#sorry for adding a creature rant to this but i could go on about this bullshit for Hours

[lethesbeastie]

YES YES YES YES YES

THIS!! THIS RIGHT HERE!!! THIS IS WHY I HAVE A PERSONAL VENDETTA AGAINST EVERY PET STORE CHAIN IN MY AREA—

I have written entire essays/poems/creative fiction pieces on this topic, because a lot of people do not see non-mammalian animals as living things. To the point that suggesting that the welfare of reptiles and fish in the pet trade be handled with the same level of scrutiny as the welfare of dogs or cats seems absolutely ludacris to some people. Reports of people mistreating their reptiles or fish are less likely to be taken seriously than those of other pets, and even when they are investigated, they're less likely to be dealt with unless it's a case of something like exotic animal hoarding.

I will say, this isn't always entirely the fault of the people who buy the animals. Yes, they should've done research before hand, but it's becoming harder and harder to find accurate and accessible guides to fish and reptile care that you can trust as ai-generated articles push out all the actually reputable sources in search engines (and this isn't just a Google issue. I'm on Firefox, and I use duckduckgo within the mobile application for basic searches. I can't say much for other alternative search engines, but you have to fucking dig if you want to be sure you're getting any sort of actually decent information). In addition to that, the pet stores will straight up lie! People will come in and ask what they need, believing that the stores selling the pets will have proper information (because logically, that's how it should work) but they don't! They will tell their employees inaccurate or wholly false information, and sometimes when employees do bring up accurate info, they'll get fucking reprimanded for it! Because the pet store makes more money when small animals die because most people just come back and buy another one! ITS A PURPOSEFUL BUSINESS TACTIC OKAY THE PET STORES DONT FUCKING CARE!

you will hear my strong opinions about the care and keeping of fish today by the lord

[itsahotminuteinbetween]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you. Get to know your mutuals and followers ^^

OKAY SO I KEEP GETTING STUFF IN MY ASKBOX AND I JUST WANTED TO APOLOGIZE I PROMISE I SEE THEM I'M JUST TOO TIRED TO ANSWER PROPERLY AND I CAN'T FORMULATE COHERENT SENTENCES WITH THE LACK OF SOCIAL ENERGY SO SORRY ABOUT THAT I PROMISE I'LL GET TO THE OTHER ONES EVENTUALLY BUT UHHH

okay yes right things that make me happy um

this is the minor stuff off the top of my head so not really an overall thing but here we go

1.) Comfy sweaters or shirts, preferably paired with a skirt or baggy pants-instant dopamine right there, it's comfy and the little swish-swish when I walk is really cool.

2.) Pens and writing supplies! I love love love collecting them-I have this one pen that's a 1.0 ballpoint and its SO SO SO SATISFYING to write with!!

3.) Interactions! Not always very good at initiating or participating in them but they're fun and I like talking to people! Compliments are also really nice, both giving and getting them-I like seeing people smile and share stuff with each other, it's very sweet-watching ideas and thoughts and opinions spread is so fascinating!

4.) pillbugs/rollie pollies-I love these lil guys, probably my favorite isopod (or small creature) ever-they're really silly and cool and neat and I like seeing them crawl around on the sidewalks just doin their own thing.

5.) Books/Articles/anything to be read and analyzed and rambled about (yes this includes fandom): I like reading things and then staring at them obsessively before ranting loudly about every single possible way it could go and every single theoretical outcome of said thing-probably just a love of rambling and information in general. Usually this is about world history or philosophy or an analysis of literature, but it also goes into fandom and random info about stuff that i picked up.

6.) not supposed to be a sixth one but we're adding seashells cuz why not- I like collecting stuff in general (major hoarder of basically anything that is of interest) and exhibit extreme crow behavior over seashells and cool rocks and flowers, as well as other things that are probably not considered valuable (ex. wrappers, sticky notes, cool looking tags, etc.)

[spotsupstuff]

AHHHHH YOUR ANCIENTS THEY JUST-- *smacks ground in word difficulty* --THEY JUST MAKE SENSE!!!!!!!!

I've been studying the in-game graffiti a lot lately to try and create the most canon-accurate designs as I can (cause I'm a loser and have no creativity unless its like three in the morning) and even though I know you're not aiming for it your designs are literally the closest to "canon" ancient designs I've found. hybvendoifwensc I'm very normal about this

And now I honestly feel a bit bad because somehow all of my headcanons seem to be copying your headcanons and I feel like a jerk but your lore is SO GOOD I CAN'T HELP IT ARGH

OF COURSE ancients are some sort of evolved anemone creature. If you look closely their hair is CLEARLY NOT HAIR ITS LITERALLY TENTACLES

And that thing you just posted about the feeding tentacles?? YES. JUST. YES. one of the graffitis shows an ancient with little dots around its mouth/nose area and I had though they were some form of whiskers but little face tentacles are SO MUCH COOLER

I could seriously rant about your lore for hours it drives me crazy in the best way possible

also while I'm here I just want to say that. caper and sparrows. iubegibikuadukibjukd WHY do all of your characters make me feel so many THINGS AHHHHH

sorry for the rant please give all of your blorbos head pats from me

ah! -screenshots ur ask n put it into my emotional support channel- another one added to the collection......

but SERIOUSLY NOW THANK YOU SGDKLJLKSCMKSLDMKL would u believe me if i said i tried making them into platypi.. n then gave up on it n wanted to regress into "oh fuck it, they'll be lizards"..... like the initial designs for Sparrows are so aggressively mid tier

therefore i'd be very amiss if i didn't yell that tumblr user dragonpropaganda plays a Key role in all of this. thanks to 'em i also looked to the graffiti for inspiration!

and with this i mean to get to the conclusion that u dont gotta feel like a jerk!! true dat the ancients aren't all that clearly defined, but we Are still drawing/designing/thinking of the same species and looked to same inspirations. similar headcanons and such are bound to happen, nothin much to do bout that!

EITHER WAY I AM VERY HONORED TO GET THE "has probably the most canon conforming ancient designs tumblr user ardienothesieno has seen so far" JGKLSDCMSDLKMGKLKML YEAAAAH,,, I DON'T,, care for bein canon conforming but it's like getting bullseye in darts while you are blindfolded it's a Really funny n cool feeling

AND I'M GLAD THAT YOU ARE ENJOYING THE CHARACTERS AND DONT APOLOGIZE FOR RANTS!!! i adore reading this kind of analyzation stuff, i really enjoyed this one n i enjoy those that alter1214 wrote me!! i'm kinda slow with replyin to 'em cuz i usually just excitedly nod n stim along as i go thru it, but by gods rest be assured that you don't ever need to apologize for this gljsdlkcmsdkl

[gecko-with-a-greatsword]

saw someone else to this so im plaguing my mutuals with this

free pass to ramble about literally any topic!!! i wanna hear about the things you like

ok I know you said things I like but I'm actually going to take this opportunity to rant about The Lorax (2012) because I have a lot of thoughts about why I hate this movie. Thank you for the ask :)

idk how coherent this will be and this might get long sorry

By the way no judgement to anyone who likes this movie or to the onceler fuckers, these are just my opinions. So to start off, I feel like the lorax story did not lend itself well to the animated kids movie formula. It probably would've been better as some sort of short film or something. And I know Dr Seuss was, like, racist and stuff but the lorax had a pretty good message. And in making the movie I feel like they muddled that message a lot.

So like I said, the story didn't fit the vibe, so to make it work as a kids movie they added an entire other plotline outside of the actual story. They expand upon both the world and the child hearing the story, and I have a problem with both of these. It seems like they were trying to make the town have that whimsical feel that other movies based on Seuss stories have, but personally, I don't think it works for the Lorax. Reading the story you get a sense that the world is desolate and barren. It feels pretty dystopian. In the movie that's only the area where the onceler lives and outside of that is a pretty nice looking town. Sure they have no trees, and are being scammed by some shitty CEO but it's a society with lots of people, who don't seem to feel like anything's wrong. And considering that it's a movie for children, I think the things that make it feel dystopian are too subtle. And you could argue that it was intentionally made to feel like real life, as some sort of commentary or something, but again I think kids won't pick up on that.

Moving on to the kid voiced by zac Efron, (I don't remember his name and I don't really care) I think in the story the kid is meant to be a stand in for anyone, like it doesn't matter who he is because it's meant to be you, reading the story. So making this kid a more fleshed out character was not something I would've done in the first place. Furthermore this kid doesn't even think anything's wrong. He's just motivated by the girl he likes saying she wishes she could see a tree! and that's kind of all he cares about which makes me feel like at that point why isn't she just the main character? (also side it was a weird choice to make her be so much older than him.) Basically I didn't care about any of this, they should have left out the entirety of this outside plot.

Anyway, moving on to the actual important part of the story, we have to talk about the onceler. And I think the main issue with the onceler is that they humanized him too much. Obviously in the picture book you don't really see his face, and reads like much more of a creature. I also believe that there was early concept art of the onceler where he was a lot more creature-y but obviously in the movie he ended up as just a guy. And you could argue that this makes sense because in real life it is humans who are at the root of all the things destroying the environment, but the onceler isn't meant to represent one person, he's meant to represent the companies and corporations. And I don't think the whole tumblr sexyman thing was necessarily their fault because I don't think that was intentional or that they could've forseen that, but it's kind of a testament to the fact that he is too sympathetic a character. And I guess that might be sort of the root of my problems with the movie, that everything feels too personal to be as allegorical as the original story feels. Oh yeah also the deleted song "Biggering" is actually really good and in my opinion would have worked much much better than how bad can i be or whatever. I feel like there's a lot more I could say and i'm probably forgetting a bunch of stuff but I'm kind of losing steam and I've already written a ton so I'll leave it at that I guess. I'm not rereading this lol I hope it's at all comprehensible and if anyone reads this whole thing sorry :P oh and DISCLAIMER I haven't watched this movie in a while or read the story so this was just me talking out my ass if I got something wrong or said anything stupid, whoops 🤷🏽

[stiles-o-dylan24]

not my reading ycmc with only the basic knowledge of tvdu and having to have the fandom wiki tab open the whole time 😅

but oooooh is it exciting!!!!!!! honestly vampires are the best supernatural creature - vamp romances just hit so different especially when you write it, ellie!!!! the sass, the dark romance it's just so akjdshgshjgchagjdskxhhgxzgsa the soulmates not given enough time???? the whole i'd-destroy-the-world-for-you-if-you-wanted vibe???? IMMACULATE.

girlie is better than me though, if that were me i'd have run out of there with him and left the rest of them for dead not me exposing my dodgy morals but oh well

ugh!!!! can't WAIT to see what you have in store for the rest considering i have virtually no idea what's gonna happen next (i know there is some child at some point, maybe klaus'?? idk, my tvd knowledge is iffy at best)

and as always i come with playlist recommendations (i seriously have a problem -- i have 3000+ songs downloaded on my phone 😭😭): i'd deffo say that de selby (part 2), nfwmb, from eden and talk by loml hozier fit those two really well. and dare i say i can see you by the queen taylor herself?

sorry if this a bit ramble-y, i may or may not be a bit tipsy rn

anywhooo gonna go and binge some komh and robably send another rant because i love you and your writingg!!!!!!!!

Not you making my entire fucking WEEK with this message babes😭 like shut up what do you mean you’re reading something you had to properly follow with the fandom wiki page open? NINA!! You are way too good to me I swear! I hope it was easy enough to follow since I did random episodes and tried to include a lot of the plot from those seasons. only one more season of tvd that will be written like this and then when I get to where the originals picks up those chapters will be like how I usually write the episodes out

I could gush to you for hours about how much pure serotonin joy your words always bring me when you tell me everything you liked about my stories😭 LIKE I CANNOT HANDLE IT BABES in the best way possible. The way you say everything makes me so giddy I literally kick my feet. I'm so ecstatic that you have enjoyed these first parts and I caNOT wait for you to read the rest of the series! especially since you're so in the dark about the plot? like I'm honored that it's caught your interest you have no idea! lol we can high five in our dodgy morals solidarity bc I'd have done the same thing as you😌

THOSE ARE ALL SUCH PERFECT SONGS I've added all of them. I also thought I can see you was addlan coded so I added it to their playlist the day the album dropped🤭 also literally never apologise for sending playlist recommendations bc the way you can pick the most PERFECT songs for our couples is a fucking gift I'm so jealous of. I also still have all the songs you originally recommended to me for my writing inspiration playlist when I'm having writer's block.

tbh if you don't send me another bit tipsy of a ramble-y rant about your thoughts on komh... like obviously nothing will happen and I'll still love you but I'm gonna be needy and say I need it? because your messages are never ramble-y or ranty they're PERFECTION!

[fanfictiongirlie]

HP: Forbidden - Chapter Eight

Click here for masterlist

Parings: George Weasley x Female OC (Slytherin)

Description:

Rosalie Riddle lives in the shadow of her father, going to Hogwarts made her feel safe and happy and when she meets George Weasley she feels a whole new emotion. Follow her story from the beginning of her Hogwarts Journey.

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Can fluff be a warning? Little bit of angst. Fred still dies, sorry.

P.s. So this is a rewrite from a fanfiction I originally wrote when I was roughly 16. It was awful, truly awful, but I adored the story so I decided to rewrite it ten years later. Enjoy.

The next morning, I took an extra five minutes on my appearance, just making sure my hair looked perfect, and my very lightly applied make-up looked nice too. Pansy was yet to speak to me. 

