#not posting this is any main tags for obvious reasons

[xxthefairywitchxx]

Run While You Can (Please Stay With Me)

AKA 6,088 words and 32,143 characters of pure self indulgent selfship nonsense with no italics or bold because it was written in notepad and I was bullied into posting it

Running reports and new plans by his father was never really That fun, but Rio Ranger supposes it wasn't supposed to be fun. It was supposed to be informative, and maybe he'd get a little praise for listening so well to orders? He sighed, shaking his head as he entered the main lobby. He had to admit, he was thankful to get let out of the meeting early. It was all just boring repeats of the last one.

To his surprise, when he looked up he saw someone else in there, the only human he didn't mind seeing too…Even if seeing her right now did make his face warm slightly, considering the state he'd seen her in this morning…Damp hair, skin glistening, a shirt which barely covered her breasts, and tiny shorts that put his miniskirt to shame in revealing length.

He let his eyes roam over her form from the doorway. She was wearing the spare clothes he brought her, and he felt a wave of smug possessiveness rush over him. None of the others could have done that for her. She was sitting in the corner of the room with a scattered assortment of art supplies around her, and she was scribbling away in a notebook. Watching her face while she scratched away made him think about what Tia had said, about keeping her for himself. Seeing her like this, he was starting to consider it.

Maybe he should have just walked away without approaching her, he should have pretended he didn't see her and gone to his room, take care of his growing problem…Before he'd realized it, he waltzed right over to her and sat down beside her without a word, making the girl gasp and practically do a double take when she looked up and saw him.

Whatever he was going to say died on his tongue when she set aside whatever she was working on face down and leaned over him, wrapping her arms around his neck, giggling out a greeting. How was he supposed to respond to that? He was sure he'd never get used to the way she acted around him.

"I'm so happy to see you, Rio!" Her voice is soft when she pulls back, like she's trying to keep down so they don't get caught, and it makes Rio feel like they're sneaking around…It's almost an exciting feeling, it brings images of him taking and hiding her away in his room, where no one else can see her. Where she'd be a secret joy, just for him.

"Whoa Renni, what are you doing up so late? It's past bedtime for all the little humans you know?" Rio's playful voice doesn't betray any of the thoughts in his head as he watches her gather up some of the art supplies…Is she done? Or is she getting ready to leave because he's there?

She giggles at the question then hums softly in thought, something sitting on the edge of her tongue before she decides to leave that topic untouched. "There's a strict bedtime? That's hardly fair." Her hands hesitate before she grabs a small paintbrush, and he's so distracted by her hands he doesn't notice it until he feels her lean over and brush her shoulder against his. "And who knew you'd be such a stickler for rules, Rio!"

"Hardly!" Rio snorts waving the hand that isn't holding up one of his expression signs…He thinks it's the cartoony grin. "But you and I both know you're gonna get dragged around by all the others and their mothers tomorrow! You really should get some sleep, that's like….Really important for humans, yknow?"

There's a far off look in her eyes as she stares forward, she's smiling but it looks tired. "I know, I know, I just…" She sighs, pulling her knees up to her chest, her hands resting on her knees while she stares into nothing. "I don't know why, I just haven't been able to get any sleep recently."

There's some part of Rio that's surprised she's sharing this information with him, but she's always been like this with him, especially when they're alone. "Ahh, I get it, you're worried about all those guys running around, aren't you? Especially now that some of them have gotten another peak at the goods, huh?" Of course, he knew that wasn't why…Though, he felt like it should be at least part of it.

"No, no!" Her laugh is soft and breathy as she tries to keep her voice down. "Honestly, no! I trust everyone here!" A look crosses her face briefly, so quickly Rio almost missed it completely. She looked…Angry. "Ah…Well…Almost everyone, anyway…" Her expression was back to smiley and squishy so quickly he almost thought he imagined it.

This time, he leaned over to her, bumping his shoulder against hers a bit harder than when she did it. "Oooh~? Someone here that Miss Pollyanna herself doesn't trust~? Oh tell me, I have to know!" He switches his expression card to the diamond cat mouth, letting his eyes narrow slightly at her. "Is it maybe the bad boy in the cute red skirt~?"

She chuckles softly, putting her hand on his shoulder and very gently shoving him away. "Oh don't be silly, of course I trust you Rio!" Her voice is still soft but the truth of that simple statement seems to echo through the room.

It shocks Rio to his very core. She said it so plainly, so matter of factly, like there was no other option for her. "Then who is it you don't trust?" He asks, trying to distract himself from the way his face has warmed considerably.

"It's just…" She looks to the doorway with a strange expression on her face for a moment instead of clarifying. "I don't trust the Receptionist Doll." Her voice holds a level of suspicion he hasn't heard from her before.

"Oh yeah?" He had to admit, it was probably in her best interest not to be so trusting of his father. "Any reason in particular, or is it just a bad feeling?" He asked, but he really didn't expect an answer. Humans rarely have good reasons when deciding who and who not to trust. Obviously, since she trusted him as much as she did.

She didn't look at him, and her hands balled into fists before uncurling again. "He's so quiet, I can't tell what he's thinking ever…And he just…Appears and disappears whenever, where ever. It's unsettling…"

He considers her reasons as they hang in the air, surprised a little at how reasonable they are.

And then she whirls around to face him, her eyebrows scrunched down and her lips pressed in a thin line with her cheeks puffed out and the action makes him startle back ever so slightly.

"And yknow what else?! Guys with mustaches are always secretly evil!! They can't be trusted as far as you can throw em!" Her voice is a hoarse whisper when she says this, as though it's top secret.

And Rio couldn't help but laugh in her face. He'd put his expression cards down, and he had to cover his mouth with his hands as he laughed heartily at the ridiculousness of what his favorite human just said to him with her whole chest.

Renni's expression remains before she breaks out into a grin and leans closer against him, giggling and snorting along with him, her hands covering her mouth.

He was surprised once again how easy interactions with her are, something he attributes to her complete and total naive trust in his. Though, the longer he spends with her one on one he realizes her lack of judgement towards him, his actions, his cruelty, his shitty attitude, and everything else about him must have something to do with it.

They lapse into a comfortable silence, her head leaning against his shoulder and he's startled to realize he doesn't hate the physical contact when it's her. He lets himself lean his head against hers, ignoring the way his hand itches to hold hers as best he can.

His hand inches towards hers while he argues with himself. Right before his fingers brush hers, she sits up and claps her hands together.

"Oh! Hey Riri, do you wanna see what I was working on before you joined me~?" Her smile when she looks at him is so warm and kind he can only nod, even while he misses her warmth against him.

She giggles softly and picks up the notebook. "Don't judge it too harshly, okay? It's not finished, it's just a first draft too, I just wanted to get the idea down on paper before I forgot it." He nods as she hands the notebook over to him and he nearly drops it seeing what she's done.

It's a water coloring drawing of him, in an outfit that looks like it was designed for him. It's frills and poofy shorts and a hooded cloak with rabbit ears. It's not a perfect drawing, but it's lovely and it's warm and soft, and so much he can't process completely.

"I know, I know, it's rushed, but I really wanted to get it down on paper…" When he can tear his eyes away from the page, he sees that Renni's face is colored crimson and she's pulled her pigtails in front of her face to cover her flushed expression. "But…Even still…Do you like it? The outfit, I mean, I call it 'Ranger Rabbit'~. The drawing is subpar I know…"

"Subpar?!" Rio raised his voice more than he meant too, judging by the way she flinched away from him. He cleared his throat and made a conscious effort to control his volume as he spoke. "I don't think the drawing is subpar. I like it. If you don't like it, I'll keep it." He looks down at the page again, fighting the urge to hold the notebook against his chest. "The outfit is pretty too, did you come up with the design?"

"No, not entirely. I saw it once before, but I changed some things up to make it fit you better, like the colors. I'm glad you like it though." Her voice is soft, and he bets she's smiling that smile where she tries to hide her teeth. "I want to make it for you sometime, if I can. The outfit, I mean."

He looks back at her, trying to keep his eyes from widening. "Huh? Why would you want to do that?"

"I want do something nice for you, as a thank you for helping me." She says it so plainly, again, like it should be obvious to him.

He puts back up his cartoony grin expression card as he tries to hide his own flushed face. "C'mon, I already told you, you don't have to thank me for getting you a spare set of clothes, it's nothing special y'know?"

"But it is special!" She insists with a small huff. "You keep saying that, but you do so much to help me! You bandage me up when I get hurt, you go out of your way to find me some dry, spare clothes so I don't have to walk around in my pajamas, you lead me around by the hands so I don't get lost, and your hand is always so gentle when you do it, and even when you're annoyed at me for being stupid you're always patient and kind with me! And you have no reason to be!! I'm not one of the contestants, you have no duty of care for me, but you take such good care of me!"

