#maybe it's because i worked so hard to get the stuff to forge it. and i visibly saw results after equipping it on him

[vampirepuppygirl]

You know, I grew up catholic and never experienced catholic guilt, and it still kind of confuses me

When I went to mass, the readings and the gospel were always just life lessons or stories to make you think, and what it wanted you to think about was usually humility and piety and loyalty and faith and stuff like that

Faith formation was mostly about learning the history of the church and important stories that you should remember, plus prayer memorization

I don't ever actually remember a time where they were specifically like "you must feel guilty about this" or "everyone by default deserves to go to hell and you must constantly prostrate before god to be deemed worthy"

It was "everyone sins and everyone drifts away from god and that's okay because he will never abandon you"

It was "Jesus died for your sins. To liberate you from them so you're no longer beholden to the old way, so you're no longer beholden to original sin, so you can have a clean slate without ceaseless penance"

The sin forgiveness cycle that Catholics kind of get pulled into was always described to me as a liberating cycle. It gives you the freedom to sin and the freedom to make mistakes as you bumble through the blind chaos of life without worrying about perfection or damnation

Even when I went to confession it wasn't just a blanket "don't do it again" it was "think about why that is a sin and let that experience teach you something."

If I know anything about catholics it's that they love rules and they love the pursuit of knowledge, I once had a very long conversation with a priest about why a certain rule was a rule and why a certain sin was a sin and it was a lot more complicated than just "god said so," even if I can't remember the specifics anymore

I don't know, maybe it was my specific diocese or I've just been around a lot of liberal priests or something, but I even had someone tell me basically word for word "As long as you follow the ten commandments and use the seven virtues as a framework to guide you, you're set. Use confession to scrub away the sins you can't avoid and that's it. Nobody is without sin so just do your best and that's all anyone can ask of you."

Primarily, what growing up catholic taught me was just the importance of love

Love your family, love your neighbor, love a stranger, love the Earth, love nature, and fundamentally love yourself. And forgive yourself. And be patient with yourself. Because I was taught that everyone sins and that's okay.

And that's okay.

I was taught that seeking absolution and forgiveness is meant to steer you in the right direction, yes for the ultimate goal of heaven, which was defined to me as Oneness with God. And hell was defined to me not as a multi-tiered demon filled demiplane of fire and brimstone and ice, but simply the state of separation from god.

But it wasn't just about salvation it was also about making the Earth we live in now a better place and they are rules specifically to facilitate good communication and good relationships with other people and yourself, and obviously God (but whatever.) It was always basically let God absolve you of your guilt but don't force yourself to feel guilty if you make a mistake.

I don't really consider myself catholic anymore, mostly because of other people, catholics and protestants who use their religion as a tool to spread hateful rhetoric and become their own personal left hand of God, instead of using their religion to spread love and patience and understanding and forgiveness and tolerance and all of the things that they actually fucking preach. Why y'all throwing stones huh? Y'all ain't without sin. Literally nobody is. That's the point.

But I like what I was taught. I use what I was taught a lot. Technically even if I don't consider myself catholic I still am. I have been confirmed, I could waltz right into a catholic church confess my sins and my doubts and have a long conversation with a priest and boom blank slate once more. There would be penance hoops I would have to jump through but that's literally what happens with every confession, so still

But that's always what confused me about Catholic guilt like

What were you taught?

[rubys-domain]

man. my lyney just dropped 70k on his skill. i think that's the highest skill pop i've ever had on record

[souporsaladnatural]

Transcription of Jensen's full answer from That Part of his and Misha's panel

[Misha laughs, Jensen goes to speak but looks down shaking his head and grinning]

Jensen: “God… [Crowd laughs] Uh, professionally, [Crowd laughs again][...]”

Misha: “And you put that in air quotes.”

Jensen: “[Laughs] Use that term loosely. Uhm, there- there is- uh- there’s- there’s few people that, when the cameras are rolling, you get to um… truly create, moments that aren't on the page. Uhm, and it’s- it’s hard sometimes to find rhythm, and cohesiveness with everyone you work with. Uhh, and when you find the- the rare person that um, can- can, uh, play at a level that… makes you wanna be better, and also it almost is like a- it’s like a high that you get, when the creative juices are flowing and you're- you’re making moments that maybe didn't even plan to be there. ‘Happy accidents’ we used to call them. Of- Of emotion, or, uh- between-the-lines, uh- nuance moments.

And I think there’s a reason that the story of- of Dean and Cas skewed to where it was, was because, uh, I kept- kept being able to have that creative, um, ignition with Mish when- when those cameras were rolling that was uhh- that made me a better actor, uhm, and- and made me wanna be- wanna find that even more. And… and it’s- it’s a testament to not just his, uh, his talent but his- the way he preps, the way he plays, the way he- he uh, entertains, and performs. Um, there’s- there’s just such a uh, there’s such an openness. I say that um, that as- as an actor, you know people have asked me ‘I wanna be an actor, do you have any, uh, advice?’ I say ‘Know your stuff, but be emotionally available to any and everything when the cameras are rolling.’ And that is when you find the magic. And… the magic was always there when Misha would walk on set and those cameras would roll. So I think professionally that was one of the great assets that he brought on a daily basis, that I- that I got to be the beneficiary of.

In fact all- everybody, anybody that got to work with him, if they were available to it, and they noticed what he was doing was- was, you know, so nuanced, um, that it made them better. Um, so I really appreciate that gift of getting to work with him. Uh, the scene where he tells Dean goodbye, uhm, I- I- I blanked in that- in that scene. Because I became an audience member. I just simply was watching this unbelievable performance unfold and I had the best seat in the house. And then it was like my turn to speak and I was like ‘Oh, shit, uhm.’ I said ’Don’t ruin this for him, don’t ruin this for him.’ Uh, so when you get to work with somebody that has that level of talent and that level of expertise and- and- and knows how to- how to utilize performance the way he does, it just- um- it’s just really a gift.

Uhh personally, uh- the- he- he disgusts me. Um. [Crowd laughs] He’s just so dry that the oil never worked. [Crowd and Misha laughs] Buckets, of buckets of oil, it just… No, he- uh- I will say this, he’s- um- he- he’s such a man of- of many talents outside of just the acting field, uh, that it- it does truly disgust me sometimes. When he- in our meet and greet he’s like ‘What kind of hobbies do you have?’ and he’s like ‘Oh, I like to go into the woods and make furniture.’ I’m like ‘No!’ [crowd laughs] No! I see on- He’s like ‘What’d you do this weekend?’ ‘Oh, I went and like forged metal things with my kid-’ No! [Misha and crowd laugh]

Um… he’s such an amazing dad, he’s such an amazing friend, um… and… and uh, I mean this is very self-serving, but uh, it’s- um- he’s- he’s on the extreme short list of people that I would, that I would call, if I had a problem.”

[Misha gets up to hug Jensen, and Jensen immediately retreats to the other side of the stage. Misha hugs him, whispers something in his ear, and Jensen grins and hugs him back. They walk back to their seats]

Jensen: “[whispered into mic] He told me he loved me!”

What in the fuck was in the water this weekend

[Video] [Misha's Answer]

[forgeofthenine]

hhgggg the bachelors in rut was so.. well, hot lol. I remember there being a previous ask about the bachelor's reacting to the reader being turned into a tiefling.

I was wondering, how would they handle said reader going into heat/rut for the first time?

I've taken an unexpected absence from Tumblr the last couple days, between prepping for Christmas and being extremely busy at work I basically had no time or energy. I did, however, write this while half asleep and on the flight to see my family, given the amount of turbulence we had when I finished it maybe even nature wanted me to write more lol. There's luckily still more stuff to come over the Christmas break :)

@swordcreature come get your food-

TW: NSFW under the cut, ABO dynamics, overstimulation, orgasm denial, impact play mention

The bachelors when their partner goes into heat/rut for the first time

Dammon

Dammon is so good at handling any new tiefling issues you might have, even if he laughs a bit at first

"Baby, if you angle your head to the left it'll make getting that top on easier.“

What completely slipped his mind was that you'd eventually develop a heat cycle just like all other Tieflings

As soon as walks into the house after a day of working in the forge the smell hits him

The entire house smells like pure lust, even a single step into the doorway is enough for his pupils to dilate and his throat to go dry

If you weren't already preoccupied, you'd hear the way he thumps up the stairs in his desperation to get to your bedroom

The door swings open with a slam as Dammon stands in the doorway looking half crazed

The sight of you spread out on the bed with two fingers knuckle deep, back arched, is almost enough to send him straight into an early rut

It's only your small whimper of how much it hurts that brings him back out of his haze, suddenly realising how confusing this must be at first

The bed dips as he sits on the side, leaning over you and placing a warm hand on your equally hot face to get your attention

As hard as Dammon is in his pants, he does check you're okay first and makes sure you drink water before he starts anything

It doesn't matter how much you complain or accuse him of teasing you, he wants to make sure you won't pass out on him

Once he's sure you're okay, all bets are off

As soon as he can, he's folding you over yourself and taking things into his own hands, quite literally

He makes sure you get off at least once to the feeling of his rough, calloused hands as he fingers you without abandon

It's only after you've cum once (or twice, or thrice) on his fingers that he'll finally indulge you with his throbbing cock

The feeling of you squeezing around him, whimpering out his name, is enough for Dammon to finally hit his own rut

He can't keep his hands off you, low rumbled praises leaving his lips as he bites at your collarbones

His cock reaches places in you your fingers never could, the flared head and ridged underside making your mind numb with pleasure

The tiefling keeps you there in bed for hours, switching you between positions as he fucks you until you're both exhausted, panting messes

You'll be well taken care of afterwards too, Dammon easily picking up your now sated body and putting you in a nice warm bath

He eases you through your first heat as well as one can, even if he's dealing with an unexpected rut at the same time

Zevlor

This man was your living tiefling encyclopaedia long before you accidentally became a tiefling yourself

Your questions increased after the accident, though, and suddenly Zevlor is answering questions he never thought he'd have to

Such as "does this mean I'll have a heat cycle now? What'll that feel like?" Among others

The question stops him in his tracks because logically yes you would have a heat cycle now, but he can't remember ever meeting someone that wasn't born a tiefling

Zevlor does his best to prepare you for what may happen, and when you finally come up to him one day to tug at his sleeve he can already smell your heat

He's another one that makes sure you're prepared beforehand, but it's much easier with how early he catches on

Once you've had something to eat and drink he's happy to lead you over to your shared bedroom

Zevlors so sweet as he leads you through the beginning of it all, sweet kisses down your chest and gentle touches over your hips

You'll find his face between your legs soon enough, happily devouring you like a man starved

As composed and proper as the paladin is, he can't deny that he'd spend the rest of his life here giving you head if you'd let him

Your reactions and the sweet smell of your heat spur him on, pulling orgasm after orgasm from you with ease

At some point his fingers join in too, the digits and his tongue bringing you to ecstasy repeatedly

It's only after he's made you a boneless, whining mess that he'll finally resurface, asking if you'd still like more

Zevlors pupils are blown wide, cock hard and twitching in his pants, his own rut creeping up on him

Once you give him the go ahead he's already tearing off his own clothes, or what's left of them anyway