Daphne and I walked to the great hall, arm in arm, chatting away. 

"Rose!" I heard my name called, I looked behind me and it was Draco. I smiled, but he wasn't smiling. 

"How could you?" He asked, anger in his voice. I had never heard that tone directed to me before. 

"How could I what?" I decided to play stupid. 

"Weasley?" He spat. 

"I don't know what you want me to say Draco, yes I went on a date with George Weasley, and yes I like him" I ranted "And you know what, I'm done with people telling me what to do and who to spend time with"

"Wait till the Carrows find out" He spat and walked off. It hurt to be honest, he was suppose to be my friend. 

Shaking it off, and trying to not cry, Daphne and I walked into the Great Hall, breakfast smelt amazing. It was nearly enough to make me forget Draco. 

"Don't worry about him, he'll come to his senses" Daphne smiled hugging me. 

"He was right about something, the Carrows will probably kill me" I spoke sadly, we sat down at the Slytherin table. I could see George smiling at me from his table, Fred was waving to me like an idiot too. I tried my best to smile back, but I just looked down sadly at my plate. 

I was trying not to think about how the Carrows would react. Not well. I loaded my plate with pancakes covered in syrup. Because even though I was sad, I wasn't about to pass up the food. Once we were done with breakfast, Daphne and I rushed out of the Great Hall and towards our Charms class. 

Luckily the class was with the Hufflepuffs, which meant it was uneventful. Though Draco, still wouldn't speak to me. Daphne of course spoke to me but the others not so much. 

Blaise did lean over to ask me if the rumours were true. But other than that, no one spoke to me, I didn't realise my business meant so much to them. 

Once Charms was over, we had Care of Magical Creatures, with Hagrid as our teacher, unfortunately with the Gryffindors too. Daphne and I grabbed our creepy monster book and made our way down to the edge of the forest. Hagrid was there waiting for the class to gather. 

It was our first lesson with him, and he said he had something special in store for us. 

And something special it was, a Hippogriff. Named Buckbeak, he was cute, but scared me so I made sure I was behind the group. Harry of course got chosen to ride Buckbeak, better him than me. It was rather funny watching him. 

"Riddle" I turned away from watching Harry in the sky to Weasley, looking rather red in the face and angry at me. 

"Yes Weasley?" I asked, Daphne soon at my side again. I felt like I had a protector at the minute. 

"What are you doing spending time with my brother?" He spat.

"Just that Weasley, spending time together" I answered. Was I not going to be left alone? I bet George wasn't being hounded all day by everyone. 

"I suggest you stay away from my family" Weasley added. I sighed and rolled my eyes, I didn't have the energy to respond to him. 

Harry was coming back into view now, he hopped off of Buckbeak, and suddenly Draco was walking forwards towards Buckbeak. 

"Draco no!" I yelled but it was too late, the Hippogriff had already reached up and hit Draco. I ran too him and knelt down next to him. 

"Draco, are you okay?" I asked.

"Oh he's killed me" Draco whined and cried out. 

Hermione yelled that he had to be taken to the infirmary. Hagrid listened and scooped Draco up. 

"Class is done for the day!" He spoke "Maybe you shouldn't come Miss Riddle" He spoke to me, when he saw me trailing. I nodded and stood back.  

"He'll be alright, it barely touched him" Daphne smiled to me. I nodded and we started walking towards the castle.

"I think I'll head to the Library" I smile to Daphne, she nods and walks in the opposite direction to me, she joined our group of friends. 

I took a slow stroll towards the Library, with our lesson ending so soon, I had so much time before lunch, reading in the Library after the day I had sounded perfect. It was exhausting, I had such a wonderful day yesterday, yet today I was yet to actually feel happy. 

I walked into the Library and it was a little busy, I spotted Fred and George in the corner straight away, but I didn't think they noticed me, so I walked to my usual table, it was the table I met Cedric, he was another reading buddy of mine. 

Luckily the table was empty today, I got comfy in my seat and grabbed a book from my bag. Nothing special, a book about the wizarding worlds history. 

"Not avoiding us are we?" I looked up to see the twins grinning at me. 

"Uh no" I stuttered, they were grinning at me still, so at least I know they weren't annoyed at me. They sat down, George slipping into the chair next to me and Fred opposite me. 

"What's up buttercup?" George asked me, moving his chair ever so slightly closer to mine. 

"Nothing" I smile, my eyes tracing my book. 

"The gossip isn't bothering me you know" George spoke, I looked up at Fred and he had already vanished.

"It might be bothering me" I admit.

"That's okay, if people want to be in our business let them, but at the end of the day it's our business so they need to learn to butt out" He says, he reached over and places his hand gently on mine. 

"But my.. the people I love with, they're not good people" I say quietly. 

"Rose, do you like me?" He asks, his big brown eyes staring at mine, our faces so close together. I could barely stand it. 

"I do" I whisper, barely audible, but he could hear me. 

"Good, because I like you, and right now I think that's that mattered ay?" He said, his hand moving up to hold my cheek. I nodded, he was right, at the minute that's all it was, we liked each other. And I could handle that.

[mothnita]

HELLO!

i've been wanting to talk about this for SO LONG now! i'm so sorry for the rant i'm abt to do

so, recently i've noticed that some of the most recently released games (i'm specifically talking abt the Switch) have been made A LOT easier to beat, whether it's bc of a new feature the Switch added or just the game itself being nerfed down

i noticed it first with Kirby and The Forgotten Lands, where me and my sibling started joking abt rushing the whole game simply because the levels were...too easy; now don't get me wrong, there absolutely were some difficult parts, but at the end they feel more annoying than truly challenging

hell, i think the only levels we truly struggled with were the Forgo Dreams Isles and the True Arena, maybe even the last Treasure Road, but even then, if you had all weapons upgraded and had a decent enough strategy, those would go by pretty quick

Kirby Star Allies on the other hand?

that had me SOBBING on the floor

as for Pikmin, i definitely see the downgrade in difficulty, especially when it comes to bosses and caves

i was thrilled to see many enemies from Pikmin 2 back, even moreso when i realized we'd be having caves back, but all that quickly fades when you realise you can cheese the whole level with Oatchi's Rush

Emperor Bulbax, even the Sovereign Bulblax?? they got nothing against a bomb rock and a lvl.3 Mega Rush puppy

in fact, most of the bosses go out like that, you knock them down a bit, rush, rinse and repeat for like...2 cycles maybe 3

i remeber when i was genuinely struggling with the Smoky Progg in 'Cavern for a King until i remembered i could just knock it with Oatchi and that was it; same went for Groovy, the Cannon Beetles and Snagrets

they give you the Lineup Trumpet and and Plucking Whistle upgrades nearly at the end of the game...y'know why?? because at that point they might as well do nothing if you manage to upgrade Oatchi all the way and have a decent amount of spicy sprays (which i didn't even use that much bc i forgot i even had them lol)

and can i just say i didn't like the Auto-Lock function one bit??? bc the fuckin' pointer kept going to the random piece of nectar instead of actually locking on the huge creature about to devour my whole squad

yeah, you can change the lock on, but if you're just trying to charge your pikmin to the treasure and it just won't focus, it becomes very annoying

i said it before, and i'll say it again, there was NO reason to kill the Mamutas AT ALL

they do not deserve that treatment and i was very upset whenever the first one didn't re-spawn :[

genuinely felt bad for the Downy Snagrets too

but yea, that's abt it lol

Obviously I've been enjoying the shit out of Pikmin 4 but it absolutely IS the case that they've nerfed most of the enemies. Kids these days don't even KNOW about getting your shit steam-rolled by (insert beady long legs variation) because there's no lock-on targeting and you're terrible at aiming for aerial enemies--either because you're 10 years old or because you're me, last month, replaying Pikmin 1 and 2, who's still shit at aiming.

Back in my day we didn't have "charge." We didn't have "Oatchi." We didn't have "targeting." We had the c-stick and prayers. We had pikmin massacres set to the comically-dissonant sounds of vigorous and frantic trumpeting. Enemies respawned infinitely. Oh you cleared out the snagret nest in the Forest of Hope? Check again fuckarino. We added MORE enemies, actually, because fuck you. Coddled Pikmin 4 children only know the comfort and ease of traipsing about a land laid silent and soaked in blood. They know only the ambient pressure of absence, the finality of death, the placid nothing of an ecosystem they razed to the ground and which will never return no matter how many days they play. They enjoy the safety of scars and the nothing that follows brutality. Can you rationalize it? Is it fine, because you know your children will enjoy in sheltered complacency that which you've slaughtered and made no more? How can I kill the last downy snagret knowing its kind will never return? How can I justify harm to the mamuta which has wished no harm upon me? He does not return like an old friend the way he does in Pikmin 1. His death benefits no one but the money-hungry, and unlike in Pikmin 2, he will not respawn. How many have I killed in the vainglory pursuit of treasure?

Where was I going with this.

Oh I remembered. They also NERFED the dweevils. Those shits used to be HARD.

[wednesdaynott]

Draco Malfoy Broke The Baby

“Granger.” Draco Malfoy shook the his wife frantically. “Granger, wake up!”

After a three-day labor, Hermione Granger awoke with a start, convinced something horrible had happened.

“Granger,” Draco’s voice was now a whisper. “I broke the baby.”

Wandlessly, she added more light to the room where she saw her husband holding their newborn son, Scorpius, with a nervousness she’d never seen from him before.

He placed the baby in her arms where she saw that little Scorpius appeared to be breathing just fine with all his fingers and toes. As she watched the newborn’s tiny belly move up and down, she once again found herself in awe that this beautiful creature could have come from her and her husband.

After a moment where she was utterly unable to identify anything that could be amiss with her child, she felt an intense annoyance bubbling inside her. Did her husband, by all accounts a bright man, not realize that roughly 72 hours of labor had left her worn completely out?

“Draco, did you hit your head?”

“No!” He was completely exasperated now. “Watch more closely this time!”

It was hard to tell because of the tuft of hair Scorpius claimed as his own was so fine but when Draco picked him up, his hair definitely lightened to a pale blonde to match his father. Then, when he set the baby back in her arms, his hair darkened to match hers.

Chopping it up to her exhaustion and a trick of the light, she sighed and handed the baby back to his father. “Draco, I’m exhausted. The Healers looked him over nearly a dozen times because you were so convinced something was wrong.”

“It did take a long time for him to finally pop out.”

“And yet, none of those with years and years of Healer training were concerned. No, the only one with any concerns was the one with a Potions mastery.”

His nostrils flared in anger. “Hey! I worked hard for that and you know it.”

“Yes,” she said while closing her eyes. “But it doesn’t qualify you to determine if the baby is healthy.”

“So they said,” he mumbled under his breath before shaking his head and remembering what he’d woken her up for. “Granger, listen! His hair changes to blonde when I pick him up! And then it’s darker when you hold him.”

“We can ask the Healers about it when you no doubt call them for a non-emergency,” she said without bothering to open her eyes.

Off in his own world now, Draco began to rant, “I didn’t charm him, I swear! I don’t understand how I broke him. Maybe he got into my Potions stock? I mean, I baby proofed it a week after you told me we were gonna have a baby, but maybe I missed something? But no, that doesn’t make sense since I was holding him the entire time. But you know, kids can be little troublemakers. I wasn’t because, I mean, you met my dad, but I’ve heard your school stories. I should have guessed that our children would be prodigies at trouble making. Maybe you should be in charge of him because you obviously think like him. I’m so sorry that I’ve already failed at parenthood. I knew I would struggle with fatherhood but I thought I’d make it longer than a day before…”

Hermione impatiently interrupted him. “Merlin, Morgana, and all the other gods, you are the most dramatic human to ever walk the earth.”

“Wow,” Draco mouthed as she picked up a piece of parchment and a quill.

“I’m going to write to Andromeda and get her to visit us soon. This sounds like what Remus described when Teddy was born.”

Draco paled. “You think he might…”

“Yes, I think it’s entirely possible that something in your gene pool causes metamorphmagi.”

“So it is my fault!” Draco moaned as he sat down in the plush armchair next to her bed.

She picked up the quill and began furiously scratching out a note she also dictated,

“Dear Andromeda,

If you could please visit Malfoy Manor at your earliest convenience, Draco and I would appreciate it greatly.

I have no doubt that Narcissa has already informed you that Scorpius James Malfoy arrived this morning after an arduous labor and we’d love it if you could take a look at him. When Teddy was born, I recall Remus saying that his hair changed colors within hours of his birth and that Nymohadora did the same thing. It appears that our sweet child may have the same qualities.

If you could pop in to confirm our suspicions and impart some of the wisdom you no doubt have, we would appreciate it greatly.

Oh, and I’m sure little Teddy would love to meet his baby cousin.

Hoping to see you soon,

Hermione

P.S. If you speak to Draco before you get to me, ignore him. Childbirth appears to have made him hysterical.”

“Hey!” He cried with a light laugh at the last line. “I am not hysterical!”

“Well, something is definitely wrong with you,” Hermione snapped before she handed him the letter, “Send this to your aunt immediately. And Draco?”

“Yes?” He asked frantically, clearly noticing that she was prepping to go back to sleep and leave him alone with the baby again.

“You are and will be a great father. I’ve believed this for a long time.”

“But Granger, how could you ever say that? Even my mum says my dad was awful and I didn’t have any other examples. My godfather was Severus Snape, for Salazar’s sake!”

