#mc is a fuckin boss

[we-rice-boi]

How do yall think the LADS men would react to MC being a tyrant in high-school/ college?

Warning!! Slightly suggestive? Not that much but still- idk

Edit: I just did a bit of maintenance, I don't have a beta so excuse my spelling and sentence structure, this is just my mad ramblings.

I'm working on a structured version of this prompt where I use "you" instead of "her" just to make it more gender neutral and immersive (gender neutral rep for my enby heart 😭) but ya!! See yall when I do that and enjoy!!

Id imagine MC would have a reputation for being this untouchable delinquent who'd beat up guys twice her size for the fun of it. Like the few ppl who she managed to make friends with describe her as a "retired crash out" (in my opinion that isn't true because I firmly believe that woman still has her moments now and again).

The only reason she even got into the hunter associate was because one of the recruits saw that she had a good heart, on top of her fighting skills, and thought they could shape her to use her skills to help ppl without being a vigilante. I can imagine the association burying her criminal record with some excuse about her being too young or a minor or something.

However, her nickname is still talked about to the freshman. Like it's gotten to the point where she becomes a campus legend. It could be something like the time bomb. Just something that is related to a bomb.

I also think her main target would be shirty frat boys. Gurlie is a man whores worst nightmare and the savior of brokenheartes that were a result of cheating assholes.

I think Zayne would be like "That checks out" because she was just as feral as a child. They met because she was the weird kid who scared off his bullies when they were in kindergarten. He'd just be worried about how that would've affected her condition but other than that he just shivers at the thought of what college MC would've been like....and just the slightest bit turned on.

For Rafayel I think he'd be a Lil upset that he wasn't there to witness it first hand. Like he'd be her number 1 hype man while also helping her out when she's off her guard. Although, once he starts really looking into it he gets really surprised at the shit she used to do. Like in my head when I'm imagining MC, all I can think about is Yuji from JJK when he was just lifting random heavy shit and launching it at ppl.

IDC if it's unrealistic, that shit is funny as hell and Rafayel's face when he sees the report state that you launched a full-on motorcycle at someone because he touched her ass is PRICELESS!! He's thinking "I know I hired her as my bodyguard as an excuse to get close to her but damn...maybe I made the right choice for a bodyguard in general". Also like Zayne he finds it weirdly hot how strong you are.

Sylus is like Rafayel when it comes to wishing he was there so they could be the top delinquent couple in the school. YOUR BATTLES WOULD BE LEGENDARY. He'd also be amused at how such a small body could pack such a punch.

Not like he doesn't know that firsthand when she hands his ass to him on a paper plate daily. He's not gonna be surprised, he knew how much of a crash out she was from her past life and he loves it. You can't convince me he doesn't love getting his aas beat by her- he is too smug about it! I can imagine him seeing the reports in full and letting her take the lead when it comes to a few missions. He just wants to see her relive her college days and have front-row seats to her crashing out on some goons. Of course, he'd be there for support but knows that she's got this.

I'm not too good at getting into the mind of Xavier yet but I think he'd be just as intrigued as the others and a bit worried. Like it makes sense to him now because he's seen her go toe to toe with giant wanderers without a second thought. However, like Vi from Arcane, she often blocks with her face and that's a concerning habit to have. As a warrior himself, he respects her fighting style though, and how she only fought to protect the innocent. In all, he just wants to know everything about her college life and he often finds himself comparing it to the present her. Just to see what's different and what stays the same. He still wants a demonstration of how tf she threw cars at ppl. I can see him getting so excited at her displaying her strength... and again all of them are weird as fuck so he obviously finds it Hella attractive.

Anyways thank you for reading my cringe ramblings. There goes another LADs reaction prompt to do that I can put on my list along with the others. Will I ever finish one? Tune in to find out!!

P.s. also gimme ur thoughts on what you think about the prompt.

[lovelytwistedwonderland]

The housewarden's reactions to Yuu forgetting their names and calling them "that faggot over there" ? Please and tank yew :]

→ prompt :: housewardens and their reactions to being called “that faggot over there” by mc/yuu

→ custom req :: n/a

→ content warnings :: use of the f-slur, reader is assumed to like to draw in azul’s, very light spoilers for ch. 2 (not anything too big) ch. 5 (only what the arc is about), mc/yuu curses a lot

→ word count :: 1,852 words

→ A/N :: this sure is a request to start out with AGSKJASHJK but this was very fun to write <3 even if it's kinda badly done (also yes i can reclaim the slur, otherwise i wouldn't say it)

•———••✦ <3 ✦••———•

riddle rosehearts

it happened in heartslabyul’s lounge.

riddle was helping deuce study magic history while you and grim were with ace.

you’d been talking about riddle but you’d forgotten his name in a brief moment of brain lag.

you were trying to figure it out when you saw him in the lounge helping deuce and pointed directly to him. “no, i mean that faggot over there, the red hair, what’s his name??”

almost instantly after you said this, ace snorted and both him and grim burst out laughing.

riddle, who’d overheard your conversation, whipped his head up and furrowed his brows.

he was absolutely flabbergasted.

you actually just called him that.

his face turned almost as red as his hair when he glanced at deuce and saw him trying not to laugh.

(a futile effort on deuce’s part that only made riddle angrier).

he slammed his hand onto the desk that deuce was currently cackling leaning against and stomped over to you and ace.

he gave you a firm talking-to about the use of that word in his dorm but you couldn’t really make out what he was saying because of ace’s laughter.

probably ended up ranting about it to trey about “can you believe the prefect actually called me that!?” “honestly yeah, i can.” “WHAT?!”

ace now brings this up every time you two pass riddle, no matter where you are (and it makes him extremely angry).

leona kingscholar

you and ruggie were in the cafeteria during lunch.

the two of you had been talking about your opinions on random students in the cafeteria.

it was now your turn and you glanced around to find someone to talk about.

“that guy, over there, you know him, right?”

ruggie turned to see who you were pointing at, and turned back with furrowed brows. “jack?”

“no, not jack.” you gestured. “the fuckin’- the faggot lion.”

ruggie snorted and got the attention of the table next to you. “LEONA??”

you nodded.

“DID YOU JUST CALL LEONA A FAGGOT?!”

leona, even if he was completely across the loud cafeteria, could pinpoint ruggie’s voice from anywhere, to be completely honest.

he growled to himself as the cafeteria went quiet, several students turning to face him.

“yes, i called leona a faggot. i couldn’t remember his name, what did you expect me to call him?”

ruggie started cackling and so did half the cafeteria.

leona’s ears went back and he snarled. this bitch.

he knew letting ruggie hang out with the prefect was an awful idea.

he took his food with him and left the cafeteria.

this wasn’t something he was awake enough to deal with.

ruggie mentioned it earlier and leona had to physically restrain himself from using the king’s roar on the little shit.

he avoided you for like a week before he decided it was too much work and just gave up, but he still isn’t happy with you and will not let this go.

azul ashengrotto

happened at mostro lounge on a really slow day.

you were doodling in the lounge while you were eating.

jade and floyd, finding entertainment in your art, were watching with interest, floyd standing behind your seat and jade standing next to you, watching over your shoulder.

they watched as you flipped to a new page and began to sketch what looked like a person.

“what’cha drawin’ now, shrimpy?”

you hummed as you looked up to say something but you stopped, forgetting his name. fuck, what was it?

“your boss. i can’t remember his name.”

jade held a hand up at floyd, who was about to tell you. “no, you can do it, prefect. try to remember.”

conveniently, azul had come out with the drink and food you’d ordered at that moment.

you pointed at him. “him- the- that faggot right there!”

azul nearly dropped the platter he was holding.

floyd was cackling and you even heard jade snort trying to hold back a laugh.

azul, meanwhile, turned bright red in the face and set the platter down on your table.

“that’s rude and uncalled for.” azul would say before turning on his heel.

“jade, you’re in charge. don’t come get me.”

and he ran off into the VIP room in the lounge.

floyd couldn’t breathe. even jade was chuckling.

you had just said what popped into your head, why was azul so flustered over it?

later, however, jade and floyd were teasing azul about it.

azul, pacing, shoved his face into his hands.

“how did mc know?!”

neither of the tweels have let him live this down.

kalim al-asim

you and jamil had been studying together, and were now on your way back to scarabia.

somehow, the conversation had made it’s way to talking about some of the crazy things you’ve done at this school so far.

“and then one time, me and this guy accidentally tripped floyd in mostro lounge and we had to run so fast to shake him, which was absolutely terrifying. i can’t remember his name but i wish i knew him better.”

jamil shook his head. “how do you not know this guy’s name? it sounds like you’ve done quite a lot together.”

“no, i can describe him, you know his name. he has like, white hair, and he’s in scarabia, i think.”

“you’ll have to be a lot more specific.”

you were about to keep trying (and failing) to describe this guy, when you saw him talking to another scarabia member.

you pointed at him. “that faggot right there! that’s who i’m talking about!”

jamil furrowed his brows as kalim turned around and pointed at himself.

“are you talking about kalim?”

“yes! that’s his name!”

“and you just called kalim a faggot?!”

kalim, upon hearing this, snorted a laugh.

he was not flustered in the slightest.

if anything, he thought it was hilarious that jamil was so surprised.

“yes i did, and you can’t deny it!”

jamil’s jaw dropped as he stared at kalim, who was now laughing heartily.

“i can’t believe you.”

kalim followed jamil into the kitchen as he stormed away.

you left scarabia giggling to yourself. you hadn’t seen jamil that surprised ever.

meanwhile, with the other two, as jamil began to get ready to cook something for kalim, he sat in a chair and kicked his legs.

“jamil, you’re smart, what’s a faggot?”

jamil almost tripped over himself. that was not expected.

vil schoenheit

probably happened while you were practicing for the SDC.

vil had the idea that maybe some makeup might tie together the look for the actual performance.

so, he pulled you and epel off to do your makeup.

he was out in the lobby while you and epel were waiting with your bangs tied out of your faces in the bathroom, awaiting vil’s return.

there was a bit of an awkward silence until you turned to epel.

“so, does this always happen?”

“wha’ddya mean?”

“like, do you always get your makeup done like this?”

epel raises a brow. “huh?”

you sigh. “like, does what’s-his-face pull you off to do your makeup a lot?”

epel snorts. “what’s-his-face?”

you groan. “i can’t remember his name, the fuckin’-”

vil, conveniently, enters at that moment and you turn to him.

you point and look back at epel. “this faggot.”

epel snorted and you couldn’t help but snicker too, until you looked at vil.

that man looked so offended.

he set the makeup bag on the sink and turned to face the both of you.

“what did you just call me?!”

epel’s giggling doesn’t help when you try to answer seriously.

“you heard me.”

“you do realize that is highly disrespectful? especially for someone so much better than you?”

epel can’t stop laughing.

“epel.”

“sorry, vil.”

man’s angry but he’s really good at covering it, being an actor and all.

he makes you and epel sit in silence while he does your makeup and then makes you practice extra for the SDC, which you and epel were both complaining about.

he would hold a grudge against this for the rest of the time you attend NRC.

idia shroud

you were on a voice call during a multiplayer game idia had asked you to play with him.

it was you, idia and someone who goes by the username “muscle red”.

muscle red and idia were both muted but were in the call while the three of you were playing.

idia almost didn’t make it to you to heal you and you began to shout about it in the microphone.

muscle red had messaged you in the private group chat you three were in, asking what you were shouting about.

to which you spoke aloud that “this fucker almost didn’t get to me in time!”

you three weren’t the only ones in the game, so muscle red had asked who you were talking about.

“i can’t remember his name,” you began, but you @ him in the chat. “i mean this faggot.”

the chat was flooded then with keysmashes on idia’s part and several LMAO’s from muscle red (who had, thankfully, began to pick up how to text in online spaces).

most of idia’s messages were as follows;

“WHAT T HEJFUCK WHAT TH EFUCK”

“WHY?????”

“ME??????” “YOU JUST CALLDE ME A FAGOGOT”

“HWO DI YOU KNWO???”

“AAASHAWMNAHETRGHJEAFS”

“KMS KMS KMS KMS”

quite frankly, it was hilarious.

meanwhile, idia was screaming in his room so loudly that ortho had entered and asked him what was wrong.

he ended up telling ortho in absolute dismay.

muscle red sends screenshots of this occasionally and idia hates it every. time.

malleus draconia

it was late at night outside of ramshackle.

you were with ace talking about some of the housewardens compared to riddle.

he’d been talking about them for a while and you cut him off to bring up one of them.

“i haven’t actually met him really but i’m sure you know him, shit, what’s his name…”

“you haven’t met like half of the housewardens. that’s not specific enough.”

you sighed and made gestures with your hands. “he’s like, okay, i think he’s the housewarden? but like, i can’t remember his name, shit-”

ace begun to chuckle as you struggled.

“he comes around here, he might be here soon enough and i’ll just show you-”

sure enough, someone familiar caught your eye. you pointed and ace turned to look.

“that faggot!”

ace covered his mouth to try not to laugh as malleus tilted his head.

