her inner thigh catch a flash of light and couldn’t be bothered to feel a sense of smugness.

    Of course she was turned on. Everyone in this room was hot and bothered, but you wouldn’t know it from her features. She looked serene and unaffected safe for a telltale flush to her features and the wet spot that would no doubt get more noticeable once she put that dick to good use. Dave turned in his lap to eye her with interest, and it made Dirk’s heart ache that he clung tight to keep kissing him for longer instead of immediately dancing off of him at the promise of getting wrecked.

    The flavors had blended enough on their lips that it stopped being noticeable, started to become an average, mellowed tang in the air that reeked of sex. Dirk wanted to tug Dave’s hair, wanted to pin him down and put his fingers in his mouth, wanted to bend him in half and rest his legs up on his own shoulders and plow into him till he screamed.

    … Yet he also wanted Rose to pet him again.

    He wanted Rose’s soft, soothing voice and gentle petting, sweet touches and praise over and over as the bar was set incredibly low despite it being set for him. He wanted that almost as much as he wanted her to choke him while calling him a whore and the stark differences just made his dick hurt even more when Dave finally crawled off his lap. Where was it coming from? She’d asked him what he wanted, but now that he even knew what he wanted he could never admit it.

    Fuck, would she not do it if he didn’t say it? Would he just wind up getting cock teased the entire time and left to blueball it out while she did the example sub bullshit with Dave? Would Dave be the one to finish him off or would it be the photo finish jerkoff session with partly numb hands the second he was untied when it was too much to keep dealing with? Would Rose ride him and leave him squirming, or would she milk him dry while hammering his prostate? Lust ate at him in a way that Dirk wasn’t entirely comfortable with, not used to this degree of wanting someone, of wanting something he could only half understand and explain beyond a gut feeling and a concept of desire. It felt like powerlessness.

    “Dirk, go up to the head of the bed and sit quiet for me. Dave? On your knees. Get close as you’d like to Dirk up there, but keep off his dick or I’ll slap you senseless.”

    Dirk groaned under his breath at the casual threat and watched his lover like a hawk as he scooted backwards to the head of the bed and Dave slipped to the center. Once he was on all fours he splayed his knees and sank down a bit, knowing there wasn’t much in the way of a height discrepancy between he and Rose as it was. Just enough lowering to let her work, to get the best possible angles and speed comfortably. They made a cute pair as she climbed up behind him and took off her bra, lush breasts drooping comfortably against the front of her chest and swaying as she leaned to get some spare lube for the silicone beast she sported, a pair of nearly identical opposites. Dave rested on his elbows tantalizingly close to Dirk’s dick and kept glancing upwards at him from beneath his bangs with a hungry look in his eyes, trying to fuck him with vision alone so provocatively that Dirk could practically feel him riding on his lap in some close encounter with a separate reality brushing against their own at a thinned point in the veil.

    Rose bent forwards once she’d slicked her dick up, kissing a line up Dave’s spine as reverently, tenderly, leaving a pale ash of her lipstick in a tree along the vertebrae. He rose up onto his palms again and arched his back to let her kiss further, all the way to the side of his neck where she bit him a few times. Dave moaned aloud as she took him by the back of the head and shoved him down into the mattress as hard as she could, easing up enough to let him turn his head as she lined up with his hole and began to ease in.

    “That’s right, take all of it for me Dave. You’ve had bigger from me you greedy bitch, just let it in nice and easy like you always do,” she crooned, living for how Dave responded beneath her with micro-movements and twitches, panted breaths and the barely there hints of a moan. Rose wasn’t usually much for dirty talk, but she’d picked up the habit specifically for Dave in small doses, rolling with what felt natural at the time instead of trying to force something. When they’d patiently slipped about half the toy in, Rose rocked her hips back and withdrew a few inches before rolling them forward once more to sink even further inside. She traced her hand from Dave’s upper body to his narrow hips, bracing him carefully as they continued to do the back and forth dance of making him take every inch of what he’d selected as his own fate.

    As Dirk’s fate too, he remembered once he noticed Rose had started to stare at him. Smirk at him. The challenge was there loud and clear: is this what you want? Do you want more? Will you ask? Can you ask? Dirk didn’t know for sure if he could ask or not, but the incentive was nice. Unable to touch himself he clenched his fists behind his back and watched his lover adjust and relax in waves of sensitivity till at last Rose’s hips were flush with his ass. She cooed softly and rubbed the sides of his thighs and hips, his lower back, then around front to the barely there bulge of his abdomen.

    “So pretty. Doing such a good job for me, Dave, such a good boy doing so well. Are you ready? Let me know. Do you want it like usual?”

    Dave nodded into the bedding before he found his voice, clearing his throat a few times before croaking out a shaky “Yeah” loud enough that they could both hear it. Dirk glanced to Rose’s eyes again and found her already looking at him again, smirking. Knowing.

    “Okay then,” she said as she gave an appreciative squeeze to his thighs and straightened up again to start moving.

    The pace was far gentler than what Dirk was expecting. It caught him by surprise just how tenderly they moved together, far more making love than just quick and rough sex. Rose rocked at a decent pace and occasionally flicked her hips to change the inner pressure against Dave’s insides, and Dave clung to the bedding to keep himself from moving beneath her thrusts. They both made breathy sounds and loving murmurs, though Dave’s were already far less coherent when she eventually picked up speed. Skin hitting skin rang out and Dirk was surprised to see just how efficiently Rose was keeping up with the physical demands, barely breaking a sweat.

    Made sense. Couldn’t top two men in a row if you weren’t physically prepared to do a lot of fucking.

    Dave cried out suddenly and stole Dirk’s attention again, made him unconsciously try to reach for his dick to stroke himself as Rose found the best angle to hammer along his prostate at and went to town. He sank down further, straining to keep upright as she continued to rough him up from behind, occasionally slapping a side of his ass hard enough it left finger and palm prints and Dave melting in place with bliss. Rose leaned forward over Dave’s back possessively to snake a hand beneath his hips to catch his cock was a lovely sight, nipples dragging either side of his spine before being pressed flat between their bodies as she slowed just a fraction. Her hand needed some of her effort now, working his length hard and thorough.

    “Come for me, Dave. You’re doing so good, you did such a good job. Come for me now,” she panted, grin breaking wide when he tensed and cried out again, clawing at the bedding before bowing his back. He came hard from the look of things, the top of the bedding streaked with white before even more leaked out to form a small puddle beneath him. Rose milked him through his orgasm ‘til the most intense part had passed and he became overly sensitive beneath her, shivering as Rose removed her hand and held him close to her chest. She carefully pulled out and let Dave roll to his side to catch his breath, dazed and finally satisfied.

    Dirk envied him for about ten solid seconds before Rose was crawling forward on her knees towards him, silicone dick swaying generously in the harness as she planted her palms on either of his thighs to get right up in his face.

    “Last chance,” she said. “Talk to me.”

    Dirk’s heart hammered in his chest as he weighed his options. Take whatever option came with not talking, not telling, or talk and do as she says and ostensibly have a better time for it. Give and take, but it felt like giving a hell of a lot for what he could only hope would be taking a good amount back. Wetting his lips, Dirk lifted his chin.

    “I’ll take whatever you want to dish out.”

    “That all?” Rose asked. He could feel her nails turning to bite into his flesh, testing him and his limits. “I’m all ears, Dirk, but not for long.”

    “Whatever it is, I can handle it,” Dirk said. Then after a moment’s hesitation, he glanced to the side. “...I can probably handle the rest, too.”

    The biting nails stayed where they were, hard enough he wondered if he’d just have crescents in his skin or small traces of papercut thin lines of blood. Was that not clear enough? Was that not what she wanted? He glanced back onto to see Rose staring at him flatly, unimpressed.

    “What? Wrong answer?”

    Rose lunged forward like a dog preparing to bite his face so suddenly that honest on God he flinched back to avoid her running into his nose at top speed. She frowned and narrowed her eyes at him.

    “Is this what you really want, Dirk? Tame answers, promises I’ll fuck you senseless as rough as I can and cuddle you to my tits afterwards, or are you wanting to actually work for what you want?” The frown gave way to a curled smile. “Dave’s earned what he gets plenty of times over. He’s a good boy. I’ve seen you try to be a good boy for me, but I’m pretty unconvinced. I think you’re still the same self important prick you always are, wanting to have his cake and eat it too.”

    “What do you mean?” he asked, dick fit to burst on his lap. If he came now he’d never live it the fuck down, hold on just a bit longer, Jesus fuck.

    “I mean I think you still want to prove your point, because it’s a very Dirk thing to do, and you’re not subtle about it. Same as you’re not subtle at all about being thirsty for what I can do. As you are right now I’m unconvinced you won’t just take my best then twist it into not being enough so you can rebound with your own example on a higher step.”

    He frowned. “How do I convince you then? I don’t want to do that, I’m willing to approach this on even territory for now.”

    “Beg for it,” Rose said without missing a beat. When Dirk immediately leaned further back she pursued till Dirk was plastered against the headboard proper and Rose was riding over his lap, silicone dick digging into his abdomen stubbornly between them.

    “Beg for what , for what I already admitted I could handle?”

    “No. I want you to beg for what you want, Dirk. I won’t be doing a damn thing till you beg for you like a good little bitch and admit I’m the one calling all of the shots well enough that you’re reduced to begging for it instead of it just being delivered to you on a silver platter.”

    “I worked on Dave!”

    “Working on Dave is easy when it’s what you did, though I’m sure he appreciated every second of it.”

    “I also ate you out! Doesn’t that count for good work done?”

    “You stopped early enough I worried you’d passed out.”

    “Yeah, well, I didn’t. I was tired.”

    “And I’ve had better, funny how that works out,” she snipped before covering Dirk’s mouth in a kiss that ranged from gentle leading in to nearly teeth clicking intensity before they pulled apart to catch their breath. “Beg for me and I’ll follow through as good as I’ve been given. Tell me things to avoid.”

    “Don’t suddenly take a dump on my chest and we’re good,” Dirk grunted. “But I was being genuine before: I can take whatever you can dish out. The rest too.”

    Rose slipped off his lap and adjusted herself before grabbing the ropes that held Dirk’s arms in place behind him, physically throwing him to the side so he landed on his back with his long legs dangling over the edge of the bed as he looked up at her, startled. Her hair had fluffed up a bit wilder, a few strands hanging in her face as she planted her hands on her hips and stared down at him. The predatory look had returned, and intensified as she crawled up his thighs, up over his waist, to perch right ahead of his dick. He could feel a streak of precome rub against one of her ass cheeks and cool on impact, the bit of pressure tantalizing as it was before he realized she was sinking down to align his length with the crack of her ass. A few steady, pressure filled rubs and he was nearly gone.

    Her hands snaked up to his throat then, thumbs placing pressure directly over where his air supply passed on either side, and pressed down steadily. While Dirk could still breathe it was being impaired significantly beneath Rose’s solid grip, and his eyes widened when realization kicked in. She was choking him based on his earlier explanations, something that he hadn’t entirely realized he was into till Rose did it. Something about her soothing concern and caution mingling with the getting in his face and beneath his skin was intermingling nicely in his brain. He was at risk, this was something that if done in another way could hurt his throat, but Rose knew what she was doing. He trusted Rose. He trusted her to not hurt him worse than he said he could handle. He trusted Rose to only hurt him in the best ways, and then to maybe even kiss that pain away.

    Dave to their sides had rolled to his other side to watch them and was lazily reaching out to stroke at Dirk’s hair in the same petting gesture Rose had been doing before. Soothing and soft was mingling with being choked out, and Dirk twitched as he came against Rose’s ass harder than he could remember coming in quite some time.

    She seemed surprised at first, but slowly reduced the pressure bit by bit till he was breathing normally. Assuming they were done, Dirk sighed and opened his mouth to thank her for the new discovery, but was cut off.

