#no his name is Umbra because i said so

[nightsky-eclipse]

Rendering random stuff

[imbadatwrighting]

Sneaky Cat

Requested

I was going to write this as a songfic but changed my mind last minute so it took a little longer than expected. Anyways to the person who asked for this I had to smush some things together I hope that’s alright and the smut lowkey ain’t dat great. Also just started watch future man…do what you want with that information

Pairing: Selina Kyle x Male reader

Tags: NSFW 18+ at the end, sex with plot? (Idk I’ve never read a post with that), Wayne!reader, adopted!reader, sweet!reader, fluff, smut, Bruce and reader having tension, no use of Y/n, 2nd pov, soft dom!reader, brother issues, lowkey rushed to the sex half way through, oral (reader giving), unprotected sex, cream pie, missionary , prolly a lot of spelling errors

“Selina! Have you seen my tie?” Your voice boomed across the whole second floor of the house unintentionally.

“This tie?” your girlfriend of two years asked, holding up a gold tie. She leaned against the door frame staring at you with her classic cat eyes.

A smile plastered on your face, walking towards her. “This is why I love you,” you grinned, reaching down to plant a kiss on her lips and grab the tie.

You could feel the smirk she made through the kiss before breaking it off. “No other reasons?” she asked, a devious smile on her face.

You walked back to your mirror, staring at her through it while you put your tie on. “Not any I can remember I’m afraid.”

She swayed closer to you, wrapping her hands around your waist and maneuvering her head to be beside your shoulder. “That’s too bad. Here I was thinking you loved me for my brilliant ideas,” she pouted before hiding her mouth with your shoulder so you couldn’t see her smile.

A small groan left your lips as you ran your hands through your hair. “I wouldn’t say making me go to this gala was a good idea.”

“You own the most stocks and are a co-owner of Wayne Enterprises, I’m afraid you have to go.”

You turned around to face her, slowly wrapping your arms around her waist. Her hands moved up to your chest, smoothing out a wrinkle. “You only want me to go so you can steal valuables from the guests, my dearest.”

Selina huffed before turning away towards the door. Her hips swayed as she walked away. “Let’s not leave Alfred waiting much longer mi amor,” she grinned.

You stood still for a moment, unsure of what you heard was right. You ran towards Selina, observing her eyes for any sense of sarcasm or lying.

“Do not tell me Bruce will be there too,” you spoke slowly, walking down the steps of your mansion with Selina. The sounds of heeled shoes hitting marble, echoed in the area.

“If I remember correctly, your parents gave Wayne Enterprises to both you and Bruce and he still plays apart in it,” she replied hastily, not caring enough to make eye contact.

“When he’s not playing good guy in his bat costume, sure, but all he cares about is fighting crime over and over again, he cares little about what happens to Wayne Enterprises or even me!”

“If I remember correctly you fight crime too.” Selina walked faster, reaching the first floor before you, grabbing a necklace on the marble counter.

She stared at the black diamonds shinning under the light, eventually moving her hand with the necklace towards you, gesturing you to put it on her.

You sighed, grabbing the necklace. “When I was with his all I did was stare at the computers in his little cave.”

“You still do,” Selina hummed.

“That different,” you grumbled. “When I was working with him, no one even knew my name or I was a vigilante at all. You had no idea who Umbra Mortis was after I told you. Or that I was his brother.”

“I do now. People know who Umbra Mortis is now.” Selina turned to face your towering figure after felling the necklace be latched on.

“They still don’t know I’m his brother. He refuses to tell people I’m his brother because I was adopted.”

“That’s not true,” Selina said, following you out the door.

“How’d you know? You ask him?” You smirked.

“Maybe,” Selina replied, before grabbing you arm, only being a couple feet away from the limo containing your brother and his butler. “Listen be nice to him and you might even get a special treat,” she grinned, pulling you down into a kiss.

It felt longer that it was but you savored every second of it. You observed the taste of cherries that presented itself onto your tongue.

You hummed as she broke away from the the kiss slowly. You wished you didn’t have to go to the gala, instead staying home with Selina watching her favorite movie in bed.

You opened the door of the limo, letting Selina get in before you while you held the door. You could hear pleasantries given from where you stood as you desperately wished you would have to get in the limo with you older brother.

You could feel your brothers gaze on you as you entered the limo.

“Greeting Master Wayne,” Alfred nodded, quickly driving off. You smiled at the man, he always had called you by your last name since you could remember. It wasn’t that you weren’t close to him, he just wanted to always show his upmost respect towards you.

“Brother,” Bruce greeted. It didn’t seem like the type of greeting you would give your brother, more like a greeting to a stranger.

A curt nod was given to Bruce as you intertwined your hand with Selina’s soft hands. Your fingers played with her rings that she stole from multiple museums.

“I haven’t seen you in a while,” Bruce brought up, eyes still trained on your figure. Your eyes broke away from Selina’s perfect figure.

“Whose fault was that?” you murmured, rolling your eyes. Selina’s heeled foot quickly hit your leg in annoyance. Your eyes quickly looked over to your girlfriend before moving back to look at Bruce.

Bruce paid no mind to your comment. “I see,” he commented, not saying anything else.

A wave of awkwardness took over the limo as the two brothers or interact with each other, or at least one of them did.

“Talk to him, querido,” Selina whispered in your ear, running her nails down your suit.

You rolled your eyes not looking at your girlfriend. “What are you doing here Bruce?” you say bluntly, being forced to say something.

“I’m going to a gala, brother. It’s good for my image.”

“Alfred making you go?”

“It seems you know me too well brother.”

You hummed. “Well, after having to be around you, most of my life, it seems I have to. If not, I might have become a worse brother than you.”

Selena scoff at you as Bruce squinted his eyes. “I gave you no reason to say I am a bad brother.”

An irked expression fell on your face as you glared lightly at your brother. “You have multiple recent to being a bad brother! You left me on a mountain by myself, at fifteen!”

An annoyed expression fell on Bruce’s face. “How many times do I have to tell you it was an accident, I thought you already left,” he said, fingers massaging his temple.

“How am I supposed to believe that when just an hour before you were screaming at me and wishing I wasn’t in your life,” you glared, feeling Selena’s hands down your back and comfort and also as a warning.

“Boys, enough of this, we’re already at this gala so pretend you like each other,” Selina smirked, an obvious fake smile before elegantly getting out of the limo.

You spared Bruce no mind as you got out after your girlfriend, you hand finding the perfect resting spot on her waist.

“Just talking to me and a couple guests won’t get anything you’re hoping for tonight,” she whispered, slowly pushing your arms off her waist, a smile still on her face. “Talk to Bruce or you’re getting nothing tonight.”

With that same grinning smile she walked off, most likely towards the bar full of drunk old fish man with pockets full of money.

With a sigh you slowed your walking, letting Bruce catch up to you. “My apologies for my inappropriate acts Bruce.”

“Don’t act like that,” he said, talking in a whisper, occasionally nodding his head at a couple men and woman.

“Act like what?” you ask.

“Like we’re not brothers. You haven’t talked to me like a brother since you were fifteen.”

“You throw me in the side Bruce, you always have. I had no reason to treat you like a brother when you were too busy to acknowledge me.”

Bruce looks at you with an unreadable expression on his face before taking a deep breath.

You went to scoff before he spoke up. “I’m sorry,” he said is a hushed voice. It almost made you stop in your tracks. Not once has your brother ever apologized to you. Not when he pushed you down the stairs, or when he played a mean April fools day prank on you.

You stayed silent for a minute smiling when contractors and other business partners walked by.

You didn’t care about them at the moment, your first thought was on your brother. Then of course Selina forty feet away at the bar.

“I’m sorry as well… brother,” you spoke, slowly walking away from Bruce towards Selina.

“I talked to him and even said sorry,” you smile, hand going up to her shoulders.

She turned around staring up into your eyes. “Considering Bruce looks like a kicked puppy I would say you did it like you were supposed to.”

You frowned at her words. “Listen it’s the best you’re going to get out of me tonight, now can we just go home?”

Selina digs a gold watch out of her purse, looking at the time. “We’ve been here for no more than ten minutes so unfortunately not mi amor.”

“You’re just being mean at this point,” you groan walking to wherever Selina sways to.

“At least an hour then we can leave,” she smirks pulling you to the dance floor. “For now, we dance.” She puts one arm around your neck and the other into your hand and she waltz’s to the relaxing music.

Your eyes met her sparkling black ones as waves of emotion overflowed your body. She made you fall in love with her every day.

“I can’t stay here Selina,” you growled in her ear.

She paid no mind to you as she twirled and danced. She was enjoying this and you both knew it.

“Selina,” you growled once again. Your heart was practically beating out of your chest.

“I’m afraid you’re going to have to wait. I’m not going home because you’re horny.”

Your hand traveled down her waist, lightly grazing her ass. Her subtly eyed you, eyes narrowing down. “Relax my love, no one is watching,” you whispered, softly biting her ear as you leaned down.

You could feel Selina get hotter as you continued to dance on the dance floor. Your thoughts were not on Bruce nor anyone else but Selina. You didn’t care about anything except Selina.

“You’re playing a dirty game baby,” Selina murmured in your ear, hands gripping your body.

“I wouldn’t have to if we left.”

Selina stayed silent once more, like she was contemplating the answer she would choose. “…fine,” she murmured.