“is that the name you’ve decided on calling me, child of man?”

ace’s soul nearly left his body right then and there.

“you just called malleus a faggot,” ace whisper-yelled.

“yes i did, and i’m not wrong.”

malleus watched the two of you argue about this with intrigue.

“what exactly is a faggot?”

ace’s eyes widened and you snorted as ace grabbed your arm and pulled you into ramshackle.

he dragged you off too soon, in malleus’s opinion. that was a fun conversation to witness.

he went to lilia, who was more up-to-date on current terms, and asked him what a faggot was.

he was extremely confused when lilia burst out laughing and left saying he “had to tell sebek and silver about this”.

[cinnamon-stixs]

I FUCKING LOVED MASTERMIND HADUFHHDUIDF I HAVE TO RAMBLE ABOUT IT!! SPOILERS LOL

also warning this is long as hell

-Andrealphus's house is surrounded by snow, as is his whole theme. It kinda reminds me of the mythology of hell's frozen center.

-I fucking love stella guys. I'm sorry. I hate her so fucking much and I want to shit on her dreams, and that is EXACTLY why I love her character so much. I'm so glad she's getting more development.

-Andrealphus didn't know about the deal, just that Stolas cheated. So Stella REALLY didn't tell him much.

-I like Andrealphus's peacock theming

-"Now you fucking know!" icon.

-I really like the detail of them using Moxxie and Blitz's mugshots, as well as Millie's wanted poster. It's a really good illustration of how authority figures will do anything they can against minorities, and really pushes the themes of classism and oppression in the show.

-Blitz immediately running to delete his search history, me core.

-He's so scared of going to jail again :(

-"We are going to beat you! But only a little!"

-She's exactly like her fucking dad. She cares SO MUCH deep down, but puts on that 'indifferent asshole' attitude to protect herself.

-"The shredder is jammed!!" D:

-These poor interns

-Blitz, of course, crashes immediately.

-Moxxie uses 'Blitz' instead of 'sir'

-THE MUZZLE. I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL MYSELF.

-I wanna note as they walk in, Satan is acting in place of lucifer, since he's too busy with the Hotel stuff. He claims he was in hell BEFORE Lucifer, but I take that with a good spoonful of salt.

-"Is this about the orphans?" HUH?

-Dude these motherfuckers keep deadnaming Blitz and it pisses me off! Like I get that's the point but still.

-The sloth and envy sins are here!

-I really like Vassago. It seems like he really cares about fair due process in general, but he also seems to have some sort of beef with Andrealphus.

-"Since when is ATTEMPTING a crime illegal am I right?" You stupid bastard.

-"LIES!!" STFU

-I've seen a few people question why Andrealphus would go straight after Blitz instead of Stolas, since he wants him gone so bad, but the answer is simple. Andrealphus KNOWS there's pretty much nothing he can do to demon royalty, especially since Stolas was considered above him on the Goetia food chain. Going after the imp, a member of an already extremely marginalized group, was simply a safer bet.

-I wish Ozzie and Bee spoke up more. It seems ooc, but at the same time we don't know how big the power imbalance is between Satan and the rest of the sins. (Aside Lucifer)

-"A responsible and handsome Goetic demon such as myself-" You should kill yourself, NOW!!

-They never wanted to let him speak up in the first place.

-"Put his kind to shame" BRO HE BAGGED DEMON ROYALTY.

-wtf is up with Satan and his little meditator twink assistant

-YES VASSAGO!! BRING UP THAT HE'S NOT HERE! IT'S ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT THAT STOLAS WASN'T INFORMED AND CLEARLY INDICATES ANDREALPHUS HAS OTHER MOTIVES!! YES HE SHOULD BE SUMMONED!!

-God I love Vassago I hope he's a reoccurring character

-"didn't want him to go through the trauma of facing his aggressor' is such a thinly veiled argument, but no one fucking cares because Blitz is just an imp.

-WHY IS STRIKER HELPING DEMON ROYALTY. Does he hate Blitz that much because he associated with them? Is he getting paid? Was he threatened?

-"If I wanted to kill Stolas, I would've done it myself." Good point, HORRIBLE wording.

-"oh he just fucked himself over."

-I am so sorry your boss is a fucking moron

-PLEASE Bee and Ozzie you can do better than "He probably has a good reason for all of this!"

-Bee throwing dick popsicles at Mammon, I love you girl.

-God I hate this classist piece of shit

-He KNOWS smthn is up.

-The immediate cut to a Mammon joke after our mcs are SENTENCED TO DEATH really shows how little higher class demons care about imps and hellhounds

-We obviously know They're not ACTUALLY gonna kill any of them off, but I was still biting my fuckin nails dawg

-What an EVIL move.

-Fizz and Ozzie's full conversation before this. So, Ozzie most likely had no idea the trial was for Blitz.

-Side note, but I'm kinda surprised Fizz and Ozzie dating wasn't brought up aside from that line from Mammon about Ozzie and Bee 'associating with the lower class'.

-wtf is up with Satan? If this were any other sin, Ozzie would not HESITATE to clock their ass. Just look at s2 ep7!

-"NOT THEM YOUR HIGHNESS!" What if I cried.

-"you're acting kinda ruby" GET OUT OF HERE TWINKIE

-"I suppose I created impkind to be obedient" Motherfucker those are people.

-"Just axe the mouthy one" It's so in-character for Blitz to not assume himself to be the mouthy one

-He still careeeesss augh!! He sounded so distressed

-"We'll pretend to care" So accurate! Ouch!

-"Moxxie, stop. This big red bitch never planned on hearing us out."

-HER FACE. "Just take care of Loona for me" WHAT IF I FUCKING CRIED.

-Fun fact this is the part of the episode where I started bawling like a loser

-"I love you guys" I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL MYSELF. IM GONNA DO IT FUCK

Uhh I have to reblog to continue this bc I hit the image cap halfway through lmfaoo

[harlequinoccult]

do you think if MC was like. *super* judgemental of the host's worker's conditions they could get them to be a better boss. or are they just like "oooh nooo I'm so sorry mon ange :( ur right :( I'll totally fix it <3" and then later theure just likr "okay who fuckin snitched" @ staff

The conditions aren't bad, per say, Host takes pride in their company having top of the line equipment and facilities. And they think underpaying employees, quite frankly, makes you look broke. Its just the Host themselves are corporate cringe and the job itself (on the night shift) is supremely shady and dangerous, and the only help you'll get is from other workers, and not police or emergency services. But, Host does show extreme preference towards the night shift workers, so its a give and take.

[smolsix]

-blows dust off this blog-

So

Little Nightmares III, huh???

I was trying to avoid being excited about it because no solid release date and 2024 could be a few months from now or a year from now and Idk how long I can handle being so fuckin hyped for this game YEEHAW

BUT I CAN'T, I KEEP THINKING ABT THE GAME AAHAHHGAGA

so here are my thoughts, if you wanted to know

FIRST OF ALL, i am so glad that after we saw LTNM II we thought it'd be co-op but it was just an AI, that we finally get co-op! AND ONLINE TOO, i spent the first day worried it'd be shared screen same room situation since i wasn't trying to get my hopes up but then I realised I can just.. google it.. AND IT IS!!! ONLINE!! IDK WHO I AM GONNA PLAY IT W FIRST AAAAAAAA

anyways, you can definitely tell it's a new studio working on this game, the world feels mostly the same but the character designs themselves are definitely stylistically similar, but not the same. With Six especially, the MC designs were very simplistic and realistic but used colour (or for Mono, a single design quirk being the bag) to stand out against their backgrounds and against the enemies which are largely neutral colours. But these new ones feel... "over designed"? On their own they definitely aren't, but in comparison to Mono, Six, Seven, and even NPCs like the flashlight girl, they have a lot more going on (especially the little wrench kid, Idk which one is Alone and which one is Low yet btw OOP)

Despite it being a new studio and you can tell, new puzzles and environments, they're still doing their best to have the OGs vibes and whatnot to feel familiar, namely in the trailer they bring back the fuses, and the additional gameplay video there's a short scene with an environment with all the shelves you can find in LTNM 1s gnome section (the one with the cart that is affected by the Maws swaying).

But regardless, it still feels different enough my brain is still nervous about it. I also feel In A Way about Tarsier having LTNM II explode and their franchise getting the attention it deserves, only to have it stuck with Bandai and now it's going to likely explode again and they aren't involved. Idk how anyone on that team feels about it, but if it were me omg.

Also the only boss we've seen so far (i hope they add more and i def want some to be a surprise so im not gonna assume this is the only one for now) feels... out of place? it has the design qualities of a LTNM boss, but the size of it makes it more of a spectacle than a warped/corruption of an adult. All the previous bosses fit in their environment, we are the small ones and they are scaled to the world around them. This is the first time, outside monster Six who imo is a bit of an outlier anyways due to her circumstances, we're getting a boss who is this huge and doesn't even fit their own environment. I hope we get a lore reason for this in some way, because currently the boss doesn't have the same vibe as the others and it's throwing me off a bit. Don't get me wrong, it'll be terrifying, but looking at the picture as a whole they are sort of out of place for me rn. I don't hate the bitch either, I'm not gonna be like omg get rid of it or change it, but it does strike me as odd seeing it for now.

And yes the tall man is too tall for a lot of things, but he's not THAT big. He's more like yer tall guy who hits his head off doorways, which happens irl anyways LMAO

Little Nightmares primarily tries to capture the feeling of being a small child and how everything is big and scary, but a doll that huge is out of the realm of reality set up for us already. It's gone from scary corrupted animal to godzilla, if that makes sense.

OH AND THE MIRRORS ARE VERY LTNM COMICS OF THEM TEE HEE < 3

[garbinge]

Halloween Night

Happy Lowman x Lyla Winston Dvorak

30 Day Challenge (28/30)

Words: 3.4k

A/N: Posted this on ao3 as a gift for @drabbles-mc for an exchange fic, and realized I never posted here!

Summary: Halloween night gets a wrench thrown in it when the club needs to gather everyone up for lockdown.

SOA taglist: @drabbles-mc @justreblogginfics @kmc1989

Lyla made her way out of the office at Diosa and into the main hosting area with a stack of papers in her arms. The slight frown on her face could have been described as adorable to many as she read over something and crossed it out, and scribbled something else over it.

“We’re hemorrhaging money on fuckin’ snacks that no one eats.” Lyla looked up thinking Nero was going to be at the bar but she was met with a group of the Sons.

“Speak for yourself, sweetheart.” Tig was saying as he picked from an open party size of chips.

Lyla looked up, at first shocked not to hear Nero’s voice and to be met with the lot of bikers, but was quick to smile and place her folders and papers on the bar.

“Enjoy it while it lasts.” She leaned her elbow on the bar and tilted her head, letting her long blond hair fall to the side.

“You’re a sight for sore eyes, darlin’.” Jax extended his arms out to greet Lyla with a hug.

“What brings you to paradise, boys.” Lyla placed a kiss on Jax’s cheek and looked around at the lot of them.

“Rough day. Gotta bring you in.” Jax said with a sigh, he was exhausted and it was clear on his face.

Lyla looked around at all the faces of the guys, all of them looked the same, tired, like they were all up against it tonight. Finally, her eyes landed on Nero, despite him not being a member of the club, she valued his opinion, not only as her boss but as a friend. He was quick to lift his hands in an effort to tell her the decision was out of his hands.

“Protection?” Lyla spoke one word, there was a slight nervousness to her tone.

“We’re gonna bring you down to the clubhouse, set you up in one of the dorms. My mom’s there, she’ll make sure you got everything you need.” Jax explained.

“It’s Halloween, Jax.” Lyla’s voice turned to a pleading one, not with desperation, but with an obvious, ‘come on’ resonance to it. “I was planning to finish up here and go take Piper trick or treatin’.”

“Bring ‘em to the clubhouse, we’ll all sit behind each of the dorm doors and the kid can knock on them and we’ll give him beer.” Tig laughed at his own joke which earned him eyes from a group of them, Lyla specifically.

“I can’t put anyone on you, we all are riding out for a bit, won’t be back till late.” Jax explained to Lyla who was getting more disappointed by the second.

“I’ll stick with her, mano.” Nero was standing up, he didn’t want Lyla upset and he definitely didn’t want all the bikers dragging her out of his business either.

“You sure?” Jax said, now lighting a cigarette.

“Yea, yea, it’ll be fun.” Nero nodded and waved his hand like it was no big deal. “Oh,” He lifted his hand, “But I’m only free till 7, I’m goin’ to visit my kid, the place he’s at, they’re doing one of those family night things.”

Jax nodded as he inhaled the cigarette, thinking through what to do. He would have been more pushy with Nero to come too but he wasn’t going to tell him what to do, he had the big picture and that decision was up to him. Normally, he wouldn’t be so persistent with Lyla either, but with the recent murdered escort from Diosa just a few weeks ago and the issue he was dealing with being too close to that, he wasn’t going to chance it with her. She was family to the club.

“Not sure any of my guys will be free to take over watch.” Jax was looking around at the guys who knew where they were headed to next and what the night was going to look like for them.

