#or even just something as simple as having an extremely heavy work schedule

[sunny-d-orange-beverage]

Fellow Hetalia fans:

What are your thoughts on World Meetings? Are the nations required to attend? Do some attend and others not? Maybe they only attend sometimes, depending on if they want to/their schedule?

Meanwhile if a nation doesn’t attend, would they just have a human come in their stead?

I’ve also seen some people headcanon the World Meetings as happening in conjunction with the big UN meeting. Which I find pretty realistic. I also see lots of fics with the meetings taking place as often as every month!

All in all, what are y’all’s headcanons about the World Meetings?

[giannaln4]

Silly Little Bet

lando norris x artist!reader

summary: You were an artist and Lando loved to do what you did best with you, even if he wasn't very good at it. (917 words)

warnings: this turns into a make out (not heavy, very short), use of y/n

a/n: hi lovelies! i know i said i was going to take a little break, but honestly i just need to not think about quali today (still crying about it idk what to tell you). anyway, this is incredibly short so i’m sorry but i still hope you enjoy it! pls let me know what you think!! feedback is very much appreciated 🫶🏻 i also wanted to thank everyone who reached out to me and sent support ❤️‍🩹 ily all so much, i really appreciate it!!

↺ back to navigation — send me a request!

Quiet nights were your absolute favourites. Getting to spend time with your boyfriend without having to worry about some schedule one of you had to stick to was perfect, to say the least. You always found a way to occupy yourselves, doing anything and nothing at the same time. 

Tonight, though, you got to do one of your favourite activities: art. You were an artist, a professional one, and of course he loved that about you; he loved seeing you in your element, so focused on what you did best, and even though he didn’t know yet, you loved dragging him with you so you could see him struggle a bit to at least not be the worst artist the world has ever seen.

Now, he was extremely talented, and if he weren’t a racer, he would be somewhat of an artist; he’s said it himself many times, but that was before he met you, because compared to you, he would never say that about himself, no matter how many times you have said it to him. 

Right now, you found yourselves sitting on your shared bed, facing each other, trying to win a silly little bet you made earlier. It was simple, really. You were supposed to draw the other person, and whoever loses would have to come up with a plan for dinner, which the both of you already knew would end up being a homemade meal, eating it on the couch, and watching some dumb show. This really worked out for him because, as talented as he was, he still struggled to draw real people, and he knew he was setting himself up when he accepted.

You knew that too, and you also knew he only gave in so he could have another one of your drawings of him. But that was okay, because another one of your favourite things was to admire his focused expression while he tried to replicate someone on a blank piece of paper. 

If he was being completely honest, the top reason he loved doing some type of art with you was because you would always come up to him and help with something, holding and guiding his hand or just being really close to his face as you explained something, so he would never say no to that suggestion.

“Okay, so I do you and you do me. Do I have to paint it as well?” He asked as you poured some of your art supplies on the bed.

“No, just a quick sketch,” you replied, scanning the bed as you carefully chose the pencil you wanted to use. “I’m starving, anyway.”

You started sketching each other; you were faster (and probably better) than him, but you couldn’t help but blush any time his eyes fixated on your face for too long, studying every aspect of you to try to draw it. After several minutes, you were done, just finishing up a few details before placing the paper on the bedside table next to you, away from him so he wouldn’t see it yet.

“How is it going?” You asked.

He looked up at you and yelled, “Don’t move!” When you started to get up.

"Sorry,” you whispered, going back to your previous position.

You stayed like that for a while, watching as Lando looked at you repeatedly and then back at the paper, occasionally erasing stuff. He was almost done, but there was one thing holding him back. “I can’t get it right,” he sighed, dropping the pencil.

“What can’t you get right?”

“Your lips. They look too big or too small, and now the paper looks worn out from erasing so much.” He was clearly frustrated.

“Can I see it?”

“Promise you won’t laugh?” Lando asked you with an embarrassed look.

“Of course I’m not going to laugh; why would I do that?”

“You are a real artist, Y/N. You finished a while ago, and I’ve been stuck here trying to fix it, but I’ve only made it worse.”

“Lando, you are actually talented; I don’t make you do art with me because I wanna have a laugh. C’mon, show me.”

He sighed again and slowly turned the paper, showing you the drawing. “It looks terrible.”

Your eyes set on the paper, and an endeared smile appeared on your face. “It looks great, baby.”

"No, it doesn’t; as I said, you’re an artist, and you know exactly what’s wrong with it.”

“I mean it." You whispered, leaving your spot on the bed and sitting next to him, “Maybe the proportions are a bit off, but it does look great, I promise.”

“Thanks,” he replied with a smile, a moment of silence filling the room as you both stared at the drawing. “You know, maybe I just need to take a closer look at them.”

“Oh- I guess that would be helpful." You turned your body to face him, cupping his cheek and brushing away a few curls that rested on his forehead. “Do you want help?”

He nodded and broke the distance between you, locking his lips with yours as he pulled you onto his lap and his hands fell on your hips to intensify the kiss. You got closer and closer, pausing when your bodies couldn’t possibly get any closer to each other even if you tried.

“You know I can actually help you,” you said against his lips and in between kisses.

“Uh huh” Lando replied, not really thinking about the drawing anymore.

[callsign-dexter]

Heartbeat Promise

Request: Aw yaaay 😊 I just wanted to make sure before requesting 🥰 it would be an idea with Connor, where you're dating but recently didn't have much time together due to your work (you're a nurse in the ER). So you also barely talk at the moment and you don't tell him about some chest pain you recently have, as you don't want to put more worries on his plate. One time during your shift you pass out as the pain gets too much and Maggie immediately pages Connor. He's more than worried and feels terrible for not noticing how you feel. So he stays by your side all the time and when you wake up he apologizes for not being there and promises to work on spending more time together and that he'll be there whenever you need him. I hope this is ok 💕

Pairings: Connor Rhodes x Nurse!Halstead!Reader

Warnings: chest pain, inaccurate medical talk, fluff, angst

Masterlist

It wasn't like you weren't going to tell your extremely handsome, smart, overprotective, and doctor boyfriend, aka Connor Rhodes, that you were having chest pains. You were honestly. Well eventually. With both of your schedules being super busy and one or both of you pulling double shifts. He has been stressed out by the number of difficult surgeries and overbearing patients that you didn't want to add anymore onto his plate, so you kept quiet. It got worse when you took a deep breath so you kept your breaths short.

You have been dating for 2 years now and you both were very in love with one another. Recently you two barely have time to talk with each other. Your routine was the same but shortened drastically. Before you would come home cuddle for a little bit, eat dinner, talk about work, watch a movie or TV show, take a shower together, get ready for bed, and once in bed cuddle so more until you're asleep. Now it's come home put dinner on before he got home and then you go take a shower and eat and start getting ready for bed and then up before he even got up. It just wasn't the same and you missed it and you could tell he was missing it too. You were just too tired most of the time.

You would catch him giving you longing looks but then you would start doing something else. Since you two haven't been spending much time together, despite you both living under the same roof, he didn't catch you holding your chest, when your breath caught, or you just being out of breath doing simple things.

Every day it was getting worse and every day you didn't tell him. You felt guilty but you didn't want to burden him and when you were at work you hardly see each other. You tried to keep it to yourself but you worked with other nurses and doctors. One particular doctor noticed you having some problems, that doctor would be none other than Dr. William Halstead, aka your twin brother.

You and Will were truly inseparable even with him being a millisecond older which he likes to brag about it. You and your younger brother, Jay Halstead were also inseparable but not like you and Will. Will would notice you wince every now and then, especially when picking something heavy up, and he noticed that you seem to run out of breath but each time he asked you about it, you just told him fine and left the conversation. You didn't want to tell him because then he would be telling Connor and that's the last thing you wanted.

You were in the break room for a break when Will decided to confront you. "Y/N are you ok?" He asked you as you were getting your water bottle. You turned to look at him.

"I'm fine. What makes you think there is something wrong?" You asked back as your breath caught in your throat.

"You just seem in pain." He said almost going into big brother, by a millisecond, doctor mode but you shook your head and waved him off.

"I'm fine Will." You said as you set down ready to eat a little bit of something and have a break from being on your feet for 9 hours into your 24-hour shift.

"If you need anything, you can come to me. You know that right?" He asked you and you nodded your head.

"Yes, I know that." You said and smiled at him. "Are we still on for drinks tonight tomorrow tonight with Jay?" You asked him. It was 3 PM on a Friday, you, your brothers, and Connor had arranged for you all to go out to Molly's for drinks every Saturday if your work permitted it.

"As of right now, yes we are. So, how are you and the love of your life doing these days?" He asked and you sighed which was a big mistake because when you did a pain shot through your chest. Will looked at you concerned but you didn't acknowledge it.

"We're fine. I think." You paused and thought "We haven't been spending much time or talked much as we used to with our busy schedules." You told him and he nodded feeling bad for you. Your watch beeped meaning your break was over. "Well, it looks like my break is over brother. I'll see you later." You said and stood up and instantly got dizzy you grabbed the table loudly and Will took notice and got up steadying you.

"Y/N/N are you sure you're fine?" He asked you and you nodded the dizziness and pain going away.

"I'm fine." You said breathlessly and composed yourself and walked out of the break room leaving with a concerned brother behind. You walked over to the front desk where Maggie was.

"How's my favorite Halstead sibling and nurse doing?" She asked you and you raised an eyebrow looking at her.

"I'm fine..... what do you need?" You asked her fighting through the pain trying not to let weakness show.

"There is a patient in Trauma 2 that needs a consult." She said and you looked at her with the same look.

"Why couldn't anyone else do it?" You asked her.

"Because you're my best nurse and nobody else wanted to take them." She said and you raised eyebrow turned into a glare, playful.

"Fine. You owe me." You said and she nodded

"Thank you so much!" She said and handed you the tablet. You walked into Trauma 2 and found a middle-aged, tall, blonde, and blue-eyed man.

"Hello, Mr. Coal. I'm Nurse Halstead. What seems to be the problem?" You asked him and looked up at him just to see him looking and smiling at you.

"Nothing now that you're here." He said and your refrained from rolling your eyes. Blood pressure skyrockets causing your chest to hurt. Oh, how you wish Connor was here with you.

"It says here that, you came in for some tenderness in the lower right side of your abdomen. Is that correct?" You asked him and he nodded his head getting that your weren't going to flirt back.

"Yes. It started 2 days ago around noon. I thought it was just something bad I ate but it just started to get worse." He said and you nodded your head and typed it into the tablet. You paused and took a deep breath which made your chest hurt and he looked at you in concern. "Are you ok ma'am?" He asked and you nodded your head.

"I'm fine. This is about you." You said with a smile and he nodded "I'm going to have a listen to you and get some vitals." You told him and he nodded. You did just that and he was very cooperative and polite. You entered your results into the tablet. "I'm just going to feel around on your stomach. So please lie back." You told him and he did as told. You started to feel around and asked him if he felt any pain and when you got to the right side and pressed down he groaned out in pain and you let up. You typed in the results and nodded. "I think you have appendicitis but I want to confirm with a doctor. So please be patient and I'll be back with you shortly." You said and he nodded. You walked out and to the front desk. Maggie was there "Hey Maggie can you page Dr. Halstead for me? My pager stopped working and I haven't had time to get a new one. I want a confirmation on a consult." She nodded while you typed in more details on the tablet.

A few minutes went by and your brother walked over to you. "Maggie paged me. What's up?" He asked you.

"There is a patient in Trauma 2 and I believe he has appendicitis." You said almost out of breath maybe it was just tiredness, to be fair it was the 10th hour into your shift. He looked at you concerned but knew you were stubborn. "He had some tenderness on the right side of his abdomen, all vitals were normal." You said and he nodded his head.

"Lead the way." He said and you did just that. You walked in first and Cole was sitting up.

"This is Dr. Halstead he's just going to confirm my suspension." You said and he nodded. Will did the same thing you did and confirmed it.

"You do have appendicitis and we'll get you up to surgery right away. We'll be in shortly to start preparing you." Will said and Cole nodded.

"Thank you." He said and you both smiled and walked out of the room closing the curtain. Your chest was on fire. It was hard to breathe. You grabbed the desk and your breathing became labored.

"Y/N are you ok?" Will asked having heard your sudden change of breathing pattern and looked at you. You were sweating. You looked up at him and shook your head and the next thing Will knew your eyes were rolling to the back of your head and your knees gave out. He caught you "Woah. Ok, sis. I got you." He said even though you were unconscious. You fainting and him catching you caught everyone's attention. Maggie pointed him to Trauma 4.

"I paged Connor. He's on his way down." Maggie said and just about that time, he came barreling through the curtain to find his girlfriend on the bed unconscious. They had just sat you down on the bed.

"What happened?" He asked whipping out his stethoscope and starting to listen to you.

"I don't know. We were at the desk and all of a sudden her breathing changed and she passed out. She would've hit the ground if I hadn't caught her." Will said just as he got done listening to you. Connor nodded "I'm gonna go and call Jay and let him know what is going on." Will said needing to step out of the room, again Connor nodded.

He noticed that your heart rate was way too fast. Maggie, who was in the room, was hooking you up to the heart monitor. There wasn't anything for them to do but wait for you to wake up.

It was around 20 minutes later that you started to wake up to the sound of the heart monitor going. You slowly open your eyes and see both of your brothers and your boyfriend sitting there. Jay was next to you watching you and saw your eyes open.

"Hey sis. Welcome back to consciousness." Jay said with a smirk which made you smirk.

"Shut up." You told him that got a laugh out of the other two males.

"What's going on babe?" Connor asked and you sighed.

"I'll tell you after you get these leads off of me." You said and both Connor and Will moved to fill your request. Once it was done they nodded at you so you began. "It started Thursday. We both have been under a lot of stress and then I was worried that you weren't happy. I was also worried that we were going to break up because we weren’t spending time together as often. It made me start to stress out and then my chest started to hurt. Instead of telling you and putting more on your plate with the difficult surgeries and the amount, I didn't want you to worry about me." You said mainly to Connor but the rest of them heard.

"Oh, babe. I'm sorry we haven't been spending time together. But baby, 9 days? That's a lot of time to keep something a secret, especially something medical. I promise we'll start spending more time together. I should've seen the signs." He said and you nodded.

"Sis, I think I can speak for Jay as well, you could've come to us. We would've dropped everything for you. I'm a doctor I could've helped." Will said.

"I'm no doctor but you could've still come to me or even Haley." Jay said you had tears forming in your eyes.

"Thank you, guys. I'm sorry I kept it from you. I just hate bothering you all with knowing how busy our schedules are." You said and just then Goodwin walked in.

"Nurse Halstead, I heard that you fainted." She said and you nodded "Are you ok?" She asked you.

"Yes, I'm ok now. I had some chest pains and passed out. I was just stressed out." You said and she nodded.

"Well, I'm glad you're ok. I'm giving you the rest of the day off. Connor, I'm giving you the rest of the day off as well to watch out for our best nurse, your appointments, and surgeries have been handed over or rescheduled. Y/N, you take care of yourself and more getting into stressful situations." She said, "Have a good day and see you soon." Goodwin finished and walked out.

"Well, you heard her. Go get your stuff and head home." Jay said and you all laughed Connor helped you off the bed you bid your brothers a goodbye and you left with Connor.

When you got to the locker room Connor stood back watching you. "You should've told me, babe." He said softly and you turned around leaning up against the lockers.

"I know but you were already stressed. I didn't want my problems being put on your plate." You said softly back he walked over to you and brought you into a hug. You inhaled his musky scent and buried your head in his chest.

"From now on tell me what is going on no matter how silly it is. I'm in this with you no matter what. I'm sorry I didn't notice earlier. From now on we're going to be spending much more time with each other. From now on you have my utmost undivided attention." He said as he dropped a kiss on your head. You knew it was true.

"I like the sound of that." You said pulling back. You both finished getting your stuff and he slung his bag over his shoulder and grabbed yours. He slung his right arm around you and you both walked out of the hospital.

Since he drove you both to work, he drove you home. It was mostly silent but it was comfortable. He was holding your left hand over the center console and every now and then rubbed it with his thumb or kissed it.

When you got home it was all about you. Connor made you go change into something comfortable. He then made you sit on the couch while he made you both something to eat. After you were situated he went and changed and joined you. "I'm capable of doing things on my own you know." You said as he tried to feed you and he let out a deep chest chuckle that you loved.

"Yes I know but I want to keep the stress off of you. I'm also doing it because I love you and it's a way to say I'm sorry. Also doctors orders." He said and you could've sworn your heart melted and you laughed. You leaned up and kissed him which he returned. You let him feed you and as he ate. Once you were done you cuddled into his side and wrapped your arms around him, him doing the same to you and watching whatever you put on when he made you sit down.