A grin fell on your face before you dragged her out of the gala, you opened the door of a rentable limo. You didn’t have to say any words to the man. Almost everyone in Gotham knew where you lived. It was hard to miss it.

Selina sat down close to you, kissing your neck. You exhaled a breath, holding her waist. “If you keep it up, I’m going to get a boner before we get home,” you groan.

She seemed to only hum and that, keeping up with the original pace.

The drive home seemed longer than anything before. It felt like the limo driver was going slower on purpose. Selina didn’t let it stop her as she spread hickeys all over your neck.

The white limo stopped at the entrance to your mansion. Selina and you quickly rushed out, leaving behind cash for the driver. Poor man must have been a little traumatized.

You pushed Selina through the door into your room. Her hot breath could be felt on your face.

You unzipped her black dress before she reach for her necklace. “No,” you breathed out. “Keep it on.”

You could feel her lightly moan against your neck as you removed your tie and shirt.

You hoisted Selina up before gently throwing her on the bed.

“Fuck,” you moaned out. Crawling on the bed to be face to face with your girlfriend. “You’re so hot baby.”

Her hands reached up to your neck, pulling you down into her. The kiss was sloppy; full of lust. Her legs wrapped around your unclothed waist.

You head traveled down kisses her neck towards her tits. She grabbed onto your hair as you left a trail of kisses to her clit.

Your hot breath only made her wetter. You licked her clit slowly before making eye contact with her. She let out a breathy moan as you stared her down. Your mouth latched onto her clit sucking and licking like a mad man.

“Fuck,” she moaned, gripping your hair harder. You let out a quick sound before resuming your task.

“God I love your pussy,” you rasped, sticking two fingers into her drenched hole. Her shaky legs wrapped around your head.

Your fingers thrusted in and out of her as your teeth lightly grazed her clit. She could feel her orgasm already coming. “Baby,” she groaned, quickly tapping your head. You removed your mouth from her wet clit as you looked up at her.

“I need it in me,” she whispered, almost like she was embarrassed. She could hear you undoing your zipper as soon as the words came out of her mouth.

Her legs released you from her grip as she pulled you up to be face to face with her. She could feel your hard cock rubbing against her clit. A soft moan came out of her as her arms wrapped around your neck.

“I’ve wanted you all day, baby,” you groan, lips attacking her own as you slowly entered her wet pussy.

“I know,” she smirked out before moaning loudly as you thrusted in and out of her. “God, I forgot how big you were.”

Your arm traveled down to her waist giving you a better angle to thrust into her. “You’re so tight, honey,” you breath out, hair falling down on your eyes.

Nails grazed down your back as you thrusted harder into your girlfriend. Her girlfriend arched your back letting out a whimper. “I’m close baby,” she whimpered feeling her orgasm about to come.

“Just a little more. You can hold out baby,” you grunted, pounding into her at an inhuman pace. Your cock overwhelming her senses.

Her legs shook as her head turned to the side, giving you a better view of her neck. “I’m close, I’m so fucking close,” she panted.

Your hand gripped her waist tighter, feeling her slowly get tighter. “Let go baby,” you muttered, feeling your release about to come.

A high pitched moan left your girlfriend as her pussy tightened around you and legs vibrated rapidly. You gave a few more quick thrusts before coming inside her.

Your moved you hand to move your girlfriend face towards you. Her fucked out eyes looked at you as she panted hard.

You slowly pulled out of her before kissing the top of her head. “I love you,” you sighed, getting up to clean her up.

“Bath or no bath?” you asked, grabbing a hand towel from the bathroom.

“No bath,” she grinned weakly, pulling you towards her. “Just want you.”

“You got me baby,” you smirked, handing her one of your comfy shirts after cleaning her up the best you could.

She slipped on your shirt, it draped over her figure as she huddled towards your figure getting in bed.

You looked at the shirt, too big for your girlfriend. “God just looking at you turns me on.” You kissed your smiling girlfriend.

“You’re handling that issue yourself.”

You smiled harder at her. You didn’t care about Bruce in the moment or fighting crime, just caring about marrying the girl laying next to you.

[quarantineddreamer]

WIP tag game

You are given a word - share one sentence/excerpt from your wip(s) that starts with each letter of that word!

thanks for the tags @andorerso and @frostbitepandaaaaa!! (losing my mind over both your excerpts btw) <3

I'm going to go with the word "WORM" and pull randomly from a few WIPs so I don't spoil too much of part 2 (and 3) of Umbra. (Which is pretty much all I have worked on for the past several months outside of RCSS) 😅

Waking felt more like a dream than anything she’d ever encountered in the shadowy world of sleep. Before all else, she noticed warmth–perfect as sunlight–encompassing her body like a second skin. Then, there was the gentle weight pressing at her back, winding its way over her shoulders to anchor just over her chest, accompanied by an implacable, soothing rhythm.

She surrendered to the feeling, sinking deeper into its embrace, certain that any minute now her alarm would blare and drag her forcibly back into the world of the living. 

For just a moment longer, she wanted to savor the comfort; allow her existence to be painted in nothing more than the sweet, simple gold illuminating her inner eyelids.

Outside, the city must have been stirring with restless evening energy, because arcs of gold rippled across his skin like sunlight on water, ships passing through the night. It made the already challenging task of trying to read his expression near impossible. Jyn’s ears rang in the quiet. All the words she might have said lodged in her throat, the pressure of them building with each passing second. Say something, say something, she told herself, but she hadn’t thought this far ahead. And what could she possibly say that would make this better for either of them?

Ruescott Melshi’s skin burned as he pressed the icepack to the bridge of his nose, the taste of blood still sharp and nauseating in his mouth and his head screaming in pain. 

It felt like he had gotten hit by a shovel. 

Probably because he had, in fact, gotten hit by a shovel. He glared across the ship’s cabin at the culprit responsible for his misery--a woman several inches shorter than him with sharp, green eyes and a glowering, pale face caked in mud. For someone who had just been broken out of an Imperial Labor Camp, Liana Hallik (or whatever her name really was) seemed about as far from grateful as one could get.

Mindless to the drumming of his feet, Cassian chased after the trail of blood, locked to it like a homing signal.

“Talk to me, Jyn,” he huffed, throwing himself around a blind bend blaster first. (He hadn’t even considered holstering it, not since he’d heard Jyn had been shot. Screw keeping cover, he was eager for the chance to pull the trigger on anyone who dared get in his way.)

“You sound out of breath.”

“So do you.”

“I’m racing you to the exit”

“Liar.”

“Alright, you got me,” she coughed, the comm creaking–though the signal seemed to be getting stronger. “But you are running the hell out of here, right?” She paused, waiting for confirmation that was never going to come. “Cassian… Tell me you’re almost out. Tell me you’re close to the extraction point.”

Not sure who all has been tagged yet but (no pressure) tagging: @annisthree @astromechs @mosylufanfic @incognitajones @woahpip and anyone else who'd like to join! Aaand for a word I'll go with: SOUL

[gravesung-moving]

BACKSTORY & ANTAGONIST BIOS.

content warnings: homophobia, implied parental abuse (take a wild fuckin guess who warrants both of those)

AMARI FLETCH (they/he), a.k.a. THE TOWER

leader of the unseen (historically known as umbra), a global shadow syndicate quietly nudging politics this way and that by way of bribes, assassinations, extortions, etc. also has a major foothold in the underworld scene of most major cities. elusive is NOT fletch's middle name, as they are a well-known high society socialite known for being unapologetically nonbinary in a relatively conservative, traditional space.

fletch is a soft-spoken, well-mannered and calm individual. they are known for never raising their voice or losing their cool, often able to talk down unhinged or pissed-off people with a simple conversation. when they do lose their temper, it is often in an extremely controlled way, a terrifying outburst of violence bookended by serenely removing and then donning their gloves.

they are also incredibly smart. fletch is an expert at loaded questions and layered statements, their conversations often leaving people thinking about what they said for weeks to come. i call him "the spider" for a reason — they are always working an angle, always spinning a thread in their vast web of influence.

though this is known to no one, it's important to mention that a very, very long time ago, amari fletch gained immortality by cheating death in a game of dice. muses who are directly connected to death might know them or know of them because of this!

touchstones: hannibal lecter, gus fring, olrox

ALLIES: persephone aisa ( @huntershowl, right hand), anah tannar (umbra employee in some verses), korin derege (tensely) ENEMIES: adeodatus damiana (politically opposed — adeo is the well-loved underdog to the tower's established rule)

KORIN DEREGE (he/him)

in modern verse, he is the wealthiest man in shelter island and one of the wealthiest in the world. korin is the CEO of midas holdings, a huge corporation that owns many smaller corporations and businesses, though his largest is midas' consulting company (name tbd). the derege family is old money. they have been around for centuries, said to be composed of a long line of men who ruled their fiscal domain — and family legacy — with an iron fist.

he is also, secretly, a five thousand year old dragon. very few people know this, as it is a dangerous secret given the fact that dragons were hunted to extinction so thoroughly that they faded into legend. nowadays, he and his son carry charms that trick those with magical creature-sense, giving off the essence of human phoenix sorcerers rather than draconic ones.

korin, like fletch, is near-universally feared, though unlike them he is very rarely loved. he is well-known to be classist, catholic in a bigoted way, and homophobic. he rules his family like his company: iron fist, hard delegation, everyone serving a role. his wife, charlie, hasn't spoken a word in over a decade and has largely faded into the background. he had a daughter, but she died. his son, keon, is the sole inheritor of the family's legacy, and korin has his claws deep into the boy's life — keon was created and molded to be an extension of his father.