“Hush,” the finality in her tone shut him up at once. “You are a great father who cares very deeply and I love that about you. But even great fathers need guidance sometimes, that’s why there’s mothers. So I’m here to tell you what great fathers do.”

“What’s that?”

“They let the mother of their child sleep after labor.” Her face softened into a small smile. “No, really. You’ll be fine. He’s not broken at all and we both love you very much.”

[pepper-up-potion]

From lecture hall to Familly dinner (Remus Lupin x fem!reader)

Summary: so maybe you lied and told your grandmother you had a boyfriend, but in your defense you’re thirty some and tired of unsuccessful dates.

Warnings: nothing really??? Mention of family but like it’s all good stuff. I didn’t proof read, sorry in advance. Might be good to mention both reader and Remus are uni profs.

Word count: 2.1k

A/n: so I just read a book with a fake dating in a academia setting and it was just so yummy (the concept, not the book) to me that I wanted to do something in academia. Be it know, I don’t know much of the world of academia so this could all be bogus.

“Alright that’s everything, I’ll see you all Thursday morning.” You announce to the students of your women in literature coure. It’s your favourite course to teach. Books like Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Frankenstein, Withering Heights are the exact reason why you chose to become an English professor.

You gather your notes and pack your things, lingering in case a student has any questions they’d like to address privately with you. When all the students leave you head to the faculty lounge to fuel up on the crappy coffee.

You sigh in relief when you find no one in the lounge. You like to have some time by yourself after a lecture. Normally you take out your planner and make sure you have everything ready for your next lecture. You start the old coffee machine in the corner of the room. Normally it makes more of a thick coffee flavoured sludge but you just add lots of milk and try not to think much about it.

As you start the pot you hear the buzzing of your phone. You cross the room and look at the Caller ID to find your grandmother is the one calling.

“Hi grandma! To what do I owe the honour of a call from you?” You ask teasingly. Your grandmother hates cellphones and avoids using them at all costs. Normally you’re the one to call her and you spend the first ten minutes of the call listening to her rant about how terrible technology is.

“I don’t want to talk on this stupid phone for long. I hate these things, I tell you. Whatever happened to simple landlines? I want mine back.” She grumbles.

You roll your eyes but a smile tugs to your lips. There’s something so entertaining about how hard set she is on her hatetrid for technology.

“I told you grandma, this is much cheeper than a landline. Landlines are a thing of the past, you’ve got to get with the times now.” You tease her.

“I am a thing from the past!” She exclaims on the other line. You laugh in response.

“Listen now, I am calling you because I am coming to visit you this weekend and I’d like us to go to a nice restaurant so I can finally meet that nice boy you’ve been telling me about.” She explains, finally announcing the reason for her call.

Panic runs through you, you sit in the nearest chair, trying to think of an answer.

“I’m afraid he’ll be out of town this weekend.” You say trying to sound disappointed.

“Well just tell me when he’s available and I’ll come then.”

You purse your lips and shut your eyes. Your grandmother is stubborn. You’d know, it runs in the family. That means there is absolutely no way to get out of this.

“Alright grandma, I tell you what, I’ll talk to him and get back in touch with you with some dates.” You nibble on your lip nervously before adding, “I’m sure it’ll be sooner rather than later, he can’t wait to meet you.”

Your grandmother coos, pleased with your answer. “Alright, you get back to me.”

You chat with her for a few more minutes, updating each other on your lives before you hang up with a final promise to plan a dinner soon.

You slide your phone across the table and plop your head into your hands with a large sigh.

“You alright?” Asks a concerned voice near the entrance of the lounge.

You look up, startled out of your thoughts. A smile pulls at your lips when you see who it is. Remus Lupin. The professor famously know for his mythical creatures in English literature class. He’s probably your favourite member of the faculty. He’s funny, smart and actually interesting. Some profs just talk and talk for the sake of talking, obsessed with the sound of their voice but, Remus? Remus speaks only when necessary, and when he does, it comes from the heart.

“I’m fine.” You tell him as he walks over to the coffee pot. “I just got off the phone with my grandmother, she wants me to plan a time she can meet my boyfriend.” You tell him. Remus and you often speak about your personal lives, so this is nothing out of the ordinary.

He points to the coffee pot, “This ready?”

“Should be, serve yourself if it is.” You lean back in your seat.

“Since when do you have a boyfriend?” He asks while filling two mugs with coffee sludge.

“Ah well that’s the problem, I don’t. I just told her I did because I was tired of her trying to set me up with accountants.” Remus laughs as he pours milk into one of the mugs. “Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against accountants, they just don’t often have the same level of interest in English literature as I do.” You add.

Remus walks over to your table, setting down the mug with milk in front of you before pulling up a chair. He takes a sip of his coffee, “So what are you going to do?”

You wrap your hands around the mug, letting the heat warm your fingers. “No idea.” You sigh. “I thought I’d have found someone by the time she’d want to meet him. Isn’t it normal to wait years before introducing your partner to your family? I thought that’s how things worked at our age.” You mumble, a little disappointed. “Guess I’ll have to find someone, and it’ll have to be real soon.” You take a large gulp of coffee.

“I’ll be your boyfriend for a night.” Remus offers with a shrug. You almost cough up your coffee.

“I’m sorry, what?” You ask, wide eyed.

“Well that way you don’t have to stress about finding someone, your grandmother will be happy and I’ll get a free meal.” He arches an eyebrow “You would pay for my meal right?”

You laugh. “Yeah I’ll wine and dine you, don’t worry.”

***

“Grandma, this is Remus, Remus this is my grandmother Mabel.” You introduce them upon Remus’ arrival at the restaurant.

“Mabel, it’s wonderful to finally meet you, y/n speaks very highly of you.” He puts out his hand for your grandmother to shake.

“Funny you should say that, she speaks very highly of you too.” Your grandmother replies, shaking his hand.

“Sorry I’m a little late, my lecture finishes at seven but a student had a few questions for me after class.” He explains as he slides into the seat next to you.

“Hi.” He whispers, grabbing your hand on the table and squeezing it gently.

“How was your lecture?” You ask him curiously. You love listening to him talk about his classes, he’s always so passionate.

He talks about his lecture and your grandmother asks about his other courses and the conversation flows from there, Remus smoothly discussing different topics with the two of you.

By the end of the dinner you sigh, relieved that your grandmother only shared two embarrassing childhood stories, something that’d you’d consider low for her.

You live in a one bedroom appartement, so your grandmother had to book a hotel room for her visit. Before dinner, you had met her at the hotel and together you had taken a taxi to get to the restaurant. Remus offers to drive you back instead of you calling another cab. You graciously accept the offer, looking forward to the chance of spending more time with him.

He first drops off your grandmother who forces him to get out of the car and give him a hug.

“Thanks for doing this tonight.” You tell him once he’s back in the car and starts to drive you home. “You’re a lot of fun outside of work.”

He turns to you, a small grin on his lips. “Do you mean to say I’m a boring academic professor at work?” You can hear the tease in his voice.

“Indeed.” You hum. “Excessively boring. Thank goodness I don’t have to take any of your classes, it’d be impossible for me to stay awake” You dramatically slump in your seat pretending to fall asleep.

Remus laughs, a full and loud laugh. You feel your heart beat race, as pride surges in you at the thought that you caused such a beautiful sound.

“It was fun.” He nods. “You’re much more playful outside of work. I’ve never seen you tease someone as much as you tease your grandmother.” He chuckles a little.

“Left here.” You instruct him. “I’m impressed, you could actually keep up with us.”

Remus takes a left onto a more private street. “I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.” He tells you, puffing his chest. You laugh harder than probably necessary.

“I find books help with that. I used to be shy when I was little but the more I read the more I felt comfortable in social settings. It’s like it gave me ideas on how to act and what to say.” You admit, feeling comfortable.

“I could see that.” He nodded seriously. “I think books made me serious. I was a bit of a troublemaker back in the day. My parents would by me dozens of books to keep me in my room instead of going out at night.” He told you.

“Remus Lupin, troublemaker?” You turn in your seat, facing him. “No.” You gasp, purely shocked. You point to the right, signalling him to turn on the upcoming street.

“Believe it or not, I once got six detentions in one week.” He turns onto the street.

“It’s the appartement complex on the right.” You instruct him. “You got one for every school day of the week and then felt even that wasn’t enough so you simply had to get another?”

“I think I was okay with one of every day of the week, it’s my friend Sirius who dragged me into the sixth one. He talked me into pulling a prank on this real nasty kid, he was kind of a bully.” He turned into the parking lot of your appartement complex and found a free spot, putting his car into park. “Sirius told me that he knock some books out of this one girls hands and kicked them in different directions across the hall and said some really bad stuff as she gathered them up again. Something about that just really got under my skin.” Remus clenched his jaw, evidently still angry.

“Do you want to come upstairs?” You fond yourself asking before even thinking.

Remus’ head snapped towards you, a look of shock on his face.

“I’m sorry, I just-, I feel like there’s so much more to talk about.” you looked down at your hands, feeling like a teenager again “I just don’t really want this night to end yet.” You confess, a little embarrassed.

Remus is quiet for a moment, you look at him anxiously. “I’d love to..” His smile is so bright, you feel dizzy.

You guide Remus up to your appartement as he tells you about the prank he and Sirius pulled.

Once in your apartment you make a pot of coffee.

“I promise this one’s better than our faculty lounge coffee.” You assure him as you hand him a mug.

“I think I’ve grow attached to the sludgy mixture.” He takes a sip of the coffee. “On second thought, this is much, much better.” He smiles graciously at you.

There goes your heart again, beating fast. You feel a warmth sprinkle your cheeks.

The clock strikes midnight after hours of talking excitedly about different topics (the coffee may have influenced the level of excitation).

You sigh, letting your head rest on Remus’ shoulder. Remus wraps an arm around you pulling you into his chest.

“I really like you. I’ve been meaning to ask you out for a long time now but I was worried you’d see it as inappropriate.” Remus confesses, face pressed against your hair.

You sit up to look at him, wide smile on your face. “No way. I’ve been meaning to ask you out for the longest time but I thought you’d see it as inappropriate.” You laugh a little, Remus follows suit. He places a hand to your cheek, stroking it slowly with his thumb.

“I’ve also been meaning to ask if I can kiss you all night but I’m not sure that fits in the criteria of ‘fake boyfriend’.” He tells you, a little smirk on his face.

You fake a face deep in thought, even putting a finger to your chin. “No i think it’s one of the expected criteria actually.” You taunt him.

“Really?” He chirps, leaning forward, looking at your lips.

“Really.” You tell him a second before your lips meet.

You spend the rest of the night kissing lazily, feeling like a giddy teen being kissed for the first time.

You eventually fall asleep in Remus’ lap as he tells you an old mythical folklore story his mom used to tell him before bed.

Who knew your grandmother would for once succeed at matchmaking (only this time she did unconsciously. Maybe that was the secret ingredient).

[thatslikely]

lined-paper confessions - s.s.

lined-paper confessions - stiles stilinski x gn!reader

warnings: mentions of fighting (scott and jackson predictably), strict teachers

word count: 1.5k

a/n: head full of stiles rn... requests for our favorite sarcastic boy are open right now so send some in!

Why is every teacher at Beacon Hills High the absolute worst?

Mr. Harris had just rapidly climbed your (highly opinionated) mental ranks to number one: your new least favorite educator. Giving you after-school detention, for doing nothing but watching with horror plastered on your face as Scott McCall, Stiles’ best friend, threw punches left and right at a topless, water-drenched Jackson, who reciprocated every strike as if he were nothing but a reflection. Seriously?

Previously, you had simply been sauntering down the locker-lined hall, Stiles on your right, passionately ranting about some unnamed problem that had him on edge for the past few weeks. You two turned down the empty, cinder-block-walled athletics corridor as he continued to agitatedly let off steam; the setting was decidedly unromantic given the unshakeable scent of overly pungent deodorant and mildew that was all too familiar. 

You clung to every word emitted from his mouth with an almost comical frown like it was a mug of steamy hot chocolate on a bone-chilling winter day. To your disgruntlement, however, his ramblings were stopped mid-sentence when Scott and his wealthy rival Jackson tumbled out from the dingy boys’ locker room, hands clenched in fists and eyes flaming with fury.

Stiles bent down in a rush, poorly attempting to conclude the boisterous brawl with furrowed, concerned brows, but he looked not dissimilar to a toothpick compared to the two burly teammates. 

���Detention for all of you!” Mr. Harris spat venomously as he dashed to the scene, his voice ringing above the grunts and slams that came from the fighting co-captains of the lacrosse team. “Detention now, Stilinski, McCall, Whittemore, Argent, and Y/L/N! Come on!”

You were dragged by the ear to the vacant library, a place which you often resided in whenever you studied with Stiles (often about mythical creatures, to your confusion). Posters that looked commonplace in an elementary school lined the walls, vibrantly encouraging students to pick up a book, or pen works for a writing contest of some sort.

Golden strips of fleeting sunlight peeked through the slatted blinds, and three gum wad-dotted tables were beckoning for the group of you to sit for the next two hours, or until Mr. Harris would finally decide that your soul had rotted away enough to release you.

You were sternly directed to the uncomfortably stiff chair opposite Allison’s, whose eyes shot daggers wherever they glanced. You flashed her an almost unregistrable smile, as if to say ‘hello.’ Slinging the loose straps of your backpack over your seat, your gaze flickering through the pin-drop silent room immediately locked on Stiles’ figure.

