#smote on the spot

[shotmrmiller]

Waking up to find Soap peppering kisses on your clothed coochie. And ur like “whatre you doing?”

And he’s js like “just getting in my morning worship”

Alternatively you wake up to his tongue deep inside your pussy

you're like that's sacrilegious??? but he meant it. the wooden beads of his rosary are currently digging into your thigh and the small golden cross around his neck occasionally brushes your skin.

and then murmurs proverbs 18:22 into your cunt

[makerofmadness]

When these three showed up I just gasped in absolute joy

(anyway so uh upon breaking the new update in it's genuinely just like. Really really good. and istg the trial reward thing kinda scared me at first but I'm pretty sure just about everything you got from the trials you can buy from the new shop so getting said new shop's currency from the trials basically has the same effect I think except now you get to choose what your reward is so yeah. Also one new thing in the shop is like a jar that's basically the shell-out machine from Splatoon 3 so Yippee I can get stuff from before I started playing the game-)

[cluepoke-archive]

Gonna be real normal when go s2 comes out let me tell you what

[paper-lilypie]

I’m so fucking obsessed with the heart eyes HE HAS HEART EYES IM GONNA [clenches fist with the force of a thousand suns] FUCK

what they talkin about 🤨

my half of an art trade with @paper-lilypie lol

[irisintheafterglow]

smoke his ass! (pro racer!gojo x you)

cw/tags: a lot of swearing lol, established relationship, banter and dialogue driven

note: didn't think this would get too long, but i liked writing this a lot! hope you enjoy :)

likes, reblogs, and replies are always appreciated <3

"that fucker in the ford is going to get smited if he doesn't stop being the ass-est human to ever exist."

"is it smited or smote? smot?" your pit lead shoots you a smirk, absolutely certain of who the 'fucker in the ford' was that was making your driver so infuriated. "i'm not sure smited is a word," suguru whispers through your mic.

"you're gonna be next, suguru geto. burnt to a crisp that would make hell jealous."

"geez, satoru," you mutter, praying that a convenient line of static or the sound of the wheels revving distorted his threats on any live feeds of his pov. "what's got you so worked up?"

"he needs to take me to dinner first before he rides my ass!" the last three words of his declaration blare in your headphones and you wince, already aware of the hearing loss you must experience from being around deafening engines all the time. the engine temperature spikes as satoru flicks the lever up a gear and makes a narrow pass around the second-place porsche. with the ford and the porsche eating his dust, he was able to regain some momentum with such an unexpected maneuver. he's quick to rein in the flare in his temper, though, and he can already predict your protests to pushing the car at an unnecessary time. "i know, i know. that pass was untimely, but i'm mad as hell right now."

"you're about to be madder," you say with no ounce of remorse and automatically tune out the groan of frustration crackling through the line. "i'm pitting you for new wheels and i wanna check your windscreen. that mcclaren crash during lap four probably threw some bad debris your way." his silence speaks volumes, his irritation obvious. yes, the stop may force satoru to work harder on his way back to the podium, but it was necessary to keep him safe for the remainder of the race. his car swerves unceremoniously into the pit lane and suguru's crew make quick work of replacing the tires. you meet his eyes through the window and find them seething, his gloves holding the wheel in a white-knuckle grip. before you could blink, he was zooming away again, adamant on showing the ford driver what the honored one is truly capable of. "you with me, satoru?"

"loud and clear. can i get a 'who's who' on that ford?"

"magic word?"

"i'm in shambles for you," he replies without missing a beat.

"look, you're climbing back to second and he's in fourth, satoru. he doesn't matter-"

"he plays dirty, so he does matter if he keeps trying to flip me into fucking oblivion," he counters and you sigh, defeated. you double-check the roster and see a name you weren't familiar with, someone who must have flown under the radar from the lower circuits.

"fushiguro. fushiguro toji." you watch the ferrari icon next to satoru's name steadily climb the leaderboard as he returns to his spot in third, with the porsche in front of him and the ford on his tail.

"new?"

"to these races, yeah, but it seems that he's dealt with drivers like you before."

"what do you mean, 'drivers like me?'"

"i mean that we've found a more reckless driver than you." the ford cuts a hard left to come parallel with the driver's side, barely missing one of satoru's back wheel wells. "case in point."

"then i think it's time he learned his place," satoru snarls. within seconds, he throws the car into a higher gear and swings wide on the following right turn, accelerating at the peak of his centripetal force and slamming on the gas at the straightaway. "how's that for reckless driving, asshole?"

"take a breath, hotshot," you chuckle and hear him click his tongue in defiance. you're slightly in awe of his move, but you weren't going to tell him that over comms. "you've still got a few more laps to go and you can easily burn out if you're not careful," you remind him but feel in your bones that he's found his way back into his groove, his own little pocket of racing that was created when it was only you on the line, him on the track, and a podium finish in sight.

"stay on the line?"

"i'm not going anywhere, sweetheart." you can hear him smile at the rare slip of affection, something you're very cautious about when you were both in professional settings. while your relationship with satoru was no secret, you tried to keep public reminders to a minimum to avoid overshadowing his racing career. you knew which story the press would choose first between his love life and his titles. "just get back faster."

"i'm trying, but this mercedes is giving me a rough time." you fight the urge to laugh, having seen this sequence play out numerous times in the past. towards the end of races where something threw him off, he tended to lose morale during the last few laps. however, since you became his lead engineer, you've developed the uncanny skill of saying the three magic words to fire him up again.

"you're in a ferrari, gojo satoru," you say. "smoke his ass." like clockwork, the words register in his mind and he finds a new sense of determination, rocketing past the mercedes and over the checkered line for another first-place finish on his shelf. "there you go, there's my speed demon boyfriend," you murmur in his ear when he tugs off his helmet and gloves and holds you close.

"sorry for getting pissy about the ford," he says quietly so that only you can hear it. "i hope i didn't hurt your ears too badly."

"they're still ringing," you joke, "but i'll be fine as long as you aren't arrested for assault on fushiguro toji." a dangerous glint catches in satoru's bright blue eyes, one that makes the corner of your mouth turn down in a scolding frown.

"i'm not doing anything," he sings innocently while you make your way up the stairs to the winners' stage. "not yet, at least. and, for the record, i'm elated that he didn't make podium." before he leaves, he's quick to give you a peck on the cheek that makes your face heat. "and, i love you a lot. i'm gonna go get our trophy now, so wait here."

if you enjoy my writing and would like to support me, you can buy me a coffee on my ko-fi! you can also check out my full masterlist here :)

[ineffable-suffering]

Aziraphale, I love you. But you lied. And here's why.

Okay. I’m not gonna beat around the bush for too long. It’s time now for me to also throw my try at a personal Good Omens Season 2 Magnum Opus into the mix of already existing magnum op..i? Opusses? (Smited? Smote?)

If I’m honest, it isn’t fully my own magnum opus, as I read this meta not too long ago that made me go: „Oh! My God! That’s it!“ And I’m pretty sure a lot of other people have clocked this too by now. Of course I’m not saying it’s the objective truth but after having mulled it over for many endless nights and days, wading through the onslaught of coffee theories, body swap theories, The Metatron re-writing the Book of Life theories and many, many more, this is the one I think is most plausible and, if you look closely, most obvious.

And it goes as such: Aziraphale lied.

To all of us. All of them. And most of all, to Crowley. He lied to him. Well, he sort of did and also sort of didn’t. He certainly didn’t tell the truth. At least not all of it. I hear you ask: “OP, what the fuck are you talking about”. I answer you: Let’s start from the top and under the cut.

(Small note: this meta ended up being way too large for Tumblr, which is why I will redirect you to an external doc at the end of the post, where I have written it all down nicely and accurately. It's about 35 digital A4-pages long, just in case you want to save it for later.)

(Word count: 12.831 | Approximate reading time: 50 minutes)

Let’s start with a short recap of what happens before the Metatron crashes the bookshop party and everything goes to shit. The proper visuals for this are in my Tumblr post but I am absolutely convinced that right up until when the Metatron comes to take Aziraphale away and talk to him, the angel is fully ready to get into Crowley’s Bentley-chariot and finally ride off into the sunset (or Alpha Centauri-set or whatever). You can see it in his face and body language. You can see when the penny drops for him that a) Crowley loves him b) he loves Crowley and c) they can finally start their happily ever after. Aziraphale realizes this all throughout said Brielzebub reveal in the bookshop. And he’s such a lost cause once he does. 