"I promise to tell you next time in a heartbeat." You said and he chuckled. "I love you, babe." You said.

"I love you too." He replied. The fatigue was catching up to you and the warmth of your boyfriend along with his scent, was putting you to sleep. You tried to keep your eyes open as snuggled into him further, a sign he knew that you were getting tired. "Get some sleep, babe. I'm right here with you." He said and that's all it took for you to close your eyes and drift off to a peaceful sleep. Your breath evened out and Connor dropped a kiss onto your head.

Connor was going to make things right again. He loved you with his whole heart. He knew you were the right one for him and he couldn't wait to spend more years with you.

Tag list:

@kmc1989

@els-marvelvsp

@atarmychick007

@nyx2021

[kodamaghost00]

30 Monty Gator Headcanons!!

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[Disclaimer!!]

This post will contain: NSFW,Sfw,Fluff,Smut

It’s also Genderless for the girls,gays and theys! You are a Technician in these scenarios!

——————————————————

Let’s begin!

He enjoys talking to you but won’t initiate any conversations because he thinks you will get bored of him eventually.

He for sure loves physical touch and sometimes purrs when you cuddle him in his greenroom.

He’s a massive animatronic and will be gentle with you due to his size.

He hates his original name “Montgomery” according to him it is “A wacky name for a bass player” and that’s why he prefers his nickname.

He’s very jealous of you. If anyone seems like a threat to him he will stand next to you wrapping his tail around you.

If he is having an outburst again the other band members and staff would call you to calm him down. He seems to only listen to you when he’s in that state.

He’d definitely have a picture of you two in his greenroom.

He was the biggest fan of Bonnie and definitely had a plushie of him in his room.

He has the biggest marking kink you could ever imagine. He can’t go one session without giving you at least two bite marks.

He is very dominant and also demands this position. Every time you try to initiate something he’d quickly turn it around so he’s the one on top of you.

He would use the pet names “Rockstar” and “Babe” a lot.

He gets easily attached to things you give him. Even if it’s something as simple as a dandelion you picked up before work, he’d keep it forever…

He likes to pick you up and he will make cheeky comments about your height. (Even if you’re just 1cm shorter than him).

He loves to edge you until your legs shake from frustration and he’s always teasing you about it.

He loves seeing you get all flustered when he compliments you.

He’d be the type to say “Did ya’ do somethin with your hair? Looks great…” even though you did nothing new with your looks. It makes you laugh every time.

He’d have a hard time showing you affection through words so he likes to leave you little notes that say “have a good day/night” or “I hope we’ll see each other soon.”

When you’re working with him in Parts & Service he’d always look at you with admiration. He doesn’t know a thing about his mechanics so he’s really impressed with your abilities.

Sometimes on your breaks or after your shift you go to gator golf to see Monty and occasionally play golf with him. He’s obviously a really good player so it’s hard to compete with him.

Once you won a game and he just pushed you into the lakes and laughed historically as you tried to get out.

You tried to get back on him and do the same but he was too heavy to be pushed away. So he just jumped to the side and you fell down into the lake yourself. He laughed and said “Haha! Karma is a bitch, rockstar!”

He would also enjoy taking you around the Pizzaplex to places where you weren’t before.

When you cuddle with him he always puts his head on top of yours.

Sometimes you two get too caught up in a conversation that he forgets to charge and he goes on standby mode. (Freddy comes to help you if that happens).

He knows your work schedule better than you do yourself. “Monty when do I have to start working again tomorrow?”. “8pm till 6am. You have the night shift tomorrow.”

He lets you put on his glasses and eventually gets you a pair of them in the gift shop.

He loves to hear you beg for pleasure. He will overstimulate you so much that you can only say his name and beg for more.

With enough convincing and reassurance he’ll open up to you about his feelings. And once he does he’s extremely grateful that you don’t judge him.

If he’d ever hurt you by accident he wouldn’t forgive himself. But he’ll be harsh if you want him too.

When he has an outburst and you get called to handle it he’ll say stuff like “Why would ever want to be with me!? Don’t you see that I’m a monster…?” while his voice cracks down while he sobs in your arms.

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Thank you all for reading my little Headcanons!(人´∀`) It’s been my first time listing them and I’m quite happy how it turned out! Perhaps I’ll even do more Fnaf SB characters?

- Your Ghost ༼ つ ╹ ╹ ༽つ

[blu3-j]

Welcome...Home..?

Overworked! GN! Reader X Welcome Home Crew

Chapter 1

TW: none

The beginning of a grand new friendship, and a bunch of new adventures yet to come. It appears as though our main character has yet to see just what they're about to go through. Such a busy bee!

Chapter 1 l Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 l Chapter 4

You slowly trudged up the steps of your porch, completely exhausted. Work has been awfully busy lately, with customers constantly coming in and out and being...."fun", as your boss put it. Not only that, but the workload your college classes have been putting on you lately has been overbearing! You've barely had any time to yourself. You haven't had time to indulge in your favorite hobbies, talk to any of your friends, or even look much at social media. It was a constant race to get things done and keep that money you so desperately needed rolling in.

You slid the key in the keyhole and turned. The door clicked open and a dark, dusty house welcomed you. An exasperated sigh sounded from you. Unfortunately, with your busy schedule, you also haven't had much time to clean your house.

You had been passed down your house from your great grandparents, who had both passed away a few years back. It was completely paid off, and even had some forest property to go along with it! Unfortunately, it was also pretty far in the forest, so you had to get up a bit extra early to make it anywhere on time. It also took up quite a bit of gas to get anywhere from there. You would move in with somebody to make it easier on yourself, but you didn't have many friends that lived in town anymore. None of the ones that did wanted or needed a roommate. Additionally, being a skeptic and cautious person led to not trusting many people on the internet. There was always a chance they would screw you over or possibly even murder you. You never knew.

Thud!

You dropped your heavy bag on the floor and your stomach, quick to catch the cue, growled. There was barely a thing in the fridge for ready-made food, and all of your dishes were dirty and disgusting. Even the thought of taking the time to wash them all made you feel more exhausted than you already were. The pantry didn't have much, either, but there was one thing that you could make in a few minutes without any extra work needed. Instant noodle cups.

"I really do play into the broke, tired college kid stereotype, huh?" You grumbled as you grabbed a cup from the pantry. It only took a few minutes, but you decided upon waiting for it to finish cooking to turn to the living room. The tv was dusty and rarely used, but you figured with the little free time you had you would watch something. "Anything to get my mind off of those Susans and Karens I have to face at work." The remote sat lonely in its spot on the tv stand as you walked over and picked it up. The screen was full of static for a moment, then to a news broadcast station. Humming, you flicked through the various stations, eventually settling on the most colorful one of them all.

A children's cartoon had just ended, and the colorful characters were saying their final goodbyes to the viewers.

"Maybe something simple will let me veg out for a bit. I don't need anything complicated right now." A small ding from the kitchen caught your attention. "Sounds like the noodles are done." One last mumble came from you as you turned your back to the tv and walked away. "My brain is already fried enough as is." When you got back and plopped down on your couch, a new cartoon had popped up. You figured it was a cartoon, anyway, from the extremely colorful title card. "Welcome Home" it read. "Must be a new show."

The colorful title card faded away and the camera panned down to a live set. The colorful scene caught your attention in full, and you felt yourself almost entranced. A house in the middle of a small neighborhood with eyes stared the viewer down with a supposedly friendly gaze. It waved with a window shutter before opening the door to the viewer as the camera wandered in. Inside, sitting at a canvas and easel was a small yellow puppet. He was humming away the show's friendly tune, slowly squeezing paint onto his palette. Finally, he noticed the viewer.

"Oh, hello, neighbor!" He waved to the viewer. His voice was gentle and slightly monotone. Strange, as he seems to be the main character. "Don't they usually have the main character of children's shows as more extraverted and full of energy and emotion?" "I was just about to start painting a lovely new painting for my friend Barnaby." He hummed and grabbed a brush, but hesitated upon moving to dip it in the paints. His gaze went back to the viewer, and he laughed. It was just as monotone as his usual voice, but what was even more off-putting was it being almost robotic in nature. "Oh, no. Thinking about it, I actually don't know what to paint." The handle tip of the brush was put against his cheek as the small puppet thought. "Say, neighbor," He looked back at the viewer. The small puppet's gaze distracted you from your food.

"That's weird...why does it feel...?" "As though he's looking directly at me?"

"Do you have any ideas? I'm sure there's some great ones in that head of yours!" His grin widened. Is that even possible for a puppet? You decided to remain quiet and stare back at him, completely entranced by the dark pools of his eyes. One minute went by. Then two. It wasn't until a third went by when you realized he hadn't gone back to painting. He was still staring, quiet and patient. "Neighbor?" The monotone voice caught you off gaurd, and you jumped in your seat. The puppet laughed and his gaze fell away from you for a moment. Just one. "Oh, no! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!" You felt your blood run cold as he spoke once again, his voice even more gentle and ominous than before. Are you just that tired? Are you dreaming? You must be! "I can see you, you know." There it was again. That same, monotone laugh. His voice went back to normal. "That's okay if you don't want to answer me! It must be so strange for you. That I can see you. That I'm talking to you. But you don't have to worry! I won't hurt you!" The yellow puppet's eyes went wide. "Oh! I have an idea, now! You gave me the perfect idea, neighbor! I'll paint you!"

A breath left your lungs as you watched him turn his attention back to his canvas and start painting. One you hadn't realized you'd been holding. He hummed the show's tune once more as he went to painting on his canvas. It would be comforting, if it wasn't for the fact he was indeed painting your unlit living room.

"It's nice to have a new neighbor." He mumbled out just loud enough for you to hear. "Not many come to visit anymore." He glanced back at you for a moment before he went back to painting. "Oh, silly me, I forgot to introduce myself! I was too excited...I'm Wally. Wally Darling." The puppet, as you now knew as Wally, went silent. Not even a theme song played in the background. Just the silence of his livingroom...and his occasional humming.

Time rolled by. After a while, it almost felt like normal. Like you two had known each other for a while and were just on some sort of quiet camera call. Your tense shoulders eventually relaxed, and although you were still too cautious to speak to the puppet, your eyelids slowly, ever so slowly, shut. Overworking yourself had gotten to you, and no longer could your body continue to stay awake. A small, gentle, monotone voice called to you. So small, you barely noticed. So gentle, it sealed the final nail in you falling into the deep depths of dreams.

"Goodnight, neighbor."

[promethea-silk]

Coup de grâce

Papers littered the usually well kept desk, Cordelia’s attention fluttering from one stack to the next as her intensive gaze scanned each item one by one. It was missing, a lot of it was missing but where were the errors? Everything had been precisely documented in detail all with her direction in how it was to be handled. Where did it go wrong? 

“Exactly how did this happen?” The icy tone of her voice made the inquiry that much concerning as she spoke it with extreme calmness. Wren had already been dispatched to directly handle the currently scheduled outgoing inventory, not only passing it off to the crew but accompanying the trade for the entirety of the journey.

Tilly held her head low, daring not to lift her gaze for the moment as Cordelia bristled with aggravation. By this point, the Lady of the House had been kicking herself, having allowed her attention to be pulled away by outside influences. She had spent far too long chasing after answers from ghosts in the past and all the while doing so, letting her guard down and falling victim to the feelings shared between her and another. He had shown up late that night, hours after the news that an unknown being had been siphoning and stealing funds and inventory via these trade routes bargained with Lady Cress. Cordelia had previously leaned on him, relinquishing some of the control she fought for never ending while entangled night after night, but that evening had solidified that she wasn’t making the right choice. At least, not now. 

The explanation was simple and to the point, despite Cordelia’s deeper thoughts on the matter, she knew this was what needed to be done. Normally, she would have sought his expertise on this issue, it had become something she had grown accustomed to. Perhaps that was part of her downfall, in the end. Since before marrying Ambrose, Cordelia had worked best alone and without requiring the help of another, let alone a man. Even still, there had been an odd tinge within her midsection when she broke the courtship and asked for space. He had been hard to read, surely not happy on the decision but also there was no fighting back on it. She was glad for that, it made it easier in a way for her, for both of them to be stoic in the moment to an extent.

That had been then; now, days later as she sat behind the desk covered with falsified and forged documents, Lady Gray’s attention was resolute. Learning this had been the final blow to any distractions that remained outside of her house and home. 

She tossed the papers aside, her hands coming up to cup either side of her face with a heavy sigh. The timing could not have been worse, but perhaps that is what they, whoever they may be, anticipated. "Send word to Mr. Thorne, have him meet with Wren at delivery destination to ensure all items are procured by the proper entities. Have them linger and collect the royalties personally."

Pressing her hands now to the edge of the desk, she pushed back and stood. Tilly now took this opportunity to lift her gaze to meet the lady of the house. Cordelia leveled with the smaller one, waving at hand at her to shoo her on her way. She had to do some digging of her own, a little more of a deeper dive into the workings of this trade route. Oddly enough, the timing of revealing her identity just a week prior to Vahalia just might end up being in her favor more than anticipated.

[mysisypheannightmare]

Malfunction

Word Count: 10530

Warnings: Hurt No Comfort, heavy angst, extreme crying (seriously, it’s A LOT), suicidal behavior/attempted suicide, multiple instances of self-harm, injury, biting, brief mentions of blood, choking/strangulation, difficulty breathing, extreme amounts of negative thinking, self-loathing, panic attack/anxiety attack, mental breakdown, pushing past emotional/mental limits, overworking, sensory processing issues, partial mutism/struggling through mutism, denied help when asked, insomnia, implied sleep-deprivation, stress, depression, anxiety, brief explicit language, other sides & Thomas misunderstanding the situation and reacting poorly (NOT unsympathetic)

Notes: Please heed these warnings. This is a long and intense fanfic that is essentially 99% pure angst. It is also mostly based on personal experience, so I don’t fully know how to tag some of it. If you have tag suggestions, please let me know and I’ll add it to the warning tags.

There is an additional note at the end.

And shoutout to @intrulogical for the perfect idea that sparked this fic! It really turned into its own kind of monster in the end...

If you're ready, please enjoy!

–

He really should have expected something to go wrong.

Logan had only been given a single day before the deadline to get everything ready.

Roman had come up with a new video idea, throwing out the old plan all because he'd had what he decided to call a "sudden stroke of creative genius" just yesterday. Logan had offered that they stick with their initial plan and work the new idea into next month's schedule instead, but Roman had refused. He’d been so insistent that the new idea couldn't wait, that he had slaved away in his own room all day to construct the new script, so all he needed was the proper research done and a quick look over for any typos...which, of course, would fall to Logan's department. Unwilling to hear Logan out about having to rearrange the schedule on such short notice, Roman left Logan with a pile of papers, notes, and a memo pad full of lyrics for a song he would be adding on top of everything, and there was very little Logan could do but, well, his job.

He had sighed, organized the papers enough to find the research topics he needed to collect data on, and got to work.

As he'd informed Roman, he had to completely rearrange his schedule for the day to accommodate the new, daunting task before him. Pushing aside his own priorities was simple enough, but he'd have to let the other sides know that he'd need to postpone his prior arrangements with them, and he'd have to find a way to make Roman's new plan work around Thomas' necessary evening and nightly tasks. With them filming first thing the very next day, Logan would have to be sure Thomas had everything set up and ready before he went to bed that night or they'd be behind schedule for the shoot, which would only make things worse.

Thankfully, Thomas had already expected this and needed little persuading, and Virgil was willing to step in and make sure Thomas double-checked everything before turning in for the night.

But then he had to keep reminding Thomas to get off his phone and sleep already so he wouldn't be tired in the morning, which kept distracting Logan from getting his research done.

Once Thomas had finally fallen asleep, Logan tried his best to focus in on the main topic Roman had chosen. While he kind of hoped Roman's sudden change of plans would at least include information he was already privy to, he could never be so lucky.

So, instead, he would be up all night, foregoing any sleep so he could learn as much as possible about the psychological nuances of obsession and passion, Roman’s apparent ‘genius’ topic idea. Collecting data and cross-referencing Roman's new script was time-consuming, but he was certain he could get most of it done in time for the shoot.

Logan glanced down at the clock. 12:18am. See? Plenty of time to get everything ready.

He flipped a page of the script to find dozens upon dozens of hand-written notes from Roman, some kind of last-moment addition where he wanted more detail about obsession included in a particular scene. Oh boy, Logan really was about to be in for a long night...

–

After having opened the thirtieth medical article on this topic, Logan wanted nothing more than to just close everything down and crawl into bed, consequences be damned. But, no, he had a job to do, so it didn't matter if he was tired.

He glanced down at the clock. 4:08am.

Okay, just another four hours and fifty-two minutes before Thomas was scheduled to get up. He leaned back in his desk chair and looked over at the stack of papers he still had left to review. He'd made it over halfway through already, and that likely left just enough time to finish the research and a quick glance-over for typos before Thomas got up in the morning. So, right on time, then.