speaking to korin derege tends to feel like being pulled apart and scrutinized from all sides. it's common to feel uneasy around him, as if he could snap at any second and verbally berate you for simply existing. the presence of other people is an inconvenience at best. but his people follow him staunchly: so long as they perform their role properly, they know their lives will always be bountiful. and it feels good to be on his good side.

in fantasy verses, korin leads the midas trading company, the largest shipping empire in xyz coolworldname. he often serves as a close advisor to an emperor or king, though even in magic-forward worlds his draconic identity is a secret.

touchstones: logan roy, fire lord ozai, omni-man, dracula (castlevania)

allies: keon derege (until a character arc turning point), amari fletch & the unseen (tensely), peter lukas (old-money shitfamily pals), riposte alaric (recipient of korin's sponsorship at school), adeodatus damiana (privately)(?) enemies: adeodatus damiana (publicly/politically), rival mafia clans, competing corporations, most people with a conscience, anyone who cares about keon

ADEODATUS DAMIANA (he/him)

ahhhhh, the politician. see, here's the thing about adeo: he hates politicians. he hates politics. at least, the way they are right now. see, you get together a group of people and put them on a patch of land and they have to live together somehow. they form a society. but in a society, you need to figure out the rules: what's okay to do, what's not okay to do, what happens if you do something that's not okay, how rule-breaking is punished, how rules are regulated... et cetera. so you create a form of law enforcement and you create leaders. every group has a leader. usually a few leaders, so that one guy doesn't get all the power and go wild with it. voilà: politicians are created.

but here's the thing about politicians: somewhere along the line, they stopped caring about the city as a whole. the started really caring about themselves, and about money. the only way to have a lot of money is for other people to have very little. an extreme cannot exist without its opposite. if everyone could be rich and comfortable, nobody would be, right? and because these guys helped make the rules, they thought, of course i should be rich and comfortable, i'm important.

but adeodatus grew up poor. the part of the city he's from has been abandoned by law and government. infrastructure stopped getting funded: dilapidated buildings full of asbestos and hazardous debris, roads broken up and riddled with potholes, entire districts dominated by gangs of technomancers, and behind it all, the fucking unseen, profiting from the chaos — scooping up people with nothing left to live for and making foot-soldier criminals out of them. but every group needs a leader, right, so what happens when yours abandons you? that's what we in the biz call a power vacuum. when a leader steps away, another takes his place, and in the outer ring of shelter island, that vacuum was filled by the mafia. no one else had enough influence, money and power to enforce some form of order.

so now you have a whole half of the city where the little guys live in fear of their shops and homes being smashed up if they don't pay their protection dues — or worse, the folks they love being hurt, killed, one by one. they get desperate. they can't get a job in the ring, because no one pays well enough. they can't go to city-proper for work, because they can't afford to look nice enough to get hired and commuting would drain what little funds they have left. so they start to steal. they're honest men, they are, but they have nothing left — no one will reach out a hand and say here's some stability, so you can rest.

two-thirds of the wealth in this city goes uncirculated. it sits in the hoards of a handful of people who — in adeo's honest judgement — are not always evil diabolical villains, they started out the same way as everyone else. they just got lucky, right? and they wanted to hold onto that luck, that stability, so they grew it and grew it and grew it, and now it's a machine that churns out good fortune.

all adeo wants to do is work with these people to create a little more balance. all he wants to do is reduce the suffering that leads to people feeding the umbral machine, people being led blind into the tower's maw and coming out with blood on their hands. give them a chance to catch up, get jobs, make jobs, get one good night of goddamn sleep. feed their kids without risking their lives to do it. turn the ring into a place where you can ask for help and get it. just redistribute a tiny bit of that unused money — he promises, you won't miss it.

TL;DR: whoops — sorry, got into campaign speech mode there. i hope that gives you a general idea of what adeo's all about: he's a socialist politician primarily focused on creating better social security programs and funding for the impoverished areas of the city by redistributing wealth. however, at the same time, he makes behind-the-curtain handshake deals with the very corporation owners he publicly opposes so that he remains friends with everyone. we can all have a slice if we just work together about it. adeo's point of view on life is that everyone, somewhere deep down, wants to do the right thing for them and those they care about.

his major campaign circuit ran five years ago after he baptized himself and left a life of crime. alas, his opposition to umbra/the unseen (the one organization he couldn't come to an agreement with) led to an assassination attempt that caused a house fire, killing his fiancée and causing him to flee the country — never to be seen again. there were three days of riots in the ring after his exit, colloquially called the exile riots. he left the city as a martyr, and not without igniting a spark of hope in the people he swore to protect. many of the ring's citizens still wait with bated breath for his return.

touchstones: zahir (lok), all might (mha), apollo, [the rest are spoilers for other aspects of him that aren't public knowledge]

allies: genuinely Most People but especially those who have been personally victimized by the unseen/the mafia/crime in general/rich people, korin derege (privately)(?) enemies: amari fletch, persephone aisa (if you know you know) IMPORTANT NOTE: adeo is a tricky character. there are darker aspects of him that i keep hidden because i like immersion and it's always a fun mystery to weave for folks, but would never keep a partner in the dark ooc without their explicit consent.

[tdgap-official]

The Demon God’s Angelic Prince—Part 3

Their outing ended soon after, though it could be debated when it really ended. They never parted ways or said goodbye, walking back to Rayyi-la together and to the palace, called the Pyl because of the royal line's name of the same letters. From there, they made their way to the prince’s wing.

Ember flopped down onto his bed in a rather unprincely manner while Umbra stood awkwardly in front of the door. Ember glanced in Umbra’s direction, taking in his appearance once again, before speaking.

“You know you can sit down, right?”

Umbra shook his head, declining, “Thank you, but I’m perfectly fine standing, Your Highness.”

“I insist. And please, drop the formality. We are no longer strangers and I dislike being called titles such as ‘Your Highness.'”

After saying this, Ember set down his flower and held out the same hand that was previously holding the gift and pulled Umbra down onto the bed. The other allowed himself to be pulled, quite reluctantly. He ended up falling face-first on the mattress—a position that Umbra wasn’t in for long as he was quite determined to stay proper. Ember sighed internally. How stiff could this guy be? They were in Ember’s bedroom and Umbra really couldn’t even relax a bit. It wasn’t like he was going to do anything to Umbra; Ember really wasn’t into that. Especially not with men. Certainly.

After some time Ember did finally coax Umbra into loosening up. They laid on the bed and stared at the ceiling and talked about this and that. They conversed about any random topics they could come up with. In the end they fell asleep like that, talking until their tiredness took hold of them.

Ember was the second of the two to wake up in the morning and found that Umbra was long gone from the room. How unfortunate. He vividly remembered their late-night conversation and could only feel disappointed that they were not able to continue it. He took a few steps out the door. No sign of Umbra.

Determined to find his new friend, Ember sneaked out into the gardens. Hopefully his parents and brother weren’t awake; no one was allowed in the gardens before dawn. There would be a sure scolding awaiting for both Ember and Umbra if they were found out.

It happened to be that Umbra had just gone out into the gardens. In the darkness, the two men bumped into each other, and then apologized and exchanged their good mornings. Such a meeting was not abnormal, yet Umbra seemed inexplicably awkward. There was no reason for this, Ember thought. He did not think of himself as intimidating in the slightest. In fact, Ember had to be the most approachable member of all of the royalty. So, Ember deduced, Umbra must’ve been skittish by nature. That made it truly a mystery as to why Umbra was so close to the king. That man had often gone on and on in entire monologues about how one should never trust such people. Given this, Ember found himself in a dilemma. Umbra could not possibly be jumpy, nor could he be acting like this just because of Ember’s presence.

“Your Highness.”

Now, maybe Ember was simply perceiving the other man’s attitude wrongly. His thoughts always did tend to wander. They were now. Fuck…

"Your Highness! Are you unwell? You've been staring for—well, nevermind. That's just you being you, isn't it?" Umbra spoke, getting quieter and quieter as he progressed as if he was growing embarrassed.

Umbra then held out a couple of flowers as if he needed to pay a compensation for some terrible deed he'd done. Ember, of course, grabbed them, but not without first giving Umbra a rather questioning look. Yes, it was understandable to be reserved with someone when first meeting with them, but after having multiple conversations, why would someone become even moreso closed off? 

"Are you fine yourself, Umbra?" Ember decided to question. 

"I am quite well, Your Highness. Did I worry you? Haha, do not worry…"

After such an awkward exchange, Umbra made his leave and Ember was left out in the gardens. He was alone once again. The poor prince didn't know how to react to the sudden absence of his dear new companion and thus went right back inside after the other. However, once inside, Umbra went one way and Ember went the other.

[snarkformysanity]

House of Earth and Blood Chapter 2

By the time Danika emerged on the gallery’s showroom floor, Bryce had endured a mildly threatening reprimand from Jesiba about her ineptitude, one email from a fussy client demanding Bryce expedite the paperwork on the ancient urn she’d bought so she could show it off to her equally fussy friends at her cocktail party on Monday, and two messages from members of Danika’s pack inquiring about whether their Alpha was about to kill someone over Briggs’s release.