I mean, look at that. Look at it. This (very shitty recording, sorry, I'm not tech-savvy enough to avoid the Amazon Prime screen recording blocker) is the very second Aziraphale realizes hat Crowley loves him. When he hears him suggest Alpha bloody Centauri as a getaway for Gabriel and Beelzebub, as Crowley has done to Aziraphale for so, so many times now. He finally understands what Crowley was trying to tell him with that all those times.

Aziraphale realizes this all throughout the Brielzebub reveal in the bookshop. And he’s such a lost cause once he does.

Right when Crowley suggest Alpha Centauri as a nice getaway spot to the two, Aziraphale looks at him and he gets it. That Crowley has loved him, has been loving him for millennia. Truthfully, they've both known that for a long while now. But there's a difference between knowing, wanting, craving and actually being able to finally have something. And that's exactly what we see on Aziraphale's face here. This is it. This is where it all starts working out for Crowley and him. This is were they can start their eternity together.

So from that second on, Aziraphale only has eyes for Crowley. He keeps physically pawing at Crowley with complete heart eyes, as if to say „Look, look, that’s gonna be us too! Finally!" He’s actually so smitten that he doesn’t even hear what Crowley is saying when he asks Shax if he can have back his apartment now because he’s sick of living in his car. (Also, what way to drop that bomb right in this moment Crowley, lmao). 

Once the Metatron comes in, the first thing Aziraphale says is that they don’t need to talk because „he’s made his position quite clear“. He doesn’t even want to talk to the Metatron, because in his mind, he’s already made the choice. Actually, he made the choice way before the bookshop showdown. For starters, I’m convinced that the Jane Austen Ball actually never was for Maggie and Nina but for Crowley and him (you can read more about that here). And apart from that, for this whole season we have seen Aziraphale trying to advance his relationship with Crowley romantically and domestically and move them to the literal next base (our car!). And after everything he just witnessed with Brielzebub, the final nail in the coffin of ethereal-infernal romance being possible, his choice is absolutely crystal clear: It’s Crowley. It’s always been Crowley and it always will be Crowley. And now it can be Crowley. They can be an us.

The whole of Season 2 is such a massive learning curve for Aziraphale’s character, with him remembering all those important pivotal points of his past,  and this very moment is the peak, with him not only understanding that Crowley loves him (because he certainly knew for quite some centuries now) but accepting that love, letting himself have that love, being allowed to want that love and taking that love and starting their new and final chapter with it. Nevertheless, the plot clock ticks for them. The Metatron saunters into the bookshop, evil and stinky as Metatrons do, and urges Aziraphale to come with him with his whole Take The Coffee schtick, which I will get into later. And Aziraphale, immediately sensing there’s Something Up, does. Can’t really turn down someone as high-ranking as the the voice of God, after all. Even if you were currently already planning how you were going to elope with a certain red-haired serpent of Eden. 

he next time we see Aziraphale on screen, it’s so painfully evident on his face that he is neither happy nor excited. Not even the slightest bit. We’d know if he was, thanks to Mr. Michael master-of-microexpressions Sheen. None of the usual “Aziraphale is happy”-signs are there. No blinding eye-smile, no giddy wriggling, not giggles and gasps. No, when the Metatron tells Aziraphale to „go tell your friend the good news“, his expression looks like this:

I’m gonna go out on an entire limb here and say: That does not look like someone who’s absolutely tickety-boo hyped to tell his demon soulmate that he just got the juiciest promotion and that they can both be angels and live happily ever after in ethereal eternity now.

This, folks, looks like someone who knows exactly that the news he has to break right now, are going to be tickety-shit awful and very upsetting to said demon soulmate. And already, from that very short snippet of conversation, we can tell that Aziraphale isn’t really given a choice by the Metatron. Because while the Metatron does tell him that he doesn’t have to „answer right away“, he immediately follows it up by: „Go ahead and tell your friend the good news!“ Very distinct and definitive choice of words here. It’s “good news” because it’s already been decided. Because it’s already a done deal. There is no “yes, no, maybe”. This is the only choice he’s giving to Aziraphale. Because it’s ‘Coffee or death’. 

And he already gave him the coffee. 

***

Tumblr won't let me continue this over a certain character limit and I am not even remotely done yet – so, I feel like this is a good moment to redirect you to the continuation of this insane meta before we're in too deep. You can do so right here!

I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions about this once you've fought your way through it. Hope you have a good time with it!

[pigeon-behavior]

So how many birds do you own nowadays?

These days not many! Only 4!

It would have been more; I was making plans to expand my loft essentially 2x larger, but basically I got smited (smote?) by god or some shit in late 2021 and in 2022 was diagnosed with an incurable disability. The only reason I was able to keep the birds I did is because I live with others who have taken over cleaning and feeding.

A decent chunk of my birds I sent to my breeder friend, Renaissance Loft (Hemlock, Newt, and at least 2 of the kids that Newt had while in my loft both live there, Frost and Butternut).

I felt that it was a major shame to waste their breeding potential in my loft. I don't think pigeons need babies to be fulfilled or anything, but Hemlock and Newt consistently make friendly, confident babies, and they are EXCELLENT fathers, and those aren't things you can get just anywhere. Someone should utilize them! And so Ren is. Newt's blood has made it up into Canada at Keepsakes Loft and into pet homes through Ren, and I know someone else who owns a son of Hemlock's in a predominantly Old Dutch Turbit loft who is planning to breed for companions if they don't already. Not that I think ODTs need the temperament boost really, they seem pretty fucking friendly.

My current birds are my original pair, the High-Flying Tipplers Cloud and Taako (who also make insanely bombproof children, but less people are interested in pet pigeons that look so standard, so Mine), Taro, a half Classic Old Frill, half Lucerne sired by Hemlock, and Ivy, a Classic Old Frill with some Archangel heritage that makes her absolutely gorgeous. I decided to keep her and Taro because they are tangentially related to each other through Taro's mother, Lotus.

Normally, this wouldn't necessarily be a dealbreaker with pigeons, just something to be considered. But Lotus passed of an unavoidable condition called egg yolk peritonitis, or EYP. In her case it was genetic. Combining that with some other strange health problems spotted in the line, it's been agreed among our circle to no longer breed birds of this line to each other.

So I hung onto those two, considering I can't send them as a breeding pair to anyone and I can trust my own hatch control! Plus, it's very nice to have Taro around - he is such a blend of his mother and his father, both of whom I miss for different reasons. It's really nice to have a piece of them around, being an absolute goofball and being ridiculously large ♥️

[badaziraphaletakes]

I wouldn't say it's offensive (?), but it just made me sad 🥺

I tried to follow the guidelines for sending something like this, but let me know if I should stop or should have done it differently

Me every time I see this godforsaken take:

Aziraphale did NOT "choose" heaven! He was forced into going back. If he'd gone with Crowley to AC, they would both have died. And that's assuming they'd even get that far. There was every chance that Metatrash would have smitten (smited? smote?) one or both of them on the spot if Aziraphale had said no. (Coffee or death. Seriously, could NG have made it any more obvious?)

And we have NO evidence Aziraphale actually *wanted* Crowley to become an angel again. WE CANNOT ASSUME ANYTHING HE SAID IN THE FF WAS WHAT HE ACTUALLY WANTED.

(Btw, you submitted it perfectly, @catziraphale! Thank you so much! :)

[lunesprite]

@dca-prompts @simpalert

Original prompt:

Trying this a different way this time! ~1500 words today. Takes a little bit to get there, but I hope you enjoy it!

______________

Nothing ever happens on Wednesdays. Well. Not from the hours of midnight to 6am at least. 

It’s the perfect night to come back. 

Around and above you, the lights of the pizzaplex flick off, casting your path in wells of deep shadow between islands of neon glow. 

It was unsettling walking to your office the first few times. Management wanted you clocking in no more than five minutes before your shift officially began, and unless you sprinted from the time clock, there was no way in hell even that would get you from point A to your office down in the depths of the place before it got spooky in the pizzaplex. You used your phone flashlight for a bit - speed walking between neon streams and the glowing eyes of the ever-watchful wet floor bots - but, well. 

Then Moon stole your phone. 

It was your fault, to be fair.  

You’d been late, you’d been hurrying, you heard a noise behind you and instantly thought ‘horror movie’ and whipped around and uh. Kind of flashbanged him in the face from two inches away. In your defense, no one had ever bothered to tell you what the other night security was, or tell you that it had a mischievous streak a mile wide. 

So you figured you deserved it when he stole your phone and spent a good fifteen minutes suspended above you, sulking like a kicked cat before you gave up and stumbled your way to your office in the dark. And there, in between staring at the screen static of a completely empty plex, you decided to write him an apology. 

One, you wanted your phone back. You’d just paid it off. 

