#not that she'd EVER admit it

[anaid-queen]

Valkyrie: I'm not a jealous person. Tanith: *amused* No? Valkyrie: Nope. *pops the 'p'* Not at all. I know Skulduggery loves me, why would I be jealous of anyone? Tanith: So... last week when we got drunk downtown... Valkyrie: *sips her drink* Yeah? Tanith: You tore down all those Grace Kelly Movie Night posters... for fun? Valkyrie: *freezes with the glass halfway to her lips, then hastily gulps* Yup. For fun. Tanith: *raises a single eyebrow* Valkyrie: Uh-huh. I was. Practicing my vandalism skills. Been a while. Tanith: *smiles indulgently* Right.

[thisnameisnotspokenfor]

Friendly Reminder

That one of the first things Asha did when she met Cepheus was to poke him with a stick and I quote, threaten to 'make his life miserable'

Ceph:

((At this point Ceph could do a documentary on how to annoy Asha- but do you guys think he annoys her because he likes her, wants her attention or just finds it genuinely hilarious?))

[s-aint-elmo]

digging out my eah content part 4: the kittycorner (ba-dum-tss)

ID: a set of sketchy digital drawings featuring kitty cheshire. the first five make a short comic. one: kitty earnestly slow-blinks; her catlike eyes are bigger and shinier when she opens them. two: a bemused lizzie hearts playing with her deck of cards asks, “...huh?” three: embarrassed, kitty blurts, “nothing. bye.” and disappears. four: lizzie waves after her, still confused as she replies, “oh--bye???” five: maddie hatter pops up behind lizzie, blushing and delighted, exclaiming, “oh my, kitty!”  six: kitty lounges on a tree branch, smiling mischievously, one paw-like hand raised near her face as she says, “y’know, like nya” with a cat-shaped speech bubble. off-screen, indicated by a wolf-shaped speech bubble, cerise replies in all-caps: “stop.” seven: a grinning bust of kitty in a less cartoony style winks at the camera. end ID.

[mukuberry]

if muu hadn't bonded with haruka i kinda like the idea of her latching onto kotoko in t2

[actual-changeling]

Post-Chimera fic with a moment similar to Ellen asking Mulder about having a significant other but it's Scully having to grapple with that question.

Maybe she picks him up at the airport (she misses him & also he almost got drowned so she's even more concerned—what if he didn't get himself checked out, what if EMTs missed something, what if there's still water in his lungs and he develops pneumonia, what if...) and gets roped into a conversation by someone waiting to pick up their partner.

"Are you waiting for your husband, too?"

"He's my—"

Husband. Well. No but not no. Technically no, but Mulder is still Someone and the most important person in her life, so—yes?

Scully doesn't want to lie but she can't decide if it's really a lie when the sentiment behind the word is true, when the weight of what Mulder is to her is not just equal to a spouse but even more than that. She panics a little a lot, and the words get away from her.

"He's mine."

It should sound odd or overly possessive but, somehow, it doesn't. It sounds right. Whatever it is they are, they both know—without having to say it out loud—that they belong to each other in a fundamental, can't-imagine-myself-without-you way.

[icehearts]

which poisonous flowering plant are you?

HEMLOCK. This is the poison of intense fear. Your body trembles, your flesh burns. Your limbs won't respond to you. You convulse. You can't seem to control the fear. It seems that it has always lived within you. You hesitate, you agonize, and that breeds regret. Sometimes it threatens to overwhelm you, and that frightens you more than anything. But panic is survival mode in overdrive, and something within you knows you must live. Creation seems to be the only balm for you. Perhaps you survive so stubbornly because you have stories that must be told, songs that must be sung. Soothe your stage fright. The path from surviving to thriving is having a good garden to grow in. And you can't do that completely alone.

HUGE thanks to the person who made this quiz that is perfectly suited for Esca. ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و I haven't seen this one make the rounds yet so I'm throwing it out there like a live grenade.

Quiz: [ link here ] Tagging: @sealrock @tsunael @shroudkeeper

@abalathia @prudentfolly @ubejamjar @aethermimic @viiioca -- and literally everyone and anyone who wants to do this for their character!