    “Ready to come, then?”

    “I uh. ...I just did.”

    “Yes. Once,” Rose said with a smirk. “I’d hardly call that done. Especially since I didn’t give you permission to, and off you shot like a rocket just from a bit of breathplay and a nice ass.” She pressed a kiss to Dirk’s cheek before murmuring up by his ear. “Predictable. Weak move... Are you ready to beg for me, Dirk?”

    Boy was he fucking ready. Shit already felt great and there was one more round to go, he had to see it through for all it could be instead of half assing a second of it. Dirk sang like a canary as Dave grinned and pet him in the hazy afterglow of what he’d already experienced, leisurely coming down while Dirk was still ramping up for one last rodeo with the remnants of his previous erection.

    “Let me have it, Rose. Fuck me up. Knock the shit outta me, I don’t care,” Dirk said. “Just kiss it better afterward. Pet me like Dave. I want all of it.”

    Rose and Dave shared a look, surprised he actually complied but very pleased nonetheless. When Dave stopped petting him, Rose gave him another tender kiss and hummed as she pulled away, swinging her leg up over his body to climb off and to her feet at the side of the bed. She slipped up between Dirk’s parted thighs and tugged him closer to the edge of the bed before he got the idea and lifted his legs on his own to leave himself exposed for her. The erection still hadn’t gone down, apparently ready and raring for the next round as he was verbally, orange eyes expectantly watching Rose as he rode on the discomfort of his arms. Pain, but not more than he could take. Not more than he kind of enjoyed as his fingertips tingled behind him in the mattress.

    She cupped Dirk’s hips before teasing at his entrance with the toy’s head, humming still as if in thought.

    “Dirk.. Do you think you can take this without extra prep..? Plenty of lube of course. But it’s quite a lot,” she said.

    It’d sting. It wouldn’t destroy him, Dirk knew what to do and he trusted Rose to be patient and not just jam it in at the first opportunity. They were both experienced adults. He nodded and bent his knees a little more, letting his knees part.

    “Yeah.”

    Right answer apparently. Rose beamed at him and Dave handed over the lube before returning to rest on his side, toying with Dirk’s hair while they waited instead of petting him, sleepy expression of satisfaction still playing over his face. The lubricant was applied liberally on the toy, and more was added at his entrance, Rose curling her fingers to probe him briefly the same way she’d prepped Dave. Same method but different speeds, she withdrew her hand and rested them at Dirk’s hips after lining up once more and slowly beginning to push inside.

    He exhaled and tried to keep his muscles as loose as possible, relaxing with all his might as Rose entered. ...And entered. ...And kept entering. He’d forgotten just how long the toy really was when it was being shoved inside of a man’s body, observing had shown him the bulge Dave got and yet somehow Dirk was still surprised at just how much there was to take. It just seemed to keep coming at him in more and more intimidating pushes till at long last they were flush together and he was panting his air, sweat slicking his brow.

    Rose loomed over him like a pleased goddess, stroking along the new bump in his abdomen and up the flat planes of his stomach. She tweaked a nipple so hard it stung before repositioning her nails over the top of his ribs, sinking them in a bit before dragging them downwards as if she were a bear marking a tree. Dirk hissed air between his teeth before groaning in satisfaction, savoring every inch she dragged downwards and doing it all over again when she did it to the other side, crossing the very ends of the patterns she’d drawn in the hair below his navel. His skin felt like it was on fire but there was no mistaking the surge of endorphin in his blood.

    “Dave, be a darling and keep his mouth busy for me. Be attentive, though. Don’t choke him, he’ll be moving and it’d be hard to signal like that. Just keep good and close so he can go at his own pace,” Rose instructed before she straightened, grabbed his hips and drew back, slamming home so hard and suddenly that his teeth clicked before he could cry out.

    Jesus Christ, right at the nerves, her aim was goddamn good she stroked it right on the first thrust. The bed sank around Dirk’s shoulders as Dave carefully straddled his head from behind, then seemed to think better of it and settled for scooting close enough to rest flaccid, dribbling dick to the side of his lips and his own hands on the headboard for balance. It was a strange setup but it worked well enough, Dirk opening his mouth to accept Dave and suckle gently as he could once Dave hissed with sensitivity. Gentle, gentle...

    Rose was the opposite of gentle as she set a heavy pace, jostling him this way and that as she used the bed for leverage, putting her back and hips into following through on what Dirk had asked of her. Could she be rougher? Of course she could. She was already thinking of different toys and tools to use next time she could talk Dirk into playing with her and Dave, or even just her if Dave wanted some time to himself one night or another. She wanted to see just how much Dirk really could take without breaking, and what he was like when he did break. It’d take more than one session to really see that out properly though.

    She had a feeling he’d be eager enough for this that the earlier bet might potentially be put on pause, at least for a while. Something something more research needed before a proper ownage could occur something something. Dirk was predictable in some ways and that was just his charm.

    With Dave crooning at him, Rose hammering away at him till his toes curled, and alternating smacking the backs of his thighs and the sides of his hips hard as she could, Dirk was losing a battle he’d only just begun to fight. When he felt that warm hand wrap around his dick and squeeze, doing the same milking gesture in tandem with the staccato of her hips against his ass, Dirk saw white and seized briefly, spilling thinned, barely there semen over Rose’s knuckles. Not enough time had passed to be very effective, but the release had been achieved and he was swimming on cloud nine.

    She let him enjoy it for a few moments, resting her weight on his torso and petting the side of his face, kissing his cheek, his lips, the tip of his nose after Dave pulled back to give him air. Dave stroked his hair and scratched his scalp in gentle motions as he rested curled on his side like a human halo around Dirk’s head. They were all a mess, they were all exhausted by now. Rose grunted when she got up off of Dirk and pulled the toy gently free. On unsteady legs she stood and removed the harness, setting it and the toy aside for proper cleaning afterwards before reaching down and carefully pulling Dirk up by his ropes.

    Dave was the one who untied him, familiar enough with the knots that he could recognize which places held the most tension and support, which ones he could pull to loosen the entire structure quickest to free him. Dirk’s skin was depressed and red where the ropes had bit into him, repeating the intricate knots and lattice work as brightly on his skin as the scratches stood out on his chest. The palm prints from where he’d been slapped were still red, and from how warm they still felt they’d be leaving some kind of bruise behind as well in time. He felt light headed when he could move his arms properly, stretching them to the front to pop his shoulders and move his numbed fingers to get the life back in them. Rose took one arm and Dave took the other, gently massaging the blood back where it needed to go, keeping the ache of return from growing too intense.

    All the while Rose talked in that same soft voice Dirk had grown addicted to, gentle praises and comforting phrases as the backdrop to the new silence in the air now that the sex and moaning had stopped. Dirk could hear the gentle pour of rain outside, pitter patters against the covered glass of the window and the distant sound of cars forming the perfect soundtrack with Rose’s voice.

    He wasn’t sure when Rose moved him again, when Dave shifted them all to the side, but he was glad he went whenever it was. Rose was in the center of the bed on her back in a comfortable position, with Dave cuddled up beside one breast and himself by the other side, free to kiss or touch wherever they pleased. Her hands were on their shoulders and kept straying up to their heads in lazy strokes and pets as she continued to soft speak barely there words like poetry to his soul. They slept well like that for some time, tension having risen to a fever pitch in the moment only to be cuddled away, to the sound of a steady rain storm.

    Dirk didn’t offer Rose a reverse challenge for several weeks. Instead, he made sure to catch her more often when Dave did on the couch, making certain Rose sat in the center so they both could rest a head on her leg. Both eager to be stroked and told just how good they were. How wonderful. How sweet. How loved.

[kedreeva]

Heyy! This might be a really dumb question Idk. You don't have to answer this if you don't want to but what is wrong with stan and Artemis? They seem like wonderful birds! I love your blog and casual animal welfare rants :)

They are very wonderful birds!

Stan came in as a rescue from someone that had ordered eggs to hatch from online from an unvetted source (ie, he did not know the person or the quality of their stock or care). Two of the eight eggs hatched, and one of them was Stan. His legs were splayed, his toes were curled and twisted, and one foot was completely out of joint- something I had never seen before and now know was indicative of a much larger problem.

However, splayed legs and curled toes are fairly common in incubator babies for a variety of reasons due to user error, not genetics, so I taped up his feet with corrective shoes, hobbled his legs, and managed to secure his foot joint in place until the muscles could keep it there on their own. To give you some perspective, most splay/toe problems take 6-24 hours to correct completely. His took over 4 days. But, they did, and Stan took his first steps unassisted, much to my relief.

Unfortunately, as time went on I would discover some other problems. Normally when you peep at a baby pea, they excitedly peep back at you. And Stan would, but after only a couple bursts, he would start breathing heavily or even panting. He was constantly sleeping, even after he got out of the "off button" stage of life, up into almost 6 months old. He wanted to be under a towel, too, and he would sometimes scream until he couldn't because he was breathing too hard, until you gave him a towel to burrow in.

On top of that unusual behavior, he couldn't tag a target at all. If I held a piece of food on my fingers, he couldn't get it. He'd miss and miss and miss, and it was heartbreaking to watch. I had him on crumble and fed him softened wet chow whenever I was home just to get him to eat. I thought maybe he was blind in one eye or something, and it was throwing off his depth perception.

So with all of this in mind, off to the vet we went. A bunch of tests later determined that the foot joint was the tip of the iceberg. His ribs are fused to his sternum in ways they should not be, which makes it hard for him to breathe- hence why he tired out so easily. One of his wings has a joint where only a little bit of the bone touches, which makes it so that that wing can't bear weight for actual flight. He can now use it to soften jumps or for a flap to get up to his perch, but the one time I took him out in the yard, he tried to fly up and crash landed spectacularly right into me and cried in distress for minutes afterward.

She also tested his vision, looked in his eyes, but there's no actual physical reason he can't see, which means that his visual issues are occurring in the processing department- ie, his brain is having trouble processing what he sees.

He copes well with what he's got. We play for just a couple minutes a day so that he doesn't get overly winded. He eats a crumble chow from a dish that he doesn't have to be accurate to eat from, and he's learned how to sometimes hit a target for treats. Kale is a favorite because it's a big target, but he can even grab single cat kibbles some of the time. Since he can't fly, we built him a ramp to get to his perch but, interestingly, he mostly uses it to get down rather than up- I'm guessing the weight stress from down hurts him more than the assist for jumping up.

The problem is that I don't know anything about his lineage, so I don't know if his problems are a result of bad genetics (unfortunately rampant in breeding in the US) or bad nutrition. When I say that peafowl need certain kinds of foods and vitamins, I'm not saying it for funsies. If they don't get the right nutrition it can affect not only their health, but it can ruin their offspring. Since I have no way of knowing if Stan's parents had bad genetics or bad nutrition, I won't risk breeding him and causing babies that might end up in similar pain.

As for Artemis, I held her back from my own birds because she is my dream bird, genetically: purple blackshoulder pied. Unfortunately when I put her out in the barn in the fall, she just crashed and burned. She stopped eating and started rapidly losing weight. I thought maybe she was getting bullied, so I pulled her into the house to see, but she was refusing food. So, off to the vet we went.

We ran too many tests trying to figure out what was wrong with her. Her fecal showed a minor amount of coccidia (which, cocci is bad but common to have a little, though we still treated her just in case that was it: spoiler, it was not) but otherwise nothing. Her blood tests came back all over the place. X-rays showed nothing wrong. There was no reason that we could see for this nonsense. I went to three visits, paid around a thousand dollars trying to figure this out, the vet was consulting other vets and sent off samples for reading, I was tube feeding her for days before I was watching her one night and she was.... Itching.