For a moment, she lets that hang in the air before she sighs. "I just…Want to do something nice for you too, yknow? I thought if I could make you some clothes, something made just for you, that you might like it…I don't think it's fair to you, that Miss Sue Miley and Miss Tia Safalin both have outfits that were clearly designed for them, but you have to scavenge around and pray you'll find something that'll cover you. So, if I can manage it, will you let me make you something?"

When her sweet, dark eyes turned to him, Rio audibly gulped. He nodded, trusting his voice would fail him if he tried to say anything, especially with the way his hand, holding his expression sign, was shaking at his side. He sets her notebook to the side, to give his other hand something to do.

She smiled at him, and he lost his breath because of it. "Thank you." She said it as though he did her a favor by accepting her offer. "Still, I wish I had something I could give you now to show you how I feel." She sighs softly, before letting out a breathy chuckle. "I guess this is all I can do for now."

Before he can react, Renni has leaned over to him and pressed her lips against his expression card.

She pulled back as quickly as it happened, but he swore he could almost feel her lips on the other side of the plastic card. So, so close to his own.

He let out a shakey breath. "Honestly, if you're gonna kiss me, you oughta do it properly." He let out an indignant huff, pretending his face wasn't on fire…Fuck, what was his face made out of again? If she kept this up, she might just make his face melt off.

He bet if his face melted off, she'd just keep smiling at him anyway.

"…Okay." Her soft voice snaps him out of his thoughts and he looks at her again, her face is as red as his feels.

"…Huh?" He blinks at her.

"I'll do it…Kiss you properly, if…That's what you want." She glances down then back up to him.

"N…No, there's no way you mean that." He doesn't sound sure, he feels like he's sure, but when he looks at her face, he can't tell anymore. She looks sure.

"Of course I do." Her voice is steadier than he feels, setting his expression cards down.

He reaches out, slowly, unsure, and cups her face with both his hands.

"You're sure?" His voice comes out barely above a whisper.

"I am." She nods, her voice soft as his is, like if either of them raises their voice, the moment will shatter.

He's slow as he leans in, giving her ample time to pull back, to change her mind, to stop him, to yell at and curse him for trying to do such a thing to her, because really, it's cruel isn't it? To kiss her when she's looking at him like that, when he can't look at her the same way?

Her eyes slip shut, and her hands move gently over his and he gulps softly, close enough to her now he can feel her breath on his lips, and he hesitates.

Her thumbs stroke the back of his hands through the gloves he's wearing.

He closes his eyes and closes the distance, pressing his lips against her warm, soft ones.

Their lips move together, awkward and slow, but gentle, and for a moment, he thinks he feels warmth bloom in his chest.

And it frightens him, and he pulls back, just enough to get out of her dizzying warmth. He opens his eyes again, and licks his lips slightly, tasting something fruity on them when he does.

Her eyes open slowly, her face is brilliant scarlet, and when the first thing she sees as her eyes open is him, she smiles and nuzzles into his hands. Her fingers curl softly against his hands, and she giggles softly, airy, and the sound makes Rio's head spin.

"What are you laughing at?" He asks, frowning, perhaps a bit too much to correct for the way he's feeling.

Her eyes shut again, crinkling at the corner as she lets herself laugh freely. "I'm just so happy!" She says, pressing his hands a bit closer to her face.

"About what?" He asks, almost indignant.

Her eyes open again, though they're lidded as she looks at him, her smile is soft and welcoming. "I'm happy because my first kiss was with a guy a like so much~."

Such a simple sentence feels like a punch to the gut for the Dressup Doll. Her first kiss? And what does she mean she likes him? She can't mean it the way it sounds…Is she teasing him?

He wants to get angry, it would be so easy to get angry, too. But he knows whatever game she's playing, she can't have bad intentions. She's never done anything to suggest she might, and if he's inclined to believe anyone here is completely without ulterior motive, he'd believe it with her. So he wonders, is she just trying to be nice? Is she teasing him? Is she lying to make him feel better? To try to make him feel included in these weird human games?

Good intentions or not, she can't be allowed to get away with teasing him like this. Honestly, she's lucky it's him she's toying around with, other guys would jump at the chance to give her reasons not to trust them.

Maybe that would be a good punishment, honestly. Show her what will happen when she's not careful with who she gives her affection too.

Yeah, that sounds like a plan.

He slips his hands out from under hers and before she can respond, he reaches down and grabs her by the hips, lifting her into the air and he drags her over to his lap and holds her there. She gasps and startles, her hands pressing gently against his chest while her face colors further.

"If you keep teasing me like that, I'm going to make you regret it." With his hands still on her hips, he can feel it when his words make her shiver, and she looks at him with her wide, doe eyes, glistening somehow in the low light.

"I'm not teasing you, I mean it. I feel lucky that my first kiss was with you." Her voice is soft, and holds no sign of dishonesty, but how can he believe she's being truthful when it's him she's talking about kissing?

…If she's being honest, it's worse. He can't return those feelings, not in the same way, not in anyway that would be good for her…

He has to hurt her, to chase her off somehow. He can't let her continue to get attached to him, he can't give her the kind of love she deserves.

"Fine." His voice is cold, cruel. She doesn't react, she never has before. "If that's the game you want to play, I can play it too." His arms move, wrapping around her waist, pulling her tightly against him, and she lets out a soft whimper. "But I'm going to win..!" The words come out with almost a hiss as he leans his face close to hers.

He hesitates a few centimeters away again, and her eyes close again as he draws near. Even now, she trusts him not to hurt her.

That realization pushes him on, and he presses his lips to hers again, a considerable roughness in his motions that wasn't there before. The difference in his approach isn't lost on Renni, if the little sounds she's making are anything to go off of. And hell, were those sounds ever encouraging, even to someone like him.

He wasted no time in slipping his tongue into her mouth, letting it press against and bully hers, making her whimper into his mouth. He smirks against her when he feels her hands grip the front of his shirt. As he brings one of his hands up to tangle it in her hair, he wonders if this is enough? Has he pushed her far enough that she'll actually take this lesson to heart? The way she leans into him tells him no, he hasn't.

He lets out a frustrated noise into her mouth, tugging on her hair, wondering just how far this game is going to have to go for her to get it? How long was he going to have to taste her, an intoxicating mix of some candy she got from the prize booth and something so so warm and so so human? Really, what did he need to do to make her get it? Would he have to put his hands on her, find and use all her sensitive spots for his amusement? Would he have to slip his hands under her clothes, feel her soft flesh under his hands? If that wasn't enough, what would be?

Would he need to take her back to his room, take the clothes he so graciously provided for her and throw them to the side? Would he have to put his mouth on her body, mark up her soft, delicate flesh with bruises and bites so everyone knew who she belongs to? Would he have to press his fingers in her, to tease her, to please her, to get her ready for more, to watch her squirm and whine and beg for more? Would he have to strip his stolen clothes off, leaving them both bare and fully exposed? Would he need to press inside her, warm and wet, becoming one with her? Would it finally be too much when he's rutting inside her until they're both seeing stars and he's painted her insides white?

What would he do, if after all of that, she still looked at him with such tender, loving eyes? Would he have to keep her all to himself after all? Fuck, he would keep her, he'd take such good care of her, his own secret joy, just for him. Just for him, her sweet little sounds, her soft delicate body, her big doe eyes, her addictive kissable lips, all of her, all for him…

Her arms move to wrap around his neck and he groans into her mouth. He pulls her further down into his lap and shivers as their groins are pressed flush together, drinking in her startled moan. He moves his free hand to grab her waist and starts forcing her up and down against him while he ruts up against her, the electrifying friction making her whine so so deliciously into his mouth. He untangles his hand from her hair, instead dragging it down her body until it reaches her breast and he starts groping her through her clothes. All of her gasps, moans and whines shoot straight to his core, and as he grinds against her, he thinks about easy it would be right now, to push aside their underwear and just start fucking into her right here and now, making his claim on her right here where anyone could see.

He thinks about what adorable face she'd make when he'd force his cock inside her tight, hot little hole. He thinks about the lewd noises their bodies would make together, with him rutting up into her, the wetness of her around him only drowned out by the sound of skin on skin. His thumb starts rubbing soothing circles on her hip, though he's pretty sure he's already bruised her with his grip.

He pulls his hand back from her breast long enough to slip it under her shirt to start groping and massaging her through her bra. One of her hands starts carding through his hair and he moans into her mouth. He pulls back from her mouth, a trail of saliva connecting them briefly, and the whine she lets out from him suddenly pulling back like that goes straight to his ego and his dick and he grins smugly.

"Awww, look at you pretty girl, you're putty in my hands~." As if to prove a point, he pinches her hardened nipple through her bra, tugging on it and rolling between his thumb and forefinger.

"A-ahh~…Fuck, Rio..~" The way his name rolled off her tongue when she moaned had him grind up against her harder, groaning. Fuck he wanted her…

He dipped his head down to press his lips to her neck, desperate to make her cry out his name more. He wants to bite her, he wants to bite her so badly, but he doesn't want to hurt her, not until he knows what she can handle at least, so he plays it safe, kissing and licking down her neck until he reaches her collar bone, where he nips and sucks lightly at the flesh.