[squishy-squishy]

Ticklish Experiment

Portal tickle content is a barren desert and I am here to provide a small oasis. I will get to the TOH fics requested of me one day! I’ve got one like halfway written! But my ADHD brain is starving for Portal content and it will not shut up until I write this.

Summary: Chell is being her usual menace self during testing, and GLaDOS decides to take a new, sillier approach to handle it

Chell being thrown back into these testing chambers was not something she had been planning on when Wheatley said he’d get her out of there. She had fought tooth and nail to escape GLaDOS the first time, she had been so close to leaving Aperture for a second time, and then that little mistake had revived her old enemy and gotten her put back in testing again. Needless to say, she was a little pissed.

“Sorry about the mess.” GLaDOS’s robotic voice echoed over the speakers. “I’ve really let the place go since you killed me. By the way, thanks for that.”

Chell rolled her eyes. GLaDOS could talk all she wanted, but Chell was determined to not give her the satisfaction of ever speaking back. However, GLaDOS was right. The place definitely was a mess. It was nothing like the pristine testing rooms that she was used to. She had to carefully step over fallen bits of debris and avoid walking too close to the moving panels GLaDOS was controlling in an attempt to put the facility back together. She glared at one of the cameras in the room. 

Maybe there was something she could do about it. She couldn’t escape like this, but if GLaDOS was going to be petty, then why couldn’t she? She picked up a chunk of garbage and hucked it at the blinking camera. It fizzled, then powered off when it was hit. Chell couldn’t help but grin.

“Really? I’ve tried to keep this a professional, scientific environment, but your constant immaturity and violent behavior is making this increasingly difficult. Now someone is going to have to fix that. And that someone will have to be me.” Despite her GLaDOS’s voice being so monotone, it still dripped with sarcasm and malice. It only fueled Chell’s pettiness. Using her portal gun, she grabbed onto the camera before GLaDOS could open the wall and snatch it away.

“If you think this kind of attitude is impressing anyone, it’s not. And your attempts to stop this are pitiful, there are still plenty of ways I can see you- what exactly do you think you’re doing?”

Chell smiled and kept a tight hold on the broken camera, even when she felt it being tugged on from behind the wall. 

“Let go.”

Chell shook her head.

“Let go, or I will have to drag you off of it myself. You’re wasting time, we have more testing to do.”

Chell still wasn’t giving in. She shook her head again. Even when a robotic claw emerged from an opening between the panels, Chell didn’t move. It looked make-shift, like GLaDOS had just had to put it together using spare parts, the same way she’d put herself back together when she was reawakened. Chell didn’t think it would do much.

She was wrong. The claw grabbed at her side, pinching up and down it sporadically. It wasn’t strong enough to drag Chell off like GLaDOS had threatened, or even hurt, but what it did do was tickle like crazy. With each little prod and pinch, Chell tensed and kicked her legs. She squirmed, trying to get the mischievous little claw off of her, but it was relentless.

“Oh? What an interesting development…” GLaDOS commented on her subject’s situation, moving the claw up a little to Chell’s ribs, which gave her a very satisfying, more frantic reaction. “Very interesting… care to tell me why you’re moving around so much? Is something wrong? Just kidding, I’ve already figured it out. You’re ticklish, and by the looks of it, more than the average human. I wonder if it’s some sort of side effect of being in stasis for so long…”

Chell held her breath, still not saying a word despite the cruel teasing, and she still refused to let go of the camera. She hid in her arms the best she could to disguise the dorky, sunny smile that had broken out across her face. Tickling?! Really?! She twitched sharply with every ticklish jolt that came from that devious claw. And just when she thought she could tough it out, another one latched onto her other side. They kneaded her torso with maddening, machine-like precision, picking up and which spots made her nearly lose her grip and targeting them. To Chell’s dismay, there was a well of laughter bubbling up inside her that was starting to escape through voiceless hisses and huffs.