I have a friend that's allergic to chocolate, but it's chocolate, y'know, so when she would eat it anyway, she would get itchy afterward for a couple hours. I was watching this bird do the exact same thing. Shortly after eating, she would get extremely itchy for a while, and then later be fine. So on the next vet visit, we looked through all the ingredients in what food she'd been eating, and located a food that didn't have some of the extras (nothing bad, but just not necessary). Her problems stopped almost immediately. She started eating fine, putting on weight again, and her next blood test was almost perfect. She was allergic to the food the adult birds were on.

Allergies are kind of a fluke event in terms of genetics, in that a parent who isn't allergic to anything can have allergic children or vice versa, but to be on the safe side I also won't be breeding Artemis.

[nekojitachan]

111: “ You have… Superpowers? Andreil?

Warning’s for Neil’s childhood.

*******

Neil’s mother explained it as something that the Hatfords had always been able to do, which wasn’t much of an explanation, really. “We’ve always been special, Abram,” she told him one day in that awful house back in Baltimore. “Your uncle Stuart can tell the history of an object by touching it, your uncle Will can influence the dreams of people.” A smile possessed with the slighest of quivers spread across her lips as she reached out to tuck back a curl falling onto his forehead. “Soon enough we’ll see what you can do, if you can influence emotions like me or something, maybe read thoughts like your gram could.”

It turned out that he could read the thoughts and intentions of a person if he touched them (a bit of Uncle Stuart and Gram Marion), and even force them to tell the truth. Of course his father, Nathan Wesninski, knew about Mary’s gift, and so knew that Neil (Nathaniel) would have one too, and as soon as it manifested (when he was seven years old), put him to work in the ‘family’ business to help winnow out the plants and the traitors.

Mary grabbed Neil (Nathaniel), five million of Nathan Wesninski’s money and ran three years later.

His talent proved useful on the run, helped them to know who to trust and who not to, while Mary’s sowed confusion (and more) in their wake. By the time she’d died (too close a call with his father), he’d honed it well enough that, along with the rest of the stolen money and the skills she’d taught him over the years, he managed to set up the identity of ‘Neil Josten’ and form some sort of life.

It wasn’t much, but it allowed him a small apartment instead of some cheap motel (or homeless shelter or abandoned warehouse or even living in the back of a car), regular meals with fresh fruit, and even a cat he’d taken in from the streets. He’d started out in Millport, Arizona before he’d decided that a larger city might be best and moved to Reno instead; he couldn’t quite make himself return to California (where Mary had died and he’d buried her) but figured he’d remain out west a little longer before he tried Europe or Canada again.

Maybe he’d go to Russia next. At least as long as things were quiet, he had time to learn a new language or two (his Spanish was perfect by then, and his Russian coming along), and working in a coffee shop allowed him to use his gift to ‘keep an eye on things’ as well as help out with the tips. If he was more secure about his identity, he could have tried working in the casinos… but as it was, he supplemented his income now and then by playing the tables once he had a ‘feel’ for certain dealers.

No, it was enough that he could rest for a while after spending half his life on the run, could know the most pressing issue in his day was dealing with the morning rush and if he had enough cat litter for Shadow.

Oh, that and dealing with his coworkers trying to set him up with customers; Neil had never dated anyone, had never felt any desire to do so, especially with his circumstances. There’d been some interest on his part in kissing girls when he’d been younger, in figuring out why people wanted to do it… but between his mother’s reaction to what he’d done and him sensing the girls’ thoughts upon touching them - he hadn’t felt the impulse to do it again.

He certainly didn’t feel like doing it with any of the people who came into the store and smiled at him, who tried to talk to him and let their fingers linger when they handed him their money or cards, or when he handed them their drinks. A good many of them just wanted a body to use (he might not understand why, but he knew that much, especially when he could pick it up in their thoughts), and the rest had some unrealistic fantasy about him in their heads.

A couple had some very disturbing fantasies in their head.

“Come on, how can someone like you not really want to date another person?” Mel asked for what had to be the fiftieth time. “It’s such a shame.”

Neil shrugged and went back to wiping down the counter. “I’m not interested, okay?”

“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes, just like she always did at his response, and settled her headset better over her braided, bright red hair. “I’m just trying to help you out, you know? You’re too young to be sitting at home all alone.”

“That’s why I have a cat,” Neil insisted.

All Mel did was give a weary sigh while Jorge, busy restocking, chuckled; the two of them huddled together by the drive-thru window shortly after that, probably to talk about Neil. He didn’t mind because he knew they were worried about him and trying to look after him in their own weird way.

One customer who didn’t try to hit on him all the time (or touch him) was Andrew, who appeared to be studying at the local university. He came in almost every day, a quiet presence who unnerved most of the staff with his impassive face and intent gaze. Yet Neil didn’t have a problem with him, not upon recognizing the guarded stance of someone who knew what it was like to be a target, that darkness in someone’s eyes which spoke of a childhood filled with pain and terror.

He didn’t know about Andrew’s past, but he suspected it hadn’t been much better than his own, so he treated the man politely and competently, even though he inwardly sighed and sometimes winced over the sugary concoctions he had to ring up - such as that day’s request for six extra pumps of caramel flavoring.

“Something wrong?” Andrew asked, his deep voice as impassive as ever.

“They’re your kidneys,” Neil replied before he could stop himself.

Yet Andrew always tipped well, despite comments like that (and ‘should I just give you the entire container of flavoring?’ or ‘want me to hold the coffee?’), and Neil was never bothered by the way the man’s hazel eyes stared at him the entire time Andrew was in the shop when if it was anyone else he’d be anxious and finding an excuse to touch them then flee.

He didn’t touch Andrew because… because it was clear that Andrew didn’t want to be touched. Because Andrew always kept a careful space between him and everyone else and set his card down instead of handing it over and motioned for his drink to be set down, too.

He didn’t think anything of the way that Andrew always came when he was working, or when Andrew started asking questions, such as noticing when he had cat hair on his shirt or when Mel finally made him pull his shoulder-length hair back.

Or when Andrew would comment on having been up all night working on a paper, or finished a book he liked. For some reason, Neil enjoyed hearing those little things, in finding things out the normal way.

“What’s going on with you and the short dude?” Mel asked as they prepared the store for opening one morning. “He doesn’t talk to anyone but you.”

“None of you want to wait on him, so of course he doesn’t,” Neil pointed out.

“That’s not an answer.” Mel gazed at him for several seconds before she clicked her tongue. “Of course,” she said, which didn’t explain much, then turned away to get the drive-thru ready.

Neil didn’t know what she meant until a week or so later, when Andrew went to pick up his drink (another sugary monstrosity) and nearly dropped it. Neil tried to help him catch it and… and their fingers brushed together, which prompted an image to appear in his head, an image of him with his back to the wall, all of his clothes gone (all of his scars gone) with Andrew on his knees and-

“You… you want to blow me?” Neil blurted out in shock despite the line of customers waiting behind Andrew (despite there being more to it than just the image).

“Yes,” Andrew said, the words forced out of him by the other part of Neil’s power, his hazel eyes wide with rare surprise. “What- how did-”

Neil didn’t stay to answer; he shouted out to Mel and Rick and Lana that he was taking a break then fled.

Mel tried to scold him for leaving the line like that, but didn’t give him too much grief given how obviously upset he was, that and he worked the rest of the shift without a break to make up for it. He didn’t see Andrew for the rest of the day and assumed that he must have scared the man off for good.

What he did was jinx himself with that thought, because Andrew was waiting for him when he left the store in the afternoon, the scent of cigarettes clinging to him stronger than usual as if he’d been standing outside chainsmoking for the last hour or two.

“You,” Andrew called out as he stepped forward. “We’re talking, now.”

Neil sighed as he ran his fingers through his dyed black hair and wondered if he’d have to leave Reno already, would have to buy a new identity and redye his hair and get new contacts and… he realized how much he’d settled into being Neil Josten, how much it would hurt to leave it behind.

“What’s to say?”

Andrew fell in step beside him and herded him toward an alley between a closed comic book store and a small tax firm. “A good bit, considering what happened earlier.” They stood across from each other in the shadow-filled space for a few seconds, gazes locked on each other and quiet, until Andrew sighed. “How did… do you have super powers?” Then he grimaced, another rare show of emotion. “I mean… how did you do that?”

Neil chewed on his bottom lip as he debated lying (his default for everything), on saying that he’d just guessed, but then Andrew continued speaking.

“Because I know I didn’t say anything.” His deep voice contained a hint of roughness, the only indication of how what he said bothered him. “So the only thing I can think of is you had some way to read my mind when you touched me.”

“That’s crazy.” Neil gave a crooked smile and fiddled with the cuffs of his long-sleeved hoody when he said that.

“Perhaps,” Andrew admitted. “But… but I was used to no one believing me for years, for no one listening to me, and then all it took was this one case worker looking at me and she seemed to know everything.” He rubbed at the black band around his left forearm while he shook his head. “So, are you like her?”

Neil slumped against the brick wall behind him while his mother’s voice raged inside of his head, yelling at him to never tell anyone what he was, about their power. Yet he’d already broken her rules by staying in one place, by daring to cobble together some sort of life.

“Yes,” he admitted in a quiet voice, and saw the tension in Andrew’s shoulders leech away slowly but surely; he knew from the touch earlier that Andrew wanted him (which he still didn’t quite understand) and was someone he could trust.

“What is it? What can you do?”

“It’s… I need to touch someone, but then I know their thoughts, know if they’re a danger to me or not.” Neil held up his bare right hand and waggled his fingers. “I can also make them tell me the truth. It’s not some big flashy thing like super-strength or lasers, sorry.”

Still, Andrew appeared mildly impressed. “It’s powerful enough.” For a moment there was something distant on his face before it became impassive once again. “Can you control it?”

“Eh?” Neil thought about it. “Somewhat, but I’m used to using it all the time.” He had to hold back on why that was so, but suspected that Andrew had realized more than he’d meant to say.

“All right then, we need gloves for you.” Andrew nodded as he slowly reached out to grab onto Neil’s left sleeve. “Come on.”

“Eh, where are going?”

“Dinner.”

Neil blinked in confusion as he was led down the street, toward a parking lot, and felt the urge to use his talent to find out what was going on. But that wouldn’t be right, would it? So he sighed and allowed Andrew to pull him along like a dog on a leash, very confused yet… yet it was Andrew. Huh. He found himself smiling as he went along with the perplexing young man.

*******

In this AU, the caseworker (psychic, obviously), stepped in for Andrew before he went to the Spears and he found a safe home to adopt him. Still means he suffered a lot of terrible homes, but he found a good one at last - so no Spears, no juvie, but no reason for him to go to Columbia. Also, no Exy.

Ah, I hope that was okay, anon?

[lalunaunita]

The Purrfect Crime: Chapter 5

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7    Music Fanmix by @pennywaltzy

Rating: Teen

Summary: Bruce and Selina go on a lunch date. Selina receives disturbing news. Batman and the Commissioner set a trap for Catwoman.

The Purrfect Crime: Chapter 5

Bruce got to the office thirty minutes early, energized by Batman’s morning escapade at the pet shop. He couldn’t get Catwoman’s earnest rage from the night before out of his head. He should have put together the pieces sooner, but to be honest, the plight of stray cats around Gotham City was very low on his radar. The humans of Gotham suffered as much, if not more, than the animals—though he agreed deep down that the need to care for the city’s animals wasn’t diminished by Gotham’s other problems.

Debra looked up from her desk and smiled when she caught Bruce’s eye. Uh oh, thought Bruce. I know that smile.

“I made you an appointment,” Debra sing-songed.

“I’m all booked up for today—er, errands and that sort of thing. Alfred knows,” Bruce answered, trying to glide past his secretary’s desk.

The sanctuary of his office was only ten feet away. He could make it in three seconds.

“It’s a lunch date. Alfred said lunch was clear today. Selina Kyle.”