Two, call you a sucker, but he’d been kind of… cute? You’d never seen an animatronic sulk before and he’d sold it so well you’d really wanted to beckon him down and pet him. 

You left that bit out of the apology. Which was a good thing, because when you’d clocked off in the morning and slipped by the daycare looking for the guy with your actually neatly written letter of apology, sealed with a sticker and everything, Sun looked at you like you were about to grow a second head.

And then, insisting that he was just checking it over for you, read the whole damn thing. Out loud. With acting. 

You hadn’t been allowed to leave the tiny table he’d plonked you down at. 

You’d been so mortified, your brain didn’t even register it when he whipped out your phone from somewhere and made you re-enact the incident with him - except Sun, wearing a hat also produced from places unknown, followed up the flashbang with dramatic wailing on the floor. Smote down, cruelly wounded, etc. 

Which was all well and good, you’d said. But Moon’s was a lot cuter. 

Yeah. 

You know in those choice games, where like. Sometimes it brings up a notice? ‘There will be consequences for this action’? 

There were consequences for that action. You still don’t dare go to the daycare during operating hours. 

Sun, the menace, had gotten this gleam in his eyes and started howling and you fled like literal hounds were on your heels. 

You hadn’t expected to clock in late the next day, the lights off before you even made it to the time clock, and then turn around to Moon right there. 

And. Look, ok. 

He was too big to be in that pill box of a room. So he was kind of scrunched up a bit. Hunched in on himself, his hat more crooked than usual, long legs and arms drawn in like. Like a cat, sitting behind you, with those big red eyes watching you. 

He was cute. And you didn’t know about his and Sun’s whole situation - that liar - so you just. Did what you’d wanted to do the night before. 

You reached out and pet him and that big cat just melted. 

He made the deepest, happiest purr, eyes dimmed in contentment and next thing you knew, you were on the floor with an animatronic oozed across you, his face in your hands and his claws kneading the shitty carpet. Only, worse than a cat, there was no way to move the big cute lug to go anywhere. 

Once Moon cuddled, you were stuck. 

But you worked things out. 

As much as the two of you enjoyed sitting in your office, his chin resting on your thighs as you watched the security feeds and idly pet him or wiped him down, he did have to do patrol, so you’d made a deal. 

Wednesday, when nothing ever happened, Moon could come flop on you. 

It wouldn’t take him long to show up tonight. After all, you’d been gone last week - vacation - and it’d taken a lot of pacifying to get your sulky cat to accept he’d have to go without cuddles for one week. 

You unlock your office, flicking on the light switch beside the door and leave it open as you dump your overstuffed bag beside your chair and set your drink on your desk. If you didn’t keep the door open, Moon would claw at it. The exact same way a cat would paw at a closed door, except his are titanium and explaining it to management is a lot more… awkward. They always seem to expect so much more from your answers when they ask. 

You only manage to get the screens turned on and dig out the wipes from your bag - the scrubby ones, a little treat - before the lights overhead go out, leaving you in only the faint light of the security feeds. And when you turn, you try very hard not to laugh. 

All you can see are Moon’s eyes, staring accusingly in at you through the window beside the door. 

“I’ve wronged you,” you say, as solemnly as possible. 

His eyes narrow. 

“Truly,” you turn, pulling out the starry blanket and new pillow wedged into your bag. “I have been a most cruel friend, to leave you uncuddled for a week.” 

His claws creep around the edge of the doorway. 

Almost everything else, you pull out from assorted hiding places in your office. Pillows. Not one, but two giant sleeping bags, spread out across the floor as you shove your chair to the edge of the admittedly small space. By the time you’ve finished, fluffing up the sturdy pillow you sacrificed from your old couch, Moon sits in the doorway. 

Now for the final bribe. 

Under his watchful optics, you set the wipes on the floor near the couch pillow. And then your drink. And then, with a wink, you reach into the bottom of your bag. 

And pull out a massive power cord which you hold out in both hands, head bowed. 

His eyes gleam, a quiet cackle hissing from his voice box. 

“As an apology, please accept this offering of a night of cuddles and charging - just as long as you don’t blow up the circuits again.” 

“No promises,” he hisses, already slinking inside and burrowing under the top sleeping bag as you huff out a laugh, pushing aside a bit of shelving to reach the heavy duty plug hidden behind it. You plug in the stupidly heavy cable and drag it over to the jingling blanket lump, grinning as he pops out his head. Just like a cat, he takes up 90% of any surface he deems his bed, and you drop the cable on him with a clunk as you clamber over him to the other side to your stash of wipes and drink. 

The screens flicker as Moon plugs in the cable, and for a second you pause, wipe in hand, before he slinks an arm around your waist and plops his chin in your lap with a soft purr. 

You laugh softly, checking over the security feeds for a second before you tilt up his face, smiling at his dimmed eyes and take the wipe to his forehead. 

“I thought you were gonna knock us offline there, Moony.” 

“Mmmm.” He hums, curling his lanky form around you until you’re hemmed in, his arms deceptively loose around you. “Still thinking about it.” 

“I guess I’ll just have to convince you otherwise, hm? Can’t clean you up all nice if I can’t see a damn thing.” 

You pat his head, settling back into your pillows as Moon mumbles something and, slowly, as the trash can fills with dirtied wipes - your eyes flicking to the screens each time you grab a new one - his purr evens out. 

It’ll be a long night. Somehow, you suspect he’s not going to let you up until the end of your shift this time.

With a fond sigh, you hook an arm around him in turn, fiddling lightly with his hat as he snoozes and turn your eyes back to the wall of security monitors. His fingers rest loose and light against your sides. Every now and then, his claws twitch. His inner machinery ticks and whirrs lazily. 

He really is a sweet thing, underneath all that mischief. 

You almost want to kiss him. But, ah. This is enough, isn’t it?

[broomsick]

Óðinn picks the sword into Barnstokkr, by artist Alan Lee

“A certain man came into the hall unknown of aspect to all men; and suchlike array he had, that over him was a spotted cloak, and he was bare-foot, and had linen-breeches knit tight even unto the bone, and he had a sword in his hand as he went up to the Branstock, and a slouched hat upon his head: huge he was, and seeming-ancient, and one-eyed.

So he drew his sword and smote it into the tree-trunk so that it sank in up to the hilts; and all held back from greeting the man. Then he took up the word, and said—

‘Whoso draweth this sword from this stock, shall have the same as a gift from me, and shall find in good sooth that never bare he better sword in hand than is this.’

Therewith out went the old man from the hall, and none knew who he was or whither he went.”

Völsunga Saga - The Saga of the Völsungs, chapter III

[lukedanger]

Day 10: Second Chances

For @owlcatober - a former companion gets a second chance, and Arueshalae talks to her.

[Ao3 Link]

====

Of all the horrors that Arueshalae had anticipated in her return to the Abyss, there was one reunion she had not expected. Perhaps if given time she might have considered the encounter with an abyssal larva bearing a former comrade’s face, or perhaps demons born from that larva. Yet in the whirlwind of preparations, the thought of meeting a former companion was far from everyone’s mind.

In hindsight, though, Arueshalae should have known better than to assume that Pharasma’s judgment erased everything. After all, Arueshalae herself had her realization by way of Desna awakening the memories of the damned souls that eventually became her. And that was without the consideration of what this mythic power would do to the process.

Arueshalae watched the subject of her thoughts: at first glance, another succubus with black bat wings and similarly colored tail, pointed ears, piercing brown eyes, and horns that had been filed down to be barely noticeable in the bangs of her long black hair that hung behind her past her shoulders. She wore a light blue half-dress over white, much as she had in life, even as the mortally feminine attire gave way to practical brown pants and boots below the hips.

Then she transformed. Not the transformation that Arueshalae knew all too well to match her victim’s desires, but shifted into an entirely new demon. An incorporeal black mass with wings black as midnight, long claws for hands, and a black fog for legs. The dress she wore also turned translucent with the transformation, staying with it. An invidiak, more commonly known as shadow demons. A demon of envy, masterful possessors, and also often servants of their Lady in Shadows.

Then the demon transformed again. The bloody red form of a babau, all traces of beauty lost as it was replaced with a horned skull-like face, a long tail, clawed feet, and slimy red skin. The dress shifted to match, and so far seemed to be holding despite the red acid. The demon’s true form, or at least the one that was victorious in a contest of consumption. Demons of murder, the sin that had defined this soul the most in life, followed shortly after by the other two.

In a way, Camellia Gwerm had not avoided the fate of abyssal larvae after all.

Camellia had her back turned to Arueshalae, the former half-elf looking in a mirror she had brought from the city below as she explored her new self. It did not take long for Camellia to return to the form of a succubus, even as she pouted at her wings and ran a hand along her forehead to make sure the horns had been filed down.