His gaze drifted back to the article pulled up on his computer when his mind harshly reminded him that he would need to review his schedule before deciding he had the right amount of time left, as he couldn't ignore Thomas' direct tasks in the morning, no matter how much importance Roman placed on his script.

Welcoming the distraction from research for a bit, Logan opened his schedule and verified what had been moved and postponed to accommodate Roman's change of plans.

Thomas' morning routine was still intact, but there was clear overlap in the final prep time for filming and Logan's research window, especially considering he had to put off his prior arrangements yesterday evening with all the other sides so he'd have to be ready for any questions that may arise. And since they would be filming that morning, there were bound to be a lot of questions.

Logan sighed. Okay, so he didn't have as much time as anticipated, but that was fine. He could probably just pick up his pace for now to make sure the workload would be completed efficiently.

And that's when he noticed a missed schedule change from yesterday that hadn't been moved or postponed. In regards to some missing files that he hadn't been able to locate before the prior episode’s filming day, which had caused a whole uproar due to the lack of memorized information Thomas needed to rely on. He had set the time aside to verify the files' whereabouts for the day right before the shoot this time so he could be sure he had it and wouldn't lose it before the filming began, to keep Thomas from worrying about it for an extended period and to maintain Logan’s own reputation as being reliable to Thomas and the others.

But he hadn't done it. He'd completely skipped over it because he had prioritized it as a personal task, but when he rescheduled his whole day, he had set all his personal tasks to low priority or removed them so he would have adequate time for Roman's necessary script changes. But this one task hadn't been removed due to its importance, and yet he'd completely forgotten about it.

He stood up, wanting to go find the files right away, but the sudden movement knocked some of Roman's papers and notes to the floor and he hastily scrambled to pick them back up.

He set them back on the desk. The pile was only half-finished. If he paused the research now, it wouldn't be done before filming started. But if he didn't find the missing files, Thomas would find him unreliable! He had specifically asked Logan to locate the missing information, but Roman had demanded this research be done on time, too!

Logan looked down at his hands to find them shaking.

Odd.

He ignored it and sat down to look back over his schedule. Surely there was something else he could remove from his morning tasks to give him some extra time?

The only priorities were Thomas' morning routine, the preparations for filming, and being available to answer questions. Oh, that's right, he would have to be readily available for any questions from the others leading up to the filming start time, which meant he couldn't be back in the library storage locating the files at that time.

Well, scratch that idea then. But maybe he could power through the research during the questions time. Or maybe there wouldn't be as many questions as usual, giving him that tiny bit more leeway?

Or, perhaps he could create a list of frequently asked questions and answers for the others to quickly reference so that they wouldn't need to ask him-- oh no, wait, then he'd have to take time creating the list and making copies for everyone, so he'd only lose more time that way.

He looked down at the clock again. 4:32am. 

He gawked. Had he wasted that much time on this already? How was he going to get anything done on time now?

His vision seemed to swim for a moment and he grabbed onto the edge of his desk to keep himself steady. What on earth was that all about? 

He raised a hand to adjust his glasses, for some reason thinking that may help, only to notice he was breathing really heavily.

Well, that was rather impractical, he thought. He was metaphysical, and therefore shouldn't need to breathe. So why exactly was he breathing so quickly and heavily?

Oh, wait, right, that was called hyperventilating. Why was he hyperventilating then?

His mind seemed to race at the implication, supplying him with everything he'd deduced up to that moment - how he'd have to resolve the deadline problem in another way if at all possible, how there was so much he still hadn't gotten done yet, and how he definitely seemed to be overwhelmed at the moment.

That wasn't good.

He didn't notice that he was swaying the second time and fell right out of his chair and onto the floor, now aware he was quite nauseous and that his head seemed to be pounding with a growing headache.

Why was this happening? What was wrong with him??

This was very unusual, given he didn't often lose balance or display any symptoms of illness. It wasn't unheard of, sure, but it certainly didn't come out of nowhere like this, for no discerning reason.

He tried to bring a hand up to his face again, only to immediately fall forward and land flat on the floor.

His first thought was to try to sit up, but his energy seemed to completely disappear and he just laid there uselessly. This was such a waste of time, on top of everything he'd already learned about the schedule and his inability to properly redistribute necessary tasks... How could he have let this happen?

He wouldn't normally make such an enormous error, would he? No, something had to be wrong here. Some kind of glitch or malfunction he hadn't noticed until it had started to wreak havoc on him like this.

How could he have let it go unnoticed, though?

It wasn't until his glasses began to fog up that he realized he was crying, too, and once he noticed that, it seemed to increase by a ridiculous amount. What must have started as a mere trickle was now a faucet on full blast, and he could hear himself begin to sob loudly. 

He somehow sat up just barely then, clutching at his head as he became even more light-headed and dizzy from that one simple action and all the noise he was making.

How could this be happening? Why had things gone so wrong?

Aware enough to at least take stock of what was occuring, he noted he was still hyperventilating while also crying, and before he could move onto the next symptom of whatever this problem was, he squeezed his eyes shut and started screaming.

Like the crying wasn't disruptive enough, his screams seemed to bounce off every wall around him, the floor beneath him echoing the clamorous cacophony right back into his ears, sounding so desperate and terrified.

Neither the sobbing nor screaming would cease when he tried to force it to stop, it just wouldn’t stop, and it only seemed to get louder and louder.

What the fuck was wrong with him?

He must have broken something in his usual coding and this had been the result, or it was due to crossed wires or something coming loose. That was the only thing that could explain how horrible he was acting right now, and how awful this felt.

But it didn’t matter how it felt, he just needed it to stop.

He had to make it stop.

But how?

His mind was racing, trying to sift through the multiple mistakes he'd already made in less than a day, with many more in the past and soon to be more in the future ready to add on to the pile. The moment he tried to think of proposing a solution to the source of all this - the timing error - he couldn't get to the next step in weighing his options and the idea's many variables because his mind would suddenly flood in with more problems. It left his ears ringing and his jaw feeling sore from all his own crying and screaming.

How had he let this get so out of hand? What was he supposed to do if he couldn't think straight long enough to fix it?

What if he couldn’t fix it?

Surely this wasn’t just happening because he'd messed something up with his workload, even if that was obviously an unfixable mistake and meant that he had ruined everything and it’dl been all his fault... But the action had simply caused something in his brain to misfire and resulted in all this bizarre stuff, instead of something understandable, like a standard level of trepidation or a marginal amount of stress, just enough to motivate him to keep going.

This? This was not normal. And it was far from understandable.

He rubbed at his eyes, trying to stop all the tears.

But the root cause of the issue was his mistake. So if he tried to focus his attention on fixing that specific part, maybe then he could fix the rest of it?

It was worth a shot!

He had no idea what other options he had left, though…

But maybe he could ask someone else for a new suggestion? If his mind was rendered temporarily faulty and he wasn’t capable of thinking clearly, maybe there was an answer he wasn't aware of that he could try instead? He'd just have to ask someone... 

But who?

–

Shoving his fist to his mouth to quiet the incessant sobbing and possibly pause the hyperventilating, Logan had managed to get himself up on wobbly knees and then to his feet without falling over again. It was hard to keep quiet, as his mind seemed to fog over the moment he was standing and any thought that came through caught more crying in his throat. Once he made it to his door and got it open, he pulled both hands to his mouth, trying to force himself silent to keep from waking anyone.

He'd not bothered to check the time again, but with how dark it was in the hallway, he assumed not much time had passed yet. Perhaps he ought to have been grateful for that.

He stumbled as quietly as he could to the first door he saw upon exiting his room - Patton's.

Even though he couldn't really think of a legitimate reason to ask for his help with his mind so hazy, he figured Patton would probably be someone with an idea of what to do next, even if it didn't work. Logan just needed to try something, anything, at this point!

He removed one hand to knock on Patton's door, but it somehow managed to wind up slammed against the door instead, like he'd been throwing a punch.

What the hell was wrong with him? Maybe Patton could figure that much out?

If Patton couldn't come up with a solution to the scheduling problem, perhaps he could have some idea why Logan was suddenly malfunctioning like this?

He tried to knock again, and this time nearly completely whiffed trying to connect with the door. He really wished he could get this under control. He was so worthless like this, wasting time when he should have been researching.

Oh geez, the research! He clutched at his head, stress flooding in all over again. He hadn't even bothered to tab through the remaining pages to properly estimate how far along he could get before the deadline inevitably emerged.

Without warning, or at least none he'd been made aware of, the door in front of Logan swung open, revealing a very tired-looking Patton standing just inside, sans glasses.

Oh, good, now Logan could ask for his help and resolve the first part of this problem! But what about the malfunction? He still hadn't been able to stop crying, but crying was something Patton understood, right? It was some kind of an emotions thing. Was this an emotions thing then? Surely that meant Patton would be the exact side to consult about this!

Logan pulled away his other hand and attempted to speak, but all that came out was a jumbled mess of sounds and an obnoxiously loud sob.

He hadn't intended to be so noisy, especially since it was still so late, but he seemed to have no control over his volume, either. The tears only seemed to pick up at that thought and he tried to see Patton through them, but everything was just a blur now.

Patton wore an unreadable expression then, made even more impossible for Logan to decipher as his vision shifted and blurred behind all the unstoppable tears.

"Uhm, Logan, I..." Patton stammered out, looking at him with confusion. "I can't really understand you."

Logan shook his head, intending to try again, but the crying and sobbing were now back in full force and he tried to shove a hand over his mouth at the same time that he spoke.

"It's... The-- the time," he tried. "I need... P-please..."

He couldn't seem to get half of a word out before he was suddenly inhaling as much breath as he could, cutting himself off each time. The sentence he tried hadn't made any sense and the crying and hyperventilating only made it that much harder to understand.

This malfunction was ruining everything!

Patton frowned, and Logan shoved his hands over his mouth immediately, finally recognizing a sob was about to come moments before it did. The lack of air left him dizzy again, but he focused on Patton. Maybe he could at least have an idea of something to try? Anything, anything, please!

Patton sighed.

"Logan, I'm sorry, I just... I don't know how to help if I can't even understand you." He glanced away and then back, adding, "Just go and calm down first, okay?"

And then he shut the door.

Logan stood there, silent. The sobbing seemed to have stopped, possibly from how off-guard he'd been made from Patton's decision just then.

He hadn't expected that at all.

A hiccup escaped him, followed by another loud sob, and he rushed back to his room and slammed the door behind him before the screaming could start back up again.

What were his options now?

Patton had said to calm down, but did that mean he knew what this was? Was this normal? Were emotions always like this?

If Patton wasn't bothered by the display, then that meant something, right? Surely that indicated this was just how emotions worked... So maybe he wasn't broken, after all! He was still usable like this, he just needed to figure out how to shut the emotions part off so he could get back to being productive.

He just had to fix it.

He stumbled forward, trying to make his way back to his desk chair.

The other sides had emotions, too, but they weren't as loud and annoying as he was being right now, so that indicated there had to be an off switch, some way to maintain better control. He just needed to find whatever that was so this would stop being so disruptive and he could get back to work. He couldn't keep wasting everyone's time.

He had a deadline to meet.

The very second that thought processed in his mind, the screaming returned in full force. He tried shoving his hands over his mouth but the screaming persisted. He had to make this stop! There had to be something that would work! 

He let go, looking around, hoping to find something that might help. 

The quick movement jostled his glasses on his face, and he swung his hand up to catch them, effectively hitting himself in the side of the head. Without further thought to the action, he found himself balling up both hands into fists, now smacking himself on both sides of his head repeatedly.

Why was he doing this?

Why wouldn't this just stop?? 

Why wasn't there just a mute button or an off switch? Why was this system so complicated that there could be no simple solution to the mess it caused??

Hit after hit against the side of his head made the headache he'd noticed earlier grow stronger, the thoughts on his mind seeming to slow from their rampant and racing pace.

He managed to stop one of his hands before he landed another hit, and glanced over at his hand before sucking in a shaky breath.

Oh, right, the crying still hadn't stopped.

He was still uselessly wasting time.

He squeezed his eyes shut. He needed to think, to focus. He lowered his hands, everything both inside and out of him seeming uneasy and tense.

Patton had said to calm down. Maybe he needed to start with that.

Oh wait, maybe he just needed to refocus on the task at hand? The research!

He wasn’t sure what he would typically do to calm down. He wasn’t sure he ever needed to calm himself before, as most flares of emotions or bizarre behavior would only spark and burn out quickly. There was no need to calm down before now. What was a method that should work?

Perhaps a menial task?

He stumbled over to his desk and sat down, trying to hold his breath at intervals to get it steady again. Was it ever steady? That didn't matter. He held his breath for a few moments then inhaled again, trying to get the hyperventilating under control as he leaned towards his computer. 

He returned to the medical journal he'd been starting to read earlier (he stopped himself from checking the clock again to see just how long ago that had been), but he could barely see through the tears, everything blurring at the edges. He wiped at his eyes incessantly, trying to stay focused.

Just read. Get the information, add it to the notes as necessary, and get the job done. 

He held his breath again, but a sob broke out from behind his gritted teeth. The moment the sob broke free, it would grow into a scream. The screaming-sobbing was so loud and annoying, still seeming to bounce off the walls around him whenever he thought to tune back in to notice. 

It was normal, though, he had to remind himself. This was fine. He just had to focus on the research and it would go away. 

This will work. It had to!

It didn't, though. He went on like that for nearly half an hour, having finally bothered to check the clock. He'd made minimal progress, notably from having to stop reading periodically because his vision was still swimming at times and he was repeatedly feeling lightheaded from constantly trying to hold his breath and failing. 

Clearly, the screaming sobs and constant hyperventilating had to stop. If he could get those parts under control, he could keep focused and everything else would fix itself.

He resisted covering his mouth right away, mind now switching tasks to try to solve this issue for good.

There had to be a way to get his breathing back to normal.

The thoughts didn't immediately connect together but he looked down at his hand and, after another blink to clear the tears, he found himself biting into the back of it, hard. 

The screaming now sounded muffled, but only just barely, so he bit down harder. His hand spasmed for a moment and pain shot through his wrist and up his arm.

He could taste blood. Gross.

He could feel his hand throbbing against his teeth, overtaking the slight buzzing sensation from his muffled cries against his skin. His jaw began to ache from holding it in place, but he ignored it.

This...wasn't so bad.

It was somewhat freeing, the pain in his hand warring against the overwhelming thoughts in his mind. He could sense the pushback, like the pain wanted nothing more than to win out.

He adjusted his jaw and bit down again, just as hard. The taste of blood flooded his senses alongside the searing pain.

And that was when he realized... the screaming had stopped. Oh god, and his arm hurt more than he'd ever thought possible, but the screaming had stopped!

He let go, and immediately saw the terrible bite marks and blood on the back of his hand. That didn't look pleasant, but at least it worked! He almost smiled at this small point of victory, but he lifted his hand and stared forward, ready to ride this rush to get back on track.

Unfortunately, it only took a few moments of trying to type before he had to stop because he kept dripping blood onto his keyboard, plus his hand was still randomly cramping and spasming from the pain, so he decided to get up and wrap his hand in a bandage for the time being.

The bleeding had stopped and was taken care of fairly quickly, but flexing his hand even just a tiny bit would send pain shooting up his forearm and down his fingertips, so he tried to stay aware of that as he stepped back towards his desk.

He noticed his mind seemed far clearer than it was minutes ago. From the decision to take care of his hand to the far quieter state of his room without all the screaming, he supposed Patton's suggestion really had worked.

He felt something drop on his uninjured hand and, upon seeing the drop of water, he realized he was still crying quite profusely, but clearly not as loudly and obnoxiously. He wiped away the incessant tears, but was grateful he'd at least managed to get the screaming part to stop. That was still progress, he assumed.

He sucked in a breath. Ah, he was still breathing bizarrely, but not quite as severely as he was earlier when he was hyperventilating. Definitely marked progress! That meant there really was a way to fix this, he just needed to try harder.

He took a seat and stared at the clock on his computer. 5:51am.

He ignored the pulsating pain in his hand that seemed to marginally increase as he ran the math in his head, seeing he only had three hours and nine minutes left before Thomas would be up and the research would be due.

He could hear the occasional light drips of tears as they fell onto his desk while he opened his research notes file on the computer to verify where he'd last left off.

And that's when he noticed, now that his mind was clear enough to see, multiple typos made in the last paragraph he'd typed. 

Shit.

Without hesitation, the hyperventilating returned in full force as he scrambled to correct every typo he could find. As he kept clicking further back into the document, he found more and more errors, and it quickly dawned on him that he'd have to recheck the entire file and all the ones he'd written before it, too. With the submission deadline fast approaching, he knew there wouldn't be time. He was already behind, and they expected this to be done and without all these pointless errors! 