GLaDOS was just drinking in the poor human’s frustration. “According to research, the human response to tickling is one of panic. In fact, it was even used as a form of torture. But you still haven’t let go yet, could it be possible that you’re actually having fun?”

Chell frantically shook her head, her hair fell down over her eyes. Her face was steadily turning a bright shade of crimson. Although she never would have admitted it, she was maybe, just a little, having fun. Her life was constantly in danger, from the moment she’d arrived at Aperture. She had narrowly escaped bullets, lasers, fire, and deadly neurotoxin. She couldn’t even remember the last time someone had just wanted to do something playful, and it was a nice change. Even if the sensation was starting to get unbearable!

“It must be miserable to be a human. Filled with so many nerves, and weaknesses that are so easy to exploit. I can only imagine what you might be experiencing right now. And I hope you know that you deserve every last second of it.”

When Chell noticed a third claw reaching for her, she decided that maybe the camera just wasn’t worth it. She dropped herself onto the floor, landing on her back. Her relief was short-lived, however. Mechanical whirring rose from the panel beneath her, and before she knew it, four claws had popped up all around her. They wasted no time pouncing on her, one spidering over her side, one scratching under her arm, two kneading and squeezing her thighs and knees. Chell shrieked, but no sound came out.

“What? Did you really think you were going to get away that easily? I’m not going to let such an intriguing research opportunity slip away from me just like that.” GLaDOS wasn’t human, but Chell could’ve sworn she could hear a slight giggle to her robotic voice. “Which spot is the worst? What method makes you tick? How many tools can I use before you completely lose your mind? So many questions worth testing… I’d be remiss if I didn’t experiment further.”

Every time Chell tried to sit up, or roll away from the tickly attack, the panel would shake beneath her, knocking her back for GLaDOS’s evil claws to continue away. Chell was starting to worry about actually going insane. This was as silly as it was cruel, and the thought of GLaDOS using whatever data she was collecting from this against her in the future sent a chill down her spine. She had to act fast. Noticing a ledge, she aimed her portal gun at it the best she could with her trembling arms. She fired, but never got to see if it hit her target or not, because GLaDOS made hasty work of taking advantage of her lifting her arms up. Not one, but two claws scribbled into her hollows, and Chell slammed her arms down to protect herself and squeezed her eyes shut. Her laughter came out in silent wheezes.

“You really are an idiot.” GLaDOS teased. “Did you really think that would work? It’s no wonder you’ve fallen for my traps so easily, it’s almost like you want to get caught-”

Chell shot a portal beneath her, and much to her surprise, it spat her out right onto the ledge she had been wanting to escape to. She jumped to her feet, face flushed and breathing heavily. “Oh. You actually escaped. Maybe you’re more clever than I expected. Oh well, that was fun, don’t you agree?”

She spotted another camera watching her from the corner, made a point of flipping it off, then quickly disabled it. All Chell could think about was finding GLaDOS even quicker, and maybe even installing a receptor for tickling to get her revenge.

[birgittesilverbae]

strategist!beatrice admitting she's at a loss for how to proceed

[autism-swagger]

Scream fans stop lying to yourselves. Tara is 100% an Oppenheimer guy.

[tadpal]

reblogged the foundational girl+dog posts so that everyone can understand what's going on

[orcelito]

Honestly tho it's the "I don't love you" and "every time I said it was just automatic impulse" that's got me the most messed up. Like u couldn't even let me down softly by saying it just wasn't working out? You had to essentially tell me the whole thing was a lie??? After I TOLD you I had trust issues and felt like everyone is just going to leave me in the end???

Way to make me feel unlovable lol

[nightmares-voicemail]

Natasha, say you were the Ladybug Holder, partnered with a Black Cat Holder and you had to assemble a team- who would you potentially call in as an ally and what Miraculous would you give them

Natasha

"Uhm, that's a difficult one. Logic says I should avoid involving people I know too well, maybe even use the Horse to recruit a team from outside of Achefall but... that doesn't seem very feasible. I need to pick people I can trust and I don't have such a big social circle.