Boy, was he perfect.

The unbuttoned flannel over his shoulders speckled with mud from some vaguely mentioned adventure, his soft, tousled hair, that always had a lock out of place, his freckled face, that always bore some goofy expression, all of it. You couldn’t get enough; nothing would satiate your innermost desire for your lips to meld with his’, for your hands to intertwine through the hallways before class, after class, whenever, wherever. 

One eyebrow-cocked, knowing look from Scott in your direction sent Stiles’ umber eyes to meet yours’, an almost confused look swimming through them. He opened his mouth curiously, surely to ask a question, most likely something along the lines of, ‘is there a stain on my shirt?’, but before he could, Mr. Harris seethed, “Take your seats, now.”

Stiles whipped around, not wanting to anger Mr. Harris any further, and he took his seat. The room was quickly conquered with suffocating silence, which the snotty chemistry teacher was bent on ensuring.

You unsheathed a doodled notebook from your backpack, eventually indenting its pages with inky black strokes of various weights and thicknesses. Your habit of penning loose sketches, vague outlines, began one day in math when the clock seemed to tick aggravatingly slow, and every word from the teacher became drawled further and further until they dissolved into the hum of the air conditioning and the chewing of gum: the rhythm of the classroom.

The unconscious lines eventually formed to a familiar portrait: Stiles. Some would be tempted to call him your muse, your kindling of an elegant flame of creativity. You’d always nod your head in complicity more than agreement, for the smart, albeit rebellious boy meant eons more than that to you.  

You had just hit your stride, your wrist’s movements thoughtless and easy, when someone- rather something, hit the back of your head lightly with a small crunch. It was a small, scrunched piece of loose-leaf paper, ripped at the edge. 

You turned your head to the direction that the projectile was tossed at, but both Scott and Stiles appeared to be very, very engrossed in a hushed conversation, neither of their postures attempting to suggest anything suspicious.

You smoothed out the paper of the angular fruitwood table in front of you, attempting to read the almost unintelligible handwriting.

Hey :)

(this is from stiles, by the way)

Your mood lightened a smidge, a grin bubbling onto your face. You tore a piece of paper out of your notebook along the perforation.

Before you threw it in an arch in Stiles’ direction, you penned a response to his note.

Hey ;) how’s detention treating you?

(This is from y/n, by the way)

Crunch.

not great, as expected. I think I saw harris pick his nose. do you have any bleach to douse my eyes in by any chance?

You chuckled a little, a small smirk glimmering on your face for the first time this excruciatingly long afternoon.

Sorry, I’m all out. used it all after I saw Jackson shirtless. how do you survive in the locker room every day?

A smile lifted on Stiles’ face, one so inflated with abundant excitement (and hormones), he might have burst at the seams.

“Man, you’re down bad,” Scott simpered, nudging his best friend’s forearm.

“Shut up,” Stiles hissed with an eye roll.

just keep your head down and you should be fine. one time, Greenberg looked at him a little too long and he nearly turned to stone, like jackson’s abs were medusa or something.

“Passing notes, are we?” Mr. Harris queried with a malicious scowl, his knuckles white from asphyxiating a helpless ballpoint pen. He slinked over to the tables you and Stiles rested uncomfortably in, raising his brow in heavy suspicion. 

Stiles’ deep, dark chocolate-colored eyes widened in worry. “No, sir.”

“I’m keeping my eye on you, Stilinski. You too, Y/L/N.” 

As soon as Harris was out of sight, perched back at the desk and typing furiously, another wad of paper tapped your occiput. 

hey, y/n, there’s something i’ve been meaning to ask you for a while.

The note, while its contents wouldn’t usually spark too much concern, was subtly unlike the few ones you had previously received. The lines of each letter were neater, more methodical. The small blots of ink resting at the conclusion of every stroke were larger, deeper, as if the nib of his pen had rested in the liquidly black pool for a second too long.

Your face scrunched with confusion, and upon noticing your shift in emotion, Allison nimbly tapped your wrist and mouthed, ‘Is everything okay?’

You nodded with wrinkled brows while shakily scratching a reply.

what is it?

Your knee bounced up and down reflexively, clicking from your rapidly retracting pen echoed through the idle shelves and arrays of desktops. It felt like years, centuries even, before a reply finally tumbled at your feet.

do you like me?

(circle one)

yes? or yes? 

Your jaw nearly fell to the carpeted floor in shock as if gravity had been multiplied; your speedily thrumming heart was doing flip after flip in the cavity of your chest. Without a second thought, you quickly circled both of the ‘yes’es as if there were no friction under the ink-dispersing tip of your pen. Before cupping the piece of paper, you scribbled out an additional little note.

wanna go out this saturday?

Stiles’ anxious gaze bore into your hunched-over figure as you giddily wrote your reply. What if you rejected him (even though the page lacked a ‘no’ option, meaning that you would have to add one, which was even worse)? Was it possible for him to ask to go to the bathroom and just never return? Are there any secret werewolf abilities that Scott could use to make him disintegrate on the spot? 

But his overthinking was soon alleviated when he received your response, this time neatly folded into a paper heart instead of a crunchy ball. Each crease was crisp and thoughtful; he didn’t have to unfold your expert origami to know which option you circled (or lack thereof).

He grinned goofily like an idiot as his chocolate eyes glazed your response a million times over, taking in every letter, every stroke, the dot in your ‘i’ or the question mark ending your simple but heart-rate-escalating proposal.

Crunch.

stiles stilinski/teen wolf taglist:

it’s a date then. i’ll pick you up at 6? passenger seat’s already reserved for you ;)

@loulouloueh @when-you-wish-upon-a-starrynight @ronbrokemyheart @dylobilysmomg

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[veloelo]

oh my god this is such a mood. I need to get off of reddit because such a large portion of the audience, even the self-proclaimed vorthos, seem to fucking hate the basic structure of a story. Like, they seem ideologically opposed to the very idea of a main character. The endless complaining about the derogatorily named "jace-tice league"* and wanting to see new characters, but the second we get a new main character, the complaining starts ad nauseam. I'd say they just want to see their favorite characters in every story but I think they'd complain about that too

I remember seeing these "hot takes" from people a while ago that phyrexia should have won or jace should've destroyed the multiverse and I really wonder how people think that would've gone down. Like can you imagine if WotC came out and said "sorry Jace destroyed the multiverse, all your favorite planes are gone. We're only making universe beyond sets from now on." There's this obsession with "stakes", but it seems so divorced from reality. For what it is Magic kills off way more characters than other things like it but three recurring characters dying during the end of an arc doesn't sound like a lot on a plot summary on reddit so I guess it doesn't count

In less than 24 hours after getting a new cute character, we have someone on MaRo's blog saying just how much they want to go to town on this baby. It honestly feels so performative that it loops back around to being sad. Honestly this type of stuff reeks of insecurity that anything they enjoy could bee seen as immature or cringe.**

Also I think we're all forgetting a year ago a guy in the story had his brain and body fused with that of a mindless creature. the story is still very mature. Also what the the fuck was that?

*I'm sorry but if you can't see a piece of media without immediately correlating it to a plotline in a marvel movie, that says more about you than it does the piece of media

**This is also my theory on why people hate Universes Beyond, but that's an unhinged rant post for another day

Sometimes you see such a dedication to being opposed to whimsy or being so obsessed with what something isn’t that I think they lost the plot about what the thing they say they love even is.

[lokissuper]

A Keeper| Negan x Reader

Summary: On a day away from the Sanctuary, the reader meets a new friend.

I’ve always wanted to read something for Negan where the reader calls him a nickname, specifically Negs/Neags. So I just wrote it, this is a really slow fic.

I wasn’t supposed to go outside the Sanctuary, ever since I got injured on a run a few months ago. I just had to get out of there for a while, sometimes Negan can get protective and I love him but I need to be my own person.

I snuck past the guards goofing of as per usual, thinking that Negan and I were still sleeping. It was dawn, I knew it would be easier to get by the guards then because they just rotated. So when I saw that they were leaving I sprinted out of the Sanctuary. I knew I would be dealing with some consequences when I first get back but I knew Negan would forgive me, as long as I come back uninjured.

When I was finally far enough away I stopped running and caught my breath. I took out my machete to be ready for any dead pricks that come my way. I also took out my canteen from my backpack and took a sip of my water. Putting it back in my bag I stood up ad started walking, breathing in the fresh air. I knew there was a small town nearby that the Saviors had already cleared, so I headed towards there. 

I hadn’t been in the woods for a while, always going on supply runs with Negan we would take roads with the trucks. I always liked taking walks and it was even better to be outside in the woods.

Nearing the town, I was on the look out for any walkers in stores or behind abandoned cars. Strolling through the town just trying to find something to do, I heard groaning coming from one of the alleys. I quietly walked towards the alley where the moans were coming from and held my machete ready. I neared the corner and peaked around it, my heart sank to my stomach. There sat a walker munching on a lone dog, running up behind the walker I brought my machete through its skull, over and over again. Once it dropped to the ground I looked over to the pup laying in front of me. It reminded me too much of my dog, Pooh that passed before this zombie take over. I looked down at the poor thing and put it out of its misery, I heard a low whine a few feet from me. I looked over and saw a retriever pup sitting behind a dumpster, I looked back down at the body of the other dog and realized that this dog had a puppy. 

I slowly stepped over to the small animal. “It’s okay, I got you baby,” I whispered, picking up the golden dog. The dogs rare blue eyes stared at me and licked my cheek. “Damn, your breath stinks,” I spoke to the puppy. I thought it was a good time to make it back to the Sanctuary, earlier then I wanted but this little guy needed to be someplace safe. So I turned around and walked back out of the alley, holding the puppy close to my chest.

Making my way back through the woods and walking to the front gates of home. I had only now realized I had been gone for about two and a half hours, I blushed to myself only thinking of what I might be walking into. I looked up to the guard tower, I saw that Dwight was staring down at me with wide eyes. “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” I heard him yell. He walked down to the gate and opened it, I walked through but he stopped me before I came in, “Mutt stays outside.”

“Over my dead body.” I responded. He looked at my frustrated and rolled his eyes. He opened his arms beckoning me inside. 

“You know he’s been running around like a chicken with his head cut off. He sent two search parties for you, and even went out there himself. That was stupid to leave, he thinks your dead right now. But no, you come back with some whimpering dog.” Dwight ranted to me. I stared at him in the eyes for a moment before reaching into his pocket and grabbing his walkie talkie. I pressed down on the button and spoke into it, “ I am at the front gate baby, nothing bad happened.” I handed the device back over to Simon before he spoke into it too,”She’s got a mutt with her boss, she knows the rules about pets.” I rolled my eyes at him, does he forget that I’m dating the “boss”. 

I heard Negan speak through the other end, “I’ll be there soon, don’t let her leave again.”

I walked over to the door to get into the building and sat down by it, with the puppy in my lap. I looked down at him, “I should really name you, don’t want you to be nameless, do we?” I giggled as the little boy tilted his golden head. 

I though over a few names in my head, laughing over the first few that came to mind. Thinking of some of the names I had for my old dog, reminding me of my Pooh Bear.

I looked down at the creature,“Tigger? Robin like Christopher Robin? Or maybe Piglet?” I snorted at the last one.

I heard a grunt in front of me, I looked up locking eyes with the love of my life. “Oh little pig, little pig,” Negan said to me, “Hi darlin’, now what do we have here?” I laughed and nodded towards him, then nodded towards the door.

“Can we go inside? I don’t want to do this out here, and Piglet needs water.” I whispered to him.

He nods, walking over to me and helps me stand up. I followed him inside cuddling into Piglet, Negan slows his pace so he could walk next to me. I felt his hand go to my waist, we walked to our room and he set Lucille by the door before closing it. I set Piglet on the ground and go into the bathroom to fill up a small bowl with water, avoiding looking at the two eyes following me around the room. Setting the bowl down in front of Piglet, I nudged him towards it to which he galloped to and just about drowned himself drinking it.

“So did you go out there because of this little guy? Or were you trying to run away? If you were trying to run away, please tell me why. I thought we had something good here, for shit’s sake I love you so much. When I woke up this morning and saw that you weren’t there, I thought someone came in during the night and took you or you just left me. So just please, tell me why?” he spoke quietly and desperately.

I looked up at him with sad eyes and stood, walking over to him. I put my hands on his chest moving them up and around his neck, I leaned my head on his chest, “ I would never leave you, I just needed some time to myself for a little bit. I’ve been in this room for two months because I was stabbed in the leg, I knew you wouldn’t let me. I know your protective over me and I love you for it, but some fresh air was nice. It just so happened I came across this little man and his momma.” I took a step back and looked down,” His Mom was being eaten by one of those biters, I had to kill the monstrosity and Pigs mommy. Negs it was horrible, I know I needed to put her out of her misery but I hate myself for it.” I started to tear up, I felt his hands go to my waist and he brings me into his chest again. 

“I’m so sorry, baby. I wish you didn’t have to do that.” Negan whispered in my ear. 

I felt a nudge down at my feet, I smiled and looked down seeing Piglet wagging his tail. I looked up at Negan and pressed my lips to his, and he smiled into the kiss. My arms were around his neck quickly and his just wrapped tighter around my waist. He swiped his tongue across my lip and I opened up my mouth further, he shoved his tongue into my mouth. I moaned into the kiss and he separated himself from me. Groaning and staring at him in eyes, he chuckled at my reaction. 

