#sorry law i like putting characters through bad stuff

[galacticrps]

Lawrence's gaze shifts to where Ren had lifted a hand, but he doesn't comment on it. Honestly, it feels like his thoughts are slipping from him. What the hell happened between now and a few minutes ago? He just continued eating his own food for a moment, trying to figure out what he even wanted to say, "I..." He trailed off. Was he feeling alright? He wasn't entirely sure. "Just tired, I think. Sorry." Yeah. That sounded about right. Didn't feel entirely right, but he wasn't quite sure what else it would be.

Then it clicked in his head - at least, after he'd finally gathered his thoughts somewhat. Took him a minute, but he'd put the pieces together. Sort of.

He knew what someone being drugged looked like. Again, he'd done it to other people. Never experienced it himself, but-- No, Ren hadn't done that. Had he? Why would he? Sure, they both had some... morbid interests, to put it lightly. But why would he do that to him? They'd been getting along just fine.

Was he really going to be betrayed again? Like all the others had done? No, no. It wasn't like that. He was just jumping to conclusions. That was it. Right? "Not to... cut our visit short," He started, voice sounding a bit groggy now. "But maybe I should get going." He felt bad, but he thought maybe it was the best thing to do right now. If he had been drugged though, he wasn't sure if he was going to make it out of the place without help. And... he didn't want to think about where this might go if he'd been right about that.

Special Treat

[lillaydee]

The Arrangement Part 9

Frontier! Joel Miller / Reader

Your life crumbled to nothing during a migration to Jackson, forcing you to agree to an arrangement just to survive.

NOTE: Possible inaccuracies in baby developments, food intake and inheritance or ownership laws coming. I really know nothing, but I needed to put some stuff in for the sake of the story line, so please forgive me and take everything in the spirit of storytelling yeah?

WARNINGS: Protective Joel (The Last of Us), Ellie & Joel Bonding (The Last of Us), Good Parent Joel (The Last of Us), Parent Joel (The Last of Us), Soft Joel (The Last of Us), Joel is Bad at Feelings (The Last of Us), Joel Needs a Hug (The Last of Us), Hurt Joel (The Last of Us), Joel Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (The Last of Us), Jealousy, Mutual Pining, Fluff and Angst, Frontier Joel, Alternate Universe - No Cordyceps Outbreak (The Last of Us), Virgin Joel, Virgin Reader, Minor Character Death, Period-typical Misogyny, Marriage of Convenience

I think i need to preface this chapter by saying I'M SORRY. PLEASE DON'T HATE ME.

SERIES MASTERLIST

Part 8

You didn’t know how long you stood there. You heard him come out of his room, and heard splashes of water, probably cleaning himself. And then, there was silence, and after a few moments, some quiet sobs and sniffles.

Was he… crying?

What was going on?

You heard his footsteps heading towards your room. You pressed your body tight against the door, worried that he might try to open the door. You were not scared of him, exactly. You knew he didn’t mean to hurt you, that he didn’t mean for things to go the way it did, but you couldn’t find it in yourself to face him at that moment. You could feel him press himself against your door, whispering your name, his sniffs evident, his breathing heavy.

He stood there a while, but eventually he went into his room and shut the door. You waited a long time, not daring to go out in case he came out. What would you say to him? How could you look him in the eyes again?

Eventually, you went out, washcloth in hand. You could hear his bed creak slightly, as if he sat up to listen to you. You wet the washcloth, wiping yourself. An involuntary hiss came out your mouth from the sting, the light-coloured washcloth evident with blood, even in the low light. You knew that would happen, of course. Your friends, the ladies you lived with, alluded to it sometimes.

Of all the stories you had heard over the years, you gathered that women would belong in one of three categories when it came to intimacy with their husbands.

There were those who gushed about the experience. How life changing it was. How they could not imagine living without it. How it brought them closer as a couple. How much the experience made their lives so much better. How mind blowing. How they never knew ecstasy before then. How in love they were with their husbands.

There were also those who seemed nonchalant about it all. How their lives were unchanged by it. How they didn’t think much of it, neither enjoying it too much nor hating it. How their relationships with their husbands were as it were. How their lives moved on with or without it. How it could sometimes be good, but not so good at other times. How sometimes they come to a finish, whatever that meant, but mostly not. How they tolerate their husbands.

And then, there were those who feared the experience. How painful it was. How they were glad they only needed to do it until they were with child. How they would be glad to live the rest of their lives without going through that again. How it made them fear their husbands. How much worse their lives had become because of it. How annoying. How they had never known pain like that before. How much they resent their husbands.

These were often the women who were glad that brothels existed.

You had always connected the difference between these three groups of women with how they felt for their husbands, when it came to intimacy. Basically, you believed that if they were in love, the intimacy would be great. Being in love, to you, meant there was a spark, a connection on a deeper level. Which, up until now, you thought you had with Joel. So, in your fantasies, you believed that since you felt so strongly for your husband, and believed that he did for you too, the intimacy would be wonderful. That you would belong in the first group.

Obviously, that was all in your head.

**********

You laid in bed, still digesting the happening in the next room. And suddenly, you came to a realization.

He did you a favour by marrying you. Because of this marriage, you now had a roof over your head. Because of this marriage, you were living a happy life in this wonderful new town, making friends, having hobbies, a family of your own. Because of this marriage, you were not back in your old town working for pennies and scraps for something to eat. Because of this marriage, you had the pleasure of his companionship, this man who you now cannot imagine life without.

Sure, he touched you. Showed affection for you. But maybe that’s just what a good husband would do. And he promised you that he would be one for you.

He had kept every single one of his promises. He had treated you well. He had given you everything you asked for. He had never forced you to do anything you didn’t want to. He had supported you in whatever you wanted to do. He had been a good husband. He provided for you, protected you, was faithful to you. You trusted him. You knew he would never deliberately hurt you.

So the intimacy was not what you had imagined it would be. Was that so bad? Surely there was more to life than that? Those ladies you had known - even those in the third category - their lives were not miserable as far as you could tell. They lived their lives, persevering, even under the shadow of bad, painful intimacy. And you knew for a fact that their husbands were nothing like Joel. He never laid a rough hand on you. He never raised his voice at you.

See? You had it better than them, at least.

This was your own fault. You expected too much.

You let yourself get lost in the situation you were in, the good that these two months had brought you made you believe this was real.

You forgot yourself. You were not the chosen bride whom his heart beat for.

He married you for the convenience of having someone to care for his daughter, for his household.

This disappointment was your own doing.

You let yourself fall in love with him.

You turned on your side, staring at Ellie’s empty crib. You heart felt as if someone was squeezing it tight. And despite all the things you told yourself, you cried yourself to sleep that night, finally accepting that this was how things would go, that this marriage will never be more than that.

Just an arrangement.

**********

You woke up early the next day. Your sleep troubled by the images of Joel marrying a faceless woman next to your grave, the soil still red, passionately kissing her, his hands all over her body. Your face was wet with your tears, the ones you shed in your sleep.

Your body was wet with sweat. You opened the window to let the cold morning spring air in, the sun just peeking its head somewhere. You sat on your bed, mulling over how you planned to go about being in his presence that day, and the day after that, and the day after that, for the rest of your life. Could you ever look him in the eyes again? You honestly could not imagine going about life without having a constant dose of those brown eyes of his.

So, you decided there and then. When this arrangement began, you told yourself that you would be the best wife you could be to him. And that’s what you were going to do. You’re going to get up and be Joel Miller’s wife. He had kept up his end of the bargain, you should too.

You hissed as you relieved yourself that morning, the pain was searing. No matter. This was fresh. You will go to the doctor if it doesn’t improve. But that might alert Liv and Diana. You must not let them know. You shouldn’t shame your husband like that. He didn’t do this on purpose.

The door to the house opened as you made your way back from the outhouse, a frantic Joel looking relieved when he saw you. His demeanour was awkward, his eyes studying the way you were walking, worry clouding his face. He asked if you were alright, his eyes looking beyond yours, as if trying to read your mind. You gave him a smile, telling him you were alright, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. You went into the kitchen and began lighting the fire, taking a bucket and filling it with water before filling the pot with it, going outside to brush your teeth and wash your face, getting some bacon from the ice box for his breakfast.

The water had started boiling when you finally realized he was still standing there in the living room, just watching you, his face unreadable.

“What’s wrong?” you asked him, placing the pan on the stove, moving to get the kettle to make his coffee.

He hesitated, before asking you if you were alright again.

“I’m fine. You should get ready. I’ll start making breakfast.”

He stood there for a good few minutes before finally moving, looking defeated.

You prepared his breakfast and Ellie’s formula, some rice flour and squashed peaches added into it, before going over to Maria’s to get her. She was happy to see you, squealing excitedly in your arms. You kissed her over and over, taking in the sleepy, milky, musky smell of her little head, realizing that you missed her.

Another reason to just persevere. You could not imagine your life without this sweet little girl.

Joel immediately took Ellie from you when you got home, showering Ellie with kisses, taking her outside to feed her, cooing and talking to her the entire time, softly laughing at her ‘replies’, clearly missing her too. Before he went to work, he stood in front of the door, looking unsure on his feet, telling you he’s going, so you brought Ellie to him for him to say goodbye. After giving her so many kisses, he hesitated a bit before bending down to give you a chaste kiss on the cheek, put his hat on and left.

You told yourself that this didn’t mean anything. Of course it would be awkward. The two of you took a step into a new level of intimacy last night. It’s to be expected.

Right?

**********

Things were like that for about three days. He hardly spoke to you, and you to him. The two of you merely existed and danced around each other. You still sent him his drinks and snacks, kept him company when he was working, read to him at night. But it was with an air of unease that suffocated you both. He kept his distance from you, only kissing you on the cheek when saying hello or goodbye, and immediately took a step back when done. He hardly looked you in the eye anymore, but you couldn’t shake the feeling that he was watching you whenever you were not looking.

There were no sitting on the bench looking at the view with your arms around each other. He didn’t hold your hands when you went on your evening walks with Ellie together. Every bit of conversation revolved around Ellie, to her, about her. It was as if your relationship had taken a step back, and you felt horrible for it.

By the fourth day, you were no longer in pain when you relieved yourself. Everything went back to normal. But he was still keeping his distance from you. You decided to take matters into your own hands and gave him a quick kiss on his lips before he left for work that morning, making him flinch, keeping his body away from you. But it was an improvement over the last few days, so you didn’t say anything.

That evening, when the three of you were preparing to leave for your walk, you made the effort to place your arm in the crook of his as he held Ellie. He didn’t protest, although the smile he gave you was a bit hesitant. But your arm did remain there for the rest of the walk, and that evening, after Ellie was down, the two of you did sit together to look at the view, albeit not touching.

It took a few more days of that before the awkwardness became unnoticeable. But there was no more hugging, no more passionate kissing on the lips. Your conversations went back to normal, the two of you were laughing again, joking with each other, but his head had remained on his pillow during the reading sessions, and lip kisses remained chaste.

You and the ladies were talking one day, when the dreaded subject alluding to intimacy was brought up. Liv was talking about her excitement to move into her house, just a week or so from completion now. Diana made a comment about how relieving it would be to not to have to worry about boxes and wooden trunks falling on them when they were in the throes of intimacy with their husbands in the wagon.

Oh, the wagon rocking suspiciously and everyone would know what you were doing! Liv added, and everyone laughed, nodding their heads enthusiastically. Even you played along, not wanting any awkward questions to be asked your way. Maria chimed in with something along the lines of maybe settling for being a bit boring and just lying there quietly for a while, and maybe not be too enthusiastic, and Liv said something about not being a boring wife in the bedroom.

They were all laughing until they were bent double. You laughed along, as if it was the funniest thing you had ever heard, but that night, you laid awake to a horrible realization.

What if you were just horrible in bed? Was that why Joel no longer initiated anything with you?

Oh God. No.

**********

That thought didn’t leave your head for days. When you think of the way he couldn’t get enough of touching you before, it made you think that having you that one time turned him off. Did he not like it? Sure, it wasn’t good for you, but surely it would have been good for him, nonetheless? He did… finish, if you were correct in that assumption.  

So why did he not want to touch you? Was he… disgusted by you?

You were so worried by this change, your body had become attuned to any movements from him, any pauses, even any sounds that came from his room. You were awoken one night by the sound of him leaving the house. He was careful about it, his steps careful, his movements light, making sure the door didn’t creak too much. You brushed it off that night, maybe he was just using the outhouse?

But then it happened again the next night, and the night after that.

The fourth night was a rainy one. So you placed a chamber pot in his room, not wanting him to run out in the rain. Even in full spring, Jackson was a cold place at night. The last thing you wanted was for him to get sick. But even amidst the pitter patter of the rainfall, you could hear him leave the house.

Worried, you went out of your room and peeked through the window. You saw him move towards the other side of the house, opposite to the outhouse. You heard him outside, through the wall, behind the house, near the kitchen window. He had stopped walking. What was he doing? You went to the kitchen window, careful not to let him notice you, and peeked through the gap in the curtain.

He was standing next to the laundry table he had built for you, parts of him hidden from view by the table and the barrel he had placed there. His back was to you. His hand was moving furiously in his trousers, his head up to the clouds. You could hear his heavy breathing, even with the rain.

It didn’t take you long to realize what he was doing.