What the hell was he supposed to do?

He squeezed his eyes shut, tears picking up again, and pain in his hand throbbing when he forced it into a fist and slammed it down on the desk. Fuck, that hurt!

He was supposed to have been making progress, but now things were even worse than they were before! He'd wasted all this time for nothing and he was right back at square one again!

He tried to catch his breath before any sobbing could return. The hyperventilating made him feel faint even faster than last time and he leaned forward, his eyes fixing on his bandaged hand. Why had that only worked for such a short while? Why had it worked at all?

He leaned down to try biting it again, but his hand was still already throbbing in pain. 

Perhaps the other hand would be better? No, what if doing that hindered his ability to type fast enough or even at all? Small progress was better than no progress at this point, so there had to be something else.

He leaned back in his chair a bit, his mind starting to fog again. 

Oh, no, that wasn’t good! He hadn’t even gotten anything useful done yet!

A jolt of pain ran up his arm and he reached up to cover his mouth again, knowing another sob was about to break out.

This wasn’t working.

The cry broke free anyway and rang loudly in his ears, the sound reverberating off the walls again, somehow still louder after all the short but cherished moments of silence he’d had in the meantime.

He slowly dropped his hands down to his neck, curling his fingers around each side. Without time to let a thought pass, he squeezed. Tight but not too tight, just enough to slightly hurt, just enough to get the breathing to stop for a moment, whether it was the hyperventilating or otherwise. 

He felt a tingling sensation in his mouth, then the tingling traveled down to his chest. It was strong, almost overwhelming, numbing out the pain in his hand, and his mind provided no indication of what any of that should mean. 

But then his chest heaved and he let go, sputtering. He grabbed at the tie around his neck, pushing and pulling it away, to help him breathe again. He felt at his neck with a few fingers and then pulled them away as the sensation against his skin began to sting. 

He sucked in a breath and then exhaled....normally. Wait, that had worked? He was back to breathing normally again, albeit with large gulps of air at first, but no hyperventilating! He stared down at his hands, amazed that had worked so quickly, so efficiently.

He'd done it. This was the answer! 

Staying focused, redirecting the pain when it overwhelmed him - it was a fast enough turnaround with minimal side effects that he could keep working!

It was perfect.

Even more enthused than his last bout of victory and progress, he leaned forward in his chair and went right back to work.

Based on the time he had left, he'd have to just power through into the questioning period to properly verify that the script pages and his notes of research were all submittable before the deadline, but that should be far more achievable now. Besides, he'd foregone sleep to do that plenty of times in the past without problem, and with this new process to keep his breathing maintained and steady, it should be simple.

Though his neck now occasionally ached, joining the continuing pulsing pain in his bandaged hand, Logan flipped another page of Roman's script, determined to get as much of this work done as he possibly could on time.

Some progress was still better than no progress, so he just needed to get close enough. Not that anything he did was ever enough, but he just had to accept that for now.

He pointedly ignored the clock again, and only paused every now and then to wipe away the tears that continued to trickle out for the next hour, silent and steady, as if he somehow held an endless supply within him. It was surprising he hadn't been able to stop, after all this time that had passed. He figured it had to stop on its own eventually, but more would always come.

Multitasking just a bit as he got near the end of the pile, he organized the files as he went, preparing them for the deadline. He readied everything he needed and tried not to allow any further delay. Forcing himself to stay on task, despite only the slightest pauses to deal with the constant silent tears, seemed to work.

His mind was still at odds with his goal here, but he couldn't deny that progress was being made. That was what mattered here, the rest of it was just a hindrance anyway.

And while he didn't feel calm, he figured that perhaps his misunderstanding of emotions had merely skewed his ability to recognize what that was meant to feel like. Maybe this was what was normal, and he'd finally achieved it? That should be a good thing. He should be satisfied.

–

By the time he was down to the last four pages of the script, just the barest pieces left, it was already well into the morning. Thomas hadn't woken up yet, as expected, and Logan considered his options as his new tasks were about to come due.

After he completed the last few pages, he would need to quickly review the full script as well as his own notes, checking for errors and typos. It shouldn't take too long, so long as there weren't too many mistakes. While he was doing that, he could remain available for questions regarding the shoot that would start in a couple hours. 

The missing files were still missing, of course, but Logan had pushed that aside for now. Any time the thought resurfaced in his mind, he merely shoved it back down again. 

He figured, if he could get everything else done first, he could try to find them just before the shoot started. It wasn't well thought-out, but even if it was, he knew everything would just spiral out of control again, so he was purposefully ignoring it until later. He could just do it later, surely.

He wiped more tears away. He really wished they'd just dry up already, especially since the other sides would come knocking any time soon and he didn't need them seeing him like this.

That choice was taken out of his hands, though, as Roman chose that moment to burst through Logan's door, announcing that he'd made some changes to his script overnight.

Logan grabbed the edge of his desk with his unbandaged hand, somewhat from genuinely being startled, somewhat to keep himself quiet, and pointedly stayed in position, not turning around.

"So I saw that there was this whole subsection about the passion of performance, right?" Roman had started to ramble a bit, and tossed down another copy of the script Logan had just spent the whole night working on. "And, right away, I was like, it has to be included so we have to have it in there!"

He laughed triumphantly, telling Logan he'd graciously made the needed notes last night and Logan could just throw out that part of the original script and just add the extra research in to the new part instead.

Logan had tried to speak, say just about anything in that moment, but his words shriveled to dust, leaving but a puff of air in their wake as they left his mouth. Nothing. Maybe that screaming had been a bigger problem than he'd even considered...

Roman then joked that it wasn't like Logan was busy, or anything, and walked his way back towards the door. 

"Oh! Deadline's still the same, though, because we gotta be ready to film here in just a bit!" Roman oh-so-kindly added and then stepped back out into the hall before turning around one last time. "See you there!"

And then he shut the door.

Logan blinked, feeling the tears in his eyes still welling up and falling out.

He felt his shoulders hunch up but the pain he had relied on in his hand was gone, more numb than anything else now.

He bit his lip, trying to get ahead of this before it could get worse.

Okay. He breathed. He could do this - he could.

The deadline remained the same, but he still had some time left. He would only have to adjust for completion of the task, and completely obliterate any chance at all of ever finding those missing files, therefore making him unreliable to everyone, especially Thomas, but at least he’d get the script review done on time. That was technically better than both tasks going unfinished, right? One out of two wasn’t so bad, probably. At least, he hoped that was the case.

After another large inhale, his breath came out shaky again, and he barely held in a whine as the crying desperately attempted to come back in full.

No, not now! It was almost time to answer everyone’s questions as they got up for their own morning routines. He needed to stay focused and get everything done first. He didn’t have time to stop so uselessly again to deal with tears!

He glanced over at the clock. 7:06am. Just under two hours before Thomas would be awake.

With a dry swallow, Logan determinedly reached over to switch out the pages of Roman’s script, as instructed. Timing would be everything in these last couple hours.

He willed himself to be calm. 

No more shaky hands getting in the way and keeping him unproductive. No more pointless crying, loud and obnoxious and keeping him from staying on task. No more rubbing his eyes to remove tears, constantly forcing him to pause his necessary duties.

These pointless distractions had to stop. Every second would count now.

It was quieter, though not silent. The tears were still coming, but only as a steady trickle. He could work with this.

Back to his research, he finalized which new additions would be placed where and tried to keep his mind as focused on that particular task as possible to block out any unwanted thoughts about how upset Thomas would be about the missing files once the deadline finally approached.

He couldn’t think about that now. He had to stay on task and get this done. That was what was most important.

Completing more of the research and turning more pages as quickly as he could manage in this state, he noticed he could hardly keep his eyes from drifting over to check the clock, and occasionally even the calendar posted up on the wall behind his desk, displaying the time Thomas would be prepping to film that morning in big, bold letters.

He blinked rapidly for a moment to remove some tears without having to stop himself from typing.

Timing was everything now, and as he turned another page, he wondered how much he could flex his schedule to try to guarantee his task completion. After all, he might be able to get away with only showing up just in time to begin his part of the shoot instead of getting there early to assist with the set up, as that would give him a tiny bit more time to prepare the script review. Would it be enough time to get everything done, like checking for the missing files? No, but even a few seconds could be made useful, he was sure of that.

So long as he didn’t squander them.

The problem, though, was that Thomas and the others expected him to be there early, as he always was, ready to coordinate Thomas’ setup for the cameras and verifying what equipment should be recording and when, so staying behind for the sake of grabbing a few seconds of extra time may not be possible if they ended up calling on him due to his absence. 

He was meant to be considered reliable, after all.

He couldn’t let them down. But he also couldn’t let them down by not getting this research and review done thoroughly. There wasn’t a way to do everything right, but he had to do as much as possible for now and hope he somehow had a little more time left for the rest.

His eyes hurt as he tried blinking away more tears. He really wished he had found a better solution to all this.

–

A knock on his door was the exact signifier that the morning’s question period had begun. As Thomas was meant to be up fairly soon, his sides were all waking up and getting ready themselves, especially since they would be filming in just a short while.

Logan quickly contemplated his next course of action in regards to the barrage of questions he knew he’d be enduring over the next hour. Standing up and going to his door to answer each time would waste precious seconds that he could better use continuing to work, so he decided to stay at his desk and simply raise his voice when responding.

It also saved time in not having to make himself look halfway-presentable, as the crying had still not stopped. He would have to get it under control before filming started, but that was at the bottom of his priority list at the moment and would have to wait until the research was done.

The knock came again, followed by a timid, “Uhh, Logan? You awake?”

He tried not to roll his eyes at the ridiculousness of the question. Was this how they were starting the questions period, with inane inquiries he didn’t need to waste his time answering?

Of course he was awake. He hadn’t slept.

“I am,” he called out, not turning away from the computer as he finished up the next paragraph of notes and continued to ignore his silent tears. “What do you need?”

Virgil’s voice sounded clearer as he asked, “I just wanted to double-check, uhh… We’re starting right at 9:30, right?”

Logan realized Virgil must have opened the door to peek his head in, which is why his voice was louder, but he hadn’t heard the door click open. Worrying, but he’d ignore it for now.

He took a steadying but silent breath before responding simply and resolutely,

“Yes.”

His eyes fell on the clock again. Only 28 minutes before Thomas was meant to wake up, leaving a total of 52 minutes before the shoot began. 

Logan heard Virgil mutter a thank you and close the door. First question done. Technically, this meant he was following his schedule correctly, so he should have found some satisfaction in that, but instead he found himself regretting it.

His throat felt tight and blinked away more tears, just barely feeling as one followed a past track all the way down his face and over his lips before dripping off his chin.

He resisted the urge to rub his eyes again, knowing it wouldn’t get the crying to stop anyway.

It was those damn missing files. 

He wanted to just stop everything and go get them, but he knew he couldn’t. If Roman’s script wasn’t updated in time, everyone, not just Roman, would be horribly disappointed and it would also delay their filming day, ruining the rest of the day’s schedule, which could potentially push back the next day’s schedule, destroying the steady pace he’d set for Thomas to follow for the entire week. 

All that work would be completely ruined, just because he didn’t feel like doing some more research right now! How pathetic. Why would he even consider stopping?

But he also knew Thomas would be upset about the missing files. He really didn’t want Thomas to be upset. Specifically, he didn’t want Thomas to be upset with him.

He squeezed his hands into fists. He had to just be satisfied with what he could get done for now. He knew that. He just had to accept it.

“Logan!” A loud, successive knock on his door rang out after the shout of his name, and Logan instinctively moved his hands up to cover his ears. No, wait, he couldn’t do that, he had to keep working! 

He diligently moved his hands back to the keyboard to continue typing. 

He called back, “Yes?”

His voice wasn’t as calm and clear as it was last time. He really hoped that he could maintain whatever level of control he’d managed to accumulate up to this point, or filming later was going to be awful. He really didn’t want to think about that.

He listened for the question.

No door opening this time. It was a question about the filming time again. Logan confirmed that, yes, they would be starting at 9:30.

He breathed as calmly as he could manage as soon as he heard the other side walk away.

There was something beating in his chest then. His heart, right. He had one of those.

It was beating so heavily, like it was trying to escape its confines. 

Why was he reacting this way to some simple questions? He’d been expecting this - it was in the schedule! Why was he filled with… was this panic? He wasn’t sure.

He sighed, aggravated at his own uselessness, and turned another page over, blinking away more tears. Only a couple more pages left and he’d be completely done. 

The end was finally in sight, and he would hopefully have just enough time to check it over again for typos and get himself ready before the shoot began.

Another knock. This time, he forced himself to not have a pointlessly-adverse reaction. He called out. They asked, he answered. They walked away.

See? He could do this. It was easy. His mind had all the answers ready, all he had to do was dispense them as needed.

Yet another knock. Yet another answer.

He turned over the next page.

More questions, more answers.

He could do this.

He powered through and was finally on the very last page when he heard an enthusiastic knock. It was Roman.

Not a question, though, he was just announcing that everyone needed to be heading down to the commons soon now that Thomas was finally awake.

Logan lifted his head, looking back at his door. He hadn’t even noticed Thomas had woken up. The unusual brightness in his room was suddenly apparent and he squinted, moving his gaze back to his computer screen. 

This was good, though. Thomas was awake on time and Logan was just moments from being done with the research. He would have just enough time to organize and review before they started filming. The research was more to benefit his role in the episode, anyway, so if he was a little delayed in delivering it, that would be fine. No one had to know it was completed only minutes before they started, after all.

He ignored the new ache in his neck as he finally flipped over the last page of the script and added his last notes to his file.

Wiping the stray tears from his hands, he reached over and reorganized the stack of papers, placing Roman’s newest notes to the top of the pile.

A post-it note he hadn’t noticed before sat on the very top. Written across it in Roman’s cursive, fancy handwriting, read “Be sure to check over your new lines!!!” 

Logan froze.

How had he not seen this earlier?

He immediately turned his attention back to the clock. 9:22am. 

Shit, there wouldn’t be time to memorize whatever new lines Roman had added!

The silence in the room seemed ominously loud then. He held his breath.

Okay, just keep calm. This was fine.

He could feel more tears building up, still unending as ever, and he skipped blinking them away to instead reach at his throat again.

Fingers twitching but ready, he stopped before he began to squeeze. He didn’t need to do this. He didn’t have time.

He could just…probably attempt to memorize the lines right now, while he reviewed for typos. That was what would be expected of him. No wasting time with distractions, right?

This was fine. He sniffled, trying now to hold in the tears in his eyes. He could do this.

He flipped through the tabbed-off script to find his new lines. They hadn’t been marked, but Roman’s notes pointed to where they should be inserted. How gracious, how helpful.

Logan blinked, numerous tears falling to the paper and staining it. Roman would be pissed at that, but at least he would know his lines. That had to be good enough. Some progress was better than none, and blah blah blah. 

He squeezed his eyes shut, gritting his teeth. No, just think about the script. Memorize the lines. Switching tasks wasn’t meant to be difficult. He just needed to do it correctly.

He took another deep breath, and forced himself to scan over the script page again.

He flipped the page, his hand coming up to his tie instead of resting on the page this time. He yanked absently at the tie, trying to keep everything clear in his mind. 

Read the words, know the words. It was easy. It was always supposed to be easy. He could do it.

He flexed his bandaged hand at his side. Another drop on the page told him the crying still hadn’t stopped, because of course he’d spent hours trying to do something and still managed to fail. 

How completely worthless did he have to be for him to be so affected by pointless, confusing emotions that he couldn’t discern, and even more pathetic for continuing to be affected after literal hours of dealing with them?

While he’d technically gotten the other malfunctions to stop with physical pain, the crying had never once gone away. Not on its own, not with his own attempts. 

He was kind of out of both time and ideas on getting it to stop now, though. And then he felt that familiar tug.

He was being called.

He took one last look at the time. 9:35am.

The others had already started then. 

He went to take another deep breath, but it was shakier than ever before. The hand yanking at his tie was shaking. His neck itched; his bandaged hand did, too. The inside of his mouth felt dry, his chest felt tight, and - oh, what do you know, the headache was starting to come back, too! 

Great.

He squeezed his eyes shut as he felt the tug again. Okay. He could do this. He just needed to remember his opening lines, and then he could just let the others take the lead and use that to keep his focus.

He could do this.

–

He sank into the commons. He could hear a few voices already speaking, and he tried his best to maintain his proper posture as he rose up in his usual position next to Thomas’ staircase.

Without hesitation, he opened his mouth to state his newly-memorized opening line, but it came out as a whisper.

He stopped himself and started again, trying to speak more clearly, only for the slightest lilt in his voice to take hold and he heard everything else around him grow silent.

Oh, god. He’d fucked up. 