We open chapter two with this. I feel the "about to kill someone" is a smidge too light-hearted considering it's about, you know, killing someone. But then, I lost count of the amount of times Rhys and co threatened to do that in ACOTAR and absolutely nothing happened, so... yeah. Anyway.

The wolves in this world seem to be of the shapeshifter variety, rather than werewolves, as they're able to control their transformations. It also seems they morph their clothes into their body, and the fact Danika emerges from the shower in wolf form means she doesn't like the clothes Bryce loaned her.

Bryce is planning to accompany Danika, at least partway, as she's trying to find something called Luna's Horn for Jesiba. She's apparently been looking nonstop for the last week. As for why it's so important she find it...

Bryce shrugged. “I haven’t had the balls to ask.”

Good to know. I'm sure this is meant to make Jesiba look scary and her search for the horn a tantilising mystery, but it mostly just makes me not care. If Bryce doesn't, why should I?

Bryce does, however, decide that Jesiba would try to leverage the horn's return... somehow, and informs us that the horn was stolen during the same power outage in which Jesiba's backup generator was so useful. Of course, Bryce herself doesn't make this connection, but, it's there. Taking bets for when Jesiba will be revealed as evil. She is, after all, a woman who is not the protagonist.

Also, apparently they crucify people in the CBD. Not only that, they apparently leave the bodies there long enough for the smell of rotting flesh to be noticeable.

Bryce is from a mountain town named Nidaros. Which interestingly is an actual place, being the medieval name of Trondheim when it was capital of Norway's first Christian kings. I noticed this trend in ACOTAR with the Illyrians and Scythians as well, taking real places/people and just using the name for something completely unrelated. We'll see if the book is a bit more considerate this time.

Bryce frowned. “You really mean to tell me that any of the Heads want a rebel like Briggs at large? They’ll find some technicality and throw his ass right back in jail.”

....I thought they only reason they were even considering releasing him was on a technicality? If every one of the bosses want him in prison, why are the bosses even entertaining the idea that they'll release him in the first place? Also, I get the impression that we're meant to be worried this Briggs guy will be released and feel bad for Danika because of it... but I don't. He's leading a rebellion against oppressive Vanir, remember? Viva la humanity.

Bryce continues to try and reassure Danika, even suggesting that Archangel Micah might send his personal assassin after Briggs... who is in prison, and could presumably be executed without the need for assassins? Eh, whatever. I'm pretty sure this was just to name drop said assassin, which is Umbra Mortis, who has lightning powers, and not shadow powers as the name implies.

When Bryce fucked up, Jesiba usually griped for a few minutes and that was that. When Danika fucked up, it was blasted on news reports and across the interweb.

You.... didn't seriously and unironically rename the internet "the interweb," did you? Really?

Bryce and Sabine had hated each other from the moment the Alpha had sneered at her only child’s improper, half-breed roommate that first day at CCU.

So, in addition to being racist, we now know that Sabine hates both protagonists. She will clearly be evil, likely cartoonishly so. We're also told that Sabine likes drooling over "muscle-bound vampyrs," because our vampires are different here. Also, I'm pretty sure every male character in a Maas book is muscle-bound, so I don't see why it's fair to pick on anyone for liking them. They literally don't have any other choice.

They talk as they walk, and we learn some more things via infodumps. Immortality is not automatic, for instance - instead, it's attained via "the Drop," and Danika is the only member of her pack to have not done it yet.

Then Danika randomly changes the topic to Bryce's brother, so that we can learn that Bryce doesn't like him. She then immediately moves on to ask Bryce where she's going to look for the horn.

“The temple,” Bryce said with a sigh.

You mean, the one place you know it definitely isn't? I mean sure, investigate the scene of the crime, but... have you not done this already? Bryce tells us she's been looking for "days on end." Surely she's already been to the crime scene and must start looking in other places?

“I almost wonder if the power outage was tied to it—if someone shut down the city’s grid to steal it in the chaos. There are about twenty people in this city capable of being that crafty, and half of them possess the resources to pull it off.”

It's Jesiba. That is my guess until further evidence emerges that suggests otherwise. Also, this is an interesting tidbit:

A year of working at the gallery hadn’t sparked anything beyond disgust at the obscene amounts of money that rich people squandered on old-ass shit.

If ACOTAR's complete obliviousness about Velaris's fucked-up class issues is anything to go by, my hopes are not high that Bryce will be anything even remotely close to an anti-bourgeoisie champion. But, who knows, I may be pleasantly surprised.

We learn about Bryce's magic necklace that protects her from spells, and that Alpha wolves apparently have an instinct to "protect at all costs" .....please don't bring back this BS from ACOTAR. I beg.

Bryce's mum, Ember, calls then, and we learn that she's also kind of Danika's adoptive mum, and mum is apparently also into the whole overprotective thing. Oh. Joy. It is one of the tropes I hate the most.

Bryce and Danika spend the conversation lying to Ember, including lying about having plans on the weekend she intended to visit, and lying about one of Bryce's clients coming so they can hang up. Mum immediately texts her:

Ember had written, If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were avoiding us, Bryce. Your father will be very hurt. Danika let out a whistle. “Oh, she’s good.”

No, you guys are just really painfully obvious.

Bryce doesn't respond, and tells us that Danika apparently has a plan. We are not privy to the nature of this plan, though.

They pass by a Gate in the Old Square, which is apparently surrounded by tourists. Where these tourists come from, who could say. Not Bryce. There's just tourists there, and that's that.

“They should make a special access lane for residents to cross the square,” Bryce muttered as they edged around tourists and hawkers.

Bryce is already living her anti-bourgeoisie tendencies, I see. No hypocrisy here at all, no, sir!

Danika is apparently famous, because people are stopping to gawk at her and take photos. She wants to stop and make a wish at the Gate, which is something that is apparently done. We get a description of the gate, and how it's got gems and stuff for all the districts of the city, and I am once again probably not going to be able to remember them. There is so much infodumping going on.

A sign beside it read: Touch at your own risk. Do not use between sundown and sunrise. Violators will be fined. The people in line, waiting for access to the disk, seemed to have no problem with the risks.

And the risks are........?

Well, Bryce doesn't want to tell us. Instead, she and Danika barge forward and cut into line.

a bored-looking city guard—a young Fae female

Yes, we're bringing this BS back from ACOTAR as well. If I have to read about any more "pure male grins" I'm going to break something.

“Official Aux business,” Danika declared with an unnervingly straight face. “It’ll just be a minute.” Bryce stifled her laughter, well aware of the glares fixed on their backs from the line.

Bryce continues to not see anything wrong with this situation.

Some teenage boys recognise Danika then.

Bryce hid her smile as well. It never got old—the awe. Mostly because she knew Danika had earned it. Every damned day, Danika earned the awe that bloomed across the faces of strangers when they spotted her corn-silk hair and that neck tattoo. And the fear that made the lowlifes in this city think twice before fucking with her and the Pack of Devils.

Notably absent - any indication of what Danika has actually done to "earn" this adoration.

One of [the teenagers] stammered, turning his attention from Bryce to Danika, “My—my history teacher said the Gates were originally communication devices.”

Well that was an awkward and random way to bring that up. I can only assume it's going to be important.

Apparently, to use this communication power, the Gate literally sucks magic out of the user, like a vampire. Sorry, vampyr.

Bryce raised her eyes to the bronze plaque above her head. The quartz Gates were memorials, though she didn’t know for which conflict or war. But each bore the same plaque: The power shall always belong to those who give their lives to the city.

......does it not say what it's a memorial for on the plaque? Also, I'm guessing that last line means that's where all the zapped power is going. Taking bets on this being how Bryce will inevitably get her special protagonist power.

Not surprisingly, come weekends, drunk assholes—a category to which Bryce and Danika firmly belonged—became such a pain in the ass with their shouting through the Gates that the city had instituted hours of operation.

Yet it's the tourists who should be fined, clearly. Also, the book seems weirdly..... proud? Of Bryce and Danika being disruptive, obnoxious drunks. Like we're meant to think they're cool for this. I don't know. Maybe I'm just getting old but... yeah. It's not.

The emerald for FiRo lit up, a young female voice coming through to shriek, “Titties!”

See, this is the problem with infodumping too much, too early. I had to go back to work out which district FiRo abbreviated, and it turns out it's the Five Roses district. I don't remember what that district does or who its leader is, and it's too far back for me now to bother going back to look. Information is generally much better remembered when it's presented to us naturally, in context. That's how we learn best. With the way this book mostly does things, we're expected to just remember an arbitrary bullet-list of made up worldbuilding facts and uh. That's just not how our brains work. Not when we're also trying to remember plot and character info and have no way of knowing what's actually important yet.

Danika makes a wish, and then tells Bryce she has to make a wish too.

Instead of just getting on with it, though, Bryce muses on the nature of immortality (apparently it's not complete immortality, just long life) and how she's bestest best friends with Danika and always will be - they do everything together, and plan to undertake the Drop and become (mostly) immortal together. In fact, she's harping so much on it that I'm beginning to think this won't actually be the case. Someone's gonna die in the not-too-distant future. Probably Danika.

They’d take the deadly plunge into their matured power together, encounter whatever lay at the bottom of their souls, and then race back up to life before the lack of oxygen rendered them brain-dead. Or just plain dead.

This doesn't really make it clearer what the Drop is meant to be.

