#so while I believe this is kinda ass

[ceruleansol-archive]

Song of a Caged Bird

Summary—Time aboard the Astral Express should've done Sunday some good, but with an opportunity to speak with his beloved sister again after their farewell, he realizes he might not be able to say goodbye again so easily.

Contains—incest, coercion, dubcon, kissing but no smut, the smut is implied

—1k words

The Trailblazer’s theatrical room remains warmly lit in every corner of entertainment earned from their hard work. The space has served Sunday well in housing as a temporary roommate, the spaciousness granting him enough privacy even when sharing. And now, it serves as the perfect place to reunite properly with his sister.

He’s made sure to secure privacy for their meeting. While it isn’t his room, Sunday appreciates the Trailblazer’s willingness to abide by his conditions. He does feel guilty, however.

Robin explores the space tentatively, light-footed in courtesy yet never too far lest her curiosity of the surrounding trinkets take her attention away. “If I knew the ways of the Nameless were so lavish, I would have joined the Express alongside you,” she jests and smiles back at him from the candy machines as if to ask if he too sees all this silly grandeur.

“I wouldn’t mind that at all, Sister,” he says with hesitation on the title. He shakes his head. “In fact”—he steps closer, his hands clasped behind his back—“I’d be so bold as to request it.”

Robin merely laughs feather-soft and oh so sweetly.

He understands each one of her ways of rejection. A simple “no” would suffice him, but he does adore the softness of her dismissive but timid laughter or her inability to hold direct eye contact for too long when found in a situation a tad too unsavory. Ever the pleaser. He just wishes he wasn’t unsavory to her, especially after everything.

She moves to the windows on the other side of the room now, and he scowls to himself at the distance she maintains between them. “The stars are so beautiful from here.”

“I’m jealous,” is what he expects to follow, but he figures she understands that it would just prompt another offer from him. His heart can only take so much.

Sunday approaches the foot of the bed, giving her the space she wants, but he can’t help but walk the tightrope. “It’s something to get used to even after all this time.”

She returns her gaze to him, and oh, how he wishes to covet it. “I’m sure it is.” Her eyes then fall to the bed. “And this too?”

The way his heart thuds against his chest when she reaches to fluff the pillow—his pillow—should give him cause for concern. Maybe her scent will accompany him tonight as he dreams.

“Do you share a bed?” she follows up.

“Ah, yes, it’s…” he trails off, his eyes following her hands. “It’s to get used to. The Trailblazer is… mobile... in their sleep.”

Much to his surprise, Robin takes a seat on the edge of his side of the bed, which prompts him to sit as well. He appreciates the slimming gap in their distance, but the air grows heavier with what he can only expect to be a storm.

Her chest falls with a soft exhale. “Brother,” Robin begins.

He wonders if she can see his heart pounding in his chest for what it is.

“I wanted to thank you.”

Sunday blinks in confusion. “Dear sister... what for? To my knowledge, all I’ve brought upon you is pain and sorrow.”

He might just have to stop her from smiling like that. It twists something deeply painful inside his chest and threatens to open him up and reveal the maw where his heart should be.

“For getting back up.”

His eyes widen. “Ah.” He huffs to hopefully relieve the pressure in his lungs. “My sister is too perceptive. Was I that obvious?”

There’s that laughter again but this time unmistakably genuine; it washes through him like a balm.

“I’d know you anywhere, Brother.”

He can’t stop himself. Something takes over when he reaches his hand over the expanse of duvet. His head swims at the touch of her dainty fingers grazing his palm, but he’s gentle as he draws her closer to the center of the bed.

Trembling arms engulf her to him, and he breathes in the scent of her lilac shampoo and creamy heart notes of her perfume. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry… for everything...”

Her stillness acts as an anchor to the crumbling taking place inside him, which only breaks him further. The simple touch of her hand on his back threatens to undo him completely.

He has to see for himself. He has to know.