You were frozen. You took your eyes off him, you thought, but you still saw him. You saw his body stiffen and bent over, holding his trousers down for a bit, before rinsing his hands in the rain and tying his trousers back up, settling his breathing, his hands laid on the laundry table while he caught his breath. You were too shocked to move fast enough back to your room, and he entered the house just as you got to your door.

He looked flushed, shocked, like a thief caught red handed.

“What are you doing up?” he asked you.

“Just thirsty,” you honestly shocked yourself at how easy that lie came out of your mouth. “Where did you go?”

“Outhouse.”

“Oh, I put the chamber pot in your room,” you can’t help but notice how flustered he got, how much he didn’t want to be there being questioned by you.

“You did? I didn’t notice.”

You wanted to comment on the lack of water he had on his person despite his claim of walking to and back from the outhouse, but you just told him to dry himself before going back to bed. You closed the door behind you and laid in bed, watching Ellie sleep.

He didn’t want you anymore. He would rather leave the house in the pouring rain to relieve his needs with his own hand than be with you.

You cried yourself to sleep again that night.

**********

That Saturday, he told you he had a job to do in town, asking you if you would like to come with him. You needed groceries, so you nodded and got ready to go, Ellie strapped to your chest since he would be working. You spent the entire journey to town in silence, you even sat far enough from him to for another person to sit in between.

It was as if you gave up. You felt defeated. You shouldn’t have asked him to take you that night. All this could have been avoided if only you had just kept your naughty thoughts to yourself. Before that night, you had a man who cared a lot about you. Now, he was but a husband who lived with you.

After you saw him that night, you distanced yourself emotionally and physically from him. You remained the devoted wife on the surface, keeping him company, cooking and cleaning for him, reading to him, going on walks with him. You were never rude or angry, you remained the gentle person that you were with him. But you didn’t touch him, just as he didn’t touch you. You didn’t talk to him unless necessary, nor him to you. His nightly habits remained, you still heard him leaving at night. Coming back after a while and snoring not long after. Good for him, getting the release he needed.

You knew it was petty. You knew you shouldn’t do it. But you found your heart hurting every time he kissed you on the cheek, or even touched you, remembering the kisses and touches he used to give you before that fateful night. Before he drew back ten steps. Before everything became awkward. So you withdrew, no more touching, no more kisses hello and goodbye. If you didn’t have it any longer, eventually, you wouldn’t miss it, right?

The first time you didn’t kiss him goodbye, he lingered, waiting for you to do so. When he stepped forward to do it instead, you used Ellie’s fussing as an excuse to take her inside for a nappy change. The second day, he moved to kiss you first, but you turned and busied yourself clearing the table. He stopped trying on day three.

You didn’t even know if he was affected by it, if he noticed. You didn’t look him in the face anymore. You couldn’t. It hurt. What if the longing looks and yearning smiles were no longer on it? What if his warm, kind, brown eyes were now filled with emptiness for you, or, even worse, coldness? How could you live like that? And if they were still there, what if you gave in, fell deeper for him, only to feel so rejected again?

Most of all, you just felt stupid. Two months of connecting, getting to know one another, gone just like that. All because you needed intimacy.

Stupid, stupid!

You were jolted back to reality when the wagon stopped in front of the grocers. You climbed down yourself, his steps stopping as he ran around the wagon to help you when he saw you had done it yourself. He placed his hand in his pocket and pulled out some money to hand to you, but you instead of taking it, brushing hands with him, you held your hand out, palm up for him to place the money on it. When his fingers almost brushed your palm, you jerked back, causing the money to fall to the ground, and you quickly bent down to get it, holding Ellie steady, before scrambling up to get to the grocers.

You didn’t know why you were being so petty. Truth was, you were worried that if you let him touch you again, you would turn to stone. Your heart hurt. And every time he showed you any form of gestures at all, you just felt it hurt even more, knowing that he didn’t want you anymore. You had to find a way to live with that. And so far, this pettiness, it’s making the hurt more bearable.

You went about the town going to different stores to place your order, setting whatever you had picked up in the wagon before moving along to another store. Just as you were getting the last of your orders, Esther came out of the tavern to sweep something into the street, her eyes looking you up and down in disgust, before looking at something behind you, sneering, and telling you that her guess was right. You were not good enough for him after all.

You turned around and saw Joel come out of the brothel, his toolbox in hand, Rose accompanying him, shaking his hand. You rolled your eyes at Esther, he was doing his job, you menace, you thought. You climbed back into the wagon, just as Joel placed his toolbox in the back before climbing into the driver’s seat. You let him coo at Ellie for a while, sitting right next to him as Esther watched smugly, letting the wagon get out of sight before moving away from him as you did before.

You nodded when he asked you if you got everything you needed. The rest of the ride home was quiet.

That night, after you read him the next chapter, you closed the book and quietly got up to go into your own room.

“Elena,” his voice came to you. You turned, eyes on the mattress rather than at him, and answered “Yes?”

He didn’t say anything, but he fidgeted a little bit, before saying goodnight. You nodded and left the room.

**********

The next morning, you went about your routine as usual. Making him his breakfast, getting Ellie ready for the day, feeding her, doing the laundry, cleaning the house, keeping yourself busy, trying hard not to think about the way things were in your marriage. Joel busied himself with the horses, doing some yard work, fetching the water, mending the wagons, before telling you that he had to go to a house near the edge of town for a job after lunch. You nodded, your hands kept busy ladling out some porridge for lunch, placing the bowl in front of him and setting yourself down with Ellie to feed her.

When he finished eating, he made to clear his bowl, but you gently took it from him and washed it yourself. He stood around watching you, fidgeting with his hat, before finally putting it on and leaving. He walked, you noticed, rather than taking the wagon. About half an hour passed before you noticed that his tool box was still at home. Maybe the house had their own tools for him to use? You had your own lunch, and put Ellie down for a nap, before settling down to begin cutting the materials for your new client’s dress.

Maria and Liv came knocking, Maria telling you she forgot that it was Tommy’s birthday the next day. Could you come with her to town? She needed to buy him something, and maybe get something from the bakers? You told her Ellie was sleeping, but Liv told you to go, she could stay with Ellie. Will was working anyway, building something for their newly completed house. So you went with Maria, the two of you walking leisurely, catching up with each other.

She got Tommy a new leather pouch for his money, his was too ratty, she said. As the two of you made your way out from the bakers on the way home, you ran into Tess, arm in arm with a man you had never met. She introduced both of you to her husband, Max. They both looked so happy. Apparently, Max had to follow the Red Cross wagon for a while before arriving in New York, before finally managing to settle and get a job to buy a land. He told you he was looking for men to build, and Tess said that the Miller men could do that? He would be willing to pay. There was no way he could build on his own, not in the time he needed to get the house done, he said.

You and Maria told him you could ask your husbands, they were about to start another build in a day or two, but you will let him know. His land was just a few lots away from the Millers, apparently, so it would be great if they could help him out. As you were talking, Tess suddenly froze. You followed her line of sight and saw him, all the way at the end of the row of stores. It was far, but you would know him anywhere.

Your husband, sans toolbox. Walking out of the brothel with Rose. His face flushed, his hand rubbing his neck, smiling shyly at her, while she gave him a kiss on his cheek, rubbing his arm up and down, a huge smile on her face.

Your body went numb. Cold. Frozen.

The good news was your heart no longer hurt.

The bad news was it had completely shattered.

Gone.

Millions of tiny sharp pieces filling the cavity of your chest.

Your legs stopped working. Tess and Maria caught you by the arms. Maria looked livid. She made to go to him, but you told her no. Just, please, you needed to get out of here, please. Max immediately helped you up onto his stripped-up wagon, Maria climbing in after you, Max telling Tess he will see her later that day.

As Max got ready to start the ride, Joel turned his head and saw you.

To say his face turned chalk white would be an understatement. He walked towards the carriage, his strides long and fast, before breaking into a small run. Tess told Max to go. Now, go.

Joel broke into a run, running after the carriage to the edge of the town, calling your name desperately, as his panicked face got blurry from the heartbroken tears filling your eyes.

Part 10

[siblingshuffle]

Day 7: Secret

I had several ideas for this one, and eventually decided to do Dr. Light’s last and most secret project.

As you can see, I tried to put a bit of… idk, character? into the paper. It’s not been taken the best care of (100 years in a place that looks like this probably didn’t help the condition, and even then you can probably tell that it was through a couple mishaps during Dr. Light’s life).

(Also I like to imagine he has really bad handwriting which is why so much of it is basically illegible lol)

Lore and Actual Design Reference below!

As mentioned before, no Robot Master lacks a function and all (except for 3 total) had the three laws. I think it’s time to elaborate a bit as to why.

Over the course of his career of building Robot Masters, Dr. Light’s stay-at-home children were the most humanlike due to their independent thought. He knew he was going in the right direction, but they still had limits. They could never quit their job, and had to follow orders when they came from a human superior. To the humans around them, they weren’t really “people” so much as they were tools with a personality; interchangeable with a talking wrench in.

So, Dr. Light got to work on Xote (Aka “X”) as the first Reploid.

It’s demonstrated across the X series that none of the above limitations apply to Reploids. They may be built with a purpose in mind, but they aren’t bound by the 3 laws and can decide for themselves what they are and what they do. For just a few examples:

Pretty sure Alia was a scientist for a little while there before becoming a navigator

Axl quitting Red Alert of his own volition

Zero & X becoming friends despite the latter being created to destroy the former

All of the “new gens” that “went Maverick at will”

The fact that Mavericks can (and do) harm humans

X deciding to become a Maverick Hunter at all

And that’s just the ones that I, a mostly Classic Series fan, am aware of. There’s bound to be even more that I’m NOT aware of!

(This isn’t to say they aren’t still seen as tools sometimes. It’s a very slow progression until they’re on fully even footing.)

So, uh, the TLDR of that all is that the biggest difference between Robot Masters and Reploids is that Robot Masters can’t decide with the same freedom what they want to do with their lives for themselves and can’t really do anything against humans unless under very specific circumstances

Sorry about the rambling lol

————————————————————————

X’s design!

Forgot to note:

Since Reploids have that much more autonomy there are like. Resources & stuff for Reploids that want to “grow up”. X gradually upgraded from being around 12-13 (pre-games) to like 15 (MMX1) to, in X8-ish, being like a full-grown 20-30-year-old adult. (Add that to things Robot Masters can’t do that Reploids can lol)

X doesn’t have a model number.

Zero does have a model number, because 1) he didn’t know all of Light’s plans and 2) Wily leans more into the “my robots are tools” line of thought. But Zero doesn’t give a heck about his past canonically so even if he doesn’t know that he definitely doesn’t care lol

[pinkomcranger]

About the white asshole line: it's not as left field as people think tbh There's a similar line in the first AW game from Alice (in the DLC, Wake's version of her since it's all in his head). She uses the term 'while male melodrama'. This is literally Wake's own mind so he knows a lot of stuff he put her through was from a perspective of a person who has a lot of advantages. Back to Saga, that line aligns with the racism we are hinted she dealt with in her field and STILL deals with in present day. Mulligan and Thornton are racist af (haven't seen anyone discuss this yet) to her even if they seem pleasant at the start of the game. Not entirely either, when Saga and Casey meet Mulligan he automatically assumed Casey is the lead agent. He apologizes about it but there's an air that neither him or Thorton take Saga seriously. They barely speak directly to her and instead more to Casey unless she directly speaks to either. It's that seemingly benign, passive racism that is more toxic sometimes, especially in a work environment. In her face they show some surface level, thinly veiled respect but behind her back they called her a 'stuck up FBI bitch'. Part of the horror story adds she let her daughter drown so they doubt her work entirely. And concerning the Bookers, there's this passive aggressive comment where Thorton says the case of the murder of Nightingale would've been solved if the FBI wasn't involved. Thorton says something like "they stick with their own". Now, this could be seen as city folk stick with their own but the Bookers are black, this was purposeful imo. I honestly liked how Remedy incorporated this in such a realistic way. Some could dispute this and say "that's circumstantial/reaching" but lets not forget both Mulligan and Thorton are literally the bastard law enforcement type that kills are the drop of a pin. They killed that woman while enthralled with this feeling of power (referencing the page about it) and threw her body in the well to hide it, blaming the death on each other at first before they decide it's neither of their faults and hide the evidence. They become taken being so twisted in their dark ways. They are bad guys, I'd argue misogynistic too. And lets add a layer of actual parallels to rl racism to the mix here now. If she dealt with that in Bright Falls on her first day I can only imagine the assholes she had to deal with climbing her way up in the FBI, in life in general. This is why her mother is a strong foundation, they are not only close because they loved each other but she made sure she'd be strong. Parents who have mixed kids (black kids especially) know what they will deal with. Maybe even a meta thing like Spiderverse, adding the backlash into the story. Which she did and still does get from gamerz (tm). People STILL bring up that "race swap" from the Quantum Break trailer which is honestly just early concept stuff. Saga is written so well and carefully that even her problems outside the pace of the story seems to have been considered. So while it does seem random and may make people uncomfortable it's purposeful. Remedy really captured this aspect with Saga without making it her personality or the core part of her (like she just there for black trauma, so glad they did not do that and made her a character with experiences). Let's not forget Saga's field of work. We know it's predominantly white. Her saying 'another white asshole' says more about her experiences than anything else. And being at her lowest where her insecurities, doubts, fears thrive it says something about her agency and how sometimes it can feel taken from her based on her skin tone, gender, so forth. Sorry for the long ask! It's just, this line definitely does not feel like it's random to me. I was just shocked I heard it but the game lays down the ground work for it to be said. It's as subtle as the worst kind of racism though imo

I'm VERY interested by imagined!Alice's line because while we don't know if she actually feels that way, we see Alan can acknowledge that he KNOWS how lucky he is by virtue of being a white man, it might not be something he thinks about daily, but he's admitting he's aware of it.