God he wants to mark her up, to cover her throat in hickies and bites so dark they can identify who made them with his dental records. He wants to rip her shirt and bra to shreds and take her nipples in his mouth, teasing her with his tongue. He wants to pull her panties out of the way and slip his fingers inside her and make her moan and cry his name out so loudly the whole killing game knows who she belongs to.

He lets his hand trail slowly from her breast down her body, kissing back up her neck until he finds her mouth again, forcing his tongue into her mouth the second they're connected again. His hand moves down to her thigh, where he kneads the flesh, and he moans thinking about how it would feel to have her plush thighs wrapped around his head as he makes her cum on his tongue again and again.

His hands moves slowly up her thigh and under her skirt until he reaches her panties, and she whines softly as he ghosts his finger down the hot, slick patch in the center. Fuck, he wanted her, he needed her, he was going to have her--

"Ahem."

An unknown voice cut through the air, and faster than she could react, Rio's arms moved to wrap around Renni's waist, pulling her head to his chest as he broke the kiss, leveling a glare he wasn't aware was on his face at whoever dared to interrupt his game.

Ah.

The Receptionist Doll.

Gashu Satou.

Rio Ranger's father and creator.

It should have been a comfort for Rio, that it was only him who walked in on this. Still, his arms tightened around Renni's body. He was embarrassed being caught in such a position by his father, but he had to admit, he was pretty infuriated too. He didn't have to come this way to interrupt his fun, so why did he?

"What's going on here?" Gashu's face is blank, carefully so. It makes Rio recall Renni's words from earlier. 'He's so quiet, I can't tell what he's thinking ever…And he just…Appears and disappears whenever, where ever. It's unsettling…'. Rio snorts slightly thinking about it.

"Nothing too important. I'm just playing with one of my toys." Rio's voice is carefully blank, but he's still yet to realize there's an intense scowl on his red face that gives away how he's more invested in this…Incident, than his words would let on. "She's so soft and cute, and since she's not a contestant, I'm thinking of keeping her for myself. I mean, there's no rules about it after all so why shouldn't I take this one for myself?"

'So hop off my dick about it already, dad.' Rio thinks bitterly, watching his father's unchanging face.

"Very well. Carry on then. But if these activities are going to continue, you should go to one of your rooms." His voice is blank as he speaks, as it always is, showing no signs of how he feels about this incident…Rio feels like he's got a scolding coming later, but he ignores it. If his dad has issue with him taking a pet, he can tell him like an adult.

Gashu nods and leaves down the hall without ever entering the lobby, and Rio huffs. He really did go out of his way to interrupt them!

In an instant, exactly what was interrupted comes back to him, and he flinches, slowly unwinding his arms from the human against him, letting his hands settle gently on her shoulders and pull her back enough he can get a look at her.

Her hair is messy, her lipstick is smeared, her face bright red and eyes bleary as she looks at him. Her clothes are messy, and there's some light marks on her neck that he's sure won't last the day. His eyes drop down further and he gulps, her skirt is pushed up to the point he can see her panties and the damp spot…And his own skirt is pushed up too and he sees his bulge pressed against her crotch and he shivers.

"R-right…" He barely manages to tear his eyes away, to look her in the face as he speaks. "Well…I think…It about time we get you to bed, you…You've still got things to do tomorrow."

She nods and mutters an affirmative, and the two of them untangle their limbs, and they gather up their things. He passes her back her notebook, and gulps slightly when their fingers brush together. Her legs shake as she stands up, and he wonders how and if she can walk in her boots right now especially. They awkwardly rearrange their clothes, and after a moment, he reaches over and takes her hand in his gently.

"Here, I'll walk you back to your room." He says, holding up his cartoonish smile sign and she nods.

He leads her there, even though he's sure she knows the way, and she leans against his arm.

It's not long when they make it to her room, and he feels himself deflate slightly, not wanting to leave and deal with his…Issue, and not wanting to face his father after what he walked in on…And he didn't want to leave her.

"Welp, I better get going, huh?" His voice is a forced casual tone as he pulls his hand from hers, he's sure she can tell how forced it is…

"Please stay." Her voice is firm but gentle.

"…Huh?" He feels his face redden more under her gaze.

"Please, stay the night with me…" Renni asks, her voice quiet and a bit hoarse.

Rio scoffs quietly, unsure of what else to even do. "Do you have no idea what you're offering when you go and say shit like that..?!" His frustrations about not being able to chase her off flare up slightly. "Did you forget what just happened? Don't you think at all before putting yourself in dangerous situations like this..?!" Before he can think better of it, his hand goes up and he flicks her forehead, making her yelp.

Her hand moves up to rub her forehead, and she looks at him with a pout and slightly teary eyes. "There's nothing dangerous about this situation, you wouldn't hurt me." She says slightly indignantly, so sure of herself. So sure of him. So sure of the trust she's placed in him, it makes his breath get caught in his throat.

"Besides," She continues taking his hand in both of hers and pulling it up to her chest. "I don't think…You should be alone right now, after what happened…I know…From personal experience that…Being alone when you're emotionally delicate isn't a good idea." Her words are so gentle, so caring…Filled with so much love.

All he can do in response is to nod dumbly, and the way she smiles at him makes him sure he won't regret staying with her, how can he when it makes her so happy?

She kisses the back of his hand before she leads him into her bedroom, shutting the door behind them.

The lights are flicked on and Rio looks around the room, though there's really no reason too. It looks just the same as all the other contestant's rooms���Of course, Renni's not a contestant, and Rio can see a few of her personal items around the room. The clothes that got splashed this morning are hanging up in front of the mirror to dry. He sees her backpack is in one of the two chairs.

"So…Am I taking one of the chairs?" Rio asks, pointing to the free chair. He didn't really need to sleep, so it'd be no problem…But he would be a brat about it, just for fun.

"What? No, of course not!" She laughs from behind him and he snorts.

"What, so you'd have me sleep on the floor? Like an animal?!" He ponders if it'd be better for him to anyway, given the way he was behaving. However, he stopped being able to think of much of anything when he turned around to face Renni.

"Don't be silly, Rio! The bed is more than big enough for both of us!" She laughs again, and her laugh is clear and warm as ever.

But there's a chill settling inside of Rio where the warmth he usually felt around her was.

She was changing, her back to him, taking her bra off and leaving her top half completely bare. And while there was a warmth on his cheeks that he couldn't deny, the rest of him was cold as he looked over the marred flesh of her back.

He snaps out of his staring and turns back to the chairs, ignoring her reflection as she pulls her pajama shirt over her bare upper half.

"Oh? You sure that's a good idea?" He asks, his voice is shaking now as he is fully aware of the shuffling of clothes he hadn't noticed before.

She hums softly instead of answering him for a moment. "Why wouldn't it be? You wouldn't do anything bad to me." She sounds so sure of herself, while his head replays everything that already happened and everything he thought about doing to her just that night. "You should take your shoes off, too."

"What, for free?" He jokes easily, pretending he didn't see what he did as he kicks his boots off. The joke got the reaction he wanted, another batch of giggles from her.

"Oh, don't worry, I won't look, I promise~." Her own little joke nearly made him choke on his spit, letting out a startled laugh.

He bet she wouldn't look, if he asked her not to. He bet she'd let him blind fold her if he asked her, if he was insecure about her seeing him while they--

His thoughts cut off when he feels Renni's hands take his arm and pull him down onto the bed with her as she flops down on the bed, pulling him down on top of her, pressed against her completely with his face buried in her neck.

"W-warn a guy next time!" He pulls back enough to speak, stuttering and red in the face as she laughs under him, their bodies close enough he can feel her shaking from the laughter.

"Oh man, I didn't think that'd startle you so much! You're usually too aware to be caught off guard like that!" She giggles still, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning up to press a kiss to his cheek. "Sorry for spookin ya." Her voice is gentle and genuine as she whispers her apology into his skin, before she plunks back down, rolling over to her side and dragging him with her. Only now, as he wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her closer to him, does he realize she shut out the lights again at some point.

"Good night, Rio~." Her voice is light as she speaks, but she stifles a yawn. She might be more tired than he realized.

He huffs slightly, but presses a quick kiss to the top of her head. "G'night princess." He mumbles into her hair, and he feels her sigh contentedly, her breath fanning out against his skin, making him shiver.

He pulls her blanket up around them and puts his arm back around her, where it fits so nicely against her. Like it's where it's meant to be.

"Thought you had trouble sleeping…" He mutters, not expecting an answer, when he realizes she's already fallen asleep against him. Just how much did she trust him? How safe around him did she feel, to just…Fall asleep pressed up against him of all people?

Thoughts about her, how much she trusts him, how happy she always was to see him, how soft she was as he held her and more are what finally lure Rio to sleep with her.