Bruce stopped in his tracks. Debra’s dimple was out in force and couldn’t have been more charming. She held a pen at the ready over her desk calendar. Her voice oozed a false nonchalance.

“Shall I cancel it? For your errands?”

The pen descended quickly . Bruce involuntarily reached out a hand to stop it. Debra was pitiless!

“No! Ah, I mean, no, thank you, Debra. Lunch with Selina sounds nice. I’m surprised she called, honestly.”

Bruce snatched his hand back and stuffed it into the pocket of his well-tailored suit. He felt uncharacteristically nervous. Between Debra and Alfred, he sometimes wondered who exactly was in charge.

“Don’t be. I think the Gotham Cat and Habitat Conservation Society is following up on several of the larger donations; sort of a one-on-one thank-you for your contribution. Or at least that’s what Ms. Kyle said.” Debra shrugged and set down her pen, turning to her computer.

Summarily dismissed, Bruce walked the last few feet to his office; work and a particularly hairy land development issue was waiting for him, after all. He turned at the doorway and looked back, his mouth half open and a half-finished thought on his lips. Debra cocked a suppressive eyebrow at him. He shut his mouth, shook his head, and closed the door behind him.

By the time lunch rolled around, Bruce couldn’t have been more happy about the break. He’d researched both hard and soft copies of Gotham’s property and zoning laws for several hours and was ready to tear his hair out. He knew his legal team had already pored over the pages in depth. But Bruce Wayne was smart too, when he chose to show it, and he certainly was stubborn. A morning spent with dusty old legal volumes wasn’t out of character. He leaned back in his luxurious office chair and scrubbed his hands over his eyes with a sigh. There were absolutely no loopholes. He’d have to pay the piper if he wanted to start residential and commercial development on that land.

Debra buzzed in on his intercom. “Don’t forget your lunch date, Mr. Wayne. Alfred will pick you up in five minutes.”

As if he could! Bruce grinned to himself and rose, smoothing the rumples out of his button-down shirt. He snagged his suit jacket on the way out of the office, gave Debra a conciliatory wink, and got on his way. Unabashed, Debra winked back.

“There he goes—like a bat out of hell when it comes to Selina,” she sighed happily to herself.

Selina’s glossy short locks were easy to pick out among the lunch crowd at The Dark Bite, a trendy downtown restaurant. She was seated outside under the shade of gently swaying branches. Trust Selina to know a spot with natural greenery to brighten the experience, Bruce thought.

She looked up and smiled as he approached.

“Is this seat taken?” he asked.

Selina pulled a mock frown. “You’d better not. I’m expecting a high-powered businessman to join me for lunch.”

“I’ll just move over when he arrives,” Bruce assured her and seated himself.

Selina smiled and looked the other way as he removed his suit jacket. An impeccably dressed waiter poured a glass of water, then another of white wine.

“I hope you don’t mind; I chose something ‘summery’ to match the weather,” Selina said, indicating his wineglass with the wave of a hand.

“Sounds perfect,” Bruce agreed.

“So how are you? How’s Alfred? Dick?” Selina asked, once ordering was out of the way.

Bruce sipped his water and leaned back into his rattan chair.

“We’re all in good health. Dick’s a little bored by summer vacation, but he’ll survive. He’s a bit too old for camp now. He needs to find a job.”

Selina let loose a silvery peal of laughter. “You definitely sound like a dad. Are you going to find him something at Wayne Enterprises?”

Bruce shook his head. “Maybe in a few years, but he’s too young and too charming to actually do any work at ‘dad’s’ business for now. They’d let him get away with murder—and he would take full advantage.”

“Sounds like someone I know,” Selina chuckled.

“Guilty as charged,” Bruce agreed with a grin.

They paused, comfortable in the lull. A breeze stirred the napkins under their water glasses and sent the leaves overhead into a dizzying swirl. Dappled shadows danced delicately across Selina’s beautiful face. Bruce let his mind wander into territory he scrupulously avoided. Selina’s company was always a delight and left him strangely wanting when he was alone once more. He couldn’t help but wonder how a relationship with her would be. To ask for more—to give more. To see her smile each day, and hear her voice murmur close to his ear. At times like this, he was keenly aware of the shadow of the bat over his shoulder. Its burden felt heavy, its protection thin.

Bruce shook himself and tuned into what Selina was saying.

“...and we’ve put down earnest money to secure the property, and things are just going perfect. The new Gotham Cat Sanctuary should start moving ahead full speed in about a month. Honestly, that’s why we’ve been making the rounds and saying thank you to our donors. It’s such a perfect piece of land, and your contribution came at just the right time. Bruce, I can’t wait to make this place a reality. It’ll have room for all kinds of cats, big or small. State of the art veterinary facilities, specifically designed for feline health. Enough room that we’ll be able to take in new animals indefinitely—which is so important with all the kill shelters here in town! And there are some big cats with strange histories; we find more of them every day. Do you know, down in Texas, there’s a lion in a sanctuary zoo that was owned by a drug dealer? Can you imagine? Those are the kind of animals I want to help.”

Selina’s eyes shone with passion. Bruce stared, mesmerized. Selina was famously unflappable—he should know. He’d been trying to get a rise out of her for years. Her new project had clearly taken over, in the best way.

Her phone rang at the edge of the table. She checked the screen, thin eyebrows raised.

“Oh, I’m so sorry Bruce. Do you mind if I take this?” Selina half-rose from her chair.

Bruce inclined his head. Selina pushed away from the table and stepped over to the waist-high wrought iron fence that enclosed the restaurant’s porch. Their food arrived moments after she left, a phenomenon that never seemed to fail in Bruce’s experience. He unrolled his silverware, settled his napkin on his lap, and awaited Selina’s return.

His first clue that something was up was a shift in Selina’s posture as she returned. She still smiled, but it appeared glued in place. Bruce set down his fork, concerned.

“What’s up, Selina?” he asked, trying to peer under her lowered lashes.

She shook her head, chin dipping toward her chest. Bruce leaned forward and reached over with one hand. Her fists were balled up tight, white knuckle tight. He could feel tension thrumming under her thin skin.

“Selina, please tell me,” he murmured.

Her chin trembled a bit as she took a shaky breath. One tear dropped onto the tablecloth.

“The property’s been purchased,” she whispered.

“Oh, no…” Bruce groaned.

Selina nodded, frowning. “Some developer made a better offer. More likely he bribed the right city official. There were no other offers as of this morning! They were going to sign papers with us this afternoon. I can’t believe this.”

Bruce rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb, willing her fingers to unclench beneath his own. Selina brought up the edge of her napkin and dabbed at her eyes. She gave a gusty sigh.

“I’m sorry, Bruce. I’ve ruined our lunch.” She cast regretful red eyes over the table.

Bruce shook his head forcefully. “Don’t be. Selina, I know we’re not close, but… you can come to me with anything. I’ll always listen.”

Selina gave a tremulous smile. “I know that Bruce, and thank you. And you’re wrong. We are close. We’re just busy.”

“That’s true enough,” Bruce agreed. His heart wavered between a plunge of concern for his friend and a leap at the smile he’d brought back to her face.

They turned to other topics over the meal, but Selina’s bubbly energy never quite rallied. Bruce felt—and compartmentalized—irrational anger at the investors who’d cheated her out of her dream. Not a single call came through on his phone. He knew he had Debra to thank for that.

Inevitably, the time came for Selina to return to her other duties. Bruce didn’t press her for another glass of wine or dessert. She’d stayed pleasant through the meal, but it was clear she needed time to process her disappointment.

He escorted her to the valet and waited as her car was brought up.

“So, have you heard about the recent string of cat thefts in Gotham?” Bruce asked.

He’d stayed well away from mentioning it to anyone, but Gotham PD had broken the story in a news conference just that morning.

Selina stiffened and cocked her head to look at him. “I saw it on the news, yes.”

“It’s such a disparate collection of animals—big cats, a show cat, kittens from a pet store. I wonder what the commonality is,” Bruce mused.

“I trust Gotham PD to handle it,” Selina shrugged. “Or maybe Batman will get involved.”

“Maybe,” agreed Bruce.

Her car ready and running at the curb, Selina turned to Bruce and took his hands. She stood up on tiptoe and kissed his cheek.

“Thank you, Bruce. For everything. It’s really nice to see you.”

He gave her fingers an extra squeeze and let go. “You too, Selina.”

He watched her drive away, brake lights flashing as she merged with traffic. Alfred pulled up a few seconds later and came around to let Bruce into his vintage black Rolls Royce. Bruce smiled to himself when he noticed the well-trained valets side-eyeing the vehicle. Lost in thought, he strapped in and let Alfred return him to Wayne Industries.

Batman met up with Commissioner Gordon late in the evening at the GCPD Headquarters. Everyone except the beat cops and the front desk on duty had gone home for the day. Things were quiet as Batman slipped into a utility closet window he was familiar with. He didn’t know whether Jim found it unsettling or reassuring that Batman could get into into the GCPD building undetected, but it was always wise to have as much knowledge of a space as possible. From inside, the closet had a simple twist lock. Batman let himself out, careful to check the deserted hallway. Jim’s office was three doors away.

He noted first the noises coming from a cat carrier on Commissioner Gordon’s desk. Someone was protesting their incarceration.

“Ruffy, I presume?” asked Batman from the doorway.

“Oh! Batman! Do you always have to sneak up like that?” Commissioner Gordon grabbed at his heart as he looked up with wide eyes.

“Sorry, Jim. Force of habit.” Batman came up to the desk and peered into Ruffy’s carrier. “You’re a handsome fellow. Ready to serve your city, Ruffy?”

The tiny white cat meowed a question in return.

Jim rolled his eyes as he removed Ruffy from the cage. “Needy little thing. I can’t deny I love him, though. He’s a good cat.”

He held his pet up high as Batman pulled a thin collar outfitted with a location transmitter from his bat belt. He placed it around Ruffy’s neck and buckled it.

“Now, you’re sure the collar is secure?” Commissioner Gordon asked.

“You won’t lose Ruffy—that’s a promise. I’ll take good care of him,” answered Batman.

Commissioner Gordon gave Ruffy’s ears one last scratch, then deposited him into Batman’s waiting gloves. Ruffy revved up his purr. The Commissioner fixed the little cat with a droll expression.

“Well! Would you look at that! How quickly I’m replaced,” commented the Commissioner.

“Makes my job all the easier,” Batman chuckled.

He didn’t mention the catnip hidden in one pocket of his belt. Batman hitched Ruffy into an underarm carry and shook hands with Commissioner Gordon. He opened a window and ducked out under the panes of glass. The night air was cool and pleasant. Little Ruffy’s whiskers twitched as he sniffed about curiously.

“If my suspicions are right, I’ll have him back to you in less than a day, Jim. Thanks for volunteering Ruffy.”

Commissioner Gordon gave a final nod. He stepped back as Batman fired his grappling hook and swung away.

A few blocks away, Batman dropped down into an unnamed alley and remotely opened the Batmobile. Ruffy leapt right in and settled himself to one side of Batman’s centered seat. Batman shook his head.

“I’d almost think you understand what we’re up to. Or maybe it’s just the catnip,” he told the cat.

Batman and Ruffy drove to the edge of town and stopped at a deserted block. The area was somewhat known for being Catwoman’s haunt, although of course no one knew her actual location. Glimpses and sightings, amounting to little more than urban legend, were Batman’s main body of evidence. He was reduced to hoping it was true—and hoping she was not watching from the shadows. Batman cast a keen eye all around as the translucent carapace of the Batmobile slid back. Not a single shadow stirred.

“Alright, Ruffy. This is it. Do the Commissioner proud,” said Batman.