You're right in regards to what Saga deals with in her work environment and most likely her daily life. It sucked for me that Mulligan and Thorton ended up being racist, misogynistic assholes because they truly just seemed like the goofy, slightly dimwitted small-town cops. I think maybe because I haven't actually played the game yet (shame on me, I know! I just managed to get it last month and haven't had the time to dedicate to it like I want) that I kind of brushed Mulligan and Thorton's behavior towards Saga off until we learned their true nature.

But we see how they're more comfortable deferring to Casey over Saga, and we can even see that Casey is NOT the least bit pleased with it. Saga clearly picks up on it, and it's one of the reasons she chooses to leave them with Casey. She can handle the Bookers easier, because yes, they ARE black, she KNOWS they're going to open up to her far easier than if it had been Casey. Do we get reflections of their shared experiences? Not really, but the Bookers weren't going to trust the FBI regardless, Saga being a black woman lowered their defenses a little.

You can argue that she was better suited for talking to the witnesses because it's just her personality, Casey was dry and sarcastic from jump while Saga was the opposite. But did the Bookers know that? Absolutely not. They were less cautious with Saga, Ed especially. They weren't hiding anything to be malicious, they just wanted their own things to be successful.

Hearing Mulligan and Thorton's true thoughts about Saga really tore me up. Not even so much at the fact they felt that way, but because they didn't have the guts to say it to her face. You don't hear that venom directed towards Casey at all, even though he's the EXACT same stuck-up government agent who's worse to them than Saga.

But it's what black people tend to see when dealing with the police force. Condescending, impatient, better-than, bitter, power-hungry and drunk on their self-importance and position of authority. There's a REASON they were made Taken when the Koskela brothers couldn't, but that's really neither here nor there.

Seeing what she had to deal with in Bright Falls from two guys that were SUPPOSED to be on her side and help her is very telling and it made me even more interested in her backstory. How many people actually believed in her when she joined the FBI? Who dismissed her out of pocket simply because of the color of her skin and her gender? You can even get a hint of her past simply by her questioning Casey on why he wants her to be the lead on the case instead of jumping in straight away.

And that's to her PARTNER, a man she’s known and trusted for years, who clearly never had a problem with her being a black woman, or there's no way in hell they'd have the kind of relationship that they do.

Freya being such a strong influence for Saga was evident in her card to her daughter. She knew the struggles Saga was going to face by going after what she wanted to do and never discouraged her. I'll always be bummed over Freya lying to Saga about her being a Seer though. I know it was to try and protect her from even more shit she didn't deserve to go through over something she had no control over. But it almost felt like a vote of no-confidence. And there's no feeling in the world like thinking your mother might not believe in you.

I'm still VERY annoyed at ANYBODY bringing up the "Return" concept from Quantum Break JUST to say Saga was race-swaped when almost NOTHING from that teaser made it to the main game proper. Sam and the team took all of that and flipped it on its head. That was clear the second FBI Alex Casey stepped into the background instead of being in the lead.

I love the fact we don't get the "another white asshole telling me what to do" until the end of the game, and it's when Saga is at her lowest point, when the Dark Presence is trying to do its best to break her down. But like I tend to bring up, Alan says it can't create something out of nothing. Meaning those doubts and resentment were there for a LONG time, and it VERY easily could have been her entire personality.

The fact that it wasn't showed how much thought Remedy put into creating Saga and I appreciate it so much. She wasn't her trauma, she wasn't her anger, she was the exact OPPOSITE of that. She faced her problems with determination and PUNS! Even when shitty things were going on, her mind wandered to humor "More like "Underwatery" I'll have to tell Casey that one later." Speaks volumes about her character.

I think that's one of the reasons she fought SO hard against the horror story. OBVIOUSLY her main motivation was saving Logan, and then Casey. But she wasn't about to let her agency be taken from her like she's been fighting against it for years. She was the one that was going to be in control, she was going to tell this story, and Alan himself (some of that as him being the face of the Dark Presence for her) "no, fuck you. Another white asshole is NOT going to tell me how to live MY life. You're not using my doubts and fears against me to take my family from me"

And she did it, she did what the white man couldn't do on his own in 13 years. How am I NOT supposed to root for her? How could I NOT want to know more about her history? There's no way I can look at Saga Anderson and go, well her story is done, there's nothing else to be written for her. As I said, I do love FBI Casey, but he's practically a blank slate compared to Saga, I could live without him because, for me, outside of his personality (I'm also grumpy and sarcastic), I cannot relate to him.

Despite not being a wife and mother in the FBI, I CAN relate to Saga. I can understand her struggles and pain. I feel her love for her family, I can relate to her love and disappointment towards her mother. The struggle of being a black woman in a world that still caters to white men and the pushback she gets just from existing. I understand her in a way I never could with Alan Wake. I understood and related to his issues as a writer struggling with inspiration. But the thing with that is Alan didn't HAVE to struggle like that, he could have chosen, at any time, to stop being a writer and do something else.

Saga couldn't choose to change the color of her skin. Her challenges would be with her simply because of how she's perceived at first glance. She'll never have the advantages of Alan and Casey in that regard.

I'm sorry for the long answer! But I LOVED your ask, and that's why it took me a hot minute to answer it. I had to get my thoughts in order and give this the response I felt like it deserved. So thank you for letting me see your thoughts towards Saga! ❤️

[livmadart]

So I was reading through the detective conan wiki and came across this screenshot

and instantly thought like what if instead of Conan trying to keep the detective boys out of trouble or his being the (unofficial) leader of them, what if instead Conan really was a bad guy/criminal and the detective boys were in charge of keeping him from committing crimes.

After being shrunk, Conan, somehow, gains an interest in crime. Instead of solving crime though, comitting crime, not murder (or not yet?) but more like small scale scams or thievery and what not. I'm no expert.

The detective boys latch onto Conan pretty early on, after his very first day in elementary school actually, and they also found the detective boys super early into the series (I think it's ep4), and at some point after that, I guess, Conan gains this fascination for committing crime. So he tries making plans for something or another, but his plans always get thwarted by either the detective boys or someone else, like in episode 5, when there's a bomb on the train and Conan wants to plant a bug, he tries to stick it in some gum and put it under the seat, but is caught by Ran and the detective boys. Except in this I guess it would be something more than just planting a bug. Look, there's a lot I haven't thought about, all this came to me like 10 minutes ago. You're welcome to flesh things out btw if you want and can think of anything.

And he still solves crimes and stuff. It tickles that part in his brain that likes puzzles and everything, so much that he'll drop plans for, like, a bank robbery in favor of figuring out whatever case he comes across on the way there. So I guess there would be two ways of preventing Conan from committing crimes, one would be to physically prevent him (not very safe, he bites, and he's slippery) or to find a crime that has already occured for him to solve.

And I don't think the police know, and if they do, they think it's a joke, but just imagine like the detective boys or Agasa frantically calling Takagi like "Quick! Give us an unsolved case!" as they're trying to get a proper grip on Conan XDDD Takagi thinks Conan is just really enthusiastic about becoming a police detective in the future. (Conan is the 20 year old with 10 years of job experience. Actually all the detective boys will, once they're adults, now that I think about it)

Hiiiii I am SO sorry this has been sitting for like. A month. Honestly I think canon Conan is already halfway there—he has a clear sense of morals and justice but almost no regard for laws. If it would solve a case or save a life, he has already shown himself willing to break and enter, and I’m pretty sure it’s not legal to kick a brick at someone’s face at 80 mph. To reference your ask more directly, if there were some key piece of evidence to nail the Black Org, Conan would absolutely plan and enact a bank robbery to get it. It’s details like this that remind me his character is strongly derived from the original ACD Sherlock Holmes.

That being said, I do love the idea of Conan going wildly Feral if there was ever too much time between cases. He just gets stir-crazy and will start to cause trouble on purpose, and the Detective Boys have taken it upon themselves to keep him in line (as best they can!). Thank you for your ask, and please, have a sketch!!

[parasitoidism]

Long meandering ramble about isabeau under cut sorry idk what happened

Ok I wanted to expound actually I do think it’s really interesting how Isabeau isn’t like a “wishy washy” kind of neutral she is really serious and principled about it. Like when you fight her in law (and I assume things turn out the same in chaos, haven’t finished that playthru yet) if you extend your hand to her she takes offense to it + tells you to have conviction in the path you chose to the end despite her being so horrified and appalled by it that she would put down her life to fight you to prevent it from coming to pass.

And in neutral as well after you defeat Merkabah she expresses respect for him in seeing his principles through. I think it’s interesting that she has such high respect for this concept of commitment to a belief, even a destructive one + even when that the belief itself is so fundamentally morally repellant to her. So anyways this is where I get kind of headcanony right. But I was thinking more about this again

And yeah like she doubly has this thing of coming from a family that has always gone into the monastery as well as being a woman samurai (the level of rarity of this can be inferred by the fact that she’s like, the only female samurai npc iirc) that feeds into this right? Tho it’s conjecture on my part bc we don’t really hear her thoughts on any of this she’s already in this position of being like, an outlier, somewhere she “doesn’t belong” (as she apparently grew up expected to go into the monastery like the rest of her family- it’s a “loss” for the monastery) in terms of her place in the samurai. So I think that’s like .. where her position ultimately comes from. She grew up believing in the good of the kingdom like Jonathan but is in a position where she understands Walters feelings of being hemmed in by her society which I think just like is how I at least understand her character. But her neutrality isn’t just from a place of helpless desperation or an inability to choose its something she really believes in. So this is the part where I insist her love of shoujo manga is actually really important

so yeah. I thought this was a little funny but the more I think of it it is super interesting how manga is cited as what makes her soul unshakably set against you and the destruction of Tokyo. And I think it’s just that it’s representative of or partly responsible for her genuine love for Tokyo, its art and by extension its people. Like to everyone the “unclean ones” are basically like some ancient historical threat once faced by their kingdom but through finding used copies of Rose of Versailles on the ground throughout the game and it, a product of the culture and people who live/once lived there, it just gives her a level of empathy/respect for them beyond what the others achieve.

And she just cares about the people a lot yknow. When everyone splits off at shen duque her first worry is about skins and fujiwara. Walter and Jonathan’s motives both are concerned with the fate of Mikado, be it tearing it all down to start over or preserving it by destroying Tokyo (although that isn’t really /Jonathan/‘s motive but you know) but Isabeau is the one who actually wants to help the people of not just Mikado but Tokyo as well. So like “isabeau’s stance is that killing a bunch of people is bad” isn’t like groundbreaking literary analysis im aware. The game tells you that. But all the stuff I said is like In my cute little opinion Why she thinks like this. Anyways I wrote this for no particular reason other than I thought about isabeau and I like her. Sorry. Obligatory “but I’m probably wrong about everything” disclaimer

[anarmel]

hiya! just wanted to say i ADORE your dnd au for stranger things it is so captivating to see each art piece you've created (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)

can i ask if there's any little headcanons or plotlines you'd be willing to share about it? I'd love to hear more but totally understand if not (⁠人⁠*⁠´⁠∀⁠｀⁠) either way i appreciate the work you do!!!

Thank you for your kind words!(i read ALL tags) And sorry it took me so long I’m bad at writing hope you’re still interested)

I have entirely too much in my head for this AU and it’s ever evolving but I’m dog at writing stuff down because my brain gets like scrambled so I always forget what I want or write down and english is not my native language so my writing is blunt and sometimes i don’t have the right words for concepts i want to communicate and I overall suck at communicating but I do want to share something about this AU with someone who appreciates it so I will try)

This is my continent map and planar map for this AU because every official planar map in DnD is too unnecessary complex for my type of worldbuild:

This table is my basic ideas and info on characters (i change it all the time because I’m inconsistent and have new ideas every week) and I fucking love multiclassing it’s more storytelly

And i have a Pinterest board for this AU with visual clues and inspiration for the characters if you want to get a feel for that take a look: Link

Worldbuilding and character ideas(completely too long wall of text but I attached some old sketches for paragraph breaks):

Worldbuilding portion

I usually don’t like to put racism in my fantasy scenarios but The Empire is based on America with all the colonization and racism and all that so its there (reason: ST has too much themes that are purely American and if you take them out it’s kinda unrecognizable and some characters lose some experiences that effect their characteristic and choices they make. And the world needs to feel violently bigoted and secretive with governments that lie and do terrible things) but don’t look for direct correlation to real events. it’s like heavily inspired by America. i don’t want to erase racism and white supremacy and how it effects most if not all characters.