[hilacopter]

I'm surprised the g/t community stayed safe for me for as long as it did but yea now there's like a zine thing raising money for gaza which yea is always great on paper but how much money do you wanna bet they didn't put any effort into researching charities and are just giving their money to hamas. that and as much as I try to have thick skin seeing shit like this in fandom spaces (tho g/t isn't really a fandom I'd describe it as... a trope community?) is very much a trigger for me, since yk, I go to these things for escapism and seeing it kinda reminds me how "oh shit that's right, everyone wants me to kms". someone posted it in a g/t server I'm in even though we generally agree not to talk about politics? if I ask not to talk about i/p specifically bc it's triggering for me they'd probably just call me a whining zionist or smth, since israelis don't have the right to escapism actually and deserve to constantly be miserable (I've lost so many forms and spaces of escapism in the past few months it's insane and I genuinely don't know how much more I can take before I break completely). I blocked the tumblr account as soon as I saw it I'm hoping it maybe doesn't get that much traction but I'm mentally preparing to unfollow or block a lot of g/t blogs and maybe even delete my own g/t sideblog. I've been obsessed with g/t ever since I came out the womb and it's really the reason I'm on tumblr in the first place, I've let myself lose fandoms and friends but this is where I draw the line. I can't let the g/t community become unsafe for me, I'd be fucking devastated.

[tomwambsgans]

frankly can't think of a more stupid or impossible development to happen in succession than for it to be outright established that "greg doesn't like/love tom nearly as much as tom loves him and will wind up just using him." subjective observations of character aside - you think they'd do that? you think that would make sense with the narrative? you think they've spent all this time building tom and greg to be the two characters in the whole show not nearly as ruthless as the rest because they did not have the same origins as the rest, whose emotional needs match, who have their wardrobes designed as a pair, who are factually metatextually partners far more than tom even is with his own wife... only to pull some dumbass fakeout just for the sake of tom to ultimately experience yet more tragedy? for his growth to mean nothing at all? for GREG'S gradual understanding of tom to mean nothing??? for greg to just actually "become a roy" like this is some shitty cw drama with supernatural elements and not a show set in as realistic of a universe at it gets with the core themes being the cycle of abuse and masculinity and love

[ekingston]

SO HERE IS THE WHOLE STORY (SO FAR).

I am on my knees begging you to reblog this post and to stop reblogging the original ones I sent out yesterday. This is the complete account with all the most recent info; the other one is just sending people down senselessly panicked avenues that no longer lead anywhere.

IN SHORT

Cliff Weitzman, CEO of Speechify and (aspiring?) voice actor, used AI to scrape thousands of popular, finished works off AO3 to list them on his own for-profit website and in his attached app. He did this without getting any kind of permission from the authors of said work or informing AO3. Obviously.

When fandom at large was made aware of his theft and started pushing back, Weitzman issued a non-apology on the original social media posts—using 

his dyslexia; 

his intent to implement a tip-system for the plagiarized authors; and 

a sudden willingness to take down the work of every author who saw my original social media posts and emailed him individually with a ‘valid’ claim,

as reasons we should allow him to continue monetizing fanwork for his own financial gain.

When we less-than-kindly refused, he took down his ‘apologies’ as well as his website (allegedly—it’s possible that our complaints to his web host, the deluge of emails he received or the unanticipated traffic brought it down, since there wasn’t any sort of official statement made about it), and when it came back up several hours later, all of the work formerly listed in the fan fiction category was no longer there. 

THE TAKEAWAYS

1. Cliff Weitzman (aka Ofek Weitzman) is a scumbag with no qualms about taking fanwork without permission, feeding it to AI and monetizing it for his own financial gain; 

2. Fandom can really get things done when it wants to, and 

3. Our fanworks appear to be hidden, but they’re NOT DELETED from Weitzman’s servers, and independently published, original works are still listed without the authors' permission. We need to hold this man responsible for his theft, keep an eye on both his current and future endeavors, and take action immediately when he crosses the line again. 

THE TIMELINE, THE DETAILS, THE SCREENSHOTS (behind the cut)

Sunday night, December 22nd 2024, I noticed an influx in visitors to my fic You & Me & Holiday Wine. When I searched the title online, hoping to find out where they came from, a new listing popped up (third one down, no less):

This listing is still up today, by the way, though now when you follow the link to word-stream, it just brings you to the main site. (Also, to be clear, this was not the cause for the influx of traffic to my fic; word-stream did not link back to the original work anywhere.)

I followed the link to word-stream, where to my horror Y&M&HW was listed in its entirety—though, beyond the first half of the first chapter, behind a paywall—along with a link promising to take me—through an app downloadable on the Apple Store—to an AI-narrated audiobook version. When I searched word-stream itself for my ao3 handle I found both of my multi-chapter fics were listed this way:

Because the tags on my fics (which included genres* and characters, but never the original IPs**) weren’t working, I put ‘Kara Danvers’ into the search bar and discovered that many more supercorp fics (Supergirl TV fandom, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor pairing) were listed.

I went looking online for any mention of word-stream and AI plagiarism (the covers—as well as the ridiculously inflated number of reviews and ratings—made it immediately obvious that AI fuckery was involved), but found almost nothing: only one single Reddit post had been made, and it received (at that time) only a handful of upvotes and no advice. 

I decided to make a tumblr post to bring the supercorp fandom up to speed about the theft. I draw as well as write for fandom and I’ve only ever had to deal with art theft—which has a clear set of steps to take depending on where said art was reposted—and I was at a loss regarding where to start in this situation.

After my post went up I remembered Project Copy Knight, which is worth commending for the work they’ve done to get fic stolen from AO3 taken down from monetized AI 'audiobook’ YouTube accounts. I reached out to @echoekhi, asking if they’d heard of this site and whether they could advise me on how to get our works taken down.

While waiting for a reply I looked into Copy Knight’s methods and decided to contact OTW’s legal department:

And then I went to bed.

By morning, tumblr friends @makicarn and @fazedlight as well as a very helpful tumblr anon had seen my post and done some very productive sleuthing:

@echoekhi had also gotten back to me, advising me, as expected, to contact the OTW. So I decided to sit tight until I got a response from them.

That response came only an hour or so later: 

Which was 100% understandable, but still disappointing—I doubted a handful of individual takedown requests would accomplish much, and I wasn’t eager to share my given name and personal information with Cliff Weitzman himself, which is unavoidable if you want to file a DMCA.

I decided to take it to Reddit, hoping it would gain traction in the wider fanfic community, considering so many fandoms were affected. My Reddit posts (with the updates at the bottom as they were emerging) can be found here and here.

A helpful Reddit user posted a guide on how users could go about filing a DMCA against word-stream here (to wobbly-at-best results)

A different helpful Reddit user signed up to access insight into word-streams pricing. Comment is here.

Smells unbelievably scammy, right? In addition to those audacious prices—though in all fairness any amount of money would be audacious considering every work listed is accessible elsewhere for free—my dyscalculia is screaming silently at the sight of that completely unnecessary amount of intentionally obscured numbers.

Speaking of which! As soon as the post on r/AO3—and, as a result, my original tumblr post—began taking off properly, sometime around 1 pm, jumpscare! A notification that a tumblr account named @cliffweitzman had commented on my post, and I got a bit mad about the gist of his message :

Fortunately he caught plenty of flack in the comments from other users (truly you should check out the comment section, it is extremely gratifying and people are making tremendously good points), in response to which, of course, he first tried to both reiterate and renegotiate his point in a second, longer comment (which I didn’t screenshot in time so I’m sorry for the crappy notification email formatting):

which he then proceeded to also post to Reddit (this is another Reddit user’s screenshot, I didn’t see it at all, the notifications were moving too fast for me to follow by then)

... where he got a roughly equal amount of righteously furious replies. (Check downthread, they're still there, all the way at the bottom.)

After which Cliff went ahead & deleted his messages altogether. 

It’s not entirely clear whether his account was suspended by Reddit soon after or whether he deleted it himself, but considering his tumblr account is still intact, I assume it’s the former. He made a handful of sock puppet accounts to play around with for a while, both on Reddit and Tumblr, only one of which I have a screenshot of, but since they all say roughly the same thing, you’re not missing much:

And then word-stream started throwing a DNS error.

That lasted for a good number of hours, which was unfortunately right around the time that a lot of authors first heard about the situation and started asking me individually how to find out whether their work was stolen too. I do not have that information and I am unclear on the perimeters Weitzman set for his AI scraper, so this is all conjecture: it LOOKS like the fics that were lifted had three things in common:

They were completed works;

They had over several thousand kudos on AO3; and

They were written by authors who had actively posted or updated work over the past year.

If anyone knows more about these perimeters or has info that counters my observation, please let me know!

I finally thought to check/alert evil Twitter during this time, and found out that the news was doing the rounds there already. I made a quick thread summarizing everything that had happened just in case. You can find it here.