“Fascinating, is it not?”

Arueshalae looked to her right. She had stepped up to where Nenio and Woljif were keeping an eye on Camellia - or at least, Woljif had his eyes on the task. Nenio had been studying Camellia’s transformation since their first encounter, finally interested in the noble bastard after having previously shown little interest in her.

“I dunno,” Woljif admitted, “seems like a gimmick to me. I mean, don’t succubi transform already?”

“Yes, but they cannot truly impersonate other beings of the outer planes! Not without powerful magic, even in comparison to the most accomplished mortal spellcasters.”

“If you say so.”

Arueshalae folded her arms together, frowning. “Camellia has become something strange. Three demons fused together.”

“Or one being split into three - see the fey at the Battlebliss Arena as an example of the phenomenon.” Nenio put a hand to her chin. “Truly, we have stumbled upon a remarkable discovery. I am quite glad that she was not smote on the spot and that we assisted in completing Lady Areelu’s experiment!”

“Yay, we helped a shadow-babau hybrid add a succubus to the tryst,” Woljif deadpanned with an eye roll. “Honestly, as far as the chief’s ‘dumb idea but she wants to see what happens’ moments go, this is worse than studying Vang’s notes.”

“I would note that my assistant adamantly refused to recreate swarm boy’s experiments, not even seeking volunteers ready to sacrifice in the name of science!” Nenio insisted with just a bit too much regret in her voice for anyone to be comfortable. “Nonetheless, assisting rich girl has provided us with invaluable insight into Areelu Vorlesh’s research! She studied this phenomenon for its own value, but more importantly to understand the survival of the mortal ego through Pharasma’s judgment. She must be working on truly revolutionary work for rich girl’s transfiguration to be a mere stepping stone!”

“Whoo, big deal. Doesn’t tell us how they’re makin’ the mythic monsters.”

“No,” Arueshalae admitted, “but perhaps it is something we should all think about if this was not an accident.”

“Gee, thanks, like I haven’t considered what demon blood does.”

“Regardless of tiefling boy’s sour disposition, you wanted to speak to her demon girl? We were not asked to bar verbal inquiry, so by all means!”

Arueshalae nodded, inhaling. Yes, she needed to. Camellia had tried to reach out to her in life. In hindsight it was probably for horror stories to get off on, but perhaps something remained of that bond? Perhaps truly seeing life in the Abyss had convinced Camellia she had deserved her fate but now could change her ways?

Arueshalae stepped forward, flicking her tail to hit the rocky surface so it was clear she was not trying to sneak up on the new demoness. Camellia heard, turning her head partway, and then she affected a smile. The same false smile, as Daeran had put it, of a woman pretending to be enjoying herself in society. Yet within there was something genuine - Camellia was not as discrete as she had believed she was at the sight of horrors.

“So,” Camellia started, “Arueshalae. How do I look?”

“Much as you used to,” Arueshalae admitted honestly. “The tailors of Alushinyrra are as precise as I remember.”

“It helps when one remembers not only wearing the clothes, but the commissioning itself.” Camellia ran a hand around the front of her collarbone, then down her chest to admire the deft replication, then scowled. “If only the price was something other than her pleasure. But I suppose you would know all about that, wouldn’t you?”

There were quite a few things such a jab could allude to, and Arueshalae was not interested in revisiting any of them. “This is the way of the Abyss. Everything can be currency, whether you wish to spend it or not.”

“Hmmm,” Camellia noted as she glanced towards her nominal guards, just a bit too far away to hear if they lowered their voices. “Yes, it is true. Even in Charnelhome, fools wanted what satisfaction they could get. At least I was able to escape swiftly enough after my shadowy self found me.”

Camellia tried to hide it, and the Abyss had clearly been a harsh but effective teacher in such a short time, but Arueshalae could still perceive how much the experience had horrified Camellia. How must it have felt for one to technically succeed, especially for someone who was used to being on top in such an encounter? Arueshalae had her own run-ins with invidiaks, including an inexperienced one trying to take over her body, so it was not an academic question for her. 

“Still, this has been an,” a pause, “educational experience. One I am eager to move past. I suspect you feel the same.”

Arueshalae blinked. Was she right? Focus! She told herself. Don’t play her hand too early. “This is not the homecoming I would have wanted, no, but we have to find the source of the mythic demons. Even all of us together could not stop an army of them.”

“I suppose not. But at least here, you are most helpful, are you not?” Camellia smirked. “Elaina must hang onto your every word and story now. More than she had, that is.”

“She needs all the information she can get. You remember what she said about knowledge.”

“Knowledge is power, a road to using it better, and so on.” Camellia sighed. “I suppose knowledge of Mireya was not enough…”

“Don’t lie. Not about this.”

“Oh please, I know full well that my secret is out. Can a girl not use sarcasm?”

“Sorry,” Arueshalae apologized as she felt her cheeks flush. “But, I know how hard it is to earn their trust.”

“Evidently not as hard as I imagined. So, where is your mark?”

“Mark?” Arueshalae asked.

“Don’t play dumb,” Camellia reached a hand to her dress, opening the top until her heart was visible. A brand had been burned there between her breasts, shaped as a sword before a sun. “A Mark of Justice. Divine retribution for misbehaving. Elaina and her holy warden friends were eager enough to brand me in private. What are a few shared secrets between demon girls marked by a paladin?”

“She never- Elaina never put any sort of mark on me.”

“Well, I suppose she must not have been powerful enough back then. Who then? Sosiel, because you want love instead of lust? Or maybe Lady Sigrun - Desna’s protege marked by Desna’s high priestess in Drezen? Arsinoe, with how you hung out by the cathedral?” Camellia ran out of alternatives as Arueshalae remained silent, still staring at the brand.

“Are- are you kidding me?!” Camellia finally snarled as she let go of her dress. “She branded me, but not you?! Why? You did far worse than I ever did!”

She was right. Of course she was: Camellia’s deeds were horrible, but her praying mantis ways (as Daeran put it) were a drop in the bucket in a place like the Abyss. Arueshalae had done far worse than Camellia ever had, and far more brazenly at that. Or was it just volume overwhelming severity?

So why does she trust me? Arueshalae wracked her thoughts as Camellia fumed, unwittingly shifting into her Invidiak form as her envy took hold. When did Elaina start trusting her? It had to be early. Was it hearing her voice in Kenabres? Maybe, or was it-

“I don’t think she trusted me,” Arueshalae finally said, “Not at first. But I think she trusted Desna. Do you remember the Song of Elysium?”

“I was there when she disappeared,” Camellia snapped back. “And when she sang it to you in that cell. Fine, so a goddess vouched for you. But then you lied about Greengates! If she brands people to keep them in line, surely that was the time to do it!”

Again, not wrong. “Then you know what I told her - that I was still thinking as a demon. Not my very being calling to lust and pleasure, seeking sex, good food, and praise, but the way we live. Perhaps she genuinely believed me then, in the honest admission of regret.”

“So what, I should have told her that I like to kill? That it is not a want, but a need. That my desire for blood was like an annoying fly that cannot be seen or swatted away?” Camellia’s form began to shift again - and again she did not seem to realize it as her skin turned red and started to secrete acidic red slime. “That I received no relief from the death of enemies in battle, but from those who believed me a friend? That to truly silence the fly for a time, I must see the disbelief and dread in their eyes as they perish? From my first puppy to men thinking with their swords?”

“Like a demon,” Arueshalae said, not catching what she had said until it was already out.

Camellia was about to snarl, fully in her babau form, but stopped herself, then took a half step back and nodded. “I suppose it was demon-like. It is something I always had - even as a little girl, even before spirits began to whisper to me. You know all too well what it means to be compelled to do something.”

“Do you still feel it?”

“Of course. I am a demon, yet the urge to kill feels no different than when I was alive.” Camellia tilted her head. “It is simply who I am, it seems. Who I was born to be.”

“You can still change, though. You have the bodies of three demons, yet you are not ruled by any of their sins. Like a mortal, you are free to choose a path.” Arueshalae took a deep breath. “I do not pretend to understand how this works, but you have a second chance, Camellia. Surely it is too valuable to waste.”

“Of course: I fully intend to prove myself,” Camellia consciously shifted back to her succubus form. “I will slay the Crusade’s enemies here in the Abyss and back on Golarion. I will prove my worth, even if I must leave when the Worldwound is closed.”

It was a repentant sounding sentiment. One that Arueshalae wanted to believe, if only because it meant that she too could find her redemption. Yet, Arueshalae knew demons all too well, and had been closer to Camellia than most of their party. The Abyss had taught Camellia lessons in how to lie, yet they were lessons Arueshalae had mastered centuries ago.