No, no, no, he’d put all this work into everything, please just let him run the line again. He knew he could do it right, he just needed to try harder.

He should have tried harder the first time, obviously, but he swore he wasn’t this unreliable! Not usually, anyway…

That was when the question came. 

“Uhm, Logan… Are you okay?”

He wasn’t even sure who it was asking him this. His gaze had fallen to the floor.

He had no idea if he could answer such a question, after everything that had happened. 

But he’d already messed up, so he shouldn’t be so useless as to not answer their genuine questions, right?

He lifted his head, and tried not to squint as he looked past the bright set lights in his face. Thomas seemed to look concerned, eyeing him oddly. 

Right, Logan remembered. He hadn’t bothered to clean up his appearance before sinking out of his room. That would have been the right thing to do, but he’d managed to forget and mess that up, too, huh?

He turned and looked over at Virgil, who appeared to be frozen in shock. He looked to Roman, seeing an expression he wasn’t sure he recognized. If he had to guess, Logan would say it was some sort of mix between disgust and confusion. He supposed that would make sense, given Logan’s present state.

And then he managed to gaze past the light at Patton, who was giving him that pity-filled frown, the one he makes whenever he sees an animal or infant fall over. 

God fucking damn it all.

Logan apologized immediately. He knew, above all, he ought to not waste more of their time with this nonsense, but here he was, doing exactly that anyway.

He apologized again, but it came out lilted just like his memorized line had, and his words tasted salty. 

Right, he was still crying.

Shit, he hadn’t stopped crying this whole time. He’d never gotten it to stop. How completely pathetic and worthless did he have to continue to be?

Couldn’t he just do one thing right today?

He looked back over at Thomas, trying to keep his posture intact as he asked - practically begged - to run his line again.

“I won’t– I swear,” he tried to assure him. “I won’t mess it up again.”

Thomas instantly refused, shutting him down.

Logan bit his lip. God, of course! Of course he had to go and mess it all up this badly! 

He wanted to explain himself, elucidate his ability to say his lines. He just needed to calm himself back down and try harder. He could do it. He knew he could. He wasn’t completely worthless, no matter how much that seemed to be the case.

But the moment he opened his mouth to ask, Thomas cut him off.

“Logan, I need you to just try and calm down. Okay?”

Logan had never closed his mouth faster than he had in that moment.

He hadn’t succeeded then. 

Whatever he’d done last night into this morning wasn’t good enough. Because it never was and never would be.

All that work was for nothing. He’d failed. He’d disappointed them, all because of some stupid malfunction that had come out of nowhere and one he couldn’t control or fix.

He was broken. He couldn’t even run lines for the episode, so that meant he’d been rendered completely useless to them. They couldn’t use him if he was broken. 

What was he supposed to do now?

He couldn’t hear anything, but he could tell he had started crying profusely again. He could feel the sobs in his chest, but no sound reached his ears. Perhaps that should bother him, but nothing could hurt him more than his own regret right now.

He couldn’t be used. He couldn’t be fixed. He had tried everything he could think of, but no true solution existed! 

A slight ringing started to sound in his ears, and he reached up to cover them, but it just grew louder. At least it was better than the likely reprimands he had to imagine the others were seconds away from making. 

He really didn’t mean for any of this to happen. God, he felt absolutely awful.

His vision swam again. It’d been hours since he lost balance, and he reached out to the stairwell to steady himself, nearly missing.

He briefly heard shouting, but couldn’t make out what was being said.

He could have blamed the malfunction again, but now he was certain - he was always broken. The malfunction just finally made it easier for everyone to see.

That was why it had shown up. Because he’d been trying to hide the truth all this time. He was trying to deny how worthless he was, trying to find ways to prove it wasn’t true - but the malfunction made everyone aware of how completely useless he’d been to them all.

They deserved better.

He shakily turned to Thomas, who seemed to be stepping closer, but he couldn’t be sure.

Logan opened his mouth to apologize, but nothing came out but sobs at first.

“I’m sorry!” he screamed out, far louder than he should have. 

“I’m… I’m sorry,” he tried again, forcing the words out between sobs. “Tried– I… I tried. I tried to…fix it. Fi– fix me, but I…”

He broke off, sobbing louder then, but he could feel the intensity rising in his chest. He didn’t want to scream again. He didn’t want to keep burdening everyone with this. He needed to go.

He couldn’t do this.

He tried to cover his mouth but the moment his fingers were in front of his face, he bit at them, unsure if he were trying to get them to go away or if this was supposed to help things. He just needed it to stop. He needed something to stop. 

He wasn’t even sure what, but something had to stop.

Maybe it was him.

He pulled the fingers away from his mouth and buried his face in his hands instead. His eyes were leaking so many tears, they escaped through the spaces between his fingers with ease.

What was he still doing there? Wasting all their time, that’s what.

He chanced a look back up at the others, pulling his hands down just enough to see.

They were all just…staring at him. 

He was bothering them with this. He was wasting their time, wasting their precious time to film the episode… 

Should he go? He should go.

If he wasn’t of use, maybe they could have Janus fulfill his role in the episode? At least then they wouldn’t have to deal with his incessant crying.

He tried to tell them, to suggest the alternative, so he could finally stop wasting their time.

“J… I–” He couldn’t seem to form words again. “He– Ja–” 

More sobs. He just needed to tell them a solution! Why couldn’t he do the one thing he was built to do?

Logan held his breath but couldn’t keep it for long before he was heaving in another breath. Oh god, the hyperventilating had come back and he hadn’t even noticed!

Someone spoke up near him.

“What’s…happening right now?” That someone had asked. 

It was quiet but clear. Was that Roman?

“Just tell us what happened.”

Logan covered his face again, breathing as much as he could through the sobbing. 

He didn’t understand. He couldn’t understand.

How could he be expected to explain something he couldn't understand?

Nothing had happened! He was malfunctioning, but he was already broken! He always had been.

He hadn’t wanted to accept that, hadn't wanted them to know that. But now, they did know. They had to.

And he couldn’t fix this, no matter how much he wanted to.

He’d let them down, in the worst way possible.

“So,” he could hear Roman say then, “you do have emotions. How ‘bout that?”

Was that a laugh?

Logan shook his head, trying to keep his hands over his mouth. No, these weren’t emotions. They couldn't be, because this was the malfunction. They were never emotions, no matter what he tried to convince himself.

Patton must have realized the truth when Logan had asked for help last night. These weren’t emotions, it was just his uselessness finally on display for them to see. 

He was malfunctioning because he was faulty. This was merely taking the metaphor of a slightly-hidden fracture and revealing the reality of an infected and quickly-detaching limb. 

Torn, ruined, and useless - the best bet of saving everything else was to remove the limb entirely.

It meant he wasn’t of use to them like this. The malfunction was able to show them that he had never been of use to them at all.

That was why Roman had given him that task.

That was why Patton had told him to calm down. 

That was why Thomas had told him to calm down, too. 

That was why he had let them all down. It was inevitable that he’d fail. He was broken, he wasn’t capable of succeeding.

“Ju–” he tried, moving his hands from his mouth, still barely managing to speak through the sobs. “Just malfunctioning. Just…broken.”

His chest hurt so much. His vision swam again and then went completely white for a moment before returning to normal, albeit slowly, gradually. Well, 'normal' meaning blurry and full of tears, but at least he could see the others still standing nearby, unmoving, keeping their distance.

He wasn’t sure he could keep himself standing much longer, though. His knees felt weak.

He supposed that meant he was just about to prove how much more pathetic he could be.

He couldn’t fix this. He couldn’t fix himself. They wouldn’t be able to see past his mistakes, even if he could somehow, miraculously fix everything now. He wasn’t sure why he’d deluded himself with the notion for so long, thinking that it was possible to continue on, that he could just make it up to them. 

He hadn’t even been able to locate those missing files. He hadn’t even tried!

He would never be good enough.

His hand and neck began to throb in pain again, after all this time in numbness.

He deserved all this pain, all this distrust and disappointment. He had earned it through his failure, his inaction, his ineptitude.

Maybe things could have been different if he had actually tried harder. If he had spent just a little more time trying to understand instead of ignoring his faults, then maybe he wouldn’t have been so useless.

But it was too late now.

He wanted there to be another chance for him to change their mind, but he knew it would never happen. Not now.

Really, he should have expected something to go wrong.

He slowly looked up, the bright lights searing into his eyes and the ringing in his ears mixing with his own sobs and what may have been the others speaking to him, but he couldn’t be sure.

He turned to see Thomas one more time. He looked confused.

Logan stumbled back, forcing himself to stand. 

He couldn’t keep disappointing them like this. Staying here and wasting all their time, their precious time. So much precious time.

Today would have to be the last opportunity he’d ever have to fail them like this. It could not - would not - ever happen again.

It came to him then. He had a solution.

The real answer had been lying in his failure all along - he hadn’t tried hard enough.

Tears dripped down his face as he reached his hands back up to his neck.

The crying had to stop, and he knew what to do. It all had to stop, for good.

No hesitation, he tightened his grip around his neck, squeezing as hard as he could. He had to try harder this time. That was what he had to do.

He squeezed, his mouth going numb, his eyes stinging in sharp pain, his chest heaving in desperation… He ignored the rushing blood in his ears, the sudden jolts of stinging pain on his arms… until everything went dark.

End notes: Thanks for reading! Just for some peace of mind - Logan does not die at the end here, his grip would have given out after he passed out.

If enough people are interested, I could write a short follow-up chapter to this fic that’s purely comfort, to show some aftermath and the other sides & Thomas trying to properly help Logan and understand what had him so stressed! Just let me know if you’d like to see that.

[lemonsbakery]

Random roguefort hc time!! :3

wooh menhera chan divider gotta love that mentally ill and emotionally unstable magical girl!! anyways

Roguefort HATES cold weather. They wear relatively lightweight clothing so it is insanely hard for them to do heists in cold temperatures WITHOUT getting hypothermia (they still do heists despite the consequences)

Roguefort's sleep schedule is so fucked up because they work on heist plans for WEEKS STRAIGHT without rest. They in fact do have eyebags but they cover them up with makeup since they're a bit insecure abt them

Roguefort spoils the shit out of Lord Crumbles

Roguefort gets flustered at basic human empathy or simple compliments. They have no idea that it isn't normal to get blushy over someone saying 'hey you're rlly nice' or smth along the lines of that (only applies when the compliment is directed at THEM and not the phantom bleu)

Roguefort doesn't rlly hate their parents, but they dont love them either. In the end, they WERE raised by them and they DID keep a roof over their head (sometimes)..so they cant really hate them even if they were god awful to them for simply existing (they really should hate them)

Roguefort doesn't have many friends thanks to the fact that they struggle with social situations outside of their thief job AND because they cant keep friends for long thanks to the thief thing taking up their entire life. They cherish the few (like. 2) friends they have with their entire being and they would burn the entire world to ashes just to ensure that they are happy.

Roguefort wouldnt DARE move while lord crumbles is asleep on them even if they have something to do

Roguefort literally. doesn't have a stable job and they usually cannot sell the things they steal so they're middle class

Roguefort only steals from snobby rich people because they know what greed can do to a cookie so they want to provide a sense of loss to these cookies in hopes to somewhat untaint their hearts

Roguefort will pull a heist in any weather BESIDES rain. They are absolutely terrified of rain.

Roguefort absolutely hates love. They're terrified of it. They haven't had one good experience with love whether it be familial, platonic, or romantic

Roguefort is amazing at poker

Rogueforts room is an absolute mess. The rest of their house is clean but their ROOM..YIKES.

Roguefort keeps themself on a strict diet and very rarely gives themself break days

Roguefort has scars all over their body. They're from a LOT of different things, like falling off buildings, getting into bad situations mid-heist, getting chained up and escaping the chains seconds later, Lord Crumbles, etc!

Roguefort is an insanely good makeup artist, they can hide just about any imperfection on their face with ease.

Roguefort is a sucker for sour flavors

Roguefort cannot swim or ride a bike

Roguefort doesn't swear very often.

Roguefort has Almonds entire schedule memorized. They know the time he brushes his teeth, the time he makes breakfast, the time he goes to work, his entire coffee order, how often his shoelaces untie, etc.

Roguefort is often mistaken for a 17-18 year old, they are older than almond.

Roguefort is EXTREMELY androgynous. There's been occasions where people have fought over what they think Rogueforts gender is. Both sides are always wrong.

Roguefort can alter their voice with ease. One moment they could be sounding like a frail and gentle young lady and then they could sound like the fucking hulk.

Rogueforts eyes have been described as hypnotizing. Some people stare into their eyes and instantly are head over heels over a complete stranger.

Roguefort is not as heavy as they look, they're relatively lightweight.

Roguefort is someone who is easily scared, despite this they find enjoyment in spooking almond every now and then even though his yelps tend to scare the shit out of roguefort.

Roguefort sometimes passes by old friends while in disguise. It's so painfully hard for them to advert their eyes and not strike up conversation just to see how they're doing without roguefort by their side.

Roguefort cherishes simple conversations with their entire being because usually their conversations consist of trying to get a stranger to stop being a fucking weirdo to them or the police trying to talk them out of pulling a heist.

Roguefort gets the most horrific fan mail known to man. They don't even know how these people have their address because not even the police can find out where they live.

ROGUEFORT LOVES MAKING FUN OF HORROR MOVIE CHARACTERS SM

And finally, Roguefort always keeps a pocket knife or a dagger on them just in case something goes wrong.

That's all I got! Yippie!!! ^o^ apologies for any spelling mistakes

[natromanxoff]

The Guardian - April 21, 1992

Credits to Roberto Macchi.

Aids rock concert attracts television audience of 1 billion in 70 countries

A mega musical tribute

David Pallister

AS MEGA music events go this was the daddy of them all. And all because a man of Persian extraction whose funeral took place under the rites of the Parsee religion died a hero of Aids awareness.

The Wembley Staidum tribute to Freddie Mercury yesterday was the sort of rock band-wagon that bands would have killed to get aboard.

An audience of up to one billion — bigger than Live Aid seven years ago and transmitted by satellite via 13 feeds to 70 countries — had a chance to see Elizabeth Taylor and Sir Bob Geldof appearing on the same stage. These things are made in heaven.

Such was the demand for tickets, which were sold out withing hours of the concert announcement, that touts were trying to buy outside the stadium before they could sell. Some £35 tickets were changing hands for £250.

The concert had a big message. A besequinned Ms Taylor jetted in from Los Angeles as president of the American Foundation for Aids Research. "Get off," shouted some yob. "I'll get off," she said, "but I've got something to say first."

The message was simple: "Every time you have sex, use a condom, every single time... And if you use drugs, don't share the needle."

In two weeks, she said, there will be as many HIV positive infections in the world as there were people there before her.

The audience of 72,000 fans were decked out with red ribbons, a symbol of Aids awareness. Millions of pounds will be generated for Aids research. The Terrence Higgins Trust has already received £1 million from the re-release of Queen's baroque anthem of 1985, Bohemian Rhapsody.

Queen's enduring success attracted a line-up of getting-on-wrinkly superstars.

Roger Daltrey from The Who, David Bowie, and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin joined the three remaining band members for some of the Queen's greatest hits.

It was left to Elton John to sing the band's last ironic single, The Show Must Go On.

[Photo caption: A lookalike face in the crowd at the Wembley Stadium concert in honour of Freddie Mercury / PHOTOGRAPH: MICHAEL PUTLAND]

Stadium link with Mercury unable to catch his spirit

Adam (...) finds split second timings leave little room for emotion at the Freddie Mercury Concert for Aids Awareness.

SPONTANEITY and intimacy are the first casualties of the globally synchronised super-gig. Queen's achievement at Live Aid was to shoehorn all their strengths into a 20 minute set. But, although orchestrating a batch of the world's biggest rock acts with split-second precision at Wembley last night might prove to have been a great way to headline the global Aids crisis, it left no room for emotional bonding with the spirit of the late Mercury.

Mercury would probably have preferred it that way. He presented himself to the world in grandiose terms, and kept his inner life — and his illness — a secret. His presence on giant video screens was at least as imposing as the live acts.

With painstaking editing, it might even have been possible to reconstruct Freddie completely, just for the evening.

Still, one major benefit of international satellite TV link ups is that everything has to run to time. Thus, Metallica opened the concert moments after the scheduled 5pm start. More incredible still, the trio appeared to have found the secret of the perfect stadium-sized live sound. Their terse three-song set was melodic heavy metal at an extraordinary pinnacle of technical perfection.

Freddie's posthumous stature grew steadily. The rest of the first half featured acts playing their own material in tribute, apart from Extreme's slick Queen medley. But part two was the remaining members of Queen trying to recreate their old hits with guest vocalists. It worked only sporadically.