I went to Bluesky too, where fandom was doing all the heavy lifting for me already, so I just reskeeted, as you do, and carried on.

Sometime in the very early evening, word-stream went back up—but the fan fiction category was nowhere to be seen. Tentative joy and celebration!***

That’s when several users—the ones who had signed up for accounts to gain intel and had accessed their own fics that way—reported that their work could still be accessed through their history. Relevant Reddit post here.

Sooo—

We’re obviously not done. The fanwork that was stolen by Weitzman may be inaccessible through his website right now, but they aren’t actually gone. And the fact that Weitzman wasn’t willing to get rid of them altogether means he still has plans for them. 

This was my final edit on my Reddit post before turning off notifications, and it's pretty much where my head will be at for at least the foreseeable future:

Please feel free to add info in the comments, make your own posts, take whatever action you want to take to protect your work. I only beg you—seriously, I’m on my knees here—to not give up like I saw a handful of people express the urge to do. Keep sharing your creative work and remain vigilant and stay active to make sure we can continue to do so freely. Visit your favorite fics, and the ones you’ve kept in your ‘marked for later’ lists but never made time to read, and leave kudos, leave comments, support your fandom creatives, celebrate podficcers and support AO3. We created this place and it’s our responsibility to keep it alive and thriving for as long as we possibly can.

Also FUCK generative AI. It has NO place in fandom spaces.

THE 'SMALL' PRINT (some of it in all caps):

*Weitzman knew what he was doing and can NOT claim ignorance. One, it’s pretty basic kindergarten stuff that you don’t steal some other kid’s art project and present it as your own only to act surprised when they protest and then tell the victim that they should have told you sooner that they didn’t want their project stolen. And two, he was very careful never to list the IPs these fanworks were based on, so it’s clear he was at least familiar enough with the legalities to not get himself in hot water with corporate lawyers. Fucking over fans, though, he figured he could get away with that. 

**A note about the AI that Weitzman used to steal our work: it’s even greasier than it looks at first glance. It’s not just the method he used to lift works off AO3 and then regurgitate onto his own website and app. Looking beyond the untold horrors of his AI-generated cover ‘art’, in many cases these covers attempt to depict something from the fics in question that can’t be gleaned from their summaries alone. In addition, my fics (and I assume the others, as well) were listed with generated genres; tags that did not appear anywhere in or on my fic on AO3 and were sometimes scarily accurate and sometimes way off the mark. I remember You & Me & Holiday Wine had ‘found family’ (100% correct, but not tagged by me as such) and I believe The Shape of Soup was listed as, among others, ‘enemies to friends to lovers’ and ‘love triangle’ (both wildly inaccurate). Even worse, not all the fic listed (as authors on Reddit pointed out) came with their original summaries at all. Often the entire summary was AI-generated. All of these things make it very clear that it was an all-encompassing scrape—not only were our fics stolen, they were also fed word-for-word into the AI Weitzman used and then analyzed to suit Weitzman’s needs. This means our work was literally fed to this AI to basically do with whatever its other users want, including (one assumes) text generation. 

***Fan fiction appears to have been made (largely) inaccessible on word-stream at this time, but I’m hearing from several authors that their original, independently published work, which is listed at places like Kindle Unlimited, DOES still appear in word-stream’s search engine. This obviously hurts writers, especially independent ones, who depend on these works for income and, as a rule, don’t have a huge budget or a legal team with oceans of time to fight these battles for them. If you consider yourself an author in the broader sense, beyond merely existing online as a fandom author, beyond concerns that your own work is immediately at risk, DO NOT STOP MAKING NOISE ABOUT THIS.

PLEASE check my later versions of this post via my main page to make sure you have the latest version of this post before you reblog. All the information I’ve been able to gather is in my reblogs below, and it's frustrating to see the old version getting passed around, sending people on wild goose chases.

Thank you all so much!

[blue-likethebird]

Speaking of takes that were hot five years ago, the tonal whiplash induced by the Edelgard moebait in three houses kinda just worked against her imo. Gimme condescending militarist Edelgard on her dubiously moral, self-ordained conquest to save Fodlan over defanged did-nothing-wrong Edie being uwu flustered that her drawing of Byleth sucks (like three scenes after the imperial army finished conquering Leicester) in a heartbeat

[natdafat]

Something that annoys me is that I am both so fucking slow and sometimes really quick at understanding things through media literacy.

Now, if it's something obvious or like baby's first media literacy test, I can pick that up instantly, I'm not a complete numpty (normally)

Now that in itself isn't bad, we can't all be on it like a car bonnit. No. The problem stems from that fact that my brain makes the connection randomly at some unknown point later.

Like you remember this..

When it could be 5 min or 10 years, that's me noticing or making a connection in any form of piece of media. It's really embarrassing.

Example

Let's say i watch a film, I watch it I then forget everything about it, 7h pass I am currently eating dinner or somthing, my brain: "hey did you pick up on how the film discussed the idea that ones own capability orginates in their ideas of themselves, in essence what makes you different makes you unique and once that is accepted, and you stop comparing yourself with others you can walk the path to greatness.' And I'll be like dam, I only noticed the funny panda

[unforth]

Alright not to like liveblog my breakdown on main but yesterday was a really bad day after a really bad, like, 4 months, and I've hit a bit of a breaking point and one of the only things in my life that can give is running @mdzsartreblogs , @tgcfartreblogs , @svsssartreblogs , @erhaartreblogs , @tykartreblogs , and @cnovelartreblogs , so that is what has to give. It's been a 99-out-of-100 days thankless job. A small number of people do say thank you and yall I appreciate you so much (HUGE shout-out to the artist I met at Flamecon who gifted me a zine when I said I ran these blogs, @bonesblubs you rock) but I have never done an act of fandom labor simultaneously this labor intensive yet this invisible before and, uh. It sucks. I spend an hour or more a day on this every day, if it's under 2k hours since I started the first of these in September 2020 I'd be shocked. And I do it because I love it but doing it means I don't have time or energy to do other things I love. And I really don't want to just quit, but I can't keep this up.

In a last-ditch effort to try not to just give up, I'm making the following changes:

1. Only watching one tag per fandom for the MXTX fandoms. I am going to check *only* #tgcf, #svsss, and #mdzs. Artwork posted to any other tag, I will not see unless a mutual reblogs it.

2. Reduced tagging (even more). I'm only going to tag characters and maybe overarching au type (eg, "modern au," "fantasy au"). I'll no longer tag creatures. I will continue to tag the same common trigger warnings I already tag.

3. If a work's appearance doesn't make it obvious what it is AND the tags aren't clear, I'm not going to reblog. I can't keep spending 5 minutes or more trying to figure out what I'm even looking at, scared that if I guess wrong the artist will get mad at me for mistagging their work. If I do reblog, I'll tag only the artist name and/or whatever else I can identify for sure.

4. I am no longer going to follow #link click. The fandom is just too big. I've started dreading checking it. If I was more into it and less busy I would make another spin off just for it but neither of those is true. (The art is so good, I hate to do this, but. If you love link click, highly recommend the main tag, lots of great stuff there.)

5. I will no longer tag any non-cnovel content in the art/post. Like, if someone draws, idek, Xie Lian and Marinette from Ladybug, I'm not gonna put any tags for Marinette, just for Xie Lian.

6. Basically if I run into something hard to tag or confusing or unclear, my new policy is I'm not gonna fricken bother.

I think those are everything but idefk, I cried for 3 hours last night and got 4 hours of sleep so I'm mostly fueled by exhaustion and desperation right now and my memory is even more fried than usual.

How artists can help. This is obviously all optional. You do you. But since some people might want to know what would make my life easier, I'm sharing. I'm not claiming I feel entitled to dictate how people fandom or anything like that.

1. Put the tags for the character(s) and ship(s) early in the tag list.

2. If you make art for a fandom that isn't one of the big ones (right now the only big danmei fandoms on tumblr as far as I can tell are the MXTX fandoms and maybe 2ha) I am begging you to use my tracked tag #cnovelartreblogs

3. Do mdzs art? Tag #mdzs. Do tgcf art? Tag #tgcf. Do svsss art? Tag #svsss.

4. Not only artists, but everyone, *please* stop tagging fandoms not discussed and/or depicted in your post. It's gotten to be stupid common for people to blanket the danmei fandom tags with posts only about one fandon (like, svsss-only works also being tagged mdzs and tgcf and 2ha for some damn reason). This isn't about just my sideblogs tbh this is just fandom etiquette that seems to have been forgotten or never learned by many. Tagging unrelated fandoms isn't "reach," it's annoying. People go into the #mdzs tag to see mdzs, not whatever not-mdzs stuff people have decided to tag for ~reach~, and seeing the same post in 8 tags, none of which it's related to, is so damn irritating, and makes scrolling the tags looking for content that IS relevant take that much longer. Knock it off.