We're told that Danika is going to inherit (from who?) the best powers, the greatest powers, maybe even beyond the Autumn King, whatever that means. And she's not just going to become leader of all the wolves in the city, but all the wolves in the world. But don't worry, she's (allegedly) humble, so she definitely deserves this power.

Twenty-seven was the ideal age to make the Drop, they’d decided together, after years of mercilessly judging the various immortals who marked their lives by centuries and millennia. Right before any permanent lines or wrinkles or gray hairs. They merely said to anyone who inquired, What’s the point of being immortal badasses if we have sagging tits?

I mean, I already knew these two were judgemental assholes, but maybe it's actually intentional? It still doesn't make me like them, though.

We randomly learn about two of their university friends: Fury, who may or may not be a secret assassin for shady powers, and Juniper, who is a faun.

A whole page after walking up to the disk, Bryce finally puts her hand on it. I see now why this book is 800+ pages. I strongly suspect it doesn't need to be.

Bryce sighed, and set her hand on the pad. “I wish Danika would get a manicure. Her nails look like shit.”

I'm so glad it took us an entire page to get here.

They leave, with crowds of people still taking photos of Danika, and eventually reach the point where they'll part, Danika to go to her meeting, Bryce, to the temple where the horn was stolen. They say goodbye, and this then randomly segues into how Danika's mother, Sabine, is a piece of shit (in case we forgot she was going to be evil) and how Danika had such a tragic childhood because of it. Yes, we seem to be going with the trauma conga lines again.

Danika promises to piss off everyone at the meeting, because that's very conducive to getting what you want, apparently, and the chapter finally ends.

So, in summary, the total amount of progress made in this chapter was... walking from Bryce's work. There are 90+ chapters of this shit. Please save me.

[h-didanart]

i need more informations about that sunrise arc theatre

(there's the word theatre so I'm approving it)

Sunrise Arc Theatre info tid bits coming right up!

There’s a lot of workers at the theatre, they like to place bets on how well received performances will be, they also just generally like to share stuff that has happened on rehearsals, like if someone keeps switching their lines up or they somehow keep pulling off a difficult step or if they made a really good joke and so

Both major plays share exactly one song that’s placed in basically the same spot, “Under Our Spell” for the first Takeover in both plays. Both pairs have their own choreographies, personally I like Clipsy and LE//Haunting’s the most, they synchronize for the choruses in a really fun way (sadly I have not drawn it so you cannot see what I see, but I swear it’s a very cool choreo, I want to animate it someday)

Moon is actually disabled, it wasn’t too much of an issue for some time but performing so much without looking after himself kinda led to him fucking up his joints a bit. This has changed his choreographies quite a bit, he needs to sit down often and sometimes his joints just get stuck. This led to the fans interpreting Moon’s near death at the separation with KillCode as having caused his issues

I think I’ve already said this but it’s worth repeating, the Stellar siblings are a chaotic bunch, they have healthy relationships and often look after the other actors during their breaks backstage

Hunter was supposed to sing a different song than the one he sang during the Second Takeover, but not only was the range too high for him, the song was deemed too long for a relatively short plot point, and thus he ended up singing “Someone Gets Hurt Reprise” a bit later than he was scheduled to sing originally

Sunset and Moonlight are fans of Sun and Moon

Lunar and Clipsy (swap Eclipse) are siblings, the Eclipses (Queso and Stars) are Haunting and Shadow’s (the swap Lunars) siblings.

Eclair and Ruin are twins

One of the songs for “The Sunset and Moonlight Musical” is there purely because of a joke I will make about a plot point during the first Takeover. The song is “Guns and Ships”

KC is small. The choreography team had to get creative when it came to KillCode’s appearances, there’s a lot of mirrors at play whenever he appears and the stage’s lights are kept dim to hide KC running around everywhere

Sun, Eclair, and Moonlight are friends, they like to go out for coffee and chat about their lives a few times a month

The workers sometimes throw together short-notice plays where they’ll be the ones acting and singing while the actors drop by to watch them. They aren’t very flashy, mostly just groups of friends making do with what’s available and having fun

Aaand I cannot think of more stuff at the moment, I hope this sufficed but feel free to poke for more at any point in time!

Now you get doodles :3

The friend group referenced above, Sun, Eclair, and Moonlight!

Notes on quick changes, these ones specific to the song “Better Way to be Bad” in “Get in Losers, Musical Edition”, characters included being Quasar (Lord Eclipse), Blue Moon (Evil Lunar), and Nightingale (Solar’s Moon)

Moonlight. I want you to guess which song he’s singing.

Hint: I’m taking inspiration from canon Nexus for his breakdown

Moon messing around with a ukelele they need for a scene later

The process of picking a name for the au and the different Celestial models!

And just for you! The scene that precedes one of Umbra’s songs in “The Sunset and Moonlight Musical”, dress rehearsal

[jonmyblaze]

Devil May cry au everyone lives traumatized!

So so I wanted to combined two ideas of what if Eva survives and what if Sparda survived..

(We are under the assumption that Virgil is Dante's older brother of 5-8ish years like OG DMC 1 canon Near identical face/ different age )

The tragedy that separated the Sparta family affected each of its members differently.

----------

Eva was a woman of principle, a umbra witch a woman self-taught of the mystic ways of summoning demons with a monster fcking fetish . She got the demon boy she got the skills her life should have been happily ever after.

Then the damn attack occurred. She would admit it herself she wasn't the best mother.( Who let the kid run around with swords, she probably should have sent them to some sort of school instead of individualized education based off of their interests and needs. They probably should have gotten more experience with friends and other people who would care. ) But damn it all did she love her kids. They were her blessed children.

Eva looking through the ashes of the home. She Was not able Not even find her youngest son. Her eldest she feared was already gone dead. Perished cut down for the simple sake of being a hybrid.

Even her husband was gone.

She was all alone. First time in years. This is when she made her vow to hunt down the infernals of hell and eradicate those who sought to eliminate her family and her. Damn the umbra witch code. They were dead order barely surviving off of Madame Jeanne de Arc. She would look at heaven and Earth and hell for her children but she could not find them.

Not until decades later when they didn't even need her.

--------

The devil night Sparta was in mourning. The blaze and the battle had tooken so much from him.

"It's all my fault" he wept, as if the entire event was solely on his shoulders and not those of his enemies.

It's because of my fame, my notoriety and pride that enabled these freaks to have enough leverage to attempt to kill me and my family.

My entire family is eradication

was because of my greed for the limelight. It seems this world is worse f with me in it. "And so the devil Knight takes his self-imposed exile. Not knowing that his wife and children are in need of theirpatriarch.

---+--------

The eldest son was in a different position. He saw the army that his father took against. Then that would ultimately to his father's downfall. If only he had more power more strength he could have fought with his father and protect his family.

All alone, he wished he could have saved his family had he been a little bit stronger.

"I need more power I need to grow in power or else I will be weak and worthless pathetic

I lost my entire family because of that. No more"

____________

And last but the youngest son, he had witnessed his mother in her final moments and her words struck a chord with him

Hls mother said to live a better life, a happy life don't abandon your family heritage, But don't forget to live. Run away if you must, but be safe and live and grow strong to protect yourself and others.

Dante the youngest son would struggle everyday to bribe steel and make not only a new identity to get an education but to live and to grow. Eventually he would grow into a famous demon Hunter.

The devil brothers would meet again in a strange Tower. Their ideology opposed to one another

one for powers for power sake,

The other craved power for protecting oneself and others.

The family would truly meet up and be reunited during

The Qliphoth incident. Sparta could no longer allow such devastation upon the human world. Eva could no longer allow anyone to die of such a ratchet pain.

Dante was hired for this by a strange man named v

Along with his nephew that he has yet to revealed he knew.

Bayonetta and Jeanne also there.

Their with Eva.

[the-phantom-otaku]

More Umbra Ben ideas I thought of (also if you have ideas for a better sounding name, feel free to suggest it 😭)

-He knows how to pose for the camera. If he sees a camera pointed his way, he’ll probably show off even more than usual.

-I forgot about his version of Snake/Centipede within. His is Viper Within. Specifically, he’s a horned viper. While we’re on the topic, I’ve decided to change his flight beast to a Hawk. Idk why but it seems to suit him more to me.

-Gwen also has her own Beast Within forms: Eagle Owl for flight, Doves for her Bat within, a Red Wolf for land, and I haven’t decided on her Snake Within yet.

-Unfortunately, Nyancy Chan would be able to control him if - and only if - he’s in his tiger form. The same goes for Bayonetta and Jeanne. None of them would take kindly to being treated like an exotic cat.

-Speaking of his Tiger form, he’ll lounge around in it sometimes.

-I forgot to mention this, but he is famous like Prime. I don’t think he’s quite as popular though because of the whole demonic thing he has going on. Doesn’t stop him from having plenty of fans, though. He just has more critics, too.

-Similar to Prime, Harangue is a big critic of his. However, unlike Prime Harangue, his arguments come from a genuine place of concern, not xenophobia. He’s also a very good reporter in general with a high moral standard. He’s basically the polar opposite of Prime Harangue.

-Ben’s probably said a million times to not contract a demon or practice Umbran arts or literally do anything with demons bc it’s far more dangerous than he makes it look. Though he usually scoffs are the overbearing parents and their cries of Santanism, he doesn’t actually want anyone to get hurt trying to emulate him. He definitely doesn’t want anyone to land themselves in a contract with a demon.