The crowd would have much preferred Robert Plant to sing Led Zeppelin songs than Queen's. And every time Seal takes the stage, he merely provides more ammunition to those who believe he can't sing.

The best bits were almost thrown away, like Bowie and Ian Hunter's rousing All The Young Dudes. It was George Michael who seized the senior statesman crown with his sobering Aids warning, and he hammered it home with Somebody To Love.

Only recently, an event of this scale and sophistication would have represented the limit of the possible, but this one will have to be judged on how effectively it conveyed its message.

[lesbiandeerstory]

it’s time for another script update post roundup thing! usually i wanna do these on thursday but currently my schedule for making posts is “whenever i have time, which isn’t often” so here we are! :v

“back to normal” (esme and popstar)

esme has a new color than the blue i was using for her before, cuz i color picked her cute face to get this color. i think i mentioned that last time, about how i changed some of the colors i was using cuz color picking the characters is more convenient...

anyway i fucking hate when ppl talk about “going back to normal”. it’s gotten alot more severe since covid became a thing, but it was a thing that ppl talked about alot after trump got elected too. when ppl say they want things to go “back to normal” in a political or social context, what they usually mean is “i want things to go back to a place where i can keep ignoring problems”. i hate it!!!!!!

one of the major factions in lesbian deer story’s political landscape is the group that prioritizes the absence of conflict over the presence of justice, ur centrists and ur moderate liberals and what have u, and popstar is the representative of that philosophy in the first episode, as well as esme struggling with her desire to avoid conflict and how that desire clashes with her desire to destroy fascism.

i don’t have alot of sympathy for this mindset personally, but i do understand it bcuz it’s the kinda mindset i used to have. and that’s a thing i wanna do with lesbian deer story, i wanna write a bunch of characters who have a bunch of different ideas and mindsets and i want the audience to understand them too, whether they choose to sympathize with them or not.

“back to normal 2″

esme’s narration here outlining another thing i wanna do with lesbian deer story; esme knows what the Right Thing To Do is, she knows that fascism is wrong, she knows it’s evil, she knows that u need to fight back against it, with violence if necessary.

but *knowing* something isn’t the same as like, DOING it. esme knows that she needs to fight fascism, but she is extremely averse to conflict, and this dichotomy fucks her up and fucks up her friends, but it’s not as simple as seeing where ur going wrong and going “ah i should stop doing this bad thing”. old habits die hard, that kinda thing.

i want protagonists who genuinely struggle with their ethics, and i don’t want to hide from how ugly that struggle can be, or the painful or even disastrous effects that kind of struggle can cause.

tho at the end of the day u can be rest assured esme will figure her shit out in some way or other. lesbian deer story can be ugly and grim at times, but it’s an idealistic story through and through.

“ghost jokes” (rakshasa and verbena)

hey do y’all remember rakshasa, the undead apocalyptic murder deer from the daily deer project?? i don’t think i’ve mentioned this here before, but she got promoted to pov character! hooray everyone give a big hand to rakshasa!

she is still vaguely sinister and potentially even evil, but she works together with the protagonists in the first episode. i like her alot.

originally rakshasa’s persona was meant to be based on chrysalis and sombra, but after actually writing her, the mlp character she ended up resembling the most was... maud. which is funny to me, imagine summoning a wicked evil spirit to gain their dark power and she has the demeanor of maud pie.

“ghost jokes 2″

rakshasa talking about committing murder is a heavy thing for her to be saying, given that deer don’t kill, but rakshasa is already dead so she has a different perception of death than a living deer.

but more importantly, verbena is the one who i agree with in this conversation. like violence is good and necessary, but u can’t just solve every problem by killing ppl. if u kill the ceo of a company, someone else just takes their place. u can’t solve systemic issues by committing violence on a single individual, and thinking u can is not a super healthy ideology to have.

another one of the factions in lesbian deer story’s world is the group of ppl who are ostensibly against fascism, but only bcuz it allows them to commit violence with a clean conscience. these types of ppl are extremely dangerous; ppl who care more about hurting the “right” ppl than they do about HELPING ppl. the use of violence is supposed to be to help and protect others, not just to hurt ppl that are The Bad Guys(tm).

rakshasa isn’t quite this kind of person, she has other goals in mind aside from just hurting the bad guys, but her lack of compassion and her focus on inflicting pain and violence makes her an easy ally for the types of ppl who are just interested in doing violence for its own sake.

the things u do affect the ppl around u, and there are times where u can have quote-unquote “good intentions” but ur actions align more with the interests of the ppl u are supposed to be fighting against.

basically, rakshasa wanting to fight fascism is GOOD. rakshasa believing that violence and murder are the only correct ways to fight fascism is BAD, and her narrow-mindedness in this regard makes her an easy tool to be manipulated BY fascism and other ppl with evil motives.

this doesn’t rly come up alot in the first episode tho. rakshasa and the emeraldeer characters are pretty squarely opposed, but part of the importance of a first episode is establishing a groundwork that can be built on for later storytelling moments!

[mmorgchef]

Understanding how to cut bodybuilding

#Understanding how to cut bodybuilding how to#

So starting out with heavy incline bench press will help you ensure your chest is looking awesome as you get more ripped. Many lack upper chest development, and as you drop more body fat that will become even more evident. You’ll notice that you start your chest workout with incline bench instead of regular bench press. You’ll also notice an ab exercise at the end this will be the case at the end of every workout.Do a drop set on the final set where you see an asterisk *.Rest for 1 minute when doing sets of 10 reps.Rest about a 1:30 between sets where you’re doing 6-8 reps.Warm-up with a couple of light sets before diving into your workouts sets for the first exercises (follow this rule for the remaining workouts as well).The last thing you want is to lose muscle and get skinny!Īlso, you’ll see a substantial change when you train these muscles again on Thursday. Remember, your goal is to get shredded while maintaining muscle mass. Now, that may not be what you had in mind for a cutting workout. You will be training semi-heavy here, at least in the beginning. You’ll start with the largest muscle, your chest. This first workout is going to essentially be a ‘push workout’ with chest, shoulders, and triceps. Like that song in Rocky IV, ‘There’s no easy way out, there’s no short cut home’ when it comes to getting shredded. *Make no mistake that this workout plan is intense and is going to take a serious commitment on your part. Here’s a more in-depth view of your workout schedule for cutting: Day This helps you attack fat at all angles while maintaining muscle. You’ll see below how your weight training workouts work in conjunction with your cardio workouts.Īs your heavier workouts will typically be longer you’ll follow that up with shorter and more intense cardio (using the Hight Intensity Interval Training method, also called ‘HIIT’).Īnd on your high-rep days, which will typically take less time, you’ll follow up with a longer and more moderate cardio session. Thursday: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, and Cardio.Monday: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, and Cardio.You can do your weight training and cardio in the same workout but it would be best to separate them if your schedule allows. Your cutting workout plan is going to be a mix of weight training and integrating different types of cardiovascular work. If that doesn’t sound feasible to you, be sure to read my post: How Early Morning Workouts Can Help You Build More Muscle Cutting Workout Plan As retired Navy Seal Jocko Willink suggests, ‘when you don’t feel like it, do it anyway!’.Embed that mental image of yourself deep int your mind and see yourself as that person. Every day, visualize the physique you aspire to have.Don’t accept or argue for the limitations you think you have.This is going to be obvious, but put a stiff-arm to negativity and anything that even remotely resembles negativity.Immediately wake up thinking of something or someone in your life that you’re extremely grateful for and take a few minutes to dwell on that.Be sure to integrate deep stretching and some form of Yoga once a day (we’ll more about how that helps you get lean later in this post!).Do early morning workouts! When you start your morning in the gym, it sets the tone for the rest of your day.So, here are 7 simple ways to make that shift in your mindset to stay focused on your goal of getting ripped: They grow through the stress that you put them through in the gym. Your muscles don’t grow by you just sitting around. Your results will not come right away so you’re going to need that personal commitment to yourself that you’re going to stick it out.You are going to experience discomfort during the process.Your mind is going to constantly trick you into making excuses (don’t have time, too busy, I can’t do it, etc…).You need to be able to push your body beyond what you think your limits are.Not being 100% focused is going to hold you back.Training (and eating) to shed fat while hanging onto lean muscle is tough!.Your mental state is crucial to achieving this goal, and here’s why… The reason most people fail at getting cut and in top shape is they do not have the proper mindset. How to Changing Your Mindset for Getting Shredded This will open a new browser so that you don’t lose this page. Get on the fast-track to getting ripped with this lean muscle recipe guide.

#Understanding how to cut bodybuilding how to#

How to Change Your Mindset for Getting Shredded.

[hongthoven]

Mondays ain't so bad after all | Hongjoong x reader (smut)

hongjoong x fem!reader - established relationship

tw: smut, extremely comforting boyfriend!hongjoong

✒️ you've had quite a day at work. Basically, it's a Monday and nothing goes right. All you need is to go home to your boyfriend and let him take care of you.

Please comment & share ♥

This day was neverending and judging by the look on your face as you caught a brief glimpse of your camera during a zoom call that seemed to last forever, it was definitely time for you to go home. You had lost count of the calls and meetings you had to attend - probably more than a single human could handle- and your growling stomach was an obvious reminder of the lunchbox abandoned on the edge of your desk, still filled with the meal you had diligently prepared the night before, foolishly thinking you’d have time for a break today. There was just something about Mondays and how everyone seemed to have emergency requests for you to deal with before the end of the day and now here you were, trying your best to cover your yawns as you were forced to attend a video call where everyone just seemed to go through their entire schedule of the week while you’d just rather be home, in the comfiness of your bed, comfortably nesting against Hongjoong’s chest. Your attention was definitely gone as soon a you tried to picture him in his “lazy” day off sweatpants and simple, plain white tee, especially now that he had granted you with selfies of his stupidly gorgeous, sleepy face.

God you loved that man. Sometimes you even had to take a moment to yourself to actually process your own feelings for Hongjoong. Never in a million years would you have thought it was actually possible to love someone this hard. He was your happy place, your comfort zone and everything you ever needed. Especially on days like these when work was getting a little too much. The simple thought of coming home to Hongjoong was enough for you to deal with the last couple minutes of absolute Hell. Without him by your side, you’d probably be crying and dangerously flirting with all the premises of a burn-out.

You barely paid your goodbyes to all the other attendants as you snapped your laptop closed, sighing to yourself as you finally called it a day. It was almost 10PM now and your head was still burning from a headache pills had failed to soothe and the rage of being the only one left in the building at this stupid time in the evening.

Tilting your head back against the mirror in the elevator as it took you to the underground parking lot, your hand instinctively reached for your phone, ready to text your boyfriend and let him know you’d be there soon but your eyes were immediately caught by the sight of his absolute dream of a face staring at you, turning your pout into a smile as you found yourself wishing you could just teleport into your bed by his side and smooch him until you were both left gasping for air. You could feel the beating of your heart increasing, just thinking of him and the long hours spent in bed. You knew Hongjoong was a heavy sleeper and god knows you had seen him fall asleep in the most random places, including a nightclub, without a single bother in the world. An Earthquake could never wake him up when he was this tired, but he was also the kind of man to get bored easily whenever he wasn’t overstimulated and somehow, lazy days in bed were only his thing whenever you were there to keep him company.

You called him as soon as your phone connected to your car’s bluetooth system. Not only did you miss his face, body and entire person, but now you just physically needed to hear his voice.

“Baby… Where are you? I’m bored”

His raspy voice and whiny tone almost made you clench in your seat. That man simply had you in a chokehold and you never complained one bit about it.

“On my way now… I had the longest, shittiest day, I really need some cuddles right now…”

“What my baby wants, my baby gets” he instantly replied, eager to please.

Now you just couldn’t wait to get home, wishing all the red lights would turn green as you drove to the speed of lights to meet the love of your life again to forget about that stupid day and anything work related.

The place was quiet and all the lights dimmed as you walked through the door, kicking your stilettos off your feet only to let them rest messily on the wooden floor. Usually you would take the time to put them back onto your shelf, hook your handbag and jacket on the coat-rack but today, you couldn’t be bothered as you dropped everything to rush towards the bedroom like a child meeting her parents at the school gates.

Hongjoong was still laying in bed, one of his legs resting above the sheets with one arm bent behind the pillow, eyes on the wall as some random netflix show was playing from the video projector. You both had decided to get one a couple months ago when thinking about your favorite days spent in bed binge-watching a show or your favorite movies with your entire white wall as a screen. So far, none of you had any regrets about this purchase even though you ended up missing half of the programs most of the time ‘cause you were simply unable to keep your hands off each other.

“Long day?” Hongjoong almost whispered as you crashed on top of him, your face instantly buried into his chest as you finally let out the longest, frustrated groan. His scent was the most comforting smell ever to you and enough to soothe all the anger as soon as you took a deep breath into his shirt like he was your childhood cuddly toy. Hongjoong had never been a fan of strong fragrances and always wore some fancy body lotion instead, making him recognizable in a crowded room - or maybe, you were simply addicted and couldn’t miss a step of your boyfriend wherever you’d go.

As the sensitive, cautious boyfriend he was, Hongjoong allowed you to rant about all the things going wrong at work that day, never interrupting or trying to make you see things in a different aspect. He knew too well how you just needed to let things out, only asking for advice when you genuinely needed his input on things. One of his hands was already tangled into your hair, brushing it softly while the other was tickling your lower back, making sure to push all the right buttons to calm you down without a word.

When you were finally done ranting, Hongjoong simply pinched your chin between his fingers to make your eyes meet, softly pecking your lips with the cutest smile.

“How are you feeling now, baby? 1 to 10?”

“About 4” You sighed, a little relieved to be home in his arms but your mind still stuck at work for stupid reasons.

“4 is terrible, I won’t take 4 for an answer…” he pouted, kissing you again once, then twice, his hand pulling at your hair a little tighter to deepen your embrace as his tongue slipped between your lips to brush yours in the softest, most delicate way.

“Then do something about it…” you moaned, a little out of breath as you broke the kiss to stare into his eyes. While you could already see a little sparkle starting to ignite in his pupils, your body still needed to rest and calm down first. Over years of dating, you had learned that - no matter how good and exciting that was - angry sex wasn’t the solution to your problems. Sure it would keep your mind off things for a short while and release some tension, but at the end of the day, nothing would come close to the peaceful state of being spooned and tightly hugged by your boyfriend. Wherever it would lead.

“How about we get you out of these clothes and shower first?” he asked, nibbling at your earlobe as you smiled, unable to content your enthusiasm at the thought of it. When it came to taking care of you, Hongjoong would go absolutely all the way to make sure you would go from a 4 to a 10 and while you often praised yourself on being an independent woman, in times of need, you were more than happy to let him be in charge and pamper you like a doll.

Your work attire was pooling at your feet in no time as Hongjoong stripped you both off to lead you towards the bathroom, making sure the water was warm enough before he pulled you into the cabin along with him.

“Is it okay?” he asked, stepping behind you so you stood directly under the shower head, soaking your head and shoulders wet as he grabbed the shampoo bottle. Nodding to give him all the green lights, you couldn’t help but moan in absolute bliss as soon as Hongjoong started to wash your hair, massaging your scalp in the softest way, pressing his thumbs in your favorite spots as your body became limp under his touch. While you had shared a thousand showers before, mostly because you were both in a rush and couldn’t wait for the other to be done, nothing could possibly beat the extra care of your boyfriend soaping you up and cleaning you off the complete misery of a Monday.

As soon as your hair was rinsed off, you couldn’t help but turn around to face him, wrapping your arms around his neck to kiss him on the lips, pulling his body closer to yours as he locked you between his chest and the tiled wall. There was something about the warmth of his skin and the coldness of the tiles that made you shiver with excitement as you were both caught in the moment, softly moaning into each other’s mouths while Hongjoong didn’t miss an occasion to soap your shoulders up, all the way down your arms, hips, stomach then back up again until both his hands were fondling your breasts, his thumbs occasionally grazing your erected nipples.

His entire body reacted as soon as his name escaped your lips with a moan, his eyes staring into yours as he was now the one standing underwater. He looked absolutely exquisite with his wet, split hair falling down his eyes and a thin water line dripping down his chin, his lips a little red from kissing you too long. You didn’t know exactly how and when one of your legs had ended up lifted against his hip, but here you were, core fully exposed against his inevitable boner as he slowly grinded himself along your slit, looking for any sort of relief. Still, he never went as far as pushing himself into you and focused on cleaning you up instead, soaping your entire body up with his hardened cock tightly tucked between your thighs.

Showering had never taken so long but you felt instantly refreshed and a thousand times more peaceful than earlier as Hongjoong handed you one of his oversized t-shirts once you were back in your bedroom. His hair still wet, a couple droplets falling from his blond locks, Hongjoong was now back into a fresh pair of sweatpants and -to your demand- nothing more.