This Empire is under one of god pantheon(most of the faerunian pantheon with some exceptions). As one if the main worshiped gods that effect the story I chose Torm(the god of duty, loyalty, righteousness, obedience and law) and Bahamut(the dragon god of justice and a subservient deity to Torm). Empires are so greatly represented by dragons: massive gold hoarding uncontrollable and unstoppable and really hard to defeat. And because I want Tiamat dragon cults in the story. The list of allowed worship is limited some gods are outlawed some are just weird to worship and looked down upon. Most gods that are law and order based are great to worship

The Empire came as an expansion of an already existing Empire that represents one pantheon of gods that were at war with the Fey pantheon of gods and mortal rulers are continuing this expansion on mortal plane(even if mortal plane is abandoned and neglected by the gods). During war most Gates that connected Feywild with the Mortal plane were destroyed and in their place “Divine” Gates were built. The War of Establishment ended 200 years ago

The way my gods/worshiper interaction works is not as direct as I’ve seen in other campaigns. Paladins/Clerics get their power through tapping into residual celestial power that is left on mortal plane after calamity battles many ages ago and more advanced Paladins/Clerics can tap into celestial plane directly and it’s very rare for a god to communicate with their worshipers.

Empire general attitude towards different races(fantasy racism part… it’s worldbuilding okay):

Aasimar is the most respected race imbued with the divine blood most of the royals are Aasimar. Highest standing in society

Goliath are historically the giants that are the protectors of the divine. They are given opportunities other races are not. High standing in society

Humans are the basics as always. They have their hand in every pot.Mixed standing in society

Halflings were always a part of the empire. Infantilised in larger society. Mixed standing in society

Anything Fey is perceived as weird and inhuman and often fey magic and creatures are blamed for all manner of mischief and ills, ranging from petty vandalism and theft to outright murder and kidnapping.

But there’s a distinct difference between every elf group

High-elven culture is the one of the biggest ones that was crushed by the empire. Empire is built on elven ruins. Elves that didn’t escape to Feywild earned their keep in the empire by being great merchants because they knew to local surroundings and had established goods production and even with inter planar fey gates destroyed some elves had trade connections in Feywild. Being there from the beginning of the empire given some High Elves really high standing in society and more opportunities to build up their capital but at the cost of abandoning or suppressing their culture. Material plane High elves have purple/pink blood and similar skin under tones medium pointy ears(from living in the material plane for a while) Mostly culturally integrated. Mixed standing in society

Wood Elves mostly come from Beast Lands plane that lays between material plane and the Feywild and when empire conquest reached Feywild they stopped their war expansion on woods and wanted to build more of business relationship with the faerie court and the faerie court doesn’t care about the rogue elf tribes of Beast Lands that are being misplaced because they see the benefits of empire as a reluctant alliance instead of an enemy even if fey believe they could win the war if it comes to that . The Empire use the kidnapped elves as the laborers to build new empire cities across the continent. Wood elves have a distinct green skin undertones, green blood and large pointy leaf-like ears that make a Great War trophy and bringing a few souvenirs a soldier can show of is not that looked down upon. And high elves on large don’t associate with wood elves they are both seen as fey but different in “usefulness” in society. So wood elves have a low standing in the society but it’s slowly starting to change in some parts of the empire

Eladrin native to the Feywild and mostly are not present on the material plane and seen as distant trade partners.

Other elves(astral, aquatic, drow)exist but are not seen inside the empire

Gnomes is the other race that was native to the land the Empire took over they are integrated as the high elves and seen for their innovations and trade. But also they’re infantilised in society of larger races and sometimes are not seen as a full person but as cute creatures who are mostly helpful to bigger races. Mixed standing in society

Dwarfs mostly live underground in stone cities. I like Dragon Age lore for dwarfs so I’m incorporating it. True Dwarfs are not permitted to see the sky and those who do are considered sky walkers and still can serve as merchants of dwarven goods to the surface or can just go live as they want on the surface but they will never be considered true dwarfs and are not permitted in places of under mount worship of the Morndinsamman. They are not a part of the empire even if the mountains are on empire territory. Mostly seen as trade partners

Most of genasi populating empire are mixed. Air and earth genasi are the more accepted. Fire and water are not as much. Mixed status

Different Main Genasi tribes set up close to their respective elemental planar gates but those tribes all really different.

Air genasi mainly have a cloud city surrounding their gate populated by other avians but also have travel tribes that travel on cloud settlements.

Fire genasi are mainly nomadic with some preferring to live in a settlement near their gate it is considered their home base and if a fire genasi was outside it’s tradition to make their way to the gate at least once in their life

Earth genasi mainly have a permanent home under the mountain near their gate the city is populated by some dwarfs and rock gnomes

Water genasi live near their gate that is surrounded by mostly underwater country (enter a fantasy name for Soviet Union here)(?TSAR?) populated by aquatic elves, tortles, merfolk, tritons, simic hybrids and vedalken

Firbolgs are mostly nomadic small tribes and lived close to the fey gates so a lot of them were massacred during the war and there’s not much of them left. Perceived as fey and mostly forgotten because they live outside of cities.

Any half breed is looked down upon. A little anti-miscegenation in the mix to this horrible prejudiced bigoted world(just like the real one)

There’s also magic and class(DnD) discrimination

Any Divine and Radiant magic is praised so most of paladins clerics and monks are thought highly of in society

Any nature magic is looked down upon ether it be too fey of holistic and barbaric in the eyes of the divine

Barbarians if not zealots for the right gods or have right ancestors are barbaric and looked down upon

Sorcerers are usually put through governmental evaluations to find out their levels of danger those who deemed too dangerous go into maximum security prisons or are simply executed,those deemed controllable go into an educational program(less strict prison). Any sorcerer magic can only be used under strict control of a sorcerer’s keeper appointed by government.

Wizards studies and education mostly are behind walls of magistrates that operate separately from other government controlled magic institutes but for the greatness of the Empire. Arcane magic is controlled but not as strictly as sorcery

For Wizards to deepen their studies of magic there’s one option walls of magistrate a separate arm of the government specialized in arcane magics. Arcane magic is controlled but not as strictly as sorcery because it’s considered an intellectual and intelligent magic

Artificers are the inventors and move the world forward. Government gives grants to institutions of artificers for development of weapons and transportation for people without magic and such

Necrotic and blood magic is prohibited and outlawed

Character stuff(most of it is just like a starting position in the story that will never be)

Byers family. I wanted to make Joyce a merchant but then I came up with the idea of them being a grave keeper family for an old eleven graveyard, being just poor in fantasy settings is not enough for stigma they get (the monarchy class system is just too different everyone’s poor but the selected few…well not different at all but I wanted something different and more fantastical).

Joyce after escaping her abusive husband stared working for an old elven lady that owned the graveyard and not having any family of her own she let Joyce and her boys live on the property and when she left the mortal plane she left the graveyard to the Byers family. So in this world there’s a lot of stigma around anything fey but high elves are more integrated into society and Byers family looking over a spooky scary creepy and ancient fey graveyard filled with old dying magical remains can make the family ostracized and it brings a somber tone and a death theme to back up Wills story. Because usually grave keepers task is to make sure the dead stay dead and don’t turn undead. And Will is kind of undead after his stint in the upside down and that is his one more secret from his family and friends (I want a more magical and powers related secret for will to struggle with).

And Jonathan’s first iteration was a Chronurgy Wizard because I wanted to play with the theme of him capturing moments in time (like photos) but more I thought about him he is such a rogue and there’s Phantom Rogue that has an interesting trinkets system that you get by capturing souls of your defeated foes still has the same idea of moments being captured in a still object but Assassin suits too so idk. Maybe I should have made Byers Shadar-Kai instead of High elves. Maybe they as a family need a rewrite???

Hopper’s story is similar to canon grew up in Hawkins moved to a big city (W.D.C) for opportunity. Low standing Goliath have an opportunity to earn status through Arena (gladiator fights). Got married. And after losing his child and divorce he transferred back to his old town with status that earned him a position of chief.

El and Henry are both kalashtar (a compound race created from the union of humanity and renegade spirits from the plane of dreams(limbo)– spirits called quori) with the appearance of astral elves to play into the themes of alienness (E.T. glowing fingers and long glowing ears). A big meteor struck near Fort Hawkins and The Empire researchers stumbled upon a lost child named Henry (astral drifter who only looks young) that possessed powers that they wanted to research and use as potential weapons (like they use ordinary sorcerers). After some years of research Henry showed scientists where they can find more power. A research group with a military support was sent into the Astral plane they returned with several adult war prisoners and the experiments jumped a few levels in cruelty. Most “Main Experiment” children were bred and grown in a lab. Events that happen at the lab resemble what happens in the show. Some sketches of El and Henry I didn’t land yet on design that is set in stone (I don’t like how I draw their quori too literal):

Steve’s family is royalty. His dad is a king of the smallest province named Indwarim with the sit of power being in Fort Hawkins which is still not the biggest town it’s small and underdeveloped and was mostly built to separate the gate to Beast Lands from the Capital it doesn’t even have a “Divine” Gate (gate system that connects main cities of The Empire). The King of Indwarim is not known for spending time in his seat of power leaving it in the hands of his council and expects his son to take over his small province while he gets close to the emperor and climbs the social ladder closer to real seat power (Whitheirion Divine Court).

Steve is fond of all attention and admiration his royal blood and divine blessing brings but all his life he felt inadequate, people respect him for the things that were given to him by birth right and nothing he did or deserve. But who is he to complain about the easy life he lives so he enjoys all the positive attention that he can get and lets people bask in his light even if deep down he knows all they want is a crumb of prestige and power befriending a royal can give, Steve has never met a genuine person in his circles so he assumes that all people are like that everyone plays their part of court theater. Steve has his own masks so he understands them. He always had people around him that tailored him to their expectations and that keep him in check. In social circles he paints a picture of a royal you can find at all the parties that are worth attending with new arm candy every time, all masked in charm and light conversation, all surface no depth, not an intellectual but at least he’s martially gifted. He’s not fit for the system but plays it enough for it to benefit him, he’s not going to stand up to it. He doesn’t know who he is without others making him.

And I want Steve to have some kind of insecurity where he thinks he’s useless without his legendary weapon which is a stolen fey artifact that was claimed by empire and now one of Harrington’s family heirlooms (which Steve doesn’t know for a while) and later in the story he will return it where it belongs because it’s a right thing to do even if it strips him of his additional powers. (Some inspiration characters for D&D!Steve are King Arthur, Stella(Winx), Fjord(CR))

Robin is a miracle child to her older parents. They loved their little girl and given her all that they could while running a small but successful tailoring shop. I did make Robins parents fantasy hippies while well-meaning they appropriate the culture of fey creatures but don’t struggle with the stigma around it since they themselves are not fey and even benefit from it in their business because their designs perceived as exotic and “new”.

At 12 Robin come to realization that something is off about her and there’s things that happen to her that don’t happen to people around her and the desire to find out what’s wrong with her took her to the library and there she stayed studying anything that took her scattered interest. Meanwhile her parents put her into a music studies and Robin even gets to play at royal court a few times.

At 14 she come to the conclusion that she is a changeling a myth a child swap of the fey and since then she felt like she truly doesn’t belong in her family and believes that if her parents found out they would stop loving her and disown her. She keeps up her mask around her parents and doesn’t inform them about her discovery but unknowingly she keeps distancing herself from her parents.

At 17 she requests to go into a new Starcourt research center to start studying magic more seriously and spends most of her time as a scribe and even going on expeditions into the sea and forgetting her musical studies. At the Starcourt she meets prince Steve not for the first time who was sent to the magistrate to “learn humility and to appreciate his divine gifts properly and maybe it will make you more intelligent, Steve” and then it kind of follows the shows events. Some Robin sketches and a design of her parents that I’m not sure about they need to look older I think:

Eddie is a child of a warlock pirate and an elven druid. He’s a tiefling because of his father’s infernal contract that affect him physically.

In his early years he mainly lived with his mother on land with his father’s rare visits but one day his mom just didn’t return home (I want it to be ambiguous did she get into a situation and died or got murdered or raising a tiefling child alone without support in a judgment filled town got to her and she decided to run away from it? who knows? not Eddie that’s for sure and sometimes not knowing is worse especially when you have overactive imagination) Eddie is at home alone for several weeks afraid to leave and sleeps for most of the time to repress hunger. That is the state his father finds him in and has to nurse him back to health and they live on land for a month but living a stable life was never in the cards for Eddie’s dad so he decides that Eddie is mature enough to follow him in his adventures and learn what it means to be a true son of a pirate. His father has an ego and sees Eddie as a continuation of himself and his power but he does love him but never more than himself his freedom or his pursuits. Every time Eddie is trying to bring up his mother his father shuts him down like he doesn’t want to think about whatever happen to her, like she’s not here let’s move on kind of attitude. so no closure there.

When Eddie is around 10 his father goes to visit his brother with Eddie in tow for the first time. The relationship is strenuous but a favor his father asks of Wayne is just to look after Eddie when he’s gone on a big job that will change their lives. His father never returns. Eddie lives with Wayne and he feels like a burden to this man who didn’t even knew he existed several weeks ago. Wayne is a matter of fact battle hardened tough guy that was trying to find his stability after years of service (he was in an expedition to the astral sea among other things he did in the military) Wayne after his years as a sailor was recruited into a government sponsored mercenary group and he mainly joined to lift himself and his brother out of poverty while his brother chose a different path to that same goal. While in service his needs were accommodated but after the system has abandoned him with trauma and not as much money as he was promised. But with that money he got himself a small house in the least developed province of Indwarim on the outskirts of Fort Hawkins in an area named Forest Hills and got himself a job as miner the only job available to him. His settled life gets interrupted by his brother and his grand plans for a better life but this time he doesn’t try to bring him into it all he asks is to take care of his child for a while and that Wayne can do. Even if that while turns to years he’s not that bothered the child is endearing and if both of his parents are not there for him his uncle will step in as a parental figure to the best of his ability.