He eases his cock into you slowly despite the ample preparation, enjoying the anticipation of finally bottoming out inside of you

Every squeeze and flutter you make around him pulls a low groan from the older tiefling, his hand anchoring itself on your hip

He's gentle with you the whole time, happily restraining the part of him that wants to go rougher, to take you like a madman

Instead, he leads you both to climax over and over again, pulling orgasms out of your needy body

When you've both finally had your fill, his own cock oversensitive and going soft within you, that he finally reaches over for the pitcher of water he set out earlier

Zevlor will, once again, help you to eat and drink a little before he holds you close and runs his hands over your bare skin

It's soothing, easing you off to sleep, Zevlor knows you'll need all your energy to do this all over again tomorrow

Rolan

Despite being an extremely smart man, Rolan often forgets about his own ruts and the fact you'll now be experiencing similar absolutely eludes him

He's quite happy to go about his normal business running Ramaziths Tower and ignoring most of his basic bodily needs

That is, until you collapse while helping him with cataloguing

He'd already known you were feeling unwell, the tiefling insisting you stay close to him for the day so he can keep an eye on you, and he just barely catches you before you hit the ground

The wizard takes in your flushed face and the needy way you paw at his clothed chest, already trying to pull away his layers

A realisation runs through him, you're in heat

Going with the first thought that runs through his head, Rolan sweeps you up into his arms and misty steps you over to your bedroom door

It's a fiddly thing trying to open it with you in his arms, that is until he remembers he can simply summon a mage hand to help

Unloading you onto the bed, he finally lets you pull away his top layers, flustered as the full gravity of the situation dawn's on him

Sure, you two have fucked plenty of times before now, but it's different when your desperately tugging at him like he's the very air you breathe

It's only when you snap at him, asking what's taking him so long, that he kicks back into gear

Unlike the other Tieflings, all thoughts of water or food completely evade his mind

It's not long before he has you ass up and face down, a mage hand holding your wrist together above your head as he thrusts three fingers inside of you

Rolan is just as mean in bed as he is out of it, bringing you right to the precipice before pulling his touch away all together

It hardly matters to him that you're in heat really, he's determined to tease you before bringing you mind shattering pleasure

He doesn't take all comfort from you though, pitying you as tears start to roll down your cheeks, his tail intertwining with yours as he finally lets you cum

Anyone in the tower could've heard your scream as you finally get the pleasure your body craves, and that's just how he likes it

Rolan happily takes you properly afterwards, a hand on your ass when he sinks his hard cock deep into you with a single stroke

His own rut kicked in hours ago, the sheer realisation that you were in heat sparking it

And he keeps you there, for hours, cataloguing long forgotten as he thrusts so deep into you that you swear he's reaching your stomach

He's as rough with you as he usually is, the odd smack laid on your ass, hands near bruising your hips as he pulls you impossibly closer to him

The two of you stay there like that, a tangle of limbs, well into the night

Until neither of you even have the energy to move

Rolan does eventually use his mage hand to get you both water before he pulls your head into his chest and encourages you to try and get some sleep

[gamergirl-niffler]

Taking Care of Haganezuka's Injuries - headcanons

Requested by: @zero-sugar-null

Being a swordsmith's wife is a little difficult, but being Haganezuka's s/o is a whole different story.

He not only gets angry easily but also gets hurt just as easily and of course you are the one to take care of him.

‌Any kind of bruises or cuts annoy him even more than anything else. 

Not because they hurt.... Because they interrupt his work!

"God dammit!" Loud, angry voice fill the forge as a not yet finished sword is thrown across the room. "It's not perfect. I will have to start from the beginning," Haganezuka mutters and suddenly stops at the uncomfortable feeling in his palms. After taking one look at his hands, he can tell what was wrong. He didn't even notice the cuts at first, but they indeed were there. 

So it was time to see you.

‌He is snappy when someone else is offering help.

True. Most smiths hate his guts but still he is one of them, so offering help is something normal, but Hotaru truly hates it!

"Hanganezuka? Maybe you need help?" Someone asks.

"NO! Leave me alone!” He growls in return.

Who the hell they think they are to suddenly offer him help?! Are they looking down on him? That's some kind of joke.

He doesn't need it... Not from them at least. After all he has you.

Any other attempt of helping him ends with an argument. In the end, other smiths stop even trying. 

You are the first and only person he comes to.

At this point, you are pretty used to your husband returning home with his hands hurt in one way or another. Yet it still somehow gets you off guard when in the middle of the day the door suddenly bursts open, and you see a big man in a weird mask while you simply try to enjoy your tea and a day off!

Him showing up isn’t unusual, but after years with him, you know what it means. You put away your nice, hot tea and get up to get the stuff.

‌He doesn't wince or whine. 

Hotaru is just watching you, maybe frowning once in a while, but you don’t really know because of the mask. He doesn't like how it feels when you take care of his injuries, the burning sensation isn’t his favorite, but your touch is great compensation for the moments of pain. 

It soothes the discomfort and immediately makes him feel much better.

Hotaru ALWAYS thanks you.

Each and every time you do this for him, no matter how many times and for how many years. It's a really simple, polite gesture, but it's important for him. 

He is fully aware he isn't the best pick for a husband, yet you picked him for some reason, so it would be only fair to show you how grateful he is.

"Thank you," he says after raising his mask to place a kiss on your forehead and then cheek. 

Hotaru often thanks God for the mask, because your sweet reaction makes even this angry man blush. 

‌Sometimes you scold him.

You understand his craft is important to him, but some days he takes it too far. Getting his hands all cut and bloody, you can't pat him on the head for that!

"How can you do this to yourself? Love, I admire your work and dedication, but you can't keep it up."

He scoffs at your words. "Someone has to make sure you slayers won't fight with bare hands."

"I know that and thank you for this but working so hard is stupid."

“HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT?!” Hotaru quickly gets defensive.

Scolding sometimes turns into heated arguments between the two of you... Ups...

LET'S REVERSE STUFF A LITTLE

You are a demon slayer, so you make sure the village as well as smiths in it are safe. What means: going against demons, what means: sometimes you get hurt.

‌ Information of you getting hurt is one of few things that pull him away from work.

Yes, he is always deep in his work, but the simple mention of you getting hurt makes him drop everything. He needs to know how bad it is? Are you alive? 

So he drops whatever he is doing (even if it means starting from the beginning again) and goes to see you.

‌If it's possible, he helps you himself. 

Haganezuka isn't a master of taking care of others. It's hard for him, but he watched you work so many times, so he follows exactly those patterns. 

He cleans your wounds and wraps them carefully, just like you do with him. 

Also get ready for a kiss on every wound you have, after all kisses make it all better, right?

‌If it's not possible, he entrusts you to a person who knows what to do.

But this process is full of yelling and threats. 

"You better take good care of her! Or I will deal with you myself! She is my wife, remember that!” 

Sometimes even other smiths must hold him in place for the safety of others.

‌He scolds you as well.

That's another thing you should get ready for. Hotaru is your worried husband, so he has a right to do so when his wife isn’t careful enough.

Right after sweet kisses, he will scold you for getting hurt.

"How could you be so stupid!,” He mutters, annoyed. "You should be more careful. You're a demon slayer, not some child with too sharp toy! Being careful should be your priority!"

"B-But..." You try to argue, but you are quickly cut off by him.

"NO BUTS, Y/N,” He snaps at you. "You need to remember about your own safety. Keep other slayers and villagers safe but remember about your own safety too!"

You just sit there and listen, nodding from time to time. It's obvious your husband is worried, and you won’t argue with that. It was understandable, you do the same when it comes to him.

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

In the end, you care about him deeply, and he cares about you even deeper. Each of you try to keep the other safe and provide help and/or comfort whenever it's needed. 

It's just a simple proof of how much you love each other, and neither of you is going to complain. 

Both of you love it so much, actually.

[krazyyyyyy]

Sweet Promises Hyugo/Reader

Synopsis: A vow between two childhood friends to make their friendship last forever...

Words: 1346

Notes: I apologize in advance if my uploading schedule has become a bit funky lately, writer's block is hitting extremely hard right now and with all my WIPS, it couldn't be any more tiring.

But I hope you enjoy this in the meantime <3

Hugging your knees to your chest, you stare in awe at the graceful flight of a bumblebee as it lands on the delicate petal of one of the many sunflowers that were planted in your family's garden. You continued to watch as the little bee crawled toward the center of the flower and started to drink the nectar.

You wish you could be a bee…

To fly around and drink the sweetness of nectar all day with not a worry on their small minds. They didn't have to deal with endless lectures that came from their parents; no worries about table manners or how properly dressed they were at gatherings… it all seemed like a dream to you.

Once the bee had its fill of nectar, it buzzed happily before taking off to another part of the garden, leaving you all alone.

Even with the bee gone, you stare at the sunflower with thoughts running through your head. How did the nectar taste? If the bee enjoyed it so much, maybe you could too–but you might get in trouble if your father caught you doing such an unladylike act… on the other hand, he was busy at the moment. And what he didn’t know wouldn’t kill him.

Slowly, you reach your small pointer finger toward the center of the sunflower. Maybe there would be some leftover nectar from where the bee drank, but then again, you weren’t exactly a bee and had no idea how the whole nectar thing worked.

Just when your finger is about to make contact with the seeds of the flower, the sudden patter of small feet in the grass behind you, along with a voice shouting your name, stops you in your tracks.

“Y/N! There you are!”

Before you could even turn around, a pair of arms wrap around your neck and bring you into a tight hug from behind. They rested their face against the side of their head, giving you a glimpse of their distinctive cyan hair, which you recognized instantly.

“Hyugo? What are you doing here?” You question, turning your head slightly to look at the little boy behind you.

Never letting go of his hold of you, he speaks happily, “Dad said he had some business stuff with Mr. L/N so he said we could go play outside with you!” He finally lets go of you to cross his arms in a pouting manner, “I tried to make Geo come out, but he’s too busy being a grump right now. Something about it being too hot outside for him.” 

You giggle at that, “Since when is he ever not a grump?”

Hyugo laughs with you, “True…but sometimes he’s a little less grumpy when you're around.” The little boy teases you with a devious smile imprinted painted on his face.

“Shut up! He is not”

“Is too!”

It was now your turn to cross your arms and pout, all while glaring daggers at the boy you supposedly called your best friend. He smiled innocently under your intense glare. And instead of forging some kind of apology, he takes your hand in his to try to tug you toward a different part of your backyard.

“Come on, I have something to show you!” The boy tugs endlessly on your clasped hands, but your feet stay rooted in place, still showing signs of annoyance from his recent comment.

“Why can’t you just show me here?” You raise an eyebrow at the young boy as he still determinedly tugs on your hand in an attempt to bring you along with him. If there was anything you knew about Hyugo, it is that he never gave up, an admirable trait…but also an annoying one at the same time.

“Because it’s super special! Now, can we go? Pleaseeeeee?” He pleads with you with puppy dog eyes that you know better than to try to resist.

“Fineeee” You groan, finally giving in to the boy’s pleas. The little cyan-hair boy lets out a cheer of victory before giddily leading you hand in hand toward his desired spot.