“What should we watch?” he asked once you were both back in bed and getting comfortable as he spooned you.

“Whatever, I don’t care…” you almost hummed as you closed your eyes for a minute, feeling a little too comfy now that you had his body keeping you warm under the covers. You definitely could fall asleep any minute but still fought drowsiness as much as you could, just so you would enjoy some more quality time with the love of your life.

Hongjoong eventually put on a random show you’d seen before, just so you could eventually fall asleep with no regrets. The room went silent for a while as you simply enjoyed the calm following the awful storm of a Monday, his arms tightly wrapped around you as you pushed your back a little closer to him, only to brush his crotch with your bare ass. You knew there was a reason why Hongjoong had suggested you’d wear nothing but his t-shirt, offering him a whole playground to himself without the struggle of untangling your legs from your underwear. Still, as the gentleman he always was -except for the occasions when you made it very clear you needed him to be rude and much rougher than usual- Hongjoong waited for your greenlight to go any further.

It wasn’t long until you started grinding your ass against his length, reaping a growl against your neck as he started pummeting his lips over your skin while following your lead. By now, the show playing in the background was long gone as your only goal was to have your boyfriend inside of you as soon as possible. Though you didn’t need much prep, Hongjoong still reached for your chin to slip two of his fingers between your lips, coating them with your saliva as you made sure to swallow him knuckle deep, purposely moaning to get him harder. You knew what drove him crazy and you’d never be caught not using your special girlfriend privileges in times like these.

“Fuck baby, soaked already?” Hongjoong half-chuckled into your ear, sending shivers down your spine as he slowly traced your slit with the tips of his fingers, barely taking a dip as you moved forward a little just so you could bend your leg and grant him better access to the place you needed him the most.

Hongjoong knew exactly how to touch you. How you needed his entire palm to cover your pussy, keeping it warm as he circled your clit with his thumb, almost painfully slow to get your properly drenched. You could definitely feel yourself spilling into his palm already, soaking it as he made sure to to tease your entrance, barely dipping the tip of his fingers until he eventually pushed them in, collecting a long, delicious moan from your lips as he found himself once again amazed with the tightness of your cunt.

He was a patient, perfectionist lover. Always taking his time and making sure he had you begging for more. Never in a rush unless you were both in a rut and unable to content yourselves, going for a quickie in the most random places - Never skipping on foreplay and always, always making sure you came first, as many times as he wished you to.

Pushing your hair to the side to suck on your neck as he fingered you in such a slow pace you could feel every fiber of your aching hole sucking him in and out, Hongjoong started to leave a few marks along your skin, taking an occasional bite as he praised you for taking him so well right before he started to increase his pace, hooking his fingers so he would hit your special spot every time he pushed into you a little harder. Soon enough, the room was filled with both your moans and his groans merely covering the obscene squishy sound of your cunt being fingered into bliss.

Whimpering into your pillow, both hands clenched around it, you couldn’t take it anymore. While his fingers worked magic, you needed more, you needed to be filled entirely and to connect with Hongjoong in a way only you were lucky to.

“Baby…” you almost purred, letting him know you were ready for more, your voice holding no secret to him after years of sharing a life together.

“What’s that, baby?” Hongjoong still teased, cause sometimes he could be a little fuck finding his peak in the way you begged for his dick. You knew he wanted to hear you plead as his fingers left you empty and almost gaping, his palm reaching for your backside as he squeezed one of your cheeks for a while before traveling down from your crack to your slit until you were cooked.

“P–please… Joongie” you mewled, pushing your ass into his pelvis once more like you had been sex deprived for years when not a single day went by without him drilling you.

With a satisfied, almost sadistic chuckle, Hongjoong eventually caved, ruffling behind you to push his sweatpants down his thighs, wiggling a little to adjust himself until his boner was tightly tucked between your ass cheeks, his tip flirting with your crack for a brief second, making you wince at the thought of having him there again and the previous, painful yet mind-blowing attempts at him fucking you in the ass before- but after a painful couple minutes of teasing, Hongjoong finally locked one of his arms in front of your chest and into your shirt to keep you still against him as he pushed himself into you, filling you up to the brim in one slow, single thrust.

Keeping still, Hongjoong rested his chin against your shoulder, his hand palming your breast as you inhaled deeply to compose yourself a little. While his dick was definitely familiar, it still took your breath away everytime he thrusted into you balls deep only to stay there, absolutely motionless.

You don’t know how long you stayed like this, finally sparing a fair percent of your attention to the show playing on the wall as your boyfriend kept fondling your chest while buried inside of you, but you definitely felt thankful for Hongjoong as you realized all of the stress from work was definitely gone for good.

Now all you needed was him to fuck you to sleep.

“Joongie?” you broke the silence with that tone you liked to use whenever you needed something from him, and boy did he know it too well.

“Yes, princess?”

For a brief second, you couldn’t help but wonder if he had felt you clench around him at the sound of his special pet name for you. Then again, anything coming out of his stupidly perfect mouth was an inevitable kink of yours.

“Can you move?” you asked, like it was the hardest favor you could request from him.

“Gotta be a little specific, love…” he smiled, obviously playing.

Now, you knew your boyfriend and every single one of his kinks, from the softest to the unspeakable ones, so it was no surprise he’d ask for you to be loud about your needs and to use actual, precise words. Hongjoong had many questionable turn-ons, but his perpetual need for you to beg was definitely on the “okay” line of your scale.

“Please fuck me”

You had to admit you weren’t much of a talker before you met Hongjoong. Except for the occasional moans and “more”, sex was closer to a silent game to you. And now, here you were, getting wetter at the sound of your own pleas, only because you knew the louder you’ be, the harder he would fuck you.

His first thrust was painfully slow, but deep. Pulling out of you like it could possibly rip you apart, Hongjoong wasted no time thrusting again, and again, a little harder every time, until you were a moaning mess, clenching and holding on to your pillow for dear life as his hands clawed your hips still for more impact.

He kept fucking you to the side for a while, spreading your legs a little wider every time until he eventually rolled you over on your stomach, grabbing your hips to lift your ass up a little. While you weren’t proud of it, you instantly squealed aloud as soon as you were left face down and ass up in front of your boyfriend, your entire body jolting with excitement from being taken on all fours.

“God you just love this a little too much, don’t you princess?” he smirked, his hand landing onto your buttcheek with a smack that could’ve been harder but still did the job.

“Yes” By now, you were a whimpering mess as Hongjoong collected a whole pool of your wetness into his hand as he made sure you were once again ready for him. From this angle, his fingers only seemed to hit your g-spot repeatedly, making you squirt into his hand to his own pride.

“Fuck baby that’s so hot” he hummed, his eyes never leaving your exposed cunt, but as his fingers left you empty once again, you were ready to receive him, your thighs clenching with anticipation- instead, you almost shrieked as you felt his wet lips covering your clit, sucking at it like a piece of candy as he quietly growled against your wetness, collecting most of it against his tongue as he fucked you with his mouth for an agonizing amount of time, making you weak at the knees.

You knew Hongjoong was probably jerking off as he ate your pussy like his final meal and while you couldn’t see it, you still felt dizzy at the simple thought of him bending over on his knees, nose deep into your cunt with his fist full of him. Any other day, you would definitely turn around and return the favor, nothing coming close to the feeling of your boyfriend throat-fucking you. You weren’t ashamed to admit just how much you love giving him head, never missing an occasion to get on your knees regardless of the time or place, only to let him fill your entire mouth with his incredible cock. You were foaming at the mouth, just thinking about it, or maybe it was the way Hongjoong kept on fucking you with his tongue, locking your lip between his teeth everytime he pulled out with the most obscene pop.

“F—fffffuck, Hongjoong…. baby….” You were practically drooling into your pillow now, legs shaking from his never-ending assault on your oversensitive clit. By now, you were grinding against his entire face, coating his chin with your arousal while he kept his mouth open, all tongue out as you used him as a fuck toy for a couple minutes.

Then he smacked your butt, much harder this time.

So hard you fell back with your stomach flat against the mattress.

Flipping you around like you were nothing but a feather to him, Hongjoong was back on top of you in no time, attacking your mouth with the most erotic smooch of your life, the bitter mix of your own arousal and his spit melting down your throat as he grabbed both of your thighs to push your legs up until your calves were comfortably resting above his shoulders.

“You look so fucked-out already, princess…” Hongjoong smiled, a little to proud at the sight of you with your hair all over the place, tits covered in hickeys, skin red from his hands squeezing you a little too hard and his own spit all over your chin. If anything, you looked dirty, but you were more than happy to be dirty for that man.

The sight of him squeezing his eyebrows together as he pushed himself into you again was something you wish you could have caught on camera forever, his face painted with bliss as his beautiful white fangs clenched around his bottom lip, turning it white as he increased the pace immediately. Hongjoong was no longer making sweet love to you, he was fucking you so hard into the mattress the whole headboard shook under your bodies, rocking against the wall in perfect sync with the way his skin slapped against yours with every hard thrust.

It wasn’t long until you felt yourself reaching closer to climax, your hands slipping against his sweat-coated skin, scratching his sides as you came undone. Still, Hongjoong never reduced the pace, rocketing into you until he felt himself meeting you at the peak, one of his hand slammed against the headboard for support and giving you a delightful view over his veiny arms, the silver chain he always kept around his neck slapping you in the face every time he fucked you harder into the wall.

Clenching around him, both your hands went immediately around his hips, pushing him closer to your stomach as you wished you could swallow him up entirely. He looked devilish and exhausted, his face covered with sweat, mouth agape, eyebrows knitted together as he tried his best not to come before you. It was just insane to you that he would look so mind-blowing even in such a state when you were probably a sweaty, red mess, wiggling into your orgasm as he pushed himself into you one last time.

With a loud grunt, Hongjoong came into you, painting your walls white as his entire body seemed to shut down, crashing on top of yours. He was burning up, catching his breath as you felt him twitch a couple times inside of you until he calmed down.

With his forehead stuck to your neck, lips attached to your collarbones, Hongjoong was out of breath, one of his hands tracing your chest until he reached your face to palm your cheek tenderly.

The room was back to complete silence as your breathing eventually calmed down, your hands brushing his drenched hair, untangling it with the tip of your fingers as your heartbeat seemed to match his.

“Fuck” Hongjoong chuckled after a while, "I need another shower".

“Does that mean you're gonna wash me all over again?” you teased with a smile.

“Hold on. Just gimme a minute…” he almost groaned, half-asleep already.

[introvert--weeb]

Tokyo Revengers Boys missing the birth of their first child

Ft. Timeskip: Mikey, Chifuyu, Shinichiro

TW: none

--

Mikey

Your labour had started out of the blue considering you were 2 weeks before your estimated due date. It scared you as you were worrying about your baby's health and whether this would affect their chances of survival.

It was unfortunate that Mikey had Bonten duties to take care of during the time. He was completely unaware that you had entered labour early, having planned his schedule around you giving birth on or around your due date.

Originally, you were meant to be tended to by a Bonten medic while remaining at home so Mikey could be at the birth without the fear of arrests or any sort of confrontation. You couldn't go to the hospital as your face was known to the public due to the accidental sighting of you two while walking to the store for snacks one night.

Pushing through the intense pain and fear, you shuffled across the room to grab the phone the medic had given you so you could contact them when it was time. It was untraceable and would be destroyed once you had given birth. You quickly dialed the saved number, trying not to cry out when an intense contraction ripped through your insides.

It had taken the gang medic 30 minutes to arrive and you were already quite far along. As a precaution, the man had tried to contact your lover to inform him of what was going on. If he didn't, he wouldn't live to see past the birth. Each call was redirected to voicemail so the poor medic had no choice but to try the rest of the executives.

Kakucho was the only one to answer his phone, much to the medic's relief. At least Kakucho would listen and direct the message to the leader. The medic explained how you had gone into labour and to let Mikey know as soon as he could.

It took a further 15 minutes for the message to reach your lover. While panic bubbled in his chest as you still had 2 weeks until your baby was meant to arrive, he had read somewhere that first labours can last hours. That left him with enough time to conclude his business before heading back home.

Once he arrived home however, he was greeted by the sight of you cradling your son, a tired smile on your face. He couldn't believe he had missed the birth of his firstborn. He was sure he had enough time to finish what he needed to before getting back with enough time.

The medic explained how there had been complications but he had sorted them and both you and your son were perfectly healthy. After informing his leader, the man took his leave. Mikey simply came over to where you were propped up on the bed, staring down at the newborn. His son looked just like him with your lips and eye shape.

Would pout and demand you have another child so he could be there for that birth. He reminded you of the Mikey you met when you were younger when he acted like that. You simply laughed and told him you'd think about it.

Chifuyu

It was a long labour. Almost a full 24 hours in fact. Chifuyu was with you at the hospital for the time he could spare with you, rubbing your back and making sure you were comfortable.

Chifuyu was a bit annoyed when Kazutora had called him as there was business to attend to at the pet store. You told him to leave to check it out, assuring him that he could still be there for the birth as it could be another few hours until it was time.

Reluctantly, your husband had left the hospital to attend to whatever Kazutora had felt was necessary. He couldn't understand what would be so important that he had to leave your side during this special time. Annoyance radiated off the usually sweet man as he drove to his pet store.

You were surprised how quickly your labour progressed once your husband was gone. When you thought you had a good few hours before it came down to giving birth turned out you had maybe an hour, hour and a half tops.

Chifuyu sorted out what had to be done in under 45 minutes, thankful that it had been pretty simple to finish. Kazutora thanked him before muttering his congratulations for the upcoming birth of his child. Chifuyu smiled as he bid goodbye and climbed back into his car. Pulling out of the parking, he started his journey back to where you were waiting for him.

Of course he would get stuck in rush hour traffic! He had been stuck there for another 45 minutes until he had finally reached the hospital again. Rushing through the hallways, he was greeted with a sight he hoped he wouldn't see but was happy over anyway.

You were cradling your daughter, admiring how she looked like a perfect mix between you both. She had black hair with h/c strands littered throughout, bright blue eyes like your husband's and your nose.

He was extremely annoyed that he had missed the birth but once he had his daughter in his arms, it calmed him down. He was just thankful you were both fine and healthy.

Shinichiro

Shinichiro had it all sorted. As soon as you were approaching where you would need to be heading to the hospital, he had shut up his shop and had your bag slung over his shoulder.

It was as he was going to take you, Shinichiro got a call from his grandfather that Mikey had fallen ill and was complaining that he wanted his older brother to look after him. If it had only been sniffles, Shinichiro would have told his grandfather that he would drop by when he could to see the small blond. However, Mikey had come down with a high fever and it had left him bedridden.

Understanding how much his siblings meant to your boyfriend, you assured him you would be fine and he should go take care of his brother. You even explained how it could take up to a few hours until it was time to give birth so he may still have a chance to be there.

Your boyfriend dropped you off at the hospital before reluctantly making his way back to his grandfather's home to take care of a whiny Mikey. Thankfully you had called one of your relatives to keep you company until Shinichiro had taken care of what he needed to.

The black haired male couldn't help but feel annoyed at the smaller blond. He knew Mikey couldn't help it but why did it have to happen today of all days. With a heavy sigh, Shinichiro took up his caring big brother persona before fussing over Mikey. He even explained how it wouldn't be long until he and Emma would soon have a niece and nephew soon.

Hours had passed and unfortunately, Shinichiro had found out your children had been born. Mikey had finally fallen asleep and would probably be knocked out for a good few hours, so taking this chance to leave, Shinichiro got into his car and rushed over to the hospital.

Finding your room, he was greeted to the sight of you sleeping while two cribs were placed either side of your bed. Your relative had left not too long before your boyfriend arrived, saying something about needing to get to work. Shinichiro took the time to admire your peaceful sleeping features before moving his attention to the twins. One boy and one girl, just how he explained to Mikey earlier that day.

The boy was his spitting image, no trace of you in their features. Dark hair and dark eyes. He reminded Shinichiro of when he first saw Mikey when he was 10.

The girl was like a clone of you though, except for the eyes. H/C curls fluffed up from her head while dark eyes stared at her father.

He couldn't believe he had missed the birth but he swore he would not be missing anything else. As he watched over his children, his grandfather had called. Both to congratulate his grandson as well as inform him that Mikey was awake and searching for him. This time, however, he had explained that he would be back in a few hours as he wanted to spend time with you.