He exited the vehicle and picked Ruffy up. He deposited the small cat in an unassuming alley with a surprisingly decent amount of trash. The area was known for non-violent squatters. As a result, Batman hardly ever visited it. Thieves and murderers were more his concern. He pressed a hidden button on the side of Ruffy’s collar, then let the cat go.

Ruffy immediately took off down the alley to explore. Batman felt a twinge of concern. Ruffy was a pampered housecat, not a tough, feral stray. If he got in a fight, he could literally be eaten alive. Batman had already noted the absence of other strays—just like the alley near the pet shop. Hopefully Ruffy wouldn’t encounter another cat at all.

Batman leapt back into the Batmobile and sped away. He had a hiding spot or two even in this part of town. He parked not far from Ruffy’s alley and turned off the vehicle. Ruffy’s locator pinged on the Batmobile’s display and the readout of his vital signs was normal. Batman settled in for the night. He was officially on a stakeout.

[calliecat93]

Top 5 Things I Liked About RWBY Volume 4

(Top 5 Dislikes)

This is going out later than I was hoping, but hey better now that never. Anyways, I honestly think that V4 is a pretty underrated Volume. There’s a lot that I really enjoy about it and after the insanity of V3, I’m glad that we got a more lowkey season that let everyone begin to heal. I’m hoping that RvB18 will follow that path tbh, but that’s not important here. There’s a lot to like, so let’s talk about the Top 5 Things I Liked About RWBY Volume 4!

#5. The Switch to Maya/Improved Animation

For Volumes 1-3, animaiton was primarily done in a program called Poser. This was mainly because it was what Monty liked to use, especially for fight animation. Poer isn’t an animation program, it is a modeling program that Monty was able to work for what he needed, but again it is not a proper animation program. V3 looks amazing, but I think that it was clear that they had reached their limit on how much they could push it. Add that with now having a larger animation staff, and it was time for a change. As such, they shifted to Maya, a common animaiton program in the field, and I am going to say it… it was 100% the right choice.

The animaiton in the Poser Era wasn’t bad, but… there were plenty of times where it felt like expressions and casual movements were very stiff. V4 changed that massively. There is so much more facial expression, but not just that. Take Blake’s cat ears for example. They are SO expressive in every scene that she’s in. Sure it might be because she threw out the bow, but still! I really don’t think that they could have done that in Poser. Animaiton models improved, like Sun’s abs no longer being glued to him for example and his little necklace sometimes daggling about. Environments look more vibrant. Environments have improved. Things like shading look better. And while the fight scenes aren’t Monty-like anymore, they are still really good! Seriously, Qrow vs Tyrian is still awesome~

I know that the shift wasn’t something liked by everyone, though I think that the vast majority have come around since V4. The animaiton has only kept improving after this, and it’s crazy going back to V1 and seeing the difference. But they sold me the second that they released the Ruby Trailer in the lead-up to the volume. Maya has allowed for a lot of improvement and new opportunities, and I believe that RT made the right choice in transitioning over to it. V4 looked so good, especially with how many new locations that it introduced us to, and I freakin’ love it~

#4. Expansion On The World

Volume 4, above all, is a world-building volume. We spent all of our time in the first three volumes primarily in Beacon and the city fo Vale. The only locations that we got a substantial amount of time in otherwise were Mountain Glenn and the Amity Arena for the Vytal Festival. Otherwise, we’ve been stuck in one place despite knowing that there is a much larger world out there. Thankfully though, this volume takes us outside the Kingdom of Vale and finally allowed us to explore the rest of Remnant… well, parts of it. Still, more than the other volumes had.

This was an advantage of using the multiple plotlines.. We got a really good amount of new locations. RNJR was in Anima, which had a lot of Asian-inspired scenery and naming. Yeah, we mostly spend the time on trails and villages, but you can still see the difference between the villages and Vale. Which we got to see what it’s like outside of Vale. Some villages like Higanbana are nice, while others like Shion or Kuroyuri… well… it emphasizes just how bleak the world truly is. Vale was an overall safe place, and even that wasn’t safe. If you don’t live within a kingdom though? Hope that luck is on your side.

We also get to see Menagerie for the first time. Sadly we don’t get to see as much here or in V5, but we do get to see how cramped it is and it overall looks nice. You can see that, as Blake said, they tried to make it a welcoming place for Faunus. We get to see Weiss’ home, which is as empty and cold as you would have imagined it being. It looks grand, but it’s just… empty and quiet with Weiss, more or less, alone aside from Klein. Patch is nice, you can certainly see why Tai would raise his kids there and in contrast to Weiss’ home, it’s small but the peaceful and comforting environment that Yang needed. Salem’s realm is eerie. Oscar’s farm is… a farm. And Mistral? Amazing.

What I’m getting at here is that we learn so much more about the world. Even outside exploring new locations, we learn about the Relics and the God Brothers. We start to get an understanding of the war between Oz and Salem, though of course, we learn the true scale in V6. The volume does a lot to make Remnant feel more like an actual world full of stories, problems, and history. It took us out of the hub that we were used to with Volumes 1-3, and I think that they did so very well. Very much appreciate it~

#3. Yang Plotline

While Yang got the least amount of focus, I… don’t view that as a bad thing. A story can’t be dictated by screentime alone. You have to look at how well they executed what they needed to do in the amount of time that they had. For example, they didn’t do very well with Ruby in V5 with the time that they had, but we’ll save that for the V5 posts. For V4, as I said, Oscar didn’t get the proper development and they didn’t utilize the amount fo time that they had for him well. But Yang though? I thought that they did her very well here.

Yang’s plot is, of course, recovering after losing her arm and getting back into fighting condition so that she can go after Ruby. We see that she has PTSD, having flashbacks and nightmares and her emotional state is… not in the bright place that we’re used to. Chapter 4, the chapter mainly focused on her, shows how concerned she is about taking the first steps of recovery, though we do see her start to laugh and joke around again. With Tai’s encouragement and support, Yang ut son the new arm, trains again and Tai helps her see the disadvantages of her fighting style/Semblance reliance, and opens up to her about Raven. In the end, Yang’s ready to go after her sister. She’s not 100% healed, but she’s got her drive back and is ready to move ahead.

Now again, Yang gets the least amount of focus. She only gets one chapter dedicated to her, and otherwise, her’s appears the least out of the four RWBY girls. But they utilized that time very well. They don’t drag it out or rush through it. They set up Yang’s mental state, show us signs of her PTSD, have Tai give her the proper encouragement, and have her start to get back on her feet. I’m glad that they were just straightforward with it, there was no need to drag it out especially since V5 and 6 show that there are still things that she has to work through. The point for this volume though was to get Yang well enough mentally for her to get back out onto the field, and they did that very well. She was in a positive environment as well, and that probably helped her.

So yeah, when I look back at the Yang plot, I have no issues with it. I think that it was given the amount of attention that it needed. It wasn’t rushed, but it wasn’t dragged out either. Yang didn’t fully recover, but she got well enough to move forward. That was the ultimate goal for everyone’s plotline, and they achieved it here. But I’m gonna leave it at 3 since it is a bit of a bummer that she got limited screentime. But for what it’s worth, they used that time properly and I am happy with the final result.

#2. Weiss Plotline

Out of all the plots, Weiss’ is my favorite and imo, the best one done. This is because this is the conclusion to her three volumes worth of character development. As I said n the V3 Likes post, her plot had her decide to finally cut herself away from her father for good and move ahead with the life that she wanted. Sadly, due to the Fall, Jaques had the perfect excuse to got o Vale and force her to return to Atlas with him. So just as quickly a she was able to embrace her freedom and the choice to never turn back, fate dealt her a bad hand and she was her father’s prisoner once more. Which she literally becomes a prisoner after her outburst at the charity event and gets stripped of her title. It’s just… horrible to watch that scene. Really, any scene with her and Jaques is uncomfortable, especially when he slaps her.

This is when we truly get to see Jaques abuse first hand, and it is as horrible as the previous hints indicated. He’s condescending and passive-aggressive to Weiss. He treats her like she’s a child and an employee more than as a parent. Compare it to Tai or Ghira with Yang and Blake, where they are nothing but caring and supportive to their daughters. Ghira especially welcomed Blake back with open arms despite how she called them cowards in the past and was just glad that she found her way again and was safe. Jaques only cares about Weiss for his image and to use her when it suits his needs, whether Weiss is willing to do it or not. He makes her sing rather than ask her. He refuses to let her out fo his sight during the charity gala. He talks down to her. He tries to gaslight her into everything being her fault and like her outburst was wrong.

Weiss did NOTHING wrong. She, and maybe Ironwood, were the only ones at that charity who gave a damn about Vale. Seeing her in that environment, where people were snobby, argumentative, and only cared about their own petty problems makes you really, really appreciate how much she had grown. She had broken out of that mindset after V1 and when the Trophy Wife claims that Vale deserved what it got, she rightfully calls her and everyone else out on their bullshit and refuses to let Jaques shut her up. Yeah, it ends badly with Weiss losing her title and Whitley rubbing it in. Weiss had no one aside form Klein, who is an actual good person who showed Weiss kindness and care moreso than her own family ever did. When Weiss breaks down, ti just… hurts. But luckily, at her lowest point, Weiss decides that enough is enough. She gets back out Myrtenaster, perfects her Summoning Glyph, and decides to break free once and for all. Klein helps her escape, and she manages to get onto a plane heading for Mistral. Which leads to… more problems, but that’s for the next volume.

Weiss’ plotline was very well done. It gets you to see how far that she’s come since Volume 1. She wanted to break free and become better, and she did. Jaques tries to lock her away again, but he failed. Weiss had gotten a taste of freedom, and she was going to reclaim it. She was going to redeem her family name her way by being a Huntress and no one was going to stop her. As This Life is Mine stated, “I won’t be possessed/burdened by your royal test/I will not surrender, this life is mine.” Yes Weiss, it is indeed.

Weiss was great, but there is one character whose focus I appreciated not just because it was good, but because it saved that character in my eyes.

#1. Ren Becoming a Character

I haven’t talked much about Ren and Nora, and that was because up until now… there wasn’t much to talk about. While I liked them fine enough, in V1-3 they’re just… there. It felt like they existed just because Jaune and Pyrrha had to be part of a four-man team because they’re nothing more than supporting characters there. Nora at least was funny and bubbly so she was at least fun, but Ren? He was just… quiet and the straight-man to Nora’s antics. That was it. He didn’t feel like a character, he just felt like a necessity needed to fill in a spot. My biggest hope with V4 was, now with JNR traveling with RWBYt hey would do something, anything to flesh out Ren and Nora. At least for one of them.

Fortunately, I got my wish.

To be fair, RWBY Chibi had gotten me to warm up to Ren since they got a lot out of him in several of the skits. More than I thought that they could. But I also like Chibi!Neo FAR more than I like Canon!Neo, so that wasn’t saying much. But fortunately, Volume 4 came around! Ren was really great in this volume! He’s still the quiet one, though he gets more here than any other volume. Which is something to note real quick. Neath has done a fantastic job as Ren. I can’t imagine how it had to have felt since he was taking over Monty’s spot. His brother’s spot. But he has done a perfect job since Day One, and I can’t imagine anyone else int he role at this point. He especially shows his range in this volume, and for a guy who had never voice acted until he started doing Ren, he pulls it off perfectly. I love Neath.

Ren is from Anima, but outside Mistral, so he’s of course the most knowledgeable of the area. We get to see more of his tracking and fighting skills, which is as fun to see as it was in Volume 1 which was the last time he got to showcase his fighting style. We get to see him interact with not only Nora, which was really nice especially with Jaune. But most of all, we get to see how Ren’s past affected him. His reaction to the destruction fo Shion perfectly fits due to what happened to Kuroyuri. His refusal to go back there makes sense since… well, no one likes to revisit the source of their trauma. He tells us about Oniyuri, and through him we see just how difficult it is to live outside the Kingdoms. We saw that with what happened to Shion, but Ren is a character that we’ve known for years and we get to see and hear about it through him. Which makes it hit us harder because it affects a character that we’ve known for so long. And when we get to the flashback and see how happy Ren’s life was and how it all went to Hell in just one night? It breaks your heart. We also finally learn his Semblance, which fits him perfectly so that was also appreciated.