“I can do it.” Happy’s raspy voice cut through the air like a knife. It earned him a look from everyone in the room. “I like Halloween very much.” His face was still so serious, stone cold as he spoke.

So it was settled. Lyla and Nero went trick or treating, Piper had gotten tons of candy, Lyla had gotten a ton of blisters from all the walking, but the sacrifices you make for the ones you love. The chill of the late October air now filled her house with a slight breeze, a reminder of how empty it truly was. Nero had left, reluctantly, but Lyla ensured that she’d be fine and head down to the clubhouse if Happy didn’t show up in an hour. Piper had fallen asleep, likely surrounded by copious amounts of candy wrappers and sticky fingers. Both of those things left Lyla alone, downstairs, soaking in everything that the breeze meant. It was Halloween, that breeze should have been eerie, unsettling, or at the very least a reminder of the emptiness she felt and that was in the house, but it wasn’t. It was actually the complete opposite. It was like an embrace. Loss had been so constant in Lyla’s life that anything cold, anything unsettling, it was starting to feel comforting.

Before she could give it anymore thought, there was a knock at the door. It was loud and caused her to jump slightly. Despite Lyla being accustomed to the eerie, she wasn’t stupid. Quickly she opened her purse and pulled out the firearm that had been glued to her side since she began hanging around the club. It was gripped tightly in her hand, snug against her thigh as she opened the door just slightly to peer out.

She saw the back of Happy’s head, his neck tattoos peeking out from his kutte. The reaper positioned on the back rocker ironically gave Lyla relief. As her shoulders fell, and she loosened the grip she had on the gun slightly, she spoke up.

“Hey, Hap.” The nickname effortlessly fell off her tongue as she relaxed at just the knowledge of knowing it was him.

Almost immediately that anxiety flooded back as he turned around and the blood stained across his face became fully visible.

“Hey.” It was one word and it was spoken so raspy and honestly normal for Happy it was hard to believe that the gash on his head was leaking down his face.

“I think you’re supposed to say trick or treat.” Her eyes were wide as she took in the sight of him.

Happy’s gaze looked down to Lyla’s side to see the gun in her hand.

“Is that my treat?”

Lyla followed his gaze and looked down at her gun before looking back at him, her eyebrows raised and a smile starting to creep onto her face. She kicked the door open wider and nodded her head to the side as an invitation inside.

“Why don’t I treat that nasty slice on your head and we’ll call it even.” The gun was being tucked into the back waistband of her jeans

Happy was reluctant to come inside, worried about Piper but also about bringing Lyla into his troubles.

“You’ve been inside my house before, Hap.” Lyla wasn’t pleading but she also didn’t want to leave the man outside bleeding. So she spoke out in truth, Happy had been inside her house, on multiple occasions. Things were… unique between them. Whatever was going on with them was not defined yet, not in the slightest. Sure, they had skipped all the details and gotten right to the fun stuff, it was why Happy had so eagerly volunteered to keep a watch on Lyla. Lyla was a good time, even outside of the sex, he enjoyed spending time with her. It had been so long since he was around someone sweet, and who cared. Lyla was someone who understood club life and Happy didn’t need to explain much, if anything, about his day other than, “it was a rough one” or “it was alright.” Whatever they had going on worked, for both of them and where they were in life.

This was going to be different though. This was an instance where it was going to be inevitable that the details of things would come up, or that the desire to speak about them would. He had never come over hurt like this before, where Lyla was going to have to patch him up. Happy could keep quiet for a long time, but he didn’t want to be on the receiving end of having to stare at Lyla’s sad blue eyes and deny her of answers to her questions. It’s why he found it hard to walk inside her home, let her take care of him.

“Just let me patch it up.” Her voice brought Happy out of his thoughts and his eyes landed right on hers. Yea, those sad blue eyes were hard to say no to, even for a stone cold killer like Happy.

He did as she said, he walked inside the house and made his way to her kitchen. He stood awkwardly next to her kitchen island and tried to make himself comfortable on the stool after Lyla instructed him to sit while she moved to one of the cabinets and pulled out a various amount of first aid items and kits.

“So I’m guessing this is why you were late.” She spoke as she rummaged through things and Happy adjusted himself to be slouching in the seat.

There it was the first of likely many questions to come. Happy didn’t answer, he just sat there, stoic and quiet. Lyla nodded to herself and smiled before turning around with the necessary items to clean Happy up.

“You know, I’m not a stranger to this. I’ve been through this a few times before.” She was now standing in front of him. A warm cloth in her hand as she wiped all the blood off Happy’s face. He didn’t flinch from her touch, or even her closeness to him. It helped that her touch was soft, it was gentle like her. Happy’s heart was beating normally but he felt like he could hear it so loudly, probably the adrenaline and blood loss from his head is what he tried to shake it off as but the minute she looked at him, his eyes immediately moved to look somewhere else and the beating got louder.

“Does it hurt?” She asked as she was now inspecting the gash, it seemed surface level, there probably wasn’t a need for stitches luckily, just a few butterfly bandages and some antibiotics to prevent any infection. Happy laughed at that. Out of everything he had been through, a little cut on his head was not to be described as painful.

“No, it doesn’t hurt.” It was the first thing he said since coming inside the house and Lyla was glad she finally got some response from him. She wasn’t trying to pry, she honestly could care less of the club details, she had her own problems to deal with. Her questions were out of genuine concern for Happy.

“Well, this is probably going to.” Lyla was pouring the alcohol on the rag and bringing it up to Happy’s cut, still so gently and intentional. He hissed his teeth immediately from the stinging but managed to stay still, it wasn’t his first patch up.

“You punishing me for not answering your questions?” Happy still wouldn’t make eye contact with her.

Lyla’s eyes didn’t move from where they were looking on the top of his head as she cleaned the last of the blood off and began to place the bandages over it.

Happy was truthfully blown away at how tender her touch was as she placed the bandage over the gash. He didn’t realize how brash people were when he was getting cleaned up from previous wounds. It was one of those experiences that probably was going to change how he’d want it done in the future. Nothing would ever compare to the considerate and forgiving touch of the woman in front of him right now.

“You punishin’ me for asking them by not looking at me when you’re talking?” The irony was dripping from her statement because she wasn’t looking at Happy as she spoke the words, her gaze was still on the wound as she finished bandaging it.

His eyes immediately jumped to look at Lyla’s after she finished her sentences. The eyes that were focused on helping him. Focused on making sure he was okay. It was honestly a foreign concept to Happy, having someone who cared about him more than just for a quick lay and maybe a cheap thrill of the biker club life.

“I’m looking at you.” He was so rough in his delivery, a nod escaping through her gentle grasp on his head but it still felt so comforting to Lyla. Maybe it was who she was now, all things cold, all things unsettling, it made her feel comfortable because she felt comfortable with Happy.

“But are you seeing me?” She said it as she pulled away from him and her eyes jumped to stare back into his own. “Cause I’m here, Hap. You’re afraid to break me but I’m already broken.”

Happy just continued to stare at Lyla, like his glare would somehow scare her off. To Happy’s defense, it worked 99% of the time. But this time must’ve been the 1%. Lyla just stood there, staring right back at him.

This was the moment. This was what he wanted to avoid, he wished it was normal to be bleeding from the head that way he wasn’t stuck in this position right now. Technically he could walk out right now. Sit on the front porch, call one of the other guys over here or make up some story that she had to wake up Piper and come down to the clubhouse now. She’d see through each of those excuses which is why he didn’t even bother attempting them. After a few more moments of uncomfortable silence he blurted it out.

“Someone shot at me. Bullet grazed my head.”

He spoke the words like they were a normal day at the office, which in some way they were for Happy. Despite it being his normal delivery and way of talking he spoke it in hopes that it’d push Lyla away, spook her a little bit.

“So I’m guessing you don’t want a Reese’s?” Lyla was walking away to the sink to wash her hands before grabbing a Reese’s cup from the other side of the island.

“Hm?” Happy grunted in confusion as he stared at her still sitting on the bar stool at the island.

“You already got your treat tonight.” She pointed to Happy’s patched up head as she unwrapped the peanut butter cup and bit a piece off. “I’m assuming you were on cloud 9 when that happened.”

Happy realized what she meant, referencing Halloween while also showing how well she actually knew Happy.

“It was rapturous.” Happy smirked as he thought back to it. Then looked over at Lyla with the same smirk. “C’mere.”

Lyla let out a chuckle and grabbed a piece of candy before making her way over to him. Her body got close to his, even with the chair partially in between them it didn’t stop him from bringing her closer against his chest. Lyla brought up the chocolate in front of his face, offering it to Happy.

“Gimme something else sweet.” He grabbed her face with one hand, tucking her hair back in his fingers as he used his other hand to move the candy out of the way. The chocolate was discarded and Lyla wrapped her arm around Happy’s neck as the two kissed. It wasn’t like Happy to make anything overly romantic or intimate but this felt as intimate as things could get with Happy. His kiss was soft, even the groan he made as they deepened the kiss was soft as well. It was like he was being careful with Lyla, being gentle with her in a way that was so unlike himself. There were so many layers to it, it was his way of telling Lyla that despite her being broken, Happy didn’t want to destroy her more. But it also was his way of breaking down his own walls, showing Lyla that he was trying to be more than what he was used to.

Their mouths separated for a moment and Lyla rested her forehead against Happy’s. Her blonde bangs fell over her face as she closed her eyes and just relaxed in Happy’s arms.

“I was glad you were eager to come be my protection.” Lyla spoke in a whisper.

“It's Halloween. Figured you’d be dressed up as something hot.” He was biting back a smile.

Lyla quickly pushed him and in the process pushed off him as she scoffed with a laugh. Happy was quick to bring her back towards him, standing up now off the chair so she was flat against his firm chest as he embraced her and she rested her head against the patches on his kutte. Now it was her turn to hear the beating of his heart. Her eyes closed and she melted into him, there was something about feeling so safe in a killer’s arms that should have brought uneasiness to Lyla but it just brought her even more security.

As the two stood intertwined with each other, Lyla let one of her thoughts be spoken out loud.

“I did pick out a costume just for you.” It was said in almost a whisper because of how relaxed she felt.

“I fucking love Halloween.” Happy said feeling like he had just won the lottery.

Before either of them could make the next move to go upstairs, there was a knock at the front door.

If there wasn’t a threat out against the club both of them would have let their heads fall in defeat and annoyance. But instead Lyla tensed up, only slightly before she let more rational thinking come over her.

“It’s probably just kids looking for candy.” She was moving to grab the bucket of candy she had pulled the Reese’s from earlier, still in Happy’s embrace slightly.

Happy on the other hand had immediately gone into full Lowman protection mode. “I got it.” His hand was reaching down her back, the chills she got shivered down her spine and straightened her up from reaching for the candy. Happy’s hand landed on the gun still tucked in her waistband and he quickly removed it before walking to the door armed and visibly ready for war.

His face hardened and he walked with aggression dripping off of him. The force at which he swung the door open would have given any trick or treater a scare worthy of a jump but instead all it earned him was a “Jesus Christ, Hap”. Tig, who was not expecting such force or bloodily stained face at Lyla’s place was cupping his chest as his heart tried to slow to its normal beat.

Happy just stared down at Tig and said nothing, waiting for the man to explain why he was here.

With a sigh Tig shook his head. “Shit went south, we’re bringing everyone in. You included. No one rides alone. Got Bobby in the driveway.”

Happy’s face hardened even more. The news of something going down bothered him but also, and mainly at the realization and disappointment that his Halloween costume fantasy was now going to be put on the back burner.

“I’ll go get Piper.” Lyla spoke up. “Hap, my to-go bag is in the front closet, can you grab it?” She had overheard Tig’s explanation, both of the men had turned their heads to look at the woman. Tig was offering her a quick wave in greeting while Happy nodded in acknowledgment to her statement, letting his eyes linger on her for a few more seconds as she walked up the stairs in a way of tormenting himself before he looked back at Tig.

“Halloween must be your favorite holiday, huh Hap?” Tig was smiling now as he looked at Happy’s blood stained face.

Happy’s eyebrows furrowed more as he really accepted the defeat of the night.

“It was until you ruined it.”

[legacyshenanigans]

Marvolo getting the gang member that was talking to MC in Hogsmeade.

GM: *awakes at the Den sat on a chair, his hand on the chopping block table. He tries to lift it, but it's under a spell keeping it there* W-What the fuck?

Marvolo: *wandering out of another room* Ah, Hello *smiles*

GM: *frowns*

Marvolo: *smirks and wanders over to his tools, fingering through various options, before grabbing an axe and bringing it over, leaning onto the table*

GM: .....

Marvolo: Any particular reason you were seen talking to what's mine in Hogsmeade the other day?

GM: *his hairs stand up on the back of his neck* I wasnt-

Marvolo: Lies. But carry on. *sinful grin*

GM: Don't know what you're talking about.

Marvolo: Yeeees you do..Stop lying. Do you want me to use imperio to get the fucking truth out of you? Because I will-

GM: No..

Marvolo: *smirk* Then tell the truth. You might as well...