Oh and for his shaved off horn he has thousands of stories about that and he will NEVER admit that it was him at 13 childishly coming to a conclusion that his horns one of the main reasons he is different and rejected by society he wanted them off he wanted to look more like his uncle he wanted to fit in he wants the snide comments and dirty looks toward their family to stop. But not only was it painful as soon as he saw himself in a mirror he knew he made an awful impulsive mistake. He wants to hide it from Wayne for as long as he can so naturally as soon as Wayne gets home from his night shift he finds out. He sits Eddie down and struggles how to fully communicate to his kid that we are dealt a certain hand in life and we got to play it to its fullest potential and that his uniqueness only makes him that unique and people who don't see it through their prejudices they are the ones that are missing out. Uncle of the year. But Eddie being a kid takes it a little differently and just changes up his tactic of shielding himself. He cranks up his "uniqueness" to a 1000% and to be bigger scarier more attention garbing more repulsive than he is so no one would even try to go after him and his out of fear of consequences. He finds other street kids like him and they form a group power in numbers as they say. Hell Fire is formed.

When Eddie is around 14 years of age and alone at home old associate of his father Reefer Rick appears on their doorstep to inquire about money that his father owns to him and how will he get it when that fucker got himself imprisoned which is the first time Eddie hears the reason for his father’s absence. As Rick is mostly a smuggler and not a distributor he recruits Eddie for his plan to get his money without unnecessary harassment of his uncle and for Eddie to make some gold of his own all and all Rick know the kid and he's scrappy. All Eddie needs to do at first is leave some packages in particular places but if he wants to make more he has to get proactive and get new clients. And Eddie does want more in as he thinks the more gold he can make the more he will help to alleviate Wayne’s burden and Wayne doesn’t even need to know (Wayne will know really soon). And to make the most of his new gig he takes his bard troupe Corroded Coffin to the court as jesters and while entertaining the stuck up upper classes he makes a few sales.

Wheeler family is quite a wealthy family with their father working in some governmental transportation bureau and their mother being a stay at home mom.

Nancy became a small time volunteer agent to The Harpers the faction that she believes is good for the world at 14 as soon as she, by the power of her father's station, was allowed at court to find a husband and just live that court gossip live. Even that young she has her believes in order but she’s still a young girl who wants to live out her girlhood and build a good life for herself but that dream crushes when her best friend disappears under some suspicious circumstances and is presumed dead. Nancy's pursuit for truth takes over her life and she starts uncovering something bigger than court gossip something that she cannot take on alone even if she wishes she could. Armed with a gun that Barbara made for her and her strong principles she falls into a world of governments secretive experiments and what they lead to.

Mike…oh Mike he’s such a hard character for me to nail down. I saw a lot of people making him a paladin and I get that he plays a character that’s a paladin in the show but if I were to give Mike as a character D&D stats charisma is will not be his highest but it’s my opinion. He and Will are still childhood friends they met at the graveyard when Mikes curiosity won over and he’s gone exploring we’re adults said not to and fell into a grave where Will found and rescued him and then they became besties. Mike is situated by his father to work for a house that will help him get into a higher society and he gets to be an errand boy some days. He meets Dustin and Lucas when one of those errands goes sour and after their little adventure he introduces his new friends to Will and they form their little adventuring party

Sinclair's are a family of wood elves which is already hard under rule of the Empire but they make do and father of the family even earned himself a respected position in his hunting guild so they have it better than some but still surrounded by a lot of stigma.

Lucas has gone on some scouting expeditions with his father and likes to explore the forest by himself developing his tracking and hunting skills. One time exploring on his own he noticed smoke and what is smoke without a forest fire and went to investigate. He saw a small dwarf and a big mechanical cat on fire. After Lucas helped to extinguish the Steel Defender he met the dwarf properly he found out his name is Dustin and that the fire was caused by a failed experiment he for some reason ran in the forest. They became fast friends both fascinated by each other’s experiences and lacking any other friendships they gravitated towards each other’s weirdness. When he’s older l would expand on his relationship with Patric who is the most integrated into empire society wood elf Lucas ever met and Patric is kind of his mentor and that’s how his cleric powers find him and Lucas joins the greater divine order. He enjoys his new station and it makes him feel more accepted so he doesn’t understand why his friends have to shut his new side down and make him the bad guy for exploring himself and finding his place in this horrible world. Divine power doesn’t make you a bad person but it’s powerful and most bad people seek power and it’s unfair that Lucas’s new found power diminished by his friends by putting him in the “other” box. His people were one of the most oppressed by divine powers that be and by joining the order he wants some of that power back he didn’t create this situation he’s only trying to survive in society as best as he can and find a better life for himself and everyone he loves. It’s not the power that’s bad it’s the application.

Erica is another one of the characters that is hard to nail down for me. At first I wanted for her to be a druid that pretends to be a cleric and maybe it’s an idea that is still alive but making her rogue/ranger/monk makes more sense to me but it has less narrative I think. Because she as a character has this unearned respect for the empire (based on the quote “You can’t spell America without Erica”) She too seeks acceptance but goes around that really differently to her brother. She’s larger than life boisterous bold and even if she is unwanted she will power through it and insert herself in a place that she thinks she does belong. Fake it till you make it as they say. She’s really protective of her family and will not listen for your negative opinion of her but she will hear it and will try really hard not to internalize it. She’s still a child yet doesn’t show weakness as she supposed to through her hard exterior shell. She’s charismatic and smart beyond her years and has a clever jab for every situation. And it’s no surprise that she has a side gig as a mysterious bounty hunter information gatherer she will get you all information you need on your target and you will never know that job was done by a child (imagine puss in boots in Shrek 2 situation) she has a little bit of a reputation for being efficient and anonymous.

Dustin is half mountain dwarf on his mother’s side half rock gnome on his father’s side. His parents met when his father who works for a wealthy jeweler was send with an expedition to discover precious minerals and gemstones for a supply chain but instead of finding new deposits they stumble upon an undrermount dwarven settlement where they established a business relationship with a local gem carver and Dustin’s father established a relationship with a daughter and an apprentice of said carver. They fell in love and Claudia decided follow her love and live her life on the surface leaving the undermount behind. She is really overwhelmed by the sun and the openness of the space but with support of her husband she has a beautiful time living in Fort Hawkins. Her husband recommends her to his employer as she has unique dwarven expertise and style of making jewelry and working with gems. They make decent money and decide to expand their little family. When their boy is three years of age the father of the family passes away in an unfortunate work incident while visiting a work site a rock slide happens and takes the lives of several workers. Claudia is inconsolable but she puts herself together for well-being of her child. But every year that passes it’s tougher for her to leave the house and she slowly becomes agoraphobic the surface becomes too much without support of her husband she already worked from home and her employer doesn’t care if she is the one making the trek to deliver her product to and request raw material be delivered with the same boy she send. She has unique product and it sells.(I don’t know fully why I made her agoraphobic but the idea of juxtaposition of Dustin’s mom always being at home and available but in an unhealthy and kind of smothering way but always loving and supportive to her child despite their struggles and Steve’s parents that are never home and absent in his life is interesting to me story-wise) Dustin himself is a little engineering genius creating his first fully realized Steel Defender at age 11 despite his intelligence he’s not taken seriously in small artificer circles of Hawkins even by children his own age because not only he’s an uncommon half-breed which grants him a weird standing in society by birth but also he’s of a “small” race and that infantilizes him further so he always striving to prove himself by being the smartest person in every room he’s in which sometimes makes him insufferable and more isolated. That’s until he meets Lucas who is interesting to talk to and who is not afraid to give him shit when he steps out of line.

Mayfield's and Hargrove's. Niel Hargrove is a human noble of province Calafia his family secured most of their power through a secret chromatic dragon worshiping society (a cult) and even there he managed to stand out as Tiamat cults are usually matriarchal and Niel is not that fond of women in power. Even his first wife who is of northern aasimar clan is kind of his prisoner. After her death he took in a second wife, widow of his fallen friend Sam Mayfield, because they all together started an experiment with dragon blood and a child that Susan bore and he needs to see that thru.

Billy is half aasimar which already makes him insecure from birth like he's incomplete and unfinished but still he is superior to so many so why do the unworthy get any power at all when they don't know how to use it and some powers should not exist at all. To enhance his martial prowess his father makes him get dragon blood tattoos and to activate them and enhance his rage he needs to consume more dragon blood and he is hooked on high of that power when it streams through his veins he feels on top of the world. He feels like a King. He deserves to be one.

Max is born and its already a train wreck. Some of dragon blood in her gives her a partially scaly skin but apart from that she still looks human. Her step father tells her about her greater purpose and she goes thru brutal training she is told its to make her stronger but it only making her exhausted bleeding and afraid and from a young age she learns not to share her fears or insecurities as they will be used against her. At 13 her power gets out of control when she unexpectedly got injured in a public space and the whole family is forced to move to not get discovered as blood magic users they lose a lot of material possessions but their noble status is intact but they need to start from scratch in Fort Hawkins. After that incident Max is strictly guarded by her step brother a situation that they are both not happy with. Even before losing control like that she struggled with her powers what they mean for her and how dangerous they are if she does purse them so she pivots into developing a more controlled way to channel them which does not make her family that happy.

Basic Story

It all leads to a battle against The Far Realm (a plane of madness situated very far from the planes of the standard cosmology. This maddening realm was feared for its power to twist unfortunate visitors into gruesome monsters, and it was from here that aberrations came). A plane that Henry discovered through his talent as an Astral Drifter (someone that has traveled the Astral Sea for so long that they have lost track of the amount of time they have spent there. Aging stops in Wildspace, and it is not hard for adventurers to get lost in time during their travels. Astral Drifters have traveled to the far-flung corners of Wildspace to satiate their wanderlust. Along the way, they have crossed paths with everything from petrified gods to unspeakable monsters) So Henry got warped and combined with his quori spirit and declared himself an Aberrant God and as a being of Far Realm he seeks to consume it all and be the only power in the multiverse and he will go about it in a way that will make it final. The Celestial plane is the hardest to penetrate so at first he tried to go thru outskirts planes but it didn't lead anywhere so he found a stable connection to a mortal plane the plane that is the most interconnected with others. Limbo is his weapon. Through the plane of dreams he can influence most beings on mortal plane. He is the voice in the dark. He is the premonition. He is inspiration that comes suddenly out of nowhere. He is the Dream of greatness. He is The Voice Of God.

But mostly it's just the events of the show through a very heavy D&D lens but like with more character exploration and preferably with a more cohesive story but that's just in my head its been my night time story to myself for a while now.

Hope you enjoyed reading thru this shitstorm and I hope it makes some sense)

[ambrosiustheunknown]

I just went through your whole blog and liked and reblogged most stuff (sorry about that) but I really liked your character analysis of Regulus and Snape, I would love it if you would do one of Barty (you obviously don't have to but I saw you wanted suggestions of more)

Barty Crouch Jr - Character Analysis

I was SO excited when I got this so THANK YOU!!! The notifications aren't a problem and are actually appreciated. Okay, let's break down his character.

Was born 1962-1963

Sirius Black states in Goblet of Fire that Barty's father didn't pay any attention to Barty, implying neglect

His mother dearly loved Barty

We don't know much about his early/Hogwarts life, other than the fact that he achieved 12 O.W.L.s, causing some fans to think he was a Ravenclaw, although he is still popularly headcanoned as a Slytherin

Joined the DE's in his later teens

After Voldemort's first defeat, he, along with the Lestranges, went to Alice and Frank Longbottom's place of residence, supposedly torturing them to insanity

All four were arrested, although at different times, and are brought to trial by Barty's father

Barty insisted on his innocence, pleading to all in attendance to be cleared of all charges by claiming he didn't participate

Barty's father (who was head of the law enforcement) sentenced him to life in Azkaban when Barty was around 19

In 1982 (a year after Barty was put into Azkaban), Barty and his mother were ailing

His mother convinced Crouch Snr to polyjuice her into Barty as she was dying so they could trade places and Barty could escape

Barty was nursed back to healthy by his father and their house-elf, Winky

Barty was then placed under Imperius and and hid him under an invisibility cloak for 12 years, only being given occasional rewards for 'good behavior'

During the Quidditch World Cup, Barty was hidden and imperiused, taken only because Winky convinced his father

During the attack, Barty escaped and cast Morsmordre, although he was found by his father and re-imperiused

Barty was found by Voldemort and freed, then going on to act as Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody for Harry Potter's fourth year while keeping the real Moody in a trunk

He killed his father

At the end of the year he was exposed and given the Dementors Kiss on-sight

While we don't know much about Barty's early childhood, much of the fandom agrees that the signs point to a childhood of neglect, with only his mother and house-elves to care for him, and I'm inclined to agree. I believe that he was in Ravenclaw due to his excellent O.W.L scores and the fact that - going by his father's behavior and status - he most likely would have been disowned or snubbed as a Slytherin. He's never mentioned to have strong relations with anyone other than Voldemort, which leads me to believe that due to his fathers neglect, he heard about Voldemort, thought joining would greatly anger his father, and later found a mentor and father figure in Voldemort, with no one to stop him. I believe that this newfound attention lead to an intense loyalty and even love that we see very clearly in canon. I don't think he was insane before his conviction, but after Azkaban and 12 years of abuse (and yes, being imperiused and hidden for 12 years is abuse), he was certainly teetering the edge of sanity, most likely only being held together by his desire for revenge, his high intelligence, and loyalty to Voldemort.