He separates enough to bring her face upwards, his palm soaking in the warmth of her soft cheek. It’s dizzying to feel his breath brush against her face this closely. His lips part unintentionally as his eyes fall to her mouth before returning to the gaze that holds insurmountable trust, teetering now on the edge of the chasm he now inches her toward. Heat swells throughout his body and tightens his pants.

Robin searches his face for an answer she can’t find. “Brother—?”

Taking her hand upon these grand heights, he guides her over the edge with him and cups his mouth to hers, his fingers slacking her jaw to accommodate the depths he wishes to take her.

The squeak he swallows from her becomes his new favorite way to worship her voice, as if in filling his lungs with it, he can tuck her away and keep her there—and possibly, become one. He wastes no time in showing her how grateful he is for every sound he’s ever had the privilege to hear from her.

His hands draw and press her in closer to further encase her with both arms and his legs around her hips. Her body gradually eases against his ministrations, her lips gliding in time with his, their breaths mingling with each other, and her moans harmonizing with his when he sucks on her tongue.

He knows it’s damnable, but he wishes to hear more. If he orchestrates this right, maybe they could create a symphony together.

He truly does feel guilty, however…

The Astral Express crew will have a significant mess to clean come morning.

[electric-plants]

cyno: i would give anything to know how alhaitham’s brain works

kaveh: haha be careful cyno, alhaitham would take that as a marriage proposal

cyno: ah so you think that one could work then? i’ll add it to the list

kaveh: ….please tell me you are not adding that to a list of actual real proposal ideas right now

[fire-in-my-woods]

Remember how cunty mason was in book 1

[laurents-secret-diary]

Can we see any of your drawings you may have had for the side characters please??? 👉👈

I only got a couple so far! I think I'm gonna do Nicaise next

[blue-eli]

Ink October day 3: Sophistry

An argument that seems plausible, but is fallacious or misleading, especially one devised deliberately to be so.

[dykedvonte]

thinking abt what you said with house viewing Benny as a son and I’m obsessed. Like. The man spent most of his life before the war presumably alone, and then after the bombs fell he was alone again, save for AI he himself devised. Then he decides to pull in some Tribes, and one kid shows promise! So sure, treat him well, train him, groom him to be his protege, then next thing you know UH OH he’s got developing paternal feelings towards this guy. Wanting some semblance of a family when the time has long since passed, yet fostering that feeling all the same seems so accurate for him. Benny meanwhile only views him as a boss, and not a particularly good one at that. makes me wonder how House must’ve felt when he found out about Bennys plans

I view it as House blames only himself for this, cause he kind of does in canon (strap in this is a long one).

When reflecting on the issue of Benny, House chastises himself first and foremost for not acting quickly enough when it comes to priming Benny. He describes Benny as being ambitious, ruthless and capable; compliments coming from a man like House. House has an ego and while he is logical enough to understand there was never any evidence Benny saw him as a father-figure, he lacks the humility to admit he let his own views on his relationship with Benny blind him to the activities happening behind the scenes.

I doubt that House was as aware as he makes out about what Benny was doing, he knew early on but certainly not early enough to stop Benny from hacking and obtaining a securitron along with getting the chip in the first place. I take it he was distracted by all the possibilities he was calculating of Vegas' success and growth with him steering and Benny as the new figure head, not because of any normal affection for Benny but the admiration of his capabilities. It's to be noted that House believed menial incentives (likely caps, booze, basic needs, etc..) were enough to keep Benny tame like the other Chairmen but, as evidenced by the Omertas and Mortimer in the WGS, this is not enough when it comes to more driven Vegas citizens. This implies he still undervalued Benny and created a space in which Benny felt the need to rebel.