GM: Fine..Boss told me to nab her..But, she never went anywhere private and quiet..So I couldn't.

Marvolo: *frowns* She is MINE..If you'd of hurt her-

GM: Heh..I don't give a fuck about your bitch.

Marvolo: *chuckles and swiftly lift the axe he's holding, slamming it down onto his wrist, cutting his hand off*

GM: *starts screaming in agony as he falls to the floor, flailing around*

Marvolo: Oh shut up *laughs watching him* I was just trying to have a simple conversation. And you got rude, tsk tsk.

GM: YOURE FUCKIN CRAZY!!

Marvolo: Great observation... Some grade A detective work right there, well done.*smirks as he leans down, grabbing the man and throwing him back onto the chair, grabbing his other hand and holding it onto the table, holding up the axe again*

GM: No! NO!!! PLEASE!!

Marvolo: What did your boss SAY exactly? What were your plans with her? TALK..

~

[k3nnysh0utt]

Ever since the start of empires s2 ive been thinking about what terraria bosses each member would be and im still unsure about some but i think i got most of them

Starting with Gem i went with Golem. Queen bee or Empress Of Light would have worked but i think golem works best since the whole jungle temple and golems drops are related to the sun.

For Kathrine i went with Empress Of Light, Queen Slime could have worked aswell. Even though Empress Of Light is harder to fight during the day i still think it fits.

Joey Graceffa is Duke Fishron its very similar he has an ocean themed empire i could have gone with the flying Dutchman because i am including mini bosses but bht duke fishron just fits better, plus i get to draw him as a cool ass fuckin pig fish.

Scott would probably be the Lunatic Cultist and i dont have any actual reason i just think he'd look cool as em also no other boss would fit him. Thsi does kinda make it seem like he worships Joel(because i made him Mood Lord) but eh.

Falsesymmetry would be Skeleton Prime maybe a steampunk version of it? I remember seeing a terraria mod that added a steampunk hardmode version for the rest of the prehardmode bosses. The four arms could either be the exact same as skeleton primes or they could just have hands.

Lizzie's one is the one im really unsure about i picked Queen Bee but it doesn't really fit and its the only animal themed boss.

Sausage i picked the Pumpking i could have gone with one of the tree mini bosses but do you think i wanna give him a mini boss named morning wood? But ya Pumpking would work because you know nature n shit.

Shelby's one doesn't make too much sense, i went with Plantera mainly because of the pink flowers in her mc skin but thats kinda it, the only other thing i could have gone with are the goblin  summoner but that doesn't really count as a mini boss. I might switch Sausages and Shelbys around because either one will fit them.

If i included modded bosses then Jimmy would have been the Desert Scourge(calamity mod) or The Grand Thunder Bird(thorium mod) but im not including modded bosses so im going with Skeleton, the dungeon usually spawns near the ocean so its the closest we get to a desert/mesa boss. The old sheriff could also be the old man that spawns at the surface of the dungeon.

Fwhip would be the eater of worlds it just makes sense, The Eater Of Worlds is(usually) spawned underground AND it burrows through the ground.

Oli being Betsy doesn't fit too much but there isn't any other boss taht would fit, i originally had the pillers as him but didn't think they'd fit and also his child Gregory the dragon egg would fit with him being Betsy(i made the list of what terraria boss each empires member would be at ages ago, before Oli's final lmao)

Joel is just the Moon Lord its the closest thing in terraria to a god thats the only reason i picked that boss for him. now if you drew him as the Moon Lord would you draw him with or without his legs?

Pixlriffs is The Brain Of Cthulhu i love The Brain Of Cthulhu and when you think of a brain you think of being smart n shit so i gave them to pixlriffs

And bonus Hermes would be one of the pillers id say either the vortex piller or the nebula piller

[cuffmeinblack]

Matilda Weasley

This is random af thanks anon 🖤

First impression

Oh shit, a Weasley! She seems nice...much softer than McGonagall.

Impression now

Welp she's a fuckin' BADASS. Not only is she an incredibly powerful witch she is RUNNING that school since Phineas Black is a useless idiot. All whilst being supportive and warm but with unwavering authority.

Favorite moment

Obviously when she swoops in and casually saves MC from certain death.

Idea for a story

Matilda stages a coup and takes over the school after fifth year.

Garreth's parents DIE and she adopts the Weasley kids.

She has a weird affair with Phineas Black.

I could go on (I won't).

Unpopular opinion

I'm not sure what opinions are popular in the first place tbh. I actually think she enjoys not being headmistress despite how useless her boss is, because it means she still gets to teach and pulls strings without having to deal with all the bureaucratic nonsense.

Favorite relationship

Her relationship with her nephew, which is both heartwarming and hilarious (see below).

Favorite headcanon

When I wrote her in the context of Garreth I always make her completely different outside of school. She's somewhat stern and professional when at school, keeping an eye on him and doling out punishments as if he's any other student. But once it's just family, like at Christmas, she smothers him in love and is much more like his own mother. She loves him dearly, and he knows it despite how she is at Hogwarts. She'll hug him and squeeze him until he tries to squirm away with a dismayed 'Auntie...!'

[drabbles-mc]

Far From Over (4)

Gilly Lopez x OC Josephine Costa

Chapter Index

Warnings: 18+, angst, language, smoking

Word Count: 5k

A/N: The way I didn't think I was going to get so viscerally attached to these two and yet I truly fucking have lmao. There is a little bit of a time jump between the last fic and this one. The vibe is a little different because of it, but I still love it so much. I have some big things planned for the next part or two of this and I'm 👀👀👀 excited

General Mayans Taglist: @buckybarneshairpullingkink @paintballkid711 @queenbeered @kelpies-shed @gemini0410 @mijagif @amorestevens @garbinge @justreblogginfics @rosieposie0624 @choochoo284 @littlekittymeow @proceduralpassion @artemiseamoon @nessamc @withmyteeth @crowfootwrites @beardburnsupersoldiers @winchestershiresauce @frattsparty @fanfic-n-tabulous @justazzi @darqchilddaydreamz @danzer8705 @camelia35 @cositapreciosa @narcolini (If you want to be added to any of my taglists, please let me know!)

“We don’t have Peña on our side anymore,” EZ said matter-of-factly from his seat beside Marcus during Templo, “but we can find out if the new mayor is just as amenable as she was.”

“Fuckin’ doubt it,” Bishop piped up with a shake of his head. He wasn’t looking at anyone, just staring down at the cigarette he had between his fingers. The smoke trailing off it was suddenly more interesting than everything else in the room.

EZ didn’t pay any mind to his cynicism. “Guess we’ll find out.” He turned and looked at Gilly. “Go see what Josie can tell you about her new boss.”

Up until that moment, Gilly had only been half paying attention to everything that was being said. So much of everything lately had just felt like running around in circles and getting nothing done that he started to tune things out sometimes. There was no MC equivalent to, “This meeting could’ve been an email,” but at this point Gilly was determined to come up with one.

Suffice to say that the mention of Josie threw him for a loop. “Why?”

“So we can find out what we’re working with,” EZ replied without missing a beat.

Gilly shook his head. “Nah, nah I’m not doing that. I told her months ago that I wouldn’t be asking her for club shit.”

Angel chuckled and shook his head. “Why the fuck would you tell her that?”

“Because I’m not gonna fuckin’ ask her,” Gilly snapped, harsher than he should’ve, harsher than he meant to.

Marcus finally weighed in. “You are now.” He saw the tension growing in Gilly’s shoulders. “EZ’s right—club needs to know what we have at our disposal. Antonia was good with us and Galindo. We need to know who our new mayor is in good with, if she’s in good with anyone.”

“What if Josie doesn’t know shit?” Gilly asked, desperately looking for a way out of this.

“We’ll cross that bridge if we get to it,” EZ said.

“Don’t go alone.” Marcus’s gaze drifted from Gilly to Bishop. “Primo, keep him company, huh?”

Bishop knew better than to ask why. And as much as he wanted to argue, he knew better than to do that too. Still, he wasn’t going to pretend to be happy about it. “Fine,” he grit out.

“I’ll tag along too,” Coco piped up, something akin to amusement in his eyes.

Marcus’s brows furrowed. “Really think that this is a three-man job?”

Coco shrugged, oozing nonchalance as he lit up a cigarette. “Impartial third party.” He let out a puff of smoke. “Only one out of the three of us that hasn’t fucked someone in the mayor’s office,” he tried to finish the sentence without laughing and failed.

It got scattered chuckles from almost everyone around the table. Everyone except for Bishop and Gilly. Marcus gave a small shake of his head but he clearly didn’t deem it something that was worth a discussion or an argument. If Coco wanted to go just to be nosey and annoy Gilly, that was his own prerogative. The gavel sounded and everyone was dismissed out. Gilly shot up out of his seat much faster than usual, barreling his way to the door and away from everyone else before he said something that he’d end up regretting.

Coco materialized by him while he was leaning back against his bike. Gilly was pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes shut tight. Tension was practically radiating off him, his shoulders looking like they were about to snap clean off his body.

“It’s not gonna be that bad,” Coco said as he dropped the butt of his cigarette to the ground and put it out with the heel of his boot.

“Fuck you,” Gilly said.

Coco laughed. “Why you so—”

“I haven’t seen her in like two months, man.” Gilly shook his head, finally looking at Coco. “And I made it real fuckin’ clear last time that I didn’t wanna fucking see her again.”

“That’s on you.”

“It’s not fucking—”

“Shut up,” Coco said with a laugh. “Fuckin’ dramatic.”

Gilly tried to be angry but ended up laughing instead. “I hate you.”

Coco was laughing and shaking his head. When he saw Bishop finally walking over to the two of them he said, “Come on, let’s go see your ex.”

 When they made it to the mayor’s office, Coco hung back just outside the front doors. He was close enough to watch it all go down but not so close that it felt like there was a whole charter rolling up into the place. It’d been a while since anyone from the club had stopped by the mayor’s office, so it was already going to be a bit much.

Bishop and Gilly made their way up the steps to the building. Neither of them were looking at each other, and they weren’t even really looking at the building. Both sets of eyes were glued to the stairs passing beneath their boots.

“Liked it better when it was your fuckin’ ex,” Gilly half-mumbled.

Bishop was annoyed by the comment but he still found himself chuckling at it. Misery loves company. He didn’t say anything else in response though, opting just to shake his head as they made it to the top of the stairs. They each pulled one of the double doors open, walking in side-by-side. They didn’t do it with the intent to be intimidating or cause a scene, but it had that effect regardless.

The young woman working at the reception desk was practically shaking as she sat on the other side of the counter and looked up at Gilly. “C-can I help you?”

Gilly knew that the look of utter annoyance on his face wasn’t helping to make him any less intimidating to the poor girl, but he couldn’t really do much about it at this point. “Looking for Josephine? Costa?”

She nodded, clearing her throat. “Right. Right. What’s it in regards to, exactly?”

“Revenue opportunities for the town,” Bishop spoke up when Gilly was taking too long.

It was Gilly’s turn to awkwardly clear his throat. “She’ll know what it’s about.”

The girl looked back and forth between the two men in front of her a couple times before finally getting up out of her seat. “I’ll go grab her, then. Wait…wait right here, please.”

Gilly watched the girl scurry off to go and find Josie. He wondered what happened to the last person they had working the front desk. If she’d still been there, Gilly never would’ve even had to explain himself. That was half the reason he hesitated—it’d been so long since anyone at the mayor’s office asked him why he was there. The reason was always known and implied when he used to show up. The days of lunch dates and stopping by just because he could and wanted to check in were long gone now.

Josie caught the movement out of the corner of her eye and looked up to see the girl standing in front of her. Josie had always thought she was wound just a little tight, but she looked more skittish than usual.

She pulled her hands away from her keyboard. “All good, Lena?”

She nodded, not that it was very convincing. “Um, yea. I mean, maybe? There’s um,” she glanced over her shoulder even though Gilly and Bishop were a door and a couple hallways away, “there are a couple people here to see you? Couple guys. Men.”

Josie chuckled, confusion on her face. “Did these men say—”

“They said you’d know what it’s about?” she almost squeaked from the nerves.

Josie couldn't help the sigh she let out. “These men have leather vests on?”

Lena nodded. “Yea. The one guy had a lot of tattoos. Other one, uh, had, uh, had a beard.” It crossed her mind as she rambled that she hadn’t asked for their names. Hopefully her vague descriptions were enough.

She gave a slow nod. “Alright.” She stood up from her seat, grabbing and putting on her blazer as she did. “I’ll talk to them.”

“Do you need me to call someone? The police department is right—”

“No,” Josie cut her off as gently as she could as she walked out from the other side of her desk, “it’s fine. Really. They’re…they’re not here to cause a problem.” She didn’t know if that was true or not but it was the closest thing to the truth that she had—it wasn’t as though she could claim that they were harmless.

Lena was visibly hesitant but she finally nodded. “Okay.”