Still, there was one last piece before she was certain.

“Do you not regret the murders you committed?”

“Of course I hold regret, given the fate it delivered me to,” Camellia traced her finger along the front half of her neck, seemingly unaware of the red secretion following her finger. “But having suffered my just punishment, surely I can use this second chance to better myself?”

Arueshalae felt her black heart sink.

“You only regret being caught,” she sighed as she shook her head. “All those senseless deaths still don’t mean anything to you, do they? The hopes and dreams of the men and women you murdered, they mean nothing to you. And now you ask why you are not trusted.”

“If you get a second chance, why shouldn’t I?”

“Is that mark not your second chance? If you truly want to change, Camellia, should you not wear that mark as proof of penitence?” Arueshalae did not relent as Camellia’s scowl grew. “You knew that what you did was wrong, but you kept doing it. Will keep doing it if you are allowed back onto Golarion. If you truly wish to change, Camellia, if you truly want a second chance? You have to be willing to change yourself.”

Arueshalae took a step away, then turned away as Camellia snarled in fury but knew better than to try anything. Small wafts of smoke arose from her dress as the babau acid tested its wards.

“Funnily enough,” Nenio was saying to Woljif as Arueshalae passed, “babaus usually excrete their acid after the kill, rather than in anticipation.”

“Oh I could have gone without that thought, thank you very much!”

Arueshalae wished she could have chuckled at his harmless misfortune the way friends would, but Arueshalae was weighed down by her thoughts.

It was unlikely that Camellia would truly change. Even Sosiel and Ember felt that Camellia was not interested in redeeming herself, even as Ember noted how miserable the Abyss made her. And none of them were willing to let Camellia back onto Golarion. Even if they were willing to, though, they could not help her.

Something she had overheard the Hand say to Elaina suddenly made so much more sense to Arueshalae: that ultimate victory over the evils of the Abyss would only occur when no mortal soul willingly turned to evil, but those who tried to create such by force only became tyrants. If they wanted to drag Camellia to the light, they would have to do far more than place a conditional curse on her. They would have to take away her freedom to choose.

Camellia had her second chance. All that remained was to see whether she would truly take it to be a better person, or try to exploit it.

Much as Arueshalae hoped otherwise, she knew it would be the latter.

===

Some notes as this is a bit of a complicated idea: I have nursed the idea of Camellia showing up in Act IV as a babau if you killed her in Act III for a while. This was finally a chance to explore that, even if the full story might wait.

The basic idea is that Camellia's share of the mythic power allowed her to survive the ego death of Pharasma's judgment, so when she arrives in the Abyss she would be a fully formed demon with her personality intact. I played with the rules a bit (mythic power is absolutely doing a ton of heavy lifting here) as when discussing this with a friend who is very familiar with a canon example (Mangvhune from the Hell's Rebels AP) the idea of the sins splitting came up. One-of-Many in Mask of the Betrayer was a fun concept I never got to use as I never did an evil playthrough, so it felt like a good fit here even if it isn't technically how it usually would go.

Well, between that and the ego death averted, it seems like the thing that Areelu would look into, wouldn't it? I do want to do more with this idea eventually, but for now... here's my shot at it.

[two-person-job]

assigning songs from my latest romance playlist to mine and my friends' selfships :}

@lexisism @milk-violet @floraldresvi

it got a lot longer than I thought. so. have fun! <3

best friend - laufey

kavexis or verali. definitely an alexis selfship. the parts that are more about how you're best friends reminds me of kavexis, but the parts that are lovingly insulting feels more reminiscent of verali

magnolia - laufey

this song is about yoimiya. or it's mizuha and it's kazuha thinking about mirei. a lot of this song feels more like poetry than lyrics?? which leads me to say that kazuha would hear it whenever he sees mirei.

death, thrice drawn - the scary jokes

baivi? verali? I can't really place this one. but. when I think selfships with lots of pining, baivi and verali come to mind!!

jeanine - the scary jokes

kavexis angst where both alexis and kaveh are feeling overwhelmed and end up kinda neglecting each other. with the line "love is just a name for you to call me by", this song talks about how though they are still acting in love, the feelings are starting to fade. it also goes into someone being emotionally absent, and not being vulnerable enough for the other. both people are stuck in a space between "I can't find time to talk to them" and "they can't find time to talk to them", and lots of conflicting "it's my fault/I shouldn't be to blame here" thoughts. one of the last lines is "just like the smote cedars in the yard, I have fallen so hard for you" which shows that yes, they are in love. yes, they adore their s/o. but. it's not a love that is gentle anymore, it's hard to live with and difficult to manage. very "I love you, but at what cost?"

starstruck - the scary jokes

this song has a permanent spot in my shroomsym playlist for a myriad of reasons!!!! firstly. sylvia is being depicted as a figure who shows enough to be admired, but never enough to be known. that's sym for a while!! and the entire song is just someone gushing and wondering about her.

no leverage / no pleasure - the scary jokes

scarayui because of the "I just can't have a normal heart" line and all that's added onto that. with all the scaramouche lore I know very little about, I believe this fits his character? loving, despite it being against his nature? but since yui isn't on tumblr anymore. this is actually really hard wait. this could lead off of the kavexis angst from "jeanine"?? i'll go with that dfjdjdfk

crushed out on soda beach - the scary jokes

shroomiya angst because. the first lines "I tried just burning the whole thing down today / but decisiveness is such a foreign tenant to my psyche" represents someone trying to break up with their partner, but being too indecisive to do so. later on in the song, it goes "you called my bluff / I love you too much / would you please stay with me? / cause after all is said and done / I want you here, stay with me!" this song is representative of wanting the end of the bad parts of a relationship, but not the good parts. it's about wanting the relationship you used to have, wanting to go back to when everything was normal and better than normal because it was beautiful. "I could hardly stand under the weight of my little crush on you" shows how much yearning can take a toll on someone.

bets against the void - the scary jokes

baivi angst this time. "these days your light beam penetrate / the sorrowed skin that i've been living in". baizhu's condition is getting worse, but vi and everyone else's love and care for him motivates him to try to be everything he could be. "but still I wait for piercing pain / i'll feel when your feelings fade / I feel so good today" he knows that all of the good he feels now is temporary. when vi's gone, or busy, or tired, or sick herself, he feels worse. but how is he supposed to push that onto her? when they both feel so good today, isn't that all that can really matter? "the sun is just a copper coin / I flip in bets against the void / imitating choice / 'til I feel good again / i'll keep them in a tin can / then i'll have copper coins to spend" baizhu's trying to find optimism in vi, in qiqi, in everyone who comes to bubu pharmacy, and he is, he really is, but it's getting difficult to find much more meaning in that optimism. he has all of the little memories from people he's known and loved and cared for, but he doesn't have much to do with them. "will you remember me / when our spirits scatter off?" will you remember him, when he can't remember you? when he isn't there? when he can't be everything you deserve? when he loses all he was? "I know I'm an artist / 'cause I just can't stand the thought / that a love as beautiful as ours / could be forgotten" he knows you'll never forget. and that's just why he wants you too. he wants you to be able to move on a live a life as amazing as it always was. but he also knows that you won't be able to do that. so he will make sure you remember your love as beautiful, and make sure to pass it on to everyone you continue to meet.

anata no koibito ni naritai - choo kyuu mei

MIZUHA!!!!! "koi ni ochite iru" THAT DAY I FELL IN LOVE! "kocchi wo mite yo!" LOOK THIS WAY! "choco yori amai! ondo de tokeru!" SWEETER THAN CHOCOLATE, YOUR WARMTH MAKES ME MELT! ik the translation is rough but!!!! KOI NI OCHITE IRU!!!! THAT DAY I FELL IN LOVE!!! KOIBITO NI NARITAI! I WANT TO BE YOUR PARTNER! I want to make a mizuha animatic of you two falling in love.. and being in love.. and that day you fell in love!

also dreszhu. though I know little about it, I like the idea of baizhu seeing dresvi and going "OMG SHES SO BEAUTIFUL" before regaining his composure lol

what will you leave behind (end titles) - max LL and maude plante-husaruk

spiritfarer is everything to me. BUT this song feels like shroomsym and baivi!! for shroomsym, sym is immortal. there is a way to become immortal with him! this song is about loss, about moving on, about grief, and about getting over it and learning how to lovingly remember instead of feeling constant grief. immortality comes with watching the death of all your favorite people, but the last line "but it's ok, we'll be together my friend" would be how sym would be there through it all.