House in my eyes is not sentimental in the traditional sense. I can imagine his pride was severely scorned as someone he certainly deemed dumber than him was, albeit only for a little, able to out-gambit him. It would definitely hit home seeing how his brother also betrayed him but I feel like that's why he's so apathetic when he tells the Courier to do as they see fit with Benny. I doubt the way he terrorized his brother brought him any emotional satisfaction other than a "Now who's in charge!" ego boost. Putting that same emotional intensity towards Benny isn't worth it because who does it benefit? Wasted time, wasted planning, and most importantly wasted potential are all he gets from continuing to be hands-on with Benny. I say the closest example is not being able to throw out old toys due to the memories attached but knowing it's necessary as they are broken or just taking up space for new ones, and then asking someone else to do it so you don't need to get caught up in the feelings of throwing something you put so much effort into. It's not Benny House cares about in my mind, not in a way that sounds healthy to any non-emotionally constipated individual, but what he could've represented for him, which is why he so quickly offers the same position to the Courier.

As for Benny's view on all of this, it was a long time coming. Benny didn't and doesn't believe House is a completely shitty boss. He admires what he's been shown and admits House knows how to run the strip, but disagrees with the directions. Ideologically, House is an anarcho-capitalist while Benny is just an anarchist. House wants to run the strip to profit, though money is not what he's concerned with being rich with anymore. Benny wants a free state that he wishes to become a place for the people, except for the Chairmen who would be on top (I like to remind people that Benny's motives were selfish but not for personal gain/power as was it for the people he actually saw as family). Benny was never looking for a father but a future. He was not interested in being adopted, or having the chairmen adopted, as bigger names still overshadowed in House's legacy.

Truly, it's easiest to summarize as House feeling strongly and thinking positively enough of Benny to start incorporating him into the future of Vegas (a huge honor actually) while Benny was so disillusioned by House's ego and indifference that he thought the only way Vegas could be the future is with House gone.

[lecliss]

You know, after the anxiety all the Argenti doomposting gave me during the 1.5 beta I told myself I would ignore doomposting from then on. But does it really count as doomposting if Hoyo are the ones doing it to Jiaoqiu themselves???

[authoralexharvey]

every day just gets harder and harder to be alive when the things that keep you living keep being made by shitty people and your support network is mostly comprised of shitty people who only outed themselves to you once you got too vulnerable and the outlets you seek to have some kind of catharsis keep getting preyed upon by scums of the earth and man I just read about the latest shitty man of the week and I'm just so tired. Is it really this hard to be a decent fucking person. Is it this hard to find things that aren't made by shitty human beings.

[medicinemane]

It's amazing how quickly you can make someone turn on your company by making a stupid and insulting move

Force me to go through the front door and scan my card when I have backdoor business that never needed a card before (what? ...I was going to somehow... sneak in and... purchase things with a borrowed card? ...which I totally can't do from the front door after scanning it?)

Or like... twitterify your layout right after your users give you a bunch of money just cause they like you, and then refuse to walk it back

...or all the other things companies do that just kinda piss people off and then they refuse to acknowledge maybe it sucks and is stupid cause "hey, the customers didn't leave"... yeah... yet

[majimassqueaktoy]

the other rgg boys are hairless because rgg didnt bother to model them with body hair but spiritually we know they should be hairier- Majima however is hairless because he goes to a salon and gets a full body wax every friday afternoon at 3pm on the dot.

[popponn]

im still in midst of deadline (will reply to inbox soon! thank you for sending me kind n nice stuffs!!) but as a break let me have this i think i like isagi a lot because he is passionate. but there is something really interesting in how many actions could be categorized as "in character" for him. like he is being friendly—oh yeah, isagi is very capable of that. oh he is an asshole who insults you in the way that would make your ancestor spit—yeah. it's funny. like truly the embodiment of "it depends". in some way also "polite but not truly nice" also it's funny how the one he knows the most about regarding their past is probably chigiri. even bachira didn't spill the heavy stuff on him directly. chigiri and reo are the ones who got isagi pep talk other than igaguri. funny man funny. i probably need to reread to check again but hey let me have this. i can't believe he is still my comfort blorbo this soccerfucker who is a good son and a friend who wouldn't mind to hear you out even if you are not close and you just have to ask. okay yeah let's continue in the tags (and some other time I MISS HIM)