He led you to a secluded part of your backyard, where a giant, overgrown oak tree stood towering over the two children. You were confused as to what Hyugo was trying to show you; considering you two would visit this tree anytime Hyugo’s family would come to visit, both of you spending hours on hours climbing the large tree to see if either of you could reach the top–a challenge that remains to be accomplished.

Staring up at the tree you begin to speak “Ok, so what was it you wan–” 

“Wait! First, you have to close your eyes!” Hyugo abruptly cuts you off. 

“Why?”

“Just do it!”

You groan, closing your eyes, shrouding the world around you in complete darkness.

“Okay! Now no peeking!”

“I won’t!”

For the next few minutes, you stand in your spot with your eyes covered, doing your best to ignore every urge that tells you to peek. And just when curiosity was about to get the best of you, you hear Hyugo call out.

“Okay, you can open your eyes now. But turn around slowly!” The boy can barely contain his excitement.

Following what your friend says, open your eyes before slowly turning your body to face where Hyugo would be.

The sight in front of you leaves you more confused than you were just moments ago.

In front of you, Hyugo was down on one knee with a watermelon-flavored ring pop extended out to you.

“Marry me Y/N!” The little boy shouted, his cheeks a small tint of red.

“What?” You were beyond confused, at the young age of seven you barely understood the concept of multiplication nonetheless marriage.

“I saw it in a movie yesterday! It said when you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you give them a ring and ask them to marry you,” His smile widened as he gestured to the ring pop he held in his hand, “This way we can be friends forever!”

Least that made two children who knew zero to nothing about the concept of marriage… 

You looked at the candied ring in his hand. “Really?” You question in disbelief. You had never heard of such a thing before, a way that you and Hyugo could remain friends forever…it sounded almost too good to be true.

“Yeah!” Hyugo cheers. 

“Then yes! I will marry you!” You exclaim, “Let's be friends forever!”

“Friends forever!” 

With that, Hyugo stands up from his kneeling positioning to excitedly gift you the green ring pop. You knew the ring was made of candy, yet you couldn’t find it in yourself to take even a lick of the precious confectionery as you gently slide the ring onto your middle finger.

Hyugo suddenly springs up in realization, “Oh! I also have another one for myself!” He digs into the pocket of his cargo pants, pulling out a wrapped ring pop. Quickly, unwrapping the small treat, he presents the shining blue ring pop to you. “See? It’s blue raspberry, mom said it looked just like my hair!”. 

You marvel at the blue ring pop, “It does!” You both fall into laughter together at the silly comparison.

Hyugo then slides his own candy ring onto his middle finger, but not before giving it a few small licks, savoring its strong artificial flavor. His gaze then lingers toward the top of the oak tree; his devious smirk returns as his eyes shift back to you.

“Last one to the top is a rotten egg!” He shouts to you, running toward the base of the oak tree.

It takes you a few moments to fully register what he says, but when you do you're quick to chase after your friend, who was already partially up the base of the tree. “Come on Hyugo! That’s not fair!”

Neither one of you made up the top of that tree that day.

But you both made a core memory that would stay with you for the rest of your lives…

[nathanielzalexandria]

I love all the headcanons of "Steve is not dumb he's..." Hard of hearing, has poor eyesight, learning disability or his primary language is not English. I particularly enjoyed @dwobbitfromtheshire 's recent headcanon that he's hiding it because his father hates feeling inferior and only Eddie realizes that he is not dumb. But I would like to throw my own hat in the ring.

Steve is not dumb. Actually, he's quite smart and did quite well in school (because his parents would not expect anything less). He just wasn't into nerd culture and everyone just placed their stereotypes and rumours of him being a pretty and privileged rich jock who bought his way out of school but couldn't buy his way into college. Nevermind that he was in the top 10 students of his year and for most of his classes if not topping them and if not he wasn't failing the rest other than one or two science/math-based (rumours say the school forged those marks so that Steve could continue sports) and had a 3.6 GPA. It wasn't enough to get into his Dad's alma mater so his dad dismissed any of the other schools he got accepted into.

He does not try to hide his intelligence from Nancy or the Party, but Nancy had bought into the "Steve is simple-minded " narrative and the like before they got together and failed to realize that they are both in the same AP classes that were full of seniors and in any group or partnered project he more-than-well pulled his weight and had his own insights. So she spreads the narrative to Mike who spreads it to the rest of the party so by the time the events that befan with Dustin asks him for help with his "dog" and developed into concussed in the back of a car while a preteen drove his car, the kids have also bought into parts of the narrative. It doesn't help that he really isn't into the stereotypical nerdy stuff

Even his best friend Robin believed the lie until she worked with him and then got tortured with him by Russians. She eventually realises that he's way smarter in a practical sense than people give him credit for (he did raise himself since he was 11 or so) but does not think of it as stretching into the academic side of his life. She has not stopped calling him "dingus" though.

Eddie on the other hand knows better, which is why when a specific exam was coming up he turned to Steve.

He barged into the Harrington home a day when tye entire party was their.

"Stevie, you either have to tutor me or lend me your notes for this class. I am not failing this class and increasing the possibility of another year at fucking Hawkins."

Mike and Dustin burst out laughing at that before Steve can answer.

"I know you're e bad at that subject, but I didn't realise you were desperate enough to use Steve's notes," Dustin says with that condescending tone that means it should be obvious to Eddie.

Mike snorts at that derisively, "If he even has notes."

"Maybe," Lucas said diplomatically, "there are better options than using Steve's notes?"

Nancy steps up next offering some of her notes and flashcards since she took the class last year/is taking the class, "It's not my strongest subject but if we do a study group I'm sure you won't fail the class."

Eddie stares at the group with growing bewilderment as they agree that Nancy is the best choice while implying that Steve was not. Actually, they were acting as though he was dumb for even asking Steve, which made no sense to him.

Eddie turned his eyes to Steve. His posture by the kitchen island was much more different than when Eddie burst in. He had subtly curled into himself as if to make himself smaller, shoulders tense and a resignation on his face as if he's been through this conversation so many times before.

It was almost as if...

"You guys think that Steve is dumb, don't you?"

There was the type of silence that only comes when the quiet part is said outloud.

"No we don't think Steve's dumb," Robin begins and Eddie can hear the 'but' before she even said it, "But you know he wasn't good at the school part of school."

She continued to ramble on from there but Eddie did not hear any of it. He was too busy reevaluating the group he was with and rechecking old memories and facts to see if there was any inkling of truth to this strange idea that even the older teens should know isn't true.

It took him a moment to find the answer, and when he did he could not stop the derisive laugh that burst out and interrupted Robin's ramble.

"You guys fucking bought into the rumours, didn't you? I expect that from the kids maybe even Johnathan, maybe even Robin because of you became friends after he left school, but not from you, Nancy."

Nancy had that look on her face that she got when she was ready to argue but Eddie steamrolled over it.

"Jesus H Christ! Weren't y'all together for a whole fucking year? How do you not know that he was at the top of his year when you were together? Unless you dismissed that in favour of believing the rumours that his parents paid for his grades and the school wanted to make sure he kept on playing sports?"

He paused for a second waiting for someone to contradict him, but the look on Nancy's face was one of scrambling to defend herself. He sighed at that; she still wasn't getting it and it a sweeping look at the others proved they were lost too.

"Even if they paid off the school he would not have been in the top ten of his year, he would be like Carver and Hagan whose parents paid and their grades were just good enough to get into a decent college without too many questions. And they would not have kept on giving him high grades after he stopped doing any kind of sport in his last 2 years at that dump. Hell if Hargrove wasn't such a fucking beast at sports he would have been told he would have to repeat his senior year with me."

"It's okay Eddie; leave it go." He turned a fake sunny smile with his eyes tightly shut towards Eddie as if to pacify him.

Eddie turned to Steve who had yet to say anything throughout Eddie's diatribe up until that moment. He just continued to robotically make dinner for the party as though nothing was wrong, as though the hurt dripping off him didn't matter.

"I'm not letting this go! They had classes with you, some of which I'm pretty fucking sure were AP classes. If I had the attendance needed I would have graduated last year because of you, Stevie. So excuse me if I'm a bit annoyed that our friends are so blinded by a rumour that they can't fucking see your Salutatorian medal. Hanging. Right. There!"

All eyes except Eddie and Steve's turned in the direction that Eddie pointed at.

And there on the wall, was a framed silver medal with the word "Salutatorian" emblazoned on it. The party immediately burst into chaos amongst each other.

"Now, pretty boy, are you gonna tutor me or what?"

Or it goes something like that, I'm not sure.

[undertheopensky]

Forging Tired

Whumptober Day 26: Working To Exhaustion

Characters: Four, Blue, Sky

Trigger warnings: None

Read on Ao3!

---

Sky doesn’t realise it until after dinner, but Four hasn’t banked the forge fires.

“I’m not done yet,” Four waves at the admittedly intimidating pile of repair work yet to be done. A couple of plates from Time’s armour probably need to be replaced entirely, they have such large holes in them.

“It’s getting real late. Don’t stay up too much longer, you need to get some sleep.”

“Nah, I’m fine. Body’s not tired.” Four flexes one arm and gives him a grin that looks so much like Wind Sky’s eyes cross.

“Maybe not,” they sure hadn’t done much physical stuff today, just run around the village resupplying and gathering information, “but your brain still needs rest.”

This time Four snorts. “The brain is fast asleep, but that’s okay, we don’t need it for this.”

No one asks any more why Four sometimes refers to himself in the third person or plural. At best, he’ll pretend you didn’t say anything, and at worst, he’ll look at you like you’re the strange one. The closest they’ve gotten to an explanation is an offhanded, sympathetic “Yeah, we get it,” when Time first told them to stop asking about his timekeeping, because it was a holdover from a quest too traumatic to describe.

So, slightly weird, probably a Quest Thing, doesn’t seem to affect him day-to-day.

That said Sky’s a little concerned about him working with hot metal with his brain asleep.

“Are you sure? We can wait another day or two before setting out, I’m sure Time won’t mind. We don’t want you exhausting yourself over this.”

Four makes a rude noise, which is out of character enough Sky blinks. “I think I know my limits well enough, featherhead. Besides, forging’s not that hard. I wanna take advantage of actually having all my damn equipment for once, and goddess knows we probably won’t be here long. Our shit needs a lot of maintenance done. Don’t worry about the noise. The forge’s been soundproofed since we were little. Go away and sleep, featherhead, you need it more than us.”

He shoos Sky from the forge, polite but implacably firm.

Sky can’t exactly argue. Four is the smith here, and he knows himself best. If he says it’s fine, Sky will just have to believe him.

And as promised, as soon as the heavy door swings closed, the sounds of the forge muffle to almost nothing.

---

With Sky finally gone, Blue feels the tension ease out of him. Finally, some peace and quiet. He loves his brothers, and he supposes the heroes they’re travelling with aren’t TOO bad, but sometimes he just needs time alone in the quiet with his own thoughts and his own projects. There’s not a lot of privacy on the open road, or in a head crammed full of four distinct people.

Vio struggles with it, too, Blue knows, as he sets up the next few pieces of metal to heat and shovels fresh coke into the fire. But unlike Blue, the nerd is soothed by late nights spent reading or taking the darkest hours of watch, where Blue needs to do things to calm the itch in his brain. Armour and weapons maintenance is great for that - but it’s not always quiet. And waking everyone up with his activities would very much defeat the point.