with baivi though!!! baivi is the sort of couple that goes through and sees everything. they grow old together, watch friends come and go, watch relationships blossom and deteriorate, see the landscape around them shift and change, and learn every little thing they can, and more. they guide each other through every difficulty, every problem they may ever have. and they make their own world, out of love and beauty and patches of everyone and everything in their lives. baivi is a couple that grows old together.

hikouki gumo - yumi arai

kavexis. alexis gets to see all of kaveh's dreams up close, everything he wants and everything he does to reach those wants. hikouki gumo is the ending song of "the wind rises", about an aeronautical engineer (I think?) who falls in love with a woman with tuberculosis. though he stays with her as much as possible, she doesn't survive. however, they get to love in the most beautiful ways possible. they love in paper airplanes, they love in carefully-chosen gifts, they love in dropping everything to see each other, they love in spite of everything that encourages them not to. they love no matter what may happen. that's kavexis to me, passion and dreams and unconditional love. kaveh would do anything for alexis, and all she wants is for him to love her. "i've loved you since the wind brought you to me" is my favorite quote from that movie, and I think it suits kavexis :}

itsudemo dare ka ga - shang shang typhoon

sunvi? this is the ending song of "pom poko", and is playing during a lot of friends reuniting. I feel like sunvi is about never truly being apart, only in different places. this song talks about never forgetting the name of the people who loved you. sunvi is about remembering. remembering favorites and dislikes, anniversaries and birthdays, names and relations. everything that matters, and everything that doesn't. because if it's connected to someone you love, is anything really insignificant?

le temps des cerises - cora vaucaire

this is a song that plays in "porco rosso"! the woman that sings it in in love with the main character, though he feels as if he will never be good enough for anything. he has too much guilt about his past mistakes, and doesn't want anything bad to befall someone he cares about, so he stops caring. but she persists, and I think that's very reminiscent of a possible mizuha or pantalovi au. for mizuha, kazuha feels as if he isn't stable enough for relationships. also everything that happened with tomo, he doesn't want that to happen to mirei. but she doesn't care. all she cares for is kazuha, and that's what matters to her. slowly, she teaches kazuha that she loves him with all the risks he may see in being close to someone. as long as they get to be together, she'll be happy, and so will he. pantalovi has something similar, with how pantalone is in the fatui and all. how could that end up in safety for vi? how could he make sure she'd be ok? by not involving himself with her, is his first thought. but similar to mirei, vi is persistent! she will love freely! and he will have to learn to accept that. and he does, because he loves her. pantalone will make sure NOTHING bad ever happens to vi, who appreciates the sentiment, but once again similar to mirei, won't mind what happens as long as she is with him.

socks - out of luck

MY FAVORITE SONG FOR SHROOMIYA!!!! "what's up? how you been? / I wanna be so much more than friends!" lots of realizing you're in love and wanting to confess and not being good at telling someone you love them but trying anyways!! wanting to be with someone forever and never being forgotten and sharing things that only you and them know! yoimiya reminds me of giggling into pillows at a sleepover, and that's what this song also feels like!! failed confessions and flustered glances!!

i do adore - mindy gledhill

baivi. vi is so deeply in love with baizhu that him just asking her about her day makes her a blushing mess!!! they're different in so many ways, but not in a way that sparks argument, in a way of someone who's always cold has someone who's always warm!! they compliment each other in such a personal way, it feels as if they were made for each other!! no matter how many times vi fails at telling baizhu how she feels, or how much he means to her, he understands. he is able to tell by the absolute adoration radiating off of her, that all her words are laced with love.

sakura kiss - chieko kawabe

i put the ohshc intro on here because of who this playlist is about jhsdjh. but also mizuha kavexis and shroomiya are all couples who would shout these lyrics at a sleepover turned karaoke night. KISS KISS FALL IN LOVE!

pretty girl - clairo

high school au baivi, kavexis, and shroomiya. helpless girls + kaveh who'd do anything for their favorite person.

for baivi, vi would see him in the halls, and it'd start off as just a little hallway crush. but she'd find herself constantly looking for him, trying to find out what he likes, what he doesn't, who he's close with, who he isn't. she's writing him little love notes to stick in his locker, and though she's been found doing this by a multitude of people, none have told baizhu!! she thinks. one day, one day, she'll find the courage to tell him how she feels. (and one day, one day, baizhu will find the courage to strike up a conversation with you) this could also work with sunvi + pantalovi but I think it's cuter with baivi <3

for kavexis this song fills my brain with the image of kaveh in fluffy pajamas and looking at his phone, which has a message from alexis that says something like "thank you!!" and he's blushing because SHE saw worth in HIM and thinks that HE was worth not one, but TWO. WHOLE. EXCLAMATION POINTS!!! they might as well have gotten married already!!! kaveh is so hopeless and in love with Alexis, and thinks that she's so out of his league!! but she thinks the same about him. so they're both stuck in the pining stage with a VERY annoyed alhaitham.

for shroomiya. I would do anything for her!! I'll make her snacks!! this is affection in the form of simple acts of love that are filled with adoration, mistakes made to make someone laugh, and endearing habits belonging to someone you love. I could be her pretty girl!!!

kool - meet me @ the altar

honestly? kavexis. both of them think that the other is so cool! that the other should look in the mirror and think about how beautiful they are! both are such daydreamers, and could spend the entire day just thinking about the other. but they'd much prefer being with them, thinking about them is a good temporary substitute. pining and doesn't know the other feels just like them!!

cat serenade - beetlebug

MIZUHA MIZUHA MIZUHA MIZUHA!!!!! "I've never been the kind to fall in love / it's just me and a couple of fleas and that's all I want" HE NEVER WANTED TO STAY IN JUST ONE PLACE BUT IF IT MEANS ANOTHER DAY WITH YOU HED STAY A CENTURY! kazuha slowly realizes again what it's like to find a home not in a place but in a person, and finds himself imagining all the places he'll go with mirei. he'd go fishing with mirei. go to liyue with beidou and mirei. search for flowers for mirei. everything has mirei added on, and honestly? he doesn't mind. he could use a couple more years of his life, if it means those years will be with you.

honey jet coaster - nasuo and route BLUE - yuki nakashima and kawaii dake ja nai - nasuo

shikimori intro and outro. and the shikimori-themed song. that means baivi. highschool au baivi again where everything with vi or baizhu apart of it is beautiful! everything has to be about the other, and if it's not, then they'll find a way to make it!! every single thing baizhu does is endearing. every bite of food vi takes baizhu finds himself smiling at. ik I compare you to shikimori a lot vi but I think it would be reversed? like. yes ur like shikimori. but for the Cool Person/sweetie who's madly in love with the Cool Person dynamic of shikimori and izumi, baizhu would be the shikimori. while baizhu is always making sure that vi is ok, that she doesn't accidentally hurt herself, that she isn't overworking herself, she's making sure that he doesn't have to worry!! vi's doing everything she can to take care of herself so baizhu doesn't have to constantly worry himself over her, but he still does. and whenever vi tries to bring up possibly being a nuisance to him, he shuts it down before she can get the full sentence out. he worries because he loves her. he worries because she matters to him. he couldn't imagine a world without her, and doesn't want to.

every little thing - cybergirlfriend

shroomiya and mizuha. mirei would GUSH about everything kazuha does!! his handwriting, the way his voice gets softer when he talks directly to her, the way he looks at her with a warm smile after grabbing her hand.. anything and everything she can think of!! and I'm never going to have an empty mind when yoimiya's around. it's always full of thoughts of her!!! <33

biri-biri - yoasobi

i can't say yoasobi without also saying mirei. which is why this is another mizuha song. she's waiting!! she's hoping!! she's anticipating what kazuha will say, do, and everything else about him!!! when will she see him again? what will he say next? where is he right now? when will he hold her hand again? she's always wondering!! and he always has the answer, and it's always "whenever and whatever you want".

shake & shake - sumia

this is the intro to a really weird anime that me and someone else are watching together so I put it on the playlist. anyways this is shroomiya. we'd watch the anime together and laugh at how weird and i'd teach her the choreography in the intro <3

chicken noodle - small crush

kavexis? verali? for kavexis, kaveh is the mess. nothing goes right for him, except for alexis. she's the right in his world of wrongs. when he falls in the mud, she picks him back up and cleans him up. when he loses something, she spends hours helping him find it. he's a mess, but you're the best.

for verali it's swapped. I love you alexis but from what I know of verali you'd be the mess <3 she struggles with falling asleep on time, and he texts her at exactly 10:30pm to go to bed without being prompted to do so. he brushes her hair when she forgets to. he always makes sure that her working space is clean. whenever alexis asks him why, he tells her that he's just doing the bare minimum.