He leaned down again inches from my face, “ I wanna marry you. When I first saw you I got rid of all my wives, knowing that you were what I needed to be who I was again. I love you so much.”

“I love you too and I want to be your wife, I wanna be with you forever Negs,” I smiled up at him.

I heard a yip from bellow us and I giggled, looking down at Piglet. I reached down and picked him up, bringing him in between me and my now fiance. 

I pressed my lips to Negan’s again, pulling away I smiled,” Looks like I got two keepers now. You got some competition.”

Negan reached for Piglet and put him on the ground, he then grabbed my legs lifting them up. Putting my legs around his hips, he moved us to the bed saying,”We’ll see about that.”

[theoneeyedwriter]

this is a reminder, PSA, reassurance etc etc for anybody who is second guessing their plot.

just because you are writing a book that contains:

a school for magic users

witches, wizards, magical folk

a summer camp (or just camp)

gods/goddesses (Greek Norse etc etc)

people who control the elements

people who hunt demons and other supernatural creatures

people in a dystopian society who break away from the government

people who live in a weird paranormal town

a horror/mystery with terrifying supernatural creatures

a main character who is not female

a main character with dead or missing parents

a character who lives with an abusive parent, family member, or guardian

does not mean it is:

a rip off harry potter (you could probably do better than rowling anyway)

popular and already seen a thousand times

copying Camp Half-Blood or the Parent Trap

a badly written Percy Jackson

an avatar knock off

stolen from the plot of supernatural or shadow hunters

basic, unrealistic, overused

taken from Tim Burton movies or Gravity Falls

trying to be Stephen King or Dean Koontz

sexist, anti-women

stereotypical, a sympathy trap, a typical sob story

inappropriate for younger audiences, a knock version of the Dursley’s or Al Marsh

but it does make it:

magical, a new glimpse at a new magical world, most likely 500x better than rowling’s

witches, wizards and magic folk will never go out of style. magic is so fucking cool and has so much potential for new and different plots, characters etc

fun!! who doesn’t love summer camps in books?? au’s? actual plot settings?? summer camp settings are amazing, top notch, just *chefs kiss*

i mean, we all love loki, so why not give us stories about his kids?? not necessarily fan fic, but seriously, ancient gods and goddesses are so dope and really deserve more modern books written about them.

not used often, and so cool to see societies built around the elements! i don’t think we’ve gotten enough content of different worlds that have powers withdrawn from elements, it’s such a cool and untouched area of magic!!

never overused. i could read books about supernatural creature hunters for the rest of my life. you can make your own creatures!! and add cool human-monster hybrids. god, the possibilities are limitless

weird paranormal towns are just the best. who doesn’t love weird, run down, and low populated towns with a complex supernatural backstory that revolves is crazy shit happening all the time?? if you don’t, you have no taste. sorry but, i don’t make the rules. paranormal small towns always have been and always will be the shit so please keep writing more

BE THE NEXT BIG HORROR WRITER. horror is such a complex genre to write and i honestly admire everyone who can write horror. i don’t think there’s nearly enough horror content coming out these days. give me more, MORE. nothing in that genre is overrated, write about vampires for all i care, sure it’s been done a thousand times, but with your own twist added, you can make something never seen before

i am a female. i dont get offended by main character being anything but. yes, there are far more male mcs than female, (in more popular modern literature) (and don’t get me started about the unrepresentation for non-binary, gender fluid, trans etc in literature. i will never stop ranting about it) but that doesn’t mean not making your mc female a crime.

dead parents are a common way of portraying a mc’s loneliness, lack of affection, lack of restraint, lack of a good parental figure. but, it can also be a good way to represent other things like their relationship with and other family member/guardian, that you’re parental figure doesn’t need to be a blood related parent. honestly, keep the dead parents trope comin, those kids are always awesome anyway

extremely realistic. not everyone has a perfect home life, and it’s important to see that in literature as well. who knows, if your mc escapes their abusive guardian, friend, significant other, it opens up the possibility to helping other in similar situations.

and most important of all, every single wip out there is:

unique

amazing

special

appreciated

awesome

dope as fuck

deserving of awards, praise, and popularity

not to be given up on

important

different

unlike anything else

loved, wanted, and needed

please don’t give up on your wip. it’s all of the above, and really deserves to see the light of being completed, ravished, praised, appreciated. someone out there will love it, i’m sure of that. so keep creating, keep being awesome, and keep fucking writing. :)

[har-rison-s]

pray, do tell

request: If you don’t mind me asking, request for Loki asking the other Loki’s if they have a s/o in their timeline during episode 5?

a/n: hi ! i absolutely ADORE this idea and i hope i'll write it out respectfully :)) i loved episode 5 so much, except for SOME scenes, and i especially enjoyed multiple lokis sitting around and talking, chilling, that's like... my dream place to be. YOU DON'T KNOW THE EFFECT PRESIDENT LOKI HAS ON ME. like it should be studied in labs and schools cos ??????? that feeling when he's on screen was just something else. also ! kid loki holding alligator loki my beloved <3. i'd love to be surrounded by lokis, me and loki actually have the same personality type so they're like... my people. sorry for the rant, hahah ! this one is a bit shorter than my other loki works, sorry about that :/ also it took me like 40 minutes to find decent gifs lmao. happy reading !! <3

masterlist

mcu masterlist

warnings: nothing really

disclaimer: lokis mentioned have he/him pronouns !

Weirded out by what he's seeing, and not entirely sure it's real, Loki can't take his eyes off it, either. The way alligator Loki drinks his boxed wine is just so fascinating to him, yet weird and other-wordly (he knows those well) at the same time. And he's weirded out more by the fact that he doesn't find a variant of him being an alligator strange in any way. He's had a few trying days, as he said himself.

Loki manages to divert his eyes off the creature with horns on its head and looks to the grapes he holds in his hand. He picks small dirt away from the berries and takes a grape into his mouth with ease. The taste reminds him of many things. His childhood, his home, his family... Thor, Frigga, Odin, Sif and the Warriors Three. Asgard. The Gardens, the waters, the Bifrost. Heimdall. Visits to the city, the markets, the celebrations.

Love.

Loki blinks, fooling himself and others by aiming to portray that he's not thinking about anything important. But he is. She was the most important thing to him, and now... Well, maybe during the New York heist, she's still fine, but after Ragnarok... Loki fears too much to think about it.

He wishes he could remember everything with her that followed New York, but all he has of their future is some worn-out tape in the TVA archives. Perhaps even pictures... He wants to live through all they had now, he wishes he could do that most of all. Of course, there's the finding Mobius and helping Sylvie burn down the TVA thing, but upon remembering her, it all falls into the background.

His first love. Not a god, like him, but she was a goddess in his eyes. He smiles now, subtly, at the fond memories of her. He noticed the little moments he had with her in the tape Mobius had, about his whole future. How beautiful she always was, her subtle way of laughing and going about her smiles and giggles, how exceptional and different her clothes always were, how her hair shined in any light...

“Did any of you...” Loki starts to say, and sighs shortly before continuing, thinking he'll probably regret asking it, “did any of you leave a... a lover behind when the TVA arrested you? Prince or princess?” He looks between his variants. Young Loki shoots him a stern look. “Apologies, my liege. You seem too young for that.” Loki bids him a polite smile, but his brain whirs. “How long have you been here, anyway?”

“Don't know. Time doesn't really... exist here.” Young Loki says and throws a salt biscuit into alligator Loki's jaws. “But no lovers in my lifetime, Loki.” He pointedly looks at the older variant of himself, nodding slightly.

“Not yet, at least.” Loki points out and gets scoffs and chuckles from Boastful and Classic Loki. He looks at them with a furrowed brow.

“Oh, you and your grand plan,” Classic Loki shakes his head before taking another sip from his huge cup. Loki only rolls his eyes, but still waits for answers to his question, “well,” Classic Loki downs his drink, “it would be no surprise to you that I had countless partners before I chose isolation. Partners of any kind.” He winks. Loki nods, understanding how much alike he truly is with his variants. “But I feel there is no one truly... truly made for me. Like midgardians would say - 'the one'.“

“In my case, there were many 'the ones',” Boastful Loki says, mocking Classic's use of words. All other Lokis roll their eyes, “I actually feel like every person in the whole universe was made to be with me. I'm just that irresistible.” He smiles pleasantly to himself. Alligator Loki growls again.

“That's another “liar” from him to you, Boast,” Classic Loki nods his head towards Boastful, who only shakes his head and frowns.

“I had my fair share of men and women before I was taken,” Boastful says, “must have been the same for you, Loki.” He looks at him. “Asgard was truly a giving place.”

Loki chuckles, but looks away from his variants. “Oh, it was...” he says quietly, “it was.” His voice grows even more quiet. Young and Classic Loki exchange a look.

“Do tell us, your mischievousness.” Classic Loki urges him. Loki shoots him a nervous look, then he leans back into the sofa and sighs, his eyes strictly focused on his hands.

“I had plenty before I met... one,” he starts to say, “me and her share a past, and, it seems, a future as well. After New York, I am taken to Asgard, imprisoned, but she is there. I fake my death and rule over Asgard as Odin, and she's there. I help Thor destroy our evil sister--”

“Oh, she was a nasty one.” Boastful says, shaking his head. “We used to have a connection, but then she just... I don't even know.” He shrugs. Loki eyes him for a second before continuing.

“We destroyed Asgard, but saved its people, and saved her. We make for Midgard, and she's there with me.” Loki sighs, his eyes gloomy. “And then... Thanos attacks, destroys half, if not all our people, and...” he can't even speak further. His variants share a look, each having quite the correct guess for what could follow after that. Boastful drinks from his cup in an awkward manner. “But I feel like that's another life I lived. Or another me. I don't know, I feel so... disconnected from her, from what we had. Must be the TVA and this... void. And all that's happened, all I've learned about my future.” He sighs again.

“Meeting her again would be a wake-up call, no?” Boastful asks. Loki shrugs, a sad expression on his face.

“Rather a sign that you're real.” Classic Loki says with a wide, true smile. Loki looks to him as if looking at a mentor. “I often felt like the people I loved and the love I had for them, even if it was not reciprocated, were a reminder that I am real, I exist and I can feel all these things.”

Loki considers his words, and then nods along, finding a truth in them.

“After all, love and all other emotions are the human part in all of us.” Classic says. “And it isn't always bad to feel like a regular human being.” Loki can also find truth in those words. Love makes one feel alive, makes you feel like you're on the right path, found the right person, found your purpose. It doesn't always have to be glorious, it can be small, but nonetheless important to you.

“I used to think humans smaller than us, more pathetic and puny, but...” Loki shakes his head, “we, gods, are just the same, really.” He chuckles sadly. “Having quarrels over the stupidest things, being as imperfect as humans... Sometimes I even felt like I was too good, too perfect for something like true love, which is a pathetic emotion that makes you feel all kinds of other feelings, but...” he smiles, “often times I felt like that, she told me everyone was deserving of love, even me.” His smile grows wider.

“She sounds lovely.” Classic Loki tells him with a kind smile.

“She was that, and more.” Loki nods along. Young Loki imitates the sound of a snore and throws a crumpled piece of paper at Loki's shoulder.

“You're making me extremely bored.” He announces and sits straighter in his chair, looking over the mess that is his palace. “Love's boring.” Young Loki throws a juice carton across the room, making a face.

“You are just too young to understand and know it, your majesty.” Boastful says with a wink, and the next juice carton is flying over his head with a snicker from Young Loki. Classic Loki keeps Boastful tight in his seat so an argument wouldn't arise, and Boastful hesitantly restrains, his drink almost spilling over his cup. Loki watches them with a sappy smile on his features, and decides this is a good place to spend eternity at, even without her.

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[solalunar-eclipse]

A Gift To Remember

Summary: Shadow receives a gift for his birthday that causes a series of very interesting (and often cute) events.

Word count: about 7500 words

Author’s Note: I didn’t realize today was Shadow’s birthday! At the moment I’m more than a little confused because the release dates for SA2 say everything from the 18th to the 23rd, but this seems to be the one, so here this is!

Also, to that one anon whose question about this fic I never quite managed to answer- sorry about that and I do hope you’re still here to read this!

...

The main room of Team Dark’s home was, on a normal day, at least somewhat clean- which was in and of itself surprising, considering the fact that three teenagers lived there. (It was, of course, slightly less surprising when it was noted that one of these teenagers was a giant robot, one was already a businesswoman, and one had grown up in an incredibly clean environment.)

At the moment, however, said room was currently rather less clean, instead covered in various colorful signs, streamers, balloons, and other such decorations. After all, today was a very special day.

When Shadow and Rouge had discovered they shared a birthday (or creation day for Shadow, technically), they both became infinitely more determined to celebrate it for the other’s sake. This had actually, interestingly enough, also ended up making them enjoy their own festivities more than they had in quite some time.

Omega, meanwhile, had officially decided that this was his favorite day of the year.

Over the past few days, Rouge had already received a few presents from various people she knew in the line of clothes, makeup, or jewelry- but as much as she loved gems, her favorites so far were definitely the ones Omega and Shadow had gotten for her: a laser cutter that could slice through anything and a pair of (stylish) infrared goggles, respectively.

Shadow had just opened his present from Omega, which happened to be a sword that looked very cool...but was also longer than his actual body. This wasn’t actually as big of a problem for him as might be expected, as he’d gotten used to handling weapons several times his size during the alien invasion a little while back. 