Okay. I think that's as much as I'm prepared to meltdown where everyone can see. Thanks in advance everyone for your understanding, and apologies to everyone about to see this 8 times as I reblog it to each sideblog.

At least I'm not tagging it to everywhere. 🤣🤣🤣

[utilitycaster]

something that struck me from some of the really good tags on this post (specifically the "tall kings") one is that most arguments against the gods or for the benefit of Predathos rely on real-world metaphors that just...don't really fit very well, and it might just be that this isn't something for which one can draw a real world metaphor, but might actually have to conceive a world that is fundamentally different than ours. The gods aren't tall kings; "destroying the throne" does not mean a coup. It means their deaths; and yes, to state the obvious a coup against a monarchy frequently involves assassinating the monarch, but it's telling that the language is carefully skirting around that. You cannot destroy the throne or remove the crown or have the gods step down in any peaceful manner; both the Matron and Arch Heart agree this only happens if the threat of Predathos is unleashed.

And Predathos. Setting aside the connotations of assigning the idea of wild deer to sentient beings, the "reintroduction of the natural predator" metaphor collapses on several points. The first is that equating "became deities, who, as the post linked above points out and per general lore, are explicitly not able to run rampant anymore". The second is that Predathos is not a wolf that once lived on Exandria but is just as foreign to the world as the gods themselves. While I reject the metaphor entirely for the initial reasons stated, it is worth keeping in mind that if you do need it as a scaffolding on which to hang foreign concepts, Predathos is less the wolf population and more a family of tigers or cheetahs: just as much an invasive species, with an impact on the environment

I think these are two major issues that need to be addressed in any conversation:

Predathos has been adopted and mythologized by several party members who are actually much more concerned about the titans, who are dead. Killing the gods will not bring back the titans. I feel this metaphor is sort of falling into that same trap; this is not a return of something native to this world.

On some level, while I understand the use of real-world metaphors to comprehend a fantasy world from a lens of familiarity - I do this as well! - I think if we cannot have a discussion that starts with "what if Predathos is in fact the embodiment of a cosmic, unending, merciless hunger that cannot be changed and cannot be swayed and can only be sealed, killed, or given free rein" we cannot have a discussion at all. I think it's necessary to acknowledge we're talking about a game that gives you a space to explore an idea as if it were physical, and which might not be able to be told within the bounds of real-world experience.

This of course also doesn't address the ongoing issue of "whether or not Bells Hells actions towards Predathos and the outcome ends up being in the moral right, the road to get here was structurally unsound and the party did not go in with the intent of doing anything specific whatsoever and indeed faltered for the most part when asked by the main villain what they wanted." Again, I don't care if Bells Hells are heroes or villains or something in between, but they don't seem to be anything or have any shared intention as a group, which I've discussed already here. But if you do want to argue that releasing Predathos could be good, I think it's necessary to have a coherent argument there, and be able to address "what if it's really fucking bad" if we're moving into the realm of the speculative. "What if this change that comes at the end of mass death might be better for the world but I have no proof" is not a very convincing argument. It is, in fact, one of the only ones Bells Hells has made a compelling case against.

[displ3azant]

CURRENTLY ASK-ABLE: - Unpleasant - Infected (Plez oversees the questions, though.)

(Before cut is In-Character.)

Hiii! Helloooo!

Hello!!!!!! Hehe, thiz iz actually super weird trying to write an intro-- give me a minute.

So, HIII!!!!!!! I'm Unpleasant! That'z not a joke, that iz literally my name. There'z no "deep reason" behind it, it iz literally just what people refer to me az. But, if that'z too weird, I do also go by Unplez or Plez for short.

Uh, pronounz? I don't really care, actually. I don't have a set gender, I've never really met a gradient who doez. That being said, since I started hanging with Infected I have been called he and she specifically a lot... so if it'z easiest for you, just roll with the crowd.

Right, so... the blog. Thatz thiz blog, haha! Well, the easy answer iz I waz super bored, Infected can suck a huge ####, and I like talking about myself! But... I kind of suck at talking in general, so I guess I'll type and answer questionz about myself.

BUT KNOW MY BOUNDARIEZ BEFORE YOU ASK QUESTIONZ! 👇👇👇

(Below cut is Out-Of-Character.)

To those who know me: Good to see you're still stickin' with me! I promise I will make an effort to make this blog much less of a dumpster fire like the last one.

And to those who are only now coming across this blog: Hello! My name is Hex. You don't have to call me "Mod Hex", or anything, just "Hex" will do. I'm the only guy running this thing here. I'll talk more about myself soon, because oversharing is what I do best.

Blog-Context

So, if it wasn't obvious enough from the intro, this is an ask/rp blog for the Unpleasant Gradient from Regretevator, but specifically in the context of the plez-centric au I have created for him. Or, well, the "AU" in question is actually just some freaky amalgamation of all my fucked up headcanons, which means...

I AM NO LONGER DOING DIRECT BLOG ASSOCIATIONS! Really sorry about that, I love my friends with all my heart but if I wanna keep consistency, I'm gonna have to "write the story" on my own. However, I do want to give full credit to my friends @sk8tr1101 and @party-noob for some major concepts involving Unpleasant, especially Audrey who already has some awesome ideas herself. Go check them both out!

MAIN TAGS:

#unpl3zansw3rz - Asks

#unpl3zrambl3z - Non-ask related posts/reblogs

#unpl3zlor3 - Plot points and similar

#ooc - Out-of-character post

OTHER TAGS (to be updated):

(nothing yet, hehe)

Blog-Owner

So hiiii, I'm Hex. If I can be bothered, out-of-character posts will either have the #ooc tag, be in purple text, or be signed off with my name. I'd prefer if you refer to me using he/it pronouns, thnx!

I'd also like you all to keep in mind I am 17 years old, therefore a minor, and even if I wasn't 17 I do not appreciate NSFW/Explicit jokes towards me, ESPECIALLY if you don't know me. It's one thing when you're my very close friends or my partner, it's another thing when you are a stranger on the internet asking me things I should not have to answer.

My other accounts are: @hexexists - my main blog, if you receive notifications from this account, please know it is just me! @hexational - my regretevator blog @geometricgiovanni - a Jeremy ask/rp blog set in the same universe as this one! Please note, however, that in the context of this blog, Unpleasant is not aware of the blog nor would he like to be.

Ask/RP-Boundaries

Let's start off by reiterating that I AM NOT OKAY WITH NSFW/EXPLICIT ASKS IN ANY CAPACITY! Sick of getting them, they're repetitive and annoying. Asking safe-for-work questions involving Unpleasant's anatomy is one thing, but I am not responding to ANYTHING involving genetalia.

ALSO! I am very unlikely to respond to things that is either hard to make a unique drawing for or don't progress the story (unlocking "lore" and such). I'm watching your ass, Mango, I know what you like to do (/lh). Joke asks are still okay, you don't *have* to progress story, but please keep in mind my "criteria" for answering asks when sending them. A clean inbox gives me a clear mind. I do not like notifications.

Shipping content: Shipping content is okay, but I don't care much for romance personally and so will likely not play much into it. Please don't push anything, I guess, and nothing that promotes proshipping or any kind of literally illegal pairing. If you dislike any direction taken ship-wise for this blog, then block me and move on with your day.

Roleplaying: While I'd prefer to not be in direct contact with other rp blogs, I am totally cool with roleplaying side stories and stuff, interactions and such! Please keep in mind though, Unpleasant in this is not a very social person, so you're probably not going to get the reaction you want.

Also! I think OCs are super cool and am happy to respond/interact with them as well! However,

PLEASE DON'T SEND YOUR GRADIENT OCS TO THIS ACCOUNT IF YOU WANT ME TO DRAW THEM! Please instead send them to @hexational! A lot of people were sending me their Gradient ocs to the previous Unpleasant account, and as much as I love seeing Gradient ocs and Gradient sonas, I'd love to be able to draw them, and if you are just asking an opinion on them and not an in-character ask or a genuine question involving other gradients I'd much prefer you send them to the account previously tagged!

That's pretty much all I can think of! Sorry for the long post, I just have a lot to say hehe

Lots of love, - Hex

[xitsensunmoon]

Biting the Hand That Feeds au FAQ (Vampires + donor au)

Any general content warnings for bhtf au?

Yes. A normal amount of fnaf warnings, a normal amount of vampire warnings. For someone who doesn't know I elaborate... For vampire stuff, the most obvious ones are blood, hypnosis, bites, and animalistic behaviour. Less obvious - slightly suggestive themes. For fnaf - fnaf's usual violence, dark themes, a drop of gore and murders. The lore is uh. Very dark. I will try to decrease the amount of all of the cruelty but man. People who know, know how hard it will be. But I will tag everything properly so don't worry.

Is there a fic for your au?

No. And currently, I'm not even planning on writing one.

How do I find the story?

For now, we have two comics that are directly connected and one that doesn't have a specific place in the story but is about canonical lore.