signal dreams - small crush

shroomsym!! "i would rather be living in a dream / if that's the only way I could get close to you" anything for you! everything for you! dedicating your days to someone who doesn't know that you think of them the amount that you do! doing things for someone that they'll never know of! picturing yourself with someone you think will never look your way again!!! he's a dream, and i'm doing fine asleep.

freshman year - small crush

sunvi. vi getting her view on everything skewed. she's having to get used to a new life, a new place, new people and nothing she can do to make the scenario more comfortable. but sunday can do something. so he does, and makes her feel as welcome as he can. he makes sure that she is loved properly, and cared for in the way she needs to be. "but I wish I knew then what I know now" if only she always knew how much sunday would do for her. (he'd do anything)

rumblin tummy - small crush

i swear I didn't plan for it to end like this but. tbh. this fits with everyone.

shroomiya: similar feelings to socks!! i'd never waste a day if it's spent with you! <3 no emotions are useless, no words are meaningless, because they're for her. everything is about her. everything is for her.

baivi: days upon days upon weeks months years and lifetimes spent with each other. spent sighing and dreaming and falling in love too many times to count, and then falling in love again!!! finding new ways to say I love you every day, and new ways to reciprocate.

kavexis: kavexis actually really feels like a couple who has a lot of accidental synchronization!! complimenting outfits, texting each other at the same time, confessions piling over each other because you were both so adamant that the other spoke first.

mizuha: making sure that the other is always cared for. during any absence, any reason for not being together, they are both always secure and excited to see each other again. and they always do, they always, always reunite.

shroomsym: I'm never ever going to be free from him, and honestly, I don't mind. I'd waste all my time finding him, talking to him, and thinking about him while I'm not with him.

sunvi: making space for each other, making time for each other, anything to accommodate to your beloved. because that's what you are to each other. everything you do, is in honor of them. sunvi feels like the type of couple to always be intertwined with each other, when you see sunday, vi is not too far behind. when you see vi, sunday was just making his way over with a bag of food and a kiss for the crown of vi's head.

verali: though he may deny it at times, veritas lives for all of alexis' mannerisms. everything she does fills him with love. everything she says makes him so, so happy. he'd really love it if he were able to just be with her for the rest of his life.

pantalovi: he always makes sure that vi is taken care of, because that is always the top priority. vi is everything to him, and he's everything to her. how could either of them be any less? when all of their spare time is spent on the other, how could there ever be any doubts that their love is less than unconditional and absolute?

[neurolady]

Ineffable May 2024 Day 6 - Apology

I finally had chance to sit down and try a little something out for Ineffable May! Ended up WAY longer than planned but I had fun writing this today. Feels great to feel creative again. Once again LOVE this fandom!

************************************************************

Heaven’s elevator pings open, The Metatron turns to Aziraphale offering a leading hand and a small bow,

“After you Supreme Arch Angel Aziraphale”, in an assumed tone.

Aziraphale winces, he supposes he should like the sound of it, but it already sounds empty.

“Of course,” he replies. Then he tries, he honestly tries, to lift his leg and step out into the infinite fluorescence of Heaven’s open plan. But his eye’s sting, his heart has rooted him to the spot and most of all his lips still tingle. Everything happened so fast, he couldn’t possibly leave things the way they were -  second coming or no!

“Ummm… sir… grand… The Metatron your grace” he stammers. The Metatron says nothing, but was that, did he just look - nervous.

Aziraphale takes a small breath continues “I am deeply honoured your eminence and of course I will be joining you shortly, but I must… I fear I must return to Earth briefly. You see there are… I left a little too hastily you understand,” he paused, waited to be smote.

Instead, The Metatron straightens his posture, letting out a long slightly irritated sigh and steps into Heaven, turning back he states very matter-of-factly,

“Of course, now, do not take too much time. There is much to do, and Heaven’s patience is long but not eternal. You understand,” he understands. With that The Metatron reaches over and presses the down button himself and watches Aziraphale intently as the doors close. Again, was that a flash of - fear, no! Did he look nervous?

Aziraphale dismisses the thought, his heart now thumping against his chest, mind occupied only with Crowley. Only with “you’re the bad guys”, “nothing lasts forever”, “I forgive you”, he falls against the elevator wall groans in despair. Idiot! How could things have gotten so out of hand, how had he let him walk away after their - kiss. The kiss, oh the kiss. He had never even allowed the Earthly fantasy that Crowley would actually want to kiss him. He couldn’t, knew himself too well, knew he’d never want it to stop. He touches his lips, the thought that that could have been their first and last, he can’t bear it, it won’t do. He could not return to Heaven until things between them were righted. Ping, the elevator arrives back on Earth. Aziraphale's heart sinks further remembering Crowley stood statuesque against the Bentley, how to even start?

As the elevator door opens, Aziraphale is so taken aback he is very pleased he is already leant against the wall. Standing next to a deathly anxious looking Muriel, all six feet, flame red haired, black denim clad,

“Crowley”, he exclaims surprise and pleasure singing in his voice. So overwhelmed is he to see Crowley stood there, he doesn’t even try to hold back his initial instinct. He pushes himself from the elevator wall takes two steps and gathers Crowley’s face between his hands. He only has to take two steps as Crowley who is looking equally surprised but more than anything relieved, all but falls forward swooping Aziraphale into his arms.

“Aziraphale, I…” with no chance to complete his thought, Aziraphale has locked their lips together, no panic or hesitation this time. Crowley following his lead, tightens his arms around Aziraphale’s waist squeezing their bodies together, Aziraphale softens the kiss mouths opening tongues exploring. They are taking their time on this one. When they finally part they are both watery eyed, and Muriel has learned what it is to blush.  

Crowley loosens his hold just enough so that they can lean back to see each other. Aziraphale strokes Crowley’s cheek, resting a finger on the arm of his sunglasses,

“May I?”

“Mmm, of course Angel”

Removing Crowley’s sunglasses and letting his arms fall over his shoulders, they look contentedly at each other for a moment; Aziraphale desperately wants to embed those golden eyes and their warm gaze deep into his memory. Feeling somewhat uninhibited in the moment he places another quick, soft chaste kiss on Crowley’s mouth,

“That’s better,” he coos taking in Crowley’s whole face. As reality creeps back in, he lets out a small, strained sigh “you know I can’t stay, I just… couldn’t leave it that way”.

“Me, neither Angel”

“Were you?” Aziraphale gestures his eyes skyward

“Hmmm,” Crowley hums in assent, “I wasn’t going back! I had to… well… Couldn't leave... I’m not sure really,” a look of relief flashes across his face, Aziraphale chuckles understanding his relief. He suddenly remembers poor Muriel, leans slightly out of their hold.

“Were you going to take him up there, officer?”, he teases.

She simply nods nervously, still flushed, and completely overwhelmed by the crash course in humanity she is receiving from these two supernatural entities.

“She already has,” Crowley mutters knowingly through his teeth into Aziraphale’s ear.

“What!”, Aziraphale’s voice goes up two clear octaves, he would have jumped backwards if Crowley had any intention of letting him loose.

“We have much to discuss, Angel,” Crowley responds amusedly and then into a lower more serious tone, “but not now I don’t suppose.”

Aziraphale feels different tears starting to escape, but somehow being in Crowley’s arms makes anything feel bearable.

“Crowley I’m so sorry, I said things…,” Aziraphale feels guilt rushing through him.

Crowley lets loose one hand and places it over his own lips, “Shhhh shhh,” shaking his head, “Angel, there will be time for us and for apologies, but right now there is another Armageddon.”

“Yes, and this time it’s The Second Coming,” Crowley’s eyes open wide in surprise, “But Crowley,” Aziraphale continues softly, “I want you to know some things do last forever.”

Crowley smiles adoringly from ear to ear, “and there definitely are Nightingales singing on Berkley Square”, he responds cutely.

Aziraphale gives Crowley his most adorable pout and then lets out a loud and long burst of laughter. Crowley basks in the sound and the feel of it. When their eyes meet again the air has taken on a more serious tone. It is Crowley who broaches the subject,

“So, THE Second Coming then”

“Yes,” answers Aziraphale heavily, “and errrr… not much of plan yet really”.

“And they are all definitely watching both of us this time”.

“Especially now!” Aziraphale hangs his head feeling the weight of what is about to come, “one or both of us could end up…”

“smitten,” Crowley offers imitating Aziraphale’s highbrow tone, catching his eye again with a reassuring smile. Aziraphale giggles, finds that age old sense of confidence he always feels with Crowley. Crowley continues, “Look, Angel, it may or may not work out this time but how about one half of a one-half miracle, give us both some… reassurance”, he offers a hand between them.