-Despite his warnings, people do try to summon demons, and every now and then, it actually works. He’s definitely had to save someone from a demon they’ve summoned at least once.

-Jimmy Jones is one such idiot who has probably summoned a demon and Ben had to save him.

-Kevin in this world isn’t a Lumen or Umbra. Rather, he’s got the same absorption powers as his Prime counterpart. I wanted to keep it this way so the trio could represent the three worlds: Paradiso (Gwen), Inferno (Ben), and Chaos (Kevin). I really haven’t decided too much else about him, but I don’t imagine him to be quite as scruffy as Prime Kevin. I think he’d go down a route similar to Enzo where he’s underhanded but more well put together. He doesn’t necessarily look like a thug on the outside, but he’s still got a lot of shady contacts, one of which is actually Enzo. In fact, Enzo was how Ben and Gwen met back up with Kevin once they were teenagers.

-This Ben is also allergic to peanuts, and he’s very militant about not eating them. If he’s gonna die, he doesn’t want peanuts to be the reason.

[osatokun]

Hello!

This is going to be a bit spontaneous, but I really love your OCs and art. Your passion for their stories is contagious, and your art gives really magical vibe (also you draw backgrounds. That's like extra level of awesomeness to your already awesome work). You're a huge inspiration of mine and I wanted to let you know that and thank you for your incredible work 💕💕💕

And after your post about some other characters you played I became curious about man with some sort of spiritual owl and bug on him :]

As far as I understand, his name is Juhani. I thought you might want to share some information about him? Maybe in form of answer to "⚽ Soccer Ball" from the ask game :D

Have a nice day!

Hello! Thank you very much! Charlie is the most important OC I ever had, his story is the thing that unironically helps me to survive on daily basis. To process a lot of feelings, to escape horrible reality, to think of myself better (because he totally have better esteem than I), to make my life a bit better and have hope for better future. So I'm always happy to know people likes how I picture his story, and it even inspires them, thank you <3

Juhani (Jussi) Hyljenen is a Ravnos vampire, embraced somewhere in 1975th. He is a grumpy, very shy and introverted IT guy, with the spiritus powers. The spider is a Weaver spirit who is both his teacher and provider of the connection with the spirit world. He is able to talk to tech, by hearing and internally "playing" the music (that is the voice the spirits inside). For example, to talk to the pc or a tv he starts from playing on noise on the monitor as it was strings. Of course no one but him can see it that way. Not sure I described it good and it sounds understandable haha For him and his sire embracing was a good contracted work. When he was a human his sight kept on going down and nothing helped. Rosemary (his sir) offered him to become her ghoul so he'll keep his eyes and in return help her to adapt in a changing world. She herself was a total 0 in a modern stuff. Later on she embraced him and showed him the world of spirits and occult magic. However she died in the Week of Nightmares in 99s, diablerised by unknown vampire. Jussi was safe, staked and hidden. The chronicle he was in took place in 2001 in Poland. He was still mourning his sire, the only one he was close to, he even slept in her fur coats. During the game he helped a fae creature, who led him and the coterie to the land of the old Tzimisce , who harmed the land with new and weird rituals. They were followed by a Ravnos who everyone but Juhani treated by foe. He said that Rose's soul survived diablerie and there is a chance that she won the body of her killer. So Juhani kept helping him during the game, secretly. In the end, Juhani talked local spirits (?)/ fae creatures to help them reach the final destination and they asked to free their sister in return. Turned out that the old Tzimisce kept a changeling in his prison (and a couple or weird vampires, I don't really remember them haha). The changeling lady could be freed only if someone take place of a fairytale prince and lead her to Arcadia (and probably never return to our world). So Juhani take the place of the prince. In the very end, when the coterie and that one Ravnos run through changeling plane of umbra to escape the Tzimisce's castle, the Ravnos asked Juhani if he wants to know who killed his sire. And Juhani finally gave up to his hopes to return the past and denied the offer. He never learned that his sire's soul really won the body of her killer and she was always there. She was that one Ravnos.

Now Juhani exists somewhere in Arcadia (I hope) with his changeling wife. It was different storyteller, but I always end up with changelings haha

Juhani's abilities and appearance is heavily based on the character from Charlie's chronicle, Johnathan. However his IT powers comes from tremere path.

and Rose's character and appearance was based on Ellie, ravnos witch that Charlie met during the chronicle

[forthedancingandthethriving]

One more collection of incorrect quotes (code beings edition)

Abyssal: Here, Vitality, we made you a cake as a peace offering!

Vitality: Thank you, that’s-

Vitality: … Wait. Why are you giving me a peace offering?

Abyssal: … We’d hate to ruin the surprise.

----

Umbra: You do realize that stunt you pulled defines "out of control"?

Abyssal: I just wanted you to see that I would never put any of you at risk if I wasn't willing to take the same chances myself.

Umbra: I love how you think that's comforting.

----

Ping: Just because something is theoretically impossible doesn't mean that it's not possible.

Buffer: I believe that is exactly what it means.

----

CPU: Kill them with kindness.

Forum: That’s very nice of you, CPU!

Buffer: Not really.

Buffer: “Kindness” is what he named his gun.

----

Crash: This was a bad idea…

CPU: I could have told you that ten minutes ago. Oh wait, I did!

----

Emulator: Sorry I've been *static noises*

----

Lag: Some things are better left alone. Like me, for instance.

----

Domain: Have fun. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

Emulator: I thought you just said “have fun”.

----

Abyssal (possibly): Of course, the best part of anyone's corruption arc is their cool new outfit.

----

Sparks: You kidnapped some of the Admins? That's illegal!

Hotspot: But Sparks, what's more illegal... briefly inconveniencing the Admins or destroying the rebellion?

Sparks: Kidnapping the Admins, Hotspot!

Vector: Sparks, listen, whatever I may think of you, right now these guys are counting on you. You inspire them!

Sparks: What, to kidnap Admins?

Vector: To work together!

Sparks: To kidnap people, Vector?!

Circuit: Sparks, we all agreed that Admins do not count as people.

----

CPU: Whenever Lag doesn't just take a moment to try and care for himself, I hide all of his tools.

*sounds of cabient being forcefully yanked open in the background*

CPU: It hasn't worked yet, but it will.

----

Antivirus: WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU LAST NIGHT?

Umbra: Do you wanna hear what really happened or the lie that I'm gonna tell everybody else?

Antivirus: START WITH THE LIE. IT'S PROBABLY MORE INTERESTING.

----

Lil Coding: My assistance will be an act of beneviolence.

Penny: ... Don’t you mean benevolence?

Lil Coding: No.

----

Lil Coding talking to Penny: This may be a personal question, so feel free not to answer.

Lil Coding: But were you, by chance, homeschooled by a pigeon?

----

Sparks: Today is a day of running through hurdles.

Database: Aren’t you supposed to jump OVER hurdles?

Sparks: Whatever. Fear is only something to be afraid of if you let it scare you.

----

Blotch: But Overseer, it was medicinal!

Overseer: For the last time, there's no such thing as medicinal robbery.

----

Abyssal: You two will never get along, will you?

Database & Duck: No.

[darklight-owl]

3,5,7,10,11,16,22 and 13,you said 3 years but what has changed since nice then?

EEEEEE tysm for the ask!!

3.) any recurring images/elements?

I'm not really that good at using motifs tbh, but I have a lot of scattered feathers deliberately placed in a few scenes. Smoke as well, even though I haven't illustrated any of those yet. I'll leave the interpretation to the readers :]

5.) pick a theme song for the tv adaptation.

Laplace's Angel by Will Wood! (this has been the theme song from before my Will Wood phase started, it's just got very similar themes)

7.) how would you describe the relationships between the characters in the story within eight words or less?

Not friends, just people sharing the same pain.

10.) if your story is titled, why did you choose that title?

It was always going to be called after whatever I named the organization. I had this idea of a kind of cultish group of assassins who worshipped a god of hunting. Since all the characters are animals hunting is pretty much just murder in this world, after all. My placeholder name for it was Artemis' Children, but I wanted to create my own mythology since I know virtually nothing about irl myths. the name Ullyca (and Ramedin while we're on it) was a result of me mashing words together at 1am until it sounded right. (I think it sounds cool though)

11.) give a general summary of the plot/world/characters.

Set in a world populated by several species of anthropomorphic animals, a serval named Umbra finds herself covered in blood, a body at her feet. With no memory of what happened, yet desperate to keep her involvement in this event from coming to light, she winds up making a deal with an organization of hitmen known as the Children of Ullyca, and by the time she realizes she's in over her head, it's too late to turn back.

16.) imagine the entire story takes place but in the meantime the characters all also have tumblr. what kind of (terrible) tumblr posts would happen?

Ahhhahahaha yk I'm pretty sure Fier has a tumblr (if anyone in this series does it's them) but for the other ones I'm absolutely sure Amala would be blazing Umbra's vent posts all the time, Hadron would do nothing except rb the worst takes known to mankind, Rena would have a bait account and Uriel just uses his to promote his fanfiction. Not sure what Kan would use his for, but something tells me he keeps getting blocked because he never made a profile and everyone thinks he's a bot.

22.) you have been given unlimited funds to make two adaptations of some sort, however you cannot make any other adaptations of any other sort. which two formats do you choose?

Ohhhh this is a tough one. I've always thought CoU would make for a banger animated series but for the second adaptation? Maybe a novel. I would have really loved for it to be a novel (even if the comic medium does fit better)

13.) how long have you been working on this project? what has changed from the outset?