Overall, Barty is a highly-intelligent, calculative, possibly sadistic, yet traumatized and insanely loyal character. I believe he had a potential to be a good person. His father most likely wasn't around to teach Barty morals, and we know little about his mother, so the first person to gain Barty's loyalty taught him his morals, and that was Voldemort. I believe that Barty Crouch Jr is a bad person, but a misunderstood one, who was far more intelligent than he was ever given credit for. He was almost definitely a rebellious teen in order to gain attention, but was a mostly-blank slate due to never receiving it from really anyone, up until he met Voldemort. Outside of canon, I enjoy Barty's fanon personality a lot and think that's it's fairly accurate, although he was probably a little less insane and impulsive as the fandom makes him out to be. He also most likely wasn't friends with Regulus Black, Evan Rosier, Pandora Rosier, and Dorcas Meadowes, although I love the dynamics lol.

Credit to the Harry Potter Wiki for providing me with information. If I got anything wrong or missed anything then feel free to let me know! If anyone want's any more character analysis I am SO happy to give them! I have two other analysis' posted if anyone is interested! Stay safe, drink water, and don't give your undying loyalty to a genocidal maniac! :D

[cpcwiki]

⚠ WIKI AD INCOMING ⚠

Hi, everyone! @mechanical-clown here on a new blog! That's right, it's the Real Official CPC Wiki Social Media Account here!! B) Unfortunately I do not have good news to deliver

It's been a hot minute since my last ad and I do want you all to know I'm still sorry for doing this. Unfortunately, again, how bad I feel making another ad is outweighed by how much the wiki needs more help. I've been feeling especially desperate lately because of the fact that CPC is ending soon, and there are many tasks that will be made harder if it's put on daily pass. So, in my cry for effort to get help, here's an explanation of what I believe is our biggest issue and a rundown of things that currently need to be done! Again I am sorry. This could take a while

If you were fortunate enough to not have seen this post last time, the Cursed Princess (Club) Wiki needs help if it wants to be complete any time soon. Kind of a lot of it. As we all know, cpcblr's very active and prolific in content and the wiki's typically... not. To seriously get into this, the only three active editors in the past month or two have been me, @the-neighbors-kid (aka cursed-princess-club), and Ama (not sure if she wants to be tagged but we all know her!). Shoutout to you two because you are actually the best thank you I love you /pl <3

Anyways, there are already a lot of things we need to do to fix up the wiki. Thankfully, accessing any episode for any information you'd like is easy! And it will continue to be that easy after CPC ends, because Webtoon doesn't feel the need to limit how many episodes a person can view, right? Right? ...Yeah, so, uh, daily pass exists.

As of the time I'm writing this, there are ~10 episodes left in CPC (forgot the exact number lol). Assuming there are no hiatuses, that's only 10 more weeks, or 2 and a half months - and that's pretty soon! While there is a chance that CPC might not have daily pass after it ends, it's a small one. And, to me, that sounds like a huge problem!! If CPC is put on daily pass, accessing episodes will become much more difficult. Looking for a certain character's appearances, adding images, even just finding a single reference - it'll take a day to unlock the needed episode, and that episode will be gone in 2 weeks. The best solution to this problem would probably be to just use physical copies of CPC to find things, but those aren't available to everyone.

And adding images with daily pass episodes? As a reminder, screenshotting while viewing an episode on daily pass is taken as a sign of piracy. Screenshotting, the way we get images for the wiki. I've tried poring through Webtoon's terms of use to find some answer about whether publicly posting such screenshotted images would be illegal, but there's no mention of daily pass, and the text is so dense it's hard for me to tell. (I want to say I'll take a second look at it sometime, but that's probably just going to go into my list of permanently-unfinished priorities. I doubt the physical copies would be a good alternative to screenshots, either.) Regardless, I don't want to take any chances with the law, or see however Webtoon would punish us on the chance they find our frightening screenshots. Thus, another top priority of mine is to add more images and complete more galleries before CPC ends.

Oh, yeah, and that's barely even scratching the surface! Here's more stuff we need to do, presented in an appealing (classic Mocha iykyk) bulleted list:

A major thing is filling in episode pages. Episodes 40-around 110 are basically blank - no synopsis, character list, summary, or extra information. This is the task that would likely be least burdened by the addition of daily pass, but in my opinion, it's still of the absolute highest priority.

Galleries, which display images of characters, locations, or episodes. While not generally that important, I do think it'd be a good idea to fill out mostly empty ones now - you know, since taking screenshots of CPC may become illegal in the future! Most characters have a good amount of images on their pages, thankfully (the pastel sisters have so many they were the first to get separate gallery pages); some, including Jack and Leland, have very few. Episode pages and locations often have way less, though those aren’t as important

Relationship sections for a number of characters. These involve write about characters’ relationships, though in a way that mainly describes their interactions throughout the episodes without expressing any specific opinions. Some major sections that need to be written/updated include Jamie and Leopold; Jolie and Nell; Leland and really everyone on his page but especially Jack; Jack and Lilyth; Suzanna and Lance/Lorena; the Plaid Princes with each other; and more! Many more!

History sections for a number of characters. In a similar vein to relationship sections, these just detail a character’s appearances in the story, as well as their past or other mentions of them. Examples of (mostly - Isolde's isn't fully updated yet) completed history sections include Whitney’s, Isolde’s, and Monika’s! Examples of incomplete sections include virtually everyone else’s.

You might be wondering why I, a wiki admin (in case I haven't said it enough) am not doing any of these things! That’s because I'm neglectful and pretty bad at my job. I will not sugarcoat that part anymore. As much as I love the wiki (it's where I met my best friend after all, and while I'm writing this they just went offline so he can get fucked /j) I don't have motivation to work on it very often. Really, I don't have motivation to work on much nowadays! Ama's been doing the virtually thankless job of keeping the wiki up for the past couple months, and I've been mostly absent. The wiki is only remotely as active as cpcblr because of her. I feel terrible about it, but I'd rather be writing this 9-paragraph cry for help than editing, so, uh... yeah this is a public apology to Ama. I am so sorry. I know this isn't very professional but I'm incapable of being professional about the wiki tbh

TL;DR: As CPC is ending soon, the impending threat of daily pass could take away the ability to look at episodes whenever you want, which would make wiki editing much harder. We seriously need editors to join us in finishing the wiki. Please at least consider helping us!! Any way you can is appreciated - even if you can only make very few edits, I'll be immensely grateful for your support :)

If you have any questions about anything wiki-related, contact me!! My Discord's at musicitself, and you can also always DM me on here! And here's an invite to our wiki Discord server, too!! Of course, you don't have to become a wiki editor to join, but (as was the point of this entire post) I would really really REALLY love if you did. Thank you so much for reading this long, and have a great day!

[bluberimufim]

Writer Q&A Tag Game

Hello. I got tagged for this by @squarebracket-trick on this post and I thought it sounded super fun. So, here we are!

1. What motivates you to write?

I started out as an artist, but I began writing once I realized that visual art as a medium wasn't enough to tell the stories I wanted to tell - it had no way of codifying lore, defining character traits, or even just easily telling a long story. I think it's still largely that, in a way. I come up with all these stories and I "get them out" through writing because I sure as hell can't keep them inside my brain for eternity.

2. A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud/happy of. If not maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them)

This one is pretty recent, from a few chapters ago in DoS, but I'm really proud of it. I just feel like it emphasizes how much Seth's experience with souls connects with the body, which is the Goddess of Time's domain. A lot of metaphors in this story centre around bodies and physicality because of this. Here's the snippet:

And yet, there was Theo, with her soul so unwound there was no fixing it anymore. The most she could do was keep healing and healing, covering the cracks of the bowl with her own hands in the hope that they'd go back to normal. Keep filling the ocean so that, no matter how many holes lined its bed, it would never be empty. [...] She held her so tight she thought her hands would fuse to her skin. As if she could cover the cracks of her soul with her own body.

Idk, I just vibe with it.

5. What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

(what happened to 3 and 4? where did they go?)

I'd say back-and-forth banter, probably because of my time in theatre, but also horror description. It creeps up on me. I keep writing horror on accident. And I always really like it. Just something about describing something weird and spooky.

6. What do you enjoy most about the Writeblr community?

Mostly the fact that there's all these other writers who have cool stuff and also wanna see my cool stuff. I already loved writing on my own, but knowing that there are people Out There who also care about my stories just feels amazing.

And also, the casual friendship between people. You interact with someone's blog, they interact with yours, and you suddenly feel like you're friends, kinda. I can only compare it to making quick friends with someone on the playground as a kid. I like it <3

7. A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech-to-text, a writing program etc)

I am a very ✨analogue✨ person, so my best writing advice in this scenario is always: put that shit on paper.

Feel unsure about a scene? Put that shit on paper. It's like a 0.5th (hehe "halfth") draft that you will copy onto your document and you will always improve it with that second look.

Worried about perfectionism? Put that shit on paper. Even pencil, at least to me, feels hard to erase. It's mostly about living with the stuff you've written and not looking back - erasing is such a pain in the ass that you might as well just keep going forward.

Wanna write secretly during class/lectures/whatever where you're not allowed to have a device? Wadda ya know, the answer is also paper.

Wanna edit? Printing stuff out helps you get some distance from your own writing and it also makes you see it more as a book than as just something you've made.

It also generally makes you feel less bad about changing stuff later in the document, because you have a solid, physical record of what you've written before.

Put that shit on paper. It works well.

(sorry for the rant sbdhagjk)

8. A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)

I once made a post about the art movements in the world of the dystopia WIP (yes, seriously) but I can't find it anymore. I'm not gonna explain it again, it was stupidly long the first time around.

I guess, outside the dystopia WIP, I'm pretty proud of the whole Three Sister Goddesses thing from DoS. I have drawn designs, but I'll make another post sometime. I'm also proud of the relationship between the Goddesses tho.

They're at war with each other, but they're just doing it for entertainment. They kiiiinda hate each other but not as much as their desire to have fun. Like, they will send their daughters to decimate each other's armies, but they'll also hang out together in the Plane of the Gods. The war is kind of like a decades-long game of Monopoly they're having at the family function. And I just think it's cool. Goes into that whole thing about mortals being like ants to uncaring gods that I like.

9. What piece of advice would you say to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?

Kinda cliché, but I'd say this: it happens to everyone, dude (gender neutral). Everyone has periods of time when they feel bad and can't write. Or where they feel like their writing is terrible. Doesn't make you less of a writer.

Even if you're not as productive as other people: who cares, honestly? As long as you're having a good time and doing something you love, it doesn't matter how much time you need or don't need to finish something. Even if you never finish anything. And if you feel like you're not as good as other people: who cares either, you know? Everybody starts somewhere. And everybody has different strengths. You'll get better. You always do.

At the end of the day, we're all just doing this because we love it. Don't force yourself. The time will pass anyway.

Ooooookay that last one was a bit more serious than the rest. Anyway, I wanna tag, no pressure, @fleurtygurl @stesierra @cheeto-flavoured-pasta and @sarandipitywrites

[televinita]

I am halfway through A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, and the way somebody might want to murder Pipsqueak just to get her to knock it off and stop annoying people has been apparent since episode 2.

(also I know media has warped my perception of teenage appearance but seriously she looks 14?? she looks like the little sister of her friend group) (edit: what do you MEAN she was twenty (21?) when filming this. ???????)

+ One more rant about Pippa: I didn't SUPER love her but I don't remember finding her this bad in the books until at least the second one. However, her obnoxiousness plus the fact I've never seen this actress in anything else has put said actress immediately on the I Don't Like Her Face, Stop Casting Her In Stuff list.

+ The rest of her friend group, however, is very charming and charismatic! Love them. Her two female friends were my least favorite book characters but I love and possibly ship them already here. Also the white guy (I truly cannot remember names) is charming and funny and needs more screentime.

+ I also love her stepfather & brother, just as in the book, and cherish every scene with them. (Her mother is roughly as colorless and forgettable as I remember in the book; I'm not sure if that's good or bad)

+ The sleaze dripping off Max Hastings - while also somehow still retaining enough magnetism that I can understand how he's popular - is incredible; superb casting.

+ A+ casting on the Singh brothers, they are both as charming and different-yet-similar-looking as I imagined them to be in the book.

+ I feel absolute zero romantic chemistry between Pip & Ravi, mostly on account of her being 12 (age downgraded since she's just fully cosplaying Harriet the Spy at this point), but I like them as friends/investigative partners and am really enjoying their scenes.

+ I'm sorry, the sisters' English-teacher dad is THOMAS FROM "GHOSTS"????????? INCREDIBLE.

+ The music is trash.

+ I don't have any specific standout scenes yet but I do wanna say the silver-star cater-waiter costumes were incredible, lmao.