The two of them walked back towards the main lobby of the building where Gilly and Bishop were waiting. Josie wanted to have something quick and reassuring to tell the girl who was anxiously keeping stride with her, but she knew that it wasn’t going to matter what she said. Nothing was going to be comforting enough. The only thing that was going to help the poor girl was the two men leaving.

“Hey,” Josie said as casually as she could when she reached the lobby. Her heart was in her throat as she looked at Gilly, but she didn’t want to let it show. She’d never been the best at keeping her thoughts and feelings to herself—even if she didn’t say something, she almost always wore it on her face. “Something I can do for you gentlemen?” she asked as she looked back and forth between Bishop and Gilly.

Gilly felt like he’d been knocked back a few steps. He could hardly remember the last time that Josie used her work voice on him. The last time was back when they had first met at all. The first few times Gilly had been tasked with lingering around the office while Bishop and Taza met with Antonia to try and work things out. He always lingered in the lobby, looking suspicious as hell and making plenty of people uncomfortable. At that point, Josie wasn’t the direct assistant to the mayor—she was the one working the front desk.

Before he could think too much about what now seemed like a different lifetime, Gilly got brought back to the present by Bishop saying, “Hoping to steal a couple minutes of your time.”

Josie watched Bishop, seeing the smile on his face but also seeing the way that it didn’t reach his eyes. She could feel how much neither of them wanted to be there. She was about to offer up a response when Gilly finally got it together enough to say something.

“It won’t be long,” he said, still staring at Josie because he couldn’t bring himself to look at anything else. Eight weeks wasn’t that long in the grand scheme of things, but apparently it was just long enough. She looked different than the last time he saw her—her hair was chopped to her shoulders, she’d gotten another nose piercing, a myriad of other small details that Gilly didn’t think he was the type of guy to notice now all seemed like flashing neon signs. Still, he tried to focus as he said, “Just got a couple questions.”

Josie shrugged. “Alright, yea, I got a few minutes.” She motioned for them to follow her. “Come with me.”

“I’ll wait here,” Bishop offered up, praying that Gilly wasn’t going to want to argue in front of everyone passing through the lobby. He just didn’t want to be subjected to whatever their entire interaction was going to turn out to be.

Josie shrugged, unbothered. “Suit yourself.” She missed the glare that Gilly shot Bishop’s way as the two of them started to make their way out of the lobby. She had him follow her down a hallway before she pushed the door open to an empty conference room. “Come on, no one will bother us in here.” She pulled the door shut behind the two of them before turning to face Gilly. “So…what’s up?”

“I know I said I wasn’t gonna ask you for shit,” Gilly started, not exactly rambling but not calm either, “and I fuckin’ told them that but they still made me—”

“Hey,” Josie cut him off, “it’s…it’s fine.”

Gilly’s whole face contorted in surprise at how genuine she sounded when she said that. He watched her as she sat on the edge of the table, resting her hands in her lap. It took him longer than it should’ve to say, “What?”

She let out a sad laugh. “I never said I wouldn’t help you. That was your rule.”

“Figured it was fuckin’ implied since…you know.”

“Yeah, well,” she shrugged, “guess I kind of fuckin’ owe you, right?”

Gilly chuckled. “Kind of.”

“So?” she asked after a couple seconds of silence. “What’s the ask?”

“The new mayor.”

She sighed, chin dropping and tucking down towards her chest. “Fuck.”

“I know.”

She lifted her head to look at him again. “What about her?”

“What’s her deal?”

Josie laughed. “Her deal? You mean do I think that she’ll work with the fucking MC?”

“If she doesn’t wanna work with us, I don’t really give a shit,” Gilly told her honestly. “I need to know who she is working with, though.”

Josie let out a puff of air. She knew that things were always coated in more shades of grey than she could’ve ever imagined when it came to local politics and the club. The cartel periodically came through to get their pound of flesh, too, making sure that even though they operated underground for the most part, that Antonia still knew full-well that they were around and expecting certain things from her. Looking back, Josie was honestly surprised that Peña actually made it to a point where she could just leave, rather than a stress-induced heart attack taking her out.

A lot of that, the mess with the mayor and the club and the cartel, had all been in Josie’s peripheral. She knew bits and pieces, and Antonia loosened up around her considerably once she and Gilly became a unit rather than two separate people. But there was still so much that Josie didn’t know. There was a lot that Peña didn’t tell her, even more that Gilly didn’t tell her. Maybe she should’ve seen this coming, but she’d been too busy worrying about everything else.

“As far as I know,” she said after thinking on it for a long while, “she is new and shiny…and clean.”

Gilly wasn’t sure if her hesitation was because she was lying, or because she really didn’t want to tell him the truth. “You really think so?”

“I do.” She sighed. “And I know it’s not great for you guys but I’d really fucking love for her to stay that way.”

“It’s not up to me, Jos.”

She shrugged. “Fine, fuck it. Send Bishop back here and I’ll talk to him.”

Gilly wasn’t quick enough to hide the smirk on his face. “Not up to him either.” He saw the way that Josie’s raised eyebrows asked the question that her mouth didn’t. “Alvarez is president now.”

She laughed, “Oh, shit. Dad came home, huh?” She shook her head. “Bish VP, then?”

It hit her in that moment that she couldn’t remember the last time she and Gilly actually talked about the club. They broke up, then there was the shoot-out, then there was the wedding. And sure, the shoot-out had been at the clubhouse, but it wasn’t an environment that was conducive to catching up about the changes in the MC hierarchy. Not like Gilly would’ve wanted to talk to her about it anyway. She was surprised that he was even saying anything now. Maybe he wasn’t thinking too much about what he was doing.

“Nah,” he shook his head, “EZ is VP.”

Josie nearly choked on her own spit. “Ezekiel?” She blinked once, long and slow as she gave another shake of her head. “Wasn’t he just a prospect like, two months ago?”

Gilly laughed, knowing that she was exaggerating but not by much. “Yea. Fuckin’ insane.”

There was a small stretch of silence, and as the seconds ticked by, Josie could watch the way that Gilly’s facial expression and body language started to change. The reality of the club, the mayor, the two of them currently standing in the empty conference room, all slowly began to wash over him. The fleeting moments of ease between them were on their way out. Everything was a mess, it felt like. Nothing was the way it was supposed to be.

Clearing his throat, his nose twitched slightly as he sniffed. “But yea, the mayor. Think we could—”

“Do I think you guys could buy her? Scare her into whatever it is that you need now?” she cut him off with the questions. She was angry, annoyed, but she knew that the club was going to do whatever they wanted regardless of how much she tried to keep her boss out of it. Bordertown politics. She sighed. “Yea, fucking, fucking probably.”

He couldn’t really blame her for her exasperation, but it wasn’t as though he was thrilled about having to be standing in front of her asking her all of this. It was quite literally one of the last things in the world that he wanted to be doing. And yet.

“The club is in some major shit, Jos,” Gilly said with a sigh. “With all the shit still going on with the border, and with the fucking cartels, we—”

“I’m sure you’ve got a laundry list of reasons, Gilly. You guys always do.” She could see that he was fighting the urge to let this become the blowout it could so easily be between them. She was doing all she could to keep her tongue under control. She wasn’t afraid to have it out with him, never had been, but she didn’t want to do it at work. “If she doesn’t?”

“What?”

She sighed. “If she doesn’t agree to work with you?”

He shrugged. “Gotta make it clear that she can’t go and work with anyone else either.”

She felt a knot starting to grow in the back of her throat. She didn’t know what the specifics of that would be. She didn’t want to know, either, but she knew that they wouldn’t be good. She wondered how much grief Antonia had saved herself just because of her past relationship with Bishop. Then she wondered if maybe that would’ve made it worse.

Gilly could see all the emotions that were passing over Josie’s face. “Told you I didn’t want to come to you with all this shit.”

“I thought your problem was with your other charters?”

“Them too.”

She shook her head, letting out a hollow laugh. “You guys really love a fucking mess, huh?”

“And you don’t?”

“I’m good at making them, doesn’t mean I fuckin’ enjoy them.” She sighed. “This one is yours, though. Your club’s. Keep it that way and keep me the fuck out of it.”

“What happened to you owing me?” It would’ve been a more successful joke if the stakes had been different.

“You suddenly looking for reasons to have to come and see me?”

That was something that he didn’t have a good rebuttal for. He knew that if he let this conversation keep going, it was going to disintegrate into something much meaner than the exhaustion that was between them now. Neither of them had ever shied away from a good knock-down, drag-out, but this was the closest to civil they’d been with each other in a long time. He didn’t want to be the one to ruin it.

“Alright. I’ll let the guys know what you said.”

She nodded. “You have fun with that.” Pushing herself up from where she was leaning back against the table, she walked to the door and opened it, motioning for Gilly to walk through. “You first.”

They were silent as they walked back to the main lobby. Lena looked up from her computer the second that she heard the heels of Josie’s boots clicking against the floor. She looked a little more relieved at the sight of the two of them, but not quite relieved enough.

“I’m gonna take my fifteen,” Josie told her. “And I’ll walk these guys out.”

Lena looked skeptical, but if Josie was comfortable, she was going to try her best to feel the same. “Okay.”

Josie fell into stride next to Bishop, allowing Gilly to walk in front of the two of them. “So,” she said as Gilly held the door open for both of them, “did you just miss your old stomping grounds that much that you decided to come back?”

Bishop chuckled dryly. “Nothing like that.” He saw it on Josie’s face that she was about to fire off another smart remark, so he said, “Was actually sent to make sure that you two didn’t fuckin’ strangle each other.”

Josie had to laugh at that. “That’s fair.”

When the three of them reached the bottom of the steps, they found Coco standing by their bikes. He was leaning back against his, cigarette in one hand, his phone in the other. He was squinting against the sun as he looked down at the screen, swiping in a way that could’ve meant that he was playing a game, or snooping around on someone’s accounts on something. Josie didn’t know which one it was but for her own sanity she chose to believe it was the former.

“Hey, Coco,” she spoke up as they all lingered by the parked motorcycles.

His head snapped up at the sound of her voice. “Shit, hey.”

It’d been a long time since Josie got a good look at Coco. Even before she and Gilly had broken up, Coco had been mostly MIA. She always tried to ask, but she was always met with vague answers or clear anger. Neither of those options did her any good. He’d been at the clubhouse the night of the shoot-out, but there had been so much other shit going on that she hadn’t been focused on him at all. Whatever he had been going through, though, he looked better now.

“How’ve you been?” she asked.

He shrugged, a tiny lift at the end of his mouth. “Still fuckin’ here.”

She laughed, nodding. “That’s true.”

Part of her had expected to be met with some sort of animosity. Or at least for Coco to be cold towards her because of what she had put Gilly through. It wasn’t what she wanted, but she wouldn’t have been able to blame him if that’s how he was choosing to handle it. At the end of the day, she knew that Gilly was one of Coco’s best friends. And even if Gilly had been the one in the wrong, which he wasn’t this time, his friends in the MC would’ve sided with him. But when she stopped and gave it a second thought, she figured that maybe she wasn’t giving Coco enough credit. There were bigger things to be angry about. Plus Coco had always been better at leaving the past in the past and pushing forward than the rest of them.

He nodded at her. “Hair looks good.”

She reached up, threading her fingers through it in an impulsive response to his comment. The last time he’d seen her, her hair had been almost down to the middle of her back. “Thanks.” She noticed that while she’d gone and chopped hers off, Coco’s was longer than it’d ever been. “Yours too—I like the braids.”

“Not gonna lie,” he took one more drag off his smoke before putting it out on the sidewalk, “was hopin’ for more of a brawl or something with you two.” He gestured between her and Gilly with a laugh.

She laughed and shook her head. “Sorry to disappoint.”

His smile grew a little wider. “Maybe next time.” He turned and looked at Gilly and Bishop. “We out?”

Bishop nodded immediately, wanting to spend as little time at the mayor’s office as possible. “Yea, we are.”

Gilly found himself hesitating. “I’ll catch up.”

All three of the others turned and looked at him with varying levels of confusion. For a moment Josie wondered if once the guys left the very tense and delicate balance that she and Gilly had maintained for the last short stint of time was all going to come crumbling down. Judging by the look on Coco’s face, she wasn’t the only one who was having that very thought. Still, neither of the men were going to try and stick around longer or argue, so they said quick goodbye’s to Josie before hopping on their bikes and taking off.

“Should I be worried?” she asked, trying to make a joke but a shred of her unease still shone through.

Gilly shook his head. “Nah.”

She pulled a pack of cigarettes out of the pocket of her blazer. She took one out and already had it between her lips when she paused and looked over at him. “Sorry, do you care if I…?” the question came out slightly muffled as she spoke around the cigarette perched between her lips.

He exhaled sharply through his nose, something reminiscent of a laugh, and shook his head. “I don’t give a fuck, Jos.”

She smiled as she lit it. She took a drag before saying, “I just know you said you were trying to quit.” She paused for a beat, waiting for him to say whatever it was that he wanted to say. When he didn’t jump right into anything, she asked, “You good?”

He nodded. “Yea.” He pried his eyes from the sidewalk and met her gaze. “Saw your sister.”