Aziraphale catches on immediately. “But Crowley, let’s not do it with a handshake this time,” he offers coquettishly.

Crowley catches on immediately. Places his offered hand around the back of Aziraphale’s head and pulls him into a deep kiss. Aziraphale places a hand on Crowley’s face, right over his snake tattoo. This kiss feels more possessive than before. The miraculous energy and the fear of what could come next flowing between them. When they part the quiff of Crowley’s flame red hair is bordered with a bright white streak, and his snake tattoo has disappeared. He looks at Aziraphale quizzically, who leans over to look at Muriel now appearing more like a bored child waiting for her parents and smiles flirtingly,

“Best be discreet in Heaven an all.”, he leans in steals one more soft kiss and then steps back out of Crowley’s embrace. He inhales deeply as if about to speak; Crowley smiles gently and shakes his head slowly. Aziraphale takes one more step back. He is back in Heaven’s elevator, they continue smiling and staring at each other until the doors close, as he ascends Aziraphale starts nervously rubbing at the top of his inner left thigh.

[ineffablenlghtingales]

Okay, so 2x05 starts with Shax (ridiculous in that suit of armor...lol I don't really like her) leads a pitiful number of demons to assault the bookshop. Meanwhile, Azi is busy organizing the Whickber Street Traders and Shopkeepers Association Month Meeting with Crowley's help. Shax sets off gathering her "army of demons" and only gets a hold of 70, but tries to rouse them to action. Ends up discorporating Eric several times because of all the questions he asks.

Then we see the little moments of Aziraphale convincing other street traders to attend the meeting (read: the ball). They're not exactly chomping at the ebit, but Azi eventually obtains their agreement. I loved that bit when Crowley's like "You're really going to do this? Can I watch?!" Then the demon's just there off on the side, watching Azi through all of this. Also, if I remember correctly (been a few days since I saw the episode), I think there's a bit where Crowley dons a fez and proceeds to play with a crystal ball he finds in the magic shop.

Nina at first doesn't want to come, but afterward she agrees.

Then that fantastic bit! "Smited? Smote?" "Smitten." "You're being silly." I LOVED that.

Also, let's not forget the part where Crowley confronts Gabriel. Haha that bit about pulling his memories from a matchbox and how unimpressed our demon was. Crowley's like ???

Aziraphale ends up throwing a ball instead of the official meeting, and Crowley, determined to make Nina go inside (bc he senses that something's up) whether she likes it or not, growls at her because he's just so Done™ and the startled woman scurries inside. Another example of the demon not being the 'epitome of evil' he's supposed to be. Aaaand another moment where Crowley calls Aziraphale his friend.

The ineffable husbands dance, well Azi pulls a reluctant Crowley out to dance, and Crowley tries to tell him that there's dangerous things afoot. (Also I'd like to question the pronunciation of charade. Is it "sha-raid" or "sha-rahd"? I've always used the first one, but he uses the second one. Idk)

Shax crashes (well, from the outside) the party and the sign the demons throw in literally demands they send out "the angle". Nice spelling job, infernal beings. Turns out that because of the miracle Crowley and Aziraphale did, Shax doesn't recognize Gabriel when he steps out. (Why on earth he has that ridiculous down comforter turned coat on, I have no idea). Then Crowley's a wonderful impromptu genius when he challenges whether they have proper clearance to even stage the attack. He makes up these stipulations that leave all the other demons questioning the legality of the attack and whether or not they'll get in trouble. Satisfied with that, Crowley tells Azi he'll be back (that wonderful moment I spoke of before, after making the connection with Neil's sonnet...I will forever hold that moment to carry that meaning...)

Crowley gets everyone out and does a thing to make sure they don't remember this. Then he spots Muriel observing the whole scene and comes up with a plan. I also loved this bit! (very much paraphrased bec nope, couldn't find the clip of it)

Crowley: You're an officer of the law, aren't you? Muriel: ... Um it's a little hard to explain, well, yes, I am. Crowley: So you can arrest someone if a crime's been committed? Muriel: Er, well, I'm not actually a-- Crowley *holding his hands out*: Go on, officer, arrest me. I'll...come quietly. Muriel: ???? Crowley: 😤 Muriel: *confused noises also how to explain I'm not really a constable inspector* Crowley: Listen, I know. You're an angel, I'm a demon. I need you to "arrest" me because there's a crime against Heaven.

[sailorsally]

taking some comfort in knowing that Cas would have smote Trump on the spot actually AND volunteered at Planned Parenthood 2x a week

[edosianorchids901]

So Happy Together

@flashfictionfridayofficial prompt - "how far we've come"

“Y’know,” Crowley said, on the verge of dozing with his head in Aziraphale’s lap, “S’ pretty impressive.”

His pillow shifted a little as Aziraphale leaned to grab the jug of wine from the low table by their dining couch. “What’s pretty impressive?”

Aziraphale settled back into place, and Crowley wriggled to get comfortable again. The soft thigh made an ideal spot to rest, at least when it wasn’t moving. “How far we’ve come.”

Mid-pour, Aziraphale paused to give him a baffled look. “I’m afraid I still don’t quite understand, dear fellow.”

“I mean…” Crowley waved a hand vaguely, coordination compromised by all the alcohol. “You n’ me. When we first met, I half expected you t’ smite me for being annoying.”

“I wouldn’t have done such a thing!” Expression indignant, Aziraphale plucked a grape from a bowl and fed it to Crowley. “Granted, you were a bit annoying, barraging me with all those questions immediately after we met. But I certainly would not have smote you.”

“Well yeah, but I didn’t know you again. You mighta been an arsehole.” Grinning up at the angel’s unimpressed expression, Crowley poked him in the belly. “You’re annoying too sometimes, y’know. When you get all holier than thou.”

Aziraphale rolled his eyes and fed him another grape. “I believe you’ve rather wandered off from your original point.”

“Oh yeah.” Crowley took a moment to remember his original point, then brightened. “Anyway. Point is. When we met, we were enemies.”

“We are still enemies,” Aziraphale said primly while his fingers trailed through Crowley’s short curls. The laurel crown thingy had long since been removed and tossed to the table. “I am an angel, and—”

“Yes, all right, and I’m a demon. But we, er…” The wine was starting to make Crowley sleepy, which really didn’t help with clarity. He yawned.

“Well, I’m so glad we’ve established that.”

The bitchiness in Aziraphale’s tone brought another grin to Crowley’s face, as well as a direction for his thoughts. He patted Aziraphale’s thigh. “Started off enemies, not sure about each other. But lookit us now.”

Aziraphale blinked. “Extremely drunk in Rome?”

“No! Well, yeah, guess s’ relevant. S’ mah whole point.” He prodded Aziraphale’s belly again and enjoyed the look of irritation on the angel’s face. “We’re drunk together. We’re together.”

“That’s a very astute obser… obs…” Aziraphale pursed his lips and glared at the wine in his hand. “I seem to be getting as intoxicated as you now.”

Aziraphale hadn’t quite caught up with him yet. When they first got to Petronius’s place, Crowley had still been cranky, depressed, in a mood. He’d been downing wine at an astronomical rate.

But now he was happy, and it wasn’t just because of the wine. He offered Aziraphale the most winning grin he could manage when half of the verge of plunging into an alcohol-induced nap. “We’re friends.”

That produced a horrified sort of sputtering, frantic hand waving, and a brilliant red flush in Aziraphale’s cheeks. Crowley watched, fascinated, as wine went flinging out of his cup and splashed all over the dining couch beside them.

“We are not friends!” Aziraphale finally choked, setting down his empty cup and irritably flicking wine off his fingers. “You absurd old serpent.”

They were absolutely friends, but even drunk, Crowley could tell that pushing his luck on that was a bad idea. Instead, he settled into an even more comfortable position and closed his eyes, head still in Aziraphale’s lap. “S’ okay if I take a nap here?”

“Oh! Of course,” Aziraphale said without any hesitation.

They had come a long way, even if Aziraphale wasn’t prepared to admit it. No other angel would let a demon borrow their lap for a pillow. And no other demon would feel utterly safe doing so.

But as Crowley sank into the comfortable haze of approaching sleep, warm lips pressed to his forehead. Just for a split second, and accompanied by a soft murmur, barely audible. “Sleep, and dream of whatever you like best.”

The goodwill in those words washed through Crowley, clearing away all the dark clutter and inescapable stress that often haunted his dreams. And, all at once, he knew what he would dream about.

More days, spent just like this one. Days of talking and eating and drinking together. Days spent with his best friend.