Then, once he’s got things set up, Blue sits down at the bench with pliers and wire.

The worst thing about Sky’s mail is that the links are an eighth of an inch larger than standard - than literally everyone else’s. Blue had had to make a winding rod specifically for his damn mail, and has to double check every time before starting repairs to make sure he’s pulling from the right patch of spares.

If he had more time, he’d just make him a mail shirt from normal links. Standardise them across the board, and improve Sky’s resistance to piercing claws. But he doesn’t - they don’t - and besides that when this is all over Sky will be going back to his home in the clouds with its stupid mail measurements and its barely-there monster attacks and he’ll have no use for the close-set rings of modern mail and they’ll never see him again -

The forge fires burn hot enough that Blue can pretend it’s the air making his eyes sting.

Mending mail is busywork, stuff to keep his hands occupied while he waits for things to heat. It needs doing, and if he does it here then he can rivet the rings shut properly instead of the temporary road fixes (shit he needs to check Twilight’s mail he knows he put in a patch at one point but doesn’t remember riveting it in, need to do that before they leave) but some things can only be done at the forge. Like the plates of steel he’s got resting to the side, waiting to be turned into a new piece of Time’s armour.

He should probably get started on that actually so Blue puts aside the mail and reaches for his tongs. A lot of this is just shaping, forming the metal to the exact dimensions and curvature of Time’s body, and then adding buckle straps and point anchors so it can actually be attached. This is the loud part, metal-on-metal ringing and echoing in the enclosed stone room and making his vision swim just a little. He has to pause to blink it away. Does his head actually hurt, or is it just more echoes from the hammer?

Doesn’t matter; he’s got work to do. Blue checks the first piece for fit and moves on to the second; best to get this heavy work done before he gets tired. Working the steel cold takes more effort, but makes it less brittle in the end. Kind of important, that the metal sheets guarding someone’s body don’t shatter under a stiff blow, turning them from a defense into a hazard. You can get away with working horseshoes and stuff like metal fittings hot and then quenching them down, but it’s not worth it with plate armour.

Once he’s got the base curve in place, he checks the lines he drew earlier before his vision started to wobble, then hunts down the blunted chisel he needs. This is the fiddly bit. Blue sets the metal down on the wooden block with the groove specifically for this task, lining it up with the drawn lines, and starts hammering out the ridges.

It’s time-consuming, but the raised metal redirects weapons to less vulnerable points. Blue’s seen a sword swing into an arm then slide off into empty air, instead of an armpit or elbow, because of these ridges. They’re useful.

Time didn’t have any, originally. And while he can’t say for sure - Blue suspects that if he’d had them on his armour that first time a moblin got the jump on him, its spear wouldn’t have slid past the plates into his side quite so easily.

Four’s been quietly upgrading it piece by piece ever since.

The vambrace is harder, more of a curve to force the steel into, but he’s long practised at getting stubborn materials to cooperate. Once it’s done, and added to the pile he’s making of Time’s shit, he pulls the pattern steel Red had spent all day folding and forge welding from the fire. Already the basic shape of it is there: the tapered tip, the length of the blade, the narrow throat and tang. Once it’s finished, it’ll be a dagger for Hyrule. His current one has been sharpened so many times it’s thin enough to use as a lockpick, and they want him to have something good-quality to replace it, something that will last him.

(Will last him beyond this time of portals and black blood, because getting new equipment in his time is so, so difficult and they never want him to go without ever again, and one knife isn’t much in the grand scheme of things but it’s something they can do, and they’ll do their goddess-damn best work on it for him.)

It still needs some more shaping before it’s ready to go under the whetstone, though, so Blue tucks it back in the fire and picks up Wind’s knife, the one with the loose hilt. How the sailor expects to get anything done when he has to hold his entire hand at right angles to keep the thing straight Blue doesn’t know. Apparently he’d been stuffing it with fabric scraps to stabilise it, which, great, now Blue has to dig them all out before he can decide if the hilt is at all salvageable.

It doesn’t help that his fingers are a little shaky. Shit. Maybe he needs a water break.

He sets the dubiously-fixable knife aside while he drinks. He doesn’t feel thirsty. Dry-eyed, maybe, and his throat aches from the forge air, but the water doesn’t really help. Still, hydration’s important.

A sudden clank makes Blue drop his cup, water scattering on the floor as he spins. The fire flares - oh. A coal had - split, or settled, and the still-dull blade of Hyrule’s dagger had shifted and struck the edge. It looks about ready to go again anyway, so Blue grabs it - with tongs! He’s not an idiot! - and starts hammering an edge into it.

As the blade flattens out and becomes more knife than bar of metal Blue takes care to bevel off both edges neatly. He flips it, to make sure he gets both sides, then flips it again to even it out. He wants the balance on this thing perfect, and if it takes a bit of fiddling, all the better. That way he knows it’s good. Blue holds it up, eyeing the straightness of the blade from the side, and then down the length of it, and nods to himself, moving to set it. Good. He’ll let it cool a little before heating it again, and -

Blue stumbles. The blade clangs down on the bench he’d meant to set it on gently, spinning away from the tongs and fortunately not hitting any part of him with the still red-hot metal. Fuck, he’d forgotten to pick up his cup. It’s a good thing it’s so hot in here that all the water evaporated off or he might have slipped. Fuck.

He checks the blade - fuck, he dinged it - puts it back in the fire, then picks up his cup to set it back beside the water barrel. The metal handle is painfully hot under his fingers. Although - he could do with more water. His eyes are stinging again.

Blue drinks, long and slow. The water tastes metallic, or maybe that’s just the forge air coating his tongue. It settles uneasily. Doesn’t matter - his stomach will get over it.

He fixes the dent made when he dropped the half-made dagger, hammering until metal fills the gap and then hammering it out even again to repair the edge. He also spends more time carefully squinting at it to make sure it’s still straight, so long that the metal goes dark and cold.

Then back in the fire it goes.

Blue gets back to mail repairs, working rings into place, then riveting them shut with scraps from broken links. He considers, as he works, if the long-handled riveting pliers could be made to fit into their tool pouch. They can’t bring along the whole forge, that would be silly, but this one thing? They already carry the cutting pliers to make links with so it’s not like they need anything else for the rivets, and it doesn’t need heat treatment -

He pinches a fingertip with the pliers and swears loudly, shaking it and resisting the urge to shove it in his mouth - his hands are covered in oil and coal dust. Squinting at it - no real damage - he shakes it one more time and picks up the mail patch he dropped. It stings a little, to apply enough pressure to hold the metal fabric. Actually -

Checking the dagger, he pulls it from the fire and rests it on the anvil to cool. This is always time consuming, heating and cooling the steel to normalise it before the final edge can be put on. Heat it, then cool it, then heat it again; all part of ensuring the blade isn’t brittle and will hold its shape and its edge for as long as possible. It’s familiar in a way so ingrained he can almost touch it, watching the metal change colour. Fading from yellow, through red, down to the still blisteringly-hot but normal appearance of steel.

Blue blinks, and finds himself sitting on his preferred stool, metal still cooling in his tongs. Shit. When did he sit down? He’s wasting time, here. Back in the fire, back to work, fingertip still throbbing faintly.

Half the plates on Time’s tassets got ripped off during the fight with the iron knuckle, which are fiddly and annoying but not hard to replace. Once he’s got them shaped and punched Blue is tempted to just hand the lot off to Time for the old man to stitch them in place. Teach him to get distracted watching Twilight’s sword form. Shit, there’s so many of them, too. Time’s lucky his leg was in few enough pieces that Hyrule and Warriors could put it back together.

Blue hammers out scale after scale. Get the curve right; adjust the tongs, hammer out the part they’d hidden; set the edge, set the ridge, set it aside, and grab the next one. He piles them up on the metal workbench; they’d be less annoying to work with if he could just pile them in a coal shovel and dunk them in the fire to soften them, but even if they’re small they’re still armour and he needs to keep them as supple as possible.

And speaking of it’s time to pull the dagger again. The tongs grab it, fumble it, dump it back in the coals, then grab it agin. Blue is very careful as he sets it on the bench. He has no desire to set his own boots alight. This is the last cooling phase, though, so he can let the forge fire die down. Finally. His eyes itch and ache in the hot, dry air. He’d rub them if he wasn’t - still - covered in forge leavings.

Punch the holes for Time’s tasset scales; set them in his pile to deal with in the morning. Finally get the hilt off Wind’s knife and decide it is salvageable, actually, if he glues in a wedge of cedar to fill in the split that was letting it get loose in the first place. How did Wind even do that? Rewrap it in leather strips and it’ll be done; another job for the morning. When his hands aren’t so shaky. He’s getting glue everywhere, ugh.

…does he need to pull the dagger again? No, wait, it’s already on the bench. Does it need to go back in the fire? …no, he already decided it was done. He reaches to grab it, half-intending to measure it up for the hilt and crossguard, but hesitates at the heat radiating off it. Right. Fresh from the forge. Doesn’t look hot, but definitely is. He’ll leave it for an hour or so.

Blue shakes himself, hard, feeling the pull of it in his neck and his forehead. His head aches, behind his eyes. There’s a fine grey fuzz at the edges of his vision. Right, with the forge fire dying, he needs a bit more light. Where’s Vio’s lantern…?

By the too-pale magical light, Blue works, and works, until there’s nothing left to do but wind more wire into chainmail rings and weave them into the cuts and gashes left by enemy claws and weapons, tamp down rivets and move to the next section until he needs to wind out more rings -

It’s endless and monotonous and he can feel the screaming under his skin finally starting to cool, as the fire burns itself out.

Something they do need, he thinks as he pulls out the temporary patch he’d put in Twilight’s mail tunic, is a store of fully-finished rings. Hammering out their linking points and punching rivet holes is best done on an anvil. Then, as long as they have a stock of scrap wire for rivets (inevitable, they’re constantly damaging mail), the cutters and the riveting pliers, they can do repairs that are just as strong as the original work itself. Once they run out of wire, well, that’s more of an issue. The drawing plate is much too heavy to bring along with them.

Blue seals up the last ring in Twilight’s mail and sets it aside, then hops off the stool to go in search of the metal rods he needs to make wire. He knows they left a whole stack of them somewhere.

In truth, most forging doesn’t require a lot of raw strength. The weight of the hammer and the drag of gravity does a lot of the work, and all you need to do is direct it. Blue’s got more muscle from wielding a warhammer, honestly. The exception, he thinks distastefully, is wire drawing. That does need some force, since you’re dragging a piece of metal through smaller and smaller holes, not stretching it so much as drawing it out longer and longer and thinner and thinner, and of course it’s metal, it doesn’t want to do that.

Blue finally finds the basket of rods on a low shelf behind a huge box of half-finished nails - Red’s doing, surely - and carries it to the draw plate. There’s certainly no moving the thing to anywhere else. It weighs more than he does at least twice over, solid iron plate set into a heavy stone base.

Choosing a rod, Blue hammers out a quick point, feeds it through a hole that’s just a little smaller than its current size, clamps it, and starts to pull.