He had, however, been told rather quickly by Rouge to put it away ‘before you slice the wall in half, this place does cost money, you know!’.

Next, Rouge placed her present in his hands, but at first all Shadow could do was just stare at it. This was likely because the gift wasn’t actually wrapped, but instead consisted of a box made of wood slats and filled, oddly enough, with paper shavings. There were quite a few ribbons on it, though, in an attempt to make up for the lack of other decorations.

“I couldn’t wrap it, or else the present wouldn’t have worked.” she explained, sitting back down to watch him open it.

After prying off the top and shifting aside some of the paper pieces, the hedgehog froze.

Inside, there sat a single white chao egg.

Carefully lifting the egg out of the box, Shadow held it gingerly, as though he were afraid it might try to bite him if he wasn’t gentle enough.

“Rouge…” he began nervously. “Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate this, but...are you sure I’m the best person to be taking care of a chao?”

“Of course, hon!” she said. “You’ve taken care of them before, haven’t you?”

“Yes, but…” Shadow protested, “...are you sure I’ll be able to do as well at home? The garden is their natural habitat…”

Omega folded his arms. “YOU ARE THE ULTIMATE LIFEFORM. OF COURSE YOU CAN RAISE A CHAO.”

“That’s right!” Rouge added. “The chao are always happy when you take care of them- this time isn’t going to be any different.”

“…I suppose so.” Shadow conceded, taking a deep breath. He began to rock the egg slowly from side to side. “Here we go-”

A crack appeared across the pristine white surface. The split spread rapidly while Shadow sat and watched, making sure not to move the egg about much. Chao had to hatch their eggs on their own- it was the way they first began to strengthen themselves. 

Rouge laughed. “See? You know exactly what you’re doing!”

Shadow studiously ignored her and continued to focus on the egg. Then, suddenly, a chirp came from inside and the whole top half came flying off.

The hybrid looked at his newborn chao...and his heart (though he’d never admit it) immediately melted. Soft, big eyes gazed up at him, an overjoyed smile on the creature’s face. It cooed happily upon seeing him give a small smile back, and he reached out and began to gently pat its head.

The chao broke into an even wider smile as its eyes closed blissfully, the little sphere above its head popping into a heart. Shadow continued to pet it, offering gentle words of praise, and might have continued like that for the next ten minutes had a camera noise from Omega not made him look up in alarm.

“ADDING IMAGE TO FILE: SHADOW BEING SOFT.” he declared, while Rouge looked on with a giant grin.

“You will do nothing of the sort-” Shadow growled, jumping to his feet, before a soft whimper from his chao stopped him. Its eyes were watery, wide and distressed, and the hybrid immediately scooped it up in his arms, holding it close. It relaxed quickly, snuggling into his chest fluff, and he shot Omega one last semi-serious glower before turning his attention back to the newborn.

Omega promptly took another picture.

…

Later that day, at the party that all of their friends had thrown for them, the chao and Shadow were nearly inseparable. It tended to rest in his lap when he was sitting or rode in between his ears whenever he stood up to get something. Eventually, though, the excitement of a new environment overwhelmed its initial nervousness, which unfortunately led to Shadow returning from the dining room with his hands full of plates of food to discover his chao crawling along the precarious edge of a bookshelf.

Suddenly, the chao’s footing slipped, and Shadow froze, unable to move or do anything- but then Sonic of all people noticed and was already there, leaping up and catching the chao before resting it snugly in his arms. “Looks like someone’s already progressed to the giving-their-owner-a-heart-attack stage, hm?” he asked, smirking at the little creature.

“Thank you.” Shadow said as his chao was returned to him, trying very hard to ignore the way his hands and Sonic’s brushed in the process.

(He’d been nursing a bit of a crush on the hero for a while now, but had decided to ignore it until it wore off. Sonic had admirers from all across the globe vying for his attention- it was absurd to think that anything could happen between them.)

…

Over the coming weeks, all three members of Team Dark made sure to rework their schedules so that someone was always home to watch over the chao- no more climbing on bookcases for the little one now. Shadow did most of the caretaking, feeding, training, cleaning, and providing Chaos Drives (mostly green) to the chao. Rouge did, however, occasionally claim she could ‘handle the extra work’ to give him some spare time and Omega even took it upon himself to watch it every so often.

Sometimes, Shadow and his chao would even cook together in the kitchen (a hobby he’d discovered he enjoyed after finding out that Rouge tended to eat takeout all the time- “You can’t live off that day in and day out- you’re not me, Rouge!”). The sight of a tiny pale blue creature determinedly lifting a bag of flour and flying it across the room was awfully cute- especially after Shadow bought it a tiny apron in what he unconvincingly claimed was an accidental purchase. 

Shadow never made accidental purchases.

As much as the hybrid took care of it, though, the chao also seemed to be helping him. He smiled more, glowered less, and generally seemed more tolerant of mistakes than he had been in the past. Nowadays, errors that would once have caused him to go off on a rant or huff about were now met with a calmer ‘it’s okay’ or an offer for help fixing it.

He often laid a hand on it in his sleep or curled around it protectively, and could easily be seen patting its head, carrying it around, or even- when he thought he was alone- nuzzling it gently. The amount of time and care he put into making sure that his chao was happy would have been astonishing to anyone who hadn’t already seen how much he cared about his friends.

It was no surprise then that, before long, Rouge and Omega woke up one morning to find the chao inside a cocoon (and also a very stressed-out Shadow).

The hedgehog promptly called in sick for the entire week- an incredible occurrence for him. He’d originally sworn that since he couldn’t get ill, he’d give his sick days to others when they needed it, but now that was all out the window. He wanted nothing more than to stay home and essentially sit and stare at the cocoon until it hatched.

While the two other members of Team Dark managed to convince him to eat, sleep, and do chores on regular intervals, whenever Shadow had a spare moment he’d stay in his room, watching and waiting. Their friends got so worried that Rouge and Omega had used everything in their power to coax him out of the house twice over those five days, but he refused to do any more. Even then his outings had to come with the promise that they’d both stay home, check it every five minutes, and call him the absolute moment something happened.

On the sixth day of waiting, the cocoon began to hatch while Shadow was attempting to discreetly read out loud to the chao from one of his favorite books. The moment he saw the split, he dropped the novel, jumped up, and shouted louder than he had in months- “Rouge! Omega! It’s HAPPENING!”

He hovered so closely around the cocoon that Omega had to physically pull him back as Rouge reminded him to give the chao more space. Within moments, the split had widened enough for a single black paw to poke out, feeling around carefully for some sort of purchase to pull itself the rest of the way outside. Soon enough, it had succeeded, earning- impressively enough- widened eyes from Omega and a gasp from both Shadow and Rouge.

Frowning light blue eyes were set in an equally grumpy (albeit adorable) face, with two little black ears and three tiny quills on the chao’s head. The ears and quills both had red stripes, as did the arms, legs, and even its tail. A red crescent shape sat on its chest, and two tiny purple bat wings flapped slowly behind it.

In short, it looked a lot like a tiny Shadow.

The hedgehog in question reached out carefully and began to pet his chao, offering some quiet words of praise, but before long it flew up and settled in its favorite spot in between his ears. When Shadow turned around to face his friends, they were met with the sight of a little glowering creature settled on top of his head…which really did look far too similar to the hybrid himself when he was irritated. 

Rouge covered a smile with both of her hands. “Shadow...hon…”

He frowned at her, only serving to make the resemblance more obvious. “What?”

“It looks exactly like you!”

“Not really- it has blue eyes and...bat wings…” He looked up at her suddenly. “Rouge...how much time have you been spending with Spark again?”

“Oh, just a little- wait, Spark?” she said quickly, redirecting his attention.

Shadow flushed a bright green at that. “I might’ve already picked out a name...does it sound alright?” he asked, studiously looking anywhere but at his friends.

The chao chirped at the name and snuggled a little further into the fur on his head, seemingly pleased with the title. 

He began to smile at that. “You like that name, do you?” he asked teasingly.

“It sure looks like it! I think it’s a lovely name, hon.” Rouge added.

The chao cooed, cementing its name with all of the team (whether Omega would admit it or not).

Now, if anything, Shadow and his chao were even more close than before. Rouge even bought it a tiny leather jacket to match his style, which was quickly deemed by everyone (especially their friends, to whom she’d sent about fifty photos) the most adorable thing ever. 

...

One day, Shadow came home from lunch out with Silver and Blaze only to discover a quite unexpected scene- though he really should have seen it coming, considering what he’d noticed after his chao had hatched. Rouge was kneeling next to the sofa, scratching Spark behind the ears and saying in what could only be described as a baby voice, “Who’s your favorite momma? Me, that’s right. That’s right, isn’t it?”

“Uh….” he interrupted, feeling more than a little uncertain as to how to respond to this. He was torn between “I didn’t know you had a baby voice” and “I’m glad to see you and Spark getting along” and wasn’t entirely sure which one to go with here.

The bat, on the other hand, jumped a good three feet in the air at the sound before glaring at Shadow furiously. “Don’t startle me like that!” she shouted, more than a little tense...and also a bit worried?

The hybrid didn’t react, instead saying “It’s nice to see you spending time with Spark too, Rouge.” with a smile. 

She relaxed a little at that, and Shadow sighed. “Rouge, I wouldn’t make fun of you- I do the same kind of thing, don’t I?”

“You’re right, you’re right.” the bat admitted. “I just had to! It looks like me- it even has my wings! How could I not?”

Shadow moved to sit down on the sofa at that, reaching out to pat the chao as well. Rouge smiled at him gratefully, and then they both looked down at the cute creature in between them, who was promptly staring up at both with a confused look on its face. After a moment, though, it seemed to realize that everything was alright and nuzzled both Mobians before curling up on the couch happily.

…

Another time, the entire team was out grocery shopping at their favorite store when Spark’s eye was caught by the soft, warm cinnamon buns sitting behind a glass case. After a minute or two of desperate pulling at the seams- to no avail- it flew over to Shadow and began to poke at his shoulder until he turned to look at it.

“Yes? What is it?” he asked, giving the chao a little scratch under the chin.

The chao pointed excitedly at the sweet treats, but its expression melted into one of dismay upon hearing him say “No, Spark, that’s not very good for you- and it’s too big for you to finish all by yourself, too.”

It mimed a clock insistently- they didn’t go to the store that often, after all- its frown deepening all the while. Shadow felt a little uncertain- he enjoyed giving the chao treats, but was now really the best time to feed it so much sugar? It could end up flying all over the place, and he really didn’t feel like getting banned from yet another grocery store. (The last one had been because Omega got a little too excited while messing around with the shopping cart and had melted it and twisted it into a knot...somehow. They were rapidly escorted out after that.)

Suddenly, though, the chao shuffled forward, took one of his fingers in between its tiny paws, and stared up at him with the softest, most pleading look it could possibly manage, its eyes wide and mouth quivering. “No...no, come on…” Shadow protested weakly, but already his resistance was melting away. It practically seemed to be saying haven’t I been good all week? Can’t I please just have this one treat? and the hybrid was in no condition to fight back.

Within moments, Spark was holding a cinnamon roll and dug into it with glee, only pausing once to nuzzle Shadow happily and offer him a quick bite as thanks. He accepted the gesture of appreciation easily (even though now his face had sugar on it after the chao’s affectionate thank-you) and was more than happy to see his chao smiling broadly with the treat in its hands.

…

The chao was, of course, still a great help to Shadow as well. One night in particular, it woke up to the sounds of quiet whimpering and began to look around, startled. For a moment, it turned to its caretaker for help- and then discovered that he was the one in trouble.

Shadow was curled up on his side, his brow creased in distress and his whole body shaking terribly. His eyes were squeezed tightly shut and occasionally the most terribly saddening sounds would escape his mouth. Once or twice, a tear escaped and trickled down his face.

Spark crawled up to his face gently, licking away the tear and nuzzling his cheek. Shadow shuddered briefly, but seemed to relax almost infinitesimally when the dark chao pressed itself against his chest for a moment. Eventually, the creature managed to get him to roll onto his back, at which point it crawled onto his chest, hoping that this would help him begin to relax.

It really did work- within moments, the small, warm weight on his chest made Shadow’s breathing even out and his shivers ease as the nightmare that was plaguing him began to fade.

Spark curled up, pleased with itself, and fell back asleep not long after.

…

There was just one problem amongst all this newly-discovered happiness that came with the chao. Ever since it had evolved out of its cocoon, Omega seemed as though he were hardly willing to interact with it.

Rouge or Shadow would hand it over to him, only to get it back less than a minute later. He spent the least amount of time with it out of the three, but when he was asked if he didn’t like the chao, he never said as much. 

Omega didn’t tend to lie...but then why wouldn’t he do anything with it?

Once or twice, they’d caught him merely staring at Spark as the little creature sat on the couch, his optics clicking but otherwise utterly silent. The two Mobians hardly knew what to make of it- he’d never acted like this before.

They finally had the opportunity to discover why he was behaving strangely several days later, though, entirely due to an accident on Shadow’s part. Rouge and Omega had been answering a distress call regarding some rogue G.U.N. robots and needed to call in the hybrid to help. He’d driven his motorbike directly to the scene and leapt straight into battle…

...and hadn’t noticed Spark peeking out of the bag he’d left on his bike.

The chao- while fast, to be sure- was in no way prepared for a full-on battle. While at first it had hoped to help its little family, flying about uncertainly in hopes of doing something, it quickly discovered that the only thing it could really do was to hide behind an upended concrete slab and hope it wasn’t noticed.