SO much has changed in the past three years. Hell, not even joking this thing started as a bunch of Beastars ocs until I realized they didn't have anything to do with Beastars anymore and I was just a furry. Now, aside from the anthros and the canniballism, they have absolutely nothing in common.

The architecture has changed, it used to be just normal human cities but somewhere between the original chapters and the Call to Action entry I changed the buildings to use more natural elements like trees and cliffsides. I still struggle with it (a lot) but I love how lively and a little wild it looks.

Some designs have also changed, the uniforms used to all be plain dark grey jumpsuits but now all of them have their own unique design for each character for different purposes (Kan's uniform has armor plates, Rena's is a wetsuit, etc.) Out of all the characters, Kan has changed the most physically. I didn't know how to make the "grizzled war veteran" look I wanted so he just kinda looked... weird. Also he didn't have any scars which I later realized was stupid, he's been an assassin for 20 years.

Speaking of characters, Umbra's character has changed a LOT. She used to be the definition of an edgelord, a cold hearted killer with no remorse. However that was boring as shit and I thought it would make for a more compelling story if she really didn't WANT to join the CoU but was pressured into it.

I used to post pages on Instagram (i know, ew) but I realized the story was very disorganized and stopped to work on the script. I'm remaking the first chapter bc my art has... definitely improved. This is 2021 vs. 2023:

I know they say don't redraw old pages but... I think you get why I started over in this case lol

[manwalksintobar]

Words for the Body // Anne Michaels

       Landowska, overheard during a heated argument on interpretation:       “You play Bach your way, and I’ll play him his way.”

     1

We knew we’d reached Dunn Lake because the trees stopped. Chilled and sweating under winter clothes we stood in the damp degenerated afternoon. We grew up waiting together by water, frozen or free, in summer under the cool shaggy umbra of firs, or in the aquarium light of birches. It’s always been this way between us. We reach lakes and then we just stand there. Silence fills us with silence.

     2

When we were fourteen you read to me about Landowska, who “tottered the world and stopped the sun when she held a note.” We argued over interpretation until we were sixteen and discovered Casals: “The best musician learns to play what’s not on the page.” We decided music is memory, the way a word is the memory of its meaning.

    ·

The first time I knew what we were trying for I was waiting on the back porch while you practised. Piano flickered the leaves, evening in perfect summer, temperature the same inside and outside my body, night a pigment on my skin.

In that swathing twilight I knew you’d had a lover. Everything became part of that new perception. The yard disappeared. Sudden as my sense of your body, I knew you were attempting silence. To move an audience until they aren’t listening.

We believed in our head’s perfect version, but you couldn’t make your hands, and I couldn’t make my words, pronounce it.

Even now when I hear you play I think of a lover, gasping at the gate of another, who suddenly knows love has no power to make it right.

    3

The summer you stopped playing we were driving home from the farm, windows full of stars on the dark highway, legs bare on vinyl seats, night air cold and new as from the sea.

In a voice that came from the highway you described the blackness where music waits, tormenting until you draw it out, a redemption. Then the fear of forgetting notes disappears, the fingers have a memory of their own.

You spoke of a kind of hunger that makes pleasure perfect. Then you said how it was to be opened and tasted by a hall full of people.

When we reached home you were crying.

Within a month you stopped playing. You stopped sleeping. Eighteen years old, exhausted, holding to the idea of perfect sound.

End of summer, rainy morning, your head in my hands. Across the room a jar of flowers made its small fire. Curtains held their breath against the wet screens.

    4

Dunn Lake We skied there gracelessly through the woods. Desperate light pressured black trees to hold their pose. The moon reached under the ice where the lake moved, obedient.

Night pressed its thumbs over our eyes. Too dark to take the way we came, we went by road.

You reached the farmhouse ahead of me, I saw your figure in the porch lights.

We ate watching the fire, logs collapsing under the weight of flame, flames collapsing with their own weight.

Almost no word spoken since our silence at the lake, you said you’d play again.

Over two years since your hands were yours.

You asked, smiling, face torn with shadows from the fire: “haven’t you given up the perfect word yet?”

     ·

Fingers have a memory, to read the familiar braille of another’s skin. The body has a memory: the children we make, places we’ve hurt ourselves, sieves of our skeletons in the fat soil. no words mean as much as a life. Only the body pronounces perfectly the name of another.

    5

This morning your letter. A photo of redwoods in winter, the half-frozen pond. Remember the way we walked each other home— one block further, one block further— the way we skated in the ravine, late winter afternoon, so cold the air seemed to magnify the world, sky the colour of plums.

We sang in harmony on the ice, breath echoing white under the bridge, our fifteen-year-old bodies perfect and young under winter clothes, warm from skating and singing, trees along the ridge a black lace picket fence against a plume of orange like a comet’s tail where the sun had been.

Remember climbing the hill, already dark, and stopping to hear trees shake their branches, how we’d enter your parents’ warm house in a daze of images.

Remember once, mauve and yellow tulips on the dining room table, remember the music when we said play those colours and turned Bach’s “Anna Magdalena” the colour of yellow, the colour of mauve.

Remember that October, standing in your farm’s back field, half a mile apart, while daylight collapsed under the weight of darkness, and trees thick with burning leaves shouldered the stars. Music emerged from those moments, from air, like a room’s white dimension in the window at nightfall.

    ·

Any discovery of form is a moment of memory, existing as the historical moment—alone, and existing in history—linear, in music, in the sentence. Each poem, each piece remembers our bodies, the way man and woman in their joining remember each other before they were separate.

It’s over twenty-five years and every love poem says how your music and my words are the same: praising the common air, the motive, the memory.

To praise memory is to praise the body.

And I find myself describing the joining of hips and eyes, the harbours of thighs and lips,

as the singing of two small bodies in a dark ravine, as two small bodies holding up the night sky in a winter field.

[saratogaroadwrites]

Toxic (3/3)

Toxic | saratogaroad rating: G+ wordcount: 1160 characters: Noctis Lucis Caelum, Gladiolus Amicitia, Prompto Argentum relationships: background Promptis other tags: background relationships, Canon-Typical Violence warnings: Canon Typical Violence chapter: 3/3

-

Gladio comes to a realization that has been a long time coming. Noctis realizes a thing or two as well.

=

Zegnautus Keep presses down like a weighty thing, a sword ready to fall on their heads. Prompto is safe, thank the Six, and so is Noctis. The four of them are together again.

Gladio's heart still sits heavy in his chest, a rock in the pit of his stomach as he sits and keeps watch. They've barred the door to the barracks, ripped the loudspeaker off the wall and left sparking wires in its place. Umbra, Six only know how he got in here to begin with, lays on Noctis' bare feet. Exhaustion clings to the mutt like a second coat, clings to all of them like capes. Prompto is conked out, half sprawled in Noctis' lap, Noctis himself is asleep sitting up against the cold concrete wall, Ignis is actually snoring on another bunk, shoes still on, and Gladio...

Gladio sits, elbows on his knees and hands clasped together, and watches. He watches their chests rise and fall in ease, listens to the snoring, and tries to push back the lump in his chest. They're all safe, no thanks to him, and have been keeping that way for a while.

Hell, Noctis survived a Malboro, getting stabbed in the freaking lung, and making his way through this hellhole of a fort with nothing but life-sucking magic and his father's sword. It's clear he doesn't need Gladio anymore. Maybe he hasn't for a long time.

Maybe that's okay.

"You tryin' to drill a hole in my head?" Noctis asks, voice sleep muddled. Gladio tenses as the prince--no, his King now, and he's been for a while--stretches his leg as best he can without dislodging Prompto. He rolls his neck and looks Gladio in the eye, tired but aware.

Gladio swallows hard and looks down.

"No," he says quietly, "Just...trying to figure out some things."

"Uh-huh." Noctis doesn't sound convinced. He quirks an eyebrow, pensive. Either he's too tired to speak or waiting Gladio out, but the silence pulls. Gladio licks his dry lips and shakes his head.

"I've been...kind of an ass."

Noctis raises his other eyebrow; they both disappear beneath his fringe in his shock. Shame colors Gladio's face as Noctis says, "Kind of?"

Gladio looks away. "Okay, a lot of an ass. And a really lousy Shield."

"That's what happens when you run off out of nowhere." Noctis shrugs a shoulder, voice oddly casual. "But I think--"

"Noctis," Gladio cuts him off. Noctis blinks at him, startled by the use of his full name, and Gladio sighs, because he knows he's lost the right to call him Noct, after all this. He takes a breath, squares his shoulders, and looks up to meet his King's gaze. "I need to tell you something."

"...What?"

"I'm sorry. A lot of the things I've done were out of line."

Noctis blinks at him again. Once, twice, three times. Then his shoulders sag and he tips his head back against the wall. Absently, he starts to comb his fingers through Prompto's hair, the Ring a stark contrast to the sunny color.

"I'm not," Noctis sighs, "Going to say it's okay, because it's really not, but I get it." He looks over, peering at Gladio through his bangs. "I get it. None of us are taking this shit well."

"No kidding," Gladio looks down at his hands, the blood caked beneath his fingernails, the calluses in the joints of his knuckles. "I just...I said some really bad shit to you. Did shit I shouldn't have." He swallows back acrid bile, "...You could have died because I was an ass."