[shingia]

hopefullyy this inspires u to write,,, can i request hc's of the boys getting jealous seeing their s/o work well with another person on a team/club? like good chemistry with a dance partner for example! (u can choose who u write but can it include iwa!!) <33

✗ HQ BOYS GETTING JEALOUS SEEING YOU WORK WELL WITH ANOTHER PERSON ✗

a/n : kdjfkdjdkdj i love this request omg ty ! i did half hc/half scenarios bc i thought the request fitted this format <3

-> iwaizumi, osamu, kuroo, suna, tsukishima

-> warnings : kuroo’s a bit suggestive (tbh i don’t know about the rest. it’s just... kinda hot? (tsukki’s only fluff tho<3))

-> reblogs are >>>>

— IWAIZUMI

• iwa’s jealousy was practically non existent until he actually saw you interact with your partner

• don’t get me wrong, he absolutely loves your smile - but he especially loves to be the one who caused it

• he tends to get physically very protective of you, so expect his arm to stay wrapped around your shoulders most of the time. because to him it’s the easiest way to show the world (but especially your partner) that you’re his

• he also not-so-subtly offers you to wear his clothes on days when you have practice. and he secretly hopes that someone will ask you who they belong to...

« it’s cold outside. you should wear this ». iwa’s low and unannounced voice makes you turn around in surprise. leaned against the bathroom’s doorframe, he’s holding your favorite jacket in his hand - the one with his name written on the back, and you suspect that this might not be a coincidence... with a chuckle, you agree to put it on, noticing the proud spark in his eyes. « you know, i’m pretty sure everyone already knows i’m dating you » you tease him with a wink, all while also admiring the way his name takes up the whole width of your back. « oh yeah ? » he asks, a smirk tugging at his lips as he leans forward to rest his hands on the sink behind you. trapped between his outstretched arms, you watch his smirk grow just a little bit bigger as he lets out, very quietly, « well this is just a reminder... it better be the last ». his green eyes locked with yours could almost make you forget about his arm snaking around your waist at a painfully slow pace. almost.

— OSAMU

• look, he’s very happy for you. no doubt about it. but he’s so used to see people fawn over his brother that he can’t help but get a little protective from time to time

• since gifts are his #1 love language, he might buy you a workout-friendly piece of jewelry that you can wear during your practice

• he also insists on dropping you off and picking you up as often as his busy schedule allows it. especially since he learned that your partner was willing to give you a ride home...

• it’s not that he doesn’t trust you, obviously. he just doesn’t trust them yet

• and that’s why his kisses - and pda in general - are a bit more « intense » than usual

leg bouncing up and down, osamu is (very) anxiously for your conversation with your teammate to end. because after watching the entirety of your practice, he needs a little reminder that you two also have incredible chemistry together... a better one, even. so as soon as he sees you wave your teammate goodbye, he stands up straight, arms open just wide enough to welcome you against his chest. but instead of the chaste kiss you expected to get, you’re actually greeted by his left hand grabbing your sides while his right meets your lower back. disconcerted, you don’t even have time to say a word that his mouth crashes onto yours so eagerly that you have to lean back a few inches. « wh-what was that for ? » you pant as soon as his warm lips have left yours. « nothing. i love ya, that’s all » he smiles innocently, glad that you didn’t notice the cocky look he just gave your teammate who witnessed everything from afar... exactly as planned.

— KUROO

• passive agressive™️

• he would insist on properly meeting your partner but oh god they better brace themselves,,,

• because kuroo’s the kind of boyfriend that will shake their hand hard enough to make them yelp, all while having an angelic smile plastered on his face

• oh and you can forget being called by your name : he’s going to demonstrate the entire variety of nicknames he has for you. he might even come up with new ones just because he’s feeling « inspired »

• every single thing he says to your partner has to be a reminder that you two are dating. like « oh yeah they told me about this yesterday.. during our date ». just to make sure that there’s no misunderstanding.

« well... speak of the devil », kuroo hears you chuckle, your voice almost drowned out by his heavy breathing. he’s obviously planing on apologizing for being late... but not now. there’s something he wants to do first. still very aware of your partner’s presence right in front of you, he decides to securely yet eagerly wrap his arms around your waist before spinning you around proudly. « so... you guys were talking about me ? » he asks, glad to know that he’s the reason behind your giggles. « we were, actually » you answer a bit more seriously as he finally puts you down, still keeping both his hands on your waist. « well, i am your boyfriend after all... » he starts, interrupting himself to place a loud peck on your jawline. the only thing you can think is about is how awful this situation must be for your partner... kuroo, on the other hand, doesn’t seem bothered at all, as shown by the way one of his hands discreetly makes its way under the fabric of your t-shirt to rest directly on your skin. « hands off, kuroo » you order him with a slap on the back of his hand. an offended gasp leaves his lips, yet he complies reluctantly, thinking that your partner probably already knows everything that needs to be known about him.

— SUNA

• he doesn’t really mind it... as long as you’re willing to cuddle once you get back from practice. if you’re not, then he’s gonna start to worry

• because cuddling is probably his favorite ‘boyfriend privilege’ and he doesn’t want it to be taken away from him

• his schedule is pretty tight so he might not be able to attend any of your practices, but he asks you to record it as much as you possibly can so that he can watch the videos with you afterwards

• and seeing how smoothly you and your partner move together definitely doesn’t help with his worrying

it’s been thirty minutes now, and suna’s still not done watching the videos you took today. he loves to share these moments with you, snuggled up against each other the bed ; but most importantly, he has someone to keep his eye on... « babe- are you 100% sure that this was part of the choreography? » he suddenly speaks up, his eyes leaving the screen for the first time. you quirk a curious eyebrow, more surprised by his unusually suspicious tone rather than by the question itself. « oh, the hand on my waist ? yes, rin. it was ». at your words, his lips press into a thin line, he’s obviously far from being convinced. but you know your boyfriend well and you’re quick to reassure him : « you know, his hand might have been on my waist but you’re the one laying in my bed right now ». the frown on his face disappears almost immediately - much faster than you would’ve thought, replaced by a much more confident expression as his hands start to gently stroke your sides up and down. « mmh, i guess you’re right.... i mean, at the end of the day, only i get to have ‘all of this’ for myself » he smirks, playfully eyeing you up and down until he can’t resist the temptation of your slightly parted lips anymore.

— TSUKISHIMA

• tsukki’s not jealous, he’s just... well.. cautious. or at least that’s what he tells you

• but, deep down, he knows that simple cautiousness wouldn’t make spend his days and nights stressing about this new partner of yours...

• so, after a few weeks, his impassible facade starts to crumble a little bit. nothing too extreme, but just enough to let your partner know that you’re taken.

• and he knows he doesn’t need to do much : one of his signature scornful looks is more than enough. especially when he’s staring at your partner dead in the eyes while you’re greeting him with a hug and a kiss after your practice

« tsukishima kei, i’m waiting for an explanation ». with a sigh, your boyfriend drops his book on the table, turning his chair around to face you. « i don’t have one, i already told you. you told me to introduce myself, and i did. end of story ». you both know that tsukki did not just ‘introduce himself’ like any other human being would have done. and that’s precisely what you’re trying to make him admit - because your partner looked genuinely scared during practice today. « wha- no, i didn’t look down on him. it’s not my fault he’s so short... » he mumbles under his breath, trying his best to avoid any eye contact with you. but you know that only a slight tilt of his chin upwards is enough to make his eyes lock with yours - and that this is enough to have him admit anything. « you’re jealous, kei. and it’s painfully obvious by the way... » you smirk - but this smirk disappears in a split second as he slowly gets up from his chair, towering over you like he usually does. « ok, maybe i am. but i just wanted to make sure that he knew his place. and especially mine » he finally admits, his lips spreading in a scornful smirk that would be terrifying if his eyes weren’t filled with the infinite tenderness he has always felt for you.

✔️taglist : @toworuu @catwithangerissues @miyumiya @livy384 @k0u-minamo2 @fullsundear @hsjvwq @mochi-marie @hiraeth-z @velvetvirgos @kirishimas-manly-eyeliner @47meow @japanesevenom @geektastic84 @noir-blanches-blog @idontlikeyourjob @seiri-ami @atiny-grl-with-luv @admiringlove @nachotrash @kellesvt @aintyourholy @Moonlaeli @catchmewiddershins @duhsies @devilgirlcrybabiey @crystal-lilac

[solanj]

Gatewatch&Co playing DnD

Jace

Jace is the forever DM. His plotlines are extremely well thought-trough and his puzzles are exquisite. Prefers detective-style stories and is great at setting up the intrigue. Players never can guess too early. He knows ALL the rules. Is prepping meticulously. He is that type of GM that will hand out actual letters or trinkets to players, if they happen to find them. Every NPC, every plotline, every bit of PC's backstories are accounted for and weaved into the planned narrative. (Of course it all always end up completely derailed) Actively uses illusions for both descriptions and combat and everyone just LOVES that. Still insists on having actual minis, though. After some persuasion from the party agreed to use telepathy to tell players the "only your character knows that" info, which drove his intrigue even further.

Chandra

Chandra usually plays a hotheaded sorcerer. Gender and age may vary, but the sorcerer always falls for whomever Nissa is playing at the moment. Is the most enthusiastic of the group and the #1 reason Jace's thought-through plots get derailed. Because she always invents something crazy and drags the rest into it and even she never knows what her character is going to do until she opens her mouth to declare it. Due to it has the most dead characters among the party - Jace isn't a harsh GM, but he never fudges his rolls. Chandra doesn't sweat it, though, she just brings a new sorcerer next session. She generally ensures a goofy, light-hearted atmosphere and doesn't like it when stories go too dark or dramatic. Never waits for others to make a plan before heading into combat. Has the quickest combat turns.

Nissa

Nissa only agreed to play because Chandra was SO enthusiastic about it that Nissa just hadn't the heart to say "no". She ended up loving it. Doesn't speak much at the table (and her characters are always the quite ones), but has the most carefully crafted backstories. Only uses third-person style, but never speaks out of character during the play time. Actually knows the rules very well and never blunders, but also never engages in rules arguments when they happen. Once all the revelations from her backstory come through her character ends up being everyone's favourite, remembered for a long time.

Gideon

Gideon only plays because he thinks that a common bonding activity such as this is great for the Gatewatch's dynamics. Is usually the one to bring in snacks and to help Jace tidy everything up after the session. Plays martial tanky protective characters, usually goes with the options that PHB recommends. Likes to strategize in-game. Isn't good at roleplaying but is trying his best and everyone appreciates it. Was actually sad when Liliana left the party since her character made it easier for him to engage in conversations and decision-making due to her teasing and provocative nature. (No one knows if that was intentional on her part)

Teferi

Teferi prefers GM'ing but doesn't have the time to prep and run the whole campaign. So he usually runs rather short adventures. He leans towards more humorous style and is a great improviser. Likes to give his players maximum freedom and allows them to goof around all they want, but still manages to make the plot work. His NPCs are usually witty, he does different (and often exagerrated) voices for each of them and players tend to engage into social side of the game a lot because the dialogue scenes with him are just so enjoyable. Loves to mess with the players. Adds red herrings, makes NPS pretend to believe the player's bluff only to reveal the truth at the best possible moment later, hands out tricky magical items (most players learned to NEVER draw cards from unchecked decks, but there is always Chandra...). He is placing the most bizarre and memorable mimics and hilarious traps. But does all that in good faith and with good humor, to make the players thrilled but not annoyed. And it works!

Kaya

Kaya plays exclusively rogues and she probably tried every build possible. Is the min-maxer of the party. Is known for completely decimating the encounters that Jace planned to be extra challenging. Was often splitting the party at first, but agreed not to after some persuasion. Doesn't roleplay much, though she enjoys spectating others do it and never tries to force them to the next scene. LOVES Jace's puzzles and usually finds an unorthodox but interesting and convincing way to solve them. (That's probably why Jace can't really be annoyed with her despite her minmaxing) Has the best luck for crits in combat, but the worst for disabling traps.

Vraska

Vraska rather often misses the sessions due to guild and/or pirate business, but she tries her hardest to have free spots on her schedule during game nights. Is probably the most dedicated member of the group. Grows very attached to her characters and once the campaign ends she never returns to the same archetype, so that the impression wouldn't dilute. And because of it she doesn't have a "type", though her characters are always brave and have troubled pasts. Is the one to commission the paintings of her characters (and sometimes the rest of the party too). Is also quite the shipper (no matter if the character in question is her own, party member or NPC), but keeps it to herself, only sharing with Jace sometimes. She tells Jace everything about her character in the beginning so that he can play it when Vraska has to miss a session.

Ral

Ral played every class in the game that he could more or less convincingly make into a charming bastard. Is prone to hogging the spotlight, but does roleplay so well and is so charming that others let it slide. Often insists on using some homebrewed rules (which he keeps reinventing right during the conversation), giving Jace a headache. Jace gave in once, but during the next several sessions he made sure to stage the situations so that every possible side effect of said homebrew came to bite Ral in the ass (yes, it's where most of his prep time went). Now they usually settle on just some minor changes for Ral's character. Is #2 reason for derailing Jace's plotlines. Unlike Chandra he does this absolutely intentionally, and Jace knows it, but sees as a challenge. His character is the one, to whom all the "curiosity" magic items go. You have no idea what a dedicated Izzet mage can do with a simple unmoving rod. Jace actually throws extra stuff his way just to see what crazy application Ral will come up with.

Liliana

Liliana played a couple sessions once. She made a point of derailing the plotline in a discreet way while staying strictly in-character. Also she made Jace fluster whenever he had to play through a conversation with her via NPC. Decided that it was fun but ultimately not worth it in the long run. (To Jace's relief) Since she never actually plays Jace can discuss with her his plans and plots and sometimes he asks for her input on the villains. Sometimes he even invites Liliana to act out a villain in the dialogue-heavy session and she is VERY convincing. Her villains are always the ones players love to hate. From time to time she GMs oneshots and prefers intrigue- and drama-heavy stories, often horror, that may or may not be inspired by her long and varied life experiences. She isn't a stranger to fudging the rolls or overriding the rules if she feels that the situation calls for it. Is very good at reading the table and the undisputed master of putting her players in heart-wrenching situations faced with tough decisions. They usually love it, but Chandra refuses to play with her anymore because "don't we have enough of that shit IRL?!" She sometimes contemplates running a full WoD campaign, but always decides against it in the end.

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

Feel free to add your ideas!

[ganymedesclock]

I'm kind of curious about any headcanons you might have for how Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails interact with each other

THAT'S THE REAL SUPERPOWER OF TEAMWORK

So none of these guys actively hate each other but people sometimes overestimate the extent to which Knuckles and Sonic get along. It's not even that they are deliberately antagonistic they just kind of grate on each other depending. Sonic thinks Knuckles can afford to loosen up, Knuckles would really really love it if Sonic stopped playing chicken with elder gods using the chaos emeralds. That said, they rarely have a problem that can't be at least progressed upon with a fistfight and/or a sincere talk. -

Both of them are quite warm with Tails, which Tails is not remotely above exploiting to get them to make up quicker. This is sometimes a bad thing as Tails is an excessively responsible small child who generally doesn't like conflict unless it's a safe and familiar good guys vs. bad guys, so at best, Tails is a mediating presence (not as in, 'he fixes things for them' but as in 'both of them don't want to start shit around Darling Baby Brother') and at worst, Tails can actually prevent them from talking things out. -

When the three of them are all working on something together the odds of encountering them in a diner at odd hours of night skyrocket. Sonic's sleep schedule is a nightmare and he's almost always hungry so he's the most likely to be found at a Denny's at 3AM on his own, Tails is mostly only held back in that when he's alone he doesn't like to go outside at night but friends make that easier, and Knuckles has a perfectly good sleep/eat schedule that he's dutiful and diligent enough to disrupt for anything that seems sufficiently important. This usually either starts, ends, or has an interim period of Tails falling asleep -

When Angel Island is airborne and Knuckles leaves it, he will sometimes just... pitch off the side on purpose. Tails was not thrilled to hear about this so Knuckles actually owns a simple aircraft, the Falling Angel, briefly christened the Please Knuckles No Matter What Don't Just Fall Off Your Island What If You Mess Up And Hit The Ground The Wrong Way. Knuckles is fond of it and a respectable pilot but a lot more often Tails comes and picks him up in the Tornado. -

Neither Sonic nor Knuckles really follow Tails if he gets particularly jargon-heavy. Sonic does not really try to; he's able to grok some things about machinery but just doesn't retain information very well unless it's something he can ground in hands-on experience or tactile concepts. Knuckles is ESL (or, equivalent, y'know, alien world they're not speaking english) but he's actually making a committed effort to familiarize himself with more of the words. He insists on only doing this when Sonic's not around although Tails is pretty skeptical Sonic would actually bully him about it- Sonic wouldn't be able to identify a thrust equation if it bit him (which is endlessly frustrating to Tails because Sonic knows what thrust is, just not by that name; Sonic's understanding of physics is actually great but extremely fly-by-feel and if you start talking math at him his eyes glaze over in seconds) -

Someday Tails is going to be the tallest member of Team Sonic. He is aware of this, and pretending to be cool about it unsuccessfully. Every year he measures himself against a specific support beam of his workshop.