[lazyspeedy]

sorry to be cliché but i really hate men sometimes :/

[bugmin]

so yesterday i sat my coworker down and i told her "the first thing i need you to know is that i respect you, i think you're awesome at what you do, and i dont have a bad word to say about you. its important to me that our working relationship is good and that we don't have unresolved tension but ive noticed in the last few weeks just that. tension. something has changed between us and i need to know what. i want to right any wrongs that might have happened. did i say something hurtful? did someone say something to you? what changed between us because i know something did." can you fucking believe that her answer was essentially "u run circles around me u do my job for me they kick me out when ur here coz u did everything already" oh okay. well you're welcome. also and maybe tell me to fuck off if its bothering you so badly you want to give me nasty fucking bitter stank face for weeks

[pebblezone]

I think causing problems and being irritating is a great pastime

[sassy-assassin]

Buddy Daddies episode 12 WAS SO GOOD WTF IM SOBBING I CANT EVEN WITH THIS BEAUTIFUL FAMILY. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!

Spoilers (and my unhinged thoughts) in the tags just fyi

[teaboot]

One time my mom took me to a hibachi grill with a bunch of her friends and if you've never been to a hibachi grill basically the draw is that theres a bunch of interactive performance stuff done by the cook who cooks for you at your table, and one of the tricks they did at this one was take a squeeze bottle full of liquor and shoot it into your mouth across the table (with permission)

And now at our table my mom explained this because it was my first time going, and she wanted to make sure to warn me it was liquor because she knows I don't drink- she just said "if he offers to shoot at your mouth, say no because it's alcohol".

And so the chef does his thing and it's all very impressive, but the time does come where he pulls out this squeeze bottle of booze and asks me if I wanna try

I of course say no, because I really don't do alcohol, so he moves on to someone else

And I watch, and slowly come to understand that this is some sort of game, because once someone is drinking from the continuous flow the chef starts counting "ONE! TWO! THREE!"

I realize that we're trying to see who can keep drinking the liquor from three feet away without choking or spilling, and its a bummer cause i kinda wanna try and I CAN'T

But he goes around the table with everyone there, and I think my mom makes it to three, one friend makes it to five, I think my brother got to three as well, and he comes back to me

And I'm REALLY bummed out now but I will not drink alcohol, so I sort of sadly repeat that I can't when he pulls out a SECOND BOTTLE and grins and goes "juice?"

And Im like FUCK YEAH LET'S GO and I'm a bit worried he's gonna spray it into my eye or something but he doesn't, it hits me right at the back of the throat, and I start drinking while the whole fucking table counts "ONE! TWO! THREE!"

And like

It just sorta

Kept going?

And Im looking at the chef and he starts freaking out by the time we get to six, and at around seven I kinda start looking around and my auntie is staring back in shock, my brother is laughing his ass off and my mom has her face in her hands

And then at like nine or ten it gets like. Super tense and quiet, and only the chef is still counting

And I guess it got too much for even him cause we're at eleven and I don't believe in quitting early and it is almost painful how awkward it's getting

So he cuts me off at twelve and raises his hands in the air and everyone else cheers and claps like a dumb movie

and I just sit back in my seat to look back at my mother staring at me surrounded by everyone she knows, bright fucking red in the face and choking with honest to god tears in her eyes and she puts her face back in her palms and starts chanting "I don't want to know. I don't want to know. I don't want to know"

So I give her the biggest, proudest grin and tell her, "I won."

So now every time something suggestive happens in a movie, or in conversation, or something shocking happens around us and she goes to jokingly cover my ears, I just ask her, "Remember when I won?" And she goes face-down and groans, because I know EXACTLY how she thinks I trained to develop that particular skill and she HATES knowing that about me

The truth is though, I'm a whole ass 28 year old virgin. I've never so much as kissed anyone in my life. I had no idea I could do that trick until that exact moment

But she doesn't know that, and I'm never gonna tell her