That, unfortunately, didn’t quite work out.

It didn’t take long before one of the rogue drones spotted a fourth heat signature aside from the three it was fighting and began to stalk towards it, charging its laser cannon in the process. Shadow, confused at first, felt his stomach drop in horror upon seeing his tiny chao shaking in fear as the machine advanced on its hiding spot. He hadn’t thought to bring a Chaos Emerald, believing this would be an easy battle- and Rouge was busy in the air.

The laser cannon on the drone was almost fully charged, and Shadow fired up his skates in a futile attempt to somehow reach Spark before-

A white hot blast lit up the area.

Shadow couldn’t have stopped the strangled cry that came from his mouth if he had wanted to. The smoke began to clear, and he almost couldn’t look…

Something stirred within the haze, and as it cleared away, Shadow felt his whole body sag with relief upon seeing Omega shifting to an upright position from where he’d shielded the chao with the back of his chassis, blocking the full force of the laser. He let out a sigh as he caught a glimpse of Spark held safely in Omega’s hand as the other one retracted to reveal a flamethrower.

“MY TURN.”

Within moments, the drone was just so much melted slag on the floor and the battle’s tide was turned. Shadow and Rouge dispatched the other robots and then rushed to Omega, who had held onto the chao this entire time.

“Omega...thank you.” Shadow said, taking Spark from his friend and holding it tightly.

“IT WAS- zzzt- NOTHING.” Omega said, a sudden staticky buzz splitting his sentence in two.

“Omega?” Rouge asked, her eyes narrowing. “What happened to you?”

“NOTHING.” he said hurriedly, his voice still glitching. “WAIT- DON’T YOU D-DARE-”

The three had already begun looking to see what had happened...but then froze when they saw the damage his back panel had taken while shielding Spark from the blast. A giant, smoking hole of warped and fused metal was burned into his chassis, revealing a bunch of melted and sparking wiring that definitely needed urgent attention.

“Omega…” Shadow looked horrified.

Rouge frowned, confused. “Why would you do this to yourself? I know how much you hate having to go get repairs.”

The robot let out a burst of static that sounded almost like a resigned sigh. Turning around, he muttered, “IT’S LI-LITERALLY YOU. AND ROUGE. BUT TINY. THAT APPEARS TO HAVE… STRANGE EFFECTS- zzzt- ON MY BEHAVIOR.”

“Do you...not like those effects?” Rouge asked, now clearly shifting into ‘I’m figuring things out’ mode. “Is that why you’ve been avoiding it so often?”

“I AM A ROBOT OF MASS DESTRUCTION. I AM NOT SUPPOSED TO CARE FOR TINY CREATURES SUCH AS THIS ONE. I SHOULD NOT FEEL ANY ‘WORRY’ ABOUT IT- AND YET-” Omega cut off there with a frustrated crackle.

Shadow still didn’t understand. “You’ve always been a robot of mass destruction, but you never thought it was weird to worry about us before.”

“THAT WAS DIFFERENT!” Omega insisted. “YOU BOTH ARE POWERFUL. IT IS NATURAL THAT RESPECT AND CONSEQUENTLY OTHER THINGS SHOULD COME FROM THAT. BUT THIS-! IT HAS NO DESTRUCTIVE QUALITIES! BUT STILL I...YOU KNOW...”

“It’s official, Omega.” Rouge said at that, a smirk growing on her face. “You’re becoming more and more like us...organics are always weak for cute things.”

“IT IS SHAMEFUL THAT I SHOULD COME TO THIS.” he grumbled.

“It’s not so bad, really.” Shadow said, placing a hand on his arm.

“And that’s coming from the guy who never used to admit he cares about people!” Rouge insisted. “Omega, you know you don’t have to be embarrassed about that kind of thing here- you’d never make fun of Shadow for not being tough all the time, would you?”

“I GUESS NOT…” he said, still seeming irritated.

At this point, Spark flew up to sit in Omega’s hand, looking up at the robot with its little frowning face, before reaching out and patting a single finger solemnly with its paw.

“OH NO.”

“Oh yes.” Rouge answered, grinning. “Let’s get you to Tails now though, okay? Then once you’re fixed up you can come home and pet the chao.”

Omega turned his head away and refused to dignify that with a response.

(He did, however, pet the chao when he got home. Nobody teased him about it, for which- while he’d never say it- he was rather grateful.)

…

It was inevitable, eventually, that Team Dark’s schedule wouldn’t be perfect and that they’d all have to be out and busy at some point. This, of course, meant that Spark would have to be dropped off at the chao daycare. 

Shadow had managed to force himself to reconcile with that fact, but the chao wasn’t nearly as good at that sort of thing.

On the day of, it was sobbing desperately, clinging to Shadow’s jacket with a tight grip as though it’d been handed a horrible punishment instead of a day spent at the warm, welcoming building in front of it. “It’s going to be alright. You’ll be okay, it’s just for a day. See, the Mobians who run it are very nice- won’t you look?” the hybrid whispered in a soothing voice, gently rubbing Spark’s head.

Omega stepped forward. “DON’T YOU...WANT TO SHOW HOW BRAVE YOU CAN BE?” he said awkwardly. Talking to the chao was still taking some getting used to for him, but he was definitely trying his best.

Rouge smiled warmly at that. “Of course! We’ll all be so proud of you, don’t you know that?”

“We can make a cake especially for you when you get home too, alright?” Shadow said, and that was the final thing the chao needed to hear. Wiping its eyes with a final few sniffles, it flew over to the little walkway towards the entrance and stood up tall, its body shaking slightly with leftover stress and its attempts not to cry.

“We love you!” Rouge called, blowing it a quick kiss.

“See you soon.” Shadow said gently, waving with a smile.

“YOU’LL BE THE BEST ONE THERE.” Omega added, shuffling in place a little.

The chao whimpered briefly, but then turned away and bounded into the daycare before it could lose its nerve. 

Throughout the morning, it remained relatively antisocial- a bit like the hedgehog whose appearance it had taken- during the music and karate lessons. The other chao all babbled and played together, being mostly neutral and hero-types, and the few dark chao that were there wanted to cause an awful lot more trouble than Spark was in the mood for.

One thing that it noticed very clearly, though, was the extraordinarily frustrating presence of a royal blue hero and speed-type chao.

This chao didn’t seem to think even once (let alone twice) about anything it did. It banged on the drums until Spark’s ears were sore during music class and then somehow managed to smack it in the face during karate lessons twice, and all the while it chatted away with about five other chao all around it.

Needless to say, by midday, when it was playtime, Spark had just about had enough.

When the blue chao rushed directly through the little sand city that it had been carefully building, swiping everything away with a single dash, Spark growled, picked up the plastic shovel it had been playing with, and threw it so hard it whacked the other creature in the arm.

Snarling, it began to stomp off when it felt a hand on its shoulder. The blue chao darted away and began hurriedly to try and rebuild the city, occasionally glancing up at Spark with an apologetic expression in its eyes.

It...looked awfully sad, actually.

Suddenly, the dark chao remembered how it had quickly stopped banging on the drums when the teacher had told it to, and how it had looked rather guilty when it had smacked Spark in the face, and how excited it was when talking with the other chao…

Maybe it was just a little clumsy sometimes.

Spark sighed a little. The other meant well, it decided, as its anger began to fade. It appreciated the apology...but now the sculptures were gone and it couldn’t get them back. Then, though, its gaze fell upon a pair of toy cars sitting nearby. 

Pulling the blue chao over to a strip of flat, packed earth nearby, it gave one car to its surprised companion and then set its own down at a line that could work quite well as the start of a race.

Soon enough, the other creature worked out the idea and began to cheer with delight, and before long they were racing cars like they’d been friends since the start. Eventually, they even switched to running races themselves, over and over again until they were all worn out and collapsed on the cool grass in a heap. Before long, though, they were up and at it again, only this time they started with a building game, and then had a little fun with the musical instruments, and soon enough Spark couldn’t help but wonder how they had ever fought in the first place.

Eventually, they decided that their next activity would be a race to the top of the jungle gym they noticed nearby. Spark was determined not to lose as it scrambled up the bars. It pulled itself paw over paw up the structure, getting closer and closer to the top, until-

Suddenly, a bar that it had been sure existed in front of it only a moment ago was now clearly just a little too far away, and the mistake caused it to reel forward, desperately clinging to the slippery bar it sat on. It twisted head over heels until it slid and fell all the way back to the ground, the wind slammed forcefully out of its little lungs.

Spark gasped soundlessly, trying and failing to pull air back into itself. After several agonizing seconds, it finally caught its breath- and then nearly got it knocked back out again by the impact of its new friend.

Regaining focus, the dark chao realized with a start that its friend was practically wailing into its chest, the soft blue creature shaking with desperate, panicked sobs. It looked up quickly, its eyes swollen and teary, and then reached out with its paws and hurriedly patted Spark’s body down, as though to reassure itself that the dark chao was still there. 

The creature in question sat up and pulled its friend into a tight hug, feeling nothing less than awful as the blue chao sniffled and whimpered worriedly in its arms. Eventually, it managed to calm down enough to amble over to a small nest made of blankets especially for tired chao and lay down there next to Spark. The two chao curled up together, nuzzling gently as the shaky breaths of the blue one finally evened out.

Spark felt the little ball over its head pop into a heart shape, and noticed briefly that its friend had done the same. They remained curled up like that for the last half-hour or so of their time in the daycare, alternately simply cuddling or talking about their respective owners.

Spark hoped they’d get to spend more time with this friend of theirs soon.

…

Shadow pulled up to the daycare on his motorcycle at closing time, doing his best to smooth out his frazzled quills. It wouldn’t be very good to let his chao know that he’d been nearly as worried about it as it had felt itself. 

He sighed, making his way towards the entrance of the building- and instantly felt the last wisps of his composure vanish upon seeing Sonic standing just inside. Before he could panic and flee the area at top speed, his legs (which didn’t seem to have received the message just yet) carried him through the door and inside.

Almost immediately, the blue hedgehog turned to face him with a bright smile. “Oh! Hey, Shadow!” Sonic said happily. “I didn’t know you brought your chao here, too! I’ve gotta say hi to the little guy again sometime!”

“This is my first time bringing it here. If it’s alright with that…I suppose you may.” the hybrid said, trying his best to sound coherent and cool (but actually just seeming stiff and awkward).

They talked for a little while as they waited for their chao to come out, chatting about their lives and friends. More than once, Shadow had to pinch himself in order to stay focused. His mind kept threatening to wander off into dreamland when he was around the hero, ready to admire his many great qualities (and wonderful appearance) at the drop of a hat.

Eventually, though, he became a bit worried by the fact that chao after chao were wandering out through the playroom door, being collected, and leaving…but neither Spark nor Sonic’s chao had even showed up. Soon enough, the two decided to walk into the room and find their tiny charges themselves.

“Uh, hi, mixter!” Sonic greeted the leopard who ran the daycare. “Didja see my lil’ buddy somewhere around here?”

“Oh, hello Sonic!” they said brightly- clearly the hero had been to this place quite a few times before. “Yes, your chao is over there in that nest there, sorry. I just hated to disturb those two…”

Shadow frowned. Those two?

His question was promptly answered when Sonic whisked aside the blanket covering the nest, only for both of them to stare at the sight inside.

Two purring chao, one clearly Sonic’s and the other obviously Shadow’s, were snuggled up together with big hearts floating over their heads. Even the hybrid’s dark chao, notorious for its ever-present frown, looked completely at peace with a small smile on its face.

He tried his best not to freak out.

“Erm…” Shadow began eloquently.

“Uh…” Sonic replied.

The two chao perked up at this, looking happily at their owners before nuzzling gently together in a manner that made Shadow’s stomach leap into his throat and then crash straight through the floor. In a further twist (both in events and in the striped hedgehog’s internal organs), Sonic’s chao then leapt happily into his arms, leaving Shadow to stare at the tiny version of his crush cuddling into his chest fur.

He sincerely hoped there was a convenient couch nearby for him to sit down on.

“Blu- come on-” Sonic began, looking oddly panicked for some reason, but then Spark sprang eagerly onto his shoulder and the hero rapidly fell silent as the dark chao nudged his cheek.

The two hedgehogs stared at each other for a long time. Shadow tried to move or do something other than just stand there, but it was awfully difficult when the hero was looking at him with those wide, soft green eyes….

“Er…Sonic?” Shadow finally choked out, in an odd, strained sort of tone.

“Yeah?”

“I think I’d like my chao back now.”

“Yeah.”

They each handed over their respective creatures, though Shadow felt rather reluctant to let such a tiny version of Sonic out of his arms. And for a moment he could almost have sworn that the hero held Spark a little longer than necessary, too…

…

Once he got home, the hybrid collapsed onto the couch and covered his eyes briefly with a hand. Spark, who had at first rushed into the kitchen (not having forgotten the promise of cake), came back and began to tug on his arm briefly before realizing that maybe Shadow wasn’t quite up to doing much of anything at the moment.

Rouge and Omega walked in just a moment later, their work having ended a little after Shadow’s. Upon seeing him slumped on the furniture, though, their greetings were cut short and instead replaced by worried questions.

Shadow sighed. “Spark...just spent a bunch of time cuddling with Sonic’s chao. And he noticed.”

“And that’s a good thing, hon.” Rouge shot back, having resisted a facepalm the moment she realized what all this was about.