[ 1 ] - [ 2 ] - [ x ]

In future, we will have more and I probably absolutely will forget to update this post so I recommend checking the tags. Here's the tag list

Tip: don't click the tag. Tumblr hides half of the results. Type it in the blog's search instead :)

Are the comics the only canonical thing about au?

No! I answer asks and draw a lot of doodles with bhtf au all the time and 90% of them are canon. You can, yet again, find everything in the tag list linked in the previous question.

Can I draw/write fan stuff for your au?

Yes, please!! I'm always happy to see fanart and fan writings and literally everything that you do! Just tag me when you post and use a fanart or fanwriting tag for au specifically so I don't miss it!

Can you include my characters in your story?

No, unfortunately, I cannot. The story is already written and I don't have any "space" for background characters either. Maybe it will change but currently, things are like this.

I asked a question with an interaction with my characters and I never got an answer, why?

I don't accept such requests. I'm not ready to spend my time drawing other people's characters for free(if I personally don't want to, of course)

Is there any limit to how many questions I can ask?

No, not at all! You can ask all you want just please make sure your question wasn't answered before. There is a big possibility I will just simply delete it if it was answered beforehand many times. Check the ask tag for it.

What about limitations? Any boundaries?

Please no questions about tickling🧍‍♀️ I got so many of those it already makes me uncomfortable. And for some reason, a lot of people send asks that include violence towards my characters and while I don't really feel uncomfortable with this I just idk what to answer and why are you even doing this lmao

What questions I should avoid?

Well, not really avoid but I will mention it anyway.

The things I have planned to draw right now:

- Sun and Moon and y/n's first meeting

- The creation of Sun&Moon

- Why S&M are sensitive to light and darkness

- How they hunt

So no need to ask me about these. I will show it, I promise.

What about sexual themes?

I understand that I post a lot of suggestive stuff and it may appear I allow such a thing but no.

You can create content with it tho, I don't mind for the most part. Just be ready that I may not reblog it, as my Tumblr is a SFW place. It's always 50/50.

Romantic themes?

I do draw some kisses and cuddles when I feel like it and you of course can send ideas for cute interactions but in the story we're very far away from it lol.

My question gets ignored even though I followed everything that you mentioned here. Why?

Answered in main FAQ.

Can I share the ideas for your au with you?

YES!!! Yes, yes and yes! I'm very open to that, like yes! The only thing that I definitely want to mention - you should expect that I actually can take your ideas and use them. Some people are protective of their ideas so if you're like this you probably should not share them with me :)

The information that you're using for your au is wrong.

Happens sometimes yeah. I know nothing about any medical stuff for y/n so I usually improvise. After all it's an au about robotic vampires man, this information is absolutely wrong. But! You're free to drop feedback/constructive criticism in my inbox!

Will be updated later

[melodramaticwolf-art]

Cozy! They deserve to be cozy and love each other without an awful traumatizing event in the way! (DO NOT TAG AS SHIP.)

Posted to my DA: https://www.deviantart.com/melodramaticwolf/art/1108711056 Drawing notes + closeups under the cut:

The pillowcases are part of a bed sheet set! I figured it would be fun to give them ocean related bed sheets and pillowcases. So the main pillows have seagulls, and the accent pillows have little waves.

Ford is paler and has darker eyebags because in my head, the little story I thought up was that he's recovering from an illness. Nothing paranormal (this time,) just a bad flu he thankfully had Stan to help him get through.

Stan has eyebags from having to consistently keep an eye on his brother, keeping him hydrated and taking care of him. Plus his own worry at seein Ford so exhausted and in pain.

Both are sporting some massive bedhead from lounging around all day. Ford for obvious reasons. Stan never strays far from his side, content to spend his day lying next to his brother, just in case he needs anything.

The pajamas! These were something I immediately had in mind when constructing the idea. I love the idea of the bros sharing clothes, whether it be a comfort item, or because one just doesn't have a clean shirt lying around. In this scenario, Stan just throws on whatever clean clothes he's able to find, since Ford is sweating through his own pretty quickly. This is how they end up sharing a set, with Stan wearing the top, and Ford ending up with the bottoms.

The top of course, has the constellation Gemini. The constellation of twins. Because I saw the opportunity to give them a cute themed set and WENT with it. Mabel sent them maybe! Who knows!

The two crowd together on the bottom bunk, it being easier on Ford when he needs to get up, and easier on Stan to help him in and out of the bottom bunk as opposed to the top. (Stan also wants to stay nearby, in case Ford has any fever dreams that careen into nightmares. Can ya blame him? He has the chance to take care of his brother, he's gonna take it by golly.)

(He wants to make up for all the times he wasn't there to help Ford, whether it be from an injury, illness, or otherwise. Now that he has the chance to, he's going to.) And of course, since its me, I gotta give them platonic affection. These two deserve it.

[ohcorny]

How did you first initially get into the professional graphic novel scene? Was it difficult getting ppl to take a chance on your writing/stories and could you talk about it a bit?

wibbles my hand? i probably had it easier than most people. first of all i'd been doing a fairly popular webcomic for like. six-seven years when an agent cold-called me to offer representation, and asked if i had any graphic novel ideas. hunger's bite was but a tiny twinkle in my eye so i started developing it.

(and then covid happened and i got a storyboard job and also eventually fired that agent but still kept developing hunger's bite)

shortly after firing that agent, and after trying to query traditionally with no real luck (though i think i only queried 3-4), there was an event on twitter called #DVPit which was basically: you'd post the elevator pitch of your story + some art, and agents would look in the tag and like anything they were interested in representing. so once the event was over you'd reach out to them with the full pitch and meet to talk about it and if the vibe was right, you'd sign on with them. i think i had 5 agents show interest, and i contacted 3 who felt like they could be a good fit, and then signed with the one i liked best. (i do not think #DVPit exists anymore for obvious reasons)

after that it was her job to send the pitch out to editors, and i think it was maybe in the second or third wave of submissions (ie, a few months) where i had 2 editors who were interested. they made their offers, i went with the one that had a bit more money (and apparently got a Really good deal) and that was that

like Looking Back, i think i had it easier than people who struggle for years to get noticed. it didn't feel that way at the time, waiting months for rejections, but now that i'm through it, it's less daunting. the main issue i would run into was finding someone who understood the vision and didn't want to change it. there was a lot of 'this would probably be better as a middle grade!' but i didn't want to take the teeth out of it.

iunno! overall i think art and comics is one of those spaces where it's like. you know at a glance if you're interested in it, or if the artist is competent. i've done slush pile with comics, it's very 'you know it when you see it'. i imagine it's the same with acquiring editors.

i fortunately have a style with broad appeal :y so it might just be easier for me on that merit

[thebandghostofficial]

[MESSAGE FROM THE CLERGY]

An important (and overwinded) announcement regarding this blog below the cut.

Hello everyone! This is Rawkin Ghoul/ Tumblr Ghoul/ Tumblrina/ Soda/ etc etc.

First thing’s first: no, this blog is not an official Ghost social media account.

I started this blog in late 2022 when ghost-official started blowing up (I do not believe this one to be real either, and honestly I won’t believe they have a Tumblr until it is linked on their official website) and thought, “wow, I could make a better Ghost blog than that. One that’s way better organized and actually advertises properly for them, and posts regularly!” So I did.

Originally it was meant as just that, a little joke between some friends, and wasn’t meant to really get farther than that. But then I thought, Ghost does have a lot of fans on Tumblr- a lot of exquisitely talented and devoted fans. Maybe I can kinda “roleplay” it for a while, build almost a bit of a portfolio, and then either offer the blog to management or offer to run it for them officially, for fun, if they were interested.

More time passes and more people followed. I thought “xofficial” as a username was a common enough joke/ gimmick that people would realize it wasn’t for real (and in fact, when I first searched the URL, I found that this username was once in use years ago! Sorry, previous owner), especially after posting that April Fools joke post- this was wrong of me to assume. There are a lot of roleplay/ joke “official” Ghost accounts all over the web but I failed to really properly disclaim that I was one of them.

I of course don’t plan to reach out to Ghost anymore and haven’t for some time, for multiple reasons including Tumblr just not being a good website for advertising. But another one is I got pretty loose on here. Tumblr is so different from Twitter and Insta and all that- you guys (and myself! I go here too) don’t want to have someone sell something to you- but you do love interaction and jokes and solving things together.

I think we can all admit it- when Ghost is dormant, the fans can get bored and even agitated, and can start to have a go at eachother. I’m certainly not guiltless there either. I wouldn’t say I’m notorious or even particularly well known in general but I’ve gotten into drama here and there. I figured the blog would be a fun way not just to distract the community, but really engage with it. The blog passed 5k a month or so ago and I started thinking, we could do something really cool with it. Smaller events like fanart contests and zines. But what if we did more? Organizing pre-ritual meetups. Larger community projects like fan-made music videos. ARG. Maybe even a short video game- there are so many incredibly skilled and hard-working Ghost fans and I wanted to try to bring them together because I think our love for Ghost, for whatever reason we love them, screams so loud and everyone deserves recognition (also a reason I started Fanart Friday as a regular thing).