His eyes burn. His head aches. His fingers sting, all the little places where slips and cuts and burns have piled up over long hours. Without his mind keeping track of eight timers at once, it’s free to focus on the physical, and oh, he feels so heavy -

Blue breathes deep, metal and coal dust and ash, and feeds the wire into the next hole.

---

Sky is unhappy but unsurprised to find the patch of floor allocated to Four empty.

Weak morning light streams through the curtains. It’s just enough to see by as Sky checks that Legend’s unmoving form on the bed is just due to stiffness and exhaustion, not something more worrying, and tiptoes around scattered bedrolls. Twilight cracks an eye as he’s stepped over.

“A’right there?” he checks, voice low.

Sky smiles. “Just seein’ who’s up.”

Twilight grunts and to all appearances goes straight back to sleep. For all he wakes with the dawn on the ranch, he does enjoy his sleep, when he can get it.

Sky empathises but he’s got a mission.

Through the shop windows he spots Wild outside, running through the carefully prescribed stretches that kept his scars limber. Once he was done with those, he’d be all up in Four’s kitchen, eager to make food more complex than could be managed over a simple campfire. Four even had an oven, which Wild had been very excited about.

Still, breakfast will come later. The forge door still stands closed, just as it had last night after Four kicked him out. Moving slow, Sky eases the heavy door open, hoping to find him passed out in a corner somewhere.

Instead Four is sitting upright at the workbench. The winding rod in his hands is familiar, though he’s moving far slower than usual, and his hands shake when he reaches for the pliers.

“Four, have you slept at all?” Sky asks, disappointed.

“Huh?” Four turns to look at him, and there’s a distinct pause before recognition flickers. “Oh, Sky. I’m nearly done with your mail. Or…” He squints at the links on the table. “No, mail’s finished. Spare rings. We’re always running out.”

“Sleep, Four,” Sky stresses. “Goddess - have you been working all night?” He eyes up the frankly ludicrous pile of mending that now sits on the other side of the bench from where it started, separated into neat piles by owner. And Four is still going - slowly cutting rings off the spiral, one by one.

“‘M fine.”

He changes tacks. “Four, c’mon. It’s time for breakfast. Wild will sulk if it gets cold, you know he will.”

Four blinks at him, visibly hazy with exhaustion, and finally, slowly, drags himself to his feet. He looks worse, upright. He’s pale and a little haggard, swaying slightly just standing in place. Goddess. He’s going to be an utter wreck today, and they’re supposed to head out for the Castor Wilds later. Maybe Sky can convince Time to wait until after lunch and Four will revive some after a nap -

The smith’s feet tangle. Sky lunges to catch him -

Four catches himself with a quick shake of the head. “Phew, close one,” he mutters. He brushes past Sky into the rest of the house, steps suddenly quick and sure. “C’mon, Sky,” he calls over his shoulder, “help me keep Wild from dirtying every pan I own, I do not want to do dishes today.”

He still looks distinctly unwell over breakfast, but the shake in his hands, the sway in his step, the dull slowness of his eyes and responses - all that is gone like it was never there. He even smiles and keeps up with the conversation. Sky doesn’t know what to make of it.

(In the back of his mind, though, he wonders.)

[lynxgriffin]

Ive always had this feeling which I call "The dark ending", cause you know, darkness? Dark- nevermind

But bassicly so far every chapter (that being two), has either had the weird or snow grave routes, which over the course of the 5 will have similar routes. Now there will be the actual good ending, unlocked by completing all chapters as normal (and maybe a secret type of ending which unlocks after getting all 7 dark crystals, one for each chapter), but the dark ending will be unlocked by doing the weird routes in ALL 7 chapters in order, starting with one with information being carried on two the next chapters.

Gonna be honest, its probally not an original theory, and Im sure hundreds, probably thousands have already reached the same conclusion.

What that ending is, im honestly scared to think of because of the information and implications given to us about the roaring and stuff, but we all know that some people are gonna want to try kill everything, so Toby of course is gonna want to make us feel bad for doing that. Because its a bad thing, that no one should do, but will do because they can,

And since we can, we have to.

Mmmm, I actually am gonna debate on this one. I don't think the weird route is actually just Undertale's no mercy route version 2.0. I don't think the point of having the weird route this time around will be to teach the same lesson as UT, where completionism and trying to exhaust all possibilities will inevitably distance you from the characters you claim to love. The possibility to kill all monsters in UT was advertised upfront in UT's trailers. The weird route in DR was a complete secret until intrepid players worked hard to find it themselves and share it. This is not a lesson about completionism and emotional distance, this is a lesson about finding secrets, of oldschool creepypastas, about doing things you aren't supposed to be capable of doing.

First off, there is no weird route in chapter one. The differences between being kind to enemies and attacking them are pretty minimal by the end, although that can feed into the larger recruitment mechanic. We also don't know for sure if the weird route will continue with every chapter...there's the possibility that this will only be relevant when Noelle is in the Dark World, considering her penchant for finding weird secrets and glitches in video games. There's also no telling if "weird" means "killing/destroying enemies" every time, or if "weird" can be a more encompassing name for any route that's off the standard path.

And finally...there's also nothing to indicate yet that Toby is being dishonest about there being only one ending. I think it's much more likely that we'll come around to the same conclusion, but are capable of doing so through different paths...the game itself points out that both forging bonds and breaking them are means of gaining strength. It's not about choosing to be kind or cruel like in UT, it's about Kris (and their friends) finding the strength to take control of their own lives. That could be done through following the story as expected, but it could also be done by discovery of hidden secrets.

I don't know what sort of places we'll go with the weird route, but I feel pretty confident in the idea that it won't be the same places that Undertale went.

[escapismblue]

literally blame @neometalsilver for this but here’s how fucking unwell I am about Sonic being Tails’ parental unit.

context: this is using my own timeline of the games/headcanons so yeah. if shit doesn’t register as canon refer to that.

ANYWAY-

Sonic just found a kid when he was 11 while living in the woods and took him in because what was he supposed to do? he’s not a social person, he doesn’t know how to keep friends, but that’s a kid. a scared kid that needs someone to look after him. he doesn’t think he’ll do a great job, but he has to at least provide the kid food and safety. at least until he can figure out what’s best for the kid.

he’s lucky Tails is a genius and can already read and write because he can’t talk. he doesn’t want to. the sound reverberates in his head and makes him sick he can’t talk. Tails is okay with that though. he reads whatever Sonic hastily writes on paper and he learns sign language faster than Sonic had.

food’s already tight. it’s hard to scavenge and Sonic can only steal so much food without locking himself out of every town or village on the islands. he’s already malnourished as hell himself and now he has to find more food.

Sonic eats even less. he has to. Tails is 4, Sonic is 11. he can deal with less food. Tails is growing and even though Sonic can’t run as much because he’s so tired. his metabolism eats through whatever food he manages to eat for himself. his body hides it though. he looks fine and Tails is looking better and the kid is okay and that’s. enough.

Mighty and Ray meet up with Sonic again and Mighty sees Tails and He Knows. because that’s what he did. Sonic doesn’t know what to do when Mighty gives him a look that’s knowing because he doesn’t know what he’s doing and he sure as hell didn’t know he and Mighty were still friends because he doesn’t know what friendships even are.

Sonic doesn’t understand people. he never has. he doesn’t trust people all that much. he can work with people when necessary but that’s… that’s all. people are scary and cruel but god there’s this kid that’s looking up to Sonic and maybe. maybe he should try and believe the world is good because he wants things to be good for his kid.

his kid?

the kid. he’s taking care of Tails but he’s not…

he “borrows” books from the library to read them. to teach himself about the world he’s bared himself from. he reads all the lessons kids are taught. he learns how the world works and then teaches Tails and sure he could just give the kid the books because god the kid is smart but he needs Tails to believe that he is capable.

Sonic needs to prove to Tails that he is reliable. that he’s gonna be there and get them out of whatever they get into. or whatever Robotnik forces them into.

he will do what he has to.

but he’s so scared. he’s not used to people relying on him or being attached to him. he’s so scared of that attachment he wants to run he has to be alone, alone is safe but Tails is there and he’s sleeping and he’s cuddled up to Sonic and Sonic cannot and will not be like the cruel adults that exist just to make his life worse.

when Sonic 2 happens he’s so proud of how capable Tails is. he’s not that nervous, Tails is doing great. sure, he doesn’t love Tails being dragged into stuff like this but it’s okay. it’s okay because Sonic will always be there to take the hit if Tails doesn’t dodge in time. and that’s fine. he’s a kid and learning. he can be clumsy. Sonic’s sturdy anyway.

when they meet Knuckles, Sonic is glad that the echidna seems to take a liking to Tails as a sort of older brother figure and it reassures Sonic that Tails would still have someone. Knuckles is not like Sonic, he is not going to take care of Tails like he does, but he's a protective figure, Sonic doesn't have to worry as much if he needs to be alone. which god he does. his skin is itching.

he loves Tails but he is itching to run.

when they move away from the islands, Sonic is quick to make sure Tails has shelter. he forges whatever he has to so that everything can be in Tails' name. both house and workshop. all of it. they're Tails', not Sonic's. Sonic can't have a house. he's been living in the woods so long that living in a house is so scary to him. he can't.

not yet.

when Shadow dies, Sonic mourns. death is not a foreign concept to him, but Shadow's sacrifice strings. Tails falls ill not long after and Sonic takes care of him. Tails has a high fever and in his delirium calls Sonic dad.

dad.

dad.

Sonic is aware of his own mortality, he almost died when he was 8/9. Shadow's death doesn't make him realize he will die someday, but it along with that keyword makes Sonic realize that when he dies he will be orphaning a child. his death will affect other people. he's not just some kid in the woods anymore. Tails will mourn like he does when he does.

Tails will be alone again when Sonic dies.

it doesn't matter how many of Sonic's friends take on a role in Tails' life, Sonic will be abandoning the kid in death. the thing he promised himself he wouldn't do. but what can he do? he's going to die young. it's only a matter of time.

he weeps amongst the trees. he is helpless to do anything besides prepare the kid.

things go on as normal. more adventures, more fights, more injuries, more fussing. it’s as normal as it can be. and sure maybe in the back of Sonic’s head he’s constantly trying to prepare Tails for when his only parent is going to leave him, but it’s minor. it’s fine.

when Sonic finds Emerl on that beach he knows the feeling that fills his heart. he knows that he’s gone from one kid to two.

everything about raising Emerl is rushed and a little different, but Sonic’s never had a normal experience raising a kid. weird is his home base.

there are a couple moments that get Sonic’s anxiety pumping. when Eggman says he has both Emerl and Cream hostage Sonic can feel the fear fill his veins, but of course Emerl gets both himself and Cream out of the situation. that’s his kid.

and it warms Sonic’s heart when he sees Emerl and Tails interact. something about Emerl brings out the childlike qualities of Tails and it’s endearing and so so heartwarming.

but nothing stays good forever.