+ So far I feel like it's sticking pretty closely to the book's arc? I haven't looked up for certain, and I definitely wouldn't mind at least one thing being changed** but also, familiarity good so I kind of hope that's true. I love looking at certain characters like, "I know what you are." (rapist. murderer. all that good stuff)

**i swear to god if this show doesn't fix the one book mistake it absolutely MUST improve upon... (leave her dog alone!!)

+ I also feel, so far, that if I wasn't having so much fun watching the book come to life (not least because I read the dumb Americanized version and it's nice seeing how it is actually supposed to play out, school-and-law-enforcement-wise), I don't know if I'd find this the most scintillating show. Despite the shock opening scene, it's kinda slow? While I did give the book series a solid 4 stars, half the book's appeal is its mixed media formatting, I'm sure of that now.

+ However, I remain very pumped that for ONCE, television has adapted a book I not only know but have read and really liked, and with the power of that knowledge I do think this is a solid adaptation overall. We'll see how the second half plays out!

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Now for a very bad explanation of Fnaf

So in the late 1960s to early 1970s a man from England, William Afton, loves to Hurricane Utah with his wife and young son. William then starts a restaurant with the main attraction being these 2 character suits, Fredbear, a golden bear suit with a purple bow tie and top hat. And Bonnie the Bunny, a golden rabbit suit with a purple vest and bow tie (which William probably needed specially made as this man was like 6”3 and 150 something pounds).

This goes on for a few years before William combines his company with a man named Henry Emily in about 1973. Henry, works with animatronics, and combines Williams character ideas with his robotic skills to create animatronic animals for their first restaurant, Fredbears Family Diner. They are extremely successful, creating a tv show and toys based on these characters.

Everything seems to be going well, especially for William, who now has a thriving business and 3 children, Micheal, Chris/Evan, and Elizabeth.

Then 1983 happens.

In 1983 Micheal, who had been bullying Chris for a while, took it too far.

Chris was terrified of his fathers animatronics, so Micheal, on his brother's birthday, took his screaming and crying brother and put his head in the animatronics mouth. Normally there were safety features to prevent the mouth from closing if something was placed inside, but Chris’s tears loosened the springs in Fredbears mouth, causing them to coke loose and bite down on his head. Chris died in the hospital shortly after. William, in the rage and grief over having lost his son due to Henry’s robots, kills Henry’s daughter, Charlotte Emily shortly after his son's death. This is William Afton’s first of many murders. William is not suspected by the law, but he is suspected by Henry Emily, who then designed the new animatronics with facial recognition to anyone related to a criminal database.

Shortly after he notices the puppet that was created by Henry ti guard Charlotte acting strange, it turns out that it fused with Charlotte's soul as she was dying, this leads William down a much darker path, experimenting with life and death.

in 1985, William uses his golden Bonnie suit to lure children to a back room with no cameras, kill them, and hide the bodies in extra animatronic suits.

The bodies are never found and it’s very likely that the murders were covered up by the company to save any of their reputation, but William is suspected and tired, he is acquitted though, because there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him.

William then kills at least 6 more children over the next few years, until 1993. In 1993, William is attempting to take apart the original possessed animatronics to figure out what is going on, this release the vengeful spirits of the children, he attempts to flee them by hiding in the only thing near him, a old spring Bonnie suit. Because it’s old and hasn’t been stored in the right conditions, the safety features that let this suit be used as both a standing animatronic and suit (called spring locks) come undone and every piece of sharp metal shoots through his body at once.

Unfortunately for William, he can’t die because of the suit, he is trapped halfway between death and life for about 30 years.

Since this is already getting long I’ll just lost the games in Chronological order, sorry

Fnaf 4 (~1983), fnaf 5 (sometime around 1986), Fnaf 2 (around 1987), Fnaf 1 (~1993), Fnaf 3 (-2023), Fnaf 6 (~2025)

You play as Micheal Afton, the son who accidentally killed his brother in Fnaf 1, part of Fnaf 2, Fnaf 3, possibly Fnaf 4, Fnaf 5, and Fnaf 6

(He died in Fnaf 5 and was half alive half dead like his father for about 30 years as wel)

It’s complicated and I’ve done a very bad job at explaining, so sorry about that, but there’s a bunch of stuff I like that does a much better job if you get curious.

Oh my. 😶 I’m glad I read this now and not before I went to bed, I have enough nightmare fuel in my life lol

[legend-the-dumb-jock]

prison break::: time served

For @sdonovan91

“That thing is hideous Derrick. Why do you insist on having that on your desk.?” Brenda the secretary was always creeped out by stuff like this. Derrick thought the little totem dude was cool. That’s why he kept it on his desk. It always struck up a good convo with the clientele he served. Derrick was a criminal defense attorney. It was obvious to him at the start of law that he wanted to represent people who would be considered low life’s. He had a sense of jealousy for them. He was always pushed to be the best. Good grades. Always stay out of trouble. Never do anything out of line. And his clients mesmerized him. Most not even making it out high school before they dropped out. Working low wage jobs. Making bad decisions based on that. Everything was so enchanting about them. Which is why his totem always brought up good conversation. He’s been told so many times by several of them how “kewl” it looked and how they needed a little guy like that followed by the “huhu”. Each time causing Derrick to get hard instantly and having to hide his excitement from his clients. And the things they would tell him only made his job even better. Personal things even. Things that you wouldn’t tell someone normally.

Today he was meeting with Rex. Literally. Seeing the man’s name on the file Derrick could t help but think about what kind of man he was going to meet. And his name was hyphenated. T-Rex. Derick leaned back in his chair hands on his head. “Dear lord this one sounds like a character. Who names their kid this !” Reading over the info he seen the man was 24. High school drop out. Construction crew working but found guilty of possession. That was usual stuff for Derrick to see. Scanning over the chart he bust out laughing. “His name is Theodore Rex!!” It wasn’t long before Brenda came over the speaker in his office telling him that mr Rex was there to see. Derrick was so excited. He couldn’t wait to see what he was going to be dealing with. “Send him in !!”

Derrick was not prepared for what he was greeted with.

Rex walked through the door with a cigarette in his mouth. Wearing his work gear. Dirty. Smelly. Perfect. He took a seat in front of derricks desk. A seat that was in front of window that showed the trees outside. Rex adjust himself in the seat and you could hear his heavy booted feet moving around. And smell them too. “Well Rex. I’m gonna be your lawyer. and the first thing I’ll have to mention to you is you can’t smoke in”. Rex looked a little blank and then giggled. “Man I forgot where I’s at” and he put the cigarette out on the chair arm. Singeing the fibers. Melting them. The sme of burn fibers rose in the air. Jesus he’s amazing— derrick thought to himself. “Rex I’ve reviewed your case. This is a small drug charge this time. But the issue is your record. You’ve been In Jail several times and this time they are going to want the max penalty for you. It looks like they are wanting 5 years on ya. But I managed to talk them down to a year. But you’d have to go through probation . Again for the remaining 4. “. Rex slouched in his chair. “Man I caint be doing that ! If I got back In they make me take all my piercings out. And this one just healed up!” Rex said grabbing his crotch and giving it a firm shake. “Fuck dude why I gotta be the one that always gets caught !” He leaned over and held his head in his hands. “Damn bro. Caint ya get something better !?” When he shook himself like that Derrick practically came on himself right there hut he managed to contained his composure. “I’m sorry Rex that is the best agreement I could get from them. You have to report to the jail house for processing by tomorrow afternoon.” Rex let out a loud sigh. “This is so unfair. And right when I’s getting my life back on track ! I even gots a good job this time!” He leaned back in the chair rubbing his stomach. “I hate jail. The food sucks.” Derrick was edging right now. Rex was going to have to leave soon or else he was going to lose it on this simple hot soul. Derrick envied this man so much. All his choices placing him once again in jail. With no way to fight it ! “Well Rex if I could serve the time for you I would. But I’m sorry. This is the best I could do”. Rex exhaled. “Yeah bro I know. It just me making dumb choices all my life. I wish i didn’t make all these stupid choices landing me here.” Huhu he chuckled dumbly. “Hell I wish I could be lawyer for once making good money”. He got up from the seat. This time Derrick could hear a noticeable clinking from the man’s crotch as the piercings jingled slightly. “I have to go let mah boss know wuts happening. He ain’t gonna be thrilled. But I guess it ain’t matter now considering I got a year to deal with. Thanks tho man”. He said as he reached out his hand to shake it with Derrick. Derrick shook the man’s touch callused hand. It was a working man’s hand. He could almost feel every groove in Rex’s hand while is made contact with his own soft hand. Derrick walked rex out of the office. Not even noticing that his totems eyes were joe glowing red. And soon faded back to normal when Derrick was back at his desk.

Derrick finished up his work day and went home. In his apartment he finally let lose. He couldn’t contain it any more and started getting off to Rex. He brought the man file home so he could read it over again. Looking all the horrible choices this simple man made. He even had to keep himself from dripping the sweet sex all over the file when he was reading about how Rex had failed a dui screening and even told the cop “cum on bro it was only 7 beers !” Everything this man had to himself to end up where he was make Derrick so jealous. He fell asleep on his couch. The mornin and Derrick was woken by a rooster right outside his window. That’s weird. He didn’t have farm animals living In the city. He sat up right and the fold away bed collapsed with him. His knees were in his face and he noticed immediately something was off. He could smell something was off. His surroundings had changed from luxury to cheap and wood paneled. He smelled of Bo. Feet. And he could smell marijuana. What the hell was going on ?! He stumbled to what he could tell was a make shift bathroom across the hall and was shocked. Standing there. Looking right at himself in the mirror. Was Theodore Rex. Smelly. Pierced. Tattooed. He stumbled backwards falling into the shower hearing the clanking nose come from his groin. He panicked. What was going on? Everything was different. He was standing alone In a run down bathroom of an old trailer. The place looked as if it hadn’t been cleaned in years. And his head was throbbing as he could he was coming down from what would be considered a high. Looking in the mirror again he began to scream. Pulling at his face. At his piercings. At his dick. Everything was wrong ! He was a lawyer. Not some low life names trex! When he tugged at his crotch he could feel the modification which sent shivers of pleasure up his body. And before he even realized it a thick heavy load came out landing on his foot. He tried to get water from the sink but none of the faucets worked !! He stumbled back to the smelly room. Whiping his foot with shah he found out was his only pair of socks. Dirty and crusty already from all the times being worn. He couldn’t live like this !

Derrick found a pair of ripped jeans but no shirts to wear. Even thought he didn’t want to he put on the socks as he couldn’t care the smell of his feet any longer. And out on the heavy work boots shah Rex was wearing just the day before. Still moist from the previous day of work. There was no deodorant in the trailer. And no running water for him to clean himself! He was literally a walking piece of trash. There was a loud bang at the door. He stumbled to it and when he opened it police where there. They drew they noses back from the smell of him. “We came to pick you up since you didn’t report as you were told !” He was pulled out of the small trailer. And handcuffed. The cops argued over who would transport him from the stench being so bad. Derrick tried to argue with them. He wasn’t the man they were looking for ! “That’s it. We are going to charge you with resisting arrest just for this !” Wut. Derrick had never committed a crime in his life !! He tried to argue with legal jargon but all that was like a foreign language to him now. As soon as he thought of it the information quickly left his dimming brain.

————

A month passed and Derrick was told he had a visitor. He had tried finding anyway possible to prove that he was not Rex but all was a failure. In the visitation room he stopped in his tracks. Right there at the table waiting to speak to him was his own body ! He sat down. Shackles clinking with his hand cuffs. “Hey Derrick. I see you’ve been doing… well?” Derrick was shocked. This must be “Rex is that you ?” Rex responded telling him yes. He told him how he work up in his body that night a month ago and was shocked. He told him how he was afraid to leave his apartment for a few days. But then he mustered up the courage to go to the office. And that’s when he was able to teach himself law. In one month! “You’re a really smart man Derrick ! I was able to learn so much stuff. I wanted to check on you. It seems like we got what we wanted. I’m now the lawyer with no criminal record. And you’re getting to serve my time. Ain’t that so kewel!! Wait …no…. That is so cool. You see I am a faster learner now haha”. Derrick was shocked. “Rex you have yo fix this ! I can’t be in here. I’m not supposed to be in here ! “. Rex just laughed at him in his own body. “Actually REX. You are supposed to be in here. You REX are a criminal. Just look at you. You look like. You have the finger prints of one. Hell…you even smell like one too. I just wanted to come by and see you. I won’t be coming back. When you get out in a year MAYBE we can meet up and figure this out. But I have no intention of going back to that body for at least 5 more years.” And with that he stood up and walked to the door to leave. He stopped by the guard on the way out. “Can you have him bathe. He smells like he got athletes foot or something. He so smelly !” The guard just chuckled and told him how they had him bathe every day. But still the smell remained. It remained on HIS criminal body !

Derrick was escorted back to his cell. Trapped in his new existence. Trapped as a criminal. He now has everything he ever envied of his clients. He had become the very thing he found erotic. He hates to admit it. When Rex told him he wasn’t going back for at least 5 years it make his own cock spring to life. He hid in his cell and released his excitement all over his dirty feet. Getting to the idea of being stuck in the body of T-Rex was so disgusting and humiliating to him. But he couldn’t help but love every minute of how he was being forced to be like this. He was getting dumber by the day. More violent outbursts. Using grammar incorrectly. And every day it turned him on more. In the end though At least now he had running water.