But most of all, we get to Kuroyuri, and it’s the first time that we see Ren lose it. He’s always been a very calm, very tranquil person but when the Nucklavee attacks, he is understandably terrified… and then just lose it. We’ve NEVER seen him get angry before, but seeing the monster that ruined his life, killed his family, and destroyed his home? Yeah, that’ll make anyone snap. But thankfully, Nora snaps him out of it and this is when we see just how strong their relationship is. When Ren lost everything, he found Nora who had absolutely no one, and befriended her. They fought together. They survived together. They went through everything together, both good and bad. So fo course Nora could see that Ren was losing it, and she was the only one who could pull him back and stop him before he lost himself I’d still like them to be more clear on if Renora is canon or not cause I still really don’t know. But at least we get to see that their dynamic isn’t just the ‘hyper girl, calm guy’ dynamic. There is a true bond there, and it’s just beautiful.

It ends with Ren suing his father’s knife, the only thing of his family that he still has, to kill the Nuclavee. For his parents. For all the lives stolen. And, of course, for himself. This was him confronting his trauma, and finally putting it to rest and moving forward. That’s the biggest theme of this volume honestly, taking what brought you down, and moving forward. Yang began to stand up again after her trauma. Blake decided to quit running and to rise up against the White Fang once and for all. Weiss broke free of her father despite him trying to pull her back. Ruby saw just how bad the world truly was along with the Fall of Beacon still haunting her, but took ti and strengthened her resolve to be a Huntress and make things better as much as possible. And Ren? He chose to go back to Kurroyuri to save his friends and destroyed the monster that made so many suffer but without giving in to his sorrow. 

The volume just made me love Ren and see him more as a character than I had before. He’s one of my absolute favorites no. I’m hoping that V7 is going to do the same with Nora since at this point, I feel that she’s the most under-developed of the main cast. But we’ll just have to wait and see. Regardless, V4 changed my opinion of Ren completely and his story was done very well. As such, it my favorite thing about RWBY Volume 4.

And another volume done! So… next we get to Volume 5. Ho boy, I haven’t revisited it since it ended and not for the reasons that you think. But we’ll talk more on those posts. For now, thanks for reading everyone~!

[eligos-venator]

Character Interview - Eligos Venator

— what did you have for breakfast?

“Yesterday, hashbrowns and eggs. Day before that, fritattas. Today, shakshuka. Really, it depends on materials left and my mood for the day. I try to vary and be flexible since the same old every morning would grow very, very tiresome and unappetizing quickly.” He explained with a small, lazy shrug and slight smile. “Since I cook for myself and Ibri isn’t exactly picky about her meat, I’m able to be flexible and easily adjust based upon what I have to work with.”

— what can you cook perfectly?

“I don’t like to brag, but give me a cook book, and you get what you ask for. I’m not at the level of a professional, but cooking is a joy to me, so I’ve naturally gotten better at it through experience.” He stated happily as he set his hands together on the table, the right gloved hand covering the left as he leaned forward. “I’m also always interested in steal- I mean learning recipes from any who might have a few that aren’t so easily found in these mass-produced cookbooks you come across in the market often. I’ve a few from my travels, and while spices and herbs can be troublesome, they provide a nice bit of variety so that I don’t have to eat the local cuisine every night.”

— if you could choose a pet, what would it be?

“I already have Ibri.” With a wave over to the side, he pointed out the brown and gray feathered hunting hawk who sat on her perch in a corner of the room. “Raised her from a chick when she hatched at a bad time. I’d been paid to retrieve such an egg for a noble’s son, and well..” The hyur trailed off, chuckling softly as his right hand covered his mouth to try to be polite as he did so. As he stopped, the hand dropped back to his lap and rested there. “She may have seen me first and thus imprinted upon myself. I didn’t get paid for that job, but I did get a family member who is quite sweet, even if not in the way a cat or dog might be.”

— how is your relationship with your parents?

The Hyur stared blankly for a moment, his expression shifting from friendly to a perfect poker face as he considered the question before the smile returned. “We don’t have much to speak about anymore. I didn’t exactly turn out as I was supposed to, and that lead to strain in the family. Suffice to say we’re all better off with how things turned out.” With that simple statement, he gave a blank stare, indicating this line of questioning was over.

— what is your favorite read?

“Hard to say. I suppose an anatomy textbook would be my favorite read. It proves the most useful in understanding and dissecting body mechanics and provides insight which makes my own combat more effective. Next up would be combat manuals and guides explaining the weapons one might run into, and their purpose. For knowing that purpose and the key traits is vital to be able to take full advantage of an enemy’s weapon choice.”  He closed his eyes as he relaxed, his arms crossed and resting upon his chest as he thought about the question further. “I am assuming that you mean any book, and not limiting myself to storybooks, at least. Do tell me if I’m wrong.”

— do you put both socks on first, or one sock, one shoe?

“Putting on clothes is like putting on armor. Put on all of each layer at once, and move on to the next once it is done.” With a shake of his head, the Hyur let out a small sigh. “Matter of preference for some, maybe, but for me it’s easier to keep in this habit.”

— do you fold your clothes before bed?

“Technically. If I do it at any point before I sleep, it’s counted, right?” He asked, a brow raised as he leaned back in his chair. “I do it in the morning after changing into the day’s attire. The prior day’s clothes go in the laundry and will be washed before being folded up properly before being stored.” He then blinked, then gave an incredulous look as he mulled over the question once more. “Are you telling me some of the people you interview wear the clothes multiple times before washing? That’s.. unhygienic, to say the least.”

— how do you feel about marriage?

“That old ‘ball and chain’ joke? It’s hardly a joke. I’ve seen marriage tear the soul from man and woman alike, and grind their spirits down into nothing. But on the flip side, I’ve seen just as many thrive. It all boils down to the two being compatible long term rather than short, if they wish to keep the spark alive.” The Hyur stated with a small, brief smile and nod. On realizing that it was a question for his opinion, he briefly frowned, though that frown soon turned to a small, half-smile as yellow eyes watched the interviewer carefully. “I have no strong opinions one way or the other, since it’s not something I’ve ever considered for myself. I can’t tell the future, nor how I might feel in time on a matter never thought about. But I can say that at this moment, it’s not something I can see myself desiring.”

— who was the last person you crushed on?

“You’re hilarious, you know that, right?” He asked with a small laugh, though he was quick to cover his mouth as he did so. “I don’t know if you’re an optimist or what, with expectation that everyone interviewed will be forthright and honest when asked a question like that. The answer is ‘I have no idea’. And if you think that’s true, I’ve got a castrum I’d like to sell you.” The hyur’s lips turned up in a smirk as he clasped his hands together, resting then on the table. “Let’s stick to questions that don’t involve private lives and thoughts, alright?”

— what does your dream home look like? and where would it be?

“I already have it. It’s my cozy, quaint little apartment near the Mists. A beach location, and it’s just the right size for myself and Ibri, with an open area.” The Hyur beamed as he said this, his lips pulled up together in a bright smile. “And it was cheap! The last fellow who owned it was moving to a larger home, and I have to say it was the biggest mistake he made, selling it to me so cheaply. Sure, it needed some repairs, but the loft setup is ideal and helps make even a small space feel massive. Plenty of space for a bed, tub, a desk and pen for Ibri, and even a full kitchen.” He stated brightly as he clapped his two gloved hands together. “Couldn’t really ask for more for myself. If it were any bigger it’d be a pain to dust and clean, and there’s no way in the seven hells I’m hiring someone else to do that for me when I’ve got working arms and legs to do it myself at no cost.”

— what’s your worst habit?

“You know that filter between your brain and the mouth?” Eligos raised an eyebrow as he eyed the interviewer, yellow eyes watching attentively as he tilted his head slightly to the left before righting it. “Yeah, that. Sometimes I just forget to do that. I’ll sometimes just say what I’m thinking as I’m thinking it, rather than sitting on it and evaluating that thought before expressing it. It’s caused me no end of trouble, so I’d say it qualifies as my worst habit.”

— what do you do for a living and how do you feel about your job?

“Now that’s a loaded question. I’m a hired hand. Some assignments I might be acting as a bodyguard. Others I might be hunting a beast that’s caused trouble in an area. There are even clients who’ve sent me to the corners of Eorzea to fetch them samples, and others who’ve had other tasks of the miscellaneous sort, such as paperwork and the like. I tend to prefer combat, myself, but I’m not about to pass up good coin for a quick and easy job.” He stated as he reached to his lips with his right hand, covering his mouth in a polite motion and obscuring it from view as he laughed. As the laughter stopped, his eyes narrowed while his hand remained in place, his elbow resting on the table as he propped his chin up, resting it upon his thumb. “Level of discretion varies between clients. Rightfully, I can’t tell you everything as I’ve been specifically paid by a good many to keep silent. And to break word is to break the trust of clients past and future. Naturally, that’d cause issues for me and be a right headache I wouldn’t be able to so easily fix. Hardly worth it for an interview I’ve not been paid to do.” Tagged by: @regalblossom @ivyffxiv Tagging: I don’t know who hasn’t been tagged for this already, so.. anyone who hasn’t done this yet! 

[toshiro-46]

Bumblebee: A Comprehensive Guide to Your Favorite Ship

Hey, I ended up finishing this about a week back and was going to post it then, but I noticed that Bmblb week was upcoming and thought this might be a nice way to start it off.

To be clear: the purpose of this post is to be comprehensive. Every small detail I’ve noticed will be here, so like if you see something and you think “that’s not necessarily indicative of anything romantic”, you might be right, but don’t let that small detail detract from the larger picture. Unfortunately, though I’d like it to be completely comprehensive, I’m only human and no doubt will have forgotten and/or missed some details.

Speaking of small details, in the past I’ve been told that this is all too subtle and RWBY doesn’t do subtlety. To answer that, I invite you to look at Qrow’s semblance, or Raven being the Spring Maiden, or Ilia’s feelings for Blake. I don’t think this is out of line with any of those, and if anything it (particularly Yang’s feelings) is considerably more blatant than Qrow’s semblance and Ilia’s feelings were prior to their reveals.

Finally, I want to defend myself and other bees like me for a second because I realize that taking several hours to research and write this to argue in favor of a fictional (potential) romance, a ship, can be seen as a tad weird… but that’s not really how I view what I’m doing. I think of it more along the lines of a theory, because it’s actually not really different at all: I’m using evidence from the show to support a conclusion. It’s exactly what I did when making basically every other analysis I’ve done on the show. It’s just what the subject of this theory/analysis is. Ok let’s go.

Supplementary reading because I’m not the only person who’s written essays about bumblebee and I’ve used the first two as reference points:

The classic Masterpost by Allisonbw. Unfortunately, it’s two volumes behind, which is a big reason why I’m doing this.

A relatively shorter post by y8ay8a talking about why she thinks it’ll happen. Again, it’s two volumes behind, but still a very good read. Also her art is top notch so check that out.

I’m not as familiar with them, but rwby-analysis has also done several posts about bumblebee.

chained-prometheus has several posts I’ll be referencing, but just the blog in general has many fantastic analyses on why it’s going to happen.

The tl;dr is obviously Yang is gay for Blake, which I’m 95% sure of, and Bumblebee has a pretty good chance of happening.

There’s 4 sections. Yang’s feelings, Blake’s feelings, Parallels, and Eclipse.

#1. Hints of Yang’s Feelings

Volume 1:

There’s not much to say here, really.