"Gladio..." Noctis sighs, "I made that call and I was stupid about it, okay? That one's not on you."

"I made you feel you had to," He clenches his hands together. Once they'd gotten Noctis settled in the sleeping car, Prompto ever at his side, Ignis had taken Gladio aside and explained, in no uncertain terms, what Noctis had said. Ardyn had nearly made him a replicated image of Lady Lunafreya, a blade between the ribs meant to kill painfully slowly.

He would have died in the swamps, cold and alone, all because Gladio had been such an ass and forced him into feeling that he needed to go it alone. His knuckles go white beneath his grip.

"I made you think you needed to prove something," He says, grimacing as Noctis makes a choked noise in the back of his throat, "And that's..." He sighs heavily, stomach knotted somewhere by his feet. His father would have disowned him for his actions; Iris would have kicked his ass then made him get up and do it all over again. He'd have deserved both of their reactions.

He also deserved Noctis'. He can't deny that any longer. He forces himself to look up again, to meet Noctis' knowing, understanding look.

"I'm so sorry, your Majesty," Gladio says formally. He stands up, presses a hand to his heart, and bows low. Noctis makes a choked off noise again. "I hope someday you can find it in your heart to forgive me." Noctis is silent for a long moment. Gladio does not move, life in his King's hands.

"...I forgive you," Noctis says softly. Gladio looks up so fast his neck cracks painfully. Noctis is looking at the ring on his finger, the shard of crystal gleaming even in the dim light. He looks to Gladio. "So stand up already and get over here." He slips down against the concrete. "It's cold."

Gladio's heart skips a bit. Noctis shifts just enough to make room for him on the too-small bunk without disturbing Prompto.

"...you...really want to share with this big of an idiot?"

"No," Noctis shakes his head. "I want to share with my big brother." He smiles, though it's a tired, ragged edge thing "Family fights, right?"

His heart starts beating again. "Yeah," Gladio chuckles softly. He stands up just long enough to sit beside Noctis, toeing off his boots. "They do. They can be really stupid about apologizing, too." He settles against Noctis' side. Umbra lifts his head, sniffs the bottom of Gladio's foot, sneezes, and settles back in. "Works out, though."

"I hope so," Noctis says, leaning against his arm, "cause if you fought like this with Iris, I'd have to kick your ass."

Gladio can't help it: he laughs. Prompto stirs enough to lift his head and blearily blink at the two of them, but when no yelling pierces his half-asleep world, he burrows his face back into Noctis' stomach and drifts off again. Noctis sighs deeply, leaning his head on Gladio's shoulder.

"I'd like to see you try," Gladio finally says. Noctis barks out a half-asleep laugh of his own, but offers no contest. Before too long, he's asleep again.

Once more the dutiful Shield, Gladio returns to his watch with a lifted heart.

Whatever happens later, whatever they end up facing, he's sure of one thing: everything's going to be alright.

[gwaha]

ocs as tragic greek figures

a While ago @veeples beloved tagged me to do this uquiz with my ocs !! i thought it would be fun to do it with some of my ffxiv characters :-)

tagging @iryine @snapshoo-t @lilas @coldshrugs @impossible-rat-babies + anyone else that wants to do this !!

d'andala onik — odysseus.

you are that which men dream to be: strong, courageous, and noble, with more intelligence than you know what to do with. and, like all men, you do not account for your overabundance of pride. you long for your name to be wrapped in glory and honor, and your journey home is only made longer by your search for fights to win and monsters to trick.

ukyo monceaux — patroclus.

clever patroclus, beloved patroclus, poor patroclus: you do not fall into madness, nor vanity, nor hubris. not, that is, for your own sake. love for that golden-haired man, sorrow for your countrymen; it is for his name that you don his armor, and for the dying greeks that you ride into battle. every piece of you is willingly given away, even if after you are gone there are wicked things done in your name.

umbra neve — antigone.

dear antigone, defiant antigone, saint of blind loyalty and digger of graves. you wept for your father as you wept for your brothers—with tears obscuring your eyes of their faults. on your own two feet shall you walk to hades's domain because yes, the devotion to the ones you love is simply that strong. none but the law of gods shall hold you back from what you think of as divine.

javi neve — icarus.

what is there to be said of icarus? you were warned, yet you persisted, imprudently. but what of your first taste of liberation? the exhilaration that follows the first ray of the sun to touch you as you are, as a free man, makes you drunk on joy. we all know the foolish things that drunken people are capable of. was the fall as thrilling as the flight?

finn oz — orestes.

you are your father's son and your mother's equal. morality and justice guide your hands through every act, no matter how vile, so that society may be preserved—even if you must sacrifice yourself. what is your flesh flayed by the kindly ones over your father being avenged? matricide, when sparing your mother would lose her respect for you? there is peace at the end, orestes, but the journey to it is dark and terrible.

[swanchime]

#1/2309482309482 posts about how fushiguro megumi and ryomen sukuna are girls (But Differently) no i dont have a good reason for the second one i simply know it in my heart

(umineko voice) if you are viewing this with love in your heart then you may choose to believe me after all. if you are not viewing this with love in your heart nothing i can say will convince you.

MEGUMI IS A 99TH PERCENTILE GIRL'S NAME BUT FUSHIGURO MEGUMI'S NAME IS NOT A JOKE

do u remember..........The Swimming Anime. in that anime, there's a running gag how the swim team is all "boys with girl's names" (haru, makoto, rin, nagisa, rei). however, all of these are more thoroughly unisex names, as in, boys and girls have these names. a student of mine who was a japanese high school boy said that haru is probably a boy's name nowadays, but in the year of The Swimming Anime, it may have been closer to a 50/50 split.

im pretty sure there was a haru (girl) in Ye Olde katekyo hitman reborn.

anyway. this is not about That.

it's about how "megumi" is a 99th percentile probability of being a girl's name. it's not at ALL a mixed split. it's unambiguously A Girl's Name. but there's 0 gags about how megumi is "haha a boy with a girl's name" she's not even included in the "crossdressing" gag, and im pretty sure is deliberately excluded from that jujusanpo extra.

early on in jjk, megumi talks about how her father named her "without regard for her gender," because 恵 is the kanji for "godsend / blessing," but "blessing" means something different than it does in english as in "God (mr. christ or his dad or whatever)'s Blessing!" it means "from the heavens / heavensent / godsent" <-- from A god, not necessarily The One And Only Guy Up There Who Is A Cis Man And Also White Or So White Xtian USAians Love To Espouse To Everyone Who Will Listen

INTERLUDE:

when you watch jjk, you have to do it the umi way. you shouldn't be looking at jjk as a mirror of YOUR (english-speaker / english-native) HEART. you should be looking at it as closely to a japanese perspective as you can, as a story borne from not just a human heart, but a japanese heart.

when you look at jjk, if you look at it like a mirror, only to seek your own reflection or what YOU can gain from it, you will fail utterly and completely / the mangaka's mirror will shatter.

jjk is the precious egg of akutami gege's heart. it is also their 天与呪縛 (tenyo jubaku), as muta kokichi (mechamaru) says. it is a mirror of their soul, and i firmly believe it should be handled with the utmost care and respect. and love, too. and love.

/end interlude

so when you look at megumi, you can't dismiss her as just "HAHA ANOTHER BOY WITH A GIRL'S NAME JUST LIKE IN THAT SWIMMING ANIME!"

megumi is a name borne from her father's spite and hatred of the zen-in clan.

(yes, i know the official transliteration is zen'in but i personally disdain the ' as a marker in names, so i use the - ; it is a translation decision. i disagree with most of the ones in jjk.) toji wanted megumi to inherit the famed jujutsu-shiki (curse technique affinity / ability) of the zen-in's despite toji no longer being one of them.

it's basically done with the intent of naming ur kid a huge FUCK U I HOPE THIS SPAWN OF MINE PROVES THAT I WAS RIGHT AND YOU WERE WRONG! but with 0 regard for the designated gender at birth of the child or any regard for the child as inhabiting a human soul and not just an object to prove a point.

of course, megumi DOES inherit the "ten shadows" --> i dont like this translation. it has no flair. my stylistic choice would be to translate it in an intuitive latin root way, since "invented words" in english stem from ancient greek/latin roots, so a stylish way that conveys the "oooh cool!" factor of the original japanese instead of dulling it down into nothing this blade would not even pierce paper, like trying to cut a piece of paper in half with a river stone. good luck! anyway

i would translate the 十種影法術 as (decima umbra). latin for 10th and shadow. it's intuitive to anyone who has read a lot of english, and it just sounds cool to anyone who hasn't, yet it looks like some kind of harry potter spell so it has that flavor to it.

ANYWAY the whole point of megumi's name is that toji named a """""cis""""" boy a 99th percentile girl's name bc he didn't give a fuk about the kid. it was just an object of revenge to him.

ANYWAY STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT POST IN THE MEGUMI AND SUKUNA TRANS'D GENDER SERIES

ON MEGUMI'S CHARACTER DESIGN AS REFLECTIVE OF HER 別に ATTITUDE REGARDING SEXUALITY AND GENDER AND HER (fear-based) NONCOMMITAL APPROACH TO...BASICALLY ANYTHING! but also inclusive of her keeping her own selfhood close to her chest and her hair (as the hedgehog's dilemma)

with bonus...................sukuna. he's also in there. did i say he was also a girl. yes he is. a very beautiful and wet meow.