November 22nd, 2021 1:11pm male transformation prison break

[physics-of-one-piece]

Hiya! Just popping by to say I am in LOVE with this blog!!!!! It is SO MUCH FUN to read through your explanations and you’re incredible at dumbing it down just enough for us mortals to understand. I was never great nor really interested with anything physics or math related in my entire life haha but I’m honestly and unexpectedly having such a field day reading through your posts!

Thank you for creating this! Keep it up, I can’t wait to read on the next topic you’ll approach ✨

Thank you, anon! I'm happy to know you're enjoying the blog! I'm having fun doing this stuff!

Honestly, from an anime watcher, neither was I interested in doing calculations or physics-thinking. It never crossed my mind until recently. Blame Doflamingo. Or thank him. 🤣 I love him. He's my fluffy pink man.

One day a week ago now I woke up and was like thinking about Doflamingo's height or sth and I really wanted to just... JUST KNOW HOW BIG ARE THOSE LIMBS OF HIS, and I thought it might be fun to do some calculations! And it was! AND NOW I FINALLY KNOW THE LENGTH OF HIS ARMS AND HANDS AND FINGERS, HELL YEAH!

@fanaticsnail was really encouraging, and so were everyone, so I gathered my guts and made this sideblog to keep my geeking limited to it.

After I did some calc, I was like "oooh, so that's how big Doflamingo's limbs are" or "oooh, so that's how much kinetic energy Luffy uses" and during the weekend I went into a bit of quantum physics for Law's ROOM and got a bit bored at one point bcs it's subatomic. I will say, the quantum physics theories & principles are fun. I'll expand on them when we cover Shambles & Takt. But calculating quantum formulas... No thank you. I'll be here with my classic physics, have a great day, sir.

It makes me very very happy to hear that I managed to make it understandable. 😊

I think while watching the anime you and me and everyone, we simply take it all in and enjoy it, and we don't think about things like math (ew, math, yuckie).

You know what we humans do do?

Many people see a mountain and say "whoa, that's big" and it usually ends on that unless we google how tall the mountain is. Scaling things is hard with our eyesight, we either recognise height as "giant, big, medium, small, tiny" bcs it's how we are. We don't need to know because we can recognise it by our eyes. Not the exact numbers, but we feel and understand the size of the mountain. We do have a sense of scale, we just don't put numbers to it at that moment.

Same for One Piece.

We know the characters are FAST, we know they're SUPER STRONG. It's anime, it's supposed to be fun, you're supposed to relax and enjoy it. We don't need to think too hard on it because we recognise deep in our guts these characters would wipe the floor with us within 0.000000001 seconds just as the villains do to the poor One Piece civilians.

Seriously, I feel so bad for the civilians of One Piece. The villains need to pick on someone their own size!

And then they get beaten by someone half their size, ah, irony.

Hmm, I hope I managed to convey what I mean...

I guess I'm the "how big are Doflamingo's hands" search option now. I'm the "how tall is Mt Everest" for the people who want to know a bit more, I guess, haha.

I'm just glad it's fun for everyone! 🎉

I've been working on what I will title Doflamingo's Day Trip To Punk Hazard ie analasys of how fast that flamingo man flew to that island. Only problem is knowing the distance he travelled. Once more, another day passes without the map of One Piece's world and another day I have to wing it.

Oh, well, Luffy set out to sail with one single plan "Enter the Grand Line, become the Pirate King." and he's doing pretty well.

Also, expect Fujitora, cus I fckn love gravity. Oh, and Sanji. I adore Sanji, I can't wait to post some stuff about him, too!

Thank you for the ask, sorry that I went on a bit of a long answer. 😅 Anyway, I'm happy you like the blog and are enjoying it!

Much love to you, anon ❤️

[zoeykallus]

HOLA ZOEY!:) how are you doing lately? Fanfics have been awesome as ever I have a small request of tbb x female reader plus Fives and Rex. The reader has a physco ex and he stalks her and he makes up lies about her and calls her a slut and the reader starts to see herself in a horrible manner and thinks she is a horrible person? I'm sorry I'm dealing with a similar situation and have no clarity or comfort so this would help a little:)

Aloha 😊

Now firstly, you do seem to know that your ex is in the wrong, and you should keep it that way, you are aware that he is starting to change your view on yourself; that's good, it means you can still change/avoid that. As long as you are aware of what's really wrong, you can work against it.

If you have to, call the police if you suspect him close by, if you don't feel safe. Don't be shy to ask for help, there are hotlines, facilities, therapeutic measures and laws for situations like this. You don't have to go through this alone.

And about the request... I've done stuff close to this in a way.

Any of these, or all combined, maybe doing the trick?

[misspearly1]

Oh yay!!! Responding to your Anniversary Requests!

"If I ask you to kiss me in front of all these people, will you do it?"

I see this as a cheeky dare that starts as a joke that opens the door for something else between the 2, or a check on where the other stands in how serious the relationship is.

Or whatever you think, as I’m sure you got something better brewing!

Oh my!! 😭

This request is perfect for Arthur. The prompt you chose and the added insight on what you think about said prompt really inspired me to be fluffy with this one, so fluffy in fact that I'm sorry to report there isn't a lot of smut in here, darling. 🥺

Thank you so much for sending this in and please by all means, if you'd like another, don't hesitate to send more. My requests are still open 🥰.

The Kiss

Pairing: Arthur Morgan x You (F!Reader)

Warnings: 18+ Content. Minors DNI. Typical outlaw stuff (thievery & pickpocketing) Arthur's POV. Pining. Lots of fluff. Public Kissing. Happy ending.

Prompt: "If I ask you to kiss me in front of all these people, will you do it?"

-

Hosea is the cause for Arthur’s love-hate relationship with playing dress up. He swears to the old man that he hates it, but really, Morgan enjoys acting like somebody else for a short while. 

Dressing up and getting into character can be fun, and Arthur especially likes it when he gets to play dress up with you. Like today for example, he’s acting the role of your fiancé at some random engagement party in some fancy part of town, but the plan is pick-pocketing anything you can get your hands on.

The job is simple: act natural, steal all of the valuables and get the hell out of there before they even catch on to what’s happened. 

However, as much as Arthur loves to play dress up with you, he struggles with this job today because he harbours a silent crush, therefore acting out the role of your fiance is like his dream has come true. It's a struggle for him because he has to keep reminding himself that it’s not real. None of it is real.

The way you gaze at him with big loving doe-like eyes or the way you link your arm up with his, and your fingers brush across his knuckles so reassuringly, or the way you kiss his cheek and tell all these strangers what a good man he is - none of that is real. It’s just an act of deceit, a tactic to steal people's valuables when they’re least expecting it. 

Though, is it wrong of Arthur to pretend it’s real? Is it really all that wrong of him to enjoy this day pretending that he’s actually your fiance and the wedding is six months away? Is it wrong of him to pretend that you love him as much as your actions say they do? No. It’s not bad to pretend it’s real, but he’s wading through dangerous waters with a high risk of falling in the deep end. 

Actions speak louder than words they say, but in this particular circumstance with you, your actions are fake and no matter how convincing you seem, he mustn’t get too wrapped up in believing that it’s real. He mustn't get ahead of himself and steal a kiss. A real kiss on your lips. This silent panic comes to the man as you pull away from him, moments after placing a third kiss to his cheek in the space of just a few hours, leaving him rosy-red in the cheeks with flattery. 

“I won’t be long.” You whisper before toddling off towards a table filled with all sorts of food and drinks, and partygoers standing around to fill their stomachs. They’re your targets, the people who are least expecting an innocent looking lady like yourself to slip your hands inside their pockets and steal their riches. They don’t suspect someone like yourself to steal because you’ve put a lot of effort into playing dress up today, thus making yourself look like one of them - like a law-abiding citizen. 

First and foremost, you dragged Arthur to the local hotel to get a much-needed bath, then you took him to get a haircut, and lastly, you eagerly pulled him along to the store and picked out a suit for him to wear and the prettiest dress available for yourself. ‘Dressed to the nines’ as Hosea likes to say and that’s what you did. You dressed yourself, and him, up to the nines, fooling these folk into thinking you’re a law-abiding citizen who doesn’t steal a thing. 

Arthur watches you at work and admires the way you insert yourself into people's conversations. You get along with them so well, even making some laugh so much that they hold a hand to their stomachs to ease the happy cramp. You thrive in jobs like this, it’s in your nature to be kind and social with others, it makes your smile beam and your skin glow with joy. You probably get to pretend that this is your normal everyday life, not the life of an outlaw. 

You pretend that you’re free. 

At first, the man just assumed that your efforts to make conversation with these folk was a ploy to steal their belongings with ease, but as he watches you walk around the table now and purposely miss several opportunities to pick their pockets, he can see that you’re enjoying this false sense of reality. You like the character’s shoes you’ve stepped into today, it’s like you can forget about the outlaw life you actually live. 

And Arthur doesn’t mind that because he, too, likes taking a break from time to time and sample the life he could've had. He loves the gang and would never trade them for a different life, but sometimes he dreams bigger than Dutch’s grand plan. The man is allowed to have his dreams at the very least. He snaps out of his thinking and directs his attention back to you. 

During your walk around the table, you had gathered a mountainous pile of food on a paper plate before making your way back to him, still with a beaming smile on your face before you took a seat at his side. “Hey,” You greet him, “I got us some food. Figured we could at least enjoy ourselves before we ruin the evening and leave.” You try to justify why you haven’t stolen anything yet, but Arthur doesn’t care for your reasoning. He cares about your happiness, and he can see quite clearly that you’re happy with acting out of character for the day. 

So, he offers an alternative instead. “We don’t have to ruin the evening, you know,” He looks at you with hopeful eyes, optimistic that you’ll agree to his idea, “We could just enjoy the whole day to ourselves before heading back to camp, empty handed.” He emphasises quietly, cautious of anyone listening to his conversation. 

“But Arthur,” You protest, and he feels a pang of disappointment settling in his stomach, “What about the clothes? You’ve spent money on me and for what? For nothing in return? I can’t just let you pay for them, they were expensive.” 

“I’ll never ask you for something in return,” He shakes his head, refusing to accept your reply as an answer to his offer. “Money isn’t everything, you know that, but this…” He looks around the room before returning to your eyes, “...This is everything right here - just spending a day in the normal life with you. I can see how much fun you’re having, and I don’t want to end that.” 

“Arthur-” You try to protest again, but he cuts you off, “No. Not another word about money darlin’, and besides, you’ve already paid me back with that smile on your face.” His words affected your smile, making it grow bigger as you blush. You spend a moment looking at him incredulously, as if you couldn't believe that he won’t let you pay for the clothes. 

Arthur can see the thought process in your head, he knows you well, probably too well. You’re so independent that you like to provide for yourself, and that means you don’t like the feeling of owing someone a favour. Even though he’s just told you that it’s okay, he can already sense that you’re thinking of a way to argue your point some more. 

“I’ll accept your offer under one condition,” You suggest instead, much to his surprise, but his interest was piqued, and he nodded before giving himself a second to contemplate your counteroffer. Your eyes drop to his mouth as you lick your lips, then you look back into his eyes with a question. "If I ask you to kiss me in front of all these people, will you do it?" 

Shock and disbelief coursed through his veins suddenly, yet briefly, before your question really began to sink in and drove Arthur’s instincts to act before his mind could even think. The man nodded as he leaned in and closed the gap, his lips crashing into yours in a fervent, heated kiss. You gasp, as if you were surprised from his lack of hesitancy, and just as the doubts begin to creep into his mind on whether or not he’s got ahead of himself, you swipe your tongue across his lip, requesting entry. 

Arthur sees that yours are closed, and your brows tightly knitted together with the softest muffled moan reaching his ears. He grants your request and parts his lips, inviting you in to deepen the kiss, and it was everything he imagined it to be and more. You were so soft and delicate, your tongue warm and wet, moving so gently against his. It felt right; your kiss felt right, like it was meant to be. 

The crowd of people in the room voiced their mixed reactions, some gasped in disgust, some giggled, some even cheered quietly, and Arthur heard ‘get a room’ in a whisper. You apparently heard it too as you quickly pulled back, breaking the kiss to hold a hand over your mouth, a poor attempt to hide how amused you were for kissing him so passionately like this in public. He, too, was amused and filled with pride to finally have a real kiss on your lips. 

“I um…” You stutter, hesitating to speak as there were a dozen pairs of eyes on you both. It was hilarious to know they were waiting for the next move, and you had pleasure in making it before Arthur could. “Let’s get out of here. There’s so much that I want to say,” You take his hand and rise from the chair quickly to make a hasty exit, “But right now, I just want to kiss you again without the audience, Arthur.” You say excitedly, but as soon as you reach somewhere private, you turn to face him, cupping his cheek with your hand. “I love you. I always have.” 

“I do too,” He tilts his head to kiss the palm of your hand. You lean in the plant a chaste kiss on his lips before taking his hand and pulling him along again. “The day is still ours, handsome. I’ll pay for our hotel room.” 

“And I’ll pay for the wedding ring,” Arthur mumbles, much too quiet for you to hear, but just to say it out loud felt like his decision was set in stone. The man played the role of your fiancé today at this party and left with certainty of a proposal in the future.

No more pretending, he is yours, and you are his.

-

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