Sonic had a choice. the world or his child. it wasn’t fair. but he couldn’t let Emerl destroy the planet. if only because he couldn’t force Emerl to deal with that amount of guilt. that wouldn’t be something the robot could live with. he prayed that he would be lucky and that Emerl would survive but…

“This was Gerald's final program... Should a weapon go out of control, the weapon will terminate itself...”

stupid fucking Gerald programming a self-destruct into a being with thoughts and feelings. stupid fucking Eggman gloating as if he won. as if this was something this was something to celebrate. stupid fucking Robotniks. stupid fucking world.

he didn’t regret the burning hot rage that took his over. he didn’t regret regret breaking Eggman’s jaw. he didn’t regret letting the dark energy blind him. he was blinded by tears anyway.

and god, Tails sounded like such a kid when he asked if Emerl would come back if the world was peaceful and Sonic couldn’t crush a kid’s hopes. especially not his own. his only. Sonic could barely keep it together as he agreed with Tails.

he made Tails stay the night at Vanilla’s house, too heartbroken to comfort the kid. tomorrow. he would do it tomorrow. when he had time to grieve on his own first.

turns out grieving was fighting with Shadow until they were both crying. Shadow lost his last connection to the Ark and Sonic? Sonic lost just about the worst thing he could’ve.

it wasn’t fair.

Sonic didn’t mean to be so much more protective of Tails going forward, hell of any kid he interacted with, going forward he just… he could deal with a lot of things. he had been through hell and back. pain was something he had learned to accept as part of his life. hell, maybe part of him would be lost without it. but he couldn’t lose Tails. for god’s sake if he was doomed to an early grave why was it so damn hard to have his kids outlive him?

he noticed Tails starting to doubt himself and that’s the last thing he wanted, Tails was so much better than him in so many ways, but he couldn’t… he couldn’t get over his fears.

was having Tails alive more important than him having a good self-esteem? Sonic was so lost. he had no frame of reference. Sonic had never had parents. no one to look after him. to show him what to do or what not to do in raising his own. he wanted Tails alive but he didn’t want Tails to have a miserable life. how was Sonic supposed to show Tails that he was more than capable without risking the kid’s life?

he didn’t know.

he tried but everything kept getting worse and Sonic didn’t know what to do and-

6 months of torture gave him plenty of time to think. too much time, really.

Sonic thought about plenty of things. but his mind always went back to golden fur and blue eyes. was Tails okay? sure, Sonic ran away a lot to do his own things, but never this long. had anyone taken up on taking care of Tails? did Tails blame himself? he shouldn’t. he’s just a kid.

safe to say he was not happy when he heard that Tails was missing when he got back. he was already upset with his boyfriend, and now his kid was just alone in an active war zone. Sonic knew Shadow had probably watched the kid from a distance but that wasn’t enough. Tails was 12 for fuck’s sake!

Sonic kept up the smiles, of course he did, but it only reinforced that Tails would be alone when Sonic actually passed and that… maybe Sonic was more mad at himself than anyone else.

or maybe the cruel workings of Fate. but no… that couldn’t be it. Sonic had defied fate before. but…

he didn’t know what he was mad at anymore. it didn’t matter.

Tails was in his arms again and maybe, just maybe, Sonic would teach Shadow about parenting.

just in case.

[shera-dnd]

Alright I have eaten my mato peach and have gained the amazing power to do literary and thematic analysis of any piece of media, no matter how fucking stupid

and as the first activation of my ability, I'm turning it towards the stupid ecchi reverse slave harem manga, Mato Seihei no Slave (or Chained Soldier if you're not as much of a fucking weeb as I am) in order to prove that this is actually thematically consistent and surprisingly well written

(long pause as I let all my followers block me and leave)

but first to address the two shuuki in the room

WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN YOU'VE BEEN READING AN ECCHI SLAVE HAREM MANGA YOU FUCKING WEIRDO?

Look... LOOK! It's not what you think!

Okay so like a lot of anime and manga recently (primarily isekai) have been including slavery as a thing in their world building, and tho I'm not gonna claim that's the only thing it ever gets used for, it's quite clear that a lot of people are only using that as an excuse for kinky slave play BDSM

and then forget that that stuff comes with like... you know, the horrific implications of slavery as an institution

WELL GOOD NEWS! The author of this manga does not give a shit about disguising his femdom slave play kink as commentary on slavery, this is literally just a BDSM thing and it never pretends to be anything else

...besides, a woman has needs, okay?

WAIT SHOULDN'T THIS MANGA TRIGGER YOU? ISN'T YOUR TRIGGER THE LITERAL CENTRAL GIMMICK OF THIS?

YOU WOULD BE CORRECT! By all logical means I should not be able to read this manga without having the most viscerally negative response possible... except that I don't

I'm not gonna pretend that I know why or how this is working

But I read Monster Musume back in 2015 and it somehow helped me get over my fear of spiders, SO WHO KNOWS maybe niche ecchi manga are how I get over my mental blocks

I would rather it wasn't, but I'm having a hard time proving otherwise!

oh god we're already 400 words in and I have only just finished the preamble. Why am I like this?

Okay okay let us get started as I'll give a detailed explanation as to why Mato Seihei no Slave is about the bonds between people, the ways we bring out the best in each other, and what makes a good dom- ahem I mean leader... what makes a good leader

So for those who don't know the central conceit of this story is that this is a world where women get super powers and men get... to be stay at home husbands

Our protagonist is male wife supreme, Yuuki Wakura, whose main hobbies include cooking, cleaning, and day dreaming about one day becoming a hero

unfortunately for our adorable little boy toy he immediately finds himself falling through a portal into actual literal hell (technically it's called Mato, but like it's just hell) where he's promptly attacked by several giant monsters

BUT GOOD NEWS FOR HIM! He's being saved by a hyper competent hot woman in a uniform (lesbians going "it should have been me!" count should be at 1 by now)

BAD NEWS FOR HIM! She's alone and soon they both get overwhelmed because she can't go full apeshit murder mode while protecting his soft boy ass

Thankfully there is a way for her to save him still, it just requires some collaboration from him

("it should have been me!" count: 2)

And here we are at the main fucking gimmick. The reason why all the ecchi shit happens, the silly excuse for why this bad bitch decides to keep this guy at her side

Chains of Eternity: Slave

Kyouka Uzen (the ultimate girl boss) can forge a contract with someone to bind them to her will as her slave. This will bring out their hidden potential and allow them to fight by her side, turning them into a super powerful killing machine at her command.

In exchange once the task is done she must give a reward to her slave based on the difficulty of the task and the slave's "latent desires"

So yeah, Kyouka doesn't get to decide what the reward is, Yuuki doesn't get to decide what the reward is, only Kyouka's magic can decide what the reward is. Which basically just means the author gets to insert whatever horny fuckery they want into this

Rewards vary from giving him head pats, offering him treats, giving him a back massage, kissing him, to...

well this is a femdom series for a reason

(I think the "it should have been me!" count is at like a 4 or a 5 now)

and now I'm gonna analyze the ever loving shit out of that ability and how it is the crux to all the themes of the show and actually informs us on the nature of Kyouka's character

no, I'm not kidding

Okay so let me just break down what Slave does here from a kink point of view. It basically allows Kyouka and Yuuki to enter into a BDSM relationship where the dom always knows what the sub wants, while still being able to surprise the sub with her actions. She gets to constantly keep her sub beneath her, while also being magically required to reward him and give him aftercare once she's done

Those two have entered a ridiculously healthy BDSM relationship by forging a magical contract that lets them skip all the negotiation bits and go right to what the audience wants to see

(yeah it's gonna be impossible to track the "it should have been me!"s from this point on, so just try to keep your own count at home)

This is also the author's way of like having his cake and fucking it too

Because that way we can have Kyouka as the baddest bitch to ever live AND have her do embarrassing stuff with Yuuki without ever breaking character. In fact the loftier her goals and the more tragic her backstory the more reason she has to accept the reward mechanism as the price to pay for this power

It's also why Kyouka is easily the most developed and interesting character of the manga, to the point that Yuuki is more a supporting character to her arc

This brings us back to those three themes I mentioned waaaaay at the start

Starting with: "how we bring out the best in each other"

For starters it's quite obvious how that works with Yuuki. He wants to be a hero in a world where he should not be able to have super powers, and in comes Kyouka who gives him both the power and the purpose to achieve that goal

But this also extends to literally everyone in Unit Seven and beyond

We have seen the ways in which Kyouka has helped all of her team mates grow stronger and overcome their past traumas, some times by the sheer confidence and kindness of her presence

Hell we see one of her team mates unlock a rage mode power up because someone said Kyouka was a bad leader

and there's even another team leader who straight up evolved her powers into a new stronger form just out of sheer love and respect for Kyouka

This culminates in the development of Lending. The ability to let others take Yuuki's chain and use him in combat

and like I'm not stupid, I'm not gonna pretend this isn't primarily an excuse to have different hot women give Yuuki rewards in ever hornier scenarios, with the added benefit of being able to design cooler monster forms for him

and I mean... those are some really cool monster forms

But that's besides the point

The point is that this also pulls double duty by allowing Kyouka and Yuuki to constantly empower all of the people around them and help them through their character arcs

From helping people stand up to abusive family members, to allowing others to gain the confidence they need to grow, to just decking an asshole real hard in the face

And not once does Yuuki steal other's glory. The final confrontation and the catharsis is always delivered by the person who is being helped. Because lover boy here is the supporting character in his own story

This all leads neatly into another point: the bonds we have with others

DAMN RIGHT MOTHERFUCKERS WE'RE GETTING CHAIN SYMBOLISM IN THIS BITCH!

Oh are we getting a message about how we're all links in the chain and the stronger each of us gets the stronger we all get? FUCK YEAH

Are we getting chains as a representation of a mutual bond of trust and respect, and get to see those bonds be used as a literal weapon to defeat a foe who is antithetical to that idea? ABSOLUTELY

TEAM WORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK, BABY!

But wait there's more! We got a character who can copy other people's skills and she also grows like crazy with each person she bonds with

We got teams of heroes besting villains who refuse to work with anyone

THAT'S THE SHONEN ANIME GOODNESS WE'RE HERE FOR!

(I mean this is technically seinen but who gives a shit, right?)

And that brings us finally to the third point, the series antagonists, and Kyouka's main goal

What makes a good leader?

So far we've focused on Kyouka and her ability, Slave, and how that allows her to help the people around her grow and encourages her to fight on the front line where she can be a shining example for all around her to follow

She treats everyone around her with trust and respect, even the boy who is literally her slave, and is by all metrics BEST GIRL!

Now all of that good shit doesn't mean much if we don't have anything to contrast and compare to

Enter Ren Yamashiro

gonna give y'all a second to simp for a bit before I continue

done staring at her legs? good. Anyways here's why she's awful!

Ren is the commander of the Anti-Demon Corps and easily the strongest character in the setting by a wide margin

She's also self centered, corrupt, physically AND emotionally abusive, horrifically petty, and likes dogs in the exact same way Makima from Chainsaw Man likes dogs

This is, of course, perfectly translated into her special ability, because this author loves having abilities inform characters

So not only does she have some absurd broken power that she has the power of anime and buddha on her side, BUT the way it manifests is as kanji covering her eyes whenever she activates her skills

Quite literally making so all she can see is her own power and greatness

AND her main use of her powers is to fly around, so she can be ABOVE everyone else

This isn't fucking subtle, but it sure as fuck gets the point across

This is a trait that Ren shares with ALL the main villains of the series. Each and everyone of them is blinded by their own greatness and is constantly looking down on others

Ren is just the least subtle. I guess they had to compensate for the fact that she isn't an actual literal evil god

And so all of those are put in opposition to Kyouka, whose goal is to overthrow Ren, become the new commander, and destroy Mato for good

The woman whose power makes her dependent on others, but that allows her to bring out the best in everyone she meets

A power that grows stronger the more people she helps and the more people help her in return

Standing up against all these people who refuse to rely on anything besides their own strength

That is why Kyouka is the shining example of a good leader!