Lowkey joking, but like, the only time we see Yang express any interest in boys (even though it was in an overly comedic tone) is in V1C3, and that’s immediately prior to when she meets Blake. After that, she has nothing but disinterest towards boys, like tfw Yang meets Blake. I don’t mean to be offensive because this is actually a thing, adolescents not realizing how they feel until they meet someone that’s their… type I think would be the correct word. Hell, Monty says something about this later on, which I’ll get to. And I’ll expand more on this scene, in a more serious manner, at the end of this section.

It’s worth noting that Blake and Yang have absolutely no relationship issues once they become partners, which - alongside Renora - is an interesting contrast to Weiss/Ruby and Pyrrha/Jaune.

Yang’s concern for Blake during V1C16 is in stark contrast to Weiss, and even though she just heard that Blake was literally a terrorist who seemingly defended all the horrible things that happened to Weiss, she’s more concerned about her safety and finding her.

Really there was very little on Yang and Blake’s relationship in this volume, which is a shame, but what can you do? I’ll tell you what you can do, you can go to the Director’s Commentary and see what Miles has to say about it! Which is what I did. The context of this quote is that it’s talking about when Blake elbows Yang when they meet Penny in V1C15.

That, that is really what I do love about Team RWBY, is that, we have these two pairs of girls, each pair is completely contrasting characters. Ruby and Weiss that causes them to butt heads, Blake and Yang? They get along, flawlessly most of the time.

To put it in my friend’s words: “This is particularly important as there are people that like to say that Yang and Blake have horribly clashing personalities and get along like ‘gasoline and fire’. That they have no chemistry and are absolutely horrible for each other. The idea has been around for awhile, but here’s actual proof that it’s been wrong from the very beginning.”

I also think it’s important because it sets a precedent that even little things like this are being taken seriously by the writers. They didn’t get a lot of time to show off Blake and Yang’s friendship this volume, but what they did show has meaning.

Finally, I wanted to mention Wings. Wings is either sung from Yang to Blake, or from RWY to Blake. But Weiss as the singer (which, I believe, has been the traditional interpretation) doesn’t make any sense, she simply doesn’t fit the singer’s very understanding, nurturing attitude towards Blake. Yang, on the other hand, is definitely characterized as nurturing, such as in Gold. I could see it being all of RWY, but again it’s not Weiss’s style, nor is it Ruby’s when she’s two years younger and she herself gets Yang’s nurturing side. Oh, and an instrumental of it played when Yang and Blake saw each other again for the first time since V3. So yeah, it’s probably Yang to Blake. Also Stray sounded like Straight the first 20 times I listened to this

Volume 2:

So it begins.

V2C1: “Whatcha doin’?” This is noteworthy for two reasons: 1. Yang, Blake’s new partner and future lover (don’t @ me), is interrupting her rumination on her old partner and former lover. Out with the old, in with the new. 2. This phrase is classic flirting, most notably seen in literally every Phineas and Ferb episode.

V2C2: “Yes! I love it when you’re feisty!” More flirting, not much else to say.

I mean obviously, we have the V2C6 scene: most of it isn’t inherently romantic, just a friend comforting another, excepting the rather infamous, “If you feel like coming out tomorrow, I’ll save you a dance.” wink? I shouldn’t have to explain this, it’s pretty blatantly flirting and a double entendre.

V2C6: My friend: “This is the most vulnerable Yang has ever intentionally allowed anyone else to see her. With Ruby in V3 she was too hurt to really guard herself, and even then she tried to deny caring about Blake. The only time Yang has ever let anyone see herself as vulnerable as in Burning the Candle is during her talk with Weiss about Blake.” Because Blake gets to her like no one else. See later when Yang keeps it together with Raven until she makes a snide comment about Blake.

The dance in V2C6-7. Out of our ten students (RWBYJNPRSN), 8 of them end up with someone here. The two who don’t? Ruby, who 1. is two years younger than everyone else 2. “is not really focused on romance” - Lindsay and 3. ends up with Cinder for most of the night and Yang. Yang, the one described as a “party girl” by the back of V1’s steelbook cover, doesn’t end up going with anyone to the dance. Take a second and think on how that’s pretty weird, especially when she says “I’ll be turning heads tomorrow night”. She does, however, dance with Blake, and then seemingly spends the rest of the night just chilling out and watching Blake be happy. To put it in Allison’s words, “Yang went and played wallflower for fuck’s sake.” Oh, and while doing that, Yang turns Blake’s head while she’s dancing with Sun. That shot is focused on ffs.

Something that should be noted: Yang is not a flirty person. She flirts with two sets of people: cute cat girl partners, and enemies. Or to put it another way, she flirts with Blake, and she flirts with enemies (Junior, Random WF Mook #294, Mercury sorta before their match I guess). So let’s not pretend that flirting with people is just a Yang thing.

Volume 3:

Let’s fast-forward to V3C8. Yang has to deal with being vilified in front of literally the entire world, thinking maybe she’s going crazy, getting her team kicked out of the tournament, and guilt over breaking Merc’s leg. What brings her to tears? Blake not believing her. Like this can’t be overstated. Yang is brought to tears like 6 times in series proper. 3 are due to Blake, 1 is her reunion with Ruby, and the other 2 are due to Raven. This relationship is just so important to her and her character, way beyond what you’d expect from a normal, platonic partnership (contrast it with Weiss and Ruby). And it’s not like they have a “sisterly relationship” (something I’ve heard too often) either, because again this is portrayed as different from Yang and Ruby.

Blake and Yang are always on the scroll together btw V3C10 proves this

In V3C11 she’s again brought to tears, and again it’s due to Blake. She’s more emotional in that moment than nearly at any other point in the series so far. And before that, she chooses to go after Blake over Ruby. This is Ruby, who has been missing for like an hour and who she called Blake about last episode because she was so concerned, as opposed to Blake, who was okay last Weiss saw her. And she goes after Blake.

In V3C12, Yang has to deal with everything she did before in V3C8 except now she’s short one arm, two people she knew are dead, her school is in ruins, Weiss is gone, her sister was in a coma for weeks, and you know what actually gets her to break and raise her voice at Ruby? Blake. Yang is more torn up about Blake leaving her than she is about any of the other shit, including her arm. She’s heartbroken.

There’s also a lot of shit about parallels here that I’ll get into later.

Volume 4:

Yang doesn’t mention Blake at all this Volume so we don’t exactly have a lot to work with.

There is, however, one useful quote from Sun in V4C11 that helps confirm what I said a little ways up: “That chameleon friend of yours got me pretty good, but I’d do it all again if it meant protecting you. And I can promise Yang would say the same… so stop pushing us out. It hurts more than anything the bad guys could ever do to us.” So in case you were doubting that Yang is indeed more hurt by Blake than by her arm, doubt no longer. Also parallels between Sun and Yang, which again we’ll get to later.

In Armed and Ready, Yang states she has nightmares every night about how she tries to save Blake (because “There’s nothing that I won’t do for her”). Not necessarily romantic, but telling.

Bmblb speaks for itself and deserves a mention here, regardless of everything that’s happened. I should also note that, in response to what Arryn said about songs not being in the show not being consulted over, Boop wasn’t in the show either until an instrumental or two in V4 and no one doubted its canonicity. And also this is important and relevant. I thought about expanding on this section more, but ultimately I don’t think it’s worth it.

Volume 5:

Not really a hint towards anything romantic but I thought this exchange in V5C6 was interesting: “Listen to your friend, Yang. Your teammates never let you down before.” - Raven, vaguely sarcastically. “You don’t know the first thing about my teammates! About me! You were never there! You left us! Why?” - Yang, her voice breaking by the end; Yang manages to keep it together until Raven makes a quip about Blake leaving her.

V5C8: Yang snaps at Ruby over Blake. Her scenes this episode portray actual heartbreak. I’m having trouble explaining it any other way, really. “What if I needed her here for me?” Like hello? + Yang/Ilia parallels which I will get to later. + This connecting it back with Sun and Blake’s talk in V4C11. Also this is a good time to mention Fre/ezerburn. People were/have been hyping it up, particularly because of this episode, but in my opinion, this episode does the opposite of supporting it. Yang and Weiss are given a private heart-to-heart together - pretty rare for RWBY characters… and they spend the entire time talking about Yang’s feelings about/for Blake. That’s not really what I’d expect from two characters interested in each other. Nothing against the ship itself, just doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen in canon.

V5C13: this is gay. No but seriously this girl gets paralyzed in the middle of a battle of life and death just from seeing Blake again. I have to emphasize again that this is so much more emotional and intense than how a normal friendship is and is portrayed in this show.

General stuff:

This is more about Yang’s sexuality than Blake specifically. When talking about it, people generally point to the scene in V1C3 where she… purrs I guess would be the sound at shirtless men as evidence that she likes men. Makes sense, but I don’t completely buy it. 1. It’s just a joke, both in a meta context and to Yang. She’s clearly just joking with Ruby and as soon as one of the guys (albeit Jaune in a onesie) takes notice of her, she gags. 2. She’s still a 17 year old fresh out of their equivalent of high school, it’s not uncommon for LGBT people to realize they’re LGBT around then. 3. This is still very early in the show and since that point (starting with V2 specifically) RT could’ve decided which way they wanted to go with the character. Ultimately it’s sort of irrelevant as it doesn’t matter much if she’s bi or lesbian, but I’ve always thought of her as a lesbian for reasons right below.

Historically Yang has not really liked men. Junior in the Yellow trailer, Jaune in V1C3, Port in V1C9, Neptune in V2C4, and Shay in V5C1. Unlike Ruby, she’s not a fan of Qrow’s story in V3C4. Unlike literally everyone else in RWBYJNPRSN, she doesn’t have any notable positive relationships with a member of the opposite sex, excepting those related to her.

Her reactions to Blake are far beyond what you’d consider normal for a friend, even a best friend. She gets angrier than we’ve ever seen her when Blake gets stabbed. She isn’t that angry when Ruby gets knocked out or when Weiss gets stabbed or anything, but she absolutely fucking loses it with Blake. And this is after going after Blake when as far as she knows she’s fine but Ruby’s been missing for a long time. Pyrrha and Penny died, Weiss left too, but what got Yang to crack and lose her temper with Ruby in the V3 finale is Blake. A reminder that Blake’s abandoning actually hurt her more than losing her arm did - Sun says as much in V4 and that again, she loses her temper at Ruby when Blake is brought up in V5C8. She actually goes still from shock when she sees Blake, p different from when she first sees Raven and Ruby, two people who she also reunited with this volume after being abandoned previously.    

Relevantly, in response to someone asking about LGBT characters, Monty said (and this is at the beginning of V2) “Sure, absolutely. The best part about that is maybe they are there now, because they’re kids and we’re on a path to help them discover themselves. I don’t think we even need to make that decision right away because we learn more about these characters as we write them. So we’re definitely not opposed to it, a lot of us are for it, I have some cast members and some crew members who are like “This would be really cool”. But the thing is we can’t just shove it out there, it has to be earned, which is the better way to do it. And a lot of these characters we try to look at outside of their gender so we just want to do what’s natural for them.” I think this is important because it’s pretty much what I think happened with them and Yang. At first, they didn’t think about it much and that’s why we didn’t get anything about it in Volume 1. But by the time Volume 2 starts, we get Yang flirting with Blake and all that. She may not have (in Monty’s words) discovered it herself then or even now, but we’re getting to that point.

#2. Hint’s of Blake’s feelings

There’s not nearly as much about Blake, but the moments she does have tend to be pretty significant.

Volume 1:

V1C6: Blake chooses Yang. She follows her in the Emerald Forest and deliberately makes eye contact with her. Obviously not specifically romantic, but the other two people who chose their partner had feelings for them.

gay

Volume 2: I personally can’t find anything that would indicate Blake has non-platonic feelings towards Yang. However note that she does tilt her head in a smile when Yang says “I love it when you’re feisty” in V2C2, so… it’s not just Sun whose flirting she responds to positively (V3C2 is what I’m referring to).