She could’ve sworn her heart stopped in her chest for a moment. There it was. She swallowed hard, trying to keep her composure and not show the nerves she was so clearly feeling. “When was that?”

He shrugged. “Couple weeks after the wedding.”

She frowned in thought, taking another drag off her cigarette. She wasn’t sure what she needed more in that moment, the nicotine or the few seconds of distraction. “I, um, I don’t really know what you’re expecting me to say to that, Gilly,” she admitted with an anxious laugh.

“She still pissed at you?” he asked.

If they’d been having the discussion a few months before, Josie would’ve assumed that Gilly was just trying to put salt in her wounds because he could. But it didn’t feel like that now. It felt like he was genuinely wondering.

“She’s not thrilled, but I mean…”

“Yea, she was, she was fuckin’ mad.”

“I know—I was there when the mad started.”

“I thought you were full of shit, by the way,” he told her.

“What?”

“When you said you were gonna tell them. I figured you were just full of shit and saying whatever to, you know…”

“Get what I needed?” she filled in the blanks for him, sounding hurt, but not quite angry.

“Yea.”

“Well, like I said,” she tapped the ash from the end of her smoke, “I owe you.”

He wanted it to feel better, hearing her say that. He wanted some kind of gratification out of it, but he had none. This was why he didn’t want to drag her back into any of the shit going on with the club. He should’ve known it was going to happen anyway, but he was really hoping. He wanted to be done with everything that happened with them—he didn’t want it to be some sword hanging over their heads forever. He didn’t know how to make it all go away though.

Unable to handle the silence, the weight of the conversation that they were about to tumble into, Josie switched tracks. “Who should I call?”

He frowned in confusion. “What?”

“If I hear anything about the mayor, one way or the other—who should I call?” She didn’t want to say it out loud, didn’t want to turn that stone over and reveal whatever mess was beneath it, but Gilly hadn’t ever unblocked her number.

He almost reached for his phone in the pocket of his kutte. But as he looked at her, watched her drop the butt of her cigarette onto the sidewalk to grind it out before tossing it in the trash, he stopped himself. Instead, he shoved his hand into his pocket to fish out his keys. “Call EZ. This is his and Alvarez’s bullshit to sort now.”

She frowned for a moment before recovering. Nodding, she said, “Okay.” There was another long beat of silence between them, and Josie could feel how he had more things to say. She also knew that he wasn’t going to. She wasn’t sure if she was better or worse off for that. “I gotta, you know…” she trailed off as she motioned back over her shoulder.

“Right. Go make sure your receptionist didn’t call SWAT on us or some shit,” he joked, his light tone not quite matching the look in his eyes.

“I asked her very nicely not to,” Josie joked right back.

She wanted to hug him, offer him some kind of something for everything, but she knew that she couldn’t. She also knew that the times of going months not seeing each other were over. Whether it was going to mend things or re-shatter them completely would remain to be seen. She wasn’t sure what she was looking to happen, or what she wanted. She just hoped it would be less uncomfortable and angry than things had been. Today had been a start—they got through seeing each other without descending into a screaming match. Maybe there really was something to giving things time.

“Stay safe,” she finally said, not going for a hug or a handshake, instead just taking starting her retreat towards the stairs.

Gilly nodded, watching her go. “Thanks.”

[ashpkat]

dude like.

as a fic writer and AVID fan of mgst stuff I constantly get the urge to just rewrite the whole Golden Tower. all of it. I have several pages of plot points and character changes and endings and whatever I'll randomly begin gargling at during classes

for example, take: mostly canon compliant up until the part Alex was supposed to show up as a fuckin. bitch. and then just don't have him show up.

instead why not invest some more into Anastasia's actual character cause we do NOT get as much from her as I wanted and that woman needs to go full mother rage mode??? maybe have HER be another obstacle, but not in a big final boss battle way. more in a. yeah it's a battle but it's more destabilizing to call than anything and he and Aaron fight n shit and call tries to get Aaron to maybe get a new body and Aaron just doesn't want that. he wants to pass on cause you can't reverse death.

or maybe not even that, there's so much material that you can trust and change to make a more believable solid damn ending

and maybe the golden Tower is just more character resolutions and tying up loose ends and facing everything that's come to a conclusion cleanly, giving call and Tamara space to move on and for the world to be kinder and man there's just SO MUCH that could have been changed. done better.

Alastair lives btw the man didn't deserve his ,,, Devouring (??). poor little mechanic lad.

these were so cracked up on the shot i don't even have my note pages with me but like I COULD SEE MYSELF REWRITING THIS AND AS THE ONLY STILL ACTIVE MGST TUMBLR AND AO3 I JUST NEED TO KNOW

do you see my vision. are we vision together. fix tower gold. it's possible we just need to human up and do it bro (I am talking to myself this is self motivation)

GHTFHHUJ. floor

oh boy this was a doozy to decipher through my sleep deprived brain. also i can’t believe i was referred to as the only active magisterium ao3 and tumblr that’s so depressing (assuming that’s what u were doing)

and yes. i see the vision. i like the idea that tgt could’ve been used less as a ‘Cramming Every Single Plot Line We Can Into 250 Pages’ book and more as a way to see character resolution. (like callmara. excuse me but thats a trauma bond when i see one. this is the piper/jason of the mgst fandom except one got a satisfying ending that made sense and the other was a shit show in order to for the mc to have a love interest. tamara didn’t deserve to have her character stripped from her in order to be a love interest. jasper didn’t deserve to have his character growth completely stunted. call was um. call turned into generic mc. Aaron shouldn’t have come back. sigh. love me some Tragic Lovers. calron enthusiast here. i could go on and on)

also aalstair did not deserve to get devoured his ass would NOT sacrifice himself for the magisterium 🤣🤣🤣 his son SURE but nah not the whole magisterium. he would’ve scooped up call and they would’ve changed their names and moved to cuba or some shit idk.

and as an avid anastasia fan / mgst villain enthusiast YES YES YES. i need more crazy mom ana. give me toxic boy mom eliza madden. we could do it. we could team up. team up of the century. avengers assemble idfk i’ve never watched a marvel movie

[animelover20]

My roommate has been playing the game (Hades) for months, and let me try it a round until I died in a small boss fight, it was so much fun! I saw your post about it and wanted to know if you have a favorite character in it, and what designs are your favorite?

You can honestly just say whatever you want about the game if you want to air out more thoughts! The game is just so gorgeous and seem so well-written

Fuck yeah I get to ramble more about a special interest of mine.(I was so happy to see this,thank you😂❤️)

Anyway. My favourite character would definitely be Thanatos,he's so cool and I think they really did him justice compared to other iterations. But my favourite character design is Dionysus😁 it's very close between him and Thanatos and I think they're both written near perfectly but I think dio's is a lot more fitting to his actual myths whereas Thanatos is slightly inaccurate as he's typically depicted with a sword not a scythe. HOWEVER HE HAS A SWORD ON HIS BELT WHICH IS SUCH A COOL DETAIL AND DEFINITELY A REFERENCE TO THIS!!

Dio on the other hand has his thyrsus(the stick with the pinecone) and it is an item that has been associated with him for ages, he can be seen with it in statues and art of him and it's extremely important that he has his thyrsus hence why I actually prefer his design over Thanatos(his is still pretty accurate don't get me wrong but dio's is just done a little better)

Another thing i like that they did with dio's design is make him androgynous as fuck and how I see it he's like a fucking sandwich (decently feminine face, masculine torso and fem as fuck legs. Aka androg sandwich.) it's also historically accurate because one of his epithets/titles is fucking androgynous.

However this is rarely seen in his depictions which is actually a shame.

I really love dionysus and his gimmick within the game aswell because it is ridiculously funny to make your enemies have a hangover mid fight😂 this comes with a downside tho as you have to have only one stack of hangover(if you inflict it by attack don't get something else that causes hangover.) this is because for some reason the stack of hangover overwrites with the most recent.

So say if you have something that does 1 hangover damage on the attack and 20 hangover damage on something else then if your constantly using your attack which you most certainly would be doing, you're actually overwriting the other 20! Even if it's higher. Which is bullshit as fuck but I still like his gimmick a lot lmao.

Moving on from Dio I also love how some characters have lil references to actual mythology even if it's not outright stated. It makes the game feel more alive and it just makes me love it even more.

Adding onto this they actually made a whole system to determine dialogue😃(I mentioned this briefly in the post but I feel like adding on a bit more.) they made a whole priority thing so that when zag(mc) completes am important/story relevant task, like escaping or defeating a boss the dialogue regarding this event gets prioritised the next time he talk to someone within the house. And I think it's fuckin amazing.

The only issue with that last part is it's very easy to overwrite some other important dialogue and even whole storylines at time(which is a pain) but it happens very rarely and typically fixes itself.

It really is a well written game and even in the different areas you can really see how much thought they put into this game.

Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to ramble😂

thanks for the ask. also🫴❤️

[skylermadness]

A Gain in Power (Roquefort TF/MC/CRPT/HY)

(Original Date of Upload: February 5, 2023)

Original Description:

I may have written this in two days. I played Hi-Fi Rush a few weeks back and it's a very good game! Roquefort has been my TF obsession since then. Australian accent, corruption mood, robotic werewolf. All-in-all, really fuckin' hot and I needed to write a TF story of him as soon as possible. This story is a bit different to me, it's kind of experimental since I'm doing a lot of different things in it that I haven't before. Especially on the subject matter of hypnosis which I have never done in a story before up until now, much less non-consensual hypnosis that requires a lot of resistance. I think I did it kind of wonkily but I'm still proud of the end result nonetheless. The post-TF is definitely a little awkward though, I wasn't quite sure where I wanted to go around there. Overall this is all just a bunch of new concepts that I haven't tried before, but I am trying now! And overall I still think it turned out rather well! Also the story title is a pun. I hope someone gets it.

   "I put my stock in futures… but not yours, kid."

   How many times has Gerald heard this line? It felt like about ten or so now. A little embarrassing to think about, really, the knowledge that it's been taking this many attempts to beat this boss.

   Left stick forward, light attack while the boss is still transforming…

   He wasn't really rhythmically inclined. That might've been the largest issue here, although even then the penalty never seemed that dire before. They were at least able to connect certain cues, especially with parrying, but something about this boss was… tedious, to say the least.

   Ignore the "Repeat" penalties, just go with what works. X, X, X, and… fail to time the last beat properly. Try again!

   Try again. That's what Gerald tells himself. All the other bosses were a walk in the park! Except maybe Mimosa but he didn't die to her as much as he died to this Roquefort fellow. Could it be the size? Could it be the irregular attack patterns? Could it just be that he's on Normal mode and should've just gone with Easy like his gut told him before this game started?

   25%, just as long as- Ugh, crap! The stupid dive attack always-

   He's not using his entire arsenal, is he? When's the last time he used Peppermint, or really called on any of the allies? He hasn't used a Special Attack in a long while either!

   Shit, why does the boss deal damage while swimming through the money??

   Maybe he should use more combos? Or actually try to be in beat? So many thoughts, so many things he could try and do. This boss shouldn't be this hard, it really shouldn't-

   Music's ramping up, Chai is near a fist, Roquefort's about to jump and dive at him, aaaaand… there!

   At least he's able to get a good few hits in when the boss is incapacitated. Although he himself is somehow at half HP. Maybe buying those things that increased his max health would've been a worthwhile investment.

   Grapple to him, somehow start an aerial attack, miss half the hits, the boss misses an attack that would've rushed towards him. Grapple again, forget to listen to audio cues, get hit, repeat. 50% health on Roquefort, about 45% on Chai…

   He sighs. He likely won't be winning this fight today, meaning it'd probably be a good time to give up and take a break after he inevitably loses this round. That's… fine (he's lying to himself). He needs to blow off some steam (he desperately wants to beat this boss before he ends this session).

   He gets hit again, a pang of fear emanating through him as he notices how low his health is. Roquefort's voice then echoes through Gerald's headphones. "Hmph. Giving up already? Weak."

   Is the game taunting him now? It usually only does that when he game overs. And that's a new voice line too. Usually he hears the man say 'Money is power!' or something every twenty seconds.

   The fight gets uneventful from here, maybe because Gerald is already sure he's losing. He's slipping. He's getting greedier with his attacks, he's trying to end things quickly when this isn't the game for that.

   "Ya ain't gonna use all that's at your disposal? This could have been over easily."

   There was something unnerving about the tone of that. Why did it feel so targeted? It was… discomforting. He didn't like that. 

   Another simple combo: X, X, X, and… ah, perfected that last hit for once! Excitement is fleeting, though. 25% on Roquefort, 20% on Chai. Even worse…

   "Prepare to get blown away!"

   …the QTE.

   The worst segment of the battle, if not the entire game as a whole. If his inability to get into the rhythm wasn't going to fuck things up, his inability to discern buttons at an ungodly pace would.

   They always went so fast. This didn't feel like the Space Channel 5 segment of Mimosa's fight that was just a bunch of calls and responses. This was what felt like an unfair rapid fire of required inputs. It hurt, it really hurt.