Now here we are 2k words into this (OH DEAR GOD WHY AM I LIKE THIS), so what was the point of this journey?

Is it me recommending this manga to people and claiming it's genuinely "peak fiction"? OH GOD NO

This thing has so many issues and literally all of them stem from the fact that this is an ecchi harem manga story first and foremost.

Titillation always comes first over anything else, several of the smaller side characters eventually devolve into just different flavors of wanting to dom Yuuki, and that's not even going into all the pet play stuff featuring Ren

This is an unashamedly horny manga with a very specific brand of kink in mind and when I started reading it that was legit all I wanted out of it

But then it refused to be JUST that. It had an interesting story, fun action scenes, compelling characters, and a surprising amount of thought put into its themes

It's not a manga I'd recommend to most people at all, and it requires a considerable amount of tolerance for some capital H Horny anime bullshit

But honestly? If you're cool with that and want a fun and a little unhinged story you can do way worse than this

So what else is left to say except

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME!!!!

[mychlapci]

https://www.tumblr.com/mychlapci/754100660611563520/elita-1-and-megatron-having-a-birth-off-where-they

This right here is just too good! Earthspark Megs and Elita are my favessss. I can’t believe everyone just ignore thing beautiful idea. I’m just to shy to talk about then being bred till they can’t walk. Fuck it!

The two are pretty competitive I’d be cute if they just have small bets and competitions, like who can cum the most or how many dildos can they stuff in their valve, just things two buddies do. Elita would suggest a breed off as a joke, but when Megs agrees saying that it’ll barley be a competition for him. He’s bigger, has thicker thighs, wider hips and a big fat valve. But Elita is determined! her valve looks like it belongs to a princess but really its super stretchy and really strong, it’s like her forge is made for drinking up tons of cum.

Optimus would make a fantastic stud. Op not knowing about the twos little bets gets thrown head first into the deep end. Optimus has always had a crush on Elita and Megatron but not wanting to ruin the friendship they’ve had for years his insecurities got the best of him and Oppy decided he wouldn’t make his feeling know. That is of course till his crushes are rubbing their wet pussies on his thighs. Both Elita and Megs whispering dirty promises in his audio receptors occasionally nipping and licking his antennas, saying how they are going to give him sooo many babies and how they want him to make them mommies.

In typical Op fashion he rises to the occasion and will fuck them both through the floor. For Megatron it’s easier to convince Op not to tire out, constantly goading him into another overload, telling Optimus how he knows he’s always wanted to breed him and to not disappoint him. Optimus is tired but he’s not gonna let Megatron win! Op is competitive too damnitt. When Optimus has Elita under him he’s cumming early constantly but without stopping, he’s always loved her so much she so strong and dominant. What a treat it is to have her being so submissive and letting him rut into her like a mad animal. Honestly Optimus feels that way about both of them, he’s pretty sure he died that morning because this is heaven, Op thought for sure he’d have to take both of their spike before he’d even get to do this.

Elita is smaller so getting her to bloat up with his cum is super fun to see. It only took Optimus 3 overloads to make it look that way. Megs off to the side witness her Belly jiggle and grow with Optimus relentless pounding makes him antsy. He wants that too! He wants his tummy to bulge like that! His womb is pretty full but she already looks pregnant! He starts making a show of touching himself to get Optimus attention he’s not going to lose just yet, it works and Elita too fucked out to stop him. Maybe a break will be ok. Mounting Op mounting him again makes Megs squeal, Op is being so much more rough now. The Prime doesn’t seem like he’ll ever quit. This time around Megatron doesn’t have anything smart to say, all he can do whimpering and squirm like a bitch. His big spike slamming in and out of his full forge is just too good. Optimus asks is Megs has anything to remark and Megs just squirts with his latest overload. It take Megatron tummy longer to start to show how full he is but the subtle strain he feels are his stomach stretches with each thrust has him pissing himself all over again. Elita has regained consciousness and is begging Op for his attention again.

After many more rounds Optimus get to have two of his favs of either side of him. Their warm cum bellies pressing on his sides. He tries not not to thinks too much about his thoroughly fucked mates cause he’ll just get hard again. Optimus cum is so potent those two are definitely pregnant with more than one baby. Who has more, only time will tell

Months later Megs and Elita are fit to burst. Their bellies are the only things that have gotten bigger, Megatron on Elita’s big milky tits have come in too. They like to squish and squeeze their breast together to seduce Optimus to give them transfluid, that on top of their bellies bumping each other works every time on him. Op at this point even wonders if there’s a point retracting his spike.

Finally when the babies are here Megatron gives birth to two twin chunky sparklings. Megs is glowing with pride and pretty sure he won. Elita gives birth to gorgeous triplets she’s super smug. Optimus finally finds out about their little breeding game, he’s not upset because it’s just so them. Megatron is so pissed he lost, he knew he could’ve fit more cum in his womb.

Best 2 out of 3?

aughhh you understood the assignment perfectly. Elita and Megatron would have an easy time seducing Optimus into their competitions, he's basically a melted puddle of heat when he has Megs on one side and Elita on the other, toying with his finials and rubbing his panels. You can't blame him for breeding them both <33 He's a good stud who knows how to treat mommies, after all.

Of course Elita wins, with three cute little sparklings hanging off of her, but Megatron insists that since his twins are big and chunky, he would've won if the competition was about size. Optimus is just happy to have five babies, and two wives that are just waiting for the right opportunity to get knocked up again <33

[radioactivedragonbones]

Back In The Ol' Days [2014] we had the punk/nerd AU... but I have my gripes with the PNAU; it feels outdated to me. In 2014 I ate that shit up, but it's 2024 and the rampant micro-trends have me re-thinkin modern Hijack portrayals...

So here I am to propose a new PNAU: Grunge X Emo.

Hiccup as a cozy grunge kind of guy- basically just classic comfy casual clothes but with earthy tones, ripped up jeans covered in motor oil stains, and loose flannel shirts over worn-out tees.

Jack as a casual emo kind of guy- Skinny jeans with rips (often on the end of the legs cause they annoy them when they're too long), tight band tees, and his classic hoodie he can disappear into the shadowy hood of to sulk.

Elaboration ⬇️

I think it could be fun to explore the way Hiccup has a ton of hand-me-downs and spends a lot of time patching up old clothes, or adding custom painted patches to his bags. Maybe he knows how to sew just from patching/mending. I like that in the movies we see him doing bith heavy work in the forge, and having gentle hands as an artist. I think he'd be good at a ton of different diy skills and put them to practical use with his wardrobe.

In canon, Hiccup does have a lot of leftist and punk ideology; The Edge is literally equal-ownership equal-imput everyone else just decides he runs the show. And he literally changes the dominant mindset of the society he lives in to better the life of both his people and the ones they've been at war with for decades. Hes pretty punk... but I don't see him going so far aesthetically as to be a full Spiky Punk TM. He's always on the move, working on something, or chilling outside with Toothless, so I think a more casual comfortable style suits him. Though I do think he would like jackets with extra straps and buckles on the pockets and stuff, and maybe a good belt bag + leatherman combo. Totally the type to always have a pocket knife. He'd paint himself patches and slap a few of em on his bags, coats, maybe over that burn hole in his jeans that's been annoying him. He'd favor practicality over aesthetic, but he still has a sense of style. As he gets older he probably leans into the edgier style, wearing more black and red combos, more strappy belts/coats/bags, and even gets a few tattoos. But I do see him as a grungey earthy engineering guy with comfy, often oversized silhouettes.

Jack I could see being super impulsive and latching onto pop culture; something emos were notorious for. I, personally, was clamoring for a branded tee shirt the moment I deemed a band good enough to youtube->mp3 to my ipod. I could see Jack doing that kind of thing, and latching onto this misunderstood invisible-yet-visibly-different identity. He probably favors dark blue, brown, and black. Deffinitely the type to get on the colored jeans trend when it hit. Maybe he even doodles little swirling patterns on his clothes when he's bored- an adhd habit I know all too well.

Without being, yanno, dead, Jack's Different Look would probably come just from him wanting to express himself. He feels isolated and finds it hard to make lasting friends because when people *do* notice him, they tend to see him more as a silly little jester than a person worth getting to know. He copes with humor and trying to get attention every now and again but ends up with a closer knit group of oddballs. He's good with kids, of course, and tends to take on a cool-big-brother to anyone in need of one. All of this playing into this casual and easy-going but edgy, kinda emo look. He probably listens to sad emo music while sitting on a roof, staring at the moon, contemplating his purpose in life. He pretty much does that in his movie so it isn't much of a stretch lol.

Anyways, feel free ro give your 2 cents and build onto or off of this as you please, I'm just brainstorming I guess. Thinkin aloud... visually. I tend to like psychoanalyzing characters and it's interesting to me to think of Hic & Jack's canon portrayals and what they would mean in a modern-human AU.

[elliebyrrdwrites]

This is a continuation of THIS POST. It’s now dramione.

I don’t belong here.

But, right now, I’m covered in ants. If you’ve ever been attacked by ants, you’d understand that I’m not going to make a lot of sense, because when ants keep finding their way onto you, you talk for only a few moments before you’re jerking your entire body, before your hand slams down on a piece of skin where you’re certain you felt the little fucker crawling all over you. Sometimes, you’re wrong, it’s just a bit of Formication induced by a previous incident.

So maybe ants are not crawling all over me. It doesn’t matter. There was one, at some point and now I’m left jerking and twitching and slapping myself on my arm, my leg, my neck.

It’s just that I’m not supposed to be here. My parents forced me to go back into teenage hell after spending the summer molding me back into the good little blood bigot they had been grooming my entire life. Only, they didn’t do it with their usual doting nature. No, they know that I’m not buying that shit anymore, it makes me sick.

They sent me away to a facility that is designed to make boys into men. The kind of place that strips you of your entire will, your spirt, they break you is what I’m trying to say. They break you into something fragile and slowly, they start to add shrapnel made of nails and bolts and they put you and all that hard, jagged stuff into a bit and then they put you and all of those packed in bits of metal into the forge.

You burn and you burn, because you’re in hell and you can’t breathe, you can’t even cry or scream, you just close your eyes and grit your teeth until they start to crack and you fucking die. Okay, so I think I probably died and I’ve been resurrected into something that is ancient and jaded.

And when I left the facility, I was a Good little asshole all over again. My father’s plans are right back on course, and I am forced to return to Hogwarts and finish my education.

“It’ll look good for your political career,” father says and I remind him that I really never planned on getting into politics. He just gives me one of those disgusting little smirks that tells everyone that it isn’t up to me. It’s up to him, everything is always up to him.