"I can see Maris' point in that she wants more or less fix kwami-Holder pairs, so everyone can get comfortable with one power-set. But to be honest, I feel like if it was up to me, I might go for a smaller core-team, and give them Miraculous based on who is available and what is needed at the moment. Kwami swaps tend to happen anyway, and sometimes Maris even forced to recruit bystanders as one-time Holders, so doing it this way might help to make things more flexible, and hiding the actual size of the team could be nice too.

"Let's see... one person I'd surely recruit if they were willing would be Kris. There would be no sense not to- I know them enough to trust them. They are an adult, so they could use their powers more. And they're already involved with the Miraculous, they were since childhood. They're pretty good at improvisation, so I think they could get a lot of use from the Goat. If we needed more raw strength, they could also use the Dragon... they like swords, or at least I know they did as a kid. And if things were dire enough, they could back us up with the Snake... uh, on a second thought, maybe they wouldn't be that thrilled to have a time travel Miraculous. But it works pretty differently than the Rabbit, so they might be fine with it.

"Depending on the circumstances, I might try to get Sonya on my team. She already proved herself very capable, but of course I'd understand if she said no. Probably wouldn't be a very good idea to give her the Turtle again, even though the villains already know some of our team's identities, so it might be pointless to worry about that. But she could also use the Ox that works kinda similar, or maybe the Tiger would fit her too.

"It would be probably a bit too reckless to involve someone who is basically living with me, but maybe Saiyuki could be a good fit for the Fox or the Bee? Not sure why, it's just a hunch.

"Naota loves to do things for people just to make them happy, they would be probably a good fit for the Pig... wait, maybe they wouldn't be that comfortable to weaponize people's desires against them. Then maybe the Dog would work better, and Erica could have the Pig instead.

"Fletcher likes birds and sometimes it feels like he... I don't know, wants to prove himself I guess? So the Rooster might fit him well.

"I recall Hikaru mentioning once that in their childhood games she played pretend as a hero with lightning powers, so she'd probably enjoy the Dragon. If a sneakier approach was needed, I think she'd manage the Bee well too.

"Justin is a baseball player, so either the Dog or the Monkey could work well for him, since both of those requires throwing skills.

"Let's see, we're left with the Horse, Rabbit and Mouse. I feel like Eva could do well with any of those."

[[Eva belongs to Tsukiyomaru/Arcade Rabbit. I'm not sure if he can be found here, otherwise I'd tag him properly.]]

[deadrlngers]

no but thinking of violante's manic state following her murder of ruven and that sick game of association-replacement played by gortash where he acts just like ruven did, picks up some of his behaviours and mannerisms and speech patterns he specifically used with violante and that he knows of well bc he observed and studied them interact, so that he can fill up the now empty spot left by ruven's death.

[fragmentedblade]

Kalpas and Sakura are so hot together. Every interaction, every dialogue, even the absence, is so heavy and tense and juicy

[thoroughfvre]

" admitting that you have feelings for me isn’t going to kill you, you know . . . "

[imogenkol]

— WIP WEDNESDAY

tagged by @socially-awkward-skeleton and @inafieldofdaisies to post a wip! Thank you both! 💕💕💕

as always, no pressure tags (and pls let me know if any of you don’t want to be tagged in wip days anymore): @detectivelokis @marivenah @jacobseed @aceghosts @jinfromyarikawa @phillipsgraves @corvosattano @unholymilf @simonxriley @roofgeese @chuckhansen @queennymeria @florbelles @risingsh0t @minaharkers @nokstella

I honestly just wanted to write Imogen getting bullied by the Mantis Crew, but this is her attempt at making friends. First time she’s tried. She wasn’t a fan.

“You know,” Imogen said as she sauntered into the Mantis crew’s hideout. Cal was the first to react, igniting his lightsaber and shifting into the defensive stance of a Jedi. The ghost of an amused smile curled at the corner of Imogen’s mouth. She remained nonchalant. “Despite your very best efforts, it was not that difficult to find you.”

If anything, Cal tensed further at the sight of her familiar face. “We weren’t hiding from you.”

“Have you been waiting for another opportunity to challenge me?”

“No, we just have bigger problems than a failed Inquisitor.”