“It is not!” the hedgehog cried out, before realizing that Spark was more than a little stressed by his tone of voice. “I’m not mad at you, don’t worry, it’s just...I already make enough of a fool of myself around him on my own. He’ll figure it out soon enough if we keep this up.”

“SO LET HIM.” Omega said. “EITHER HE STARTS DATING YOU OR HE’S AN IDIOT.”

Shadow blushed furiously. “It doesn’t work like that!”

“EXCEPT WHEN IT DOES.”

“Why don’t you tell him, hon?” Rouge asked. “I mean…” and here she developed a devious smile, “...didn’t his chao technically also act all affectionate with yours?”

The hybrid’s ears were bright green by now. “He’s nice to everyone, Rouge.”

At this point, Spark- who had left temporarily to get a pencil and paper- held up a drawing it had made of the scene at the jungle gym earlier. Shadow, of course, immediately began fussing over his chao, checking for any bruises or scrapes, but the bat in particular saw something entirely different.

“Kinda...reminds me of what happened on Space Colony ARK.” she mused. 

Shadow’s head shot up at that. “What?”

Rouge smirked, but it was bittersweet this time. “Your fall...it really hurt him too, y’know? He didn’t go out in public for a long time after that.”

“He...he never mentioned that to me…”

“He wouldn’t have!” she said. “Sonic isn’t the type to ‘bother’ others with his feelings.” Rouge explained, doing air quotes at one point.

“HE ALSO STARES AT YOU WHEN YOU ARE NOT LOOKING.”

“He what?!” By now Shadow had been reduced to just looking back and forth between his two friends. 

Spark flew in front of Shadow’s face and began to mime something. First pointing at Shadow, then a heart, then talking, then a hedgehog with all its quills pointed down…

“No! I can’t just tell him!”

“We’re hanging out with his team next week at the park- you should do it then.” Rouge replied, ignoring the last thing he’d just said.

“Did you not hear me, I can’t-”

“YOU WILL NEED SOMETHING NICE TO WEAR.” Omega said loudly over the rest of his sentence.

Spark cheered approvingly.

“So...you three have just decided for me whether or not I’m going to confess to Sonic.” Shadow sighed, beginning to resign himself to the fact.

“Absolutely, hon!” Rouge said brightly, slipping an arm around his shoulders.

He glowered at all three of them, but it lacked any real malice. “Alright, I’ll play along...for now.” he grumbled.

“EXCELLENT. LET THE PLANNING COMMENCE.”

…

One week later, Shadow was standing in the middle of a patch of grass, feeling like his knees were about to buckle as sweat trickled through his quills. He was no longer resigned to telling Sonic about his feelings and was in fact considering jumping into the nearby lake and hiding there for the duration of the hangout. His stomach- along with whatever scraps of resolve he may have had- were currently all the way back at their house.

On top of all that, he was frankly surprised he didn’t just spontaneously burst into flames when the other three Mobians showed up, Sonic in the lead.

“Hey guys!” he said excitedly. “Long time no see!”

Rouge snickered a bit at his catchphrase (it was one of many) but Shadow just felt his ears burn. He was just so cute and cheesy and already the hybrid’s mind was devolving into a mushy mess.

“Rouge, Omega.” he greeted them each, but he seemed to pause for a second on the last name. “...Shadow.”

The hedgehog in question thankfully managed a reply, and then the fun began in earnest. Knuckles and Shadow competed in several arm-wrestling matches with narration from Tails (“...aaaand Knuckles looks like he’s in the lead!”) and commentary from Omega (“YOU’RE LUCKY I DON’T ARM-WRESTLE OR ELSE BOTH OF YOUR ARMS WOULD BE BROKEN.”). Rouge and Sonic were busy pranking other innocent people, though once in a while the latter would look over at the competition, distracted.

Eventually, Tails and Omega got bored- which of course meant Knuckles and Shadow had to play the role of caretaker (“No, you can’t blow up trees. No, not even for ‘science’.”) for a little while.

At one point, though, Rouge got bored with the pranks and had dragged the echidna off to a park bench and was now flirting with him enough to turn his face as red as his spines. Tails had promised to behave- which now meant that he was halfheartedly attempting to convince Omega not to modify his cannon to launch ducks from the nearby pond- leaving Sonic and Shadow to themselves. Blu and Spark had been playing in the grass all this time (since both of them had brought their chao without really realizing that the other would do the same), and Shadow had very definitely not been thinking about how lucky his chao was that emotions were easy for it.

He remembered the talk his friends had given him before this outing then and wondered if maybe, just maybe, it could be that easy. Before he could stop himself, he’d already spoken.

“...Sonic?”

“Yeah?” the hero asked, turning to face Shadow.

“I...wanted to talk to you about something.” he said, regretting everything already because look how stupid he was about to seem...yet Shadow Robotnik the Hedgehog had never been one to do things by halves.

“Oh, really?” Sonic said, and now he almost looked relieved, for some reason. “I, uh, was actually hoping to do the same. That’s cool, what is it?”

“No, no, you go first.” Shadow urged him, hoping that he’d take the offer.

Unfortunately, today was not his lucky day. “No, man, you asked first! Go ahead, what was it?”

“Really- it’s fine.”

“No, you had something you wanted to say!” Sonic insisted.

“It’s okay, I swear-”

“Well, I guess-”

“I mean, if you want-”

“Okay-”

“You see-”

“I like you!”

Both hedgehogs shouted the words at the exact same time, before freezing and staring at each other.

“Wait…” Shadow began.

Sonic’s eyes were wide. “You like me back?!?” he gasped, hands flying up to his mouth.

“...yes.” he admitted, looking off to the side in embarrassment. Then it hit him. “Wait. You like me back?”

“Of course! How could I not?” Sonic asked incredulously. “You’re smart, funny, nice-” He’d begun listing off attributes while counting on his fingers, but cut himself off upon noticing Shadow’s confusion.

“Yes, but you’re a hero. The world’s hero.” Shadow began to frown, staring at the grass. “Why would you settle for someone like-”

“No.” Sonic growled, and the hybrid looked up suddenly to see his face twisted in anger. “Don’t ever say that.”

“But everyone thinks it…” Shadow protested weakly.

“Yeah, well, ‘everyone’ isn’t part of my love life.” Sonic assumed a slightly less aggressive stance, placing a hand on his hip. “Whoever’s been telling you that can either leave you alone or get their face introduced to my sneakers.”

Shadow blushed. “Nobody needed to. I just assumed...but perhaps I shouldn’t have.” he added quickly, seeing the hero begin to glower again. 

“That’s right!” he said, zipping over to stand directly in front of Shadow. “No assumptions here- talk to me from now on if something’s worryin’ you, ‘kay?”

Then, he seemed to notice the sudden stiffness in the hybrid’s posture, as well as the green flush slowly creeping up his ears. Sonic leaned forward with a smirk, resting his forearm on Shadow’s shoulder. “Thinkin’ about something?”

Shadow gulped.

For once, he decided that he could do what he wanted. So, he slowly reached up a hand and touched the peach fur on Sonic’s arm gently, like it was the most delicate thing in the world. 

Rather more quickly, Sonic turned a shade of bright red to rival Omega’s paint job.

“So, uh…” he began, his voice shaky. “Erm...do ya feel like sitting under that tree? Together?”

Shadow agreed, and the two walked over to the shady patch, sitting down and resting against each other. Soon enough, though, Sonic turned to face Shadow, a little nervous. “Do we, like, need to talk about this? Figure out...what to do about…us?” He started turning pink again.

“Maybe later. We have a lot of time, after all.” Shadow said, trying to contain the soaring feeling inside when Sonic said ‘us’- until he realized that he didn’t have to any longer.

“What’re you smiling about?”

“You. And me. Together.” Shadow said simply, making Sonic laugh and snuggle up against him, resting his head on a black-furred shoulder.

“Wow. That’s, uh….that’s new. I really like it though.”

Then, the hero looked up at him. “I really like you, too.”

At this point, a loud whistle could be heard from Rouge, who was standing not too far off and had likely heard a lot of what they’d said. Sonic just giggled, while Shadow shot her a death glare. She just winked and mouthed I’ll keep them occupied, at which point the hybrid tried not to show how very much he appreciated that and failed miserably.

And Sonic was purring now. Which of course meant that every single brain cell in Shadow’s head was promptly dead for the next five minutes.

After he’d recovered from that, Shadow wrapped his arms tightly around his...boyfriend? Maybe? He thought for a moment. “Hey, Sonic?”

“Yeah?”

“How do you feel about being my-” Shadow paused briefly to cough, trying to get the words out- “-boyfriend?”

“I think I like that a lot.”

Shadow smiled warmly, feeling the beginnings of a purr rise up in his own chest.

“I like that a lot, too. Almost as much as I like you.”

[phantom-does-a-thing]

talk to me about toh what are your thoughts on everything

HI!!!!! Phantom is literally going to go kerblooey if there is any more studying done tonight so I'm gonna talk about toh for a lil bit.

UHHHHH I don't really have many thoughts nor are they coherent but I will do what I do best and talk. Under the cut bc its probably gonna be spoilers

Ok so this has turned into me ranting about world building and character design more than the actual plot of the story itself. Sorry I'm a writer.

anyhoo my first order of business is one of my favorite favorite things about the animation in the owl house is the fact that there is a lot of variety in the way the characters blush. Like this was such an innocuous thing to notice that I somehow did. And I realize I don't think I've EVER seen that in another animated show.

like Hunter blushes to his ears (which was the main reason I noticed that bc I realized that no other character's ears get all red like his does)

Amity blushes with her entire face and Luz blushes just the bridge of her nose and cheeks. Like that's such a small detail but I am so obsessed with it because it's so cool and it's something I've never seen before.

ironically enough, I think that the first thing that dissuaded me from watching the Owl house before I watched it was that I wasn't a big of a fan of the surface level animation style but I do really really like the animation now that I've watched it, and the designs for creatures are so so so SO cool like I kjhkb,mxbn UGH.

Belos' monster design thingy idk that's just so cool just the way he looks and how he's animated is so intimidating and I think it's crazy cool. And I think it's also really creative which is a thing that I love a lot about this type of casual slightly modern fantasy is just the way that things are translated from modern real life into the world which is something that can often be done really awkwardly.

The ravens and the scrolls things are really cool and I like that, I also like the added thing of social media which isn't usually something I like in shows and stuff but I thought that was really neat.

SORRY THE THOUGHT TRAIN SWERVED THE WHOLE WORLD BUILDING THAT THEY'RE LIVING ON THE DEAD BODY OF A TITAN IS SO COOL I LOVE THAT. In the world of one of my new stories that I've just started working on, it's sort of similar to that in the way that people on the surface live off of the bodies of dead gods like living inside them and feasting on the flesh and stuff like using the dead gods all the way through (in a way that people from the floating islands would think is sacrilegious). I didn't really get that from the owl house because I just noticed that connection right now but GOD THATS SO COOL. I hhh *fans face*

The way magic works is also super cool and like honestly, I think the coven system is also really cool, not the whole having to only chose one magic track part of it but the different sections of magic that you can do. Like all the different types is really cool to me and I don't really consume much fantasy media of this type with heavy reliance on magic systems but this is one of my favorite magic systems.

I think the bard magic is really cool and GOD THE GLYPHS THATS SO COOL THE WAY THAT WORKS. Like it's such a wonderful mix of just hjkljhflkjhjbnvclkjhlskufg. I think it's very cleaver the way that they did that, especially with the glyphs and stuff being hidden around in nature. That's something that's very very cool and also very smart. Like in my mind, in the way my mind works that makes incredible sense. Like enough sense that you could tell me that in real life and I'd be like (yeah sure). It's like molecule shapes and stuff idfk.

Also the harpy Eda (is that what they called it I remember them calling it that) in season 2 was GOD so cool, just the way she looked in that form was so awesomely designed. Also just the whole Owl Lady thing, listen I am a sucker for wings and bird like characters (I would have more feathered winged OCs if feathered wings weren't a pain in my behind to draw). Eda is feathery and sharp with claws and teeth and by god is she so incredibly cool.

Ok I'm going back to hunter because I've been thinking about him all day, I think the fact that he has a tooth gap is really neat, I don't recall seeing that often in characters and I think it's really neat. He looks very disheveled all the time, especially in the later episodes of the season where he is literally one inconvenience away from a panic attack at every moment. But he really just LOOKS like a mussed up kid.

Also I believe that witch ears, they are pointy, they can flick and move and you can pry those headcanons out of my cold dead hands for all I care. I think they deserve to move like that. (I assume you know how I write Gillion, I love those kind of small motions like ears flicking and stuff like that)

also x2 I really like King's design as well, the whole skull for head thing is so cool to me and it's something that I really really like in design. I've had characters like that and I've had characters that wear skull masks and I don't think I will ever tire of characters like that. Even the titan hunters who even though it was just a costume I thought their outfits looked really cool and also really awesome how all the skulls and stuff were different and unique. It's just so charming to me and so cute how King looks with his skull and his horns, it's just one of those character design things that I really really love.

Ok I'm done for now I need to stop before this goes on for like way longer than it needs to. I don't think I have said a word about any of the plot or lore that happened. I have been rambling about world building and character design for a good half an hour that it's taken me to type out this response. Oops.

Does any of this even contain spoilers? I do not know and I will not be reading over anything that I just typed, it's going out into the world of my tumblr blog.