Mother just plays along and nods her little docile head and I’m reminding them that we lost the fucking war, that I would be humiliated and then my father chuckles some kind of condescending type of chuckle that causes my bones to grind together, my eye to twitch, and he says to me,

“Draco, son.” [Insert stupid condescending smile here.] “That was just a little bit of a distraction . We are now in the process of a plan that has been in the works since before you were born.”

I say to him, what do you mean? But father just shrugs and looks down at a drink in his hand. Carbonated water. Malfoy's don’t drink, we don’t smoke and we don’t drink.

So my father looks at his drink, he smirks and shrugs and writes me off before nodding to his loyal wife.

“You better hurry up before you miss the train,” She flicks her wand and my trunk appears at me feet, fully packed and I kick it because what the fuck.

My toe is aching, the second toe is longer than the first and it’s probably broken and sprained and I’m limping away as a house elf levitates my trunk to the front door.

“Don’t forget to write!” My mother calls and my response is a single finger tossed over my shoulder before the door slams shut behind me.

I miss the train, anyway.

Which is how I ended up belly crawling out from the space between the roots of the Whomping Willow as it vomits me out like it’s giving birth and I’m getting attacked by ants and praying to fucking Salazar Slytherin himself that I won’t get knocked in the head by a rogue branch set on a course of death and destruction.

By the way, guys, lovely thing to put on the grounds of a fucking school.

I finally roll out of the way of an angry branch that I swear will one day burn, when I realize that my trunk is still back in the fucking run down shack in Hogsmeade.

And really, that’s fine because I don’t care. I don’t fucking care.

I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be crawling my way back into this hell. I just left hell. And I entered that hell from a hell of a different kind.

Life is just different levels of hell and perhaps each one is a test. Or maybe I already died and this is hell or I’ve been brought back from the dead, I don’t know. But my point is, I am not like the rest of the prisoners here. I’m not like the rest of the prisoners anywhere I go because I never belong.

Wherever I go, I do not belong.

But I finally crawl myself away from the death tree, and lumber towards the castle looming ahead, the castle where we all died, maybe I died. Maybe everyone died. Maybe nobody died. I don’t care.

The point is, I don’t care.

I shouldn’t be there.

And I’m only ten feet away from the Greenhouses when I hear a voice.

The voice is feminine and frantic and she’s not actually talking to anyone. Because the closer I get, the clearer it becomes that there’s a girl, no a woman, standing against the wall of one of the greenhouses and she’s whispering to herself, swearing and muttering nonsense.

The voice is whispering but not to me. Because I don’t belong.

Her silhouette is all baggy robes and messy hair and she’s starting to pace and take deep, calming breaths. Shes shaking out her hands and rolling her shoulders back and then my foot falls flat on a twig that snaps and she inhales sharply before,

“Malfoy?” Granger.

The point is, I don’t belong here.

The point is, this is the last person on earth I want to see and in the last place I want to be.

And the point is, she is the first person I do see.

And the point is that the second I see her face come clearly into view, is the second I feel an ant on my cheek, near my eye.

The point is that the first time I see Hermione Granger after the war, I slap myself in the face due to a bout of Formication.

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

I saw an ask about whether you could do a remake of F/SN in the style of FF7R and I agreed with the responder's take on the matter but I wanted to bring my own two cents in, because a lot of people when they think of "sequel", they think of the kind of sequel like Shrek 2 for instance. Mechanical sequels, where one follows directly after the other in terms of time and plot. Shrek 2 happens after Shrek 1. It's simple stuff, and this makes the vast majority of sequels.

Rarely however do we talk about thematic sequels, and I don't mean the idea of a spiritual successor (although, personally, some do count). Often times a spiritual successor is not in direct conversation with its predecessors, but often fits in a more referential or sometimes even reverent position. Many times spiritual successors aren't even in the same franchise; this is how you get games like, for example, Signalis. For an example of what I mean, let's look at the Silent Hill trilogy.

OH YEAH BABY ITS THE FUCK BLOOBER TIME OF THE POST but no really, Silent Hill 2 is often not considered a sequel at all, it's often considered a standalone entry into its franchise and while there is a lot to be understood and appreciated from the game by itself, it's not meant to be standalone. There's a 2 there. It's in direct conversation with Silent Hill 1. Part of why Silent Hill 2 worked so well for so many people is the fact that James' journey has a twist to it. It mirrors Harry's for quite a long time on purpose, before revealing that this was a trick!

Silent Hill 3, while being a mechanical sequel to Silent Hill 1, also does this. It sets itself up where it seems like its going to follow the same path as Silent Hill 2, playing along the lines of guilt, before nope! Sike! It's Silent Hill 1 baby, except we're not here to feel guilty, it's time to get revenge and end the nightmare and kill God. It's a trilogy, and the works complete each other more when combined with each other.

Fate/Stay Night is a lot like that. It's a bit more obvious in terms of what it's going for in that it is one work instead of three, but given the amount of discussions about which route is canon and what not I assume a lot of people missed it. This is why Hollow Ataraxia is the way it is. Which route is canon? Fate/Stay Night is canon, because these are NOT three standalone routes that can be enjoyed separately. They have their own merits, but they're meant to be interpreted as a package, which I understand is hard this game is really fucking long y'all.

The game disguises this by having the routes branch from each other in a pretty similar way to a normal visual novel, and presents them as a result of your choices rather than as a cohesive unit. The game also does kind of giveaway the game though by not letting you play the UBW route (with one very minor exception that leads to a bad end) or the Heaven's Feel route early. There's an order to these, you must stick with it.

These routes are, obviously speaking, thematic sequels. There's no need for the Heaven's Feel route to rehash the character development that Shirou receives in the Fate route or in the UBW route. The game knows you've read those already, and its coming in with a baseline assumption of who Shirou is. The Shirou as Heaven's Feel begins and establishes its hold over the narrative is a lot closer to the Shirou at the end of UBW than it is the Shirou at the beginning of the Fate route. We aren't grappling with Shirou's realization of self, because he's already gone through that, we need to test his ideals now and make him realize that there are things and people more important than his dream.

The three routes together represent Shirou's journey as a hero, his hero's journey if you will, and how his ideals mature and his image as a person is forged. He comes out of Heaven's Feel complete, almost as if he's lived through three different versions of those I think 20 days it's been a bit, and maybe its only through the medium of a visual novel and its mechanical framework that this journey can even be completed.

You can't make an FF7R style remake of F/SN, because F/SN is already that. It's already got two similarly styled sequels built into itself, and it even has the wacky sequel already done in Hollow Ataraxia.

[decks-writing-blog]

Here to Stay Drabbles: Cursed

Summary: If it interests you to write about, I've been wondering how Benrey's relationships with the rest of the Science Team have been since things have calmed down.

[A/N] I decided to focus on this relationship with Bubby because in WeverTF Benrey Is, they end up having a decent amount off screen where it was just the two of them hanging out.

~

Bubby was cursed. Black Mesa had cursed him. Perhaps ‘cursed’ wasn’t the right word but it was the word he was using because he liked it better than whatever the alternatives might be. The only job he’d ever had had been at Black Mesa. He’d been quite literally made to work there. They hadn’t even paid him at first until he’d demanded it. They’d given in after only token push back because it was the easiest route to make him settle down. And now apparently he couldn’t work anywhere else because he was only suited to work at Black Mesa.

Calling Harold to complain was tempting and he would do so later. But Harold still worked for Black Mesa. Which was fine; working for an evil organization didn’t make him evil and with how small the company now was and with Gordon in a high position within it, the amount of evil it could do was limited. So there was no ill-will there. It did make him hard to complain to sometimes though because he was involved with the thing Bubby wanted to bitch about.

So instead of calling Harold, Bubby flopped on the motel bed and pulled out his phone to call Benrey instead. Normally they chatted via text but complaining just didn’t feel the same when typing or texting.

Benrey picked up on the third ring. “Yo, what’s up?”

“They fucking fired me.”

“Ooh, really? What’d you do?”

“Why are you assuming it’s something I did? Maybe the higher ups at NASA are just fucking idiots, huh? They are by the way. Every single one of them is a moron.”

“Yeah, okay, sure. But what you’d do?”

“Remember how they wouldn’t let me be an astronaut despite being more than qualified for the job?” They hadn’t even fully believed Bubby on his genius, only letting him in at the lowest rank based off his paper credentials. Most of which had been forged but that hardly mattered. “Well, they were getting ready to fire a rocket into space. Two guys were supposed to go up with it. I knocked one out and took his place. They caught me like an hour before take off because I didn’t tie him up tight enough and he woke up, escaped his bindings and the janitor’s closet I’d locked him in. And then he ratted me out like a bitch.”

Benrey cackled at the other end.

“It’s not funny. … Okay maybe it’s a little funny but it would’ve been funnier if they hadn’t found out until I was already in space. They tried to arrest me so now I have to hide from the cops in a shitty motel.”

“Maybe steal the whole rocket next time?”

“Probably not happening.” Bubby could do a lot but he was out here alone. Plus, even if he somehow managed to steal it and get himself up into space, it’d be a massive pain. “Coming out here was a mistake.”

“Huh? Why?”

Lots of reasons. He’d never been so alone before and the long distance thing he was trying with Harold was stressful. They’re relationship was open and somewhat casual but it was still strained by the distance. Which was perhaps another reason Bubby had called Benrey instead; being the only two not working at Black Mesa meant they hung out in person fairly often but still, a lot of their conversations were through the phone. Most of all though; “I’m not fit to work anywhere other than Black Mesa. They cursed me.”

“But you’re like smart and stuff, right? Shouldn’t you be able to get a job anywhere smarty-pants people get jobs?”

“I can’t prove I was created to be smarter than everyone else without causing all sorts of other problems for myself.” He wasn’t against spilling Black Mesa’s secrets but doing so would also lead to him being an object of scientific interest. “I have to forge college degrees and past work experience or whatever ‘cause I’m too old to be brand new to this stuff.” And he couldn’t make any of his fake past too impressive lest someone decide to dig too deep to verify his credentials and thus find out he was lying about it. “I could get real college degrees but… I don’t want to.” It’d be boring; he already knew everything any course could try to teach him. And no doubt he’d have to put up with a bunch of inane side bullshit along the way too.

“Huh? Guess that makes sense. So what’cha gonna do then?”

“Move in with Harold, I guess.” He couldn’t afford to keep living on his own if he didn’t have a steady stream of income. “After that, I don’t know.”

“Could uh… get a non-smartypants job. Gordo told me the other day that sometimes people pay money for other people to take pics of stuff they want pics of. It’s like an art form or something, I don’t know. Sounds easy though, huh? Maybe you could save up enough to get a rocket and go to space by yourself.”

Bubby took a breath to shoot the idea down but… actually, while buying a rocket wasn’t happening, building one was maybe more possible. Most of his friends worked at Black Mesa after all, they could snake him the parts that couldn’t be bought as well as the fuel. He was fully capable of designing a one man rocket – or perhaps a two man rocket if Harold wanted to come with him – that could at least reach orbit if not go all the way to the moon. He’d probably need help actually physically building it but Harold would surely be willing to lend his strength. Still an absolutely absurd idea that would probably fall apart at some unforeseen point in the process but it was fun to think about. So… “You know what? Maybe I will.”

“Woo! I’m on a roll with good suggestions lately.”