Volume 3:

In V3C8, Blake, unlike Ruby or Weiss, doesn’t immediately believe Yang. Why? Yang reminds her of Adam. Not in the sense that they have very similar personalities - they don’t, besides a few striking parallels - but in the sense that Blake thinks of them along very similar lines. She let love blind her once and doesn’t want that to happen again.

V3C11: A post on the Kuleshov Effect in use here by Chained Prometheus. In addition, Adam, who probably knows how to read Blake better than most, having known and/or dated her for 4+ years, can immediately tell she loves Yang just from a single look of hers. That’s something.

V3C12: Besides the obvious implication of this shot and what Sun is thinking about here (more on that here), what other relationship saw hand-holding in an intensely emotional scene this volume???

Volume 4:

In the opening, Blake glances away, leading into a scene with Yang, indicating that she’s thinking about her.

In V4C11, her voice breaks when she says Yang, a stark contrast to the other two she mentions. She also says, “I loved them like I never thought I could love anybody!” Wait… what? Was her friendship with Ilia - a 4+ year affair - somehow lesser than a friendship with them that lasted less than a year? That makes absolutely no sense! What about Sun, what about her parents?? Did she really love all of RWY differently and more intensely than everyone else she knows/knew? No. Just one of them.

Volume 5:

When she’s talking about her team in V5C5, her ears perk up and her tone changes when she talks about Yang. Again, it’s made exceedingly clear with small things like this that Blake and Yang care about each other differently than they care about the rest, and that this isn’t just a partner thing - once again look at Ruby and Weiss - it’s far more comparable to JNPR’s partner relationships than it is to WR (the difference btw between JP/RN and WR is that JNPR’s partner relationships are/were both romantic).

V5C13: “Yang?”<- her first thought when there’s a giant fucking ethereal lancer (huh wonder if the giant bee that’s there right as they see each other again means anything it probably doesn’t)(oh also that’s the whole reason she went in there in the first place bc Hazel got stabbed and she saw that and was checking it out, yet she still ignores it in favor of Yang) behind Weiss who has a peculiar stab hole in her shirt and also Mercury and Emerald are there for some reason fighting her team and somehow her team is back together and all this and yet her first reaction is “Yang?" Hammertime does a nice post on this.

Oh hey look it’s Hammertime again. Seriously, watch that, it’s only like 40 seconds long and relevant. Besides that V5C14 doesn’t have much beyond some smiles but those smiles are, in my completely objective opinion, pretty fucking gay.

#3. Parallels

The most important shit, in my opinion. Yang and being compared with Blake’s past and present love interests, name a more iconic duo.

Yang and Tai, Raven and Blake:

Raven and Blake: mysterious ninja (well Raven’s clothing is more samurai-esque I think, but I digress) girls with bloody pasts who use katana-esque swords and also incorporate their sheathes into their fighting, who have long black hair, and who have clear affinities to animals.

Tai and Yang: (I mean they’re father and daughter so the similarities/parallels should be obvious). Both obviously deal with some severe abandonment issues due to Raven and later Summer/Blake. Or how about this? Tai and Yang are both reminded of their former teammate/lover in a talk (Tai in V4C11 talking with Yang before she leaves, though this gif is from V4C12) and then go look at the photograph with them in it.

Raven/Blake leave their teammate/partner/person-who-is-in-love-with-them after a life changing event, which leaves Tai/Yang broken and shut down.- Raven and Blake are pretty clearly contrasted in their relationships to Yang. Raven leaves for (probably) selfish reasons, never bothers to give an explanation as to why (true for Blake atm, but Weiss at least explained it), and Yang is forced to find her. Blake leaves for selfless reasons and chooses to go back to and stay with Yang.

And, as per my friend​: 

Yang and Blake both seem to be succeeding where Tai and Raven failed. Tai suffered heartbreak and broke down. For a long time. He wasn’t a deadbeat who only just started working, because as Yang says to Weiss, Tai was always at work. But he threw himself into work instead of facing his issues. Yang had to deal with so much [ex: her arm and everything else I mentioned in the V3C12 blurb] on top of losing Blake. And yet, she still got back on her feet in under a year. And while she may not be better, she’s still moving to take care of those she loves. She’s working to heal.

As for Raven, she also had a problem with running away. While Blake just runs away, Raven runs and hides behind others. Which shows in her Semblance [A point I didn’t get, Blake and Raven even have sort of similar semblances], she can teleport to people she cares about. People who would protect her [And Blake ran away to protect Yang. Raven ran away to protect herself].

But where as Raven never overcame this, Blake decides to stop running and face her problem. Instead of getting revenge, she seeks to stop the source of the problems. And yeah, she didn’t go to Haven for Yang. But she decided to stay [And she willingly decided to face Yang in the first place]. Something Raven also didn’t do.

Yang and Adam:

I mean Blake herself compares them. This fact alone is huge: she’s directly comparing Yang to her former love-interest, she thinks of them in similar ways, even if she doesn’t realize it herself. Which is actually a thing people do.

Their semblances. Both are essentially absorbing and redirecting damage, and the writers themselves have said that’s a purposeful comparison, except Yang uses her pain to become stronger while Adam just bottles it up, not feeling it, before releasing it all in one hateful blow.

Both are forced to deal with Blake leaving them unexpectedly, except Blake left Yang because she loved her, while she left Adam because she no longer could.

Both have anger issues that worry Blake at some point, but Blake chooses to believe in Yang, unlike what happened with Adam.

Yang and Ilia, Yang and Sun:

Look no further than Alone Together for Yang and Ilia. They’re paralleled in the episode pretty heavily, with both getting pinkish eyes over her, both showing how they’ve handled her abandoning them, and both getting extremely real with their confessions over how Blake makes/made them feel.

Sun himself talks about how they feel the same way in regards to protecting Blake. Sun - who we know 100% has romantic feelings for Blake - says this: "I’d do it all again if it meant protecting you. And I can promise Yang would say the same.” He knows they feel the same way about her. Besides that they’re both blonde brawlers who show some chest, have gloves/bracers/whatever, are/can be pretty laid back, and are associated with the sun. Again, similarities should be clear.

Bumblebee and Arkos:

Honestly, I had never seen this myself until it was pointed out to me, so it’s much more fitting that I just quote Allison.

From her post (I once again encourage you to read the whole thing, it’s very relevant):

You remember how I mentioned that Blake and Yang’s relationship is not like the other relationships in Team RWBY (Ruby and Weiss’s relationship included)? Because there’s another relationship in this show it’s a lot like. A relationship with confirmed romantic interest that gets a fair bit of on-screen development in the first three volumes, even. I’m going to show as much as possible as opposed to a bunch of telling, because this shit must be seen to be believed.

Going in chronological order, and also weaker to stronger, on dialogue parallels:

Bumbleby and then Arkos in the Emerald Forest.

Arkos, in a scene with an intimate setting with romantic lighting in which Jaune discloses a shameful personal secret to Pyrrha.

Bumbleby, in a scene with an intimate setting with romantic lighting in which Yang discloses a shameful personal secret to Blake.

Bumbleby, in a scene where Yang tries to reassure Blake.

Arkos, in a scene where Jaune tries to reassure Pyrrha.

And some parallels that aren’t dialogue per se: In what relationship in the V2 dance arc do we see a blond hunter having a heart-to-heart with their partner (one, two, one partner making a deniable expression of interest in going to the dance with the other (one, two), and then the blonde cheering up their partner by donning a white dress and dancing with her despite not officially being her date (one, two)?

Depicted: the answer. Both of them.

I also had a Blcksn shipper tell me once that Yang can’t be interested in Blake because she let Blcksn happen right in front of her at the dance (I like the way she stomps off in those heels). And I’m thinking, “You mean like how if Pyrrha were interested in Jaune, she totally wouldn’t have coached him on how to ask Weiss out?”

And then of course there’s this blatant juxtaposition in 3.11, which I dare you to unsee now.

Seriously though, the big moments for Arkos/Bees come at the same times. It starts with V2C6/C7, then the first half of V3C8, the end of V3C11, and the beginning of V3C12. Jaunedice is the only odd moment out here, otherwise it’s consistent. Pyrrha and Blake both deliberately hunt down and choose their partner in Volume 1, both believe they find the relic at the same time… etc. The similarities are hard to ignore.

Yang and Blake, Beauty and the Beast:

'Beauty’ and 'Beast’ can be used interchangeably with Blake and Yang. Blake has labels assigned to her from birth (her last name, Belladonna and the fact that she’s a faunus) while Yang has physical traits (she’s a beauty and referred to as such in RLR, and her semblance is essentially beast mode) that signify both of them as both characters. And Adam fits in neatly as Gaston.

Here’s a link to Chained Prometheus’s post on the matter. He’s legitimately very well-versed on Beauty and the Beast, his opinion here is very worthwhile.

From Allison: 

Yang, who’s loathed worldwide as of 3.6 and misshapen as of the end of this very scene and generally paid out the nose for her short temper this volume, introduces herself with a roar, attacks a white-fanged enemy in defence of Belle/Blake, gets her right arm fucked up, passes out from shock, and has to be rescued and hauled to safety by Belle/Blake at the end of the scene.

#4. Ecl/ipse

So I’ve gone back and forth on Ecl/ipse (which is Sun/Blake, to be clear, I just come from a part of the fndm where Ecl/ipse is the dominant name) a lot in the last two years. From “It’s definitely going to happen” to “It’s never going to happen” to somewhere in the middle, to where I am now (No hate btw, and I mean that seriously. This is just something I have to address, because for Bumblebee to happen, Ecl/ipse can’t).

Which is… it’s probably not going to happen. I think it’s pretty simple as to why:

If it were going to happen, it already would have. Blake and Sun had two volumes where they spent the majority of their time together; from a storytelling standpoint this is the ideal time to develop their dynamic into a relationship. There’s no better opportunity, really. Especially since Sun has always been a stand-in for her team, a way to push her back towards them, and he’s never been relevant when that’s not necessary. If you don’t believe me, look at how he’s first introduced when she runs away in V1 and how he’s barely a presence in V2 (excepting the one episode where she’s apart from her team, of course) or especially V3. In V6, she (and the show) most likely just doesn’t have time for him, the same way she (and the show) didn’t have time for him in V2/V3. She’s back with her team, what further purpose does he serve? The answer is no purpose, really, because it’s not like he’s going to Atlas (because why would he), so he’ll likely be out of the story for the next few years. Basically they had their chance to make it happen and they didn’t. They had their chance to set it up more explicitly in V5 and they instead focused primarily on Blake’s and Ilia’s relationship.

Look at V4 and V5. In V4 (specifically Chapter 3), Sun is obtrusive and flirty and Blake really doesn’t like it. She’s impatient with him, she even slaps him three times, and generally she’s just not having it. But he gets the hint, he actually backs off in V5. And their interactions are far more positive accordingly. I think Sun realizes by V5 that it’s not going to happen, so he doesn’t end up flirting - at all - in V5, which is unique when compared to literally every other volume. In fact, I think he realized it back in the V3 finale, he was just sort of in denial for most of V4 before coming to accept it in the latter half. And that’s why he pushed Blake towards Yang in the V5 finale. He knows (this is admittedly speculative, but yeah Sun is low-key a bee shipper imo).

y8ay8a also explains the actual faults of the ship pretty well.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is a lot of evidence towards Bumblebee. Even if you’re not looking for it, you’ll see signs of it. I did. Allison did, too. Both of us weren’t really into shipping in general or bees specifically until we saw Volume 3 Chapter 11. And once I started looking for it… there’s just much pointing to it. Which is why I wrote this post. As a guide for anyone who wants to know whether this ship is actually realistic.