You guys know I do my best to keep up with your tagging and what you’re saying and everything and I’ve seen the people pointing out the blog isn’t real from the beginning- I didn’t want to address it directly at first because I thought if nothing else people enjoyed the mystery.

But, more lately there’s been more and more people who are agitated, disappointed, and even a little scared to hear that this blog is not official.

I want to offer my very sincere apologies to people who I made feel that way. I should have made it obvious sooner- I know so well that there are a lot of very young Ghost fans especially who wouldn’t necessarily surmise that this isn’t real. I’m really sorry to those of you I disappointed.

I will never ask you for money here, or any personal information, or send asks anonymous or otherwise from here or my main personal blog as “Tumblr Ghoul”. I have had one person ask to message me so I messaged them to allow them to do that. If somebody contacts you claiming to be the person running this blog, they are lying. Please block them. My interactions here I aim to keep as public as possible, hence being increasingly liberal with replies and reblogs as the number of people interacting grew.

My only goal with this blog is to advertise for a band that I love and to entertain/ help the fandom when and where I can. I love and appreciate all the fanart and interest in the character of Tumblr Ghoul but I don’t want anybody to feel obligated to me and I especially don’t want to hurt anybody. I started this blog for fun and that how I want it to remain- fun for everyone.

People pointed out when I didn’t post for some time a few months back and it was because I had lost interest in the blog and was going through a rough time- and then one particularly bad day I got on to check it by chance and just seeing your guy’s tags and comments made me feel so much better. I tell people that I found Ghost when I really needed a friend and they fulfilled that for me, but the past few months you guys have done just the same for me. I am so sorry to have betrayed that and made you feel unsafe and lied to in return.

As of posting I do intend to still run the blog as I have been (with a disclaimer added to the bio regarding the legitimacy of this account)- posting about tours, chapters, merch, etc, as well as Fanart Friday. I 100% understand if anybody doesn’t want to be involved in that, so anybody who has tagged me in something and don’t want it on the blog now, I can open messages and you can let me know. I will probably close them again after a week or so if I get a large flood of unrelated messages.

Please do not message me asking me who I am, who knows about the blog, etc. Gaining popularity was never something I wanted from this so I will stay anonymous, for the time being at the very least. A very small number of people know who is behind the blog and to my knowledge only one of them is even on Tumblr and in the fandom.

Thank you for all the support you’ve shown me, Ghost, and eachother. It can be easy to see the bad parts of a community and roll your eyes electing to keep your distance, but since starting this blog I’ve been reminded what good community is even when it’s frustrating sometimes.

Thank you for reading, I won’t hold it against anybody who wants to separate themselves from this blog at this point, and please don’t let my oversight and general dummyness sour your experience with Ghost or its other fans. Enjoy the rest of this tour and whether it’s with or without me, please keep rawking 🤘 Be good to eachother.

Thank you.

[altern1a]

With cohost closing, do you have any ideas of where alterhumans (particularly adults frankly) even meet up/find each other? or is it just discord servers and accidentally finding someone is althu in passing. Sucks that it's so hard to find community.

Alterhumans are everywhere, you just have to be willing to put yourself out there! It's so easy to miss each other when we can't recognize each other.

I will deeply, dearly miss cohost. It was unique and beautiful for how safe and easy it was to be openly alterhuman. But it was never my main platform for meeting people.

You mentioned discord servers, and yes, those are really really good for socializing! You will naturally be limited on who you can find but it's fantastic for forming bonds with whoever you do find. (May I plug Alterdirect for finding servers?)

Here on Tumblr, there are active tags you can follow to find a lot more of us. #alterhuman is a good place to start, of course. I recommend following the tags for any identity you want to meet people with. For example, I currently follow #alterhuman #otherkin #therian #fictionkin #fictionfolk and quite a few more specific ones.

If you're fictionfolk and looking for sourcemates, another thing you can do here on Tumblr is submit a canoncall to any relevant blog that accepts them. There are a lot of general canoncall blogs and some sources have "kin help" blogs that do source-specific canoncalls and some other things. Results definitely vary with canoncalls; if someone has made a discord server for fictionfolk from your source that's usually a bit better, but since not everyone is on discord you can always do both.

Something that's really started taking off in the last few years is online conventions! Tons of alterhumans that are otherwise quiet and hard to find will show up to these. @otherconvention is the biggest one and the one I personally recommend the most, but it is no longer the only option so look around! If you have trouble finding other conventions, they often advertise in the off season server for Othercon.

There is also tons of alterhuman activity outside of big centralized platforms. Older ways of connecting never really fell out of favor with the community and there's also been a big resurgence due to The Everything. Forums are a really good alternative to discord if you're good with the slower pace and lack of a dedicated app. The biggest alterhuman forum I'm familiar with is Nonhuman National Park and smaller forums advertise there so it's definitely where I recommend starting. There are also many, many personal websites, and even more going up post-cohost. A good place to start finding those is the Alterhuman Summoning Circle webring.

The larger alterhuman community is evasive and tries to stay off the radar, for obvious reasons. But once you've gotten into it, it's surprisingly well interconnected. We really like being able to find each other!

I also have a dedicated resource I'm working on to help those who aren't as enmeshed (and even those who are!) find the living alterhuman communities where they can actually meet each other. I'm not as good about keeping it up to date as I'd like to be but you can find it here: The Alterhuman Web

Thank you for reaching out to me about this, it's one of my favorite topics! It's not right for us to feel alone when there are really so many of us. We are stronger together!

I'm also going to loop in @who-is-page and @a-dragons-journal in case they have anything they want to add that I forgot about! Lemme know if you don't wanna be tagged in stuff like this. Also, anyone else who wants to can add their thoughts too, obviously.

[the-100-days-of-junkan]

Day 84 

Oh what a wonderful day! Why? BECAUSE I FINALLY GET TO SAY THE LAST OF MY STUPID ARBITRARY RULES! The Final Arbitrary Rule is: No Crossing Over with Other Franchises! Which I very clearly fuckin’ broke here!

I wanted to do my best to only make pieces working with just the base of Junkan itself, and AU’s I made had to be original and not just “What if Junkan but it’s in X series.” That way when I finished the project a bunch of new doors would open up for me to have fun with! I know last time we had Alice in Wonderland, but given the public domain nature of that story I don’t find it to be an infraction of the rule. There’s a future day coming up that also kiiiind of breaks it? But also i feel like it’s a slightly different case, not sure how to explain it while you can’t see it. None of that matters because today we have a blunt, no fucking around breaking of that rule, and why?

Listen I’ve seen some of ya’ll draw/write Junko and Mikan as Pokemon Trainers while waiting for this day to get posted, surely you understand. I’ve been wanting to draw a pic of these two with full teams for months at this point in the projects making, I couldn’t wait any longer, it was a moment of weakness!!!

Designing the outfits for these two was super fun. Once again I’ve fucking put Mikan in a Sweater, and this time it doubles as a dress! Will I ever be stopped? 

That does generally bring me to the thoughts I’m having in hindsight months after this pic, I think Junko’s side is on the weaker side. I like her fit though I might make small edits to it whenever the next time I draw her is. But the main thing is I think the team I put together is kind of lacking??

Mikan’s? I’m perfectly happy with, Frillish is just there because she vibes aesthetically with Mikan, Blissey is obvious, Lampent because it’s associated with hospitals due to floatin around them to steal life energy, Clefable I can explain in a second but it’s probably obvious, Spinda because she needs a cute buddy to be clumsy with, but my favorite was giving her an Applin.

Like the whole thing with Applin is that giving one to someone as a gift is a declaration of Love. So of course Junko would do that, she’s all about that shit (in my brain at least). I think it’s cute!

Junko’s half of things though, if I’m gonna be real a few months later I’d probably only keep two of them and just try to remake the rest of the team. Gengar (who is also the reason Mikan has a Clefable, I love that old fan theory), because he’s my favorite pokemon and I think he just vibes really well with Junko. And Hydreigon, because Junko deserves a giant nightmare dragon. 

This is another instance of me concocting something for this project and then not being able to draw any more of it because I have to wait for it to be posted. So now, assuming I have time, I can finally draw the Pokemon AU!~ Like I said i’ll probably do some minor reworks, and then some major reworks on Junko’s end. No idea when it’ll be but look forward to it I suppose!~ 

As always, Reblogs, Comments, and Little Notes in the Tags are appreciated!~ They always make my day!~

[lineffability]

actually it's a good thing that Crowley did miss in 1941 not for the obvious reasons but bc Aziraphale would never have let him live it down ever again ("oh is that so? hey honey remember that time when you discor-" "okay okay shut up I'll get the takeout")

actually let me put the tags into the main post to prematurely deflect any bad faith misunderstandings: they would both do this and it would be lighthearted