   He was pretty sure he didn't even get past the halfway point. His own health gets decimated in what feels like seconds.

   It's over. He lost.

   The screen steadily fades to black, except this time Chai is missing from it. The only additive the blank computer screen has is a short taunt from Roquefort.

   "Your struggling gets pitiful."

   The lack of Chai on the screen didn't really phase him. A part of him would've assumed it was one of those 'you die [x] amount of times and get an Easter egg' kind of things.

   Gerald sighs, staring at the black screen. A self-deprecating smile crosses his face. It was pitiful, wasn't it? Whatever, guess if the game was blanking he should take a break. He just has to wait for the option to Leave to show up.

   It never did, though. The screen remained black, and it did so for what felt like a long time. But those lengthy few seconds ended as something finally did appear on the screen.

   Steadily fading in from within the void was what looked to be a solid gold metronome. The pendulum seemed to already be active, swaying left and right to a soft, constant click that rang through the headphones.

   Left, click. Right, click. Left, right, left, right. The clicks that practically reverberated through his ears had mesmerized him. The swinging of the pendulum was practically hypnotic. He was so fixated that he didn't really notice the opacity of the metronome fade, the object solid on the screen of his computer.

   It was then that an all too familiar voice broke the audio immersion. "Beautiful, ain't it?"

   Gerald's eyes remained fixated on the pendulum, but his mind still functioned enough to speak. "Wh-huh…?"

   "It's a nice metronome. Costed a pretty penny too. But that ain't what I'm here for…"

   Gerald knew this voice. Thick Australian accent, a strange yet powerful tone to its demeanor. "Roque…fort?"

   "Heh, look who's on the money! Not as dumb as I was expectin', considerin' that pitiful performance of yours in our little… 'battle', if you could even call it that."

   Gerald wanted to blink. "I'm… sorry?" He wanted to articulate more than that. To ask what was going on, or how this was even happening. Yet the metronome, the swinging… left and right and left and…

   "I'm going to be blunt with ya', mate. You're weak. It's pathetic to watch, even more pathetic to endure when you're the one constantly tasked with fighting such a disappointment."

   "It was only ten… times. Wasn't that bad…"

   A sign echoes from Gerald's headphones. "You're that accepting of it, huh? You're even more of a disappointment than I thought. But I'm going to rectify that…"

   "What do you…?"

   "You need to be made stronger. You need to be made better! You… you need to be shown what true power feels like."

   The swinging of the metronome's pendulum starts to increase in speed. It's only subtle, but when it's the only thing the eyes focus on you can feel it.

   Gerald's jaw clenched. "I… I don't…"

   Roquefort cuts him off. "Let's start with that thing in your hand…"

   Eyes still unable to tear away from the metronome, Gerald couldn't see what was happening. The controller within his hand shook for a few moments, his grip slowly fading as the inanimate object seemed to shake at an increasingly faster rate. As the object convulsed, it seemed to melt in a way. Buttons lost their defining features and melded into the mass. Both sticks liquified into raised bumps on the strange lump of goo. 

   Once everything was smoothed out and gone the controller shape steadily compressed into itself, reshaping and losing all uniqueness to its features until it was a lumpy, black, gooey-looking sphere floating innocuously in his hands. Shortly after that, it began to reshape itself yet again. Lengthening horizontally, its sphere shape changes to something more slender. Getting longer still, one end shines with a gold coloration while the other end gains a T-shape to it thanks to two new blunted protrusions. After a few more seconds the object hardens, its material changing to a metal with a pure black coloration. The golden nub at the end shines softly while another bit of gold forms an inch beneath where the protrusions formed. 

   Gerald couldn't see it, but his controller had been morphed into a cane. It dropped into his hands, both of them curling around the strange new object. The metal felt cold.

   "What did you… do?" Gerald inquired, his eyes still trapped to the rhythmic swinging of the metronome.

   "I gave you something a little more… refined. It'll also allow what comes next to be easier. Now just sit back and accept this… gift, of mine."

   Gerald hissed as a sudden shock zapped his fingers from the cane. His entire body shivered in response, a strange feeling welling up inside it, meanwhile his hands started to go numb. He tried to move his head away from the computer, to look at what was happening, but it felt rooted. His eyes remained affixed to the metronome's swinging. "Ngh, need to break from… this trance-"

   He grunts as he tries to do so, and while that happens things begin to change in his body. The numbness in his hands was caused by their physicality being shifted. His skin started to take a darker tone as the warmth in it steadily dissipated, soft flesh hardening to a cool metal. His fingers softly twitched to the clicks of the metronome in his ears, each finger segmenting at the joints as the metal washed over them. At the same time his hands were beginning to increase in size, stretching out larger and bulkier; fingers getting thicker and blunted. 

   The twitching in his fingers gained a subtle mechanical whir to them, the now segmented joints gaining a black hue to them. A robotic feel seemed to wash over the entire area, his hand already having become a bronze coloration, perfect for its now entirely metallic composition. Small nubs had even emerged from his knuckles, hardening into an elongated hexagonal shape as they practically powered out with a light blue glow.

   A geometric line etched itself around both wrists as the changes to his cellular structure jumped to his forearms and beneath the sleeves of his hoodie. The region numbing, the bronze washing up them and the skin hardening to metal. Both forearms looked to bulk up in size as these absurd changes courses through them, sleeves steadily filling out with this new size. The internal muscles shifted to wiring and convoluted mechanisms while the bones hardened to a shining metal. Another line ran across the now metallic casing, bisecting it unevenly before moving to his elbows and segmenting them from his arms as well.

   The changes on his upper arms mirrored those in the lower arms perfectly. What were once his bicep and tricep muscles were replaced with inorganic, advanced technology; but still filled out the region and expanded it within his sleeves and stretched them out slightly. As his flesh shifted to metal it got bisected unevenly as well with yet another casing split. And as everything steadily reached his shoulders, his shirt got a bit more snug as the area got bulkier with mechanics that were once his deltoids filling his new metallic chassis. Lastly came one final casing split in the area separating his arms from his torso, the axilla, creating a clean divide between the limbs and his body.

   The numbness in his arms steadily faded, the areas feeling cold and lifeless. Yet he could still move them, albeit weakly since he wasn't acclimated to these new limbs. 

   "What are you doing to me…?" Gerald said, fear in his voice as he was still unaware of what his arms had become. They just felt cold and it was uncomfortable and terrifying.

   "Eh, I ain't one for keepin' shit like this a secret. I pity you, kid. You're weak, and all I'm doin' is fixing that for ya', like someone else did for me. I'm transforming you into the stronger one between us."

   Gerald was left confused. "Wha…?" Transforming him into the stronger one? Was Roquefort implying… 

   "Y-you're making me into… you…?"

   "Clever boy, you catch on quick! You'll be me in both body and mind… gives me chills just thinkin' about it! Usually I'm the one transformin', heheheh…"

   Roquefort was clearly enjoying this. Gerald, on the other hand, wasn't. He wanted to protest, but that could worsen an already bad situation for him. He just had to break away from staring at this damned metronome!

   He grunts again, trying harder to break away from this trance all while his body continues to change even more. The skin tone on his chest begins to shine a deep bronze while the warm skin itself reconstitutes into cold metal. His clothing fills up again as his entire body starts to expand, widening out to a larger width than it possessed before. His chest steadily rose up, previously unimpressive pectorals expanding into a larger and thicker size. A small dent formed where the cleavage would be while straight lines formed beneath his pecs and around his body to break the chassis apart and separate the upper body from the lower. Strangely, a bit of fluff formed on the midline of his chest, an attempt to give his chest some kind of chest hair. Three spikes of clumped fuzz poked from this new fluffy growth, stylizing it a bit.

   His back possessed less impressive changes than that of his front. While the smooth metal ran across the entire area, there were still slight segmentations like a pair of parallel ones, each split running roughly two inches away from his neck. Those splits stopped at the horizontal run that parted his body in half.

   In contrast to the implied musculature his body possessed, his belly changed in a different manner. Bloat filled it up, the hem of his hoodie riding up it as it grew thicker and fatter. It got a metallic sheen as it enlarged, the region seeming to segment four times at regular intervals in an attempt to give it a more mobile look. His hoodie continued to move upwards, revealing this segmenting and confirming his belly had swelled into a firm robo-gut. It steadily moved with his breathing, rising and falling slightly in its new larger size.

   Gerald felt this strange gain in weight, although at this point he was feeling a chill throughout his entire body. His torso felt like it was churning as well, his vestigial feeling strange as if they were warping around and shifting. Complex robotics were filling his body at a rapid pace, things shifting and changing within him as various systems of mechanics began to flow throughout his changing form. Soft glows emanated from the various holes in his casing, different colors representing all the new systems implemented to his currently cybernetic body. A soft red glow put his body's internal heating system online, filling it with some semblance of comfort in contrast to this slightly horrifying predicament. Then there was a soft blue glow that signified power fully coming online, Gerald slowly being able to move his hands properly as he tapped his fingers on the cane he was still grasping.

   Wait. He could move his hands.

   It was a momentarily glimmer of hope. Gerald was quickly able to unhand the cane and move his hands upwards to push his headphones off his head, the appliance slipping down to his neck after he did so. His eyes still remained fixed to the pendulum, but he could still reach his hand over and use the keyboard. Maybe if he forced a Ctrl+Alt+Del, he could…

   "Still resisting I see…" Roquefort's voice reverberated from his computer's speakers.

   The pendulum began to swing faster, and the speed was starting to feel disorienting. His fingers hovered above the keyboard, though. "I just have to-"

   "Hm. You'd usually be more intuitive than this, Roquefort."

   "What-"

   "You'd never do something so predictable."

   "You called me-"

   "Roquefort. That's your name."

   Gerald swallowed a lump in his throat. He knew that wasn't his name, but the weird confusion he's being given by the swiftly swinging metronome was making him feel strange. His hands started to inch away from the keyboard. "That… can't…"

   "Doesn't it sound so familiar though? Roquefort Wolfgang, Head of Finance at Vandelay Technologies."

   "Head of… Finance…" Gerald repeated, the last word in that sentence sounding slightly off. Sounding a pinch deeper, rougher. 

   "Good boy. Go on, think about it a bit more. Recall all you can…"

   Gerald's hands fully retracted away from the keyboard, the man giving a single nod as his eyes remained on the golden metronome. All he was given was being the Head of Finance at a technology corporation, but that seemed to be enough that he started searching his brain for information. Something about that had begun to feel so right to him it was… 

   "Urgh…"

   His head aches, things are feeling conflicted. It's both right and wrong… which ones which? Gerald shudders, his mind now in turbulence. As he tries to put the pieces together, the changes start moving downwards to his waist and below.

   His jeans were already in the process of straining thanks to his much broader form. The button held itself tightly as the zipper tried to keep itself together. His belt was doing quite a lot of work as well, although it was the only part of his attire that felt like it was properly constricting him.

   The region around his waist had strange shifts when it came to its casing. The region at the base of his spine seemed to gain an interesting mechanism within it. The region around his rear seemed to gain a strange way of segmenting while the roundness of his ass seemed to increase and fill the seat of his pants. If anything it looked like he had two round pieces of metallic plating.

   As with the rest of his body, the changes within his legs were effectively the same. Skin tone changing, skin composition morphing. Much like his arms, the casing of his thighs bisected unevenly. The internals of the area shifted to wiring and tubing and hard metal bones, the region bulking up as a direct result of that. Lines formed around the knees where the chassis cleanly broke for the joints to work. 

   Changes in the lower legs were effectively the same, although the casing splits seemed more vertical than horizontal, at least for the first half of it. Things reached an interesting change towards the lower half of his leg’s crus. While still possessing its newly metallic shifts, the color shifted to a darker red with thin black stripes running vertically downwards, giving them the weird look of emulating the visible portion of a pair of socks.

   This didn’t last for too long though as once everything flowed down beneath his shoes and onto his feet, a more drastic change occurred. A deep shade of black entered his feet, subsuming the fleshy tone of it and deepening it to something completely inorganic. The size of his feet steadily expanded, his footwear starting to bulge against the growing size of the appendages. A strange sleek smoothness entered the metal, nullifying any imperfections and exacerbating that feel of inhumanity in the area. His heels dug into the heels of his shoes as they hardened, ankles smoothing and digging into the sides. The soles of his feet swelled yet smoothed as they looked like they emulated the soles of a shoe more and more. The strangest change came to his toes, each one melding and squishing with the other as they smoothed out into the toecap of a shoe. 

   The size increase coupled with these strange developments resulted in the cloth of his already existing footwear to rip apart, revealing the sleek shining metal beneath. Even the shoe strings weren’t spared as the bridge of his foot grew a protrusion that acted as the tongue of a shoe, pushing the strings while they ripped against his changing feet. This new size of his feet allowed them to slightly break from the crus of his legs, making them appear to be separate articles of clothing from that of his weird socks. Even weirder was what was happening to the internals of his feet, bones and muscles morphing and rematerializing to become a strange internal mechanism of metal and wiring. Something had definitely formed beneath his feet-turned-footwear.