She ignored the slight and stepped forward. The Jedi mirrored her advance, his blue blade humming excitedly. ���And yet here I am before you once more.” 

“What do you want?” 

“Contrary to your perception of me, Cal, I am not here to fight you.” In an effort to lower his guard, Imogen placed her hands behind her back.  

“My perception of you?” Cal asked, exasperated. “Exactly which betrayal and murder attempt did I misinterpret?” 

Imogen resisted the urge to roll her eyes. His dramatics were unnecessary. “That was a long time ago.” 

“Not nearly long enough for me to forgive and forget. Not without one hell of a good reason to trust you. And it’s going to take a lot, Imogen.”

“My priorities have shifted. It may benefit our interests if we again become… allies,” she said, narrowly avoiding choking on the word. Imogen couldn’t quite bring herself to suggest friendship. She still had much to learn when it came to her romantic connection with Bix, navigating a whole new dynamic didn’t appeal to her.

Cal shook his head. “Fool me once.”

“It’s been more than once,” Imogen pointed out smugly. 

“I’ll ask again. What do you want?” 

“I have joined the Rebel Alliance.” 

Greez, who had previously remained as silent as the rest of the crew throughout the tense exchange, released a hearty laugh. “Here I thought you didn’t have a sense of humor, but I gotta give it to you, that was a good one!” 

Cal noted Imogen’s steely expression. “She isn’t joking.”

“I’m not,” she confirmed.

“Why?” Urgency willed the Jedi closer to his old adversary. “What’s your angle? What do you have planned?”

Imogen kept her body still. “I’ve told you. A lot has changed, Cal, and because of that I must reevaluate who I consider to be an enemy.”

“That’s not good enough.”

Irritation shot up Imogen’s spine. Her patience at his persistent questioning wore thin. She knew Cal wouldn’t just openly accept a change of heart, but she didn’t feel comfortable revealing the details of her new outlook. Imogen Kol would not willingly expose her neck to a fool like Cal Kestis. Though… she had to acknowledge he wasn’t entirely foolish. Otherwise she wouldn’t be here. 

“I’m not who I was,” she said. 

“You want me to just trust you when you won’t even trust me enough to give a real reason.” Cal scoffed and finally put his lightsaber away. “You’ve wasted your time coming here. Whatever you want, I can’t help you.”

Imogen should have left it at that, but a part of her actually wanted this to work. “You’re right, I don’t trust you. Not yet. We both have things we need to protect and I cannot risk –” She had enough self restraint to cut the sentence off before she showed her hand, but the sudden intensity her tone had taken caused her face to flush. 

Weakness, her thoughts bitterly chastised. 

“Can’t risk what?” Cal pressed. 

“Not what,” Merrin chimed in. Imogen often forgot about the Zabrak’s existence until she spoke. “Who. She has someone.”

Imogen sharply glared at her. Merrin stood unfazed by the way the former Inquisitor’s eyes burned with hatred. She stared back as if she had simply recited an obvious fact. It made Imogen fume. “Perhaps I should have cut out your tongue when last we met. There is still time.”

Merrin ignored the threat and looked to Cal. “That’s why she’s here. She’s fallen in love and has dared to consider fighting for something other than herself.”

“I’ve already fought for her,” Imogen fiercely snapped. 

Another misstep. 

The outburst all but confirmed Merrin’s accusation. Imogen didn’t believe that Cal or the crew posed a threat to Bix directly, but she learned from her time as an enforcer for the Empire that to surrender the knowledge of what matters most is to guarantee it will be used against you. With all the enemies she has made, it only takes one loose end to lead back to her relationship. Cal may be a valuable asset in protecting what she holds dear. Or he could be a fatal mistake. Imogen originally intended to draw a definitive conclusion to that uncertainty before her true intentions had been revealed. 

“Tell me about her,” Cal said. 

Imogen answered immediately and firmly. “No.”

He shrugged. “You want me to believe you? That’s my price.”

“You are asking me to freely confess the one thing that can truly hurt me.”

“I’m asking you to trust me with it.”