   All while this occurred, Gerald’s mind was in a confused rut. “M-my name is not… Roquefort? Is… it…?” As he stammered, his voice cracked. Deeper still, a huskier tone entering it through his doubts.

   A bright blue glow flickered into his irises, his head was pounding. He placed both hands on his head, the now slightly warm metal of his palms ebbing into his temples. Yet his eyes remained locked onto the metronome’s pendulum. Gerald’s voice temporarily returns to normal, a moment of clarity and resistance coming through. “Nnngh, n-no, have to…”

   “You’re stronger than this, Roquefort.”

   Ugh, that name. It feels more familiar every time it’s said. “My names- urgh, my name’s Ger… ald…?”

   Even with his resistance that name felt wrong. That declaration was wrong.

   “Stop actin’ so weak!”

   A growl practically exited Gerald’s throat. “I ain’t weak!” he said defensively, his voice running lower again, sounding more rough and powerful. An accent was even beginning to crawl in there.

   “Ooh, fightin’ back now are we. Finally showing some initiative!” The pendulum starts to swing at a faster pace again. A part of Gerald tries to look away again, but it feels so entrancing. “Come on, boy, repeat after me…”

   “Strength is valuable, financial strength is invaluable.”

   “S-strength is valuable… financial strength is invaluable…” The accent in Gerald’s voice gets stronger, noticeably Australian. This is accentuated by changes in his neck. A split in the metal circles around his neck as the deep bronze creeps up in. It slowly flows up his shifting skin, replacing it with metal as his neck widens.

   “Costs are all that matters.”

   “Costs… are all that matters.” His voice cracks less, getting overpowered by the deep huskiness of Roquefort’s. The value of strength, the value of money, both are filling his mind rapidly as well.

   “Money is power…!”

   “Money is… u-urgh-” Everything begins to waver for a split second. “N-no! Not… right… I’m not…”

   He was too far down the mental spiral though. Something about those phrases felt so accurate. Something about all of this felt so… right. He may have been weak before, but he was being granted this strength. Power. So much power, but so much knowledge as well. He could feel his mind filling with all that information needed for proper financial handling.  It would be rude to turn down such an 'offer' of high value being granted to him!

   “Would you like to try that again, Roquefort?”

   Gerald(?) lets out a low chuckle. “Of course. I ain’t one to give up so easily!~” he said with a smirk.

   They both then spoke in unison.

   “Money is power!”

  At this point the metal had gone up from his neck and started to etch onto his face. The pale tone of his flesh is ebbed away as it’s replaced by the bronze, just like it was with the rest of his skin. As his organic flesh was being converted to artificiality, the structure of his face changed entirely. His jawline smoothed and sculptured itself, roundness sharpening into a more angular shaping. His entire head seemed to get slightly larger, the shape of it squeezing slightly to appear slightly rectangular. His nose got wider and blunt. Eyes got smaller, edges sharper. Eyebrows got thicker and bushy while getting slightly crooked at the end. Even his ears got slightly altered as they became slightly pointed. 

   The robotic nature of his new form became more clear as the last of his skin was subsumed by the bronze mental. The chassis that made up his head was divided in two right on his face, a split running above his cheeks and stopping beneath his bottom eyelids. It started back up at the upper eyelids and created a clean trapezoidal shape that ended on his forehead. Roughly an inch above the split diagonally came two protrusions that poked from his head, slowly hardening into a definitive hexagonal shape before alighting with a bright blue.

   The last of his physical changes came with his hair. He raised a hand to the apex of his scalp and, in one fell sweep, wiped a good chunk of his hair off the top of his head and left it with a significant bald spot. What remained around his head started to restyle itself, straightening and combing itself together as it changed into a style that prominently poked out both sides of his head (alongside a tuft that poked out the back). Large tufts of hair that from a frontal view looked like the pointed ears of a wolf. All the while, the coloration was becoming a deep brown. Stripes of gray had also etched into his hair, starting at one temple and stretching around the back of his head all the way to the other.

   Brown fluff then started to trail further down the sides of his head. Growing on the sides of his jaw and flowing downwards onto his chin. The further down it went the thicker this new beard seemed to get, the style also seeming perfectly angular to that of his jawline. Fuzz had also arisen towards the ends of his mouth, moving upwards to above his upper lip and then running sideways to meet underneath his nose. A nice thick mustache was what graced that region as a result.

   The changed man couldn't help but give his beard a nice stroke. His eyes, still fixated on the pendulum, had also gained a glowing blue coloration in their irises.

   "Feelin' a lot better…" he spoke with a smirk. His new mindset felt right at home in his head. Some would say it's greed, but he's just making the choices that bring the most profit. That's what he did to that weakling after all. Gave them the form that was most profitable. So much stronger, so much better.

   For once he blinked. He had no reason to take into account that metronome anymore. As far as he was concerned, he was done with it. Almost. A few finishing touches have to be done after all.

   Finally broken from the screen, Roquefort looked down at his body. A hoodie, some jeans, a pair of headphones hanging off his neck. He pushed the chair he was in back and kicked off the tattered remains of his previous selve's old shoes. His cane had also found itself on the floor, likely due to whatever futile resistance he had also tried to put up. Whatever, he needed something more refined.

   He stood up from his chair and picked up his cane, a hand grasped onto the handle firmly. "Now that that little distraction has been dealt with, I have some work to get back to doing."

   The tip of his cane touched the ground, both portions of gold that were on it glowing in response to his desires. The room had rapidly started to shift, reality warping around him as deep purple unfurled on the carpet while bright golds and rich wooden browns formed around the walls and ceiling. The room around him was getting significantly larger.

   At the same time, his clothing was undergoing its own changes. His hoodie started to split down the middle, buttons emerging along this split. The hood receded as the neck deepened into a deep V shape, the hem raising to a smaller V shape. The sleeves retracted into the hoodie, leaving it sleeveless and marking it more as a vest now. Lastly came the coloration, a rich purple color soaking into it as thin white stripes formed.

   Concurrently, a new shirt seemed to form beneath his changing hoodie. As the hoodie sleeves retracted a new set of sleeves, white in color, unfurled from beneath the vest and ran down his arms before rolling themselves up to above his elbows. The neck deepened, the hem shrunk, and the new shirt materialized across his body. Its hem went over his rounded belly and tucked itself into his pants, a buttoned up shirt placket noticeably visible from the middle of it. As the neck of his hoodie finished descending, a rather large collar unfurled from the shirt beneath and splayed itself across his chest. The neck of his shirt collar was deep enough that his chest fluff was visible. The headphones that were strewn across his neck thinned, shrinking and snaking around his neck as the black coloration shifted to a red and pink striped pattern. It got slightly longer, tying itself into a loose knot before it finished changing into a tie.

   The final change came with his jeans, denim softening to a nice purple cotton while the pockets became larger and more noticeable. A jagged yellow stripe ebbed into the material at the base of his legs as well. His belt got slightly wider and loose enough that it fit around his waist properly. The buckle expanded, a normal belt buckle enlarging to a thick chunk of silver with a gold V in the middle. Two silver V shaped notches had also formed next to two belt loops while another formed on the portion of his belt above his rear. A strap slowly snaked from the back notch, snaking upwards before branching out diagonally and slithering to the front of his body. From there the straps went downwards and connected to the two frontal notches, giving his pants some suspender straps.

   One final finishing touch to his attire was a monocle that materialized in front of his right eye. With a sigh, he adjusted his monocle before placing a hand around a suspender strap. "Finally, something that fits. Now for…"

   He looked around, the room continuing to expand around him. The walls were lined with various bouts of information; one side holding stock info and graphs while the other held a vault door with multiple clocks hanging above it. Chandeliers draped from the ceiling while portions of the carpet leading up to his newly materialized desk were lined with samurai armor in glass casing. At this point the room has become ginormous, a lot larger than himself (at least while he's human).

   "There's my office!" he says with a smile. The walls finally harden, the massive wall behind him having become a door with a massive golden V on it. In front of him was his desk, a few holographic screens being projected from the top of it. More importantly…

   At the middle of the desk was a metronome. An object Kale had given him months ago, one he didn't really care for necessarily. He didn't expect to use it up to now, but he would be lying if he said he didn't welcome what he had just used it for. It was… interesting to say the least.

   Roquefort looked down at his hand, curling and uncurling his fingers over his palm. "Hmph. This feels good. Strong. I think I'm going to be enjoying this…"

   Of course he's going to be enjoying this. Admittedly, his mind has become an odd mesh of knowing of his former self and having always been this self. It's contradictory. Confusing, admittedly. He'd never really do this kind of thing again, that was for sure.

   He looks up and stares at the screens on his desk. He has a meeting with Kale in a few hours, then he has to deal with Zanzo and their annoying creativity budget bullshit. They could've sworn they dealt with that already, damn it.

   "Time to get back to work, then!" Roquefort said aloud, pulling his chair forward and taking a seat on it. 

   He's got a lot of work to go through now, and something about that makes him smile. The financial control, the profits to be gained, and all that money.

   This is going to be good…

[qjaiden]

💌 :D - @silktouchhands and @nuclearblast

HEWWOOO

fern, fern i wish i could grab ur face and force u 2 look at my big brown eyes u r so fuckin fun 2 be around. i lovelovelove chatting w u and im so happy its becoming more often:) u r always so sweet and such a talented builder btw ! !I i love shenanigans w u and thank u for letting me use ur to do list on da realm mwahmwah !,

boss id attempt to eat u but get poisoned while trying to do so and thats such a way 2 go out tbh. very fun to do pufferfish w u and i love ur lil mc skin everytike i see it i go ☹️☹️☹️ awhhh☹️☹️☹️ its so fun chilling w u, u somehow manage 2 be 😐 while also being the most unhinged guy there and i respect it fully

[konigbabe]

Graves anon here: I keep thinking about the last bit of your fic, 'the one time he surprises you', and about Graves when the reader got shot. Well, actually, Graves during that whole sequence has me clutching at my heart, but when he pushes the strands of hair from reader's face as they're bleeding out from a bullet that one of his own soldiers fired??? To save HIM from THEM? Like, the angst is beautiful. What was Graves thinking during that whole part? I think you mentioned him looking guilty when they were still in the car, and that his eyes looked lethargic after the reader got shot, but what was running through his head when he realized what had happened to the reader (and even better, why it happened in the first place)? Was there any resentment towards reader, the shadow who shot them, himself even??? Gahhhh I just love thinking about it.

Also, thank you for answering every single one of my asks. I know I've sent a lot in lol. All your answers are great, and I hope I'm not annoying you too much!

Hi!! Yes, I loved writing that part 😄

I intentionally didn't delve into his feelings to keep the quessing game strong but if I had to think about it 🤔 I'd say he was confused?? You know he knew this person, and he was (as stated before) starting to develop some sort of romantic feelings towards the reader/MC and now, he's ordered to restrain them...and later on, they're aiming a gun at him and I'd like to imagine that the look on their face shows determination, devotion to protecting their friends (aka Ghost, Soap and the rest of 141) but also Graves and them had a chemistry that undeniably could be going somewhere.

So yeah, I would agree that some sort of guilt or remorse was flooding Graves' veins when looking the at reader/MC with their gun aimed at him and later on getting shot. But I also added the last part.

He was trying to distance himself, that's also why he called reader "officer" (“I’ll need you to extend your arms, officer,” he commands formally.) instead of some petname. Later on, the 'distancing hinself' part becomes more daring with "face solemn, eyes dull and lethargic." and him saying: "Now that was a big fuckin’ mistake, sweetheart.". I tried to write it as him hiding behind a mask sort of thing (also in front of his shadows).

And to your "Was there any resentment towards reader, the shadow who shot them, himself even???" I think there was some kind of bitterness or condemnation towards himself mostly (he can't really blame his employee/shadow for protecting their boss, it's part of their job so...) - over his own actions.

I feel like there's more to Graves than the game let's out (mostly because it's a shooter video game so they don't really have any need to delve into characters' mentality and what drives them) so what I imagined when writing this Graves was that he was coerced into Shepperd's actions (could be blackmailed...), especially against the reader/MC.

(and for those curious, we’re talking about this fic ♡)

[legacyshenanigans]

Rominis 🐺🐍

Rowan stayed over last night with Ominis, Marvolo and MC didn't know he was there.

Marvolo: *Stood at the backdoor one morning having a cigarette*

MC: *stood next to him, sipping her morning coffee*

Rowan: *jumps down from Ominis's bedroom window*

MC: (?!)

Marvolo: *clears his throat*

Rowan: (?!) Oh..Mornin, boss..Hey MC.

MC: Hey Rowan. *smiles*

Marvolo: *narrows his eyes* I know you're sleeping with him Rowan, for fuck sake, you don't have to leave via the fucking window..

Rowan: Ominis told me to, its ya Mam and Dad we're worried about...

Marvolo: *sigh* They aren't here..They left earlier this morning.

Rowan: Oh..

Marvolo: ....

Rowan: Well can I stay for breakfast then? I'm fuckin starvin'

Marvolo: *clicks his tongue in irritation*

~